[Opinion] Starting occult studies

[Leviathan]

Whats everyone's favorite source to recommend when starting occult studies?

 

[Khoren_]

Depends on your personal desire. If you want more ceremonial work, start with some of Crowley's works. If you want more "hedge witch" work, read Amber K, or Donald Tyson's "Ritual Magic". If you want more Chaos work, find a pot to piss in while banging your head against a wall (i kid, read chaosmatrix.org). If you want more internal work, you can start with the Tao Te Ching or even some Alchemical works by Mark Stavish. If you want a more comprehensive overview, just start browsing through the youtube channels offered up on the thread about "trustworth youtube creators". It's really hard to be like "Start here!" because there are so many wonderful starting points, that in my studies I often found myself starting over and over and over and over. I have personally undergone at least four "initiations" (not literally, but starting points for certain paths). Just find something that interests you in general and just keep at it.

 

[Leviathan]

Depends on your personal desire. If you want more ceremonial work, start with some of Crowley's works. If you want more "hedge witch" work, read Amber K, or Donald Tyson's "Ritual Magic". If you want more Chaos work, find a pot to piss in while banging your head against a wall (i kid, read chaosmatrix.org). If you want more internal work, you can start with the Tao Te Ching or even some Alchemical works by Mark Stavish. If you want a more comprehensive overview, just start browsing through the youtube channels offered up on the thread about "trustworth youtube creators". It's really hard to be like "Start here!" because there are so many wonderful starting points, that in my studies I often found myself starting over and over and over and over. I have personally undergone at least four "initiations" (not literally, but starting points for certain paths). Just find something that interests you in general and just keep at it.

This is a great overview thank you! Tons of new things for me to look at, the only one I'm familiar with is the 道德经 and that's just because I was forced into Mandarin fluency lol.

 

[Xenophon]

Whats everyone's favorite source to recommend when starting occult studies?

For Nordic magick, see Stephen Flowers (he wrote some under the name Edred Thorsson.) Also see Guido von List's "Secret of the Runes," Siegfried Adolph Kummer, "Rune Magic" and Bernhard Marby's Runic-Writing. Maybe have a look at Peryt Shou's "Sexual Mysteries in Religion." This last gives the first set of actual exercises for the runes since their late 19th century revival.

Of the above, Flowers is the most accessible. He is still alive; the others died out no later than the 50's or before. His "Futhark" is a good place to start.

 

[HoldAll]

This book gets frequently recommended on Reddit although it is probably hopelessly dated by now. There is also a similar thread regarding beginners's books on magic, you might take a look at what has been suggested there. Another approach would be starting with the history of occultism first - find out what particularly piques your interest and then search our Library for related books:

https://wizardforums.com/search/47681/?q=history&t=post&c[child_nodes]=1&c[nodes][0]=32&c[title_only]=1&o=date

It's a vast subject area you can easily get lost in. Happy hunting!

 

[neilwilkes]

Whats everyone's favorite source to recommend when starting occult studies?

The best advice I can give you is what Crowley writes in Appendix 1 to his 'Book 4, Part III 'Magick In Theory & Practise' after the first list of recommended reading is given (section 1 - Books for Serious Study):

The object of this course of reading is to familiarize the student with all that has been said by the Great Masters in every time and country. He should make a critical examination of them; not so much with the idea of discovering where truth lies, for he cannot do this except by virtue of his own spiritual experience, but rather to discover the essential harmony in those varied works. He should be on his guard against partisanship with a
favourite author. He should familiarize himself thoroughly with the method of mental equilibrium, endeavouring to contradict any statement soever, although it may be apparently axiomatic.
The general object of this course, besides that already stated, is to assure sound education in occult matters, so that when spiritual illumination comes it may find a well-built temple. Where the mind is strongly biased towards any special theory, the result of an illumination is often to inflame that portion of the mind which is thus overdeveloped, with the result that the aspirant, instead of becoming an Adept, becomes a bigot and fanatic.

It's a reasonably decent list, covering the major schools of religious thought with one obvious omission.
I'd also recommend the introduction to Book 4, Part 3 too - it's a superb piece of writing, with it's definition of Magick followed by various postulates & theorems.
I would also suggest reading the works of John Dee, particularly the Propaedumata Aphoristica & the Introduction to Euclid in James Alan Egan's book 'The Mathematical Masterpieces of John Dee' which has facsimiles of the original versions, plus modern English versions too. Dee is the fount & the source of almost everything in the modern Western Occult tradition - if it were not for Dee then the Golden Dawn would never have existed and without the GD there sinmply wouldn't be any western tradition outside of a few secretive initiates still copying out manuscripts by hand.
John Dee does not get nearly as much respect as he deserves.

 

[Vandheer]

Whats everyone's favorite source to recommend when starting occult studies?

Gurdjieff + Nietzsche + Praxis heavy book to your liking. Preferably a Chaos Magick one to show you barebones and flexibility of the art.

 

[Accipeveldare]

Whats everyone's favorite source to recommend when starting occult studies?

Chaos magick and energy manipulation are great places to start

 

[Mars]

Whats everyone's favorite source to recommend when starting occult studies?

Julius Evola.
The Hermetic Tradition
and
Revolt against the modern world

Turba Philosophorum, Plato, Pythagoras and others

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is also good to have been read.

Oera Linda if you feel daring

Bhagavad-Gita

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If you want something potent

 

[lee smith]

The first step I've always taught my students (less than five of them) is to start meditating until you can do it for at least 20 min a stretch. Do it daily. Once you can do that then get into a meditative state and ask yourself: What do I really want in regards to magic? Do you want nature magic or down and dirty roots and folk magic? Or do you want to spend most of your practice sitting in meditation or do you want the robes and fasts and studies of a Ceremonial magician. Maybe you want to conjure a demon to get laid or put someone you don't like in the hospital.

