Ratings2
Average rating4.5
Is this a good book about Magic? Absolutely. Is it a great book? Well... it's better than 90% of the books you can find on the “esoteric & occult” bookshelf of your bookshop, unfortunately it is quite shallow in some parts, but if you're new to the subject, or just want to know more about what the hell old madman Moore is ranting about when he starts talking about Magic, give it a try.
The quality of each section varies:
There are comic one-pagers on “The Great Enchanters” that are a funny introduction to the history of Western magic. I applaud the inclusion of Moore's old friend Iain Sinclair. Unfortunately, many modern or contemporary magicians are missing, but this is understandable given the format and limited space.
The life of Alexander and his puppet snake Glycon is hilarious and very important to Moore's magical life and work.
“Things to do on a rainy day” is basically a low-key introduction to the tools one can use should they find the courage to explore the other worlds - and Moore does not hesitate to offer a shortcut in the form of magical fungal friends. There is a nice introduction to Kabbalah and Tarot, which I would suggest you supplement by reading relevant parts of Promethea. This is definitely the best part of the book.
Story of the queer woman - aspiring magician “The Soul” is quite bad, on the level of a boring 90s paperback fantasy novel, which is also a feeling I had when looking at the illustrations that accompany the text.
The epilogue at the end of the book tries to tie things together, with some very good points about ethics and the role of magic, art and science in modern times.
As an appendix you will find a DIY paper temple cutout and a simple table of magical correspondences, something that adds no value to the book and could have been omitted.
Unfortunately, there are also no references in the text or any bibliography, so you will have to do your research if you want to go deeper, and this comes with the usual warning to be careful which occult books you choose, as most of them are pure bullshit.