Donald Michael Kraig

AM – It is a real treat to have Donald Michael Kraig joining us this week as our Featured Author.  He is promoting his forthcoming book, “Modern Magick 3rd Edition”, and his novel, “The Resurrection Murders”.  Thank you for joining us!

DMK – Thank you for allowing me to participate. I really enjoy having a chance to communicate with readers, students and friends.

AM – Please tell us a little more about yourself.

DMK – Although I was born in Chicago, my parents moved the family to Los Angeles when I was 6 months old, so I’m practically a native Los Angeleno. I played football in high school, and that’s when I started playing music with bands as a keyboardist. Although I had always been interested in the paranormal and had experienced paranormal phenomena, it wasn’t until I was in college that I really started exploring the spiritual world in depth. Over the years I worked in telephone sales, managing a costume shop, selling beads, selling magic tricks, writing advertising copy, writing adult stories, managing a courier service for a bank, helping in occult shops, and many other things. I guess I’m an example of Heinlein’s concept that “Specialization is for insects.”

Spiritually, I was brought up in a Conservative Jewish home. The Synagogue became very important in my life after my father died when I was six. I eventually became a “junior Cantor” and helped out at services for children and at hospitals.

Conservative Judaism is very “mainstream.” Religion was what you do, not what you were. I went to school and was fascinated with science and history, even when they differed from religion. I was easily able to separate the two. But when I was 13, a rabbi called me into his office and introduced me to some orthodox practices—the use of the Tephilin, small boxes with prayers in them that are worn a special way during some prayers. This was so “un-mainstream” that I backed away from religion for a time, seeking something that made sense. I finally discovered this with the Kabalah. My first book was A.E. Waite’s The Holy Kabbalah. What a horrible thing that is! Very archaic and difficult language. Still it started me on a more spiritual path that took me to where I am today.

AM – How did you get started as a teacher and writer?

DMK – I was living in Encinitas, California, a beach town north of San Diego. At the time I was sharing the house with a man and his son. The man was an electronic technician doing the job of an engineer. He also had lived in Asia for a time, where he learned Oriental Massage, known today as Shiatsu. At the time, few people knew about it and he started to teach it—along with concepts of the meridians, Taoism, etc.—from our home. I asked if I could take the lessons and he allowed me to do it. I loved it.

When he repeated the course I took it again. After a few more times through, I assisted in the teaching. One day, just before a class, the man—who went on to become one of the leading acupuncturists in California—told me that he was going out of town next week and needed me to take over the class. I said I didn’t know enough, but he insisted that I did and that I could just follow the notes I’d taken in so many classes. I agreed.

But before the class was over, he said that the students had something to ask of me. I was surprised—I was just an assistant—but wanted to know what they had to say. One of the students said, “We’ve heard that you’ve been studying the Kabalah. We’d like you to share that with us next week instead of the regular material.”

I held my thumb and forefinger about two inches apart and said, “But I only know this much.”

The student held his thumb and forefinger about a quarter-inch apart. “But we only know this much.”

Well, I agreed, and I shared what I knew. It was received well, and the people wanted to know more, so I suggested some books.

There was a small occult shop in the nearby town of Leucadia. I’d been in many times and I went in and asked if they’d like a class on the Kabalah. That later extended into series of classes on a variety of topics ranging from Kabalah and magick to meditation and Tantra.

Although I had never intended to be an author (I was going to be a doctor or a rock star!), I was always a writer. When I was in third grade our teacher asked us to write a story about anything. When I asked how long, she said “a page or more.” Most of the students wrote barely a page. I wrote a science fiction story nine pages long about seeds from outer space that had consciousness and intended to take over the world!

In junior high school I worked on the school paper. In college (UCLA) I worked on the school paper, writing a comic and doing record reviews. I also got work writing scripts to be recorded and entertain cross-country truckers during long trips.

After living in Encinitas I moved to San Diego, sharing a two-bedroom apartment with Scott Cunningham. At the time he was writing romance novels using his sister’s name and his first metaphysical book was just coming out. I wrote and self-published a few booklets. I deeply admired Scott’s writing ability and was very sad when he died on my birthday in 1993.

