The Path: A Practical Approach to Sorcery
- ISBN13: 9780974519807
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
“THE PATH is a veritable treasure trove of insight into the dynamic nature of human consciousness….Full of hope and of practical ways to overcome negative urges and influences. Well thought out and beautifully written. Outstanding and highly recommended reading!” Robert Bruce, Author of Astral Dynamics ‘The Path’ is a book about sorcery, recovery and ‘The Matrix’. It is an entertaining guide to personal transformation offering fresh new insights into addiction and percep
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(out of 17 reviews)
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Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires: The Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered
- ISBN13: 9780738703039
- Condition: USED – VERY GOOD
- Notes:
The magickal methods and esoteric knowledge of medieval Europe (476 to 1453 C.E.) form the ancestral backbone of modern ceremonial magick. To understand medieval magick, it’s necessary to know the primary repositories of this knowledge – the grimoires of spells, incantations, and ritual instructions for working with angels and conjuring spirits. And to understand the grimoires, you must delve into the life and times of the magicians who wrote them.
Scholar and magician Aaron Leitch sheds
Rating: (out of 18 reviews)
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Review by Makula Aulanchis for The Path: A Practical Approach to Sorcery
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This is an interesting and useful book describing growth and unfolding of a self-taught “sorceress”. Arana, armed with books by Castaneda, Monroe and Gurdjieff embarks on a path of discovering the energy body and the rules that govern the many worlds accessible by the conscious mind. To get there, she has learnt to free her mind of the grips of perceptual certainty, to follow her Intent and to practice relentlessly. For me, Arana’s descriptions of her experiences form the most useful part of the book. I actually find the book to be more helpful (and trustworthy) than those written by Castaneda. At the very least, A’s book may turn out to be an indispensable companion to C’s opus. Arana brings us remarkably lucid analyses of working with Intent, with the Elemental Force (God) and brings forth an excellent case for the “sorcerer’s” need to establish a working meditation practice. She also provides good descriptions of how to work with the assemblage point … for intrepid afficionados of the netherworld of different states/dimensions of consciousness and those interested in meetings its colorful denizens she provides useful pointers on lucid dreaming (for better or worse). The most unfortunate part of this book is probably its title. There is little, if anything, of real “sorcery” in the book. On the contrary, Esmeralda is interested in attaining that ultimate goal – freedom. Her book provides an honest, valiant and useful tool for anyone who shares her goals. I recommend it.
Review by W. Lambdin for The Path: A Practical Approach to Sorcery
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I expect to see many negative reviews of this book “The Path: A Practical approach to Sorcery”; because many people will read the title, and incorrectly assume this book is full of spells, incantations, and curses. Well those people simply do not understand what magick (or sorcery in Ms. Arana’s nomenclature) is all about. Many people think magick is chanting an incantation and a $100 bill falls to the ground in front of you. Most people have the similar misconception of what Alchemy was about (transmuting base metals like brass and lead into gold); that was only a tiny part of what alchemy was about. True alchemy was about transmuting (purifying) the soul in order to escape the cycle of reincarnations.Now with that out of the way; this book is a wonderful essay of one woman’s long pilgrimage from darkness into the light, and I recommend it to you HIGHLY!One part of this book disturbs me greatly. Ms. Arana repeatedly talks of one of her mentors (the books of Carlos Castaneda). On page 119 Ms. Arana states “Those people who thought that his books were about the use of psychotropic drugs missed the boat entirely.” I read many of Dr. Castaneda’s books, and freely admit that I missed the boat. I am NOT in favor of people taking psychotropic drugs at all. The drugs WILL allow you to perceive and interact with other realms; but you will lose any control over the experience, and I can tell you from first hand experience that not all of those beings are sweetness and light!This book is NOT a complete path to mastery; but will greatly assist you in taking your first stumbling steps towards mastery. I am fond of saying “The more one works toward self mastery; the more inner work s/he sees that needs to be done” Two Bears.Please be patient while I point out a few things in the book.Page 2. “I began to have lucid dreams or what people commonly refer to as out of body experiences.” Lucid dreamimg is not a full out of body experience where the astral body seperates from the physical body. According to Stephen LaBerg (the man that coined that coined the term “Lucid dreaming” if memory serves.) states that lucid dreaming is one