Customer Reviews

The Inner Temple of Witchcraft: Magick, Meditation and Psychic Development (Penczak Temple Series)

5 star:		(47)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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When buying books, most of us look for new material, some thing missing from other books. We look for information on magick, deities, and spells on a deeper level but, we are always left some what empty handed. We look for something fresh and something deeper. We seek for a book that aids us in a deeper soul search. Well, searching within is exactly what this book is about, hence the tile, The Inner Temple of Witchcraft.

Unlike most beginner books on Witchcraft, this book does not focus on spells, tools, or celebrating the wheel of the year (Sabbats). It is all to often that student of the Craft go straight to traditional spellwork without understanding how or why it works. The author insists that students who have not experienced energy or psychic powers, the "foundation stones or magick", will have a less profound experience in ritual. Instead this book focuses on the journey within, psychic development, meditation, and magick.

The book starts out with four introductory chapters that gives basic definitions of the word "witch", such as the healer and walker between worlds. It describes Witchcraft as an art, science, and spirituality and describes the ancient history and modern traditions of Witchcraft. The rest of the book is divided into 13 lessons along with exercises, meditations, and homework to go along with "a year and a day" study course. Lesson topics include meditation, ancient philosophy, magickal theory, protection, astral projection, light, energy anatomy (chakras, auras, etc.), spirit guides, and healing.

In my opinion, The Inner Temple of Witchcraft is an extraordinary text. Christopher Penczak's eclectic approach and personal experience makes this book a pleasure to read. When reading a book on Witchcraft, what's better than one written by an experienced minister and practitioner of the Craft.

5 out of 5 magick wands!

For me, this book filled in a lot of gaps in all the other Wicca/magic 101 books. Those books would say "meditate on...", "raise power", "visualize your intent" without actually telling you HOW to do any of those things. Perhaps I'm just stupid, but none of those things are natural to me. Then I found "The Inner Temple of Witchcraft" and my questions got answered.

This book makes me feel better knowing that I'm not the only one who can't figure out what it really is to "visualize your intent" right off the bat. It eases you into a meditative practice, visualization, affirmations, healing, chakra work, etc. He presents the skills as progressive lessons so the format is easy to follow. All the other magic 101 books say that magical skill comes with practice, but once again, this book is much more useful. Instead of just saying that you should practice, Penczak actually lists homework at the end of each lesson.

Personally, this was exactly the beginner book I needed, one that sets up a solid foundation before rushing right into spells and Sabbat rituals.

I think Mr. Penczak sums up this book in these lines "For me, witchcraft is the building of sacred space, in myself, my life, and my environment.... I wanted to help others find their own sacred space, their own inner temple. The information and exercises would build up to that experience."

The book and the companion CD's focus on this building of sacred space through meditation and working from the basic foundations of witchcraft.

The book approaches Magick as a science. The chapters approach the topics as lessons, with exercises to explore the lessons and what is learned.

I found the book to be an in depth study of some of the basics of witchcraft. Topics include learning to work with energy, working on the astral planes, developing a good meditative state, positive affirmations of self development, and many more that can lead a person on the path of being an actual practitioner of witchcraft. This is a working book, not just a study of the topic.

The book is well laid out. Mr. Penczak follows through on the topics, has references for recommended reading, a good bibliography and covers the basics as well as some more progressive material.

This would be a good book for those who would like to explore witchcraft more deeply and need a guide to show them the way.
There is also a 4 CD set of meditations as a companion to this book. Using the background of the book, the CD's set up an easy way to work with the material in the book without having to open the book to reference it during the mediations.

Mr. Penczak's voice is perfect as far as I am concerned, it does not grate on you nor does it lull you into sleep. The light melodic fill is just that, filler for the spaces between words and does not distract from the words.

I found the material covered to be good for meditation and it works well with the material in the book. If you find the book to be what you are looking for, the CD's are a good addition.

I enjoyed the entire presentation, and Mr. Penczak gives us some very well based and solid material. boudica

No long intro here, just my reasons for loving this book.

1. A book that finally teaches people that psychic development is the bases of ALL "magick." I quote my own teacher here "The moment someone learns and realizes that thought creates they become a magick user."

2. Though I am not into wicca, or rather wasn't, this book helped me to become interested becuase

3. it had an absolutely wonderful historical, well researched, section on witchcraft and

4. it present numerous wicca traditions/paths. Though not a lot was said about them (around a paragraph each), the author makes it very clear that he is an Eclectic "witch" and that if people want to choose one of the other paths they are welcomed to. They just have to do a little extra research on them. His course does start the beginning foundations for being involved in most any of them.

5. His writing is clear, clever, intelligent, and at times funny. It's very rare that I read a text book type of book and can say those things.

