Book Report How to Become a Modern Magus by Webb

[KjEno186]

Available here:

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Also check the WF library for a PDF supplied by one of the forum members.

Review:

At first I thought, "Wow, that's quite a long book!" The PDF is over 500 pages, (up to ~400 words per page depending on formatting). I had never heard of the book before seeing it posted in the WF library, so I decided to have a look at it. The initial pages seemed quite promising, and that's what you get in the Kindle preview, unsurprisingly. What is mindblowingly incredible is that the Kindle version is US$24 while the paperback is US$25! I would definitely avoid the Kindle version and buy a physical copy, if I were you.

This book is easy to read, so I quickly got past the introductory chapters. The author claims that it will take a year to work through the book, and so far I have read into the first month before I started to skim the text... I started to have some doubts. Who is this book really for? Somehow it doesn't seem to be written for absolute beginners since the author takes jabs at common tropes of magic as practiced in late 20th and early 21st Century America. I get it. The world is full of people of all sorts, and a lot of us are hardly the picture of 'normality' that we're constantly told exists at the center of the Bell curve of common modern values.

Nevertheless, on one page he admonishes his readers to be careful about paying "unqualified hypnotherapists helping you remember your UFO abductions, your life on Lemuria, or your former incarnation as Sherlock Holmes." Next he says, "People will attack occultists. You can lose your job, your business, your property. Do not assume otherwise. It requires extraordinarily little secrecy to be safe. In fact, it mainly requires social awareness. Don’t tell people at your job that you practice magic. Don’t stick an occult bumper sticker on your car." Right, I can agree with both points, among others, but again, who is this for? Someone who is already involved in the occult? People whose knowledge of the occult comes from movies, television, and the occasional blog article?

In my reading I got a very clear idea that Webb falls into the psychological+synchronicity segment of modern magick. Have a look and see for yourself. To be fair, I agree with many things he says, but I'm not so sure that it's all that unique. Then again, as it seems to happen quite often, this psychological approach comes across as wishy-washy 'self improvement' dressed up in rituals involving cookbook sigils and rituals I would personally call sorcery (which he ironically denigrates and differentiates from magic). I'll have to read ahead and skim some more. Maybe I'm just not seeing it yet. I could be wrong, and you can tell me how wrong I am.

I'm reminded of some things I read recently in Ceremonial Magic by Joseph C. Lisiewski (there's a PDF in WF library):

"This inadequacy [of modern psychological 'magick'] leads the Practitioner into states of severe personality imbalance, self-delusion, reality distortion, and extreme rationalization that requires the use of selective attention in order to prove the magic works, or more correctly, in the end: 'Well, it works - sometimes. Sort of. You know. That's just how it is.' And the Practitioner of these systems is right - That's just how it is."​

​

Not to digress too far, but Lisiewski's book is about evocation to physical manifestation with actual reality altering consequences. In other words, you will know the magic worked or not. I won't lie; that is as yet beyond me. The fact is, I trust Lisiewski's words enough to push back at modern "disenchantment" magick; you know, it's "all in your head" so results are as unpredictable as your dreams?

Back to the book. On page 79, Webb writes:

Physical Training​

This month, in addition to your usual toiletries, do three things every day:​

In the morning, wash your face/head in cool water; no soap. Tell yourself you are washing away your pettiness from the day before and reminding yourself to be aware but not nervous.​

At midday, pay great attention to the flavor and texture of your food as you eat and drink. Try to savor each morsel and tell yourself that you are feeding your body, your most important magical tool, just as you are feeding your mind and heart with experiences.​

In the evening, do a stretching routine (as appropriate for your age and physical condition). Remind yourself that a magician seeks to be flexible in body, heart, mind and spirit.​

​

Actually, I do use soap to wash my face every morning. As for the rest, who is this for?

Page 110, some of the Questions for the study of the Fire element:

8. How does Agni feel different from Re? Or how does Brigid feel different from the guys?​

9. How do your feelings about your father affect your magic?​

11. What did the Vampyric work feel like?​

14. How do you feel differently about Fire? And about yourself?​

​

Who is this for? (Italics and bold are mine to make a point...) If you think this book is for you, by all means buy a copy to support the author (and publisher).

 

[SkullTraill]

Great thread, thank you @KjEno186

 

[DiLoco_DelEted]

Available here:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Also check the WF library for a PDF supplied by one of the forum members.

