misterbrent
offlineMember
I wish I had a good suggestion, but I'm fairly green around the lunatic fringe. The best I can do is offer a list of semi-relevant books I own in hopes of stirring up discussion.
Undoing Yourself
Signs, Symbols, and Ciphers
Eight Circuit Brain
Quantum Psychology
Various works of Nietzche and Jung
Secrets of Shamanism, Way of the Shaman, Shamanism as a Daily Practice...
Prometheus Rising
Angel Tech
Might Is Right
Jack Faust
offlineMember
Are we going for classical occultism, or more modern/post-modern books?
The vision seemed to imply we'd hit a classical source first. I'd also suggest Agrippa, since his "Books of Occult Philosophy" are in public domain and can be easily accessed online. Another possibility is Levi's "History of Magic".
As for my negative opinion: I would really, really like to avoid further reading of *anything* by Arthur Edward Waite for the duration of my existence.
Finally: I won't ever object to a re-reading of Hyatt's "Undoing Yourself".
We don't need to go in chronological order, and I certainly don't mind skipping over Waite - he was incredibly tedious. Even I only made it about halfway through his autobiography (though I still entertain vague notions of finishing it some day).
Books that are easily accessible will probably be given first priority (so, no Chumbley in the immediate future). But really, we can do just about anything. We've got two or three thousand years worth of esoteric writing and translations we could choose from. The trouble seems to be narrowing the list for for the first go.
After this, I expect it will get easier.
I also wouldn't mind re-reading Undoing Yourself.
Cole Tucker
offlineMember
I would be happy starting with Agrippa, as I've only skimmed over the apocryphal Fourth Book. If we're looking at newer texts, as they're slightly more accessible, Undoing Yourself would be fun. I also had made plans with myself to work through Eight Circuit Brain and blog my way through, so two birds, horse drinking water and all that.
I can't seem to find Eight Circuit Brain in print anywhere, unfortunately. I've supplemented the list with a few suggestions of my own, but please let me know if anyone has further suggestions.
I was going to stick on something by Crowley, like the Confessions, or The Holy Books of Thelema, or even Magick Without Tears, but they all seem to be out of print. A great shame, since I think they would make for lively conversation. Alas, here's what we've got so far.
Fear not, you can select more than one option and we'll take the top rated pick as at end of day Sunday, January 24th, 2010, Toronto-time.
Waite wasn't just tedious, he was obstructionist -- very much against the actual practice of magick and rather afraid of anything "blasphemous."
I voted for Agrippa with a second preference for Levi, since it would be more useful for me to read something I haven't already read.
Also (and then I STFU) misterbrent's inclusion of a symbols book reminded me of Nigel Pennick's Secret Signs, Symbols & Sigils. Not nominating it since it seems to be out of stock here and there and costs a little too much, but I love this book not for how well it covers its subject, or how accurate it is (in fact Pennick seems quite gullible at certain points) but for how well it conveys a sense of the magic in the manifest world.
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