(Part 2) Top products from r/occult

I gotchu.

So, like I said above, what you actually want to is change your luck:

1. Karma
   
   You don't come here a blank slate. There is a massive amount of "bad" karma that has to be worked through, not all in this lifetime of course, but a certain amount has been allotted to be worked through in this lifetime. You can voluntarily take on more if you like, but you can't take on less.
   
   So how do you work through bad karma? Part of it is just suffering or more accurately: situations appearing with the potential for causing you to suffer, but karma is a funny thing. It's less cosmic justice and more a teaching tool. So if you understand this and practice viewing the world through this lens, the lens of a student, you get better and better at learning the lesson and learning it quickly. This prevents you from having to endure the same lesson over and over again, as most people do, quickly pushing it out of their mind and forgetting, instead of engaging with the experience and trying to learn the lesson.
   
   See this story
   
   And, by getting better and better and at learning the lessons the Universe teaches you, you'll suffer less and less. This is because the Universe starts out with very subtle lessons, that you'll only catch if you train yourself to look for them. From there, She proceeds to more and more obvious lessons until she has to crack you over the head to try and make you get the message.
   
   The other side to karma is creating good karma, to balance your bad and and bring good things into your life. The key to this is giving and vibrating positively.
   
   You must give, you must give every day. Give anything, make a habit of carrying change or a pack of cigarettes to give to homeless people. Give compliments whenever you see the opportunity. Give positive energy psionically to people when you learn to do that. Give love to all things in your own head, thoughts are actions too and influence karma. If you think positive things positive things will find you, and vice versa.
   
   Remember, you mind is your first and closest territory, you have to have absolute control over your domain. If anything negative and dark comes into your mind, you have to banish it with the full force of an army repelling an invader. Your mind is a microcosm of which your reality is the macrocosm. The two are tied together, affect one, you affect the other. This can be difficult, but only in the beginning. How difficult it is depends on how much power you have, which brings us to:
   
   
2. Power
   
   Your luck is also a manifestation of your power. if you work with this stuff there will come a time when power will pour into you and everything will start to go your way. You should start this process now, although it will be subtle in the beginning and difficult to notice.
   
   You can get power in many ways. If you learn energy manipulation you can take it and handle it directly. But that's not necessary. Daily meditation will probably be the most bang for your buck, but you should also do yoga or tai-chai, or any form of physical exercise that appeals to you, but it's extremely important that you exercise your body if you want power. You should exercise at least 3 times a week, ideally more. If no specific appeals to you do yoga. Smoke weed if that's your thing before doing yoga or meditating, it'll power you up.
   
   Those are your routines, but gaining power is an active thing you do in your life. You have to learn to spot disempowerment patterns. That is the dominant thing I'm getting from your post, is disempowerment. You have to take power back!
   
   The most constant disempowered is yourself. You have been conditioned to disempower yourself, you'll realize this if you examine your thoughts and think about how you learned to think this way. You need to engage in gardening, your mind is the garden. Meditation will make this easier and easier. The most effective tool though, for this topic or honestly for any beginner imo, is Undoing Yourself. Not everyone likes the writing style (I personally love it) but the important part are the exercises, if you practice those regularly you will see incredible results. Weed also helps with those.
   
   Anyway, this has been a huge post. My advice on trying dimensional jumping still stands, even though I didn't get to in the post. You can learn how to do it from the subreddit though, just remember that the stuff I talk about here is more important, and harder since its a daily struggle. Dimensional Jumping can make the work I've outlined here much easier though.
   
   Feel free to hit me up if you any questions.
   
   

For books on the Qabalah, the two best books to have been written on the subject are The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune and The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford by Lon Milo Duquette. I'd also pick up a copy of 777 And Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley, which is a book of qabalistic correspondences.

The best book on the Golden Dawn would be The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magick, which covers (almost) everything someone would wish to know about the original Golden Dawn and was written by one of the most famous initiates of the Golden Dawn.

There is not many books on Rosicruciaism, and many books that are out there on it are fraudulent and are not an accurate representation of the Rosicrucians. The only book that I would say is worth a read is Zanoni, which is a fictional story written by a Rosicrucian. It is based on Rosicrucian philosophies and symbolism.

As for Tarot, I myself prefer the Crowley/Thelemic system of tarot over that of the Golden Dawn, so I can only really recommend books on that system, which are The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley and Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo Duquette.

