BOOK REVIEW - Stellar Magic
Mike
978-1905297-25-2 210 Pages Paperback $21.49 (U.S.)
I always have a somewhat negative reaction whenever I see the phrase
“A Practical Guide to…” in the subtitle of a book. In this case “A
Practical Guide to the Rites of the Moon, Planets, Stars and
Constellations” set off all kinds of bells and whistles.
First of all, the book is only about 200 pages long and nearly one
quarter of that is devoted to illustrations, notes, bibliography,
etc. One hundred and fifty pages could, conceivably, provide a guide
to planetary rituals, but to go beyond that to any extent would take
much more space. Second, just how “practical” any such guide can be
is a matter for personal interpretation.
Upon reading the book, it became obvious that the subtitle overstated
the case. There are rituals, or I should say readings and
invocations, for several of the major constellations, and even then
they are merely the better known ones, which have formed a part of
stellar worship from ancient times.
I have read other books by this author, and found them intriguing.
This one follows in the same vein, but with one major reservation.
Mr. Nabarz is Persian-born, a Druid, a Wiccan, and a worshipper of
Isis. As such he has a wealth of information at his disposal.
Unfortunately, he has tried to combine all of these different sources
to provide the readings and rituals in this book. At times, it became
a bit confusing.
Although his intent was to provide a usable ritual format, it comes
across more as a reference work, filled with sources which the
“average” practitioner would not have access to. I was not overly
impressed withy this particular offering from Mr. Nabarz. It will,
undoubtedly, fill a need for a few specialists, but for the average
reader, I really would not recommend it.
Evergreen
> Stellar Magic by Payam Nabarz =A9 2009 Avalonia Press ISBN:
> 978-1905297-25-2 210 Pages Paperback $21.49 (U.S.)
>
> I always have a somewhat negative reaction whenever I see the
>phrase =93A Practical Guide to=85=94 in the subtitle of a book.
>In this case =93A Practical Guide to the Rites of the Moon,
>Planets, Stars and Constellations=94 set off all kinds of bells
>and whistles.
>
> First of all, the book is only about 200 pages long and
> nearly one quarter of that is devoted to illustrations,
> notes, bibliography, etc. One hundred and fifty pages could,
> conceivably, provide a guide to planetary rituals, but to go
> beyond that to any extent would take much more space. Second,
> just how =93practical=94 any such guide can be is a matter for
> personal interpretation.
>
> Upon reading the book, it became obvious that the subtitle
> overstated the case. There are rituals, or I should
> say readings and invocations, for several of the major
> constellations, and even then they are merely the better known
> ones, which have formed a part of stellar worship from ancient
> times.
>
> I have read other books by this author, and found them
> intriguing. This one follows in the same vein, but with one
> major reservation. Mr. Nabarz is Persian-born, a Druid, a
> Wiccan, and a worshipper of Isis. As such he has a wealth of
> information at his disposal. Unfortunately, he has tried to
> combine all of these different sources to provide the readings
> and rituals in this book. At times, it became a bit confusing.
>
> Although his intent was to provide a usable ritual format, it
>comes across more as a reference work, filled with sources which
>the =93average=94 practitioner would not have access to. I was
>not overly impressed withy this particular offering from Mr.
>Nabarz. It will, undoubtedly, fill a need for a few specialists,
>but for the average reader, I really would not recommend it.
I conclude from reading Mike's excellent review that is a book
worth avoiding, but only partially for the reasons he gives.
The book is fundamentally flawed:
Worship
-------
Whenever you see someone involved in worship of any kind and of
any being, you are seeing a very ignorant person or a priest.
(A real priest, not a Wiccan 'priest'. In Wicca, everyone is
supposedly a priest. Our real priests are called 'clergy'.)
When worship you give some or all of your power and worth away to
the object of your worship, by definition: You only worship that
which you believe to be fundamentally superior in every way to
yourself.
Creativity and Innocence are the gifts of All That Is. To attempt
to turn any part of these gifts over to another being is to reject
the gifts of God. And you can't do that.
YOU are as worthy of existence as God is. YOU are as creative as
God is in YOUR universe.
Anyone who tells you that you that there are beings who control
your life and that you must pay homage to and serve, is either
ignorant or they are priests, who really want you to worship
_them_ as a vital link between you and the Divine. They want
to control you for their own personal gain.
Some really do believe that they are superior beings who are
necessary for "the common man" to communicate with God and
retain the Divine favor he/she thinks they need and can lose.
But they still exploit the 'common man' to make a living, and
sometimes a fat one.
All existence is blessed and we are magickal beings who have
been given the gift of creativity. We don't have to, and should
not, worship anything. We are, literally, as is everything else,
a _part_ of what God is.
Magick is about personal power and personal worth. NEVER give
even a snippet of either of these away to any being.
There are Teachers, of course. But a real Teacher will never
ask you to worship any being or to pay for his/her services
with anything but your time and attention.
A Teacher will seek to bring you up to his/her level. A priest
will try to make you believe that he/she has abilities you
don't have and essential qualities that you don't have and
thereby make you a dependent.
Sid
--
Sidney Lambe
Wiccan Priest and Apprentice Magician
http://tinyurl.com/7vs9zb
usenet4444 (at) gmail (dot) com
Miles
There is a website to go with this book http://www.stellarmagic.co.uk/
It contains a sample chapter and other related links.
Regards,
Nabarz.
Ren
> It contains a sample chapter and other related links.
>
> Regards,
> Nabarz.
>
> On Aug 21, 7:22 pm, Mike <gleason.m...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> > Stellar Magic by Payam Nabarz © 2009 Avalonia Press ISBN:
> > 978-1905297-25-2 210 Pages Paperback $21.49 (U.S.)
