(Part 3) Top products from r/occult

<<<IF YOU DECIDE TO DO BLOOD OFFERING
BE VERY CAREFUL. >>>

Read this link: https://www.webmd.com/first-aid/cuts-or-lacerations-treatment

I recommend don’t do it, but if you are going to do something dangerous at least practice safety.

It’s extremely easy to accidentally go to deep and then panic. Please have your phone ready, first aid kit ready and a calm head about you. I’m sorry to be a dad about this but I have two little girls that have softened me.

This stone was placed in Reed City, Michigan. This is my twenty-second placed stone in the United States. See my history for the others, placed in different states.
I’m an over the road trucker (Semi Truck) so this is how I’m able to travel quickly.

Two people were involved in calling child protective services on my wife while I’m away traveling. My wife is a stay at home mother who has cancer. The two people spread vicious rumors that I had abandoned my wife and children, called Child Protective Services, and then claimed they were going to personally adopt our children.

1. The 33 days to completely neutralize the two individuals involved are up. The one who was close friends with my wife lost her job. She was later seen mowing her own and her neighbors yards to have her rent reduced by her landlord.
   The second individual involved deleted her Facebook, reported to mutual friends that she was “backing down from her CPS threat” and was now “scared”.
   After completing this 33 Stone Ritual I will be solely focusing on mass healing rituals for my wife and putting this specific retribution ritual behind me. I don’t believe I will be doing revenge rituals again.
   
   
2. I’m using sharpie to draw King Paimon’s sigil on a palm size stone that I find at or near the location. This is a show of appreciation for King Paimon who’s gone out of his way for me.
   
   
3. How did I evoke King Paimon?.... I meditated into gnosis and called upon King Paimon, I do not use physical means of doing so. This is just MY method. I commented this to a fellow Redditor:
   My wife called me sobbing while I was it of town for traveling. She told me everything that was happening. After we got done talking I went into a rage where I I wanted to hurt someone. I don’t remember ever being that angry but I laid down and just meditated. I eventually called on King Paimon begging for help. This ritual flashed into my head, along with the number 3.
   I added 33 stones in 33 States to go big and I wanted plenty of time to do it, so 333 days. It just felt right.
   So I just focused all of my energy on these two people involved. I asked for them to be tormented, suck their health and energy and give it to my wife as retribution.
   
   
4. If you think this is going to disrupt your own magical practices by me placing these sigilized stones in your neck of the woods then place your own and fight back. I’m not going to stop until this is done. And I have more rituals planned after that which will span the entire country. There are quite a few magicians talking and acting witchy, but only a handful doing something. Are you a magician or just a bum who shares edgy witchy memes?
   
   
5. Why King Paimon? ....I chose King Paimon because he’s the most powerful entity I’ve been working with for the longest and he’s been patient and understanding with me. You go to those you know when you have a big favor.
   
   
6. What are the basics or how to summon entities?...
   I am not an expert. I’m an eclectic magician that uses what works and tosses what doesn’t. This ritual works for me, it might not for you. If you are a beginner you need to get your basics down. You wouldn’t make a paper airplane then suddenly decide you’re ready to fly fighter jets. Please for your safety read the basics.
   But here is a very basic appetizer to give you a little edge to the machete that you’ll need to carve your own path in the jungle that is occult information:
   
   Start here: This is an easy comic to give you the basics and get your feet wet.
   
   https://www.deviantart.com/bluefluke/art/The-Psychonaut-Field-Manual-FOURTH-PDF-EDITION-530005584
   
   The Last Podcast on the Left
   (a podcast... hail yourselves....) has episodes on the occult, the right hand path, the left hand path, chaos magic, Aleister Crowley, and a few others I’m forgetting, it’s beginner friendly. And it’s hilarious.
   
   This is kind of a text book that you can follow if you want a thelemic approach.
   
   https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0970449607?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_yo_pop_mb_pd_t2
   
   Also I recommend Gems of the equinox.
   
   https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1578634172?psc=1&ref=yo_pop_mb_yo_pop_mb_pd_t2
   
   This is very beginner friendly and highly recommended:
   https://www.amazon.com/Prometheus-Rising-Robert-Anton-Wilson/dp/0692710604
   
   This is a fantastic meditation app, free, and very beginner friendly.
   https://www.insighttimer.com/meditation-app
   
   I also use Cryo Chamber records to put myself into the setting I need:
   http://www.cryochamberlabel.com/allreleases/?a=776
   It’s ambient sounds like space, polar wastelands, lovecraftian beings in the middle of the ocean. Very good stuff. And most can be found on YouTube.
   
