Customer Reviews

Graeco-Egyptian Magick

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Regarding my background, I was trained in my family's tradition of Mysticism and Witchcraft from 1979 until 2002. I have been involved in two covens in Southern California from 2000, and hold the rank of priesthood in my current coven.

I first experienced Graeco-Egyptian Magick (GEM) in 2003 in one of the Californian workshops run by the author and have been practicing it ever since. GEM is an extremely powerful and totally authentic system of magical practice.

I have witnessed incredible results within GEM rituals and also the effects manifesting over time following the rituals that have convinced me (and many others) of its effectiveness.

As for the book, I am pleased that the author has truly done justice to the GEM system. He has made it easy to follow, but has meticulously documented his sources for literally everything. There is enough detail to keep the most ardent academic happy!

Some coven trained readers may be challenged by the total departure from modern Wicca. None of the expected props are required, and the ceremonial techniques are very different.

Forget about Calling The Quarters/Watchtowers and drawing Pentagrams and working in a Circle, and prepare to Call The Sevenths by chanting Greek vowels.

Forget about working with the Four Elements, but focus on the Seven Planets.

Forget your usual correspondences for colour, fragrance and gemstones, but use the ones of the ancient sorcerers of 1500 years ago.

Remember those cartoons and B grade fantasy movies featuring sorcerers chanting magick words of power? Forget the Hollywood counterfeits, this book contains numerous authentic magick words as used 1500 years ago.

This book allows readers to tap into the magick from a time when professional sorcerers plied their trade, stringing together magick words from long forgotten civilizations. I recommend this book to all readers and seekers who are tired of the same old rehashes of modern Wicca and ceremonial magick, and are wanting a more advanced text to take them to the next level and beyond!

Books on Planetary magick are hard to find, even bad ones which this one most certainly isn't. Tony's book is well researched and doesn't jump to conclusions when presenting information. His claims as to how this magick was practiced comes only from historically verified sources and his own innovations are restricted to the reductive nature of his system to its bare bones. This approach only allows for a greater degree of personalization on the part of readers like you and I.

This book is a gem to say the least. The rites herein have one thing that few books on magick really portray, a deep sense of the magickal. So many writers on magick these days rely upon rationalistic and pseudo-scientific explainations about how magick works and how their rites make it all happen thanks to the writer's favorite scientific explaination (or perhaps more accurately thier favorite excuse to placate the intellect). All this does is drain the work of all mystery, something that I'm happy to say has not happened with Tony's book. Within you will find only what was practiced and believed by the magicians of Alexandria and the Helenic people of late antiquity.

I'm now preparing myself to perform the first planetary initiation and even just his "calling the sevenths" opening has enough spark to move me to type out this wholehearted recommendation.

I had the pleasure of attending a Graeco-Egyptian ritual that Tony Mierzwicki put on at a spiritual convention in Columbus, Ohio a couple years ago. I didn't know what to expect from a planetary sphere ritual, but was quite impressed by what I found. The Sophian Gnostic tradition that I follow utilizes intonement and visualization in our meditative practice. These elements were also present in the ritual that Tony performed and produced the same kind of energetic results that I have come to experience within my own tradition.

When I found out that Tony was writing a book I was quite excited because I knew it would be very well done. When I received my copy of Tony Mierzwicki's Graeco-Egyptian Magick I wasn't disappointed.

Tony has done a great deal of research into the practices and traditions of the ancient Greek and Egyptian spiritual traditions. Even though I am certainly not an expert on ancient religious tradition, my experience with a living Gnostic tradition does give me some insight into the reality of spiritual experience and ritual. The rituals outlined in Graeco-Egyptian Magick have the feel of active spirituality and resonate with the tradition I follow. I plan to use some of Tony's work within my Gnostic Circle.

Graeco-Egyptian Magick is a wonderful guide to actual ancient spirituality that makes this tradition accessible to practitioners in the 21st Century. I would recommend Tony's book to anyone who loves to study ancient tradition and also to anyone who wants to practice a historically accurate yet living magical system.

I give this book an A+ for content, style, and research.

Mark+

Gnostic Priest

Magdalene Circle

Ecclesia Pistis Sophia

Its about time a book like this was written! After receiving and devouring this book when it first came out all I can say is if you are serious about Graeco-Egyptian Magick I would definitely recommend it. Its a well written resource and one you can go back to again and again. I found the ceremonial techniques and structure quite refreshing and the authors style quite thorough.

As a participant in the series of Planetary magick workshops in Brisbane Australia, I had been eagerly awaiting the arrival of this book. It was thrilling to see all our work and outcomes actually in print for all the world to read.

Tony has done a fantastic job, spanning years of research, painstakingly collecting data from hundreds of participants, and putting it altogether in very easy to follow language, hopefully for others to experiment with. TOP MARKS !!!!

It is quite a fresh departure from other traditions that I had previoulsy been a part of, and although the ritual format is somewhat different to what many practitioners would be used to, it is based on ancient texts, and from experience I found the rituals to be very intense and empowering, and after attending one, was more than keen to complete the whole series.

My family have had an interest in the Occult since I was young, and so I attended most of the rituals with my mother, some with my teenage daughter, and others with my new husband ( whom I found after attending the first Aphrodite ritual)- thank you Tony !! We were very honored to bring our three generations of females to Tony's workshops, and be part of the Graeco Egyptian Magick Family.

Blessings Denni Jewel Demelza and KitCat

Although I am from an Ecclectic Irish background and have been trained for over 20 years in Druidry. I have had the immense blessing and pleasure to have attended the Planetry Workings of Tony Mierzwicki in QLD Australia.

