Customer Reviews

The Magick of Aleister Crowley: A Handbook of the Rituals of Thelema

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First a bit of a note about the physical form of the book:

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.

Lon Milo Duquette confesses in his opening words that The Magick of Aleister Crowley is a 10th anniversary re-launch of his 1993 classic, The Magick of Thelema, and that everything in the MOT is also found in this new re-named edition. However, he goes on to inform us that this is more than just a face-lift of an old title.

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".

In the seemingly unending parade of biographies based on
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.

I still like this book. It really helps when you want to practice Crowley's rituals and go on the Thelemic Magickal quest. Errors are corrected and some interesting new material was added. Although the book doesn't do justice to the full depth of the rituals, as a starting point it is excellent. As a note of caution, I should say that Duquette is well known for watering down Thelema a bit and making it palatable for the masses. This book is a good example of that.
The earlier edition of this book had an Index at the back, which is missing in the new edition. In the back of the book there are about 10 pages strangely left blank?!

I was impressed with this book. It is really nice to have the important Thelemic rituals in one convenient handbook, with good explanations of each. I would recommend, however, that the reader have some prior knowledge of the work of Aleister Crowley to fully understand the material.

I really like the author A LOT, he seems very approachable and friendly and definitely knowledgeable. Therefore I feel a bit sad that I own this book. It's basically a compilation of a number Thelema Libers EASILY available legally for free online.. and then some few comments written by the author himself about each Liber. The concept of the book would have great potential if he had actually written something substatial, meaning 5x more about each Liber.

This book is perfect for someone who would like to practice western ceremonial magic and knows absolutely nothing about Aleister Crowley. The thing is, I'm not sure how many people like that exist. Most of us slide into magic pretty slowly, and most of us are voracious readers; with so much information out there on the internet and in other books, it's likely that by the time you decide to take Crowley seriously and actually DO his system of magic, you'll know a thing or two about it/him, making this book practically useless. Let me repeat: if you have or have read ANY book/s by Crowley, this book will give you absolutely nothing. The contents are mostly Crowley's rituals and some other writings, all of which are the most basic, famous, and available, with some introductions by Duquette. There's nothing wrong with DuQuette's light, breezy writing, but he really gives very little information. That said, maybe there is somebody out there who knows nothing of Crowley but is ready to dive in. Still, if you're going to get only one Crowley-related book, why not get a book by Crowley himself? The latest edition of Magick: Book 4, Liber Aba (Magick Bk. 4)(ed. by Hymenaeus Beta) includes all of the rituals here, in their intended context and with lots of annotations. MAGICK is Crowley's own intended introduction to the art. 'Magick Without Tears' is, similarly, Crowley's attempt to further clarify and simplify advanced material for neophytes. Once you've read either of those, this book will already be obsolete.

I recommend this book, alot of books on Thelema can be hard to understand and follow and this book is to the point.

Excellent beginner book to Thelema and the Magick of Alister Crowley it will pave the way to more advanced books.

SetiDraconis

great comprehensable and even fun?and all in an occult book that covers real magick wow!

I had read Duquette's earlier Illustrated Goetia, and I was impressed by that. I was looking for spells that would be easy for me personally to work alone. Another book that fit that category was Necronomicon Spellbook. The magick in this book gets more and more complicated with each passing ritual, starting simple and going to more complicated. An excellent and essential work for those seriously interested in Thelemic magick.