Greetings Options

Greetings everyone. I am new to the site and the readings of some Manly P. Hall books has gotten be interested in the occult. Can you guys point me to the right literature I should be reading? This subject has started to fascinate me and I would like to look into it on my own and not so much rely on one author to supply me with the information. I would like to also practice magick but I have no idea where to start looking. Thank you all.

hi there. welcome to the forum. If you are interested in western ceremonial magick I would recommend the book called Modern Magick second edition by Donald Michael Kraig this is by far the best practicatal hands on book that will take you from complete basics to advanced. it has sections about kabbala and tarot and everything as well as making GD tools and on the end there is a goetia evocation to put all your knowledge to the test.

Hands down best book and why buy so many books when you just need a few good ones that you wil use often.

Welcome to the forum SagBomb

The problem in suggesting books for you at this time is that you don't seem to know what you want to learn. There are different areas possible. The occult is a blanket term for a lot of things. It might mean High Ceremonial Magic (which can be subdivided into different categories; Chaos Magic; low magic/folk magic/witchcraft; shamanism; eastern disciplines, etc. What I would suggest is that you read threads that seem to be interesting in this forum's sub forums first of all. They often recommend books. If they don't then you can ask on those specific sub forums.

Best of luck

I really appreciate it guys. I will look around and continue to study the forum. What kind of disciplines do you guys study?

I would say I study western ceremonial magick but this is pretty general.
I like to study the evocation arts
that could be anything from enochian to the goetia but actually these 2 art forms are closely related.

it depends on your belief system. If you follow this path than the magician would believe in a hierarchical universe with heaven and earth and hell and the earth in the middle with the magician uses the philosophy that he was created in the image of the creator and thus has power to command lower spirits below him. and magicians often use angels to control demons. it is a very old way of thinking that echos a time of the past during the medieval period when this style of magick was practiced.

Actually there is alot of things to consider. you often have to paradigm shift to practice these forms of magick because we are just not as superstitious and religious in these modern times.

there are so many paths to take in magick but I like to think of it as branches from the same tree. sometimes you have to take things from different religions and not get caught up in the dogma. like the chakras of the east and the kabbalah of the west and mix these up. you need to know other things like the tarot and psychic skills to to be able operate effectively.

when I started it took me a year to go through all of the paths and try it out to see what I liked and resonated with me the most after this. I made up my mind what form of magick I liked the most and my study became more specific and started to focus on one discipline.

I would say I study western ceremonial magick but this is pretty general.
I like to study the evocation arts
that could be anything from enochian to the goetia but actually these 2 art forms are closely related.

it depends on your belief system. If you follow this path than the magician would believe in a hierarchical universe with heaven and earth and hell and the earth in the middle with the magician uses the philosophy that he was created in the image of the creator and thus has power to command lower spirits below him. and magicians often use angels to control demons. it is a very old way of thinking that echos a time of the past during the medieval period when this style of magick was practiced.

Actually there is alot of things to consider. you often have to paradigm shift to practice these forms of magick because we are just not as superstitious and religious in these modern times.

there are so many paths to take in magick but I like to think of it as branches from the same tree. sometimes you have to take things from different religions and not get caught up in the dogma. like the chakras of the east and the kabbalah of the west and mix these up. you need to know other things like the tarot and psychic skills to to be able operate effectively.

when I started it took me a year to go through all of the paths and try it out to see what I liked and resonated with me the most after this. I made up my mind what form of magick I liked the most and my study became more specific and started to focus on one discipline.

Very interesting. I believe I will have to get my priorities straight and start from there. Research will be my first goal and I know practice of these disciplines are very far off in the future for me so I will take my time to research the history behind the occult. Thanks again for the replies.

I picked up Modern Magic by Kraig and I have started to read that. I also picked up Astral Dynamics which I was going to pick up before and I picked up The Middle Pillar by Regardie. I want to get a good foundation beneath me as of right now. If anyone else has any other reading that they suggest, let me know.

yup you got the modern magick. that book is great. goes through everything from start to finish you will like it trust me.

