Abramelin The Mage, Questions... Options

Just read the first two books of "Abramelin the Mage".
Amazing books.

After reading these books I feel completely lost and like all thse time and reading of other magick books have been in vane.

These books teaches with authority just like in the bible how to be very careful with the wrong magical books such as making pentacles or invoking certain spirits or shouting strange names out loud, and believe in other gods or writing strange patterns or names.

As the author of the book "Abraham" during his journey to find his mentor "Abramelin" saw with his own eyes all the false and treachery false arts (whom looked correct but in reality where not).

Then in the second book we have many pages explaining how retire and prepare the altar area for the angels and having certain items and oils and such and doing fasting and such... during 6 months and be loyal to the sabbath days. Until the holy guardian angel manifest it's presence unto you.

One never calls the archangels or ever do any of the LBRP or BRH or any others as mentioned in most of the magickal books.
Strangest part is how the "Golden Dawn" used these books for their studies and yet they seem to follow other teachings.

I feel a little confused and concerned with everything now, I hope one of you can help me out here...

Sometimes Occultists forget that for most people, time is linear... just keep in mind that 'The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage' was written a few hundred years before the LBRP or BRH were created.

I don't think your other research was in vain but I do believe it's a mistake to take any single book on magick as the gospel per se.

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I wouldn't say it's a mistake, as long as you consider that the 'one book' may be the one book for you and not for everyone.

Do consider the source of the work itself - the author was not, it would appear, a pagan for instance. Religions are also full of the suggestion that every other religion is false, and that the followers of those other religions will find themselves judged at the end of times.

The power in a system like that one is simply a matter of disciplines and convictions. If you are willing and able to commit, then I'm certain it will deliver what it promises. The basic problem is that this isn't because it is the 'one true book', but that none the less its requirement is that you develop the faith and conviction that this is so. Two hundred years ago that would have been easier.

In any case, it is a rather exclusive text, there are others which simply refer to 'the magician' as the operator, but Abramelin's books specifically tell the reader that if you're going to work this book you need to put everything else down. Consider how you feel about the book, and if you really sense that you have made a powerful connection with the work in this way, then go for it! Just remember that the power we gain through conviction, we can lose when we lose conviction.

peace

I wouldn't say it's a mistake, as long as you consider that the 'one book' may be the one book for you and not for everyone.

Do consider the source of the work itself - the author was not, it would appear, a pagan for instance. Religions are also full of the suggestion that every other religion is false, and that the followers of those other religions will find themselves judged at the end of times.

The power in a system like that one is simply a matter of disciplines and convictions. If you are willing and able to commit, then I'm certain it will deliver what it promises. The basic problem is that this isn't because it is the 'one true book', but that none the less its requirement is that you develop the faith and conviction that this is so. Two hundred years ago that would have been easier.

In any case, it is a rather exclusive text, there are others which simply refer to 'the magician' as the operator, but Abramelin's books specifically tell the reader that if you're going to work this book you need to put everything else down. Consider how you feel about the book, and if you really sense that you have made a powerful connection with the work in this way, then go for it! Just remember that the power we gain through conviction, we can lose when we lose conviction.

peace

That was certainly a good and complete explanation.

Thank you very much, and I'll meditate on the book and find what my decision will be.

I'm currently reading at the moment:

Kybalion
Modern Magick 12 lessons in the high magickal arts
Chicken Kabbala

I just wanna make sure whatever I do is nothing that in the end is a wrong path, the book of Abramelin the way it was written shows that basically every other magic tradition was wrong and satanic... sighs.
But then again and like you just told me, it's an old book written with a very religious point of view.

This post has been edited by Harkadenn: Sep 4 2011, 10:33 AM

That was certainly a good and complete explanation.

Thank you very much, and I'll meditate on the book and find what my decision will be.

I'm currently reading at the moment:

Kybalion
Modern Magick 12 lessons in the high magickal arts
Chicken Kabbala

I just wanna make sure whatever I do is nothing that in the end is a wrong path, the book of Abramelin the way it was written shows that basically every other magic tradition was wrong and satanic... sighs.
But then again and like you just told me, it's an old book written with a very religious point of view.

