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I was sent a copy of this book to review back in March. Looking around the blogosphere, I'm thinking that the publisher must be plugged into our informal magick blogging circle because fellow blogger Rob was sent a copy to review as well. I recommend that you take a look at Rob's review in addition to mine, as he makes some good points about the book's weaknesses from the perspective of an experienced magical practitioner. He wound up not recommending the book, and while I agree with a number of his criticisms my impression is more positive so long as its target audience is taken into account.
Let me be clear - this is not a book that I would buy for two reasons. First of all, I am not nor have I ever been a Wiccan, and there are a number of assumptions in the book coming directly from that worldview which I disagree with, in some cases quite strongly. Second of all, I doubt that even an intermediate magical practitioner is going to find anything new or useful in it. Nonetheless, that's not who the book is aimed at. This is the sort of book that is intended to sit on a shelf at a bookstore and attract the attention of seekers who know nothing about magick or Wicca and want to learn about it from a very basic perspective. I don't know that many readers of this blog fall into that category, and the book is certainly not targeted at those of you who come here to read my articles on theoretical models of magick or advanced spellwork techniques.
What I like best about the book is that even if you know absolutely nothing it contains enough information to get you started practicing right away. The techniques that it covers are limited, but one of the things that bothers me about a lot of beginning books on magick is that in too many cases there isn't much "magick" you can really do with them aside from bits of psychological trickery here and there. You don't learn how to do effective magick by reading and studying, you learn how to do it by practicing. The four sections of the book - Altar Magick, Candle Magick, Pendulum Magick, and Healing Magick - give you techniques that are simple but which at the same time can be used to do some genuine magical work. Altar Magick tells you how to set up a basic ritual space, Candle Magick covers some very basic sorcery, Pendulum Magick explains a simple method of divination, and Healing Magick touches on introductory energy work.
That the book is set up to encourage magical practice relates back to my recent discussion with Rob in that there is pretty much no way anyone could pick up this book as an introduction to Wicca and get the idea that Wiccans don't cast spells. I wouldn't have even considered that concept as a possibility except for the media attention around the case of Carole Smith who apparently believes it. Since then, though, I've heard there are apparently a fair number of Wiccans out there who don't practice themselves and a few who will insist that it's not something Wiccans even do. They must be learning that "somewhere", probably from bad introductory books. For all its simplicity, this book is not going to be encouraging that attitude. If this is your first exposure to Wicca, which seems to be the author's intent, you'll understand right away that generally speaking Wiccans do cast spells and at the same time learn a few simple ones of your own that can help you out right away.
In Rob's review, he comments that he isn't clear on why the book leads off with Altar Magick, as he considers it the weakest section. From a beginner's standpoint I think it makes sense, though - if you're going to sit down and do some magick you need a space to perform it in before getting started. And while advanced practioners see an altar as a very simple thing - flat surface, some images, some tools, and you're done - one of the things that I have learned over the years of trying to coach people through the casting of magical spells is that rank beginners are unsure about "everything". As I see it the author's intent with this section was to go into enough step-by-step detail regarding the creation of an altar space that most of these questions would be answered. "Do it however you want" doesn't work with novices. Even if you say, "Some magicians do it this way, some do it that way" they'll still ask you to tell them which one is better. And "whichever one feels most natural to you," the correct answer, usually only confuses them.
As an aside, I'm convinced that this is not because beginners are necessarily stupid, but rather that there's so much nonsense about magick in the popular culture that it's hard to cut through it all. Movies and television programs constantly depict spells in which if one tiny thing is overlooked or done wrong the consequences are disastrous, which is nothing like reality. The free-flowing, artistic aspects of magick are rarely discussed or even addressed in media treatments. Rather, it's all about whether or not you can pronounce "wingardium leviosa" with exactly the correct intonation. Once you start practicing and get a feel for how the magick works you can experience for yourself how ridiculous this mindset is, but how is a beginner supposed to know? A book like this, that gets you working magick right away, can help.