of many gateways to out of body experiences.Page 3. “I do not pretend to be a guru of any sort.” I could NOT agree more! There are NO shortcuts to self mastery. You MUST do the HARD work yourself. So prepare to do a lot of internal work!Page 28. “I have asked the Elemental Force to help to help mr change something about myself,” Just in order for you to understand her nomenclature; this energy has been called by countless names (Akasha, Ch’i, Itaki, Ki, Mana, Nuwati, Prana, etc.)Page 34. “If one stops the internal dialogue, one “stops the world”.” It is VERY important to visit the silence; because in the silence you can re-program what is allowed to pass through your filter, then release negative emotions such as anger, hatred, bigotry, tendencies to commit violence, etc. I can verify this from first hand experience.Page 49. “During REM sleep, the body protects itself by paralyzing the voluntary muscles so that when you dream, you don’t start acting out what is occuring in your dream and injure yourself.” Ms. Arana is one of the very few people to correctly identify the purpose of sleep paralysis.Page 71. “First imagine that the mind is like the hard drive of a computer; a hard drive with a massive but finite capacity.” This statement is in error. The mind is infinite. It contains all of the information of the current lifetime and all previous lifetimes (The brain is not the mind. The brain is only the operating system to access the mind.). A person that refuses to accept the notion of other realms will stop experiencing them, a person that has tendencies to hold grudges, commit violence, etc; over time will build walls that limit their their potential to experience other acts such as mercy, forgiveness. love tolerance, etc; This in no way means the hard drive is full (You are only tearing down self imposed walls). By going into the silence and reprogramming what our filters will allow to come into our perception; we can change internaly that begins to change our physical reality. The occultists had it right in the statement “As above, so below; as within so without.”Page 85. “I have never seen anything in my lucid dream resembling the “predator” or the “sucker”.” I must disagree (one of the few page numbers I forgot). Ms. Arana talks of the predators or gardners that strips away energy from the human beings energy body and uses it as food for them. On another page she relates the story while in a hypnogogic state that she saw a huge black spider that came through the wall that terified her, and she willed herself to wake up, knowing it wasn’t real. It was real. The predator is a shape shifter (based on my experience) that starts out as black spiders and snakes, etc to instill fear, then shapeshift into more hideous creatures. The more fear, terror, feeling of hopelessness, worthlessness, depression, suicidal thoughts, etc you emit; the more tasty your energy is to them. (I warned you earlier that not all entities were sweetness and light!”To free yourself of the predators (in my opinion) is that when you encounter them to control your emotions and emit unconditional love, and other positive emotions. This will raise the vibration of your energy body, and sour the milk (so to speak) so your energy is not acceptable to them.Please E-Mail if you have questions or comments; Two Bears.Wah doh Ogedoda (we give thanks Great Spirit)
Review by Cynthia Sue Larson for The Path: A Practical Approach to Sorcery
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Esmeralda Arana’s educational and entertaining book, THE PATH, is packed with amazing revelations about the similarities between the Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) Twelve Step Program, Carlos Castaneda’s Warrior’s Way, Robert Monroe’s Out of Body Experiences (OBEs), and Gurdjieff’s concept of hypnotic sleep. What do recovering alcoholics have in common with sorcerers? According to Arana, quite a lot. The key to transforming your life is in transforming your perception of reality — and it is essential to request assistance from both the elemental force (also known as God, or Spirit) as well as a human support group — and then to start acting in accordance with the behavior appropriate to your new place of perception. You can change channels in your life from one reality to another just like changing channels on TV, by tuning in to a different perceptual station with sufficient energy and intent.Arana clearly elucidates the striking similarities between AA’s 12 step program and Toltec sorcery techniques taught by Carlos Castaneda by sharing intimate revelations about her own experiences with overcoming alcoholism. Arana also describes her fascinating experiences with lucid dreaming as she describes how difficult it could be at times to detach her energetic “double” from her physical body, and some of the side-effects of lucid dreaming (such as hearing voices, and knowing intimate and seemingly unknowable details about others).I highly recommend this book for its excellent down-to-Earth writing, original ideas, and fascinating insights into how you can make small shifts in perception in order to make big changes in your life. THE PATH is an intensely practical and transformative book which I’m sure I will still be thinking about months and years later, telling all my friends about at every opportunity!
