The Occult Philosophy Workbook

[ecosophia]

I'm pleased to announce a new book of mine just out from Aeon Books: The Occult Philosophy Workbook, a companion volume to The Way of the Golden Section and The Sacred Geometry Oracle.  It's a good solid introduction to classic occult philosophy, meant (ahem) to train the mind rather than to inform it, and it's designed to give the student a yearlong course of study in occult philosophy  Here's the blurb: 

"Intended to train and stimulate the mind, this book aims to open readers up to unfamiliar ways of thinking through various new techniques and challenges, such as discursive meditation, awareness exercises and affirmation.

 

"This thought-provoking book was not written simply to be read cover-to-cover in one sitting: it is instead a stimulating and well-crafted raw material for occult studies and readers are encouraged to read the 52 lessons across an entire year. Throughout the book, students will be taught through four in-depth and engaging modules: ‘The Planes of Being’, ‘Spiritual Evolution’ ‘Cycles of Life and Death’ and ‘The Way of Occultism’ and will exit the year with a solid foundation in occultism, preparing them for more advanced future study.

 

"The Occult Philosophy Workbook is a must-have introduction to the concepts and teachings of contemporary Western occultism and can be read as an accompaniment to Greer’s previous book, The Way of the Golden Section." 

This volume is one of three workbooks on occult themes -- the second is currently in preparation -- that belong to a set of seven books in all, setting out a complete system of contemporary occult training based on the classic occultism of a century ago.  It's the klnd of instruction and education you'd expect to get back in the day from a good occult correspondence course, but I'm releasing it in book form so that it's much more accessible than the old courses are.  As presently conceived, there will be three books of practical instruction -- The Way of the Golden Section, The Way of the Four Elements (which is at the publisher), and The Way of the Secret Temple -- and three workbooks -- The Occult Philosophy Workbook, The Earth Mysteries Workbook, and The Sacred Geometry Workbook -- along with The Sacred Geometry Oracle, the symbolic linchpin of the system. 

Interested?  In the US, you can order a copy here; elsewhere, your best bet is the publisher's website here. 

Comments

[thinking_turtle]

Congratulations on your new book! I'm reading slower than you publish. I've still ordered a copy in the hope that a high stack of waiting books will spur me on...

[ecosophia]

Thank you. These last couple of years, a lot of long term projects have been finishing up all at once; once the last of those are out, things will be a little less hectic for a while!

[(Anonymous)]

Delighted to see this.

Sepia Concave-o-rama Sea Jelly

[ecosophia]

Thank you!

-- Lavender Rotating Hamster

Nathaniel Bacon's Mystiques

[(Anonymous)]

Sepia Concave-o-rama Sea Jelly,

On topic - I too am stoked about the book release and have ordered a copy.

Off topic - A couple of Magic Monday's ago I believe you were posting under the Gerbil moniker and you asked about the Indian pawnings (pow wow) but also asked about Nathaniel Bacon's "mystique practices".

If you were the gerbil in question during your past Dreamwidth anonymous incarnation could you post the reference information in which someone cited mystique practices to N. Bacon? I'm very interested as I've studied Bacon's Rebellion but haven't seen Bacon mentioned along these lines before.



Big Daddy Kane-toad

Re: Nathaniel Bacon's Mystiques

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Big Daddy Kane-toad,

Alas, that wasn't me. It seems the Cosmicoom.com spits out a few highly similar-sounding names, so I always try to vary them by adding some wacky bit (eg Concave-o-rama), just in case.

Kind regards,

Sepia Concave-o-rama Sea Jelly

Re: Nathaniel Bacon's Mystiques

[(Anonymous)]

Sepia Concave-o-rama Sea Jelly

Thanks. Even though Bacon's mystiques will remain mystiqued for now you have thrown light onto the silly names I've been seeing so appreciate the response. I thought it was some anonymous poster's quirk.

Seems my subconscious interacting with Cosmicoom.com came up with a not too flattering name but thinking of my negative thoughts today, probably appropriate and I'll try again after 3:42 GMT....


Alabaster Billious Catfish

[taylorrose]

Very exciting, and congratulations!

Any thoughts or commentary on how these fit together with the DMH & DA? I already have more than enough to keep me busy, but I have a definite taste for both classical occultism and sacred geometry.

