The Woe of Modern Occult Literature

From time to time, we add books to our many shelves. Some rightfully earn a place on our shelves, and others find their way off of our shelves. The measurement system we use to determine what we believe to be worthy and what we believe to be garbage depends on the content within. Is it valid? Is it true? Does it contain worthwhile information? And so on. To clarify, we are talking about books on Witchcraft, the Occult and Magick.

As we were browsing through various bookstores – offering new and secondhand books (you can find exquisite lesser-known gems in secondhand bookstores) – we couldn’t help but look at it all from the perspective of a novice…placing ourselves in the shoes of someone who knows literally nothing about magick. And, needless to say, we noted the horrendous mess that such a person would encounter. Where should I begin? What path should I follow? Will this book teach me properly?

We were reminded of our own past as novices – but you see, in our novice years it was rather different. Apart from teachers to guide us, the literature that we studied were basically classical works such as from Agrippa and Levi (and other books and Grimoires of High Magick), an obscure book by Zadkiel, The Gospel of Aradia and so on…all meticulously sought out at libraries. We didn’t read contemporary works, only works from the 1980’s and prior, mostly. This, we think, actually gave us a bit of an edge, an advantage…because:

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…most of the modern books on magick and Witchcraft is garbage.

Yes, we said it. Either it is “harm none” Wicca filled with fairies and angels and such, feel-good self-help crap, casual dabbling, or extremely extremely “light” magick, as in the author is literally just skimming the surface without saying anything of worth, note or value.

Even today, from time to time, purely for the sake of curiosity, we look at books that is supposedly intended to teach the budding practitioner everything that they need to know about Magick, Witchcraft, Hoodoo, Folk Practices, Necromancy or what-have-you…and guess what?

They are not exactly handbooks or guidebooks of magick in our opinion. They just skim the surface, and not even the full surface of the subject at hand, but a little 1m x 1m square in a little corner somewhere.

This makes us frustrated – frustrated because it reminds us how the Occult Arts is dying, and frustrated for the sake of novices.

We have long threatened to write our version of a Magick 101 guide, a book to teach you literally everything you need to know about magick and the practices contained therein…and we actually already started a bit on it. But – to be honest – it’s fucking daunting. Just by starting on the subject of energy (the sensing, directing, transmutation, manipulation, identifying etc of energy) the book is already over 200 pages long…and that’s just the energy part of it…which isn’t even a 20^th of what it would (and should) contain…it’s just the beginning section, the “primer”. And keep in mind, this isn’t even energy practices in-depth, but what we consider to be the basics, what all novices should learn and know.

So yeah, that means the book in its entirety would easily be over 2000+ pages long, but it will discuss everything we believe all novices should know and learn about magick.

Should we eventually see it through? Recalling the things that we even fucking forgot or that we do so naturally and ambiently that we don’t even realise what we’re doing?

Perhaps.

If we get annoyed enough at contemporary Occult literature.

But yet again, we didn’t get to where we are today on the backs and spines of books – but through blood, sweat, tears, sleepless nights, existential crises, and a lot of swearing and dead ends. Experience is the best teacher, and the cruellest.

We are not saying all contemporary books on the Occult and Magick are trash – but most of them are, unfortunately. Those ones written from practical experience are exceedingly rare.

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