Book Recommendation Any good books to recommend?

[Amur]

Post them here.

 

[pixel_fortune]

What kind of book are you looking for? There's a lot of good books but they won't all be relevant to you, a random list of 20 titles without context won't be any use to you

I posted my very short list of "best books that you can't get PDFs of, where you'd need to buy a physical copy" here (although some since become available)

Book Discussion - What are your favourite books that AREN'T available on WF?

(magic/occult books I mean) What do you own that's only available in hardcopy, that you absolutely treasure, that you are not sorry at all to have spent money on? And if you can say a bit about the book as well, and why you treasure it, that would be very valuable (not expecting people to...

wizardforums.com

 

[Amur]

What kind of book are you looking for? There's a lot of good books but they won't all be relevant to you, a random list of 20 titles without context won't be any use to you

I posted my very short list of "best books that you can't get PDFs of, where you'd need to buy a physical copy" here (although some since become available)

Book Discussion - What are your favourite books that AREN'T available on WF?

(magic/occult books I mean) What do you own that's only available in hardcopy, that you absolutely treasure, that you are not sorry at all to have spent money on? And if you can say a bit about the book as well, and why you treasure it, that would be very valuable (not expecting people to...

wizardforums.com

Ok thank you didn't notice that thread Will bookmark it.

 

[pixel_fortune]

Oh ha it got like one reply, i wouldn't bother

(I think because i put the "angle" (non-PDFs) too far back in the title. So if you're looking from the WF main pages, it just looks like a generic "what are your favourite books" thread. Lesson learned! Frontload the important info!)

 

[Amur]

Oh ha it got like one reply, i wouldn't bother

(I think because i put the "angle" (non-PDFs) too far back in the title. So if you're looking from the WF main pages, it just looks like a generic "what are your favourite books" thread. Lesson learned! Frontload the important info!)

Thought it was an old thread with many books Oh well Thanks for the input anyway.

 

[Pyrokar]

Thunder the perfect mind. everytime.

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

[Official] - SkullTraill's Recommended Occult Reading and Reference

Now that our library is starting to get pretty fleshed out, I've decided to make a comprehensive list of what I consider to be essential occult reading in various categories. Please note: this thread is a work in progress, and will be for the forseeable future. I want it to only include books...

wizardforums.com

 

[Amur]

Another question for you guys. What book from the LHP section would be a must to read?

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

Maybe go to the Book Shares section and browse for LHP books?

Post automatically merged: Jan 14, 2024

Black Pullet, Grimoire of the Red Dragon, Lords of the Left Hand Path, Demons of Magick, Goetia.

 

[HoldAll]

Second "Lords of the Left Hand Path" (it's in the Library), it's the only book in my LHP folder I actually read from cover to cover. It made me realize that the LHP is actually a valid path with solid philosophical underpinnings, not just some morbid dim-witted rebellion against the christian god by Goth kids wearing all-black Halloween edgelord costumes and silver inverted pentagram jewelry. Don Webb's Uncle Setnakt's "Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path" (just uploaded it) also gets frequently recommended. Apart from that, I don't really know anything about the LHP or the other authors in @dosintheshell's collection, maybe some other members can help.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

The two (not LHP) books (apart from my own ) that I recommend are "Advanced Magic for Beginners" by Alan Chapman and "An Actor Prepares" by Konstantin Stanislavski

 

[neilwilkes]

Post them here.

Before anybody can do this in any meaningful way, more information is required - however, please don't take any of what is to follow the wrong way but in the spirit that it was written in. Thanks in advance.

The first thing that immediately leapt to mind when I read the above was to start a reply saying to begin with the basics & foundational works, but then it occurred to me that I was making some very bad assumptions here so I took myself outside & had a strong word with myself. So then I came up with plan B - ask for more information - as simply posting a list of books is like giving someone the information necessary for building a WMD, be it Nuclear or Biological - and every bit as dangerous in the wrong hands!
So can I please ask the OP to not 'justify' his original statement/request, but to elaborate somewhat in the interests of not only clarity of thought but also level of understanding? - again, if I can offer a parallel giving someone the ability to evoke the entity known as Pan when their personal will is so weak they are addicted to some sort of substance (and it's irrelevant what that substance is) would not be a good idea as it is almost a certainty that they would lose control and things would rapidly degenerate from that point onwards, or another alternative is that they may have the strongest will ever seen on this planet but their education to the current level has been modern 21st century style indoctrination & brainwashing to 'think' (haha) in a certain pre-determined manner with no deviation accepted, in which case they will be utterly unable to comprehend wjhat they are now reading & will be almost guaranteed to misinterpret what they are now reading.

