About the Study Group

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A Magical Bastard is either fatherless – self-created – or has more fathers than they can decently acknowledge.  In this group we will collaborate to interpret magical texts that have been formative for each member, and to integrate theory with experience.  We will respect one another’s experiences, in a world that still claims (with decreasing plausibility) to reject magic itself.  By these means we will attempt to teach one another the unknowable, and maybe score diamond grills and gold hubcaps along the way.

We welcome anyone who loves magic and the art of conversation, regardless of their tradition or experience level.  There will probably be a lot of Thelemites in the group, but these sorts of hardships must be borne.  Please do read the week’s text, if you are coming!  Our plan is to always provide a free online copy.

We convene weekly on Wednesdays (Mercury’s day) from 7:30-9:30 PM at The Long Haul, 3124 Shattuck Ave, in Berkeley. Check below for each week’s texts – and may they bring you joy and power!

If you have questions or would like to be added to the mailing list, please write anika.m.g@gmail.com

The bastard in me honors the bastard in you.

January 1st: How To See Fairies

For New Year’s Day, a suggestion from Hermafetes con Harrow: Ramsey Dukes’ How to See Fairies. We’ll discuss “Week Two: a Sense of Place” – pages 59-78.

Hermafetes’ comment:

I love this text because, unlike many other magical texts, it teaches techniques so fundamental that most introductory books overlook them entirely.
Before reading this book, I hadn’t realized that some of the things I naturally do (call it neurodivergence if you like) are actually a form of these techniques. Recognizing these actions as deliberate skills and practicing them intentionally has value, whether you’re learning them for the first time or refining innate abilities.
A few years ago, we explored how to tune in to sensory input and observe everything simultaneously without judgment. (What Alan Watts might call “floodlight consciousness.”) This week, we’ll shift focus to “vibes.” Specifically the vibes of a place. Most of us have been to a place with strong “good” or “bad” vibes, and while this is valid, what if we could also perceive subtler vibes like “okay” or “awkward” with the same clarity?
I encourage you to pick one of this week’s exercises and let me know how it goes. I’ll do the same. ❤

December 18th: Moonchild

Ok, it’s our last week with Aleister Crowley’s Moonchild! Go ahead and finish the book if you have time – Chapters XVI through XXIII. If you don’t get all the way through, come anyway! And we’ll talk about the Babalon Working too.

Love, Grang

December 11th: Moonchild

Despite a lot of trifling disparagement, we persist with Aleister Crowley’s Moonchild. Please read from Chapter XII, Of Brother Onofrio, his Stoutness and Valiance; and of the Misadventures that came thereby to the Black Lodge, through Chapter XV, Of Dr. Vesquit and his Companions, how they Fared in their Work of Necromancy; and of a Council of War of Cyril Gray and Brother Onofrio; with certain opinions of the Former upon the Art of Magic.

December 4th: Moonchild

This week we continue with Aleister Crowley’s novel, Moonchild. Please read from Chapter VI, “Of a Dinner, With the Talk of Divers Guests,” though XI, “Of the Moon of Honey, and its Events; with Sundry Remarks on Magic; the Whole Adorned With Reflections Useful to the Young.”

November 20th: The Emerald Tablet

This week, at the behest of Helios Epicence, we read The Emerald Tablet of Hermes: Multiple Translations.

WITH a few pages from The Alchemy Reader: 27-28, “Hermes Trismegistus,” and 246-247, Isaac Newton’s commentary on the Tablet. Please also take a look at the images at the beginning of the book, Figures 1-14.

A word from Helios:

The Emerald Tablet may be the beating heart within the body of Western/Middle Eastern Alchemy writings devoted to the cultivation of a Philosopher’s Stone. Many hold the Tablet, the source of the Hermetic adage “As Above, So Below”, to be a rubric of instruction for the Great Work, both physically and spiritually. However, the exploration of the Tablet’s history tends to terminate at its earliest Latin translations during the Renaissance, while this literary comparison will take us further back, to a less recognizable version of the piece.