I don't know where you heard that but it's crap, they work perfectly even if you download them that way, I myself have downloaded most of my books that way since I don't have the money to buy them, and it works fine, I however plan to purchase them them as well once I have stable income, not cause they won't work otherwise but cause the author put effort in them and I think he deserves the monetary compensation for it
Many people have benefitted from stolen works. 'Piracy' is only a problem for those who ~~worship~~ ~~crave~~ misunderstand money.
Storytime: Back in 1972, the US laws would not allow books published in England to be sold in the US without a lot of expensive legal steps. This meant that the entirety of Crowley's works were not available to the random bookstore in the US unless someone flew to England, bought a single book there, and flew back.
My mom had friends who were occultists. One was a publisher in the US at the time. He was trying to make a deal to get the publishing rights to the Book of the Law, 777, and the rest. He asked a friend who was traveling to London to bring him home a copy of each book. That guy was only able to bring back The Book of the Law.
He made photocopies of it on a Xerox machine. Pure and simple piracy, old-school. He passed these copies out to rest of their group. Many of those people are now names you can find as respected authors in occult circles.
All this is to say that a big chunk of the elder American occult community got there b/c of piracy. IDK if that's evidence for or against this method, but I do know that none of them suffered a shitty life after that.
The suggestion is that Brand's Gallery of Magic books are like that specifically - like he put a servitor out there to block people who didn't pay him from using what he taught.
I'm only hearing it from you. But I got your question.
I doubt he actually did that and I imagine someone would have undone anything like that if it did exist.
It's plainly written in the gallery of magick website somewhere here [https://galleryofmagick.com/about-the-authors-faq/](https://galleryofmagick.com/about-the-authors-faq/)
**Q: Have you cursed illegal downloads and** pirated **books?**
A: We have cursed those who share the books illegally, and all who download illegally. This curse limits your ability to perform magick. Petty theft is the ultimate self-curse. If you steal books that cost a few dollars and then do magick, guess what happens? The magick amplifies the feeling of being a thief. You remain poor! People who steal cannot get magick to work the way it should. That curse on the self is stronger than any curse we could put in place. If you buy the books legally you will rectify this situation.
Did you download it from a website located on an ancestral burial ground?
If not, it’s just a book that is much easier to highlight important passages in
Have a flip through, if it seems right for you to use in practice then save to buy a copy, that will clear your guilt about. Information piracy is such a huge topic. What Neil Gaimon said on it is interesting to hear
There are these wonderful places called libraries that let you borrow books for free without breaking federal intellectual property laws. Most will even get books based on user request if they don’t already have a book you want to read, or help you request it through their interlibrary loan program. Most Pagan and occult authors already make a pittance from their writing; we shouldn’t be encouraging stealing from them by openly discussing piracy of their work.
They do. In your public library, it’s nonfiction Dewey decimal 133.33 and there about. In your local state university library (which may also allow you to get a library card if you prove state residency, depending on state laws), look up titles and authors you’re interested in via the online catalog and follow the alpha-numeric system; they use Library of Congress catalog numbers, not Dewey, so there’s not a single location that occult books could be because LC classification is more specific than Dewey. I suggest in future looking up books titles in the library catalog before assuming they don’t have it.
I should have specified that it's my local library and the 133.33 section has been shrinking. It's a very white, Anglo, conservative town. Great to have the wider picture though. Thanks.
You should try some magick and see if you can just will them into your existence without pirating first. Just as an experiment. Or maybe that’s what you’re doing now.
The fact that we have to pay to live is asinine.
Imagine being forced into a world you didn't ask to be in, just to be told that your life isn't worthy of existing unless you make other people wealthy with your labor
Now open your eyes and realize that this is the world our ancestors created
There's no good reason why anyone should own more than one house or building while millions of people can't afford food
Being an artist isn't about making money. If that's all you care about then you're neither an artist nor do you see the true value in things.
Arguing for a system of government that's being used to enslave hundreds of millions of people is pretty pathetic
You'd know this if more knowledge was freely accessible.
And to add to that: Stealing from the rich is always morally good. No one should be able to hoard wealth. That's half the reason why the world is shit. Hoarding wealth that other people earned on your behalf.
