Magick

I wasn't terribly impressed with this book at the time I read it, although it does contain some interesting material. Essentially it is the compiled handbooks (or "libers") of the Illuminates of Thanateros (IOT, worked out by Peter Carroll and others during the 1970s and early 1980s. The IOT prides itself on exploring occult traditions while breaking with much of the hierarchy and stick-up-the-ass seriousness of traditional magical study. Chaos Magic, as I used to say, is what happens to you when you start to take Discordianism seriously (if you stop taking it seriously, you're in the Church if the Subgenius)."Liber Null," the first half of the text, is essentially a collection of working notes towards a syllabus in basic magic, it has many weaknesses. It is the sort of system that will work excellently for a certain type of student, and not at all for others, and which can only be adapted for different needs by an experienced Teacher. Indeed, this is the problem with most beginning books on magic; only very rare individuals can apply something directly from a book without interaction with others of varying levels of experience. While the book implies that the student may apply to the IOT, they are notoriously unresponsive (and may have published the book more to discourage inquiries rather than encourage them), and thus "study groups" of varying quality have spring up locally and on the internet.The other problem with publishing a program like this in book form is that students will tend to rush through it, having no guide to appropriate levels of progress, and will attempt powerful and impressive-looking Workings before they have truly mastered the basics (the concept of "Mastery" is one our current society is largely uncomfortable with in the first place). The first 11 pages of the book, "Liber MMM," could readily be a program of two or more years for an average student, but it doesn't look very impressive, and there's all those other pages with cool stuff to try, so people will rush ahead and start invoking Goetic spirits and messing around with "aethers" before they've learned the mind control techniques they need. This is also a reason that traditional schools used to dole out their wisdom very slowly, and guard it so jealously from the newer Initiates, but those days have been exploded, for better or worse, by the end of Secrecy in our culture."Psychonaut," the second half of the text, is a more philosophical discussion of Chaos Magic, and is more interesting from an outside perspective. It is composed of 40 short essays on subjects ranging from "Shamanism" to "Levels of Consciousness" to "Chemognosis." This latter, which refers to the use of chemicals for mind-altering purposes as a method of self-transformation has unfortunately become the bulk of Chaos Magic's legacy, although it's position in "Psychonaut" is far from central. As with the techniques in "Liber Null," it seems, without guidance students will make what they want of a magical text and follow the path of least resistance. Many independent Chaos Magicians one meets are little more than druggies with a spiritual justification for their habits. More important is the final essay, which explains Carroll's "Catastrophe Theory of Magic," one of the more original contributions of Chaos Magic to the field of occult study. It is essentially based in a topological model in which forms or paradigms are distorted without altering their perceived basic features.The work overall will be more or less useful to people who study it from differing backgrounds and perspectives. It has, no doubt, been a key text in the trainning of some very successful magicians. For me, it was a rather dry read with little new that tended to race through the more important subjects and leap to speculative areas. Your Mileage May Vary.

This manual uses material from The Tibetan Book of the Dead for this preparation. The authors also make an important contribution to the interpretation of The Tibetan Book of the Dead. They show that it is concerned not with the dead, but with the living. The last section of the manual provides instructions for an actual psychedelic session, under adequate safeguards.The authors were engaged in a program of experiments with LSD and other psychedelic drugs at Harvard University until sensational national publicity unfairly concentrating on student interest in the drugs, led to the suspension of the experiments. Since then, the authors have continued their work without academic auspices.

The name “Aleister Crowley” instantly conjures visions of diabolic ceremonies and orgiastic indulgences—and while the sardonic Crowley would perhaps be the last to challenge such a view, he was also much more than “the Beast,” as this authoritative biography shows. Perdurabo (the magical name Crowley chose when inducted into the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn) traces Crowley’s remarkable journey from his birth as the only son of a wealthy lay preacher to his death in a boarding house as the world’s foremost authority on magick. Along the way, he rebels against his conservative religious upbringing; befriends famous artists, writers, and philosophers (and becomes a poet himself ); is attacked for his practice of “the black arts”; and teaches that science and magick can work together. While seeking to spread his infamous philosophy of “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,” Crowley becomes one of the most notorious figures of his day. Based on Richard Kaczynski’s twenty years of research, and including previously unpublished biographical details, Perdurabo paints a memorable portrait of the man who inspired the counterculture and influenced generations of artists, punks, wiccans, and other denizens of the demimonde.

