Last weekend I kicked off book reviews here with a book and an author that were both completely new to me (Arundell Overman’s Spells of the Grimoires, available on Amazon here). For this week I thought I would go the opposite direction and review a book I have worked with and read extensively over the past several years. I am talking, of course, about Jason Miller’s The Sorcerer’s Secrets. (That dog-eared copy in the photo is mine, and you can tell at a glance how many times I have thumbed through it by the condition it is in.)
I was first introduced to The Sorcerer’s Secrets as a part of Jason Miller’s Strategic Sorcery course (at some point I may review that as well, but for now I am going to stick primarily to the book itself.) The course contains a lot of material that expands on what is in the book, but the book itself stands fine on its own and has a lot of things it does very well.
Roughly the first third of the book is about basic magickal practices. This is honestly where I think most of the value in the book comes from. It has a very good explanation of each practice, how to engage in it on a regular basis, and how to use it to further your magickal ability as you move on to more advanced work. The basics covered include meditation, energy work, breathing exercises, banishing, and daily rituals to help ground and center yourself so that you can direct magick within your life more effectively.
Jason has a system of magick that (in my opinion anyway) blends magickal practice with self-help practices (which are magickal in and of themselves, depending on your own personal definition of magick). This comes through in the later stages of the book when he gets into specifics for more advanced magick and practical rituals and spells to use for specific objectives. The more advanced sections are fairly effective, dealing with matters such as finance, influence, divination, protection, and love. In each section he gives generally useful strategies and tactics to try, as well as magickal spells or rituals to help augment the practical advice.
Taken in total his system is quite effective for yielding results, blending practices that are fully magickal with those that many may consider to be ‘mundane.’
All of that being said, this book is not for someone who is not interested in putting some real work in. While Jason’s system is much less rigorous than many others out there, it does require regular daily practice in order to be effective. There is no book out there that you can simply read and achieve results without any effort on your own part, and Jason makes that abundantly clear throughout this book. However, for those looking for a magickal system to start with and who are not intimidated by actually getting their hands dirty, this is a great place to start.
Now, while I have you here, I just wanted to take a quick second and update you on what is happening in the realms of Goetic Impressions. I am doubling down on weekly blog posts, many of which will be these book reviews to start but I am also going to have a few other exciting things coming up like working reports and a few other things. In December I will be speaking at an occult conference, and next week’s post will be about that and where you can get more information.
Our Lords of Hell Medallion and Pin collection Kickstarter is wrapping up, and there is less than 48 hours left to back if you want to get in on that.
Also, please take a second if you have not yet and sign up for our newsletter. There is going to be a lot of neat stuff from us before the end of the year, so if you don’t want to miss any of it that is the best place to keep an eye on what we are doing.
As always all the best and happy summoning!
~Ben, from Goetic Impressions
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