The Old Magick Calls to Aaron Leitch

Readers, please enjoy this guest blog post by Aaron Leitch, author of The Angelical Language, Volume I; The Angelical Language, Volume II; and Secrets of the Magical Grimoires.

Greetings, faithful seekers!  Since this is my first blog post here, I think I should take the opportunity to introduce myself.  My name is Aaron Leitch, and I am a student and practitioner of the Solomonic Arts.  That is a style of magick that was popular in Europe during the Middle Ages and Renaissance, and from whence we get our popular conceptions of grimoires, or magickal spell books.  If you have read my Secrets of the Magickal Grimoires, and The Angelical Language, Volumes I and II,  then you already have a firm grasp of what this kind of magick is all about.

So, you may ask, what is it about this Old Magick that calls to me?  It all began years ago—in the 1990s—in Denver, Colorado.  I was a Neopagan, living and working with other Neopagans from a myriad of different backgrounds.  When my friends discovered I had an interest in angels, demons, and various bits of Biblically-oriented occult lore, one of them decided to loan me one of his books.  He said the magick it contained—called the Qabalah—seemed to be right up my alley.  That book was Modern Magick by Donald Michael Kraig, and it did indeed capture my interest!

However, Mr. Kraig’s book focuses primarily upon Western Hermetic Qabalah, influenced especially by the Golden Dawn and Thelema.  My friends assured me that there was something else, something far older, more powerful and much more dangerous.  No one knew precisely what it was called—they only knew that it was serious Old Testament magick.  Its secrets were contained in a White Book (which taught the summoning of Archangels) and in a Black Book (which taught the conjuration of demons).  The very idea filled me with awe and wonder, and I decided then and there I would find those books!

Over the years that followed, I found them.  They were neither black and white, nor were they as old as the Biblical Prophets.  In fact, they were medieval manuscripts called the Greater Key of Solomon and Lesser Key of Solomon—and they were just two examples of a much larger genre of medieval occult literature.

These books—the magickal grimoires—were not what I had been led to believe, but they were much more than I could have expected!  They had sparked the Burning Times, had traveled with immigrants to the New World, and became foundational to both American Hexcraft and Hoodoo.  They even had an important influence upon the founding of today’s major currents of magick: the Golden Dawn, Thelema, Wicca, and others.

In short, these books are the wellspring of Western occultism, and our culture’s magickal heritage.  And when you put their techniques into practice, they work—very well!  In today’s increasingly dangerous world, there has been a resurgence of interest in these ancient manuscripts, and in the Old Magick overall.  I am very honored to have a role to play in this new occult revival.  Until next time, keep reading and keep practicing!

Zorge,
Aaron Leitch