For the goetic demons, the best text would simply be The Goetia

Also, some beginner books I usually recommend are:

Circles of Power: An Introduction to Hermetic Magic by John Michael Greer, which is a beginners guide to ceremonial magick.

Book 4 by Aleister Crowley, which is the most comprehensive treatise on the practice of magick to ever be written, in my own personal opinion.

Enochian Magic in Theory by Frater Yechidah with Enochian Magic in Practice by Frater Yechidah, which are guides to the Enochian system of magick, a very popular and powerful system of magick, developed by the famous magician and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I John Dee, and used and improved upon by many occult orders, most notably the Golden Dawn.

And finally, The Corpus hermeticum by Hermes Trismegistus, which is the foundational text of all hermetic and occult philosophy.

It seems to me, reading your post, that you are facing some mental blocks of your own creation. You say you are a 'spiritual dipshit' with 'disillusions of grandeur'. You also convey much fear, over and over, about various aspects of your spiritual practice, and your relations with others.

I would suggest, that while you have obviously had genuine spiritual experiences, what you lack is a context of a guiding philosophy to make sense of it all.

You are not a dipshit; you are made in the Image and Likeness of the Divine - and with that comes power and responsibility. Power to control your thoughts and experiences, and responcibility to do so wisely.

As to the fear - this is an illusion, created by your own ego. Fear can manifest results in your experience, but these are only the shadows of your bloated nothingness; the reflections of your fear itself. A healthy respect, and patience is essential, but nothing will block you in this or any other venture more so than fear.

I believe it is time that you set aside the development of spiritual phenomena until you have formed, to your own satisfaction, a working philosophy of the Spiritual, Divine nature of things and your relationship with IT. From this standpoint, you will have more success. I have found great wisdom in these writings:

Words to the Wise: Manly Hall

Lectures on Ancient Philosophy: Manly Hall

The Kyballion: Three Initiates

See here's the issue with this kind of question, you want instant results, like just as water, but it doesn't work like that. You'd have to work many years to learn the basis of magic and learn evocation (which some of us here have), and then become familiar with a particular spirit or demon by working with him/her for a long time. Then you may offer that spirit a trade for great power and wealth.

Here's a good resource where some of the ancient manuscripts are listed: http://www.esotericarchives.com/. A lot of them discuss working with spirits.

For a more modern book on the subject I would suggest Summoning Spirits by Konstantinos but he's going to require you have some basic knowledge of high magic first. So for that I would recommend High Magic: Theory and Practice

Happy hunting.

Picatrix is not exactly beginner level or easy to fully embrace all at once. It's difficult material philosophically and otherwise. The astrology in it is extremely advanced. And the elements in it are much more pagan than Christian. But since you mentioned it I feel compelled to point to the only good complete English translation published by a friend of mine: http://www.amazon.com/The-Complete-Picatrix-Classic-Astrological/dp/1257767852 It was interpreted later by Christian writers like Agrippa, Ficino and Bruno, who filtered some of the more controversial material. So if you can digest Agrippa it is really all you need. My friend also has published a modern translation of Occult Philosophy Book One as well: http://www.amazon.com/Three-Books-Occult-Philosophy-Book/dp/1105898792 Buying Book One will help support the work on Two and Three.

It's easiest to think of the astral plane as a real place, lower levels of which roughly correspond to our physical plane (while even lower levels could correspond to some people's ideas of 'hell'), while other higher aspects can be like alternate realms/worlds. When you sleep, a part of you often floats above your physical body like a boat tied in the harbor. If you train yourself to see through that floating astral body, you can do 'astral work' i.e. have a presence in the land of dreams, and then see just how real that land can truly be, especially around the 'real-time zone' (in the part that corresponds to the physical world you know).

Because I've dealt with spirits for years, I would say that what you experienced was an astral encounter with helpful spirits, the results of which became apparent after you woke up. It's not uncommon to become suddenly more aware while dreaming and then have a dream turn into a fully conscious astral event. I've been pulled out many times by spirits and human mentors. Welcome to our world! It only gets weirder and more fascinating from here. ;)

Edit: Buy or download this book. It will tell you everything you need to know.

Unfortunately there isn't really a book that teaches you the methodology without having to do a lot of reading between the lines. Picatrix, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, and Three Books on Life are basically the best source texts.

