Somnus Dreadwood

This one got lots of eye rolls 🙄
"The Left Hand is both a grimoire that breaks down the rites and spells of many commonly sought after foci for those who come to the mystic path as it also details working with Demons and Spirits, accounts the exile of the Blighted Lords, exposes the truth of the Judeo-Chrisitian-Islamic hypocrisy, heresy, mass murder, and control beside the governmental tyranny and religious profiling that is plaguing walkers of the Old Ways. This tome has some of Somnus Dreadwood’s personal philosophies about the political/social/religious state of the world and with the loss of freedoms how our sect of the spiritual spectrum will soon be targeted by another new Inquisition. This tome also details his communications between Cernobog, Satan, Asmodeus, and Zazazel. Herein given is the component formula and vampiric ritual that he used to save his father's life. At the end, we have the rites of self-initiation into the Nigrum Ecclesia Gehennae; a universal body of Disciples of the Left Hand Path who are joining across the planes to fight the corruption and blight that is the JCI in Etheris and which takes other forms in other planes. There is also given the details of invoking the powers of many ancient Demons, the methods of spiritual assassination, walking through unseen and guarded paths, and reaching apotheosis via magickal mastery and immortal invocation."
OMG this book... I can see why it hasn't gotten many ratings and reviews. This is not due to the context of the book but rather the content of it.
First off, I understand that this book is supposed to teach you the beginnings of darker magic (aka the left hand path) but the cover of the book is so dark in color that you cannot read the writing on it. Simply terrible design.
Second, the author's writing comes off as pretentious. He writes as if he knows everything and you have come to him as a lost sheep who has wandered away from the fold seeking truth and enlightenment from him. 🙄
Third, while there are many cheesy, corny and some downright ridiculous books out there in the new age section of the book stores, I feel that the author has absolutely no right to bashwitchcraft traditions that are anything other than his own. Witchcraft and spirituality and religion in general are becoming more and more individualistic in our country and what doesn't work for some might work for others. It is ridiculous to think that only one magickal path is the right magickal path. How very Christian fanatical of him 🙄
The author also speaks of things that we have no idea what he's talking about. an example of this would be in the beginning of the book when he starts talking about the different towers in the introduction. at this point in the reading the reader has no idea what those towers are or what they stand for. His ideas in points are not very well-thought-out and not very well executed in book form. With the exception of bashing other religions of course. 🙄
Another thing that really bothered me was the fact that he keeps referring to his book as a "tome" when in actuality this is a very light read and I was able to knock it out in a couple of hours. It is a tome by no means. Just a simple little book (135 pages).
As for the grimoire itself, the concepts are very interesting and the spells, tinctures, and potions seem like a fascinating thing to try. However like the rest of this book, the spell portion is not well laid out. And is sadly short-lived before we get into another religion bashing portion of the book. The spells themselves are laid out in a ceremonial style and include magickal phrases and seals that are extremely difficult for anyone to replicate. 🙄
To make matters worse there is a portion of this book that talks about Adolf Hitler. It explains very simply that lies were told about Hitler by the victors of the war. let's just leave it at that and say that it is very disheartening and disgusting. As a scholar of history myself (especially WWII), I find the section appalling.
I have read many a grimoire in my time in my 20+ years of study of the magickal arts. And I have to say this one is probably the worst I have ever read.… (plus d'informations)