Android users rejoice! You now have the opportunity to purchase my novels as ebooks from Google Play! This is in addition to Amazon Kindle, and iTunes. If you have an Android-enabled smartphone or tablet and want to both terrified and yet strangely aroused by some visionary & metaphysical fiction, follow these links:
| The Magus Trilogy | ||
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| The Magus | Opus Secunda | Licence To Depart |
Filed under Books, Eternal Witch, Licence To Depart, Opus Secunda, The Magus
(A2A) For simple questions I use a fifteen card layout, like this:
Fifteen card tarot spread.
This is most appropriate for situations which can go one of two ways. The general principle is that in each set of three cards, the centre-card represents the main meaning, whilst the cards to either side influence how the first card is to be interpreted.
The cards on the right hand side indicate what is likely to happen if the Querent doesn’t attempt to change what he or she is doing, or intending to do. The cards on the left hand side indicates what will happen if he or she does change, or deliberately does something new. Moreover: the cards in the top-row represent the short-term future; whilst the cards on the bottom-row represent the long-term (i.e. what is likely to develop as a result of what happened in the top-row). Hence:
(The numbers represent the order in which the cards are dealt.)
Apart from this, the rest of the interpretation is pretty conventional (i.e. observing traditional tarot meanings). One peculiarity though is that it does not necessarily used “reversed-cards” – however, cards to either side of each main card can be used to indicate whether it is “well-dignified” or “ill-dignified.”
Source: Alex Sumner’s answer to What’s your favorite tarot layout? – Quora
Filed under Supernatural
The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn was a magical order founded in 1888. Its teachings focussed on the Qabalah, Hermeticism, astrology, tarot, alchemy – albeit through the lens of Theosophy. In its higher grades (the “inner order”) members passed from the theoretical to the practical and practiced ceremonial magic.
Notable members included S L MacGregor Mathers, Aleister Crowley, W B Yeats, Dion Fortune, A E Waite, Paul Foster Case, as well as a whole host of others.
“The Golden Dawn,” by Israel Regardie
In 1934, Israel Regardie went public with the teachings of The Golden Dawn, although many of them had been published previously by Crowley.
The original order broke up and stopped operating under the name of “Golden Dawn” in the early twentieth century, but there are nowadays modern revivals of the Golden Dawn, operating in England, America, and elsewhere.
Source: Alex Sumner’s answer to Occult: What is the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn? – Quora
Filed under Supernatural
Alex at home, studying.
(A2A) Donald Michael Kraig’s “Modern Magick” was my first serious book on practical occultism as well. It is an ideal book for beginners because (a) it contains a lot of suitable material to get you started; and more importantly (b) it also has an extensive bibliography which will clue you in as to where to go and what to read to pursue your studies further.
Other books I generally recommend:
(For beginners):
(More advanced):
(Even more advanced):
“The Greek Magical Papyri In Translation” (H D Betz), “Transcendental Magic – its Dogma and Ritual” (Eliphas Levi), “Light on Yoga” (BKS Iyengar), other books by Dion Fortune, Israel Regardie, Crowley, S L MacGregor Mathers, primary texts on Adam McLean’s Alchemy website / Joseph H Peterson’s website, etc, etc, etc.
Source: Alex Sumner’s answer to What is your source of occult information? – Quora
Filed under Supernatural
“High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices that saved my Life on Death Row,” by Damien Echols.
Damien Echols has forcibly wrested the kind of superstardom of which most occult writers dream but never see. But then – has has paid a far higher price that any other magician – myself included – would ever want to pay, i.e. spending eighteen years on death row for a crime he did not commit.
Whereas most would-be occultists might want to cast spells for money, sex, power, and all the rest, Damien has been using his magickal skills for the considerably less frivolous ends of avoiding being executed; preserving his life, health and sanity; winning his eventual freedom; and coping with severe PTSD after having been released.
The blurb of this book describes Damien as having been initiated into a lineage of Zen Buddhism whilst incarcerated: however, almost none of this comes across in the present book. Instead, what we have is a number of Hermetic techniques, mostly drawn from the Golden Dawn, with a smattering of Franz Bardon thrown in for good measure.
Thus, what we get is: a number of Chi-techniques (thus placing Damien squarely within the Energy Model of magick). This at least shows original thought not present other books on magick. He goes on to give his own take on some well-known techniques of magick such as the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram (sophisticated by the addition of Metatron and Sandalphon in “the column”), as well as the Middle Pillar Ritual. He proposes the Lesser Invoking Ritual as a replacement for the Golden Dawn’s Supreme Ritual, whilst describing practical techniques of creating thoughtforms, charging amulets and talismans, the magick use of tattoos, and intriguing thoughts on urban shamanism.
