I just finished a book by Mark Stavish called The Inner Way – The Power of Prayer and Belief in Spiritual Practice. Prayer is a very powerful tool that we have in our armory of magickal tools and one that is often overlooked. This is my review from Strange Book Reviews – my book review website.

Five-stars from me for a wonderful book.

There are books that you read, enjoy, perhaps assimilate a little of, and then consign to the dusty shelf of books once read but never retouched. There are other books that you read turning page after page, eager to move on, knowing that to properly assimilated, the book will need to be kept close at hand to be read, reread and dipped into when necessary. These latter types of books are few and far between but, The Inner Way – The Power of Prayer and Belief in Spiritual Practice is certainly one of them.

A few years ago, I made a determination that, to all intents and purposes, I was on my own when it came to pursuit of the esoteric and spiritual. To a large degree, I actually tried not to read books on the topic for answers so much as for corroboration and to regenerate my enthusiasm for the search. I simply came to realize that the answers were actually all known to me – the inner me. Other people’s answers may show the way to heaven or to hell, but it was their answer not mine. All I had to do (as if this is in any way an easy task – it is not) was to seek the answers there within myself. This book, it seems to me, concurs with that view, reminding me of how to do this, and providing the tools and techniques all at the same time.

Fundamentally, the book is about prayer. Yes, prayer. How many books on occult techniques and practices ever really get to grips with prayer? Prayer is a fundamental aspect of spiritual practice and one that seems to me to be remarkably undervalued and mostly overlooked these days. This book gets to grips with prayer – what it is, why it is important and provides guidance on how to prayer. For that fact alone, it is, in my opinion, an essential addition to any library of occult classics.

However, the appendices (which form around half of the book) contain a great deal of additional information supplemented with many and varied references that are also invaluable. These appendices are in of themselves a veritable treasure trove of wisdom, reference sources and meditation material. I particularly enjoyed the ideas contained regarding magic in the modern world and in creating reality.

Mr. Stavish and his colleagues have produced a classic text here. Highly recommended.

You can buy the book here.