Getting Started with Sorcery

I’ve seen a couple threads in which people asked what you’d recommend people study, what skills you’d recommend people develop, and what books you’d recommend people read if they want to become sorcerers. Psychology often dominates, with some philosophy, mythology, anthropology and general fringe thought thrown in. Someone recently suggested UFOs and cryptids. Magic is oddly rarely the focus. In some of the cases where it is…it’s really random or bad books being recommended, or modern books of magic that approach magic as mysticism and psychology.

A lot – not all; of the above-mentioned subjects are good for magicians and sorcerers to study. Most of them are not what people need in the beginning. You can become a fairly successful sorcerer without those subjects. Psychology can help you understand yourself and other people, philosophy can help you learn to frame ideas, mythology, folklore, history and anthropology can give you access to deeper resources to understand more magical techniques and approaches. The main thing you need those is magic. These other disciplines won’t teach you magic, they won’t make you a sorcerer, but they are useful in support of sorcery.

So, if you want to get started with sorcery, and become good at magic, what should be in your library?

Books On Sorcery and Magic

These books are going to be our baseline. These will help instruct you in magic. You can use these and that can get you where you want to go. Go through all of these.

The Sorcerer’s Secret’s – Jason Miller

The Elements of Spellcrafting – Jason Miller

The Master Book of CandleBurning – Henri Gamache

Charms Spells and Formulas – Ray Malborough

Hoodoo Herb and Root Magic – Catherine Yronwode

The Sporting Life – Charles Porterfield

Old Style Conjure – Starr Casas  

Quimbanda – Danilo Coppini

Secret of the Psalms – Godfrey Selig

Living Spirits – BJ Swain

Notes regarding some of the books in this section will be provided in the end.

Establishing a Conjuration Practice

Conjuration doesn’t necessarily need to be a part of a sorcerer’s arsenal, but it can be a useful addition, and one which is popular these days.

The two books I’m going to recommend for beginning that process both present easy streamlined approaches but each with a slightly different focus. Both allow you to dive right in. You could try one or the other or both. Both work on simplified approaches to conjuring planetary angels and can be adapted to other spirits.

Seven Spheres – Rufus Opus

Seven Spheres should be your choice if you want to use conjuration work as a way of magically initiating yourself and introducing yourself to occult powers to expand your magic.

Luminarium – BJ Swain

Luminarium focuses on using conjuration for practical purposes and presents magical and sorcery techniques to prepare for conjuration and examples for using conjuration to augment a practice of practical sorcery.

Grimoires and Magical Working Books

You don’t necessarily need these but if you want to expand into the arena of conjuration or using a grimoire system here are some options. Some of these will also have spell options and inspirations in addition to what we typically think of as grimoire work. You could pick one of these or a handful or none. There are others out there two, but if I was going to pick from a limited selection it would be one of these.

The Book of Oberon

The Veritable Key ofSolomon

The Fourth Book of OccultPhilosophy (for the Heptameron and the Arbatel)

The Lemegeton

The Hygromanteia

The Cambridge Book of Magic

The Secrets of Solomon

Folk Magic, Cunning Work, and Inspiration for Spells and Magical Workings

Traditional collections containing magical spells and folklore are a must. Again, you don’t need all of these, pick the ones that speak to you.

Svartkonstbocker - Thomas K. Johnson

The Black Books of Elverum - Mary S. Rustad

The Long-Lost Friend - Daniel Harms

Angels Demons & Spirits - Daniel Harms

The Grimoire of Arthur Gauntlet - David Rankine

The Book of Saint Cyprian - Jose Leitao 

The Greek Magical Papyri - Hans Deiter Betz

Ancient Christian Magic - Marvin Meyer

Divination

Some method of divination is a must, and unfortunately divination is mostly something I’ve picked up as hodge podge catch as catch can kind of info since I was a small child, so it’s not something I focus on book-wise. So, I don’t have a ton of recommendations

The Book of Saint Cyprian – includes info on cartomancy

Cypriana: Old World – Jake Stratton-Kent has an essay included on Cyprianic cartomancy

Marseille Tarot – Camelia Elias

Notes:

Malborough – I’ve seen people question some of the recipes in this book, but I’ve also seen people praise it. At a minimum it is a good introduction to the ideas and techniques and provides correspondences to use.

Yronwoode – Cat Yronwoode has been the basis of spreading the popularity of Hoodoo amongst magical practitioners today, there are some similar mixed views about her work and products but she collects a vast amount of sources and most visible Hoodoo practitioners are influenced by it.

Porterfield – Dr. Porterfield is a popular practitioner and teacher. There is some jarring appropriative use of “slang” and “lingo” in The Sporting Life. The recipes and techniques are worth it if you just skim past the attempt to establish a cultural setting for the book.

