The Voudon Gnostic Workbook: Expanded Edition (Paperback)

by Michael Bertiaux (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"This book is a must-have for any serious occult student's library." --Christopher Penczak, author of Gay Witchcraft and several best-selling Pagan books.

Product Description
A long-awaited new edition of the seminal text on the spiritual system that is a convergence of Gnosticism and Haitian voodoo, The Voudon Gnostic Workbook is a singular sacred work that is comprehensive in scope--from "how to be a lucky Hoodoo" to how magick and voodoo intersect energetically, to esoteric time travel. Complete with charts and graphs and instructive interdimensional physics, The Voudon Gnostic Workbook is an "object of desire" among students of the occult.

Weiser's long-anticipated republication of this rare text will be an event in the annals of esoteric publishing, as the book itself is somewhat of an "unholy grail." There are listservers devoted to it and much discussion of the mysteries held within its pages. While The Voudon Gnostic Workbook has remained a controversial book considered important for masters of metaphysics, it recently came into popular culture and renewed popularity when Grant Morrison revealed it had been the inspiration for his cult comics The Invisibles, using the cribbed time travel from Bertiaux' s masterwork. Voodoo is not an evil religion and is much misunderstood. It derives from the Dahomean Gods called the "Loa." Esoteric voodoo is actually a highly practical procedure for leading us into making contact with the deepest levels of our being and most ancient modes of consciousness. Michael Bertiaux's Voudon Gnostic Workbook is the most comprehensive and illuminating contemporary book on the subject. Launched out of a correspondence course and series of classes for students and followers of Voudon Gnosticism and the OTO, this seminal text is at once one of the most mysterious and magnificent of all esoteric books.

"Voundoun, popularly referred to as "Voodoo," has held a great mystique for Westerners for centuries--inspiring tantalizing legends of "voodoo dolls," "zombies," and ecstatic possession during wild orgiastic rituals of drumming and dancing. Bizarre depictions of "Voodoo" have featured in many Hollywood movies since Voodoo Woman, a 1957 horror film now considered to be one of the 50 worst films ever made. The ghost of Marie LaVeau, the famous "Voodoo Queen of New Orleans," still haunts the graveyards and bayous of urban myth. But behind the myths and legends have always lurked the deeper Mysteries of an ancient tradition of magic and spirituality rooted in the blood-drenched soil of Western Africa, from which generations of tribal peoples were captured and transported into lives of slavery in the plantations of America and the Caribbean. The fear in which "Voodoo" has been held for centuries attests to its power. This long-awaited grimoire of authentic Voundoun will be a treasured gem in any occult library!"

Oberon Zell-Ravenheart

Headmaster, Grey School of Wizardry

Author, Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard

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Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Weiser Books; Expanded edition (July 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578633397
• ISBN-13: 978-1578633395
• Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 7.5 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #95,372 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good book, bad edition, June 26, 2007

By	M. P. Sammut "Paolo" (www.spectrallight.net) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is indeed an excellent book and I am happy that Red Wheel / Weiser are republishing this at last.

However I have massive issues with this Oberon Zell-Ravenhearts synopsis above. Clearly he has never actually read the VGN as it is not about classical voodoo but rather Michael Bertiaux's take on the subject which differs widely and can be seen as a unique and powerful magical system. Nothing really to do with Marie Laveau etc. All this "headmaster of the school of wizardry" nonsense does is dumb down magic and generate confusion and mis-information among the public as to what the occult is really about

I would also like to point out for potential readers to beware the term "expanded edition". I have compared the original Magickal Childe edition with this and the only expansion is the added introduction - which is not by Michael Bertiaux. Also the text on the back cover says that the book contains the originally missing diagrams and vevers, however this is not actually true and there are no diagrams in the book.

whilst I think that it is break that the book is reprinted and I think that Mr Bertiaux has produced some truly excellent work I think that cheap - "off the cuff" publishing by the likes of Red Wheel / weiser has marred this otherwise excellent book and their false promises make this an edition to avoid. Perhaps we will see some better publishers take this on in the future.

Paolo Sammut

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Took long enough..., June 27, 2007

By	DJG "worlock93" (Chaparral, NM) - See all my reviews

I had began to wonder how long this book was going to ruminate in the background, with used copies having far more money changing hands than necessary, before it was finally reprinted. A part of me wonders if Bertiaux didn't have a case of original printings in the back of a closet and everyone had to wait for him to sell those off first! ;)

Anyhow, I ordered this books two weeks or so ago when it still stated "available July '07" in the listing. I was pleasantly surprised to find the fedex guy handing me a box a couple of days ago with the this volume inside. I have a xerox of this book a friend mailed me many years ago. That was alright, but as a bibliophile I've ALWAYS wanted an actual copy of the book to stick on my shelf. The first thing that surprised me was just how big this books actually is - my two pages to a sheet double sided xerox is anemic in comparison!

