[1] The “inferior pack” was the Waite-Smith Tarot, published in 1909. See Goodwin, T. & Katz, M. Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 2015).
[2] Invocation to HRU, from Book T of the Golden Dawn. GD, p. 714, n.1.
[3] See Greer, M. K. ‘Tarot Timeline 1750 – 1980’ in Auger, E. E. (ed.) Tarot in Culture Vol.I (Valleyhome Press, 2014).
[4] Crowley was likely initiated into the Order by Florence Farr. In previously confidential notes by E.J. Langford Garstin, in another member’s papers inherited from Garstin’s widow, it is noted that “S.R. did not initiate Crowley. S.S. is positive on this and says that it was probably S.S.D.D. on L.O.’s representations”. That is to say, Mathers (S.R.) himself probably did not initiate Crowley into the G.D. - although he provided Crowley’s 5=6 Adeptus Minor initiation in Paris some years later. Brodie-Innes (S.S.) here told Garstin that it was probably Florence Farr (S.S.D.D.) on the basis of Percy Bullock’s recommendation.
[5] MWT, p. 218.
[6] Crowley, 1973b: Letter 31, 218. See Pasi, M. Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics (Durham: Acumen, 2014), p. 63.
[7] Brunton, P. The Hidden Teachings Beyond Yoga (London: Rider, 1941), p. 16.
[8] Written on June 1st, 1924 e.v. in a letter to “My Friends” (in USA) from Crowley at Chelles, S. et M., France. In this letter, as a number of other letters, manifestos and circulars, Crowley was looking to attract attention and students from many different sources. His letters reveal a dual statement about the self-development inherent in magical practice coupled with the establishment of a new form of society based on revealed Thelemic principles.
[9] BOT, p.25.
[10] ‘Windows to the Sacred’, at http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/spiritofthings/windows-to-the-sacred:-art-and-the-holy/6487640 [last accessed 17th June 2018].
[11] See Buratti, R. & King, S. J. The Nightmare Paintings: Aleister Crowley: Works from the Palermo Collection (Perth: Buratti Fine Art, 2012).
[12] See a draft of ‘Adjustment’, etc., in Kaczynski, R. ‘The Crowley-Harris Thoth Tarot’ in Auger, E. E. (ed.) Tarot in Culture Vol.I. (Valleyhome Books, 2014), p. 149.
[13] BOT, p. 25.
[14] MWT, p. 157.
[15] BOT, p. 169.
[16] BOT, p. 253.
[17] BOT, p. 253. There may be several errors in this section of the Book of Thoth , as the chapter to which Crowley refers must be chapter XVIII (18) not XVII (17) and the word ‘required’ could possibly be ‘acquired’, as in “…the Art is perfectly acquired”. It would be interesting to check the original manuscript, which sold at auction several years ago.
[18] BOT, p. 253.
[19] Magick , p. 267.
[20] Magick , p. 271.
[21] Magick , p. 271.
[22] Confessions , p. 923.
[23] Confessions , pp. 500-501.
[24] Confessions , pp. 500-501.
[25] See Magick , pp. 266-282.
[26] BOT, p. 265.
[27] BOT, p. 265.
[28] BOT, p. 29.
[29] BOT, p. 29.
[30] BOT, p. 29.
[31] BOT, p. 267.
[32] BOT, p. 99.
[33] See Katz, M. The Magicians Kabbalah (Keswick: Forge Press, 2015).
[34] An interesting title aiming to recover the shamanic nature of Judaic ritual practice is Winkler, G. Magic of the Ordinary (Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 2003).
[35] Merkabah Shelemah 1a, 4b. in Scholem, G. Kabbalah (New York: Dorset Press, 1974), p. 18.
[36] Ibid , p. 203.
[37] Lévi, E. The Book of Splendours (Wellingborough: Aquarius, 1973), p. 127.
[38] The identity of Comte de Mellet is now known to be Louis-Raphaël-Lucrèce de Fayolle, according to the work of historian Robin Briggs. See Dummett, M. The Game of Tarot (London: Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd, 1980), p. 105, fn. 13, repeated also in Huson, P. Mystical Origins of the Tarot: From Ancient Roots to Modern Usage (Rochester: Destiny Books, 2004), p. 54.
[39] Dummett, ibid , pp. 108-9.
[40] Scholem, G. Kabbalah , (New York: Dorset Press, 1974), p. 203.
[41] Lévi, E. The Book of Splendours (Wellingborough: Aquarius, 1973), pp. 127-42.
[42] See http://gallica.bnf.fr/ [search for Gebelin] and Karlin, J. Rhapsodies of the Bizarre (n.p.).
[43] Katz. M. The Magister (Keswick: Forge Press, 2016), pp. 89-98.
[44] A useful overview of human development can be found in Harari, Y. N., Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind . (London: Vintage Books, 2011).
