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Pros and Cons of books on magic

11:40 / 07.11.03

I'm a great fan of books in general, and I have a shelf of occult tomes that I find invaluable. I read books on magic voraciously and find that some are better than others, but generally (if approached in the right way) they are worthwhile.

However, there are many ways to approach such texts. Some people take the written word as gospel, and believe everything they read- if it's been published then it must be true, or at least the author must be worth listening to. Some people don't believe anything they read (a printed word is a dead word) and of course there is everything in between.

How do you read magic books? As grimoires, for the spells? As voices, people's opinions written down? As systems to follow? As differing views of the same fundamental thing? To laugh at the sillly things people come out with? To do the excercises and gain the skills described?
Do you think they're good, bad or indifferent? Distractions from the important business of doing magic instead of reading about it? Vital kernels of wisdom from masters distant in space and time?

Magic books, what do you think about them?

13:53 / 07.11.03

I think the books are good for showing the way to those starting out, but there must come a time when you stop reading and start doing. Summed up in the Matrix quote: "Difference in knowing the path and walking it."

Having said that I am a total hipocrite (sic) as I've yet to get to that phase yet.

Additionally would people suggest focusing on just one author of books (i.e. Phil Hine or Crowley) or gather a smorgasboard of authors to get an over view of the subject?

Professor Silly

14:36 / 07.11.03

Long answer: From a certain perspective all statements are both true and false at the same time, so anything a skilled magician writes must be taken as suggestive rather than gospel. That said I find some of my books more useful than others.

But then this is true with all books, not just those on magick. What seems likely at some point in time might seem totally off base later (like phrenology). For this reason I agree with the A.'.A.'. in that one should read as wide a base as possible, getting as many different perspectives as possible, before deciding just which direction to go. Part of what makes occult study so difficult is that every previous system was worked out by and for that individual, and we as students of the occult must essentially create our own system. We of course have the liberty of deciding what makes up the building blocks, and I think we should choose on the basis of what has worked most recently.

The book I'm using the most right now is Crowley's Liber ABA (aka Book 4...aka Magick). Crowley apparently wrote it so that readers of different levels of initiation will get different meanings out of it, and it covers just about everything one way or the other. To be fair, I didn't really choose this book randomly so much as pick it out of a required reading list for my grade--it has most of my required reading material all in one place. So perhaps I should rather say that I'm finding it most useful of all the stuff I'm currently reading (or re-reading...and in some cases re-re-re-reading).

Short answer: suggestive

15:08 / 07.11.03

I keep a sceptical eye on books, certainly books I’m trying to learn out of. I’ve buggered things up several times over the years by trying to hold on or replicate the preconceptions I’ve built up from reading something, so I try to be a bit flexible or sceptical towards things people have written. I think magic is such a personal area, that you’re better off cultivating that kind of attitude. If two people do the same exercise will they always have similar results? Map is not the territory and all that. The more didactic and rigid a book is the less likely I am too take it seriously. I also have problems with systems like this as well – for instance the Grades of the Golden Dawn – I can’t see how something as loose, fluxing and downright strange as consciousness can be tied to this kind of system of permanent and measurable attainments, in the same way no one book or system is going to give you what you’re looking for, no matter what it says on the cover. Unless you adapt it and make it your own. “Write your own qabalah” as AC said.

There is another category of books though which are those that are trying to suggest something without stating it explicitly Spare’s writing would be included here, as would Kenneth Grants- in fact, most “mystical” writing in general. Though Stuff like this is an acquired taste, sometimes, and doesn’t yield to our demand for easy answers.

I read somewhere once that it’s best just to have a core of a dozen books that you refer to over and over again, finding new depths each time, It being better to know a few things well, than a lot of things shallowly. This is certainly something I’ve found true, I have a number of texts I read over and over and almost always get something out of. It’s as these books have become part of my creative process. . However, I haven’t stuck to the prescription about only keeping a dozen books, I’m far too much of a bibliophile for that.

I also have a weird fascination with lists of exercises, probably because I like to imagine myself doing them. This leads to me fetishising self-help books and always leafing through them in bookshop, even if I don’t buy them (honest). Less said about that the better. Would write more but it’s Friday night and I’m going down the pub.

10:42 / 13.11.03

Illmatic said in another thread; We attribute or project definitive authority onto books which, possibly, they don't deserve
which I tend to agree with. Just because something's published doesn't mean it's true, or even well thought out.
I advocate a 'smorgasboard' approach because I like to read around a subject, but after a while you get the same key sources referenced again and again, and you realise which are the primary texts, which are occult masterpieces and which are fluff.

For example, I would prefer to use the Lesser and Greater Keys of Solomon, or the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus, or the Wilhelm I-Ching translation, and I think they're more useful than most modern treatises (including Chaos Magic etc) as they are echoed by so many subsequent works and are much broader ranging.

Having said that there are modern classics (Promethea, some CM, City Magick) that deal with 'new' magic that the classics don't cover, and some of the old texts can be pretty obscure and hard work to read.

12:06 / 13.11.03

I like collecting books esp. if I can get them on the cheap i.e. in 2nd hand shops. Depends on what you can get out of the book's exercises - 1st time I came across Crowley I did not have the faintest what it all meant, same as for alot of other stuff. It was too intelectualised for me. It took me years to understand, at that time I think it was more a rebellious thing. All good things happen to those that wait...... eventually I did and I discovered the art of postmodern alchemy and how to apply it to force the hand of chance. I think it good to try and research every single avenue, every religion, every sect, every magickal paradigm, etc.... Synthesise it to how you can work with it. Explore and experiment........

12:12 / 13.11.03

That was paraphasing a quote from somewhere. I think it's true of the printed word in general, not just occult books. We're not normally conscious of what a weird and arbitary way of describing the world this is.

What City Magic books do you think are worthwhile?

13:07 / 13.11.03

The Christopher Penczak eponymous City Magick book Elseware lent me, won an award for best magick book of the year last year (here)

from the blurb;
Magic is not about the perfect wand, but the perfect intent. City Magick is accessible, it has no dogma, it introduces people to the principles of magic and core shamanism, and draws from basic modern ritual as well as lesser-known chaos magic.

"City Magick guides us through the city's spiritual spectrum. Included in this book are: an outline of the basics of magic as relevant to city surroundings; a discussion of the potential for magic in everyday places; how to read the writing on the walls (graffiti); creating and maintaining a personal temple' an introduction to metropolitan spirits'; how to find spirits guides and animal totems within the city"

14:32 / 13.11.03

I would heartily recomment the City Magick book too. Found it very interesting, some nice translations of "Traditional" views and parafanial (apologises if my english embrasses me) into the "modern" world.