RIP: Donald Michael Kraig, 1951 – 2014

Donald Michael Kraig, 1951 – 2014

I note with sadness that the occultist and author Donald Michael Kraig has today postponed those spiritual activities which require the use of a physical body. I would like to add my own tribute to the many others which I’m sure will be expressed throughout the occult community – for I am one of the many practitioners who was originally inspired by his seminal book, Modern Magick.

Modern Magick

It was back in 1995, getting on for nineteen years ago, that one of the first books I picked up on the subject of the occult was Modern Magick: Eleven Lessons In the High Magickal Arts (as the then current edition was titled). At the time I had not practiced any occult rituals whatsoever, so I boldly decided to have a go at working my way through the book starting with page one. The first ritual I came to was a simple relaxation exercise, involving visualising a ball of energy moving up one’s body.

The results amazed me: it was unlike anything I had experienced before. Before attempting this exercise I had had no idea that the combination of will + visualisation could produce an effect which could be physically felt – and that powerfully too. I became instantly convinced of this basic truth – that Magic is Real – and all because of reading Kraig’s book!

Modern Magick is therefore an excellent beginner’s book which I would highly recommend. I say “beginner’s” book because, after long consideration, I decided that my magical path lay not in Kraig’s book per ser, but in the many sources he cited in its bibliography. Mind you, the fact that he did provide a comprehensive bibliography was itself an invaluable aid to my magical quest.

One other thing of his which I enjoyed and I would recommend to others is an essay he wrote for The Magical Pantheons: A Golden Dawn Journal (Bk.4), entitled “Do the Gods Exist?” in which he spun a clever argument based on Existentialist philosophy that basically said Yes, i.e. we are entitled to assume that They do exist, based on the practical results which are achievable through the practice of Magick.

My condolences go to his wife Holly and all his family.