How to Apply the Tables in the Complete Magician's Tables Book

I am NEW to the spell/ritual side of Paganism. I would love to be able to use the Complete Magician's Tables. Reading through the book, is informative but it really doesn't do me much good because I have no idea how to connect the line that most "older" Pagans/Wiccans would know automatically. Especially when most of the "older" ones assume that this is something you should know already.

So this thread is for those of you that are willing to help the new practicers but also for the newbies to ask questions on this particular book and how to use it to it's fullest potential.

Personally I'm looking to understand how you can make a link for something that seems so random. There is a side bar that list the kabbalah, element, zodiac, planets...do you use that to make connections or is there something that I'm missing completely?

The author does give you a way to make connection but I don't practice kabbalah or read hebrew letters making that difficult to make sense to me.

I don't own the book, can't help you on that one but I'm Wiccan and I can help you out on the magick/Paganism aspect for your question. First, you do not need kabbalah at all in any way. Plenty never do. I know ceremonial magicians, based on Crowley and the Golden Dawn, do but many Pagans do not. All you need to make spells is YOU. The power is within you, the rest is just tools to help you focus your mind. Heck, you can grab your closest tarot deck for that as a tool for spells. The astrology part is to know which day you should do the spells, if it's about love you'd do it on a friday (Venus). This is to strengthen your spell but the truth is you can do it any day. Same for the phases of the moon, if you want something to start in your life, doing the spell at the new moon would be best. And using a pink/red candle during your spellwork for love per exemple, etc. Since you're starting, using these help you focus and all but don't get attached to these too much.

And first, before you do anything, I suggest you think about the ethics of it before doing any spell work. Doing readings first to see what would be the impacts of your spell is a must and never try to influence others through spells. See with your readings if the results are good or bad and either you do not make the spell at all or rework the spell. And no matter how often you make spells, it's what you do that matters. No spell will make you lose weight if you don't exercise and eat too much, you can help yourself with your Will and your fortitude with a spell but it won't run for you and won't eat right for you and it won't make pounds disappear magicaly either.

I've held Pagan beliefs for some time now, I have simply started on the craft side of it recently.

The Complete Magician's Tables does follow a kabbalah system though which is why I mentioned it. I do have some basic working knowledge but nothing that would wow or dazzle anyone...except myself but simply for the fact of being able to actually understand as much of it as I have.

Yay! Very glad you started this thread, T...

It sounds like what you're looking for is a sort of initiatory framework so that you can contextualize all of that data and actually USE it. Outside of associating yourself with a practicing pagan group, an author I'll recommend wholeheartedly for starting out in the Pagan end of solitary Crafting: Jan Fries... Compulsively readable, eminently practical and adamantly results oriented. Not an armchair magician and the man can write.

He tends to work in the Norse/Celtic mythology. All of his books: highly, highly recommended. Most importantly he is not cobbling together a generic Llewellynish New Age cookbook. He's done his homework AND practices and it shows, big time. His book on runes (Helrunar) is probably the best available in or out of print and his book Visual Magick which covers what he calls "Freestyle Shamanism" is a minor masterpiece. VM might be a must-buy for you...

You'll probably find that certain sections of Skinner's book will be useful and others not at all because there's just SO MUCH material covered. As WolfyJames points out, Qabalah doesn't really enter into that tradition. Much of the Complete Magicians' Tables info is for the ceremonial end of things. But the pagan stuff is there as well... And as you get a little more comfortable, you'll find that using the tables might be a way to solidify your own working. The tricky thing is that the Tables are organized by a ceremonial magician, so even if you don't use Qabalah you may wind up learning more than you want to as you start to see connections between different systems.

I think the best recommendation is to find the key points of connection between your tradition and the Tables and then constellate ourtwards so that new knowledge is built one things you've already used and understood. And to stretch your wings, a practicing group or a working magician like Jan Fries can help guide the journey...

While there is a lot of "Pagans" in the area there are few that actually practice the craft. SaintofScreams is Wicca and helps me a great deal, she lives close and comes over quite a bit.

I will start searching for Fries books, I love to read everything...however it is always nice to get someone that can actually write!

Abc...

I guess I'm aiming this question at Scion. But if anyone else wants to chime in, please do.

I've been thinking of buying The Complete Magicians Tables for a while now but something keeps holding me back, and it's not the price if that's what you are thinking. LOL

The main selling point of this book seems to be that it is bigger and therefore supposedly better than Crowley's 777. But I have a nagging suspicion that much of the extra material not found in Crowley's 777 will be of the nice but not essential reference variety.

What I'm getting at is this. The most useful aspect of Crowley's 777 is that it tabulates an essential core set of correspondences that go to form the "magical alphabet". It's those key correspondences that must be memorised and planted firmly in the mind so that they create an artificial language for communicating with the subconscious mind. Now, not all of the tables in 777 are essential to this language, they are more like helpful, tabulated references that you simpley look up if you need them.

So what I want to know is how much of the extra material in Skinner's book actually adds to the magical alphabet, and how much is merely nice but nonessential reference material?

You ask a great question Aeon, and one I can only answer partially, because it depends on the purposes to which you're putting the info.

Skinner's tables are largely comprehensive, but he makes the decision to dump the rigid 0-32bis table into which Crowley sorted everything for a table system that doesn't find identical "slots" for all of the tabulated systems. On the one hand it's a more organic system, because there are obviously places in 777 where the links between things over those tables is loose and fragmentary at best.

On the other hand, for "alphabetic" purposes, you may find it frustrating. Because by getrting rid of that omnipresent 0-32bis model, those connections aren't always directly tabulated. And some of the secitons he's added, DON'T seem to add to the alphabet, although some definitely do.

Does that make sense? I hope I''m describing this usefully.

I will say, I love 777 and still use it at times, but since I bought the Complete Magician's Tables, it has become the go-to reference for most magical questions...

If that isn't the answer you needed let me know and I'll take another crack at it.

Scion

Thanks Scion.

I haven't parted with my cash yet, but I'm seriously considering it.