The Book of English Magic Quotes

“Ultimately, the purpose of magic is to free our potential, not bind us to ideas.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“The risks involved in the pursuit of magic are--put simply--either getting frightened by unpleasant perceptions or becoming deluded. Unfortunately it is possible to suffer from both symptoms at the same time.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and one’s conditions. It is the Art of applying that understanding in action.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“Alan Richardson has written the definitive biography of Dion Fortune: Priestess: The Life and Magic of Dion Fortune (Aquarian, 1987).”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“Although the thirty-six volumes of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, published by Transworld Publishers, present an elaborate fantasy world that removes Pratchett from the genre of ‘occult fiction’, contemporary magicians enjoy reading his humorous portrayal of many of the ideas and figures that people the world of twenty-first-century magic.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“The magics that were born here may have originated in the English landscape but they were informed from the very beginning by different cultures. The Druids were influenced by the Classical world, as was that world by India. Alchemy was influenced by Arabia, Medieval magic by Jewish cabbalism. The Golden Dawn was inspired by German Rosicrucianism, the French Occult Revival, and the religion of Ancient Egypt. Thelema was a result of Crowley’s explorations in Far and Near Eastern religion and magic, which informed Gardner’s Wicca too. For Dion Fortune, Christ, the Egyptian gods and the gods of the British Isles were equally inspiring, and as for Chaos magicians: they would claim the Universe and the world of physics as their inspiration.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“The story of Rosicrucianism highlights an issue that in the end must be confronted by every student of magic and its history. The magical quest is – in one of its deepest senses – a philosophical quest for the truth, and yet the story of magic is one of endless fantasies, fibs and fictions. Much of the recounted history, certainly before the end of the twentieth century, of Druids, witches, Freemasons, alchemists and Rosicrucians is simply not true. Sometimes this is the result of deliberate deception, sometimes of poor scholarship combined with wishful thinking.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“But what exactly is magic and what inspired our ancestors to begin its practice? Magic begins in darkness – the darkness of the earth, the sky and the body – and an awareness of it is born with light. Seeing green shoots appearing out of the dark soil, the sun, moon and stars rising and setting in the sky, babies emerging from the womb, fire leaping up in the midst of a cold night, were all primal experiences that awakened that sense of awe and wonder that lies at the heart of the magical experience.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“little-known fact that, of all the countries in the world, England has the richest history of magical lore and practice. English authors such as J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Terry Pratchett, Susanna Clarke, Philip Pullman and J.K. Rowling dominate the world of magic in fiction,”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“read Philip and Stephanie Carr-Gomm, The DruidCraft Tarot (Connections, 2004) or one of the books by Rachel Pollack or Mary Greer, such as Rachel Pollack’s Complete Illustrated Guide to Tarot (Element, 2001) or Mary Greer’s Tarot for Your Self : A Workbook for Personal Transformation (New Page, 2002).”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“To explore the Tarot court cards more fully, read Mary K. Greer and Tom Little, Understanding the Tarot Court (Llewellyn, 2004), and Kate Warwick-Smith, The Tarot Court Cards (Destiny, 2003).”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“The Princess/Page of Swords inquisitive, objective, aloof You are probably very bright – good at communicating clearly and diplomatically, and you enjoy intellectual challenges. You love a really good conversation and find it easy to be analytical, but because of the ease with which you can be objective and detach yourself from your feelings, some people experience you as distant or even aloof. It is easy for you to become overly critical of other people and even to be tempted into prying into their lives. You sometimes think that you need to get more in touch with your feelings but this makes you feel uncomfortably childlike, and your usual sense of certainty deserts you.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“The Edge of Tomorrow, D.G. Finlay (Star Books, 1979) The story of a witch joining puritans making their way to the New World with an interesting subplot: the telepathic communications and psychic battle between the witch and a native American sorcerer.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“The English Physitian, or an Astrologo-Physical Discourse of the Vulgar Herbs of this Nation,”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“Grimoires such as the famous Key of Solomon, the Goetia or the Grimorium Verum, represent a continuity of magical practice over a thousand years old, although there are many different versions of the texts, each with missing elements. Ancient grimoires survive in libraries, and much work has been done recently to restore them to their original forms.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“BOOKS The Alchemist’s Handbook: Manual for Practical Laboratory Alchemy, Frater Albertus (Red Wheel/Weiser, 1987) Alchemy: Science of the Cosmos, Science of the Soul, Titus Burckhardt (Fons Vitae, 2000) Alchemy: The Secret Art, Stanislas Klossowski De Rola (Thames & Hudson, 1973) Ars Spagyrica – being a rendition of the Alchemical Arte of Spagyrics, G St M Nottingham, (Verdelet Publishing, 2005) Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer, Michael White (Fourth Estate, 1998) Medicine and Magic in Elizabethan London: Simon Forman: Astrologer, Alchemist, and Physician, Lauren Kassell (Oxford University Press, 2007) On Becoming an Alchemist: A Guide for the Modern Magician, Catherine MacCoun (Trumpeter Books, 2009) Path of Alchemy: Energetic Healing and the World of Natural Alchemy, Mark Stavish (Llewellyn Publications, 2006)”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“Pullman’s books, set in a ‘multiverse’ of parallel worlds that include magical creatures, witches and angels, have been criticised as being atheistic, with the Catholic Herald even suggesting they should be burnt. Pullman, however, does not deny the value of the religious impulse, which he believes ‘includes the sense of awe and mystery we feel when we look at the universe, the urge to find a meaning and a purpose in our lives, our sense of moral kinship with other human beings – [it] is part of being human, and I value it. I’d be a damn fool not to. But organised religion is quite another thing.’7”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“As some wit has said, the truth is that which cannot be Googled.