JMG Books

Who is reading Mystery Teachings from the Living Earth, the book club selection over on Ecosophia? Focusing on the spiritual/magical side of JMG's writing, which books do you recommend?

I've also read The Druidry Handbook, Green Wizardry, and Twilight's Last Gleaming. The Druidry Handbook has the Ogham alphabet in it, which I might teach my kids this school year. I thought they might like to write secret messages to each other. Kids usually enjoy that kind of thing.

Find some "private" place where they can leave the secret messages for each other. Do you have plans for the eclipse today? I intend to sit out of the patio with a big colander so I can see lots of little eclipses.

Just like everyone else, I knew it was going to happen, but it slipped my mind on the actual day. I was tired from being up all night with my youngest, so when the light got really dim while I was fixing lunch for the kids, I thought, "Hmm, maybe it's going to rain today. It wasn't supposed to." I turned on the light and carried on. When it started to get brighter, I finally realized, "Eclipse! And it's ending right now!" The kids got to see the light coming back at the end, and they thought it was really funny that I hadn't realized what was happening earlier.

Hope you enjoyed your little eclipses! That sounds like it was a neat idea.

LOL! It was too big and fiddly for the patio and the angle of the sun. However, on Facebook the night before some one suggested filling a dark bowl with water and watching the sun's reflection in the bowl. I used a dark loaf pan, and was able to line it up with the sun's path. I had to use sunglasses, but it worked well. As long as the breeze died down, I had a clear image. I did have to move the pan once toward the end, but the water settled quickly. We had a lot of cloud cover at the beginning of the event and they moved back in at the end, but I was able to give my neighbor a glimpse when she came home. She was impressed!

Hi Sophie Gale, I'm reading through the Mystery Teachings along with the folks on the Ecosophia site.

As far as other books in regards to the spiritual/magical side of JMGs writings, a lot depends on what a person's prior experience is and what they are interesting in focusing on, or what angle to come from...

Personally, if we're talking spiritual and magical, and someone with no background (how I came to things) I'd probably start with The Druidry Handbook and chew on that for a good long while, start learning the Sphere of Protection and Meditation routines along with stepping a toe into seasonal rituals.

Or if already familiar with those sorts of things and interested in a deeper dive into a magical system, I'd look at the Celtic Golden Dawn project he has recently been working on. ( I have that one as well, but don't feel I am quite ready for it... still focusing on the basics with the SOP and related things.)

Note:

Some folks from ADR, here, and ecosophia may not feel ready or have the desire to deep dive into Druidry... but there is a lot to learn from their systems even if one isn't interested in becoming a Druid...

And the AODA that JMG is associated with is pretty flexible, I myself am a member working through my Candidate year and don't necessarily believe in traditional Pagan gods and started going to an Episcopal Church lately... and still feel as though I fit in well.

- the Druid Magic Handbook is good too.

I've not been active much on the green wizard's site, so am not real familiar with the active folk's background, but reading around, seems most of you all are already much more familiar with things than I am, and doubly so for the above mentioned books but none-the-less, here's my thoughts on the topic!

I'll probably request it from the library before long. I think The Secret of the Temple: Earth Energies, Sacred Geometry, and ther Lost Keys of Freemasonry have astonishing implications for the Ecotechnic Future.

Divination in some form is a useful skill for a wizard. JMG says he practices geomancy, and he has written two books on the subject. I've read Earth Divination; Earth Magic: Practical Guide to Geomancy and would recommend it. I don't have the patience anymore for the deep calculations, but for ordinary GW question, I think it it has real possibilities.

I just recently ran across some info in regards to the Secret of the Temple ideas having just listened to the Den of Lore podcast from back in January and also find this fascinating!

There he indicates that it is somewhat of a hypothesis at this stage and needs further testing... I'll have to read the book, but at this stage I wonder how scaling works for the ideas... i.e. to test, I don't see many folks building giant structures... but perhaps smaller structures that a single person or small group could work with in which ever manners are necessary.

The Druid Magic Handbook I haven't read all of yet... to me there are years of information in those topics... I am still working with the "Essentials", namely the Sphere of Protection, Divination, and Meditation practices... it's a lot to grapple with for a beginner!