AM – Tell us more about the 3^rd Edition of “Modern Magick”.  What are some of the changes in the new edition?

DMK – Right now, the current edition of Modern Magick is in its last days and won’t be reprinted again. Most of the copies I see show signs of being read over and over, and are often filled with notes, so if people want a pristine copy of what will become a collectors’ item, I’d suggest they get one now before it’s sold out forever.

The third edition is scheduled to appear in September, and I am really excited about it. The first thing people will notice about it is its format. The current edition is about 6″ x 9″. The new edition is going up to almost 8½” x 11″.

There’s a reason for this change. I’ve added more than 40% new material. That’s why even with the larger format, the page count is going to stay the same: about 600 pages.

I’ve extensively revised the entire book. I’ve updated things and made it even easier to understand. There are going to be about 150 new illustrations. There are new personal stories, experiences, and comments. The self-tests at the end of each lesson have been expanded. The contents pages have been expanded, making it easier to find things. The index is more complete but also more concise, making it more useful than ever. Even the bibliographies have been changed, focusing on books that are currently in print.

An entire new chapter has been added, focusing on three systems of magick that weren’t around or weren’t well known when Modern Magick was originally printed. Of course, I’ve included a new introduction, and it now has four new forewords, one by Lon Milo DuQuette, one by David Godwin, one by John Michael Greer, and one by Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero.

The current edition of Modern Magick has sold something like 150,000 copies, making it the most popular step-by-step instruction manual in ceremonial magick ever published. I think the new edition will even be more popular.

AM – What inspired you to write this book originally?  What has inspired you to update the book and add new content?

DMK –I had studied the Kabalah and magick for years and had taught a set of lessons on that subject many times. Frankly, I was tired of repeating the lessons and answering the same questions. I wanted to move on. I had been a member of the Rosicrucians (AMORC, at that time centered in San Jose, California) and was fascinated by their idea of brief, at-home lessons to be studied each week. So I got it in my mind to change the course I’d been teaching into 52 brief lessons.

I started working on them and was about halfway through when Scott Cunningham (I was sharing an apartment with him at the time) received a call from a man who was selling mail order lessons on oils, astrology, and other metaphysical topics. The writer of his course on Wicca had vanished and he wanted to see if Scott was interested in completing the course. Just as I walked into the room he asked Scott if he knew anyone who could do a mail order course on ceremonial magick. Scott said, “It’s for you,” and gave me the phone.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t interested in 52 short lessons. He wanted larger lessons. So, after getting a handle on giving the course live, and writing it in 52 lessons, I rewrote it as longer lessons. Unfortunately, after about four lessons, I lost contact with the person selling the courses. When I finally made contact with him again he said that in one month, all of the students taking all of his classes had quit. We made an agreement and he returned all of the rights to me.

At the time I was communicating with famed occultist Israel Regardie and had spent some time with him. I learned that he was doing a new version of one of his most famous books, The Golden Dawn. The current edition was a jumble of different topics, and I stridently requested that he consider putting everything in a logical order: what you need to enter a degree of the magickal order, the initiation ritual, other rituals, techniques and knowledge for the level or degree, etc. This would be followed by the same sort of information for the next degree. I also encouraged him to include an autobiography. In his response he only mentioned the autobiography, insisting that he would never write one.

When the new version of the book came out, now called The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magick, it was enormous. But it followed the old, jumbled pattern. By this time, Scott Cunningham was starting to see some success from his occult books, so I decided to re-write my course yet again. It followed a progressive system of learning everything from the Kabalah and meditation to ceremonial magick, evocation of spirits, sex magick, etc. It all came in a logical order and I believe it was easy to follow. The many tens of thousands of students of the book imply that I was correct.

But that was two decades ago. If you were born after Modern Magick was initially published, you wouldn’t be afraid of the USSR (it was gone), you wouldn’t be worried about the Berlin Wall (it was torn down), the military draft, the war in Viet-Nam and president Richard Nixon are just brief notes in history books, you probably never played a vinyl record (big ones with little holes and little ones with big holes), you’ve always had computers, just about everything has had UPC codes printed on them, and when it comes to sex, you’ve always worried about AIDS. The world has changed since Modern Magick was first published—I’d changed since it was published. But the book was basically the way it had been for decades, caught in a time warp. Modern Magick just wasn’t that modern any more.

