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The "What Occult Books are you currently reading" thread

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Unconditional Love

22:42 / 13.05.07

A more modern docu is by Richard Stanley him of Dust Devil, good film, but his vodou docu is entitled The white darkness, its good and gives you a clear idea of American colonels/captaiins in haiti, i believe they managed to get one removed from Haiti with some of there film footage on this one

The White Darkness I know there not books but they came to mind.

14:06 / 07.06.07

An idea i've been wondering about is machines when they develop consciousness what form of practise would they take? Or is there a form of artificial intelligence A.I. spawned online already? The Apollo moon missions had a story about their onboard computer spitting out data to land, correct data, and they later checked it but realized there is no way -the hardware could have done those calculations, -so where did it come from?
So computers and magick, Willam Gibson has toed those questions a bit in his writings too,these two are not magick books but deal with the question The Age of Spiritual Machines by Ray Kurzweil, and God in the Machine Anne Forest.
Following the modern tools for ancient rites, i find a lot of new quantum physics books to old ideas a good way to look at creating working systems.
Fred Alan Wolf, the Spiritual Universe, Fred Alan Wolf the Yoga of Time travel.
The holographic Universe, Michael Talbot, Robert A. Monroe's Far Journey's, and Ultimate Journeys. Sex and Rockets John Carter, the babylon workings., Thanks to this thread i picked up The trickster and the paranormal, Chaos, Gaia, Eros by Abraham, My life with spirits by Lon Milo Duquette got me into some interesting goetic experiments. currently picked up duquette's Angels demons and gods of new millennium, he writes well., Mind over Matter Loyd Auerbach.
Jack Horsley's Matrix Warrior, being the One is one of my favorite new 'occult' books. The first matrix hints at mysticism, and maya, illusion linked to cyberculture really impressed me, Hoursley, in flipping through this again, i just realized, i picked the 'log on' name for barbelith without realizing i was quoting from this little gem of a book, "suppose that reality itself is a "program" assembled to enslave us, and due to be "cancelled" in the next twenty years? Suppose that out of six billion individuals, only a handful will survive the Reloading process?
This handful are the Lucids, whose task it is to aassemble a new world, a new Program, in time for (and in tandem with) the destruction of the old program." Horsley's a british bastard as well, i'm sure the board has heard of him. www.divinevirus.com

14:23 / 07.06.07

The Apollo moon missions had a story about their onboard computer spitting out data to land, correct data, and they later checked it but realized there is no way -the hardware could have done those calculations, -so where did it come from?

Do you have the source for that quote? I would like to read it.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:24 / 07.06.07

Jack Horsley's Matrix Warrior, being the One is one of my favorite new 'occult' books.

You're in luck, my sexual-harrassment-enjoying friend! The Matrix Warrior has been discussed quite a bit on this board.

trouser the trouserian

14:35 / 07.06.07

Matrix Wanker and Teh Matrix Warrior threads.

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:38 / 07.06.07

I'd forgotten about Horsley's views on women - no wonder Lucid likes him!

15:56 / 07.06.07

archabyss
The Apollo source was an interview with one of the Apollo crews, possibly Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell. But it may have been an earlier mission, and other astronauts. It was about questions of what it was like in space during the flight, and this came up, the landing data, that was critical, and it coming back correct. But being the engineers, and mathematical wizes they would have to be, they realized -the answer was right, but the system was behaving -strangely, like someone was looking out for them.

Actually it may have been in another book i forgot to mention Hollywood Vs. the Aliens, The Motion Picture Industry's Participation in UFO disinformation by Bruce Rux. Okay Bruce Rux is not a 'reptilian type' David Icke crank researcher, his book begins with the Rocky Horror Picture show -so how bad can he be? Regardless whether or not you believe 'Ufo' are nuts-bolts craft, Rux does a hell of a good job in tracing hollywood treatment of the subject. From the "introduction" Rocky Horror had knowledge of ufo data generally unknown to the public, links to mythology, mars, moon artifacts. The opening verse of the film's lyrics says, "See androids fighting Bard and Janet" , despite the fact that no such creatures are in the movie-but exactly the type of anthropomorphic robots we call "androids" are part of real UFO abductions. Rux sort of gets the occult and magickal view of ufo phenomonea, ancient races, watchers, the use of symbols from fallen era's trident, but it's a good overview of horror, scifi as it relates to ufo's and the military establishment. Hollywood versus the Aliens is in jake horsley's style, the author believes a lot of the information outlined in it.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

16:48 / 07.06.07

The solution, then, is for Man to regain his lusty, Pan-like nature as a dominant sexual being, and for Woman to inherit her power as a sexually voracious receptacle of the god-current, or Phallus. --Jake "I will never know the love of a woman" Horsely

Yep, pretty much the sort of thing I'd expect someone who's a self-confessed routine serial harrasser of women* to enjoy reading. Maybe if you, Lucid A.I., were to use this mighty brainpower forr thinking about stuff instead of radiating it outwards via a pie-plate hat, you might discover an appetite for better reading material.

