History of Magick reading and research group

[Creature]

Would any of you like to join Fromadistance Fou Lu and I in a History of Magick and Occult reading/research progect? We're thinking of doing a group study of the subject.  Study different occult traditions and biographies of famous occultists and magickians.

Anyone can join in. Special invitation goes out to Australian Warriors so that he can prove to us that he is willing to do research.

Here's my suggestion on how the project should be orgonised:

we decide on a topic.  Then each of us goes out and does a search for sources of info on the topic (websites, books, magazine articles).  Then we get together again (at a previously set time) and share all those sources. Then, those of us that are interested in doing more than just gaining knowledge of the broad subject area, picks a specific topic within the topic we're researching to do his/her/its specific research in (this is besides getting aquanited w/ the general knowledge of the bigger topic.  And then we can do a small research paper type thinie and post it for all to read and learn.  If you're alergic to research papers, you don't have to do one. You can just meet w/ us in the chat and talk about the broader topic.

By the way, I was thinking of studying the occult traditions chronologically, that way we have less chance of missing the connections between them, but are there any knowledgeble people out there who know alot about different occult traditions and would like to suggest the best order to study them it.

Edit 12/21/05:

Ok, there is a Wiki page dealing w/ the project:

http://vsociety.net/wiki/History_of_magick_research_project

If you would like to join (or just check the progress of the project), check that page for all the important info (so that you don't have to dig thorugh this entire thread).  Also, if you want to join, please post a message in this thread saying so, that way you'll be added to the PM mailing list for announcements & stuff.  You can join at any time during the project.

[Fromadistance]

By the way everyone, I guess I should just add that we are also doing the book discussion thing in the chat.  If you want to join that instead of this or in addition to this....  Yeah, post or PM.

[Bradly]

Hey, good idea, I'm interested, let me know when your first research topic comes up.

[TheThing]

I'm in just say a topic and I'm on it.

[wompumologist]

I'd like to help, learn some more along the way.

[Australian Warriors]

Anyone can join in. Special invitation goes out to Australian Warriors so that he can prove to us that he is willing to do research.

 
!!!
What the hell?

OK, i guess so..........
why are you targeting me?!!!?

[Fromadistance]

It was a half joke, AW.  She targeted you because you seem to ask questions that the answers to are right in front of you, without doing any research.  This is your opportunity to prove yourself to be a capable, hard working individual by aiding us in researching a topic and making intelligent and useful contributions to the discussion we will have about the researched topic.  It'll also help you learn something... help us all learn something.

Anyways, everyone, Creature and I agreed to study the magic traditions in rough chronological order starting from earliest to latest.  However, given that the earliest magic was essentially performed in caves so they could have a "good hunt," and there isn't much that is interesting or useful written about that, our idea is to have the first "research topic" be to come up with a chronological list of magic systems to study (all together), then, well, get started on the first one as the second research topic.

Everyone on board?

[Fromadistance]

Okay, I'll start with my list.  It was pretty simple to compile and it comes verbatim from the article "History of Western Magic" by  Borce Gjorjgievski, which can be found online at the following URL http://www.geocities.com/nisetar/history.html.
This is a pretty comprehensive list.  Towards the end it names individual magicians who wrote stuff.  The way I see it, the beginning systems (systems rather than individuals) research themeselves, and once we start getting into the indiviidual magicians (for example, Eliphas Levi), instead of researching them, we all read the stuff... or a predecided single book... that they wrote.
Btw, I recommend that article for anyone interested, it was a lot better than any of the others I found online.

Borce Gjorjgievski's list:
Asyro-Babylonian Magic (about 4000 years ago, realistically as far back as I think we can go if we actually wanna find a decent amount of information on a topic)
Egyptian Nagic
Hebrew Magic
Graeco-Roman Magic
Apolonius of Tyana (I don't really know how we'd research this one.  Read the article to understand why.)
Apuleius (Apologia de Res Magia )
Early Medieval Magic (Thomas Aquinas is the only name given here, but that's a good starting point.)
Picatrix (A grimoire)
Albertus Magnus (Book entitled Albertus Magnus)
Salomonis Clavicule
Kabbalah
Pope Honorius (The Sworn Book of P H)
Pope Leon (The Enchrydium of Pope Leon)
Agrippa (This is an obvious and important one)
Paracelzus
Francis Barret ("Magus")
Eliphas Levi
Golden Dawn
Crowley
Dion Fortune
Austin Osman Spare
Franz Bardon (Since we've all prolly read initiation, I'd suggest one of the others)
Isreal Ragardie


End of list.

All righty then, that's a pretty long list, pretty exhaustive too.  I'd just like to mention, I don't know how much infortmation is available for certain subjects listed on that list, so they may end up getting crossed off, and that's even supposing we use this list over somebody elses... or supposing any of it goes into the big Frankenstein list we're trying to make.

I'm gonna go pass out.

[grimm]

hey that's sounds interesting. I would like to join the research/reading group too ^^
Do I need to fill a application form or something?

[Fromadistance]

No, just by responding here and joining the discussion you're in.

[Adept]

Fantastic Idea. I shall particiapate as much as I can, but I'm rather bussy this year.

So, hows this work then?

1st meeting, pick Broad topic A
--Everyone finds infor on A
---2nd meeting, people pick a sub section of A
----people research Ai, Aii, Aiii, Aiv, or Av
-----3rd meeting, review, editing and compileing of Topic A

Sound about right?

~Adept

[Fromadistance]

I was under the impression it would be closer to:
1 Meeting: Pick topic A
- Everyone finds info for A
2 Meeting, Discuss, review, edit, and compile.

If we dwell too long on any single topic we'll never get anywhere.  Just judging by the sheer number of topics there are out there to study, and assuming everyone wants to hit as many as possible, this could take quite a while as it is.

[Adept]

is it really about the quanity of the topics we can cover, or the quality of the topics covered?

Think about it.

~Adept

[Fromadistance]

Heh, as soon as I clicked the post button, I thought you'd reply just that.

Ultimatley, I am only one voice.  Let's see what everyone else wants to do.  I am open-minded on this.

[Australian Warriors]

Ok, when do we meet? I am happy with anything everyone choses, but my time zone is different here in Aus