All books and tarots listed below are by Oliver St. John. Click on the images to view the cover art of the books at full size. We request that you order direct by the links on this page. Thank you for supporting Ordo Astri.
Books on operational Magick, Ritual and Thelema
Including Rosicrucianism and Hermetic Studies, Astrology and Tarot Divination
For books on advanced metaphysical studies and Raja Yoga, scroll down or click the anchor here. New or recently published books are placed at the top.
Now Available
Advaita Vedanta—Question of the Real
Inclusive of Kundalini Yoga
This book includes an illustrated outline of the lotuses, chakras and bija mantras of Kundalini Yoga. The Advaitan Way of Self-Realisation involves a prolonged and deep enquiry into the nature of the Self—by which is meant the true Self called Atma. While it would be absurd to claim that a small book like this is in any way ‘complete’ when the subject is vast and was developed fourteen centuries ago from a tradition already at least five thousand years old, it is comprehensive. By this we mean that it gives a reliable introduction to Advaitan Non-dual theory as well as practice that will endure the test of time. It will bring light to the subject for the veriest beginner and will prove at the same time a valuable resource for the practioner at an intermediate level. It will even assist the advanced yogin that teaches others, if we assume they are qualified to do that, in that it provides a sound basis for instruction. ‘Self-Realisation’ is a short way of saying ‘direct knowledge of the supreme principial reality, gained not by inference or belief’. To the religious person or the bhakti devotee, this is knowledge of God, in whatever name or form God is worshipped. Advaita actually goes one step even beyond that and claims it is possible to know the Supreme Identity, otherwise called Brahma Nirguna, ‘Brahma with no attributes’, that is to say, beyond name and form. This is no small claim; however, seers and sages for millennia have asserted its truth.
Format: trade paperback; perfect binding (6” x 9”); 120 printed pages.
Order book from the author’s website (Lulu) here.
Now Available: Metamorphosis
Hermetic Science and Yoga Power
This book completes the treatise on Raja Yoga that was begun with the previous work, Thunder Perfect Gnosis.
With this book we continue to look at subjects of Gnostic and Hermetic interest previously left unexplored from the metaphysical point of view. This includes arcane matters such as the Evil Genius, Psychic Residues, and Telesmata and Familiar Spirits. A lengthy chapter is devoted to Alexandrian Gnosticism. Part Two, ‘Yoga Power’, is a continuation of our very practical instruction on the Raja Yoga of Patanjali that took up a large part of Thunder Perfect Gnosis. We now go more deeply into intellective process, devotional practice (bhakti) and concentration of the mind. The advanced levels of Samyama Yoga are now disclosed, revealing an exact traditional science. The book concludes with the Supernormal Powers, of which almost nothing is known in the West, including Knowledge of the Past and Future, Knowledge of the Language of all Beings, Knowledge of Previous States of Existence, How to Read Minds, Invisibility and more.
The book is hardbound, linen wrap, with blue linen boards, endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. It comprises 212 pages in all on white papers and is fully illustrated.
View or order Metamorphosis from the author’s website at Lulu here.
Egyptian Tarot and Guidebook (pre-orders taken)
The Egyptian Tarot deck and Guidebook is now on pre-order from Crossed Crow Books and will be released 1st October 2025. In every true act of divination, in every true act of magick, something of the soul is born into the world. The soul has a tenuous relation with the mind, and cannot do without that relation; the very existence of the soul depends on it. The soul is latent until she brings forth her ‘child’, by which she restores the world to the divine image—which is called a Great Work. It is through such subtle relations that the soul realises the principle by which it is possible to resurrect the whole (integral) individual.
This book focuses on the structure of the Tarot and the Qabalistic correspondences that transform it from a card game or fortune telling device into a vehicle of the highest order. The major arcana cards each have a chapter to describe them; a complete method of divination is provided. In creating the Egyptian Tarot, we have made full use of Ithell Colquhoun’s ingenious interpretation of the Golden Dawn colour correspondences.
