This is the masterpiece of occultist, magician and philosopher Aleister Crowley, introduced for the first time by one of the world's leading experts on Western esoteric traditions, Stephen Skinner. "Do what thou wilt." Written in the early twentieth century, the four books contained within this collection make up one of the most complete and groundbreaking works on the practice of magick ever written. They are considered to be the masterpiece of occultist, magician and philosopher Aleister Crowley and the core texts for the religion of Thelema. Their influence on alternative western thought and philosophy cannot be exaggerated. Also known as Book Four, or Liber ABA, the four parts bring together many rituals, received texts, theorems and unequalled insights into the practice of magick, culminating in The Book of the Law, the central, sacred text dictated to Crowley by a preternatural entity. Anyone interested in yoga, ceremonial magic, esoteric thought, invocation, divination and beyond, or those looking to delve into the fascinating, playful and illuminating writings of a unique man, will find inspiration. For the first time, one of the world's leading experts on Western esoteric traditions and magic, Dr. Stephen Skinner, introduces the text, sharing his insights into Crowley's take on yoga, ceremonial magick and Thelema. His long involvement with magick, both as an academic and as a practitioner, enabled Dr. Skinner to highlight the differences between the psychological and the spirit-orientated approaches to magick, and to show how that dilemma shaped Crowley's practice and his founding of Thelema, enlightening the reader to many previously unknown connections.

Written after his expulsion by Mussolini from the abbey of Thelema in Cefalu, Sicily, these records consolidate the work that Crowley began in Cefalu and explore more deeply the various techniques of cabalistic and sexual magic, as well as his contact with the Arab magic of North Africa.

This book features the greatest minds of magic assembled in one place! Compiled by two of the leading figures in the magick community, this new hardcover title in Llewellyn's Complete Book series includes more than 650 pages of fascinating insights into the history and contemporary practice of ritual magick. With contributions from dozens of top authors, this book brings the practices, theories, and historical understanding of magick into the 21stcentury, including in-depth chapters on: Foundations of Western Magick • Qabalah • Demonology & Spirit Evocation • Alchemy • Planetary Magick • Enochian Magick & Mysticism • The Magick of Abra-Melin • The Golden Dawn • Thelema & Aleister Crowley • Polytheistic Ceremonial Magic • Magician's Tables • The Future of Ceremonial Magick

This book explores the lives of two writers, one born in Germany (Viereck) and one born in England (Crowley), who were both influenced by decadent French writers such as Baudelaire and Mirbeau and English poets such as Swinburne and Wilde. They both wrote decadent poetry early in their careers before becoming known in literary circles as two of the most wicked writers in America (Viereck) and the world (Crowley). By their twenties, their reputations as rebels against the restrictive and stifled cultures they inhabited were firmly established. Both men enjoyed breaking with the status quo by writing poetry, short stories, and plays with exotic scenes that celebrated the beauty of the female body. Both writers were captivated by the femme fatale and her deleterious effect on her male victims, robbing them of their opportunity for transcendence into a spiritual realm. Their work, especially their love poetry, their science fiction works dealing with vampires, and articles and essays concerning the onset of the Great War are still very readable today. What is also intriguing is that, in 1915, both men were working together in New York, where Viereck was the editor of two pro-German magazines, The Fatherland and The International. Searching for an editorial position at that time, Crowley learned about an opening and was hired by Viereck. There is speculation that Crowley’s “discovery” of the job opening for these pro-German magazines was a clever plan on the part of the British secret service to place one of their agents inside the German spy network in America, of which Viereck was a key player. Propaganda, intrigue, cover-ups, and the American declaration of war on Germany all make this alliance between the two very decadent poets, and perhaps spies or even double agents, worth knowing more about.

