The Secrets of High Magic

by Francis Melville

Drawing on knowledge from practitioners of magic from around the world, this text provides the aspiring magician with clear, practical descriptions of the necessary techniques for self-initiation into these secret traditions.

Genres: Magick, Nonfiction, Paganism, Occult, Astrology, Spirituality, Reference

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Kerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, accessible and easy to read book full of information on Magic and Alchemy. It's a lovely format with nice pictures and diagrams. It includes information on the Tree of Life, Tarot, Angelic magic, Astrology, symbols, etc which makes it intriguing and a great read.
Some of the rituals seem rather complex and difficult to interpret but I'm sure anyone wanting to use them could get supplementary information from further reading if needed.
I found it a good introduction to the subjects. I was a bit disappointed though that some of the information included is also in his other book that I read recently, 'The Book of Alchemy: Learn the Secrets of the Alchemists to Transform Mind, Body and Soul".

[Dalton Mortimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my bible( and one one of my go-to spellbooks) I read this when I was first starting out and after 8 years my copy is worn from sheer use and by extension usefulness.Plainly put: as both a practitioner and an unapologetic pop culture nerd, speaking as one who grow up on stories like Willow from Buffy the vampire slayer, Marvel's Dr. Strange and DC's Dr. Fate, I was disillusioned quickly with the low-practicality ,self-helpishness and over-spiritualization of most New Age/Wiccan books on the market, for those looking for a technical understanding of the mystic arts, this is a good start but I recommend reading along with a few other as it's often better to start Low or " natural " magic and go up from there.( I recommend reading " Good magic" by Marina Medici, and " Merlyn's Magick: the Wizard's Secret Notebooks" and then this)

[Sarah Goodwin · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got this to go with the similar looking 'Book of Spells Vintage Edition'. I know more about witchcraft than about alchemy and kabbalah, so, can't speak to the accuracy of information in this book - however there is very little knowledge to absorb from reading this - so I can't honestly say I know more now than I did when I started! What there is is confusingly phrased and I got the feeling that key info was missing. For example, under alchemy a long (loooooooong) process is described of gathering ash and extracting salt from that, filtering it, attracting dew to the salt, using the wet salt to make a tincture, purifying the tincture over months, and at the end it just says to drink a bit of it every day. It's not clear on WHY you would want to do that, or of any other uses for this laboriously obtained substance.

Similarly with the greater and lesser rituals of the pentagram, it says that 'the name of god' is to be chanted, but gives no description of which god this is or why - just the name which changes between verses and might be something to do with kabbalah...I have no idea.

Not very thorough, but then again it is a very short book trying to cover all of high magic - so it was doomed to fail.

There is a bibliography though so, it might be worth reading this as a taster of various types of magic, to see what you're into (though a lot of it is about Angels...) but NOT at the full price that the book is being sold for! I paid £4 in a discount shop and even that feels like too much :P

[Scout the Pages · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you follow an Abrahamic religion and are interested in Witchcraft, then this book is for you!

This is not a book for me. I personally do not want the colonizer beliefs blended with the colonized beliefs. This book blends the practice of magick with Hebrew/Abrahamic beliefs and gods. There were some Greek things too. Very much a melting pot of ideologies. I really only have an issue with Abrahamic beliefs being mixed with Pagan ones. I personally do not want the beliefs of the people who tried to stamp out nature religions in my practice.

[Nancy · Rating 1 out of 5]

definately not what I was looking for - this book could be very harmful if used by the wrong person for the wrong reasons

[Amanda · Rating 1 out of 5]

Finally finished. This was terrible, an absolute bore. Bad format, badly written and without a theme. Why did I finish it? Out if stubbornness.

[Cheryle Ross · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed it. I showed me how similar some high magic spells are to Christian prayers.

[Tepintzin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learn to perform difficult and ultimately pointless rituals while shamelessly appropriating Buddhism and Judaism!

