Category Archives: Received Wisdom

The Book of Going Back By Night

The Book of Going Back By Night by Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule is a new publication of the complete three-part transmission of a received text, part one of which has long been a feature at the Hermetic Library’s Recieved Wisdom section. After considerable time, all three parts are available in published form directly from Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule in a fully illustrated book with commentary by both Orryelle and Nema, through iNSPiRALink. Multimedia Press.

Oryelle Defenestrate-Bascule The-Book of Going Back by Night

“The verses are hand-calligraphed, introduced and illustrated by Orryelle; with an extensive commentary by Orryelle and Nema.”

“The text of this book is a transmission from the double-lion/ess Hrumachis Aker, through the masks and forms of Sekhmet, of the Egyptian and Grecian SphinXes, and (in the Third Chapter) of Babalon and the Beast.

Voices from the ‘future aeon’ of Maat deliver information which intersects with the currents of the Ancient Egyptian ‘Book of Coming Forth by Day’ (translated by E.A.Wallis Budge as The Egyptian Book of the Dead) in the present.

The book is esoteric and mytho-poetical yet has socio-political implications for our times. The Nu Word of IAHM and its formula and application are presented, as well as the AZOTh casting and banishing system.”

Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers

Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers (Equinox), containing commentaries on the Class A libri by Aleister Crowley and other papers, including work by H P Blavatsky, J F C fuller and Charles Stansfeld Jones (Frater Achad), is part of the collection at the Reading Room. This is both a paperback and hardcover published as Equinox IV 1 by Weiser.

Aleister Crowley and others in Commentaries on the Holy Books also called Equinox IV 1 from Weiser

 

 

The Hermetic Library Reading Room is an imaginary and speculative future reification of the library in the physical world, a place to experience a cabinet of curiosities offering a confabulation of curation, context and community that engages, archives and encourages a living Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to contribute to the Hermetic Library Reading Room, consider supporting the library or contact the librarian.

The Holy Books of Thelema

The Holy Books of Thelema, containing the Class A libri by Aleister Crowley, is part of the collection at the Reading Room. This is the 1988 paperback published as Equinox III 9 by Weiser.

Aleister Crowley's The Holy Books of Thelema, or Equinox III 9, from Weiser

 

 

The Hermetic Library Reading Room is an imaginary and speculative future reification of the library in the physical world, a place to experience a cabinet of curiosities offering a confabulation of curation, context and community that engages, archives and encourages a living Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to contribute to the Hermetic Library Reading Room, consider supporting the library or contact the librarian.

In Nomine Babalon

In Nomine Babalon is a series of 156 Qabalistic adorations dedicated to Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, written anonymously at the behest of Our Lady of the Cup. The stanzas of this work are being serialized in the Hermetic Library arts and letters pool, and can be found via the In Nomine Babalon tag as well.

In Nomine Babalon

The book itself was successfully kickstarted back in Aug 2011 to fund a “strictly limited to a single run of only 156 copies and will never be reprinted. Each copy will be hand numbered and signed with the sigil of the author.”

One of these physical copies, I purchased for the shelves of the library and is now part of the new Reading Room. Back in August of last year, I was given permission to add the work to the Received Wisdom section of the library, and it has been available there as a downloadable PDF. In December of last year, I also began to post stanzas from the work to the library blog.

I’m announcing today the first stanzas have been added as regular pages to the site in both English and, courtesy of the person behind the Thelema France page, French. I will continue to add those over time so the entire work is available.

I asked the author of the work to offer a bit of personal narrative about the book and the process that I could share with you here:

“This book came about as the result of a magickal working performed in April of 2011. The intent of the working was a Solar-based invocation of my HGA (though not an attempt at Knowledge and Conversation), beginning with an elaborate banishing/invoking ritual I had written and followed by a Solar sex magick rite I had put together using several of Crowley’s best rituals.

I had invoked Babalon in the past on a couple of occasions with great success. I had established a bond with Her through these experiences and have found that when I invoke Her using a particular formula, She always responds.

During the first part of my working, I invoked Babalon by this formula and She immediately made her presence felt, stronger than She ever had in the past. So strong, in fact, that She seemed to take over the working and use it for Her own ends. As the working moved into the sex magick phase, She became my lover and I Her slave.

The working was a great success and as it ended, Babalon made Her wishes known to me. I was to write 156 adorations of love to Her. I was to publish them in 156 copies that would be shared as far and wide as possible. I was not to put my name on the work, nor was I to copyright the publication. I could not profit in any way from the books publication and once my investment had been made back, I was to give away the remaining copies. I could sign the books with a glyph if I chose but I could never again use that symbol for any reason. I had until August 22, 2011 to have the book published. She was very specific!

The verses were written in random order, many of them coming into my head in full. As I wrote them down, I began to see that there were Qabalistic hints within them as to their appropriate order. The book consumed me for the next 4 months, first writing them and then painstakingly putting them in their correct order. A problem with the original printer caused me to use another printing house with only 2 weeks left, setting off a wave of panic that the book would not be done in time. The second printer came through, however, and the 156 copies were in my hands on August 21. (August 22nd, as it turns out, is the 156th day of the Thelemic year!)

As haunted as I was by the creation of this book, I learned a great deal – both about Babalon as well as myself. Writing that many verses about anything forces you to examine the subject from every conceivable angle and causes you to dig deeper than you ever would with a simpler meditation. It makes you consider your subject in everything around you and from all aspects. I quickly began to see why I had been given this task. The all-consuming fire within burned up my magickal ego and left its mark on my soul.