   **
   
   I do not recommend summoning powerful entities without first summoning “safer” beings such as ancestral spirits, but you are going to do what you want. I did. And it’s worked for me. But PROTECT yourself.
   
   You need to get meditation and focus down pat. I’d recommend evoking an ancestor first since they should have your best interests. Then moving onto other entities.
   The Goetia can be friendly, indifferent, malevolent, or simply plain alien. (Think lovecraftian incompressible)
   I know King Paimon and Duke Bune are friendly to beginners, overly patient and open as long as you recognize their rank, are humble and respectful.
   This doesn’t mean try to enslave them. That’s not going to work out great for you. What would happen if you blackmailed a powerful head of state of a country? It’d annoy him and in turn people would find you suicided with a double shotgun blast. Approach them like you would meeting a friendly CEO and you should be fine.
   
   Ultimately realize that you can follow in the footsteps of someone else, but that’s only going to put you on the path devoid of what will really fulfill you. You eventually need to fly, baby bird, And start cutting your own path.
   
   
7. Thank you for all the kind words and support! And to people who disagree with this ritual, and have been amicably in their disagreement, thank you as well!

>I would also like to start 'working' with a higher entity. I'd like to make contact with my HGA, but am not adept enough to perform The Abramelin Operation (seems very scary).

The Abramelin Operation is a bit dated and a lot of people (not all though) use Crowley's Liber Samekh Ritual to establish contact with the HGA. It's supposed to be performed astrally several times a day. Lon Milo Duqette wrote a clearer explanation than Crowley did of how to perform the ritual in his book A Handbook of the Rituals of Thelema. However, that's not usually the first step in contacting the HGA. In Crowley's system, a person must :

1. Gain control over the body of light and rising on the planes. This is often assigned due to the fact that, as I already said, the ritual is not suppose to take place on the physical plane, rather in the astral one after rising on the planes.
   
   
2. Master Asana and Pranayama. Asana is being able to sit completely still in a single position without moving a single muscle for a prolonged period of time and Pranayama is breath control. This is because the HGA is often seen as your subconscious mind and these meditative practices are necessary to be able to quiet your conscious mind so that you may better hear and listen to your subconscious. If you'd like to read more about this, I'd recommend Liber ABA
   
   
3. Master ceremonial magick techniques (i.e. Star Ruby, Star Sapphire, lesser rituals of the pentagram and hexagram, greater rituals of the pentagram and hexagram, etc.) and develop a better understanding of ritual. This is obviously assigned due to the fact that in order to successfully perform a ritual to invoke the HGA, you need to have an understanding of ritual and ability to do it.
   
   
4. Perfect the art of Bhakti. Bhakti is complete devotion to a deity. It includes such things as devoting all acts (i.e. eating, drinking, sleeping, working, breathing, etc.) to the chosen deity, developing a mantra for the deity and reciting it constantly in your head every second of the day without stopping, developing an invocation to the deity, performing ritual service for the deity several times in a 24 hour period including the middle of the night, modeling yourself to behave like the chosen deity, etc. This is necessary as it helps develop the one-pointed focus and devotion needed to successful invoke the HGA. If you'd like, you can read more about this in Liber Astarte
   
   >I would love suggestions from you all regarding anything that would help me practice low-level ritual work!
   
   I'd recommend trying out
   
   The Star Sapphire
   
   The Star Ruby
   
   The Greater Ritual of the Hexagram
   
   The Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram
   
   The Solar Adorations
   
   The Threefold Eucharist
   
   The Mass of the Pheonix
   
   The Form of Hoor-pa-kraat
   
   >Are there any other ways to do this? I feel an affinity toward Angelic forces and have a keen interest in Enochian but am unsure where to begin.
   
