schinko94's reviews
107 reviews

Elizabeth Gilbert has some interesting things to say but overall the trope of "White woman uses different culture to find herself" is a very orientalist one.

It's fine. The author clearly knows what she's talking about, so if you're interested in worshipping demons, this is the book for you. I'm not interested in that though, and if anything this book makes me confident that Western esotericism/Goetia magic are not for me personally. I found a YouTube channel that made me have a passing interest in Goetia, so I mostly bought this book for the catalog of demons and their functions.

This is a good book for anyone who wants to start practicing Thelema in the tradition of Crowley--Marco Visconti gives VERY in-depth descriptions and step-by-step guides to rituals like the LBRP and the LBRH, and others. It doesn't include Thelemic approaches to Solomonic Magic or Enochian magick though, which was part of what I was expecting to read about when I bought the book.

I still maintain that Aleister Crowley was mostly a fraud that had some caucasian chavinistic fetishes for Ancient Egypt and Hinduism. It's pretty obvious to me that most of Thelema is an amalgamation of Egyptian gods, misunderstood Jewish Kabbalah, highly inaccurate yogic philosophy, and some elements of the Greek Magical Papyri. He was a rather obnoxious white man who used spirituality to manipulate people during the Victorian occult renaissance--Therefore, I tend to not place a lot of value on his systems of occult theory.

That being said, it is interesting to see that many occult practitioners use visualization exercise to summon demons, and that many times they rely on little else. Personally, I would not attempt this, and I would call into question the authenticity of the entities being summoned. Seeing that most of Thelema is based on Crowley's imagination, it makes me wonder if they're even speaking with demons at all, or if they're just talking to their imaginations. I'll stick to Tibetan Buddhism and chöd practice I guess--Nothing like meditating in a graveyard to summon demons and get them to do what you want.

Another all-encompassing and extremely thorough book from Mr. de Mattos Frisvold. Quimbanda is his specialty and you can tell that his affinity for Exu is profound. An absolutely wonderful and indispensable resource for information about this religion.

This is a wonderful book about Quimbanda, which, like most religions originating from the Kongo, is very misunderstood. The diabolic imagery associated with Exu and Pomba Gira is enough to cause Christians of all stripes to fly into a panic. In reality, these spirits are neither good nor evil and serve a variety of functions related to traditional African magic in Brazil.

Exu and Pomba Gira were syncretized with the Devil and the Whore of Babylon on purpose, as a symbol of black resistance to racism and the Brazilian white middle class. By associating their traditional spirits with the enemies of white Christendom, former slaves were able to intimidate their oppressors while simultaneously viewing their traditional beliefs through a lens of power. Blood sacrifice is involved with this tradition, as it is in all religions that originate from Africa (with the exception of Umbanda, which involves very little, if any, animal sacrifice). The blood of animals provides sustenance for the spirits of the ancestors, and Quimbanda was a religion that was forged in the bloody history of the Atlantic slave trade.

Diego de Oxossi's lineage of Quimbanda was rather revolutionary, as his cabula was the first to devote a branch of practice entirely to Exu and Pomba Gira, who were previously considered to be "inferior" to the Orixa spirits of Batuque, Umbanda, and Candomblé. In doing so, Mãe Ieda de Ogum forged a black Brazilian religion that was not subservient to anyone, including the increasingly white middle class practitioners of spiritism and Umbanda. The worship of Exu was now carried out into the streets rather than into closets or backrooms, as was fitting for a spirit that was traditionally considered to be a patron of malandros and marginalized people.

This religion is fascinating and powerful, and I definitely want to learn more about it. Diego de Oxossi's presentation of this tradition is original and thorough, and it's a great starting resource for anyone interested in Quimbanda or Brazilian religion in general.

This work is quite simply one of the greatest that has ever been produced by a philosopher. Nietzsche often gets a bad wrap because people think he's too "edgy" or whatever but the core of his philosophy is that you should ultimately pursue your calling. Because even if life has no meaning, we have the ability to create the meaning of life for ourselves, and we should pursue that while we have time on this earth to do it.

An excellent introduction to the differences between sutra and mantra. I thought the translator's commentary at the end was a little unnecessary since both the Dalai Lama and Tsongkhapa already said what he was saying twice over, but overall it's a very good book as a whole. On to Volume 2!

As far as books about Western occultism go, this is about as good as you're gonna get. It focuses on actual, existing folk traditions rather than summoning a demon while playing dress up in your basement. I wish I had this book when I was in Argentina, because I would have understood a lot more about what was going on around me in terms of religious iconography. I saw San La Muerte everywhere, and there was almost no information about him (and for good reason--his cult there is incredibly taboo).