Colquhoun, when explaining her Tarot, or TARO, eschewed the notion of divination. Her abstract Surrealist Tarot was designed purely as a yantra for meditation. As ours is a figurative and symbolic Tarot, it lends itself to meditation, ritual or divination. From the book:
The well-known occult association between the Tarot cards and ancient Egypt is by now commonly dismissed. This is because we live in a time where materialism now dominates the minds of the majority to such an extent that they no longer even think of themselves as materialists. All such arguments, based on ‘evidence’ and ‘fact’, miss the mark. It is irrelevant as to whether or not the ancient Egyptians might have used anything like playing cards or Tarot, whether for amusement, fortune telling or divination. The key to the knowledge is in the symbolism, which, even in the first deck printed from woodcuts, the Tarot of Marseille (late 15th or 16th century), is astonishing. Once it is known that Egypt was the source of all learning and civilisation, there is no longer any need to speculate on the origins of the Tarot. We are not speaking here of artefacts, we are speaking of symbolism that points to a timeless wisdom. This owes to a source far older than that even of the 1st Dynasty of Egypt.
Our book insists upon the following: “A word must be heard before it can be uttered.” Technically, and especially from the yogic point of view, hearing and speech are closely related. Space is filled with akasha or ether, which is perceptible through vibration, forming the basis of both sound and light. The Intelligible Light is one expression used by the ancients to denote the divine light, which consciousness may make comprehensible. Symbolism, of which the Tarot is a notable example, is a needful support to spiritual realisation.
The twelve zodiacal Egyptian Tarot card designs have a page each on our website. The designs can be enlarged by clicking on the images:
Aries (Equinox) Hrumachis IV
Taurus Hathoor V
Gemini Shenut VI
Cancer (Solstice) Atet VII
Leo Sekhet XI
Virgo Isis IX
Libra (Equinox) Ma’at VIII
Scorpio Sokar XIII
Sagittarius Neith XIV
Capricorn (Solstice) Set XV
Aquarius Nuit XVII
Pisces Khonsu XVIII
The Mystic Tarot
and the Trees of Eternity (Revised 2024)
Much of this book is from the diary record of the author—an adventurous magician that flits owl-like through the twilight realms of sorcery only to reappear as the soaring falcon of spiritual light. Each of the twenty-two chapters is divided into two sections, Light-path and Night-path, and is headed by a commentary on the relevant text from the Sepher Yetzirah. The methods include Theurgic, Goetic and Enochian magick. The narrative is anchored through earth location, in this case the ‘Island’ promontory on the West Penwith Peninsula. The book thus has a distinctly elemental nature, reflective of changing weather and seasons. Various themes are woven together, one of which reveals what it was like to work as an Initiate of Kenneth Grant’s Typhonian Order. The culmination is a magical battle between sorcerers. The experiential account is nonetheless accurate to the last detail; the events in the so-called real world mirror the interior worlds of spiritual and magical working.
Hardbound edition (black cover): Linen wrap, blue boards, with endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. Order from the author’s website here.
Standard perfect bound paperback (purple cover): Order from the author’s website here.
Now Available: Dreaming Thelema and Magical Art
Comprises two books under one cover. Both volumes presented here comprise a Qabalistic tour de force. Surrealism has always embraced magick. Surrealist automatism owes nothing to traditional sciences but a good deal to the methods of spiritism and occultism. We here present a republication of two of our earlier books, Magical Art and Dreaming Thelema (2016), printed on full colour pages as they both feature artwork. They have been completely re-written from a metaphysical point of view—for that is something entirely absent in both academic and neo-spiritualist works. In some respects, Magical Art is a vindication of the work of the English scholar and poet Thomas De Quincey and his Confessions of an English Opium Eater. It also features the work of English Surrealist and occultist Ithell Colquhoun. The second book concerns the doomladen cosmic vision of H.P. Lovecraft, for it is central to the ideas expressed in the topsy-turvy world of orientalist Kenneth Grant, which are here subjected to rigorous intellectual scrutiny—as is the work of Aleister Crowley. Thelema is explained from a metaphysical perspective. The book includes 17 original Surrealist paintings.
This luxurious book is hardcover, linen wrap, with endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. It comprises 140 pages in all on premium 80# white coated photographic paper and is fully illustrated throughout.
Order hardcover book from the author’s website at Lulu here.
Now Available: The Law of Thelema—Hidden Alchemy
At the end of an entire Manvantara or ‘world’, mankind stands upon the threshold of total dissolution. Even those with a spiritual orientation, or what passes for that now, have not resisted the temptation of seeking a return to Eden through the adaptation of traditional sciences without comprehension, owing to the rejection of all real metaphysical knowledge. This folly has resulted in the awakening of dangerous atavisms, of the Qliphotic order, that are impossible to control by profane persons lacking highly specialised knowledge.
