Practice of Magic: An Introductory Guide to the Art

by Draja Mickaharic

Shows you how to get started in magical practice. How does magic work? What distinguishes one form of magic from another? What system of magic should you pursue High or Low, elemental or natural? Mickaharic answers all of these questions, and outlineshow to prepare oneself to practice magic, how the primary instruments of the magician are developed and cared for, and learning a chosen system of magic. Includes some basic techniques for each magical practice. Bibliography, index.

Genres: Magic, Occult, Metaphysics, Magick

176 pages, Paperback

First published January 15, 1995

About the author

"Draja Mickaharic was born on Wednesday, April 10, 1912 in Bosnia where his father, an Austrian, was a civil servant employed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He arrived as an immigrant to the U.S. on March 12, 1937, just at the beginning of World War II. He later became a U.S. citizen in 1940. He lived in New York City until 2002, when he moved to Philadelphia to stay with a former student. Since then, and for many decades afterward, he has resided in the United States. For years, he has practiced as a consultant on Occult and other matters, but is now retired. Now he is devoting what time he has left to writing and relaxing in front of the TV, so he no longer consults or does work for others. He writes on the topic of occultism and magic. His work features a unique, eclectic, and practical blend of Eastern European and Caribbean folk magic, with strong touches of hoodoo, obeah, and brujería."
"The occult seemed to have interested him from a relatively young age, and he’s produced copious volumes on various magical themes. Despite his Old World roots, most of his magical writings focus on New World systems, such as Caribbean, Southern, and Mexican folk magic."

Reviews

[Krapp · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was expecting great things from this book. Even Brother Moloch recommends Mickaharic. (You can always trust people named Moloch.) There were no great things in this book that are not available in much superior Magic 101 books of various other writers.

Dogma is rampant. "First you must learn to relax. I won't tell you a method, just force yourself, for maybe a year or two. Then and only then you must learn to concentrate. Do not concentrate until you can relax perfectly!" The concentration exercises are good, but available in many places. Who knows why relaxation and concentration must be in this order. It's unthinkable the process of learning one skill might reinforce another skill. But no other way is possible, Mickaharic's way is the only way, always. Another example of the author's Il Duce complex is his inflexible and narrow paradigms of magic (six I think). No more, no less, they are always the same for everyone everywhere and you must possess exactly the right personality traits or innate abilities to practice any of them, otherwise you'll always be a muggle. E.g., to practice "natural magic" you must be gifted with a green thumb; if you hate gardening but are an expert outdoors-man, can spear fish with a sharp stick, that's not, of course, good enough. "The Golden Dawn magical system is foolish nonsense; there are no practitioners of it who achieve verifiable magical results." (Though Mickaharic has already stated Aleister Crowley was a talented magician devoted to a Golden Dawn-based system). Of course bad Pharaoh costumes are dumb, but planetary intelligences and spirits, godforms, talismans--all are potent.

Contempt for the reader, small-mindedness and constant discouragement guarantee my copy of this book will soon be landfill. No kid should get the idea magic is not just hard but quite impossible for %99.9999 of people. I do get sick of the "just draw a sigil and wank" notion, the numberless tomes about the 8 Wiccan thingamabobs and the Rede. At least they're mostly harmless. But you'll put this book down depressed for a while, wondering if only an advanced being, the author for example, certainly not you, has a chance at magic. The following are more paraphrases, valid and accurate paraphrases, I believe. "It is impossible to practice a type of magic contrary to the magico-religious environment of your childhood." (He contradicts himself with success stories of people who have converted to a very different belief system, but contradiction deserves a separate paragraph.) "After years of solitary practice of the rudimentary skills of ceremonial magic, then you will be worthy of a teacher, and the teacher will find you: teacherless, you are lost: if you live in a rural area, you are screwed no matter what you do." "There are only two worthwhile books on ceremonial magic: avoid all the other good books (the ones for advanced practitioners) that I have mentioned: too advanced for you." Thus, ad nauseam.

Now for just a few contradictions. "Peter J. Carroll's Liber Kaos is an excellent book for the advanced student (even though it includes a curriculum beginning with the novice level and was written to build on the foundation of Liber Null); do not read it!" No mention that a foundational principle of Carroll's brand of Chaos Magic is that the magician must dismantle his or her childhood and societal conditionings and at will reassemble other equally valid ego complexes, dismantle them, choose others, etc. Mickaharic has highly praised a book based on, to him, impossibilities. Another: spiritual advancement is essential, and prayer is a form of magic, yet only external results perceptible by anyone may be considered magic. Magic effected on one's non-quantifiable self (personality, spirituality, etc.) is not magic. If you pray for rain and it doesn't rain then you prayed badly, didn't you... "If you're not a canonizable saint, you're crap!" I like the emphasis on "results magic"; but to insist by means of nonsense disguised as discourse that it is the only magic that may rightly be called magic is silly. The best one is this: "Don't read many books, because you can never be rid of the poison you absorb from incorrect books (I myself write correct books)!"

