Review: When Magic Works – edited by Mike Crowson

When Magic Works, edited by Mike Crowson

This is a story of a number of people who are now Adepts, each discovering evidence of the paranormal for the first time, and from that, extrapolating a belief in the reality of Magic. It is a story of the trials and tribulations which initiates go through when progressing through the grades of the outer order. It is a record of the nitty gritty of what is really involved in summoning ones inner resources to put into a Portal thesis, when one attempts to practice Clairvoyance, of astonishing oneself when one succeeds in consecrating a talisman and making it work. It is in short a portrait of everyday life as a member of a magical order, with the qualification that – viewed by an outsider – nothing in this book is in fact “everyday.”

My favourite parts of the book are a guided meditation for Rising on the Planes, intended to demonstrate the work of a typical inner-order member, and which can be utilised as a practical exercise for oneself. Furthermore, there is a curious mention of what happened when a number of initiates used their powers of astral projection to form a side-project of people dealing with occult forces gone bad. I must confess here that I have spoken to the editor who has privately informed me that he deliberately held back on publishing the details of some of the more terrifying incidents in which this group got involved, which is a shame as from the sound of it their exploits would provide inspiration for a score of decent horror movies!

When Magic Works: The Inner Experiences of the Adepts of the UK Temples of the Golden Dawn 2003 – 2018. Edited by Mike Crowson. ISBN 978-1716408069. Available on Amazon and other book stores now.