Books that have changed your life!

[Vanese Mc Neill]

I am most interested to see what books you have read that have changed your life!
In a very large part this network exists because of books written by our very members and teachers!
To kick it off then, I will add those very books.

Please share with us which ones have been important to you!

Blessings


Lon MIlo DuQuette - My Life with Spirits
In my life with Spirits Lon describes his magicakal beginning and journey.
The joys and bumps along the way. As usual it is an entertaining read, I giggled several times, but it really gave me a healthy perspective on a magickal life.

Pamela Jaye Smith - Inner Drives
Inner Drives helped mt to understand CLEARLY the way the chakra's operate and create the people we are today. Written as a writers guide, Pamela breaks down what you would expect from a person dominated by each of the charkras, what they would wear, how they would act etc.
Again, easy to read, but so fantastic.

Art Rosengarten-Tarot of Nine Paths
Although Art's take on the tarot is unconventional, it gave me a greater understanding of the power of tarot in general. The new cards he has created indeed add value, and after reading it I have never looked at the tarot in the same way.

[Leanne]

ah so many books it almost seems cruel to narrow it down...

1. The Course in Miracles: if i only had one book to take with me to a desert island it would be this one....this book is in my molecular structure!

2. Keys of Enoch (not the ancient text but the modern book 'exuded' by Hurtak) I have no idea why this book had such an impact on me (and continues to do so...) because i barely understand a word of it (LOL) But, it is almost as if to 'survive' it you have to switch into another form of conscousness..one that is far more in alignment with the Spirit within (not so linear/logical)....a form of consciousness that was (I believe) once part of the ancient mystery schools of Egypt and the path of initiation...The way it makes me switch into that consciousness is more important to me than the information itself. It is almost as if you can only take it by osmosis...

3. Initiation by Elizabeth Haich....i read this book recently and was totally blown away...it was synching in with my life and experiences in a major way.


4. Mysticism by Evelyn Underhill ...this book, i believe, is now out of print.. it was written by a woman about a century ago. It had a huge impact on me at the time because it outlined in a very coherent/logical way that which is normaly seen as quite 'airy fairy'....direct mystical experiences of God. I loved it!

I really want to track down the books you mentioned Vanese...they sound wonderful!!!

[Vanese Mc Neill]

You don't have to narrow Honey!
I have plenty more to add too!
BUT what a shock - I have read not one of yours! EXCEPT I do have the Keys on Enoch in my library- have not read it yet. But after your description - I am going to have to pull it out. I remember having to get it at a weird place....did you?

[Leanne]

LOL....i haven't read any of your books either!!! There are so many great books out there hard to know where to start sometimes so this sort of discussion (on books) i find really helpful... It's at the stage now where i figure if i am meant to read it then it enters into my awareness somehow and then i get 'buzzed'

The Keys of Enoch is one of those sort of books that does not call out to you until the time is right somehow...i actually really connected with it at Adyar Bookshop in Sydney and when i picked it up it was like being hit by this beam of Light from Heaven.....The fellow in the bookshop said that, unlike other books, the book itself is somehow imbued with an energy..and you are not meant to read a facsmilie for example...you need to read the 'real' thing...i swear it is impregnated with Energy somehow.

I am really keen to track down some of your books you mentioned. I am still reading Initiation by Alice Bailey but also looking into Hindu Thought....if anyone knows of a good insightful book in this area i would greatly appreciate it. Ultimately i think everything is connected so its like trying to fit this massive jigsaw puzzle together....great fun!

[Daniel L]

I am sure that I had read over a thousand books before I was introduced to Albert Pikes Morals and Dogma, but that came only after I had made friends with a very old and funny 32 degree free Mason. He became the doorway to a whole new world to me, and it was very frightening in the beginning, Having found modern religion useless the way it was introduced to it, I like so many others made a valiant attempt at Atheisism. Being a double cancer and rather sensetive to the spiritual side of life, I made a very poor Atheist, I could not it seemed even drink away the inner knowledge that something was very wrong with the World and what I had been taught about it. It was a very long process and at times brutal, but I noticed I was not totally alone, I am starting to rant sorry!

1 Morals and Dogma, I do not think most masonic lodges even use it anymore, but many would not want a non Mason owning it so that would not be the place to buy one. I am sure it is widely available on ebay, a lot of it is cryptic and I am not sure a person could understand it without help from time to time. But it is the book of my waking up, there is no other way to put it.

2 would be the Kabalion by the three initiates. It is short and wonderful all at the same time. It is one also that might require explanation from time to time but it is mentally very accessable and there are versions of it in it's entirety free on line. If a person wanted an expanded understanding of the chakras, it is an excellent place to go,

3 Was the Tarot text I was taught from, I do not think is exists anywhere, it was written in India and I am sure that it went out of print long ago, unfortunately it is not part of my collection anymore either, Storms haha.

4 JAW's Serpent, that book was the best commentary on Schwaller ever written, and John is pretty damn smart his self. It was the book that reunited me with some sense of purpose in the investigation of where we came from.Reading that bool, more than any other single event made me look at the world with a raised eyebrow, I am truely greatful for that.

