Love this article and appreciate the honesty towards BS teachings. Do you have any book suggestions that you know would better teach students the real truth? It can be beginner or advanced. A list would be awesome, but anything is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Ideally, I would like to explore the deepest and most advanced works across all occult traditions. The kinds of books that go into the crux of each of their independent subjects. I do not have any specific goals other than to learn authentically and expand my consciousness. Whichever path you think offers the most insightful and foundational information, whether advanced or beginner, I'd love to dive into it. I tend to lean more towards advanced/expert-level works. Again, anything authentic is appreciated! Thanks!
Thats a great list. Im often asked for a beginners list and Im always unsure as my route has been an nonlinear one.
To the point of magic is rooted in a superior metaphysic then Id strongly add a few of the from the Chaos Magick corpus: Everything by Peter Carroll, and bits from Ray Sherwin, Phil Hine and more contemporary authors like Gordon White and Peter Grey, Jason Miller.
But even moreso reading outside “magick” such as contemporary physics, metaphysics (eg Bostrom) and edge psychology (eg Internal Family Systems) and parapsychology (Jacque Vallee, John Keel) and parapolitics (C Knowles “Lucifer’s Tech” series). We have a lot more and better metaphors and maps to pull from than did they did 100 years ago
I was once invited to teach a workshop on Hermeticism at a venue. The owner mentioned that he was looking forward to people learning about The Kybalion. When I explained that it isn’t actually Hermeticism, and that I would instead be teaching from the classical Corpus Hermeticum, the color drained from his face and he got angry. I quickly ended the conversation and left, and the invitation was soon rescinded.
Strong article. Personally, I appreciate the Kybalion and have defended it in the past. It’s an approachable gateway to Hermetic thought. I believe its challenges are fairly well documented as a caution to initiates. And while not ancient, it’s certainly old and a product of its time, which I find value there as well.
I think you would be hard-pressed to find anything in it that is hermetic (and I tried); it seems to me that it is only hermetic because it says it is. Some people also think it is Kabbalistic, but it is not. I think there are better gateways which are closer to the real thing.
I’m always hoping people recognize at first sight that this book is so obviously bad, so cliché, that they don't give it further thought. But I'm always wrong.
Great article. I have major problems with William walker Atkinson. I think he was a con man because he tried to distill Hermeticism to sell his new thought new age BS. I think Giardano Bruno's works are a great place to start albeit heavy. I just stumbled on this essay by accident. I myself wrote something that was talking about the principles of Polarity from a human lens but I took it down later.
As someone raised in Eastern Mysticism, the concept of rigid gender identity is laughable at best. Shiva and Shakti energies are considered to be a type of dance rather than fixed constructs. Like you pointed out, the rigidity only works if you are a Christian and we know from the history of suppression of Mary Magdalene, the inherent credibility of this mythology is on shaky grounds from the start.
I dont think he even tried. I think he packaged up his New Thought BS and just called it hermetic because he reasoned people would not know better. Curiously he was right because Paul Foster Case fell for it hook line and sinker and even copied some of the techniques.
“Success makes readers feel empowered; failure leads to guilt, reinforcing the book’s authority.” — is this the book that spawned an entire new age catalogue of bs?
Do you see an (unpopular) correlation with Chaos Magick? Imagine, gnosis, let go of "lust of result". It seems very similar. Basically if you don't get the result you want it's because you didn't let go of the "lust for result" enough. If you do get it "I told you so".
I'd be interested in feedback on this as it's very popular these days.
When Austin Osman Spare talked about this problem, he meant that obsessive conscious attention interferes with the unconscious processes that supposedly carry the sigil or magical intention. If you keep staring at the seed you planted every five minutes to see if it has grown, you dig it up and ruin it. Psychologically, that makes sense as obsession reinforces doubt, and doubt creates internal resistance. Spare’s solution was to fire the sigil into the unconscious and forget it.
That modest psychological observation later became the chaos magic slogan “do not lust for the result,” which sounds dramatic enough to get printed on T-shirts but collapses under a few seconds of thought.
First problem: the phrase is logically ridiculous. Magic, by definition, is goal-directed. You perform an operation because you want something to happen. If you genuinely do not want the result, you would not bother doing the ritual. The idea that you must desire something strongly enough to perform magic and simultaneously not desire it is a contradiction. It is basically the occult version of “try very hard not to try.”
Second problem: it confuses desire with obsession. There is nothing wrong with wanting the result. In fact most magical traditions assume that strong desire is part of the fuel. The grimoires are not shy about this. When someone summons a spirit to get money, revenge, sex, or knowledge, nobody says “please try to feel indifferent about this.” The problem arises when conscious anxiety keeps interfering with the operation. Chaos magic flattened that distinction and ended up telling people that desire itself is dangerous.
