Donald Michael Kraig passed away March 17, 2014

[BaguaKicksAss]

 

A Call to the Magical Community!!! Your help is needed!

 

Best selling Pagan author Donald Michael Kraig was recently diagnosed with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer. He's fighting it with chemo and energy healing! There has been promising results with both, but help is still needed and very much wanted.

 

Please send Don and Holly prayers and/or energy to help him to heal and get rid of the cancer. He's strong and with your support, he'll get even stronger and healthier!

 

Both Don and Holly are thankful for any and all your assistance.

 

The image is a public one so it can be shared everywhere. Thank you again. I know that Don and Holly really appreciate all the assistance.

 

 

A healing ritual event has been created for January 31 to help pool energies together for Don... if you can please attend.

 

If you're not a ceremonial magician, its ok.. you can do what feels natural to you... Your energies are what is important and will contribute greatly to the whole! The ceremonial rite provided is only a suggestion not a requirement.

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/575207229228361/?ref_newsfeed_story_type=regular

 

I just found this out today. Don has always been a really good friend and very supportive. An awesome person as well. It is very cool to see all the support from people he is getting though .

[Maan]

He should look at these docus from among others ravediet.com : healing cancer from inside out & eating & dying to have known (about the gerson therapy), the key to all this is changing your diet, ie no animal products etc. The chemo is just going to kill him even sooner...

[BaguaKicksAss]

I vote for medical qigong myself .

[RiverSnake]

I remember reading his book Modern Magick about a year ago. While i didn't necessarily have a connection with the path of ritualistic magic…..he came off as one of the most sincere occult authors i have ever had the pleasure to read. Will be meditating and sending a prayer tonight.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

[BaguaKicksAss]

Actually I first read his book in 1989; it was the first book I ever read on magic . These days it's not all that exciting since there are hundreds of books on the topic, but back then there weren't that many, especially which included how to instructions. I didn't meet Don until about 10 years ago though. He is one of the most humble and down to earth folks I've ever met! He practices more along the Tantra side of things these days though I think.

 

There are 858 people signed up for the group healing ritual, pretty awesome!

[Zhongyongdaoist]

I met Don Kraig back in 1980, I liked him immediately. He was intelligent, well read and spoken, while remaining very modest and unpretentious. These last two traits are very rare among 'ceremonial magicians'. We both had wicked senses of humor and got along very well. We stayed in touch over the years, though often with years in which we didn't hear from each other at all. There seems to have been a one sided break about five years ago because he stopped responding to my emails, but I don't hold that against him and am very saddened to hear of his present condition.

 

I did a small operation the other night and have been thinking about trying to organize something on the Tao Bums that might be more 'daoist', rather than the Enochian magical ritual that is on Facebook, but I don't know how much real interest there would be here. In any case I wish him well, literally and figuratively.

[BaguaKicksAss]

The email thing of 5 years ago could be because of his email changes btw (he had given me new info for everything twice over the years, but forget which years).

[BaguaKicksAss]

 

http://wildhunt.org/2014/03/donald-michael-kraig-1951-2014.html

[Zhongyongdaoist]

I'm very sorry to hear this, but not surprised. Pancreatic cancer is very aggressive and fourth stage is too advanced, especially if it is in the 'B', stage where it has metastasized is little more than a prologue to passing and the accounts gave me the impression that it had already reached that stage.

[RiverSnake]

Was doing a divination tonight regarding some work....and I realized I still use his specific spread for diagnosing your magical workings, it's still one of my favorite spreads. His influence will definitely continue on.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

Edited April 2, 2014 by OldChi

[BaguaKicksAss]

I thought of a fun and funny story Don shared with me years back... He was in a coffee shop one day and saw a copy of his book sitting on a table. Obviously someone had just left it there and went off to the bathroom or something.... So he autographed it and walked away before the person got back .

[Zhongyongdaoist]

Yes, that is very Don Kraig. He had a great sense of humor, it was one of the things I really liked about him. We had such a good time talking in person and on the phone, we played off of each other well, because, believe it or not, I have a sense of humor too.

 

(After reviewing the above before posting, I thought about the grammar of the first sentence. Just saying 'That was very Don Kraig', just doesn't seem right, but something like "That is behavior that was typical of Don Kraig's spontaneous humor", while perhaps more correct in terms of tense, doesn't capture the right quality either.

 

Having thought about it, I think I know why. It is because I think his humor was part of his essence, something that he could never be himself without, in so far as there is an eternal essence of 'Don Kraig', that humor is still typical of him, a part of his 'isness' whether in the flesh or not.)

[Captain Mar-Vell]

...

I personally have found that concentration exercises (meditation) paired with exercises in circulating energy (Chi-Kung)to be highly complementary to each other....a balanced approach without extremes is important for any practitioner.

 

I would like to briefly second that.

 

Mostly I would like to add my humble condolences to all affected by this man's passing.

 

I knew but little of him, but your words show that Don Kraig was a wize bird.

 

Donald Michael Kraig RIP.

 

Also, a close family member is currently undergoing radio therapy after her breast cancer op.

 

So it brought that to mind.

 

Cancer.

