What it is...

[KjEno186]

I'm having a cup of coffee while I write this...

I was raised in a religious [nut job] family (Jehovah's Witnesses) that considered magic to be evil. By my late 30s I was tired of the cognitive dissonance from the things I was expected to believe, for example a "god of love" that wanted to give everlasting life on Earth to a chosen few million obedient [to the Governing Body] people while exterminating billions of "wicked" people in Armageddon. Since 2006 I turned into an atheist. I'd visit a church that wasn't JWs now and then just to see what they were like. At one point I bought a couple books on magic, Modern Magick by Kraig and My Life with the Spirits by DuQuette. I also got a RWS tarot deck, but at the time I didn't "connect" with any of it.

Fast forward to the start of this year. I had been following the Archdruid Report by John Michael Greer over the years, and went to look at his current blog at Ecosophia. I had never paid much attention to his Druidism, instead enjoying his social and economic commentary. However, this time I noticed his current book club discussion involving The Doctrine of High Magic by Eliphas Levi. I was intrigued enough to look into magic once again.

I've been slowly and carefully reading The Doctrine of High Magic along with Greer's commentary, so far up to the 10th chapter. I'm also trudging through Dion Fortune's The Cosmic Doctrine, which was the previous book club discussion on Greer's blog. I've been scouring the 'net to find more books and information. I've also purchased a new TdM deck, the Conver Ben-Dov deck along with Tarot: The Open Reading by the late Dr Yoav Ben-Dov.

I've got some internal conflict going regarding my rationalist, materialist view of the Universe, and this new spiritual philosophy which is unlike anything I've known before. Reading Modern Magick and My Life with the Spirits back in 2008-9 was entertaining at best to me, but I wasn't ready at the time to invest effort into meditations and visualizations. That seemed pointless to me. But now, maybe now I'm ready...

 

[KjEno186]

I'm having a cup of coffee while I write this...

I was raised in a religious [nut job] family (Jehovah's Witnesses) that considered magic to be evil. By my late 30s I was tired of the cognitive dissonance from the things I was expected to believe, for example a "god of love" that wanted to give everlasting life on Earth to a chosen few million obedient [to the Governing Body] people while exterminating billions of "wicked" people in Armageddon. Since 2006 I turned into an atheist. I'd visit a church that wasn't JWs now and then just to see what they were like. At one point I bought a couple books on magic, Modern Magick by Kraig and My Life with the Spirits by DuQuette. I also got a RWS tarot deck, but at the time I didn't "connect" with any of it.

Fast forward to the start of this year. I had been following the Archdruid Report by John Michael Greer over the years, and went to look at his current blog at Ecosophia. I had never paid much attention to his Druidism, instead enjoying his social and economic commentary. However, this time I noticed his current book club discussion involving The Doctrine of High Magic by Eliphas Levi. I was intrigued enough to look into magic once again.

I've been slowly and carefully reading The Doctrine of High Magic along with Greer's commentary, so far up to the 10th chapter. I'm also trudging through Dion Fortune's The Cosmic Doctrine, which was the previous book club discussion on Greer's blog. I found this forum while scouring the 'net to find more books and information. I purchased a new TdM deck, the Conver Ben-Dov deck along with Tarot: The Open Reading by the late Dr Yoav Ben-Dov. Then I got another TdM deck, the Lo Scarabeo Wirth deck. And finally I got what is probably my favorite tarot deck so far, Dame Fortune's Wheel tarot by Paul Huson.

I've got some internal conflict going regarding my rationalist, materialist view of the Universe, and this new spiritual philosophy which is unlike anything I've known before. Reading Modern Magick and My Life with the Spirits back in 2008-9 was entertaining at best to me, but I wasn't ready at the time to invest effort into meditations and visualizations. That seemed pointless to me. But now, maybe now I'm ready...

(I posted and edited, and maybe the forum choked on the first post... so this is the second one.)

 

[Roma]

Published 2 years before The Cosmic Doctrine was A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - apparently written for third degree initiates at the end of the 20th century. It is worth a read every few years

bailey.it/files/Treatise-on-Cosmic-Fire.pdf

 

[auza121]

welcome kj, The magik community can be vast and hard to navigate at times. If your looking for a practical way to "get your feet wet" in the concepts Ive been frequenting Josephine Mcarthy's Quareia course. Its straight forward free and from what I know she has a deep understanding of the art.

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[Mider2009]

Welcome

 

[KjEno186]

Published 2 years before The Cosmic Doctrine was A Treatise on Cosmic Fire - apparently written for third degree initiates at the end of the 20th century. It is worth a read every few years

bailey.it/files/Treatise-on-Cosmic-Fire.pdf

Thank you! I'll definitely read it!

welcome kj, The magik community can be vast and hard to navigate at times. If your looking for a practical way to "get your feet wet" in the concepts Ive been frequenting Josephine Mcarthy's Quareia course. Its straight forward free and from what I know she has a deep understanding of the art.

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Thanks! I'm on a budget, so free is always a good thing!

 

[Mider2009]

I love Dion Fortune, her writing is great, there’s a site that has free Audio files

its Kosher Torah run by Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzadok, he explains many things on Kabbalah

 

[KjEno186]

I love Dion Fortune, her writing is great, there’s a site that has free Audio files

its Kosher Torah run by Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzadok, he explains many things on Kabbalah

Thanks! That was easy to find in a search.