Is this book overhyped? Why are youtubers and occult book reviewers singing praise to this book. To me its just a bunch of exercises and a turn off to anyone just wanting quick results.
Why are they saying this is a good book for beginners? A beginner isn't doing all these exercises. A beginner wants to do a spell and get quick results.
Because you can't get "quick results" without developing some faculties. That's the simple truth of the matter. Beginners who figure that out progress to the stage where they CAN get quick results, beginners who are too lazy to be arsed to do even a couple of the basic exercises will not be able to get the skills by which they can get quick results. And the exercises are easy, I first started fooling around with ceremonial magick in late 1988 after reading some Lewleyn basic magic books then 1989 with Donald Michael Kraig's big blue doorstopper book and then Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practice from a mall waldenbooks. And then more random pop witchcraft spellbooks etc. I struggled for YEARS in the 1990s got some spook weird things happen but nothing solid and tangible and moved on to other Eastern and Islamicate esoteric practices for almost 30 years before coming back to Western forms of magic (I am still very committed to the Sufi tariqas I came across in the 90s but just felt a calling back to exploring Western styles of esoteric practice).
In the few years that I came back to exploring western magic it's the beginner cultivation exercises that have given me the best bang for my buck, and some basic Chaos magic like sigil practice, and some geniune conjure /hoodoo style candle and jar work.. but baic beginner psychic style cultivation exercises just like Mat Auryn's are mainly what I've been seeking, I learn them, write them on note cards, practice many times until I get the hang, and introduce new ones or keep certain basic ones that's what I have been working and frankly basic stuff like that helped me advance more in a short time than I ever did from 1988 to 1997 after repeatedly beating my head with the stuff I was trying in the early 90s.
So when Mat Auryn's book came out I decided to check it out and try the exercises (psychic witch then mastering magcick when he released it) honestly the psychic witch ones are quite easy and they DO prove helpful for someone who isn't lazy and actually does them. Same with Jason Miller's basic exercises in his Real Sorcery book (the pillar and spheres exercises are useful) SO much so that I bought his entire Strategic Sorcery Course (best $100 bucks I spent but it is kinda dripped out to you week by week - which at least makes you internalize each week)
Now after reading the first couple of steps in Bardon IIH and then buying a couple of Alexander Moore classes and a couple of Bob Smith 60 Skills classes (I'm not going to get the whole courses in either case, too expensive and I'm very targeted in which skills I want to develop) I have more basic exercises to drill and train and frankly after a couple of years of just mostly focusing on basic stuff like this, I strongly believe that I am better off when I attempt basic results based magic than I would have been without these exercises. I'm now heavily focused on learning more Bardon related material since Alexander Moore "hexdoctor" guy and Bob Smith (and now I'm reading some Mark Rasmus) give real good advice on internal cultivation exercises explained in a way that someone a bit neurodivergent like myself can better understand.
Mat Auryn is basic but he isn't overrated dude if I had to choose only ONE book to work hard daily and could have had that book in 1988 then some of those practices would have helped me advacne in weeks or a couple of months more than doing what I was reading for years. And that included daily LBRP (sometimes twice a day, which was not a good idea) and middle pillar. Guess what ? Middle Pillar actually is more poetnt for me now that I learned some basic grounding and Mat Auryn style visualization and some basic Bardon style pore breathing. Go figure, that's my take your own mileage may vary.
You get results faster by building the basics and not chasing results. Sort of like picking up chicks (does anyone still pick up girls anymore? I'm old I would have no idea what people do these days lol. But it's the basic basic social skills that were the most effective when I tried to learn how to better relate to girls and pick them up. Go figure who would have thought that basics actually basically work?)
