Book recommendations

[Namelessone]

I was wondering if there could be a sticky of recommended books on satanism / satanic /setian etc magic.

This question arises due to my current dissatisfaction with Ford´s books, which I certainly thought would provide a good introduction, but they are badly written, they have inconsistencies on the subjects, hideous grammar errors and illegible sentences.

So could you please quote books you´ve found useful as a starting point?

Thanks in advance

[ElectroConvulsiveJeremy]

May seem an obvious choice but Lavey's primary works - The Satanic Bible and Satanic Rituals got me off to a reasonable start when I was younger.
I would highly recommend picking up a copy of Liber Null and Psychonaut (although not directly LHP-ey) to go along with this if you had just started to learn about magic and the occult.

I would also recommend (although these are definitely not for the dabbler or faint of heart) the complete works of the Order of Nine Angles by Anton Long aka Christos Beest aka David Myatt (if one believes the internet)
So I would start with the Sinister Tradition, The Sinister Way, and Hostia. There are some little gems in there.

Nightside of Eden by Kenneth Grant is also worth a look (much better than any of Mr Ford's re-ramblings) but it's going to cost you a lot of money.

It's hard to say what to recommend depending on if you are aiming for theistic / non theistic / philosophical / insert name here of other type of satanism. But I've personally got a lot out of the above.

In terms of what NOT to read, I'd advise against the book "Transcendental Satanism" by Matt Zane purely because it will liquify your brain and make you wish you''d brought a box set of eldorado instead. Also I must say that from what I've seen so far, S.Connolly's works aren't really my cup of tea.

[ExCineribus]

May seem an obvious choice but Lavey's primary works - The Satanic Bible and Satanic Rituals got me off to a reasonable start when I was younger.
I would highly recommend picking up a copy of Liber Null and Psychonaut (although not directly LHP-ey) to go along with this if you had just started to learn about magic and the occult.

I would also recommend (although these are definitely not for the dabbler or faint of heart) the complete works of the Order of Nine Angles by Anton Long aka Christos Beest aka David Myatt (if one believes the internet)
So I would start with the Sinister Tradition, The Sinister Way, and Hostia. There are some little gems in there.

Nightside of Eden by Kenneth Grant is also worth a look (much better than any of Mr Ford's re-ramblings) but it's going to cost you a lot of money.

It's hard to say what to recommend depending on if you are aiming for theistic / non theistic / philosophical / insert name here of other type of satanism. But I've personally got a lot out of the above.

In terms of what NOT to read, I'd advise against the book "Transcendental Satanism" by Matt Zane purely because it will liquify your brain and make you wish you''d brought a box set of eldorado instead. Also I must say that from what I've seen so far, S.Connolly's works aren't really my cup of tea.

LaVey seems to brand everything with his own principally humanistic philosophies (thereby foregoing the supernatural), so I am not a big fan.

I suggest Levi would be better, with Dogma et Rituel.

Nightside of Eden has a few references to interesting information early on, though there is some information which seems contrived, but it devolves into a grimoire of sorts near the end... which is in general a good indicator that you've encountered someone who doesn't entirely understand what they're doing. Everyone's got their own and they are primarily fictitious or symbolic. Grimoires in general were actually originally contrived as a way to encode and hide information (used in a kind of stenography to pass and decode hidden messages). Nowadays, it serves little to no purpose except to excite people about conjuring 'angels' or 'demons' or whatnot... which, taken to extremes, can be self-damaging to a person if they persist in a stubborn delusion.

Israel Regardie is excellent for a beginner in general. Even though it's not exclusive to satanism, and even though he enumerates one of the 'popular' grimoires - the Lemegeton - at least for the sake of completeness. He explores a very wide variety of topics (check out his text, Tree of Life). Many of the topics and ideas covered will continuously show up in such texts - so it's at least worth the read to get some introduction and context.

[OnyxFlame]

Greetings,

If you are interested in Setian magic then I would suggest Uncle Setnakt's Guide to the Left Hand Path (You can find it at Loadstar publishers) which is back in publication as well as his The Seven Faces of Darkness (though that one is harder to track down).

Dr. Aquino has also published his book The Temple of Set and that book contains the basic philosophy and some structure of Setian Lesser, Medial, and Greater Black Magic. That book (2 vols.) can be found on Amazon.

Onyx Flame