Customer Reviews

Instant Magick: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Spellcraft

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Are you tired of magick books that require you to buy out an entire store to cast a few dozen spells? This book is all you need to create instant magick. No candles, no incense, no stones or fancy altar statues. You have everything you need right in your own mind.

Mr. Penczak offers a course of study that truly demystifies what magickal practice is all about. The book opens in Chapter One with an easily understood explanation of what instant magick is. Although the author states that he wrote the book for the beginner, I feel that this book is highly useful for all except the most advanced practitioner of magick. His direct writing style is pragmatic and enjoyable.

Chapter Two breaks down spell work into its basic parts: Altering consciousness; focusing will; and directing energy. These three actions are what all spell work is about, something that is often overlooked in the more common spell recipe books. Instead of listing a number of ingredients and laying out a set procedure, the author teaches the reader how and why a spell works. This book for all practical purposes is like the proverbial "teaching a man to fish" lesson.

Each chapter has detailed exercises that are like meditations. Each exercise is meant to build on the ones from previous chapters. The exercises help the reader to become more focused and aware of the intimate connection between the mundane and magickal planes. Exercises include such things as Elemental connection and balance, the inner temple and controlled breathing. The reader is taught how to create a magickal trigger that can be utilized to achieve in a matter of moments, the heightened awareness necessary for spell work for any daily need. The magick in Mr. Penczak's book is the anywhere, anytime kind of magick that makes a real difference to the individual and the immediate circumstances in that person's life.

The exercises later in the book are open-ended, leading to the creations of personal spells that are more meaningful to the individual, and in the process much more likely to actually work than any pre-formulated spells one finds in many books on the market. After all, a custom tailored suit will naturally fit better than one off the rack.

The book ends with an appendix containing a number of correspondence charts for Deities, Elements, planets and colors among other things, making the book that much more useful.

I recommend this book as an excellent addition to every magickal studies library.

W. Lyon Martin Author/Illustrator of An Ordinary Girl, A Magical Child

Yet another amazing work by Christopher Penczak. Unlike traditional spellbooks, Instant Magick stresses that practitioners can actualize their magick by using it outside of ritual circumstances. In all actuality, we are CONSTANTLY weaving magick and creating our reality. Penczak understands this well. This book is concerned with focusing thoughts and using Willed-intention to bring forth manifestation; to truly utilize our ability inside ritual and out. This book fills a much-needed gap, and I recommend this directly alongside "The Circle Within" by Dianne Sylvan. The two are very important works focused on taking ritualized magick to the next, and most necessary, step: letting be a living part of our everday existence. This book is a key, and I'm so happy to own it and pass it onto my own students :)

~OakRaven~

This is my first book written by Penczak, and I liked it so much that I went ahead and bought two more of his books by the time I had read up to the third chapter.

Anyone who reads books about magick knows that the market is flooded with authors that are all fluff and no substance. And then of course, there are those on the other extreme that write about magick in a manner that is utterly dry, condescending, and devoid of everything that makes magick worth learning in the first place.

Similar in style to Scott Cunningham, Penczak is one of those rare authors in the field that can take a potentially complicated subject and present it to the reader in a delightfully simple and practical manner, while clearly speaking from a wide breadth of knowledge and experience. He maintains a fast and friendly pace throughout each chapter that not only explains the concepts of Instant Magick but inspires you to START USING THEM INSTANTLY!

More than once I found myself torn between putting down the book to try out the next sample spell or meditation, or reading on to the next chapter.

Although more experienced practitioners are sure to find a lot of familiar material here, I doubt they'll find such a wide variety of it, contained in such an easily digestible package.

For newcomers, especially Wiccans, this book is simply a "must have." I certainly wish I it had been around when I started out!

So why only 4 stars? Well, I want to make clear that in my opinion, Penczak is a 5 Star Author. I just felt that he missed the mark slightly with this title.

