Waterstones Aleister Crowley's Four Books of Magick
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Price: £45.00
Brand: Waterstones
Description: 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. Waterstones Aleister Crowley's Four Books of Magick - shop the best deal online on thebookbug.co.uk
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9781786785190
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ISBN: 9781786785190
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Author: V. O'Regan
Rating: 5
Review: My thanks to Watkins Books for an advance digital review copy via NetGalley of ‘Aleister Crowley's Four Books of Magick Liber ABA’, edited by Stephen Skinner. I have since ordered its hardback edition. This collection of four books under the title of ‘Book Four/Liber ABA’ by occultist, magician and philosopher, Aleister Crowley, is a masterpiece and a foundation text of modern magick. It was written in the early twentieth century in collaboration with a number of his students/scarlet women, who were given coauthor credit by Crowley. Its four books cover meditation/mysticism, elementary magick, magick in theory and practice, and finally the Book of the Law, the central sacred text of Thelema, the religion founded by Crowley. Dr. Stephen Skinner was an excellent choice of editor for this collection as he has written extensively on the subject of magic(k) over the years and also served as the editor for Crowley’s magical diaries. He places Crowley’s life and work in context both during his lifetime as well as his continued influence upon modern occultism. Dr. Skinner includes a number of additions to Crowley’s raw material; notably an excellent Introduction, a Crowley chronology, extensive annotations, and a bibliography. There are also photographs and illustrations scattered throughout the text. As a result, this is a volume that I am certain will have a wide appeal to occultists and magicians of various levels of experience. I am looking forward to adding it to my home library.
Author: VVVVV
Rating: 1
Review: Don't get me wrong: Liber ABA, Magick, Book Four, is the Magnum Opus of Aleister Crowley, and as such a great book for beginners of occultism and experienced practicioners alike. But this edition, called "Four Books of Magick" for whatever reasons, is an absolute insult to every serious reader. The presentation is horrible, cheap cardboard, cheap paper, totally ruined illustrations in totally wrong chapters and parts of the book with such a horrendous resolutions that one can't read anything written within, and an overall cheap feel that instantly cools off any feeling of anticipation of reading it. The worst of this is what the editor did with his comments. Dr. Stephen Skinner claims to be an occultist and a psychologist, and he also claims to have an academic background. I can't judge his credentials, I know he wrote some books which are mostly shunned in the occult community, and seeing the quality and shallowness of his comments and footnotes in this book I can easily understand why. He makes absolutely clear that he thinks all Magick is bullshit. In and of itself that's totally fine, but why then publish a work of an established and famous occultist on that very topic? Second he also makes it very clear that he considers the readers to be absolute idiots. For example on page 55 he feels a necessity to footnote the phrase "every man is a condemned criminal, onle he does not know the date of his execution" with the explanation "the date of his death". Well, thanks, Brother Stephen, we know our metaphors! On page 141, chapter "The Sword", footnote 1, he enlightens us with the wisdom "A sword is not needed to fight ideas!" and so on. One can simply flip a few random pages and be greeted with some pearls of Stephen Skinner's Street Smarts™! What is very apparent throughout the book is that Stephen Skinner has some personal problems with Ordo Templi Orientis, an occult order brought to fruition by the author of Magick, Aleister Crowley. He makes that very clear in his introduction where he describes how he tried to get the publishing rights of the late Crowley's works but was outplayed by the actual representatives of Ordo Templi Orientis, the organization which was named as the rights holder by Crowley in his Will. The representative of O.T.O. later published an edition of Magick, informally called the Big Blue Brick published by Weiser Books, which was actually enhanced with academic and scholarly material, formerly unpublished additions and tons of enlightening footnotes and remarks. It's absolutely obvious that Skinner wants to make his own share of bucks of this volume, since Crowley's copyrights have run out recently. Combining the presentation, cheap paper, cheap cardboard, horrible printing quality and low-level typesetting, with the level of edition and the reputation of the author makes one wonder about the overall quality of the publishing house Watkins. I've never heard of them before the release of this book, but seeing that they announced "The Aleister Crowley Manual" by Marco Visconti, a guy who is infamous in the occult scene for calling another guy whom he deemed autistic "a retard" and telling them that he hopes that the next depressive episode might lead to his suicide, actually saying "Please kill yourself. It's time. You're worth absolutely nothing." provides a very clear overview of what level of quality Watkins plasn to provide to the occult and magickal community. If you want to read Magick, Book Four, Liber ABA in its original form, go to keepsilence.org, there are legal scans and PDFs for free. If you want an annotated version with scholarly and academics insights and additional material, get the blue edition from Weiser Books. Don't buy this one, it's a waste of money.
