Author Topic: Ceremonial Magic for beginners? (Read 1593 times)

angles · « **on:** March 10, 2014, 06:05:13 pm »

I know there are a lot of PDFs of Ceremonial Magic texts floating around the web, and I've read some of them. But it's pretty hard for me to determine which of them have good information.

I'm also curious as to what advice practitioners of Ceremonial Magic have for a beginner. Particularly a beginner who, despite being a bit of a chaos magician, has spent most of their time steeped in neopagan magical traditions.

RandallS · « **Reply #1 on:** March 10, 2014, 06:08:15 pm »

Quote from: angles;142132

I know there are a lot of PDFs of Ceremonial Magic texts floating around the web, and I've read some of them. But it's pretty hard for me to determine which of them have good information.

I strongly recommend beginners start with a book like Kraig's Modern Magic. Good information that will help you understand all the CM texts that were not written for beginners (that is, most of them).

Jack · « **Reply #2 on:** March 10, 2014, 07:30:44 pm »

Quote from: RandallS;142133

I strongly recommend beginners start with a book like Kraig's Modern Magic. Good information that will help you understand all the CM texts that were not written for beginners (that is, most of them).

Seconding the Modern Magic rec, and as someone who tried to make the transition from chaos magic to ceremonial, I'll tell you: you're going to be tempted to fudge it. You look at all these rules and correspondences and the LBRP seems so OVER THE TOP and it's all so formal and...

If you want to do ceremonial, follow the instructions. Don't fudge it. Once you figure it out, you can fudge it later. But you have to know the rules to break them and while you may feel like you know the rules, knowing general rules of magic or knowing chaos magic doesn't really give you as much of a footing in ceremonial magic as you think. Play by ALL the rules first. Even the ones that seem silly. You'll get more out of it, I promise.

RandallS · « **Reply #3 on:** March 10, 2014, 09:12:31 pm »

Quote from: Jack;142143

If you want to do ceremonial, follow the instructions. Don't fudge it. Once you figure it out, you can fudge it later. But you have to know the rules to break them and while you may feel like you know the rules, knowing general rules of magic or knowing chaos magic doesn't really give you as much of a footing in ceremonial magic as you think. Play by ALL the rules first. Even the ones that seem silly. You'll get more out of it, I promise.

In some ways, "following the rules" is one of the main things that separates CM from other forms of magic. Complex rituals and rules for conducting them is what makes it "ceremonial" -- or one of the things that does.

angles · « **Reply #4 on:** March 17, 2014, 03:16:20 pm »

Quote from: Jack;142143

Play by ALL the rules first. Even the ones that seem silly. You'll get more out of it, I promise.

This advice has definitely been helping me so far. Despite my chaos tendencies, I do enjoy systems with rules.

I really appreciate the advice of everyone in this thread! Since I last posted, I bought the Kindle edition of Modern Magic, and I've been working through it slowly- VERY slowly. I haven't actually done anything beyond daily relaxation and dream recall exercises, but I'm already finding it very rewarding. I don't want to rush things.