Avoid this book. For a general introduction to magical praxis I would suggest you get both Israel Regardie's The One Year Manual and/or High Magic Theory Practice and High Magic II Expanded Theory and Practice by Frater U. D. (the books were renamed, badly, for American audiences: the original German translates as Practical Magic). For something shorter get Stealing the Fire from Heaven by Stephen Mace. If you prefer witchcraft then get Mastering Witchcraft by Paul Huson. As second choices get The Sorcerer's Secrets by Jason Miller (he doesn't seem to have a working Goodreads link), Postmodern Magic by Patrick Dunn or Liber Null and Psychonaut by Peter J. Carroll. Then you'll want to study most everything in their bibliographies, as interest dictates. I've heard of other decent beginner's books, and eventually you gotta go back and read difficult classics, e.g. Agrippa and A. O. Spare; I happen to own these particular introductory texts, is all. Also Phil Hine's Oven-Ready Chaos is available as a free download. I'm very partial to Chaos & Sorcery by Nicholas Hall, but it's not really for beginners (the pitfalls always warned of are actually present in this book).

While avoiding Mickaharic also avoid the ever-hyped Modern Magick Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts by Donald Michael Kraig if, in the words of Grant Morrison you want to make s*^% happen. As for Mickaharic's other works, I won't be reading them.

[Hamidreza · Rating 4 out of 5]

nice book
but it is exaggerating the time of practice

[Brother Moloch · Rating 4 out of 5]

*snort* As if you can take anything seriously from someone who goes by the handle of 'Krapp'. ;)

Essentially this book is a 101 beginner's book and like any sort of beginner's book in any field, there are going to be folks who like it and others who don't. So a few of tHeE kAyOsS kids don't care for it? Pfffft. That's their choice. Nor does it matter if someone dislikes Draja's style of writing which I will agree is sometimes terse or condescending. Big deal. Forget who said what, ask yourself "Is there any truth to what they're saying?" Otherwise you're complaining about how a large portion of New Yorkers speak. Get used to the fact they don't kiss your bum like you want and tell you what you need to hear. I know a number of Houngans, Paleros and Santeros who speak that way and not one of them ever make an apology for doing so.

There are other books out there that have the basics down. I wrote one myself called the Basics of Metaphysical Empowerment and left out a lot of the commentary simply because people have told me they like the Finbarr style of short booklets with clear instruction and just enough dialogue to make the applications understandable. If you feel that a 54 page manual is too short, there are all manner of 101 books out there to start off with. If you're into CM try Kraig's _Modern Magick_ or if you're of kayoss then try Frater UD's _High Magick In Theory and Practice_. How the the basics are presented and implemented may vary from system to system and yet like Ragu, they're still in there.

Also understand that a lot of you boys n girls are coming to this manual long after it was first printed and a couple of the concepts in here Draja put forth back when no one else was doing so. His advisement to the young student to work with his angelic namesake Michael is an example. I have hundreds of occult books and not one of them had that technique in it nor was it found on anyone's website at the time. Yet NOW every one has had a chance to steal his idea and put it forth in their books, blogs, websites and so forth that you think this is just another hack borrowing an idea. You're making presumptions based long after the fact when it was first published.

Let's face it, if you read an occult book and find one idea, one technique, one thing that you can take away and use or build upon, isn't that worth the price of the book alone? Or does the book have to be 100% useful else you immediately give it a '1 star fail' rating? If you're of the former you're in the right frame of mind but if you're in the latter category, I'd like to see YOUR great treatise on sorcery come to light so we too can shred it.

[Taylor Ellwood · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for both beginners and advanced practitioners. I was impressed by the clarity of thought and focus, as well as the author's definition of magic. I was also impressed by his willingness to critique Crowley's thoughts and ideas, which is always refreshing to see. The author also provides some useful exercises that can help the magician enhance his/her own practice. What is most evident from reading this book is that the author has done the work.

