So I have recently acquired and read through, once each so far, these two books: "The Greek Qabalah - Alphabetic Mysticism and Numerology in the Ancient World" by Kieren Barry, and "Circles of Power - Ritual Magic in the Western Tradition", By John Michael Greer.

The first book, The Greek Qabalah, was an informative read that I would recommend to anyone interested in either adapting the greek alphabet as their Magical script or of course anyone interested in furthering their understanding of the history and usage of Letters as representations of numbers and mystical concepts. I originally looked for this book because of another book ("Hermetic Magic, the Post modern magical papyrus of Abaris" by Stephen Flowers) which referenced the greek 'Stoicheia' or elements, and then expressed the greek system of assigning elemental and astrological concepts to their alphabet. This was the first I had heard of it and there is some controversy surrounding Flowers and his work, so I wanted to find another work on the subject.

However, this book is more than just an exploration of the Greek Letter/Number/Concept system - in fact is explores a broad chunk of the history of 'Qabalah' (in the sense of equating letters with other concepts) as well as the history of the alphabet as we understand it so far, including the development of Coptic from ancient egyptian, the hebrew letters, greek letters, phoenecian, aramaic, etc., and the associated development of symbolism in the letters themselves. After this, it follows the development of the Qabalistic trend through various time periods and in various cultures and religion, in addition to focusing on the Greek System specifically. By the time the book is concluded, the reader has not only a new alphabetic system available for use in magic (more complete perhaps than even Hebrew, given that the Greek system has Five traditional western elements represented as well as vowels and their associated symbolism as the seven planets) but also an initiatory level understanding of where this system may have developed and how it has been used in different contexts through history. This greek qabalah is particularly useful in ritual systems designed around a somewhat gnostic cosmogony, as the vowels related directly to the seven 'airs' or heavens girdling the earth (and by extent, in some systems, the seven bodies of the magician) effectively allow symbolic expression of the astrological currents and the five elements in their various permutations and operations in those zones.

The second book, Circles of Power, is a refresher course on basic Golden Dawn material by and large, but its real value is in Greer's particular perspective and explanation of the various elements of Western magic in general and specifically the rituals of the Golden Dawn, which is covered from the basic banishing and invoking exercises, to the equinox and solstice rituals, talismanic consecrations, evocation and even the invisibility ritual plus several others. It is concise and simplistic in it's description of these rituals and the construction of the traditional ritual tools and is written to be a primer for beginning Golden Dawn style ritual magicians. However, it isn't written to be a complete explanation of the Golden Dawn system, and in fact is set apart of the actual Golden Dawn itself in that it is written for solitary practitioners. There is some information that a complete beginner may find lacking in this book in that it does not cover the basic subjects of Kabbalah, Astrology, and Alchemy that are considered basic elements of the Golden Dawn system, and it avoids any discussion of Enochian all together but for good reason. The author suggests other sources for a more thorough discussion of Kabalah, Astrology, and Alchecmy, and writes in the book's introductory part that the enochian system is too complex and vast a subject to do it any kind of justice in this one volume, and so instead focuses on the elemental and astrological rituals, as well as redirecting some of the enochian material into expression as elemental and astrological works - but notes specifically where this occurs so as not to mislead the reader and practitioner. I Highly recommend this book for any beginning practitioner of western ritual magic, as well as any Golden Dawn novices, and consider is primary value to be as a reference book - for the basic rituals, as well as the appendices which cover the classical GD correspondences - and an introduction into the primary elements of ritual magic in general. For the absolute magical novice with no experience, there is also material in the introductory part of the book discussing why ritual magic is practiced as it is an what elements make it effective, with a bit of cosmogony thrown in to round out what could be a complete, although very basic and initiatory, paradigm for magicians with no prior education into magical systems.

peace

This post has been edited by Vagrant Dreamer: Oct 15 2009, 10:13 AM