Grimoire of Aleister Crowley

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 It contains rituals written by Crowley for his own magic circles, many of them unpublished during his lifetime; plus rare ancient texts that were Crowley’s own inspiration in turn.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.

“..there are presently very few individuals living today who are qualified by education and experience to do [this], and even fewer with the writing talent and communication skills to bring it all to life on the printed page. Brother Orpheus is the incarnation of both these aspects of genius. Whether he is expanding upon classic Crowley rituals or creating and developing his own Thelemic ceremonies, the magician reader can be confident he or she is in good hands.”

- Lon Milo DuQuette, author of The Magick of Aleister Crowley, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot, etc.

Rodney Orpheus, the modern Minstrel of Thelema, is back with another vibrant, creative, and irreverent effort that is sure to please and enlighten as it broadcasts the good news that the Lord of the Aeon is alive and well. This is a practical, lively, and meticulously documented manual designed for group magical workings. It admirably fulfils its task—bringing new insight to both published and unpublished rituals with diagrams and detailed instructions for movement, apparel, and Temple setup. It includes rituals from Crowley and others, and its important appendices round out an excellent work.

- James Wasserman, author of To Perfect This Feast: A Performance Commentary on the Gnostic Mass, etc.

In addition to gifting us with a long-needed anthology of Aleister Crowley’s group rituals, Rodney Orpheus’ “Grimoire,” with its inclusion of rituals inspired by Crowley, is also a course on how to take older texts and adapt them to one’s needs. The cookbook-style “list of ingredients and preparation time” that precedes each ceremony handily gives aspiring ritualists a heads up on how many Fratres or Sorores are needed, how much memorization is required, and how complex the ritual equipment and staging is. Eminently readable and (most importantly) usable, Grimoire of Aleister Crowley will keep many a magical group busy for years to come.

- Richard Kaczynski, author of Perdurabo

With this book, Rodney Orpheus has produced the most significant Thelemic book written this century. Grimoire of Aleister Crowley adds a key missing fragment to the corpus of Crowley’s Thelemic rituals – a coherent set of group rituals which enhance personal practices and expand effective magical interaction between practitioners. Drawing on unpublished Crowley material, the author has vitalised the rituals with the spirit of Thelemic practice, rather than slavishly following standard formulae.