Telling People To Study Magic, The Occult, Etc. By Just "reading Books" Is Incredibly Irresponsible Because

Telling people to study magic, the occult, etc. by just "reading books" is incredibly irresponsible because many, many, many books on these topics contain pseudohistory, bigotry, and cultural appropriation that the average person is ill-equipped to recognize. Like, the average person isn't going to be able to tell, for example, when a text from the Renaissance is using fake Hebrew and making up shit about Jewish mystical practices or whatever. This is why the work of people like Dr. Justin Sledge over on ESOTERICA is extremely valuable, because it's a great place for absolute beginners to start developing a sense of this stuff.