There are links to my site that talks about different parts of astrological magic, but I haven't written a step-by-step thing about it. I share a lot of astrological timing for various talismans as they come up on my site's Facebook page. Renaissance Astrology is another option, but that website is, in my opinion, kind of a design nightmare, but there are a lot of examples of talismans and elections (some good, some bad). There are even courses available, I took one starting out, but it was really meh and I was pretty disappointed in it. Private tutoring is another really great option, nothing beats one-on-one attention. :)

What are you interested in? Wicca, candle magick, hermeticism and alchemy, Setianism, Qabalah, tarot, mythology, astrology, goetia, esoteric christianity? A little bit of everything?

My recommendation is to start with something you're really interested in and pick up that one thing. If you're interested in Crowley, then you might be interested in tarot. My suggestion is getting a simple book by a laymen's author like Amber Jayanti on the tarot. As you read the book, circle, highlight or write down (or add to a shopping list) sources to which that author refers - Jayanti may cite Paul Foster Case a lot. Once you read some Case books, then you'll start to see Crowley pop up. Pick up Lon Milo DuQuette's book on Crowley's Tarot. Then you can probably read Crowley's Book of Thoth.

My other advice is not to worry about not picking up every little detail of every book. You won't have the schema necessary for every small detail in every book, and part of reading in the occult is rediscovering the deeper meaning of something you thought you already knew, like a spiral upward.

Rider-Waite is a good beginner deck.

My preference (especially awesome if you want a deck LOADED with rich symbology) is The Hermetic Tarot by Godfrey Dowson

IMHO this desk is also one of the greatest if you are interested in the relationship with the Tree of Life.

This is fantastic! The simple animations (especially if they are are not arbitrarily chosen but true to the original meaning, based on thorough examination of the cards) could be a genuinely important addition to the understanding of the tarot. The extra dimension that comes forth by combining traditional imagery with new technology, could have deep impact on the understanding/studying of the cards. The whole deck done this way, would in my opinion be a new milestone in the development of the living tradition of Qabalah and Tarot. I challenge you to get all cards done, however long it takes, either by yourself or by making this into a joint project and recruiting others. I would like to recommend the following book as your primary source of information: https://www.amazon.com/Qabalistic-Tarot-Textbook-Mystical-Philosophy/dp/0971559139 it's the only work i know of, that deals with the card symbolism and their occult connotations, that is of academic quality. I believe you can find a PDF of it online

> I had especially in mind free resources from the internet.

All of these books are interesting in places: sacred texts tarot

The best ones I have read are not online:

The Thursday Night Tarot: Weekly Talks on the Wisdom of the Major Arcana by Jason Lotterhand
and
Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom: A Book of Tarot by Rachel Pollack

Thank you for this reply. I forgot about that Article of Faith, that's very useful in instances like this. Mormons certainly do have an interesting history. I was so shocked when I learned about all the unpleasantries about church history (with the scrying, the Jupiter Talisman, etc). It definitely helped drive me away form that religion, because it wasn't what I though it was. But actually, now that I'm more into "the occult" side of things, that bitterness that I felt about the church has worn off and it's become more of a fascination.

On a related note, I've been wanting to get this book, Early Mormonism and the Magick World View. Have you read this, by chance? If so, what did you think about it?

$70–110?! If you paid anywhere near those prices, you’ve been thoroughly ripped off. You can get the Centenary Edition, verbatim with the original 1908 edition, in hardcover from Amazon for $13.63.

That said, what you may learn from the book by studying it thoroughly is priceless. And if you do find such study profitable, then you may also enjoy “The Hermetic philosophy of ancient Egypt: An appreciation of The Kybalion, and a short study of the hermetic footprints that lead to the Wisdom of ancient Egypt.”

I would also throw in http://www.amazon.com/Enochian-Vision-Magick-Introduction-Practical/dp/1578633826

However I don't agree that Enochian is a good starting point. Do the LBRP for several months and then when the ritual is complete try conversing with the archangels around you for help in understanding and working with the elements, questions you may have, guidance, etc. It may not come in a direct spoken way but may appear as inspirations when you least expect it. When you have gotten that down skry the tattvas and see how that goes. I then suggest either the Olympic Planetary spirits or the archangels of the spheres. From there you should be in a great place for any evocationary magic.

The Mystical Qabalah is a pretty good start off point.

If you're looking to practice Kabbalah Magick & The Great Work of Self Transformation is a good one.

You might actually benefit by not having too much money to throw at books for now. I was working at a used book warehouse when I first got into the occult, which resulted in me buying way too many books than I have time to read. By only purchasing one book at a time, you will be able to focus your studies rather than split your attention.

