Finally a recently written book I can support and recommend. Many people might be familiar with Mark Stavish from his alchemical work and articles on hermetic.com. I haven't read any of his other books but was impressed by his article on the body of light so I decided to pick this one up. I was not disappointed.

It is hard to get excited by any of the new titles that have been published within the last few decades. There is an over abundance of beginner books and very few texts out there that cover anything of depth in a serious manner. This book covers advanced material but is presented in manner even a beginner can use. Many of the older texts and adepts mention frequently the body of light but never detail what it is, how it differs from the astral body, or how to create and use one. I know because I have searched for this material for a long time in vain. Crowley in Magick in Theory and Practice states that the creation, fortification, and constant use of the body of light is the most important aspect of magick. Yet in his usual lead pipe manner states just imagine yourself, transfer into it, and then practice moving around in it. No mention how to exactly do this or even what exactly the body of light is. Between the Gates, is the first text I have seen to address the formation of the body of light and it's use.

The first chapter details the importance of a daily purification ritual and daily prayers and adorations. This chapter has a strong gnostic flavor that might turn some people off but quickly disappears throughout the rest of the book. The next two chapters gives a crash course in hermetic theory including a brief overview of the tree of light, enochian, and alchemical ideas. The material is concise and surprisingly dense yet accurate.

The book then moves on to lucid dreaming and how to induce lucid dreams by fortifying the subtle bodies and implanting basic symbols. The next chapter expands this concept with further imprinting using the hebrew letters to increase your magical powers and a full temple rite to further this concept, although some of this material can be found in Ambelain's La Kabbale Pratique. This chapter even has a small section covering how to discover your inner soul name, although it is small and I wish he had gone into greater depth on this aspect.

The next chapter covers astral projection and offers several different methods to induce it as well as short sections on pathworking and rising on the planes, although much of that material is straight from Crowley's Liber O. Finally in the next chapter he cover the body of light and gives instructions for its formation. The final chapters deal with death and dying.

Overall I found this a wonderful book. Crammed with information, yet with the numerous exercises and listed assignments for each chapter it almost has a workbook feel to it. There is not an index to the rites and exercises which I found disappointing. He clearly outlines what the rites are for and when and how long they should be used. But several he lists as core, being that you do them daily, so an index would have been very helpful rather than flipping through chapters looking for it.

If you are at all interested in lucid dreaming, astral projection, or the body of light then I cannot recommend highly enough this book.