Postmodern Magic: The Art of Magic in the Information Age, by Patrick Dunn
From the back cover:
In this timely and thought-provoking text, author Patrick Dunn provides a unique postmodern perspective on an ancient practice by approaching magical theory from an information paradigm. Postmodern Magic encourages you to assess your beliefs and hone your magical skills with techniques not found in most magical books.
Buy Postmodern Magic: The Art of Magic in the Information Age.
Postmodern Magic 
July 22, 2011 at 4:41 pm
Dear Sir,
My name is Kevin. I am, at the time of typing this, 31 years of age. I have read and studied occult arts and sciences for a decade. I haven’t read everything out there. God knows that would take a lifetime. I have, however, read most of the best that is out there. I have to say, your book, “Postmodern Magic”, is by far one of the best text I have ever read. It has been monumental in helping me to understand magic and helping me develope, magically.
Not to bore you, but I wanted to share my story. I began, honestly, out of curiosity. I had some friends who were legitimate Satanist (legit, not those goths and punks who prance about as “satanist” to be cool and “dark). They got me into the occult. From then I began to study everything. I especially liked Crowley. I took a slightly different way about it than most, though. I practiced each art by itself. I studied and practiced astrology, and once proficient, I moved on to Qabalah, along with learning Biblical Hebrew with a friend who was a Middle Eastern Antiquities student. Once this was completed, I spent some time lost in the New Age garbage. I then began to study magic, specifically. I, of course, began with Golden Dawn magic. I tried learning it as best I could. I ran into several disagreements, though. For example, I have no desire whatsoever to learn Enochian magic. Also, it disturbed me how the elemental weapons were all the same, or, were to be made the same way. More than anything, though, I was most upset with their lack of focus on astrology. (Well, it seems to me that they sort of toss it aside as if it were of less importance. As if it were only useful for reference and horary arts.) To me, astrology is universal, and as old as civilization. It should be held in the highest regard, above that of qabalah. That, of course, is my opinion. I understand the flexibility of qabalah is perhaps it’s greatest appeal.
I almost gave up on magic, simply because I didn’t find Golden Dawn style of magic appealing. Crowley’s magic is just a different version of the Golden Dawn’s, with a large dose of his ego to boot. At the time, I did not find Druid, Wiccan or Chaos magic appealing either. I then began to read Kraig’s “Modern Magick”. That is a great book, but, again, it is just more or less Golden Dawn magic. Basically, It all seemed too rote, like everything had to be done a certain way. Why wear a black robe? I understand the basic meaning of it representing the student in a state of darkness. Yada Yada blah blah. And don’t get me started on the Nemyss. I asked myself why the fire wand had to look a particular way, and not personalized; and why there is little or no mention of a basic wand for general operations. (I , too, have dealt with the Rainbow wand of Kraig, and the Lotus wand of the G.D., both of which are just ridiculous in my opinion.) I even made the Outer Wand of Double Power. Yet, another cumbersome device.
Don’t get me wrong. I love the tradition. The Golden Dawn has done a great deal to revive the occult, and has contributed priceless lessons and teachings to the world of magic. That being stated, however, I just find it a little too conforming, rigid and ineffective for my taste. (Let’s face it, the majority of truly enlightened and influential mages were either those who influenced the Golden Dawn, or those who left the Golden Dawn and/or created their own brand of magic; i.e. Barrett, Agrippa, Levi, Blavatsky, Crowley, Bennett, Spare, Gardner, and on and on.)
I continued to read, and play around with various techniques and systems. A little here, a little there. It wasn’t until last year that I came across your book while browsing on Llewellyn’s website (looking for something fresh and new).
I was utterly floored, sir. First, I love the information paradigm. More than anything, though, I love your “do it yourself” attitude, and the emphasis you place on making magic personal. Even working withing a standard, established symbol system there is still room for personalization. This book is exactly what I had been needing all of this time. Or, maybe, it came along at the right time. Who knows. All I do know is that it is in my top five must reads (ranked with the likes of Crowley’s “Magick in Theory and Practice”, Regardie’s “The Golden Dawn”, and Kraig’s “Modern Magick”). I seemed to have been stuck in a rut, and now I am moving forward again.
I have read the book three times, now, and I am going over the exercises again, as well.
So, anyway. Sorry to have bored you. Just wanted to share. Thank you for the great book. I will be purchasing your other works, and look forward to any future works.
Sincerely,
Kevin
July 23, 2011 at 4:19 pm
You know, I’ve been thinking of writing a book about going back to the basics of renaissance-style magic, pre-GD, and cutting out all of the modernist accretions from the system. I find myself dissatisfied with a lot of the GD stuff too. So it was good to read this message: it lets me know I’m at least on the right track in terms of what people are interested in reading about. Thanks for your kind words.
February 25, 2012 at 7:32 pm
I have listed you as one of my excellent 11 authors in my blog. Great job. I look forward to buying some more of your books in the future.
March 14, 2012 at 5:34 am
Dear Sir,
I am beginning an online magical society focused on teaching the myriad beginners and searchers online to correctly use and develop their potential. I find a lot of the things that you teach in this book to be inspirational and would like permission to use your general ideas in the teachings for our society. The society is entirely non-profit (in fact, its not anything at all to do with money).
If you decide to decline, I will understand completely. I would encourage the members, however, to buy your book and would be using many of your teachings within it to enrich the lives of many.
You may contact me via the email address that I am providing to post this or just respond to this post. I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours truly,
Bo (High Priest of the Society of the Octogram)
September 22, 2013 at 10:33 pm
I read it twice it was that good. It is good to have the Information Paradigm finally come out in print.
September 30, 2013 at 11:10 pm
Postmodern Magic was one of the best magickal investments I ever made. Thank you.
November 25, 2015 at 10:57 am
When people ask me what books to get to start out in magick this one is on the list. Post-Modern magick is an amazing starting point and I’ve had it for a few years now.
It is basic, broad, simple and effective. It gives room for the practitioner to find their own way, the other books I recommend do this as well.
Though as far as the practical and empirical side of it, this book has no other I could compare it to. This book is a lauchpad for the sceptic looking to get into the arte.