He's been working on the LBRP for a minute now and wants to start learning more rituals
When I bought Kraig's
Modern Magick back in 2006, I was in a rush to "learn magick" too. It didn't really help that Kraig's writing was a bit of a jumble of ideas all thrown at the reader. Who the hell was Crowley? Who was Dion Fortune? Why am I being told about Judaism? (In 2006 I was beginning my atheist phase after disillusionment from Christianity and The Bible.) Why am I being taught to relax and calling it a 'ritual'? I found TWO journal entries from late 2006. I got bored and decided that if it's all psychology as Kraig insinuated, then I was wasting my time with magick and should just read books on psychology instead.
It took 15 years for me to get back to magick.
The reason why I recommended Damien Echols' book is because of his explanation:
Mostly what I come across [in the magick section of a book store] are spell books with titles like Love Spells or Prosperity Spells or something similar that offer the promise of obtaining something through magick. They’re essentially recipe books that tell you to collect a certain list of items, follow steps in a particular order, and you’re good. Well, when people take these books home and try them out and nothing happens, they think that magick doesn’t work. They followed the instructions but they didn’t get what they were hoping for, so they conclude that magick is just superstition or just one more form of blind belief.
I probably shouldn’t say that spell books don’t work. It’s more the case that spell books don’t work if you lack the proper understanding of how magick works and you haven’t committed yourself to some crucial foundational practices. Unless you can direct raw power into spells, those books are worthless. You have to be able to put energy and intent and focus into your magick. Otherwise, spells and rituals are merely words.
This part of the book is about getting clear on what the preliminaries are. These aren’t things you do a couple of times and call it good — they’re essential every time you practice magick. They’re what makes your magick work.
When I first became serious about studying magick, I came across elements that felt completely foreign to my life: planetary energies, angels, gods, thoughtforms, or dimensions of reality. On my path, there was a lot of memorization involved, and the rituals felt so strange and complicated. It was overwhelming and confusing, to say the least. How was I supposed to apply any of this stuff to my experience of daily life? Even when I encountered the foundational practices of meditation, visualization, and breath work, I had no idea what to do with them.
In the beginning, it can be frustrating to figure out how all of this applies to real-world situations. If that happens to you, just remember that high magick is fundamentally about energy. Everything is made of energy, and we can shape and use energy to our benefit. Remember: you’re already doing magick all of the time. I’m just presenting some ways to help you get better at it and jump-start the process.