Based on the reading list in the FAQ, I'd recommend getting something that is in the tradition you are most interested in. Of the paths I know about, I'd recommend Phil Hine's Condensed Chaos for chaos magic and Modern Magick by Don Michael Kraig for Hermetic magic.

Going off the list, Postmodern Magic by Patrick Dunn and The New Hermetics by Jason Newcomb are both excellent crash courses in general occultism with a contemporary twist.

And as others have suggested, get free resources from the internet.

As for the left/right-hand dichotomy, it all comes down to how you want to go about improving yourself though magic. The "right-hand path" leads to unity with divinity, while the "left-hand path" aims to become equal with divinity. Things like black clothing, horned gods or white crystals and angels are just window dressing.

It is important that you remember that you do not need to worry about following one path over the other. They are not roads that diverge in a wood and you must choose when one to take for the rest of your life. "Path" is actually a very poor choice of words for this idea. Think of them as modes, or focuses, for your magical life. You can shift from one mode to the other as needed. Just be sure that you are using symbols that make sense for your world view. Having a focus in Shito spiritualism and then suddenly flipping to goetic demon summoning for one night might not yield effective results.

Wicca is a form of occultism. As an established religion it does not foster the level of free-thinking that many contemporary occultists would like, but it still much more occult than most religions out there. As for mono- and polytheistic occultism, nearly every pantheon has it's own form of mysticism, including the Judeo-Christian religion.

Manly P Hall is great! I've been working my way through his "The Secret Teachings of All Ages." Have you heard of that book? It's a mammoth of information! It was pretty reasonably priced as well. I think I got it on amazon for around $25.

*edit - here is the link on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teachings-All-Ages-Readers/dp/1585422509/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526840270&sr=1-1&keywords=the+secret+teachings+of+all+ages+by+manly+p.+hall&dpID=41Vj%252BAsOirL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

You may find these free e-books of interest.

A Study on the Holy Guardian Angel

The Everyday Path to Your Holy Guardian Angel

and perhaps this as well...

The Holy Guardian Angel <--not free

edited for clarity

A foundational text that will be very helpful is "Three Books of Occult Philosophy" by Agrippa. It will do a lot to help you understand the mindset of the sort of people who wrote the Keys of Solomon as well as other older grimoires.

For my money the best translation in print can be found here.

I'm not sure about essential to every occult library (and I realize some of these aren't necessarily considered primarily 'occult' texts), but here are a few I've found useful:

• The Golden Dawn - Israel Regardie
  
• Morals and Dogma - Alfred Pike
  
• Modern Magick - Donald Michael Kraig
  
• The Secret Teachings of All Ages - Manly P. Hall
  
• Initiation into Hermetics - Franz Bardon
  
• Sefer Yetzirah - Aryeh Kaplan
  
• The Secret Doctrine - Madame Blavatsky
  
• Liber Null & Psychonaut - Peter J. Carroll
  
• The Book of Thoth - Aleister Crowley
  
• Undoing Yourself with Energized Meditation and Other Devices - Christopher S. Hyatt
  
• Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
  
• Enochian Vision Magick - Lon Milo DuQuette
  
• The Chicken Qabalah - Lon Milo DuQuette
  
• Brain Magick - Philip Farber
  
• Info-Psychology - Timothy Leary
  
• Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson - George Gurdjieff
  
• Initiation, Human and Solar - Alice Bailey
  
• The Red Book - Carl Jung
  
• Principia Discordia - Malaclypse the Younger

I’m an exmormon! This book will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about Joseph Smith and his magical practices.

https://www.amazon.com/Early-Mormonism-Magic-World-View/dp/1560850892

Also, if you want to know why members like me are leaving, this website explains all the dirty laundry of Mormonism.

Cesletter.org

A relevant passage about Joseph Smith and magic in the ces letter:

“In order to truly understand the Book of Mormon witnesses and the issues with their claims, one must understand the magical worldview of many people in early 19th century New England. These are people who believed in folk magic, divining rods, visions, second sight, peep stones in hats, treasure hunting (money digging or glass looking), and so on.”

If you have any more questions about the real story of the book of mormon without being preached at, feel free to ask me or the exmormon subreddit.

It is very difficult to establish any kind of reading order for occult studies. Occultism itself is an infinitely tangled strand of truths, half-truths, and lies. It is difficult (perhaps in possible) to identify a starting point and (getting lost is part of the fun).

