Customer Reviews

The Vision and the Voice with Commentary and Other Papers (Vol 4, No.2)

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"The next number, The Vision and the Voice with Commentary and other Papers, will treat of the mysteries of the Crossing of the Abyss and the attainment of the Grade of Magister Templi." Praemonstrance, The Equinox Volume IV:1.

Another number of Volume IV of the Equinox has been issued. Subtitled the Collected Diaries of Aleister Crowley Volume II, it has much to offer besides Liber 418, which gives the book part of it's title.

Liber 418 is a remarkable piece, and the Prophet's illuminating commentary should be read by all Thelemites. As the editor writes in the introduction, this Liber "is a primary scriptural source for the theogony of the Supernal Triad of the Crowned and Conquering Child, Chaos, and Babalon."

This number also contains The Bartzabel Working, The Abuldiz Working, the Paris Working, as well as other diary fragments. All of these are remarkable in their own right and shows scientific illuminism at it's best. This noted, it gets a bit amusing both when Bartzabel tells the Prophet to aid the weak with a sword by slaying them (Also according to B., watch out for 2040 e.v.), and 666's constant argument and disbelief in the phenomena he is experiencing.

To top it of there is also a photograph of a painting of Crowley with his true Xth regalia.

Can't wait until IV:3 gets out. Hopefully it's publishing history will be less painfull than number 2 (which we had to wait several years for). But in the end I'm certain that the wait for number 3 will be as worthwhile as that of number 2.

This is a must-have before trying to actually skry through the AEthers. Study will assimilate the correct attitude of the Angels of the various AEthers -- invaluable for this line of research: especially in the Higher AEthers where one doesn't know how lofty the advancement of Initiation is going to occur. Also is contained a Diary of Homo-Sexual Magick Operations called the Paris Working. And a Ritual of Bartzabel. I wish this was available in a soft-cover form, so as to offer more copies, because more people would be willing to purchase them; not that money is a problem for myself: I am concerned with the Proclamation of Thelema to every Star.

"The Vision and the Voice" is Crowley's greatest literary achievement. The beauty, originality and numinosity of his visions rival the work of William Blake. These richly layered arcana are the vindication of his cabalistic interests, which elsewhere are often merely obscure and annoying. However, this has been published several times before, and the newly discovered comments do not add a great deal.

The previously unpublished papers -- the Paris, Ab-ul-Diz, and Bartzabel Workings -- are indispensable for serious Crowley students, but they do not stand on their own. These records of indistinct and silly mediumistic transactions may not have been published before for the simple reason that they are too embarrassing to Crowley. He is at his obnoxious worst in dealing with his lovers, and his insistence that he is a "skeptic" while practicing wide-eyed gullibility is painful to observe.

This is a must buy for those whom wish to travel the Aethyrs from TEX to LIL, as it is very descriptive of the sign posts that one must correctly identify. You can be well assured it is worth the money if one is rise upon the Aethyrs, and it is obvious that no other man but the Beast himself has writ such a book, as there are no others out there in resemblence.