Where Do Demons Live?, by Frater U.’. D.’.

Where Do Demons Live?: Everything You Want to Know About Magic, by Frater U.’. D.’.
Llewellyn Worldwide, 9780738714790, 187 pp., 2010

In Where Do Demons Live? Frater U.’. D.’. assumes the persona of “Aunt Klara”, an agony aunt for occultniks, delivering lectures on magickal combat, magickal musick, the models of magick (with a focus on the elusive cybernetic model) and answers questions about Freemasonry, witchcraft, the Golden Dawn, the OTO and Satanism.

The result is many ways reminiscent of Aleister Crowley’s Magick Without Tears, in that it represents in a collection of brief essays on a wide variety of topics, though in a vein all his own. Much like Frater U.’. D.’.’s previous works (Practical Sigil Magic, Secrets of Western Sex Magic, High Magic I and II), the advice and recommendations given by Frater U.’.D.’.’s alter (altar?) ego are refreshingly direct and matter of fact.

When Thomas B. writes in to inquire whether a master is necessary, Aunt Klara gets to the heart of it, writing that “[n]o master can relieve you of the basic practical work that you will have to do, and no teacher can protect you from having to just dive headfirst into the cold water so that you can learn through ‘trial and error’.” She concludes, quite correctly, that “[i]t is not a master that you need. What you really need is the courage to finally tackle the situation yourself.”1 Sensible and to the point.

While the responses always level-headed, they’re not always as complete as they could be. Such is the case when Aunt Clara, proclaims that Satanism has “nothing at all to do with magic”2, which isn’t strictly true. Further, where Nietzsche gets a mention, Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan, and Michael Aquino, founder of the Temple of Set, are omitted entirely and an opportunity to set the record straight about modern Satanism is lost.

The twenty-eight mini essays presented here originally appeared as a part of “Aunt Klara’s Temple of Solace”, a column written for the German periodical Anubis and are collected here in their entirety.

Overall it’s a great little book, and Aunt Klara’s no-nonsense approach will undoubtedly be beneficial to anyone wanting a straight answer to questions common to magickians of all disciplines.

1. p. 2 [↩]
2. p. 100 [↩]