6. He provides an overview of the Calendar that most Pagans go by without getting into it in a heavy way. This will allow newbies to absorb and understand it and start to ask questions about it, which is the mark of good teaching.

7. He does NOT throw ritual magick at you. Based on my understanding it is rare that most covens allows a newbie to practice magick when they first join because of the consequences that could happen when someone does so without knowing what they are doing. Here he teaches how to do "mind magick" or rather what I learned of as psychic development techniques. Even so, it is much safer then some of the more advanced ritualized magical aspects and it's also much easier to understand.

8. There is a self test at the end of the book so you can measure how well you are doing as you go along.

9. The book is meant to act as a traditional year and a day study course that most adapts who are being initiated into covens go through. His second book (Coming in 2004) most likely will do the same for the 2nd degree.

10. Topics Covered include: History of Wicca, Wicca Paths, The Magickal Mind, Meditation, The Magick of Science, The Science of Magick, The Art of Defense, The Power of Light, Energy Anatomy, Journey Work, Spirit Work, The Inner Temple, Healing, and Initiation. There are 34 exercises that support the lessons and a companion CD (buy separately) which contains over half of those exercises done via guided visualization and lead by the author.

oh and one more

11. He does not bash any of the wicca traditions or indeed any other religion. He realizes that he has no need to stoop to such low tactics. Indeed, if anything he will help those people of other religions who have a simi open mind to understand more about the wicca religion.

I have read a good number of the beginning Wicca books out there, and I reached the point where they were all saying the same thing. This book is an excellent next step. Once you know what a witch is and all the basic stuff, this book helps you experience it all with many meditation exercises. I just finished reading the book, but have not done all the exercises yet. He starts out simple, with meditations like "feeling energy" and "total relaxation." Then he moves on to programming your "instant magick trigger" (to enter a meditative state on the spot, no matter where you are), and mental projection (which is transferring your consciousness to another object, like a crystal, place, time, or even living being). There is a series of meditations on the aura and chakras, and finally several on various forms of simple divinations (by that I mean techniques which don't require much in the way of tools, such as the pendulum and automatic writing) and communicating with your spirit guides.

The book is structured like a class. Each chapter builds on previous chapters. In each chapter, there are other tasks in addition to the exercises. Usually they are very simple but powerful, like maintaining a daily journal of your experiences and dreams. He also includes recommended reading in case you want to research a topic in more depth.

One thing I liked very much about this author was his willingness to explain various perspectives and interpretations on different topics. For example, while discussing reincarnation, he described the beliefs of several schools of thought in addition to his own, including Christian, Hindu, and ancient Celtic beliefs. It is nice to read a book where the author does not believe he or she is the top authority in any topic he or she writes about.

As much as I liked this book, I had to take a whole star off for his inaccuracy in the science parts. I am a physicist and mathematician, so I usually know when I read something about science that is just plain wrong. I was willing to forgive the author on a few misinterpretations of quantum mechanics, because, frankly, that's not an easy subject for most people to get. But when he came out and said something incorrect about classical mechanics, I realized he probably didn't run his draft by a scientist before going to print. I believe the line I am referring to mentioned adding inertia to energy while explaining the Law of Three. Everything has inertia; it is not a measureable quantity, so nothing can gain or lose it. What is important, ultimately, is that you can still gain so much from this book without even reading the scientific parts.

Unfortunately, I have not had the opportunity to listen to the companion CDs to this book, so I cannot comment on them. I can imagine they would be helpful because some of the meditations in this book are a bit long for a person by him- or herself. In all, I found this to be a very good book full of inspiration for the beginning witch. Just don't take his science literally.

As a relative newcomer to this Path, I found The Inner Temple of Witchcraft to be an incredible resource and a relief from all those books that tell you that you MUST do something so-and-so's way. Mr. Penczak introduces a not-so-revolutionary concept here: You use what works for YOU. If that means borrowing from the Native Americans, the Buddhists or the New Agers, so be it. There is no "pure" tradition of witchcraft. Finally, an author who admits that!

This book takes you through the spiritual search for your own place of power within. That's something missing in a lot of Witchcraft cookbooks today. The entire point of Mr. Penczak's book is to teach witches to build the Inner Temple as a necessary foundation for their outer workings. People may not want to admit this but Wicca is a SPIRITUAL path. How can you partner with the Divine if you haven't met Her?

This book was written for those interested in a balanced and eclectic practice who may not have access to formal training. His writing reads as if he is speaking directly to you. With its year-and-a-day format, I think it's an appropriate substitute for the first level training that many of us want and few of us can find.