   If you're looking to get into Enochian magick, (which I would highly recommend; it's one of my favoritae systems of magick) I'd recommend reading Enochian Magick in Theory and Enochian Magick in Practice by Frater Yechidah.
   
   >I have stayed away from Goetia thus far and would like to focus a little more on white magick (not because I think Goetia is 'wrong'; its just not for me right now). However, I am curious if The Key of Solomon would provide any use for someone wanting to learn about white magic? Am I correct in stating that the astrological pentacles are of use for the magus to use at their will?
   
   I wouldn't classify the Goetia as black magick. Demons in the occult are not the same as demons in Abrahramic religion. In fact, I (as well as others I have talked to) have noticed that the Enochian angels are very similar in character and personality to the Goetic demons. I would also not characterize the Key of Solomon pentacles and sigils as black magick.
   
   But to answer your questions; yes, anyone could use the pentacles (with or without conjuring any of the Goetic demons; the consecration rite for them does not include any evocation, just a blessing) and see results.
   
   As for general books I would recommend to a beginner:
   
   The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford by Lon Milo Duquette
   
   the Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie
   
   The Mystical and Magical System of the A .'. A .'. by James A. Eshelman
   
   777 And Other Qabalistic Writings by Aleister Crowley
   
   Gems From the Equinox by Aleister Crowley and edited by Israel Regardie
   
   
   
   

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.
   
   

Do what thou Wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Interesting and common question here. People who've been involved in the occult for all of their lives still sometimes ponder this question. The only way to make up your mind about this is the same way you test to see if magick is 'real', you need to experience it. Yes, some do believe these deities exist as independent literal entities while others believe they are merely mental constructs or expressions of consciousness not normally available to us ("It's all in your head, you just have no idea how big your head is!"). Then of course there is the wonderfully murky middle ground position between those two beliefs.

I would say that for practical purposes you do not need to have a solid position in order to have the experience. Even if they are not 'real' in literality doesn't mean they aren't 'real'. I would recommend you do some planetary magick, perhaps begin with a talisman creation (example instruction here) followed by a planetary invocation or evocation of the same. A good book I'd recommend is Planetary Magick by Denning and Phillips.. Also read around a bit more; an excellent resource is Studio Arcanis (formerly known as Evocation Magick) where there is lots of talk of evocation, invocation, and everything else you could possible want. Happy hunting!

Love is the Law, Love under Will.

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.

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. :)

It depends on a LOT of factors. Unlike some posters here I don't necessarily believe that you will know when you are ready for more/different but I don't necessarily think that random reddit posters will either.

If you are attracted to Goetic themes but are worried about the demonic implications, you may find Enochian/Angelical practice worth looking into. Its pretty hard-core and involved, like Goetic practice tends to be, but you are working with (what I would argue are) very different entities.

Its a very complex subject but Aaron Leitch has written a a very good beginner guide that I highly recommend.

There's several texts. Try these:

For a primary source try The Book of Abramelin the Mage. This is a recent translation, probably easier to read than the old Mather's version you might have looked at previously.

For an overview, and a bunch of modern ideas about the rite, try 21st Century Mage.

For Crowley's version, there's Liber Samekh.

Basically the rite involves a gradual withdrawal from society over the course of 6 to 18 months. Most people I know of who have had success had it within a year (9 months for me personally, though I continued on for a full year.)

You can re-work the rite to fit as closely as possible to your lifestyle, assuming you do not have a spare 18 months to drop out of society. But to make it work, you'll need to gradually diminish the TV and internet after the first few months, ditch the parties, start fasting regularly, meditate, pray, etc. You become a monk for a year so, to the best of your capabilities, and at the bare minimum, you want to take the final few weeks off from work.

No problem.

This might have already been suggested to you, but you might really like Prometheus Rising. The goal of the book is to learn how to explore different perspectives in great detail, and imho does a good job. It's a fun read too.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/lib800.htm

​

You will still need some sort of Abramelinic structure, but there's a lot of room within that structure/Operation to make it your own. You need to know what you're doing though so would be best to study all of the materials before you begin.

