Magick for Beginners, by J.H. Brennan

Blessings Darlings - it's time for a Book Review!

I must have bought J. H. Brennan's "Magick for Beginners" a decade ago.  I don't recall WHY I bought it, I suppose it's because I know that Brennan did at least one book with Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and I like her classes and books.  Earlier this month I decided it was long past time for me to read the book.

I did not enjoy the book.  I do not think it is a particularly good book for beginners at magick. I THINK he intended it as an intro to Ceremonial magick, but it's too disjointed to be that, and it has so little 'how to do' magick in it that a simple spellbook would be more practically useful.

The author says that he's starting readers off with 'low magick'.  However .... he actually starts readers off with the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram - pure theurgy, not practical, low-magical thaumaturgy.  Then he moves into chapter after chapter on the 'clairs' - clairvoyance and such.  Those, in my world view, are not magical skills, rather they are psychic skills.  The one 'practical magical' working is to bring in $100 ... but he drags the reader thru' 'inadequate explanation and knowledge of the Kabala" to do it. 

Then it's off to how magic isn't really magic, it's psychology, and we head to theurgy for the rest of the book.  But not just any theurgy - it's Intro to Enochian, where one is supposed to do invocations in a language you don't know (and he doesn't always include translations).  Then ... off to assumption of Godforms, the Rose Cross ritual (with no explanation of any of the Divinities the reader is calling!), etc.

Nothing practical in it's thaumaturgy.  Nothing beginner in its theurgy.  I simply cannot recommend the book.

Oh, let me look at how long it would take to 'work' the book, given it's exercises.  Two weeks of doing the LBRP.  Tatvva work - no clear idea how long that is supposed to take. Several weeks of the color version of the Middle Pillar. Then add the 'fountain of light' for an unmentioned amount of time.  So - two months, THEN you spend a month on getting that $100.  Total - over three months on what he calls 'low magick', only one of which is actually doing low magick.

Onward to High Magick - several exercises of self-awareness given, no time frame for how long they will take.     Then a ritual to charge a Talisman, which requires the reader to prepare for two months (but anyone the reader gets to join in .... doesn't have to prepare that long?  Because it's really only about the reader?  very odd....), etc.  No preparatory times given for these rituals, nor any word on how long to take between them or if you should/could do them all in one day.  So, let's say another over three month period for theurgy. 

Bah.  And Humbug.

Frondly, Fern

Common Spell Creation

Blessings, Darlings!

I'm going to start out the spell creating series with the types of spells most commonly done by us magick users: common spellcraft done by magic users.  You have a need, you work up a spell, you do it, it's over.

These types of spells tend to rely heavily on use of correspondences and symbolism, and moving energy around thru' correspondences to the charged symbols.  This is the stuff of spell kits: they provide incense/colored candles/oils/herbs that have some correspondence to the job to be done, and some words to be said. The buyer charges the symbol (often by anointing the candle with the oil or carving a word or two into the candle), then recites the words of the spell as a means of directing energy.

This is stuff you can also easily get together yourself.  Lists of basic correspondences are all over the web, there are books full of them, etc.  What color? You can look at a list of chakras and use the colors of them that relate to the need.  Oil? Here I'd look up what COMMON herbs relate to the need, and add that to an unscented cooking oil - corn or vegetable (Okay, that's really soy) or peanut oil.  Incense? On the whole, I'd say you can't go wrong with Jasmine, but that's because for ME all magic that I do pretty  much happens in the Astral, and that corresponds to the Kabalistic sphere of Yesod.  Your mileage may vary, of course!

Doing the research for correspondences brings two different things to your magical world.  First - it helps increase your knowledge.  If you've been reading this blog for any amount of time, you know I'm all for that!  The more you have internalized the better your magic will be.

Second, doing the research work starts the magical work.  It starts building your intent, it starts building the energy, it brings coherence to the magic.  You don't get that from a spell kit - the kit may have all the correspondences down cold, but they are not part of YOUR energy or intent.  Doing the work yourself makes them YOURS.

Powerful stuff!

Now, about the 'words' to a spell:  they CAN be very powerful.  Not the words themselves, but putting your intent out in sound to the universe.  So don't be dependent on the words of others, unless you're doing some magic that requires some really serious invocation of some divinity.  And that's pretty rare in spellwork - more common in theurgy than in thaumaturgy.  So write what you Will.  And, really, try to memorize it JUST because it hard to feel/look powerful reading from a cheat sheet!  That's why rhyme comes in - spells are just easier to memorize if the words have rhyme and meter!

I'll cover 'how to magically charge an object' another time, this is enough of a blog post for one day.

Frondly Fern