Nonetheless, I will do my best to identify some possible entry points.

• Crowley Created a reading list for A.'.A.' initiatives. This is not a bad place to start if you are interested in the Thelemic approach.
  
• If Chaos Magick interests you, Liber Null & Psychonaut is not a bad place to start.
  
• My personal favorite approach would be to start withUndoing yourself with energized meditation and other devices After sufficiently "deprogramming" yourself, you may hugely benefit from reading The Dao De Ching, The Torah, The New Testament, the Koran, The Bhagavad gita and other sacred texts not necessarily associated with esotericism. These books contain the most profound truths beneath layers of bullshit (the bull being Taurus/ the sacred cow/ ra) and allegory.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1257767852/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480376215&sr=8-1&pi=SY200_QL40&keywords=picatrix

Sorry for the ugly link, on mobile and forgot how to format it. It's a great addition to my library, but I haven't finished reading it yet. Would recommend :) be careful as the intro states, there are "traps" designed to injure uneducated practitioners....

I'd recommend checking out general "energy work" stuff. This book is one of the best I've ever found:

https://www.amazon.com/Astral-Dynamics-Out-Body-Experiences/dp/1571746161/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=astral+dynamics&qid=1572989589&sr=8-1

I have enjoyed this one.

Probably not a beginner's book, and I don't agree with everything that's presented, but it has helped me make connections that I might not have come to on my own. Easily one of my favorites.

You're welcome. No worries about the length, it was relevant to what you were asking.

Everyone has a 'sixth sense' it's the mind. It's where all the other senses get sorted out and you get your perceptual experience. Your mind is good at using the information it has on hand, sometimes that information is commonly accepted as legitimate by your current conscious awareness, all to often it is filtered out by socially created constructs that determine what experiences are acceptable in a given culture/society.

Freaking out is a pretty typical reaction when experience defies your expectations of what you have come to accept reality as.

You seem to be doing fine already, just intuitively picking things up. Feeding the fire, candles, fire related rituals, offerings to the salamander. It sound like it's taken an interest in you, possibly from before, not sure.

If you can remember the feeling of it when it arrived, the sense of it, and you can visualise in meditation, and ask it to come back while lighting another candle, I'm sure you can continue your process. Pick up some literature on how to go about it. I've seen this book recommended before, but haven't read it.

http://www.amazon.com/Summoning-Spirits-Evocation-Llewellyns-Practical/dp/1567183816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1402090374&sr=8-1&keywords=Summoning+Spirits%3A+The+Art+of+Magical+Evocation

If you have any questions, or need clarification while continuing, you can come to this r/occult to ask questions.

Yes. My introduction to him was Low Magick: It's All In Your Head ... You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is, which is more of a Cosmic Trigger-style autobiographical type piece, yet sort-of an initiation manual in disguise. That or My Life With The Spirits: The Adventures of a Modern Magician, which is his actual autobiography, are great jumping-off points for the newly interested.

I got a great deal from 78 Degrees of Wisdom by Rachel Pollock.

https://www.amazon.com/Seventy-Eight-Degrees-Wisdom-Book-Tarot/dp/1578634083

It largely depends on what you mean when you refer to your HGA. If you're talking about the Abramelin process that leads the contact with your HGA, the rite is intended to culminate in a very specific experience. There are exceptions, wherein some do not experience this culmination and work through it anyway, only to come to gradual revelation later on.

In a slightly broader sense, following the initiatory path of the Golden Dawn and its derivatives (OTO/AA, BOTA, etc.), you will likely find the experience to be gradual, with brief bouts of fairly intense encounters.

There are yet other traditions that introduce one to spiritual guides that can be said to be similar to an HGA, and they vary widely in the experiences they confer.

Understand that your experience will be your own. Seek in earnest and specificity, perhaps experiment with different methods of seeking, but do not expect that your experience will be identical to that of your peers.

Holy Guardian Angel is an excellent resource you might consider.

Check out the Thoth tarot book for more info on reading the cards. I also recommend reading Lon Milo Duquettes book on understanding the Thoth Tarot. Also also, check out liber Theta from Temple of Thelema . There's also an explanation and analysis on divination with Tarot from Soror Meral in Temple of Thelema's periodical called In the Continuum.

book of thoth

understanding Thoth tarot

liber Theta

in the Continuum vol 1

You'll want to read issue no.7 for divination

I'd like to recommend a book if you're interested.
It's Patrick Dunn's "Postmodern Magic: The Art of Magic in the Information Age". He presents a wide number of trans-paradigmatic exercises and "rituals" that I think would be very approachable in this instance.