*either that or a delusional gull who just thinks he's a routine and serial harrasser of women. Which is far more likely.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

17:21 / 07.06.07

From the "introduction" Rocky Horror had knowledge of ufo data generally unknown to the public, links to mythology, mars, moon artifacts. The opening verse of the film's lyrics says, "See androids fighting Bard and Janet" , despite the fact that no such creatures are in the movie-but exactly the type of anthropomorphic robots we call "androids" are part of real UFO abductions.

Please, someone tell me this is a jokesuit.

You cannot possibly be offering a throwawy lyric in a comedy musical as evidence that Hollywood is in league with the little green men. Rocky Horror is a spoof/homage to the science fiction B-picture; no, there are no androids involved in Rocky Horror, but there are androids involved in the science fiction genre. Artistic licence. Lots of things in the song are not in the musical--Flash Gordon isn't there in silver underwear, nor is it a double feature; I suppose Claude Rains might be present, but he must be keeping awfully quiet.

Of course one could argue that the reason androids feature in science fiction movies is because the moguls are in the pay of Ming the fucking Merciless, but it seems rather more likely that they are simply the product of the boundless and bountiful human imagination. People have, after all, been making human looking automata for a considerable length of time, let alone writing about them. I suppose one could postulate a conspiracy between Pierre Jaquet-Droz, Richard O'Brien, and Karel Capek; if nothing else it would make a good comic.

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

17:31 / 07.06.07

For the last time, it is not a pie plate, it is a colander, and if you scuff it his mom is going to kill him.

I've just recently finished Douglas R. Hofstadter's Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern. I admit, despite the title it can only be called "occult" using the classical definition of the word, but it was still a fascinating book.

I'm also browsing through The Secret of the Golden Flower, a classical occult taoist text translated by Richard Wilhelm with a commentary by none other than C.G. Jung. Good stuff. I accidentally stole it from the local community college library (I ended up paying for it, so I guess its not really "stealing"), and recently found it lying around.

17:52 / 07.06.07

The Secret of the Golden Flower is an amazing book.

I think it was the source of Regardie's "middle pillar/circulation of the body of light" magical exercise, which is one of the best ones around.

17:53 / 07.06.07

I think I forgot to post my love LURV of this book: (if not I'm posting it again)

The Pagan Dream of the Renaissance

It's a fantastic scholarly work written in a conversational style. Covering a vast area of art, music, and lit, the book follows various pagan/magical/old world threads to create a beautiful cohesive tapestry of influential events, people, and schools of the Renaissance.

Godwin doesn't attempt to prove the existence of secret unbroken schools of magic or pagan tradition rather he holds up tangible and very real examples of how the great artists and thinkers fof the time were inspired and influenced by their perceptions of ancient practices. The descriptions of architecture and garden design through an expert scholar's eyes alone make this book essential for anyone interested in how people reinterpret older motifs and theories. It really is the best magical art history class that never existed.

18:02 / 07.06.07

BiHB, if that's your thing you might like Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance by Edgar Wind. The most use I got out of it was in researching the symbolism of the Venus Armata in Renaissance literature, but I think there's a lot more to it than that.

19:55 / 07.06.07

I dunno if I could ingest anymore that part of my brane feels squishy and full.
thanks though!

04:53 / 08.06.07

[Angry response removed at poster's request]

Tuna Ghost: Pratt knot hero

06:20 / 08.06.07

Well, I think I can honestly say no one will miss you. Also, you're a jackass.

Back to the books, ladies and gentlemen. Nothing to see here.

_+&*: Nimbus Fool :*&+_

07:04 / 08.06.07

Nine doors to midgard - Thorsson
Hypnosis: Theory, Practice, and application - Raphael H. Rhodes

Just did the midnight reading of theatre of magick by ray sherwin

Less searchable M0rd4nt

07:50 / 08.06.07

Mostly I'm re-reading/working through Seidways by Jan Fries, and also some books on the esoteric history of Barcelona and Catalunya.

