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- Nov 18, 2024
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Chao-Animist Necromancy, my half-joke fancy name for just Traditional Western Magic and Witchcraft, with some modern adaptations.
For newcomers who have not yet ambered in cruft their personal operative myths... I say start with Chaos Magic, then move into practices that make you calm and focused.
In trad sorcery you get what you bring, so start with Mitch Horowitz's - '30-Day Mental Challenge'.
Do it until you have control over your imagination and are not a bitter, sniveling asshole. (As we all start off as). I consider this equivalent mastering the Practicus Grade, and the element of 'Water' in the Golden Dawn system.
In trad sorcery you get what you bring, so bring your best self, as they say
-----------------------------------------------
In his book ' Pieces of Eight' chaos magician and shamanic practitioner Gordon White gives his recommend reading list for a minimum credible Rune Soup chaos magic library.
There is Magic, which is a very different category from the things that are merely magical. This list goes a a long way to help newcomers to learn which is witch is what. Many practitioners and seekers tend to smear it all together under the ubiquitous word Persian loan-word "magic" , so I appreciate White's breakdown into more distinctive and useful categories.
I have some of my 2025 essential reading I'll add below, but I think this list is super solid, and I'll post it here unedited first.
-----------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------
Rune Soup Chaos Magic Library
-----------------------------------------------
Chaos Magic
------------------------
Liber Kaos – Peter J Carroll
Liber Null & Psychonaut – Peter J Carroll
Psybermagick: Advanced Ideas in Chaos Magick – Peter J Carroll
The Apophenion – Peter J Carroll
The Octavo – Peter J Carroll
Epoch: The Esotericon and Portals of Chaos – Peter J Carroll & Matt Kabryn
Pieces of Eight – Gordon White
Necronomicon - Simon (edited)
------------------------
Western Magic and Witchcraft (Practical)
------------------------
The Magical Treatise of Solomon or Hygromanteia – Ioannis Marathakis
The Lesser Key of Solomon – Joseph Peterson
Apocalyptic Witchcraft – Peter Grey
The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation – Hans Dieter Betz
The Book of St Cyprian: The Sorcerer’s Treasure – José Leitāo
Book 4 – Aleister Crowley
Three Books of Occult Philosophy – Henry Cornelius Agrippa
The Orphic Hymns - Apostolos N. Athanassakis and Benjamin M. Wolkow
The Chaos Protocols – Gordon White
------------------------
Western Magic and Witchcraft (Historical/Contextual)
------------------------
Geosophia - Jake Stratton-Kent
Grimoires: A History of Magic Books – Owen Davies
Lucifer: Princeps – Peter Grey
Star.Ships: A Prehistory of the Spirits – Gordon White
Mystical Origins of the Tarot – Paul Huson
The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus – Gary Lachman
Thrice Great Hermetica and the Janus Age – Joseph P Farrell
Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman World – Daniel Ogden
The Classical World – Robin Lane Fox
Comparing Religions – Jeffrey Kripal
Aleister Crowley: The Biography – Tobias Churton
The Ancient Mysteries – Marvin Meyer
The Sacred and the Profane – Mircea Eliade
The Origins of the World’s Mythologies – E.J. Michael Witzel
Sinister Forces vol 1, 2 and 3 – Peter Levenda
The Red Book – C. G. Jung
Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic – Stephen Skinner
Techniques of Solomonic Magic – Stephen Skinner
-------------------------------
Psi and Science
-------------------------------
The Science Delusion – Rupert Sheldrake
Consciousness Beyond Life – Pim Van Lommel
Science and Psychic Phenomena: The Fall of the House of Skeptics – Chris Carter
Authors of the Impossible – Jeffrey Kripal
Cosmic Trigger vol 1 – Robert Anton Wilson
Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual – Bill Mollison
---------------------------------
UFOs and Spirits
---------------------------------
Supernatural – Graham Hancock
Dimensions – Jacques Vallée
Confrontations – Jacques Vallée
Forbidden Science vol 1, 2 and 3 – Jacques Vallée
The Super Natural – Jeffrey Kripal and Whitley Streiber
The Trickster and the Paranormal – George P. Hansen
Final Events – Nick Redfern
Food of the Gods – Terence McKenna
--------------------------------
Economics and Probability
--------------------------------
Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder – Nicholas Nassim Taleb
The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives – Leonard Mlodinow
The Internet is Not the Answer – Andrew Keen
Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy – Charles Hugh-Smith
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morgan's 2025 Additional Recommendations
-----------------------------------------------
---------------------------------
Essential Core Concepts
---------------------------------
-- Karen Armstrong - A Short History of Myth (2005)
-- Patrick Harpur - Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld (2003)
-- Patrick Harpur - The Secret Tradition of the Soul (2011)
-- Dr. Gregory Shaw - Hellenic Tantra: The Theurgic Platonism of Iamblichus
-- Porphyry - On Images
--Ramsey Dukes - SSOTBME Revised
---------------------------------
Chaos Magic / New Thought
---------------------------------
-- Mitch Horowitz - 'The Miracle Club: How Thoughts Become Reality'
-- Mitch Horowitz - '30-Day Mental Challenge'
-- Neville Goddard - All of his Law of Assumption (avoid all the Law of Attraction people who add unnecessary imaginative constructs)
-- Peter J. Carroll, and others - This Is Chaos: Embracing the Future of Magic
I higly recommend Chap. 8 by Ivy Corvus: Thread Theory: A New Chaos Approach
This is shocking close to to my own theories and practical addition, and hits on what is overlooked point in the entire practice.
