Message-ID: <044314Z02121995@anon.penet.fi>
Path: shell.portal.com!svc.portal.com!sdd.hp.com!gatech2!EU.net!news.eunet.fi!anon.penet.fi
Newsgroups: alt.magick
From: an437050@anon.penet.fi (M.M.M.)
X-Anonymously-To: alt.magick
Organization: Anonymous forwarding service
Reply-To: an437050@anon.penet.fi
Date: Sat,  2 Dec 1995 04:36:34 UTC
Subject: Re: Getting started....?
Lines: 38

 
One: Magick in Theory and Practice by Uncle Al Crowley, pages XI - XXV and
pages 107 - 122 of Dover's paperback edition. I might even suggest that you
and your friends xerox these pages rather than buy the entire book at this
time in your studies. (But I would never suggest you violate copyrights,
particularly in a post that Bill Heidrick reads.) 
 
Two: The one volume paperback edition of Frazier's Golden Bough, edited by
Gaster. This gives you a real description of beliefs in many different
cultures. Frazier and Gaster were real anthropologists who actually studied
other cultures before writing about them, unlike so many of today's
psychics, high witch-queens, and purveyors of snake oil and magical "get
rich quick without effort or willpower" authors. 
 
That covers a mini-introduction to magick and a good introduction to
serious anthropological/cultural research on magical beliefs. 
 
Three: All the Dungeons and Dragons you can possibly play. Crowley is quote
profound unquote. Frazier is quote serious unquote. D & D is fun,  mentally
relaxing, and a break from the serious reading. More importantly, a good
game of D & D teaches you more about things like creative visualization
then all of the Newage fluffer-bunny books put together. It is also cheaper
and does not insult your intelligence by demanding that you have "faith,"
"respect," or "a feel" for something before it can "work." 
 
Four: a subscription to the Skeptical Inquirer magazine. 
 
Assuming you don't get carried away buying D & D add-on material, you can
buy all of this for well under fifty bucks. 
 
==> M.M.M. 
      
     
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