100% agree with Astral Dynamics. I can't recommend Waite's Pictorial Key though, I found it too dry and uninspiring. And there are better versions of Agrippa such as this one and this one

I've advertised Tyson's edition of Agrippa before and I'll do it again. Seriously, Tyson did an amazing job going through literally every single line and adding footnotes, references, etc. The appendices alone are worth the price of the book. Definitely a must have!

P.S. There is a PDF version of Tyson floating around, too, if you look in the right places, but it's nice to have a physical copy.

oh wow i completely forgot to reply to this comment, anyway this book briefly talks about it https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1567183816/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

The Rider-Waite deck was intended to be exoteric. The Golden Dawn deck was for initiates and was intended to be esoteric. If you're going to study the GD system, this deck is definitely recommended.

The Golden Dawn tarot deck by Robert Wang

The Hermetic tarot deck by Godfrey Dawson

I was in a very similar position. These are my favorite books, modern and very practice based.

Aidan Wachter - Six Ways

Jason Miller - The Sorceror's Secrets

I don't think "demons, aliens, and all things occult" are typically covered in a single, definitive work. Especially because "aliens" are usually part of UFOlogy and not occultism.

Regarding occult topics though:

- The New Encyclopedia of the Occult
- Three Books of Occult Philosophy
- Dictionary of Demons
- A Dictionary of Angels
- The Golden Dawn
- Gems of the Equinox
- The Complete Magician's Tables
- The Magician's Companion

There are literally hundreds of other resources available too, but these are the ones I could think of off the top of my head.

Check out the book Early Mormonism and the Magic World View if this sparks your interest.

The Kybalion was first published by the Yogi Publication Society in 1908 and has been reprinted many times in several different editions and formats. The lastest is the centenary edition pulished this year by Tarcherperigee. This is verbatim with the original edition of 1908.

Amazon have it in stock, priced very modestly at under $15 for the hardback edition.

https://www.amazon.com/Kybalion-Centenary-Hermetic-Philosophy/dp/0143131680

I'd highly recommend this one.

​

https://www.amazon.com/Six-Ways-Approaches-Entries-Practical/dp/0999356607

Interesting. What are you most into? Catholicism? Wicca? Afro Religions? Chaos Magic - Goethia?

Well, here's some searching topics for you:

Catholicism: Look for "extreme unction" (accepted by the Official Church), "La Santisima Muerte", "San La Muerte", "San Lázaro" (Not accepted by the Church).

Wicca: Search for some works of a Wiccan called Konstantinos. Has some interesting books.

Example: https://www.amazon.com/Summoning-Spirits-Evocation-Llewellyns-Practical/dp/1567183816/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1511354337&sr=8-2&keywords=konstantinos+wicca

Afro Religions (Umbanda, Kimbanda, Candomblé): Look on info about Orixá Omulú, Orixá Obaluaié, Exús. Well, most Afro Religions has good knowledge about the Dead.

Chaos Magic: Well, that isn't my expertise, but here's a lot of people into it, keep asking if this is your case.

-------------------------------------------

These are just some beggining points you can search. Enjoy!.

Have a look at Robert Bruce's book Astral Dynamics. I don't care for his new-age style marketing, but his material is sound, original, and road-tested.

I recommend [Seventy-Eight Degrees of Wisdom] (https://www.amazon.com/dp/1578634083/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_Nsbyyb2ZCJ74A)

The sidebar is a good place to start. Also Liber ABA.

As for demons, you want to establish a solid, long term practice and develop serious proficiency before getting into evocation. I'm talking years and years of hard, diligent work.

If you want to learn about demons from a source who is more accessible to the average reader than most old grimoires are, you could check out Duquette's Low Magick.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teachings-All-Ages-Readers/dp/1585422509/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=secret+teachings+of+all+ages&qid=1571413263&sr=8-1

​

pdf: http://www.istitutocintamani.org/libri/The_secret_teachings_of_all_ages.pdf

https://www.amazon.com/Kybalion-Centenary-Three-Initiates/dp/0143131680/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=kybalion&qid=1566792880&s=books&sr=1-1

Try this.

