Modern Magick: Twelve Lessons in the High Magickal Arts

Before I get going I would ask that if you read this review, please read to the end. I started with this book when I was about 19 years old & I am 53 now. THIS BOOK CHANGED MY LIFE! It will change yours to if you take it serious & do what is asked of you. You will contact your HGA, you will develop potent magical abilities, & you will blow the doors off of all the other so called 'witches', sorcerers, etc. because you will be a true magician. It is not the end all & be all of magical instructional texts but in my opinion it is the best to start with. Phillip Cooper's "The Magickian" is an excellent juxtaposed instructional text that will serve you well also. I do not use Cooper's book for practice but I use it for the truth in knowledge it brings although it is entirely workable. Modern Magick gives you the basic tools & practices along with a lot of knowledge but The Magickian will tell you in no uncertain terms, where the power is coming from. Modern Magick will too if you are astute enough to decipher it but The Magickian puts it in plain terms. You are a god & Modern Magick teaches you how to claim your power but power is not what you go after, you go after the truth of your soul & power will flow naturally. Modern Magick will accomplish this. I do recommend the 2nd edition as opposed to the 3rd because the 3rd has a lot of non essential & in my opinion, material that will mislead you as a beginner. The Golden Dawn (which Modern Magick heavily draws from) had its start with members of the SRA & the SRIA used Franz Hartman's Rosicrucian material & there is evidence in the 1923 Rosicrucian Manual in the preface in paragraph 4. The point is that it will behoove you to get Hartman's material to go along with this.

This textbook, (because it is the size of one & it is FULL of information!) is a great addition to you collection! I took quite a few pictures to give new buyers a good idea of what is in it. There is text and pictures which make it fun to read. I am reading it from cover to cover, following along in the lessons, as recommended, but not required. It already has taught me a ton about magick & I'm still in the first few chapters. I have skimmed ahead though and I can see that there is ALOT more to go. If you are interested in learning NON DOGMATIC magick, this is the book for you. I have about 30 books that have to do with witchcraft and have read even more than that. As they all bring their own ideas, information & knowledge to the table, not to be substituted by another -- but with that said, this is definitely the largest book I have seen and is filled with a ton of fundamental information about magick. I can't say it's the best, because they are all have their own individual substance & should be created equal..but it's up there!! A must have!! 5 stars from me!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

I highly recommend this book. It's a great start for anyone interested in "high" magic, and will keep you moving along without moving too quickly. Having said that, however - buy the book. Stay away from the Kindle version. The rendering of images and tables is just thrown into the text, making it hard to read and use in a meaningful way, and hard to follow. Just buy the book and save yourself confusion and frustration.

I have been looking into various forms of magick and trying to understand different paths. Although, I am practicing Wicca, at the moment, I wantsed to buy this book to understand what ceremonial magick is. I have read through the entire thing once, and I can say that I really liked it. Mr. Kraig has a great writing style and I love how he has created the lessons. After reading this and various Wicca/witchcraft books, I have been drawn more toward Wicca, and have begun a study under another author who I have found to have great material. However, when I complete the few years of material from the present author, I plan on learning Modern Magick with it's year course. Though I am not feeling connected to all of ceremonial magick, there are some very good points to it, and I would like to learn and practice it before I draw all my conclusions. By the way, there are some other authors out there who have made ceremonial magick very difficult to understand and practice. If you are a beginner without a teacher, this is probably the best course you could take. Kraig takes difficult material and makes it practical for the modern day reader. He doesn't present this material as an intellectual highbrow as some authors on the subject may appear.

I have two copies, one paperback and the other digital. I'd prefer to have just the digital because that's far easier to carry with me and study on the go. Unfortunately, the digital copy suffers from a number of formatting issues where diagrams and visuals will be presented on the wrong page, and in at least one case, vital information is omitted entirely.

I did a read-through and then went back to approach the practical, ritual material more in depth. This book will have you working hard, but it's worth it. This is a great book, even if you've not practiced magic before. Everything is step-by-step and his lessons build upon one another. Dedicate yourself to the daily, ritual work and you will be rewarded. Do read some other texts to see how other practitioners approach the material. For example, I practice the LIRP in the morning and the LBRP in the evening, which is recommended by Golden Dawn courses, despite his emphasis on the LBRP only. Another good reason to read other sources (i.e. Israel Regardie), is that while this is an awesome book and resource for magicians, there are mistakes here and there. There is one intentional blind, which he tells you about in a later chapter, but I caught a couple of things that did not seem right. I wound up purchasing my tools online. I don't really have the facility to produce the tools myself. Keep in mind the tools may be expensive if you purchase online, but the cost is worth the craftsmanship if you can afford it. I recommend this book if you're serious about doing the practical work of magick and less concerned about reading thousands of pages of theory before you even get to a ritual, which is a feature of many other books on the subject. This book does contain a lot of the material found in the Golden Dawn and Thelema curriculum, so get ready to study Qabalah. Keep in mind, that while ostensibly Judeo-Christian, Qabalah is a syncretic system which contains many other elements. If you're on the fence about this one, go for it. I've been a practicing witch for years and this book took my practice to the next level and beyond. Many blessings, future Adepts!

I'm a PhD student in molecular biology from UCLA and recently got interested in occult studies. After learning that DMK was an UCLA alumni I got to pick this up. This is my first magick book along with other one "initiation into hermetics" from Franz Barton. Previously, I have also read about occult philosophy from the "teaching of ages" from Manly, "outline of occult science" from Steiner, "the eternal fruit of knowledge" from Poole. Modern magick is a great text since DMK is always really personal and sometimes feel like he is talking to you and eagerly sharing his magick experience with you. I believe what he said is real but sometimes quite frightening. For example, he described his supernatural experience when he can sometimes see "nasties" or some of his students heard voice calling out names soon after initiation. He also described that grey magick can potentially turn black magick and how to void this using tarot divination. However, since the "correct" version of tarot has not been revealed by the Hermetic order, wouldn't that make prediction risky? Not to mention the risk of direct evocation of spirits. While I have nothing against magick, I do feel the art is sometimes quite dangerous. I guess I am happy to be just an arm-chair magician/occultist for now. Nevertheless, I still highly recommend this text for any beginner who want to understand to the practice magick and this is a great down-to-earth guide to magick. Five stars!!

Five stars for this work, even though it has its flaws. Why? Because I think it is the best one-volume introduction to the popular Hermetic path touted by the old Golden Dawn mages and Israel Regardie. Once you've worked through this book, it's likely many of the confusing issues from the works produced by these ladies and gentlemen will become clear. Kraig doesn't write beautiful prose, and some of the chapters include material that is clumsy and rather corny. But in this case, I don't mind because I appreciate the straightforward and patient delivery of critical information. I think of this book as a wonderful primer. It's not the final word, but it's a gentle introduction that should whet your appetite for more. Wish this had been available long ago when I was trying to begin my studies with (of all things) Crowley's "Magick in Theory and Practice." Fascinating book; not a good choice for the inexperienced. Do yourself a favor and combine this Kraig volume with a reading of Israel Regardie's "The One Year Manual: Twelve Steps to Spiritual Enlightenment."