Customer Reviews

Tantric Thelema

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Sam Webster has done a fine job of presenting a very useful spiritual technology. Tantric Thelema is an application of Vajrayana Buddhist esoteric methods to the myth and symbol of Aleister Crowley's magical religion of Thelema. By doing so he offers western magicians and theurgists the best step-by-step guide to the invocation of the presence of a deity I can remember seeing in print.
The manual is utterly practical. With only a few pages of introduction it moves immediately into the first section of the detailed spiritual practice (sadhana) that it teaches. Classical Buddhist ideas such as `taking refuge and dedicating merit' are taught in a fairly straight-forward Vajrayana way, using symbols and verses from the Book of the Law. The author does a fine job of reconciling Buddhist ideas with Pagan ones. The meat of the teaching concerns what is called Deity Yoga. Combining incantation with visualization and offerings it will all feel quite familiar to experienced invokers. What is less familiar is to see the method laid out in such clear, step-by-step detail.
Yr Hmbl writer knows very little about Vajrayana, but I was never at sea with Webster's descriptions of ideas or methods. I know rather more about Thelema, and it is a pleasure to see it expounded so gracefully, and without gothery. I know, I think, rather a lot about the mechanics of invocation, and I still learned quite a bit from this small tantra. Anyone interested in restoring the juice to western theurgy could benefit from Tantric Thelema.

This is an amazing book. The Ra-Hoor-Khuit practices are given concisely but with all the details needed to perform them, and they can be generalized for other deities to fit any Pagan tradition. Sam has provided a vital piece of missing magical technology for Thelemites and non-Thelemites alike. If you are interested in (or even just curious about) theurgical practice, "Tantric Thelema" is a must-read, period.

While the title of this book implies a very basic principle of marketing (take any two things, put them together, and you have a hit), it is also indicative of taking things to a new level when it comes to Thelema. The author of the book, Sam Webster, is an established occultist, which makes this book all the more tantalizing. The cover art is an added bonus. I highly recommend this book to anyone in the 93 current!