[45] See Frater Aurum Nostrum Non Vulgi, ‘The Place of the Ma’at Current in Modern Magick’ in Thaneteros , Issue 4.
[46] See Katz, M. The Magister Vol. 0 (Keswick: Forge Press, 2016) and subsequent volumes.
[47] Corbin, H. En Islam Iranien: Aspects spirituels et philosophiques, Tome IV: L'Ecole d'Ispahan - L'Ecole Shaykhie - Le Douzieme Imam (Gallimard, Bib. Des Idees, 1973) p. 444 & p. 448.
[48] This is buried in the text for Diagram 5 of Appendix B, ‘The Numbers of the Planets’, BOT, p. 274 and is a good example of the chaotic writing of the Book of Thoth and why it is sometimes difficult to go back and find a quote from the text.
[49] BOT, p. 274.
[50] BOT, p. 274.
[51] Law is for All , p. 288.
[52] See Bogdan, H. ‘Envisioning the Birth of a New Aeon: Dispensationalism and Millenarianism in the Thelemic Tradition’ in Bogdan, H. & Starr, M.P. Aleister Crowley and Western Esotericism (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
[53] See Katz, M. The Alchemical Amphitheatre (Keswick: Forge Press, 2008) for a complete introduction, exercises and reading list for Alchemy. Some of the present text has been selected and re-written from that title.
[54] BOT, p. 102.
[55] Ferguson, ‘Some English alchemical books’, Journal of the Alchemical Society , ii (1913–14), 1–16, p. 5.
[56] Herwig Buntz, Alchemy III: 12 th /13 th -15 th Century, in Dictionary of Gnosis & Western Esotericism 2 vols (Boston: Brill, 2005), I, 36.
[57] Hanegraaff, W. J. New Age Religion and Western Culture (Leiden: Brill, 1996), pp. 395-5. This chapter also contains useful reference sources for the historical argument.
[58] Quoted in William R. Newman, Promethean Ambitions (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004), p.117 which also discusses the tensions inherent in the ‘Neoplatonizing Aristotelianism of medieval and early modern natural philosophy’.
[59] Linden, S. J. The Alchemy Reader (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003), p. 4.
[60] Read, J. From Alchemy to Chemistry (New York: Dover Publications, 1995), p. 74.
[61] Eliade, M. The Forge and the Crucible (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), pp. 79-96.
[62] Ashmole, E. Theatrum chemicum britannicum: containing severall poeticall pieces of our famous English philosophers, who have written the hermetique mysteries in their owne ancient language (London : Printed by J. Grismond for Nath: Brooke, at the angel in Cornhill, 1652). In Edgar Fahs Smith Memorial Collection . QD25 .A78. p. A2r [ http://dewey.library.upenn.edu/sceti/printedbooksNew/index.cfm?TextID=ashmole&PagePosition=1 , last accessed 16 May 2007].
[63] Tymme, T. The Practise of Chymicall, and Hermetic Physicke (London, 1605), quoted in Linden, ibid , p. 5.
[64] Mackay, C. Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds (New York: Harmony Books, 1980), p. 100.
[65] Webb, J. The Flight from Reason (London: Macdonald, 1971), p. 139.
[66] Faivre, A. Access to Western Esotericism (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1994), pp. 68-9.
[67] Hanegraaff, W. J. (ed.), Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism Vol. I (Leiden: Brill, 2005), pp. 12-14. See this section for a discussion of the popularisation of the ‘psychological’ or ‘spiritual’ elements of alchemy in the 19 th century through the work of Mary Anne Atwood , Suggestive Inquiry into the Hermetic Mystery (1850).
[68] Goodrick-Clarke, N. Paracelsus: Essential Readings (Wellingborough: Crucible, 1990), p. 33.
[69] Paracelsus, de Natura rerum (1537) I/11, pp. 348-9 of Karl Sudhoff & Wilhelm Matthiessen (eds.) Paracelsus, Samtliche Werke (Munich: O. W. Barth, 1922-25) quoted in Jacobi, J. (ed.) Paracelsus: Selected Writings (New Jersey: Princetown University Press, 1979) pp. 141 – 3.
[70] The esoteric is not so without purpose; there are experiences that can only be experienced.
[71] See Goodwin, T & Katz, M. Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot (St. Paul: Llewellyn, 2015).
[72] BOT, p. 103.
[73] BOT, p. 102.
[74] BOT, p. 102.
[75] BOT, p. 258.
[76] BOT, p. 258.
[77] A reproduction of the 18 counters and accompanying interpretations is available at https://www.thegamecrafter.com/games/i-ching-counters [last accessed 21st June, 2018].
[78] For a history and complete reading list, etc. of the Golden Dawn and other esoteric orders, see Katz, M. The Magister Vol 0: The Order of Revelation (Keswick: Forge Press, 2016).