The aim of this present work, our final word on Thelema, is to establish what is called the Law of Thelema in the context of the Hermetic and alchemical tradition from whence it has its origins. Hermeticism may be accurately construed as ‘that which came out of Egypt’, after the decline of its language and civilisation. The legend of the Christ or Saviour who passes through trial and ordeal to be born in spirit was well founded at the Egyptian cult centre Aunnu, known by the Greeks as Heliopolis and called On in the biblical Old Testament. Here was celebrated the birth, death and resurrection of the hawk-headed star-god, Horus. In the (Egyptian) Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis as it has come to be known, this god takes various forms. Among these are the Sphinx, the Dwarf Soul, and the Angel of Judgement. The Khabs, the Khu and the Ka are ancient Egyptian pictographic symbols, and the many gods mentioned in the book are specific to the transformative rôles played by Deity at cult centres of Egypt such as Thebes and Heliopolis.
It must be clearly understood that the present work owes nothing at all to the thinking of Aleister Crowley or of his followers. Our purpose is to reveal the secrets of alchemy and the transfiguration of the soul that are encrypted in the text of Liber AL. It is possible then to find a way out of the snares of modern and postmodern occultism, so freeing our minds from the mantras that orchestrate the ‘dance of the lemmings’ into the Abyss.
Hardbound edition: Linen wrap, blue boards, with endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. Order from the author’s website at Lulu here.
Standard perfect bound paperback: view/order from the author’s website here.
The Flaming Sword Sepher Sephiroth Vol One
Revised 2024
The Flaming Sword Sepher Sephiroth consists of more than 1000 pages, in two volumes. The book also serves as a veritable encyclopaedia of the occult, and was the first of its kind. In addition to the substantial Sepher Sephiroth there is an introductory guide to the use of the book, tables of Hebrew, Greek and Enochian values, prime numbers, and a complete set of Magical Kameas with corrected and redrawn planetary seals and sigils. The Flaming Sword is the result of many years of practical work and research by the author. Greek words from the New Testament and Hermetica are included, in addition to the usual Hebrew words; the entire Enochian vocabulary of John Dee is included, as well as some Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic and ancient Egyptian words. Where appropriate, Gematria with detailed Qabalistic notes has been provided. The Flaming Sword provides multiple solutions to all of the riddles of the (Egyptian) Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis, as well as some of the most cryptic passages.
Read more about the updated and revised book here.
Volume One: 588 pages
View / buy The Flaming Sword Volume One from author’s Lulu website here.
Volume Two (Revised) is expected in 2025.
Liber 373 Astrum Draconis (Revised 2024)
The Way of the Dragon Star: True sight is the perception of that which is invisible to men. Thus do we Awaken from the Dream of Life to the Life in Spirit! This book comprises a unique course in magick that includes knowledge lectures, invocation, rituals, yoga and meditation. The book embraces a special form of devotional (bhakti) yoga, which combines our methods of kriya yoga and devotion to the Shakti with classical Hermetic or occult philosophy, including the invocation of celestial supra-human intelligences for the purpose of obtaining knowledge. Our work is to reach out to the stars. This does not in any way deny the importance of sending roots down into the earth upon which our physical shells have their being. Working with the shape, form and invisible spirit of the place where we live is a key principle in the Tantrik arts. So far as the ‘locality’ of deities is concerned, as we can reach out to any star in the cosmos so we must extend our reach to every corner of the globe.
Standard perfect bound paperback: Order from the author’s website at Lulu here.
Books: Hermetic Astrology
Revised and Extended (2024)
The hieroglyphs of the stars are the flaming runes of knowledge that were written in the sky aeons before any human hand cut a stroke with a stylus. The primary aim of this book is to explain astrology in a simple and concise way. The veriest beginner will quickly gain an understanding of their natal horoscope, while those already well-versed in the subject will find here magical applications for the art that do not appear in other books on astrology. This will be very welcome to those who wish to find a key to astrology and even occultism, without psychologisation or meaningless jargon. The intelligent enthusiast has no need for number-crunching arithmetic or reliance on computers for interpretation. Here in one small book is a complete ‘teach yourself’ course in astrology covering chart interpretation, the dignities of signs, houses and planets, aspects and astrological timing. Knowledge includes the Part of Fortune, the Dragon Stars or Nodes of the Moon and Sexual Magick, the Egyptian Ka or double, the Holy Guardian Angel, Evil Genius, Outer Gateways, use of Tarot cards and the natal chart as a Master Key of Life.
