Let me explain in a few words how it came about that I blazoned the word MAGICK upon the Banner that I have borne before me all my life.
Before I touched my teen, I was already aware that I was THE BEAST whose number is 666. I did not understand in the least what that implied; it was a passionately ecstatic sense of identity.
In my third year at Cambridge, I devoted myself consciously to the Great Work, understanding thereby the Work of becoming a Spiritual Being, free from the constraints, accidents and deceptions of material existence.
I found myself at a loss for a name to designate my work, just as H. P. Blavatsky some years earlier. “Theosophy,” “Spiritualism,” “Occultism,” “Mysticism” all involved undesirable connotations.
I chose therefore the name “MAGICK” as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited, of all the available terms.
I swore to rehabilitate MAGICK, to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to respect, love and trust that which they scorned, hated and feared. I have kept my word.
But the time is now come for me to carry my banner into the thick of the press of human life.
I must make MAGICK the essential factor in the life of ALL.
In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and justify my position by formulating a definition of MAGICK and setting forth its main principles in such a way that ALL may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every relation with every other human being and every circumstance, depend upon MAGICK and the right comprehension and right application thereof.
DEFINITION. MAGICK is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.
(Illlustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take “magical weapons,” pen, ink and paper; I write “incantations”—these sentences—in the “magical language” i.e. that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth “spirits,” such as printers, publishers, booksellers and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of MAGICK by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will.)
— Aleister Crowley, from Magick in Theory and Practice
Crowley appears in his many aliases—Perdurabo, The Great Wild Beast 666, The Master Therion—to discuss the magical theory of the universe, ritual, elemental weapons, the Holy Grail, Abrahadabra, Our Lady of Babalon, and the Beast, bloody sacrifice, purifications, the oath, charge to the spirit, clairvoyance, divination, dramatic rituals, black magic and alchemy.
Publisher: Magickal Childe
Paperback: 464 pages
Although this novel lacks the cohesiveness of The Diary of a Drug Fiend, there are several amusing facets to it. Cyril Grey is a very Crowleyesque “magician” who persuades Lisa la Giuffria to bear the Moonchild. Feuding orders of magicians litter the scene and provide a great satire of many of the people in the Golden Dawn whom Crowley scorned. These bits of satire are reason enough to read the entire book, especially his description of William Butler Yeats, whom Crowley detested and felt was a horrible poet (horrible, despite the fact that Crowley himself wrote reams of truly bad poetry). Another interesting section provides insight into the use of correspondences in the practice of ritual magic. As Lisa gestates, she is surrounded with everything associated with the moon. “She lived almost entirely upon milk, and cream, and cheese soft-curdled and mild, with little crescent cakes made of rye with the whiteness of egg and cane sugar; as for meat, venison, as sacred to the huntress Artemis, was her only dish.” As might be expected for anyone with such a bland and unvaried diet, nothing much interesting happens to Miss la Giuffria, not that anything much could as Crowley insists on reminding us that women's minds are “mob rule.” To the general relief of the reader, the characters part and go their separate ways, which is about the only satisfying conclusion to this unresolved work. MM
Publisher: Weiser
Paperback: 336 pages
“This intimate portrait of the relationship between Kenneth Grant and Aleister Crowley is illustrated by personal mementos, many hitherto unpublished. It covers the latter years of World War II and Crowley’s settling into his last abode at ‘Netherwood’ in Hastings. Here we see Crowley at his most human, and his letters to Grant are imbued with that strange interpenetration of the magickal and the mundane which colors the life of a dedicated practitioner.”
Publisher: Skoob
Hardback: 72 pages
Illustrated
This slim volume is a reprint of an article from Crowley's journal The Equinox. The sparse description of the cards and their attributions is a great mnemonic device for those already acquainted with Crowley's vision of the Tarot. But those unacquainted with the Tarot or Crowley's unique take on it are best advised to begin with The Book of Thoth, which outlines his ideas in a more thorough manner. The entire contents of this book is included in the weightier Book of Thoth. MM/ES
Publisher: Weiser
Paperback: 72 pages