Be honest with yourself and start planning from there. You will save a lot of stubbed toes doing it that way versus taking a little from each pot to figure out what you like or don't.

 

[mjesecC]

The first step I've always taught my students (less than five of them) is to start meditating until you can do it for at least 20 min a stretch. Do it daily. Once you can do that then get into a meditative state and ask yourself: What do I really want in regards to magic? Do you want nature magic or down and dirty roots and folk magic? Or do you want to spend most of your practice sitting in meditation or do you want the robes and fasts and studies of a Ceremonial magician. Maybe you want to conjure a demon to get laid or put someone you don't like in the hospital.

Be honest with yourself and start planning from there. You will save a lot of stubbed toes doing it that way versus taking a little from each pot to figure out what you like or don't.

I think this here is solid advice <3

 

[HoldAll]

Advanced Magick for Beginners

 

[neilwilkes]

The first step I've always taught my students (less than five of them) is to start meditating until you can do it for at least 20 min a stretch. Do it daily. Once you can do that then get into a meditative state and ask yourself: What do I really want in regards to magic? Do you want nature magic or down and dirty roots and folk magic? Or do you want to spend most of your practice sitting in meditation or do you want the robes and fasts and studies of a Ceremonial magician. Maybe you want to conjure a demon to get laid or put someone you don't like in the hospital.

Be honest with yourself and start planning from there. You will save a lot of stubbed toes doing it that way versus taking a little from each pot to figure out what you like or don't.

That's really good advice, and this reply should IMO be pinned as one of the best replies to this question I've ever seen.
If the student cannot even meditate for 20 minutes at a stretch then all bets should be immediately off at that point! In Crowley's 'Moonchild', Simon Iff is talking to Lisa La Giuffria & says the following (which I feel is very relevant)

We all know how stupid we are when we try to do things. Seek to make any other muscle work as consistently as your heart does without your
silly interference -- you cannot keep it up for forty-eight hours. (I forget what the record is, but it's not much over twentyfour.)

Basically, all I am trying to say here is that if the student cannot muster the discipline to do something as simple as 20 minutes meditation on a daily basis then what chance would they have of succeeding in an actual evocation?

 

[lee smith]

True, but the changes that occur to the student from doing the meditation is more important than doing the evocation, in my opinion. You are always you and are always with yourself and the spirits come and go.

 

[HoldAll]

The first step I've always taught my students (less than five of them) is to start meditating until you can do it for at least 20 min a stretch. Do it daily. Once you can do that then get into a meditative state and ask yourself: What do I really want in regards to magic? Do you want nature magic or down and dirty roots and folk magic? Or do you want to spend most of your practice sitting in meditation or do you want the robes and fasts and studies of a Ceremonial magician. Maybe you want to conjure a demon to get laid or put someone you don't like in the hospital.

Be honest with yourself and start planning from there. You will save a lot of stubbed toes doing it that way versus taking a little from each pot to figure out what you like or don't.

This, 100%

Without meditation, you're not truly self-aware (you'll soon find out what I mean once you make an earnest attempt at meditation). You can get lost in all those books on the subject without really understanding them, and here meditation is the key. The intellect can only help you so much, you need to still your body and your mind first to make any genuine progress. Liber MMM in

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has a useful syllabus of exercises, I myself am currently doing the Not-Thinking exercise (basically empty-mind meditation), and it has been a real eye-opener so far.

 

[lee smith]

One of my first trainings in meditation was the Shambhala meditation. I wouldn't say I'm a baby at meditation but there are many who are better than me. The most I can honestly say is I fell down some deep holes and climbed back out,

 

[stratamaster78]

For just ‘Occult’ studies not really associated with a specific path my 1st 2 suggestions would be:

Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy

Book – PDF - Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa (transl. Eric Purdue) - Three Books of Occult Philosophy (2021)

Manly P Halls Secret Teachings of all Ages

The book itself I believe is near the bottom of this thread link

Book – PDF - Mitch Horowitz - The Seeker's Guide to The Secret Teachings of All Ages

Any other suggestions I would need to know a more specific interest.

 

[neilwilkes]

The new Pudue edition of Three Books is superb. I know a lot of folks reckon the Tyson version, but that is still based on the poor JF translation, but with Tyson doing an editors job. I had a set of the 1600's era version, and they were very hard to read (like most books of that age) so Tyson did a good job resettin g it & adding the footnotes, but the translation itself was still apparently flawed, and at times quite badly too.

 

[Shade]

Depends on your personal desire. If you want more ceremonial work, start with some of Crowley's works. If you want more "hedge witch" work, read Amber K, or Donald Tyson's "Ritual Magic". If you want more Chaos work, find a pot to piss in while banging your head against a wall (i kid, read chaosmatrix.org). If you want more internal work, you can start with the Tao Te Ching or even some Alchemical works by Mark Stavish. If you want a more comprehensive overview, just start browsing through the youtube channels offered up on the thread about "trustworth youtube creators". It's really hard to be like "Start here!" because there are so many wonderful starting points, that in my studies I often found myself starting over and over and over and over. I have personally undergone at least four "initiations" (not literally, but starting points for certain paths). Just find something that interests you in general and just keep at it.

the Chaos Magick one

 

[Asteriskos]

Chaos magick and energy manipulation are great places to start

On Chaos Magic/k I think Ray Sherwin's foundational books: "The Book of Results, The Cardinal Rites of Chaos, and the Theatre of Magick", often escape the radar of those who would be Chaotes. He and Peter Carroll are pretty much equally credited co-founders of that meta-paradigm, of course with the collaboration of some worthy peers.