Mako is a hungry fish

10:05 / 08.06.07

I'm currently reading The New Hermetics by Jason Newcomb, whose bibliography includes (amongst others): -

Franz Bardon and The Three Initiates in regards to Hermetics.
Peter Carroll, Aleister Crowley, Phil Hine, and MacGregor Mathers in regards to "Magick and other Esoteric Techonology".
Richard Bandler and Anthony Robbins in regards to NLP.
Carlu Jung, Tomothy Leary, and Robert Wilson in regards to psychology.
Dion Fortune and Israel Regardie in regards to Qabala.

The influence of the above authors is clear on the work and it's chock full of exercises; apart from the occasional "one practitioner literally discovered thousands of dollars when he needed it most" in the introductory chapters, it's pretty well written. The only problem I have with it so far is that because it draws on so many sources and attempts to reconcile them (i.e The Tree of Life, 8 Circuit mode of consciousness, 4 Element theory) it can be a bit confusing due to it's brevity; the author does seem to know what he's talking about however, so this isn't too great a problem (especially if you have background in his sources).

Oh... it also has pictures. Bonus.

13:55 / 08.06.07

It's interesting to see Newcomb essentially recreate a Golden Dawn/A.'.A.'.-style curriculum (LBRP, Middle Pillar, etc.) without using any of the classical magical words, entities, or dogma. It's a bit like Bardon and a bit like Antero Alli.

Not bad, actually.

Mako is a hungry fish

15:52 / 08.06.07

I have nfi who Antero Alli is, however I am aquainted with Franz Bardon; whilst I agree with the spirit of your observation, I think that both Bardon and Newcomb draw heavily on classical magic, especially in regards to entities and dogma, just as the Golden Dawn did.

They may present their thoughts differently, however they're still describing similar universal principles that have long been recognised; for instance, Bardon speaks of the electromagnetic fluid, which is similar to the Alchemical Mercury or Tarot's Swords, and he also speaks of the element of Air in similar terms as in Greek and Hindu systems.

If I didn't have an aversion to Crowley and Liber ABA I'd be in a better position to debate the point (if you've tried to make it) that Bardon recreated the works of the Golden Dawn.

16:27 / 08.06.07

I'm not claiming that Bardon recreated the techniques of the Golden Dawn. To clarify a bit, I think that Newcomb, like Alli or Bardon, attempts to present magical exercises in the Western Esoteric Tradition without much of the philosophical or dogmatic baggage that usually comes with the territory.

By the way, Antero Alli was a Falcon Press author who wrote a book called Angel Tech, an interesting attempt to merge ritual magic and Leary's 8-circuit model. Clever, but more than a bit dated now.

17:33 / 08.06.07

Plus: get the lyrics right, dammit!

Science fiction (ooh ooh ooh) double feature
Doctor X (ooh ooh ooh) will build a creature
See androids fighting (ooh ooh ooh) Brad and Janet
Anne Francis stars in (ooh ooh ooh) Forbidden Planet
Wo oh oh oh oh oh
At the late night, double feature, picture show

The whole song references other movies and themes in that genre, ie: science FICTION.

Mako is a hungry fish

17:43 / 08.06.07

Ah okay.

I think that a third of Bardons work is philosophy and dogma, however he presents it in such a way that it easily slides by and that sometimes this is a stumbling block to his exercises. For instance, one of the earliest and most important execises in IIH is the creation of a positive/negative soul mirror based primarily on the philosophical psychology of the four elements and concepts of polarity; if one doesn't get far with these philosophies, they won't get far with the exercise.

I think that Bardons philosophy/dogma is more accepting and realistic than most, hence it's so easy to assimilate into ones own world view, and less likely to be viewed as "baggage".

18:42 / 08.06.07

I think that a third of Bardons work is philosophy and dogma, however he presents it in such a way that it easily slides by and that sometimes this is a stumbling block to his exercises. For instance, one of the earliest and most important execises in IIH is the creation of a positive/negative soul mirror based primarily on the philosophical psychology of the four elements and concepts of polarity; if one doesn't get far with these philosophies, they won't get far with the exercise.

I think that's one of his best exercises.

Essentially, it's a rigorous written self-assessment of one's positive and negative traits, each of which is assigned to one of the four classical elements, in an attempt to better understand one's strengths and weaknesses.

But I don't think you actually have to buy into Bardon's dogma, or a belief in the four elements or classic black/white dualism, to find it useful.

Mako is a hungry fish

07:36 / 09.06.07

That's probably true of most mystical magical practices and goes both ways in that you don't have to believe in the magic to get something useful from the mysticism, such as seen in Jungian Psychology, however it's usually important to at least understand the dogma, and appreciate why it's there.

14:03 / 21.06.07

Breaking the Maya Code by Michael D. Coe

the history of ancient languages and the decipherment of glyphs in the Yucatan peninsula.

