Which of these (or some other tome you want to mention) blew you away the most?

[Frater Frankenfurter]

I started out as a consparicy theorist, by influence of my uncle at a young age who was a major amature investigator in the Kennedy assassination.  So by the age of 13, (which was a long time ago . .lol), I already had developed a healthy disbelief in anything the goverment said or did.

In a bookstore one day, I ran across the book, "Everything Is Under Control"  by RAW and my exploration in discordisim began.  It lead eventually to Steve Jackson's PD, Illuminatius Triliogy, and pretty much all of RAW's books.  Later, as a pagan, it developed easily for me into Peter Carroll's work, Phil Hine, and Frater U.D., (but not so much of U.D., he gives me the willies . . .)

Of all the books as of late that have seem to blow my mind the most has been Illusions, Confessions of a Relutant Messiah, by Richard Bach, and my obssession in finding correlations between the magick system in the White Wolf Game, Mage the Ascension and the works of Carroll.

man . . .am I screwed in the head or what . . .?

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I started out as a consparicy theorist, by influence of my uncle at a young age who was a major amature investigator in the Kennedy assassination.  So by the age of 13, (which was a long time ago . .lol), I already had developed a healthy disbelief in anything the goverment said or did.

In a bookstore one day, I ran across the book, "Everything Is Under Control"  by RAW and my exploration in discordisim began.  It lead eventually to Steve Jackson's PD, Illuminatius Triliogy, and pretty much all of RAW's books.  Later, as a pagan, it developed easily for me into Peter Carroll's work, Phil Hine, and Frater U.D., (but not so much of U.D., he gives me the willies . . .)

Of all the books as of late that have seem to blow my mind the most has been Illusions, Confessions of a Relutant Messiah, by Richard Bach, and my obssession in finding correlations between the magick system in the White Wolf Game, Mage the Ascension and the works of Carroll.

man . . .am I screwed in the head or what . . .?

Sounds like your in the same boat as some of us.... Illusions was an absolutely awesome book and Mage is a total rip off of the system/metaphors Carroll and Hine like to use. Having some friends that are on the inside, this apparently isn't accidental... what do you expect when you let geeks make games

[Cramulus]

yeah and once you hit level 13, they'll teach you REAL MADGICK.

[Frater Frankenfurter]

Sounds like your in the same boat as some of us.... Illusions was an absolutely awesome book and Mage is a total rip off of the system/metaphors Carroll and Hine like to use. Having some friends that are on the inside, this apparently isn't accidental... what do you expect when you let geeks make games

I am glad i am not the only one who has noticed this.  I have always wondered how much infuence Carroll had over Mage, and if the authors did it just by accident or what.  As a praticing CM I have found myself using the termnology out of the game system since so much of it seems like a simplified, direct representation of CM ideas and principals.  Maybe I am not as fucked up as I thought . . .

Or maybe its worse since I have now found others who agree with me . . .

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

Sounds like your in the same boat as some of us.... Illusions was an absolutely awesome book and Mage is a total rip off of the system/metaphors Carroll and Hine like to use. Having some friends that are on the inside, this apparently isn't accidental... what do you expect when you let geeks make games

I am glad i am not the only one who has noticed this.  I have always wondered how much infuence Carroll had over Mage, and if the authors did it just by accident or what.  As a praticing CM I have found myself using the termnology out of the game system since so much of it seems like a simplified, direct representation of CM ideas and principals.  Maybe I am not as fucked up as I thought . . .

Or maybe its worse since I have now found others who agree with me . . .

At least two of the White Wolf people studied Chaos Magic at one point, dunno if they still practice.

[Bharlion]

Bhagavad Gita.
The King in Yellow.
Enuma Elish.
The Necromancers Handbook (Latin to Eng trans 15th Cent. very rare most were burned)
Lucifer Rising.

[Verbal Mike]

I was born skeptic, managed to shrug off attempts at injecting me with religion until about the age of 13 when I started actively going atheist. A couple of years later I started half-seriously drifting into slightly new-age spiritualism and more seriously into ontological anarchy (without any external influence iirc). This was when books started to affect me.
First it was Tao of Physics.
Then I became familiar with Discordianism and sympathetic with its symbolism thanks to the Wikipedia article on Discordianism.
Then it was Temporary Autonomous Zone which totally blew my mind basically by virtue of one word, Simulation.
Then I read PD on PD.com (I had already seen many parts of it before). Some time before or after that it was Alan Watts' superb Wisdom of Insecurity.
Then a few days ago BIP drop-kicked my brain real nice.

I don't read nearly as much I'd like to, but I'm working on it.

[Bebek Sincap Ratatosk]

I was born skeptic, managed to shrug off attempts at injecting me with religion until about the age of 13 when I started actively going atheist. A couple of years later I started half-seriously drifting into slightly new-age spiritualism and more seriously into ontological anarchy (without any external influence iirc). This was when books started to affect me.
First it was Tao of Physics.
Then I became familiar with Discordianism and sympathetic with its symbolism thanks to the Wikipedia article on Discordianism.
Then it was Temporary Autonomous Zone which totally blew my mind basically by virtue of one word, Simulation.
Then I read PD on PD.com (I had already seen many parts of it before). Some time before or after that it was Alan Watts' superb Wisdom of Insecurity.
Then a few days ago BIP drop-kicked my brain real nice.

I don't read nearly as much I'd like to, but I'm working on it.

Have your read  Jean Baudrillard's "Simulacra and Simulations"?

[Cain]

If not, I have a pdf of it.

Debord's Society and the Spectacle is also well worth reading.

[Dysfunctional Cunt]

The Book of Five Rings - Miyamoto Mushashi
The quintissential Japanese strategy guide.  The object of the lesson is that the lesson never ends, and to never rely on anything external to yourself to succeed.

This was one of the first books I read that had a huge influence on me and my road to here.  What is so strange is I read it after seeing so many quotes by Miyamoto Mushashi in "The Wiccan Warrior" by Kerr Cuhulain which was a gift from my sister who, at the time, was trying to convince me that I was wiccan.  Strange how the road twists to a completely unexpected destination!

[Cain]

From the little I've seen (extracts really) Kerr Culhain seems to know what he is talking about.  Good book?

[Verbal Mike]

Cain, I'd be glad to have a gander at that pdf. I hadn't heard of S&S before but Wikipedia makes it out to sound like an interesting read.

[Cain]

Here you go http://www.mediafire.com/?aswygxwct0d

[Verbal Mike]

Thank you.

[Cain]

No problems.