Article Topic: Magick

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

In 1969, Louis T. Culling published The Complete Magick Curriculum of the Secret Order G∴B∴G∴, detailing the magical order's promise of a "shortcut to initiation." What does this mean? Can there really be a shortcut to initiation? Carl Llewellyn Weschcke has now updated this great work, and here he details the meaning of the "shortcut to initiation."

Do you believe in magick? Since magic is always happening (everywhere around us, whether or not we believe in it), would it behoove us to understand it so we can be an active controller as opposed to a passive recipient?