[79] Katz, M. The Magicians Kabbalah (Keswick: Forge Press, 2015), p. 28.
[80] Thelema , a Greek word meaning “Will”.
[81] Taken from Goodwin, T. & Katz, M. Tarot Time Traveller (Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2017), pp. 229-230.
[82] Francis King, The Magical World of Aleister Crowley (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1977), p. 38.
[83] Written on the cover of the ms. of the Book of the Law .
[84] Confessions, p. 393.
[85] The Equinox of the Gods , p. 105.
[86] Gerald J. Yorke (1901-1983) whose collection was passed to the Warburg Institute in 1984. His catalogue of 1951 lists this present item as A.C. Holograph MSS 27, Small Japanese Vellum notebook.
[87] The Equinox of the Gods, p. 77.
[88] The Equinox of the Gods , p. 78.
[89] LA, II.16.
[90] LA, II.15.
[91] Magick , p. 336.
[92] See Katz, M. After the Angel (Keswick: Forge Press, 2011) & Katz, M. The Magister Vol.0 (Keswick: Forge Press, 2016).
[93] MWT, p. 502.
[94] BOT, p. 74.
[95] Crowley, A. Book of Lies (York Beach: Weiser, 1984), p. 94.
[96] Crowley, A. The Equinox , Vol. I, No.5, Supplement.
[97] Ibid .
[98] BOT, p. 259.
[99] BOT, p. 78.
[100] Letter to Pearson [the photoengraver of the deck] from Aleister Crowley, 29th May 1942.
[101] Kaczynski, R. Perdurabo (Tempe: New Falcon Publications, 2002), p. 497.
[102] Harris, F. Winchelsea: A Legend (London: Selwyn & Blount, 1926).
[103] Harris, F. Bump! Into Heaven (London : Mitre Press, 1958?).
[104] Undated letter by the “Society of Hidden Masters” [Crowley] to himself.
[105] Kaczynski, R. http://www.chippingcampdenhistory.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/cms/Signpost_6_Final_ed.pdf [last accessed 14th May 2018].
[106] See illustrations, Churton, T. Aleister Crowley: The Biography (London: Watkins, 2011), pp. 226-7.
[107] Harris to Carl L. Weschke, 30 Nov. 1961, Holt Collection HO:73/1. [Accessed at https://hermetic.com/sabazius/frieda-lady-harris 26th April 2018].
[108] See Hoffman, C.
‘Projective Synthetic Geometry in Lady Frieda Harris' Tarot Paintings and in Aleister Crowley's Book of the Law’ http://www.parareligion.ch/dplanet/stephen/claas/olive_e.html [last accessed 23d April 2018]
[109] Letter from Frieda Harris to Aleister Crowley, undated.
[110] See also Kaczynski, R. ‘Projective geometry in early twentieth century esotericism’ in Mathematics in Popular Culture (Jefferson, NC: Macfarland & Company, 2013).
[111] Whicher, O. Projective Geometry: Creative Polarities in Space and Time (Forest Row: Sophia Books, 2013), pp. 22-4.
[112] Ibid , p. 51.
[113] On a personal note, it is of bemusement to the present author that I carried a copy of Projective Ornament by Claude Bragdon (published in 1915) at all times during my time in Egypt and Switzerland, without understanding its connection with the Thoth Tarot. I just thought it was a cool-looking and fascinating book, much like Musrum , a strange book authored and illustrated by Eric Thacker and Anthony Earnshaw, favoured by my own teacher.
[114] Undated letter to Aleister Crowley by Frieda Harris.
[115] Undated Memorandum by Aleister Crowley
[116] Undated letter by the “Society of Hidden Masters” [Crowley] to himself.
[117] Undated letter to Aleister Crowley by Frieda Harris.
[118] Letter from Frieda Harris to Aleister Crowley, 11 th May, 1941.
[119] Letter to Frieda Harris from Crowley, 19 th December, 1939.
[120] Undated letter by the “Society of Hidden Masters” [Crowley] to himself.
[121] See Bain, D. with Goodwin, T. & Katz, M. A New Dawn for Tarot (Keswick: Forge Press, 2014).
[122] See Goodwin, T. & Katz, M. Tarot Time Traveller (Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2017).
[123] Ibid , p. 41.
[124] See Goodwin, T. & Katz, M. Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot (Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2015).
[125] Letter to Aleister Crowley from Frieda Harris, 18 th September 1939.
[126] Liber Al , I: 57.
[127] See Katz, M. The Magister Vol. 0 . (Keswick: Forge Press, 2016).
[128] Equinox, Vol. I. no. 3, p. 61.
[129] BOT, p. 77.
[130] BOT, p. 109.
[131] See ‘The Double Loop in the Zodiac’ diagram, BOT, p. 11.
