Top 10 Occult Books!

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First of all, so happy to see this forum thriving...excellent, having absolutely no Skeptiko forum withdrawal symptoms silently lurking here  Smile (though sad to see a few posters absent?).

Felt an urge to post - somebody here once asked me to provide a top 10 list of my personal favourite occult books, and I promised to have a think about it.......then I totally forgot!  Surprise So, thought I would give it a go now, give me a chance to reminisce...

It's a hard one though, so much of what I've read on the topic wasn't in mass produced book form. Anyway, here it is, hope I haven't forgotten something that was hugely influential to me! (PS, occult here I'm narrowing down to it's popular definition, ie. western occult rituals & practices :

1) The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Book-Sacred-Mag...1602066817

The first western ritual occult book I ever owned & read, aged around 11 or so. I must have read this dozens of times (can still write 2 of the "magic squares" from memory, almost 30 years later!) The ritual itself is too complicated, even for an adult with the resources required, so I never did anything from it practically (except make the magic squares, which is ineffectual without the actual 6 month rite!). However, looking back, I suspect the influence on a subliminal level, when it came to my understanding of western ritual practices, is immense.

Incidentally, there is a recent British (fictional) film about 2 people working the Abra-Melin rite, well worth watching if you're into that sort of movie; A Dark Song:
https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_dark_song/

2) The Occult World
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Occult-World-Ro...1138219258

Loved this book. Very rarely mentioned anywhere, for some reason....cannot understand why, I feel it is an almost fundamental primer for the subject, a "must read" for anyone with an interest in the subject.

3) Modern Magick: Twelve Lessons in the High Magickal Arts
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Modern-Magick-T...0738715786

I would suspect this book would be in a lot of top 10s. Extremely well known to all western "occultists". Great primer & introduction to the actual ritual & practices of western occultism.

4) Highways of the Mind Art and History of Pathworking
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Highways-Pathwo...B0092J2TYA

Snuck this into a "occult book top 10" list, even though it may not quite be one. I'll include it because Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki is a well known "western occultist". Always having a very definite predisposition to "astral magic" as opposed to real-world ritual, I loved this book as a child, read it many times and it influenced my thinking about such things. (I won't include another famous occultists book, Soul Flight by Donald Tyson, in this list, as it is a little too detached from "occultism" to include....and it wouldn't make the top 10 anyway!! Smile

5) Prometheus Rising
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Prometheus-Risi...0692710604

Another book I loved. Can imagine it would cause a few heads to "crack open". Liked the somewhat unique, almost psychological/NLP twist to the occult, whilst not rendering it entirely "mundane"....

6) Between the Gates: Lucid Dreaming, Astral Projection and The Body of Light in Western Esotericism
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Between-Gates-D...1578633966

An absolutely amazing, extremely "advanced" (imo) book on the subject. I was blown away by this book. One could reasonably claim this book is a western occult take on advanced Tibetan tantric practices.

7) Magic: An Occult Primer
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Magic-Occult-Pr...1881098370

Similar to Donald Kraig's book "12 Lessons", a very popular primer on the topic for practical use.

8) Liber Null and Psychonaut
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Liber-Null-Psyc...0877286396

How could I do a top 10 list without adding this primer on "chaos magick"? Ah,  can't resist, here's another:

9) Condensed Chaos
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Condensed-Chaos...1935150669

10) Errrm (panic)....just one more?! I am absolutely certain I've missed something fundantally important and fantastic! But, perhaps:

Mystical Qabalah
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mystical-Qabala...B00M0JIJ20

Should make the list? An excellent introduction to a modern, western occult take on the Qabalah

hold on, how could I forget:

11) Initiation into Hermetics

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Initiation-into...885928122/

Ahh, I better stop there!

Cheers!
[-] The following 4 users Like manjit's post:
  • Sciborg_S_Patel, Ninshub, Typoz, Pssst
Hey, why do my new threads have unintentional smiley faces next to them in the thread index!?

Anyway, great website here for anyone interesting in occult texts - hundreds and hundreds of free PDFs of occult books & texts, an incredible resource:

http://iapsop.com/ssoc/

Cheers
[-] The following 1 user Likes manjit's post:
  • Typoz
(2017-10-18, 09:54 AM)manjit Wrote: Hey, why do my new threads have unintentional smiley faces next to them in the thread index!?

Anyway, great website here for anyone interesting in occult texts - hundreds and hundreds of free PDFs of occult books & texts, an incredible resource:

http://iapsop.com/ssoc/

Cheers

That's an impressive resource. Even the titles of some are intriguing. Wink
(2017-10-18, 09:54 AM)manjit Wrote: Hey, why do my new threads have unintentional smiley faces next to them in the thread index!?

Not sure, but to fix it, click the "Edit" button below your opening post in the thread, then select "Full Edit" and then near the top of the editing page to the left of the row of icons select "No icon" and save your post. If that doesn't work, then please let us know!
Thanks Manjit
Lots of interesting titles and can be downloaded easily.
That was me, Manjit. I'm glad you eventually compiled and posted the list! Thanks so much. It is much appreciated.

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