Maybe Evergreen will go to the website and read the sample chapter in
order to give a more scathing review of Mike's review.
Evergreen
> On Aug 30, 7:36=A0pm, Miles <aba...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> There is a website to go with this
>> bookhttp://www.stellarmagic.co.uk/ It contains a sample
>> chapter and other related links.
>>
>> Regards, Nabarz.
>>
>> On Aug 21, 7:22=A0pm, Mike <gleason.m...@comcast.net> wrote:
>>
>> > Stellar Magic =A0by =A0Payam Nabarz =A0=A9 2009 =A0 =A0 =A0
>> > =A0Avalonia=
>
> Press =A0ISBN:
>
>> > 978-1905297-25-2 =A0210 Pages =A0Paperback =A0$21.49 (U.S.)
>
> Maybe Evergreen will go to the website and read the sample
> chapter in order to give a more scathing review of Mike's
> review.
Why beat a dead horse? The book is more neo-pagan psuedo-magick.
Useless theatrical woo-woo based upon concepts that have no
reality outside of fantasy fiction.
Only fools engage in worship of any kind.
Beggins some imagined superior, 'supernatural' being to
do magick for you is not doing magick.
Miles
> Ren <ren1...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> > On Aug 30, 7:36=A0pm, Miles <aba...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> >> Hi,
>
> >> There is a website to go with this
> >> chapter and other related links.
>
> >> Regards, Nabarz.
>
> >> On Aug 21, 7:22=A0pm, Mike <gleason.m...@comcast.net> wrote:
>
> >> > Stellar Magic =A0by =A0Payam Nabarz =A0=A9 2009 =A0 =A0 =A0
> >> > =A0Avalonia=
>
> > Press =A0ISBN:
>
> >> > 978-1905297-25-2 =A0210 Pages =A0Paperback =A0$21.49 (U.S.)
>
> > Maybe Evergreen will go to the website and read the sample
> > chapter in order to give a more scathing review of Mike's
> > review.
>
> Why beat a dead horse? The book is more neo-pagan psuedo-magick.
> Useless theatrical woo-woo based upon concepts that have no
> reality outside of fantasy fiction.
>
> Only fools engage in worship of any kind.
>
> Beggins some imagined superior, 'supernatural' being to
> do magick for you is not doing magick.
>
> Sid
>
> --
> Sidney Lambe
> usenet4444 (at) gmail (dot) com- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -
Dear Sid,
93.
In regards to 'worship' comment, I work with deities as friends
interact, more of a partnership then worship. I have performed Liber
Astarte so the know too much worship pitfalls.
btw replacing Abrahamic religious systems with another perscribed
system is not my approach, the words of William Blake should always be
borne in mind, as he said: ‘I must create my own system or be enslaved
by another man’s.’
My book provides the tools and references needed to start the reader
off on their own magical workings.
Its a source book, as Mike said it has lots of references and sources,
readers can locate the works in further reading sections in their
local libary or the net. I guess some of the sources are more
difficult to locate in local libaries, so probably need to use
interlibary loan system.
Best regards,
Nabarz
http://www.stellarmagic.co.uk/
Evergreen
> On Aug 31, 2:58=A0am, Evergreen <sidneyla...@nospam.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>> Ren <ren1...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > On Aug 30, 7:36=3DA0pm, Miles <aba...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>
>> >> Hi,
>>
>> >> There is a website to go with this
>> >> bookhttp://www.stellarmagic.co.uk/It contains a sample
>> >> chapter and other related links.
>>
>> >> Regards, Nabarz.
>>
>> >> On Aug 21, 7:22=3DA0pm, Mike <gleason.m...@comcast.net>
>> >> wrote:
>>
>> >> > Stellar Magic
>
[delete]
>> > Maybe Evergreen will go to the website and read the sample
>> > chapter in order to give a more scathing review of Mike's
>> > review.
>>
>> Why beat a dead horse? The book is more neo-pagan
>> psuedo-magick. Useless theatrical woo-woo based upon concepts
>> that have no reality outside of fantasy fiction.
>>
>> Only fools engage in worship of any kind.
>>
>> Beggins some imagined superior, 'supernatural' being to do
>> magick for you is not doing magick.
>
> Dear Sid,
>
> 93.
>
> In regards to 'worship' comment, I work with deities as friends
> interact, more of a partnership then worship.
It's so easy to say something like that.
From what little I know of you, if you are in contact with
anything but the products of your own imagination they
aren't very wise beings.
There are no 'deities'. There's just a multiverse filled with
an infinite number of realities and beings.
A lot of them are ignorant.
> I have performed Liber Astarte so the know too much worship
> pitfalls.
Spare me the elitist psuedo-esoteric mumbo-jumbo.
Anything that needs to be said about magick can be stated
in plain English with mostly common words.
>
> btw replacing Abrahamic religious systems with another
> perscribed system is not my approach,
Okay. Enough is enough. We know you've read a lot of
books that you think are about magick because they say
they are.
> the words of William
> Blake should always be borne in mind,
No magician need ever read a single word William Blake, or
anyone else, wrote.
> as he said: =91I must
> create my own system or be enslaved by another man=92s.=92
Then try using your own words instead of parroting others.
>
> My book provides the tools and references needed to start the
> reader off on their own magical workings.
No. It contains psuedo-magickal nonsense that will set them
off on the path to becoming yet another psuedo-magician who
can't do anything but play the role of a magician in a
B fantasy movie.
> Its a source book, as Mike said it has lots of references
> and sources, readers can locate the works in further reading
> sections in their local libary or the net. I guess some of the
> sources are more difficult to locate in local libaries, so
> probably need to use interlibary loan system.
Nice to hear from you.