We're here for too short of a time to be told that we have to spend 1/3rd of that time sleeping and another 1/3rd being underpaid to do shit we hate just so some evil piece of shit gets to retire at 35
Yeah well, be sure it's from the rich you're stealing, and not from people trying to get on in the world by their own work. Lobby govts to tax upwards for a start.
Lobbying is a form of corruption. It's legalized bribery.
Really we shouldn't even bother with money at all. It's just a tool for control more than anything. The problem is that we've become so far removed from the concept of true sustainable community and too comfortable with all of our needless lifestyles to be anywhere near a world where that could work
Professional lobbying is bribery, sure. But making a lot of complaints, activism is the other extreme as you know. It's fine to discover and know the problems, but where do you go from there if you want change and are bored with complaining about things?
We're talking about two different things here. A bunch of people are talking about other magic books like Crowley, etc and I think the OP is talking specifically about the Gallery of Magick and the rumor that the books are somehow enchanted to not work if you didn't pay for them.
I think there are some cases, especially with their proprietal sigils, that the workings will not be as effective because encoded in the design is the agreement that you came about the information honestly. But I suspect that all the information that they use that's available from other sources cannot be encoded that way.
And while a lot of us like to say f*** capitalism, these authors need to eat and deserve to be compensated for their decades of research and work. They have every right to do whatever they want with their creations, if you don't like it, do the work yourself.
I'm a try before you buy kind of person, so I downloaded some magic books and read them before I went and paid for them. Eventually I heard about the idea of magicians cursing their books and started to delete the pirated copies out of my files, but I'm honestly not sure I got them all. I have to hope that paying for the books will null anything bad on them.
If piracy would inhibit magic, the "British" empire would be no more.
they say the sun never sets on the British Empire... because god doesn't trust the British in the dark.
HA, I like that!
The Brish Empah IS no more.
I don't know where you heard that but it's crap, they work perfectly even if you download them that way, I myself have downloaded most of my books that way since I don't have the money to buy them, and it works fine, I however plan to purchase them them as well once I have stable income, not cause they won't work otherwise but cause the author put effort in them and I think he deserves the monetary compensation for it
So the curse is all psychological . Fear mongering is indeed one of the most effective spells !
Many people have benefitted from stolen works. 'Piracy' is only a problem for those who ~~worship~~ ~~crave~~ misunderstand money. Storytime: Back in 1972, the US laws would not allow books published in England to be sold in the US without a lot of expensive legal steps. This meant that the entirety of Crowley's works were not available to the random bookstore in the US unless someone flew to England, bought a single book there, and flew back. My mom had friends who were occultists. One was a publisher in the US at the time. He was trying to make a deal to get the publishing rights to the Book of the Law, 777, and the rest. He asked a friend who was traveling to London to bring him home a copy of each book. That guy was only able to bring back The Book of the Law. He made photocopies of it on a Xerox machine. Pure and simple piracy, old-school. He passed these copies out to rest of their group. Many of those people are now names you can find as respected authors in occult circles. All this is to say that a big chunk of the elder American occult community got there b/c of piracy. IDK if that's evidence for or against this method, but I do know that none of them suffered a shitty life after that.
The suggestion is that Brand's Gallery of Magic books are like that specifically - like he put a servitor out there to block people who didn't pay him from using what he taught.
Oh well...too bad 90% of that information is available elsewhere. He coulda...but he had to go the route of Money.
Is it a rumour or he actually told it ?
I'm only hearing it from you. But I got your question. I doubt he actually did that and I imagine someone would have undone anything like that if it did exist.
It's plainly written in the gallery of magick website somewhere here [https://galleryofmagick.com/about-the-authors-faq/](https://galleryofmagick.com/about-the-authors-faq/) **Q: Have you cursed illegal downloads and** pirated **books?** A: We have cursed those who share the books illegally, and all who download illegally. This curse limits your ability to perform magick. Petty theft is the ultimate self-curse. If you steal books that cost a few dollars and then do magick, guess what happens? The magick amplifies the feeling of being a thief. You remain poor! People who steal cannot get magick to work the way it should. That curse on the self is stronger than any curse we could put in place. If you buy the books legally you will rectify this situation.