---------------------------------
Grimoires ( Classic)
---------------------------------
-- Grimorium Verum
-- Pietro d'Abano - The Heptameron
-- Abraham of Worms - The Book of Abramelin
-- The Sworn Book of Honorius (Liber Juratus)
-- The Picatrix
---------------------------------
Contemporary Books
---------------------------------
-- Stephen Skinner - The Goetia of Dr Rudd
For a less-spooky-than-GV pratice Skinner's book will introduce you to the archetypal ritual structures of Western Magic.
-- Joseph Peterson and Stephen Skinner, all books,
Pay attetnion to their work re-covering and translating primary sources of the traditon.
-- Jake Stratton-Kent
For his historical takes reviving the Greek thread of Goetia. But most importantly , read for his general operative stance attitude toward practice. Game knows game.
-- Aaron Leitch - Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires
Read for a much excellent attempt to comprehensively and concisely get a handle for what is going on - the symbolism and the living embodied poetry of Goetia and ceremonial magic overall .
-- Jake Stratton-Kent - Pandemonium
-- David Rankine - Claves Intelligentiarum
-- Jake Stratton-Kent - The Sworn and Secret Grimoire (Night School)
---------------------------------
Philosophical / Theological / Practical (Classic)
---------------------------------
-- Iamblichus - On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians (De Mysteriis)
-- Michael Psellus - On The Operation Of Daemons (De Operatione Daemonum)
-- The Chaldean Oracles
-- The Corpus Hermeticum
-- Plato - Timaeus
-- The Bible - For those approaching necromancy / Goetia from a Judeo-Christian mythic framework. Those with religious Christo-trauma from growing up in the big box brand American churches, start with the Book of Revelations, and the Psalms (which preceed Chistianity.
-- Agrippa - Three Books of Occult Philosophy
-- Pseudo-Agrippa - The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy
---------------------------------
Conjure, Hoodoo, Brujeria, Hechicería' - New World Witchcraft (Practical)
---------------------------------
-- Harry Middleon Hyatt - Hoodoo, Conjuration, Witchcraft & Rootwork Vols. 1-5
-- Catherine Yronwode - Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic
-- Brother Moloch - Online. For all the advice he gave us Gen-Xers coming out of the 1990's Boomer lodge magic head trip.
-- Malcom Mills - Potion Book (stolen and published by Herman Slater)
-- Starr Casas - Old Style Conjure: Hoodoo, Rootwork, & Folk Magic
Almost there!
-- S. Jason Black (with Christopher S. Hyatt ) - Pacts with the Devil
-- Tarostar's "witchcaft" books -
- Knocking off points for presenting (er, or "appropriating". as the kids say these days) New World Conjure / Brujeria as European "pagan" witchcraft.
But whatever , it was the 1980's and people knew next to nothing. And his work is still useful in a sorecerous practice
Oh!
---------------------------------
Morgan's Essential Core Concepts Addendum
---------------------------------
-- George P. Hansen - The Trickster and the Paranormal
Since this was on Gordon's list I originally didn't add it, but on second I wanted to highlight it here.
I can't recommend Hansen's book highly enough. Be sure to read it along with the others in this category, then watch connections bubble up in your brain.
Where it fits.
The more paranormal dynamic and characteristics of evocation come into play when you bring thought-beings (daimons, spirits) 'out' , of the 'Mental Plane' and 'down' into to the colorful and chaotic Carnival of the Sublunar World. There they take on bodies that are made of the more tempestuous astral flux.
The Trickster element comes into play in the practive here, mostly becasue of the chaotic emotions that come with indivduality this far 'down' into Duality. This is the point where the more traditional tools will start to make a lot more sense .
Mastering you emotions is key here. You can also rile them up for spiritual warfare protected targets, but that hits in advanced sorcery techniques that is not without some danger
For newcomers who have not yet ambered in cruft their personal operative myths... I say start with Chaos Magic, then move into practices that make you calm and focused.