So what I would like to know is the following, please:
1 - Who is the information requested for?
I can see a couple of possibilities (but there may be others I simply have not considered), such as the OP him/her self, or else a general or non-specific audience, which brings me to
2 - What is the level of attainment/ability/understanding of the OP?
I ask because again there isn't much point publising a book of 3-phase power supplies when the reader actually requires information on basic circuit design and components thereof, and it is also quite within the bounds of possibility for someone to seriously damage themself with too much of the wrong sort of information.
3 - Are we looking at invocation or evocation, if either?

Right now, I honestly don't even know what the right questions are for this thread, never mind the right answers - we desperately need better and more detailed information on precisely what the OP is looking for or trying to learn about please!

 

[Amur]

Before anybody can do this in any meaningful way, more information is required - however, please don't take any of what is to follow the wrong way but in the spirit that it was written in. Thanks in advance.

The first thing that immediately leapt to mind when I read the above was to start a reply saying to begin with the basics & foundational works, but then it occurred to me that I was making some very bad assumptions here so I took myself outside & had a strong word with myself. So then I came up with plan B - ask for more information - as simply posting a list of books is like giving someone the information necessary for building a WMD, be it Nuclear or Biological - and every bit as dangerous in the wrong hands!
So can I please ask the OP to not 'justify' his original statement/request, but to elaborate somewhat in the interests of not only clarity of thought but also level of understanding? - again, if I can offer a parallel giving someone the ability to evoke the entity known as Pan when their personal will is so weak they are addicted to some sort of substance (and it's irrelevant what that substance is) would not be a good idea as it is almost a certainty that they would lose control and things would rapidly degenerate from that point onwards, or another alternative is that they may have the strongest will ever seen on this planet but their education to the current level has been modern 21st century style indoctrination & brainwashing to 'think' (haha) in a certain pre-determined manner with no deviation accepted, in which case they will be utterly unable to comprehend wjhat they are now reading & will be almost guaranteed to misinterpret what they are now reading.

So what I would like to know is the following, please:
1 - Who is the information requested for?
I can see a couple of possibilities (but there may be others I simply have not considered), such as the OP him/her self, or else a general or non-specific audience, which brings me to
2 - What is the level of attainment/ability/understanding of the OP?
I ask because again there isn't much point publising a book of 3-phase power supplies when the reader actually requires information on basic circuit design and components thereof, and it is also quite within the bounds of possibility for someone to seriously damage themself with too much of the wrong sort of information.
3 - Are we looking at invocation or evocation, if either?

Right now, I honestly don't even know what the right questions are for this thread, never mind the right answers - we desperately need better and more detailed information on precisely what the OP is looking for or trying to learn about please!

Guess I was simply bored and wanted to know some good books to shuffle into my .PDF folder for later reading. Am into both LHP and RHP here and pretty much a psychonaut and read over time alot of different occultism books. Franz Bardon had some good techniques and read some newer occultist works from Damien Echols and could relate to him very well because I'm also a bit of and insane occultist with some of my ceremonies as I tend to really make sparks fly all around the universe with my magickal testings and 'High' rituals.

Am mostly into doing GD rituals and find them most useful for alot of different things. Also delved deeply into Qabbalah and the jewish mysticism. But overall I'm a shaman and in a shamanistic initiation still incorporating Death itself. Had 2 near death experiences and am at sometimes talking to Nothingness and Silence itself.

For any interested in shamanism get this book:

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[neilwilkes]

Thanks Amur - I understand now.
The whole GD thing is heavily based on a poor copy of Dee's workings (the Casaubon edition) which is riddled with errors, inaccuracies & mistakes that Mathers never corrected as the manuscripts had not at this point been looked at again, despite Crowley's claims to have looked at the originals which he couldn't have done as the mistakes were carried over into his AA workings.
Don't get me wrong - I like Crowley's writing and find it quite easy to comprehend what he is talking about but his work is loaded with either
A) traps for the unwary, or
B) errors he did not even spot, or
C) a combination of the above.
LHP is something I would avoid as far as I can because the things you talk to cannot be trusted at all (although this is of course just my opinion and how you proceed to obtain knowledge & conversation of your HGA is something every man has to work out for himself, just be aware that you will be lied to & decieved as they will smell the greed on you if your motives are iffy) - Dee was well aware that these things cannot be trusted, and will lie to you and he had a battery of 'tests' apparently. Whether or not they worked has not been recorded, or if it was it did not survive. I am minded of the 'New Commentary' for Liber AL III/40 where Crowley writes the following:

How is one to write a comment? For Whom? One has more than the difficulties of a lexicographer. Each new postulant presents new problems, the degrees and kinds of their ignorance are no less numerous than they. I am always finding myself sailing along joyously for several months in the belief that my teaching is helping somebody, suddenly awakened to the fact that I have made no way whatever, owing to the object of my solicitude having omitted to learn that Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, or something of the sort, which I had assumed to be a matter of universal knowledge

That's enough of my waffle - you're after recommendations so here goes:
1- Hermetica (Brian Copenhaver)
essential to understand where the whole GD corpus originated - 'As Above, so Below' & 'Every Man & Every Woman is a Star' are pure Hermeticism.

