/x/ general

[Anonymous No.23261814]

>Paranormal/UFO/occultism/mysticism/esotericism/cryptozoology/conspiracy theory related books ITT
Just ordered picrel. What should I expect?

[Anonymous No.23261839]

Got bored like 60 pages in. Some people think it's really good though.

[Anonymous No.23261870]

>>23261839
Does it actually explain what magic is, or? My understanding is that it's one's will channeled and concentrated via symbols, but that's hardly nuanced. Not looking to practice myself, though, being a Christian and all, but I want to supplement my study of esotericism.

[Anonymous No.23261879]

>>23261870
You're better off reading something like Culianu if you want a more nuanced take. And then you should also read some primary sources from ancient world and medieval/renaissance.

A lot of these early xxth century occultists like OP book and Crowley et al were suprisingly pleb given how much time they dedicated to the study. Probably part of their modernist sympathies. Thinking they're so much smarter than occultists of old.

[Anonymous No.23261882]

>>23261879
>Culianu
Do you have a specific work of his to recommend?

[Anonymous No.23261894]

>>23261882
He was assassinated young. Not all of his work is available in English. Just a few main theoretical works. Eros and Magic in the Renaissance is best place to start. Covers most of the major players on the development of magic historically. Also Out of this World is pretty good, kinda vaguely about shamanism in Eliadean sense. Tree of Gnosis is supposedly quite good too about gnosticism obviously altho presumably less magic focused but unfortunately OOP so I have not read it.

[Anonymous No.23261906]

>>23261814

[Anonymous No.23261908]

>>23261814
Do you think this guy tastes his own shit as he poops, or is this face representative of another living being attached to his body that is actually the shit taster?

[Anonymous No.23261915]

>>23261908
You have taste buds in yr asshole already, bruh. #iflscience

[Anonymous No.23261919]

>>23261906
>based off the secret doctrine by blavatsky
Kek. I understand wanting to understand the fraudulent theosophical society as a historical force but I would absolutely recommend against taking any of their teachings as unbiased or out of context a la as a beginner source.

[Anonymous No.23261937]

>>23261908
It's a demon whose punishment was to serve as another demon's ass for 500 years.

[Anonymous No.23261991]

>>23261919
>t. doesn't know

[Anonymous No.23261996]

>>23261814

[Anonymous No.23262006]

[Anonymous No.23262009]

>>23261996
Maria Orsic was the founder of The “Alldeutsche Gesellschaft für Metaphysik” (All German Society for Metaphysics), later renamed the Society of Vrilerinnen Women, better known as the Vril Society, which was a spiritual/metaphysical group involved with mediumstic contact with extraterrestrials from Aldebaran “Alpha Tauri”.

[Anonymous No.23262149]

Disinfo shills (or useful idiots) have arrived I see

[Anonymous No.23262258]

unironically

[Anonymous No.23262389]

>>23261937
One must imagine the ass demon happy.

[Anonymous No.23262539]

>>23261870
It wont teach you how to cast spells or anything if that's what you're looking for. The book takes a more philosophical angle and attempts to explain why seemingly magical and miraculous things can occur in reality. Spoiler alert: our perception of reality as consisting of objective 'things' independent of us is false, in reality only different centers on consciousness exist, everything we see is really just in our imagination.

[Anonymous No.23263520]

>>23261814
cans omeone post a link to this ty

[Anonymous No.23263579]

[Anonymous No.23263665]

Can someone explain what the 4 elements are exactly? From reading Empedocles I get the impression that he thought they were corporeal units of matter. Same goes for Plato and Aristotle, and so on, all the way up to Agrippa. Now obviously this doesn’t accord with modern physics, at least not if the elements signify their namesakes (and not, for example, physical states or some fundamental attributes). It seems like at some point in the past few centuries occultists reinterpreted the elements as supernatural essences without formally defining it as such.