This fear of doing something wrong is also one of the reasons I think the author chose not to include various negative symbols in the book. While I think that the "Wiccan Rede" and "Threefold Law" concepts the book emphasizes are beyond silly ("Harm None" is ridiculous because you can't exist without harming something, and the "Threefold Law" is in my experience an unsupported superstition), I can see where the emphasis of positive symbolism can serve to reassure the beginning practitioner that they're not going to, say, unleash an army of Deadites if they can't quite remember that phrase from "The Day the Earth Stood Still". More advanced magick does require exploration of those darker paths, but so long as this is understood there's nothing wrong with starting off on the the brighter, happier ones. It's also true that the methods in this book are really too basic for sending out curses safely - that requires a more detailed understanding of containment structures, Godhead assumption, delivering charges, and so forth than I think would be appropriate for a book written at this level.
So my take is that this book is a decent introduction to Wiccan magick and a beginning student could certainly do a lot worse, judging from some of the attitudes that I have encountered over the years in the Pagan community. At the same time, though, keep in mind that being neither a beginner nor a Wiccan it's hard for me to compare it with other books on the same topic written for that particular audience as I've hardly read any of them. Also, if you already have a magical practice and some basic technical understanding you're going to find something more advanced than this book a lot more useful.
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Suggested ebooks:
John Frederick Charles Fuller - The Star In The West A Critical Essay On The Works Of Aleister Crowley
Aleister Crowley - Lecture On The Philosophy Of Magick
BY JOHN CONNOR
... JOIN THE RESISTANCE!
In previous episodes of The Golden Dawn Saga, we discovered how the SRIA has for decades been trying to impose its anti-Semitic, anti-Muslim, and anti-Pagan brand or Rosicrucianism on the Golden Dawn. SRIA seeks complete domination and control over the Golden Dawn using trademarks and lineage as weapons.
For many years, only the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and its parent order, the Rosicrucian Order of Alpha Omega has stood between the SRIA and its goal of complete GD domination. SRIA has done everything imaginable to remove this obstacle. They have published the Alpha Omega's rituals, our mysteries, defamed our leaders and our members on the Internet for two decades, and even tried to rewrite our history.
Two months ago, SRIA operative, Nick Farrell, published yet another book attacking the Alpha Omega, this time creating false rumors of a "contemporary Alpha Omega political and religious personality cult."
This time the Adepts of the Alpha Omega rose up and with one united voice declared:
"ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!"
Together, we took a stand on Amazon.com, where Farrell was peddling this defamatory trash.
In response, the racist SRIA pulled out all the stops, setting their hounds of hell loose upon our order, sending marching orders to SRIA agents in all of the Golden Dawn orders already under SRIA dominion.
Suddenly the Alpha Omega found our members under attack on a bevy of blogs and Yahoo fora - by SRIA agents including Nick Farrell, Olen Rush, Peregrin Wildoak, Joseph Max, Deanna Bonds, Anita Hoener, Morgan Eckstein, Martin Thibeault, and Pat Zalewksi.
This Witch Hunt operation was orchestrated from behind the scenes, apparently by the Supreme Maga of SRIA in America, who is also listed as 2d Grand Ancient of the anti-Semitic "Order of the Rose and Cross," together with racist R.A. Gilbert, the Secret Chief of this pack of SRIA and OR+C attack dogs.
SRIA Attack Dogs
This pack of SRIA hell hounds proved quite inadequate, however, when the good Brothers and Sisters of the Alpha Omega stepped forth in defense of the rose of the Rosicrucian Mysteries of our order.
"In Defense of our Rose - United in Chivalry - ALPHA OMEGA!"
"Unlike our ruffian opponents, the Adepts of the Alpha Omega fight with chivalry, knowing we are fighting to protect the minority rights of Jews, Pagans, and Muslims to initiation in the Golden Dawn. We fight for the initiates of the future, that the Golden Dawn will not fall under the complete control and dominion of "Christian only" SRIA segregationists."
SRIA leaders never expected the resistance they just encountered nor had they ever encountered anything like it before. Our Adepts gathered and mounted our defense here on the Golden Dawn Blog, repeating every defamation, every insult, and every misrepresentation from every blog - then refuted them one by one. The readership of the Golden Dawn Blog skyrocketed to 24,000 page views per month, as the entire esoteric community gathered here to witness the unfolding Witch Hunt against our order.
Anti-Semites like R.A. Gilbert and other SRIA and ORC leaders are like cockroaches. They can be quite annoying as long as they are able to hide in the shadows. The Golden Dawn Saga shed a light on them, however, and predictably, they ran away once exposed to the light. Racist manipulators like the SRIA and the ORC can only carry out their evil machinations as long as they remain safely hidden in the darkness. They can not stand being exposed to the light.