2 - John Dee - The Heiroglyphic Monad (Antwerp 1564), Propaedeumata Aphoristica (1568 edition) & his Preface to Euclid (1570) plus it's footnotes.
If you want to fully understand Dee, and from there the GD/AA, Neo-Platonism & Hermetica then this is a must-understand book. The problem is going to be in the translations as no 2 agree, with most actually leaving out crucial information in the Letter to Maximillian & the Letter to the Printers, both of which must be understood before you can make headway with the Monas. I would recommend at least 3 translations & you will need to make your own interpretation whilst paying careful attention to the 1564 diagrams from the first edition - the 3rd edition can be avoided with benefit as the diagrams are flawed (and sadly some of the same flaws are even carried over in the most recent edition in 2019)
Frankly, if not for John Dee the GD would never have existed, neither would the 'Rosicrucians', Freemasons and the whole 19th Century Occult Revival would not have happened. Yet most people are woefully ignorant of John Dee - perhaps the greatest man these islands have ever produced and outside a very small group of people his name is almost unknown.

Is this the type of thing you're looking for, or have I just got it all wrong?

 

[Diluculo_DelFuego]

The Golden Dawn existed post freemason's. Rosicrucians existed before the freemason's. Several workings and letters were unpublished.
In my understanding.
However, what is the timeline difference between Barrett, Agrippa, and Dee? Or against the old grimoires like the Almadel and Arbatel?

 

[Vandheer]

LHP is something I would avoid as far as I can because the things you talk to cannot be trusted at all (although this is of course just my opinion and how you proceed to obtain knowledge & conversation of your HGA is something every man has to work out for himself, just be aware that you will be lied to & decieved as they will smell the greed on you if your motives are iffy)

I think you write well, and I can see where you come from, since western LHP seems like bunch of mentally unstable people who either live off of drama or they just LARP. But if all they are doing is trading one master to another, they miss the point.

Also, I like that you suggested Hermetica by Copenhaver. That is THE book if they want to see where Hermetic roots truly lie. But it is very academic and the texts can be hard to read so I would also suggest Way of Hermes by Salaman. The translations compliment each other even if they differ on some areas.

 

[Azerate]

A few books from my collection - recommendation

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[Xenophon]

Another question for you guys. What book from the LHP section would be a must to read?

"Lords of the Left-Hand Path" by Stephen Flowers is worth a gander. "Naos" will blow your socks off, if you let it percolate a bit.

 

[Amur]

Yeah that looks like 2 interesting books. Mostly I'm working in magick through elements, god names, arch angels and NLP.

Post automatically merged: Jan 23, 2024

A few books from my collection - recommendation

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Looks good Thanks for the share.

 

[TheHummingbirdWizard]

The Golden Dawn existed post freemason's. Rosicrucians existed before the freemason's. Several workings and letters were unpublished.
In my understanding.
However, what is the timeline difference between Barrett, Agrippa, and Dee? Or against the old grimoires like the Almadel and Arbatel?

Incorrect, though this isn't your fault. While the Rosicrucians predate the Premier Grand Lodge if England est. 1717 being the first GL lodge, Freemasonry existed prior to Grand Lodges going back to at least the 1300s. Though they say, and by they I mean Masonic lore, that they had a hand in making Masonry what it is today, perhaps even influencing the GL system. Either way the Rosicrucian influence on Freemasonry is not debatable, the two influenced each other famously.

So in short, Freemasonry is older but they both shared their formative years. This is a common mistake as many Masonic documentaries and even some Masons themselves will say it started in 1717 but again this was the start of the Grand Lodge era.