Here's Why:

First and foremost, a fair amount of the book is actually a collection of meditations and breathing exercises that are probably best (or most easily) performed at home or at least with some level of privacy. In this sense, the title is perhaps a little misleading.

I wanted to see more examples of how Penczak himself performs Instant Magick in "real world" situations - while stuck on a crowded subway car or standing in shopping lines, etc. While he certainly provides the tools and the encouragement to do so yourself, I would have liked to hear more from his own day-to-day experiences in which spells are cast "instantly" while dealing with the hustle and bustle of the external world.

Which leads me to my next minor criticism, while he encourages the reader to find their own personal and spontaneous style of practice, the contents of the book are predominantly restricted to innovations on Wiccan traditions. This is of course great for Wiccans, but I would have liked to see a little more variety and creativity in his examples. I think some mention of Chaos Magick or perhaps a little advice on how one could employ popular culture as part of their spellwork (if the reader is so inclined) would have been appropriate here. For a book that is meant to present a new, adaptive approach to magick, it lacked some of the modern creativity I had hoped for.

Lastly, there was, in my opinion, an over-abundance of traditional magickal correspondence lists (astrological, herbal, stones, Deities, etc) throughout the book followed by a whole section of Correspondence Charts in the Appendix. Although he includes these lists with the intention of giving the reader a variety of options to pick and choose from, in my opinion, these lists may potentially divert the reader from far more vast resources - their own imagination and creativity.

For most experienced practitioners, these lists are already well-known territory. For beginners, they are probably better learned elsewhere, more throughly, and prior to employing them with the techniques of "Instant Magick."

I personally felt these last pages would have been much better spent discussing in more detail the potential of using one's imagination to forge new paths in the realm of magickal practice rather than picking and choosing from already well-traveled routes.

If I sound excessively critical, it's only because this book is in fact so well written, that for me, the few imperfections it has were all the more noticeable.

But all criticism aside, this book is just too good to pass up. Don't miss it!

books on magick, for beginners and practitioners alike.
there are so many facets to magick, so many ways of doing it, all based on the same fact - that everything we think, say and do is magick, it's energy, and energy never dissipates, it just changes shape and in doing so changes our surroundings, curcumstances, and our lives.
the author is well versed in many traditions and systems of magics, and understanding it is all about doing the same (magick) in different ways, he mixes and matches, enabling himself (and us, thru this book) to explore, find what works best, improvise, work with the energy as we feel it, instead of being fixated on a certain "recipe".
excellent exercises throuot the book, short summaries of various magickal systems / traditions (elemental, chakras, stone spirits, animal spirits / shamanism etc) and list of correspondesnces, animal spirits, stone spirits, plant spirits, deities.
i am thrilled to own it.
i park in the center of zagreb using visualizations from this book. people from zagreb will know what it means when i say i park in front of hard rock cafe in gajeva :))

I was searching for a book that taught how to instantly get into a magickal mindset before I bought this book. After reading the reviews for it, I decided to purchase it, and I am so glad that I did. Penczak's writing style is refreshing for those new to the Craft, or to those who have practiced for decades. His methods in the book for instantly getting into that magickal mindset - and creating magick - are the key points in this book. Although the "instant magick trigger" (Alpha) was discussed and demonstrated prior in many of Laurie Cabot's books, Penczak gives 'instant spells' using the trigger (the parking space spell really works well!), expanding on Cabot's concept.

If you feel like you've lost your magickal "edge" (so to speak), or want a refreshing course on spellcasting and how it affects us all, this is the book to get. Thank you, Mr. Penczak.

It is about time that someone writes a book that doesn't have us buying this and that. I have never practiced the Craft that way, (I have been for 12 years now) but many people write what sells. Thank you Christopher for writing a book to show how "easy" magick can be. You have done a wonderful job and hope that you will keep writing. We are taught in any religon the intent and what is in the heart is most important and this book definitely shows that. Why do we need this and that to make what a spell? If we truly believe in the spell, then it should work without all the chachkies, right? Thank you again for writing this book and I would recommend it to anyone!

