Now I know I hate to read and I know I haven't read Nick Farrell, Pagan Saint's Helios Unbound in its entirety, but I've read enough through it to understand what the illustrious meanie was trying to bring forth in order to enrich the occult universe. And so far I like what I've come across!
I also want to say I do not intend to use Nick's book for the purpose it was written, as I've been having my plate full for a long time now. I'm kewl with my Crowley-HGA, my chart spirits, and my familiar who have helped me a great deal so far, yet if at some point in the future they will direct me towards doing Helios and encountering my very own Pagan Higher Genius, so be it!
I am not part of the Golden Dawn and having barely read through several GD papers that have been published online, papers I'm not even sure of being genuine (actual GD material), I cannot say for certain if the author has used GD material in this book. Nick does include his Pagan versions of the Ritual of the Pentagram and Hexagram, but that is merely an adaptation of the GD rituals and not the actual thing. I for one see nothing wrong with this because I consider it a good example of magick evolving by building on top of or modifying certain components that have proven their effectiveness. I like the symbolism around Nick's rituals and how he explains it in his ever so British and tyrannically cheap on words, no pretty words way - it makes sense, seriously. I understand how the adaptations to these traditional rituals can bother some GD veterans, especially those who are working in the original Golden Dawn current and not in the revivalist post-Regardie one, yet I see no reason for ordinary occult practitioners not to try them out and see how it works for them - especially those who are affiliated to the Neo-Pagan current.
Getting back to Helios, I love (really do!) its simplicity! And I am in no way saying "simplicity" to make fun of it or Nick. The system presented inside is straight-forward and the reader gets whatever information they need in order to tackle the challenges each step brings. It works by pushing the operant along a journey that kinda resembles a video game in which the character levels-up constantly and acquires different skills they will use in the following levels.
I also love the fact that it's not boring! I hate boring stuff and I also get bored easily, but reading through Helios has kept me focused and wanting to find out more. I haven't read it all yet because lack of time... Anyway, the reader is being kept on their toes as Nick has made use of his journalistic skills in a brilliant way to unfold the story he wanted to tell. Although there's spuch here and there, it is easy to overlook it because of the information that's being presented.
Nick brings together more than a few mythological, cultural, and magical concepts that stand behind this system and he explains them so even uncultured morons like me can understand. These can become handy for many occultists who want to expand their knowledge and gain a better understanding of how several concepts evolved throughout time. He also offers the reader with more than a few invocations to various entities one can easily adapt into their own magical system and the entities in question can be highly useful depending on what you want to achieve. I for one adapted the Eros ritual he skillfully added towards the end of the whole operation as a stand alone working to suit my mundane needs.
I don't want to offer too many spoilers for those who haven't read it, but I will say Helios will enrich their occult knowledge at least in the following areas: theurgy, the elements, the zodiac signs, the decans of the signs, the planets, lunar mansions, Arabic Lots, gods and goddesses, a multitude of spirits that are hard to come across for someone who's solely studying "high magix" from a lodge magick and so called "Solomonic" perspective, along with detailed practical instructions on various ceremonial rites that range from a simple cleansing to complex rituals.
And art lovers are likely to find their senses aroused by two beautiful drawings done by a very talented artist I highly admire. More such beautiful artwork from the same lovely artist can be found in Nick's Shem Grimoire. Like this hot af drawing her most enchanting hands made:
To conclude, I find Helios to be a muchly needed and highly innovative work that generates much needed progress in the occult universe by building on top of old, older, and very old magical systems! The future Lord Manticore also added quite a few funny af punchlines inside just for kicks. Because he's funny af!
(This is me being a jerk back to him tee hee, but I initially thought he was chopping whole pages of Asteria like a mad man during the editing process just so it won't surpass his Helios in page count. Then I noticed his Helios is written in a larger font so Asteria kicks it's arse at word count big time. HA! To be fair, Helios had 500 pages initially.)
Hate on, dum-dums!
The Great Gazoo
