Customer Reviews

LUCIFERIAN WITCHCRAFT - Azal'ucel Edition

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I wasn't sure what to expect when I ordered this book. It's huge! At first I was dissapointed with the quality of the illustrations, but the more I look at them, the better I like them. I love some of them now. But I didn't buy the book for the pictures. It sounds silly now, but I didn't expect the book to be so,... dark. I was following up references in The Pillars of Tubal Cain and while that work is not at all 'fluffy', it's spun sugar compared to this. And I don't mean that as a put down for The Pillars of Tubal Cain. Not at all. The sheer intensity of this book caught me off guard. It made me nervous, made me hesitate, but I am so glad that I read on. This book is challenging, intense, and deeply rewarding. And I've only gotten to his Goetia. I can only read a little at a time, there is just so much there! This work has truly affected me. Inspired me.
My deepest thanks to Mr. & Mrs. Ford both.

I have to admit I was very intrigued by this book. I had seen the interview with Michael W. Ford on YouTube and liked what he had to say about working with the darker sides of our natures instead of trying to deny them.

I was also looking forward to a scholarly account of the Adversary as promised by the promotional literature.

However, on opening it up, I noticed that the first page of introduction by Nathaniel J. Harris was full of errors; for example he writes "thraots" instead of throats, "accademic" instead of academic and most embarrassingly "Gloden Dawn" instead of Golden Dawn....p.5

This didn't bode well and indeed in the first few pages of Ford's own writing we are treated to further spelling errors and ungrammatical sentences that make no sense.

For example:

"...it is a path where the practitioner becomes like Cain who leaves an outsted or solitary life..."p.8. Presumably he means "who leads an ousted or solitary life".

On page 11 he writes "Beginning with the foundations of the Adversary in the form of the Egyptian Set are we firstly to understand that his force, while averse is indeed a necessary and significantly important to the balance of nature in both a 'natural' and 'supernatural' sense." Presumably he means "that this force, while averse, is indeed necessary and significantly important to the balance of nature..."

And on page 12 there is a missing first footnote, hardly "scholarly"...

Now, why am I bothering to complain? Well partly it's because I resent having paid so much for a sub-standard book, but more than this it feels like Ford's slap-dash editing has marred what could have been an excellent and thought provoking work....I have almost given up trying to read it...why should I have to spend my time working out what Ford means to say, when he hasn't spent enough time checking that what he has written makes basic sense?

[...]. Seems only this demon has the courage to challenge his Satanic Majesty's masterwork. Come on Michael, pay for a professional editor to go through your book. You can afford it! And, until you sort it out, I can honestly say I am in no position to recommend that others purchase it...

Choronzon, Demon of the Abyss

93
I must preface this review in stating that I have been involved within the occult for most of my life, and that is a large amount of time. I have read more books than I care to admit, and I have discarded or thrown away most of them. I am a Black Magickian (I guess it is called the left hand path now). This book is very well thought out and is specifically designed to challenge ones thoughts about what they are doing, and if they actually have the intestinal fortitude to be a Black Magickian. Most books on magick use many christian godforms to protect you from what you are trying to deal with. This book takes the standard formats and changes them subtly to bring Satan/Lucifer into the presence and challenges you to have the courage to deal with these forms in a more one on one environment. Basically you are working without a net. Mr. Ford...you are to be commended for your courage in this matter, and your willingness to FINALLY put into print what has been needed for a very long time. This book is not for those who are dabblers our those weak minded individuals who want to be thought of as Black Magickians, this book will put you in the presence of very real and very powerful forces. If you are not serious about your craft then this book will make a nice addition to your collection of occult information, however, if you are willing to actually take the plunge and put your fear behind you then this book is excellent. Mr. Ford...I encourage you to put out more information on what you have learned and what you are learning. You have taken up where Crowley left off, this book will introduce you to the forces of hell if you really want to go there and not just pretend.
Great book, I strongly recommend anyone who buys this book to invest the money in ALL of MR. Fords books and really get a grasp on what he has opened up for you.

I received this book as a birthday gift from my husband. I have to say, it is an amazing book. He also was debating between the hardcover and paperback, but he choose the hardcover. I am glad that he did.

The context of this book is overwhelming and amazing. It is NOT for the "fluffy bunny." If you are on a path that refuses to acknowledge the shadows of witchcraft, this book is Not for you. If you practice the Left-hand Path or Dark Paganism, this book would be a great addition to your library and your studies.

I agree, BEWARE it is not for the faint at heart. This book is an intense read. If you embrace the shadows and would like to go further in your studies, do not think twice about ordering this book. You will not be disappointed.

As much as Mr. Ford would like to paint himself as some exquisitely-lettered scholar who is on the "cutting edge" of the occult, please, GET REAL.

