Jason Miller's "The Sorcerer's Secrets: Strategies in Practical Magick"

Last Friday the mailman brought this little book and whilst not the one i was oh so needy to get my hands on, it actually dragged me into a reading frenzy. I liked it, i liked it a lot, here's why:

For some years I've noticed two trends in the occult publishing community. In one side of the spectrum, it seems to become more and more common the raging voices of malcontents that either don't understand or simply dont like the "lust for results" that a lot of (if not all) students have, specially in "high magic" circles. As a consequence, "low magic" gets the shaft. Its particular nature that is in accordance to those very results, is often sneered at as if, somehow, a sorcerer can't achieve some abstract and deeply individual "great work" in his sorcery or if the worry for physical comfort was a blasphemy (oh i do recall the string of magicians praising poverty as if it was, by itself, some privileged means to attain enlightenment). On the other hand, pop books that dwell on half arsed spells, tidbits of magical techniques poorly explained and that regurgitate the same correspondence tables abound. Often i asked myself: "Well, where's the  new material that is neither in denial of human basic needs and that doesn't treat the subject as if it was all a matter of praying to the goddess whilst adding color X with stone Y?". And this small gap in literature is what Jason Miller filled with his slim volume. It's not revolutionary book by any means, nor does it present exactly something new, but his honesty and the very workable sorcery system presented in the book was a breath of fresh air in my shelf. Traditionalists that cringe at the thought of eclecticism should stay away, i guess, so should people that worry a bit too much about that elusive karma and the even more elusive ethical behaviour for this book both mix'n'matches and has no qualms with influencing and manipulating people regardless of their willingness to comply. There is no real cosmology presented, there are no great appeals to tradition or to established mythos. There is only the overall feeling of doing what works in order to get what you desire. And it delivers what it promises whilst still not forgetting personal development, practice, and directing the student to further study with a personalized recommendation list. And this is what makes it awesome.
There are problems with the book, though. For one, the book is riddled with typos. Even I, not a native speaker of English, saw this and found it detrimental to the reading. Its notes are also far and in-between and are not nearly sufficient for the book he is presenting; only one ritual (that I've noticed) presented a pronunciation description (something very important if you are going to vibrate something), still, he does have a forum on his webpage where you can discuss his work and he does interact with people that hang around there...this transparency is a plus for me.

All in all, recommended to anyone that wants to read something a bit out of the ordinary, clearly written and focused on pragmatic side of magic.
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