Steven > Recent Status Updates

This author is now stating that he has contact with his HGA, but that he hasn't enquired into the nature of this being. Doesn't know its name, gender, if it's even a separate being, etc. He does claim that it's a great gift to be in contact with who/whatever it is he's contacting. So... That's great, but it makes me once more instantly skeptical.

I'm going to speed read through this one. I'm skipping the section about history because I'm already generally aware of the history of the HGA. I'm on the first page of the preface and it already contains the words "yogi" and "sadhu." This is why I'm generally skeptical about the merits of Western Esotericism.

The amount to which this grimoire steals from eastern traditions is unacceptable. The inspirations for most of the rituals are so obviously Daoism and Tibetan Buddhism, that you're better off not going through the trouble of reading this entire thing. Just find a Buddhist or Daoist teacher and your realization will be much better and faster than if you follow this grimoire

Interestingly, I had some dreams last night that were related to this grimoire. I will keep reading but it will likely be a more long-term project like some of the other books I'm currently reading.

Boy does this author LOVE to talk. He would have been absolutely insufferable in real life. Honestly, this grimoire is his attempt to mix traditional witchcraft, quimbanda, and tantric Buddhism together in an edgy way.

You don't actually need to do all that. Just convert to Vajrayana, it's much simpler and costs way less money

It's impossible to ignore just how much of this grimoire is directly taken from Eastern religions, namely Buddhism, Daoism, and Hinduism. It's still traditional witchcraft, but it's plainly apparent that Chumbley was a great admirer of Vajrayana Buddhism. Terms like "outer, inner, and secret," "the lightning-swift pathway," and even his concept of the void are all directly lifted from Vajrayana.

This is Chumbley's follow up to the Azoetia, which is a grimoire that is mostly focused on mystical experience through pathworking and dreams. This grimoire is more focused on a traditional vision of witchcraft in the tradition of Qayin, and that's very apparent from the outset. The initial ritual for this grimoire is putting your own semen and blood in an urn and burning it sacrificially. This binds u 2 the serpent.

It is so strange to me that an author could have this many thoughts about Wicca, which is famously the "do whatever the fuck you want" religion. (Of course, this mostly applies to solitary practitioners rather than covens, but you get my point. Nothing is standard and everything goes, besides maybe the loose adherence to the wheel of the year). The anxiety about a single ritual is extremely uncalled for

If this author is purposely trying to portray herself as an annoying white woman to juxtapose her personality before her journey with her personality later in the book, then she is succeeding. Imagine walking into an occult shop and calling the old hippie at the front counter "Ollivander" and that's the kind of person we're working with here. Not great!

Now THIS will be interesting. I consider myself to be Western Esotericism's biggest critic, perhaps to my own detriment. It will be fascinating to see how a skeptic approaches this tradition and what she learned from the process of earnestly partaking in it.

I'm not even one page in and I'm already having problems with some things the author is saying. "Pathworking creates a correspondence of desire, where your desire becomes the demon’s desire. That is why it works and why it’s safe."

No, the fuck, it's not! People desire bad and wrong things all the time, like hello??

The title of this book intrigues me but I am highly skeptical about its contents. Many of the Goetic demons are pesky little spirits that people have no business conjuring if they aren't prepared. Let's see if "pathworking" as it is presented in this book is actually as effective as the author says it is.

This book is SO interesting. I just bought an electric incense burner, which is something that I never even knew existed before getting this book. Hopefully this will allow me to use more of my incense without all of the negative effects of the smoke

I've always been fascinated by incense and its various uses, so this one will be interesting. Should be a fast read too since it's more of a reference book than anything, although who knows, maybe I actually will read it cover to cover!

I've been sort of jumping around this book so I've actually read more than this, particularly in the appendixes

This book is just the best book about tarot, period. I've already annotated it to hell. An absolutely crucial resource for both beginners and experts

I will likely continue this book on audio--I'm already familiar with much of what Emma Goldman has to say, so I would rather just listen to this book than taking the effort to read it (I have a lot of other stuff to read at the moment)

This is already so much better than the other book about tarot that I was reading. Benebell is a goddess of knowledge

Now THIS is a book that I know I'm going to love, because everything Benebell writes is pretty damn close to being gospel. She is a very respected member of the esoteric community, and this is her seminal work. At first glance, it's just as good as her later books, and it will greatly help me advance my own tarot practice.

I just have to make a note here, the visualization that the authors suggest for "spiritualization" is almost one-to-one analogous with the process of dissolution in anuttarayogatantra. The difference is that here, they don't regenerate themselves into a deity, presumably because they don't know why that is necessary. This is one of the dangers of misappropriating Eastern Tantra into western magic.