How to Create a Reading List for Those Walking the Magical Path

 
If you're interested in esoteric subjects, you're probably aware that there are various reading lists out there for people walking the magical path. If you're a blogger, you might even be considering creating a reading list of your own for your readers. In this case, this blog post is for you. Not every reading list is a good reading list. In fact, I don't think I've ever come across one that I consider really good, and this includes readings lists that I myself have put together in the past. But despite this, I'm going to do my best to explain how to create a reading list that is truly useful.

To start off, I highly encourage you to read this blog post by Frater Acher, as it touches on a big reason why many bad reading lists are bad. In that blog post, Frater Acher brings up the idea of "connecting the dots" to form a picture. Every book you read is a dot. If you've read hundreds of books, then you have hundreds of dots. That might seem like a good thing, but if you want a useful picture, then what is truly important is not how many dots you have but whether or not you are able to connect them. And herein lies the problem with most reading lists designed for those walking the magical path. The dots they contain may or may not be good dots, but regardless, there just isn't any way to connect them.

If you are on Step 1 of IIH, the dots in your spiritual life need to be connected in order to form a picture of timely completion of Step 1. If you are on Step 5 of IIH, the dots in your spiritual life need to be connected in order to form a picture of timely completion of Step 5. This is why a reading list I were to create for those on Step 1 would look completely different from a reading list I were to create for those on Step 5. On the reading list for those on Step 1, I would only include dots that can be connected to form a picture of timely completion of Step 1. On the reading list for those on Step 5, I would only include dots that can be connected to form a picture of timely completion of Step 5. On a similar note, if I were to create a reading list for students of the Golden Dawn system who are at, say, the Theoricus grade of that system, it would look completely different from the Step 1 reading list and the Step 5 reading list. 

These days, everyone is just trying to gather as many dots as they can. This is a problem, and it is a problem that most reading lists contribute to rather than help mitigate. If a reading list contains ten books, then that is ten new dots for you. If a reading list contains twenty books, then that is twenty new dots for you. But why does any of this matter if none of the dots can be connected to form the specific picture you need given where you currently are on the path? If you look at the spiritual life of the typical person walking the magical path, you will see a bunch of dots, but what you won't see is a picture of progress, or any picture at all. You have to be able to connect the dots in order to form any sort of picture, and even if you can connect the dots, the picture you form won't necessarily be a picture of progress. 

So if you want to create a reading list, first determine who the reading list is for. Is it for those on Step 1 of IIH? Is it for those on Step 5 of IIH? Is it for Golden Dawn neophytes? Is it for yogis rather than for those walking the magical path? Once you have figured this out, then figure out what sort of picture the target audience needs. If you are creating the reading list for those on Step 1 of IIH, what would a picture of timely completion of Step 1 look like? What dots need to be connected in order to form such a picture? These are the questions you should be asking yourself.

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