[132] BOT, p. 10.
[133] See Elmet, C. ‘Tzaddi is Not the Star: The Problem of the Thoth Tarot’ in Starfire , II.3, 2008, pp. 71-9.
[134] Ashbee, C. The Building of Thelema , p. 11.
[135] Extract from Constitutions of the Order of Thelemites (written in Cefalu by Crowley, c. 1923).
[136] Ashbee, C. The Building of Thelema p. 230.
[137] Ashbee, C. The Building of Thelema p. 352.
[138] Allen, J.P. Middle Egyptian: An introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000) p. 366.
[139] The correct usage is “hieroglyphs” and/or “hieroglyphic”, never “hieroglyphics”.
[140] Copenhaver, B. B. (ed.), Hermetica (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988), p. 58.
[141] For a full treatment of Ancient Egyptian Magick, see the online course within Magicka School www.magickaschool.com.
[142] First presented in Katz, M. Tarosophy (Keswick: Forge Press, 2016).
[143] BOT, p. 71.
[144] In particular for progrock fans, there is an excellent track on the Nick Turner Sphinx album, Xitintoday , ‘Isis and Nephthys’ which captures the relationship of these two goddesses.
[145] BOT, p. 77.
[146] Letter to Aleister Crowley from Frieda Harris, n.d.
[147] Lurker, M. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Egypt (London: Thames & Hudson, 1984).
[148] ‘How is the Universe Built?’ in https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/GrainySpace.html [last accessed 21st June 2018].
[149] The Paris Working .
[150] See Vision , pp. 60-1. Crowley read this as being three years ( tres annos ) to assimilate the grade of Master of the Temple ( regimen oraculi ). He went on to remark that “the marvel is that with these four letters you can get a complete set of rules for doing anything”.
[151] See ‘The Holy Hymns to the Great Gods of Heaven’ in Liber CDXV, Opus Lutetianum , Frater O.S.V. [Aleister Crowley].
[152] Letter to Aleister Crowley from Frieda Harris, undated.
[153] BOT, p. 57.
[154] BOT, p. 67.
[155] Ibid .
[156] BOT, p. 57-8, discussing the concept that a saviour must be manifest but mercurial by their divine nature.
[157] BOT, p. 60, n.2.
[158] BOT, p. 63.
[159] It is worth reading Crowley’s original writing in BOT , pp.62-4 to appreciate the importance of this teaching to Crowley – and how it circumnavigates any argument about symbolism.
[160] BOT, p. 66 & p. 69 give these different descriptions, perhaps in example of the bivalence we should apply to all symbols.
[161] BOT, p. 57 & p. 59.
[162] BOT, p. 253.
[163] BOT, p. 69.
[164] BOT, p. 69.
[165] BOT, p. 70.
[166] BOT, p. 70.
[167] BOT, p. 254.
[168] BOT, p. 71.
[169] Undated letter to Aleister Crowley by Frieda Harris.
[170] Undated letter to Aleister Crowley by Frieda Harris.
[171] Undated letter to Aleister Crowley by Frieda Harris.
[172] Undated letter to Aleister Crowley by Frieda Harris.
[173] See Goodwin, T. & Katz, M. Secrets of the Waite-Smith Tarot (Woodbury: Llewellyn, 2015).
[174] Undated letter to Aleister Crowley by Frieda Harris.
[175] BOT, p. 219
[176] Crowley, A. ‘John St. John’ in The Equinox , Vol.I, No.1 (London, 1909).
[177] Servetus, Christianismi Restitutio , 138 & 142; quoted in Vliet, J. V. Children of God: The Imago Dei in John Calvin and his Context (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009), p. 244.
[178] BOT, p. 129.
[179] BOT, p. 69.
[180] BOT, p. 128-9.
[181] BOT, p. 129.
[182] BOT, p. 133.
[183] BOT, p. 72.
[184] Crowley, A. Liber Magi vv. 7-10 quoted in BOT, p. 71.
[185] AL, I.40.
[186] BOT, p. 254.
[187] BOT, p. 255.
[188] For an account of the Holy Guardian Angel, see Katz, M. After the Angel (Keswick: Forge Press, 2011).
[189] BOT, p. 74.
[190] Book of Lies , p. 95.
[191] BOT, p. 74.
[192] BOT, p. 74.
[193] BOT, p. 72.
[194] BOT, p. 74. See also rare illustrations from Frieda Harris in ‘The Art and Symbolism of Frieda Harris’ in Tarot Broadsheets, available as a member of the Tarosophy Tarot Association at www.tarotassociation.net.
[195] See Conforti, M. Field, Form and Fate (Spring Journal, 2012).
[196] BOT, p. 75.
[197] BOT, p. 255.
[198] BOT, p. 75.