Over eighteen months ago I was asked to update it with no limits. I spent almost a year rewriting just about everything. I had learned photography and graphic arts and created about 150 concepts for new artwork for the book. I added new concepts, a new chapter with new forms of magick. When it comes out it not only will be modern again, but will be ready to lead the magickal way into the 21^st century.

AM – Tell us more about “The Resurrection Murders”.  What makes it different from other paranormal fiction?

DMK – The primary difference is that almost all of the occult-oriented fiction you read has been written by people who aren’t occultists. They invent a paranormal world and populate it with characters (often flat and lacking individual personalities) or put it in a mythical 5,000-year-old imaginary civilization.

The Resurrection Murders takes place in current-day Los Angeles. It introduces readers in an exciting way to what real magick and occultism are about. It features exciting characters that readers will care about. It includes sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, fanatic fundamentalists, wacky occultists, office politics, and creepy horror and mystery. The protagonist is too sure of himself. The antagonist wants to end war, illness, poverty, and hunger. And it all takes place against a background of massive earthquakes and killer smog, leading to a confrontation in an abandoned church in Venice Beach with the fate of humanity at stake. Oh, and did I mention a 10,000-year-old demon?

I’d say, then, that what sets it apart is that it features a modern, contemporary setting, has strong, involving characters, and explores real occultism and magick. The book is published by Galde Press, but I’ve created a website that tells people more. It’s at: http://www.resurrectionmurders.com .

AM – What are some of the other books you have written?

DMK – One of my books that I really like is Tarot & Magic. I was asked what I’d like to see in such a book and wrote back what I thought should be included. The next thing I knew I was sent a contract to do it! Tarot & Magic is not about giving readings with the Tarot. It’s about how to use the symbolism on the cards to make positive changes in your life. As such, it’s one of the only books on the Tarot I know that is specifically designed to interest beginners and professionals. Beginners can use it and a Tarot deck and start working any of a variety of magickal techniques immediately. Professional Tarot readers can use the information to give their clients things to do to overcome challenges and encourage positive things. It’s light and fun yet serious and powerful.

Another of my books is Modern Sex Magick. The basic idea of sex magick is that the energy that naturally occurs during sexual activity, instead of simply dissipating, can be directed to make changes in your life.

Unfortunately, until my book, there were basically two types of books on the subject. The first simply modified one small aspect of the Eastern tradition known as Tantra. Often, the writers who focus on Tantra (and Taoist alchemy) know little about the subjects and are what I call “expert IROBs.” That is even though they can only say I Read One Book on the subject, they think they’re experts.

The other type of book on sex magick was very sexist. The man does this and the woman helps. Then the man does this and the woman helps. One mystic even says you should work sex magick with a partner and not reveal what you are doing.

In Modern Sex Magick I traced back an entirely different strain of sex magick, a tradition that is Kabalistic in nature. Sources of the information include college theses and out-of-print books. Combined with personal training and practice, the system in this book is not Eastern and not sexist. If focuses on energy, not the materialistic result of sexual activity. As a result, a person can work sexual magick by himself or herself, with a physical or non-physical partner of either gender and with some more advance and “out there” methods. Even if someone isn’t interested in sex magick per se, the book includes a wonderful section on the basic theorems of magick and another section on the different types of talismans a person can make and use. So the focus on this book is sex magick, but it teaches basic concepts of magickal theory, too.

I’ve also written chapters in the books Ecstasy Through Tantra by Jonn Mumford and in several volumes of The Golden Dawn Journal, edited by Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero. I’ve done introductions for Planetary Magick by Denning and Phillips, The Encyclopedia of Magic and Alchemy by Rosemary Guiley, and several others.

I’ve just started a blog with a focus on magick in the world today. It’s free and can be found here: http://www.llewellyn.com/blog/magick/

AM – You have been published numerous times in several mediums, but think back to your first book release. Were you nervous? Do you still feel that way about new releases?

