Customer Reviews

Blood Magick

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found the book to be informative, detailed, responsible, and useful. The information was presented clearly, the techniques are applicable, and the system can be layered onto a person's own pre-existing tradition. The author systematically presents a magical practice that, until now, has been obscured by taboo and disinformation. However, I do have to point out the fact that the spells in this book (and in other Seth books), have a creative flair that many serious occultist may find disagreable, though I did not. The only reason I am giving this book a 4 of 5 is that even though the description of the book states that it is a text that can be used by beginners, there are some techniques, concepts, and entire chapters that are quite complex. This book is really meant for those with more knowledge and experience than the average neophyte, and should have been marketed as such.

After having acquired and read shelves upon shelves of books on magic and witchcraft I came across this one and wish I would have read it a long time ago. In his treatment of the topic of blood magic the author provides some of the clearest and most concise definitions and discussions of magical concepts I have run across. This is not a book for the casual magic worker not because it is hard to read - rather the opposite, but because he treats the topic with all the seriousness it deserves without sensationalizing it as some of the Gothic material does. He also doesn't pull punches and makes it plain that blood magic is not just for kicks.

The book is split into basically 3 sections - theory, grimoire and history/culture. The sections on theory/personal development and how to use blood are fairly comprehensive although I would have appreciated examples of how a spell/s would be done to accomplish the various things he describes. I also would have appreciated a more in depth treatment of the significance and role of blood in the magic of various cultures.

As a basic book on blood magic I think it is very good and would recommend it to anyone interested in this topic.

If you're ready to approach the theory of blood magick with an open mind, this book is a fairly advanced source for new ideas. Advanced because it assumes you've already become settled in your own ground-center-shield/banish/corner calling habits. The only part that seemed out of touch was the last few chapters, where the author looses is rather dependable neutrality to go on a short religous diatribe about Armageddon. Reguardless, his books are still my inspiration, and they pair well with the Cthulu mythos if you're looking for an occult wedgie.

Finally, an author willing to take risks! Until this book came out, there was a serious lack of information available on the actual practice of blood magick. This book is a bold compendium of magic theory, rituals, philosophy, and detailed how-to sections on the actual use of blood (like how to get it & how to use it safely). The author seems to have specifically left out any overt mention of vampires. Though I think that was done intentionally so that the book would appeal to a wider audience, because the thing reads like a proverbial vampire bible. I see this book becoming a core text for anyone interested in vampirism, witchcraft, or the occult.

While this book is shorter than I expected it to be I have to say it was well worth it. In a time filled with books on magick for teens and so called "occult" magick this book has a very different approach to magick that I found very refreshing compared to the slew of crappy teen magick books out there. (But I won't give away it's secrets! you'll just have to read it.)

I would give it to anyone who has a somewhat in depth idea of magick because it is certainly not for beginners.

I found Blood Magick to be an intriguing and insightful book, that offered up an approach to using blood in magick. I would've liked to have seen a bit more focus on how the author used blood and the AD&D like compedium of spells didn't exactly work for me, but the concepts are very workable and the language is easy to understand.

Blood Magick, by Seth, is NOT a grimoire of ritual or effective chaos magicks. Rather, it is a treatise that uses the concept of "Blood Magick" to spur thoughts about Life, the Universe, and Everything.

It is only 736 Kindle Locations big, so I knew it wouldn't be that difficult of a read. It's not. But it IS thought-provoking. It's worth your time.

Chapters include:
1. Threshold (an introduction of BM as a theme for magick),
2. The Source (spotlighting where you draw magick power from)
3. The 6 Pillars (Essential traits of ALL kinds of BM)
4. Sacrifice & Significance (How the process of garnering blood in magick empowers with taint of the blood source and method)
5. Ritual Magick (notes on the process of ANY magick, with BM as a theme)
6. Symbols of Power (how BM can use, or enhance, magickal symbols, and how they help, enhance, or shape magick)
7. Remote Viewing (not really tied in with the purpose--unless you link the practice of RV with a trace of the object's blood, or your blood on the target....)
8. Shape Shifting (short -- if you have a sample of blood or other genetic material of the desired animal, it will help you shift your shape--no surprises here)
9. Grimoire: Now, this chapter was cool. There were no enumerated steps. Rather, this chapter did list ways to help any Magus with thinking about or using BM in their own rituals or practices.
10. Medieval Magick: a discourse on how magick was hunted to near-extinction by the people in religious power.
11. Flagellant Processions: a discourse about the Christian flagellants of the 13th-15th centuries
12. Little Apocalypse: about Good/Evil, Order/Chaos, evolution of these.
13. Omega O: a summary of the author's beliefs.

I never would have considered some of the ideas that went through my head, if I hadn't read this book. This book is for the reflective reader, and not for those that want a Vending Machine approach to Magick.

