Review: Grimoires: A History of Magic Books

I need to acknowledge right now that I am NOT a Ceremonial Magician, but then again, this book is written for people like me. This is NOT a compilation of Grimoires, nor is it a distillation of those books. It is a broad overview of magick books and books about magick (which are not necessarily the same thing). There is a fairly thorough discussion of the suppression of magick books, which makes it abundantly clear that, although most of us think in terms of the Christian church's efforts in this respect, Christianity was a "Johnny come lately" to that game. There had been suppressions long before the beginning of the Common Era.

This type of book often falls into one of two categories. It is either heavily influenced by the pop culture (unlikely in this case, given that it is published by Oxford University Press), or it is full of erudite, academic attitudes which leave you grabbing your dictionary as you read. This book walks the middle ground quite nicely. It answers questions with easily understood words, and saves the inevitable citations for the end of the book.

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Review: Magic Without Mirrors

For a large number of individuals of a certain age, Magic: An Occult Primer was the introduction to the world of magick. At the time there wasn't a whole lot of information about the author available. In the intervening years The Magic of Herbs and Secret Wisdom: The Occult Universe Explored were also produced by the same author, but without (to my knowledge) as much acceptance and fanfare.

This book is essentially Mr. Conway's autobiography. It is filled with amusing anecdotes and enlightening background information. It also contains snippets of magickal information as well, though that is not its primary purpose.

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Review: Atlantis Beneath the Ice

This is a revised and expanded edition of When the Sky Fell: In Search of Atlantis (which originally appeared in 1995). In the intervening 15 years there has been a lot of interest in both the subjects of Atlantis and climate change. This book addresses both of these topics in a thought-provoking manner.

For those who dismiss either (or both) of these topics as being unscientific, there is nothing here which will change their minds. The evidence which is laid out will be seen as happenstance, coincidence, or simply hand-picked to fit the theory of the authors. Those who support their theory will be seen as inconsequential or deluded (hard to do, in my opinion, when one of them was Albert Einstein). So they will gain nothing from this book, and may safely leave it on the shelf of the bookstore.

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Review: The Bridge: Human Ascension Into Divine Understanding

Ascencionism is one of those topics which tend to engender very firm positions. You believe it to be the next great step in planetary evolution; you think it is all New Age hogwash; you know nothing about it, and have no desire to learn about it. It suffers from all the maladies common to newly emergent philosophies including over zealous converts and jargon which is incomprehensible to many who are on the outside.

Ms Jent, to her credit, is very clear about her beliefs while not attempting to "convert" anyone else. This book is about her journey on her road to accepting ascensionism as reality.

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Review: Incense Magick

This is NOT a book about creating incense (see his previous work: Incense: Crafting & Use of Magickal Scents from Llewellyn © 2003 for that information). This is a book about the use of incense. "What's the big deal?" I hear you say. "You burn incense for the smell." That is very true, but...what type of incense do you use - rolled, dipped, loose, self-combusting? In what type of censer? With or without a fill? Where do you buy your incense, or if you are an incense maker, where do you buy your ingredients?

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Contacting Manannan Mac Lir?

im looking to contact Manannan Mac Lir, im just now starting out and i was given a site to go to that has helped me understand him a bit better. the only ways the site teaches to contact him involve mostly group and one solo ritual. i dont really live near a water source i can use for the solo ritual, unless i could use my bathroom or something. i have a small celtic alter, a Libation Dish, an Athame, a love candle, a money candle, 2 crystals and 2 feathers. with what i have, is there any way i can contact Manannan Mac Lir?

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Figures for Sympathetic Magick

I'm not a big magick practicioner but I do use sympathetic magick on occasion. I've been using wire to make figurines but I've become a bit fed up with the method. I'm looking for a new substance to use, like clay or wax.

I would like to ask those practicing sympthetic magick what they use for figurines and how long those substances keep. I'm really looking for something which keeps for a while because I want a piece in my portable altar as well. Plus, like I said, I practise magick very sporadically.

Where do you buy the substance you use? I feel I should try out wax anyway but I don't know where to find white wax which you can mold when kneading. Anyone any ideas? Especially those in The Netherlands?

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What's on your bookshelf?

I'm always interested in snooping around other people's libraries, so I'm curious: what books do you own that are related to your path/religion?

Are there any books that you keep around but never use? Do you feel like there are any glaring patches in your collection that you would like to fill? Do you have any books that you couldn't live without?

It would be interesting to see what books people rely on/recommend the most, and what books show up most often. I have a long list of books I hope to eventually get my hands on, but it's always great to have more ideas.

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The Power of Language

In some religions, the word is the building block for everything. There's a lot of discussion of being "true to one's word" or "language has power" in a lot of different religions.

So - what does your religion say about language? Is it important? Are words "just words" or more/different than that?

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In FlameKeeping, language has a lot of power. It's what gives us the ability to have abstract thought and communicate it to each other. Just look at the frustration a baby has, and we have with that baby, when s/he cannot express what's wrong. Then language is learned and communication happens.

If language is to be useful, it must be clear. Words have a lot of power. Ask anyone that's crying because of what someone else said, and you can see that power. It might not be a physical power, but words can worm their way into our minds and change the way we see. We judge people by their words as well as their actions, and how well they line up. Language has power.

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Your Favorite Mythical Hero?

Seeing as we have a thread for favorite Goddesses and Gods, I thought it only logical to extend the line of questioning to mythological heroes. There are a great many humans or Demigods in mythology that, although often awarded handsomely (sometimes with immortality) for their efforts in assisting the Gods, never rose to the status of Gods themselves.

My favorite mythological hero is Icarus; Daedalus' son who escaped the labyrinth on the island of Crete with wings made of feathers and wax. He was warned not to fly too high because the sun would melt the wax or too low because wet feathers wouldn't carry him. Yet Icarus, too caught up with the marvel of flying, did fly too high or too low and drowned.

Icarus reminds me that, although great risk comes with a leap of faith, it might just be worth it sometimes.

"...but most of all I love Icarus, who knew the wax would melt but still flew towards the sun."
-- 'Ik hou van Icarus' - Tjitske Jansen (translated from Dutch)

So who is your favorite mythological hero?

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