Reddit mentions: The best occult books

For books on the Qabalah, the two best books to have been written on the subject are The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune and The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford by Lon Milo Duquette. I'd also pick up a copy of 777 And Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley, which is a book of qabalistic correspondences.

The best book on the Golden Dawn would be The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magick, which covers (almost) everything someone would wish to know about the original Golden Dawn and was written by one of the most famous initiates of the Golden Dawn.

There is not many books on Rosicruciaism, and many books that are out there on it are fraudulent and are not an accurate representation of the Rosicrucians. The only book that I would say is worth a read is Zanoni, which is a fictional story written by a Rosicrucian. It is based on Rosicrucian philosophies and symbolism.

As for Tarot, I myself prefer the Crowley/Thelemic system of tarot over that of the Golden Dawn, so I can only really recommend books on that system, which are The Book of Thoth by Aleister Crowley and Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo Duquette.

For the goetic demons, the best text would simply be The Goetia

Also, some beginner books I usually recommend are:

Circles of Power: An Introduction to Hermetic Magic by John Michael Greer, which is a beginners guide to ceremonial magick.

Book 4 by Aleister Crowley, which is the most comprehensive treatise on the practice of magick to ever be written, in my own personal opinion.

Enochian Magic in Theory by Frater Yechidah with Enochian Magic in Practice by Frater Yechidah, which are guides to the Enochian system of magick, a very popular and powerful system of magick, developed by the famous magician and advisor to Queen Elizabeth I John Dee, and used and improved upon by many occult orders, most notably the Golden Dawn.

And finally, The Corpus hermeticum by Hermes Trismegistus, which is the foundational text of all hermetic and occult philosophy.

Not sure if you're looking for something more New-Agey, but this is a great book that was recommended to me about faery tradition: http://www.amazon.com/Cunning-Folk-Familiar-Spirits-Shamanistic-Traditions/dp/1845190793/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458325340&sr=1-1&keywords=cunning+folk+and+familiar+spirits

Wilby examines specific recorded accounts of interactions between humans and the Good People, draws comparisons in connection to kinds of witchcraft (cunning folk specifically working as benevolent mediators), and then also relates these workings to the shamanistic tradition in Europe and the New World.


Another great book is R.J. Stewart's translation and commentary on Robert Kirk's "The Secret Commonwealth of Elves, Fauns, & Fairies": http://www.amazon.com/Robert-Kirk-Walker-Between-Worlds/dp/0979140242/ref=sr_1_7?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1458326038&sr=1-7&keywords=r.j.stewart

This provides Kirk's relatively short manuscript of studies and theories on the Good People, which he skated a thin line of heresy on as a minister of the church. He worked to collect word of mouth instances and stories and applied them to what he knew regarding science and the church's world outlook. Stewart provides commentary and helps to round out the text, as well as speaks about Kirk's mysterious death and the possibility that he was actually taken to the Otherworld.

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I recommended the Kybalion in my previous comment before seeing this post. It seems you have already read the Kybalion then. You are already off to a great start. But there are, as always, up to seven layers of meaning to any text. So you should consider it as more of a reference work than anything; only when your journey is complete will you be able to make full use of its contents.

I might have also referenced the Bhagavad Gita. It seems like our attraction to the mystical is in a very similar pattern. Since you have gone this far, then, as per my other comment I would recommend Mark Stavish's Egregores, but also I might recommend the works of Manly P. Hall, and also his largest influencer, H. P. Blavatsky. Specifically ISIS Unveiled for the latter.

Manly P. Hall would be an especially good resource for so-called "fast tracking." His works are very encyclopedic. Particularly his masterwork The Secret Teachings of All Ages.

You may also find Max Heindel's The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception beneficial.

>This could very well be one of those engineering problems like flying, where nature did it first and proved it could be done, but we ultimately end up smashing all her performance records using finely tuned solutions.

People smashed records, yes, but one only has to watch birds in flight to be reminded that people still can't fly, in the sense that birds do, and with the freedom and joy that we once dreamed of, at all.

>I see consciousness as an informational phenomenon. Information must be carried in a material substrate but is not itself material, at least in my view.

I have no doubt you have a lot of reason for holding that view, and I know the informational view has a lot of weight, currently. It's not something I expect to be refutable or falsifiable. A full response would be book-length (specifically this book , Taking Appearance Seriously by Henri Bortoft - review here ) Bortoft gets right into the self-identity/self-differencing stuff, what happens when we read and write, what makes two productions of Hamlet both Hamlet, and so on.

I will say that AI theorists should be wary of succumbing to what Weizenbaum called, as I recall, the 'Lamp-post principle' - you know, like the drunk who looked for his keys under the lamp-post "because that's where the light is". Computers happen to be very good for processing information, and for encryption/decryption. Define consciousness and understanding in those terms, and before you know it you've got a theory that claims computers are theoretically capable of anything.
My view is that reading, writing and understanding resemble informational processes only in limited cases, and in their more degraded forms.

That's fine. If you'd like to share additional research on Hegel, I'd be interested to see it.

For an oft overlooked aspect of Hegel, I'd recommend the following: 'Hegel and the Hermetic Tradition' by Glenn Alexander Magee. You will find an introduction to the aforementioned work (by its author) here, a preview of the book here, a pdf copy here, with a related thesis (pun intended) outlined in a paper by one Michael Moran entitled 'How Hegel was influenced by Schiller, Goethe, and Hermeticism' being found here, care of the Philosophical Research Society of England's journal 'The Philosopher'.

I enjoy Wilmhurst. I would also suggest "The Philosophy of Freemasonry" by Roscoe Pound (trust me, it's short)

The Winding Staircase is a really cool look at the evolution of the symbols, with lots of pictures.

