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Into the Nineties and TNBT
Donald Michael Kraig
A few years ago I asked Carl Llewellyn Weschcke, the head of Llewellyn Publications (one of the most important publishers of occult materials), what his purpose in publishing books was. He replied, "The democratization of magick." By this he meant that the techniques of magick, so long guarded by Covens and Orders, should be made available to any person who wants them, and not be limited to those who can find the secretive groups. The past decade has seen this begin to happen.
There has been an explosion of occult/metaphysical books published in the last decade. Some have been junk; others have been good. Most have been on the beginning to intermediate level. This is so that they could appeal to the widest possible audience. And it has been successful, sort of . . ..
Magick has been mainstream, although usually under a different name. Healing through the laying of hands is being practiced in hospitals all over the country under the name of "Therapeutic Touch." Creative visualization is going on in business and hospitals under a variety of names including "guided imagery."
Two of the most important books for the development of occultism have been Drawing Down the Moon and The Spiral Dance, but not for the reasons one might expect. Tens of thousands of people read these books and liked some or all of the ideas presented in them. They went looking for Covens to join, and, for the most part, couldn't find them. They came to the conclusion that since much of the information was available, they could initiate themselves and start their own groups. For better or worse, these two books marked the end of the importance of Covens tracing their "history" back hundreds or thousands of years. This is not to say that Famtrad, Gardnerian, Alexandrian and other traditions are not important or valid, only that Neo-paganism has gone further. In many ways this is good.
Back in the 70's, there was an old saying that "Witches don't study and magicians don't do magick." It is sad to say that for the most part this saying was all too true. In the `80's world of Neo-paganism, new traditions required a great deal of research. But many of the Wiccan myths have been accepted as fact. For example, can anyone provide any proof that 9,000,000 Witches really died during the burning times?
Meanwhile, magicians began to actually do rituals instead of waiting to get that "one bit of information" to give them the secrets they needed. I have been in contact with people from California to Main who are actually doing ceremonial magical rituals and getting desired results.
TNBT
The one thing I have noticed concerning the practitioners of both Natural and High Magic is that they want to know about TNBT—the Next Big Thing. They have learned herbal rituals and the Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram. They Pathwork on the Tree of Life and make powerful talismans. But what will be TNBT? Frankly, I don't know. But I do think I know from where it will be coming.
In the seventies, if you wanted to become a publisher the equipment alone would cost you from $70,000 up. The systems were so complicated that you would need to learn a special language of codes just to operate them. Then came the "desktop publishing" revolution. Today, a person can get the hardware for a small publishing system for $10,000 or less.
It is my feeling that people want more advanced information on magick and occultism. In order for an author to present advanced information through one of the major publishers, the author must also include beginning and intermediate information. The result would be a book over a thousand pages. My book, Modern Magick, barely goes into the intermediate level of magick, and it is about 600 pages long. I think, therefore, that somebody with a little financial backing will start a publishing company that will produce books on advanced magick. The print runs will be small, they will be hardbound books, and they will be printed on paper that won't decay after 15 years. They will also be perhaps twice as expensive as most occult books, perhaps around $30.00.
In short, I don't know what TNBT will be, but I do believe that the 90's will be the best decade for occultism and magick this century. | 