Unfortunately this whole Operation is, although simple in a sense, too extensive to explain in a simple reddit post. Some materials which can help you further though:

​

Dehn - Book of Abramelin (New-Translation)

Bloom - The Sacred Magician

Heidrick - An Abramelin Ramble

Katz - After The Angel

Maggi - Daemonology

Newcomb - 21st Century Mage

Sargent - Your Guardian Angel and You

Cecchetelli (editor) - The Holy Guardian Angel

​

And also Aron Leitch's work is pretty valuable.

It sounds like you are wanting some usable ritual work. Some books that do a good job of easing you into ceremonial magic are:

• Modern Magick - A good primer, from beginner to more advanced work.
  
• By Names and Images - Covers the basics, but get more advanced more quickly. Gets into Skrying more quickly.
  
  And to lesser extents
  
  
• Middle Pillar - Covers the basics of Qabalistic philosophy
  
• Garden of Pomegranates - Gets a little more advanced into Qabalistic Philosophy with some good Skrying "how to" as well, such as testing entities, visuals, etc.
  

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?

I hope this will not come as disrespectful: please do not jump into the deep without being ready. Don't just start invoking entities without being properly grounded first. If you feel even a bit unstable please practice magick and psychotherapy together.

Read Israel Regardie's The Middle Pillar: The Balance Between Mind and Magic. He was a very strong proponent of doing psychotherapy along with the study of magick. In the book he says:
> Today I will not so much as consider even discussion of the Great Work with a student until he has experienced some form of psychotherapy, I care not which.

Take it slow. Be safe. And ffs do not put too much attention on the synchronicities.

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.

This is my favorite book on the Major Arcana.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Fools-Pilgrimage-Kabbalistic-Meditations/dp/0835608395

I think the author is Donald Tyson, but Portable Magic is a great book on constructing rituals for tarot.

As for learning card meanings almost any is fine to get yourself started. I usually recommend starting with whatever your local library has on it instead of spending money or searching for a .pdf.

However if you get a Thoth Deck this is the most reccomended book on it.

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Aleister-Crowleys-Thoth-Tarot/dp/1578632765

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

Unless you are looking to buy a ton of books I would recommend starting with Aaron Leitch's 2-volume The Angelical Language and his book The Essential Enochian Grimoire. That will give you good foundation with language, history, and usage covered in just 3 books. If you are digging the topic after those then I can certainly recommend some from there :-)

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.

My first serious dive into the subject of the occult and western mysticism was Colin Wilson's The Occult. It's an interesting book that slides between being a history of various occult movements and Colin Wilson's own experiences, and he's a very personable writer. His ideas about phenomenological existentialism and description of "animal magnetism" or a sixth sense helped me understand the basis of occult power and understanding. It's not the end-all and be-all of occult books, but it's certainly a good introduction to various strains of occult knowledge and personalities, and a fun read.

>My question is, do you guys mind people like me participating in the community?

Not at all. My only quarrel with you is that you claim to have studied the occult for years without ever having practiced. In my book, that's not studying the occult at all. At best, that's studying other people's occult studies.

You speak as though "believing in" something needs to play a part here, which it doesn't. Experience does, gained through practical studies. Plenty of atheists actually do these studies, and the reslults are books like this.

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.

You use the Great Table: from the appropriate quadrant and sub quadrant, you get the Greater Name of God, the Lesser Name of God, the name of the Ruling Archangel, and optionally the name of the appropriate Angel, and you invoke in that hierarchical order.

The books by Aaron Leitch and Dean Wilson give the method in detail.

After reading the excellent Sex and Rockets, my suspicion is that Scientology is, at its core, Thelema with a more predatory business model. John Carter presents Hubbard (a major supporting character) as an effective and important part of some of Parson's bigger workings. But he also is presented as someone who was entirely disjoint from any kind of ethical framework.

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....

Okay, if you're convinced you're cursed, do protective magic. If you don't know how, ask. Actually, tell you what, pick up this book here by Jason Miller, it should cover all of that, and I'm thinking, since I just looked at my copy of it, Hecate is, in fact, the patron of that book.

I mean it sounds like you want to have or already have a working relationship with Hecate. Or you think you need to make peace with her. That might involve service of some sort, or changing your life somehow. I really don't know, but if she's a guide of yours, she'd be MUCH better to ask than me.