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“As part of the scientific revolution, we are trapped in a vision that there has to be either a material or a spiritual world. You must have one or the other. The Platonists believed rather that there is a metaxy, an in-between world, which combines both forms.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“When understood in this way, the Grail emerges first as a pagan symbol, embraced by the Celts and Druids amongst others. As a symbol of the Mother Goddess it is ideal as it represents both womb and breast. By the medieval era this vessel of nourishment and rebirth was transferred from Goddess to God, and became the chalice that was used by Christ at the Last Supper, which later caught drops of his blood when on the cross. In recent years writers have attempted to return the Grail to the Goddess once more.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“The modern world tends to think of the Holy Grail as a priceless chalice, the cup used by Christ at the Last Supper, sought after through constant danger by the likes of Indiana Jones. The truth, however, is much more ancient and much more interesting. The Grail and its companion icon, the sword or spear, have served as magical images since pagan times, and today, over two thousand years later, they are still used in the rituals of ceremonial magicians, witches and Druids.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“But it is his The Once and Future King, a sequence of four novels, for which White will be most remembered, particularly since the musical Camelot and the Walt Disney film The Sword in the Stone were based upon these books.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley (Michael Joseph, 1983) The Arthurian myth is told here from the women’s perspective, first through the story of Igraine, and later concentrating on Morgaine, Arthur’s sister, and her training as a priestess on the Isle of Avalon, presided over by the Lady of the Lake. War in Heaven, Charles Williams (Faber, 1930) The Holy Grail is discovered in a country church, occasioning a struggle for its possession between the forces of darkness and of light, in the persons of a group of occultists and their black magic rituals, and a parish priest.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“The Merlin Quartet, Mary Stewart
The four volumes are:
The Crystal Cave (William Morrow, 1970)
The Hollow Hills (Hodder & Stoughton, 1973)
The Last Enchantment (G.K. Hall & Company, 1979)
The Wicked Day (Ballantine Books, 1983)”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“The Book of Runes by Ralph Blum,”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“The Way of Wyrd, Brian Bates (Arrow Books, 1983) This book burst upon the modern pagan world, re-establishing Saxon magic in its rightful place after a period of neglect. An Anglo-Saxon sorcerer inducts a Christian scribe into the pagan magical mindset, via experiences of a multilayered world of ceremony and ritual shared with spirits and elves, where every event in the natural world might be either a messenger or a threat.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“As the institution of Masonry grew, its original founding impulses of mutual support, the protection of trade secrets and the use of secret rites were so appealing that these ideas were imitated and adopted almost wholesale by many trade institutions. Millers, coopers, printers and dozens of other similar groups developed rites that involved Masonic-style initiations. In 1830, the Shoemaker’s Union in Cheshire, for example, bought ‘a full set of secret order regalia, surplices, trimmed aprons, etc., and a crown and robes for King Crispin’, the legendary patron of their craft.1 Magic had crept into the professional life of England through the back door.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“As conscious interest in the subject waned, however, a peculiar phenomenon occurred: more and more people began engaging in activities that were in essence magical, but without seeing them as such. This was due to the success of Freemasonry. To be led blindfold in bare feet or with one foot slip-shod, with clothes rearranged to expose parts of the body to the gaze of unseen initiates, to be challenged at the point of a sword, to have a noose around one’s neck like a prisoner bound for the gallows or a foetus entangled with its umbilical cord, and to swear loyalty before being ‘reborn’ into the light and welcomed into a select group: this is an experience that is based upon the same principles that were used by the Ancient Mystery Schools. They can also be observed to this day in the rites of passage of indigenous peoples around the world. Clearly such a ceremony touches upon the most basic human experiences of birth itself, of fearing death and of surviving ordeals – and it was this activity, clothed in all the pomp and ceremony required to make it acceptable to eighteenth-century gentlemen, that made Freemasonry such an enduring and successful phenomenon.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“Sometimes, the last experts in a dying craft consciously destroyed their knowledge. For example, the labyrinths, still seen as mazes throughout England, once had a magical function of trapping spirits. Fishermen would construct them to trap these sprites, which stopped the wind blowing, and there are examples that are over a thousand years old. Yet the last great ‘Labyrinth Master’ refused to pass on his skills as he thought no one was worthy enough.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic

“As I extended my studies, I soon realised that this spiritual association with arts and crafts had been common knowledge since the third century. Plotinus, one of the most famous Neoplatonist magicians, wrote in his Enneads that ‘the arts are not an imitation of nature, but human-mediated expressions of the spiritual source of which nature is only the outward form.”
― Philip Carr-Gomm, The Book of English Magic