Hardbound edition: Linen wrap, blue boards, with endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. Order from the author’s website here.
Standard perfect bound paperback: view/order from the author’s website here.
Magical Theurgy—Rituals of the Tarot
Revised 2024
Magical Theurgy is a powerfully compelling grimoire of modern and traditional magick, and comprises a course in ritual magick and Tarot. The book gives the elemental mudras or Godforms and a meditation method, plus simple and advanced magical rituals. Hermetic Tantra-yoga serves as an excellent means of awakening power for those familiar with the Western Mystery Tradition, and who wish to take their knowledge further. The book includes a guide on how to make and charge talismans with illustrations of the Magic Squares (or Kameas) and sigils of planetary spirits. Everything needed by the magician is here placed under one cover including Solomonic magick and planetary hours. The tables of Qabalistic correspondences are inclusive of magical powers, potencies, colours, perfumes, magical weapons, plants, gems, legendary creatures and the vices and virtues. Tarot divination is the means of opening and extending lines of communication between the temporal and the supernatural worlds. A complete method is given here. The core of this book is the Grand Tarot Operation, a thirty-day theurgic operation.
The book’s cover art shown here is from the hardbound edition. The paperback edition has the same design but on a white background.
Hardbound edition (black cover): Linen wrap, blue boards, with endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. Order from the author’s website here.
Standard perfect bound paperback (white cover): Order from the author’s website here.
The Enterer of the Threshold
Revised 2024
This book serves as an introduction to the Hermetic Order of the Star and Snake. It is in every way a concise theoretical and practical guide. The aim of our work is to prepare for spiritual realisation. The first real or effective initiation involves psychic regeneration, but that must not be confused with the goal itself; it is only subsidiary to the goal—a further preparation. Full realisation involves final and permanent transformation of all human possibilities to the spiritual order of possibilities, which is entirely outside of and beyond the human domain or sphere of the individuality.
This revised edition includes our Ritual of the Gates of Babalon (a Gnostic variation on the well-known pentagram ritual) and a complete explanation of our Egyptian Yoga method and praxis. The book also includes Key Scale correspondence tables, expanded and corrected. As well as the primary Qabalistic Sephiroth, Gods and Angels, the tables cover everything needed by the practical magician: colours, magical powers, symbolic weapons, perfumes, precious stones, plants, animals and legendary creatures.
Format: trade paperback; perfect binding (6” x 9”)
Order the book here.
Read more about this book here.
Hermetic Qabalah Foundation—Complete Course
Revised 2024
Herein is the key to spiritual alchemy, magick and yoga: the Tree of Life is seeded in the astrosome of the magician so the rituals and practices are a gateway to true knowledge. Awakening the Serpent Power allows the development of possibilities required to transcend the perceptions of the mind and realise true knowledge. The Angel or supranatural power of divinity can assist in the conscious return to the Garden of Eden. The Qabalah is the basis for meditation, magick, astrology and tarot, including the art of gematria, talismans, invocation and evocation, the pentagram and hexagram and symbolic weapons. All this is seamlessly integrated with the one-year practical coursework through ritual meditation. Preliminary work includes the Wisdom of Breath, Ritual Sonics, Assumption of the Godform and a variant form of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. The student then moves, step-by-step, towards creation of an astral double by which the individual possibilities are extended.
Format: trade paperback; perfect binding (6” x 9”)
Order the book here.
Books: Ritual Magick—Initiation of the Star and Snake
Revised 2024
The rituals and methods given in this book are drawn from the legacy of the Hermetic Order of the Star and Snake. It is a complete magical system of initiatic grades or degrees, brought to the highest level. Our ritual mandala objectifies the Cosmic Serpent. The winding snakes of the Caduceus are the dual expression of the Occult Force. The lunar and solar forces are invoked simultaneously to raise consciousness in the central column. We orient to the stellar North, the place of greatest power. It marks the ‘imperishable’ or immortal constellations that circle the Polar Axis. In the ritual circle, the North is a gateway for manifestation of the invoked forces of the operation. The sounding of eleven knocks or knells for us signifies the perfect harmonisation of the macrocosm, the ‘six’, and the microcosm, the ‘five’.
