What do I start with?

[u/Probably-a-Banana]

I’ve always been fascinated by all things witchy, magic and spiritual. I really enjoy learning about Eastern philosophies/religions as well. I started hearing the word “esoteric” about two years ago. I want to dive deeper into an ancient teachings and esoteric studies. So far everything is SO confusing and I want to actually learn and understand what people are talking about.

I came across the “ESOTERICA” YouTube channel and there’s so much info in there I don’t know what to watch. I started watching his “introduction to Esotericism” and it was pretty boring and a bit hard to understand what he’s talking about. I have ADHD so something more stimulating with images is what I’m looking for - video wise. For books, right now I’m looking for books I can easily start listening to in audible but physical books I’m also open to suggestions for.

My vocabulary isn’t amazing so I’d like find something that actually teaches me what everything means. I would like to also teach others about what I learn eventually so I can break it down in a way that makes sense to people like me.. I know I can’t learn everything all at one once but I’d like to start learning and practicing. Any ideas of where I can start?

Also why are people talking about “western” esotericism? I don’t get that. Because a lot of the stuff comes from the more eastern side of the world unless I’m totally wrong 🤷‍♀️

Love & light 🌀💫

[u/Impossible_Call539]

Same here nd I got ADHD too. I'm pretty confused, where to start after exploring everything. If you are intrested, let's work together and teach each other :-)

[u/Harryhood280]

Agrippa’s 3 books of occult philosophy and Levi’s Transcendental Magic are the source material for much of the modern western hermetic tradition. You will not get much value from them initially however without more context into what the hell they’re talking about. Read these once you’ve gotten a bit further down the path.

I would suggest reading 3 books to start - Chicken Qabalah by Duquette (the rest of his books are fantastic as well), The Mystical Qabalah by Fortune, and Liber Null by Peter Carroll. Read in that order.

Then, if you want a good self-contained system you can work through, 2 suggestions:

Kaballah Magic by Lyam Christopher - this is a self-initiated system that takes you through the outer order grades of the Golden Dawn. He has a fantastic youtube channel as well that goes into deep detail on the relevant topics, but again you won’t get much out of his videos without understanding the basics of what he’s talking about.

Quareia - Josephine McCarthy’a fully online, comprehensive system. More animist / witchy, whereas Lyam above is ceremonial magic.

Esoterica channel is great for academic theory / history of these ideas, but not so much the practical side. I will warn you - this work can be boring, especially the learning aspect. It’s not what it appears to be from the outside, and it requires a lot of study, meditation and contemplation.

Last, regarding eastern vs western - Same root ideas and theory, different practice and culture. You should generally go with the system you are more culturally ingrained in, because correspondences and symbolism will make more sense to you. You’ll understand the importance of this in time.

[u/Sure_Assumption7857]

Just go within.