Q: Suggested self study for beginning black magician?

[Lucifuge530]

Looking for any suggestions for daily rituals, practices or guides to move from a beginner to an adept black magician. I am currently working on astral projection, chaos magick and LOTS of meditation! I have worked with visualization, banishing rituals, calling in energies for formal rituals, divination with pendulums and runes. I am just curious what people's opinions are on the definition of the "fundamentals" in magick? What is your personal definition of who an adept black magician is and what would he likely know?
Thank you to anyone who helps provide guidance here!

[Alys-RaccoonReadings]

Out of curiosity, how do you define black magician?

[User50]

I am not a chaote myself, but all of the ones I do know highly recommend Liber Null & Psychonaut by Peter Carroll as the primer of all primers for chaos magic. I've read bits and pieces of it, but it's not really my thing. However, as stated, I'm not a chaote. Another one I see a lot of chaotes throwing around and swearing by is the Book of Eris. I haven't read any of that one, so can't really affirm or deny anything about it. Oh yeah, and don't forget about Condensed Chaos by Phil Hine.

If Thelema is more your current, I would make sure to start with the Book of the Law (Liber AL vel Legis) by Aleister Crowley. From there, he has a ton of books to read deepening your knowledge of that current and its rituals. There are also lots of videos by Thelemites, so I'm sure you can dig up some good stuff.

The Complete Guide to Demonolatry by S Connolly is a great introduction to the concept of demon worship, working with demons in rituals, and overall divorcing demons from the common, mainstream perceptions of them. She has many, many books of varying degrees of difficulty, and is very easy to read.

My biggest recommendation for daily practices are: ground daily, work on sensing your own energy and how to contain it/keep it from being contaminated by outside energy, energy raising techniques, and finally either ritual work or study. Many people recommend banishing daily, and while some people definitely need that, others don't so much, so it's really up to the practitioner and their unique needs. Now, I don't say daily ritual work because I personally don't believe that you need to do a full blown ritual every day. I do, however, make sure to engage my mind in my practice some way daily. This can be making notes of preparation for my next upcoming ritual working, or reading about different practices, or even a nice sit down tarot session. Often times, when I am in the process of preparing for my next working, I will suddenly be hit with a wave of calm, rich energy, the feeling of being in that space between physical and astral, and I will know that I am absolutely ready to take on the ritual, that it is time. Early on in my practice, this feeling was not so intense, but over time, as I developed my senses, it became stronger and stronger.

For a direct answer to part of your question: what the fundamentals of magick are vary so much from group to group that there is no definitive answer. I generally promote a strong background of understanding ceremonial magick and its application when I've had students, so that they can "know the rules before breaking them", though there is the potential for learning a *lot* of bad habits from that.

Oh! And I know this might seem strangely out of place, but hear me out on this. I actually do recommend reading Chicken Qabalah by DuQuette. Yes, I know it's touching in the mystical Abrahamic tradition and a lot of people hop right on away from it, but this book is funny, engaging, and really useful for learning a quick, fast crash course into the work so much of the western esoteric tradition is drawn from. Give it a chance, even if you have no intention of going anywhere near Qabalah or traditional ceremonial magick. I'd say it's definitely worth the time, and you might even get a few good hearted laughs from it.

Sorry this was so long! And hopefully this was helpful!

[Lucifuge530]

Out of curiosity, how do you define black magician?

The concise version
An individual who is connected with their self and the world around them, the "black" part being pulling it from oneself and not from a "divine source" or needing a divine "filter" on their work!

Essentially they realize they are the source of power and don't need anyone or anything to pull from that. They may use gods and deities as companions, peers, and/or colleagues in their work but most importantly they allow magic to flow from the self than from a deity unless they feel it is needed. The other part is the idea that they do not need a deities approval to complete their work, what I call the "divine filter" where a white magician would say "it wasn't meant to be" or "God X will make it happen if it's so" the black magician would do their work and accept the positive or negative consequences as they arrive, taking them as lessons for future work!

[Lucifuge530]

Oracle, thank you so much for ALL of your advice and I loved how much detail you offered! It shows that you do care about novice magicians and I really appreciate that!

I took down the suggested books on Chaos magick, and I actually began that path because of the amazing book Condensed Chaos. The reason I love it so much is because it aligns with what I see as a black magician as referenced above, pulling energy from the self not the divine. If you have any suggestions for paths that also align with that please let me know! I have been meaning to pick up S. Connolys work and will expedite on getting those books! I'll also take a look into that Chicken Qabalah!

Thanks again for all the help!