93
Someone recently bought me, as a present, The magick of Thelema : a handbook of the rituals of Aleister Crowley by Lon Milo Duquette, hasn't arrived yet and I'm very excited about it, BUT, I would like to know if someone has read this book, is it any good?, what would be the greatest contribution and which are his faults or soft-points?, is there anything in particular that I should stay alert for?

Is it really a comprehensive guide to thelemic magick? (which often becomes confusing to me, with all those rituals and Liber this and Liber that).

I don't know, I guess my basic doubt is, what am I to expect from this book?

93 93/93

93,

No not at all. BUT it is a descent beginners guide. Basically this book is useful if you know absolutely nothing about thelema. He covers most of the major concepts and the base rituals.

That being said, it is a bit light in its coverage even as a beginners book. He gives a quick summery of concepts but no real meat of explanation. The rituals tend to be the same way, he outlines how to perform them in plain English which is useful because Crowley liked to give them in greek and latin with no translation, but all of them can be found online in English and he is lite on the performance details.

Bottom line, the book is a good primer to get your big toe wet if you are interested in thelema. The understanding will be shallow but will give you a start so you can begin to tackle crowley's material and have at least a idea what he is talking about. Also, It includes a copy of the Book of the Law which is nice.

I completely agree with Nero, which is my love/hate issue with the book.

This book will not give you the theory, or understanding that would really help for the rituals. But the rituals themselves, I find are put forth in probably the most clear manner I've seen.

I use the book whenever it's time to learn a different ritual, I'll follow Lon's sources back to the original texts, just to understand it from there, but I'll tend to use his book in the preparations, because he explains really well what the process of doing it is, and that's why I like this book.

I agree with most of the above. It is a book you can use as a reference, or a handbook of Thelema, if nothing else. Also I think the Introduction and Chapter 0 are excellent--but it is true little meat, little explanation--most can be found in Book 4, Magick In Theory, etc...

How does the Magick Of Thelema: a handbook of the rituals of Aleister Crowley differ from Duquette's The Magick of Aleister Crowley: A Handbook of rituals of Thelema . . . ?

This post has been edited by palindroem: May 9 2008, 04:00 PM

It doesn't. Same book with a new title upon the reprint.

The publishers thought it would sell better with AC's name rather than thelema.

93,

I would recommend it to someone who is interested in the very basics of ritual in a Thelemic context. It is not comprehensive and is often confusing and sometimes simply Lon's interpretation (like silly stuff on Star Ruby). He is entertaining to read but I find it a bit annoying that the majority of his book is copy & pasted from Crowley's work (this is actually true with several of his books).

I would read Liber ABA if you are serious about it, and I would read Chicken Qabalah if you are stuck with Lon DuQuette specifically.

IAO131

From someone who's been called crazy by L.M.D.

I will have to say that I, respectfully, disagree with those who have said that there is little to get from this book.

I disagree, because he says things that are beyond the "beginner" understanding level, in ways even on the intermediate level- and in other places, more advanced intimations are made.

One example of an advanced understanding is his explanation of the pentagram rituals where he reveals the secret of High Magick:

he says something to the affect of this act in nature producing a vacuum, and that, nature has a way of compensating for empty space (seeks to fill it with Something)

this is the Key to all Transcendental Magick.


If there's anything i've ever berated the guy for: it's for saying too much.


Then again: this is all a house of cards, no fear when the house gets blown down; we have been expecting it for time now.

regarding the "house of cards" speech.

I was being a bit elusive. And just realized I wasn't as illustrative as I should've been to have suggested more than directly stated.


I mean to craft a metaphor related to the idea of the concept of what we were talking about earlier: the annihilation of the ego through the transcendental arts.

the house, or Temple of man is inadequately built. He (the initiate) discovers this when he realizes that the sword, the disk, the cup, the wand... when placed together... become something else completely.

what occurs is unexpected, and abrupt. The previous conception of a man, and/or who that man thought he was- becomes something else entirely. Something more.

the old image of that man is destroyed, and a new one stands in it's place.


you will get nothing but Wisdom from The Honorable Duquette! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif)

Greetings Asclepio,

In my estimation of the book "The Magick of Aleister Crowley - A Handbook of Rituals of Thelema", Lon Milo Duquette stated several important statemnts about the content of the Book, What level of Practitioner it was geared toward, what his reason for quoting frequently from Crowleys previous writings was, and what his level of expertise is in the Thelemic Order.

For instance; he was as straightforward about hte Rituals of Thelema as he was, because as the Injunction of Liber vel Legis indicates is that some of the material is printed in the Class A type of The Publications of the A.'.A.'., these are not to be changed in letter or meaning. you can find a listing of the Classes and their definitions on Page 25.

On Page 23 he states he is providing a suffiecient amount of information to enable the reader to "BEGIN" his or her own line of exploration. And he stated on page 23 also, "I am not a High Initiate, nor am I an exemplary specimen of the ideal Thelemite." So you can see that he was not being, in any way I can fathom, dishonest about his intentions, or his level of expertise.

The Rituals listed are those that a Minerval (Neophyte) would discover, with a couple more Advanced ones for further Practice by the Reader.

He did an excellent job in describing exactly who the Book was intended for, and what they could hope to discover in the Practice of the Rituals. Those who are not Thelemic in Nature would probably not be interested in the book, yet, The Golden Dawn Practices many of the same Rituals within their Outer Order Grades, so they both contain Ceremonial Purpose.

Respectfully,
Helel (Joseph)