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60 of 63 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The One They REALLY Don't Want You to Read, December 19, 2005
This review is from: Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult (Disinformation Guides) (Paperback)
If the occultophobes of the world had any sense, they would leave the Harry Potter series alone and forget all about it. THIS is the book they should be trying to burn.
Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult is a collection of essays and articles by leading voices in the occult world. A total of 40 written pieces take up roughly 350 pages here. A small sampling of these includes Phil Hine on magical initiation, Donald Tyson on the Enochian Apocalypse, and Boyd Rice on the connections between the Biblical Leviathan and the mythic Dagon.
An entire section is devoted to the infamous Aleister Crowley, his life's work, and those who took his ideas and ran with them. Fiction writer Grant Morrison (The Invisibles) delivers his philosophy on modern magickal practice as a lifestyle. Erik Davis discusses the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and its significance to the practicing occultist. Tau Allen Greenfield debunks the popular history of Wicca.
This book reprints an interview with late Church of Satan founder Anton LaVey by author/musician Michael Moynihan (Lords of Chaos, Blood Axis) and Dr. Stephen Flowers's essay "The Secret of the Gothick God of Darkness." Only Robert Mason's article on the "Ahriman Consciousness" seems strangely out of place; it reads more like a vaguely Christianized version of David Icke's conspiracy theories than the work of a practicing magician.
Be advised this is not a "spellbook" as such; a few articles give practical advice for starting points and point the way to further study, but the book as a whole is an exhibit, not a seminar. But it's a very well-assembled and stimulating exhibit; read it to learn, evaluate, and be inspired.
Young readers or newcomers to this area of interest may be surprised to learn here there is much more to the world of magic than astrology, Wicca, and themed-deck Tarot cards. This book is a joy in that it not only acknowledges the existence of a darker, more volatile side to the occult, but gives it legitimate coverage beyond a cursory two-sentence summary in dismissive, generalized terms. Get your copy now... before the book burners do.
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36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Quite the Shock, April 16, 2006
This review is from: Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult (Disinformation Guides) (Paperback)
Because I consider it my duty to buy any book with the words "Magick" or "Occult" in the title, I picked this one up against my better judgement. On the whole, my initial fears were that this would be cartoonish, poorly written and obtuse. Even the name, cribbed from one of Aleister Crowley's works, worried me. That being said, I am very lucky that I purchased this book anyway.
Richard Metzger, the compiler and editor of this collection, has done the occult world a great service by bringing together this series of articles and publishing them in one soft cover. Containing the works of authors such as William S. Burroughs, Aleister Crowley, Anton LaVey, Timothy Leary, Donald Tyson and Robert Anton Wilson, this collection isn't any sort of theoretical discussion of magic. What you'll find here instead is a series of examples from fairly famous people who have actually practiced magic.
Many people who've been practicing or living magically for some time will still have a lot to learn from this book, just as I did. The examples are eye-opening in some cases, and at the very least thought-provoking in others. I often found myself saying "Wow... I've never thought of doing it THAT way."
My only real objection is the heavy emphasis on the use of illegal and illicit drugs. I understand that the use of these substances has been linked very closely with the occult, especially in the United States, but the way this book seems to promote the use of these substances upsets me. Still, there are enough examples of magic without drugs to satisfy my tastes.
All in all the book is very well put together, with a lot of detail, good editing and nice illustrations and pictures. I whole-heartedly recommend it to students of magic from intermediate to advanced. Beginner's might want to get a little more grounding before experimenting with some of these ideas, though. Good luck!
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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
guide to self-knowledge, December 24, 2003
By A Customer
This review is from: Book of Lies: The Disinformation Guide to Magick and the Occult (Disinformation Guides) (Paperback)
Intuition drove me to buy this book: I've always been skeptical about anything containing the words "magick" and "occult", as western propaganda is effective at doing its work, and they still aren't words I would use if I wrote a book on the topics deployed in the Book of Lies. This book talks about philosophy, social change, drugs, history, mind and conscience, world abstraction,... I was gladly surprised by many of the articles, but I think the one which describes best what this book is about is "Are you illuminated?" by Phil Hine, which depicts the process in which westerners get near the edge of their own culture and begin a journey which penetrates deeper beyond the bounds of normal life and can initiate a process of self-destruction in our highly structured lives. I used to think about Buddhism as a godless philosophy disguised as a religion; now I'll have to review my concepts on "western magick", and acknowledge the very reason why it is called "Occult".
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