Advice To An Absolute Beginner

[J@cksm1th]

Hello everyone. I'm an absolute beginner to magick. I've been doing a bit of reading and am mainly interested in the Western Mystery Traditions at the moment. The thing is none of the books seem to be written for someone starting out at the very beginning. For instance, books that outline various tools needed to do a ritual etc...And how to use those tools. Also the basics of ritual magick, like how to go about making a magick circle etc... Lately I've been reading about sigil magick because it seems like a simple place to start. Right now I don't have the resources to get into full on ceremonial Magick and, I have to admit, I'd rather keep things simple, stripping things down to what's actually needed to get results and adapting the Magick process to living in the modern, everyday, world. Practical Magick, in a contemporary world. And I need to keep things hidden for now cause even my closest friends would think I've gone completely nuts if they knew the life path I am beginning to take, perhaps becoming prey to satanic panic and plan an intervention/exorcism... lol. I guess I'm mainly asking for pointers on books to read for absolute beginners, that explain things simply, like, "Magick For Dummies," if you catch my drift. Bye for now. Will eagerly await replies.

 

[beardedeldridge]

Welcome to the forum. Sigil Magic as in Chaos Magic? If so that’s a good place to start (low barrier to entry, easily hid). Putting kids to bed at the moment but there are multiple threads discussing the foundational texts for it on the forum. Do a quick search and you should find enough to get started. Good luck on your journey!

-Eld

 

[HoldAll]

I would recommend leaving all tools, magical circles and whatnot aside for the time being and developping your mind instead, specfically by working through Liber MMM in Peter J. Carroll's "Liber Null & Psychonaut" (all books mentioned from here on are in the Library) - if you want, you can skip the 'Motionless' and the 'Breathing' bits and directly focus on empty-mind meditation instead (see Culadasa's "The Mind Illuminated"); make it a daily practice. This may become boring after a while, so I suggest doing the

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as well, just to see how your powers of concentration and visualisation evolve. Jason Miller's "Strategic Sorcery" (the new edition is called "Real Sorcery") is also recommended, particularly his version of the Bornless Rite - learn it by heart and learn to deliver it in a convincing, impressive manner, incantations such as this one are excellent preparation for later ceremonial work.

If you need results fast, @beardedeldridge is right - chaos sigil magic as taught in Frater U∴D's "Practical Sigil Magic" is the quickest way to achieve them.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 11:23 AM

Also:

Seeking Recommendation - Best book on magick for a beginner?

Hey all: I am new to the forum and to magick generally. So far in my journey I've been reading academic works on western esotericism. I'd like to start venturing deeper into magick and I want to ask for your guy's advice on where to start. Can any recommend their top books for beginners on...

wizardforums.com

 

[J@cksm1th]

I would recommend leaving all tools, magical circles and whatnot aside for the time being and developping your mind instead, specfically by working through Liber MMM in Peter J. Carroll's "Liber Null & Psychonaut" (all books mentioned from here on are in the Library) - if you want, you can skip the 'Motionless' and the 'Breathing' bits and directly focus on empty-mind meditation instead (see Culadasa's "The Mind Illuminated"); make it a daily practice. This may become boring after a while, so I suggest doing the

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

as well, just to see how your powers of concentration and visualisation evolve. Jason Miller's "Strategic Sorcery" (the new edition is called "Real Sorcery") is also recommended, particularly his version of the Bornless Rite - learn it by heart and learn to deliver it in a convincing, impressive manner, incantations such as this one are excellent preparation for later ceremonial work.

If you need results fast, @beardedeldridge is right - chaos sigil magic as taught in Frater U∴D's "Practical Sigil Magic" is the quickest way to achieve them.

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 11:23 AM

Also:

Seeking Recommendation - Best book on magick for a beginner?

Hey all: I am new to the forum and to magick generally. So far in my journey I've been reading academic works on western esotericism. I'd like to start venturing deeper into magick and I want to ask for your guy's advice on where to start. Can any recommend their top books for beginners on...

wizardforums.com

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 3:06 PM

Thanks so much for your reply HoldAll. I appreciate your advice and will definitely follow up on your reading and practise recomendations. I am so glad to have found this forum. Just one question, isn't the Bornless rite designed for K&C of the HGA? Or does it have multible uses?

Post automatically merged: Wednesday at 3:13 PM

Welcome to the forum. Sigil Magic as in Chaos Magic? If so that’s a good place to start (low barrier to entry, easily hid). Putting kids to bed at the moment but there are multiple threads discussing the foundational texts for it on the forum. Do a quick search and you should find enough to get started. Good luck on your journey!

-Eld

Also, thanks to beardedeldridge for your prompt reply.