[Onyx · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's an intro to magic that gives the reader first contact to several varieties of magical practice.
The author writes in old-school style, so those who may be interested in reading this book might be put off by Mickaharic's seemingly terse, conceited, and condescending tone. But it's not another book about Wicca, let alone traditional Wicca, nor is it a book on ceremonial magic, although it does mention it as one of the types of magical practice.
If you were to meet someone like Mickaharic who had even half the training in real magic, you would probably find that he or she would sound a lot like this....which would probably not sound so pleasant to American ears. But if you could tolerate it, you could at least appreciate the honesty.
Mickaharic covers several forms of magic which I could probably split off into an even smaller number of only two categories: One depends a lot on faith and the other depends heavily on natural ability. Not a lot of authors will admit anymore that for a person to practice real magic well you should start out with being a natural at it. Most will lead you astray by letting you assume that anyone can do magic. That's only partially true. This author will pretty much tell you like it is, that there's a major difference between someone only trained in magic and one who's a natural. It's the same way with an actor, counselor, politician, or soldier. Naturals are just far better at what they do, and you can totally see the difference. The reality is bitter to face, that you can train and study and practice and put your heart and soul into it, and then some noob comes along to blow you away with their abilities like it's beginner's luck...all the time. However, the same author will also tell you that a trained magician is still better than an untrained natural, even though a well-trained natural will still be better than a well-trained ordinary anyway. So you think you should give up and change lines of work now? Well, if you can get yourself to admit that you don't have what it takes to be an elemental-, plant-, or even ghost-whisperer, well, there's still always practicing magic by faith....
The author covers six modes of magical practice: Religious Ritual, Ritual and Ceremonial Magic, Deific Magic, Death Magic (or Communing with Spirits), Elemental Magic, and Natural Magic. Personally, I feel these groups can be reduced to about three because, for example, dividing Natural Magic in two by call the other group Elemental wasn't necessary. (Incidentally, Natural Magic is one of those kinds that you actually need natural intuitive abilities to be good at it. You can't just learn it and hope you can be this amazing animal-, plant-, stone-, or whatever-whisperer.) Neither do I totally agree with how he names his classifications. But it's cool.
What I do agree with is just how long it takes to learn this stuff, and that you're better off training under a teacher rather than to do it yourself New Age style. The practices he suggests you do on your own, until the teacher appears, may not be the only ones you ought to do, but they're satisfactory. Also, Yes, his stress on personal development I totally agree with. Any legitimate and respectable religious, magical, and psychological philosophy ought to be able to train its adherents in effective self-development before letting them even consider something like mystical or magical training. If you're not psychologically together, things can go anywhere from living nothing more than a personal delusional fantasy life to stuff going horribly wrong. So yeah, the not-so-fun, boring, frustrating work of self-development should come first. And no, I'm not thrilled to say that, but you got to start with the basic building blocks first.
Anyway, it may not be a fun read, and it may be a splash of ice water in the face for some, but even with what I consider its inaccuracies, I would still suggest it to beginners. Don't take every word in the book for gospel of course, but consider what this guy is basically saying overall. Magic is tough work. And no, it doesn't look at all like it does in the movies. No bells, no whistles, no special effects. Just results.
Rant over. :-)

[Ander Sander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to the topic. Very no-nonsense and drily humorous.

[Michael · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was highly recommended to me by several people and by the authors of books I've read over the years. I'll have to remember that when deciding who to send birthday cards to and who not and what books to pay real money for. It's supposed to be a fantastic book on magic(k)al practice, for beginners but not for beginners. Now I know why that particular description fits. The thing I fail to see is how this book is supposed to be useful to anyone. If the reader is approaching the subject for the first time the author's attitude and the general approach would be daunting and tend to scare any beginner away from trying to do anything at all. The bar for the least magical practice is said to be so high that few could hope to ever even begin if the author is to be believed. But I get ahead of myself.

The book is filled with the most amazing statements. I can't resist quoting some of the best. It's like seeing the trailer for a movie that shows off the most amazing computer-generated effects. When you see the crashing helicopters and mile-long alien worms you know where the movie is going. When you read this sparkling prose, you'll have a good idea how the rest of the book is written and what the author's attitude toward his readers and the subject is. It's the Plan-9 from Outer Space of books on magic(k). Unfortunately there's no Tor Johnson, Bunny Breckinridge, or Vampira to add interest as they did in that movie. I've spoiler marked one of these because it's racist. If you don't want to see it I don't want to make you see it.

“Christian magicians who failed in their art now had the Devil, and the loss of their souls to Hell to fear, according to the theologians.”