14:36 / 21.06.07

I've just started reading “Cunning folk and familiar spirits” by Emma Wilby.

It’s an academic book that challenges the accepted historical idea that accounts of familiar spirits were all dreamed up under torture during the witch trials, and instead makes a case for European magical practitioners with familiar spirits and partnerships with fairies as being an example of an indigenous shamanic visionary tradition. She looks at all of the evidence and then relates it to experiential accounts of similar shamanic encounters in other cultures.

It’s really interesting stuff. I find it especially fascinating because a lot of it – at its core – is so very similar to my own practice in a lot of ways. What I do is refracted through the African lens of Voodoo, rather than through fairy belief or medieval Christianity, but the basic activity of going out to the crossroads, the boneyard or the woods, and having these meetings with Invisible beings, developing really complex relationships, interacting with them like human beings, and working magic for the community with their help – is SO hugely similar to what I get up to on so many levels.

The language used to describe and make sense of these encounters is very different and conditioned by the culture in which such activities are taking place, but the basic mechanism and working dynamic is really not that far removed from what my own magical practice has evolved into. I find this really interesting, because if Wilby's line of thinking is accurate and supportable, it points to a more or less "forgotten" tradition of European visionary folk magic that could well have been thriving, but has been largely edited out of the history of European magical practice because it wasn't written down like the comparatively well-documented scholarly magic of grimoires and furnished temples.

I think there's some interesting issues around social class and the modern construction of the history of magical practice in this somewhere, which would be worth a thread, but I need to read the rest of the book first.

18:03 / 21.06.07

Sounds interesting. I picked up a copy of Prime Chaos a couple of days ago and am enjoying it, picking up tips on groups, and am using it to brainwash the spouse. She loves it.

18:44 / 21.06.07

Was someone else around these parts just talking about that Wilby? I know I saw it mentioned somewhere....

I've just discovered (or re-discovered) a copy of the Cassell Dictionary of Norse Mythology on my shelves. There are good stories in there, all thoroughly sourced.

The bit on visionary mead was where my wandering eyes first lit. Interesting.

18:48 / 21.06.07

Morning of the Magicians by Louis Pawells & Jacques Bergier.

Magic, atomic energy, avant garde science, vanished civilizations, nazi occult history, fantastic realism, what else could you possibly want!?

And best of all? Its not a quack-conspiracy book!

Read more there

20:47 / 21.06.07

Sounds good, the cover's all shiny!

Althought it does not exactly qualify as "occult" (even if it does to me),
I've been reading a most excellent introduction to Korzybski's General Semantics by Harry L. Weinberg...Most powerful when combined to Alan Watt's The Spirit of Zen, as i'm focusing primarily on the relationship between symbols, language and magic....

Pyewacket The Elder

20:48 / 21.06.07

Gypsy, with regards to the kinds of European practice you refer to you might find several books by RJ Stewart interesting most particularly 'Earth Light' and 'Underworld Initiation'. First time I've read westerny pagany faery related material that actually grabbed me and made me take it seriously (especially since I've had a couple of interesting 'contacts' after only initial experiments from the book).

He doesn't claim total authenticity and freely admits where and when his sources are based in history and when they are based on the 'living tradition', or current, that he seems to have picked up on.

So that's what I'm reading in addition to recently finishing Colin Wilsons "The Occult" which was alright I s'pose.

18:21 / 27.06.07

Finished reading The History of British Magick After Crowley, by Dave Evans.

Scattered -- very scattered.

A few basics about magical practice, a bit on his methodology, some commentary on a survey of modern British magicians, a thorough (and way too long) debunking of Amado Crowley, a discussion of Spare and Kenneth Grant, a short discourse on chaos magic, and then he calls it a day. Without a hefty sampling of comments and quotes from Phil Hine and a few contemporaries it would be a hundred pages shorter.

Like a gossip session with a knowledgeable magician friend. Enjoyable but not too filling.

Great cover, though.

18:42 / 27.06.07

I've just finished that too, funnily enough.

Some good stuff in there, but I felt it suffered a bit from being a PHD thesis that he hadn't perhaps spent long enough converting into book form. A number of interesting avenues (especially to do with Kenneth Grant, teh Chaos magicks and Amado Crowley, who I've always suspected was a fraud, and worse still, a very bad writer) aren't really followed due to lack of space, which seems a shame when the first eighty or so pages are largely to do with Evans attempting to justify the validity of the enterprise to the examing board. Which is fair enough in a doctorate, but arguably of less interest to the casual reader.

This is the problem with being published by a small press I suppose, that a lot of the time they can't really afford to pay a decent editor. So you best come correct, as it were.

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