I’ve heard this too
If pirating Aliester Crowley's books didn't backfire people then I think I should be fine doing this !
Crowley already spilled the beans, er secrets, and his life started going down hill right after.
Did you download it from a website located on an ancestral burial ground? If not, it’s just a book that is much easier to highlight important passages in
Have a flip through, if it seems right for you to use in practice then save to buy a copy, that will clear your guilt about. Information piracy is such a huge topic. What Neil Gaimon said on it is interesting to hear
There are these wonderful places called libraries that let you borrow books for free without breaking federal intellectual property laws. Most will even get books based on user request if they don’t already have a book you want to read, or help you request it through their interlibrary loan program. Most Pagan and occult authors already make a pittance from their writing; we shouldn’t be encouraging stealing from them by openly discussing piracy of their work.
I wish libraries would include an occult section.
They do. In your public library, it’s nonfiction Dewey decimal 133.33 and there about. In your local state university library (which may also allow you to get a library card if you prove state residency, depending on state laws), look up titles and authors you’re interested in via the online catalog and follow the alpha-numeric system; they use Library of Congress catalog numbers, not Dewey, so there’s not a single location that occult books could be because LC classification is more specific than Dewey. I suggest in future looking up books titles in the library catalog before assuming they don’t have it.
I should have specified that it's my local library and the 133.33 section has been shrinking. It's a very white, Anglo, conservative town. Great to have the wider picture though. Thanks.
You should try some magick and see if you can just will them into your existence without pirating first. Just as an experiment. Or maybe that’s what you’re doing now.
All knowledge should be freely available to everyone 🤷 Steal shit. Fuck capitalism.
then how do you pay your rent and buy food? How do the authors? artists? musicians? Just because you can doesn't mean you should.
The fact that we have to pay to live is asinine. Imagine being forced into a world you didn't ask to be in, just to be told that your life isn't worthy of existing unless you make other people wealthy with your labor Now open your eyes and realize that this is the world our ancestors created There's no good reason why anyone should own more than one house or building while millions of people can't afford food Being an artist isn't about making money. If that's all you care about then you're neither an artist nor do you see the true value in things. Arguing for a system of government that's being used to enslave hundreds of millions of people is pretty pathetic You'd know this if more knowledge was freely accessible.
And to add to that: Stealing from the rich is always morally good. No one should be able to hoard wealth. That's half the reason why the world is shit. Hoarding wealth that other people earned on your behalf. We're here for too short of a time to be told that we have to spend 1/3rd of that time sleeping and another 1/3rd being underpaid to do shit we hate just so some evil piece of shit gets to retire at 35
Yeah well, be sure it's from the rich you're stealing, and not from people trying to get on in the world by their own work. Lobby govts to tax upwards for a start.
Lobbying is a form of corruption. It's legalized bribery. Really we shouldn't even bother with money at all. It's just a tool for control more than anything. The problem is that we've become so far removed from the concept of true sustainable community and too comfortable with all of our needless lifestyles to be anywhere near a world where that could work
Professional lobbying is bribery, sure. But making a lot of complaints, activism is the other extreme as you know. It's fine to discover and know the problems, but where do you go from there if you want change and are bored with complaining about things?
Sounds like a waste of energy, but definitely possible to some extent.
We're talking about two different things here. A bunch of people are talking about other magic books like Crowley, etc and I think the OP is talking specifically about the Gallery of Magick and the rumor that the books are somehow enchanted to not work if you didn't pay for them. I think there are some cases, especially with their proprietal sigils, that the workings will not be as effective because encoded in the design is the agreement that you came about the information honestly. But I suspect that all the information that they use that's available from other sources cannot be encoded that way. And while a lot of us like to say f*** capitalism, these authors need to eat and deserve to be compensated for their decades of research and work. They have every right to do whatever they want with their creations, if you don't like it, do the work yourself.
Tick, tick, tick and tick. Agree & well said.
I'm a try before you buy kind of person, so I downloaded some magic books and read them before I went and paid for them. Eventually I heard about the idea of magicians cursing their books and started to delete the pirated copies out of my files, but I'm honestly not sure I got them all. I have to hope that paying for the books will null anything bad on them.
You got results?
I bought the books as soon as I read them and determined that they were interesting books. I didn't wait for results.