Review: “Voidworking” by Dave Smith
[Image description: photography of the book with purple and white light spots of light that form a circular shape in a middle. That shape is black on the inside with faint purple shade. The cover has faintly noticeable symbols associated with the Void from inside the book. The title at the top reads “Voidworking” with “Practical sorcery from primordial nothingness” underneath it. At the bottom of a cover there is a centered name of the author “Dave Smith”. End of image description.]
Note: 4.5/5
About the book
“Voidworking: practical sorcery from primordial nothingness” is the second book written by Dave Smith, who is also known for being the author of “Quantum Sorcery”. It was released by Megalithica Books in May 2020 as a softcover paperback. It's a rather short book (only 123 pages) and divided into three main parts: “Introduction”, “Laying the Foundation” and “Voidworking”.
My first impressions
When I saw the book for the first time, I was torn between two types of thoughts. One was this very happy kid that got excited for the word “void” and was about to get the book right away. The other was a cautious adult that got a bit sceptical with how unfamiliar the author’s name was to them and how few reviews it had. Even though it’s a 2020 book, it had only two reviews on Amazon. What convinced me to purchase it was its description on the back cover that promised it to be looking through various concepts of the Void, from ancient to modern ones (including pop culture), and also mentioned example techniques that can be used with it. While the back cover descriptions are not always accurate, they can betray a bit about the book's content and the author themself. In this case, I got this gut feeling Dave Smith knows his stuff and is not leading me on. Let’s say the book surpassed my expectations.
What I like about the book?
While short, it’s still packed with information, both on theory and practical exercises relying on the Void;
I seriously appreciate that the chapter on risks of voidworking is placed in the beginning part of the book. There are also plenty of useful tips and remarks for one’s own practice;
It uses language that doesn’t insult me as a reader. A lot of spiritual/occult/witchcraft type of books I’ve read seemed to have this “I know better than you all” mindset, which seems to treat the reader as someone inferior who isn’t supposed to question the authority and truthfulness of the supreme author. In this case, the author uses more of a “Hey, this is what I know and it might be useful to you” - style;
Bibliography includes plenty of sources from different paths and also from non-occult literature.
What I didn’t like so much about the book?
As a pop culture practitioner I feel that chapters based on the pop culture, especially video games and music, were a bit too short and general. I can understand why there are mostly only mentions and only a few examples (if one is willing to search for a while there's a massive amount of Void references in popular culture). Lumping generalisations of the Void in video games in one paragraph felt rather dissatisfying in comparison to two pages used to describe the Void in the Lovecraftian mythos alone. I think these parts of the book would benefit from more examples to show the variety of the experiences.
In conclusion, I consider this short book a good introduction for someone unfamiliar with the Void as a concept. While it might not be comfortable for some readers due to relying on sources like Buckland or Crowley, I find it varied enough to give a good start for figuring out one’s own way to incorporate the Void into one’s practice. It definitely was worth my time and taught me something new. I will be looking forward to new books or articles by this author.
11-01-2021; 20:50 CET