[199] For a fuller account of the teachings of the Golden Dawn and their development into the Western Esoteric Initiatory System, see Katz, M. The Magister [Keswick: Forge Press, 2016].
[200] BOT, p. 76.
[201] Iliad , Book 14, 215 (3).
[202] BOT, p. 76.
[203] King, F. Secret Rituals of the O.T.O. (London: C W Daniel Co Ltd, 1973).
[204] Pike, A. Morals and Dogma (Richmond: Jenkins, 1944).
[205] Ibid .
[206] BOT, p. 77.
[207] BOT, p. 255.
[208] BOT, p. 77.
[209] BOT, p. 77.
[210] BOT, p. 77.
[211] Pasi, M. Aleister Crowley and the Temptation of Politics (Durham: Acumen, 2014), p. 58.
[212] Confessions , p. 818-9.
[213] BOT, p. 78.
[214] Pastoureau, M. Heraldry: Its Origins and Meaning (Thames and Hudson, 1997), p. 98.
[215] BOT, p. 78.
[216] I have used the exact descriptions of the Sephiroth by Crowley taken from his section on the Minor Cards, BOT. pp.182-87.
[217] BOT, p. 255.
[218] BOT, p. 79.
[219] See Bain, D., Katz, M. & Goodwin, T., A New Dawn for Tarot (Keswick: Forge Press, 2014).
[220] http://www.plymouthbrethrenchristianchurch.org/beliefs/what-we-believe/ [last accessed 14 th March 2018]
[221] BOT, p. 80.
[222] BOT, p. 78.
[223] Fun fact – it has been suggested that the gesture of the papal blessing originates from the first pope having an ulnar nerve injury, and subsequent popes imitating the gesture in respect. Really.
[224] Letter fragment from Frieda Harris to Aleister Crowley, n.d.
[225] Letter to Frieda Harris from Aleister Crowley, 19th December, 1939.
[226] Ibid .
[227] BOT, p. 79.
[228] BOT, p. 79.
[229] BOT, p. 79.
[230] BOT, p. 79.
[231] BOT, p. 79.
[232] BOL, I.57.
[233] BOT, p. 78.
[234] BOT, p. 79.
[235] BOT, p. 80.
[236] See Katz, M. The Alchemical Amphitheatre (Keswick: Forge Press, 2008).
[237] BOT, p. 80. Crowley is suggesting that as the meanings of the symbols never converge in one single concept, they must be seen in context of each other, forming a whole picture of multiple parts, married together - even in opposites.
[238] BOT, p. 287.
[239] The Law is for All , p. 78.
[240] Ibid , p. 80.
[241] Ibid , p. 78.
[242] BOT, p. 80.
[243] BOT, p. 82.
[244] BOT, p. 82.
[245] BOT, p. 81.
[246] BOT, p. 81.
[247] See Vision , p. 226, n. 4, “There is another even more important attribution of this card”, which is the formula of YHVH, for which see Magick , pp. 160-1.
[248] BOT, pp. 80-1.
[249] Vision , pp. 225-6.
[250] BOT, p. 81.
[251] BOT, p. 81.
[252] BOT, p. 82.
[253] BOT, p. 82.
[254] See Koltuv, B. B., The Book of Lilith (Lake Worth: Nicholas-Hays, 1986).
[255] Letter to Aleister Crowley from Frieda Harris, n.d.
[256] GD, p. 745. In an unofficial paper entitled THE TAROT TRUMPS, G.H. Soror, Q.L. (Harriet Felkin) described the symbolism as showing “the impact of inspiration on intuition, resulting in illumination and liberation”, and that the illustration of the myth showed “the sword striking off the fetters of habit and materialism, Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the dragon of fear and the waters of stagnation”.
[257] BOT, p. 84.
[258] BOT, p. 84.
[259] BOT, p. 82. Crowley was writing some time after the emergence of quantum physics in the 1920’s-1930’s. The Copenhagen Interpretation was developed in the late 1920’s.
[260] BOT, p. 84.
[261] BOT, p. 83.
[262] BOT, p. 83.
[263] Moonchild , pp. 108-9.
[264] Moonchild , p. 107.
[265] BOT, p. 80 quoting The Vision and the Voice , 2 nd Aethyr.
[266] BOT, p. 81.
[267] BOT, p. 81.
[268] BOT, p. 82.
[269] AL I: 29-30.
[270] BOT, p. 80.
[271] BOT, p. 80.
[272] BOT, p. 256.
[273] Magick , p. 177.
[274] Magick , p. 176-7.
[275] BOT, pp. 85-6, note 1.
[276] Magick, p. 199.
[277] Ibid .
[278] Ibid .
[279] Equinox of the Gods , p. 138.
[280] AL II.76.
[281] See Crowley, A. Liber 418 , Cry of the 1 st Aether.
[282] Magick , p. 179.
[283] Magick , p. 179, footnote.