But, for my money, the best place to start these types of educational programs is with the lectures themselves. Pick something that was briefly mentioned or alluded to in the lectures (i.e., the Book of Ruth, Jacob's Ladder, the virtues, the Ephraimites, Jappa, etc.) and do a deep dive on it. Why is it in the lectures? What is the context of its use in the lectures? What is the allusion of the thing itself? How can we apply the lesson of the symbol to our lives?

That should provide an almost inexhaustible resource for planning out some of these programs.

Biblical scribes composed their gematria to match gate values on the Seven Palaces, which is the ancient forerunner to the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Basically its a map of the ancient universe where each letter governs a specific domain of creation. Take a look at these diagrams;

https://shematria.pythonanywhere.com/sp

http://bethshebaashe.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/gates2-e1554676425461.jpg

And this page about the basic correspondences of the letters of the Seven Palaces to the verses of Genesis 1-2:
https://shematria.pythonanywhere.com/hebrew

By the time we get to Genesis 3, the scribe is presenting numbers representing groupings of gates that correspond with sections of the Temple.

In Crowley's case, he's much more freestyle. He knew about the Seven Palaces of course, and his AL II,76 riddle relies on it, but his goal was to write an upgrade of the book of Genesis, and therefore while he draws an initial correspondence in line 1 of the book of the law and line 1 of Genesis, he diverges quite early on to insert (for example) the value of pi approximate to six digits into the text. He also uses notariqon quite a bit. Do you know notariqon? I have an article that showcases some of Crowley's work here;

http://bethshebaashe.com/liber-al-vel-legis-13-4

My first book was about the keys to Crowley's work. Its 5 years old, in which time I've learned quite a bit about writing and gematria, but I think it's still a useful guide to his A.'.A.'. hermeneutics:

https://www.amazon.com/Aleister-Crowleys-Secret-Temple-Palaces-ebook/dp/B07BXV84YX

Ain't nothin'. :)

Here's a pretty good compilation of grimoires that I link to folks, because it's cheaper than buying copies.

Other than that, there's the Pseudomonarchia Daemonum, but I've never been able to find a .pdf of it that sits around for very long.

The Testament of Solomon also gives some pretty good background information. Doesn't tell you how to do shit, but it's an interesting read.

i think it is hard to say i think my favorite tingler is REAMED BY MY REACTION TO THE TITLE OF THIS BOOK but i am also very proud of GUIDE TO THE VOID because i think it has helped others avoid the void so i am very proud of that

+chucktinglethanks:

i think it is hard to say i think my favorite tingler is REAMED BY MY REACTION TO THE TITLE OF THIS BOOK but i am also very proud of GUIDE TO THE VOID because i think it has helped others avoid the void so i am very proud of that

Hey dude, this is a soon to be released book that comes very highly recommended indeed. Should be of interest :)

https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Higher-Manual-Psychedelic-Ceremony/dp/0992808871/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492973160&sr=8-1&keywords=Getting+Higher%3A+The+Manual+of+Psychedelic+Ceremony

Iñaki preciado idoeta's one is a pretty authoritative version because is directly translated from chinese.
Other one is stephen mitchell's one, which seems the same as the english one in the app.
Thank you!
Edit: links to amazon for the versions: Iñaki's one , [Stephen's one] (https://www.amazon.es/Tao-Ching-Lao-Sabidur%C3%ADa-tradici%C3%B3n/dp/8488242956/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1518025886&sr=8-4&keywords=del+tao+libros)

My group maintains a decent sized recommendation library here: http://orderoftheserpent.org/library.html

Additionally I wrote a book on the topic, which can be found here: https://www.amazon.com/Behold-Darkness-Complete-Introduction-Religion/dp/1793962340

Always happy to answer anything specific :)

You could go for something like The Pillars of Tubal Cain, Tubelo's Green Fire or The Roebuck in the Thicket. Or maybe Mastering Witchcraft.

Or you could go the other route and get her books on Chaos Magic, which would allow her to create her own witchcraft paradigm. Something like Alan Chapman's Advanced Magick for Beginners.

It's from the 5th printing in 1994. I just did some quick googling and it looks like Falcon Press kept the printings going up until pretty recently. This limited edition is listed as "Publication Date: December 1, 2010". Perhaps the reason they are so pricey is they don't print very many(?).

Vanilla
This book if i win somehow

Debatable whether on or over said brink, but definitely way too many amphetamines: https://www.amazon.com/Writings-1993-2003-Cybernetic-Culture-Research/dp/0995455066

Oh lordi, that's one hell of a rabbit hole you got dragged into.

I should probably post my bookshelf sometime, though the crown jewel of it right now has to be https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Golden-Dawn-System-Magic/dp/1935150804/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

I was never much interested in the golden dawn for practical reasons, but there's something fascinating about seeing where so much modern material has been drawn from/ripped off from.

This book might be of interest to you:
https://www.amazon.com/Getting-Higher-Manual-Psychedelic-Ceremony/dp/0992808871/ref=nodl_

Addendum:

Here is the Amazon link for that issue. Kindle edition, also.

https://www.amazon.com/Flying-Saucer-Review-Vol-Mar-Apr-ebook/dp/B01HK13AY4/ref=sr_1_10?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1501084693&sr=1-10&keywords=Flying+Saucer+Review+-+Vol.+2%2C+N.+2

If you want the illustrations, the Dictionnaire Infernal (or this one) should have them. Louis Le Breton was the illustrator.

Not strictly conspiracy, but

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B074BQNWPX/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

Just start working with a legion of Exu in the tradition of Quimbanda. This book will get you started.

Oh, I see.

I take it you're not a fan of The Satanic Bible. Incidentally, a book you got me to take a peek at (unwittingly, I think) is the one by Three Scarabs: Behold: The Prince of Darkness: A Complete Introduction to Setian Religion