Review:

At first I thought, "Wow, that's quite a long book!" The PDF is over 500 pages, (up to ~400 words per page depending on formatting). I had never heard of the book before seeing it posted in the WF library, so I decided to have a look at it. The initial pages seemed quite promising, and that's what you get in the Kindle preview, unsurprisingly. What is mindblowingly incredible is that the Kindle version is US$24 while the paperback is US$25! I would definitely avoid the Kindle version and buy a physical copy, if I were you.

This book is easy to read, so I quickly got past the introductory chapters. The author claims that it will take a year to work through the book, and so far I have read into the first month before I started to skim the text... I started to have some doubts. Who is this book really for? Somehow it doesn't seem to be written for absolute beginners since the author takes jabs at common tropes of magic as practiced in late 20th and early 21st Century America. I get it. The world is full of people of all sorts, and a lot of us are hardly the picture of 'normality' that we're constantly told exists at the center of the Bell curve of common modern values.

Nevertheless, on one page he admonishes his readers to be careful about paying "unqualified hypnotherapists helping you remember your UFO abductions, your life on Lemuria, or your former incarnation as Sherlock Holmes." Next he says, "People will attack occultists. You can lose your job, your business, your property. Do not assume otherwise. It requires extraordinarily little secrecy to be safe. In fact, it mainly requires social awareness. Don’t tell people at your job that you practice magic. Don’t stick an occult bumper sticker on your car." Right, I can agree with both points, among others, but again, who is this for? Someone who is already involved in the occult? People whose knowledge of the occult comes from movies, television, and the occasional blog article?

In my reading I got a very clear idea that Webb falls into the psychological+synchronicity segment of modern magick. Have a look and see for yourself. To be fair, I agree with many things he says, but I'm not so sure that it's all that unique. Then again, as it seems to happen quite often, this psychological approach comes across as wishy-washy 'self improvement' dressed up in rituals involving cookbook sigils and rituals I would personally call sorcery (which he ironically denigrates and differentiates from magic). I'll have to read ahead and skim some more. Maybe I'm just not seeing it yet. I could be wrong, and you can tell me how wrong I am.

I'm reminded of some things I read recently in Ceremonial Magic by Joseph C. Lisiewski (there's a PDF in WF library):

"This inadequacy [of modern psychological 'magick'] leads the Practitioner into states of severe personality imbalance, self-delusion, reality distortion, and extreme rationalization that requires the use of selective attention in order to prove the magic works, or more correctly, in the end: 'Well, it works - sometimes. Sort of. You know. That's just how it is.' And the Practitioner of these systems is right - That's just how it is."​

​

Not to digress too far, but Lisiewski's book is about evocation to physical manifestation with actual reality altering consequences. In other words, you will know the magic worked or not. I won't lie; that is as yet beyond me. The fact is, I trust Lisiewski's words enough to push back at modern "disenchantment" magick; you know, it's "all in your head" so results are as unpredictable as your dreams?

Back to the book. On page 79, Webb writes:

Physical Training​

This month, in addition to your usual toiletries, do three things every day:​

In the morning, wash your face/head in cool water; no soap. Tell yourself you are washing away your pettiness from the day before and reminding yourself to be aware but not nervous.​

At midday, pay great attention to the flavor and texture of your food as you eat and drink. Try to savor each morsel and tell yourself that you are feeding your body, your most important magical tool, just as you are feeding your mind and heart with experiences.​

In the evening, do a stretching routine (as appropriate for your age and physical condition). Remind yourself that a magician seeks to be flexible in body, heart, mind and spirit.​

​

Actually, I do use soap to wash my face every morning. As for the rest, who is this for?

Page 110, some of the Questions for the study of the Fire element:

8. How does Agni feel different from Re? Or how does Brigid feel different from the guys?​

9. How do your feelings about your father affect your magic?​

11. What did the Vampyric work feel like?​

14. How do you feel differently about Fire? And about yourself?​

​

Who is this for? (Italics and bold are mine to make a point...) If you think this book is for you, by all means buy a copy to support the author (and publisher).

I know in the GD, the Philosophus grade brings out Father issues, must have a connection somewhere with the fire element.
Thank you, great review!

 

[KjEno186]

Well, now I feel like a fool! Had I taken the time to become familiar with IIH by Bardon, I'd have realized that Webb is following a similar outline of recommended practice. Bardon starts off "Magic Psychic Training" with "Introspection or Self-Knowledge" in which one takes inventory of personality traits. Yes, feelings matter. Then there's the subheading "Conscious Reception of Food." I think what I ought to do personally is make a comparison of the IIH by Bardon and How to Become a Modern Magus by Webb. And it would only be fair to include one of the IIH supplementary books such as A Bardon Companion by Clark. So, how much do they have in common? How are they different?

