Books, grimoires, and art, oh my!

Hey there, just making a post here about books/discussion/whatever. As a foreword, feel free to post anything you are currently reading, or any suggestions for others. Guess i'll start it here:

Like a few people on this site, I have been working through the some of the primalcraft stuff alongside reading and re-reading everything by one Mr. Marques. (His new book, Words in Silence is amazing for anyone who hasn't got it yet.) The parallels are just insane, and working through both systems at once produces extremely strong results, if you can deal with the darker aspects of the work. He really strips his studies of the culture-ification (if that counts as a word) of occultism, and gets down to the roots of practice.

As well as Smith's work, I've read through a lot of Chumbley's stuff, and it also goes over some really amazing qllipa, but his work is more written like a poetic puzzle; discussing the sacred alphabet, and weaving facets of it into beautiful poems and artwork, forcing the initiate to decode his tangle of pen and ink to get to what he is really saying.

Both of these systems work with qabbalah, but are more attuned to the darker side of it, and I was looking into reading some of the 'lighter' side of things. Apart from Dion Fortune, I haven't read much about 'light' kabbalah, but was recently considering looking into the works of Abra-melin, who, I noticed, tends to generate some sort of buzz whenever he is mentioned. It looks like so far there are 2 common translations out there; the Mathers one from 1900, from a French script, and the more recent Steven Guth translation from a German script.

Just wondering if anyone has experience with the current of Abra-melin, and if they can recommend either translation over the other? Thanks guys, and don't forget to post awesome books in this thread!!

If you've been reading Marques, Smith and Chumbley I would say you're on the right track. Much to be learned from all of that. Let your intuition guide you in your choices of literature and I think you'll do alright.

You're no fun. That's the obvious bit, but the point of this post is to share the love, and maybe even ignite that spark in others.

Also, The Black Goddess and the Unseen real is a gem, for anyone looking for material on different perspectives of Aset.

And its not really a book, but, (despite the name) The tarot of vampyres by Ian Daniels looks to be a real fascinating tarot deck. Its got the astrological symbols woven in a bit more intricately than the Thoth deck, and interestingly, has left the arcana unnumbered. The handbook has some cringe-worthy concepts, the "vampire name" being one of them, but the author has a pretty decent understanding of kabbalah and creates a nifty perspective on tarot.

I guess I'm just boring like that.

I really like of Mouni Sadhu and his trilogy: Concentration, Samadhi and Meditation are great tools to the Right Hand Path. If you want something hardcore and seriously read first the book Concentration, is a book that requires a lot of mental effort and at the same time gives you a new reality of Yoga. According to his teachings, it is not possible to be a Magician without first mastering the mental plane, thoughts, and above all, mastering the own True Will. According to him, meditation is nothing more nothing less than a perfect control of the thoughts, the power of focus on a single thought and stay as long as necessary according to his will. The new book of AK, is a perfect example to be used in axioms that he advises in his books. In other words, he says that the best way of letting a mind alive and young is to keep powerful and inspiring axioms(tweets) in his mind.

Try read and please let your honest reply.

Neat book Kalb. I just got to chapter 3, about the part where it mentions the needle in the water. Interestingly enough, I practiced that intuitively a few months ago, but with a pencil on a desk, getting it to roll. To be honest I'd think that would be a bit harder than the needle because of friction and more forces acting, but hey, who knows right?

Sometimes, I didn't need the 'knife sharp' concentration the authour speaks of, but would have a eureka moment where the pencil would roll quickly and decently far. Usually though, it did require a lot of direct focus.

There was one thing in the book though, with which i disagreed heartily, and that was "Curiosity is the true creator of problems and by yielding to that vice how can we expect to acquire the
opposite virtue, which is peace of mind?"

I believe curiosity fuels the need to explore and learn more, and when combined with concentration, at the midpoint of the 2, balanced perfectly, you can achieve a strong and rapid state of growth.

Also, I don't know if it's in the book, but you can do a similar exercise with any flammable medium (maybe a candle, or a long, upright match) where you suppress the flame with your mind (be careful not to accidentally breathe or blow on it!) to put out a fire without touching it. For any interested, the mental 'exercise' is similar to compressing a sphere around every point of the flame, choking it at the source where it burns from.

When you get good at it, you can suppress the flame, and raise it back from the embers. It's super cool to watch, and gives you a huge internal feeling of success.

Now that I think about it, the practical applications of the skill are minimal, but it really helps hone ones ability to focus.