He's some scrawny guy in his 20s who writes like a high-schooler, and gets his girlfriend to make drawings for his books, which are sloppily drawn in sharpie and then crudely scanned directly into Microsoft Word. His "amazing, revolutionary tomes" that are supposedly being bought up by "private collectors", are cheap pieces of pulp garbage printed on-demand by [...]. His mythology is a terrible blend of "reverse Judaism" and psuedo-Tantric babble, taking any name that sounds remotely "demonic" and enthroning it as some grand abstract principle with complete disregard to its original context. His system of magic is a worthless watered-down imitation of Chaos Magick. Nobody with half a brain takes him seriously, ESPECIALLY in the wider occult community.

What happened to the older days of the occult when magicians would spend countless months self-printing their refined leatherbound grimoires on contraband presses, with meticulously-engraved seals and illustrations, pouring their life blood and risking their lives for the sake of trying to find the hidden truths of reality?

Now that black magicians are no longer under threat of burning at the stake, it seems like every other doofus with a computer is trying to crank out their own poorly-produced pieces of crap on [...], with no real heart going into their effort.

If you want GOOD modern books of the Left-Hand Path, check out Ixaxaar Publishing. They actually put time and effort into not only writing their books and refining their occult philosophy, but also taking the consideration to make them presentable. Also, these books actually ARE being bought up by private collectors and becoming difficult to obtain.

If their super-secret brand of hardcore balls-to-the-wall satanic necromancy isn't for you, then you can always explore good Chaos Magick works, like the books of Andrew Chumbley and Peter J. Carrol.

At first, when I skimmed through this, I was not exactly over-impressed. On a second reading, however, I found myself thinking differently. There's a line from a song that goes "You know evil is an exact science, being carefully and correctly wrong." I think this book is an excellent example of that statement. There are bits and pieces and parts that may not be "right", but...as a whole...it's all "exactly correct". No matter how you feel about magic (or magick, or maaijeyckie or however you want to speel it...) this book will definitely make an impression on you.

I am not qualified to judge the scholarly contents, being no scholar myself, but I can tell you that this book and it's attendant ritual book, "Liber HvHi", are definitely powerful, in an insidious fashion. At first they are easy to blow off as more "OOO SPOOOKY!" posturing from a "practitioner of the Left Hand Path", but...Well.

I find myself recommending both of these books, if for no other reason than that do have strong emotional content and are powerful workings in their own rights.

First I would like to make the comment that this book isn't for everyone, including Levay Satanists. This book is for the more advanced and can be hard to read in parts but however the reason why I gave it 5 stars is because the rituals WORK! They have been some of the most powerful I've expearenced in a very long time. I've conducted some of the various rituals personally, (working with demons such as Ahriman, Amdusias, Belial, etc). I've also done the invocation of Cain and Tiamat. Of course as someone who has just begun to delve with the workings of this great book I find revelations about myself that I didn't fully know until now.

On top of everything this book is most diffenately not for Wiccan or Neo Pagans. If such is your path than stay clear from this book because this work is not ment for bunnies who know refuse to embrace their darker selves.

But then again once you start coming across rituals that involve reciting the Lord's Prayer backwards, "amen" backwards, or the "toad ritual" which is suppose to have been the ritual where you can sacrifice the black cat (but the toad is more symbolic, whereas the black cat just makes you "more hardcore" or whatever) ...

You begin to think to yourself...

"Could you be any less imaginative?"

I give it 3 stars because I'm sure not all of it is just chock full of shxt. Just enough to comfortably see it as filler.

I was debating between the hardcover version, or the paperback one, but within about TWO minutes of removing this tome from the amazondotcom shipping box, I KNEW I had made the right choice!

This book is not for the faint at heart, or those deluding themselves with fluffy bunny Silver Ravenwolf drivel... if you could buy only one book on LHP or dark occultism, THIS IS IT!

Although even as a little tyke, as early as age 4-5 I pounced out of some hidden locale scaring my childhood friends, proclaiming myself the "devil" while sprouting horns from my temples, I displayed 'the mark of the daemon." Even with a STRONG cath-olic feeding, I was fortuneately always questioning. This in turn led me to early post-Columbus manuscripts of devout cath-olic priest's treatment of Native Americans in the New World, definitively leading me far away and quickly from the GREATEST LIARS the world has yet to see. My early teen inolvement with "The Old Religion" as it was called during those years appealed reatly to me. I was labeled a "witch" very early on. After years of involvement with :fluffy" paganism to Buddhist practice, ther, in the shadows lurked some unfulfilled yearning. Now, age 48, this book will open your eyes! You will be drawn to it as if some spell of fascination overcomes you, trust me! If you are so inclined, my suggestion is follow through,you won't ever regret it! I've personally researched many of Magus Ford's own research. I would dare to call him, with all do respect, the 21st century Aleister Crowley, just more clear and refined. NOTE: This is an INDIVIDUAL review, not currently associated with Michael W. Ford, at least not yet! Blessings!