The Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley [Paperback]

Aleister Crowley (Author), Stephen Skinner (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

This new edition provides diaries which consolidate Crowley's works and will provide new details on his works and significance to the 20th century. These complete diaries cover his entire career in magic up to his death in 1947 and should be considered definitive works for any interested in Crowley's life and beliefs. -- Midwest Book Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Weiser Books (February 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0877288569
• ISBN-13: 978-0877288565
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,491,556 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Skinner wrote, with Francis King, the classic "Techniques of High Magic" in 1976. He followed that with "Oracle of Geomancy" and "Terrestrial Astrology: Divinatory Geomancy", which has become the standard work on Western divinatory geomancy. Highly illustrated books on "Nostradamus" and "Millennium Prophecies" followed. He also edited "Aleister Crowley's Magical Diaries" and "Astrology".

In the 1970s Stephen was responsible for stimulating interest in John Dee and Enochian magic by publishing through his imprint Askin Publishers the first reprint of Meric Casaubon's "True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Yeers between Dr John Dee and some Spirits.." and Dr Donald Laycock's key reference book on the angelic language "The Complete Enochian Dictionary".

He is currently working with David Rankine to reproduce the best available source books of practical ceremonial magic, particularly from old never before printed manuscripts owned by practising magicians.

His latest book on magic, "The Complete Magician's Tables" is a book of correspondences, which with more than 800 tables, is the most complete tabular book of magical correspondences in print.

Stephen is also the author of eight books on feng shui, including the first English one in the 20th century.

He has written more than 27 books translated into 20 different languages. He lives in Johor Bahru, near Singapore, where he researches both feng shui and classical magic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magical Diaries worth the Read, July 27, 2004

By 

Amber Turrill (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley (Paperback)

I believe there comes a point in reading and research on a subject you love where you need to feel closer with the artist. What motivated me to purchase The Diaries is the same thing that motivates me to buy books about the lives of musicians if their music has deeply influenced me. Basically, that 'human' side of the artist that you don't get to experience in their artistry, often even if you exhaustively listen to the records or read the books.

I feel like it's easy to miss that human touch in Crowley. You're concentrating so hard on his qabbalistic and other such writings sometimes that he seems more an enigmatic teacher than a real person who actually experienced the kind of troubles he did. This book is a wonderful break from, say 777 or Magick in Theory because you get to experience the 'human' side of Crowley.

I agree whole-heartedly that these diaries were written when Crowley was at a major down slope. At the same time, I felt like I understood him more by reading this book, and that really grasping his writings may not be such a task. If you hold Crowley as a God, you're going to see him in an entirely different light here, and you shouldn't purchase this book. His nasty health problems are graphically discussed in the book, so if references to diarrhea are a problem for you, then skip this one. At the same time, such little romantic, even tragic nuances about people (e.g., Crowley's grief over the loss of his child) endear them even more to me. I found that type of endearment in the Magical Diaries.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Footnoted to Death, April 11, 2001

By 

Student - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley (Paperback)

While the insight that this book provides is indeed interesting and worth reading, the overall format of the book is a burden. As most students of Crowley's literature know, his work isn't often spelled out for you line for line; here in his personal diaries, the editor tries to do just that. It gets to the point where you can find the same definition footnoted TWICE on the same page! I think this book would be much more useful about 60 pages shorter, with only the original text, maybe a footnote here or there, and the appendices are nice. It is very interesting to parallel the content here with other workings of his career at the time, it's just a chore to find your way around the book easily.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Tedious, December 9, 2000

By 

J. French "93 93/93" (Oakland, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley (Paperback)

While this book is useful, both as a psychological survey and as a guide for astologial planning, its over all feel is one of pure tedium. Gone is Crowley's deft use of the English language. The editing is slight, to preserve the content of writing not intended for publication. These diaries reflect what was actually the downward slope of Crowley's life. The Abbey at Cefalu is dissolving. His relationship with the most intense Scarlet Woman has gone sour. Crowley's physical health has gone down hill as well. We learn more about the Mega Therion's bowel movements, lung problems, and drug addiction than we ever wanted to know. The tone of the diaries is one of depression and struggle. There's even a contemplation of sucide. Perhaps those pencil pushers of the occult world, the Gematriasts, will find Crowley's endless calculations interesting. For those of of not so inclined, they are laborious reading. They do, however, show Crowley's fantastic ability to relate everything to the Law of Thelema. The intepretations of the I Ching are also interesting, and give us an idea of how Crowley's inner senses worked. This volume is only recomended for people seriously interested in Crowley as a person, as well as the Mega Therion, Bophomet, ect ad nauseum.