Post automatically merged: Feb 3, 2023

Bardon writes: "Do not permit anyone to look into your sanctuary. The magician will always keep silence with respect to his way, rise and success. This silence grants the highest powers and the more this commandment is obeyed, the more easily accessible these powers will become."

Webb writes:

A transformative secret comes to a human at a time when she or he is ready for it, and it changes the human. There are nine laws for transformative secrets, and they were articulated by Stephen Flowers:​

1. By seeking the Unknown, more of the Unknown is created.​

2. By seeking the Unknown, more of the Known is created.​

3. The Truth is always hidden.​

4. All events arise in the Unmanifest.​

5. If you keep a secret, some effect will be felt in the manifest world.​

6. Ultimately, mystery is unknowable. (See law 1.)​

7. Mystery is unchanging, but its existence causes change.​

8. Mystery is universally present—in all things.​

9. The distinction between outer and inner mysteries is an illusion.​

For example, if you have been working with Inshallo from the previous chapter, you will have discovered laws 6 and 8. If you got results and then have bragged to all your friends and seen Inshallo stop working for you, you will have discovered law number 5. When you hear a transformative secret, it not only changes you—it redirects you toward more transformation.​

Post automatically merged: Feb 4, 2023

After thinking of this for a bit, I find that Webb's recommendation to only use divination once every other week is inadequate for absolute beginners to the occult. I'm sorry, but it sure took me a lot more than that to get a feel for doing Tarot. I followed advice found elsewhere to do one reading a day, whether one feels like it or not, because that's what it takes to make a habit and get past the learning curve. Tarot is as much about the application of knowledge and accumulation of experience as any other aspect of practical occult work. You cannot get it all from a book any more than you can expect to learn to play a guitar proficiently by reading a book and practicing once every other week.

Webb warns about "divination addiction," and he makes some valid points such as, "Divination is not a detailed report from an objective database." Right. Some people make it a crutch. Others invalidate it by only accepting answers that they want to hear. What he warns against isn't an issue with divination per se, it's a problem with immature and irrational personality traits that many people suffer from. In fact a lot of his warnings about the so-called dangers of magic are in fact his observations of psychologically imbalanced people who are drawn to magic as a quick fix for their life problems.

I really like a lot of the information given in the book, and I may in fact buy a physical copy, but the way he talks down to his presumed audience of misfit, mal-adapted, wannabee occultists is off putting to say the least. Examples:

"So what if you treat waiters badly, don’t return your shopping cart, and don’t call Mom on Mother’s Day? Does this matter in the great scheme of things? In fact, there are big obstacles that come with being an asshole."

Maybe it's supposed to be funny?

"We can all see the early middle–aged man with the fat tummy peeking out of the black T-shirt with a scary occult design or the big-hair witch wearing so many amulets and talismans that passing through a metal detector would be an amazing feat. But, in reality, this is a strong problem with three nonexclusive areas of danger: social, spiritual, and energetic. In the social realm, humans have a need to impress employers, loan officers, neighbors, and so forth. ...Too often I have heard an overweight and under-bathed male occultist with a full untrimmed beard ask me why his erotic rituals aren’t making him a chick magnet. The cure for this is frank, friends: more soap and a full-length mirror. If you don’t know how to look and smell charming, don’t expect your charms to work."

Maybe Webb should go to Wal-Mart more often. His commentary on the state of cultural decay in America was probably a humorous way to suggest, "Don't be that guy!" I'm so sorry, Don, that you couldn't have lived in a time when shirts were starched and ironed, men wore spiffy hats and waist coats, and proper ladies would never leave the house in skirts showing their ankles.

Post automatically merged: Feb 16, 2023

Maybe it's supposed to be funny?

I think I just wasn't getting Don's sense of humor, and that's okay. I can look past it, maybe even learn to appreciate some of it a bit more. I took some time in the past couple weeks to read the initial chapters a bit more carefully. I decided to go ahead and buy the book. I believe it's something I can use and learn from. I'm not in the habit of buying books that will only sit on a shelf looking pretty. I'm going to seriously follow the program outlined by Webb.

Thanks to @BragR for sharing a pdf of the book here on WF! Thanks to @SkullTraill for providing this forum! Otherwise it is highly unlikely I would have known the book exists as I have not been aware of Webb's work until now.

