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.

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.