MQS
Winter Alights On Everything
Category Archives: Personal Journal
My Dad’s Cards
I’ve been helping my mom taking care of my dad’s affairs in the past few days. One thing that surprised us both is how bureaucratized death is. A pleasant surprise, on the other hand, has come in the form of my dad’s playing cards.
They are somewhat old, but it doesn’t show since they were rarely used, still they have the nice papery texture of old playing cards.
I’ve also found some interesting notes from back when I was learning to read them. I’ll be updating the playing card section when I’m back.
Losing a Father
Unfortunately my dad passed away. I’ll be taking a couple of days off from the Internet to process it all and fly back to Italy to my mom.
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Making Progress
We’re making progress here!
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A New Family Member
Say hello to our baby cockatiel. We got him today. He’s 5 months old (doesn’t even have his tail feathers yet). He’s still a little shaken from the journey and from being dropped into the hands of two strangers, but he’s quickly acclimating to the situation. Today or tomorrow I’ll take him out of the cage. Speaking of cage, I realized today that this one is definitely too small. We’ll need to get him a bigger one tomorrow.
I have an interesting card spread connected to this situation that I’ll share in the next few days.
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Platonic Spirituality
There is a common myth that the West doesn’t have its own spiritual tradition. Although it is true that the West, in its history, is marked by a strong ideological unpredictability, there are important strands of the spiritual tradition intertwined in our history, especially if we look back at before Christianity took over (and this, by the way, is not an attempt at disparating Christianity, which actually added to the tradition).
I am planning a series of articles on Platonic spirituality. Aside from my study of philosophy, I’ve been lucky enough to find mentors and teachers throughout my life who were well within this tradition, which I consider to be part of my personal brand. It is not an easy task: Platonism is not merely a set of practices but it is, first and foremost, a philosophical tradition, so it becomes hard to write a “breviary” of Platonism, for the simple fact that the Platonic and Neoplatonic traditions were never meant to be reduced to a simple catechism (and this is part of the reason why Neoplatonism lost in its battle to Christianity and was assimilated within it).
Still, I think it has to be done, in light of the fact that we are slowly entering a post-Christian era in the West which has many similarities with the Hellenistic period in which Neoplatonism thrived as a spiritual and magical tradition. Post-Christianity can never be pre-Christianity, and history only moves on and never really goes back. Still, in the past we can often find seeds that may be planted again in new soil. In this sense, it is worth it to see which parts of Platonism are alive and which are dead.
MQS
November
Winter is my favorite season, yet I appreciate it more in November than when it is actually there.
Plans Going Forward
It’s been an odd year. On one hand I have managed to talk about a lot of things I wanted to discuss on this blog. On the other hand I still feel like someone whose house is far from complete and therefore easily misses the overall design.
The reality is that I’ve come to care a lot for this little project, and as usual when one starts caring, it becomes harder to see the reality of the situation. Perhaps I should just look back at where I was one year ago and be happy with where I am now, even though the blog feels like a permanent construction site (isn’t life like that?) with new parts sprouting up before others are completed.
Unfortunately I feel the strong need to be as thorough as possible while covering as much ground as needed to give a sense of the magnificent totality of the esoteric arts.
So here’s my plans going forward (and, since no good plan ever survives impact with reality, expect changes):
- Needless to say, I’ll keep posting about the Sibilla and playing cards. I’ve received some questions about learning to link the cards together, so I’ll have to address that.
- My Geomancy section has exploded, not just in terms of content but in terms of views. I have tons of fun translating old texts and making them available for other students. Plus, it allows me to revise my understanding of the art
- I want to complete my tarot encyclopedia and move on to more challenging discussions with respect to tarot
- Someone is probably going to curse me for this, but since I’ve been studying I Ching divination (not the commentaries, but other forms of I Ching) I want to discuss that too. It doesn’t have high priority, but it is on the to-do list
- I keep getting questions and interesting inputs about magic, mysticism and devotion, so I’ll have to devise something
- As I’ve mentioned before, I feel the urgent need to talk about philosophy, because occultism without a philosophical framework is just your eccentric aunt who lights incense, drinks tea and pulls an angel card between a rebirthing session and a manifestation retreat
- My Youtube channel. I keep announcing it and then life keeps getting in the way (as well as my fat ass not wanting to get up and move). I’m taking a small online course on how to record audio and video, and I’ll probably start doing a couple of easy videos in the near future
Well, I’d say I have my hands full for a couple of years
MQS
Wisdom Teeth Gone
I’m pretty sure after today that the image for the Strength card was inspired by a dentist trying to yank a tooth out of a patient’s jaw. Anyway, it wasn’t the most pleasant half hour of my life, but there’s worse (for instance, having to live with tooth ache). Hopefully whatever wisdom I have managed to accrue in 34 years hasn’t snagged on the teeth and now I have to start from scratch!
MQS
It Was Me All Along (Reading Example + Update)
Sometimes it is hard to predict your own future even while interpreting the cards correctly. In the past month, whenever I drew cards for my general future or to answer personal questions, I kept receiving this combination:
A♥ – K♠ – 6♠
The order of the cards changed, but they were always present, and if you’ve had a look at the meanings I use, it is quite clear that they refer to a health-related issue in the home.
This is where making assumptions is deadly: I know that my dad, being old, suffers from quite a vast array of issues, so I assumed the cards were talking about him.
Nope: it was me. Yesterday my wisdom teeth started screaming bloody murder in my mouth, so much so that I haven’t slept a bit. At 8 in the morning I dragged myself to the dentist, where I was given an appointment for tomorrow, likely to get those teeth pulled. This is probably going to be the longest 24 hours of my life.
Interestingly, the cards do not put my significator next to the combination of the doctor, so all I could say was that there would be a health issue at home, and I am, of course, part of my home.
NOTE: it is also fascinating that the teeth started aching exactly on the day before I was going to start a particular ritual work. This is not seldom the case: as soon as one approaches magic the whole of existence plots revenge.
MQS
