Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64049 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 792 pages

Customer Reviews

More than just Supplementary Guide to the Golden Dawn System
Firstly, I will explain why this book only received four stars from myself. This text opens under the assumption that you are a practicing magician, and that you are well versed in basic rituals such as the LBRP, the Middle Pillar Vibratory Technique (I don't know how else you would intend to create the astral shells for the initiations), and that you own Secrets of a Golden Dawn Temple and are skilled with your hands. It also assumes that you are a true occultist and that you are seeking more than launching some sigils to make manifest your "will."
However, this book is a great piece of work that stands on it's own as does Regardie's Golden Dawn, Crowley's Liber ABA, and to a much lesser degree Peter Carroll's Liber Null and Psychonaut. In fact, all of these books are must haves by serious students. I would not know how someone could study Crowley's system of magick without being well grounded in the magick and rituals of the Golden Dawn (Crowley places great emphasis on the Neophyte Ritual and refers to the Z-documents about five times in his book). So, my fellow thelemites stop bashing the GD please! You make us all sound like fools!
Moving on. The information contained within this text is absolutely indispensable, not to mention the chapter that deals with astrology! The Cicero's put a great deal of care in compiling a text book, for those magicians who really want to bring their understanding above par. The pace of the book is a little slow, but we tend to fall down when we run to quickly.
If you are looking for a book that will initiate your level of understanding of your magical-self and your magical-universe, then this is the book for you. However, if you are on the fast track to enlightenment, (which is oftentimes the fast track to failure) then by all means move on don't waste your money and continue delude yourself. Remember: it is our understanding that provides the mortar for the building blocks of experience

A Wealth of Information
This book offers more information than most will want to deal with, yet it is a great place to get familiar with the teachings of the Golden Dawn. One will probably seek initiation into the Esoteric Order of the Golden Dawn to get clarification on the rituals and knowledge presented in this book, though.

Great Book....but what happened to it?
I saw this book when it first came out in 1995 and was thrilled with it. At the time however, I was attempting to go down the road of Wicca. So, I did not pick it up. Eventually, I realized that the path I was better suited for was that of the Golden Dawn and I wanted to buy this book to supplement my studies. One of the things I remembered vividly were the color plates near the middle of the book. I loved them because they were so much brighter and evoked much more emotion to me than the plates in Regardie's Golden Dawn book. So, I ordered the book but it was the 2002 edition and suddenly the color plates were in gray scale?!?! I found the 1998 edition and they too were in gray scale. The current edition 2006/07 does not even include the plates at all, even though the book refers you to them at various points.

To get full use of the book the color plates as they originally were in the 1995 edition I feel are needed. Thankfully you can see these pictures scaled down on the author's website, but they do not hold the same magic to me on a computer screen.

Overall the material is a great reference and I recommend it to anyone. I just don't like the changes that the company has implemented.