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Author: luke

The Purpose of a Coven ?>

The Purpose of a Coven

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Introduction Covens and other kinds of magickal groups, including study groups, fraternal lodges, and churches, serve various purposes. How can we describe these purposes? I propose the following broad categories: Community Teaching Worship Magick Initiation Below, when I say “pagan” I mean generally those who follow non-Christian paths (e.g., the same use as in Pagan Pride Day). When I say “mainstream churches” I mean Christian churches in 21st century America. Community Fellowship Fellowship includes the breaking of bread, sharing of meals,…

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Lon Milo DuQuette’s Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot ?>

Lon Milo DuQuette’s Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot

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Title: Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot Author: Lon Milo DuQuette Publisher: Weiser Books Release Date: 2003 Pages: 352 Lon Milo DuQuette has been a member of the O.T.O. since the 1970’s, and is a widely written and respected author in the magickal community. In Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot (Weiser, 2003), he brings much-needed clarity to the understanding of the Thoth deck. His methods, though, are unusual, and the book does not progress as do other books on tarot. The…

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J. Daniel Gunther’s Initiation in the Æon of the Child ?>

J. Daniel Gunther’s Initiation in the Æon of the Child

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Title: Initiation in the Æon of the Child Author: J. Daniel Gunther Publisher: Ibis Press Release Date: 2014 Pages: 223 J. Daniel Gunther’s Initiation in the Æon of the Child: The Inward Journey is pretentious and difficult. The reader is expected to have, at minimum, the ability to read common Hebrew words (e.g., God and angel names) without transliteration and to have a fairly extensive background in the Western Magickal Tradition, qabalah, and Thelema. The author often makes a point with…

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David Shoemaker’s Living Thelema ?>

David Shoemaker’s Living Thelema

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Title: Living Thelema Author: David Shoemaker Publisher: Anima Solis Books Release Date: 2013 Pages: 260 David Shoemaker’s Living Thelema: A Practical Guide to Attainment in Aleister Crowley’s System of Magick is best described as handbook for those undertaking the A∴A∴ system of study. Two points that should not put off the reader are, first, that this book assumes you already know something about ceremonial magick and the Qabalah. Not that you need to know a lot, but enough to not get lost. For…

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James A. Eshelman’s The Mystical & Magical System of the A∴A∴ ?>

James A. Eshelman’s The Mystical & Magical System of the A∴A∴

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Title: Mystical and Magical System of the A∴A∴ Author: James A. Eshelman Publisher: The College of Thelema Release Date: 2000 Pages: 282 James A. Eshelman’s The Mystical & Magical System of the A∴A∴ (The Spiritual System of Aleister Crowley & George Cecil Jones Step-by-Step) is a roughly 8.5 by 11 inch hardback published by The College of Thelema on paper meeting the Z38.48 standard (this is what used to be called “acid-free paper”). The first 170 pages start with a brief…

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Lon Milo DuQuette’s Low Magick ?>

Lon Milo DuQuette’s Low Magick

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Title: Low Magick Author: Lon Milo DuQuette Publisher: Llewellyn Release Date: 2010 Pages: 206 Low Magick is another autobiographical work from Lon Milo DuQuette, written about 12 years after My Life with the Spirits. In this volume, each chapter starts with a quote, often one by Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford, a very learned qabalist. We move from the Law of Attraction (see my review of Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich for more on the Law of Attraction) through some serious Goetia and…

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Lon Milo DuQuette’s My Life with the Spirits ?>

Lon Milo DuQuette’s My Life with the Spirits

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Title: My Life With the Spirits Author: Lon Milo DuQuette Publisher: Weiser Books Release Date: 1999 Pages: 191 My Life with the Spirits: The Adventures of a Modern Magician is an autobiography of Lon Milo DuQuette, one of the 21st century’s most famous magickians. DuQuette is a prolific author and lecturer, an Archbishop of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica, and the United States Deputy National Grand Master of Ordo Templi Orientis. This is a fast-paced, enjoyable read, with DuQuette’s characteristic humor that begins with…

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Making Geomantic Dice ?>

Making Geomantic Dice

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Background In Lesson 7 of The Nascent Magician course, we learned about geomancy, a kind of earth divination. The geomantic figures have various astrological (and other) correspondences and generating the figures when doing a reading can be done in many different ways (including poking holes in the ground!). Another way is to use dice. Sometimes the dice are attached together on a rod so that you can rotate them to form a figure. These are occasionally for sale but are very expensive. Lind…

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Edward Bernays’ Crystalizing Public Opinion ?>

Edward Bernays’ Crystalizing Public Opinion

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Title: Crystallizing Public Opinion Author: Edward L. Bernays Genre: Propaganda Publisher: Ig Publishing Release Date: May 2011 Pages: 204 Edward Bernays published his first book on the new profession of “public relations counsel”, Crystalizing Public Opinion, in 1923. The First World War had ended; his uncle, Sigmund Freud had published A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis a few years prior (in 1920); and the US Post Office was destroying copies of James Joyce’s Ulysses. Bernays used the phrase “public relations counsel” because he wanted to imply…

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Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich ?>

Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich

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Title: Think and Grow Rich Author: Napoleon Hill Genre: Self-Help Release Date: 1937 Pages: 294 [In Lesson 4 of Kevin Trent Boswell’s The Nascent Magician course, the student must pick a book from a list of recommended reading and write a “book report” about it. This turned out to be one of the longest writing assignments in the course so far, and I ended up picking a book that I probably would never have read otherwise.] Napoleon Hill wrote Think and Grow Rich…

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