Serenity of the Dark

How I was going to review. I just chuck that. So  I will just be me, it is what it is. Let’s begin.

OK so this was interesting, but it took me like 4 to 5 years to read it again, or pick it back up I shall say. It is so heavy on Greek version of Christianity that I had to stop myself from laughing, and yelling at the book. Seriously I talked to myself way more than I normally do. I have never known Hecate to be so firmly implanted into Abrahamic roles, that I would say this is 60% sickening, 20% pondering and 20% spot on useful information. So to read it again, and continue on I had to just grin and bare it. I did pull out some very useful information, mainly on workings that I can use and make actually occult instead of having it based in “light good, dark bad” shit.

Let’s just say I picked the book up because it was purple, it had Hecate on the cover and I was like yes! So sue me lol. The book is divided into 14 chapters though they are not named, and you may not know when you have crossed over. The first 5 chapters have subdivisions within. So let’s see which ones I will highlight.

Hecate.

It starts off with a beautiful portrait of her (pg 10) that gives the normal background of this Goddess. So get your BOS out and get ready to take some notes, as it has some decent information in it.

The Spiritual Purpose (pg 28) is where I was scratching my head. Just the whole “Zeus (the Christian Father, Ruler of Heaven)” and how Zeus gave Hecate suffering to deal with and him and the other gods abandoned her and she had to deal with it all alone and she became sad and depressed, I am like the fuck is wrong with you? I just kept it moving.

In the Wheel of Hecate (pg 41) I pulled the 6 shadow’s of Hecate’s wheel. I didn’t keep the “6 (7)” sins attached like he did, because I don’t follow that shit.  In doing so I added the Seven veils (pg 43) to the 6 shadows and made something very intriguing for me to work on later this month.

The next section is Death, and if you know me then you know how excited I got. So what I pulled to work with is Hecate/Baphomet and Thanatos/Hecate ( and I am working with both the Gods now so it is only fitting); and a skull meditation. The Seven Caeliums I read and I took the titles and then created my own system and changed the titles lol., which is what I do 97% of the time when using another magician;s work (unless it is dire that I keep it original). I was disappointed in this section as he eluded to those who do black magick in the past will have karma coming back at them because black magick is bad.

I also find it laughable that Wicca was originally the Latin Vicanus/Vicani that means one who works with Hecate/Diana/Bacchus instead of Catholicism. Like that is the fucking definition he gave of Wicca. And how if you work with more than one God you are doing a disservice to yourself and will not be able to fully obtain that next level. BULLSHIT.  Again we have the dark is bad light is good shit he keeps spewing in this book, and how Lucifer is unnatural light, but when he is combined with Hecate he is fine. Also Baphomet has to deal with suffering, bear the “infinite suffering”. I have no clue where the fuck people get this shit from, but it will never cease to amaze me.

Hecate’s form.

Now these 15 descriptions were actually very beautiful and I wrote them all down, well the bones of it so I can do my own connecting to her in these forms and see what my experiences are.

Hecate Worship (pg 125) have a lot of invocation and chants and hymns, in which maybe a couple I found useful but not many.

I find the birth cart kind of funny, having the mark of Lucierfia as an aspect of Hecate after calling Lucifer himself unnatural light, only when he is with Hecate is he good enough and changed into the feminine.

The Hecate Overview (pg 208) was pretty decent. If you have never worked with her, or have done so minimally, then this will be a good place to load up your BOS. Some good info to pull out and jog your memory, more myths and “historical” information about her and her life.

I think this book is good for those who are scared of the dark, and believe in the more Christianize version of occult. Wiccans would love this book, fluffy bunnies and those types. But for us who have are big girl and boy drawers on, this book has a few pages to hit up for some new ritual constructs and that is about all. I would borrow this book, I wouldn’t buy it.

Unfortunately when I saw this book I saw part 2 and brought that, and I regret it now that I am reading it lol. But hey, every book has its place in sharing information and the second one ain’t that bad, well in comparison to the first one. Although I am still reading it.