Who Are Your Top Magical Influences?

[FireBorn]

I’m always curious what shaped people’s magical worldview, whether it was a book, a teacher, a spirit, a random forum post, or some obscure YouTube rabbit hole that lit the fuse.

Who are your top 3 or 4 magical influences? Not just ones you admire, I mean the ones that actually shifted your path. The ones who changed your trajectory.

I’ll go first:

Josephine McCarthy - The grit, the reality check, The Exorcist’s Handbook hit hard at a critical moment. Also, dont spend your life reading about magick, go out and do the damned work! (I love that woman!)

S. Connolly - Helped me break the Abrahamic poison and see demons as divine intelligences. Removed all the fear.

Jason Miller - The whole “do the working, then do the work” hit different when I lived it.

Damien Echols - Taught me that you can perform magick entirely in your head, tools are not required.

Lilith herself - Not a metaphor. Direct interaction changed everything.

Mods: if this is better suited for another section, please feel free to move it. Thanks!

 

[art-vark2323]

What a fun question! My top 3 or 4 influences are:

1. Aidan Wachter: I've read his book Six Ways at different times in my life. The first time around, it did not impact me very much-- this was when I first got into magic and it felt like just another book on a long list of books I was reading about magic. The second time I read it was years later, just recently, and it managed to get me out of the magical rut I was in. I found that a little more time getting into the magical muck of it all made his book more valuable to me. I really liked doing what he recommends and found a lot of it helpful in getting back into the swing of things.

2. Jack Grayle: I've always found Jack's style of magic and ritual really moving and immersive. I love his invocations and hymns from the Hekateon and when I think of my favorite rituals, I think of late nights, outside, with candles flickering all around me, calling out to Hekate. I often return to his practices when I want to connect with her. I also like listening to him talk about magic, it often inspires me.

3. Doreen Valiente: Out of all of the witchcraft 101 books I've read, I liked Natural Magic the best. I think it's a good introduction to a Wiccan flavored way of practicing, particularly spell casting. I also got to read a good biography on Doreen a few years ago and came away with a lot of respect for her as a witch and as a researcher. I haven't done as much practicing as I want to in the last few years, but when I did, it was often because of something I learned through her work. She also does some really nice poetry.

4. Stephen Skinner: Got me into ceremonial magic and the grimoire tradition. I like listening to him talk about different magical subjects and collect his books. Right now, I'm reading Techniques of High Magic and really getting a lot out of that. I spent a lot of time in the past hemming and hawing about doing ceremonial magic and never quite liked the introduction I was getting through other sources. I really like this one-- I think it came at the right time for me, and he and his co-author, Francis King, touch on a lot of things other people weren't explaining well enough for me (or explaining at all).

 

[Dascent]

Tuhunukat - collective
Dascent - channel
Wife - actually my wife
Various - many other influences, some carry a form of identity but many don't care.