Through a Kickstarter campaign and social networking, all copies sold out within 2 months. They were shipped all across Europe, the US, Canada and Australia. I released an e-book copy at the end of the year, which is now available for free download at Hermetic.com. Various verses have appeared on several internet blogs and a group a French Thelemites are working on translating them. Our Lady is no doubt pleased!

Ave Babalon!”

 

The Hermetic Library Reading Room is an imaginary and speculative future reification of the library in the physical world, a place to experience a cabinet of curiosities offering a confabulation of curation, context and community that engages, archives and encourages a living Western Esoteric Tradition. If you would like to contribute to the Hermetic Library Reading Room, consider supporting the library or contact the librarian.

In Nomine Babalon added to Received Wisdom

With permission from the author, I’ve added a PDF downloadable of the entire In Nomine Babalon book which you might be interested in checking out. This is the newest addition to the Received Wisdom section of the library where you will find a selection of received holy books or transmissions given to various individuals during magical workings. The book is currently available only in PDF on the site, but I’ll work on adding it in a nice HTML format.


PDF downloadable of the entire In Nomine Babalon

In Nomine Babalon is a series of 156 Qabalistic adorations dedicated to Babalon, the Scarlet Woman, written anonymously at the behest of Our Lady of the Cup. The stanzas of this work are being serialized in the Hermetic Library arts and letters pool at In Nomine Babalon as well.

Ordo Adeptorum Invisiblum

“Ordo Adeptorum Invisiblum” is a post over at the Occult Chicago blog (which is a blog by Hermetic Library visual pool contributor Rik Garrett), and the name of a specifically feminist Thelemic order founded in England in 1979 with headquarters for the US in Chicago in 1981. According to the article “Western Esoteric Family III: Magick” in Melton’s Encyclopedia of American Religions, the OAI was inspired by the “proclamation of the magical Aeon of Ma (or Maat) [made] in 1948 by Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones)” [via, also]. Occult Chicago also discusses how the OAI was influenced by the works of Aleister Crowley, Jack Parsons [also] and Nema, author of Maat Magick: A Guide to Self-Initiation and co-founder of Horus Maat Lodge. If you were a member of or know more about that order, you may consider getting in contact with the Occult Chicago blog and sharing your story. [HT Sarah Veale]

“The OAI also adopts feminist principles and practices—not the anti-male separatist variety—but in its non-sexist androgynous philosophy. Women are not the vehicle of a male seed, a male High Priest. They are magickal people in their own right. The history of female magickal energy is far older than that of the male, but it has been overshadowed by the masculine principle. The OAI seeks to rectify this by balancing the imbalance through women seeking to rediscover and reassert themselves, while male members minimize as far as possible their aggressiveness and dominance. In turn, this will lead to a more directly visible equality and non-hierarchical structure within the group and in rituals.” [via]

As an aside, Nema’s Liber Pennae Praenumbra, and a number of other works by Horus Maat Lodge members appear in the Received Wisdom section of the library and in the archives of Beast Bay.

The Book of the Horned One: A Gate of Pan Magick

The Book of the Horned One: A Gate of Pan Magick by Aion 131, with illustrations by Orryelle Defenestrate-Bascule, is a book you may be interested in checking out. Aion 131 has several items in the collection of the library, such as “Commentary of The Book of Gate Called Pan” and “The War Engine of Liber AL” (which last, by the way, has been getting a lot of attention from the Anonymous #EtherSec people recently). This book is being published by Concrescent Press, the publishing house started by Hermetic Library fellow Sam Webster.

“For me the most fundamental path, the most primal path, is that of the beginning, the Nameless (before speech), the Infinite (before time), The One who is All and None. There is no name for this, no label for the wild stirrings that fill and inform my mind, heart and body—so I call it Pan. In this way it has a presence, a body, a focus, a BEING, and so in this way I have been able to converse with, play with, make love with, consume and be consumed by the primal wilderness archetype that fills me, one that is truer than all other illusions. Through a mask the unnamable is approachable, and Pan is the ultimate mask of endless contradictions united, of seeing the divine in One, in All and in None—all at once.

This book and its extremely loose and flexible system of magick (Called here ‘Pan Magick’ for want of a better name) is an intensely personal project. Let there be no doubt that it is an original system that draws from many wells, birthed from my interface with ‘Pan’. At the peak moments of this dance, like when The Book of Gate came to me, ‘I’ was quite absent. Still, here ‘I’ am and It seems a whole crew of ‘mes’ is penning this book and all are, of course, mere illusions and refractions. The act of somehow piecing together notes and rites and somewhat inchoate scribblings from 30 years worth of practice has me wondering what I’m doing. But The Great Pan has laughed and beckons me on and urges me to get it together and get it out there, so away we go.—From the Introduction” [via]

7×10 in., Hardcover, 340 pp.
Lavishly Illustrated
ISBN: 978-0-9843729-5-9
$39.95

Liber 49 – The Book of Babalon, The Book of Antichrist, and other writings by Jack Parsons is linked to in an article about Hugh Urban’s research into Scientology

Liber 49 – The Book of Babalon, The Book of Antichrist, and other writings by Jack Parsons is linked to in an article about Hugh Urban’s research into Scientology, which article talks at length about Aleister Crowley, Magick, Jack Parsons and more, at “Scientology and the Occult: Hugh Urban’s New Exploration of L. Ron Hubbard and Aleister Crowley” by Tony Ortega in Runnin’ Scared at The Village Voice.

(As an aside, this post posted with synchronicity but without contrivance at 1:56 am.)