Review by for The Path: A Practical Approach to Sorcery
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This book was recommended by a friend who knew that I had a history of lucid dreaming; otherwise, I never would have read a book with such a title. If you have ever been fortunate/unfortunate enough to share in the experience of lucid dreams, then you owe it to yourself to read this book. Although I am not a believer in Sorcery, nor a fan of Castaneda, I found this book to be very insightful, and actually helpful in many ways. The author clearly is a gifted communicator. Anyone who overcomes great adversity in life, and makes the effort (and takes the risk) to share this experience for the benefit of others, receives my full support and my appreciation.
Review by Max Haid, M.D. for The Path: A Practical Approach to Sorcery
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Being trained in both conventional western medicine and an ancient healing tradition from Peru ( the Inka Medicine Wheel), I feel I have a unique perspective on this brave and personal book by Arana. Though closely tied to the legends of Carlos Castaneda, the author makes the concepts accessible without indulging in the fantastic. Likewise, this is not fanciful popular fiction like Harry Potter. There is magic all around us and within us, if only we could see it. Arana shows us the way to deeper insights if not understandings from which we may emerge changed in a profound and meaningful way. This book is a “must read” for students of alternative healing and/or shamanism as well as western trained physicians.
Review by S. parker for Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires: The Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered
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Leitch has written what is probably the best book on practical application of the classic grimoires produced to date. The book does assume a basic familiarity with the texts themselves. You should have read the Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon, and the Abra-Melin work to be able to best understand this book’s ideas, but I think even someone who hadn’t could make their way along with what is provided.
The first 125 pages or so are worth the entire book, even if one never means to take up grimoire magic. The history and development of the grimoires is a thread in Neopaganism, in Rosicrusianism and in the work of Golden Dawn-style magical orders. Leitch’s analysis of the devlopment of spirit-art in Europe – the sorcerer as urban shaman – is done very well. The chapter on the work of the priest in magic fills in holes that often gape in modern magical theory. Anyone involved in trying to build working modern magical forms out of the wisdom of previous millenia will profit from these sections.
The practical sections do a fine job of turning the notebook arrangement of the grimoire’s instructions into workable magical rites. The author sets the grimoires inside their context of religious devotion, personal discipline and trance-skills (he finds solid medieval evidence for the conscious use of consciousness-alteration) and cosmology. Again, the book might have benefitted on a practical level from appending it’s own ‘grimoire’, but the author repeatedly makes the point that every magician must functionally create their own version of the work.
A fine read for anyone interested in the traditional practice of magic.
Ian
Review by Cheech Wizard for Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires: The Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered
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Every so often a book turn up that fits the “must have” category for students of magick. Secrets of the Magickal Grimoirs is one of them, in a class with Regardie’s The Golden Dawn, Craig’s Modern Magick, and Crowley’s Magick in Theory and Practice. “Secrets” trumps all three on “academic defensability”, in that it keeps no secrets – very extensive source materials are accurately cited in the footnotes.
This is not the usual re-hash of widely published materials, with original fantasy and speculation added – Secrets is the result of a major research project supported by a small community of serious occult scholars working to improve their understanding of Mideval magick. Secrets of the Magickal Grimoirs presents the current “state of the art” in these studies in plain language, organized so that a complete beginner will learn everything necessary to understand the more technical chapters. Obscure language is kept to a minimum and new terms are explained clearly. “Secrets” is one of those rare books that is equally useful whether your interest is purely academic, or 100% practical.
