High Magick: A Guide to the Spiritual Practices That Saved My Life on Death Row

by Damien Echols

Overview

“Magick is not a path for followers; it is a path for questioners, seekers, and anyone who has trouble settling for dogma and pre-formulated answers. Magick is for those who feel the desire to peel away the surface of reality and see what lies beneath. Like various persecuted forms of mysticism, magick promotes direct contact with the source of creation.”
—Damien Echols

Discover a Powerful Practice for Transforming Yourself and Your Reality

At age 18, Damien Echols was sentenced to death for a crime he didn’t commit. “I spent my years in prison training to be a true magician,” he recalls. “I used magick—the practice of reshaping reality through our intention and will—to stave off incredible pain, despair, and isolation. But the most amazing feat of all that practice and study was to manifest my freedom.” With High Magick, this bestselling author shares his first teaching book on the powerful spiritual techniques that helped him survive and transcend his ordeal on death row.

Though our culture has consigned “magic” to fiction, stage illusions, or superstitions about dark practices, the magick Damien learned is an ancient Western tradition equal the Eastern practices of Buddhism, Taoism, and yoga in its wisdom and transformative power. Here he brings you an engaging and highly accessible guide for bringing magick into your own life, including:

• What is High Magick? Damien clears away the stigma and reveals the history and core teachings of this extraordinary art.
• The Four-Fold Breath—a foundational meditation practice to train your mind and body to channel subtle energies.
• The Middle Pillar—how to bring divine energy into the central channel of your body for empowerment and healing.
• The Qabalistic Cross—a centering technique to help you stay balanced and protected regardless of circumstances.
• The Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram—powerful practices for banishing negative energies and invoking energy to manifest your goals.
• Working with angelic beings and other spiritual allies to support your practice.
• Creating thoughtforms to assist you in your ongoing magickal development.
• Guidance for overcoming your doubts, enhancing your visualization skills, creating talismans, practicing magick ethically, and much more.

“Magick is a journey,” writes Damien. “It’s a continuously unfolding path that has no end. You can study and practice magick for the rest of your life and you will still never learn everything that it has to teach you.” If you’re ready to discover your untapped potential for co-creating your reality with the energy of the divine, then join this extraordinary teacher to begin your training in High Magick.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781683649434
Publisher:	Sounds True, Incorporated
Publication date:	08/02/2022
Pages:	224
Sales rank:	189,124
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Damien Echols is a bestselling author, visual artist, and practitioner of magick ordained in the Rinzai Zen tradition. His story of release from a wrongful death row sentence is the subject of several documentaries. He has published six books, including two with his wife, Lorri Davis. Damien teaches classes on magick around the country. He and Lorri live in New Orleans. For more, see damienechols.com.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations xi