5 Michael Schneider's journey from one to ten, it is a must for anybody that does not like math, it is a beautiful light you can not look away from.

I have not read My Life with Spirits yet, but I love to listen to Lon talk and I am sure he is as much of a joy to read
I own all of the books Leanne mentioned, and have only read the Keys of Enoch, that was part of magic school for me
it is interesting, but provably wrong in some places, My initiator now passed on would have just said I was rebelious and errogant and the errors were mine, well something like that did happen,

The rest I have not read,

[Leanne]

Hi Daniel...double cancer??? that must have been hard! My son is a cancer and i know how sensitive he is....I valiantly tried a period of atheism as well lol...during my teen years but it always felt like i was wearing badly fitted clothes! Also ..the 'long and brutal' process i also relate too...it has not been a nice fluffy dream like ride that's for sure! And don't worry about the 'ranting'...ranting is always good here lol!!

I am really interested in tracking down the books you mentioned...i have not read any of them except Serpent (bloody briliant) The Journey from one to ten in particular sounds great because modern mathemathics has always felt quite empty to me...and i get the feeling that there is much more to it than meets the eye. I have read Robert Lalor's book on Sacred Geometry which I loved (and which began to make me see numbers in a spiritual way)....and Flower of Life i really, really recommend to anyone who is interested in a deeper understanding of Sacred Geometry and Egypt!!

Great list! Thanks!!

[Cole Vasquez]

Frater Achad(Charles Stansfield Jones)- Anatomy of the body of God
One of the first PDF's that set my head on fire a Genius's concept of the Tree of Life and what it offers geometrically.

Rabbi Ben Lamed Clifford (Lon Milo Duquette)- The Chicken Qabalah
A hilarious exposition of most every simple concept and more. An amazing book for those starting out with the Qabalah.

Lon Milo Duquette-Understanding Crowley's Thoth Tarot
Another great work of Art by Lon and another great start for those interested in the thoth deck. There are many treats in this book some easier to find than others.

Frater Achad (Charles Stansfield Jones) comments by 666-A Master of the Temple
A publication in class b, this journal and commentary takes you through the trials and tribulations of an initiate of the Mysteries. And what a ride!

Hermann Hesse-Damien
The book that began my search for an unknown Order of people who's goal was to Love in a glorious Way, whose path was one of evolution through the Great Work. This taught me to look deeper.

[Jaefar S.A.B.N.W.]

Most of all, I have been changed by Al Qooraan for the better. The results of science, history, and logic applied to this text was impressive to say the least. My intellectual self opened the way, but my mystical self was the one to accept it first. The musical quality, social order, justice, eloquence, prophecies, knowledege and wisdom of this book which matches the earliest copies to the letter continues to move me. More recently I have noticed and been confirming the supreme numeric and letter patterns therein. The more I know about and use it, the more I want to.

Next would be the Bibles (whether they be Eastern [4 Vedas & 108 Upanishads], Western [The Bible in whatever version], or Middle Eastern [the major Hadith collections). These books which are probably all mostly authentic and true material have served for untold amounts of inspirtation and enjoyment.

The other books that have changed me most are the ones I've started on or finished writting myself. Of these included HBRV THLYM (Hebrew Prayers), ENOKhYAN EVYNA (Enochian Prayers), and an account of a five nightly visions in the fourth month of 1423 called MDT NT MAAeT WAe (The Words Of Truth One. Each of them has reformed my orthodoxy and orthopraxy.

[Leanne]

Thanks for these lists of books....i particularly wanted a good back on the Qabbalah so i will track down LMD "Chicken Qabbalah" I have also read HH's Damien....great book! But i read it so long ago its made me want to read it again...

[Leanne]

I have always wanted to read the Koran but have not got to it as yet..any chance of starting a discussion of this book and posting your insights into it?

[Erik Stalenhoef]

Lynn McTaggert - The Field
Lynn really gets into the power of intention and she showed me that we all have to deal with that Field. I perceived that field as what we are manipulating while working with Magick.

Alexandar David Neel - The secret oral teachings of tibetan buddhist sects / immortality & reincarnation
Two books, but an incredible view on reincarnation and a nearly unbelievable description of reality. Alexandra travelled in Tibet and was initiated in several esoteric buddhist practices. Her descriptions are very lively, and she taught me that, even though tibetan buddhism is rather difficult to comprehend, the basics are only grasped after a lifetime study and leaves you wondering why you have overlooked that simplicity all that time.

Maybe I should mention the Necronomicon here as well, as it was the first book i bought about Magick, leaving me utterly confused by its darkness, but also giving me a lifetime study in magcik, babylonian and egyptian stuff, and later tibetan esotericism. The book was transformed into a theatre piece which was more of a cleanup, completely accepting my darker sides. The lovely god Marduk was featured as a naked woman hanging upside down for the full 50 minutes, while the audience was handed bottles of brandy, and invited to dance underneath him inside a burning pentagram. Surprisingly enough many of them dared not...

[Vanese Mc Neill]

Erik I really want to read this....
How does she say the best way to work with the field is??

[Vanese Mc Neill]

Man Joel, there sound FASCINATING!!!!!!!! With the exception of the Hermetica I have not even heard of one of these!