Raising Hell: Subversive Spirituality, Insurrectionist Witchcraft and Black Magic
by Kali Black
reviewed by Nina Lazarus for the Esoteric Book Review

This book is not really about black magic, rather it is another offering about Chaos Magic dressed up with different thrills (or is that paradigms?).  The initial material on behaviour patterns and how to ensure you are not influenced unduly by the media and others is reasonable.  It presents an interesting précis of much that is worthwhile and gives many leads and insights.  However the terminology is clearly a sign of the times, as in the 80s we used to call the ideas portrayed here cultural terrorism.  The chapter arguing against the consumption of meat and promoting vegetarianism was heartfelt and the sort of thing more books on magic should discuss.  However none of this material is really black magic, it is simply magic!

The NLP material emphasises the author’s preference for deprogramming and taking control, which is never a bad thing.  However the Toontra and anarchashamanism material both indicate the chaos magic roots of this material.  It seems there is a trend with some writers to present the ideas of chaos magic as if they were something new, which they aren’t, and they weren’t when chaos magic first appeared wearing its new clothes and championing eclecticism.  For example, as this book and many others seem keen to declare, the principle of reduction sigilisation invented by Austin Osman Spare, a favourite of Chaoists – yet this technique may be found centuries ago in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy.

So although this book is not really as radical or new as it would like to present itself, it is nevertheless worth reading, as it brings together a good range of ideas and material which should give the reader food for thought.