If you've been practicing for a while, chances are most of this will sound like old hat to you. If you haven't, you'll get a brief course in concentration and meditation techniques that can be applied to day to day life as well as will-working. In either case, the book outlines how to combine those techniques with magick to imprint the specific mental states and energetic patterns in such a way that you won't need to put together a full ritual to make something happen. There are also brief tables of correspondences in the back that practitioners from every paradigm can make use of at one time or another. It's a worthwhile book to at least check out of the library, if not add to one's own library for use. You can definitely put a new spin on methods already mastered with some of the techniques Penczak describes in this book.

The Book Instant Magick by Chris Penczak is a wonderful book. Unlike most books on spell craft and magic, this book actually starts with the basics. It is one of the best books I could recommend for beginners to read. This book has a lot to offer any one, whether they are new to magic or an old hand. Everyone should be able to get something out of this book.

I do wish that the book had started more with a definition of what magic is. While many who read the book will already have an idea of what magic is, not everyone will come from that sort of background. The reader is left to come to their own understanding of magic by the way the book is written and through the exercises given throughout the book.

The second chapter in the book is all about the components of spell crafting. At this point in my life and my studies I do have to agree that the most powerful spells I have performed are ones where I had altered my consciousness. Not every practitioner of spell crafting will agree though. In many ways while one may follow the same outlines as someone else, each practitioner must find what works for themselves and them alone.

Through out the book there are several exercises that are intended to help one start on their magical journey. From working with the Chakras to working with the planetary energies, there are many different meditations designed to help one develop a strong foundation. The book is all about exploring the various symbols to find out what works for you. Only by finding out what works for you can you really create powerful and effective spells.

Unlike other books on spell crafting where half the book is a compilation of various spells and rituals, this book only had one chapter dedicated to the spells. The spells given are not your typical spells as this book is not about traditional spell crafting. This book focuses on the mental aspects of spell crafting and using only your will, visualization, and intention for the tools. It is about finding your own personal power rather than just a book of "here is a spell, do it this way".

The chapter on spells is a valuable resource. It gives you examples of how one may use simple acts of magic to improve their lives. The spells are not complicated and have many different associations that one may or may not decided to use in the casting of that spell. While any spell is useable as written, I recommend that one tailor the spell to fit their own personality and personal spell style.

The most useful chapter in the book is the chapter on crafting your owjn spells. While one can use the spells in the previous chapter as a base, it is important for any one who practices any form of magic to understand how to write their own spells, as the spells you write yourself will always be more effective than any spell you get out of a book. To quote the book: "Many people think of spells as scientific formulas. Once concocted they will always work for anyone. But Magick doesn't work that way. It takes a personal connection yo the forces of the universe to make magick work" (Page 61)

I did find that the circle casting technique described in the book to be very useful. I modified it during a slight ritual and it worked wonders. It is a way to create space where you can practice magic away from the world and raise energy with out being distracted by one's own situations. The circle casting like all the other spells is all about using your inner power and inner tools. It is something that can be done any where and at any time.

All in all this book is a must for any beginner. It covers spellcrafting and spells. There are no fancy ritual formulas. Simply tools that we all have. While some may argue that visulaization is not magic, the author does say: "When we intend something to happen, when we will it to happen, we are doing magick" (page 65). Every one should read this book as it clearly establishes what magic is about and how any one can perform magic.

This book is very well written, and instant is correct. It teaches you a different view of magick. It gave me a different way of looking at magick
in a good way of course. The meditation practices were very helpful, and teaches you a better way to focus.
I highly recommend this book.

Whether you are a beginner to
magick or an expert, this book
belongs on everyone's shelf.

It is a fast reading book, but
don't let that fool you. It is
powerful, too.

As always, Christopher Penczak,
you've done it again.

This book can be of value not only
to the pagan, witch, wiccan, but it
can be valuable to those of mainstream
religions and other alternative paths.