"real" Magic resources

[CraterMaker]

Over in the Monte Cooks Arcana Evolved thread, the discussion kind of got sidetracked into a talk on Non-Combat and Non-Adventuring magic.. Captain Obvious had a great link to an old book of magic spells and recipes
http://www.think-aboutit.com/pdf/powow.pdf

and I just love this site about Hoodoo http://www.philhine.org.uk/writings/ess_hoodoo.html
I've written up a couple of the more impressive spells (Crossing and Uncrossing, and Goober Dust) and eventually want to write it up as a college of spells..

So..

I was wondering if any of you have any "real" world magic resources you might like to share? I find they do wonders to fire up my imagination..

-CraterMaker

[Lucius]

Online, not off hand, and I don't suppose my hard copy reference library is all that useful unless you live here in Indianapolis and can convince me to loan you some books....

Lucius Alexander

Still crafting spells to keep bookworms, silverfish, rodents, and palindromedaries aout of the library....

[Chris Goodwin]

Real Magic by P.E.I. Bonewits

[Lucius]

Real Magic by P.E.I. Bonewits

You know, while I can't praise that book highly enough for the working occultist or thaumaturgist, and it's also very useful from a roleplaying standpoint, it's basically about theory.

I think what he was looking for was more "recipe book" type concrete examples from actual working traditions.

Lucius Alexander

Did the tagline eat my palindromedary?

[Lord Liaden]

If you don't mind the purchase, The Ultimate Mystic goes into considerable research into real-world magic traditions (at least the Western ones), with substantial HERO writeups. Unlike its predecessor this book is geared to all genres, not just supers.

[Captain Obvious]

I had some other good links on the old computer before the hard drive crashed. Let me see if I can google them up again.

Good to see someone getting some use out of the Powwow.

Edit: Ah, here's some quick return...Giambattista della Porta's Natural Magick. Looking for others...

Reedit: The Esoteric Archives should keep you busy for a while.

I think these are the best online sources I've found along these lines. Of course, if you want the best resource of real, castable spells, you have to go to the 1st edition AD&D books.

[StGrimblefig]

Real Magic by P.E.I. Bonewits

He wrote one specifically for roleplaying games under the name Isaac Bonewits, called Authentic Thaumaturgy (ISBN 1-55634-360-4, published by Steve Jackson Games).

I would provide a link to the SJGames product page, but their site seems to be unreachable at the moment.

Edit: They're back, and the book info can be found here

[Gawain]

Here are a few excerpts from Authentic Thaumaturgy:

Introduction
Good and Evil Magic
The Laws of Magic
Mono-, Duo- & Polytheisms
Sacrifices

And some Reviews.

[Blue Jogger]

One of my favorite "magic recipes" is the Soupstone.

The rock is almost always described as very smooth and either white or grey and about the size of a small apple. It has the power to turn a pot full of water and vegetables into the best stew ever.

"And I swear you could taste the chicken and tomatoes
And the noodles and the marrowbone
But it really wasn't nothing but some water and potatoes
And the wonderful, wonderful soupstone" - Dr. Hook & the Medicine Show

[Curufea]

The Internet Sacred Text Archive-
http://www.sacred-texts.com/index.htm

[Frenchman]

Oh, the horror.
CraterMaker, I recognize some of the names of the Anthropologists who worked on that first one.

I need to get out of school more.

[jtelson]

Just a few we have knocking around at themagicalbuffet.com

http://www.apocatastasis.net/OccultL...t-Library.html
http://realmagick.com/main/home.html
http://www.conjurer.org/?id=west
http://www.hermetics.org/ebooks.html
http://www.zheper.com/blackraven/?page_id=10
http://historical.library.cornell.edu/witchcraft/
http://altreligion.about.com/library...ultsymbols.htm

I hope they help

[Michael Hopcroft]

You know, I once found a spellbook in my college library.

Seriously. it was a book, evidently done by a reputable publisher, describing in great detail how to summon both high-ranking demons and high-ranking angels, going into such details as what circles to draw and what incantations to use.

whether this was someone having a nasty joke at the publisher's expense or a reprint on an older to0me, the spells wouldn't have actually worked. Mind you, I had no in6terest in trying them -- because I can't think either the heavenly or Infernal hosts would have much use for being summoned to the needs to a sorcerer. After all, all a demon could want is your immortal soul, and if you're wiling to summon a demon he's got it anyway, so why should he bother actually showing up?

[Curufea]

Ye..es..

[Captain Obvious]

After all, all a demon could want is your immortal soul, and if you're wiling to summon a demon he's got it anyway, so why should he bother actually showing up?

Not necessarily. Most of the medieval scholars who were into such things were willing to summon a demon rather than an angel to get information about the physical world or the hereafter because there was an element of coercion to it, and messing up a devil's day wasn't considered nearly as sinful as doing it to an angel. All a devil does all day is suffer in hell, so pulling him out to torture him for information is no big deal, as the thought went. You didn't have to sell your soul just because you summoned one up.