Third problem: it creates a built-in excuse system. If the spell fails, the practitioner is told they must have “lusted for the result.” This renders the theory unfalsifiable. Any failure automatically becomes the magician’s psychological fault. That kind of reasoning is beloved by bad gurus and motivational speakers because it protects the system from criticism.
Fourth problem: it misunderstands how attention works. Human beings cannot simply decide to forget something important. The more someone tries not to think about the result, the more the brain loops back to it. Anyone who has tried the classic “do not think about a pink elephant” exercise knows how this ends. Chaos magic essentially tells people to perform a mental trick that most minds cannot sustain.
Fifth problem: it ignores the structure of older magical systems. Traditional ceremonial magic does not rely on forgetting the intention. Quite the opposite. The intention is reinforced repeatedly through prayers, invocations, planetary timing, talismans, and ritual repetition. The magician keeps the aim clearly in mind while structuring the operation so the desire flows through the ritual rather than through anxious thinking.
You want focused intention during the operation and psychological detachment afterwards. Perform the work, release it, and move on with your life instead of sitting around staring at the universe waiting for a receipt.
The advice should have been something like: do the work properly and stop obsessively checking whether it worked.
Hi Nick Farrell, thanks for the article, we beginners need this type of work so we don't waste time in ineffective occult books. I noticed you mentioned Bardon, his books captured my attention but now that you mentioned him I'm in doubt. Can you go deeper on how good/bad his books are?
I would love to read that, I hope you write it. It was a long time ago that I was studying Bardon, but he taught with such authority that made his work potent for me.
This attempt at debunking presents a visual mutation of the cover of an edition of The Kybalion. This edition contains an introduction by me that I wish the author of this article had read.
Yes, it did. This is not a 1922 cover. It is identical to that of the centenary edition for which I wrote an introduction. It was published by Tarcher/Perigee in 2018. It even has the same red ribbon band.
It is actually AI Richard, so it must have put my cover on yours because it fitted. I laid it out and then told the AI to put it on a desk (basically to make it look more realistic)... you can tell because I made a mistake forgetting that it was the three adepts not the three yogis. (hence the yoghurt gag). I will fix
In any event, I suggest that you read my introduction as well as an introduction to an earlier edition by Philip Deslippe, which discusses Atkinson's authorship of the book. Atkinson drew much of his material from The Virgin of the World, a version of the Corpus Hermeticum by Edward Maitland and Anna Kingsford. Hence his "Hermetic" claim. I have also suggested that "Three Adepts" refers to Atkinson himself and is a kind of homage to Kingsford and Maitland.
I didn't really want to get away from the whole "did Atkinson write-it thing" because, while he did, it was less important than tackling the so-called "laws." The Maitland and Kingsford hermetica came through clairvoyant or spiritual revelation. Kingsford said she received the material in visions and trance states. In other words, it was incredibly loosely hermetic and more hermetic-inspired mysticism. From what I remember, it was more Christian mysticism than hermetic. In any event, whatever Atkinson's inspiration, the Kybalion does not work and still does not deserve the status it holds as a hermetic document.
Love this article and appreciate the honesty towards BS teachings. Do you have any book suggestions that you know would better teach students the real truth? It can be beginner or advanced. A list would be awesome, but anything is greatly appreciated. Thanks!
It depends on the tradition and what you want to do.
Ideally, I would like to explore the deepest and most advanced works across all occult traditions. The kinds of books that go into the crux of each of their independent subjects. I do not have any specific goals other than to learn authentically and expand my consciousness. Whichever path you think offers the most insightful and foundational information, whether advanced or beginner, I'd love to dive into it. I tend to lean more towards advanced/expert-level works. Again, anything authentic is appreciated! Thanks!