[ecosophia]

They're part of the same broad tradition, based on the material I learned from John Gilbert; the Sphere of Protection is the basic ritual, and the GSF temple ritual and the DMH grove ritual are obvious kissin' cousins; you can use all the GSF material as supplements for the DMH and DA, and also vice versa. Twenty years from now, when you run out of things to do with the first two books, you'll be glad you have these. ;-)

[taylorrose]

Given that the DMH alone looked bottomless, and the DA seems to represent a significant expansion; I'm delighted to hear that you think it can be finished in a mere twenty years. :D

Stoked for the Secret Wisdom

[(Anonymous)]

Thanks JMG!

I just ordered my copy from bookstore and I'm stoked!

Justin Patrick Moore
Plum Raving Jellyfish

Re: Stoked for the Secret Wisdom

[ecosophia]

Glad to hear it. I'm having a lot of fun developing this system; it's good to know that there are people having fun working with it.

-- Cobalt Libidinous Stoat

[(Anonymous)]

I was looking forward to this book all year and it was everything I'd hoped it would be. Can't wait to start working my way through it.

[ecosophia]

I'm delighted to hear this!

[coyote_girl]

Just ordered. I hope to have time to read through it this winter. I have enough of your books to fill a respectable shelf and none of them have disappointed.

[ecosophia]

I'm glad to hear this too.

[arth_cerdded]

JMG,

I am really enjoying the GSF and very much looking forward for the other volumes to be published! Very much appreciate all of the work going into these. Looks like years of study and meditation to look forward to!

-Bert

[ecosophia]

Thank you. This project has been a major goal of mine for more than two decades -- I had to shelve it when the original version of the Sacred Geometry Oracle got messed up so badly by the original publisher, and it's a relief and a delight to finally have the chance to bring it out with a publisher who's doing it right.

[arth_cerdded]

Sorry it had to wait two decades, but extremely happy have it now!

-Bert

[(Anonymous)]

I'm a little curious as to how these books are intended to be approached. I thought "The Way of the Golden Section" laid out an occult training program itself (and if I understand your past comments right, those are to be followed for at least a year and a day, correct?). Are these different ways to approach the SGO for occult work? Are they sequential (e.g. after "some period of time" with WGS you proceed to OPW)? Is OPW a more expanded WGS? In brief, how do they fit together and if one wanted to choose this as their first formal approach to occultism, what's the proper order and timing from getting started to steady-state?

[arth_cerdded]

My experience is that to start the practical work you will need both the WGS and SGO to start. That work will take at least three months and possibly longer. (Which is not only ok, but encouraged. It's not a race. Take the time you need.) Once the preliminaries in the first two books are complete and you perform the self-initiation into the GSF, OPW is used for daily study and meditation, which is designed to take a year. They all can and probably should be revisited again and again.

IMHO the SGO can stand on its own as a divination oracle with out the rest of the system, and OPW could be used on its own for meditation in many occult systems/orders. They are purposely designed to work together.

I personally really like GSF as an approach to learning occultism from ground zero. It is "straight forward", there is very little required physically to start (minimal bric-a-brac), it is very open to conform with virtually any belief system, and encourages you to take control and dictate your own spiritual path/journey moving forward from initiation. I recommend it, and I think it would serve you very well. You won't really know until you get the books and read them through and decide to start the work.

-Bert

[ecosophia]

Thanks for asking! It works like this. WGS is the core basic training method, and it requires the SGO -- you need a copy of the deck in order to do the work. Once you've finished the work in WGS, you have a set of rituals and practices that can be used for many different kinds of occult work. The new book, OPW, is intended as a resource for a year of further work, focusing on occult philosophy; it's basically a year's worth of meditations and other exercises.

So WGS is the starting point, with the SGO as part of the toolkit. Once you have these you can add any of the other books in the sequence in any order you choose.

[illyria2001]

Looking forward to reading this!

[ecosophia]

Thank you!

[(Anonymous)]

This is very exciting. I'm not sure how to do this while I spend most of my occult time doing Cabalah, but it really looks like it's worth figuring out a way. Is 15 minutes a day enough time for an exercise?

[ecosophia]

If you have time to practice fifteen minutes of discursive meditation a day, and a few spare minutes for an affirmation and an awareness exercise, you should be able to include this book in your work.

