Ogdoadic Magick

Rating:
Summary: Introduction to Art Magick
Review: Ogdoadic Magick is a guide to the Art Magick tradition and a training manual for the novice wishing to follow this path that is based on Celtic, Gnostic and Greek practices and philosophies and draws inspiration from a Qabalah of different lineage and traditions than those used by the mainstream of the Western occult tradition.

The author examines the theory, practice and ethics of magick and discusses Jung and Vogler's archetypes and the work of Joseph Campbell. He provides a list of requirements and instructions for setting up an altar plus information about study and practice, breath, posture and meditation.

There are chapters on the four elements, the law of similars and the Qabalah, as well as on the seasonal and lunar tides and the planetary hours. Eight rituals are described, including the Solar Adoration, the Calyx, Setting Of The Wards, Rousing Of The Citadels and a rite of divination for finding lost objects.

Tables and figures are scattered throughout the text, for example a tarot spread, a model chamber of art, various magical postures, the tree of life, the eight-pointed star and various charts listing correspondences between for example psychological qualities, plants, minerals and animals.

Appendix A includes a brief history of the Ogdoadic tradition with reference to the Knights Templar, Platonic Academy, the Medici, Marsilio Ficino, Angelo Poliziano, Reuchlin, the Societas Rotae Fulgentis and the Order Aurum Solis.

Appendix B provides an interesting list of recommended additional reading on Aurum Solis, Psychology & Mind, Western Magick, Symbolism, History & Philosophy, Poetry and Reference Works and the book concludes with an extensive bibliography and index.

I also recommend the titles Foundations of High Magick and Creative Visualization by Melita Denning and Osborne Phillips and Stephan Hoeller's The Gnostic Jung And The Seven Sermons To The Dead for those interested in this positive and sane magical tradition.