Oddly enough, not so. Faust wasn't doomed until Marlowe, who himself was a member of the School of Night and widely suspected of being an Atheist. There's a hidden story behind this change. In earlier times it was believed, so far as I know, that even the most unreconstructed practitioner of magic, mayhem, and murder was redeemable if they repented of their sins at the last. That's not a part of the modern view of things or rather the popular modern view of the superstitious past, which the author obviously subscribes to. I tend not to assume people of the past, including the ancient past, were so ignorant. Which naturally leads to another lovely quote.

“Only superstition remains in the culture of the American Black.”

Thank you for informing me of that mister Mickaharic. He refers to 'the blacks' many times as well. The discussions of Afro-Caribbean religions and magical practices is completely disjointed with bits of reality sprinkled among the wildly varying descriptions. Which leads to his descriptions of working with spirits of the dead.

“Even the most skeptical dead will believe in an existence after death.”

What? I don't even. The author is discussing the common walnut that the dead are no more wise or powerful than they were in life. I'd be willing to buy that principle (more on that later) in general. This particular statement is just weird. It's like saying that fish generally believe in fish.

“Working with the dead, like all other modes of magic, can be a rather tricky business.”

Yes, of course. Nonetheless the author fails to explain exactly what the pitfalls of working with the dead are or even how to work with them in the first place. This is a constant one-note song in the book. Mentioning something amazing but giving no clue as to how is is supposed to be achieved. He also says that if you have a morbid bent of mind you might be suited to working with the dead. I suppose this is an obvious observation. It fits with the rest of the author's painfully obvious observations. Now onward to the development of basic magical abilities, which according to the author requires the preliminary exercise of astral travel around the house and moving large objects telekinetically.

“Eventually the best students will be able to move a weight of about fifty pounds, or up to about a third of their body weight, using their astral forms.”

Like so many other things in this book Micaharic never explains how this is accomplished. A few chapters later he explains how to develop telekinetic skills to the most amazing level by just relaxing and willing things to move. That's it, but according to the author it's much too difficult for you and you'll never develop any ability whatsoever without a teacher who probably won't accept you because you're so pitiful and most students drop out anyway. That's the only explanation given and this is similar to other things in this book stated from authority with no further expansion. I have yet to see anyone move fifty pounds of anything telekinetically. As they say, pics or it didn't happen. But these days it's amazingly easy to fake videos so it would be hard to confirm such things one way or another even if it actually occurred. Now to the discussion of elemental or natural magic. The author can't seem to decide which to call it and so switches forth and back between the two.

“One of the physiological indications indicating an ability to work with elemental magic is having pointed ears. These 'Dr. Spock' type ears are not very common, but they usually are an indication of people who are able to communicate deeply with nature.”

I know and have met many people with a deep connection with nature. None of them has pointed ears that aren't made of plastic. I suppose in the future I should seek out people with Williams Syndrome (aka. WS, WMS, or WBS) who match this description. According to him they must be talented in elemental magic in addition to having congenital intellectual and heart defects. Also, 'Doctor' Spock generally refers to Benjamin Spock, not the character in Star Trek. I don't think he meant the author of books on childrearing.

This is one of the author's attitudes that come up repeatedly in the book and seriously put me off. Authors generally refrain from generalizing about types of people in these ways unless they're speaking through the mouth of a bigoted character. I have to say that I don't much care for it. One or two generalizations are forgivable but the attitude is constant throughout the book and it really grates on me.

Another thing that's grating to me as a reader is the use of the word principal in place of principle. Shouldn't an editor have caught that? Maybe the editor is unaware of the usage of principle in an esoteric context but it should still be obvious that this is the wrong word.

The final chapter, “Not In Conclusion” actually contains some good advice. Much of it contradicts statements earlier in the book. The author sometimes contradicts himself within one paragraph so that's par for the course. The book isn't entirely devoid of usefulness but I would advise anyone starting out with magic(k) against reading this book or at least taking it seriously.

[Claudio Yáñez Valenzuela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Siempre es estimulante leer a Draja Mickaharic; y aunque tiene opiniones sobre algunas prácticas mágicas que me parecen dogmáticas y poco adecuadas, en su mayor parte, su trabajo es respetable y sobre todo tanto sincero como probado en primera persona por él mismo autor, cosa que en el mundo esotérico no siempre se valora.

[Starlon · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of what is presented could k d be found in other books with a bit more depth and varied exercises. However its section on prayer is quite amazing and enlightening. Will be coming back to it specifically for the last two chapters.

[Alison sparrow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Belief, the world, the spirit

This book could easily be called, the belief, the world, and the spirit. It is key for anyone's self development to love and pray and worship, as deeply as one can.