The legendary Francis King is a leading authority in the fields of occultism, religion, and magic. He has written several classic works on mysticism and ritual, including Tantra: The Way of Action and Ritual Magic of the Golden Dawn.

Stephen Skinner is a renowned ex-pat Australian author of esoteric topics who had his first book published at the age of 16 and has written what is considered the definitive work on Geomancy.

Fifteen books cite this book including:

• Modern Magic by Don Kraig on page 31, page 80

• The Complete Book of Tarot Reversals by Mary Greer in the index

• Magician’s Companion by Bill Whitcomb on page 47

• Angels’ Message To Humanity by Gerald & Betty Schueler on page 10

Its back jacket defines “Magic” as “...the art and science of using little-known or forgotten natural forces in order to achieve changes in consciousness and the physical environment. It concerns a wide body of doctrines and techniques, including the conjuring of spirits and non-human entities; the manufacture and consecration of wands, swords, talismans, and other tools of the magus; ritual divination; and the exploration of universes other than that with which we are familiar.”

This work is promoted as, “A complete beginner’s guide to understanding and harnessing the mysterious forces of nature.”

This book is, indeed, a ‘complete beginners’ guide and includes fundamental how-to techniques on self-initiation into ceremonial magic, talisman making, ritual tools, astral projection, elementary alchemy and various forms of divination such as the Tarot, and other systems including Eastern ones like the I-Ching, Tattwas and quotes from “The Oracles of Zoroaster.”

It does something that very few books based on “Golden Dawn” techniques do: it alludes to the fact that all Western ceremonial magic is derived from Chinese Taoist and Hindu Samadhi techniques.

“High Magic” is a form of magic that is performed for your personal spiritual growth or for some higher purpose. It is not involved with the mundane goings on in life (i.e. love spells), or for personal gain. Magic that is involved in such things is termed “Low Magic.” Yet some of the Geotic entities this work suggests invoking are not considered to be high entities and are often considered hard to manage.

I do not recommend anyone who is a ‘complete beginner’ to attempt these workings alone. Some of these Geotic techniques have been adapted by the Golden Dawn from fragments in “The Greek Magical Papyrus,” most of which does not deal with High Magic.

The Golden Dawn is a European magical order founded at the beginning of the 20th century to which many brilliant authors subscribed. From it sprang several other such orders including the O.T.O. and Aleister Crowley’s Thelemic Order. Crowley broke away from the order due to disputes with them over their supply of inaccurate information to initiates and members of lower rank, whilst keeping accurate information only for high initiates.

The most famous example of this is when the Golden Dawn’s Rider-Waite Tarot deck was produced for release to the general public. In their deck the elemental attributes of Fire and Air were reversed, and the second immortal card, 8, ‘STRENGTH’ – one of only two immortal cards in the whole deck – and card number 11, ‘JUSTICE’, were swapped. The other immortal card is ‘THE MAGICIAN’, card number 1.

If ‘STRENGTH’ is placed in its original numerical position, number 11, it is much easier to see these two cards as representing the relationship between the magician and his higher self, i.e. 1:11. This means the Rider-Waite Tarot’s symbols, correlations to the Hebrew alphabet, and mathematical correlations, are confused and dis-empowered.

This has had a run-on effect as the Rider-Waite deck has become the model upon which most modern decks are based, so Crowley’s fears have proved right! A.E. Waite relates his reason for this vandalism in his Pictorial Key to the Tarot:

“For reasons which satisfy myself this card has been interchanged with that of Justice (now 11) which is usually number eight. As the variation carries nothing with it that will signify to the reader there is no cause for explanation…”

This situation is referred to obliquely in King and Skinner’s book on page 127 as “The Waites pack(s)… many drawbacks…”

After reading this book I must commend the authors on their disciplined approach to magical practice including easy formulas and diagrams that will help the new initiate navigate the world of High Magic.

– Reviewed by Rev. Dr. S. D’Montford in New Dawn No. 95