Book Spotlight:Mat Auryn, Psychic Witch

We at Practical Occult never miss an opportunity to insist that the mastery of the practice of magic begins and, crucially, maintains itself with a focus on the fundamentals. Keeping a good practice of one’s personal magical abilities is the foundation to a vibrant and effective magical reach in the world. Simply put, if you don’t get your reps in, you won’t be strong enough to move obstacles in your way.

Whether it is the communication with spirits or the ability to move energy (or force, prana, chi, etc), a regular routine is needed. Often people approach me with emails asking for resources on how to develop these skills. While several books have already been mentioned in other articles, we’d like to take the time to focus on Mat Auryn’s “Psychic Witch” as a text that ought to be required reading for such a thing.

Mat, in his book, takes the reader through a balanced, reasoned and, most crucially, effective series of exercises, spells and methodology that will easily level up any practitioner from the novice to the more experienced. As a die-hard psychic development and cultivation enthusiast, I read through Mat’s book and saw within it plenty of tricks of the trade all neatly stored in one volume. The benefit of this is tremendous. As someone who has produced a class on developing interactions with the spiritual world (Spirit Diplomacy), I made a point to indicate the utility of this book within my own work.

Each chapter is detailed and broken down into exercises and explanations that allow the reader to pick-and-choose if needed. Of particular interest to me was how Chapter Three focuses a great deal on the Alpha mind state and the use thereof. Often overlooked by practitoners of more classical magic, the Alpha state, or trance state, is a powerful skill that can serve as the springboard for everything from spirit perception to astral projection to more. Mat, in this book, really does a wonderful job at explaining not only how to access it, why it is useful but how to apply it in magic overall.

Just like how the use of the Alpha state isn’t something I see discussed often in books, each aspect of what Mat focuses on, from training the subtle senses to working energy to using them in spells is handled more in the way one is taught orally than one is accustomed to being taught in a book. This is, in my opinion, a strength of some texts over others and this one is a hallmark of such things. Every chapter is equally intriguing and useful. Seeing so many aspects of the discipline of magical and psychic development covered so carefully was a treat.

That final point is especially important here. This book is the sort a lot of seasoned practitioners would read and wish they’d had access to at the start of their journeys because it not only provides training but the context for how to take it further. That is a treasure for the modern occultist who wants results and reasons for those results, who wants to not just operate magically but to understand how to grow and expand the capacity for said operation with a foundational knowledge of its mechanics.

In short, for those who desire to expand their magical practice, Mat Auryn’s “Psychic Witch” is a worthy investment for those willing to sit down and do the training in order to reap tangible results in their magical and mundane lives. In a world where everyone is prone to ask “what are your top books for beginners” time and again, I happily throw this one out there. Approached eagerly and with dedication, the exercises within this book will over-deliver even beyond what they promise.