Searching the forum I have only found this
I would like to start a more 'professional' (i.e. useful and well presented) list of recommended magickal texts, primarily for beginners but also to have a stab at compiling a library that includes many diverse magickal styles.
When recommending a book please provide as much info on it as possible (to make it easy to get), a link if possible, and a concise review.
For example;
I recommend Carlos Castaneda's 'The Teachings of Don Juan- a Yacqui way of knowledge'here
as it deals with Shamanism, personal power and is an archetypal initiate's journey into Magick. Well written, entertaining, excellent characters and provides many extremely useful mental tools. The first of many fine books filled with charismatic people and spirits. (look out for Don Genaro, 'when he shits the mountains tremble!')
I believe Tom can get boons somehow if books are recommended in the right way, so that should be the preferred method I think.
Please recommend your life-changing magickal books!
I would like to recommend Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming, by Dr Stephen Laberge and Howard Rheingold.
It's one of the best Lucid dreaming books I have read in that it gives lots of practical advice, preparation exercises to undertake and help with using your dreams once the goal of Lucid Dreaming is achieved.
Power of the Witch by Laurie Cabot
A wonderful beginner's guide to witchcraft. Gives an excellent basis in magick, well written and was a revelation to me. Lots of techniques that will prove useful whatever tradition you follow. One of my all time favourites and one I've read many times.
Urban Shaman by Serge Kahili King, Phd.
Another one I've read many times, gives a wonderful insight in Hawaaian shamansim with many techniques to try. Contains a complete world-view and will change the way you look at things. Highly recommended.
Prime Chaos by Phil Hine.
The must-have text for Chaos Magickians. Really changed the way I think. Helped me deal with life in a whole new way.
All three books genuinely changed the way I live my life.
Others of note are: Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter Carroll (a Chaos text),
Astral Dynamics by Robert Bruce (An incredible study into Lucid Dreaming, containing many LD techniques.)
The Tarot Companion by Tracy Porter.(The best Tarot book I've ever read. Indispensible.)
'Shamanism- Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy' Mircea Eliade
required reading on shamanic cultures and the shaman's world view, absolutely brilliant 'Shamanic Voices' Joan Halifax
not quite as good but still absolutely top notch and well worth having
'78 Degrees of Wisdom' Rachael Pollack
sometimes in two volumes, the best Tarot book I've found. Uses the Rider Waite/Smith deck and has excellent sections on gate cards and readings and is clearly written. Also... 'The Haindl Tarot' Pollack
a companion to the deck she designed with Swiss artist Hermann Haindl, this is more advanced and abstract. The deck is insanely beautiful check it out but more appropriate to magickal workings and deeper readings than fortune telling- not for the novice reader.
I'd like to add to this but perhaps broaden the discussion a little bit. If you feel I'm going to randomly off-topic I can always kick it into another thread. One of the ideas I wanted to discuss was what makes a book magickal, beyond just describing techniques?
I'm thinking of big black grimores and Necronomicon's here.
I started this thread a while back but no one got into it. What I'm interested in is the whole idea of books that you go back to over and over again, which you're continually seeing new things in, even if there as enigmatic as hell to start with. It's a kind of Derrida-ian (?) idea, the reader as author of a text, I think that quote wherever I read it, about only needing a dozen or so books was right. The one's you continually refer to eventually become part of your creative process. A mirror of sorts. Some magical books state this quite explictly - Kenneth Grant's for instance.
As well as the Peter Redgrove book mentioned in the thread linked, I'd put down Austin Spare's "Book of Pleasure" - despite being absolutely fucking baffling first time I read it, I like it more and more over the years. It was here he created sigilisation as we know it, inspired a whole generation of magicians etc etc. There's depths and hints to this book that havn't crossed over to what's popularly understood about Chaos Magick - and he was only twenty fucking seven when he published it!
Another catergory of books worth thinking about is those that aren't magicial but have influenced your magicial thinking. I'm thinking here of "Impro" by Keith Johnstone (a reference nicked off Phil Hine) which is an experimental drama book, but contains loads of hints on spontaneity, visualiation and a whole chapter on maskwork. I'd like to read about somemore titles which have this kind of crossover edge to them, if anone can think of any.
