Hermetic Magic: The Postmodern Magical Papyrus of Abaris

I read this book twice... and have notes and highlights all over it. I feel it is very informative for beginners and intermediate magicians. It has a great content on history, ceremony, religious value and ethics all magicians should have. In a nut shell, it's an inspirational work by a passioned scholar. I would recommend reading it in conjunction with "THE GREEK MAGICAL PAPYRI IN TRANSLATION"by Hans Dieter Betz and "PSYCHOLOGY AND ALCHEMY" by Carl Jung. If you wish to enhance the effect of your spells as you interact with and influence your targets on a daily basis, I would suggest "THE ART OF SEDUCTION" by Robert Greene, and "THE ART OF WORLDLY WISDOM" by Baltasar Gracian. On the subject of "Satanism", which appears to bother some dedicated modernized religious folks, bear in mind, meditation, prayer, or any form of positive or negative thinking is a form of magic in action. The stronger the intent, the better the effect. Magic is not evil, it's a religious way of focusing your will with careful planning and determination to influence the cosmic energies and bring upon the exact desired effects. Magic and religion share the same roots and are one. Search out the history for yourself.

Flower's Hermetic Magic was something I took a chance on. I was somewhat interested in the Greek Magical Papyri as an example of authentic pagan magical practices of the Roman Imperial Era and Flower's book promised to provide a guide to them and the milieu of ancient Hermeticism. Every review I found online was utterly unhelpful as they tended to center on the author, Stephen Edred Flowers, who is controversial due to his membership in the Temple of Set and being a founder of several Ásatrú groups (See his Wiki Page for more information). A good portion of the reviews of this book are more or less rants & character assassinations while another good portion exists to defend/praise Flowers. Very few reviews actually discussed the book in any detail. Taking my chances, I decided to get the book and I was presently surprised as it seems to be an excellent introduction to the Greek Magical Papyri from a practical standpoint and provides a good background and jumping off point for further exploration. It however has some distracting features such as Flower's Setian background showing through in parts along with controversial opinions bleeding through and treated as fact - which I will point out later in my review. The book is presented in several sections: History - which takes a quick look at the cultural streams present in the Papyri (Flowers identifies Hellenic, Egyptian, Iranian, Gnostic, Semitic, and Christian streams). In the 'Theory' section Flowers takes a look at the Cultural beliefs and practices of all the identified cultural streams and provides among other things an excellent look at Egyptian & Greek views of the parts of the Body (both physical and metaphysical), various cosmologies, the writing systems (which includes a short lessons on Hieroglyphics, Hieratic, Demotic, Coptic, Greek, and Semitic systems - an appendix also includes a pronunciation guide to the Greek of the Era), Greek Gematria, Iamblichus' Numerology, and a lot of really good nuggets of information intended as a jumping off points for deeper study - which Flowers heavily encourages. The Praxis section is composed of a description of the most common tools used in the Papyri,a suggestion of frame rituals, and a collection of some of the more accessible workings from the Magical Papyri - Flowers strongly recommends getting Betz's The Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (I have a copy). Throughout the text Flowers promotes a post-modern approach to Magic that is very similar in some respects to Chaos Magic but Flowers tends to stress a more syncretistic approach over eclecticism. He urges the reader to experiment and incorporate more streams into their practice (with the ancient material as a guide) based upon what works. He also has a great call for rationalism in Magic which I have reproduced below: "Rationality in magic must be rehabilitated. It must be restored to its rightful place as the foundation of magical development, but not as its essence. Moderni

I have had so much fun with this book. In some ways it reminded me of Don Webbs Seven faces of darkness. I had an odd experence with this book wile reading it that I won't get into but perhaps I am one of those 72 people he mentioned in the introduction that actualy will get what the book is saying. There is more to it folks.I know some find this book to Setian. I have to say that they got what they asked for in buying this book. It's a little like saying ice is to cold. That is it's nature. This book is very Typhon orented. Great job Dr. Flowers!

Out of the mire of Rosicrucianism, Thelema, and Chaos, S.E. Flowers, the leader of the Rune-Gild and Magus of the Temple of Set has truly distilled a quality work on the magick of greco-roman egypt and the Hermetic gnostics. Translated directly from the magical papyri, Flowers has created a book free of complicated Qabalah, eastern "additions", or modern fantasies- a true book of ancient ritual practice. Whether you're a Hermetic, a Setian, a Gnostic, or even a Chaos Mage, this book is worth at least a read.

The review below makes some rather unfortunate statements, the most striking being the idea of this book having an Anti-Semetic tone. That the Kabbalah has its origin in Greek Culture is hardly a new or controversial standpoint to anyone other than an Occultist, and to take this to be Anti-Semetic is just foolish.This book stands as one of the few books written to the Occult audience with a strong historical background and top-notched scholarship. It is an excellent companion to the Greek Magical Papyrus in that it removes much of the coding and allows for a more Post-Modern outlook.Brooklyn