Of those three books, Kybalion is probably of the most utility in the long run. Personally I wouldn't bother with 12 lessons, but, if you need a generic kind of frame work for ritual work in general, it's got some use there. Chicken Kabbala I haven't read but it's a familiar scheme and probably deals with practical kabbala?

The right or wrong path is a matter of internal direction. No book is going to put you on the right path, or the wrong path, so I wouldn't worry about that.

peace

I couldn't comment on this earlier but I recently read that book, the new translation. I was disappointing it was so exclusive. Two years of basically prayer and old testament devotion probably isn't a very attractive deal for most people these days, I know it isn't for me. I think though, that it doesn't have to be as rigid as Abramelin makes the process out to be. It seems like his procedure involves basically:

1) authentically good intentions
2) devotion to a higher being
3) two years of special devotion
4) some abstinence or separation with "worldly" pleasures

For a Jewish guy in the 1300s, he seems pretty open minded about the who magic thing, but I suppose it would have fit in well with what I understand to be a culture of superstition with mystic teachings anyway. I don't think it would be a major exaggeration to believe that his methods would be much more secular if he had believed the same thing but had been raised in the 20th-21st centuries. His practice basically boils down to working with an angel, and getting the angels attention by being focused for two years.

I couldn't comment on this earlier but I recently read that book, the new translation. I was disappointing it was so exclusive. Two years of basically prayer and old testament devotion probably isn't a very attractive deal for most people these days, I know it isn't for me.

It is possible this may due to the fact you (like me) were never taught what real prayer - as it was done in ancient times - actually was. The bowed heads and waiting for the preacher to get over with his memorized recitation in Church is not the way prayer used to be done. Tolkien's Galadriel was right - "Much that was once known has now been lost." - especially among the various religions of the masses.

True prayer is actually a form of meditation which - if done correctly - can lead to samadhi and higher consciousness.

True prayer involves placing attention on an object, or series of objects, repetition, and surrender of the object(s) to the divine. Notice the key words: Attention (concentration meditation) + repetition (mantra) + letting go. These three things are likely not so strange an activity to a genuine practitioner of Western Mystery traditions or the Occult.

Is an intriguing approach, hoping to practice it in a few years time from now. There are differences between the Geog Dehn translation and Mathers, good to weigh to two especially as the Mathers version has the tablets wrong. The Dehn version presents it in a much clearer light than the other but I wouldn't recommend it (the system in general) as a starting point for someone new to the occult in general.

There are books written by people who have tried it you can check out, 'After the Angel' being one, quite recent that on and theres another I forget the name of which is a very much down to earth account.

Good morning everyone.
Forgive me for speaking, making a strictly personal thought.
I believe that when we read these ancient texts, and especially the grimori, we must also identify himself, the thought of the time in which it was written.
This will allow, first to understand, that no ancient text such as the Bible, will come to us, perfectly intact in its concepts, but that each manuense, who rewrote the text, have also made conceptual changes, according to their I think.
It is also important to see the text, in the context in which it was written, then beliefs, religion, and the degree of human evolutionary time.
In the writings of Abramil, is the predominant conception of the supernatural, which fully describes, as irrefutable concept of sacrifice and removal of man's desires, in order to strive for maximum purification.
The times are very long, this is because the adept, will reach the maximum belief in what they want to achieve, and what it evokes for you to help him in his goals. In order to reach such a state of conviction must abnegare himself and strictly stick to what needs to be done, without any distraction.
In this way, when it is ready to operate, and will operate, will get what you are prepared.
That's because anything is possible if you truly believe in doi us.
All this is expressed in a totalitarian, as if the truth was that, and everything else just falzità ideological.
Even this way of presenting serves to make the adept, depending on his views.
Who wrote these texts communicator certainly was a great time, as well as being very intelligent person.
But I am convinced that these texts had its own weight only for those times where superstitions and beliefs, lived in ideological and religious speculation.
MI hope that today, the evolution of man differs much from that, considered by Abramil.
So I think, to go beyond these texts, though fascinating and interesting.
Otherwise there would be no evolution of man to ONE.