Subjects include the Eight Limbs of Yoga, the Circle of the Place, Mudras or signs of the grades, Ritual of the Gates of Babalon, formulation of the Magical Name, Opening and Closing the Temple, Star and Snake Tantra-yoga, (revised) Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram, Rising on the Planes, Skrying and Clairvoyance, Consecration of Talismans, the Egyptian Mass, Ritual for Psychic Self-defence, the Holy Guardian Angel, Ritual of the Rosy Cross, Consecration of the Magical Sword, Goetic Evocation, the Ceremony of the Watchtowers and Enochian Magick.
Format: trade paperback; perfect binding (6” x 9”); 284 pages in total.
Order the book here.
The Phoenix and other Stellar Rites of Initiation
Revised 2024
The Phoenix is the rite of admission to Neophyte, the first degree of the Golden Dawn as reconstituted by our Hermetic Order of the Star and Snake. The first degree is called the ‘Grade of Earth’ because it corresponds to Malkuth, the Kingdom. The Magick of Light is expressive of universal natural principles. It is the basis for the consecration of talismans, invocation and evocation. We also include here the admission to the grade of Zelator and Liber 717 or Zain, a carefully adapted version of the Bornless Ritual for the Adeptus Minor. The three rituals of initiation each come with a full commentary. The ‘flashing colours’ are particular to the Magick of Light and have a special rôle in theurgical rites. The book is therefore printed on photographic paper and includes 35 luxurious full colour diagrams and graphic illustrations.
Standard perfect bound paperback: view/order from the author’s website here.
Hardbound edition: Linen wrap, blue boards, with endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. Order from the author’s website here.
Books on Metaphysics and Raja Yoga (advanced studies)
Thunder Perfect Gnosis—Intellectual Flower of Mind
We here follow up points of special interest on Gnostic and other texts, including the remarkable Thunder Perfect Mind. Yoga and a science of the mind is implicit in all of them. Our interest is in metaphysical and universal symbolism; we are not overly concerned with factual references, names, dates and places. The surviving fragments of these ancient texts, as with the Yoga-Sutras, have their true origins in times that were already ancient when the Christian Gospels were being composed. The evidence for a yoga practice and science of the mind in those texts will become clear from studying this book. The second part of the book comprises a careful, practical study of the Yoga-Sutras attributed to Patanjali and Vyasa. There is no simplification or dilution of the yoga method; yet that method is clearly explained. The goal of yoga remains the same: union with God, immortality and even final liberation for those rare individuals that will renounce the world.
The book is hardbound, linen wrap, with endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. It comprises 216 pages in all on white papers and is illustrated throughout.
Order the book from the author’s website here.
Read an article from this book here.
Thirty-two paths of Wisdom
Key to the Hermetic Qabalah: Commentary on the Shining Paths of the Sepher Yetzirah and the Paths of Evil.
The first section of this book serves as an introduction to the Qabalah inclusive of the Hebraic tradition, from which the latter was developed, as well as the modern Hermetic tradition. There follows a new commentary on the Thirty-two paths of Wisdom from the most important Qabalistic source work, The Sepher Yetzirah or Book of Formation. ‘The Paths of Evil’ concerns the traditional Qliphoth of the first ten paths and those corresponding to the Zodiac. The last section, ‘The Tunnels of Set’, is a critical reappraisal of Kenneth Grant’s Nightside of Eden Part Two, revealing how Aleister Crowley and then Grant and others worked to invert symbolism, effectively removing all spiritual possibilities for those that would follow them. By placing this in the context of the neo-spiritualist and postmodern occult movement it is shown how the decline and intellectual collapse of an entire civilisation towards the final dissolution of our world is being supernaturally accelerated.
The book is hardbound, linen wrap, blue boards, with endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. It comprises 128 pages in all on white papers.
Order the book from the author’s website here.
The Way of Knowledge in the Reign of Antichrist
This book includes five chapters on the Holy Guardian Angel and five chapters on yoga, including Raja Yoga and Kundalini Yoga. Here we pass beyond the syncretism of occultism to the synthesis of the metaphysical gnosis. The sequel to Nu Hermetica continues the story where the latter left off, but there is greater focus on practicality, as indicated by the title. The metaphysical gnosis is necessarily the view from the ‘centre’, something that may be shown geometrically, for example the three-dimensional cross or Cube of Space. This is also symbolised in various traditions by the ‘holy city’, the summit of a mountain or its centre. In the Age of Kali Yuga there was effected a withdrawal or hiding of knowledge and initiatic rites were thus placed in caves or labyrinths, either symbolically or literally. All true initiatic paths lead to the same goal and only differ from the point of view of the outsider who only sees the appearance. The outward differences of paths owe merely to cultural or other modifications, as necessary, and none of that is of any consequence to initiation at all.
