No.17300
Book Review Thread.
When you complete a book, write a review here. Please include a brief summary of what you read, then any questions you may have had while reading. If something really stuck out to you as important, I encourage you to include it with your review.
Since PDF's are allowed, try and upload the book you are reviewing with the post, or include instructions on how you obtained it.
I'll also go ahead and say that if anyone wants to request a book review, I'll be more than happy to dive into it. At the moment, I'm working on step two of IIH, so I have some more time for study, and need some direction. With that in mind, I'll open with a review.
Recently, I read Magical Use of Thoughtforms by Dolores Ashcroft-Nowicki and J. H. Brennan. It was a pretty solid text and included some good, practical instruction for visualization and some ideas on how to use thoughtforms. There's some good information for beginners and advanced students, and some of the techniques for mastering visualization were quite practical.
What stuck out to me the most were the chapters on building a Memory Palace. While hardly a new concept, the book provides a good foundation of knowledge about construction and troubleshooting problems that may be encountered. Those who have taken the plunge into self-initiation will find this to be a good supplementary text for their other work.
Some of the techniques contained within have been specifically talked about in regards to neophytes, and warned against. So, I would advise any new student to avoid creating anything they do not fully understand.
Overall, I would give this text a solid recommendation. It can be found in the Fringe Wizard Libarary, in the main folder, with the title 'magical use of thoughtforms'
No.17304
The Satanic Bible
Shitty rituals, shitty chants, philosophy is basically edgy version of stirner.
No.17306
>>17304I try and steer away from schools of magic which are essentially "Feed our edgy thoughtform God 101"
No.17310
YouTube embed. Click thumbnail to play.
>>17304>edgy version of stirneredgy version of Ayn Rand
fixed that for you
No.17343
>>17310Ayn Rand is in turn just an edgy Jew version of Nietzsche.
No.17344
No.17345
No.17355
I'm currently reading both Kundalini awakening by john shelby and the way of the bodhisattva. I'll have report on them in a few weeks.
No.17368
https://mega.co.nz/#F!YFg1WAAI!k1mtlc1Kgtd5rnjuvYMNtwYou guys should promote this board on 4chan's /x/. So far people are liking this content.
No.17371
>>17368That seems like a bad idea.
No.17437
>>17368No.
Wisdom never speaks, but to ears that can listen.
If they are truly seeking, they will eventually find this place, on their own.
Don't cast pearls before swine.
Wisdom in the mouth of fools, is foolishness. Foolishness in the mouth of the wise, is wisdom.
There are an endless number of parables warning against what you are suggesting.
Also, not a whole lot of book reports in the book report thread.
No.17439
This time I'll be reviewing "The Arcane Teaching" by William Walker Atkinson.
Solid 10/10, go read it neophyte.
This provides a no-nonsense foundation of occult knowledge, completely stripped of all the usual dogma and symbolism that usually accompanies such texts.
This book provides a top down, from the biggest to the smallest, account and explanation of the most important magical principals. From what "The One" is, to a refreshing look at reincarnation, along with some good information about the astral realm, reading this text will provide you with the keys to understanding some of the more artistically written subjects on magic.
For me, this book made a disturbing amount of sense. Through my life, I had formulated a great number of the principals this text puts forward, sometimes even in near exact wording.
Next on the list is "Arcane Forumlas", also by W. W. Atkinson.
Directly after you've studies and thoroughly absorbed Arcane Teaching, should you read Arcane Formula.
This text contains, in W. W. Atkinson's signature style, no nonsense and as much information as he can cram into each and every sentence about Emotional Alchemy and basic skills any magician should master. There are also great exercises for any young neophyte to practice in order to develop his "EGO" or 'Spirit', the exact wording of which varies from author to author.
These two books should be read together, however I can't make you do anything, only suggest what I think will work best.
No.17440
>>17300I'd say anything by Jason Miller. He covers meditations, rituals, sigils and your usual hubbub in an occult book. His Financial Sorcery book gives mundane common sense on money matters that are sorely lacking in the Pagan community.
Just a note thought the guy is a flaming liberal for what it's worth but his stuff is effective. I also took his year course, which covers ways of how to lucid dream, astral project, healing and cursing, etc. Books on amazon(I have physical copies, no pdfs of his books)
No.17459
Bhagavad Gita
-You are what you eat
-Comepletion of being is in its negation
No.17460
No.17518
What happened to the previous book review thread we had on here?
No.17520
Alright so a summary of each chapter. Actually it's a bit of work for me to summarize each specific chapter so I'll just recall it all as I remember it.
First, we learn that we are not our body and mind, and intellectually know this.
Then, through meditation, we strip away everything that is not us until only consciousness of the self (conscious egohood) is established.
Next, upon discovering our true self, we learn also that there is another quality to our essential I; the will.
We are a thing which acts through the mind and the body, a thing that wills.
You may notice upon having a sense of your true self that the mind and body sometimes contradict this will, but being aware of this, you may begin to actually exercise the will for yourself.
You should not take seriously any thoughts or physical manifestations which contradict the will, you should work against them, learning to will to will.
Try moving you arm right now to form a circle in the air, you probably will succeed, and your will is done.
