Synopsis
GARETH KNIGHT is one of the major occult practitioners of today. His earlier
Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism set a new standard in occult textbooks and is an important reference book for students of the magical tradition.
His new book will come as a revelation to many new students and as a revolution to many older ones. It eschews the oriental influence that has crept into Western occultism during the last hundred years and goes back to the fundamentals of the mystical traditions of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, the 'peoples of the Book'.
The first half of the book is devoted to getting the principles right. This concerns a proper distinction between magic and mysticism, between natural and revealed religion, between monism and theism. For his examples Gareth Knight throws his historical net wide, embracing examples from the Old and New Testaments, the man-god Alexander the Great, the Mysteries of Isis and Mithra, medieval Holy Spirit movements, Christian Platonism, Sufi love poetry, the Templars and Crusaders, the Troubadour and Courts of Love, the Arthurian and Holy Grail legends and Spiritual Alchemy.
In the second half Gareth Knight gets down to the practicalities of modern occultism. He analyses the merits of inner plane communications, and ideas about them : the traditional ideas of 'the Masters', the psychological approach of C.G. Jung, and the possibility of communication with non-human entities, angelic or elemental.
He goes on to the formulation of a three-dimensional magic circle or mandala, basing the theory on the oldest Qabalistic text available, the Sepher Yetzirah and the symbolism of Hebrew letters, an area which has been strangely neglected by latterday occult schools although it forms the root from which the whole tradition springs.
From this he emphasises the essential God-based background of all responsible magical work, analysing the Tree of Life in this light, newer formulations such as Dion Fortune's Cosmic Doctrine, and the implications of Dante's Divine Comedy.
The last two chapters give practical examples of magic at work. Firstly an historical survey of the practice of the art since Ficino and Pico, embracing the
work of Agrippa, Dee, Bruno, Campanella, the Rosicrucians, Kircher, Fludd and the underground course of the subject since the seventeenth century divorce between science and magic. Secondly, perhaps the most interesting chapter in the book, a personal record of magical and occult work conducted over the past ten years leading up to the writing of the book.
Practical exercises are given at the end of each chapter (which have been tried and validated by a group of volunteer students). The book is designed for a course on Christian Qabalistic Magic organised by Gareth Knight (for further details of which please write to the publishers) but can be used as a course of self-instruction by the individual student-and all this apart from its value as an important modern reference book of magical theory and practice.
About the Author
Gareth Knight is one of the world's leading authorities on modern esoteric studies and the Western Mystery Tradition, with a career as an author, publisher and lecturer which spans more than 50 years. His other books include "A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism", "Magic and the Power of the Goddess", "The Magical World of the Inklings", and a biography of Dion Fortune, "Dion Fortune and the Inner Light".
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