As was stated in bold terms in Nu Hermetica, we must deal with the conditions of the world that we now find ourselves in. While we will not avoid the subject, as is clear by the full title of the book, it is necessary to point out that the book is not a comment on social conditions or the more or less extraordinary phenomena that is all part of the ‘signs of the times’.
The book is hardbound, linen wrap, with endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. It comprises 200 pages in all on white papers and is fully illustrated.
Order book from the author’s website here.
Nu Hermetica—Initiation and Metaphysical Reality
The voices of the Egyptian neteru are as loud and clear today as they were in ancient history for those who are still able to hear them amidst the noise and tumult of a civilisation that has lost all heart. Thelema and the (Egyptian) Book of the Law are here placed in the context of a metaphysical perspective. Some of the book is thus an advanced commentary on the Thelemic source work, which will be of interest to those not wholly beguiled by the obfuscations of Crowley and those who follow him. The book addresses the difficulty of initiation in the twenty-first century—for the Way has not changed but the conditions we work under certainly have. Laws, news, facts and even history are updated, deleted, replaced and rewritten on a daily basis. So-called alternative movements, some of which even claim to be ‘spiritual’, only serve to reinforce profane, anti-spiritual notions. There is a need to pass on the real knowledge to those few that are willing and able to receive it.
The book is hardbound, linen wrap, with blue linen boards, endpapers and gold folio stamp on the spine. It comprises 236 pages in all on white papers and is fully illustrated.
View/order book from the author’s website here.
Read an artice from this book here.
Babalon Unveiled! Thelemic Monographs
Second Revised Edition (2023)
Second Edition Revised (8th April 2023): Here is the definitive work on Thelema, magick and the key role of the Shakti. ‘Lapis Philosophorum’ redefines Thelema, liberating it from the accretions of modern and postmodernist obfuscation.
‘Babalon Unveiled’ is the title piece of this collection and is one of seven related studies on the mystery of the Goddess in her various names and forms, including that of the Scarlet Woman. Each shows an aspect of her oracular voice as it has been heard and recorded down the ages. ‘Angels of Sacred Dance, Love and Whoredom’ examines how the divine feminine of pre-religious antiquity was demonised, resulting in the host of ‘fallen angels’ whose identity is yet preserved in traditional texts. The book is dedicated to the memory of Rose Edith Kelly, otherwise known as Rose Crowley or Ouarda the Seer. Rose was the medium for the transmission activated through the Stele of Revealing in the Cairo museum in 1904.
Format: 6 x 9 hardcover, dustjacket; blue linen boards; gold foil stamp lettering on spine; white end papers, 168 pages in all.
Order book from the author’s website here.
Read an article from the Second Edition here.
Books: Notes
About the Author
All books on this page other than Egyptian Tarot and deck can be ordered direct from the author’s website at Lulu by following the links given here. Proceeds of the sales of our books help to fund Ordo Astri.
Books in preparation: The Flaming Sword Sepher Sephiroth Volume Two. Magick Here and Now.
Oliver St. John YouTube Channel.
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As we are going to talk about magick and the magician, it needs to be made clear that we are concerned here with the Real. We are not interested in exploring imaginary worlds, as is the way of the occultists, who do not do or think anything that is beyond what is in reality completely ordinary. We do not refer to the ‘real world’ in the conventional meaning of that, which limits the Real to what is called ‘ordinary life’. This so-called ordinary life is a very modern concept that was completely unknown to the ancients who wrote down and encrypted in artefacts the traditional sciences that we now call magick or magical arts. Magick is best understood as a very necessary support to yoga, especially in the present time; by yoga is not meant here ‘yoga for health’ or even postures and breathing exercises but the means of knowing the Real or absolute, with steps or gradations along the way to that supreme goal. While the means are not supernatural, experiences along the way might include that, though such results should never be seen as the goal. Ordinary life, which excludes both the sacred and the supernatural, is one of the most formidable obstacles to magick and yoga—practitioners who fail to realise this know not what they are doing and will only follow out a self-isolating path to increasing self-delusion. Ordinary life will be explained here concisely: