Donald Michael Kraig
I had been dabbling with magic from books in the library for a year before I found Modern Magick at the age of 16. It was a complete paradigm shift. Magic was no longer something you did just when you wanted to cast a spell, it was something you did every day so that you yourself would become a conduit for magic. Donald Michael Kraig gave me that.
I practiced the LBRP, BRH, Middle Pillar, Circulation of the Body Light as a daily practice well into my 20’s. The tools from Modern Magic are the first ones I ever constructed for myself. His pagan-style lunar talisman was the first successful talisman I ever made for someone else – a talisman for $50, which turned up for the “client” in a wallet that had fallen out of someones pocket on a Roller Coaster at six flags 5 days after I made the talisman.
I kept reading more books and studying with anyone I could find, but Modern Magick served as a center-post for it all to revolve around. Even after I gave those excercises up for others, and started to differ on various points he presents in the book, the basic message of the book held true – A Magician is something you become by doing magic every day, not by knowing a bunch of arcane trivia.
When I stepped out into the larger pagan/occult community I found out that I was not alone. Through that book he seemed to touch the lives of everyone in the community. Through this one book be was mentor not just to a few people, but an entire GENERATION of Magicians.
I never met him in person, and had put the book behind me for years when in 2010 he made a blog post that referred to me and my work. I remember how cool it felt to have someone whose work so deeply effected me as a teenager comment on my own writings.
Today I will light a candle for Donald Michael Kraig and make a donation to help cover medical and funeral expenses.
O, nobly-born Donald Michael Kraig, your path hath set you face to face before with the Clear Light wherein all things are like the void and cloudless sky, and the naked, spotless intellect is like unto a transparent vacuum without circumference or centre. At this moment, know thou thyself, and abide in that state.