Ben GruagachComments Off on Pagan Booklist: Working With Energy
Casting a spell or doing any form of magick involves more than just saying specific words and having specific ingredients gathered together. To make it all work you have to be able to draw up and then direct energy to power the whole thing. How can you learn about magical energy, how to tap into it, and how to direct… Read more »
Ben GruagachComments Off on Pagan Booklist: Protection Magick
Anyone who wants to learn how to do magick would be wise to start with protection magick. It’s not because magick is inherently dangerous (although depending what you get into it can be) but because you can learn the basics while also building skills that will help keep you out of any potential trouble.
Many Witches, Wiccans, and occultists work with trance and altered states of consciousness as a major part of their practice. If you are interested in getting started in this sort of work check out the introductory books listed in Pagan Booklist: Trance. If you’re ready for more here are some suggestions to get you even more involved. “Travelling Between the… Read more »
Ben GruagachComments Off on Great Book Of Magical Art, Hindu Magic And East Indian Occultism – L. W. de Laurence [PDF]
This book provides a lot of magickal lore and how-to information on a wide range of techniques. The author and publisher, L. W. de Laurence, produced a lot of popular books on these subjects – some were his own while others were written by others. His books were sold primarily through mail-order. This book was originally published in 1898, and… Read more »
Ben GruagachComments Off on The Kybalion by Three Initiates [EPUB]
The Kybalion is a classic text providing the basis for what is known as the Hermetic tradition. It was first published in 1912 and is now in the public domain. Other formats of this book can be downloaded in electronic format from Project Gutenberg.
Ben GruagachComments Off on Pagan Booklist: Magickal Herbalism
Witches are known for their use of plants for working magick. Incenses, brews and potions, oils, powders, washes, even magically charged foods are all ways of employing Green Magick. One of the most popular books on herbs, their properties and uses was published back in the 1600s. The book proved useful to magickal practitioners as well thanks to listing the… Read more »
Ben GruagachComments Off on Pagan Booklist: Trance
Many magickal practitioners use altered states of consciousness, often called trance, as a way to tap energies and connect with beings that are usually beyond our everyday reality. Trance allows us to draw from the inexhaustible well of inspiration. It allows us to commune with the Divine, and to work wonders. In Wicca, Gardner taught that there were eight main… Read more »
Ben GruagachComments Off on Pagan Booklist: Spirit Work
[Note: this article has been edited since it was first posted to include new books on the topic.] Some magickal practitioners focus on working with non-physical entities, whether these entities are described as elementals, faeries, ghosts, ancestors, angels, demons, saints, loa, intelligences, or deities. Different systems have different ways of categorizing and classifying — some are very strict about putting… Read more »
Ben GruagachComments Off on Separating the Wheat from the Chaff: Critical Thinking Skills for Pagans
(Excerpted from “The Wiccan Mystic”, chapter four.) Information on the occult and on alternative religious paths such as Wicca is readily available now more than ever before. Most mainstream bookstores carry at least a few books with titles like “Easy Wicca” or “Casting Spells in 3 Simple Steps,” or might have a wider selection from scholarly philosophical tomes to straightforward… Read more »
Ben GruagachComments Off on Liminality, Divination, and Magick
This chaotic never-ending motion is not a bad thing unless we decide it is. It is a dance, the pulse of life, death, everything in between and beyond. We can choose to fight it or embrace it.
