Customer Reviews

Creating Magickal Entities: A Complete Guide to Entity Creation

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Totally practical and down to earth, this book is written by
three experienced hands who have been working in the subject
matter, and it shows. There are war stories and cautionary
tales, and a detailed outline of what to do to create a
servitor or other entity.

It should be obvious, but I'll repeat: this is not Magick 101.
Therefore, it is not boring to those who have been around a
bit and are ready to try something new, or ready to see someone
else's take on techniques of which they may have already
been aware.

If you're comfortable with invocation and evocation, have worked
with sigils, talismans and the like before, and have made some
inroads into effective magick for yourself, then by all means
GRAB this book and enjoy it. If you're not quite ready for it,
buy it while it's still in print while you work your way up
to it. It does not contain instructions for basic operations,
nor should it. It's about time some texts for grad students
showed up!

My pre-press copy (#13) could have used a bit more copy editing,
but the errors didn't affect anything critical.

Disclaimer: I have been associated with two of the co-authors
online for a while, to one extent or another, and have e-met
the third since reading the book. This didn't color my opinion,
although it did simplify my own buying decision.

-- Freeman, Temple Zagduku

Perhaps the only work of its kind solely dedicated to entity creation, Creating Magickal Entities offers step-by-step information and instructions on servitor creation. Everything from possible uses and precautions, practical advice and examples of entities previously created by its authors is discussed in depth.

While Creating Magickal Entities assumes the reader knows little about magickal entities, it is not designed to be an `intro to magick' type book. It offers little introduction to general magickal theory or technique; the authors expect the reader to know a thing or two about what they're doing beforehand - and it is highly appreciated.

A created entity is noted as being an extension of a thought-form, which is described as `a symbol that represents a concept or thought for the person...It is entirely in the realm of concept until the person makes the thought-form manifest into reality' (pg. 9). A created entity is defined as being a `vital principle held to give life to an immaterial essence, which has been created to have a self-contained and distinct existence with a conceptual reality, by the deliberate effort to personifying segregated thoughts and emotions' (pg. 9).

The basic methodology authors lay out for entity creation details that by `taking specific thoughts and emotions and identifying them with things like names, symbolic attributes, etc., we are better able to work with them in a conscious manner.' Advising that it is `very important that we wisely chose our thoughts and the way we understand them. If we do not understand our thoughts and emotions and try to use them for our own benefit, the results can, and more often than not, will be counterproductive' (pg. 11).

I do, however, have a few minor quibbles. While it is refreshing that the authors do expect a certain intelligence of the reader, footnotes may have been a good idea. For example, not everyone may be familiar with the Pythagorean system of numerology mentioned frequently throughout the book, and while a brief description is given in the glossary it wasn't noted anywhere prior to that. There are a few uncorrected typos, but they are infrequent enough to be of no major concern.

Beliefs common to chaos magickians such as `the important thing is to use whatever feels right to you, and works best for you' (pg. 47) are frequently stated, though there is no formal mention of chaos magick by name. Despite the subject of the book. Creating Magickal Entities does not use the chaos magick terminology. The words `servitor' and `sigil' are curiously absent from this work, words like `entity' and `programming symbol' are employed instead. While not `bad', it is curious that the have authors avoided these terms. Perhaps it is due to the negative connotation that chaos magick has, and the desire to appeal to a broader audience?

Several practical examples are given in the appendices, using various methods employed by the authors are likely to make for excellent reference for the novice entity creator.

Cunningham, Ellwood and Wagener offer a concise, methodical approach to entity-creation without pandering to the lowest common denominator. With practical advice and step-by step instructions, Creating Magickal Entities is well written, and highly recommended for magickians interested in learning more about servitor creation.

This style of creating a magical entity is very similar to the Franz Bardon method. Although Bardon spends approximately a page discussing the creation of simple elementals, and a few more pages creating simple talismans and elementaries, to add it up, its probably no more than 10 total pages. These authors have stretched those concepts into a book. Now let me start off by saying that people who have a solid base of theory and practice will have no problem using this book. Of course people who have that probably already know how to do this in the first place, and this book offers only the simplest methods to creating something in a manner quite similar to bardon.

The book reads a little fluffy. Its got a real new age feel. The book is lacking in some places where I think they should have explained the theory a bit more, and in exchange they substituted simplicity. They mention the Opening by Watchtower and Middle Pillar only in passing and have minimal information about things like sigils and correspondences and so forth, leaving that up to the individual student.