Acknowledgments xiii

Foreword Eddie Vedder xv

Preface My Story xvii

Part I An Introduction to Magick

1 Why Learn Magick? 3

2 What Magick Is and What Magick Isn't 5

Part II Preliminaries

3 Why Spell Books Don't Work 17

4 As Above, So Below: The Power of Attention 19

Practice Directing Your Attention 24

5 Training Your Mind 27

Practice Five Basic Meditations 29

6 The Magick of Visualization 33

Practice Visualization 34

7 Raising and Directing Energy 37

Practice Raising Energy: Phase 1 38

Practice Raising Energy: Phase 2 39

8 Working with Doubt 43

9 Personalizing Your Practice and Getting Started 45

Part III Fundamental Practice of Magick

10 Practicing Variations of the Fourfold Breath 51

Practice The Fourfold Breath: Quick Version 52

Practice The Fourfold Breath with Visualization 53

Solar Application 55

Practice The Fourfold Solar Breath Application: Version 1 56

Practice The Fourfold Solar Breath Application: Version 2 59

Lunar Application 60

Practice The Fourfold Lunar Breath Application: Version 1 61

Practice The Fourfold Lunar Breath Application: Version 2 62

Seasonal Application 63

Practice The Fourfold Seasonal Breath Application 65

Interlude Some History of Magick 69

11 The Middle Pillar 73

Practice Performing the Middle Pillar Ritual 76

Practice Circulating Energy with the Middle Pillar 81

12 The Qabalistic Cross 85

Practice Qabalistic Cross Meditation: Version 1 (Traditional) 91

Practice Qabalistic Cross Meditation: Version 2 94

13 The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram 101

Practice The Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram 114

Part IV Additional Practices

14 The Lesser Invoking Ritual of the Pentagram 133

Practice Circumambulating the Temple 136

15 Bare-Bones Invocation 139

16 Creating Thoughtforms 143

Practice Creating a Thoughtform 144

Talismans, Amulets, and Tattoos 148

Water 156

Practice Charging Your Water 159

Practice programming Your Water 162

Divination: Using the Tarot 165

Practice Charging Your Tarot Deck 166

17 Meal Blessings 169

Practice A Meal Blessing 170

Part V Final Thoughts

18 Magickal Implements 175

19 Urban Shamanism 179

20 Know Thyself 183

Postscript 187

About the Author 189

Editorial Reviews

You would be hard-pressed to find a contemporary teacher of magick as skilled, accomplished, and committed to this ancient and sacred spiritual art as Damien Echols. His mastery comes from years of disciplined and dedicated practice while unjustly incarcerated. Damien took advantage of both his isolation and time, and learned all he could about the magickal realm. He practiced tirelessly until it became as much a part of him as his own breath and blood. To me, there is no teacher of magick more qualified and gifted than Damien. If you wonder whether or not magick works, just take one look at Damien’s path to freedom. That’s magick in action.” —Seane Corn, creator of The Yoga of Awakening DVD series and cofounder of Off the Mat, Into the World®

“An incredibly powerful book about the power of consciousness and the human spirit to transcend any situation or adversity. Damien spent nearly twenty years on death row for a crime he didn’t commit, and if this guy can walk the talk, anyone can.” —Tony Robbins, life coach, philanthropist, and bestselling author of Unlimited Power and Awaken the Giant Within

“Through the practice of high magick, Damien Echols tapped into his soul to find the inner-strength to overcome the appalling injustice that was bestowed upon him. He is an amazing testament to the power of the mind and body, and we’re proud to call Damien our friend.” —Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne, from The Osbournes, The X Factor, The Talk, and Black Sabbath

“Damien Echols gives great insight into the benefits of practicing magick and how it saved his life on death row. Even more fascinating is how he used the same techniques to keep his sanity once he was free and left to process over eighteen years of trauma. This is truly a guide born from experience like no other.” —Tony Hawk, actor, filmmaker, and pioneer of American skateboarding

“Damien’s story is one very few people can truly imagine or comprehend. I myself, having known him now for some time, still cannot. I can honestly say, had it been me in his shoes, I would not be alive today, or at best all that would remain would be an empty, broken, hollow shell of my former self. Yet somehow, not only did Damien survive with a glowing and radiant outlook on his life experiences, he has come to see it as a blessing that led him down his current path. He is truly an extraordinary, remarkable man. I can honestly say I have never in my life been more humbled in the presence of another human being. I feel truly fortunate to know him and call him a dear friend.” —Sturgill Simpson, Grammy® Award-winning musician, A Sailor’s Guide to Earth

“High Magick is a journey out of darkness into light. Damien Echols is living proof that we have within ourselves the capacity to let go of who we once were and move forward into the mystery of who we may yet become. Read this book—it will change your life!” —Fran Walsh and Peter Jackson, screenwriters and producers of The Lord of the Rings trilogy

“Damien Koson has lived through extreme human events and circumstances. Now in the world, he shares his vision, his practice of engaged aliveness. May his readers experience his true generosity and great compassion as he uniquely honors the deep vow he made to liberate all beings from suffering.” —Shodo Harada Roshi, abbot of Sogenji Monastery (Japan) and author of Morning Dew Drops of the Mind: Teachings of a Contemporary Zen Master

From the Publisher