What is your theoretical background, and which magical or related books would you highly recommend?

[Dona]

I’d love to know about your theoretical background. What philosophy books have you read, and are there any books on magic or related topics that have shaped who you are today?

 

[Robert Ramsay]

For me, the most vital books on magic that shaped my ideas and knowledge:

Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice
Alan Chapman, Advanced Magick for Beginners
Konstantin Stanislavski, An Actor Prepares

And in physics:
David Deutsch, The Fabric of Reality
Sean Carroll, From Eternity to Here
Julian Barbour, The End of Time

 

[IllusiveOwl]

I think philosophy is an excellent primer to magical practice, it's the same as getting your body fit before engaging in extremely dangerous sporting activities, because Magic & Mysticism can be extremely fucking dangerous on a mental, physical, and spiritual level. You'll find several people in the Esoteric community (and perhaps even on this forum) who have been driven mad by diving into this stuff unprepared.

Most of us aren't born prodigies, so before diving into philosophy our minds are pretty rigid, rote, and set on seeing the world and life in a certain way. Exposure to other perspectives helps expand your cognitive range until eventually you can move beyond being bound by any singular system and be cognitively strong enough to come to your own personal conclusions. You would be surprised how few people actually think for themselves.

These are some of the books I found to be most effective, ones that have impacted me and shaped me. It's a long list, but each has wisdom enough to be worth investigating. Pursue them in any order you wish, the number one rule of reading is: always follow your passion and the book that calls out to you, that way you'll never stop reading.

Philosophically I would recommend (in order of personal preference):

The Hua Hu Ching
The Hero With A Thousand Faces
The Undiscovered Self
Existentialism and Human Emotions
True Love - A Practice for Awakening the Heart
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
The Power of Myth
The Magicians: An Investigation of a Group Practicing Black Magic
Seeing No-Self
Genuine Pretending, on the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi
Simulacra & Simulation
Wen-Tzu
Taming the Tiger Within
The Science Delusion
Metropolis
Modern Man in Search of a Soul
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race (Be careful, this one is rock bottom antinadalism philosophy, but it's a fantastic antithesis for people who enjoy being alive.)
The Republic
Thus Spake Zarathustra (You should read this once every two years, it's not a book you understand fully your first read through)


I will clarify which books are Mystic and which are Magical, I believe magic is powered by Mystic thought and that Mystic Thought is useless without Magical application. These are also ranked by how useful I've found them:

The Lankavatara Sutra (Mystic)
The Bhagavad Gita (Mystic)
The Upanishads (Mystic)
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Mystic)
Cultivating the Empty Field (Mystic)
The Spiritual Teachings of Ramana Maharshi (Mystic)
The Kybolion (Magical)
Liber Null & Psychonaut (Magical)
A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness (Mystical)
Stalking the Wild Pendulum (Magical)
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and It's Attainment (Magical)
Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path (Magical)
The Moon & The Serpent Bumper Book of Magic (Magical)
Initiation into Hermetics (Magical)
Satanic Bible 50th anniversary redux (Magical)
The Red Book (Mystical)
The Black Ship (Magical)
Apophis (Magical) The one by Michael Kelly, I think the other one is childish trash.
MindStar (Magical)
The Seven Faces of Darkness (Magical)
The Imitation of Christ (Mystical)
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Magical)
Mysterium Coniunctionis (Magical)
Jnana Yoga (Mystical)
Autobiography of a Yogi
The Golden Bough (Probably the most dense and boring of the list, but still valuable and richly researched)

Post automatically merged: Aug 19, 2025

Addendum: Society of the Spectacle is also a staple philosophy book if you wanna unplug

 

[MrMelnibone]

No idea what you mean by theoretical background


I got back into actually practicing magick by using Six Ways: Approaches & Entries for Practical Magic

 

[Ziran]

I’d love to know about your theoretical background. What philosophy books have you read, and are there any books on magic or related topics that have shaped who you are today?