If you want to read something that will help you consider Reality from a different viewpoint, read this book. If you're just looking for a BM Grimoire that will enumerate Black/Grey/White magick processes for you, look elsewhere.

What can I say, this is the only real book I've found on the subject and though it's small, it contains a lot of useful, interesting information. Would recommend to anyone interested in this area of magick.

Not since Slander, by Anne Coulter, have I seen such an intelligent, informative book defiled so badly in it's last few pages.

I bought this book not knowing what to expect. Many Left Hand Path Occult books are good, but from my experience, most that are short like this one are wastes of time and money. Had I spent more than a few dollars on it, I would be pissed. Ultimately, yes, I'm glad I bought it. Yes, I got some good info out of it.

But there were some parts of it which irritated the hell out of me. Parts I would expect from an ignorant bible-thumper or hippie, NOT an Occult author!

In the forward he says:
"A note to readers: Words like magick, magic, sorcerer, mage, and many others will be used interchangeably in the chapters that follow. This is done deliberately to expose both the inherent fallacy of language, and the useful illusion of form and versatility that it provides."

This book is structured like one that's NOT written for beginners. It touches more on principles of magick than actual spells, and any advanced practitioner already KNOWS that a sorcerer, mage, etc. are the same thing! I found the first sentence patronizing and redundant. The next, talking about the "inherent fallacy of language?" There is none. Language is the foundation of human intelligence. ALL sciences rest upon it, INCLUDING the Occult sciences. Any serious practitioner who's not just trying to make their self feel better about the big, cruel world in which they're not strong enough to advance in, by ripping down their own ego and claiming that nothing matters anyway, does NOT act as though the structure of thought itself is an "inherent fallacy."

This is not just a personal pet peeve of mine. It's an ignorant, progress-choking, pseudo-metaphysical catch phrase that serious students should avoid like the plague. In fact, it seems that even the author agrees:

Page 8:
"...The more I knew about physical reality the more I was able to discover about magic theory and it's application. For example, take Senior Biology, I realized then that all I needed to do to really learn potent life magic was to pay attention in class. How can a life mage cast any spells of any real importance without knowing about the life systems he or she is dealing with? The more you learn, period, the more you learn about magic. In general, the more powerful and knowledgeable mages are also skilled in mathematics, art, language, science, politics, etc.
You can't be a Renaissance man, or woman, without education.
Math is science is art is language."

Clearly Seth is a highly intelligent, well-educated individual. The above statement is reason enough for me to recommend the book to others, as well the other information in the book up until the last two sections, The Flagellant Processions, which doesn't give any information about either the Occult or magick whatsoever, only the story of the Flagellants (a medieval christian cult) and the last section, The Little Apocalypse, which makes a fair amount of sense until...

Page 55 (There are 56 pages to the book, NOT 66.)
"...However, more than the planned eschaton of classical theology, the everyday apocalypse in process requires individual action, as discussed above, and an unrelenting faith in God."

Where the hell did that come from? What he describes in the last section is a sociological phenomenon, basically, that advancements of civilization come from instability; The free marketplace of ideas. This "unrelenting faith in God" isn't exactly good for civilization.

People with an "unrelenting faith in God" were the ones who beat to death Hypatia, the great woman scientist and curator of the Library of Alexandria, because of her naturalist view of the world. People with an "unrelenting faith in God" also destroyed the same library, burning scrolls 24/7 for six months to heat a bathhouse. A BATHHOUSE. People with an "unrelenting faith in God" are the ones who create policy in the middle east.

To Seth's credit, he did add a caveat:

Page 53:
"In the following chapter I will use words like God, good and evil. Please feel free to replace these words in your mind with any, more personally appropriate nomenclature should you feel so inclined."

Okay, so, the study of language is important. So are you manipulating language to make Left Hand Path leaning Occultists consider the idea of Christianity more palatable (an underhanded, mendacious and disgusting act) or are you trying to bible thump a bit without offending anyone?

My only major problem with this book, is that while clearly the author has a negative view of organized religion, he takes too much time and wastes too much space trying to rationalize a belief in a deity. I didn't pay to be gently bible thumped by someone smart enough to be against religion, but not ballsy enough to be an Atheist or Satanist or general pagan. I paid money for a book on Magick, and in 56 pages, only got about 30 or 35 that taught me about the subject.

I truly hope that Seth is an example of an author who comes out of his shell and gets better and bolder as he goes on, like Konstantinos. He has a LOT of potential. I'll buy his other books eventually, when I find them for cheap enough. I would recommend this book, but not at full retail.

I was initially apprehensive at the very short page count, but the book was a pleasant surprise. In its 56 pages, it concisely explains the nature of blood magic for those new to the idea, explains how and why it is useful, gives several potential applications, which are open-ended enough to use in many situations, and concludes with some food for thought and lines to read between. This is a very detailed manual, with near-surgical precision on the writer's part in not wasting any words, and is highly informative even to someone who's got a working knowledge of the subject. I highly recommend it.