Try to keep your mind silent and if other thoughts come in, know that they are a contradiction to your will.
Realizing your true will, you may begin to battle your limitations, and overcome them.
Atkinson suggests that we strike a balance, achieve poise and tranquillity, that a mark of power is one who isn't swept away in rhythm but keeps the will fixed successfully and stops identifying merely with the compulsions of the mind and the body.
We learn to master the opposites, to see that they are but manifestations of one thing, and to make them work for us. In this way we come into a non-dualistic mindset. Love and hate are but one thing.
"When the Ego‐Consciousness is acquired to a certain degree, the “I,” realizing that it is in its inmost nature nothing more or less than Will, sees that the Opposites of Emotion and Feeling are but things belonging to, but not of itself, things objective to its subjective Self. It sees them as but garments which it may put on and off, as it suits its fancies or interest. It sees them as but the several masks of character which it may place before its face, and then take off and exchange for another, as may seem best or desirable. From the moment when this realization comes to the individual, even in the faintest degree, then that individual has begun to move toward Freedom, and has started on the road to the Mastery of The Opposites.
No.17521
>>17520Contrast the condition of the man who is still hypnotized with the belief that his emotions and feelings are himself—that he is the character he is playing, with its emotions and feelings and incidents of personality, on the one hand; and on the other hand, the individual who realizes that he, himself, is Will in his real nature, and that the character assumed by him, together with its incidental qualities, feelings and emotions, is but an objective something which he may put on or off, destroy or change, as he may see fit. Can you not see that there is a difference as wide as the poles in the contrasting being of these two men? Can you not see that one is the Master of the Opposites, and the other the obedient Slave?"The next chapters describe rhythm and cyclicity. Most men go through life in circles, but the initiate finds his central point and turns the circle into a spiral of upward ascent, still circling but constantly going through these circles and rising higher and higher through them.
The last chapter expounds upon the principle of mentalism.
"In the Arcane Teaching we have shown that the fundamental principle of Mentalism, in all of its forms, is the fact that the Cosmos itself is One Universal Mind, and that the Manifested Cosmos may be likened to a great Universal Brain, in which the forms of things and life are but as thought-forms in the human brain. There is Mind in everything, and everything is in Mind. Consequently, just as Thoughts become Things in the Cosmic Brain, so is it possible for a strongly concentrated and focalized Mind (Will) to materialize into objective form things and conditions on the material plane."
>>572Anyways, this book has been extremely helpful for me.
I am never "sad", never "happy", I AM I and I am WILL. With this knowledge I have been able to make my magick considerably more effective and not get too caught up on in the passions of the beast (body) that I am fighting or the distractions of my mind. I can fix myself upon one thing to return to again and again with my will and enable ascent in this way. It is incredibly useful for emotional alchemy and many other things to know the contents of that book. It helps you transcend the illusory self and also touches on the cosmic self, the universal mind, the monad.
"
Divorce this “I” of all its mental “characteristics,” feelings and emotions—and instead of seeming weakened, it is increased in strength. It then appears as untrammeled, and unrestricted will. It gives and can give, but two reports of itself: (1) it must always, and does always say of itself: “I am”; (2) it must always say, and does always say, of itself: “I do.” This is all. This is what the “I” is— the Something that is, and Something that does. All the rest of the mental furniture belongs to the “Me,” and is changeable, inconstant, and shifting. The “I” is always the same—there is nothing else for it to be." No.17523
>>17521Now that I think about it, I salvaged it from a thread before it was about to 404 recently, that's why the date is so recent. The actual review was written long ago.
No.17547
>>17518good threads keep getting pushed off the index thanks to shitposting.
I already suggested admins change board settings to unlimited pages but no one listened
>>17520>>17520I tried (albeit not full-assedly) to do the "essential I" meditation but I just couldn't. I cant seem to seperate my SELF from my physical sensations. Any advice?
No.17571
>>17547I achieved conscious ego hood almost a year before I discovered /fringe/ and all the knowledge it brings.
The best way to describe how to do is to just listen to your own thoughts. When you realize you are not the one thinking them, it suddenly becomes apparent that you are something other than both your mind and your body.
No.17572
>>17571Also, INTENSE meditation. Don't be afraid to cry and sweat, don't be afraid to go insane for a bit and do things which are impossible for you to do.
When I discovered that I was truly free to do as I pleased, I screwed one of those springy door stops into a tree and laughed for about an hour straight at the sheer impossible odds of that door stop ending up screwed into that particular tree. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life.
No.17584
>>17547>I already suggested admins change board settings to unlimited pages but no one listenedIt's not possible for me to do that here. I have it set like that on freedomboard.kirara.ca but here on 8chan the number of pages is dynamic and depends on how many people come to the board. More unique IPs posting on here = more pages we can have of content all at once.
No.17585
>>17572This happens to me a lot while meditating. Sometimes I'm hit by extreme heat, sometimes tears run down my eyes and I don't know why, sometimes I'm basked in sweat, sometimes I'm hit up by tons of vibrations, sometimes an entity attacks me, etc.
All kinds of crazy shit happens the more deep into meditation you get. Like Buddha Boy:
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Buddha%20Boy%20Fire