Ive Got Robert Bruce astral dynamics. it has alot of good information But I would of got the 90 days to astral projection by robert bruce. it really easy to use and you will have OBE experience for sure if you follow the book. better than reading is to get in and experience some things. I had amazing experience with mastering astral porjection in 90 days. its the only astral projection book you will need.

middle pillar from Ragarde is a classic text that is very good. you cant go wrong with that.

you will need to get a tarot deck I suggest the plain rider waite variety coz its easy to distinguish the elements and symbolism is nice and clear. I like the The Beginner's Guide to Tarot by Juliet Sharman-Burke. out of all the tarot I have got this one is my first and favorite. comes with a good description book too. only thing I dont like is the pinkish color on the back. not pink pink but a little too pink for me (IMG:style_emoticons/default/13.gif) I wish it was red or dark red my favorite color. you will need to get tarot to continue with the modern magick book anyway.

keep me up to date on hows it going. I will try to help with any other problems or questions you have. Good luck.

Ah. Thank you sir for all your help. I actually forgot to mention that I had picked up a Hermetic Tarot deck as it was recommended by Kraig in his book. I hope this would be good to use as a beginner. I was interested in Crowley's Thoth Tarot deck but I knew better than picking that up at this time. Would the book you mentioned above help me out with this specific deck that I have purchased or should I look for a book that is more geared towards the Hermetic Tarot deck?

I picked up Modern Magic by Kraig and I have started to read that. I also picked up Astral Dynamics which I was going to pick up before and I picked up The Middle Pillar by Regardie. I want to get a good foundation beneath me as of right now. If anyone else has any other reading that they suggest, let me know.

I'm very fond of Frater U.: D.: 's writing on magick, if you're mainly interested in a western esoteric perspective.

It wouldn't hurt to look into something more eastern as well, or something more ancient (western esoteria is really only about 500 years old), or both. Some would disagree, but I think that having a diverse foundation is a very good thing.

for eastern magick, you might look into something like tai chi, and one of the vedas. that would cover the two main chakra models.

there's a lot of ancient magick resources, but they tend to be very obscure and hard to find. It is easy to find material on ancient religions, but very hard to find 'actual' material on ancient magical practices & metaphysic beliefs. Most of what we have on these topics actually comes from the popular fiction of cultures and is a poor reflection of their actual esoteric traditions.

chaos magick is worth a looksie in my opinion...
http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos.php

I'm very fond of Frater U.: D.: 's writing on magick, if you're mainly interested in a western esoteric perspective.

It wouldn't hurt to look into something more eastern as well, or something more ancient (western esoteria is really only about 500 years old), or both. Some would disagree, but I think that having a diverse foundation is a very good thing.

for eastern magick, you might look into something like tai chi, and one of the vedas. that would cover the two main chakra models.

there's a lot of ancient magick resources, but they tend to be very obscure and hard to find. It is easy to find material on ancient religions, but very hard to find 'actual' material on ancient magical practices & metaphysic beliefs. Most of what we have on these topics actually comes from the popular fiction of cultures and is a poor reflection of their actual esoteric traditions.

chaos magick is worth a looksie in my opinion...
http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/chaos.php

I am actually very interested in eastern traditions and I will have to research it more in the upcoming months. Thank you for the recommendations. I also really do not get chaos magick. I tried grasping the concept but it did not really make all that sense to me. If someone would like to explain it I would be grateful.

okay the hermetic tarot. I have never used it so I cant say. maybe its based of different symbolism so might not work with normal tarot books. If you do get the crowley tarot. you probably will sooner or later. I have a few books on how to use the Crowley tarot but none are as usefull as this book I have called Tarot: Mirror of the Soul: Handbook for the Aleister Crowley Tarot by Gerd Ziegler . its short and sweet.

Also I f you don't like the crowley painting style or want to try something new there is the Liber T: Tarot of Stars Eternal tarot that is based on the thoth tarot. I personally like this style better. it fits nice with my mind alot more I think..

