Article Topic: Magick

More than a magician, Dr. John Dee was also one of the most interesting and fascinating figures of the Elizabethan Age; his work with Edward Kelly has persevered for centuries. However, written in an obscure form of Latin, they are not readily accessible. Donald Michael Kraig describes the new tools available to those wishing to access Dee's work.

What is Enochian Magick? How did John Dee and Edward Kelly come to possess knowledge of the Angelical language previously hidden? And how did that Angelical language become what we today know as Enochian Magick? Aaron Leitch, author of The Angelical Language, Volume I and Volume II, explains.

The term "black magick" fascinates as no other, and yet the term itself is so mysterious and vague that it's not always easy to find two magicians who can agree precisely on its meaning. Is black magick that of revenge, theft, cruelty, or other malicious acts? Or is a magick that explores the darker sides of our psyches? Shawn Martin Scanlon, author of Everything You Want To Know About Magick (But Were Afraid To Ask), discusses why we needn't focus so much on the multiple definitions of "black magick"—or even worry about incorporating it into our own magickal practices.

Magick is one hundred percent natural; there is evidence of its use as far back as the earliest humans. But how has magick grown and evolved in that time span? Author and magician Donald Michael Kraig investigates three newly-released books from Golden Hoard Press that, in their original forms, were used by the teachers of the teachers of the teachers who are teaching magick today.

Over the last thousand years there have been several distinct streams of Western magical practice. Running parallel are the grimoires, which focus on preparation and complex procedures to produce effective communication and interaction with spiritual beings, and the Books of Secrets, full of simple techniques using easily available ingredients. Both of these traditions have influenced many of the more recent magical traditions and practices that have developed in recent centuries. However, until recently the importance of the early Book of Secrets tradition has been largely ignored. Here magician David Rankine explains the rich, magical history behind these books.

Until nearly the end of the Twentieth Century, most neuroscientists believed that once a human brain was formed in childhood, it would remain pretty much the same throughout its life. in the 1980s, however, scientists changed their minds about brain change. We now know that the brain not only can rewire itself very quickly, it can also grow new cells. What does this have to do with Magick? Philip H. Farber, author of Brain Magick: Exercises in Meta-Magick and Invocation, explains.

Dan Brown’s novel The Lost Symbol portrays Freemasons as a mysterious group of conspirators who have been secretly ruling America from its very creation. Of course, we have to remember that this is a fictional book, which uses certain elements of truth in a creative way in order to develop the storyline of the novel. But who are the Freemasons? What are their secrets? While any simple online search can yield an abundance of information, Jean-Louis de Biasi, 32° Freemason and author of the book Secrets and Practices of the Freemasons, divulges just exactly what Freemasonry is...and lets readers in to an unknown world of spirituality.

Many people outside the magical community assume that tarot cards are used as “fortune-telling” devices—as if all human destinies were absolutely fixed without any possibility of free will entering into the equation. Magicians know better. There is no fate but what you make. In other words, while tarot cards impel, they do not compel. Like the Qabalah, the tarot is a complete and elaborate system for describing the hidden forces behind the cosmos. Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, Golden Dawn adepts and creators of The Golden Dawn Magical Tarot, discuss three magical uses of the tarot.