Customer Reviews

Creating Magical Tools: The Magician's Craft

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have had the opportunity to study several different magickal traditions, including achieving the level of Adept in a Golden Dawn lodge in the Los Angeles area. As a Wiccan High Priestess and Priestess Hierophant in the Fellowship of Isis, I have always found the magickal training I received in this organization to be extremely valuable.

The Cicero's are dedicated to preserving and expanding the knowledge in the Golden Dawn system of Western ceremonial magick. Providing lists of materials and tools required for the construction of these tools along with detailed instructions and explanations of the meaning and use of each tool, this book is a must have for any magician. Clear instructions with plenty of b&w diagrams and many color plates help even the least handy of us create beautiful magical tools.

The Cicero's writing style is clear and unambiguous, providing the novice to Golden Dawn magick a sense of understanding. Too many books on Western ceremonial magick are written to confuse and obfuscate in an attempt to sound highly spiritual and magically powerful. The Cicero's have taken the responsibilities of the Hierophant to heart and know that only by providing a clear channel for the divine to manifest can they truly serve as an Expounder of the Mysteries and their books are evidence of that devotion.

I give The Magician's Craft five big stars and recommend anyone who is seriously pursuing any magickal path to add this and other Cicero books to their library.

If you're working Cicero's self-initiation, buy this book. It's clear, accessible, and gives you ideas that you can put into practice, while reminding you that your own ideas will work too.

This is truly a nice piece of work for the Magickian that loves to craft his/her own tools. Ever think that the Magickian only has one wand? Think again! Within this book, you find several color plates of magickal tools ranging from the Enochian Watchtower tablets to the Elemental weapons and grade wands. These are really nice, too. This works with the complement to the book, The Magickian's Art, which goes into rituals dealing with consecrations and other uses. The complement is not necessary, but is still wonderful. If you ever wanted to make some of the tools, be an Golden Dawn initiate or not, then this is the book!

If you're into Ceremonial Magic, this is a good book to have. As I understand, the practice of Ceremonial magic usually requires many specific tools, many of which you can't even find at a good Pagan shop. If you walk into a Pagan shop and ask for a "rose cross Lamen" or a "nemyss", well, good luck to you!

Now mind you, this book does assume some basic knowledge of woodworking, so if this is something you lack, you might want to read up on basic woodworking or recruit a more knowledgable friend before tackling some of these projects.

However, even with this in mind, there's some great stuff in this book. Especially if you're into ceremonial magic, kaballah, or an Egyptian Pagan path. Those who are into a different path may choose to adapt the basic tools, such as the wands, sword, dagger, pentacle and cup to their own tastes and needs. For example, there's a HUGE chief adept's wand pictured in the book whose width is given as roughly 26" across, from wingtip to wingtip. A little large for a wand, but the winged disk design would also look awesome as a wallhanging.And the Phoenix wand would make a great walking stick if enlarged a little..You see what I mean..

There's instructions for robes, banners, and some other basic fabric projects here. These are simple designs and lend themselves well to customization by individuals.
For Pagans on an egyptian path, this is the tool book for you! There's an egyptian lotus cup, an Iset (simple throne), crook and flail, an egyptian style headdress (Nemyss), the phoenix wand, and some other cool stuff, too.

This is a hard book to find these days, but it's worth hunting down at a used bookstore, library, pagan friend's bookshelf or wherever you can find it.

This book with its companion volume "Ritual Use of Magical Tools" is merely the older book "Secrets of a Golden Dawn Temple" split in to two separate books. If you have Secrets you won't find any thing new here.

The Ciceros again ! The act of constructing a wand or other ritual objects IS an act of magick; the magician spends time and energies creating ritual objects. The act of creation is a process of growth in his/her own magickal abilities and spiritual development.

The Ciceros again ! The act of constructing a wand or other ritual objects IS an act of magick; the magician spends time and energies creating ritual objects. The act of creation is a process of growth in his/her own magickal abilities and spiritual development.

This is typical Llewllyn pablum.
Having read through the book, I quickly realized why the sense of deja vu - I'd read this all before, in other books, where the publisher was not trying to set his own agenda of what is -and what isn't - acceptable use of magick.

Cicero does indeed have a good writing style, and attempts to be as clear as possible as to the consecration and uses of ritual tools. What is most noteworthy, however, is not what was written, but what was missing.

I can't help but wonder whether the results are simply the product of the author, or the product of the whitelight fluffbunnies at Llewellyn.