GATEWAYS THROUGH STONE AND CIRCLE
Gateways through Stone and Circle has been on sale for a week now. If you have not already snapped up a copy, go grab it!
If you are unfamiliar with Frater Ashen’s work, you should head over to his blog and marvel at the artistry, detail, time, and expense that he has put into doing Trithemius’s operation exactly as it was intended. If Frater R.O.’s Modern Angelic Grimoire, which served as part of the inspiration for this work, represents a way to get working and get results quickly with minimal expense and equipment, than this book represents the other extreme: how go completely balls-out.
Now, people who take my course might be wondering why I am so excited about such a traditional book. I am always pushing people to examine the principals of a work and to devise methods that fits with their situation. In fact I often warn people specifically against putting too much stock in what any one book says, as if just because it is old and on paper, it is an infallible order. So why would I not only like but LOVE this book?
Simple, until you understand the tradition on its own terms, and practice it as it was meant, you cannot possibly hope to grasp all the principals as well as someone who does. This is why when I issue rituals I usually ask that people do it as written three times before changing it. It is the reason that I spent years doing Tibetan rituals and Yogas exactly as they wee taught before daring to adapt them. Even then, I have the advantage of a Lotsawa Lama who also understands western magic that can advise me.
On a personal note, Frater Ashen is quite capable of devising rituals and workings of his own as well as simply doing magic on the fly. His ability to do so is only strengthened by his work within a tradition.
So, what the hell are you waiting for? Go order a copy of Gateways Through Stone and Circle!
As a side note: both Frater Ashen and I, as well as Mike Cechetelli, Aaron Leitch, Frater RO, Scott Stenwick and several others are contributors to an upcoming anthology called Walking With the Angel. Expect a more detailed post on that in the days ahead!
