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I think it would take a crazy amount of time and devotion to pour through all these books… but could a kernel of truth be found?
I would like every ones input on the top ten books they have benefited the most from… I’m asking so I can expand the diversity of occult authors in my library of knowledge. Thanks!
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This is a tough one. Many of the books I would say are instrumental to my practice now I would never have comprehended without reading and most importantly working out of others.
I would say after years of this that it is much more important that you actually do the work, any work, than it is what work you do.
Regardless of the 99%, with practice you will discover the 1%. Without it, you’ll be living in a sea of memories of what you read without any certainty or true knowledge whatsoever.
I had typed a list of books that was useful to me, that massively benefited my life. However I have decided to list only two. One provides a perspective on what is known about the scope of the development of the human mind, and the other on the potential of the human body. Reading these two books would give a useful frame work as to gauge one’s own state of development, plot a course forward through a map of the known and then forward and beyond into your own destiny.
Post-autonomous Ego Development - Susanne R. Cook-Greuter
The Future of the Body - Michael Murphy
Most books beet around the bush. its good to have the ancient classics. But most books ive noticed old and new have so much dogma and lond drawn out prayers its just a bunch of crap to me. I use books as guids to skim through for inspiration.
but I found use in Mark Allen Smith’s books all 4 of them, but Im leaning on following that current alone. The Book of Sitra Ahra was informational.
I got some good use from Konstantinos book Nocternomicon. (sry if im butchering the spelling) A good read for me was also Sexual Alchemy by Tyson. most of my Lybrary is expencive as all hell and IMO worthless but I collect Grimoires so I wish to keep them all. I literally gave up on the books I now just Take the fundimentals that they all have and creat something totally new evry time with a few things I come back to frome time to time. So I keep a journal for the really good ones. I gues just download all the free shit you find and skim through it reading whatever catches your eye. I will say the Anthology of Sorcery is worth its weight. I have yet to practice it though.
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In terms of magick for personal gain and development, as opposed to stuff I read when I was learning healing in my love & light days, these are my top 10:
Hermetic Magic by Stephen Flowers, for too many reasons to list.
Magic: History, Theory, Practice by Dr Ernst Schertel, for the exercise on evoking your “personal daemon” externally.
Nine Doors Of Midgard, Flowers again, writing as Edred Thorsson, for the “magickal self” exercise and various other small bits and pieces.
Low Magick by Lon Milo DuQuette, for the humour, some experiences that affirmed my own, and general likeability.
New Avatar Power by Geof Gray-Cobb, for general ideas on how to boil magick down to the essentials.
Practical Sigil Magic by Frater U.D., for a concise guide to making and using sigils in the A.O.S. method.
The Kybalion, for teaching me the basic laws of causal reality, and for being a kind of practical guidebook to metaphysics - PDF here.
The Science Of Being Great by Wallace T Wattles, for showing how to use the “Laws of Mind” and also make everyday decisions from a place of greatness - download here.
Success Through A Positive Mental Attitude by Napoleon Hill, for turning me from someone with a bitter loser’s mindset to someone with faith in herself and also for giving a good grounding of how to succeed in any area of life - PDF here.
Think And Grow Rich, also by Hill, for showing how the vibratory level of our mind and thoughts actively co-creates our reality - download here.
I also love Baneful Magick, only got that recently (so far I’ve only read that & WoD by EA, EE is still over at my partner’s place) so keeping it to ten was impossible… lol!
The ones above got me this far though and I’d recommend them to anyone.
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Thanks for your answers now I feel like I have a better place to start!
Smith’s stuff is great. Queen of Hell is very useful to me. I even had semi lucid dreams of the underworld using it. Saw giant dogs with green eyes and some sorta strange cat creatures, still using it now.
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In no particular order:
Works of Darkness by EA, for opening me to the mindset of a black magician.
Instant Magick by Christopher Penczak for the countdown exercise for entering the alpha state.
The Inner Temple of Witchcraft, also by Christopher Penczak, for the information on using affirmations while in alpha for a deeper, and faster, result.
Sorcerer’s Secrets, by Jason Miller, for showing me how to use both mundane and magical methods strategically for the best result.
Summoning Spirits by Konstantinos, for capturing my imagination, and making me think of what could be possible.
Evoking Eternity by EA, for the pathworkings of entities to aid in Ascent, and for the Invocation of omnipotence exercise.
Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine, which showed me just how simple magick can be.
Secrets of the German Sex Magicans by Frater U.D. for the information on developing a program of exercises drawn from different systems to aid in harnessing the sexual energy of the body.
Relax into Being by Bruce Franzis, for information on the Water Method of Taoist meditation.
Path Notes of an American Ninja Master by Glenn Morris, for the stories about just how much fun energy development can be.
Edit: And The Art of Expressing the Human Body, and Striking Thoughts by Bruce Lee, for pure inspiration.
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