If you are interested in the historical origins, early social context, and development of magick as we know it today, you will find it here. If you are interested in the working principles of magick which bridge theory to practice, that’s here as well: Leitch wastes no time arguing whether or not the magick might actally work, he goes directly to how and why it works, from both psychological, meatphysical, theological, and nuts-and-bolts practical perspectives.
But most importantly, Secrets of the Magickal Grimoirs is the only “operators manual” for actually using such classics as the Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon, the Legemeton, etc. “Secrets” provides an accurate historical context for understanding where these works came from, explains their obscure terminology, and unravels their riddles by supplying the missing links – everything the original users were expected to “already know”. Before “Secrets”, most working magicians could mine the old grimiors for useful material to incoroprate in their own work. After “Secrets”, most working magicians can actually use the old grimoirs as their authors intended.
Secrets of the Magickal Grimiors is fully supported by an active online mailing list and archive. The Solomonic list community provides a friendly venue for discussion and questions on any topic related to “Solomonic magick”, and many of the participants are working magicians who are actually using the material. Visit check Yahoo! Groups for the word “solomonic”, and you’re in.
My only criticism of this book, is that it does not include the actual grimoirs. But if you are reading this review, that should be no problem: They are in the public domain and can be downloaded from online archives (including the files section of the Solomonic list pages).
If this book is not on your shelf, fill the gap! Even if you never make practical use of the how-to material, this book is certain to expand your understanding of the meaning, and context, of real magick in both the Mideval and the modern world.
Review by J. Bedwell for Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires: The Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered
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Hmn, I do not know what all the previous discouraging comments about this book were about, I must say this was an excellent work. Aaron does an awesome job of presenting firstly the history *behind* the grimoires. The reader passes through mankinds magical history as Aaron enlightens the reader on such things as the shaman’s spiritual initiation, mankind’s relationship to the gods and spirits, the development of the familar spirit and of gods, the preisthood, devotions, astrology, sacrifices, the magical/spiritual use of mind altering substances, and by who and why the grimoires developed as they did.Truly the list goes on and on….and that is just the theory section!! At the end of the theory section one comes away with impression you have just been taught not only about mankinds magical development but a little about mankind itself.
The practical section details tools, prayers, preparations and eveything needed to begin the sacred and powerful art of evocation. This is not your typical re-hash of Golden Dawn material or self created system, this, my friends is grimoire magic as it was done “back in the day”. The information on the magical books, their history and their creation is invaluable as well as something which should be brought back in a big way in magic. He then goes into something rarely discussed in a in-depth manner and that is **HOW** spirits communicate with man. This, to me proves he walks the walk as everything he says here is spot on to my own experience and something Johnny-come-lately’s need to know.
It was amazing, really, how many times I had an “ah-ha” or “duh”/head-slap experience while reading this book. Ideas or thoughts that had been floating around my head recently as well as things which happened to me in the past made this book, for me, especially great.
This is a book every newcomer,initiate and advanced student should read. I do not practice as exactly as he points out in the book, and their are some areas I part ways with him at however this is done with a respectful diference and through a few years of the work I have done to do it, the way I do it. I will however, add that I will be adding many aspects of this book into my personal work.
If you want a book that teaches you how to do it the “real way” as they did it orignally, get this book! If you want armchair theory and to impress your occult friends with amazing facts they may not even know, get this book! I usually devour a book in a few hours to a day, this book took me three days to finish because of all the information. Heck, I’ll most likely read it again!
Hmn, it really makes me wonder if that review by Thabion below had some, alterior motive……
Review by Jessica Marie for Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires: The Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered
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Medieval and renaissance magic has always been a fascination of mine, but also a source of the greatest frustration. I think for me the toughest issue has been understanding the material in the older tomes enough to come up with a coherent system in which to use the material. That is why I was so excited to find this book! I’m still plowing through it, however, I was so pleased with what I have read so far, that I had to write this review!