The Arbatel was published in 1575 and is largely based on the work of Paracelsus.
The Almadel is from the Lesser Key of Solomon which was written in the 1700s, though the Almadel may be slightly older.
Dee lived in the 1500s, while Barret's The Magus is from the 1800s. Here is a timeline:

1236 - First known mention of the Notory Art. Mentioned by Michael Scott
1300 - Start of the Renaissance
1390 - oldest reference to Freemasonry
1446 - oldest surving copy of the Greater Key of Solomon. BNF Ital. 1524. It is in Italian and believed to have been translated from a now lost Latin version believed to have been written in 1426.
1494 - If C.R.C did live here is an estimation if approximate date of death.
1517 - Start of the Reformation
1527 - Birth of John Dee
1531 - First Book of Occult Philosophy published.
1533 - full set of the three books of Occult Philosophy published.
1575 - The Arbatel vel Magi.
1577 - Pseudomonarchia Daemonum
1590s - oldest surviving Masonic Minutes
1609 - Death of John Dee
1614 - Fraternitas published making public the existence of Rosicrucianism.
1648 - End of the Reformation
Mid 1600s - The Lesser Key of Solomon
-----------------Ars Goetia
-----------------Ars Goetia Theurgia
-----------------Ars Paulina
-----------------The Almadel
-----------------and sometimes: Ars Notoria
1700 - Start of the Enlightenment
1717 - First Masonic Grand Lodge
1750 - First Order of Masonic Rosicrucianism established. The Golden and Rosy Cross.
1801 - The Magus
1865-67 - The S.R.I.A. established.
1871 - Morals and Dogma published.
1888 - The Golden Dawn Founded.

Most Orders have unpublished papers. I can confirm that there are a lot of Golden Dawn documents that still are not published. As for the Rosicrucians, only three documents were ever published.

Post automatically merged: Jan 23, 2024

Thanks Amur - I understand now.
The whole GD thing is heavily based on a poor copy of Dee's workings (the Casaubon edition) which is riddled with errors, inaccuracies & mistakes that Mathers never corrected as the manuscripts had not at this point been looked at again, despite Crowley's claims to have looked at the originals which he couldn't have done as the mistakes were carried over into his AA workings.
Don't get me wrong - I like Crowley's writing and find it quite easy to comprehend what he is talking about but his work is loaded with either
A) traps for the unwary, or
B) errors he did not even spot, or
C) a combination of the above.
LHP is something I would avoid as far as I can because the things you talk to cannot be trusted at all (although this is of course just my opinion and how you proceed to obtain knowledge & conversation of your HGA is something every man has to work out for himself, just be aware that you will be lied to & decieved as they will smell the greed on you if your motives are iffy) - Dee was well aware that these things cannot be trusted, and will lie to you and he had a battery of 'tests' apparently. Whether or not they worked has not been recorded, or if it was it did not survive. I am minded of the 'New Commentary' for Liber AL III/40 where Crowley writes the following:

That's enough of my waffle - you're after recommendations so here goes:
1- Hermetica (Brian Copenhaver)
essential to understand where the whole GD corpus originated - 'As Above, so Below' & 'Every Man & Every Woman is a Star' are pure Hermeticism.

2 - John Dee - The Heiroglyphic Monad (Antwerp 1564), Propaedeumata Aphoristica (1568 edition) & his Preface to Euclid (1570) plus it's footnotes.
If you want to fully understand Dee, and from there the GD/AA, Neo-Platonism & Hermetica then this is a must-understand book. The problem is going to be in the translations as no 2 agree, with most actually leaving out crucial information in the Letter to Maximillian & the Letter to the Printers, both of which must be understood before you can make headway with the Monas. I would recommend at least 3 translations & you will need to make your own interpretation whilst paying careful attention to the 1564 diagrams from the first edition - the 3rd edition can be avoided with benefit as the diagrams are flawed (and sadly some of the same flaws are even carried over in the most recent edition in 2019)
Frankly, if not for John Dee the GD would never have existed, neither would the 'Rosicrucians', Freemasons and the whole 19th Century Occult Revival would not have happened. Yet most people are woefully ignorant of John Dee - perhaps the greatest man these islands have ever produced and outside a very small group of people his name is almost unknown.

Is this the type of thing you're looking for, or have I just got it all wrong?

Um excuse me but Freemasonry is older than John Dee by almost 200 years. While we does predate the Fama Fraternitatis, there is no evidence showings that the Rosicrucians used John Dee's work. I wish there was as I'm a fan of both, however the Rosicrucians were a German movement drawing from the writings of Paracelsus while Dee is English Occultism. However if there is a link id investigate the Arbatel. The Arbatel is based off Paracelsus' work and thus was of interest to Rosicrucians. It was also very much a product of the Protestant Reformation, became extremely popular with Protestant practitioners is know to have great influenced Dee in his approach to magic. I do believe that Dee was influenced by Paracelsus but Rosicrucianism may very well be a stretch.

The Golden Dawn would still have existed as it is mostly the product of Rosicrucianism and Masonry though it would have been very different... in the sense that the points of the pentagram may very well have had different attributions and there would be no Enochian in the SRP or other inner order rituals.

Post automatically merged: Jan 23, 2024

Ugh can we not edit appended posts to correct for typos? Lame