What My Hierophant Should Have Taught Me (Book Review)

One of my favorite sayings is "If you want to understand the behavior of Secret Chiefs and their human representatives, think of the Secret Chiefs as being cats." Many people think that I am merely making a joke--I am not. It is a statement that I make in all seriousness. I don't think that a lot of people get my point. But if anyone gets my point (and the real useful advice that goes along with my statement), I suspect that Nick Farrell is one of them.

Recently Nick Farrell wrote a limited edition book called "What My Hierophant Should Have Taught Me." It consists of a series of aphorisms applicable to the occult path, along with a commentary for each one. Some of the aphorisms are:

*Magic is not a religion
*You crave power
*Understanding symbols is a key to understanding the universe

and my personal favorite:

*When things go wrong, do not panic

(which I tend to lump in with my own personal aphorism--When working with Sister Amy, have a fire extinguisher ready...honestly, do not let her near any open flames.)

This book is filled with useful advice, some of which I wish I would have learned sooner than I actually did. For the most part, I agree with the advice given in this book. There are a couple of things that I am going to have to experiment with (or pay more attention to) before I make a judgment on--mainly technical advice on working magic.

I imagine that a lot of people are going to judge this book harshly. Some of the advice is about the warning signs that a group (or a group leader) is not on the up and up. It has been my experience that such dubious people turn nasty when they believe that someone is talking about them in a negative light; after all, someone might actually listen and not pay them the dues or accolades that they so richly deserve.

Farrell also mentions advice about how groups react when someone leaves a group (either willingly or not)--this advice falls under the category of "Gee, I wish someone would have warned me about that sooner."

Overall, this is a very useful book--one that I wish I had much earlier in my occult and esoteric career. I give it five out of five stars.

What My Hierophant Should Have Taught Me (limited to just a hundred copies) is still available on Lulu.

[Disclosure: This review is based on an electronic file version provided by the author for review purposes.]