Post automatically merged: Jun 29, 2023

I wanted to post an update. Webb wrote a bit about myths in the chapter called "Interim II: A Week to Consolidate." One item in particular annoyed the hell out of me because it won't age well. In fact, it was a completely unnecessary quip on Webb's part, a dig or jab (pun!) at anyone who doesn't share his particular belief in the "science" as it were.

We live in myths:​

Sugar causes hyperactivity in children. Wrong.​

Sharks don’t get cancer. Wrong.​

Vaccines cause autism. Wrong.​

​

That last bit. Hummm. Don, you didn't have to go there. That is so "current year" that it will severely date this book as badly as patriarchal comments infest ceremonial grimoires. Let me explain. I'd call myself an old fashioned liberal. I'm an in-the-closet gay man because of family obligations which I'd rather not upset, and I live in the "Bible Belt." I've spent well over five decades on this planet in this incarnation. It still amazes me how many scams have been a part of American culture for such a long time, and I'm always learning about new ones. They are myths accepted, encouraged and sometimes even enforced at every level of society.

Modern medicine is full of these scams. Oh, to be sure one can be grateful for emergency services, such as they are up until now (but may not exist by mid century). Chronic illness, on the other hand, is often a purely extractive exercise of the system, intended to make people better customers for pharma companies. Do I really need to see a dozen of pharma ads when I watch a game show with my elderly mother? Don Webb clearly trusts the medical system. He trusts academia because that's where he earns his living. He trusts the mainstream media to tell him the truth (unless it's Fox, of course). To him, vaccines are "safe and effective" because the system said so. Meanwhile, somewhere in the transpersonal spaces, demons are laughing at him. The joke's clearly on you, Don. Take some of your own advice on believing myths.

How corrupt is academia, biology and medicine? Let evolutionary biologist Bret Weinstein and Dr Pierre Kory tell you in this long video:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Excerpt from a part where they're talking about the Covid response, where Bret Weinstein says:

... When I think back through the pandemic, you know, there was a moment at which I realized, this isn't just wrong advice, it was the inverse of right advice, and in my mind when I think about this, I think about the images of signs closing off trails, outdoor trails because of the pandemic, sand poured into skate parks where children might have done something that would have occupied them and made them feel good and gotten them in the sun, and right. Just the idea that if it was good for you, something opposed it, right? What it wanted you to do is go inside where you wouldn't make enough vitamin D, where you'd be confined with anybody else who had the virus. It didn't want you to treat until you got really sick at which point viral diseases aren't treatable. Right? It gave you every piece of bad advice in the book. And it demonized anybody who noticed...​

​

I have watched science come apart. Biological science is no healthier than what you've seen in medicine [speaking to Dr Pierre Kory]. Why is that? Well, you can't very well have do-gooders over in science testing bullshit marketing claims and discovering that they're not true and that what you really ought to do is go to the skate park or take a hike and definitely get some sun and maybe sunscreen is something you want to use very sparingly, right? You can't have people doing that, and so you more or less have to, um, neuter the capacity of science to prove that you are lying. And that describes what has happened inside the university system. ... It's clearly a spreading kind of corruption.​

​

Talking about "current year" stuff, RFK jr is trying to get on the Democratic Party ticket. He's a noted "anti-vaxxer," which is the perjorative of choice for the born again trust-the-sciencers (-silencers). That's quite some magic, isn't it Don? To reframe open debate as dangerous while claiming that "the science is settled" and opposing viewpoints are "misinformation"? Joe Rogan interviews RFK jr, uncensored:

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About 32 minutes into the show, RFK jr says, "None of the vaccines are ever subjected to true placebo controlled trials. It's the only medical product that is exempt from that prior to licensing."

Hummm, I wonder why? Follow the money, Don. I hesitated on posting this mini-rant. There are some good parts in the book, but his "current year" style of writing throughout the book isn't going to age well at all.

 

[aviaf]

Available here:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Also check the WF library for a PDF supplied by one of the forum members.

Review:

At first I thought, "Wow, that's quite a long book!" The PDF is over 500 pages, (up to ~400 words per page depending on formatting). I had never heard of the book before seeing it posted in the WF library, so I decided to have a look at it. The initial pages seemed quite promising, and that's what you get in the Kindle preview, unsurprisingly. What is mindblowingly incredible is that the Kindle version is US$24 while the paperback is US$25! I would definitely avoid the Kindle version and buy a physical copy, if I were you.

