Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108016 in Books
• Published on: 1986-11-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 844 pages

Customer Reviews

Essential
Essential reading reference for the serious/adept magician. For those seeking self-initiation and/or a study book to help with the vast and often complex material, then treat yourself to "Self-Initiation into the Golden Dawn Tradition", by Chic Cicero. Using these two volumes together produces the ideal training system for those who are serious about the Work.

Great Book - Dry Read
A wealth of information. It assumes a degree of background understanding but, if you can persevere, contains all the information one could conceivably require to enter fully up to the middle levels of Ceremonial Magic. Dense. My only criticism would be that it will remain opaque for many. Yet that would be acceptable to many of those for whom its meaning unfolds. Thus though he reveals many mysteries and rents many veils for those with the eyes to see he also protects the same mysteries from those who would profane them. Love & Light & Lemniscates

Heavy stuff......
....both the book itself and the contents.

It's incredibly wordy and much of it has (as reviewer Steven Allen points out) been rejected by modern magicians. If you ever manage to read it all you're either very dedicated, or you have too much time on your hands. If you actually use it all.....well, get a life!

The mystically and magically inclined Victorians didn't have our numerous resources. For them the Golden Dawn must have seemed like a mysterious and exciting portal, beckoning them into a secret world. Learning the Hebrew alphabet probably sounded like the first step into the Great Unknown.

But now we have the Net. We have a vast selection of (not always good) books. We have (hopefully) discovered more effective ways of spending our magical time than indulging in the GD's antiquated and verbose rituals.

If you really feel attracted to this system, try Liam Christopher or John Michael Greer. They have streamlined it for modern usage. Christopher uses Regardie as a text book, but you don't have to. You can easily dispense with Regardie's padding.

Two stars for historical interest, but if you really want to step into the 21st century, try Jason Augustus Newcombe or Philip H Farber.