Magician His Training and Work

Rating:
Summary: Worthwhile
Review: I agree with the previous review, I just wanted to add that I find the initial obscurity one of the great things about this book. It's written in earnest (no pun intended), and it deliberately sets out to avoid presenting the truths of magical thought 'on a plate', as so many of the more recent books on the subject attempt to do - with unfortunate results. The importance of independent thought and study is a maxim for anyone on the magical path - this book is full of useful information, and is likely to be one that the reader returns to periodically, to find that it sheds new light in unexpected areas. Highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Good book, although a little too difficult for the begginer.
Review: This book is one of the best I know in the subject. When I first bought it about five years ago I could recognize this fact clearly. Nonetheless, it is my opinion that this book is not for absolute begginers. When I read it for the first time I understood some things, but others escaped my comprehension. The third chapter, for example, on Qabbalah, is quite technical and philosophical, perhaps even too "stratospehrical" for readers without SOME (not neccesarily large) formation on Qabbalah. Re-reading it now, after five years of constant work and study on the subject, all these doubts have been solved... but not precisely through THIS book. There is a good section on de Middle Pillar exercise and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram, and an excelentet chapter on talismans which includes the three different and interesting theories regarding the magical charge. On the whole, it is a very good book about magical theory, and in this it is accesible even to absolute new-commers to the subject, although technicalities make it a little dense even to the experienced reader. I would say that this book is a must for students of the occult and arm-chair and practical magicians alike, but I don't give it five stars because even for the sholarly occultist it is sometimes a little hard. Nonetheless, anyone pursuing magical studies seriously should have read this book at least once. I would include it, along with Regardie's, Fortune's and Kraig's books in the list of "10 books a magician should read"