Reddit mentions of The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Reader's Edition)

I would definitely go with The Secret Teachings of All Ages.

I'm not sure about essential to every occult library (and I realize some of these aren't necessarily considered primarily 'occult' texts), but here are a few I've found useful:

• The Golden Dawn - Israel Regardie
  
• Morals and Dogma - Alfred Pike
  
• Modern Magick - Donald Michael Kraig
  
• The Secret Teachings of All Ages - Manly P. Hall
  
• Initiation into Hermetics - Franz Bardon
  
• Sefer Yetzirah - Aryeh Kaplan
  
• The Secret Doctrine - Madame Blavatsky
  
• Liber Null & Psychonaut - Peter J. Carroll
  
• The Book of Thoth - Aleister Crowley
  
• Undoing Yourself with Energized Meditation and Other Devices - Christopher S. Hyatt
  
• Prometheus Rising - Robert Anton Wilson
  
• Enochian Vision Magick - Lon Milo DuQuette
  
• The Chicken Qabalah - Lon Milo DuQuette
  
• Brain Magick - Philip Farber
  
• Info-Psychology - Timothy Leary
  
• Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson - George Gurdjieff
  
• Initiation, Human and Solar - Alice Bailey
  
• The Red Book - Carl Jung
  
• Principia Discordia - Malaclypse the Younger

You might want to study up on religious history. I grew up a Christian too, but in learning about old religions that predate Christianity, it widened my perspective.

Honestly my original dive into the occult had followed a deep fascination of quantum physics. In looking up these things online I kept stumbling on occult websites. I found it quite interesting that my interest in a field of science brought me to the occult. Science and religion have been blending and overlapping lately I’ve noticed. Quite different from when I was younger and everything seemed more black and white.

Growing up I had always heard things about how many Christian practices and views were just adopted from paganism but changed to fit their view. Well that’s not wrong but of course it’s much more complicated.

I have this book, The Secret Teachings of ALL AGES by Manly P. Hall and it dives into a lot about religions including the occult, Christianity, Judaism, etc. It’s a good soft way of learn about such a subject without compromising your beliefs. But like everything, beliefs are not set in stone. But you should only start where you feel more comfortable.

The Secret Teachings of All Ages - Amazon link

Here are some books that I found might be interesting.

The Occult Roots of Nazism: Secret Aryan Cults and Their Influence on Nazi Ideology

Sex and Rockets: The Occult World of Jack Parsons -- Rocket scientist by day; sex magician by night. Also blew himself up accidentally.

Secret Teachings of All Ages -- This is the book I am getting soon and this edition as it has most of the illustrations. This is a survey on a bunch of different topics.

My amazon wishlist is a fucking mess now...

Yes, you are right, the goals of the white magician and black magician is different.

I am no expert either, but see btvsrcks answer.

The thing is that in modern times we mostly get our information from popular culture (Hollywood, video games, conspiracy documentaries etc.) which portrays magic at a very superficial level with all its fire, wind, woooshes and splashes. Most magic is practical (eg. meditation, prayer etc.) than it has to do with believing in something "out there".

An interesting take on this topic is The Secret Teachings of All Ages by Manly P Hall


1928 original online

I find some irony in this response as I am currently reading this:

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teachings-All-Ages-Readers/dp/1585422509/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1519936339&sr=8-1&keywords=manley+p+hall


Loose interpretation on reading, I pick it up every time I have a little down time which right now is NONE AT ALL

Manly P Hall is great! I've been working my way through his "The Secret Teachings of All Ages." Have you heard of that book? It's a mammoth of information! It was pretty reasonably priced as well. I think I got it on amazon for around $25.

*edit - here is the link on amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teachings-All-Ages-Readers/dp/1585422509/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1526840270&sr=1-1&keywords=the+secret+teachings+of+all+ages+by+manly+p.+hall&dpID=41Vj%252BAsOirL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch

https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teachings-All-Ages-Readers/dp/1585422509/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1480567344&sr=8-1&keywords=secrets+of+all+ages

Ah! dijiste "menos"... upsie.

Amazon link: https://www.amazon.com/Secret-Teachings-All-Ages-Readers/dp/1585422509/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=secret+teachings+of+all+ages&qid=1571413263&sr=8-1

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pdf: http://www.istitutocintamani.org/libri/The_secret_teachings_of_all_ages.pdf