Most of the practical techniques function at the same level as “Neophyte” in the Golden Dawn. Hence a complete beginner to magick might profit from reading this book.
HOWEVER – and this is the biggest fault of the book – it lacks any kind of Bibliography or suggested reading list. So if complete beginners are indeed the book’s intended target audience, and they wanted to know where to go to find out more (as one naturally would), they would not find such information here. This is especially frustrating as Damien constantly mentions advanced concepts such as the Qabalah, the Holy Guardian Angel, Evocation, etc without giving further explanation. (A book such as Donald Michael Kraig’s Modern Magick, or John Michael Greer’s Circles of Power would serve better in this respect.)
High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Save My Life on Death Row by Damien Echols is available from Amazon in Hardback or on Kindle.
Filed under Supernatural
So now I’m collating and preparing my Cosmic Ordering Calendar for 2019! Here’s what I wrote about the concept this time last year…
Some eight years ago I first came up with the idea of devising one’s own Cosmic Ordering Calendar. As a reaction against some of the cynical and trashy novelty calendars that were then doing the rounds, I thought, why not create one’s own calendar to do something noble like manifest one’s goals and aspirations?
Needless to say, I am currently using the break between Christmas and New Year’s Eve to prepare my Calendar for 2018. I’ve found that a great deal of the work can be done for you by getting photo calendars, which are available from major stationers: their intent was for you to put twelve cute pictures of your family on it and send it to your relatives. However, the Cosmic Orderer can subvert this and put twelve pictures of what one wants to manifest in the forthcoming year.
Filed under Uncategorized
Alex Sumner, novelist and writer on the Occult and now Football manager as well!
MANCHESTER – Officials at Old Trafford today have named José Mourinho’s replacement as Alex Sumner, following the former’s sudden sacking today.
Alex Sumner is a novelist and writer on the Occult. He published his first novel, The Magus in 2009. His latest novel, Eternal Witch, was published earlier this year.
When asked on his qualifications, Alex said:
“Well, someone said they were desperate to bring a load of red devils under control, so I immediately said, ‘Aha! I’m your man!’
“I don’t intend to use traditional coaching techniques to win matches. Instead, I’ll be evoking my old friend Andromalius to reclaim all the success that has been stolen from United; Orobas to win honours for the team; and Paimon to bind the referees from making unfavourable decisions.
“I admit I haven’t got a clue about football management at Premiership level, or indeed at any level. But on the plus side that at least gives me more chance than the last two cretins they had in the job.”
Look there’s a demon right there! If that’s not a Goetic symbol, nothing is! 😉
Filed under Books, Eternal Witch, The Magus
Anglo-Catholic involvement in the occult is much broader and deeper than most would suspect, writes Richard Yoder
You now have the opportunity to buy all of my paperback novels, including especially The Magus Trilogy, as I originally intended them. I have spent the past few days migrating them to CreateSpace, so they are no longer on lulu.com.
 The Magus: Book 1 in the Magus Trilogy. |
 Opus Secunda: Book 2 in the Magus Trilogy. |
 Licence To Depart: Book 3 in the Magus Trilogy. |
Grr! All this aggravation about lulu… you know it makes me want to SHOUT!
Filed under Books, Licence To Depart, Opus Secunda, The Magus
Sol Ascendans - The Website of Alex Sumner 
Do you prefer The Hermetic Tarot over the Rider Waite tarot? – Quora
The Hermetic Tarot
The Rider Waite Tarot Deck
(A2A) I own both decks: for my own particular reasons I prefer using the Hermetic Tarot over Rider-Waite, and usually end up recommending it to others (I even bought a copy of the Hermetic Tarot as a Christmas present for my girlfriend!)
Because I am keenly interested in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Hermetic Tarot is my go-to deck, because it is an actual GD deck. It closely follows the designs specified in Book T, which is the Golden Dawn’s inner order teachings on the Tarot; it includes the astrological attributions of all 78 cards; and each card features divine and angelic Hebrew names which reflects the Qabalistic associations thereof. It is thus an ideal deck to complement Golden Dawn teachings.
The Rider-Waite deck, whilst not completely incompatible with the Golden Dawn, is not GD-specific, despite the fact that A E Waite and Pixie Coleman-Smith were both (at one time) GD members. The Rider-Waite deck is more generic in outlook. It is thus perfectly suitable for people who just want to use it for Tarot divination: the fact that it is fully illustrated in colour makes it especially suitable for giving readings to clients. So although I prefer the Hermetic Tarot, that’s not to say the Rider-Waite deck is not a good deck in its own right.
Source: Alex Sumner’s answer to Do you prefer The Hermetic Tarot over the Rider Waite tarot? – Quora
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