Moderner Magick

October 23, 2010:

Greetings readers!

I imagine that most of you likely think of me as a Solomonic or Enochian magician.  A good number of you also seem to remember that I began my path among the ranks of the Neopagans (specifically you Pagans, Witches and Rennies out there in Denver, Colorado).

However, depending on which occult sub-culture you come from, you may be less likely to know that I am also a student of Hermeticism, the WH Qabalah, Rosicrucianism and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.  (Yes, Virginia, there are Golden Dawners who do not try to cram everything in existence onto the Tree of Life, nor interpret all magick everywhere strictly through a Golden Dawn filter.)  😉

My Hermetic path began in the same time and place as my Neopagan adventures – when a close friend handed me a copy of Donald Michael Kraig’s Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts.  I was dumbfounded by the magickal techniques outlined in the book (and who was this “Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn” anyway?), and immediately began to put myself slowly and whole-heartedly through the lessons.  That was the very book that launched me upon the path that led me here.

And now it is gone.  That’s right, the second edition of Modern Magick has completely sold out, and will not be re-printed!  In its place, Llewellyn is offering this:

http://www.llewellyn.com/product.php?ean=9780738715780

Yep, as if you hadn’t already heard, Don has released an expanded third edition of Modern Magick – now containing twelve lessons in the high magickal arts.  There is 40% more material in this edition than in the previous two, and even what was already there has been revised, updated and clarified.  (Hence the title of this blog- Moderner Magick- in case you thought that was a typo!)

Not only did the book get longer, it got bigger too.  At 8 1/2 x 11 inches, Modern Magick can now be found in any bookstore on the highest or lowest shelf (ugh!), right next to Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires!  :):)  I haven’t checked, but Modern Magick and Secrets… are the only two Llewellyn books I know of with these dimensions.  Thus, Don and I are now stuck with each other on the store bookshelf!  LOL

(That’s actually a good thing for students.  Now when you get to Don’s lesson on grimoiric magick, you can reach right over and grab Secrets… to explore the subject in greater depth.)

Talk about coming full circle for me.  Well, that and the fact that we recently attended each others workshops at the Greensong Grove Samhain Festival – the first time either of us has had the opportunity to do that.  And though this isn’t the first time I’ve met Don, it is the first time (after the workshops) that he and I got to spend any real time shooting the breeze about magick and friends and old stories about him I probably shouldn’t know.  😉

Don wrote a blog about his Greensong Grove experience – and even gives my books a plug and a thumbs-up – right here:

Back From Florida
http://www.llewellyn.com/blog/2010/10/back-from-florida/

And make sure you lock away that old copy of Modern Magick, second edition.  Especially if you have one signed by the author!  It’ll be worth a pretty penny someday.  And, in the meantime, check out the latest and greatest third edition:

Modern Magick, Third Edition
http://www.llewellyn.com/product.php?ean=9780738715780
 LVX

Aaron