Sorry to drag things off-topic, Ican shift it to a new thread if people want.
(threadrot - may take me a while to set this up though, as I'm not online during the day at the minute /endrot)
Just a quick refresher on posting book links to Amazon so Barbelith gets credit...
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If you link to a book on Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com on the board then you could be helping support the board's running costs. If this is the link of the book you found on Amazon:
Illmatic- that's completely what I meant, books that led toward magickal thinking (I'm thinking RAW, PKD etc. as well). Discussion welcome! I'd quite like to extract the bibliography when the thread dies and make it an article for the webzine, what do you think?
I love 'the Art of looking sideways' (Alan Fletcher) picture here which is unlike any other book- it covers everything that is hard to define. Example "Dreaming is what happens when the lunatics take over the asylum", then a reference to a study on Mutual Lucid Dreaming, then quotes from people on dreams, then an ambivalent picture of a face... it's unique, and I'll link it properly next time so it can be bought with boon.
I think an articleon magicial books would be an excellent idea - there;s probably loads of different angles you can come up with on the idea.
As to what makes a book magicial, interesting idea. With writers like Kenneth Grant and Michael Bertaiux, it seems to be the quality of suggestiveness, or "hinting" at... something else, that fires the imagination. You can also find this fantastical qualtiy in a lot of horror novels, Arthur Machen and Lovecraft are big influences on Grant.
As to other kinds of magical books, i don't know what specifc makes them magicial, just seeing something in them that youcan map out onto your own practice I suppose.
The most magicial book of all for me would be the Wilhelm-Baynes I Ching - which isn't only a book about magick, it is Magick. Nothing else has done as much to convince me of the reality of Magick, and been a source of such good advice.
"Breaking Open the Head" by Daniel Pinchbeck is excellent, describing a cynical, New York hipster's transition to transcendental, chemical-inspired shamanism. I haven't actually finished reading it, but what I've read so far is fantastic.
I'd also put down Penczak's "City Magick" - although quite basic, it introduced me to a lot of new ideas that have taken my own magick in new directions.
The very first book on magick I ever read was Brennan's "Magick for Beginners", which gave me the first indications of how you actually do this stuff, so for sentimental reasons I'd like to include it to.
Quantum: I was thinking that wiki'd just be a better way of making it easily accessible, depending on how it's structured: long listy threads *can* be quite unwieldy or hard to find info in, I guess.
Hmm, Rothkoid you may be right. The only down side is the wiki is less accessible to those of us who don't know much about it. Why not put a link to it here, that'll make it easier to get to for illITerates like myself?
More books, classics this time-
'The Golden Bough' Sir J G Frazer (1922)
The original work on magickal practices around the world look! it's online! and still unbeatable. Slightly dated and not casual reading, but definitely worth the effort. You can't be considered magickally well read until you've read this book.
'Magick' Aleister Crowley
I don't like Crowley due to his moral turpitude, but he was incredibly intelligent, magickally powerful and can't be ignored. His influence is still felt today and his ideas are recycled all the time, evil mountain climbing charismatic old bastard. I'm sure plenty of other Crowley works will be recommended, I 'm going to stick with this and..
'The Book of Thoth' ..his Tarot work. I think he colours his interpretations too much with his ego and thelemic teachings, but he had a lot of insight and did plenty of research. Many people consider this to be the benchmark of Tarot decks (and books)- I disagree but it needs to be read. Especially his insights into the Fool.
i would like to suggest The Holograohic Universe by Micheal Talbot and
Ecochian Sex Magick by Crowley, DuQuette, and Hyatt
oh yeah and grimms fairytails
'Mage: the Ascension' (White Wolf, Phil Brucato)
It's fictional, it's an RPG, but it's excellently researched and has a plausible metaphysical background that reflects a metamagical uber-paradigm many people strive for. It's York notes for magick.
'Magickal Tarot' here
The deck is fairly minimalist in terms of appearance, but the accompanying book details a spell for each card, giving a good idea of how to use Tarot for Magick. As you would expect from the title.