One of the burning questions that always arose for me was how the authors of the older tomes came up with the material, and how the culture of the day influenced their magick. I always thought if I were to truly understand medieval magick and how its done, I must try to place myself within medieval magician’s shoes and see the magick from their point of view. Lo and behold, this is exactly what Leitch attempts to do in the first part of the book! He gives an enlightening view of the history and evolution surrounding the magick, which has given me a much better understanding the of material itself.
Currently, I am reading the 2nd part of the book which focuses on practical application. Finally, I can go to ONE reference book for information and instructions! Of course, I will still use the old tomes for cross referencing, but this book makes practicing the magick soo much easier! I especially like the magickal timing instructions, which I have already used for other personal work with much success! I cant wait to finish the book and start evoking!
Review by ajrose93 for Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires: The Classical Texts of Magick Deciphered
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The long wait is over! I just got my copy from Amazon, and can’t wait to tell you why you’ll want to order one, too.
We tend today to think of religion, magic and science as three mutually antagonistic strains of thought, but that’s not how they began. Each grew from a single impulse, indeed as a single enterprise: the fundamental need of human beings to figure out how the universe works, and make use of that understanding to better their lives. In particular, the authors of the classical “grimoires,” from ancient until comparatively recent times, would scarcely have recognized such a distinction; the divine, the human, the cosmos itself, formed for them a single system, and “wisdom” meant learning how that system works, and applying that learning to inward and outward change. And let’s face it, without “magicians” like (seminal mathematician) John Dee, and (astrologer and alchemist) Sir Isaac Newton, modern science would never have come to be.
In brief, then: whether you’re a scientist who wants a better understanding of the roots of science, a religionist willing to approach the divine in a rational way, or a practicing “magician” who wants a better knowledge of his forebears, you’re going to want this extraordinary book.
My own orientation is “magical” — begun nearly thirty years ago on a Christian path, and for many years now a Thelemite — so I’ll finish with the value of this text for those undertaking the magical adventure. Aaron Leitch is an accomplished practitioner of Western Ceremonial within the Golden Dawn tradition, but he’s so much more than that, and there’s something here for everyone who cares about “Magick” (as it’s usually spelled today, to distinguish the Great Work from parlor tricks): strong coverage of everything from primitive shamanic practice in multiple cultures to the modern insights of the likes of Robert Anton Wilson (e.g., a cogent explanation of the “eight-circuit model”), and everything inbetween. But the book’s greatest strength lies in its coverage of the classical grimoires, so often neglected (or just unknown!) today — not as dry academic exercise, but as living texts for both spiritual development and practical change. A very partial list of topics covered:
Brief survey of twenty-two of the classical grimoires themselves (from the Picatrix forward, and including all the major “Solomonic” texts), available noplace else that I’ve seen; discussions of ecstatic insight, from the shamanic through Biblical Prophets and Merkavah mysticism, down to the present day; the aforementioned modern stuff (semantics, metaprogramming, and the like)…and most of all, the long practical section which makes up the bulk of the book — magical tools, angels, planetary spirits and hours, astrological dignities, you name it…all with an orientation to practical use. (And I’m not kidding, that was only a very partial list!)
My one warning: forget the notion of “grimoires” you got from the Saturday Matinee school of magic — if you’re looking for evile pacts wif de debbil, you’ll probably want to look elsewhere (and indeed some louts may be offended by the constant Judeo-Christian element that runs through grimoiric magic, itself often composed by Christian clerics, of course). In fact, make it two warnings: this is not light reading — though even then, it’s easily worth the price if you just keep it on your shelf as a reference work, and use it at need.
In short, the serious student will want this book, period. ‘Nuff said.
— A.J. Rose
author of the Consciousness Cycle novels, and The C.’.G.’. Student Handbook: Mysticism, Magick, Thelema