III-18 Midsummer 2009

“My friends and I complain a lot about the occult section at the bookstore, mostly because hanging out at a bookstore and complaining is cheaper than a movie, even with the latte. Our favorite complaint is that there are no advanced books on magic. Our second favorite complaint is the music they play, but that’s irrelevant. I’ve kicked this …” Read more…

“Disclaimer: I am, to quote Jim Jarmush’s great film Dead Man, a “Stupid Fucking White Man.” I have no formal training in the deep mysteries of any native shamanic or tribal tradition – or of any single tradition at all, for that matter. I am just a product of my time and place, trying to find my way. That perspective is the basis for all that follows …” Read more…

“Warm and cool, dry and moist, light and shadow — As human beings, our conceptual frameworks freely draw upon dualistic oppositions. Because we who practice magic are human, our magical paradigms partake of these conceptual divides, though as Magicians we have an intellectual responsibility to question whether our basic assumptions about …” Read more…

“A plethora of works exist on the subject of the Tarot; some well informed, some less so. At the outset of the formulation of this essay, permit me to state that there are two key maxims derived from the teachings of the Golden Dawn and of Aleister Crowley to which I adhere as well as I am able: 1. As above, so below 2. The goals of religion, the methods …” Read more…

“Agrippa is a great resource for all things magical. Using the tables of the scales of numbers in his 2nd Book of Occult Philosophy, you will be able to put together whatever type of ritual you could possibly need. However, the details on how to conjure spirits aren’t in the Three Books. Instead, you find a basic outline in the spurious Fourth Book of Occult …’” Read more…

““Angel” is a word that carries even more baggage than “soulmate” – baggage that goes back thousands of years to the beginnings of Judeo-Christian theology. While the most common definition of the word tends to be “messenger of God,” that raises the further question of “what is God?” and that’s a question I’m not going to touch with your …” Read more…

“A New Aeon was proclaimed and begun in April of 1904 with the reception of The Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis. A New Aeon implies a new paradigm or a new point of view with which to view the world. According to Liber Causae, “In all systems of religion is to be found a system of Initiation, which may be defined as the process by which …” Read more…

“Nearly a year ago, I interviewed Donald Tyson regarding his then new book, Grimoire of the Necronomicon. Since then, my review partner, Lon Sarver, and I have been working with Tyson’s system and we’ll present our findings in the next issue. Mr. Tyson was kind enough to agree to a follow-up interview; you’ll find it just below …” Read more…

“The Webster definition of prayer is ‘an address (as a petition) to God or a god in word or thought.¹‘ Let us assume there are two general categories of occultists: those who work with or rely on only themselves, and those who work with or rely on some Other in their work. This Other could be a God, Goddess, spirit, guide, or other entity. What could prayer mean to the former occultist? What could it mean to the latter? …”Read more…

“War is hell — neither pretty nor kind, and it is bringing lamentation and suffering to so many in the world right now. People have hated war ever since there was war to be hated. It shouldn’t be terribly surprising then, that Mars — the Roman God of War — was not well liked around Mt. Olympus. He was much maligned by his father Jupiter …Read more…

“Each issue, Gerald del Campo offers up his unique take on ten esoteric terms – some you’re familiar with, and others he’s created. …” See the selection …

“In my decade-plus of being a pagan and magician, animal magic and animal totemism have always been my main focus regardless of what paradigm I was working in. Since I began practicing shamanism in earnest back in 2007, I’ve become much more aware of how interconnected everything really is. While I was already an active environmentalist …”Read more…

“I picked up all of Fries works a few years ago at Edge of the Circle, an occult bookstore in Seattle, which happens to stock these otherwise hard to find books. The main reason these books are hard to find is they are published by a U.K. publisher and have to be special ordered. However, it’s well worth your while to special order these books, as there …” Read more…

“There are several books and other resource that cover reiki for animals, either as the entire book or as part of a broader work. However, this one’s nice “to go” as the title says, as a pocket-sized kit for the reiki practitioner. Just a note to start off with – I only got the book to review, not the keychain or pouch, so the review’s only for the book. …” Read more…

“‘Know Thyself.’ This is one of over a hundred maxims carved into a stele outside the Temple of Apollo at Delphi. More than empty platitudes, these simple sayings not only guided Greek society, but were also instruments for teaching and learning Greek language and culture. While many people know of the importance of myths of the Olympians and …” Read more…

“There are a number of introductory guides to the runes on the market. Some of them are well-researched and well-written; others are full of poor scholarship, which negates whatever writing style may have been applied. This, fortunately, is in the former category. Travers presents a good mix of scholarly research and practical application from …” Read more…

“I encountered this tome in my local library, which is nothing short of miraculous given the religious climate hereabouts. It was not only in my local small-town-outside-a-big-city library, but it was also in the new nonfiction books section, right up front. I don’t really believe in coincidence — ‘coincidence’ went from being a term created to describe …” Read more…

“When Graham’s first book, Black Ships, was released last year, the publicity materials claimed that the book did for the Aeneid (Virgil’s famous poem about Aeneas — mentioned in the Iliad — and his travels before settling in Italy and becoming the ancestor of the Romans) what The Mists of Avalon did for …” Read more…