Before You Do Magic: Train Your Mind to Awaken Occult Skills

by Donald Tyson

Countless books teach you the mechanics of magic, but very few teach how to develop your occult mental abilities so that you can perform magic effectively.

Before you perform spells and rituals, you need to develop your mind's muscles. Without mental preparation, you'll just go through the motions without any results. Everyone, regardless of experience or traditions, can learn from these exercises and gain the mental focus to make your magic much more effective.

Donald Tyson provides twelve chapters that each cover a different topic or type of occult skill—such as concentration, meditation, scrying, astral travel, and aura manipulation—and why it is necessary for better magic. Within each chapter, you'll find ten exercises to help develop the corresponding topic or skill. Magic comes from the self, and you need to work on yourself before you can cast spells that work. This book has everything you need to do serious magic.

Genres: Witchcraft, Nonfiction

264 pages, Paperback

Published December 8, 2025

About the author

Donald Tyson is a Canadian from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Early in life he was drawn to science by an intense fascination with astronomy, building a telescope by hand when he was eight. He began university seeking a science degree, but became disillusioned with the aridity and futility of a mechanistic view of the universe and shifted his major to English. After graduating with honors he has pursued a writing career.

Now he devotes his life to the attainment of a complete gnosis of the art of magic in theory and practice. His purpose is to formulate an accessible system of personal training composed of East and West, past and present, that will help the individual discover the reason for one's existence and a way to fulfill it.

Reviews

[Mitchell]

A good overview of foundational occult skills but a bit standard to books of this type.

[Alan D.D.]

Aunque corto, es un libro que tiene muchísimo valor. El estilo del autor es claro, conciso, pero no escatima en detalles. Es de esos que le añaden más profundidad a tu práctica como brujo. Las instrucciones son claras desde el inicio, y el autor es claro cuando afirma que si uno de los ejercicios no funciona a la primera, prueba de nuevo y de nuevo, pero que es normal que algunas personas tengan mejores resultados con este o aquél. Indispensable.

Although brief, this is a book of immense value. The author's style is clear and concise, yet spares no detail. It is one of those books that adds significant depth to your practice as a witch. The instructions are clear from the very start, and the author is explicit in stating that if one of the exercises doesn't work the first time, you should try again and again—though he notes that it is perfectly normal for some individuals to achieve better results with one specific exercise over another. Indispensable.

[Jon Daniels]

Tyson basically says before you start waving tools around maybe train the part of you thats supposed to be doing the magic, which sounds obvious but occultists are spectacular at avoiding fundamentals. Theres 120 exercises here covering breath, concentration, visualization, aura work, scrying, channeling and astral projection, and I like that your not expected to master every single one so much as find the methods that actually wake something up in you. Its the sort of book I wouldve called too basic 20 years ago and now recognize as exactly the stuff people skip right before wondering why nothing happens.

[Dodie]

I read Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy edited and annotated by Tyson. I decided to purchase a few of his other books. I did enjoy the book. It covered the basics like visualization, concentration, the aura and astral projection. ..etc. My favorite chapter was on incantations. Tyson is a modern occult. There was couple of times I disagree with his ethics.