This book for many of us here has been keenly awaited.

I am one of those people who have eagerly awaited and sought to view and keep the information contained in this book.

I have also awaited the planetry guide workings, which speak to us from ancient historical ( which in my mind is very important) times with the finer intricacy that was introduced to us at those workings gleened from devotion and earnest investigation that only someone like Tony Mierzwicki would discipline himself to embark upon.

I find both T. Mierzwicki's information which is offered freely in his workings which he teaches and also the research and interpretation from his indepth and pain staking study of ancient texts in this book invaluable to anyone truly seeking authenticity of our ancient, magickal and historical heritage as a species despite cultural background.

I personally met Tony's Aeon in his workings here in Oz and for that Tony... I am eternally grateful... thankyou sir.

This would have to be by far the source books to end all source books. After reading Graeco Egyptian Magick (GEM) I realised that I dont need to carry a lot of my extra source books as references anymore after having validated the content in GEM I have decided to give a lot of my additional reference books away to charity. Further to this I am impressed by the way the author has gone the extra mile to capture the authenticity of the Greek masters being Greek myself I was very impressed and I feel that I can reconnect with my ancestors.

Before I start, I should point out that Tony and I are in many ways the exact opposite of each other... Tony is a reconstructionist, and I most definitely am not. As a result, we do things very differently, and I just wanted to make that perfectly clear up front.

This book takes the Graeco-Egyptian Papyrae as its source material, and Tony uses them to great effect, along with other contemporary material, to recreate a system of Planetary Magick that really works. Trying to remain as true to the original as possible, this book lays out the basic info you need in order to make use of the Papyrae, and then plunges in to describe the practical and philosophical details behind every spell or prayer it covers. Laid out as a system of Planetary Magick, it is superior to the Ogdoadic Magick of Denning and Phillips due to its simplicity and potency.

Tony is meticulous, fastidious even, and the book is well-researched, well thought out, and places some obscure but important texts in the hand of the student, along with a firm and experienced guiding hand. Probably, like me, you will not want to reconstruct the rites and Mysteries exactly as they were - we prefer to bring something together that is timely and current. But even for the likes of us, this book is a valuable starting point. Tony gives precise instructions and, even if you go your own way later, you will find his helping hand... well... helpful.

To my mind, there are three ways of working the Ancient Mysteries: you can reconstruct them as you believe them to have existed historically, you can recreate them in modern form - the core Mysteries in a framework that is functional and relevant for today - or you can synthesize the Ancient Mysteries with elements of more modern, easily accessed Mysteries, such as Wicca or the Golden Dawn. All three are valid, and this is a fine example of the first option.

The book is published by Immanion, a small press that is garnering a lot of attention because of the quality of the books they produce. Tony himself is a warm and friendly guy, and if you get the opportunity to attend one of his lectures or workshops, I recommend them too. He is a real gentleman who happens to know his stuff. And he's willing to share.

Whether you are a reconstructionist or not, Tony's book is - as he says on the back cover - self-contained, and will be of value to anyone studying the Egyptian Mysteries. For that matter, many facets of the Papyrae have made their way into modern Witchcraft, Hoodoo, and Pow Wow, so students of those Paths will find it equally of value.

The book, "Graeco-Egyptian Magick", by Tony Mierzwicki, is in a class by itself. Mr. Mierzwicki has researched, studied, and brought these ancient ways to us, in language we understand, so that we may practice these traditions today.

Tony Mierzwicki put a big piece of himself in this "Masterpiece". And a "Masterpiece", it is. Nowhere else, will you find a writing, with the depth and breadth of study and knowledge found in this book.

I have read many books, about other traditions and beliefs, but none quite like this. Tony Mierzwicki has set forth a compelling textbook on how to adopt, and marry, these ancient practices to our everyday life.

For those of us who believe in an inclusive lifestyle, rather than an exlusive one; who choose to incorporate other ways of being in our world, because it makes us bigger and better people; and for those of us who want to take the road less traveled, this is a book for us. Graeco-Egyptian Magick, by Tony Mierzwicki, will expand your horizons, and change your life.

Review by Liz Langlois
Orange County, California

Although a book for beginning spiritual transformation, Graeco-Egyptian Magick is not a "beginner's book." This system of magic relies on ancient primary sources from Greece and Egypt of roughly two thousand years ago--sources like the Iliad, the Odyssey, and magical papyri of Greece and Egypt. Unlike other systems that focus on the seven planets and archetypes, Mierzwicki looks to the origins of astrological magic and self-transformation.
Mierzwicki explores and compares side-by-side differing ancient views of the planetary symbolism: associated colors, days of the week, as well as positive and negative properties of each planetary influence. Instead of depending solely on the names of the biblical god, the format developed in Graeco-Egyptian Magick honors the deities of old and their planetary associations: Selene (Moon), Hermes (Mercury), Aphrodite (Venus), Helios (Sun), Ares (Mars), Zeus (Jupiter), and Kronos (Saturn).
Many chapters are devoted to planetary rituals during which you can invoke each planetary sphere and draw its energy into the self by interweaving chant, ancient invocation, color, scent, and meditation. One of the most helpful features of this book is that Mierzwicki describes others' experiences following the transformative effects of each planetary ritual; in this way, you have the opportunity to validate and understand your own experiences.
Mierzwicki takes you through step-by-step for creating rituals which will help you explore your rich inner life and help you on the road to your own empowerment. If you already feel your inner strength, these rituals will add depth, clarity, and balance to your ways.
---Tess Dawson, author of Whisper of Stone: Natib Qadish, Modern Canaanite Religion.