Seeking Recommendation Are there any well-structured book list on the occult?

[thiago1v1s1]

Greetings,

First of all, sorry about the poor English. I'm not a native speaker

I don't know if there are any, or if how many, posts about an autistic person, like me, who just wanted to start studying magick because of some changes in their lives and somehow watched some stuff on YouTube about Magick that made a lot of sense and ended up here after trying to find a way to start their journey.

But are there any well-structured list of which books I start reading that gives some logical evolution?
Something like:
1. Mathematics
2. Physics
3. Chemistry
4. Biology

Where you start with the basic language and aspects, followed by a set of natural rules that can onl be read by that language, then you learn the interaction and subsequent reaction of those rules into the material world, to finally understand their deep relation to the living world.

I know that there's no right path, but it has been extremely hard for me to discover something because it just looks like there are many doors to open that I can't simply choose one. And even when I close all of them and try to watch which has a breach so I could open and take the path, I simply can't understand it well because it was too advanced, or was something that needed another knowledge to actually make sense.

And that is why I was asking about if there's like a list of readings that can summarise and organise into clear learning process of at least the basics.

 

[Yazata]

Maybe something like this?

[Official] - SkullTraill's Recommended Occult Reading and Reference

Now that our library is starting to get pretty fleshed out, I've decided to make a comprehensive list of what I consider to be essential occult reading in various categories. Please note: this thread is a work in progress, and will be for the forseeable future. I want it to only include books...

wizardforums.com

 

[HoldAll]

To this I would like to add:

Seeking Recommendation - Best book on magick for a beginner?

My personal preference is for scholarly history books to obtain a general overview and then look for practice-oriented books on a given topic; these history books usually focus on a specific geographical area or culture. Generally speaking, there's an overemphasis on Western European and Mediterranean magic, so you might just as well start there:

Goodrick-Clarke - The Western Esoteric Traditions, A Historical Introduction
Versluis - Magic and Mysticism, An Introduction to Western Esotericism
Magee - The Cambridge Handbook of Western Mysticism and Esotericism

A simplified overview of this infuriatingly hazy subject is The Secret Teachings of all Ages by Manly P. Hall - I haven't read it but I hear it got many people started on their journey through the occult.

All these books can be either found in the Forum Library or on

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.

 

[diana_i_gusarova]

I think it would be correct to start by defining your goals and objectives. What exactly do you want to achieve from practicing occultism? Understanding the goal will allow you to immediately discard inappropriate paths and focus on what can be useful.

 

[otiosus]

If you like structured materials on magic, look for Quareia. It's probably the largest free structured occult course.
I personally don't really like it because it's too serious, but you can try.

 

[SkullTraill]

The hard sciences are like a tree, it starts off with a trunk, and keeps branching out. So there are just a few good entry points.

Magick is more like an art. It's a bundle of parallel branches. There is no right place to start, and there is no one correct path. You are treating magick as one unified practice when that couldn't be further from the truth.

Since you're new, it's overwhelming. Just take your time absorbing as much as you can, first, and then (even if you can't decide -- flip a coin if you have to) pick something and just do it. Once you start doing, you'll start understanding. If something doesn't work for you, move on to the next. As others have shown above, WF already has plenty of discussions, recommendations and resources for you.

I would say, before you try to read all the books in someone's recommended book list... try to find a simple tutorial on WF, and start with that. Look to books once you have at least a rough idea of which path you want to take.

 

[HoldAll]

Forgot Magic: A Very Short Introduction by Owen Davies. The Very Short Introduction series is solid, many books were written by serious scholars and academics (I also recommend the one about the Kabbalah!). A dozen copies or so are available here:

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