Rating:  Summary: The best on the market! Review: As it is written in the title of my review, this book is the best book on ceremonial magick on the market. It is primarily written for the practitioner and almost every aspect of magic is covered in a very comprehensive way. No ambiguity here but all subjects perfectly explained and detailed. Simply the best. I also want to take this opportunity to recommend some other few books for all the seekers out there:1) "Initiation into hermetics" by Franz Bardon (without any doubt a very good competitor to Kraig's book). Prodigious! A summit in Western magical literature. 2) "Western mandalas of transformation" by Soror A.L.. Simply the best book ever written on talismanic magic. I have read many books on talismanic magic including those written by I. Regardie, Migene Gonzalez-Whippler, Sepharial, Budge, Gregor, and Farrell, but this one is clearly the best. Every aspect of talismans construction is covered in details and in an absolute comprehensive manner. This work will be a tough one to surpass. A pure gem! 3) "Making Talismans: living entities of Power" by Nick Farrell. Also a MUST in talismanic magic. In fact this book was my all time favorite before I found Soror A.L. book. Like the book above, everything here is clearly covered and unnumerable tools are given for the construction of almost any type of talismans. A very good book indeed! 4) "Tibetan book of living and dying" by Sogyal Rinpoche. Surely one of the best book I have read in my life. Spirituality at its HIGHEST. If I could give five stars to only one book, (and as a poet and French author, I have read a lot and a lot), then I would highly consider this one. Deep, heartful, compassionate, moving, pure, filled with hope and desinterested love. These are some words that can described this book. WHAT A LESSON FOR US WESTERNERS!! No Hocus Pocus here, no spells performed to attract love or money but a work of REAL love. Please give yourself an incomparable gift and buy this book now. You will thank me (and yourself) for that. God blessed you Mr. S. Rinpoche, cause you try to help peoples find (or rediscover) hope, compassion and love in their hearts. 5) Finally, I will suggest all works by St-John of The Cross or St-Francis of Assisi for (here again) their marvelous works filled with hope, humility and love. God bless you all!!
Rating:  Summary: Good for all Paths Review: I have been a practicing Pagan for more than 5 years and the information to be found here can benefit anyone of any path no matter how long you have been studying. Just as Scott Cunningham was an excellent author of all sorts of books, so would I recommend Donald Kraig as a master not only of his work but of presentation. The information found here can benefit you because the contents of it are so easy to understand. Unlike many masters of today and yester-years, Kraig hides nothing and gives accurate information. He admits he doesn't know it all and that he is still learning himself. The only thing he hides is what the student needs to learn for themselves through meditation. The magick in here is genuine which anyone can see just by working through the first lesson in the book. Almost anyone is familliar with the Lesser Banishing Ritual, and Kraig explains why it works and how it works instead of just giving you the information and letting you go. This author put genuine care for the practitioner into this book. This is a definite MUST-READ! Anyone of any path that wishes to attain more info about divinity and pathworking can glean alot of information from this book!
Rating:  Summary: The very beginning... Review: I have highly enjoyed Kraig's book. It has several error's but nothing too serious. The "how-to" discriptions of the rituals are the best I have seen. Although he fades off when it comes time to discuss the purpose or depth of these rituals. If you know anything about the occult or magick then you never should get this book. BUT, if you are an absolute beginner and know nothing, then this is one of the best books for you to get your feet wet. If for no other reason, I give this book five stars for starting many people on the path of wisdom.
Rating:  Summary: Very well laid out, easy to understand Review: This is a FINE book and well worth the money. If you're at all interested in ceremonial magick and/or the style of magick performed by the Golden Dawn this is the book for you. Definitely written for the practicing individual not just the armchair reader. The rituals are laid out logically complete with visualizations and hard-to-pronounce Hebrew and Enochian words written phoenetically. If you still have a hard time with the pronounciations, pick up the companion tape "Using Modern Magick" which takes you page by page through the entire book showing you how to pronounce the words. The book also has an invaluable section with instructions on how to use the two ancient grimoires, The Key of Solomon and The Lesser Key of Solomon. Instructions of this sort I have never seen published before. If being a ceremonial magician is something you're interested in, this is the book for you.