DMK – I don’t know if “nervous” is the right word. Perhaps “excited” or “nervous excitement” are more accurate. There is a feeling unlike any other when you hold a real book in your hands, a book that perhaps dozens of other people have worked on to make wonderful and that others have invested in. And then, seeing your name on the cover is simply over the top.

I liked seeing it in occult shops, but I almost went crazy the first time I saw Modern Magick in a large chain bookstore. I grabbed a copy and ran through the store yelling, “This is me! It’s my book.” I pulled out my driver’s license and showed it to the manager. “See? It’s really me. Would you like me to sign the books for you?” The manager could barely contain his laughter, but let me sign  them and put stickers on the books saying that they were autographed. I still get a kick every time I see a new book of mine in a major bookstore.

AM – What can we expect to see next from you?

DMK – For years I did simple drawing on chalkboards on flip charts to illustrate my workshops. I tried moving to an overhead projector with custom printed transparencies that I made, but working it was just too clumsy. I’m a Macintosh computer user and they have a very exciting application called “Keynote” which is a very advanced presenting application like the infamous “PowerPoint.”

I’ve been spending a great deal of time converting the workshops I give to ones that are illustrated via computer and projector using “Keynote.” I can give a lot more information in a way that’s exciting and visual. So I hope people will come to see my workshops. If there are stores, festivals, or groups that would like to bring me out, they can contact me through Llewellyn.

When it comes to writing, I’ve been working for a long time on a new book with a subject that nobody is writing about: Tantra. Now I know that people reading this are saying, “Wait a minute, everyone and their cousin is writing about Tantra today.” That’s true, but incomplete. Most of the books in the stores today are more accurate about what has been called Neo-Tantra, with a focus on sexuality. In reality, that’s just a tiny part of Tantra.

Traditional Tantra is one of the world’s most ancient continuously practiced spiritual systems. Many of the things that we think came from China—Feng Shui, Acupuncture, Meridians, martial arts, etc.—actually started in ancient India among what I call the “proto-Tantrics.”

Traditional Tantra featured deities, divination methods, magickal methods, philosophy, psychology, physiology, rituals, festivals, and much more. Just as the Kabalah has a symbol that used for a variety of purposes, The Tree of Life, Tantra has a symbol, the Sri Yantra. It is what I call “like the Tree of Life on mega-steroids.”

But there is virtually nothing about this ancient Pagan spiritual system available to Westerners. Besides being an initiate and trained in Tantra, I’ve also imported from India over 1,000 rare books for research and precision. In my experience, many Pagans are seeking a truly ancient Pagan system. I hope that this book will fulfill that need for many.

AM – What do you think is the most important piece of advice that you would give an unpublished writer?

DMK – I think there are two basic things I’d like to share. First: Don’t give up! If you’re looking for a publisher, 1,000 of them saying “no” is meaningless compared to when you get your first “yes,” and you only need one “yes.” I don’t know if it’s true (although it has the ring of what Stephen Colbert calls “truthiness”), but it’s said that Stephen King papered his bathroom with all the rejections he received for his first novel, Carrie.

Second, whether you self-publish or go through a traditional publisher, your work does not end when you get copies in your hands. That’s when your work begins. It’s important to do three things: promote, promote, promote. Set up a web site. Blog. Speak. Do book signings. Tell people about it. Do everything you can to let people know it’s there.

AM – Where can we go to learn more about you and purchase your books?

DMK – For my non-fiction books, you can visit my publisher, Llewellyn, at www.llewellyn.com . You can also visit my fiction publisher, Galde Press at www.galdepress.com , but you’ll learn more on my own website, www.resurrectionmurders.com . You can also find them on amazon.com and at major bookstores. If they’re not in stock, they can be ordered.

AM – Thank you very much for joining us today Don.  We wish you the best of luck with “Modern Magick 3rd Edition”, “The Resurrection Murders” and all of your other future releases!

DMK — Thank you for having me. This has been great fun. When people who have read this contact me, please let me know that you enjoyed this interview and website.