Self Initiation Into The Golden Dawn Tradition by Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero
The Essential Golden Dawn by Chic and Tabatha Cicero
Mystical Cabbalah, by Dion Fortune
A Garden of Pomegranates by Israel Regardie
Sacred Magic of the Angels by David Goddard
The Temple of High Magic by Ina Custers van Bergman
A Magician, his training and work: E Butler
Shining Paths Dolores Ashcroft Nowicki
Tarot by Paul Case
Art of True Healing Israel Regardie
ARMCHAIR MAGICIAN /WITCH
Hermetica Brian Copenhaver
Secrets of a Golden Dawn Temple – Creating Magical Tools by Sandra and Chic Cicero
Ritual Use of Magical Tools by Sandra and Chic Cicero
The Golden Dawn by Israel Regardie
Magical Imagination by Nick Farrell
Making Talismans by Nick Farrell
Complete Gabbalistic Symbolism by Gareth Knight
The Only Astrology Book You’ll Ever Need by Joanna Martine Woolfolk
The Golden Dawn, The Twilight of the Magicians R Gilbert
Magicians of the Golden Dawn – A Documentary History of the Golden Dawn 1887 to 1923 E Howe
The Magical Tarot of the Golden Dawn (Pat and Chris Zalewski
What my Herirophant should have taught me by Nick Farrell
By Names and Images by Perigrin Wildoak
NEOPHYTE
Sormick
Mathers Last Secret by Nick Farrell
King over the Water by Nick Farrell
The Golden Dawn Companion -. By Bob Gilbert
Complete Golden Dawn Cipher Manuscript Darcy Kuntz
Women of the Golden Dawn by Mary K Greer
An Initiate: Training and Work by Dion Fortune
Tower of Alchemy by David Goddard
Ritual Use of Magical Tools by Chic and Tabatha Cicero
Women of the Golden Dawn Mary Greer
Ritual Magic of the Golden Dawn
Stars and Stones Nick Farrell
Golden Dawn Alchemy by Pat Zalweski
Embodying Osiris by Thom Cavalli
HAHA WOW!!!! I LOVE IT!!!! Definitely some titles I recognize in there. Thank you so much!!! Gonna immerse myself right away!
Thats a great list. Im often asked for a beginners list and Im always unsure as my route has been an nonlinear one.
To the point of magic is rooted in a superior metaphysic then Id strongly add a few of the from the Chaos Magick corpus: Everything by Peter Carroll, and bits from Ray Sherwin, Phil Hine and more contemporary authors like Gordon White and Peter Grey, Jason Miller.
But even moreso reading outside “magick” such as contemporary physics, metaphysics (eg Bostrom) and edge psychology (eg Internal Family Systems) and parapsychology (Jacque Vallee, John Keel) and parapolitics (C Knowles “Lucifer’s Tech” series). We have a lot more and better metaphors and maps to pull from than did they did 100 years ago
Try the Nine Doors of Midgard. It is a comprehensive and intense, years-long esoteric curriculum for Rune Magick.
I was once invited to teach a workshop on Hermeticism at a venue. The owner mentioned that he was looking forward to people learning about The Kybalion. When I explained that it isn’t actually Hermeticism, and that I would instead be teaching from the classical Corpus Hermeticum, the color drained from his face and he got angry. I quickly ended the conversation and left, and the invitation was soon rescinded.
Strong article. Personally, I appreciate the Kybalion and have defended it in the past. It’s an approachable gateway to Hermetic thought. I believe its challenges are fairly well documented as a caution to initiates. And while not ancient, it’s certainly old and a product of its time, which I find value there as well.
I think you would be hard-pressed to find anything in it that is hermetic (and I tried); it seems to me that it is only hermetic because it says it is. Some people also think it is Kabbalistic, but it is not. I think there are better gateways which are closer to the real thing.
Thank you for this. You have obviously spent a lot of time and effort breaking this down, and you are appreciated.
I’m always hoping people recognize at first sight that this book is so obviously bad, so cliché, that they don't give it further thought. But I'm always wrong.
Great article. I have major problems with William walker Atkinson. I think he was a con man because he tried to distill Hermeticism to sell his new thought new age BS. I think Giardano Bruno's works are a great place to start albeit heavy. I just stumbled on this essay by accident. I myself wrote something that was talking about the principles of Polarity from a human lens but I took it down later.
As someone raised in Eastern Mysticism, the concept of rigid gender identity is laughable at best. Shiva and Shakti energies are considered to be a type of dance rather than fixed constructs. Like you pointed out, the rigidity only works if you are a Christian and we know from the history of suppression of Mary Magdalene, the inherent credibility of this mythology is on shaky grounds from the start.
Sorry for the rant.
I dont think he even tried. I think he packaged up his New Thought BS and just called it hermetic because he reasoned people would not know better. Curiously he was right because Paul Foster Case fell for it hook line and sinker and even copied some of the techniques.
Do those techniques work? My knowledge on this is very limited.
No... mostly for the reasons I gave in the article. They are half-baked, magically and logically, and doomed.
https://www.tiktok.com/@4biddenknowledge/video/7254157152095456555
🤣
“Success makes readers feel empowered; failure leads to guilt, reinforcing the book’s authority.” — is this the book that spawned an entire new age catalogue of bs?
Thank you 🙏
No, but it did inspire a lot of it
Yes, it should be read, but with the context it was written in firmly in mind. We have no use for mystifications in practice anymore. Strong article.
Do you see an (unpopular) correlation with Chaos Magick? Imagine, gnosis, let go of "lust of result". It seems very similar. Basically if you don't get the result you want it's because you didn't let go of the "lust for result" enough. If you do get it "I told you so".
I'd be interested in feedback on this as it's very popular these days.