Casas -  Starr Casas is popular with a lot of very good magicians, but like most of the Hoodoo writers there is debate about her work. In my opinion the debate seems to be largely surrounding her being white more than it is about the quality of her content. There is a strange disconnect when reading because the way she talks about black ancestors and heritage it seems like she’s talking about her own ancestors and heritage, but I don’t know anything about her history or her family’s history in order to have any real judgment or comment on that.

Coppini – There are a lot of approaches to Quimbanda and debate on which sources present authentic forms. This book is not recommended with the intent of suggesting people pick up Quimbanda as a practice but the approaches, explanations, and techniques described can greatly aid in deepening and expanding a practice of spiritous sorcery.

Swain – my book will provide history, context, and a worldview which will add to the work you’re doing with these other books, in addition to explaining techniques and approaches. It will also give the grounding needed for some of the spirit work involved in the other books recommended in other sections.

Long Lost Friend - There is a lot of folklore that is not expressly magic in this.

Arthur Gauntlet - The transcriber elected not to include a table of contents and so the book is difficult to use for practical purposes

There are other books that might have made the cut that I just haven't had a chance to explore. Notably, Mallorie Vadouise's Honoring Your Ancestors, and Gordon White's Chaos Protocols and Pieces of Eight, or Aidan Wachter's Six Ways. They all have great reputations I just haven't read them. Patrick Dunn's Orphic Hymns would probably be useful too just didn't fit one of the above categories. Jake Stratton-Kent's Encyclopedia Goetica series would also be a sort of magical approach to history which would be informative depending upon the direction in which you choose to go. 

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If you’re curious about starting conjuration pick up my new book – Luminarium: A Grimoire of Cunning Conjuration

If you want some help exploring the vast world of spirits check out my first book – Living Spirits: A Guide to Magic in a World of Spirits

Talismans for Success

I've seen people ask sometimes what to do with a talisman once they've consecrated it. There's a lot of options, let's look at a few, and wrap up with one that will get you things you want pretty solidly with minimal work.

Growing up when I made a talisman I tended to just put it near whatever it was meant to do. If it was for money it went in my wallet. Talismans for sex went under my mattress or somewhere in my pants. Being a young male those were the only two things I ever used magic for. Just kidding, but you get the idea, talismans were placed in relation to the goal. For more global goals I would leave the talisman on the altar, or burn it, or use it with other ritual implements.

Most of those talismans were based on making a sigil for a goal and charging it with a ritual. They weren't usually talismans made with spirit magic.

As I got into magic involving spirits some of my view on how to use talismans changed. In modern magic the talisman is often thought of as a “magical child” or creature which goes and does the work of the magician and dissipates. So leaving it on an altar or putting it near what it's effecting makes sense.

A talisman consecrated by a spirit is a material link to the force of that spirit. The talisman remains substantially whatever material it's made from, essentially the talisman has the form of the magical purpose written into it, but the being of the talisman is changed to match the being of the spirit based on contact with the spirit. The talisman essentially becomes a small link between the spirit and the world.

So if the nature imbued into the talisman is effective, in that it describes what the spirit is doing, wearing the talisman as a charm or carrying it, or placing it in proximity to what it's effecting makes sense because it's pretty similar to the modern view of the talisman being a magical creature doing a job. But if your talisman is just marked with symbols of the spirit, or powers which rule the spirit, or symbols which relate to its correspondences then the being and essence of the talisman are simple and reflect the spirit more directly. The talisman at that point is kind of like a battery, or an little piece of the spirit's power radiating out for your use but not in a particular way.

This can be useful if you're just trying to draw a particular force into your life, but it doesn't do much for a specific goal.

Once you've consecrated such a talisman there are two primary ways to use it. First, it can be a short cut to conjuring the spirit again to ask it to take care of your goal. Alternatively, you can use the talisman as a source of power in more basic sorcerous spell work.

One of my favorite ways to do this is to consecrate the talisman, and then when I'm ready to use it take a candle which has been rubbed with oil and incanted for a particular goal. Then place the candle over the talisman and just let the candle burn up. The candle draws the force of the talisman and radiates it out into the world in accordance with the goal assigned to the talisman.

One could easily make a talisman charge it regularly and keep it wrapped up and in a special spot whenever you have need of that particular force, just whip out a candle, rub it up, chant over it, and put it on your altar on top of the talisman. Set it and forget it. Simple way to manifest your goals with only a few minutes of spell work.

You can consecrate your talisman however you like. The traditional grimoiric methods are great, if you're looking for a quick and simple way to do it, try the Solomonic Hexagram ritual posted a couple days ago.