[Anonymous No.23263674]

>>23263665
>Can someone explain what the 4 elements are
you gotta figure that one out on you're own

[Anonymous No.23265093]

>>23261839
100% true

[Anonymous No.23265167]

>>23262389
kek, but this hits too close

[Anonymous No.23265191]

>>23261814
Ahh yes famous occult magician, St. Augustine.

[Anonymous No.23265194]

>>23263665
Read The Nature of Man by Polybus. Each of the presocratics believed earth was illusory and predominantly made of one element (many thought it was either fire or water or air) but Polybus said this was semantic nitpicking because the actual mechanics of the material world don’t matter as long as everything is one substance. Empedocles sort of was a synthesis of previous thought because he believed this material wasn’t one substance but four intertwined.

[Anonymous No.23266927]

bumping one of the only interesting threads on lit.

[Anonymous No.23267464]

>>23266927
>interesting

[Anonymous No.23267716]

>>23263579
Aside from Blake, Tolkien, and Lewis, who else writes about the imagination in this way?

[Anonymous No.23268082]

>>23263520
I tried linking it but VK links aren't allowed ig. If you Google search "magic history theory and practice pdf" a VK link will appear and it's there.

[Anonymous No.23268091]

>>23267464
Yes.

[Anonymous No.23268104]

[Anonymous No.23268119]

>>23263665
Earth - solidity
Water - cohesion, fluidity
Fire - heat
Air - motility
Space - unobstruction

[Anonymous No.23268124]

Picrel is fantastic. It's actually academic unlike every other cryptozoology book I've come across, AND it's exhaustive (two volumes!).

[Anonymous No.23268132]

>>23268124
anything really sexy in there

[Anonymous No.23268139]

>>23268132
The entry on "Yeti" is really good, and as are all the other mystery hominids. Not much in the way of booba though I'm afraid :/

[Anonymous No.23268327]

>>23261908
I like to ass you a few questions

[Anonymous No.23268391]

>>23267716
Gilbert Durand maybe?

[Anonymous No.23268477]

>>23261870
There are different schools of thought that try to explain what magic is.
This gives a reasonable "scientific" explanation detached from superstition: https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP96-00788R001700210016-5.pdf

[Anonymous No.23268482]

>>23261908
>you are what you eat
>talks shit, DOA non-thoughts
>can describe (what's past) but not explain (requiring futurity), backasswards

[Anonymous No.23268509]

>>23268477
Ooo, thanks lad.

[Anonymous No.23268539]

>>23262149
Hello JIDF!!!

[Anonymous No.23268547]

>>23265093
>100% true
What's true, the book being good, or boring?

[Anonymous No.23268560]

>>23261814
>>23261814
Hey guys cool thread
Has anyone read pic related? It's really good.

[Anonymous No.23268568]

Book 1 of 3. A golden thread of occultism that covers every valuable lesson and correspondence of the Western Mysteries. From Egyptian to Greek to modern pagan, with a perfect balance of masculine and feminine energies (as it's written by a husband/wife duo)

[Anonymous No.23268570]

>>23268560
The Holy Bible says necromancy is a grave sin, anon.

[Anonymous No.23268577]

>>23268570
Precisely. And yet for some reason the author couldn't accept the truth of what he was really in contact with
(don't look up what happened to him)

[Anonymous No.23268582]

>>23268577
>don't look up what happened to him
Rest assured, I will lol.

[Anonymous No.23268583]

>>23268124
Speaking of cryptid stuff, this is supposedly another great book. This guy rigorously sifted through centuries of sea monster sightings and catalogued them according to the type of creature that was observed, while ruling out fakes.

[Anonymous No.23268699]

>>23262006
great book

>>23268124
This is good as a starting point reference text but there's a lot of sloppy citations and errors. it should only really be used as a preliminary reference

>>23268583
Heuvelmans postures as very scientific and rational but he comes to some strange conclusions IMO... some of his serpent categories are based on dubious reorts and often his identification with [insert extinct animal here] seems totally arbitrary - minhocao as glyptodon? sea centipedes as armored basilidons?