This book is easy to read, so I quickly got past the introductory chapters. The author claims that it will take a year to work through the book, and so far I have read into the first month before I started to skim the text... I started to have some doubts. Who is this book really for? Somehow it doesn't seem to be written for absolute beginners since the author takes jabs at common tropes of magic as practiced in late 20th and early 21st Century America. I get it. The world is full of people of all sorts, and a lot of us are hardly the picture of 'normality' that we're constantly told exists at the center of the Bell curve of common modern values.

Nevertheless, on one page he admonishes his readers to be careful about paying "unqualified hypnotherapists helping you remember your UFO abductions, your life on Lemuria, or your former incarnation as Sherlock Holmes." Next he says, "People will attack occultists. You can lose your job, your business, your property. Do not assume otherwise. It requires extraordinarily little secrecy to be safe. In fact, it mainly requires social awareness. Don’t tell people at your job that you practice magic. Don’t stick an occult bumper sticker on your car." Right, I can agree with both points, among others, but again, who is this for? Someone who is already involved in the occult? People whose knowledge of the occult comes from movies, television, and the occasional blog article?

In my reading I got a very clear idea that Webb falls into the psychological+synchronicity segment of modern magick. Have a look and see for yourself. To be fair, I agree with many things he says, but I'm not so sure that it's all that unique. Then again, as it seems to happen quite often, this psychological approach comes across as wishy-washy 'self improvement' dressed up in rituals involving cookbook sigils and rituals I would personally call sorcery (which he ironically denigrates and differentiates from magic). I'll have to read ahead and skim some more. Maybe I'm just not seeing it yet. I could be wrong, and you can tell me how wrong I am.

I'm reminded of some things I read recently in Ceremonial Magic by Joseph C. Lisiewski (there's a PDF in WF library):

"This inadequacy [of modern psychological 'magick'] leads the Practitioner into states of severe personality imbalance, self-delusion, reality distortion, and extreme rationalization that requires the use of selective attention in order to prove the magic works, or more correctly, in the end: 'Well, it works - sometimes. Sort of. You know. That's just how it is.' And the Practitioner of these systems is right - That's just how it is."​

​

Not to digress too far, but Lisiewski's book is about evocation to physical manifestation with actual reality altering consequences. In other words, you will know the magic worked or not. I won't lie; that is as yet beyond me. The fact is, I trust Lisiewski's words enough to push back at modern "disenchantment" magick; you know, it's "all in your head" so results are as unpredictable as your dreams?

Back to the book. On page 79, Webb writes:

Physical Training​

This month, in addition to your usual toiletries, do three things every day:​

In the morning, wash your face/head in cool water; no soap. Tell yourself you are washing away your pettiness from the day before and reminding yourself to be aware but not nervous.​

At midday, pay great attention to the flavor and texture of your food as you eat and drink. Try to savor each morsel and tell yourself that you are feeding your body, your most important magical tool, just as you are feeding your mind and heart with experiences.​

In the evening, do a stretching routine (as appropriate for your age and physical condition). Remind yourself that a magician seeks to be flexible in body, heart, mind and spirit.​

​

Actually, I do use soap to wash my face every morning. As for the rest, who is this for?

Page 110, some of the Questions for the study of the Fire element:

8. How does Agni feel different from Re? Or how does Brigid feel different from the guys?​

9. How do your feelings about your father affect your magic?​

11. What did the Vampyric work feel like?​

14. How do you feel differently about Fire? And about yourself?​

​

Who is this for? (Italics and bold are mine to make a point...) If you think this book is for you, by all means buy a copy to support the author (and publisher).

Was actually a decent book. My son got a copy a couple of years ago when it first came out because his girlfriend bought a copy and her parents found it and flipped out over it. He asked my opinion, so I read it. Told him I approved, and worked through it with him for a couple of months, and answered questions. It gives a solid foundation for someone looking for instruction, and has yet to seek initiation into a tradition, and if asked, I'd recommend it to anyone.
Who is it for, you ask? Who, exactly is any book on magic for? Anyone who is on a magical or quasi-magical path and is looking for some sort of instruction. I don't know the author personally but I know of him, and have read several of his other books. Towards the end, he delves into the typhonian current and guides you toward the Temple of Set, which doesn't surprise me, as he's a long standing member and former head of that order. Nothing against them, there was a time when I was quite interested in their work and considered joining them. They're interesting people, but it sort of seems like this section is a kind of recruitment. I guess that's all I have to say, I just was reading through some of the stuff on the site and found this post, so added my 2 cents, for what it's worth.

 

[Wintruz]

I miss seeing @KjEno186's posts. They were always thoughtful and well reasoned.