Book Discussion Your first occult book

[Pyrographer]

Walden. I lived in Salem, MA, so occult stuff wasn't exactly hidden. But it was reading Thoreau that put a lot of the pieces together for me and taught me to block out the noise and really listen to what was speaking to me. I understand it isn't occult, but it unlocked something that started the journey.

 

[MrMelnibone]

I think that this might be interesting.

So, what is the first book you've read on occult and what of it's teaching still remains with you?

For me, the first was Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon, one of few book then available in my language, just under little different name. Back then I was pretty surprised that books on magic actually exist and I didn't yet learn English.
I think I still keep some common sense advices for keeping oneself in good condition and in fact I think it was good advice to keep oneself in good condition, including daily physical exercise.

Mine is Liber Null and Psychonaught. It's mostly influential as sigils and meditation are all i currently do as I'm not particularly experienced

 

[Mercurius2393]

I think that this might be interesting.

So, what is the first book you've read on occult and what of it's teaching still remains with you?

For me, the first was Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon, one of few book then available in my language, just under little different name. Back then I was pretty surprised that books on magic actually exist and I didn't yet learn English.
I think I still keep some common sense advices for keeping oneself in good condition and in fact I think it was good advice to keep oneself in good condition, including daily physical exercise.

Hi all. For me it was Mastering Witchcraft by Paul Huson. When it was brand new in 1970. I was 13.

 

[crypthouse]

oh, goodness... to ride a silver broomstick by silver ravenwolf. i was a kiddo asking my friend's older sister questions about her tarot cards and what she had "all this stuff," in her room for. she was nice enough to let me borrow it for a while. i can't say i remember too much of it past "woah! i could do stuff to make things a little less hard? with stuff in my kitchen?? and the ground?!" i think that that specific line of thought is the main thing that still influences me lol

 

[sherab]

My library had maybe 3-4 occult books. My favorite was the Fortune Tellers. I desperately wanted to know the future as a kid, but looking back, I'm glad I couldn't. Life is full of twists, turns, surprises, and disappointments.

 

[IllusiveOwl]

I dont know how I came across this, but it was the first book I read seriously, and it had a huge enough impact on my 19 year old sheep-brain to get me interested in esotericism for a while, before fizzling back into normie-unconsciousness for several more years. When I woke back up, I had this book to thank for laying some of the groundwork to a healthy intrepid journey into the Occult.

I keep a copy of this on my shelf today, I highly recommend it.

 

[Galahad]

As a very young teen, I read the pulpy, "forbidden history" book The Templar Revelation which had a huge influence on Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code which was popular at the time. I thought it was utterly dreadful (I was right) but it turned a few things on their head. Suddenly "the occult" no longer had anything to do with crystal-therapists but had been a hidden influence in history that was provocative and intellectually demanding in some forms. Though a lot of the claims in that book were unhinged, others are well-attested. For better or for worse, it was formative.

After that, I read Michael Aquino's Black Magic and that was seismic. It gave a structure to rituals so I could start undertaking magic directly. It also explained a few of the things which I'd started to approach and generally had a very profound influence on my thinking for years. I turned to the sources of Aquino's thinking many years ago now and got the transmission undiluted but I still have a sentimental fondness for Aquino's book. It was a major turning point.

 

[rice candy]

I think my first one was either Initiation into Hermetics by Franz Bardon or Astral Dynamics by Robert Bruce. Can't remember...!

 

[MagickalStudent569]

This book. The Witch's Book of Power by Devin Hunter. It was recommended by a shop keeper at one of those metaphysical stores who claimed Hecate recommended it. I read a few chapters, but I couldn't get into to it, at least at the time. I never ended up finishing it and eventually gave it away. It did get the ball rolling though as far looking deeper into the subject and at other books.

 

[Adelina]

I am glad to see "Mastering Witchcraft" by Paul Huson being mentioned here, it was first serious book for me too. There were a few other books before that, but I don't consider them significant. The name of first non-serious book was "Stars and Fates" and I am not sure you can find this book anywhere nowadays.

 

[frater_pan]

The very first one for me was one of Sybil Leak's witch books that my mother had.

But the very first one I actually read and did anything with was AE Waite's "The Book of Ceremonial Magic" followed by Cavendish's "The Black Arts".

 

[neilwilkes]

Oh, this really takes me back so many years now it's just not funny.
The very first book I ever owned was one by Dion Fortune, but I simply couldn't get on with it at all and these days I cannot even recall it's title, but the first book I owned that actuallyt seemed to resonate with me was Crowley's Magick in Theory & Practise, Book IV, part III - Magick. What I really liked about it were the simple to understand theorems & postulates at the beginning, and the fact that he actually published what he said he was publishing - unlike some other authors I could mention!
These days it is increasingly common for writers to actually deliver on their promised but at the time this was originally published it was vanishingly rare, and a breath of fresh air for me back in the early 1980's

 

[Fausto]

I don't know the First...maybe the great Key of Solomon...
Today I put the Magic for working First, If It Works, I read theory, otherwise I do not waste my precious time.

 

[neilwilkes]

I read the pulpy, "forbidden history" book The Templar Revelation which had a huge influence on Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code which was popular at the time

Er, wot?
Dan Brown's dreadful little tome was fully plagiarized from the far better '

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', published 15 years before the volume you mention, and followed up with a sequel called 'The Messianic Legacy' which all espoused the almost dead certainty that the historical 'Jesus' would have been married (the gospels don't mention he was although there are large hints - the Wedding at Caana must have been his, otherwise why would the servants have asked him about the wine problem?) and was probably married to the woman known as 'Mary Magdalene' in the gospels. It's not even a new idea, as serious biblical scholars have been aware of all the problems in the 'Gospels' for as long as they have been seriously studying it.
Yet there were the usual statements of outrage, the banning of books (or, if memory serves in this case getting one of the authors to state they hoaxed it all just to stave off imminent bankruptcy thanks to the archaic UK Legal system)

I could go on, but would there be a point to it?

 

[MidnightProphet]

 

[jkeller293]

Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike. I first started studying the freemasons being completely ignorant about what they were as i was seeking knowledge about magick — and of course you will only find mystery rite in freemasonary. Of course many freemasons (not freemasonary itself) did start groups that deal with magick like the Golden Dawn and strong evidence being involved with the Revival of the Druid Movement in the UK (1717 the same year the first grand lodge of freemasonary was founded).

Post automatically merged: Apr 29, 2025

Morals and Dogma by Albert Pike. I first started studying the freemasons being completely ignorant about what they were as i was seeking knowledge about magick — and of course you will only find mystery rite in freemasonary. Of course many freemasons (not freemasonary itself) did start groups that deal with magick like the Golden Dawn and strong evidence being involved with the Revival of the Druid Movement in the UK (1717 the same year the first grand lodge of freemasonary was founded).

As for the books effect on me, it didn't do much but make more ambitious to learn more. The reason it did not have a effect on me at the time is because i knew nothing about freemasonary then at all. So when you try to read a book like that not much is going to resonate as its designed for the freemason to read, and im not initiated in that way of thinking.