Description
Aleister Crowley, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, J. F. C. Fuller, Charles Stansfeld Jones
Samiel Weiser, Inc. Maine, USA, 1996. Paperback. First Edition. Used. I doubt whether this book has ever been read, it has a touch of dust from shelf ware and one corner is slightly turned, but it is a remarkable nice copy. Study photos. Very Good.
This issue of The Equinox is a companion volume to The Holy Books of Thelema (The Equinox Volume Three Number Nine, also published by Weiser). It is, however, a coherent textbook in ira own either. It covers the essentials of the A.’.A.’. system on initiation, from the preliminary stage of Student to the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. For the first time it makes available practical details that will be of immense value to students of Thelema.
Beginning with Crowley’s unpublished essay “Occultism,” it offers several of the foundation papers of the A.’.A.’., including Liber 185, Liber College Sancti, which describes the oaths and the tasks od each grade in its Outer College. A new paper presents the correct designs (with color illustrations) for the corresponding robes of each grade. This book’s lengthy color section includes General J.F.C. Fuller’s paintings for the Temple of A.’.A.’. and Crowley’s illuminated manuscript of an A.’.A.’. Ritual for Neophyte, Liber 671 vel Pyramidos.
The central feature of this book is The Master Therion’s lengthy and penetrating commentary to the inspired writing, The Book of the Heart Girt with a Serpent (liber LXV). While Liber LXV gives the best account available of the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angels it is couched in the language of mystical poetry. Crowley’s commentary gives a more easily understood exposition, and it is some of his most lucid writing on magic and mysticism. Crowley’s shorter commentaries to seven others of The Holy Books of Thelema are also included.
This book also contains Madame Blavatsky’s inspired text, The Voice of the Silence, with a commentary by Crowley that explores the various stages of consciousness in Mahayana Buddhist mysticism and their correspondences to the Holy Qabalah.