 

The word terrifies folk don't it.

 

So sad.

 

I just pray that the radio therapy is doing her good.

 

I shall travel soon to see her and give her a big hug and try an' make her laugh.

 

xxx

...

Edited April 24, 2014 by Captain Mar-Vell

[Zhongyongdaoist]

Was doing a divination tonight regarding some work....and I realized I still use his specific spread for diagnosing your magical workings, it's still one of my favorite spreads. His influence will definitely continue on.

 

My 2 cents, Peace

 

OldChi,

 

This reminded me of something and I have wanted to comment on it for a while, now seems as good a time and place as ever.

 

When I first heard of Don's illness back in January, I found myself waxing a bit nostalgic and went down to one of the local bookstores that he and I used to frequent. I was looking at his books and thinking about them. I am mentioned as one of his anonymous friends here and there in them and decided to look at one of his later books Tarot & Magic. Going to the index as I often do with books I found a reference to strange attractors an aspect of mathematical chaos theory. The references are to Chapter Seven and I was pleased to find an intelligent discussion of much misunderstood topics, such as synchronicity in divination and magic and the possibility of mathematical order underlying chaotic appearances.

 

I have been critical, both of synchronicity and the misuse of Chaos Theory in magic for decades, but I cite this as a testimony to his intelligence, because that needs to be noted as well as his humor. Since I was teaching tarot magic back in the 1980s I have no practical need for his book, though I would certainly recommend it to anyone who is interested, just as I recommend his books in general. I later went back shortly before Don's death and bought a copy, so I could cite his discussion. I may post on it in more detail at some point.

 

Though something he said in it is perhaps relevant to what I said about his 'eternal essence' in my previous post:

 

. . . perhaps—PERHAPS—in the seemingly infinite chaos of the universe, there are unknown causes of events or Divine strange attractors. (Tarot & Magic, Llewellyn Publications, 2003, p. 122. Bold emphasis is mine, the all capitals PERHAPS, is in the original. ZYD)

 

Don now has the answer to this big 'perhaps', I hope that he is happy with it, wherever he is.

 

[BaguaKicksAss]

Oh ZYD, now I'm getting all nostalgic and sentimental .

 

He was the one who talked me into writing a book. He was also the one who encouraged me to do workshops, and even attended them (and of course cracked jokes during them, and vice versa during his!) He also was the most supportive of everyone when I was going through a rough time with the local Pagan community.

 

From what I understand he helped and encouraged quite a few authors to get off their butts. I found that he used the whole "I'm a famous author" bit to help and encourage others, than anything else. Nice and down to earth too.

 

Hmmm, whenever him and I went into a bookshop, he would predominantly display his books on the shelving .

 

He was definitely happier than most, and smiled most of the time; so I figure he's still enjoying himself wherever he's gotten to now.

 

Btw, someone mentioned the whole C word being so scary.... accept for the nurses in hospitals who talk about it being no big deal, that they can use radiation and just cut it out these days. Not so sure I like that attitude.

[Zhongyongdaoist]

Talk about nostalgia, here is a piece of trivia for you. Don's Modern Magick was originally written to be published by this man:



Malcolm Mills. Here is his biography from his site:

Malcolm Mills was born in Westport, CT on June 27, 1943. He graduated from the University of Connecticut in 1967 and attended Columbia University's Graduate School of Writing and Film. For many years he worked as a freelance editor, specializing in honing doctoral dissertations.

 

In his mid-20s, Malcolm became interested in Tarot and began a comprehensive study. After a couple years of that, he began doing readings for friends and family and soon that snowballed into what has become a full-time career.

 

His interest in astrology began in the early 1970s because he realized that tarot was directly related to the astrological mysteries. Over the years he has provided astrological counseling to hundreds of people in all walks of life.

 

In 1980, he moved from New York City to Santa Barbara, California where he continued his tarot and astrology practice. Because he began to accumulate so many clients in Los Angeles, in 1995 he moved to the San Fernando Valley.

 

With an active astrology/tarot client list numbering more than 1800, Malcolm introduced his line of authentic New Orleans oils and incense in 1997. Originally planning to offer 20 oils and a dozen incense fragrances, the "Extrascentsory Apothecary" has grown by leaps and bounds to feature 60+ incenses and over 300 oils.

 

In Santa Barbara Mills started Malcolm Mills Publications, which produced some excellent and very influential material on the New Orleans Voodoo tradition. His major work was called Oils, Incenses and Powders and was based on years of research. What is left out of the above is that he also ran Herman Slater's catalog business, Abrahadbra. Herman Slater's Magickal Formulary is basically a ripoff of Mills material. In the early 1980s Mills invited Don to write for him, and Don was working on the material, but Mills firm did not remain in business and the result was published by Llewellyn. It's probably better for everyone that Don's book was published by Llewellyn, but that is the story of its origin.

 

I have thought about Mills many times over the years. I finally found him today.

 

 

Edit: This accidentally went to post too soon and I had to add the end material as an edit. I may decide to edit it more.

 

Edit: Italicized 'Modern Magic'

Edited April 24, 2014 by Zhongyongdaoist