When Austin Osman Spare talked about this problem, he meant that obsessive conscious attention interferes with the unconscious processes that supposedly carry the sigil or magical intention. If you keep staring at the seed you planted every five minutes to see if it has grown, you dig it up and ruin it. Psychologically, that makes sense as obsession reinforces doubt, and doubt creates internal resistance. Spare’s solution was to fire the sigil into the unconscious and forget it.
That modest psychological observation later became the chaos magic slogan “do not lust for the result,” which sounds dramatic enough to get printed on T-shirts but collapses under a few seconds of thought.
First problem: the phrase is logically ridiculous. Magic, by definition, is goal-directed. You perform an operation because you want something to happen. If you genuinely do not want the result, you would not bother doing the ritual. The idea that you must desire something strongly enough to perform magic and simultaneously not desire it is a contradiction. It is basically the occult version of “try very hard not to try.”
Second problem: it confuses desire with obsession. There is nothing wrong with wanting the result. In fact most magical traditions assume that strong desire is part of the fuel. The grimoires are not shy about this. When someone summons a spirit to get money, revenge, sex, or knowledge, nobody says “please try to feel indifferent about this.” The problem arises when conscious anxiety keeps interfering with the operation. Chaos magic flattened that distinction and ended up telling people that desire itself is dangerous.
Third problem: it creates a built-in excuse system. If the spell fails, the practitioner is told they must have “lusted for the result.” This renders the theory unfalsifiable. Any failure automatically becomes the magician’s psychological fault. That kind of reasoning is beloved by bad gurus and motivational speakers because it protects the system from criticism.
Fourth problem: it misunderstands how attention works. Human beings cannot simply decide to forget something important. The more someone tries not to think about the result, the more the brain loops back to it. Anyone who has tried the classic “do not think about a pink elephant” exercise knows how this ends. Chaos magic essentially tells people to perform a mental trick that most minds cannot sustain.
Fifth problem: it ignores the structure of older magical systems. Traditional ceremonial magic does not rely on forgetting the intention. Quite the opposite. The intention is reinforced repeatedly through prayers, invocations, planetary timing, talismans, and ritual repetition. The magician keeps the aim clearly in mind while structuring the operation so the desire flows through the ritual rather than through anxious thinking.
You want focused intention during the operation and psychological detachment afterwards. Perform the work, release it, and move on with your life instead of sitting around staring at the universe waiting for a receipt.
The advice should have been something like: do the work properly and stop obsessively checking whether it worked.
Hi Nick Farrell, thanks for the article, we beginners need this type of work so we don't waste time in ineffective occult books. I noticed you mentioned Bardon, his books captured my attention but now that you mentioned him I'm in doubt. Can you go deeper on how good/bad his books are?
Paola suggested I write an article on why I doubt Bardon ... I think I have enough material
I would love to read that, I hope you write it. It was a long time ago that I was studying Bardon, but he taught with such authority that made his work potent for me.
It is up
Would be great.
This attempt at debunking presents a visual mutation of the cover of an edition of The Kybalion. This edition contains an introduction by me that I wish the author of this article had read.
Not sure it did Richard as I mucked around with the 1922 edition cover which I have had since the 1980s
Yes, it did. This is not a 1922 cover. It is identical to that of the centenary edition for which I wrote an introduction. It was published by Tarcher/Perigee in 2018. It even has the same red ribbon band.
It is actually AI Richard, so it must have put my cover on yours because it fitted. I laid it out and then told the AI to put it on a desk (basically to make it look more realistic)... you can tell because I made a mistake forgetting that it was the three adepts not the three yogis. (hence the yoghurt gag). I will fix
Fixed it.... it looks like it was an AI error I didnt know that there was another edition but the AI did. Sorry about that
In any event, I suggest that you read my introduction as well as an introduction to an earlier edition by Philip Deslippe, which discusses Atkinson's authorship of the book. Atkinson drew much of his material from The Virgin of the World, a version of the Corpus Hermeticum by Edward Maitland and Anna Kingsford. Hence his "Hermetic" claim. I have also suggested that "Three Adepts" refers to Atkinson himself and is a kind of homage to Kingsford and Maitland.
I didn't really want to get away from the whole "did Atkinson write-it thing" because, while he did, it was less important than tackling the so-called "laws." The Maitland and Kingsford hermetica came through clairvoyant or spiritual revelation. Kingsford said she received the material in visions and trance states. In other words, it was incredibly loosely hermetic and more hermetic-inspired mysticism. From what I remember, it was more Christian mysticism than hermetic. In any event, whatever Atkinson's inspiration, the Kybalion does not work and still does not deserve the status it holds as a hermetic document.
lol https://meridithgarbutt.substack.com/p/emerald-tablet-and-mandukya-emanation?r=gx5us