I have to agree with you that he is not a spiritual teacher as we're used to seeing. This is remarkable in his work on Tarot. But, nothing prevents the work that he did not have value, I read about his teachings at a time when I didn't understand nothing about occultism and about the people who are involved. The exercises that he gives us in his books are great for mental control, is a first step to deal with reality and with the world. The raja yoga means Royal path, pure, hard, If you don't identify with him, certainly the nature of rajayoga is important for any student wishing to be a magician. Observe the behavior of the great spiritual masters, the great scientists and all those who made history here in the world, they all had a mental power controlled. Even here on forum, look at the behavior of Victor, NighShade and Jonathan. They all have that key. Look at Twitter and some users who follow the Master Luis Marques, they also have this key. It may not be as linear as the yogas claim, but it is definitely a good choice for those who prefer walking through the "clarity" of the teachings. Curiosity is a real enemy. The curiosity isn't going to get us anywhere and can be a bad habit in our lives. He mentation that curiosity is knowing ourself with hardwork instead wasting time with external curiosities.

Maybe I see curiosity differently than you or the authour. While curiosity may refer to a wanton venture into the unknown, I equate it with the thirst, or inspiration that fuels growth. That drive to get better, and to breach what you have yet to cross. From Abramelin, to Smith, all across the spectrum, a strong devotion is common in their working. It is only the nature of the devotion that changes; where Abramelin values piety, and a fear of God, Smith values the strength and will to walk a path less trodden. I believe curiosity as to the end of either path is what will drive the student to walk either, or both to its fullest.

As I mentioned, are works on different planes and different working methods, with totally different teachings. I think his goal was to inspire people and to give motivation to keep strong and firm wills. The lack of motivation gives the beginning to depression and when that happens we lose completely the notion of our Self. Curiosity is more on the theme of people, there's no use being curious in certain aspects in particular know more about a writer or know of their private lives. For example, how many people in the world try satisfy their curiosities trying to find out who is the famous Master Luis Marques? And how many people do not satisfy their curiosity drifted away from the teachings of the Book of Orion and Asetian Bible? Ignoring all his teachings due to unsatisfied curiosity? Curiosity was the main draw, the brain made a point of demonstrating that curiosity was more important than the teachings. In this and in many cases the curiosity turns into Frustration, becoming weakness in the learning process.

It should be noted also that Mouni Sadhu is dealing and teaching fully practices connected with physical reality which is the element Earth and as all of us here know the world of Spirituality is manifested in superior planes as Yetzirah, Briah and Atziluth.

Interestingly, as I was reading through Smiths 2 latest books; the scorpion god, and the altar of sacrifice I lost 100% of my drive and interest for his works. I felt a sort of disdain almost for Smith's submission to the forces talked about in his books, though I still respect him as an author and a practitioner.

If anyone on here is interested, I'm selling both books for half of what they're worth. They're signed and sigilized, and are veritable gateways to the realms Smith describes in his works. If you're interested in traditional witchcraft, which honestly produces really strong results, PM me and I can either work something out with you or link you to my ebay listing.

(sorry if advertising isn't allowed or anything)

I don't fully agree with you Kalb when it comes to curiosity. I do agree when you say that misplaced curiosity is one step towards being lost, such as those who spend their energies trying to discover personal aspects of others instead of learning more about themselves. That is true, but curiosity also plays an important role in discovery and growth if well placed and well directed. Curiosity drives us forward to learn new things and explore new worlds, and you who are so passionate about the Asetians should know this as they inspire everyone to learn about every culture and every knowledge not just their own. I bet Asetians are very curious beings.

Jonathan wrote:I do agree when you say that misplaced curiosity is one step towards being lost, such as those who spend their energies trying to discover personal aspects of others instead of learning more about themselves.

Where's the confusion? I didn't say otherwise.

Curiosity is all about the unmanifest, its about what doesn't yet exist. I don't remember which book it is in, but some beautiful author mentioned the purity of the naivety of the child, who finds all new discoveries beautiful and is ever curious as to the many facets of life. Though the child may poke a wasps nest and be stung, he will learn a valuable lesson of nature. When you combine this pure, ever-growing naivety, this beautiful thirst for life, with a mature mindset, the potential becomes endless.

For what price are you selling each book if you don't mind me asking?

Does anyone know a good version of the Lesser Key?

For anyone who is interested, Xoanon is republishing Chumbley's first grimoire; The Azoetia, and you can get it for apparently somewhere around 200$ which is amazing compared to what some of those books go for.

(It's kind of easy to find pdf's online too)

For Kalb, I just stumbled upon a book that might fit the criteria you were looking for. Cave of the Numinous is a book of Hindu LHP tantra. Ganesha, or some other elephant figure is on the cover, so I assume he is included somewhere within. I haven't read it personally, but just came across it by chance and your icon popped up in my head so I figured I'd share.

Thanks, you've been very generous with me. I will try to learn more about the book, Yes, that's exactly what I'm looking, Ganesha and LHP.

Also just happened to find something called 'Our story of Atlantis" by W.P Phelon, and for anyone who has worked with Primalcraft, or has interest in the Asetian tradition, it should prove an interesting read. It's also easily found in PDF form, which is always great.

Does anybody know a good version of the Coffin/Pyramid texts? Was looking and leaning towards Faulkner but I don't have 800$ to drop on a book.