This volume is the first comprehensive examination of one of the twentieth century's most distinctive iconoclasts. Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) was a study in contradictions. Born into a fundamentalist Christian family and educated at Cambridge, he was vilified as a traitor, drug addict, and debaucher, yet revered as perhaps the most influential thinker in contemporary esotericism. Moving beyond the influence of contemporary psychology and the modernist understanding of the occult, Crowley declared himself the revelator of a new age of individualism. Crowley's occult bricolage, Magick, was an eclectic combination of spiritual exercises drawn from Western European magical ceremonies and Indic sources for meditation and yoga. This journey of self-liberation culminated in harnessing sexual power as a magical discipline, a "sacrilization of the self" as practiced in Crowley's mixed masonic group, the Ordo Templi Orientis. The religion Crowley created, Thelema, legitimated his role as a charismatic revelator and herald of a new age of freedom. Aleister Crowley's lasting influence can be seen in the counter-culture movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s and in many forms of alternative spirituality and popular culture. The essays in this volume offer crucial insight into Crowley's foundational role in the study of Western esotericism, new religious movements, and sexuality.

Aleister Crowley (1875-1947) is one of the most famous and significant authors in the history of western esotericism. Crowley has been long ignored by scholars of religion whilst the stories of magical and sexual practice which circulate about him continue to attract popular interest. "Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics" looks at the man behind the myth - by setting him firmly within the politics of his time - and the development of his ideas through his extensive and extraordinarily varied writings. Crowley was a rationalist, sympathetic to the values of the Enlightenment, but also a romantic and a reactionary. His search for an alternative way to express his religious feelings led him to elaborate his own vision of social and political change. Crowley's complex politics led to his involvement with many key individuals, organisations and groups of his day - the secret service of various countries, the German Nazi party, Russian political activists, journalists and politicians of various persuasions, as well as other writers - both in Europe and America. "Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics" presents a life of ideas, an examination of a man shaped by and shaping the politics of his times.

Millions of people practice some form of yoga, but they often do so without a clear understanding of its history, traditions, and purposes. This comprehensive bibliography, designed to assist researchers, practitioners, and general readers in navigating the extensive yoga literature, lists and comments upon English-language yoga texts published since 1981. It includes entries for more than 2,400 scholarly as well as popular works, manuals, original Sanskrit source text translations, conference proceedings, doctoral dissertations, and master's theses. Entries are arranged alphabetically by author for easy access, while thorough author, title, and subject indexes will help readers find books of interest.

Max Weber famously characterized the ongoing process of intellectualization and rationalization that separates the natural world from the divine (by excluding magic and value from the realm of science, and reason and fact from the realm of religion) as the "disenchantment of the world." Egil Asprem argues for a conceptual shift in how we view this key narrative of modernity. Instead of a sociohistorical process of disenchantment that produces increasingly rational minds, Asprem maintains that the continued presence of "magic" and "enchantment" in people's everyday experience of the world created an intellectual problem for those few who were socialized to believe that nature should contain no such incalculable mysteries. Drawing on a wide range of early twentieth-century primary sources from theoretical physics, occultism, embryology, radioactivity, psychical research, and other fields, Asprem casts the intellectual life of high modernity as a synchronic struggle across conspicuously different fields that shared surprisingly similar intellectual problems about value, meaning, and the limits of knowledge.

The novel The Dark Circle is the classic story of light versus dark, good versus evil. The evil is represented by a Satanic coven but in the present day. It's a fictional story of romance, sex, suspense, and horror but with a background of religious history going back hundreds of years. Writing this book necessitated careful and painstaking research into religious history, but it also involved research into the activities of Satanic covens. Readers have reported that the fictional story is addictive, and they didn't want to put the book down once started. They have also reported that the history and current practices of Satanic covens are informative but also frightening. The story builds to an unexpected climax at the end. Because of the researched background to the story, readers interested in religious history also find the book interesting, informative, but also controversial. Due to the nature of the subject of Satanism, there are references to sexual practices and demonology, so the book has been written specifically for an adult readership.

Originally published in 2003, Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot has proved to be the essential guide to accessing the unique symbolism and meaning of Aleister Crowley's remarkable tarot deck along with the deeply textured artwork of Lady Frieda Harris. Crowley authority Lon Milo DuQuette starts by providing an insightful historical background before delving into descriptions of each card in depth, from a tarot perspective and from an expanded, magickal point of view. He first describes the tarot meaning of each card in detail and then explains all the other attributions Crowley intended. This unique guide has been updated with a new introduction that provides information on the unicursal hexagram cards included with the deck but never explained. Replaces ISBN 9781578632763