Books About Doing Magic

[qos]

It's been a long time since I've seriously read a book about magical practice, and I'm interested in starting again.

I know that Evolutionary Witchcraft by T. Thorne Coyle is very good.

Any other suggestions?

Comments

You want recs? I got 'em!

[bodhibird.livejournal.com]

Learning Ritual Magic by John Michael Greer et al. is very good from a ceremonial/ritual magic standpoint. It is not explicitly "Golden Dawn".

Kabbalah, Magic, and the Great Work of Self-Transformation *is* explicitly GD and very hard core, but I was impressed by it.

I'd echo the praise of Thorn's book and also recommend checking out Be a Goddess! and/or Goddess Initiation by Francesca De Grandis, which are also based in Feri.

Twelve Wild Swans by Starhawk and Hilary Valentine would be a good training manual in Reclaiming-style magic.

[malakhgabriel.livejournal.com]

I found Stephen Mace's Stealing the Fire From Heaven to be quite useful, and Christopher Penczak's City Magic had some very interesting ideas. Neither of them is very advanced, though that made them both good fits for me.

[rocket-jockey.livejournal.com]

I know a few people who might have suggestions: shall I put the question to them and point them in your direction?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_storyteller_/]

Full Contact Magick (I have a copy on my shelf).

[oakmouse]

I definitely third the recommendation for Thorn Coyle's book! She's excellent.

My personal favorites are "Apprenticed to Magic" and "The Magician: His Training and Work" by W. E. Butler. They aren't comprehensive by any means, but he packed a great deal into fairly few pages and every time I read them I see greater depth or something important I missed on prior readings. I like books that slowly unpack over time like that.

My DH gave an excellent review to Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki's new book, cd, and card set "Your Unseen Power". It may be wickedly expensive and freighted with a bad title, but it contains a lot of meat. I haven't worked with it myself but DAN is a most capable mage.

[stiobhanrune.livejournal.com]

Well... it depends on what kind of magic you're wanting to learn.

Since people seemed to have cornered the ceremonial/qabalistic magic market here, I'll give a couple other tips.

Real Magic, by Isaac Bonewits, is very good. I haven't read the sequel yet, so I don't know if Real Energy is any good, but the first one is excellent.

Basic Magic, Basic Sigil Magic, and the like, by Philip Cooper, are really good too. ESPECIALLY for beginners. They're more chaos magick than anything else, and they're very useful.

For witchcraft and the like, I recommend Christopher Penczak, Ly de Angeles, Paul Huson, and Ann Moura. Each is drastically different, but each helps build a solid foundation for you. There are others, of course, but I can't name them all, or I'd be here forever.

If you give me a bit more description of your paradigm, I might be able to help you further!

Magic is easy. It's being a magician that's the hard part!

[3countylaugh.livejournal.com]

I was sent here (okay, really "intrigued here" is a better phrase) by rocket_jockey.

There is a sort of meta-book called "The Well Read Witch" which is where I started when I was in a similarly 'returning to magic' phase as you yourself seem to be in. It's a huge inclusive list of some of the best stuff out there with brief summaries that really tell you what's in and what's not in each book.
Also the cheesily titled "Deepening Witchcraft: Advancing Skills and Knowledge" by Grey Cat which touches on more of a... how to find your own path and cement it so it becomes a good working model... sort of approach.
I've been reading a lot of anthropology/folklore, so right now my personal favorite is Leland's "Aradia Gospel of the witches" for sheer inspirational value, and a different look on what 'traditional' magic might have looked like.

I can't aggree enough about the T. Thorne Coyle book either. My mother took one of her workshops after reading the book and was simply blown away. Highly recomnded by at least 2 generations of Pagans ;)