Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers: The Equinox (Equinox, Vol 4, No 1) [Hardcover]

Aleister Crowley (Author), Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (Author), J. F. C. Fuller (Author), Charles Stansfeld Jones (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 392 pages
• Publisher: Red Wheel Weiser (September 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877288887
• ISBN-13: 978-0877288886
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,617,329 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law., June 18, 1999

By 

Eheieh Ain Soph ([e-mail]) (Cedar Lake, IN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers: The Equinox (Equinox, Vol 4, No 1) (Hardcover)

This Volume of the Equinox contains much more than mere Commentaries to the Holy Books, it contains the essence of knowledge that Crowley was capable of, woven into the structure of the Commentaries, making this the companion to every man's life-style. The Commentary for Liber LXV encompasses the means to invoke one's Guardian Angel in the simplist method possible. The Voice of the Silence' Commentary manifests the inherent differences between the Brother of the Right and Left Hand Paths and every other matter of the Crossing of the Abyss, concentrated within the scope of comparatively nothing -- he has extracted the needed material to the smallest possible space. There is knowledge offered in this Volume nowhere else able to be found on the nature of Crowley's Philosophies.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful for serious students, March 29, 2001

By 

Timothy Walker (Orlando, Florida USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers (Equinox) (Paperback)

If the quaternary elements of Book Four are the prose of Thelema, then volumes like this are its poetry. The book proves its worth early on by presenting a FULL A.'.A.'. curriculum, then explores deeper mysteries with Liber LXV and a brilliantly commented edition of Blavatsky's Voice of the Silence. Additionally, the book contains several beautiful color plates and a very useful illustration of the Tree of Life (with corrected attributions). My only issue with the book is that much of this information can be obtained elsewhere, especially in online archives, but since when has that ever stopped people like us from buying another Crowley book? ;-) AL II:9

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars 3-Rose Recommendation, with reservations, April 1, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers: The Equinox (Equinox, Vol 4, No 1) (Hardcover)

Review from BLACK PEARL: The Journal of the College of Thelema (Vol. I, No. 1, March, 1997). Copyright 1997, College of Thelema (permission by editor granted Amazon Books to use).

COMMENTARIES ON THE HOLY BOOKS & OTHER PAPERS
by Aleister Crowley, with H.P. Blavatsky, J.F.C. Fuller & Charles Stansfeld Jones. (Samuel Weiser, Inc., 1996. Hardcover, 382 pp. ISBN 0-87728-888-7. $40.00)

Fra. Hymenæus Beta is the preeminent Crowley editor of our time. Although his name does not appear anywhere on this present volume (subtitled The Equinox, Vol. IV, No. 1), his able hand is visible in both the quality handling of the content, and the beautiful form. Primarily, the volume consists of Crowley commentaries to many Class A Documents; but it contains much more. Its main feature is the 'Holy Book' Liber Cordis Cincte Serpente (Liber LXV), with Crowley's extraordinary commentary thereon. In addition to Karl Germer's small 1952 Ontario edition, the commentary had been serialized by Sor. Meral (In the Continuum, I:7-II:1, 1976-1979), and later published by C.O.T. in a single volume (1995). Unfortunately, in the present book the editor did not see fit to maintain the useful format of these three earlier editions wherein the commentary was positioned opposite and facing the corresponding text of Liber LXV.

Other, shorter commentaries are included (on Libri B, Liberi, Trigrammaton, Stellæ Rubeæ, A'ash, Tav, and Ararita). Some have been published before; most have not. Their inclusion lends a welcome completeness to the volume. Frater Achad's commentary on Liber A'ash (written by him as an A.'.A.'. assignment, and then annotated by Crowley) will interest many. Also reprinted are documents important in defining the A.'.A.'. training system -- essentially the same set of defining documents appended, in 1993, to C.O.T.'s The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'. (One Star in Sight, Liber XIII, and Liber CLXXXV -- to which this book adds An Account of A.'.A.'.). These are introduced by a hitherto unpublished Crowley essay titled "Occultism," which includes one unpublished version of the A.'.A.'. Student Examination.

A large color plate section includes a color reproduction of Crowley's original illuminated manuscript of Liber Pyramidos. Readers of "John St. John" (in Equinox 1) will recall that, during a magical retirement in late 1908, Crowley adapted the A.'.A.'. Neophyte initiation ceremony into a self-initiation ritual for his use in attaining the 6=5 Grade. This self-initiation ritual is now published. Though known to private collectors for many years, this color manuscript has not been available to most students until now, and we are happy to see it finally in print. However, we must disagree with the editor's labeling it as Liber DCLXXI, since that is the number of the official A.'.A.'. initiation ritual from which it was adapted, Liber ThROA.

The one serious embarrassment of the volume is a new paper titled Liber Vesta, which claims to give "the correct designs (with color illustrations)" of the robes for each A.'.A.'. grade. This paper is new, created for the A.'.A.'. lineage served by the individuals who lent it their imprimatur. Except for the Probationer robe, these designs do not at all match those which have come down to us from the A.'.A.'.'s founders. They do not even distantly resemble the many published photographs of A.'.A.'. robes which embellish Crowley's writings. (The correct designs, published in Appendix F of The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'., 2nd. Ed., will be reprinted with further discussion in a later issue of BLACK PEARL.) Our conclusion, based on the colorful and entertaining appearance of these robes and the fact that the book was released the first week of October, is that Liber Vesta was the special Halloween Supplement.

A further criticism concerns the inclusion of Blavatsky's (non-Class A) The Voice of the Silence, with Crowley's commentary. This lengthy piece -- constituting one-third of the entire, expensive volume -- was already included in Equinox III:1 (the "Blue Equinox"), and in Gems. It is readily available. Its inclusion here makes no sense in terms of the present book, the Equinox series overall, or service to the audience, and merely cranked up the size and cost unnecessarily. In fact, about 85% of this book's contents are already in print and accessible (which, however, is not inappropriate for a reference volume). Nonetheless, based, if nothing else, on the full color Pyramidos, and the compendium of commentaries, the book has enough new material, of such excellent virtue, as to win a Three Rose recommendation (|||). -- QUIL