Rating:  Summary: Can I give it more than 5? Review: What can I say? If you are looking for black magic spells to cast on your ex-lover, this isn't the best book for that, but good for nearly every other aspect of magick. This book covers such a range of topics, it gives rituals which improve your life bringing you closer to the divine, it shows you the true meaning of magic, it covers the Kabbalah, astral projection, tarot, dreams, the list is endless. This is definately the best book I have ever found on magick, and I've lost count of the number of times I've read it despite its many pages. If you really want to become a great magician and improve your life with Kraig's concise, well laid out and easy to understand book, then my suggestion is to buy this book. Well worth the money!
Rating:  Summary: The very beginning... Review: I have highly enjoyed Kraig's book. It has several error's but nothing too serious. The "how-to" discriptions of the rituals are the best I have seen. Although he fades off when it comes time to discuss the purpose or depth of these rituals. If you know anything about the occult or magick then you never should get this book. BUT, if you are an absolute beginner and know nothing, then this is one of the best books for you to get your feet wet. If for no other reason, I give this book five stars for starting many people on the path of wisdom.
Rating:  Summary: An OK Book for Beginners Only... Review: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law. While this book is adequate for the first venture into the realm of Ceremonial Magick, the reader must be prepared to undertake several other books during and after this one. Kraig's constant references to other books and bibliographies help the reader to access other information, but his own biases show clearly through. His "self-dedication" rite is good for the solo artist, but when he states that you can be ready for Adeptus Minor by the end of the book, id have to disagree. The Elemental Grades can only be obtained through initiation via someone higher in grade than you. As well as "If you do/dont do/ this, you will never be a true magician", which is a bit inaccurate, and may turn the reader off to the path of the Great Work. Not to mention the rituals in the book read like stereo instructions, and get a bit bland. All in all, an ok book for beginners, but dont let it be your one source for information. there is a wealth of knowledge waiting to be found past this book, at the AcademyofSorcery.com for example. Become a lifetime member there and you will learn much more. Love is the Law, Love under Will.
Rating:  Summary: could have been interesting but dull, dull, dull. Review: I wouldn't waste my time on this if I were you. Go to amazon and buy "magical Tattwas" by jonn mumford instead. He's as entertaining as this guy is dull. Of course, if you have insomnia you may want to use this to put yourself to sleep at night.
Rating:  Summary: From Wicca to High Magick Review: For many years i have been following a Wiccan path but felt there was somthing missing, like there was something more. Well after purchasing Modern Magick i found it! Donald Michael Kraig takes a lot of the confusion out of Ceremonial magick and puts it into words that are easy to understand. If you are a beginner on the path of Ceremonial Magick i highly reccommend Modern Magick!
Rating:  Summary: Good Information but.... Review: This book contains a good covering of the "basics" of Magick. However, I think in the author's attempt to make things simple he is creating mistakes. There is one glaring mistake in particular that I feel really needs to be pointed out. On pg.68 (first edition), the author states the three conceptions above the first Sephirah have been wrongly named The Three Veils of Negative Existence. This is wrong, it is negative existance and not "no thing" as the author states. This will help explain more clearly: "The idea of negative existence can then exist as an idea, but it will not bear definition, since the idea of definition is utterly incompatible with its nature. 'But,' some of my readers will perhaps say, 'your term negative existence is surely a misnomer; the state you describe would be better expressed by the title of negative subsistence.' Not so, I answer; for negative subsistence can never be anything but negative subsistence; it cannot vary, it cannot develop; for negative subsistence is literally and truly no thing. Therefore, negative subsistence cannot be at all; it never has existed, it never does exist, it never will exist. But negative existence bears hidden in itself, positive life; for in the limitless depths of the abyss of its negativity lies hidden the power of standing forth from itself, the power of projecting the scintilla of the thought unto the utter, the power of re-involving the syntagma into the inner. Thus shrouded and veiled is the absorbed intensity in the centreless whirl of the vastness of expansion. Therefore have I employed the term 'Ex-sto,' rather than 'Sub-sto.'" -- From KABBALA DENUDATA: THE KABBALAH UNVEILED, S. L. MACGREGOR MATHERS, translator Therefore as you can see, AIN cannot be defined and can not be "no thing" or negative subsistence, AIN is negative existence!!
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