Hello,

I was raised in a mostly secular conservative American Jewish household. In my late twenties I caught the "kabalah-bug". Since then I've been learning from various Rabbis in the lineage of Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liadi, affectionately referred to in my community as The Alter Rebbe.

The first book I read, which sparked my interest is: Mystical Concepts in Chassidus.

Book – PDF - Mystical Concepts in Chassidism - Immanuel J. Schochet -- 3rd edition, 1998

Description from Amazon: "An excellent guide to the intricate concepts of Jewish mysticism found in Chabad Chasidic philosphy. It traces the history of Jewish mysticism from its earliest beginnings through its expansion in the sixteenth century and the new era of its promulgation through the...

wizardforums.com

 

[Dascent]

Lenani Pleroma Codex - a body of knowledge which can't be found in today's books but does "connect many dots" from various disciplines, scientific and pseudoscientific, esoteric, holistic, spiritual... so on.

 

[Dona]

I think philosophy is an excellent primer to magical practice, it's the same as getting your body fit before engaging in extremely dangerous sporting activities, because Magic & Mysticism can be extremely fucking dangerous on a mental, physical, and spiritual level. You'll find several people in the Esoteric community (and perhaps even on this forum) who have been driven mad by diving into this stuff unprepared.

Most of us aren't born prodigies, so before diving into philosophy our minds are pretty rigid, rote, and set on seeing the world and life in a certain way. Exposure to other perspectives helps expand your cognitive range until eventually you can move beyond being bound by any singular system and be cognitively strong enough to come to your own personal conclusions. You would be surprised how few people actually think for themselves.

These are some of the books I found to be most effective, ones that have impacted me and shaped me. It's a long list, but each has wisdom enough to be worth investigating. Pursue them in any order you wish, the number one rule of reading is: always follow your passion and the book that calls out to you, that way you'll never stop reading.

Philosophically I would recommend (in order of personal preference):

The Hua Hu Ching
The Hero With A Thousand Faces
The Undiscovered Self
Existentialism and Human Emotions
True Love - A Practice for Awakening the Heart
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep
The Power of Myth
The Magicians: An Investigation of a Group Practicing Black Magic
Seeing No-Self
Genuine Pretending, on the Philosophy of the Zhuangzi
Simulacra & Simulation
Wen-Tzu
Taming the Tiger Within
The Science Delusion
Metropolis
Modern Man in Search of a Soul
The Conspiracy Against the Human Race (Be careful, this one is rock bottom antinadalism philosophy, but it's a fantastic antithesis for people who enjoy being alive.)
The Republic
Thus Spake Zarathustra (You should read this once every two years, it's not a book you understand fully your first read through)


I will clarify which books are Mystic and which are Magical, I believe magic is powered by Mystic thought and that Mystic Thought is useless without Magical application. These are also ranked by how useful I've found them:

The Lankavatara Sutra (Mystic)
The Bhagavad Gita (Mystic)
The Upanishads (Mystic)
Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind (Mystic)
Cultivating the Empty Field (Mystic)
The Spiritual Teachings of Ramana Maharshi (Mystic)
The Kybolion (Magical)
Liber Null & Psychonaut (Magical)
A Brief Tour of Higher Consciousness (Mystical)
Stalking the Wild Pendulum (Magical)
Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and It's Attainment (Magical)
Uncle Setnakt's Essential Guide to the Left Hand Path (Magical)
The Moon & The Serpent Bumper Book of Magic (Magical)
Initiation into Hermetics (Magical)
Satanic Bible 50th anniversary redux (Magical)
The Red Book (Mystical)
The Black Ship (Magical)
Apophis (Magical) The one by Michael Kelly, I think the other one is childish trash.
MindStar (Magical)
The Seven Faces of Darkness (Magical)
The Imitation of Christ (Mystical)
The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Magical)
Mysterium Coniunctionis (Magical)
Jnana Yoga (Mystical)
Autobiography of a Yogi
The Golden Bough (Probably the most dense and boring of the list, but still valuable and richly researched)

Post automatically merged: Aug 19, 2025

Addendum: Society of the Spectacle is also a staple philosophy book if you wanna unplug

I’ve already read The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Power of Myth, The Republic, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. The list is really interesting, thank you! I’m very interested in Zen Buddhism.

