Customer Reviews

Aha !

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This poem encounters the journey through the system of the Astrum Argenteum intellectually -- at least to the grade of Magus. A very good work to study, and I recommend any one seriously interested in Crowley -- or the high levels of consciousness -- to read it.

This profoundly esoteric work highlights the two central experiences of the Path - the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel and the Crossing of the Abyss. It marks Crowley's final acceptance of The Book of the Law. He described AHA! as "An exposition in poetic language of the ways of attainment and the results obtained."

This book takes its stand among the great poetic classics of the spiritual path, in the tradition of Kabir, Tagore, and Rumi. I believe its Crowley's greatest sustained poetic epic. So did he.

Crowley reveals insights while entertaining with some very enjoyable poetry. I mostly enjoy learning through prose but I was still pleased with this book. Others that enjoy learning mostly through art and poetry should strongly consider this book if they are interested in Crowley, the OTO, or the A.'.A.'.

One of the worst examples of Crowley's self-edited poems, "Aha!" is notable only for the utter lack of grace of its phrasing and its pretentiousness.

Alastair Crowley knew a thing or two about the manipulation of elemental forces. "Aha!" is wonderfully evocative of the thinking process behind one of history's most feared alchemists. I would suggest looking at the extraordinary "The Autobiography of Jesus of Nazareth and the Missing years" to see the most uncanny parallels between two men whose main difference is their fundamental motivation. One of these astounding men was driven by Love while the other was driven by Power. If certain key words were removed from the texts, you would be hard pressed to decide which book was about Crowley and which was about Jesus. For all Crowley fans, this is a 'must have'.

Aleister Crowley is an excellent metrical poet, often expressing profound depth and sublimity, however, Aha is terrible in contrast to some of his other writing, such as Ch'ing-Ching Ching or Tannhauser. Aha brutalizes and oversimplifies the very real inner experiences which characterize the magickal path, of which Aleister Crowley was a Master. Aha strips the magickal art to it's bare bones, glorifying the mundane methodical approach to magick. However, the poem redeems itself in that it is an excellent way of introducing the layman or aspiring initiate to the path. Otherwise it is boring, go buy something else.

Aleister Crowley was doubtless one the the 20th Century's greatest proponents of sex magick. While not a Satanist as so many false rumors claim, he was, rather, something of a Promethean. Nonetheless, his "Aha!" suffers from a singular lack of imagination and typlifies what sometimes appeared in "Equinox". Skeptic Martin Garner perhaps said it best when he observed that the only thing Crowley worshipped was himself

Crowley is a maddening author, full of wisdom and insight and equally full of outrageous lies and obnoxious egotism. This is one of the examples of the latter; it's basically just extremely bad poetry pertaining to his particular teachings, at least the ones he was trumpeting at the time he wrote it. If you want to find out more about Crowley, "Magick Without Tears" and "The Book of the Law" are far more enlightening and inspired than this book, which is quite frankly tripe, and very rank tripe at that.

aleister crowly is by far one of the greatest men in the 20th century. if you're interested in him READ THIS BOOK!

AHA is a name for god in a langauge, I forget which. It is not really all that strange that Crowley would name a book after his god. I think it might be Egyptian.