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 recommend Paths of Wisdom. It easily explains a bunch of basic Qabalah stuff, specifically as it relates to magic. http://www.amazon.com/Paths-Wisdom-John-Michael-Greer/dp/1870450256/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1395011180&sr=8-1&keywords=paths+of+wisdom

From what I can say, my experience involving work with planetary influences in the Order has been powerful for me and are in some ways similar and more ways different to RO's 7 Spheres. I think the best reference for the work would be this would be Planetary Magick by Denning and Phillips.

It’s really against the spirit of the AA exam to ask for outside help. It’s an entrance exam, and they are going to judge your qualifications based upon your responses to the exam questions.

Do it on your own, without any outside help. If you are accepted, you know it’s because of you.

Also, I recommend Eshelman’s book on the system of the AA to see if you “mesh.”

The Mystical and Magical System of the A .'. A .'.

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

21st Century mage is good, get that.

Also the Mathers translation is outdated. Get a better one.

Tarot can be a really good meditation tool, as well as useful for divination. I am a comic and tried to do everything else under the sun before that. I had to find myself near suicidal in an office job I hated before I decided I would rather fail in comedy then succeed anywhere else.

Anyway, aside from recommending the tarot and with it this book
http://www.amazon.com/The-Fools-Pilgrimage-Kabbalistic-Meditations/dp/0835608395

My occult thoughts on this are don't think so much about materializing a path, but discovering who you are. The power of occult mythology is its ability to give an individual answer to the questions where did I come from, who am I , and where am I going.

93 - This is called 'pragmatism' by most people and is the fundamental basis of Scientific Illuminism: if you do certain things, you'll get certain results regardless of what you believe are the underlying causes or 'forces' at work. The book Naturalistic Occultism is essentially based on this principle.

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

Anyone more interested in Parson's story must read "Sex and Rockets." One of the coolest biographies I've ever read. http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Rockets-Occult-World-Parsons/dp/0922915970

Here's an interesting bio of the guy.

http://www.amazon.com/Sex-Rockets-Occult-World-Parsons/dp/0922915970

I'd recommend this.

You can thank me later

http://www.amazon.com/Planetary-Magick-Invoking-Directing-Philosophy/dp/0738727342/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1458975390&sr=8-1&keywords=planetary+magick

Get the following:
The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738743992/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_zqnWBbPQ82981

The Essential Golden Dawn: An Introduction to High Magic https://www.amazon.com/dp/0738703109/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_yrnWBb98G4WRB

The Middle Pillar: The Balance Between Mind and Magic https://www.amazon.com/dp/1567181406/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_vsnWBbPTAX7M9

Get yourself a copy of Dion Fortune's "Psychic Self Defense" (link below). It's a classic. And don't do mystical things at your aunt's house, at least not for now.

Which Tarot deck does your brother have? What books does he have?

Dion Fortune: https://www.amazon.com/Psychic-Self-Defense-Instruction-Protecting-Paranormal/dp/1578635098

The HGA operation may very well be over your head.

Do read Abramelin, BUT get the new translation! Its really important, Mathers made errors, including the oil and the squares. You really should only work from the new translation:


https://www.amazon.com/Book-Abramelin-New-Translation/dp/089254127X

The Occult by Colin Wilson

Start with this and go from there

https://www.amazon.com/Occult-Colin-Wilson/dp/1842931075

Some podcasts -

Runesoup

Occult of personality

Thelema Now

The Hermetic Hour

Another one is http://www.amazon.com/Paths-Wisdom-John-Michael-Greer/dp/1870450256

https://www.amazon.com/Fools-Pilgrimage-Kabbalistic-Meditations-Tarot/dp/0835608395

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

I'm not sure what to think about some of these replies.

​

This book by Lon Milo Duquette has, by far, the most honest and insightful stories of evocation I've found. It's written by someone with a perfect combination of magickal experience and writing experience.

He discusses the physical appearances and behaviors of demons he has personally evoked using proper ceremony from the Lesser Keys of Solomon, but most importantly, he describes the bizarre ramifications of those ceremonies. You are left to come to your own conclusions about the risks and rewards of opening a dialogue with demons. His stories are a total trip.

