Favorite Esoterica >:@

[chud]

Based on what I know of Crowley's own life, and what I've seen of pretty much every serious emulator of his methods, I know that it isn't where I want to wind up.

I agree TJ, I came to the same conclusion many years ago when I used to study all that stuff.
On another note, it never ceases to amaze me how most of us on this board seem to have similar prior interests in this type of stuff (Crowley, Lovecraft, Illuminatus trilogy, etc), and now practice internal kung fu. I'm sure a psychologist would have a field day explaining how all that happened.

[chud]

Kind of an interesting book related to the I Ching is "The Trigrams of Han: Inner Structures of the I Ching" by Steve Moore. It's out of print, I found a used copy.

[cerebus]

Kind of an interesting book related to the I Ching is "The Trigrams of Han: Inner Structures of the I Ching" by Steve Moore. It's out of print, I found a used copy.

I have a copy of that one myself. Haven't gone very far into it yet, but it looks interesting.

[josh]

You guys might find some of these writings on the Yijing interesting. Denis Mair is a poet, scholar, translator, practitioner, and the most knowledgeable person when it comes to Yijing and divination that I've ever met (I took a class with him a few years ago).

http://www.appositive.net/oysterbay/ichingtitle.html

[cerebus]

As for I-Ching, one of the most in-depth, complex and interesting looking tomes I've seen is The Inner Structure of the I-Ching by Lama Anagarika Govinda. It looks pretty amazing, but it also looks like advanced quantum physics calculations to me, so I never really read deeply in it.

I DO still have a copy that I've been holding onto for Segs, but I dunno if he still wants it or not. Shawn?

[TaoJoannes]

That's why I prefer the P. F. Case and B.O.T.A. stuff, though, they scrubbed the blinds and some of the less palatable aspects of the G.D. and came up with something much more positive, in my opinion.

[cerebus]

That's why I prefer the P. F. Case and B.O.T.A. stuff, though, they scrubbed the blinds and some of the less palatable aspects of the G.D. and came up with something much more positive, in my opinion.

What do you find to be "less palatable" about the Golden Dawn? I found their material to be very positive and often very profound.

[stma]

Psychic Healer Handbook by Wallace and someone else. Good primer.

[TaoJoannes]

That's why I prefer the P. F. Case and B.O.T.A. stuff, though, they scrubbed the blinds and some of the less palatable aspects of the G.D. and came up with something much more positive, in my opinion.

What do you find to be "less palatable" about the Golden Dawn? I found their material to be very positive and often very profound.

I didn't delve too deeply into the system, because early on in the materials (I think it was the GD Handbook or something) I saw a bit of a focus on dominating initiates and bending them to your will. It came across as exploitive and harmful. That may be off, but the blinds and obfuscation make it difficult to get to the truth in the work. Case's work is much more direct and accessible for me.

[Mike Strong]

As far as The I-Ching goes, I like the cartoon version:

The I Ching ( An Illustrated Guide to the Chinese Art of divination) ; Illustrated by Tan Xiaochun

Others that I really like are:

The Yoga of Power, Julius Evola

&

Everything by Rene Guenon, - the folks at Field's told me that someone was coming out with The Complete Works of Rene Guenon in one volume.

&

The Essence of Other-Emptiness by TARANTHA (Translated by Jeffrey Hopkins).

[cerebus]

GD Handbook? Dominating initiates? I really can't imagine which book you might be referring to. That doesn't sound at all like the GD system....

[cerebus]

I've never read anything by Rene Guenon, though I've heard of his writings many times. I should check him out at some point.

[qiphlow]

robert anton wilson is great! i've read cosmic trigger about 3 times. love it. also: the book, by alan watts. and thomas cleary's translations of the book of balance and harmony and secret of the golden flower.
and there's this other book i've got called stoned free: how to get high without drugs. it's got various methods for altering one's state.

[cerebus]

LOL! Yeah, Secret of the Golden Flower has some great stuff in it, especially for Taoistically minded folks. As for methods of altering one's mental state, there are some very interesting methods taught in certain esoteric orders which yield interesting results without drugs as well...

[Darth Rock&Roll]

The Collected works of John Dee.

Dee's works are fascinating, though a person would probably want to begin with something which lets them know what Dee was writing about first. Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition by Frances Yates, and John Dee's Occultism, Magical Exaltation Through Powerful Signs by Gyorgy Szonyi are both quite good, as is John Dee, The World of an Elizabethan Magus, by Peter French.

Or one could simply become a rosicrucian and have it all implicitly laid out for them as they were able to understand.