The magic books translated into Hebrew are terrible. The choices were made by what was popular in the United States and the translators and publishers had no ability to distinguish between a well-written magical book and a badly written magical book. The translation did not give too much thought to the terminology and the way in which the Hebrew language uses it - as well as those written by good writers, compiled their worst books. A contemporary Israeli natural magic work hardly exists.
In the past, I have always told people who want to learn magic to prepare to be bilingual and to master English at the level of their mother tongue, and if they do not like finding texts about practical Kabbalah and Jewish folk magic. Now I confess, I have no idea of practical acceptance. There may be wonderful books of practical Kabbalah and Jewish folk magic in Israel, but none of them came to me and to my library.
It must be noted that information coming from numbers constitutes about a third of the witch's training, so this shortage makes it very difficult for a magical education in Israel. The second trimester is experience, and the third is guidance from other witches. Most witches do not get enough of a certain third and this creates a serious deficiency that needs to be corrected. Life is the school of the witch and one can not avoid this learning either way.
After this lecture, it was time to discuss the truly important issue of books for witchcraft in Israel. I focus on natural magic, that is, a sorcery whose origins are nature and spirits. Kabbalistic or ceremonial magic is not my strength, and mentalistic magic alone is one that for me enriches the soup, but can not exist only and lacks the tools that allow it to be a separate genre. This record is meant to answer the question: What is a person who wants to study natural magic in Israel? Well at the most basic level, a sorcerer or witch must work on three areas before they touch magic itself:
Meditation in order to be able to hear the consciousness and reach the point where the subconscious contains the divine spark that enables a change in the spiritual and physical reality. In addition meditation is important as a visualization tool
A predictive tool that enables both self-exploration and answers to various questions: Why does this happen? How do you get to something else?
A diary of dreams that allows tracking the subconscious - To prepare it there is no need for a book, just hold a notebook by the bed and immediately in the morning write what you remember from our dreams. At the moment there is no need to try to interpret dreams. They are mostly the reverberations of the subconscious and nothing more.
In the first stage, I will recommend two books that deal with basic meditation, and the second deals with the study of tarot cards used to predict fortunes and possible outcomes. The tarot cards are chosen here as a predictive tool that has been studied in depth, and there are great resources on them in Hebrew and English, and their current form was created by the Golden Dawn Order, the most important Magi order in the 20th century . Their symbolism combines Greek philosophy, Egyptian magic and practical acceptance, although in the way the British who were members of the Order understood these magical methods. At this stage, you need to get the Ryder White Tarot pack, and it is available on the Steimatzky chain.
Live Better - Meditation: Bill Andron
Exercises in meditation: David Fontana
These books not only contain basic meditation exercises but also general information about visualization (visualization that is very important for sorcerers and the fulfillment of magical goals) but also basic information about the four elements, acceptance, and a slight touch of healing and healing. You should try the exercises and achieve them for three months. You must create a meditation routine and document your dreams before proceeding. You can choose one of the two books suggested here, or what is better and read both.
At the same time or later, it is time to learn the tarot cards and develop a basic predictive skill. In the past, it was a wonderful site on the subject of "Tarot site by Uri Raz." Uri Raz is a trusted tarot researcher and he recommended the following book:
Tarot - Journey into Your Life: Eric Eyal, This book is a must. Practice of tarot prediction is also mandatory.
Learning predictive tools properly and understanding it and using it properly is a process of years, like meditation. At this stage it is enough to understand and know the basis for moving forward, but it will always be necessary to deepen and improve. It would not be considered completely insane to take a parallel tarot course and embark on a vibesana or Buddhist retreat to improve our little meditation abilities.
Another book of the basic level is: The History of Witchcraft: Jeffrey Russell
At this stage you should know that everything written about the history of magic is covered with prejudice and superficial analysis, both in English and in Hebrew. The title of the book is more worthy of being "different issues in the history of sorcery and how I, Jeffrey Russell, failed to understand them because I do not deal with magic." In any case, from African Magia, to Alastair Crowley and the Vicka Movement, the book contains photographs and basic information that will allow you to participate in the discussion without embarrassing yourself. In this book there are no exercises so you can read it while you are working on tarot and meditation.