[open_space]

Congratulations on your new book JMG! Happy to hear it will be seven volumes. I got it digitally a few days ago since I am traveling helping family currently and read the first third on the bus. I really like the structure with affirmations and the discussion about the different bodies since we've spoken a lot about that on magic mondays. I added all these to the recommended reading list last week for a catholic "sophiurgical" "sodality" (cough, cough magical order) when Agostino asked about books to include, and they were well received. I found it interesting that the structure seems similar to what you've posted recently, and it includes neoplatonism, tarot and astrology and energetic work. No surprises since I think some of your readers are taking an active role.

I hope I can make a multi-lifetime library because I really like this system! But at this pace I'll get to it when I'm a fuddy duddy :-)

Always enjoy getting a fresh look on your writing while I work on a different system of yours.

[ecosophia]

I'm really glad to hear about the sophiurgical sodality -- and yes, I can translate out of doubletalk. ;-) I hope they find these books useful; I did my level best to design the system so it could be used by people of any religious or spiritual background.

[open_space]

Nice! I haven't figured out the trick for double talk yet, it almost always goes over my head, despite the fact that mexico is a champ in double talk.

Also, Agostino sent his regards a while back but I had forgotten to pass them on.

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you, Mr Greer, for this publication! My copy of the Occult Philosophy Workbook reached my mailbox (the real, physical one ;-) just a few days ago. Thank you also for elucidating the relationship between the two series of books (the "Way of" series and the "Workbook" series), I had been asking myself that very question recently.

I'm also led to wonder (but I'm merely thinking out loud) whether these books may develop further initiation degrees in the GSF, i.e. a "Square degree", a "Triangle degree" and a "Circle degree", as it were. But it's probably just my imagination running wild ...

One quick question, though: am I right in assuming that the Occult Philosophy Workbook is intended to follow (rather than accompany) the Way of the Golden Section? I.e. one should first accomplish the work of the Way of the Golden Section, all the way to the self-initiation ritual, before reading and practising the Occult Philosophy Workbook?

R.

[arth_cerdded]

I'm glad to see that someone else was thinking the same thing about more initiation degrees! I won't be disappointed if there aren't more, but it was something that occurred to me as a possibility.

-Bert

[ecosophia]

1) The two further books of technique -- The Way of the Four Elements and The Way of the Secret Temple -- are explicitly initiatory in their structure. The others are less explicitly so. ;-)

2) The Way of the Golden Section is the intro to the whole system and should be done first. After that, all the remaining books can be done in whatever order you prefer; yes, the order of publication will work just fine.

[ecosophia]

One other thing -- the GSF system is completely compatible with the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose, which I've been posting here. If you get bored and want a few more degrees of initiation, why, the FHR has six of them... ;-)

Stand alone

[(Anonymous)]

Can I just start with this book or should I do the other two first

Re: Stand alone

[ecosophia]

This isn't really a standalone volume, though it can be used with any magical or occult system that includes daily discursive meditation -- for example, if you're working with the Dolmen Arch system, or the Ancient Order of Druids in America system, or the Fellowship of the Hermetic Rose system, you can use this book as a resource for that work. On the other hand, if you're starting from scratch, The Way of the Golden Section is the intro to the whole system, and should be read and practiced first -- and it requires the Sacred Geometry Oracle deck, so you'll need both of them.

Re: Stand alone

[(Anonymous)]

That is what I needed to know. Thanks John

[(Anonymous)]

I've just ordered all three and am looking forward to starting this process. I have a regular meditation practice, but am curious about trying discursive meditation with more regularity.

Yay!

[(Anonymous)]

Purchased and look forward to using it with my Dolmen Arch work.

Thanks!
--Eric

[(Anonymous)]

Congratulations JMG, will be ordering one for myself and one for my brother. A quick question tho, would you say this is a nice complement to someone who has practiced using Circles of Power and Paths of Wisdom?

The Occult Philosophy Book

[(Anonymous)]

I want to say how much I love the Occult Philosophy Book! The layout and design, the information, the pacing, the organization, and the whole content are superb!

On top of all that goodness is how well this particular organization of the material offers scope for meshing with my Heathen Soul Lore in a way that I haven't encountered before. After reading your book, this is the first time I've been willing to consider such a meshing.

I also feel that this book deepens my grasp of your Sacred Geometry Oracle's meanings, and my appreciation for it.

Many thanks for this book, JMG!
Winifred Hodge Rose