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Hello everyone!

I am becoming increasingly interested in all this magick thing, which I must admit I dislike very much.

It has taken a tremendously short time for me to realise the huge amount of shit-literature that has been published about the subject, so I was wondering:

What books are good, reliable, and serious?



In a previous post Daniel mentioned about these: "Bhante Gunaratana's The Path of Serenity and Insight, The Visuddhimagga, the Accidental Experts Guide to How to Leave your Body (found somewhere in the wiki here), books such as Donald Michael Craig's Modern Magick, Astral Dynamics".

(Apart from the Visuddhimagga, why are these good Daniel? especially the Craig's one, it looks real doggy!)

Thanks!

Andy

cheers Florian!

The world would be more fun if we all wore ropes and funy masks.... I know magick is no just like that, but I still think the world would be a better place in that way. My girlfriend told me that apparently in the US the are whole famillies that dress and act like magicians 24/7, with the big sticks and the beard and all. Isn't that fun!?

Ok, I think it is official now. I'm reading Modern Magick and drop in to the local magick shop in Edinburgh (The Wyrd shop). The people runing it is great, I even talked to them in Spanish! I am going to order there Allan's book.

So here we go!

Florian, may I ask whats your experience with this stuff so far?

Cheers!
Andy

Cool! Thanks Florian. I got my hand on Allan's little book. And today I'm steeling from the lab a lab-book so that I can start doing my journal.

I plan on doing a journal of all I do (everything, not just magick), from how many hours I sleep to what I eat, and emotional changes and everything. I'll do it for a couple months and then see what I get out of it.

Cheers!
Andy

Hi Andres,

yes, re-read! For all it's light tone, the density of good stuff is very, very high. For example, I lost count (literally) of how often I re-read the handful of sentences about desire being a prison, to be found in the section on the "dirty f-word".

BTW, to me, the "glue" between all the different points and techniques is in the "prophetic narrative" part.

Cheers,
Florian

Practice will certainly help with understanding. It's the same as with any skill, meditation, speaking a language, swimming...

Here are two hierarchies for comparison:

Atoms form molecules, which form cells, which form organisms, which form societies, ...

Causal events form perception, which forms experience, which forms patterns (such as synchronicities), which form the (prophetic) narrative...

So it's not really "causality vs. synchronicity" at all. It's about meaning, and how it is created, and how to intentionally shape and otherwise influence this creation of meaning.

Regarding divination: you take a causal, random event and study it, finding patterns, building meaning. The intention is that another causal, random event, perhaps in the future or otherwise unknown, has the same meaning. This intention is the important bit. Intentions have results, just like the Buddha observed (he called it "Karma").

Making sense or not - what are the assumptions which prevent this from making sense? What else happens if these assumptions are (temporarily) dropped? Something like a "willing suspension of belief" (in these assumptions), to add a little twist to that saying? If something changes as a consequence, at what level (in the above hierarchies)?

Cheers,
Florian

Thanks for your suggestion Brant.

I'm actually working within the western tradition rather than theravada. I'm finding Alan Chapman and Duncan Barford's stuff really good and helpful.

In particular their trilogy (The blood of the saints, etc.) is great, they show you how they went thru the all of the stages, a la magick, with many of the techniques they used etc. So it is pretty funky stuff.

Cheers!