Magic isn’t about products. This basic truth is often
repeated on the internet, in between waves of advertising for occult products.
But it’s true – the effective work of magic does not rely on cool stuff,
whether blades or jewelry or books.
Ah, books… I admitted I was powerless
over books, and that my shelves had become unmanageable…
Nevertheless, books are, for many modern occultists, the real gate and road to
learning magic. Personal teaching is
rare to locate, and rarer to find without strings attached – books respond as
reliably as they are used. Certainly if more students actually did what the
books told them, we’d have more competent magicians. But, I’m already rambling.
In my own desire to own the sort of books of magic I imagine, I have produced collections
of my own rituals and spells, most notably the
Leabhar Mor (”Big Book” in Irish) a full-sized Wizard’s Tome
which I have made available over the years. I love the copies I have, and it
did fulfill some basic “I want a wizard-book” fantasy. The big book on the
podium in the library or ritual room is one of the core images for me.
But there is another facet to the archetype of the Magical Book. So often in
recent centuries magic has been “forbidden knowledge”, either frowned-upon
socially or actually outlawed by authorities, and suppressed by violence. From
another angle there was a long period in which books themselves – each book –
were treasures. Paper, even parchment, was rare and valuable, and the skill of
bookbinding produced items that were intended to be of lasting value even when
not embellished with gold and gems. So some books were intended to be concealable,
or as handbooks on a busy workbench, or as a light load for a scholar’s luggage
and might be bound in small size… the ‘octavo’, or even smaller. Prayer books
and missals were commonly bound so, as were grimoires and books of sorcery.
In my very own head, where all the attics and shadowy glades of my magic are
found, two fictional models of powerful occult books in small sizes stick out.
The first is the curious cypher book in John Bellair’s “The Face In The Frost”,
which fascinates the attention of a sequence of scholars and magicians, and the
Book of Calls, from Fred Mustard Stewart’s “The Mephisto Waltz”. Both were
written in such a way as to present a powerful (and spooky) book of magic in a
small, portable, concealable way.
So I was quite pleased when, at last, Lulu.com began offering on-demand
hardback books in their ‘pocket book’ size – the size of the old standard
paperback book. As usual Lulu’s standards for their work are good, and the
experimental copies I’ve received are holding up to some carrying and use. They
offer only a couple creative options in covers, but I’ve done something I like…
The
Pagan Magical Companion is my effort to assemble a hand-book of modern
Pagan magic and spirit. It contains material mostly written since the
compilation of the Leabhar Mor, along with some repeated material, tables, etc,
which I thought necessary for a useful portable reference. My intention is to
create a book that is useful to the working magician, as well as inspirational
to those pursuing Pagan spirituality.
The book begins with material useful in beginning and maintaining a simple
house-cult of local gods and spirit – which can be the basis for a lot of more
esoteric magical work. The book presents a method of formal theurgic invocation
of the gods, and offers a model for using it in context of a yearly cycle of
seasonal rites.
In this handbook format I have not included articles of
technical explanation of basic magical methods, such as trance-vision
journeying. I do present a ritual framework that can help unite vision-journey
workings with one’s larger ritual-magic practice, but the method will have to
be acquired by the reader. Likewise divination is discussed, and some simple
methods given, intended to be especially useful for the magical rites
described.
Central to the book’s magic is the Pagan system of spirit-arte it presents.
Based in my research and experiments over the past decade, here I have tried to
boil-down and present the method in an easy outline that can be worked with a
few proper tools. The work presented in the book includes all the needed rites
for making the tools, preparing the mind and opening relationships with the
spirits. With those things in hand, spirit-arte is the next logical step. The
book contains a set of rites for making basic alliances that can serve for
practical magic of all kinds.
Finally I collect a set of experiments based on the book’s methods, along with
many one-off charms and ‘prayers’ for a variety of spiritual and practical
purposes. These needful charms help make the Companion a source of inspiration
and support through our common lives.
So the Magical Companion is available now at my store on Lulu.com. It is a pocket
hardcover, the cover image-printed on gloss (which I find more durable than their matte
stock). It is printed in full color on sturdy stock, with red and black text throughout, and
many color illustrations and plates. I find it has a satisfying heft while
suiting the desire for a portable resource.