My 2 biggest problems with the book are as follows:

1) They don't encourage much prep work, unlike virtually every other magical system out there, and in fact they clearly state that any systems that advocate caution and prep are to be avoided. They do encourage you to do things like meditate and do martial arts and draw, and then go about your astral hijinks... 0_o

2) They only briefly discuss the ideas of Karma. They mention it briefly and seem to focus on the wiccan ideas of it. And then later they go on QUITE PROUDLY to tell about how one of the authors made an entity to ruin the lives of people who lived in an aparment building...cuz I guess she felt like it.

While I understand that there are more systems of magic than Kabbalistic/GD, I usually try to avoid any book that uses the word Faery more than once.

So my best suggestion would be to buy Initiation to Hermetics. Its a great book, that has a lot more information. And most importantly it provides the tools you need to get a servitor to function properly in the first place, because without a foundation your house may sink into the mud.

I have created many entities in the past. Before reading this book, and following the easy to understand steps outlined in it, my entities were just "OK." After reading the book, all of my entities are top-notch and produce exactly what I had wanted at the time I created them.

Creating Magickal Entities is a systematic explanation of a single occult process (creating magickal entities) that includes a methodical discussion of the facts and principles involved, free from superfluous information. Many magicians will like this book do to its lack of dogma. It was written in a way that is open to many points of view, and succeeds at limiting, when possible, the inclusion of a specific magickal tradition.

This book was also written assuming that the reader already has some magickal knowledge and experience. This is refreshing since there are so many other writers that positions their books as though the reader is an idiot or has no clue as to what magick (as the author sees it) is. In this book, David Michael Cunningham touches on the skills needed to create entities. He responsibly points the reader in the direction of how they can acquire those skills if the reader currently does not posses them. I wish more writers would respect their readers.

Due to the subject matter, there are a few people that seem to believe that Creating Magickal Entities is a book for Chaos magicians - this could not be further from the truth. Many different societies and magickal traditions have magickal entities that the magician can create, and Creating Magickal Entities addresses that not only directly in the book, but it is worded in such a way to break free of magickal jargon of a specific magickal style.

Creating Magickal Entities does not use Chaos magick terminology due to the fact that this book was written for magickal practitioners to use and develop their own style of entity creation - it was not written for a specific magickal style. Words like "programming symbol" (instead of "sigil") are used to bridge magickal ideas and to further remove any specific tradition trappings from the pure information provided.

After reading this book you are left with a desire to read more by DMC and his views on magick and the occult. Mr. Cunningham gets to the point of the situation and explains it clearly so that just about anyone can understand (with or without magickal training). He doesn't ramble on with pointless discussion just to fill his book with tons of useless pages, or to inflate his ego about how his was is the best (like so many other occult and pagan writers). DMC offers not only occult information that has been passed down for centuries, but he also includes real examples and experiences that he and others have had. Never do you find yourself feeling as though he is pushing his way of thought down your throat. DMC offers information and supports that information with examples, then allows you to decide what is right for you - not what he feels is right for you. It is like he is a long-time friend trying to help you out with sound advice.

I was fortunate enough to have been present at a seminar that DMC gave prior to writing this book. He is easy going and very open to discussions. I have since been a part of a mentoring group (that he holds on rare occasions), and I was blown away. The amount of magickal and occult knowledge that this man possesses is incredible. I am looking forward to his future books (and am currently hunting down his out of print books), and to the time he holds another one of his great mentoring programs.

In closing, if you can only buy one book, this is the book to buy. It will change your life and the way that you understand magick.

I've worked with created entities/servitors before, but this book will definitely be an enhancement to my practice thereof. It's a section of magical practice that often gets overlooked in all but the most practical groups of magicians--for instance, you won't find it much discussed in books on Wicca/etc.

Still, magical entity creation is something that can benefit any practitioner; regardless of background. The three co-authors come from different backgrounds, yet manage to compile a nice collection of essays on the same subject.

"Creating Magical Entities" is a superb, step-by-step instruction manual on the topic at hand. Each portion of the creation process is detailed in its own chapter with a lot of thought given to options and ideas. There aren't pre-fabricated templates or formulae taking up space--every page is simply a reference for someone who already has the basics of magic down. It's introductory without being dumbed down.

Don't get me wrong--this isn't akin to those 101 fluff manuals. This is a book for those who are creative enough to not require spoon-feeding. While it is an introductory book to the topic, it is a solid and thorough exploration and will benefit magicians of all experiences. I myself have been practicing for nearly a decade, and I learned quite a bit from it and will be referencing it for my own works.

While it would have been nice to have had more anecdotes in the text instead of the appendices, it's understandable given that there were three authors, each apparently writing individual essays. The examples in the appendices are great ways to show the theories put into practice in a variety of manners. There's also the occasional typo, but I've seen much, much worse, and it only detracted from my experience in a minor way because I'm just anal-retentive that way ;)

Overall, I *highly* recommend this as an addition to any magic-worker's library. It's a perfect guide to creating servitors without all the fluff and excess *stuff* that so many occult books have. It's concise and without filler, and the material is incredibly thorough.