[284] The name is spelt in Hebrew forms variously, sometimes as Yod+Heh (Jh) + Beth+Ayin+Lamed (Ba’aL) + Aleph+Vau+Nun (On). We can spend many a happy hour considering the correspondences to these letters, such as the Hermit and the Emperor representing the power of the male seed, the Magician, Devil and Justice illustrating the magical act of adjustment in the material realm, and the Fool, Hierophant and Death concluding with the freedom of life against all laws. Your own mileage may vary.
[285] There is a further connection of this particular word to the instruction to love god with “all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” [Deuteronomy 6:3-9] and “thy neighbour as thyself”. This suggests we are on the right line of contemplation with regard to the Grail and the associated mystical method and experience.
[286] BOT, p. 85.
[287] BOT, p. 85.
[288] BOT, p. 85.
[289] BOT, p. 86.
[290] BOT, p. 88.
[291] DuQuette, L. M. Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot (San Francisco: Weiser, 2003), p. 119.
[292] BOT, p. 87.
[293] Letter to Aleister Crowley from Frieda Harris, July 12 th , n.y.
[294] BOT, p. 256.
[295] BOT, p. 287.
[296] BOT, p. 86.
[297] Magick , p. 160.
[298] Magick , p. 160 & BOT, p. 86.
[299] Magick , p. 160.
[300] BOT, p. 88.
[301] Magick , p. 87.
[302] Magick , p. 87.
[303] BOT, p. 87.
[304] BOT, p. 87.
[305] BOT, p. 87.
[306] BOT, p. 88.
[307] BOT, p. 257.
[308] BOT, p.89.
[309] So to speak.
[310] Legge, J. The Sacred Books of China, Part II: The Yi-King (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882) Appendix VI, p. 435.
[311] Liber ABA, p. 647.
[312] BOT, p. 89.
[313] BOT, p. 89.
[314] BOT, p. 89.
[315] BOT, p. 89.
[316] BOT, p. 89.
[317] BOT, p. 89.
[318] BOT, p. 257.
[319] BOT, p. 257.
[320] BOT, p. 89 n.1 Kteis and Phallus are the vagina and penis.
[321] BOT, p. 257.
[322] BOT, p. 257.
[323] BOT, p. 90.
[324] BOT, p. 133-4.
[325] BOT, p. 91.
[326] BOT, p. 91.
[327] BOT, p. 257.
[328] BOT, p. 95.
[329] BOT, p. 92.
[330] BOT, p. 92.
[331] BOT, p. 95.
[332] BOT, p. 95.
[333] BOT, pp. 93-4.
[334] Confessions , p. 44.
[335] Confessions , p. 44.
[336] Confessions , p. 44.
[337] BOT, p. 94 quoting BOL, p. 108.
[338] See Katz, M. Tarosophy (Keswick: Forge Press, 2016).
[339] BOT, p. 95.
[340] BOT, p. 92.
[341] AL, I.51.
[342] BOT, p. 97.
[343] BOT, p. 97.
[344] BOT, p. 97.
[345] BOT, p. 96.
[346] Magick , p. 221.
[347] BOT, p. 98.
[348] BOT, p. 98.
[349] BOT, p. 98.
[350] BOT, p. 99.
[351] BOT, p. 97.
[352] BOT, pp. 99-100.
[353] BOT, p. 101.
[354] BOT, p. 99.
[355] BOT, p. 101.
[356] BOT, p. 99.
[357] BOT, p. 100.
[358] MWT, p. 382.
[359] BOT, p. 100.
[360] BOT, pp. 100-101.
[361] BOT, p. 101.
[362] BOT, p. 258.
[363] BOT, p. 102.
[364] BOT, p. 102.
[365] BOT, p. 258.
[366] BOT, p. 102.
[367] BOT, p. 103.
[368] BOT, p. 102.
[369] BOT, p. 103.
[370] Crowley, A. The Equinox , III.1 (1919). See Chappell, V. Sexual Outlaw, Erotic Mystic: The Essential Ida Craddock (San Francisco: Red Wheel/Weiser: 2010).
[371] Letter to Frieda Harris from Aleister Crowley, 19th December, 1939.
[372] BOT, p. 104.
[373] BOT, p. 104.
[374] BOT, p. 104.
[375] BOT, p. 104.
[376] On page 104 of the Book of Thoth , he refers to this as “the Fourth Aethyr, LIT” and in the Appendix, page 139, it is footnoted as the 5 th Aethyr. It is from the 5 th Aethyr, LIT.
[377] The following four quotes are taken from the Book of Thoth , pp. 139-143.
[378] BOT, p. 141. See also Staley, M. ‘The Vision and the Voice’, section ‘The Arrow of Thelema’ in Starfire , I.4, 1991, pp. 40-46.
