The Weiser Concise Guide to Yoga for Magick (The Weiser Concise Guide Series) [Soft Cover ]

Yoga today connotes many images and ideas -- from holy men on a high mountaintop to throngs of young women toting designer mats. Yoga, meaning 'union,' is actually a many-layered discipline designed to help an individual attain health, serenity, focus, and ultimately, union with the Divine. Aleister Crowley was one of the first Europeans to practice yoga and believed the practice was essential to spiritual growth, stating that 'Magick is a Pyramid built layer by layer. The work of the Body of Light -- with the technique of Yoga -- is the foundation of the whole.'This succinct and uniquely helpful book explores the frequently overlooked importance of bringing a healthy body and a clear-thinking mind to the practice of ceremonial magick or Wicca. While many books on magick discuss the importance of ritual, almost none point to the physical, spiritual, and moral quality necessary to make those rituals effective. Spiritual power demands physical health and the contemporary western practitioner can learn much from the ancient tradition of yoga.