/lit/ - Literature

Recommended Reading List:

>Hermeticism:
Corpus Hermetica -- Copenhaver
Hermetica II -- Litwa
The Egyptian Hermes -- Fowden
The Eternal Hermes -- Faivre
>Neoplatonism (in its mystic manifestations)
The Shape of Ancient Thought -- McEvilley
Ancient Philosophy, Mystery, and Magic -- Kingsley
The First Philosophers -- Waterfield
The Pythagorean Sourcebook and Library -- Guthrie
Complete Works -- Plato
Complete Works -- Aristotle
Enneads -- Plotinus
Elements of Theology -- Proclus
De mysteriis -- Iamblichus
Commentary on the Dream of Scipio -- Macrobius
Chaldean Oracles - Majercik
The Orphic Hymns -- Athanassakis
Hesiod and the Homeric Hymns -- Hine
Theurgy and the Soul -- Shaw
Philosophy and Theurgy in Late Antiquity -- Uzdavinys
Philosophy as a Rite of Rebirth -- Uzdavinys
Orpheus and the Roots of Platonism -- Uzdavinys
>Occult Philosophy:
Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed -- Hanegraaf
Three Books of Occult Philosophy -- Agrippa
Cause, Principle, and Unity: and Essays on Magic -- Bruno
Transcendental Magic: Doctrine and Ritual -- Levi
Introduction(s) to Magic -- Evola
Occult Traditions -- Cheak
>Gnosticism
Seven Sermons to the Dead -- Jung
The Gnostic Bible
The Gnostic World
The Bible
>Kabbalah
Inner Space -- Kaplan
Jewish Meditation -- Kaplan
Meditation and Kabbalah -- Kaplan
Sefer Yetzirah
Bahir
Zohar
>Cabala
Platonic Theology -- Ficino
Oration on the Dignity of Man -- Mirandola
>Angel Magic:
Five Books of Magic -- John Dee
>Grimoire tradition:
Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian(/Solomonic) Magic -- Skinner
Encyclopedia Goetica -- Stratton-Kent
PGM -- Betz
Picatrix
>Alchemy:
Alchemy and Mysticism -- Taschen
Psychology and Alchemy -- Jung
Alchemy -- von Franz
The Hermetic Tradition -- Evola
The Forge and the Crucible -- Eliade
Alchemical Traditions -- Cheak
Mysteries of the Cathedrals -- Fulcanelli
Dwellings of the Philosophers -- Fulcanelli
>Astrology:
Tetrabiblos -- Ptolemy
>Tarot:
Way of the Tarot -- Jodorowski
Meditations on the Tarot -- Tomberg
>Paracelsianism:
The Alchemical Writings of Paracelsus
>Boehmeian Theosophy:
Aurora -- Boehme
>Rosicrucianism:
The Rosicrucian Enlightenment -- Yates
Rosicrucian Trilogy -- Godwin
>Freemasonry:
Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry -- Pike
>Illuminism:
The Secret School of Wisdom -- Wages
>Swedenborgianism:
Heaven and Hell -- Swedenborg
>Blavatskian Theosophy:
Isis Unveiled -- Blavatsky
The Secret Doctrine -- Blavatsky
The Mystic Qabalah -- Fortune
>Golden Dawn:
The Golden Dawn -- Regardie
>Thelema:
Magick: Book 4, Liber ABA -- Crowley
>Typhonian:
The Magickal Revival -- Grant
The Nightside of Eden -- Grant
>Traditionalism:
The Crisis of the Modern World -- Guenon
The Reign of Quantity and Sign of Times -- Guenon
>Shamanism:
Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy -- Eliade
>New "Thought":
Kybalion -- "Three Intiates"
"Initiation into Hermetics" -- Franz Barson

Occultism is the aim of religion with the method of science to quote Crowley.

If you are skeptical of religion but also skeptical of science it is an enlightening philosophical path.

Lots of occultists get a bad rep because of folks like Crowley who behaved immorally. But the whole affair should not be written off for that reason. Crowley achieved insights and had visions through his practices that continue to shape the world today...

I recommend some practice with yoga and meditation. Patanjali is pretty good. Then jump into the list below.

