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Before You Do Magic: Train Your Mind to Awaken Occult Skills\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n by\u00a0Donald Tyson<\/strong><\/p>\n Publisher:<\/strong> Llewellyn, Woodburg, Minnesota<\/p>\n 248 page E-book.<\/p>\n Publication date:\u00a0<\/strong>December 2025<\/p>\n Tyson lays it all out in his intro: there’s\u00a0plenty\u00a0<\/em>of value in this book, but the reader will have to\u00a0work<\/em> to extract it all. Fair and friendly warning–Before You Do Magic<\/em> is\u00a0not<\/em> for the faint of heart. When Tyson says it’s about training\u00a0<\/em>your mind, he ain’t kiddin’. Be ready to do mental heavy lifting. (Lots of it!) And bring your “A” game.<\/p>\n The main body of this tome consists of twelve chapters. Topics range from meditation to incantations to astral projection. All have exercises. Tough ones. Our author reassures us that we don’t need to do each and every one and are free to skip over any we deem too difficult, saying we can always return to those later. (The reader can be forgiven for wondering if Tyson will somehow know if we ever go back to the ones we gloss over and whether or not he keeps score.) We can also reword useable exercises to render them more user friendly. Don’t abuse the privilege.<\/p>\n The invisibility exercise is my personal fave. One thousand and one uses. Some of them legal. Two exercises are worrisome. “To End a Toothache” is the first. Psychological painkillers are fine and dandy–placebo,<\/em> anyone?–but a Scottish incantation used to banish toothaches risks masking symptoms that could herald\u00a0serious<\/em> dental problems. The one to stop bleeding is just plain scary and should come with a label that says “PILGRIM BEWARE” in billboard type. To be fair, our author often conscientiously counsels prudence and common sense. I personally have no common sense and would avoid both exercises completely.<\/p>\n The chapter on controlled breathing should be consulted with caution too. Take care in your technique to avoid strain and distress.\u00a0 That said, note: controlled breathing combined with extended vowel sounds have great strength. Magicians of the Golden Dawn used this approach when vocalizing words of power in rituals. I once bought a recording of an old Aleister Crowley rite and couldn’t understand a syllable of what he was saying. Wish I still had it, I’d appreciate it today.<\/p>\n As you probably already suspect, some of these exercises can double as spellwork in and of themselves. Handy.<\/p>\n This book is pitched at beginners, but intermediate or advanced practitioners will get a lot more out of it. And even to them it will demand repeated studies and readings. Which will be time extremely well spent. Tyson’s work is truly magnificent.<\/p>\n Introduction, afterword, bibliography, index of exercises.<\/p>\n Rating: 5 broomsticks. (And that’s only because I don’t have a “6”.)<\/p>\n About the Author<\/strong><\/p>\n Donald Tyson is an occult scholar. He’s written\u00a0Tarot Magic\u00a0<\/em>and the popular\u00a0Necronomicon\u00a0<\/em>series. He has also edited and annotated\u00a0Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy.\u00a0<\/em>Other works of his include\u00a0The Dreamworld of H.P. Lovecraft<\/em> (2010),\u00a0Runic Astrology\u00a0<\/em>(2009),\u00a0Portable Magic<\/em> (2006),\u00a0Enochian Magic for Beginners\u00a0<\/em>(2004)–a title which simultaneously impresses and slightly frightens me–and\u00a0Sexual Alchemy<\/em> (2000). He lives in Nova Scotia, Canada.<\/p>\n About the reviewer<\/strong><\/p>\n Weyland reviews for PaganPagesOrg and scribes for Purrfectly Pagan\u00a0<\/em>eMag. He writes the occasional story for both. weylandsmith@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Before You Do Magic: Train Your Mind to Awaken Occult Skills\u00a0 by\u00a0Donald Tyson Publisher: Llewellyn, Woodburg, Minnesota 248 page E-book. Publication date:\u00a0December 2025 Tyson lays it all out in his intro: there’s\u00a0plenty\u00a0of value in this book, but the reader will have to\u00a0work to extract it all. Fair and friendly warning–Before You Do Magic is\u00a0not for the faint of heart. When Tyson says it’s about training\u00a0your mind, he ain’t kiddin’. Be ready to do mental heavy lifting. (Lots of it!) And bring your “A” game. The main body of this tome consists of twelve chapters. Topics range from meditation to incantations to astral projection. All have exercises. Tough ones. Our author reassures us that we don’t need to do each and every one and are free to skip over any we deem too difficult, saying we can always return to those later. (The reader can be forgiven for wondering if Tyson will somehow know if we ever go back to the ones we gloss over and whether or not he keeps score.) We can also reword useable exercises to render them more user friendly. Don’t abuse the privilege. The invisibility exercise is my personal fave. One thousand and one uses. Some of them legal. Two exercises are worrisome. “To End a Toothache” is the first. Psychological painkillers are fine and dandy–placebo, anyone?–but a Scottish incantation used to banish toothaches risks masking symptoms that could herald\u00a0serious dental problems. The one to stop bleeding is just plain scary and should come with a label that says “PILGRIM BEWARE” in billboard type. To be fair, our author often conscientiously counsels prudence and common sense. I personally have no common sense and would avoid both exercises completely. The chapter on controlled breathing should be consulted with caution too. Take care in your technique to avoid strain and distress.\u00a0 That said, note: controlled breathing combined with extended vowel sounds have great strength. Magicians of the Golden Dawn used this approach when vocalizing words of power in rituals. I once bought a recording of an old Aleister Crowley rite and couldn’t understand a syllable of what he was saying. Wish I still had it, I’d appreciate it today. As you probably already suspect, some of these exercises can double as spellwork in and of themselves. Handy. This book is pitched at beginners, but intermediate or advanced practitioners will get a lot more out of it. And even to them it will demand repeated studies and readings. Which will be time extremely well spent. Tyson’s work is truly magnificent. Introduction, afterword, bibliography, index of exercises. Rating: 5 broomsticks. (And that’s only because I don’t have a “6”.) About the Author Donald Tyson is an occult scholar. He’s written\u00a0Tarot Magic\u00a0and the popular\u00a0Necronomicon\u00a0series. He has also edited and annotated\u00a0Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy.\u00a0Other works of his include\u00a0The Dreamworld of H.P. Lovecraft (2010),\u00a0Runic Astrology\u00a0(2009),\u00a0Portable Magic (2006),\u00a0Enochian Magic for Beginners\u00a0(2004)–a title which simultaneously impresses and slightly frightens me–and\u00a0Sexual Alchemy (2000). He lives in Nova Scotia, Canada. About the reviewer Weyland reviews for PaganPagesOrg and scribes for Purrfectly Pagan\u00a0eMag. He writes the occasional story for both. weylandsmith@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":284,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10005],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32893","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/284"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32893"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32893\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32898,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32893\/revisions\/32898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}