I'll point out that I'm not in any way a practitioner of Bertiaux's system, but it's fascinates the hell out of me to no end and I've always found Bertiaux to be one of the more interesting of people in the world of occultism. It seems like no matter how many times you've been around the occult block all you gotta do is randomly flip through this book to find something totally out there and strange. "Out there and strange" is by far the biggest draw for anyone when getting their feet wet in occultism. Bertiaux's book makes me feel like I'm 14 again and wandering into that occult shop by sheer accident for the very first time. It's great and it's worth it's cost if just for that reason.

I just have one gripe about this edition and for that I remove a star. The heading and the adverts for this book state is as "expanded" but (and it's even stated so in the forward) this is actually just a reprint of the previous Magickal Childe edition. As a previous reviewer pointed out, the diagrams aren't there where they're supposed to be. It's not really as big of deal though as the reviewer makes it out to be as the diagrams can be downloaded freely off the "Technicians of the Sacred" Website. I just bring this up as it's seems kind of silly to wait so long for a reprint and to not take the time to reset the book with images intact. I would have been happy if they would have at least printed them and then just bound them into the back for the sake of completeness.

If you've never had the chance to take a look at this book, I'd highly recommend you do. It's fairly original and interesting - something that's hard to find in modern occult works. It's not really Gnostic, it's not really Voodoo - it's Bertiaux. Be he brilliant, insane, or something in between you can at least guarantee that you won't be bored with this book!

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Traditional Vodu But An Interesting Sorcerous Tome, September 5, 2007

By	Brother MOLOCH 969 "MolochSorcery.com" (Cleveland, Ohio) - See all my reviews

As a practicing Bokor, I have found some of the information in this book useful while other parts of it not-so-useful. Why? Well acceding to several LCN members of Bertiaux's lodge, you really need to start with his "Seven Monastery Rays" course which is a massive 3 year project to work thru. I have been personally taught by several leading Occultists over the years and thus did/do not feel the need to buy the Seven Rays course just to understand this text.

This book has 10 lessons in "Lucky Hoodoo" which forms the basis for using the rest of the book. (I originally saw these Lucky Hoodoo lessons in a Voodoo course by James Todman and am still not sure whether Todman or Bertiaux owns the rights to them.) Bertiaux then goes on to discuss the "Grimoire Gheude" which is a listing of the 10 Spirit LWA Families from Legbha-Nibbho to the Voodoo Monks. These follow the Qabalistic Tree of Life as the Voodoo Monk Family are in Malkuth, Lewd Family are in Yesod, Spider Family in Hod, Baron Family in Netzah, and so on. Your understanding this part of the book alone, will help you make contact with some new and unique LWA Spirits (so what if they're not Haitian LWA? Who cares? They're unique Spirits nonetheless AND worth making contact with!)

While there are no Veves for these Family LWA Spirits in the VGN, Todman provided his version of them in his course of the Ten Voodoo Spirit Families. I reproduce these in my own Voodoo Sorcery Course which allows you to make contact with these powerful entities.

There are some unique and fantastic aspects of Spirit contact that this book can help you out with but there are a LOT of pages that are not only filler material but useless unless you're a student of Bertiaux's and hooked into his LCN society.

Is all lost? No! There are other interesting aspects of this book that can be useful but it will take you time and effort to wade thru the miasma of lBertiaux's own lingo & jargon really to understand it. There is a brief glossary at the end with some explanation of terms used in the book which is most helpful but much of the weirder stuff either has to be taught to you by an LCN member OR direct from the LWA Spirit Families themselves.

The section on Cultes des Ghouls is not only fascinating but will help you learn more about the Gheude, death and the mysteries of death. To make sense of this, bear in mind the idea of `Astral' as you read it and this will make far more sense to you. ;) I also found the material on Gullotte to be helpful in a practical way. Realize that there are elements of Lovecraft, Kenneth Grant, Thelema and Bertiaux's own weirdness mixed in with the Vodu material and that makes for difficult reading and wading thru material that'd be better explained elsewhere.

Note: You do NOT have to join LCN nor become Bertiaux's pet pupil to make contact with the Grimoire Gheude's LWA Spirit Families. I know many will say otherwise and let them but these entities are not bound by the LCN and they are eager to make outside contacts and will reward you for doing so. Baron Zaraguin as head of the Spider Family LWA is one example. He is a powerful Spirit and will help you in many ways. His specialties are Magic as He is the Lord of Hod and the Were-Spider Guild.

All in all, this version of the VGN left a LOT to be desired. You can download the missing Veves from Courtney Willis' site (just do a google search) but after I got my new copy, I received a packet in the mail from Weiser/Red Wheel with the missing info and diagrams.

Also, I was sorely disappointed to discover that the new publisher was too lazy and cheap to use a different font than the one that Herman Slater's Magickal Childe publishing company originally used back when the book first came out. This font sucks! Other than that, the book is good to own and study. Use the first 10 lessons and make your life a little better for it.