[379] Protoevangelion , XIII.
[380] BOT, p. 258.
[381] BOT, p. 107.
[382] BOT, p. 105.
[383] BOT, p. 106.
[384] BOT, p. 105.
[385] BOT, p. 105.
[386] BOT, p. 106.
[387] Crowley, A. Liber Liberi vel Lapdis Lazuli .
[388] BOT, p. 106.
[389] BOT, p. 105.
[390] BOT, p. 106.
[391] BOT, p. 106.
[392] BOT, p. 106.
[393] For indeed, in the wisdom of the Madonna (1985), we are “living in a material world (material)”.
[394] BOT, p. 105.
[395] Budge. E. A. W. Gods of the Egyptians (New York: Dover Publications, 1969).
[396] BOT, p. 106.
[397] BOT, p. 105.
[398] BOT, p. 107.
[399] AL. I.42-4.
[400] BOT, p. 108.
[401] Letter from Frieda Harris to Aleister Crowley, March 25 th , 1942.
[402] Ibid .
[403] Mountfort, P. ‘Tarot Guide Books as a Literary Genre: Narratives of Destiny’ in Auger, E. E. (ed.) Tarot in Culture, Volume I (Clifford, ON: Valleyhome Books, 2014).
[404] BOT, p. 107.
[405] Ibid .
[406] Ibid .
[407] AL III. 3-9.
[408] Crowley, A. Liber Lapidis Lazuli . I. 36-40.
[409] Sayers, D. L. Introductory Papers on Dante (Eugene: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006), p. 149.
[410] BOT, p. 108.
[411] Or perhaps we might not.
[412] BOT, p. 108.
[413] AL I. 57.
[414] The Law is for All , p. 141.
[415] BOT, p. 108.
[416] BOT, p. 108.
[417] BOT, p. 108.
[418] BOT, p. 108.
[419] BOL, p. 132.
[420] AL III.17.
[421] BOT, p. 110.
[422] MWT, p. 310.
[423] Ibid .
[424] Ibid .
[425] Liber Al. I.3.
[426] Confessions , p. 810.
[427] BOT, p. 109.
[428] Confessions , p. 811.
[429] Ibid , p. 810.
[430] Ibid , p. 811.
[431] Ibid , p. 810.
[432] Ibid , footnote 82.3, p. 935.
[433] Eight Lectures on Yoga , ‘Yoga for Yellowbellies’, pp. 19-20.
[434] See Bain, D. A New Dawn for Tarot: Original Golden Dawn Tarot Materials (Keswick: Forge Press, 2014), pp. 120-1.
[435] BOT, p. 110.
[436] BOT, p. 109.
[437] BOT, p. 111.
[438] BOT, p. 111, quoting BOL, I. 61.
[439] The Law is for All , p. 149.
[440] Postcript fragment from letter to Aleister Crowley by Frieda Harris, n.d.
[441] BOT, p. 110.
[442] BOT, p. 110.
[443] BOT, p. 110.
[444] AL, I.3.
[445] Letter from Frieda Harris to Aleister Crowley, n.d.
[446] BOT, p. 112.
[447] Ibid .
[448] See Urban, H. ‘Unleashing the Beast: Aleister Crowley, Tantra and Sex Magic in Late Victorian England‘ http://www.esoteric.msu.edu/VolumeV/Unleashing_the_Beast.htm [Last accessed 26th April 2018].
[449] BOT, p. 112.
[450] Magick , p. 164.
[451] Ibid .
[452] See Magick , pp. 164-5 and footnote 1 by John Symonds and Kenneth Grant.
[453] Magick , p. 164.
[454] Ibid .
[455] Catullus. The Carmina of Gaius Valerius Catullus . Leonard C. Smithers. London. Smithers. 1894. Catul , 74.
[456] It should be noted that in addition to concealing a transgressive act of magic meant to be understood through taboo in a spiritual sense, homosexuality was illegal in the UK until 1967. Crowley published Magick in 1912 – 1913, some fifty years prior to the change in law.
[457] BOT, p. 112.
[458] GD, p. 191.
[459] BOT, p. 112.
[460] See diagram in Corner, G. The Hormones in Human Reproduction (Princeton University Press, 1942).
[461] BOT, p. 113.
[462] BOT, p. 259.
[463] BOT, p. 113.
[464] Crowley, A. Konx Om Pax (New York: Walter Scott Publishing, 1907), p. 77.
[465] BOT, p. 113.
[466] BOT, p. 114.
[467] Shakespeare, The Tempest , Act I, Scene 2.
[468] BOT, p. 114.
[469] BOL, p. 99.
[470] BOT, p. 113.
[471] BOT, p. 114.
[472] BOT, p. 113-4.
[473] BOT, p. 220.
[474] BOT, p. 259.
[475] AL I. 41.
