Rating: 
Summary: Encyclopedic in size and scope
Review: A comprehensive, practical and intelligently laid-out manual to Golden Dawn Initiation and Ritual Magic designed so that anyone with perseverance and self-discipline can work the Golden Dawn system without having to run the risk of contacting questionable groups or teachers. It covers all the fundamentals of Hermetic Magic, including Cabala, Astrology, Alchemy, Tarot, Geomancy, Banishings, Meditation, Vibration, Godform Visualization, Invocation, Daily Rituals, and much more. And it does so with self-paced instructions and written examinations that allow the student to be her or his own teacher. The authors' experience as caring and knowledgeable teachers comes across loud and clear. Outstanding!
Rating:
Summary: At Last A Golden Dawn Book for Practitioners not Historians!
Review: Although its existence annoys some of the "Golden Dawn" organizations who want to subscribe large numbers of students, this book is an *excellent* guide for those many solitary and small group practitioners who do not have access to a healthy G:.D:. Temple and who do not want to get involved with mail-order organizations. No, this
is not equivalent to being involved in a Temple, and from
reading the book, it's clear the Ciceros don't think so either. But for the sincere student of the Golden Dawn who does not have the luxury of Temple involvement or is afraid of getting involved with inflated pseudo-Adepts, the Ciceros have provided a rare treasure. It would be a *10* rather than a 9 if a publisher of more quality than Llewellyn had manufactured the physical book.
Rating: 
Summary: I Hereby Declare Myself a Magician!
Review: CHYYYAHHHH! You know what? Look at the stuff in this book. So much stuff you'll never, EVER use. And so if I do EVERYTHING in this book, can I then declare myself a Magus? There is SO much information in this book that it can serve as an excellent reference source. But really, you could utilize your time so much more efficiently if you practice some of the rituals and meditations selectively, and forget about the rest. Part of being a magician is being able to discern the best management of your precious (and for most people limited) time. If you really want to wade through the outdated dogma and silly spiritualism of Hermetic "science", join a working order in the Golden Dawn and forget about trying to use a book to "self-initiate". Better yet, face the fact that most of this information is extremely outdated, and simply serves, in most cases, to fill the void left in the wake of organized religion. If you really want RESULTS and not just memorize a load of useless ca ca, check out the pragmatic, results oriented Magick of Peter Carroll and Phil Hine. They by-pass the dogma, myth and superstition of Magick and orient it toward science, physics, metaphysics and quantum mechanics. Do you want to get results or do you want to spend your time memorizing useless "STUFF". Put this book on the shelf and use it when you need to look something up. If you want to really discover the mechanics of Magick, get Pete Carroll's Liber Null and Psychonaut and Phil Hine's Condensed Chaos. BLESSED BE...oh magical Golden Dawn wannabe.
Rating:
Summary: I Hereby Declare Myself a Magician!
Review: CHYYYAHHHH! You know what? Look at the stuff in this book. So much stuff you'll never, EVER use. And so if I do EVERYTHING in this book, can I then declare myself a Magus? There is SO much information in this book that it can serve as an excellent reference source. But really, you could utilize your time so much more efficiently if you practice some of the rituals and meditations selectively, and forget about the rest. Part of being a magician is being able to discern the best management of your precious (and for most people limited) time. If you really want to wade through the outdated dogma and silly spiritualism of Hermetic "science", join a working order in the Golden Dawn and forget about trying to use a book to "self-initiate". Better yet, face the fact that most of this information is extremely outdated, and simply serves, in most cases, to fill the void left in the wake of organized religion. If you really want RESULTS and not just memorize a load of useless ca ca, check out the pragmatic, results oriented Magick of Peter Carroll and Phil Hine. They by-pass the dogma, myth and superstition of Magick and orient it toward science, physics, metaphysics and quantum mechanics. Do you want to get results or do you want to spend your time memorizing useless "STUFF". Put this book on the shelf and use it when you need to look something up. If you want to really discover the mechanics of Magick, get Pete Carroll's Liber Null and Psychonaut and Phil Hine's Condensed Chaos. BLESSED BE...oh magical Golden Dawn wannabe.
Rating:
Summary: Golden Dawn program has room for improvement
Review: I question Chic's decision to exclude any kind of study or application of the Enochian system for the outer order grades. He makes clear that Enochian is not appropriate for an outer order curriculum, yet the aspirant must nonetheless utilize Enochian words of power in the grade rituals.