[Anonymous No.23268862]

>>23268699
You're not wrong. There are a ton of formatting errors. Do you have something better to suggest?

[Anonymous No.23268884]

>>23268547
the pic
i didnt even read what u wrote

[Anonymous No.23268989]

>>23268884
Ok rart.

[Anonymous No.23269421]

Bloomp

[Anonymous No.23269643]

>>23267716
Corbin's imaginal is a cool concept. Seems to be preceded by certain romantic figuration. The philosophy of Novalis for example. Jung veers close to such views too and was a close friend of Corbin IIRC. Eliade and Culianu arguably pick up thread as well. Eranos groupers all. As far as more modern stuff goes, Patrick Harpur is a good Jungian alchemist type. Daimonic Reality and The Philosopher's Secret Fire are all about imagination and its usage in more or less esoteric contexts. Simondon's Imagination and Invention is a more continental philosophy but scientific look at imagination as well. Bachelard is a continental philosopher into imagination and science as well as well. Oh and in esoteric academia Hanegraaf's latest book is about Hermetic Spirituality and the Historical Imagination (title)

[Anonymous No.23269661]

>>23268568
This is a good beginner book if interested in practice. Not a be all end all but an excellent start. Far less dross than Crowley and Evola and their ilk

[Anonymous No.23269664]

>>23268862
Book of the Damned -- Fort
Passport to Magonia -- Vallee

[Anonymous No.23269675]

>>23261870
>christian... study of esotericism
Read Meditation on the Tarot

[Anonymous No.23269682]

>>23268539
You meant to quote >>23268477 I'm sure

[Anonymous No.23270208]

>>23268989
rude, square

[Anonymous No.23270266]

Read "Concentration" by Mouni Sadhu. If you make it through the first series of exercises you'll actually be able to do magic, instead of just read about it.

[Anonymous No.23270304]

>>23261814
Give me the best conspiracy books about german UFOs

[Anonymous No.23270346]

>>23265191
Does the book even try to claim that Augustine was an occult magician (I honestly don't remember)? I think the only reason he is there is because he wrote a comprehensive theory of magic in the City of God.

[Anonymous No.23270921]

>>23270304
Joseph P. Farrell
look him up
you're welcome

[Anonymous No.23270937]

>>23267716

[Anonymous No.23270939]

>>23268583
Damn this books expensive

[Anonymous No.23270972]

>>23270208
Are you calling me a Freemason?

[Anonymous No.23270977]

>>23261814
what the H? I bought this book and just arrived today. quite stealing my moves /lit/! now I'm getting buyer's remorse...

[Anonymous No.23270985]

>>23263579
Why does Googling this lead to Baha'i websites?

[Anonymous No.23270990]

>>23261814
Vallee & Jung are must reads

[Anonymous No.23271003]

>>23262006
>Are we all biological robots ruled by a cosmic force that exists beyond space and time?
Are we? Go ahead and spoil it for me pls. I'm not going to read all that shit.

[Anonymous No.23271129]

Opinions on Whitley Strieber? He's an obvious fraud, right?

[Anonymous No.23271306]

OP here. Amazon says my parcel is out for delivery!

[Anonymous No.23271395]

>>23261814
>>23271306
it's a good book, short, concise, thorough
I read it probably a decade ago so can't giev any relevant advice
from what I remember the author was a performing artist and also the leader of a dancing troupe ~ so you should probably consider it as spilling the beans on the deepest secrets of performing artists (dancers, musicians, etc.) namely following a script
so it's mainly about getting possessed, like the "devil at the crossroads" blues singers mention... you learn an instrument and then you become fused with it, say a violin or trumpet, modifying the very biology of your brain in order for you to excel and be able to communicate through it... but are you doing the communicatin' or does it communicate through you?!
you should probably pick up "Meditations on the Tarot", its author has read tons of books like Schertel's before settling on Catholicism

[ᛋᛋ No.23271439]

Any good preferably factual books on Ed & Lorraine Warren?

