Tag Archives: sexual magick

The Magical Revival

The Magical Revival [also, also] by Kenneth Grant, the 2010 standard edition hardcover from Starfire Publishing, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.

Kenneth Grant The Magical Revival from Starfire Publishing

“When the original manuscript of this book was submitted for publication the author was told he had provided ‘too much material for one book’. This proved to be correct. The work here presented—in an enhanced edition—became the first volume of three Trilogies. They deal with a detailed analysis of certain occult traditions which existed long before the Christian epoch, survived its persecutions and anathemas, and reappeared in recent times with renewed vigour.

The continuity of this magical current as reflected in the work of Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, Dion Fortune and others is here traced through the Tantrik Tradition of the Far East, the Sumerian Cult of Shaitan and the Draconian, Sabian, or Typhonian rites of the ‘dark’ dynasties of ancient Egypt.

Sexual magick and mysterious rites have always been practiced; drugs and other substances have constantly been used to induce ecstasy, to produce visions and to facilitate traffic with the denizens of other worlds or planes of consciousness; but an initiated rationale of the process such as presented here has been rarely forthcoming.

The genuine magical tradition as revived by Adepts like Crowley is here related to its ancient sources and brought into line with phases of contemporary occultism that are evolving a New Gnosis to supercede the sterile superstitions bred of an aeon-long misunderstanding of the old.

As a contribution to occult lore, The Magical Revival and its companion volumes have become standard source-books in their special field.” — flap copy

 

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 Magical Record of the Beast 666

Magical Record of the Beast 666: The Diaries of Aleister Crowley, 1914–1920, edited with copious annotations by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant, the 1993 third impression of the paperback from Duckworth, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.

Aleister Crowley John Symonds Kenneth Grant The Magical Record of the Beast 666 from Duckworth

“Crowley called his Diary a Magical Record because it contains accounts of his magical experiments, including the details of his secret sexual magick and of his consumption of a variety of dangerous drugs. it was not written with an eye to publication. ‘I don’t particularly expect anybody to read it,’ he wrote. Hence the unguarded way in which he recorded his innermost thoughts and performances of secret rites. There is a veiled reference to this extraordinary journal in his Magick in Theory and Practice, 1929. ‘Yea, he [Crowley’s Holy Guardian Angel, Aiwaz] wrought also in me a Work of Wonder beyond all this, but in this matter I am sworn to hold my peace.’ The ‘Work of Wonder’ was his supreme initiation into the highest grade of the mystical Order of the Silver Star, the beginning of which is described in this volume. Crowley, who died in 1947, had to hold his peace about that, and certainly about his sexual magick. Today, in these confused times, strange creeds thrust themselves forward, asking to be examined. everything is in the melting pot and a way out of the chaos in being anxiously sought. There is no stranger creed than Crowley’s doctrine of Do What Thou Wilt. Nor are there any experiences more exotic than his mystical illuminations and initiations.

John Symonds is Crowley’s literary executor and biographer. Kenneth Grant is the present world head of the Order of Oriental Templars, the magical order which Crowley reorganized in the 1920s.”

 

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.

Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell

Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell: The screenplay never filmed by Carlos Atanes, previously mentioned, is now available.

Carlos Atanes' Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell

“Underground filmmaker Carlos Atanes has been trying to make a movie about Aleister Crowley and his Magick for more than ten years. In the beginning of 2007 this was the third and last attempt of the deal with Magick: “Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell”. This script is structured in the reverse order of the Major Arcana of Crowley’s Tarot. The plot describes the mystical trip of Crowley through the Duat, the egyptian underworld, the encounters with significant characters in his real life (people such as Hanni Jaegger, Fernando Pessoa, Leila Waddell, Victor Neuburg, Raoul Loveday) and the confrontation with the demon Choronzon, his old adversary. Here you have the screenplay such as it was written and never filmed.” [via]

 

 

Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell

Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell by Carlos Atanes is an unfilmed screenplay, that is being made available as a book in March.

Carlos Atanes' Aleister Crowley in the Mouth of Hell

“Underground filmmaker Carlos Atanes has been trying to make a movie about Aleister Crowley and his Magick for more than ten years. He started in 2002 shooting two crowleyesque feature length films, Ian Perplexed and Perdurabo. They were both unfinished. On the way he made two non-crowleyesque movies, FAQ and PROXIMA.

In the beginning of 2007 this was the third and last attempt of the deal with Magick: In the Mouth of Hell. Atanes wrote it for two years, until the end of 2008. This script is structured in the reverse order of the Major Arcana of Crowley’s Tarot. The plot describes the mystical trip of Crowley through the Duat, the egyptian underworld, the encounters with significant characters in his real life–people as Hanni Jaegger, Fernando Pessoa, Leila Waddell, Victor Neuburg, Raoul Loveday– and the confrontation with the demon Choronzon, his old adversary.

Atanes’ intention was to shoot it in Spanish with his flagship actor Manuel Solàs playing the mature Crowley. While he was looking for fundings he was shooting another two apparently non-crowleyesque feature movies, Maximum Shame and Gallino, the Chicken System–although this one contains clear references to Sexual Magick.

