Ceremonial Magick

[Myst]

I've been recently researching this "high magick". Are you also interested in it? Do you have any great links to share? Do you have any comments or questions about this system? What do you think about High Magick? Does anyone else here practice it?

[Myst]

Oh, incidentally I found this amusing "(JA-VA, the true pronunication of YHVH)" from a geek point of view... (from http://www.angelfire.com/nt/dragon9/HIGHMAGICK.html )

[Myst]

Oh incidentally, mol, interesting how our titles tie into the tree of life (or is it the tree of knowledge.. oy vey, I have so much to learn). :)

[Astraea]

I wish I had some links to share. I just can't surf often and find anything great online.
I'd be glad to share some book titles though. I sort of found my own way as far as books on high magick so I waded through some garbage. Good intros to high magick are "Paths of Wisdom: Magical Qabala in Western Tradition" by John Michael Greer. I also read a good one by Donald Michael Kraig but I can't for the life of me recall the exact title. Most of my books are at my other home. "Techniques of High Magic" by Francis King was decent.
I thought "The Witch's Qabala" by Ellen Canon Reed was great.
The Goetia- The Lesser Key of Solomon, The Greater Key of Solomon are important texts to read, in my opinion. "Goetic Evocation" by Steve Savedow was interesting. The Hieroglyphic Monad is what I'm reading right now and it's interesting also. I plan to read more from John Dee after I finish this. I'm interested in Enochian magick, I think it's fascinating.
There's just a ton of material out there, I haven't even scratched the surface yet.

I ultimately have swayed from some of what I've read and stuck to my own personal discoveries, developed my own techniques. I read up on chaos magick and so on also, but that was mostly just research for me too. High magick is really interesting though, I think, even if you don't end up embracing it.

[amberlaine]

Hey Willow Raven,

I've been practicing ceremonial magic for about 6 months now, and next month I"m going ot be initiated into a Golden Dawn temple. *is excited*. I was lucky enough to find someone to teach/mentor me, so I didn't have to study via the internet, but here are some links that you might find useful:

http://www.geocities.com/lvx_120/ The personal GD page of a very good friend of mine.

http://www.hermeticgoldendawn.org/index.shtml The official homepage of the Orer of the GD that I'm initiating into.

http://members.aol.com/khephres/aolindex.html A very good personal site from someone who is Wiccan and CM

However, in my experience, books make a somehwat better into to ceremonial magic.

Books I personally recommend:


Circles of Power by John Michael Greer. This is an introductory text to GD style ceremonial magic, and I found this text very easy to understand, and very useful.

A Garden of Pomegranates , Israel REgardie. An introduction to Hermetic Kabbalah. I really loved this book.

Tree of Life , Israel Regardie. I didn't understand this book the first time I read it. I recommend this book only if you've got a pretty sound foundation already.

Self Initiation into the Golden Dawn , CHic and Tabitha Cicero. This is a fabulous foundation for the study of the high magical arts. Even if you don't plan to perform a self initiation, this text is invaluable in the information and the exercises it provides the student.

Books I generally think you cna toss:

Modern Magick:Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts , Donlad Michael Kraig. ACtually, I don't think this book sucks. However, I really liked the above books better, as I think they give you a much firmer grounding in the tradition. Kraig tends to skim over explanations, and because this book is *not* grounded in any particular Order (like the GD), it kinds of leaves you floundering in some place. But, if you're absolutely NOT interested in GD magic, this might be a good text.

Witches' Qabala , Ellen Cannon Reed. The first time I read this book, I really liked it. THen, I went off and learned about Kabbalah from various other traditional and Hermetic texts. When I came back to this book about 2 years after the first read, I was surprised at how poor this book is. If youre only looking for a very cursory understanding of Kabbalah at its most basic level, then this is a decent book. But if you plan to seriouslystudy CM, chuck this book far, far away from you.

Mystical Qabalah , Dion Fortune. The language alone makes this book very hard to read. If you can get over her writing style, its not a bad read. However, there are many better books out there for the student of Kabbalah, so again, I"d skip this entirely.

The Bahir , translation and commentary by Aryeh Kaplan. A lot of pompous ceremonial mages will include this on their list of books to read. Unless you're a true JEwish scholar, have a very firm grasp of Kabbalah, and generally like to torture yourself, SKIP this bok, and come back to it in about 30 years. An no, I"m not kidding.

Of course, your mileage may vary. These are just my impressions and thoughts as a neophyte on this path :) Good luck!

[Myst]

Brightest blessings and thanks for the resources!

[~Owl~]

The Magus is also considered a classic, though quite advanced.

[Fr.Vega Morn]

Francis Barratt's 'The Magus' was pretty much a wholesale plagarization of 'Three Books Of Occult Philosophy' by Agrippa.

Both are pretty hefty reads, though Donald Tyson's annotated 'Three Books' is particularly good (in small doses). It's the only work of his that didn't make me want to wince.

[RedRaven]

Ave,
yes I practice ceremonial magic. Im a member of the OSDL (Order of the Sons and Daughters of Light) where our main focus on Enochian magic. From my own gradework, which is still considered "beginner" in the Order, we work a lot with Qabalah, tarot (ties in with qbl), and esoteric astrology. These all tie in with the actual Enochian work so we learn all these subjects.

Edit: Dion Fortune`s "Mystical Qabalah" isnt a hard read at all and a very good book for the basics of Qabalah IMO. I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in CM.

[Fr.Vega Morn]

Red Raven,

I didn't know OSDL was still active. Interesting!

[RedRaven]

Ave,
yes, its still active and its going well ;)

[Fr.Vega Morn]

Good to hear. I heard (back in 2005) from a former poster at Mages Of Qabalah (who I met by accident at a Lon Duquette seminar in London) that the forum and the order had gone into abeyance.

It would appear the rumours of it's demise were greatly exagerated!