So have you worked out a training routine maybe 1 hour a day. half hour for ceremonial and half hour for OBE or something similar?

I really appreciate it guys. I will look around and continue to study the forum. What kind of disciplines do you guys study?

Ozark and German traditional witchcraft, and a tiny bit of Haitian voodoo and I guess what could be considered necromancy on the side. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Unfortunately there's not much in the way of books for the WC, and you have to know people. I do have some titles though stashed away if you would like.

None of which are eastern, I recognize. But Chaos magick is very fun, and the most well-known book for that is Condensed Chaos: An Introduction by Phil Hine. It's an okay starting point to understanding that whole system.

This post has been edited by Kriemhilde: Oct 21 2009, 11:26 AM

Since voodoo is ancestor worship since loa are enlightened spirits of the dead it could be considered necromancy couldn't it.

I am interested in any folk magick witchcraft grimore if such a thing exist. the older and more superstitious the better.
anything that you think has actual old practices let me know. I'm very interested.

Condensed Chaos: An Introduction by Phil Hine is very good. one of my first books about chaos magick.

Thanks guys. I will check out Chaos Magick.

I have started doing some energy work that is recommended in Astral Dynamics that have been of great help. I also am looking for some good meditation techniques. The one I am using is really just made up by me but it seems to work so I may just stick to that. I have been doing OBE work before I even became interested in magick.

As for Ceremonial practice, I believe I want to read through Modern Magick first and then go back and re-read and find what most interests me. I want to start using the LBRP and Middle Pillar rituals as soon as I find myself comfortable with the rituals. I do live at home while I got to school so I have to watch myself and not be too loud when I am doing these rituals. And at the same time, I cannot really get the setup that is needed for the LBRP but I will do what I can with what I have.

I have started meditating with my tarot cards and have started trying to study the symbolism in the cards. I believe I am making some good progress in my studies, but as far as actually practicing, I am a little behind. But I rather be behind and well educated than going head first into things I have no idea about. Again, thank you. You all have been a great help thus far to me.

Hey Daemon, yeah voodoo technically falls under a branch of necromancy as well. And the old grimoires are not necessarily better. There are a few floating around, such as the L'Dragon Rouge (the Red Dragon, probably the most famous, from 1880s or something like that) but they are more flashy than factual rituals within them. Likewise a lot of them, particularly the manuscripts written in latin from several centuries ago, are often translated into modern latin which can be pretty dangerous as it opens the door for inaccuracies in the script, thus mistakes in the ritual itself. I managed to get my hands on a couple of "old grimoires" and they're not nearly as impressive as they sound. If you really want to get into traditional folk lore you should look for local publishers in the area ... IE several of my books on Ozark witchcraft come from little self publication venues in Missouri that don't have a wide circulation.

Sag ... I suggest that you take a look at the older Tarot cards and get your hands on a pre Rider-Waite version. Older decks are truer to the traditional symbolism. I've found that a lot of modern decks leave quite a bit of it out which makes for nothing but a deck of cards with pretty pictures and leave a lot of New Age people going "...o.0????" when they see a traditional deck. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

Hi there everyone. My first time on here. I'd like to suggest reading The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage for a good grounding.

Yeah I say the LBRP in a really low and high voice. sounds really like the Georgian singing.
It feels really good to let yourself go. My voice is getting alot better and feels really powerful for me. Ive been doing it for a while though. If you cant be so loud maybe hummm it in a low voice but really draw the words out and vibrate it.

You don't need any tools for LBRP. just use your 2 pointing fingers and you can cut a robe from some cloth if you want. and candles and incense.
trust me it makes a huge difference in your frame of mind between doing in the light with you regular clothes. and doing in candle light with incense and robe.
You will feel like a sense of holiness that will change how much devotion and how much strength the ritual will have. it motivates your mind to take things more serous. when you set the atmosphere first.

This post has been edited by xXDaemonReignXx: Nov 1 2009, 10:46 PM