After the basic reading and practice, and after educating yourself a bit about the history of sorcery and only then, you can access magical texts with a background that will allow you to use practicality. Due to the scarcity of materials published in Hebrew, the books described so far are a must read and selected from a pile of much less good and effective books. Spiritual work is also necessary, not just reading but practice, according to the approach to the following group of books:
The following books bring with them the structure of the basic Western magic ceremony that can be held as an individual or group. The structure includes purifying, raising energy, imposing a circle, reading to the elements, calling to God, ritual magical activity (often it will be candle magic), sending energy to the goal, thanking God.
These actions, while they sound simple and repetitive, are more complex than they seem to be. Talking with complex physical action is difficult, but talking with action and designing energy is something that requires a lot of practice.
The first book you should read on the basic magic list is:
Magic and Charm: K. Amber - She tries in this book to give you a background on American Vika. She gives a version and ritual structures, including 11 simple spells that you can try without too much difficulty and effort. However, her method of doing so should not be locked, and one of the good things in the book is that she gives a few words about other magical traditions. It of course offers a theological element of neo-paganism, but it can be temporarily ignored until you can arrange your spiritual and religious perception.
The Magic of the Candle: Philip Cooper - Here is a tragic combination of bad translation and a terrible book by a good author. Cooper's original book Magical Basic is a wonderful literary work that goes into the depths of contemporary magical philosophy, but someone in the publishing house asked for something more practical, and he tried to take the familiar format and introduce his deep philosophy and wonderful practice inside. The compound failed, and he did not publish any more books. The charm of the candle gives a wonderful practice and a nonsense-free concept to the sorcerer - it is also a great way to enter into mental magic - or magical chaos. The practice is irreplaceable and should not be given up because of the meager inventory in Hebrew. For most humor, the magic of candles is not important in this book and you can ignore it.
The third and last book to this level is through magic: Rina Magic. The first and only Hebrew book dealing with natural magic written and worth something. The author sells, taught "Witch Road" and initiates the Neo-Pagan recital stream, which deals with natural magic. The movement was created from an American version of Wicca. The differences are that unlike the Vika, the Riklaime movement is political, feminist, ecological, and believes in the social interaction of members and decisions in the consensus. Her unofficial leader is Starhawk who visited Israel several times. She gives a list of sources that allows you to read English and adapts the witch's holidays to the local seasons, enabling a deep understanding and adaptation of "galut" material here. The festivals of the witches are of a religious nature, but they are also important times of change of nature and seasons and time-consuming magic and moon shape in the account should recognize it. In addition there is writing on the circle, the relationship with the elements, in a clear and sharp,
Important book: On purity and danger: Mary Douglas - the most important academic book written in the 20th century. Brings with him the message of post-modernism and deals with the vagaries of magic in human culture while dealing with questions of purity and impurity which are very important subjects in magical contexts, especially at this stage of your path. This is an important teen book that can give you academic tools to answer questions and understand the profoundly magical theory and philosophy.
The order in which these books are supposed to be read is important, and it is best to read them in order to form the correct connections and understand different versions of using a circle. All exercises in these books are a must. You should read the books first, then read again while practicing.
The following books are books of spells: the collections themselves are in a minus order, and should be called after practicing meditation and understanding and practicing the structure of the ceremony that allows the casting. Alone, they are useless, and constitute distraction. So again in this article I request reading and practice of the two groups of previous books to reach the third group. The spells themselves would be very tasteless, without local taste and almost uninteresting, but once we had studied the previous books, we could, hopefully, adapt them to our needs. In the United States, the books of spells are given with a quick and insufficient introduction to the art of sorcery, with moral warnings (which must be ignored and acted upon with discretion), and many reasons and ideas of the writer that are not all fit or healthy for the Israeli conception of existence. :
The Complete Guide to Witchcraft and Ceremonies: Cassandra Balance - Cassandra Balance is a kind of American standard created by a Vika derivative and reclaiming - it was an almost punk part of creating magic for the masses. Her spells have logic because they are simple and can be cast here. They contain crystals, candles, essential oils and more. The book is interesting and simple, and a person who has not completed his magical training can practice it. The translation is terrible.
The magic of the candles: Patricia Telesco - Patricia Telesco has a lot of visitors, but this book is relatively fine. She talks about making candles with a magical purpose, using color numbers and other correspondence. This is the book closest to the book of correspondence of the books of advice in Israel. Contrary to what she says in the book, you can use white candles for anything - and color does not matter much. The thing is that candle wax is a great carrier for magical energy and to move our goal to the other world to come true.
The power of the earth: Scott Cunningham - An example of Scott Cunningham's exemplary work, the book contains ideas and works of natural magic - loading rocks from nature to protection, using rainwater for purification and other great and basic things. It offers an extensive collection of tools for people who seek the deep connection to the four elements and the divine crystallization of the spiritual force in the wild and urban nature and the four elements.
The last group of books is a group of reference books that help to understand the power and use of magical materials. The use of these books is meant to help understand the properties of various materials and tools and their effect on magic, a bit like a kind of colored glass that helps us to give a different shade of light that is the magical energy that catches things in our world. Will we use energy-enhancing or soothing plants? Bring abundance or healing? Some philosophies argue that materials are only symbols that allow emotional communication with the divine spark in us, but others claim that the materials themselves contain the desired magical properties. I belong to the last school.
Magical and Enchanted Plants: From a series of stolen books, this book is a poor summary of the Cingham Magical Encyclopedia of Medicinal Plants and written under the cover of an old grandmother who kept magic books in her Sondok. Basically there are all kinds of plants and description of their virtues, and while the rituals and spells there are of no interest to anyone, it is easy to understand that avocados are equal to beauty spells and poppies of illusions and peas that keep evil spirits away. All in all, a light and pleasant book that is nice to find from oblivion.
Plants, Demons and Wonders: Amotz Dafni - A book that describes folklore The history and myth of Israeli plants has finally come out. An educated witch would be able to extract magical uses from the myths. A relatively new book.
The Secret of the Crystals: Two Tone. While many books have been translated into Hebrew on crystals, none of them are intended for magical users, the emphasis is on gemology and various conditions, such as attracting abundance, restoring balance, and dealing with failing love through crystals. Shani's book is a kind of fancy catalog to her store. You can get most of the crystals there, and get ideas for spells from the book.
Aromatherapy: Anat Dabush - is a guide explaining the uses of essential oils. These are very popular in recent years, despite their high price. They are used to mix magical oils for different purposes - and to put them on candles, amulets, crystals and more. It is good to learn about their medical use, in addition to the book contains folklore and folk medicine that may imply the magical properties of the plants from which the oils are produced.
Before you complain that you can not get some of these old books, I want to display the bookmark site inside. Just search for a bookmark, subscribe to the site: search for a specific title, you will get a summary, and below it there will be people and parking to sell it used. There will also be a general description of the state of the book. Buying the used books also saves money, because some books will cost 30-60 shekels, and also saves the environment from further chopping trees. This is a favorite concept called conservation and recycling.
After reading and practicing everything on this list, can you be called witches? well no. You will have an idea of natural magic and a good basis for discussions. Perhaps you can cast one or two spells to work for you, but there is a lot of occultism, and also in the natural stream that is lacking in Hebrew literature. Remember, learning and reading numbers is only a third, years of experience is another third, but you need a community and teachers to produce a proper witch. The third of the Hebrew books is poor, lacking and in the composition of this list - for a clear reason, the market is small and the expense of each book is expensive.
Disclosure: I work in a public library. I am currently working on picking up the books on this list and making sure they are available on the shelf so that young sorcerers and witches of the future will have something to start with in their future - something I missed in my youth.