Inner Temple of Witchcraft by Christopher Penczak is a book on the inner workings and psychic developments of a witch. This book covers a wide variety of topics for a first degree witch to develop their psychic abilities through meditations and exercises. As a High Priest, I have already done this work, and still continue to do the work. As a teacher of the craft, I find this book to be valuable as it is a resent publication on the topic. Most books that I have on my book self cover the topics of ritual, basic structure, mythology, and all the other topics. Though Christopher covers a few craft topics, he concentrates mostly on the self development of a witch. Most books don't cover this topic in depth, which makes this book an excellent textbook for the student.
Many of the topics that Christopher covers are what witches have been doing for centuries, way before the "New Agers" came along. As a matter of fact, the New Agers are basically doing witchcraft. They don't identify it as witchcraft, but in reality that is what witchcraft is. Some of the topics come from the Asian areas, others from our Western knowledge. But let's remember, Witchcraft is the label we Westerners put. The philosophies of other areas of the world are closely related and thus is generally the SAME thing. So the "New Agers" who have published books, created classes and seminars are covering what Christopher includes in this book, ancient traditions of the craft.
I also like that he covers the science of magick. In our modern times, we have forgotten the fact that magick is not only an art, but a science. Science is basically something that witches have been doing since the beginning of time. The chapters he includes on the science of magick are excellent lessons regarding how magick works.
This book is more than a reference item on the bookshelf. It is a good resource for the craft teacher and their students. It is easy to read and understand. As an ordained High Priest of the Covenant of Aradia, a hereditary witch, and one who has studied Wicca for 12 years, I HIGHLY recommend this book to the new craft student, High Priests and Priestesses, and craft teachers. The book can be used cover to cover, or it can be used separately chapter by chapter. Be creative in your teaching while using this book. It is well worth the time and effort to use this book in our teachings.

Alfred Surenyan, High Priest
Elder of the Coven of the Mystical Triad

As a student of the Craft who's on the road more often than he's at home, it's been difficult to study with the same person longer than a couple of months so I've ended up reading up on Wiccan books in between times. So many of them, however, instead of truly explaining The Craft itself, it's origin and it's focal points, the authors threw a few charts and spells at me and said, "Have fun, harm none". I took what I could get and over the years had developed a decent amount of knowledge, but more from the people than the books.
Then out of the blue one of my friends handed this book to me. Man, what a difference! Meaningful history and EXTREMELY detailed knowledge about the core basics: meditation, visualization and realizing what you're DOING with the energy in your spells, not just throwing a spell at the universe and hoping it doesn't bounce back. VERY intriguing scientific theory as well. Suddenly all of the gaps had been filled in. It's important to have a good foundation in one's faith, and this book does that, give the reader a good foundation by truly starting with the foundation. Kudos to the author

I highly recomend this book. I have read A LOT of book on the craft and this one deals with the more important aspects of learning about magic, understanding how it works.
Mr. Penczak clearly illustrates the science behind the actions,as well as exploring other tropics including,meditation,healing,instant magic and spirit work.
He seems to be well educated and is an excellent teacher.
A great book...

The Inner Temple is the first book in a series Penczak is writing for beginners. They are based on classes he teaches live, and take a much different approach than the standard 101 guides. First, there is a well-laid out structure to these books that I find extremely helpful. Each book is designed as a year-and-a-day study course. There are a few introductory chapters followed by 12 lesson chapters. You spend roughly a month on each lesson (some are more complex and take more time, but they are balanced by simpler lessons). This gives you time to absorb the material, complete the exercises, and do some additional reading. Second, Penczak emphasizes the importance of having a strong foundation in meditation, visualization, and psychic development by dedicating the entire Inner Temple to these practices. More complex lessons on circle casting, ritual design, and spells are saved for the Outer Temple. I found this a major improvement over the standard 101 book that includes both in the same book with no clear indication on how much time you should spend on the foundation exercises before trying ritual, or worse, skip the foundation exercises entirely. I honestly wished I had picked up this book first when I started my journey.

Penczak's approach to witchcraft is emphatically eclectic. You will see concepts and practices from many occult traditions here. There is an obvious New Age influence in his work that can come across as "fluffy," but I don't think it was as bad as some reviewers thought. He emphasizes love in his practice, and I do not see anything wrong with that. Should he have emphasized potential dangers in some practices more? Perhaps. He includes cautions, but tries to put them in perspective and peel away the intimidating veneer created by horror movies and the like. The course takes you on a varied tour starting with simple skills like basic meditation, affirmations, and very simple magic, to more complex practices like astral travel, working with spirit guides, healing, and past-life regression.

The style is also very open and non-dogmatic. Penczak presents lots of personal opinions and theories, but they are presented as opinions and theories, not holy writ. Because of this and the eclecticism, this book could be used selectively as a course in psychic development for anyone with an open mind, not just people interested in Wicca or Paganism.

All in all, while I could find quite a bit in this book to argue with, I think it deserves a five star rating for its usefulness and presentation. I thank Mr. Penczak for making his teaching available to a wider audience in this way.