[Anonymous No.23271446]

>>23271395
also, I would like to add, a trumpet is a good example as you need to exercise for about an hour EVERY DAY because if you miss a day or two, it takes a week to recover and be back to your level... so they say... popular examples are Miles Davis (who "took a break") or Chet Baker (who had his teeth knocked out but even so kept exercising through the pain, bleeding mouth and all)
that's why saxophone became so popular, as a woodwind that imitates brass it delivers the sound but doesn't need the discipline, exercise, dedication... downfall of music

[Anonymous No.23271454]

>>23271129
I thought he was a fraud, but then I took the aliens are demons/lesser spirit beings pill and now his experiences make sense.

[Anonymous No.23271457]

>>23271129
Skim through Cracks in the Great Wall by Charles Upton if you want a takedown of your pic related. It's short regardless, only 60 something pages from what I recall, but it's a bit tedious in that the author leans far too heavily on just quoting Guenon. However, the selections from Communion he cites are so absurd on their face that you need little more than them to discard the book as worthless, of not dangerous.

[ᛋᛋ No.23271799]

>>23271457
Okay, thanks lad (y).

[ᛋᛋ No.23272073]

My copy arrived.

[Anonymous No.23272234]

>>23270972
it's fine; ily anyway <3

[Anonymous No.23272254]

>>23261814
>Just ordered picrel. What should I expect?
literal garbage.

[Anonymous No.23272255]

whats some lit that explores the concept of the Yod / Monad ?

[Anonymous No.23273079]

>>23263579
>>23270937
Neville Goddard.

[Anonymous No.23274266]

Bloompf

[Anonymous No.23274797]

>>23261814
Read pic related two years ago and it completely changed my perception of everything. If even half of what is written in this book is true, the repercussions would be insane. I've bought tons of old, 1980s/1990s material on ritual abuse, CIA operations, and true crime since then. I've probably purchased every book cited by pic-related.
If you want a good UFO book, I recommend the 1991 - Scientific Evidence for the Crop Circle Phenomenon by Montague Keen. It is a short booklet, but is very scientific and concise in its observations. The only book I've read like it.
>>23262006
Love this book too. One of my favorites about the paranormal and supernatural. Writing this book destroyed his reputation in the UFO community because it went against the extraterrestrial hypothesis.

[Anonymous No.23275271]

>>23261870
The etymology of 'magic' essentially just meant 'Another cultures religious practices'. If you want to learn what magic is you will have to do what the etymology suggests. Read about other cultures religious/spiritual practices. I've already done this part for you, and can say that Shamanism is the bedrock of all this stuff as it's the oldest religious/spiritual practice. But with that each cultures version of Shamanism will differ based on the organized religions that influenced them, language, and geography.

I've read a good deal about Eastern practices as well, especially Daoism, and can say the easiest way to explain real magic is through something like Yin and Yang theory. The theory says that everything is a form of energy, called qi. So with the various combinations of yin qi and yang qi interacting you get all the things that exist. Being able to manipulate this qi at will is what leads to 'magic'. NeiGong means 'internal skill' and is a practice that develops internal changes necessary for the proper accumulation and manipulation of Qi inside your own body. NeiKung is slightly different whereas you're able to make this Qi leave your body, and start interacting with stuff beyond your own body. From training this way with NeiGong for years to develop and gain awareness of your Lower DanTien you are able to work onwards to NeiKung which is where the flashy stuff happens. This should be when the practitioner is able to direct the flow of his own Qi at will, transfer it to others to heal them, or project onto paper/sticks to start fires etc. The reason this Qi can do so many different things is that it's the life force of everything. It can heal others because suddenly injecting them with life force speeds up their internal healing process. It can heat up paper as too much of this Qi projected onto something will raise its temperature similar to a magnifying glass with sunlight.

The explanation of where Qi is is on the etheric body which is like an intermediary for the physical and spiritual. It's funny that etheric bodies are associated with Neo-Theosophy, yet they got the term for it from Sanskrit. Basically reinforces what I've already typed above in paragraph 1.