Check this out http://www.amazon.com/Secrets-Magickal-Grimoires-Classical-Deciphered/dp/0738703036/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

You can find it on libgen

https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1578633826/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506102329&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=lon+milo+enochian&dpPl=1&dpID=41imtQLLJML&ref=plSrch

Here you go.

https://www.amazon.com/Kabbalah-Magic-Great-Work-Transformation/dp/0738708933/ref=pd_sim_14_4?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0738708933&pd_rd_r=736ET4NK520MWGEZ8HXJ&pd_rd_w=itx9M&pd_rd_wg=dXmOI&psc=1&refRID=736ET4NK520MWGEZ8HXJ

https://www.amazon.com/Astral-Dynamics-Out-Body-Experiences/dp/1571746161

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Exploring-World-Dreams-Stephen-LaBerge/dp/034537410X

https://www.amazon.com/Art-Dreaming-Carlos-Castaneda/dp/006092554X

Marcelo Motta - Commentary on the Book of the Law

Robert Wang - Qabalistic Tarot

Soror Nema - Maat Magick

Pascal Beverly Randolph - Seership: The Magic Mirror

Samael Aun Weor - Introduction to Gnosis

This book is a collection of essays on the topic. I have it. It's decent.

this
Six Ways: Approaches & Entries for Practical Magic https://www.amazon.com/dp/0999356607/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_0KA4BbTQJ4XHA

Do skip church. I think I went back to church once when I got scared, and another time when a group of assholes shangahaid me through AA. Both times I had to start over from scratch. Your instincts about big box religion are correct, and you should listen to them.

Don't dismiss, well...alternatives to materialism, we'll say, out of hand. A lot of them are BS, sure. And a lot of them that look like BS on the surface have more to them than you'd imagine, if you can get past the scam artists pimping them off for profit.

I personally think, for those who become atheist, you have to push through to the ends of atheism to become a gnostic- and I don't mean Christian Gnostic, I mean that in the generic sense. I had to, there's no shame in it. Don't take things on faith, but do incorporate experience and introspection into your worldview.

Apart from that, if you want to test reality's edges out to see if it's actually the way they explain it to school children, try something like astral projection til it happens. Or some other type of magic. I'd stay away from "black" magic until you find your feet, though. You can certainly go that route if you want, but...I'd get a feel for things first.

Here's a book, Postmodern Magic. If you feel inclined to get it, do the exercises and keep a journal. It's not the only introductory book, but it's a nice one. A free intro to Chaos Magic can be found here, Oven-Ready Chaos by Phil Hine. Both of those are kinda in the Chaos vein of things, but look around, there's plenty of other systems to work in. Druidry, Wicca, Traditional Witchcraft, Shamanism, Hermeticism...blah blah, try stuff til something sticks.

In no particular order, I recommend you read

• Homemade Magick: The Musings & Mischief of a Do-It-Yourself Magus
  
  
• Low Magick: It's All In Your Head ... You Just Have No Idea How Big Your Head Is
  
  
• Modern Magick: Twelve Lessons in the High Magickal Arts
  
  Those should be enough to get you started.

Watzlawick doesn't talk about reframing, I've found much more inspiration on that topic in your everyday chaos-magickal blogpost, in the works of Pete Carroll, Phil Hine, or even in Crowley's work, where he talks about assuming godforms and being a god. Watzlawick as the founder of radical constructivism was more the philosopher to me who showed me that every paradigm, however objective it claims to be, is in itself subjective. I've read "Wie wirklich ist die Wirklichkeit" and "Die erfundene Wirklichkeit", the latter being a collection of essays on radical constructivism by several authors. His most-known work, "Anleitung zum Unglücklichsein" stands in my bookshelf, but I haven't found the time to read it yet.

I don't know if any of his works are available in other languages, though.

Edit: I haven't read it, but the well-known occultist and thelemite Lon Milo Duquette has a book whose title alone sounds like it could be about said topic, reframing, mindsets and magickal thinking. It's called It's all in your head ... You just have no idea how big your head is. :D

Another Edit: Of course Watzlawick was translated to english. How real is real, The invented reality. That's what you get when you link to wikipedia articles without reading them. ;)

Even though "The Golden Dawn Tarot" has a lot of semitic symbolism in it, it's by far my favorite. It's beautiful. I guess witchcraft/divination in the name of Yahweh purifies the Semitic influence on the deck - it no longer becomes trapped in the "traditions of men" as Christ called Jewish human sacrifice.

"And what do we burn apart from witches?"

Here is a link to the deck.