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Title: The Magick of Aleister Crowley: A Handbook of the Rituals of Thelema by Lon Milo Duquette ISBN: 1-57863-299-4 Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser Pub. Date: November, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.75 (4 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Excellent Magick
Comment: 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.
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Content and Firmly Planted Pages
Comment: 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.
Rating: 5
Summary: A GREAT BOOK IS NOW BETTER
Comment: 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".
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Title: Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot by Lon Milo Duquette ISBN: 1578632765 Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley by Richard Kaczynski ISBN: 1561841706 Publisher: New Falcon Publications Pub. Date: 24 December, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: My Life With the Spirits: The Adventures of a Modern Magician by Lon Milo Duquette ISBN: 1578631203 Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser Pub. Date: September, 1999 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Chicken Qabalah of Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford: Dilettante's Guide to What You Do and Do Not Know to Become a Qabalist by Lon Milo Duquette ISBN: 1578632153 Publisher: Red Wheel/Weiser Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: The Unknown God: W.T. Smith and the Thelemites by Martin P. Starr ISBN: 093342907X Publisher: Teitan Pr Pub. Date: November, 2003 List Price(USD): $49.95 |
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