This is why, once exposed to the light, the SRIA cockroaches pulling the strings of thier McGoldenDawn puppets ordered these SRIA operatives to stand down and quit attacking the Alpha Omega for the moment.
SRIA-ORC-McGD "Secret Chief" R.A. Gilbert
The light that SRIA cockroaches could not stand came into sharp relief when it was exposed that SRIA Grand Archivist, RA Gilbert, had made an anti-Semitic tirade on a research article for the "Christian only" Order of the Rose and Cross segregationists. The scandal deepened when it was exposed that Nick Farrell, the Supreme Maga of the SRIA (America) and her SRIA (Anglia) husband were all listed as Grand Officers on the website of the nascent ORC. This raised serious questions, for example:
Is Nick Farrell a Closet NAZI?
Despite their best intentions, the SRIA and the ORC could not remain silent for long. Even though they ordered their attack dogs to heel, they nonetheless sent out their anonymous troll spin doctors. SRIA troll, Teletourgos, and ORC apologist, SEP, appeared spinning like tops in the comments section of this blog, trying to whitewash interference in the Golden Dawn and being outed as the nests of racists and anti-Semites SRIA and ORC are.
Teletourgos wrote:
"speaking from the INSIDE, from the standpoint of the masonic rosicrucian HIERARCHY i can't see any reason for them to give a damn about coming up with an official stance as regards competing GDs. why would they?" Note that Teletourgos just admitted that he is an SRIA leader! Teletourgos then went on to admit that the SRIA has been attacking our order for years, when he wrote:
"Research by SRIA brothers led to the debunking of [Alpha Omega] lineage claims many years ago and [they have] hated the SRIA for the two decades since."It is, of course, utter nonsense that any SRIA researchers have "debunked" any of the lineages of our order. What IS highly interesting, on the other hand, is Teletourgos' admission that it has been "SRIA researchers" who have been the anonymous troll TRYING to debunk the Alpha Omega's lineages for two decades.
ORC apologist, "SEP," was equally inept in his spin attempts, for example when he wrote:
"I know Bob Gilbert very well. He is not racist, nor is he anti-Semitic. "
Well, of course not! And, of course, we should also all take the word of an anonymous spin troll over R.A. Gilbert's written anti-Semitic rant on the ORC website. SEP completely failed to explain this tirade, nor what "Spiritual enemies of Christianity" Gilbert was ranting about, nor even why Jews, Pagans, or Muslims are not allowed in either of the segregationist orders, SRIA or ORC.
Following this, the Golden Dawn community enjoyed a few days of peace and quiet until today when anonymous troll, SRIA operative, Peregrin Wildoak wrote:
"Though I am likely to invoke the wrath of a few anti-Christian nutters out there, it is quite clear that the sources for modern western magic developed within the Christian milieu. The background and backbone of many modern traditions, Rosicrucianism was started by heterodox Christians and is replete with Christian imagery and mysteries."Peregrin here is serving as SRIA chief apologist, trying to justify the SRIA program of Rosicrucian "ethnic cleansing" of all Jews, Pagans, and Muslims from the "Christians only" Rosicrucian vision held by the SRIA and the ORC.
Of course, anyone who opposes the insanity of such "ethnic cleansing," Peregrin brands an "anti-Christian nutter."
Although it is true that the Rosicrucian movement, like the Golden Dawn, is indeed a reformulation of ancient Egyptian and other Pagan mysteries using a preponderance of Christian symbols, Kabbalah certainly did not evolve in a Christian milieu, nor did the ancient Egyptian mysteries themselves. Peregrin also ignores that there is a Papal Bull forbidding Magic.
GH Frater Sincerus Renatus today wrote a fine and thorough scholarly rebuttal of Peregrin's latest, segregationist SRIA apology. I most strongly recommend SR's article, as Peregrin's pathetic apology is clearly a new talking point from the SRIA we are bound to hear repeated over and over in months to come.
You can read GH Frater SR's fine article here.
Meanwhile, as long as SRIA or ORC goons continue to attack our order, or their spin doctors justify their Rosicrucian "ethnic cleansing," I will be here to shine a light again and again on the SRIA cockroaches, sending them scurrying back into the darkness!
- David Griffin (A Voice of the Resistance)
Defeat the SRIA!
Liberate the Golden Dawn!