In the Mouth of Hell was a complex and expensive project, and it was not conceived for everybody but just for curious, informed and/or initiated audiences, which means an added difficulty to attract producers and investors’ interest. After four years of search, finally fundings didn’t arrive and Atanes threw in the towel. He decided to shelve the matter. But he also thought it would be a pity to bury a text that could be interesting for all of those who were waiting for this film for a decade. This way people could watch the film and recall in their heads.

This is the screenplay such as it was written and never filmed.” [via]

 

 

Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God

Starfire Publishing is soon releasing a new re-issue of Kenneth Grant’s Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God. The standard edition hardcover of 1500 copies will be available in the new year directly from Starfire in the UK and Europe or J D Holmes in the US and Canada, and there will be two editions. The deluxe edition limited to 111 copies is available directly from Starfire, “bound in hand-made paper, with an additional leather quarter-binding across the spine. The book will be slip-cased, with full-colour dust-jacket, and come with black and white custom printed endpapers, and with top and tail bands to the binding. Each copy will be hand-numbered, and signed by Steffi Grant.”

Kenneth Grant's Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God from Starfire Publishing

“The republishing of the Typhonian Trilogies continues with the second volume in the series, Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God, first published by Muller in 1973 and subsequently reissued by Skoob Publishing in 1992. This new edition of 1500 copies is freshly typeset in an octavo format of 246 pages. Sewnbound hardback, with a sixteen-page section of plates, illustrated endpapers and a full-colour dustjacket, this republication integrates the errata from the Skoob edition within the text, and incorporates further corrections noted subsequently in Kenneth Grant’s personal copy of the book. Where possible, plates have been rephotographed, and some are presented in colour. There are also some new plates included by Steffi Grant.” [via]

Kenneth Grant's Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God from Starfire Publishing inscription

“Aleister Crowley vowed to free man from bondage by showing him how to invoke his latent genius ─ the Hidden God. It is characteristic of Crowley that to this end he utilised the mysterious energies of sex: the most potent, most obsessive of man’s illusions which, if used unintelligently, strengthens the false sense of individual existence that divorces him from the fullness of cosmic consciousness.

Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God is an exhaustive and critical study of Crowley’s system of sexual magick and the strange rites which he practised and advocated for the purpose of promoting the Law of Freedom with its formula of “Love under Will”. The book reveals the occult workings of the Fire Snake or Kundalini-Goddess, the cosmic power in man which, when awakened by magical means, assumes an external form identified by Crowley as the Scarlet Woman, she who influences the secret power-zones in the body of man and invokes the Hidden God.

Here Kenneth Grant also describes a method of dream control involving the use of the Ophidian Current transmitted by Crowley, Spare, Fortune, Grosche, and others. Its object is to establish contact with extra-terrestrial and non-human beings with the ultimate purpose of transcending the limitations of personality and of realising cosmic consciousness, thus fulfilling the magical formula of the New Aeon.

Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God is here republished in an enhanced edition. Freshly typeset, it incorporates the errata from the Skoob reissue as well as correcting anomalies on the basis of annotations in Kenneth Grant’s personal copy. Some of the existing plates will be present in colour; and there will be some new plates by Steffi Grant as well, one of which is here illustrated at the right. Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God is issued in both a standard and a limited, numbered and signed edition.” [via]

Rodney Orpheus’ Grimoire of Aleister Crowley: Group Rituals in the Age of Thelema

Apparently pre-orders will be open tomorrow for Grimoire of Aleister Crowley: Group Rituals in the Age of Thelema, a new work by Rodney Orpheus with contributions from others; the first publication from Abrahadabra Press.

“The culmination of years of research and study, this new compilation of Thelemic group rituals by Rodney Orpheus is a must-buy for every serious modern magician. Pre-order it directly from Abrahadabra Press from August 1!”

“Group ritual has been a cornerstone of spiritual practice since time immemorial, yet its history and importance have often been overlooked by occultists of the modern age. This book is the first comprehensive presentation of group-oriented rites for modern magicians inspired by the works of Aleister Crowley. It contains rituals written by Crowley for his own magic circles, many of them unpublished during his lifetime; plus rare ancient texts that were Crowley’s own inspiration in turn.

The rituals are newly edited and explained by Rodney Orpheus who brings to this volume decades of experience in performing and teaching Aleister Crowley’s rituals within Crowley’s magical order Ordo Templi Orientis. He introduces each ritual with a clear overview, setting each in its historical context and explaining its function and mode of operation; followed by detailed notes on setting and performance of each one.

Whether absolute beginner or seasoned expert, magicians of all paths will find this volume to be an eminently workable and extremely powerful grimoire spanning centuries from ancient Mithraic and Bacchanalian rites, Goetia, and Gnosticism, right up to present day Crowleyan invocations and sexual magick.”

Update 1aug2011 @ 11:25am:

Pre-ordering has begun. You can check that out over at Abrahadabra:

“We are now taking pre-orders for this book, which is due to be published on August 12, 2011. Please note that orders placed before that date will not be shipped until some time after August 12! The first 100 pre-orders will qualify for a set of small signed art cards featuring illustrations from the book by Cathryn Orchard.”