>Occult practitioner /lit/:

Beginner
>Robert Anton Wilson - Prometheus Rising
>Peter J. Carroll - Liber Null & Psychonaut
>Phil Hine - Oven-Ready Chaos
>Lea and Angerford - Thundersqueak
>Ramsey Dukes - SSOTBME
>Gordon White - Chaos Protocols

Intermediate
>Crowley - Liber ABA (contains four books, get the blue brick, covers meditation, yoga, magic, mysticism, and the thelemic vision) and Magick Without Tears (this is a kind of FAQ for the magick section of Liber ABA)
>Austin Osman Spare - Book of Pleasure and Zos Speaks!
>Dion Fortune - Mystical Qabalah
>Kenneth Grant - The Magickal Revival
>Andrew Chumbley - Azoetia

Advanced
>Eliphas Levi - Transcendental Magic
>Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa - Three Books of Occult Philosophy
>Imablichus - De Mysteriis

Ascended
>Stephen Skinner - Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian and Solomonic Magic
>Jake Stratton Kent - Encyclopedia Goetica

>>13066957
Meant for >>13066815

Serious suggestions..?


Beginner psychedelic books:

Alduous Huxley - Perennial Philosophy, The Island, Doors of Perception, and Heaven and Hell
Timothy Leary - The Psychedelic Experience, Politics of Ecstasy, Info-Psychology, Game of Life
Baba Ram Dass - Be Here Now

History:

Ken Kesey - The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test
Hunter S Thompson - Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Jay Stevens - Storming Heaven
Martin Lee - LSD Dreams
Martin Torgoff - Can't Find My Way Home

Science:

Albert Hoffman - LSD: My Problem Child
Otto Snow - LSD
Sasha Shulgin - PIHKAL and TIHKAL
Stanislav Grof - LSD Psychotherapy
John C. Lilly - Programming and Metaprogramming the Human Biocomputer
Sherana Frances - Drawing it Out: Befriending the Unconscious

Plant medicine:

David Pendell - Pharmako Poeia, Pharmako Dynamis, and Pharmako Gnosis
Terrence McKenna - Food of the Gods, True Hallucinations, The Archaic Revival
Michael Harner - Way of the Shaman

Mystical bullshit:

Robert Anton Wilson - Illuminatus! (Fiction) and Cosmic Trigger (Non-Fiction)
Carlos Castaneda - Don Juan series
Jodorowski - Psychomagic
Crowley - Book Four

Schizo-core:

PKD - VALIS Trilogy
D & G - Capitalism and Schizophrenia
RD Laing - The Divided Self

The crown jewels of altered states literature:

Charles Baudelaire - Artificial Paradises
Henry Michaux - Miserable Miracle
Walter Benjamin - On Hashish
William Leonard Pickard - The Rose of Paracelsus

I suggest Wouter J. Hanegraaf's Western Esotericism: A Guide for the Perplexed for a general overview of the vast field you are talking about. Thousands of years across multiple continents and suppressed at that. There is no singular tradition. There are witches and necromancers and theurgists and goes and alchemists and hermeticists and rosicrucians and freemasons and theosophers and ceremonial magicians, just to name a few. After Hanegraaf, if still interested in Western magical philosophy, you probably need to go back at least to the Greeks if not Egyptians for the earliest extant Western sources. Some good books on magical Egypt and its connection to Greek thought include the works of Algis Uzdavinys. Focuses mostly on Neoplatonism and linguistic connections for words used in magical and mystical processes. Most Western magical philosophy is Neoplatonic. So reading Plato and Aristotle can't hurt, as well as the main Neoplatonists; Plotinus, Proclus, & Iamblichus (De mysteriis by Iamblichus is a classic of magical philosophy). For more general magical Greek philosophy, I would suggest something like Peter Kingsley. He focuses more on the Presocratics leading up to Socrates and Plato and Aristotle which shows how far the tradition goes... beyond recorded history. Stephen Skinner also has two books on the Greek Magical Papyri and its connection to Goetia entitled Techniques of Graeco-Egyptian Magic and Techniques of Solomonic Magic. Says techniques but more analysis and theory though can certainly be used for practice. Magic, Witchcraft, and Ghosts in the Greco-Roman World is a good source of more folksy magic. Arcana Mundi is a good collection of source texts. Apuleuis, author of Golden Ass, has some Neoplatonic magical philosophy. Albert Magnus, Agrippa, Trithemius, are big in the medieval period. Isamic esotericism also filtered in then. Ficino, Mirandola, and Patrizi for Renaissance. Jewish mysticism also filtered in then. Eliphas Levi's Transcendental Magic for Enlightenment. Origin of tarot attributes. Crowley for Modern stuff (I recommend Book 4: Liber ABA if you want one book only by him [it's his best and most philosophical]).

>>11450166
Ya. First trilogy is great. Haven't read the rest. Been meaning to check out Nightside though.