Ask: The Most Important Work
Anon asked:
“What is the most important work any of us should be doing? Emphasis on those of us brand new to magick.”
As a ceremonial magician in the grimoire tradition, the most important work you can do at any given time is foundational reading: either just starting with your foundational reading, brushing up on foundational reading, or even ruminating on and cross-referencing different parts of foundational reading.
I know that advice flies in the face of the modern “just do something“ philosophy, but hear me out.
We live in a time of a veritable magick renascence. In the last 20-ish or so years, so much has been written, translated, or mass-printed for the first time that for many practitioners - neophyte and adept alike - the tidal wave of information has been overwhelming. Sometimes, you haven’t even finished reading the latest translation of a text when you hear about two academic papers getting released on the subject, one giving an alternate interpretive reading and the other declaring the translation was based on a misunderstanding of the cultural significance of Iron. And you know that Iron is a big deal in Solomonic Magick - or, at least, you thought it was - so of course, you need to read that before you do anything because you don’t want to get any of it wrong.
And there it is - the core of the “just do something” philosophy.
The speed with which new information, or new theories about existing information, becomes available can turn the study of magick into a never-ending conveyor belt of data you are feverishly trying to digest and integrate into your practice, to the point you never find the time TO practice. Before you know it, you find you have turned into that most dreaded of magical practitioners – the proverbial Armchair Magician.
So then, why is foundational reading the most important work you should be doing? Because, in my opinion, when you’re talking about the grimoire tradition, a blanket recommendation to “just do something” without giving any guiding context is letting that pendulum swing way too far in the other direction.
So, step one is to pick a grimoire - A grimoire - and read that. Read it with the understanding that grimoires from the medieval and renaissance periods were intended to be self-contained systems of magick (that’s why we call them “grimoires,” by the way; these books detail the grammar of a system of magick).
Step two is to reread it. Most of the time, when you reread a grimoire, things you read later in it will help you see earlier sections in a new light the second time around and gain a better perspective of it.
Step three is to read foundational texts the audience of your chosen grimoire would be knowledgeable of. This may sound like it’s getting too armchair-ish, but just like modern cookbooks can safely assume readers either know what braising is or have the available information in their collection to find out what braising is, so they don’t need to describe it every single time, so too did some grimoire authors take some “common knowledge” things for granted; so when they say something like, “...after the art of the apothecary,” it’s just assumed the reader knows what that means. So, for us today, sometimes that translates into a little extra reading.
This list will change depending on your specific branch of the grimoire tradition tree, but a decent starting list of foundational reading could include some of the following:
Agrippa’s Three (Four) Books on Occult Philosophy -- Of Occult Philosophy or Magic ('de occulta philosophia')
The Picatrix – Picatrix (The Goal of the Wise) pseudo-Majriti. (Summary)
The Grimorium Verum – Grimorium Verum (True Grimoire) (French with parallel English)
The Grand Grimoire / The Red Dragon – Le Grand Grimoire (French and English)
The Heptameron of Peter of Abano (and/or The Elucidation of Necromancy) – Heptameron, or Magical Elements (Latin with English translation)
Step four is where you then go out and do something. At this point, you’ve done your essential reading, you have your fundamentals, and you’ve got the basic information you’ll need to be more agile “in the field,” as it were.
Step five is to balance reading and practice. Start integrating new grimoires and fundamental texts into your library - keep what works for your chosen system and discard what doesn’t. Evolve, grow, and persist.
I also feel you should establish and nurture relationships with the spirits - not just the more well-known celestial and chthonic spirits, but also the various genius loci of your area (for these local spirits, I suggest you start with your home and work your way out in bands). If you start building and nurturing relationships with them early, you will have greater success down the road when you start requesting their assistance.
So there you have it: Foundational Reading and Establishing/Nurturing Relationships are the two most important things you should be working on. It's probably not what you expected, but I hope this has been helpful!