 

[HoldAll]

Just one question, isn't the Bornless rite designed for K&C of the HGA? Or does it have multible uses?

It's originally called "The Headless Rite" which Crowley transmogrified into his famous "Bornless Rite" (which would have been ok but he changed the barbrous names/voces magicae to suit his own private mythology which is just not done). Miller likes "Bornless" better than "Headless" but his version is much closer to the PGM original. You can find a good description of the classic ritual here (the English translation is further down the page):

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There's even a

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on it... it started out in Antiquity as an exorcism, was allegedly used by Crowley to contact his HGA, and now TheDigitalAmbler/Polyphanes has spliced in additional bits for banishing, empowering and HGA purposes, which I think is fine provided you don't mess with the barbrous names like "Atheleberset", etc. I really love the part towards the end where you become a mighty creator god, or at least endeavour to become one. The power of this rite is not so much in the words but rather in the way you deliver them, that's probably why Jason Miller recommeded it, or as someone wrote, "How can you impress the spirits if you can't even impress yourself?" The point here would be to put one's heart and soul into the incantations, you really learn to appreciate the arts of the actor and the orator once you give it a try.

 

[Sabbatius]

I recommend reading Don Webb.

Don Webb - How to Become a Modern Magus
Don Webb - Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path

Webb's LHP works are written in simple script. He has been easy to understand. His Modern Magus book is useful for jumping right into working.
Overall, Webb is meat and potatoes.

 

[Parallax]

Hello everyone. I'm an absolute beginner to magick. I've been doing a bit of reading and am mainly interested in the Western Mystery Traditions at the moment. The thing is none of the books seem to be written for someone starting out at the very beginning. For instance, books that outline various tools needed to do a ritual etc...And how to use those tools. Also the basics of ritual magick, like how to go about making a magick circle etc... Lately I've been reading about sigil magick because it seems like a simple place to start. Right now I don't have the resources to get into full on ceremonial Magick and, I have to admit, I'd rather keep things simple, stripping things down to what's actually needed to get results and adapting the Magick process to living in the modern, everyday, world. Practical Magick, in a contemporary world. And I need to keep things hidden for now cause even my closest friends would think I've gone completely nuts if they knew the life path I am beginning to take, perhaps becoming prey to satanic panic and plan an intervention/exorcism... lol. I guess I'm mainly asking for pointers on books to read for absolute beginners, that explain things simply, like, "Magick For Dummies," if you catch my drift. Bye for now. Will eagerly await replies.

It depends, what are your goals? Then you should build around that.

 

[AlfrunGrima]

Consider to start your training with this, your later self will thank you. It is a building block in developing your magic skills. Kindof like playing scales for a (classical trained) musician.

Book – PDF - Energy Work: 101, 201, 301, 401 and 501

It's just 5 pages copied from Reddit but it may well be the only instruction you'll ever need: https://mega.nz/file/WFdmxYSZ#lX9LcWp0K1O9Zq1pOrgOOBtRqtsauYkzMOQ3LDBztoE 1729067803 Re-up (see original post)

wizardforums.com

 

[HoldAll]

The really important thing is to get a daily practice going, and I mean DAILY so you can never put it off to the next day and avoid getting bogged down in theory because reading books can never be a replacement for actually doing the stuff you're reading about - an hour of practising is worth more than ten hours of studying.

 

[MidnightProphet]

Chaos magick, aka the untrained complete idiot's guide to doing nothing in grand fashion.

Find the series on Agrippa by Esoterica on YouTube.

 

[Accipeveldare]

Hello everyone. I'm an absolute beginner to magick. I've been doing a bit of reading and am mainly interested in the Western Mystery Traditions at the moment. The thing is none of the books seem to be written for someone starting out at the very beginning. For instance, books that outline various tools needed to do a ritual etc...And how to use those tools. Also the basics of ritual magick, like how to go about making a magick circle etc... Lately I've been reading about sigil magick because it seems like a simple place to start. Right now I don't have the resources to get into full on ceremonial Magick and, I have to admit, I'd rather keep things simple, stripping things down to what's actually needed to get results and adapting the Magick process to living in the modern, everyday, world. Practical Magick, in a contemporary world. And I need to keep things hidden for now cause even my closest friends would think I've gone completely nuts if they knew the life path I am beginning to take, perhaps becoming prey to satanic panic and plan an intervention/exorcism... lol. I guess I'm mainly asking for pointers on books to read for absolute beginners, that explain things simply, like, "Magick For Dummies," if you catch my drift. Bye for now. Will eagerly await replies.

A great place to start would be following the syllabus of Peter J Carrols "Liber Null" as it teaches most basics any occultist should likely need.