Basic Magick: A Practical Guide [Paperback]

Phillip Cooper (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Weiser Books (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877288321
• ISBN-13: 978-0877288329
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #905,480 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Open-minded and doesn't shove things down your throat., January 22, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Basic Magick: A Practical Guide (Paperback)

Mr Cooper writes well. His style would appeal to the scientist and those who feel there should be a rational, logical approach to things, rather than a cloak-and-dagger mystical necessity which would just be silly mumbo jumbo (as the author often calls it). Before opening this book, you'll cower and hide it as if it were a copy of Penthouse! Amazingly, it reveals itself to be as 'respectable' as a book by Freud or Einstein. As a physician, I must confess, I was surprised. More importantly, and almost reluctantly, I have to say that not reading this book and dying would almost be a tragic pity.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A grain of salt, April 7, 2000

By 

Penney (Wisconsin) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basic Magick: A Practical Guide (Paperback)

This is a valuable introduction to the basics of magickal work. Mr. Cooper describes very powerful techniques for tapping into the powers of the subconscious mind. He consistently emphasizes the fact that the individual bears the ultimate responsiblity for how he or she fares in life, not some external power or deity. In making his point, however, he ends up trashing such concepts as "karma" with what I feel is an incomplete understanding of its nature, or how it works. Worse, he uses such hackneyed adjectives as "silly" or "utter nonsense" or "rubbish" to describe that which he objects to. His criticisms are aimed at those ideas and notions we might subconsciously adopt to avoid taking reponsibility for our lives. Notions such as "God is punishing me," or "my luck is bad and there's nothing I can do about it," are justifiably trashed by Mr. Cooper. His goal is to help us empower ourselves, and quit blaming external causes for what we find lacking in our lives. I can't help but feel that he lacks a certain depth of understanding when it comes to those "externals" he objects to, and that's why his criticisms seem a bit harsh and unskillful. Still, he does an excellent job describing the planetary powers, and his techniques for accessing the subconscious mind are truly effective. Overall, he takes a positive and healthy approach to his subject, and the book is well worth reading. I highly recommend it, just keep a pinch of salt on hand while you read.

40 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars *, June 27, 2000

By 

Otto Lost - See all my reviews

This review is from: Basic Magick: A Practical Guide (Paperback)

The general feeling I've had throughout the years, is that popular magic and its supposed practice are ridiculous goth fads. And for the most part they are, safe enough to say. Take a look through the "new age" section of your local bookstore, it is easy to see what I mean. 95% of the books sold on the topic of magic, or "magick" if we're being pretentious and annoying about it, strike me as somewhere between amusingly dismissable and disgustingly moronic.

Still, I'm smart enough to know that mankind's most distinctive characteristic is his astonishingly willful ignorance, and that it is simply common sense to realize that the human mind houses a great deal of unharnessed potential. The American educational system, the American government, popular media, and Western religion are, needless to say, pointedly unhelpful when it comes to learning to explore and utilize our full potential.

Philip Cooper's "Basic Magick" was the first book on this subject that I came across that struck a genuine chord. In many respects it's no different than most books on the subject, which is to say that it's haughty in tone, sometimes pretentiously prophetic, and frequently just too silly to take seriously. Its arguments and reasoning are confident and, at the same time, notably underdevloped, whimsical, and ill-supported. Additionally, it's just as stupid looking as any other "magick" book on the shelf; I admit I would've been a trifle embarassed purchasing this at a bookstore. Insecure? Maybe; but maybe with a valid reason.

However, if a bit arrogant and often questionable, the author is not a fool; the ideas, exercises, and attitude of the book all have a great deal of merit. Cooper's interpretation of magic in a metaphorical vein, and his assertion that mystical concepts like gods, demons, angels, magical paraphenalia (rings, knives, wands, etc.) are helpful strictly in terms of being symbols to the mind--is refreshing. Not everything he has to say bears close scrutiny, but one detects a tangible (and rightful) degree of sympathy for the skeptic.

Additionally, the book is fun to read. If the ideas aren't always rock-solid, the author's vitality and attitude *are,* and he manages to inspire without seeming preachy. His exercises are, at least at their core, notably useful and worthwhile. His frequent encouragement that the reader ignore magical systems mired in literalness and fad in favor of personal creativity is also refreshing.

The book isn't exactly a comprehensive tome--it is brief and introductory in nature. But for me this was fine. While hardly an ideal investigation of the topic overall, Cooper's book does house many helpful ideas and provides an interesting and less ridiculous angle on the idea of magic than I've seen elsewhere. His book gave me hope and inspired in me a great deal of thought and interest in the possibilites of the human mind, as well as exercises detailing how to begin to explore and perhaps utilize them. I recommend this book to beginners who have equal measure of enthusiasm and skepticism for magic in general.