In trad sorcery you get what you bring, so start with Mitch Horowitz's - '30-Day Mental Challenge'.
Do it until you have control over your imagination and are not a bitter, sniveling asshole. (As we all start off as). I consider this equivalent mastering the Practicus Grade, and the element of 'Water' in the Golden Dawn system.
In trad sorcery you get what you bring, so bring your best self, as they say
-----------------------------------------------
In his book ' Pieces of Eight' chaos magician and shamanic practitioner Gordon White gives his recommend reading list for a minimum credible Rune Soup chaos magic library.
There is Magic, which is a very different category from the things that are merely magical. This list goes a a long way to help newcomers to learn which is witch is what. Many practitioners and seekers tend to smear it all together under the ubiquitous word Persian loan-word "magic" , so I appreciate White's breakdown into more distinctive and useful categories.
I have some of my 2025 essential reading I'll add below, but I think this list is super solid, and I'll post it here unedited first.
-----------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------
Rune Soup Chaos Magic Library
-----------------------------------------------
Chaos Magic
------------------------
Liber Kaos – Peter J Carroll
Liber Null & Psychonaut – Peter J Carroll
Psybermagick: Advanced Ideas in Chaos Magick – Peter J Carroll
The Apophenion – Peter J Carroll
The Octavo – Peter J Carroll
Epoch: The Esotericon and Portals of Chaos – Peter J Carroll & Matt Kabryn
Pieces of Eight – Gordon White
Necronomicon - Simon (edited)
------------------------
Western Magic and Witchcraft (Practical)
------------------------
The Magical Treatise of Solomon or Hygromanteia – Ioannis Marathakis
The Lesser Key of Solomon – Joseph Peterson
Apocalyptic Witchcraft – Peter Grey
The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation – Hans Dieter Betz
The Book of St Cyprian: The Sorcerer’s Treasure – José Leitāo
Book 4 – Aleister Crowley
Three Books of Occult Philosophy – Henry Cornelius Agrippa
The Orphic Hymns - Apostolos N. Athanassakis and Benjamin M. Wolkow
The Chaos Protocols – Gordon White
------------------------
Western Magic and Witchcraft (Historical/Contextual)
------------------------
Geosophia - Jake Stratton-Kent
Grimoires: A History of Magic Books – Owen Davies
Lucifer: Princeps – Peter Grey
Star.Ships: A Prehistory of the Spirits – Gordon White
Mystical Origins of the Tarot – Paul Huson
The Quest for Hermes Trismegistus – Gary Lachman
Thrice Great Hermetica and the Janus Age – Joseph P Farrell
Magic, Witchcraft and Ghosts in the Greek and Roman World – Daniel Ogden
The Classical World – Robin Lane Fox
Comparing Religions – Jeffrey Kripal
Aleister Crowley: The Biography – Tobias Churton
The Ancient Mysteries – Marvin Meyer
The Sacred and the Profane – Mircea Eliade
The Origins of the World’s Mythologies – E.J. Michael Witzel
Sinister Forces vol 1, 2 and 3 – Peter Levenda
The Red Book – C. G. Jung
Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic – Stephen Skinner
Techniques of Solomonic Magic – Stephen Skinner
-------------------------------
Psi and Science
-------------------------------
The Science Delusion – Rupert Sheldrake
Consciousness Beyond Life – Pim Van Lommel
Science and Psychic Phenomena: The Fall of the House of Skeptics – Chris Carter
Authors of the Impossible – Jeffrey Kripal
Cosmic Trigger vol 1 – Robert Anton Wilson
Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual – Bill Mollison
---------------------------------
UFOs and Spirits
---------------------------------
Supernatural – Graham Hancock
Dimensions – Jacques Vallée
Confrontations – Jacques Vallée
Forbidden Science vol 1, 2 and 3 – Jacques Vallée
The Super Natural – Jeffrey Kripal and Whitley Streiber
The Trickster and the Paranormal – George P. Hansen
Final Events – Nick Redfern
Food of the Gods – Terence McKenna
--------------------------------
Economics and Probability
--------------------------------
Antifragile: Things That Gain From Disorder – Nicholas Nassim Taleb
The Drunkard’s Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives – Leonard Mlodinow
The Internet is Not the Answer – Andrew Keen
Get a Job, Build a Real Career and Defy a Bewildering Economy – Charles Hugh-Smith
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Morgan's 2025 Additional Recommendations
-----------------------------------------------
---------------------------------
Essential Core Concepts
---------------------------------
-- Karen Armstrong - A Short History of Myth (2005)
-- Patrick Harpur - Daimonic Reality: A Field Guide to the Otherworld (2003)
-- Patrick Harpur - The Secret Tradition of the Soul (2011)
-- Dr. Gregory Shaw - Hellenic Tantra: The Theurgic Platonism of Iamblichus
-- Porphyry - On Images
--Ramsey Dukes - SSOTBME Revised
---------------------------------
Chaos Magic / New Thought
---------------------------------
-- Mitch Horowitz - 'The Miracle Club: How Thoughts Become Reality'
-- Mitch Horowitz - '30-Day Mental Challenge'
-- Neville Goddard - All of his Law of Assumption (avoid all the Law of Attraction people who add unnecessary imaginative constructs)
-- Peter J. Carroll, and others - This Is Chaos: Embracing the Future of Magic
I higly recommend Chap. 8 by Ivy Corvus: Thread Theory: A New Chaos Approach
This is shocking close to to my own theories and practical addition, and hits on what is overlooked point in the entire practice.
