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Synopsis
Aleister Crowley is dead. Read the first page
Concordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Crowly has been dismissed as over-complicated, verbose, or just barking mad. He was - and in many ways still is - way ahead of his time. His magic has a pattern and logic all of its own, but it isn't for dabblers. There is enough information in this book to occupy an aspirant for years.
If you want to be a Thelemite, this should be in your library.
The earlier edition of this book was called Magick of Thelema, and it had one horrible flaw. The binding was so poor that the act of reading the thing actually made the pages fall out. My copy now sits in a small three-ring binder. Knowing this, I ran up to the local bookstore and worked the spine of the new edition (with apologies to the future owner). Happily all the pages stayed intact. That's almost enough for me to pay for the book all over again.
Now, the contents:
The new chapter is a FAQ on Crowley. It addresses all those lovely topics that usually crop up in an initial conversation with someone (e.g., black magic, sex, drugs). It's far from a biography, and it reads as more than a bit apologetic (do all Thelemites harbor a bit of shame about The Beast?). Regardless, the answers are better than the ones usually dished out on a platter of "you just don't understand" with a side of "shut the hell up."
The rest of the content falls into three categories. First you have the standard reprints, with Crowley's commentary, of the major rituals of Thelema (as well as a few throwbacks from the Golden Dawn era). Second, you have Duquette's comments on the rituals. These are scattered around are only valuable in rare cases. For example, at one point he explains his view of the mysterious "averse" pentagram, but then he later interjects a personal anecdote involving a bit of misfortune with a scalpel. (If you've seen his book on the Goetia, then you'll probably agree that it's a wonder that Lon's managed to live so long.) Finally, you have original text by Duquette. This part is genuinely interesting as it's written at a very down-to-earth level without a trace of condescension.
Flipping through the contents, I think this book works well as an introduction to Thelema as a whole, but it's not at all sufficient on its own. Luckily, it covers a large enough area of the topic that the reader can search the Internet to fill in the gaps. I would hand this to someone with an initial interest in Thelema. If they came back, I'd pass them a copy of Magick in Theory and Practice.
You should probably not buy this if you have a copy of the earlier Magick of Thelema. Otherwise, it's probably the best of the non-Crowley introductions to Thelema that you'll find. Of course, what's really needed is some new (non-biographical) content.
He's added new chapters and updated material including a very useful Frequently-Asked-Questions about Aleister Crowley, and new material on the inner secrets of Crowley's Gnostic Mass, and the Rites of Eleusis.
The old Magick of Thelema was hands down the best introduction to the works of A.C. ever written. The Magick of Aleister Crowley is definitely a case of the "best" getting "better".
the life - both factual and fanciful - of the "evilest man in the
world", this work stands as a stunningly original book as it
is the only one that invites the reader to draw their own
picture of the master magickian based on his magick alone.
Originally published in 1993 as The Magick of Thelema, this
edition is corrected and expanded, containing both an
Aleister Crowley FAQ - which contains the answers to all
the classic sensationalistic questions - and a sample from
Crowley's Rites of Eleusis, an excellent example that
Thelemic magick a) contains elements of pure magickal
drama meant to bring enlightenment en masse, and b) is not
simply a narcissistic system of self-deification, but in many
ways is a willed methodology of varied and artful
invocation. And Lon DuQuette's intellectual and
experiential proficiency on the subject of ritual magick in
general and Crowley in particular is revealed in the fact that
this is an excellent book for any magickal practitioner who
is looking for either an objective, lucid introduction to
Crowley's rituals or simply a guide to reacquaint themselves
with the nuts and bolts of Thelemic thought.
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