 

[Robert Ramsay]

I’ve already read The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Power of Myth, The Republic, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. The list is really interesting, thank you! I’m very interested in Zen Buddhism.

Excellent list My intro to Zen was "Goedel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstaeder. I realise now that it was a very formative book for me in many ways

 

[Sabbatius]

Much of my theoretical background revolves around Rand's Objectivism and Mises' Austrian Economic outline.
However, unlike Objectivism, I flex towards a spiritual outlook, so some works I hold dearly include:
Theophan the Recluse
Innocent of Alaska
Mark of Ephesus
Maximos the Confessor
Gregory Palamas

As for Occult Authors:
Aleister Crowley
John Michael Greer
Israel Regardie
Scott Cunningham
Don Webb
Doreen Valiente

I would also add Franz Bardon, however his work was fantastic but his writings and approach were lacking. Much needs to be reworked and updated.

 

[Frater Barritus]

I’m also no really sure what you mean by “theoretical background”, could you elaborate? Do you mean formal training and education or just the texts that inspired you most?

To add my two penny worth to the valuable recommendations above some of the books and writers that really influenced me and have stuck with me were

SSOTBME - Ramsey Dukes/Lionel Snell. This proto-chaos magick text really resonated with me when I first read it and still holds up to this day, in my opinion. In fact, his “compass rose” to plot modes of thought and the “directions” of different fields of human endeavour is a great antidote to the “political compass meme” mentality that seeks to fix things in place on a chart. It’s a very short book, but contains a lot to think about and it’s easy to see how it was so influential in ushering in the chaos current of the 80s and 90s.

Continuing the chaos magick theme, I found The Baptist’s Head books (Barford & Chapman) particularly inspiring as well. While not strictly “theory”, the reader can witness and go through the exploration of various methods and models of achieving The Great Work along with the two magicians in question.
Between them they cover approaches from such diverse sources as Thelema and the A.’. A.’. , chaos magick, the 10 ox-herding images of Zen, the four path model of Theravada Buddhism, Ken Wilbur, Rudolf Steiner, GI Gurdjieff, Enochian scrying… the list goes on! We get to read their magickal records of the time and struggle along with them as they try to grasp these concepts and implement them in the service of “getting enlightened.”

My third book is one I picked up after reading The Baptists Head trilogy - Mastering the Core Teachings of the Buddha by Daniel Ingram. This was my first foray into high level thinking about meditative progress, the cultivation of concentration states and wisdom states, going deeply into models and maps.

 

[IllusiveOwl]

I’ve already read The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Power of Myth, The Republic, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, and Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind. The list is really interesting, thank you! I’m very interested in Zen Buddhism.

If it's been a while since you've read Zara, I would recommend picking it up again. The more you grow, the more colorful it becomes, it's delightfully bleak and the things that are pointed to abstractly and with words like "Camel" "Dog" "My animals" "Tight rope walker" etc unfold with new meanings that evolve as you do. The sharper you get the more the subtleties come out.

Given you've already got a good grasp on mythology, if you haven't already picked up Jung's Man & His Symbols, I'd recommend that as a precursor before diving into his magnum opus, The Red Book. There are truths in there that are foundational, dressed and illustrated with magnificent allegory and in-depth psychological analysis, as well as a harrowing accounting of him taking the Magical black serpent scepter.

With Zen Buddhism, ZM,BM covers pretty much everything you need to know about practicing it, the simpler the better. Cultivating the Empty field has lots of beautiful Zen poems as well as ancient instruction. Riding the Ox Home is a staple as well, it outlines the progression of enlightenment. If you enjoy theoretical and dry analysis, the Shobogenzo books do the impossible and "Explain" Zen. With Sutras, you can't do better than the Platform Sutra and the Diamond Sutras, in my opinion, even if the Lankavatara is my personal #1.