The world is full (and fuller all the time) of grimoires, technical manuals on one or another school of esoteric technique, and primers on beginning magical practice. To the credit of author Lon DuQuette, Low Magick is none of these. It is instead a brief collection of mini-memoires, true stories of occult practice that demonstrate the contexts and motives for magical operation, as well as their means and effects. As such, it is something of a sequel to his earlier book My Life with the Spirits, although it presumes no familiarity with the previous volume.

The "Low" in the title is not to distance the work detailed in this book from the ceremonial style of magick, of which it is a signal, if slightly unorthodox, demonstration. It is rather "Low" in order a) to embrace an indictment once leveled against him by his mentor (15), and b) to place his practical engagement in counterpoint to the theoretical "High Magic" of Alphonse Louis Constant, one of his spiritual ancestors (9, 16-17). The magick in this book is the sort that gets its (suitably consecrated) hands dirty, and doesn't worry too much about what the neighbors think.

Consistent with his other recent books in the field, DuQuette here delivers both entertainment and sound instruction. This may be one of his best.

I'm not much for ceremonialism, but I love LMD's books. Not only are the exceptional instruction manuals, they are also shot through with his great sense of humor and a very grounded sense of self. His first memoir, My Life with the Spirits, chronicles his life to the point of being a young magician. Low Magick picks up from that and covers his later life, including stories of exorcism, magical counseling for a rabbi, how to handle invocation, and why this may all indeed simply be in your head.

I love his praise for the law of attraction, since I actually agree with him. All those pop psychology, new age authors are teaching people magick! I will add my issue with it: without the proper preparations, including self-examination, you can easily find yourself bogged down with more than you realize needs to be handled. That, and it also comes from a place of privilege, because it would take a generally prosperous, stable culture like ours to produce such a thing. If you think otherwise, remember the little children being assaulted in places like Somalia and ask yourself if they "deserve" it or somehow attracted it to themselves.

In any case, this is certainly worth reading, especially if you want to see how magickal workings can impact an entire life. ( )