Customer Reviews

Scales of the Black Serpent - Basic Qlippothic Magick

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

 

 

First off let me say that I am a big fan of Michael Ford's works. I also have a big interest in the Qlippoth, but it is a very hard topic to find even general information, much less how to put it into magical practice. So naturally when Ford released a book on Qlippothic magic I was very excited.

First the good: This book is very accessible, it doesn't require you to go buy all these obscure materials nor does it tell you to practice it on a certain day on a certain hour. While it suggests certain basic ritual tools, the invocations and meditation are all you really need to grow a connection to the demonic forces of the Qlippoth (I highly recommend "The Rite of the Qlippoth", a guided pathworking CD made by the same author). The invocations are short and simple, but powerful and meaningful nonetheless.

Now for the bad: While all the content in the book is good, it is abysmally lean. The whole book is only a measly 88 pages, and even then it uses large font and alot of white space. The meat of the book is mostly in its invocations, there are virtually no sigils or ritual structures to work with. Even its theory portion is very incomplete. The Qabalah/Qlippoth is an extremely deep and complex subject, one that can't be adequetely explained in a few pages. While the teachings presented in this book will be helpful to the beginner, they will still have many unanswered questions about the roles of each sphere and how they relate to each other, which is very important. However the author does refer to his other books quite a bit, like he expects you to read them in order to fully understand what he's talking about in this particular book. I guess it's just another way to milk the customers. Regardless, Michael Ford is hands down the best teacher of the left hand path and infernal magic in the world today, so it's very dissappointing that a man of his apptitude wouldn't put more into a book on a subject so deep. Basic Qlippothic Magick is an understatement, more like Barebones Qlippothic Magick.

I still recommend Scales of the Black Serpent to those who want to seriously explore the powers of the Qlippoth but don't know where to begin, simply for the lack of usable material on the Qlippoth availible. But don't expect anything more than a very basic starting point.

UPDATE: If you want a more balanced and philosophical view of the Qlippoth I'd highly recommend "Qabalah, Qliphoth, and Goetic Magic" by Thomas Karlsson. More expensive but alot more bang for your buck.

Good material but incomplete. The author definitely wants you to buy his other works. He makes sure they link.

As an amateur practioner of the Kabbalah, I can testify (as other reviewers here have done) that the Qlippoth is really hard to find any good info on. This book introduces the topic, but most of it is ceremony with no context, so I haven't found it very useable.
After reading it, I knew about as much as when I started.
I decided against one star only, however, because the ceremonial aspects are interesting, and I think I may end up using them, someday.

Scales of The Black Serpent is a important part of my LHP practice, all the information you need to work with the Qlippoth in a easy to reference form.