There are aspects of this book which may curtail progress: The use of the lesser (Earth) invoking pentagram for all elemental invocations (and herewith the aforementioned exclusion of Enochian, in this case the names of God); The assumption of "Officer forms" instead of Godforms; The lack of pragmatics with key aspects of the grade rituals -- at certain points one must carry up to five objects simultaneously (viz,. the Portal Ritual); this is hard to pull off with only two hands attached to two arms.
The knowledge lectures are a useful collection of basic information. At times the depth and completeness of material rivals or exceeds Regardie's knowledge lectures. The geomamancy section is the best treatment on the subject I've seen in print. Another great thing about this book is the complete divine hierarchy (in Hebrew and English) given for all four Worlds of the Kabbalah.
This self-initiation system is probably best employed with seven people. Even with two people, the aspirant has an advantage over solo study. (Another disappointing thing about this book is that Secrets of a Golden Dawn Temple is required in order to craft the officer implements used in the rituals. Moreover, if you purchase Secrets of a Golden Dawn Temple and then discover that your personal workshop is ill-equipped for the instructions given therein on the crafting of implements, then you may have to get creative, employing simpler tools such as hacksaws, and employing simpler source materials, such as broom-handles ((for the basic staff unit)) ornamented with painted cardboard heads ((instead of painstakingly assembled wooden heads))).
Unfortunately, the writing style of this book is tainted by constant attention to politically correct pronoun usage: She/he, he/she, hers/his, herself/himself, and (worst of all) S/he. Since it is understood from the outset that women are eligible for the highest grades of the order, there is no reason to mutilate otherwise good writing with this clumsy and awkward (constant) game of pronoun gender qualification.
Rating:
Summary: surprisingly good!
Review: I was deeply impressed with this volume. Golden Dawn style magick is sometimes hard to come by, Regardie's "The Golden Dawn" is a reference book. You would be hard pressed to learn from it and Cicero's "The Essential Golden Dawn" is billed as a magick textbook, but it is a history book, nothing more. But finnally Cicero delivers with Self-Initiation. If you want to learn the basics of GD this is the one to get.
Rating:
Summary: surprisingly good!
Review: I was deeply impressed with this volume. Golden Dawn style magick is sometimes hard to come by, Regardie's "The Golden Dawn" is a reference book. You would be hard pressed to learn from it and Cicero's "The Essential Golden Dawn" is billed as a magick textbook, but it is a history book, nothing more. But finnally Cicero delivers with Self-Initiation. If you want to learn the basics of GD this is the one to get.
Rating:
Summary: Great for the Intermediate Student
Review: If you are a beginner in the study of Magick, especially High Magick then you should get Donald Michael Kraigs "11 lessons in High Magick" first and go through it. This book is wonderful but it will be extremely overwhelming for someone who is new to the practice. This book is so jam packed with info and hard to stay focused if you don't have patience. I Love this book though very informative and great Lectures. A must read for anyone interested in the Golden Dawn Tradition.
Rating: 
Summary: Great book, great idea, but a lacking. But still worth it!!
Review: Ok, I've heard a lot of praise and a lot of criticism on this pretty little book brought to us by the Ciceros. Now here's my opinion. You can take it, or you can leave it. That's up to you. People have been begging for an easy, inexpensive and practical carriculum of Golden Dawn material for quite a while, and well, they have one. This book gives all the essentials to the Golden Dawn current of Magick. So what's the problem? Why 4 stars and not 5? Simple: It's inexpensive, it's easy... But it's not practical. Sure, all this stuff is simple enough. You say this, you do this, it means this and you're doing it for this reason. Easy enough. But this stuff takes time! And lots of it! For those of us who may not have hours and hours of free time every day, you're screwed! This is a serious and useful book for those of us with time on our hands and who have a long lunch break, but for all of us unlucky folks who have an ordinary job with a family and ordinary stresses, we're hard-pressed to find the necessary time for these workings. But even so, buy the book! It still gives you the information you need to get started and with some imagination, you can come up with your own self-initiation derivatives herefrom.
Rating: 
Summary: Outdated and slow, leading to little Magic.
Review: Seeing as there are many other effecient and productive magical systems avaliable for study, it baffles me as to why anybody would want to waste their time crawling along with this one.If you want to actually DO some magic, rather than simply considering it, or stopping short of really trying it (as this course does), then look elsewhere. I suggest Donald Michael Kraig's superb "Modern Magick" if the GD tradition appeals. At least Kraig's book gets to the heart of the WHOLE POINT for doing it in the first place, unlike this volume, which only discusses it in scared little whispers. Magic has moved on, and it's time that fact was recognised once and for all. So... don't buy this book, unless you like the picture on the cover.
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