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Midnight is upon us and so it's time to launch a new Magic Monday. Ask me anything about occultism, and with certain exceptions noted below, any question received by midnight Monday Eastern time will get an answer. Please note:  Any question or comment received after that point will not get an answer, and in fact will not be put through.  If you're in a hurry, or suspect you may be the 341,928th person to ask a question, please check out the very rough version 1.3 of The Magic Monday FAQ here. 

Also: I will not be putting through or answering any more questions about practicing magic around children. I've answered those in simple declarative sentences in the FAQ. If you read the FAQ and don't think your question has been answered, read it again. If that doesn't help, consider remedial reading classes; yes, it really is as simple and straightforward as the FAQ says.  And further:  I've decided that questions about getting goodies from spirits are also permanently off topic here. The point of occultism is to develop your own capacities, not to try to bully or wheedle other beings into doing things for you. I've discussed this in a post on my blog.

The image? I field a lot of questions about my books these days, so I've decided to do little capsule summaries of them here, one per week.  This is my eightieth published book, though it's also one of my first! Many years ago, not long after I became an initiate in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF), I started collecting scraps of data on the 22 emblems that are included in the degree ceremonies, and self-published a little staplebound booklet about them. A couple of years ago, I was contacted by some other Odd Fellows who were trying to increase interest in our old (and yes, rather odd) initiatory order and asked to permit a reprint. That saw print earlier this year. It's a specialized title, mostly of interest to those who are members or or interested in Odd Fellowship, but it has some fascinating stuff in it. If you'd like a copy,  you can get it here in the US and from your favorite online retailer elsewhere. 

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I've had several people ask about tipping me for answers here, and though I certainly don't require that I won't turn it down. You can use either of the links above to access my online tip jar; Buymeacoffee is good for small tips, Ko-Fi is better for larger ones. (I used to use PayPal but they developed an allergy to free speech, so I've developed an allergy to them.) If you're interested in political and economic astrology, or simply prefer to use a subscription service to support your favorite authors, you can find my Patreon page here and my SubscribeStar page here. I've also had quite a few people over the years ask me where they should buy my books, and here's the answer. Bookshop.org is an alternative online bookstore that supports local bookstores and authors, which a certain gargantuan corporation doesn't, and I have a shop there, which you can check out here. Please consider patronizing it if you'd like to purchase any of my books online.

And don't forget to look up your Pangalactic New Age Soul Signature at CosmicOom.com.

With that said, have at it!  

***This Magic Monday is now closed and no further comments will be put through. See you next week!***

As mentioned in my earlier post on the England trip, one of the things I did in Glastonbury was the consecration of a new bishop in the Universal Gnostic Church: as far as I know, the first bishop in the tradition in Europe. Regine Becher -- that's her on the left -- lives in Karlsbad, Germany; regular readers here will know her by her Dreamwidth handle, Milkyway1. Many of you may know that she's been extremely active in the Modern Order of Essenes, teaching an online class in the Essene work and doing a great deal of healing practice as well. Thus I was delighted to have the chance to ordain and consecrate her while I was in England. 

I admit to being very curious as to how her work as a bishop will turn out in the cultural environment of continental Europe. Here in the US, being a bishop of a small alternative religious body is practically normal -- you can tell that this country, from colonial times onward, was the refuge for every religious oddball in Europe. In Germany, by contrast, the great age of religious eccentricity is centuries in the past at this point. It's a very different environment, and I applaud Regine for being willing to make the effort to implant our odd tradition in Germany's soil. 

Please join me in congratulating Bishop Regine! 

Yes, I'm back home in East Providence, RI, now. As promised earlier, here are a few of the details. 

Travel is easier.  It's been eleven years since I last flew, and I was surprised by how little hassle I had getting to and from England. The security and customs process on either end of the flight is little more than theater these days; no doubt the fact that both countries have fairly porous borders takes a lot of the urgency away. The most unnerving discovery I made is that airport food has improved. I expected the usual vile slop, inflicted on travelers who had no other choice; getting a genuinely decent burger and good beer in Logan Airport left me wondering if I'd somehow slipped into an alternative timeline or something. 

London is London. I shouldn't like London. It's sprawling, crowded, raffish, and not especially clean, but for some reason I always feel comfortable there. I took several long walks through various London neighborhoods without any hassle at all. It's a polyglot jumble of people from all over the planet, as it's been for the last three centuries or so; if that distresses you, I don't recommend going there. To forestall one of the obvious questions, yes, there are a fair number of people in Muslim dress there, but no more than I remember from eleven years ago; for that matter, most of the big new religious buildings I saw there were Hindu temples, not mosques. 

Glastonbury is weird. This will doubtless explain why I like it so much. It hasn't changed appreciably since my two earlier visits; the used book stores are still packed with obscure occult tomes, and eccentrics parade down the streets, so I fit right in. The various ancient sites haven't gotten any younger, and of course neither have I -- I climbed the Tor in decent time, but had to stop and rest twice on the way up, which I hadn't needed the last two times.

A good time was had by most.  You can judge the character of London these days by the fact that of the three readers I met my first day in London, one is Mexican, one is Irish, and the third is a British descendant of Indians expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin. Inevitably, we ate Thai food for dinner. The next day I walked for a few miles to have lunch with an editor of the online magazine UnHerd, where some of my essays have been posted, and then took the Tube to meet one of my publishers in Clerkenwell. 

I had two book signings in London, one at Watkins Books on the 3rd and the other at Atlantis Bookshop on the 4th. Both were well attended. The second was enlivened by two people fainting -- they're both fine now. Then it was off to Glastonbury, carpooling through London traffic and then through green countryside and dubious roads into the west. Readers and friends started turning up almost immediately on my arrival. So did pints of Mena Dhu, a Cornish stout that makes Guinness seem just a little thin and pale. (You can literally eat the foam by the spoonful.) Friday we wandered through the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, visited the White Spring, and then climbed the Tor; Saturday and Sunday we met, around fifty of us, at the Glastonbury Assembly Rooms for a variety of talks, and then went to the George and Pilgrims, a fifteenth-century pub, to talk until closing time. I also did Essene Apprentice attunements for eight people, ordained two Gnostic priests, and consecrated a Gnostic bishop. (I'll give her a proper announcement sometime soon.) 

Monday the 9th I was back on the road, carpooling with more friends, and stayed the night with yet another reader and friend, an alternative-health practitioner who cheerfully calls himself "a back-street quack." To describe our conversations as strange would understate matters considerably; that is to say, I enjoyed myself immensely. Tuesday I squeezed in time for a video interview with UnHerd -- I'll post a link once it's available -- and then I was off to Heathrow and on my way home. 

The 11-year itch. It didn't occur to me until I got to Britain that I've gone there at 11-year intervals: my visits there have been in 2003, 2014, and 2025, always in June. I'd like to go back a little sooner than 2036, but partly that depends on the return of the arrangements that allowed freighters to take up to 12 passengers, which closed down during Covid -- I don't feel I can justify air travel more often than I have to, given the ecological impact. Nonetheless, it was quite something to celebrate my 63rd birthday in Glastonbury with a substantial gaggle of friends. I'd be remiss if I neglected thanks for Oliver Rathbone of Aeon Books for arranging and facilitating the London end of the adventure; Brigid Brennan for making all the arrangements for the Glastonbury end of things; and all the other participants who helped make this a memorable and pleasant experience. Thank you, one and all!