---------------------------------
Grimoires ( Classic)
---------------------------------
-- Grimorium Verum
-- Pietro d'Abano - The Heptameron
-- Abraham of Worms - The Book of Abramelin
-- The Sworn Book of Honorius (Liber Juratus)
-- The Picatrix
---------------------------------
Contemporary Books
---------------------------------
-- Stephen Skinner - The Goetia of Dr Rudd
For a less-spooky-than-GV pratice Skinner's book will introduce you to the archetypal ritual structures of Western Magic.
-- Joseph Peterson and Stephen Skinner, all books,
Pay attetnion to their work re-covering and translating primary sources of the traditon.
-- Jake Stratton-Kent
For his historical takes reviving the Greek thread of Goetia. But most importantly , read for his general operative stance attitude toward practice. Game knows game.
-- Aaron Leitch - Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires
Read for a much excellent attempt to comprehensively and concisely get a handle for what is going on - the symbolism and the living embodied poetry of Goetia and ceremonial magic overall .
-- Jake Stratton-Kent - Pandemonium
-- David Rankine - Claves Intelligentiarum
-- Jake Stratton-Kent - The Sworn and Secret Grimoire (Night School)
---------------------------------
Philosophical / Theological / Practical (Classic)
---------------------------------
-- Iamblichus - On the Mysteries of the Egyptians, Chaldeans, and Assyrians (De Mysteriis)
-- Michael Psellus - On The Operation Of Daemons (De Operatione Daemonum)
-- The Chaldean Oracles
-- The Corpus Hermeticum
-- Plato - Timaeus
-- The Bible - For those approaching necromancy / Goetia from a Judeo-Christian mythic framework. Those with religious Christo-trauma from growing up in the big box brand American churches, start with the Book of Revelations, and the Psalms (which preceed Chistianity.
-- Agrippa - Three Books of Occult Philosophy
-- Pseudo-Agrippa - The Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy
---------------------------------
Conjure, Hoodoo, Brujeria, Hechicería' - New World Witchcraft (Practical)
---------------------------------
-- Harry Middleon Hyatt - Hoodoo, Conjuration, Witchcraft & Rootwork Vols. 1-5
-- Catherine Yronwode - Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic
-- Brother Moloch - Online. For all the advice he gave us Gen-Xers coming out of the 1990's Boomer lodge magic head trip.
-- Malcom Mills - Potion Book (stolen and published by Herman Slater)
-- Starr Casas - Old Style Conjure: Hoodoo, Rootwork, & Folk Magic
Almost there!
-- S. Jason Black (with Christopher S. Hyatt ) - Pacts with the Devil
-- Tarostar's "witchcaft" books -
- Knocking off points for presenting (er, or "appropriating". as the kids say these days) New World Conjure / Brujeria as European "pagan" witchcraft.
But whatever , it was the 1980's and people knew next to nothing. And his work is still useful in a sorecerous practice
Post automatically merged:
Oh!
---------------------------------
Morgan's Essential Core Concepts Addendum
---------------------------------
-- George P. Hansen - The Trickster and the Paranormal
Since this was on Gordon's list I originally didn't add it, but on second I wanted to highlight it here.
I can't recommend Hansen's book highly enough. Be sure to read it along with the others in this category, then watch connections bubble up in your brain.
Where it fits.
The more paranormal dynamic and characteristics of evocation come into play when you bring thought-beings (daimons, spirits) 'out' , of the 'Mental Plane' and 'down' into to the colorful and chaotic Carnival of the Sublunar World. There they take on bodies that are made of the more tempestuous astral flux.
The Trickster element comes into play in the practive here, mostly becasue of the chaotic emotions that come with indivduality this far 'down' into Duality. This is the point where the more traditional tools will start to make a lot more sense .
Mastering you emotions is key here. You can also rile them up for spiritual warfare protected targets, but that hits in advanced sorcery techniques that is not without some danger
Last edited: