The list below hasn't been updated since last year, also haven't bought much recently either. My question is, what do you guys think the must have books are? The books you would suggest everyone should have in their collection.
Ritual Magic - E.M Butler, 1949
The Satanic Bible - Anton Lavey, 1969
The Satanic Rituals - Anton Lavey, 1972
Secrets of the Iching - J. Murphy, 1987
Necronomicon - 1980
Necronomicon Spellbook - 1998
Spiritual Growth, Being your higher self - S. Roman, 1989
White Spells - Ileana Abrev, 1999
The Complete book of Magic and Witchcraft - K. Paulsen, 1980
The Lost Book of Enki - Sitchin, 2002
Babylonian Magic and Sorcery, L.W. King, 2000
Sumerian Mythology - S.N. Kramer, 1972
The Reiki Sourcebook - B & F Steine, 2003
The Goetia, lesser key of solomon, 1995
Dreams - F&R Garfield, 1997
Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem & Metal Magic - S. Cunningham, 2003
Encyclopedia of Gods - M. Jordan, 2002
The AntiChrists Bible, The Gospel According to Arnoume, D. Sinton, 2001
Lucifer Rising, Sin, Devil Worship - G. Baddeley, 1999
Complete Guide to Psychic Development - C. Eason, 2003
Ancient Teachings for Beginners - D. DeLong, 2000
The Key of Solomon the King, 2001
Communing with Spirits - M. Coleman, 1998
Opening to Spirit - C. Shola Arewa, 1998
The Complete Book of Astrology - C. Johnstone, 2003
Kundalini & The Chakras - G.C. Paulson, 2005
12th Planet - Sitchin, 1978
Gothic Grimoire - Konstantinos, 2002
Stairway to Heaven - Sitchin, 1978
Secrets of Chinese Astrology - D. Walters, 2003
Psychic Vampire Codex - M. Belanger, 2004
Way of Cartouche - M. Hope, 1985
Parkers Astrology - J&D Parker, 1996
Hi; I had many of those books some years ago ( and still have a few now listed above ) after years of collecting and moving house numerous times, lost the lot, some 3000 books, many were on magick and the occult, after a bitter marrital break up in some years ago.
As for - MUST HAVE BOOKS - my suggestion is this, which is what I do now. Get a USB stick say about 4GB in size or a small USB hard drive and down load as many books from the internet as you can find for FREE. Don't pay for anything as your often throwing good money away on books you latter regret buying. The thrill of getting it for free is also a challenge, but I can live without guilt since the system owns me big time for what I have lost in the past. Attain for yourself a good internet connection and a fast small lap top computer, with a large external memory storage unit. Now 1 Terrabyte hard drives are quite cheap too but can be easily damaged if dropped loseing one's collection quite easily.
Websites like > Twilit Grotto -- Esoteric Archives (http://www.esotericarchives.com) < is a good place to start, or sites on Ancient Gnostic and Pseudographical Texts such as at > www.ancient texts.org < or > Internet Sacred Text Archive Home (http://www.sacred-texts.com) < are also fine. These are free and supply a lot of the basic reference sources without much effort to down load.
Free general PDF book sites such as - Scribd (http://www.scribd.com) - is a good place to start for Occult publications like Necronomicon ( copy by Peter Levenda or SIMON's Edition ) and Lavey's Satanic Bible; etc.
Spirit will lead you to what is necessary to have FOR YOU. It depends on your life path and what research you are seeking to uncover. I have unfortunately, found a lot of books I have paid good money for in years past to be a crock of S*** and not used enough to justify the cost and weight of transportation between residences. Crowley and Kenneth Grants Triologies are an example of such garbage, despite their cult following and collectability of these items, which contain some bits and pieces of useful stuff. Similarly I have only heard Schueler's Books on Enochian Magick are not very good value - BUT again, it depends on what your seeking.
Other books have been of great reference value but far too costly to even buy as second hand items, since they are specialized academic text books ( ie - Ancient And Near Eastern Texts; 1950 by Pritchard about $200 USD new price weighs about 3 KG and is a BIG book ). My own copy I lost and never had the money to replace it. It's not on the internet either - that I can find.
On a USB stick I carry a whole library of reference books and print out only what I need for immediate research - reading the bulk of it on a lap top computer with a good large screen - you can read in bed if you wish on a lap top.
As much as I like hardcopies of real books, for the first time in human history it is now realistic and practical to carry literally thousands of heavy reference books in your pocket, on a single memory stick for quick access on any small computer manking them easy to move at a minutes notice and take anywhere. Admittedly these books are in soft copy format and can be corrupted with viruses and computer crashes etc - but it is assumed you back up your copies with disks, USB sticks, or setionalized memory in the hard drives.
Many of the books worth having are now on the net for free. As you become more knowledgeable, you quickly discern the rubbish from the good stuff. Books I years ago believed were worth having, such as Kenneth Grant's Books, I would now pass them by as not so worth while unless I find them for a dollar or two, as I have with some Crowley items.
WHY do I not vrecoment these books, because I have since found serious errors in Grants writings because of his method and system of counting numbers. A simple example is - he claims the dark side of the kabbalistic tree is the realm of The Great Old Ones, which are the Quippoloth. Also he claims - Kutulu is Dagon. Both conclusions are misleading due to errors in the Hebrew numerology he uses.
So on that basis I would not recomend Grant's books on the Old Ones for serious research. This does not mean they are totally useless no they have some value in various places. When I initally bought these books at top dollar some years ago, I did not know this and thought I had a small gold mine. Now they sit out in garage in a box never used, as do my few Crowley books, UFO publications, and other semi-references.
When you start to channel stuff through you also access another information feild, and also get advice as to what is worth having and why other stuff is in error. If such claims can be verified with some sort of certifiable proof well and good; otherwise I encourage one to think for themselves, question everything and not accept what is told them in channelings on face value, as much of that can also be garbage. Balance needs to be exercised between the intellect and the intuition, the rational mind and the spirit.
I trust this makes your descision a little easier.
For more information email me at -
[email protected]
Kimbal.