I have found Creating Magickal Entities to be very good. After reading the review by "Brother MOLOCH 969," I felt it necessary to make this my first Amazon.com review.

In Brother MOLOCH's first sentence he states that CME is was "an easy read and frankly way too basic" for him. Then he refers to CME as a "cook-book styled manual" and that "The book is not easy to follow along as I would have liked it to be." So was it an easy read and way too basic, or a hard to read cookbook?

Just like Brother MOLOCH wrote, I found CME an easy read. It was to the point and didn't fill up pages with information that a person attempting this kind of magick should already know. If you are like me, and already know how to create entities and have been doing it for years, then you will find some interesting thoughts and ideas that you can add to the knowledge that you already have.

Brother MOLOCH wrote that CME was boring because it didn't hold his "interest and the depth of the subject matter just did not meet my requirements." This book may not meet your requirements either if you are looking for something other than a single source of solid and easy to understand information on entity creation.

The disclaimer in the book was not written by David Michael Cunningham, as Brother MOLOCH assumes. That same disclaimer appears in all of the books published by that publisher (Egregore Publishing), so for anyone that might get hung up by that, just overlook it.

It is true that pages 27 though 31, in the chapter "Important Precautions," talk about Karma. I don't see how that would make this book a "New Age" book, considering that DMC took a good jab (craftily woven into the writing) at "New Agers" and the common concept of Karma.

If searching through 31 to 44 or so books to piece together just about enough information to create an entity sounds like fun, instead of owning this 1 easy to understand book, then don't buy this book. That is what I and many others had to do before CME was written. I am very appreciative to have this single source that I can easily refer to, or refer others to. I don't have to remember which book had what stray piece of information, as I can just go to CME and get it done.

Brother MOLOCH wrote that he found the appendices interesting as they had information about actual entities that DMC and the contributing authors had made. I liked it as well as it helped to round out the information. By having the book written the way that it is, it keeps the main information clean and easy to read. You are not weighed down with information that you may not want or need. If you do want that info, you can find it neatly tucked into the back of the book, ready for you when your needs warrant.

Is the book worth the $16.95? If you don't already know how to create entities and have not been doing it for years, then yes it is worth it. Is it worth it if you have been creating entities for years? Yes, if you would like, or need, to have a single source of reference on the subject.

Besides, there are tons of places that you can buy this book for a lot less than $16.95 and sometimes even signed. Try www.fetchbook.info to see who has the lowest price, that is what I did, but don't tell Amazon, OK?. ; )

I know that you will make the right decision to buy the book or not, just as you know that you will make the right decision as well. May your life be fruitful.

This is the best book I've read on creating entities. The authors give an excellent, yet easy way to follow the steps to creating entities. I was skeptical at first but I tried the techniques word for word and with positive magickal intent, creativity and thoroughness to the steps I find these techniques to work with a little practice.

The authors very easily explain the steps needed and how the entity can be created, programmed and dissolved, if necessary and I am very impressed with the results I got from following this book. Thanks for sharing your methods in such a great book and I highly recommend it for anyone experienced in the occult. I wish the three of you all the best in the world!

I am just adding to all the other 5 star reviews, but quite honestly this is certainly on of the best books in print on this subject. It is clear and concise, but as many of the reviewers have pointed out, this is not for rank beginners. There certainly are things that I would have liked added to this book for the sake of beginners, but this this is not a reflection on the authors, but rather personal opinion. As a caution to folks who starting out in this field, I would recommend that they dip into Alice Bailey's chapters on thoughtforms in "A Treatise on Cosmic Fire".

'Creating Magickal Entities' is a fine book for any practicing occultist. Unlike most occult books the authors provide their own personal experiences as well as an adequate amount of theory and practical information. The book is fairly short, though the authors seem to get straight to the point and doesn't waffle on filling up pages with useless information. There is much to inspire the practicing occultist and (hopefully) some armchair magicians too. A very handy book to have in your library.

It was a quick read, right to the point, but a very well rounded exposition on the topic without pretending to be anything other than what the title claims, a true guide to working with the subtle energies, to break off a piece of your Self and program it to fulfill your desires. Especially nice are the real world examples discussing what worked and where things went wrong. Also, old school practitioners of the black art of Khem will get a nice prize inside this box of Cracker Jacks. This is a must have guide if you plan to create entities or do any "reality hacking". It even comes with a useful, comprehensive worksheet to design and program your entity to help you maximize results. This is also a great way to get use out of those system reference guides collecting dust on your shelf. If you're tired of pontificating the philosophy and ethics of magickal practice and are ready to get down to work and build your own golem, this one is for you.