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As for my own experiences:

I've been studying and to a lesser extent practicing magick for 27 years, and I still do not feel comfortable attempting to opening up this box because it is not for the curious amateur. It is playing with powerful forces that are known for being very difficult to control.

I believe I have had intense interactions with entities, mainly in my teen years, but I don't have any way of connecting those experiences to a particular demon or other spirit.

It sounds like some of the others that have responded have also. Were they "demons"? Well, I think it's helpful for communication to agree on definitions, otherwise there isn't an actual conversation happening:

I would define demons the same as the Goetia defines them. That is my reference point. Others might think of Djinn, or connect them to Satan, or even the demonic pantheons of indigenous shamanic religions throughout Asia upon which Buddhism has been overlaid. Or comic books and horror movies.

​

My advice to any one on this forum that is having accidental interactions with spirits is to remember to BANISH AFTER EVERY RITUAL. If you have ever read an actual book on magick, you know it emphasizes banishing rituals. How many people end up slightly haunted/unhinged/off-balanced FOR YEARS because they neglected to properly perform banishing component of a ritual?

Banish thoroughly.

you can dont hear about commanding it in the name of jesus and bs this doesnt work not on the real world

usually spirits like this do have a higher connection with a powerfull spirit be it demonic? or not? you can try and contain him with a hekatian sphere of protection or you can read this book which goes deep into magical protection in general

if you can something that is familiar with magic and summoning tell him to summon the spirit and claim authority from a higher demon/angel whatever is more suitable to him this will compell the spirit to answer your questions (carefully it will answer them that doesnt mean it will leave you alone) if you find out the problem (spirits that are stuck here after some period of time can go mad naturally so who knows )

Proceed with caution. DuQuette relates a case of an imaginary friend gone horribly, horribly bad in his autobiographical book, "My Life With the Spirits" (put it this way -- the story ends with an exorcism).

First of all, here is a classical book about Psychic Self-Defense, the author is Dion Fortune. It is an excellent introduction and a book full of practical advice at the same time.

Free download: https://archive.org/details/pdfy-kDIEdiqtnMyLWk6L/page/n0

Here are the customer reviews on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Psychic-Self-Defense-Instruction-Protecting-Paranormal/dp/1578635098/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1539465165&sr=8-1&keywords=psychic+self+defense#customerReviews

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The attack described by you is definitely "nasty" -- it does not look like the work of a noob who just stumbled upon an occult book by accident.

You mentioned that the first time only your brother and your parents were affected -- do you have a clear idea who was the target? Try to avoid pure guessing, but if it was obvious who was suffering the most under the attacks then it is noteworthy.

A related question: do you, including your family, have any personal enemies who are capable of starting an occult attack?

In any case, I recommend reading in the book mentioned above at least the chapters about "Methods of Defence".

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I usually frame it between the two “everythings”: Context and Intent.

Context is everything. What does your paradigm tell you? What do you make of the observer effect? Our influence over the phenomenological universe doesn’t stop at the end of our fingers. You obviously intuited this to some extent since you’re posting to /r/occult. I think skepticism is healthy and you should, naturally, subject all the elements of your paradigm to the degree of rigor you find appropriate.

Likewise…

Intent is everything. I think you’re right about it being short-sighted to assume that only positive ideations have any kind of effect. Ever tried smiling or frowning for a few minutes at your own reflection? Moods are a tenuous construct. There’s an old Buddhist teaching that says (and I’m paraphrasing) holding onto negative emotions is like grabbing a fistful of hot coals in order to cast them at your enemy. You may indeed strike them and they may suffer some injury, but you certainly will.

So, I think it’s perhaps just as apt a question to consider that, even if curse magick is “real” what should your relationship to it be? It makes more sense, therefore, to a) familiarize oneself with defensive tactics against curse magick and to b) walk a path that does not put one in the position to have to defend against it.

The first one brings Jason Miller’s “Protection and Reversal Magick” to mind. The second isn’t an injunction to be some milquetoast sweetness-and-light-er. I’m suggesting, instead, that each of us contains within ourselves enough “enemies” trying to “curse” us for a thousand lifetimes. Focusing on these elements will be much more fruitful than worrying about curse magick.