Most people arrive at this subject by accident. A phrase in a novel, a strange diagram in an old book, a sense that the world is more closely woven than it looks. What they find when they go searching is a tangle: ancient philosophy beside modern invention, careful scholarship beside wild assertion, all of it using the same few words. This page is meant to give you a thread through that tangle.
In brief
- Hermeticism is a philosophy of mind, cosmos and the soul's return, first written down in Roman Egypt.
- Magick is the practical art that grew from it: the use of symbol, ritual and trained attention to bring about change.
- Self transformation is the purpose of both. The tradition calls it the Great Work.
- You need a notebook, a quiet corner and twenty minutes a day. You do not need to believe anything in advance.
What this tradition is
The word occidental simply means western. Occidental magic is the body of esoteric thought and practice that took shape around the Mediterranean in late antiquity, passed through the Arabic speaking world and medieval Europe, flowered in the Renaissance and was reorganized into its modern form in the nineteenth century. It is sometimes called the Western esoteric tradition or the Western mystery tradition.
It has three strands, which this site treats in three sections.
- Hermeticism is the philosophy. It holds that the universe proceeds from a divine Mind, that every level of it mirrors every other, and that the human being is a small cosmos able to know the great one.
- Magick is the practice. It applies those ideas through ritual, symbol, timing and concentrated will.
- Self transformation is the aim. The alchemists spoke of turning lead into gold. The lead they cared most about was the unexamined self.
What it is not
It is worth clearing some ground. The tradition described on this site is not stage conjuring, although it shares a word with it. It is not a religion with a creed, although people of many religions and of none have practiced it. It is not devil worship, a persistent confusion that owes more to old polemics and modern cinema than to anything in the sources. And it is not a shortcut. The texts are unanimous that the work is slow, that it depends on character more than on technique, and that anyone promising quick power is selling something.
Three ways to begin
Readers come with different temperaments, and the tradition has room for each.
If you are a reader
Begin with the history of the tradition, then read the Emerald Tablet, which takes two minutes to read and a lifetime to finish. Follow it with the seven principles and use the reading list to choose a first primary text.
If you are a doer
Begin with daily practice and the magical diary. Read ethics and safety before anything more ambitious, then follow the course of study month by month.
If you are a skeptic
Good. Begin with what magick is, which sets out the competing explanations without choosing for you, and with the essay on results and the honest record. The tradition at its best has always asked for experiment and a written record rather than belief.
What you need
Very little. A bound notebook that is used for nothing else. A pen. A place where you can sit undisturbed for twenty minutes, at roughly the same time each day. A chair that lets you sit upright. Later you may want a candle and a small table, but nothing on this site requires special equipment, robes, expensive books or membership of anything.
What the work does require is regularity. Ten minutes every day will take you further than two hours on a Sunday.
Practice
A first week
- Day one. Buy or set aside a notebook. On the first page write the date and one honest sentence about why you are beginning.
- Day two. Sit upright and still for five minutes. Do nothing else. Afterwards write down what happened, however little.
- Day three. Repeat the sitting. Read the Emerald Tablet once, slowly, aloud if you can.
- Day four. Sit for seven minutes, counting each out breath from one to ten and beginning again. Note how often you lost count.
- Day five. Repeat. Read the first of the seven principles and look for one example of it during the day.
- Day six. Sit for ten minutes. In the evening, run back through the day in memory from night to morning.
- Day seven. Read your week's notes. Write three lines: what was easy, what was hard, what you will do next week.
What to leave for later
Newcomers are often drawn first to the most dramatic material: the evocation of spirits, elaborate ceremonial, the darker grimoires. Leave these alone for now. They are advanced work that depends on skills you do not yet have, chiefly a steady mind, and attempted early they produce either nothing at all or a good deal of self deception. The same caution applies to mixing practice with intoxicants, to fasting and sleep deprivation, and to any teacher who discourages questions.
Where to go next
When the first week is done, choose one of the three sections and read its opening page. Keep the diary going whatever else you do. If a word is unfamiliar, the glossary will probably have it, and the questions and answers page deals with the common worries.
Know thyself, and thou shalt know the universe and the gods.
Traditional maxim