Untitled Magic Book - Draft Outline

(The structure of the book is taking shape!)

FORWARD

• Heres what this book is

PART 1 - AN INTRODUCTION TO MAGIC

DISCUSSION OF TERMS

• Define magic
• Hows it different from religion?
• Discuss the triple helix briefly
• Define Cosmology
• Okay but is any of this real? (Include Armaan’s garlic anecdote here)
• “We will discuss all of this in greater detail in part 3”

PART 2 - A SHORT HISTORY OF MAGIC

PRE-HISTORY

• Start with the Czek burial mound anecdote

MESOPOTAMIA

• Mud and divinity anecdote
• Cosmology: hierarchy from sky to sea
• Violence of the euphrates
• Advent of the god-king
• Hierarchy of being
• Worshiping Statues

EGYPT

• Gentle Nile annecdote
• Mother of the magicians
• Lake Nitron and Mummification
• Seth and Osiris
• Heka and its workings

JEWISH MAGIC AND THE LEVANT

• Advent of Monotheism
• First vs Second temple
• Diaspora
• Curse Bowls, Amuletic magic, Merkaba
• Sepher Ha-Razim
• Charismatic Holy Men
• SIDEBAR: ZOROASTRIANISM
  • Fire Temple annecdote
  • Dualism
  • Messianism

GRECO-ROMAN MAGIC (-480 - 500)

• Many Gods anecdote
• Root-cutters and whatnot
• No dogma, no creed
• Pythia, Delphic Amphikitiony
• Alexander and -not apollo-
• Do ut des
• SIDEBAR: GNOSTICISM
  • Reach out and Touch Faith
  • Academically theres no such thing as gnosticism
  • Bayme anecdote: “Anti-judaism”
  • Relationship with christianity

MEDIEVAL MAGIC (475 - 1453)

• Strange Miracles anecdote
• Cosmology: Spheres of being
• The church did a shitload of magic actually
• Neoplatonism
• Humorism
• Astrology
• Demonology
• SIDEBAR: THE ISLAMIC GOLDEN AGE
  • Sacred Geometry anecdote
  • Islam exists and it has a relationship to magic
  • A ton of the texts we have are from the islamic world
  • Jabir Ibn-Hayyan

RENAISSANCE MAGIC (1400 - 1700)

• Something in the air anecdote
• Magic did not die, it changed
• Alhambra Decree, Hermetica, Jewish Messianic resurgence
• Secretus Secretorum
• Neoplatonism, Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola, etc

Agrippa

• Kircher
• SIDEBAR: SIR ISSAC NEWTON
  • The Last Alchemist
  • System of the world
  • Newton generally being an unhinged little rat

LATE MODERN MAGIC (1700 - 1900)

• Strange New Gods Anecdote
• New Religious Movements
• Blavatsky, Spiritualism
• Joseph Smith, the great awakening
• Milton, Goethe, Swedenbourg
• Anti-native sentiments

CONTEMPORARY MAGIC

• The veil, pierced anecdote
• Freud, Jung, Psychometry
• Scientology
• Crowley, Chaos Magic
• Satan, satanism
• Wicca, gerald Gardener

MAGIC IN THE INFORMATION AGE

• Drowning in Noise anecdote
• UFO’s, Cults, Xenomessianism
• Conspriacy, the illuminati, and the protocols of the elders of zion
• Don’t panic
• You’ve got the foundation, now its time to build

PART 3 - BUILDING YOUR PRACTICE

INTRODUCTION

• So what now?
• “The Occult Mileu”
• “Neooccult Cyberpagan Jazz”
• Texts and teachers can only take you so far
• Don’t be afraid to try shit

A DISCUSSION OF MAGICAL THEORY

• Deep definition of magic
• Deeper discussion of the triple helix
• Natural vs Ritual magic
• The Veil
• Liminal and Proximal spaces
• Spell structure
• “Energy” and the Age of the Fox thought experiment
• Whats Up With Crystals
• What makes a material magic, talk about plastics and the alchemy of concrete

BUILDING A PRACTICE

• Its called a practice for a reason (Include the Tiktok black candle anecdote here)
• Research, Practice, Reflection
• “What do I want out of this?”
• Practice some sort of meditation, its a good place to start
• Pick a god, or don’t!
• Syncretize, or don’t!
• Get a space together, or don’t!
• Meet your local hypnofauna, or don’t!
• 
  
• Remember that magic will never be something you can buy in a store

FURTHER READING

• Vetting Sources
• Hey watch out for cults
• Your mindset going forward