[Anonymous No.23275548]

>>23262006
>>23262006
Hey I just finished this one. It was a good read though kind of all over the place. I like Keel.

[Anonymous No.23275789]

Any good books on Marian apparitions?

[Anonymous No.23275936]

>>23275271
This sounds very different from the sort of magick occidental magicians employ.
>>23275789
Bumping for this.

[Anonymous No.23276638]

any books on symbolism? numbers, shapes, colors, that kind of symbolism

[Anonymous No.23277656]

>>23276638

[Anonymous No.23277701]

>>23274797
If half of that books is true, it would be completely trivial, since half of that book is just autistic lists of various horrifying real events to beat the reader into submission so as to accept any claim he makes after, as if those lists would add to the force of the particular argument he is presenting (shady stuff with dutroux hardly connects at all with trained serial killers, for example). That said, of course this could be true and everybody has thought of this possibility for himself, considering that even in primitive societies the elites claim demonic possession to get privileges although they commit the damage intentionally while pretending to be possessed, same deal COULD be at work here, but definitely IS the case in some level. This book does nothing to prove it, though.

[Anonymous No.23277707]

>>23277701
General tips for conspiratards, anyhow: reject shoddy chains of induction and derive the conclusions from principles of organization and elite theory, as a priori theories of state.

[Anonymous No.23277728]

>>23262006
Misguided trash that tries to disguise human technological manipulation to electromagnetic apparitions. I'm not even doubting that those apparitions could not be real, but he rejects easier explanations in favour of a kind of "these apparitions could be anything that the viewer imagines based on his own devil-theory", which explains absolutely nothing.

[Anonymous No.23277741]

>>23277656
anything a bit more accessible?

[Anonymous No.23278315]

>>23275936
>This sounds very different from the sort of magick occidental magicians employ.
it's not. read more.

[Anonymous No.23278333]

[Anonymous No.23278341]

>>23261908
It's a terrifying depiction of the fact your mouth is connected to your asshole.

[Anonymous No.23278573]

>>23275789
???

[Anonymous No.23278644]

Picrel is an excellent rundown of -- well, basically everything in the occidental occult milieu. Essential reading for /x/lit if you ask me.

[Anonymous No.23279270]

[Anonymous No.23279310]

>>23277701
>Half of that book is just autistic lists of various horrifying real events to beat the reader into submission so as to accept any claim he makes after
Honestly, that is a fair assessment and probably my main problem with the book. The thing is, there is a lot of information there. The book just fails to organize it well. There is no attempt made to connect the dots. All the information is presented implicitly and much of it is circumstantial. It doesn't help that what good information there is doesn't go deep enough to convey to the reader its significance.
On my first read of the book, I was completely out of my depth. I didn't understand half the shit he was talking about. I had to spend a year reading up on and researching the various events he mentions individually before returning to the book a year later. When I read it the second time, I still struggled a bit but was able to use what I learned to fill in the gaps. I only understood what he was arguing after my third reading.
So yeah, it is poorly organized. It is just a list of facts and strange coincidences and unless you are well-informed on everything he mentions in it, you are shit out of luck. This sucks because it feels like it was written as a less academic, more introductory book on the concept when in reality. it is a highly complex theory that requires significant background knowledge to comprehend. It really should have been a meticulously sourced book around double its current size.
I mean, the material to write it is there. There is more available now than ever. We just didn't get that with this book. I think its biggest fault is not what it argues specifically, but the general lack of a defining thesis. Without a clear argument, we are left with nebulous blobs of information that we have to put together ourselves.
>>23277707
>reject shoddy chains of induction and derive the conclusions from principles of organization and elite theory, as a priori theories of state.
Books on this?

[Anonymous No.23279367]

>>23278644
I liked that one

[Anonymous No.23279442]

>>23278644
>Magee

Nice. Wouter Hanegraaff's would make a goo dpair with it.

[Anonymous No.23279446]

>>23262006
The new cover art sucks