#abwatt

[abwatt]

Astrological Magic with Andrew Watt

Astrology and Magic. Two things that go together like salt and pepper. When we look back through the ages, they always seem to have been intertwined, for matching what happens in the celestial sphe…

I was on Douglas' *What Magic is This?* podcast, talking about Astrological Magic. 

[thegodthief]

abwatt answered your question:Tried the self-study routine for learning...

Are you trying to learn sidereal, traditional western or modern western astrology? natal, electional or hoary? I tried messaging you, got blocked. William Lilly’s Christian Astrology is the textbook textbook for trad.West astrology w/ 7 planets.

Messaging is as deactivated as Tumblr will allow because bu... reasons. I want to start with tropical natal western astrology with the unseen planets (Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) as an optional component. Once I have that base down, it’s on to electional and other opportunities for shenanigans.

I know that’s like going into Baskin Robbins and asking for chocolate ice cream (What kind of chocolate?), but I do want to start with the basics. ~adds rec’d book to Check This Out List~

Thank you.

[whateverwalksthere]

Seems to me you're a wizard. You collect knowledge, you have a spell book (rather than casting spells from 'intuition' like a sorcerer), and you don't appear to be super-religious like a cleric or super-into-nature like a druid. Ergo, wizard.

I like it! I suppose it’s obvious I’d be a magic user, but there are a lot of different kinds of magic users in RPGs that I’m not familiar with. Your reasoning is pretty solid, too.

Thanks!

[rikkalorelei]

You know me... I don't do anonymous. What's on your spiritual or magical agenda for the month of January? What do you hope to accomplish? What do you intend to work on?

You always have the best questions!

Spiritually, come to peace with my new state and get my butt to church more. Also finish reading the books of the Bible I skipped last time.

Magically, I need to do some working to attract financial success for my etsy shop and so that we can save more to buy a house. Along with attracting new friends and warding the home we have now better.

[coldalbion]

Whenever I re-blog an "ask me anything" from someone else, I try to follow up with a question to the person I reblogged it from. Today, that's you. So I figured I'd ask: What do you plan to accomplish by 2016?

Tough question. Longform blog more. Run more horror LARP weekends for folks. Get back to the state where I can travel again, I think.

[memetrash-coyote]

What're your big three goals for 2015, and what plans are you making to achieve them?

- Get my degree, I only have to retake physics.

- Get comfortable driving, I'm working on my nerves and practicing here and there.

- Possibly get a job in the computer field, that has to come after my degree though.

[rikkalorelei]

abwatt 's questions of the day What are your three biggest projects these days? Unpacking/arranging house, starting Christmas lists (presents, cards, etc.), and prepping the yard for Spring. What was the crisis in your life that you most recently solved? Housing What is your Halloween costume gonna be? A witch, like most years, as its easy to add a hat to my ren faire garb & I'm too lazy to get fangs to be a vampire. lol

[coldalbion]

Myrddin/Odin

abwatt replied to your post “Fictional character question: Merlin as a priest of Odin.”

I wouldn't. Myrddin is historically a Welsh name, suggesting a pre-Saxon origin story, and unlikely to be a devotee of a viking-era deity.

Yes, I am aware of that. Odin as a shape and god is akin to Woden/Wotan, which, when you consider Myrddin Wyltt as one of the prototypes for the Arthurian Merlin, things get interesting:

Myrddin Wyllt (Welsh: [ˈmərðɪn ˈwɨɬt]), Myrddin Emrys, Merlinus Caledonensis, or Merlin Sylvestris[1] (a legendary figure associated in some sources with events in the sixth century), is a figure in medieval Welsh legend, known as a prophet and a madman. He is the most important prototype for the modern composite image of Merlin, the wizard from Arthurian legend.

Texts about Myrddin Wyllt have similarities to an account of a north-British figure called Lailoken. He was probably born sometime around or in AD 540, and is said to have had a twin sister called Gwendydd or Gwenddydd or Languoreth. Myrddin Wyllt is said to have gone mad after the Battle of Arfderydd at Arthuret, which was waged between the victor Rhydderch Hael or Riderch I of Alt Clut and Gwenddoleu in AD 573.[1] He fled into the forest and lived with the animals. There he is said to have found his gift of prophecy

Arthuret is in Cumbria, which as is obvious from the name, is also related to Cymric - the term Welsh was also applied to the non Saxon Britons, specifically West Welsh. If we go with the image of Merlin as prophet-poet, then we get things more interesting:

vates (n.) 1620s, "poet or bard," specifically "Celtic divinely inspired poet" (1728), from Latin vates "sooth-sayer, prophet, seer," from a Celtic source akin to Old Irish faith "poet," Welsh gwawd "poem," from PIE root *wet- (1) "to blow; inspire, spiritually arouse" (cognates: Old English wod "mad, frenzied," god-name Woden; see wood (adj.)). Hence vaticination "oracular prediction" (c.1600).

Given also the legends of Myrddin being in the Forest of Caledonia, and the later links of Vikings with Northern Scotland,  there's something interesting here. Myrddin as Brythonic poet-prophet linked to the madness of prototypical deity that became Odin to the Vikings - definitely something in the deep mythic structure here, down to the proto-Indo-European level

So yeah, while not historically accurate in description, in which I agree with abwatt, the theme is what I'll own, as a Cornishman less than an hour from the Cumbrian border, in an area where there have been Viking finds from the 8th Century - oh and who honours the old One Eye as an ancestral god!