Ceremonial Magic & The Power of Evocation

From the Introduction

This book you now hold in your hands is like no other in the darkly compelling realm of magic known as "Evocation to Physical Manifestation." It is designed to serve as a manual of serious, practical magic. To accomplish this, I have given it a unique structural arrangement and content, as you will soon see. This is meant to guide the earnest Practitioner in a way that is not new in and of itself. But this particular presentation is new principally because of the content, magical discussions, axioms, instructions, commentaries and annotations contained in its pages. As far as I am aware, they are not given in any other text on the subject, and they will truly lead the earnest student of our Art and Science to successfully experience one of the ultimate aims of magic: the evocation of a spiritual entity (in this case, demonic) to physical manifestation. While this text is targeted to the advanced Prac titioner, those relatively new to magic and who have done some earnest preliminary study and basic ritual work will most certainly benefit from it as well.

Arm-chair critics and self-proclaimed authorities of Medieval and Renaissance Magic in general, and of this book in particular, will assuredly describe this working manual as being one of those magical 'recipe' books so readily found on today's New Age mass market: "Do A and B" with the promise of getting result "C." If you study and practice what is laid down here however, you will find that nothing could be further from the truth. Why? Simply put, you will get results. By diligently applying the counsel given, and carefully integrating it into your personal magical system in the way recommended, you will behold one of the most fascinating, terrifying, spiritually exalting, and very possibly materially gratifying realms that magic has to offer — the High Ceremonial Evocation of spirit beings.

Although much has been written about ceremonial magic in general and of the evocation of spirit entities in particular over the past eight hundred years, all of those original texts or Grimoires (Grammars of Magic) combined do not equal the smallest fraction of the new books that have appeared on this subject over the last forty years. As one who began studying and practicing magic all those years ago, I not only saw the confusion, frustration and disappointment so many of the newly emerging books on the subject caused other sincere students whom I knew, but I experienced those agonizing states of bewilderment and disappointment myself.

I was extremely fortunate however to have Israel Regardie take me under his wing in this matter of magic, from September 1971 until his death in March of 1985. It was through his direct guidance and tutelage that I came to see much of this material available on bookstore shelves is either one of two things. Either it is simply a reprint of one of the Grimoires with a modern commentary added (usually by some author of this-or-that magical current), or it is a piecemeal presentation of original grimoiric material in terms of someone's own personal system of magic, which the aspirant is to follow blindly and practice religiously if he or she is to experience the results the author's methods promise.

As Regardie pointed out, such attempts by individual authors or a particular magical order or group are simply blends of their own a priori system of chosen doctrine and dogma placed within the contents of a specific Grimoire. That august writer or magical group then solemnly promises the desirous student of Magical Art that he or she will have their fill of spiritual treasures. This is the exact opposite of what the original Grimoire states! Such a text contradicts the Grammar of Magic directly by promising the opposite, while only alluding to a bountiful harvest of material benedictions that will (somehow) follow not far behind the exalted spiritual treasure! To be sure, they have their reasons for doing this.

It never ceases to amaze me to see even the most experienced student of magic accept this dichotomy and struggle on, attempting to apply those spiritual forces, whose very nature is to bestow material gain and power, to some nebulous, undefined, quasi-spiritual end, while secretly hoping this spiritual benediction will turn into the hard core physical reality he or she needs. Why does the ardent student persist in this bizarre pastime? If truth be known, it is because the student does not really believe magic works, at least, not to fulfill material aims. "It can't because...well...it just can't!" are the secret sentences that run through their heads. By consciously accepting and working with this firmly entrenched attitude and the mass of books out there that support this spiritual or psychologically-based magical quagmire instead of the material treasures upheld by the grammars, they are right — it just can't work!

This is not the case here. Not with this Grammar. Within these pages you will find not only a system of hard-core magical practice that will enable you to succeed in evocation, but an eclectic and very effective philosophy that can be used to build your own system of general magic, just like all of those successful magicians out there — both known and unknown — have forged for themselves, and which some even write about. Systems that work for them. And now you can do the same with this text.