While I most enjoy the hundreds of hours of lectures by this, my favorite thinker of all time, I do treasure this book which was his last - and was a gift to me from his son Mark. After I received it, I noticed the musty smell of a fine old book. Watts died in the 70's while in his late 50's and he lived on a houseboat in Sausalito harbor near San Francisco (he also had a cabin in the forests just 30 minutes north where he would go for solitude). When I asked Mark about the smell of the book he told me that it had come from a box of the books which were on his boat.....and so it is a treasure to me.His audio is widely available online and I am happy to share incredible lectures I have of him speaking to impressive audiences (IBM Systems Engineers, Southern Methodist University, and countless other churches, and other places of spiritual focus - always without notes and his velvet voice and classic English accent - not only with sense of humor always intact, but his speaking is never tainted with any verbal crutch nor do I recall him ever repeating the same words - even rarely articulating the same concept. He is/was deeply knowledgeable about most subjects but especially theology, comparative religions, psychiatry/psychology, art, music , languages, literature, education, ecology, mythology, mysticism, consciousness (in all it's seemingly infinite states), logic and so much more. His friends were Carl Jung, Bertrand Russell, Alan Ginsberg, D.T. Suzuki, G.K. Chesterton and countless other authors, artists, musicians, spiritual leaders and intellectuals of both the east and west. He is a singular master in his ability to bring truth to especially Christianity, Buddhism, psychiatry and 'common perceptions and mis-perceptions' His ultimate love of life and lighthearted view of it, along with his incredible knowledge and admission to his own "inherent rascality" (we all are rascals at times!) endears him to me and I suspect to any open minded thinking person! If you would llke to talk or receive audio, please call me! Marc: 760.633.0004

"Cosmic Trigger" deals with a process of deliberately induced brain change... This is called "initiation" or "vision quest" in many traditional societies and ... a dangerous variety of self-psychotherapy in modern terminology. I do not recommend it for everybody... the main thing I learned is that "reality is always plural and mutable." — From the Preface

Within these pages you will find innumerable practical techniques to transform your life, served up with a large dose of humor and the stick of the Zen Roshi. Who hates Undoing? Stuffed-shirt academicians, do-nothing sweetness-and-light practitioners of cosmic foo-foo, and would-be slave-owners everywhere. On the other hand, if you are interested in actually accomplishing something, you will love it.

Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot was his final opus, the culmination of a lifetime of occult study and practice. With artist Lady Frieda Harris, he condensed the core of his teaching into the 78 cards of the tarot. Although Crowley's own Book of Thoth provides insight into the cards, it is a complicated, dated book. Now, in clear language, Lon Milo DuQuette provides everything you need to know to get the most out of using the Thoth deck.

"[A] solid how-to book...For amateur dream researchers, this is a must" WHOLE EARTH REVIEWThis book goes far beyond the confines of pop dream psychology, establishing a scientifically researched framework for using lucid dreaming--that is, consciously influencing the outcome of your dreams. Based on Dr. Stephen LaBerge's extensive laboratory work at Stanford University mapping mind/body relationships during the dream state, as well as the teachings of Tibetan dream yogis and the work of other scientists, including German psycholgist Paul Tholey, this practical workbook will show you how to use your dreams to: Solve problems; Gain greater confidence; improve creativity, and more.

The Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie is considered by many to be the book that started the modern occult movement. The original Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, which started in the late 1800s, borrowed from a wide variety of occult traditions ó Kabalah, Tarot, Geomancy, Enochian Magic, Theosophy, Freemasonry, Paganism, Astrology, and many more ó and created a unique and viable system of magic that is still being practiced today. Almost every contemporary occult writer and modern group has been influenced, directly or indirectly, by the Order or its members, making The Golden Dawn one of the most influential occult books of the past 100 years. The book is divided into several basic sections. First are the knowledge lectures, where you will learn the basics of the Kabalah, symbolism, meditation, geomancy and more. This is followed by the rituals of the Outer Order, consisting of five initiation rituals into the degrees of the Golden Dawn. The next section covers the rituals of the Inner Order including two initiation rituals, equinox ceremonies, and more. Then you will learn the basic rituals of magic and the construction, consecration, and means of using the magical tools. Once you have these you can go on to evocation rituals, talismans, and invocations. The book gives explanations for how to design talismans, do skrying and travel on the astral plane. You will also learn geomancy, the Tarot, and Enochian magic. Filled with numerous illustrations, lists, and tables, The Golden Dawn provides guidance for a lifetime of magic and life-changing transformation. Get your copy today.

A clear explanation of the philosophical structure of the Hermetic Kabbalah, filled with easily-understandable but profound analogies and metaphors to point the way towards true understanding.Dion Fortune, being a magician and psychic in the early 20th Century, clothed her discourse with much discussion of the practicum of magic. My interest being primarily to use the Kabbalah as a vehicle to aid thought, I skipped through all the discussion of invocations and ether and psychic emanations.What is left remains immensely valuable. I think I finally have an idea of what the Tree is all about.Highly recommended!

Condensed Chaos provides a practical introduction to Chaos Magic, one of the fastest growing areas of Western Occultism. Through it you can change your circumstances, live according to a developing sense of personal responsibility, effect change around you, and stop living as a helpless cog in some clockwork universe. All acts of personal/collective liberation are magical acts. Magic leads us into exhilaration and ecstasy; into insight and understanding; into changing ourselves and the world in which we participate. Through magic we may come to explore the possibilities of freedom.

The Book of Thoth is as much a manual for using the deck as it is a primary initiation into Hermetic philosophy and mindfulness. This is an encyclopedic volume. The deck itself, besides working as the elemental and zodiacal symbol association system of popular tradition, functions simultaneously as a Qabalistic Tree of Life and Taoist I Ching. The creation and perfection of this deck was a grand scholarly undertaking by Crowley, and while I am sure that he could have expanded this volume tenfold if he so chose, I am glad he didn't, as the complexity of symbolic associations that he presents seemingly from memory are so far-ranging and multifaceted that a reader might rightly wonder how such a comprehensive view of existence could be possible, how such a system could ever be taken up so thoroughly by a human mind.That said, its actually damn readable, and surely useful to any student of philosophy, mythology, tarot, comparative literature, or the occult.

Like a lovely psychedelic sophist, McKenna recounts his adventures with psychoactive plants in the Amazon Basin. Either a profoundly psychotic episode or a galvanizing glimpse into the true nature of time & mind, McKenna is a spellbinding storyteller, providing plenty of down-to-earth reasons for preserving the planet.Preface1 The Call of the Secret2 Into the Devil's Paradise3 Along a Ghostly Trail 4 Camped by a Doorway 5 A Brush with the Other6 Kathmandu Interlude 7 A Violet Psychofluid8 The Opus Clarified 9 A Conversation Over Saucers10 More on the Opus 11 The Experiment at La Chorrera12 In the Vortex 13 At Play in the Fields of the Lord14 Looking Backward 15 A Saucer Full of Secrets16 Return 17 Waltzing the Enigma18 Say What Does It Mean?19 The Coming of the Strophariad20 The Hawaiian Connection EpilogueAcknowledgmentsFurther Reading

Watts is such an engaging writer. Each of the essays collected in this book is filled with both meaning and wit/humor. Overall there was a balance of both of these things. Though at times the wit/humor dominated and then I started to wonder if the exercise of writing the essay had been more interesting to Watts than putting useful ideas out there. Those essays that dealt with mental and physical health were of particular interest to me, as were those that asked the question over and over again "what is self?" That latter topic is one that has obsessed me for years and Watts points out that it is really in the nature of a koan that does not logically lend itself to any answer at all.