“The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order” by I. Regardie – my review

First of all, I honestly admit that I read the entire book 7.5 years ago, but it had a strong impact on me, my thinking, and perception, so there will be a lot of my feelings here…

Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn is truly a legend of Western Esotericism, especially in Great Britain, participants of which included politicians, philosophers, and writers. That organization was the mother of new orders such as Stella Matutina, Argenteum Astrum, and among it’s children are Wicca and XX-XXI New Age, as we know it, generally speaking all contemporary magic has some traces left by Golden Dawn Magic. Thanks to this Order, the world was introduced to various Tarot decks like the Rider-Waite Tarot, Thoth Tarot, and a great number of various modern decks initially inspired by the by those mentioned above.

The influence on the world was immense: check out Skyrim, or usage of the crystal ball for divination, magical cloaks, magical wands and so on. It’s worth reading to understand the magic we practice today and its origins 🙂

Continue reading ““The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order” by I. Regardie – my review”

“Modern Magick – Eleven lessons in the high Magickal arts” by Donald Craig – review

I’ve recently finished reading “Modern Magick – eleven lessons in the high Magickal arts” by Donald Craig, about which I previously heard a lot – couldn’t resist the temptation – and decided to note some impressions.
It was an interesting reading/perspective for me because I already have some knowledge upon Ceremonial (High) Magic and Kabbalah, and probably I should have read this book before the ones written by ex-Golden Dawn members (among whom is my favorite I. Regardie, I’ll also post my old review here in the realms of non-existent coconuts 🙂 )

Why? Because it is written in a very simple language, very easy to understand, D. Craig as it seems to me had good teaching skills and he guided his readers slowly, but surely step by step. The author didn’t reveal to you all crucial points of magical knowledge at once, he rather let it unveil slowly, giving a new tiny dosage with each new lesson. Therefore it imitated the way they normally acquired knowledge/initiations in magical orders.

He provided a lot of schemas and illustrations, which can be used lately as a cheat-sheet or a simple guidance to your magical work. When you finish with reading you can use the schemes provided by Craig as a cheat sheet, or a course book and come back to those lectures later, or even use the only lessons and information you require skipping everything else. And yes, it is written not only about High magic, but you also can find decent information about low magic (witchery), spirits summoning, elemental magic and sexual magic.

Continue reading ““Modern Magick – Eleven lessons in the high Magickal arts” by Donald Craig – review”

A dream – three branches

It is actually a quite short dream: I was sitting on my knees on a white cloth, spread out on the ground. and received three tree branches from my husband: oak, birch and pine. I was very excited and thanked him, and started to separate branches by parts: leaves, by buds, and by twigs. I remember that he asked me about this, but I’m not sure exactly what I answered, but the talk itself was warm and pleasant.

  • The dream was of course inspired by our walk in the forest and by late interest in herbs (leaves, trees, etc) 🙂
  • The trees, especially branches, refer to spiritual (or any type of) growth: the oak always was a god’s tree, the pine tree was a one for protection and the birch stood for fertility;
  • This partially describes the way Germanic tribes conducted their runic divinations;
  • If the dream is symbolic, not some incoherent thoughts and memories, I prefer to take close attention to its messages, so my next posts will be about these tree’s symbolic meaning, magical and health-related use 🙂

© MarvellousNightmare on Coconut Doesn’t Exist

Two dreams with the similar scenario

The first: The walls and buildings of the city were built of the white wood, there was no artificial lights, nor there was any developed technology, so an eerie silence, a mysterious solitude flooded the city after the sunset. You could be lost there, got to the magical realms by the complete mistake and forget of the earthy life… They find you the next morning with your throat cut, and your pockets emptied – your payment for eternal fairytale happiness.

Still, at a certain point the silence came to its end, and the lives: there was a civil war and I fought against my father’s party. I was actually quite vicious towards him and his party, I wanted to hurt him and make his world crumble, but he seemed to never notice that. He thought it was just a game for me, or I was stupid and easily manipulated, everything that didn’t match his imagination of me simply didn’t exist. One day I was taken out of guard: several soldiers – our enemies – cornered me and later my father arrived. He looked at me with contempt, discarding my whole being, and dragging me through the city. The people gazed at us silently, the whole crowd looked like plastic manikins, like theatrical props placed here in order to create the illusion we are not alone on our way. My knees were scratched and bleeding: the road was bumpy. I scratched him violently my hands tried hurting him to the same measure… I was suffocating, so taking a quick, short breath (possibly the last one) and I yelled: “No! No! No! Help! Help! Help!” My fathers eyes were widening in surprise, he probably finally understood that he is hurting me, that I’m in great pain. His grip loosened and I fell on the ground. The people from my party ran towards us, and helped me to stand up…

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A dream – Czech magic books (29.06.2023)

My husband and I traveled to the Czech Republic. I don’t remember the reason, but probably because of vacation plans, but I recall getting through Poland, especially southern one, and through the mountains. In the South people gathered crops, there were a lot of yellow hues, and the sun rays, but instead of cheering up this color gave me a feeling of pressure, of something piercing, hot and neon-acid in its qualities. People also were not really pleasant and observed us with contempt.
Everything changed as soon as we crossed the border though, not only did the atmosphere become nicer, but also the gothic mysteries were calling me from the far. Somehow I knew that I’m here because I’m looking for magic books/grimoires – the Czech Republic was the center of magic and alchemy once, wasn’t it?
We drove further and further, until in one village surrounded by forest and Slavic myths we found the rest. The middle-aged couple took us under their roof, and while our hostess was making us the tea, her husband offered to guide us to Prague and then to the library, where I would find the books that suit my taste. Our guide had a funny mustache, 80-s style, and he wore a straw hat. He was very knowledgeable, and I remember that he said: “Czech Republic is exactly like Poland but the other way round” .
We arrived in Prague quite soon. I remember that we really were walking through its streets, but it is a muffled memory. I don’t know what happened to the trip to the library, because I woke up.

Continue reading “A dream – Czech magic books (29.06.2023)”

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