[476] BOL, p. 99 in ‘The Mass of the Phoenix’.
[477] BOT, p. 116.
[478] BOT, p. 115.
[479] BOT, p. 116.
[480] BOT, p. 115.
[481] See Bain, D., Goodwin, T. & Katz, M. A New Dawn for Tarot: The Original Tarot of the Golden Dawn (Keswick: Forge Press, 2014).
[482] BOT, p. 115.
[483] BOL, III.46.
[484] AL, III.10.
[485] AL, III.39.
[486] AL, I.54.
[487] BOT, p. 260.
[488] BOT, p. 260.
[489] BOT, p. 260.
[490] BOT, p. 118.
[491] BOT, p. 118.
[492] BOT, p. 118 quoting from Liber Al [II.22].
[493] Letter to Aleister Crowley from Frieda Harris, n.d.
[494] Sullivan, J. W. N. The Bases of Modern Science (London: Ernest Benn Ltd, 1928), pp. 243-4.
[495] BOT, p. 260.
[496] Katz, M. Tarosophy (Keswick: Forge Press, 2011).
[497] BOT, p. 287.
[498] BOT, p. 75.
[499] BOT, xi.
[500] Fuller, J. F. The Star in the West: A Critical Essay upon the Works of Aleister Crowley (New York: Walter Scott Publishing, Co. 1907), p. 322. Fuller goes on to effuse, “I do not hesitate to add here that had this extraordinary Essay been written in the days of Albertus Magnus, it would now be considered one of the most important and curious of magical works; many religions have been founded on less”.
[501] However, it does mention “The Book of the Law” in passing, as he concludes the story. Whether this was because Crowley was writing ahead of 1904 and used the title in a generic sense, or it was on his mind, or whether he added it for publication in 1904, I am unsure.
[502] Crowley, A. The Sword of Song (Boleskine: Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, 1904), p. 78.
[503] Ibid , p. 80.
[504] Those interested in exploring the path of initiation in the Western Esoteric Initiatory System are invited to take part in the Crucible Club at www.westernesotericism.com.
[505] Confessions , p. 537.
[506] BOL, p. 6.
[507] Magick , p. 143.
[508] Magick , pp. 294-305.
[509] Magick , p. 294; “Any deviation from this line tends to become black magic. Any other operation is black magic”.
[510] Magick , p. 257 & p. 198.
[511] ‘Producing the Thoth Tarot’ (September 23 rd , 2017), http://www.jameswassermanbooks.com/producing-the-thoth-tarot/ [Last accessed 15 th June 2018].
[512] Wang, R. An Introduction to the Golden Dawn Tarot (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1978), pp. 156-8.
[513] BOT, p. 166.
[514] Ibid .
[515] Ibid .
[516] BOT, p. 79.
[517] BOT, p. 92.
[518] BOT, p. 92.
[519] BOT, p. 95.
[520] BOT, p. 180.
[521] AL I. 57.
[522] The Law is for All , p. 141.
[523] BOT, p. 108.
[524] BOT, p. 108.
[525] BOT, p. 108.
[526] BOT, p. 257.
[527] BOT, p. 152.
[528] BOT, p. 196.
[529] BOT, p. 197.
[530] Letter from Frieda Harris to Aleister Crowley, u.d.
[531] O.T.O. News, http://www.oto.org/news0413.html [Last accessed 26th April 2018]
[532] Searle, A. ‘How Much is that Fox in the Mini-Mart?’, Guardian Online, https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jun/02/venice-biennale-review [Last accessed 26th April, 2018].
[533] BOT, p. 171.
[534] Letter from Frieda Harris to Aleister Crowley, May 26 th , 1941.
[535] See Turner, P. ‘The Tarot and Liber Al’ in Starfire , I.I, 1986, pp.11-15.
[536] This model is from thoughts about Crowley’s correspondences prior to his swap of the Star and the Emperor.
[537] BOT, p. 177.
[538] BOT, p. 177.
[539] BOT, p. 177.
[540] BOT, p. 177.
[541] BOT, p. 209.
[542] BOT, p. 209.
[543] ‘Devil of a Tale’ in Raffalovich, G. The Deuce and All (London: The Equinox, 1909), p. 106.
[544] ‘Devil of a Tale’, p. 128.
[545] ‘Devil of a Tale’, p. 115-6.
[546] It is odd that the tale has Graves joking “What 's the use my being the most wicked man on earth?” (p. 116) and saying, “Didn't I tell you I was the most wicked man on earth?" (p. 117) and was published in 1910, whereas the title “wickedest man in the world” was from a John Bull article on Crowley apparently published in 1923, some 14 years later. It would appear that he was being depicted specifically as such in his social circle from very early on in his career.
[547] ‘Devil of a Tale’, p. 188.
[548] BOT, p. 201.
[549] BOT, p. 211.