[Gema · Rating 2 out of 5]

El que escribió esto se piensa que tengo una forja en casa??? Hay también mucha info errónea y desactualizada pero el libro es bonito

[Lenno Vranken · Rating 2 out of 5]

Het eerste boek over magie en Hekserij dat ik met enige moeite heb uitgelezen. In dit werk staan uitgebreide instructies voor het trekken van verscheidene cirkels tot het maken van planetaire talismannen. Dit alles is weeldegelijk leerrijk, maar werd op een uiterst "droge" manier aan de lezer gebracht. Ook werd er niet bepaald uitgelegd waarom je nu eigenlijk bijvoorbeeld nood zou hebben aan het maken van een talisman die gelijk staat met de energie van Venus of waarom je er baad bij zou hebben om een tinctuur te maken van urine. Dit soort extra uitleg miste ik hard. Ik was ook niet bepaald fan van de christelijke ondertoon die het boek had. Toen ik het boek kocht, las ik al iets over Engelenmagie. Hier hou ik mij persoonlijk niet mee bezig, maar ik ben van mening dat het nooit slecht is om jezelf te verdiepen in zaken die je niet direct interesseren. Tijdens het lezen, stond dit mij toch hevig in de weg om overtuigd doorheen het hele boek te gaan. Terwijl ik dit soort boeken lees, probeer ik meestal ook een aantal spreuken of rituelen uit om mezelf wat bij te leren. Bij dit boek heb ik dit echter niet ondernomen. Wel ben ik er zeker van dat ik dit werk ooit nog van de plank zal halen als ik wat meer info over mantra's en de planetaire invloeden op de weekdagen nodig heb. Al bij al dus niet een boek waarvan ik de aankoop betreur, maar niet iets waar ik laaiend enthousiast over ben.

[Amadeus · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a simple introduction to high magic, as I thought it would be. It attracted me because the illustrations reminded me of Wizardology, a book I read as a child and my primary introduction to the occult arts. I have since gotten into chaos magic and have found high magic daunting, but this book was as digestible as I expected it to be.
The book is written well and breaks down The Tree of Life in a way I was delighted to understand. It covers a lot of angelic magic, which I still can't jive with because I can't work effectively with Judaeo-Christian archetypes. I'm sure it works for some people, otherwise it wouldn't have lasted for hundreds of years, but it's not for me. Also I was quite disappointed in the chapter on talismans as it is all about Hebrew numerology, which doesn't entice me in the slightest.
Might I mention, the correspondences are great and I will keep revisiting this book for that alone.

I recommend this book to those looking to get into high magic, but don't want to jump into the Key of Solomon, or find the writings of Stephen Skinner daunting

[Lateef Amodu · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thought this was a really useful book covering various occult information. It's doesn't contain in depth analysis, but it has a good summary of information, that can be catalyst to explore further on a particular topic covered. This actually what I liked about, it contained concise information, that helped me quickly familiarise myself with a piece of knowledge. The book covers Alchemy, Tree of Life, Tarot, Angelic Magic, Astrology and many other concepts. The pages are filled with illustrations which helped visualise the concepts being discussed. The book also comes with a list of references and sources.

[Carla · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been trying to finish this book for months now, but I decided to finally put it down.

If you're looking for a beautiful coffee table book, this one is a great choice, it is incredibly pretty (at least the one I got is). But the content itself for me was all over the place, with a lot of information thrown at the reader, using a complicated way of explaning things with very elaborate vocabulary.

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrible, at least the dutch version is. I really dislike the writing style and the author trying to tell that there is only 1 right way to do anything. Also a lot of things that he describes are so far fetched and based on nothing like certain mannerisms that he added to his crafts and claims as essential.

[Fabian]

I would describe this book as a very nice and pretty illustrated "pamphlet" or "coffee table" book about High Magick. It briefly, very very briefly covers many topics about the disciplines. It is good for reference or as a starting point before going deep into it.

[Pucho · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a very fascinating little book, I learned a lot.

[Jean Bassadila]

nice book

[Hay Lin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prachtige tekeningen en handige korte informatieve teksten. Leuke inleiding.

[Katarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best book and initiation to High White Magic. Author choose easy explanation and language. I have had this book maybe from 2008,but I start properly read it maybe year ago. It was right time..

[GEIST · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very slimmed down guide with no great detail to explanation.
For advanced users who still need a reference guide at times.

[Joseph Uribe · Rating 1 out of 5]

to weird.

[J.W. Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

A christmas present from my roomie, and i loved it, absorbed it.
will prolly read it again
good information, and really useable for my research

[Lana · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good resource guide for high magic.

[Rhonda · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clear concise information in bite sized pieces. Easy to refer back to.