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 grouporiented 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by the works of Aleister Crowley, It contains rituals written by Crowley for his own magic circles, many of them unpublished during his lifetime, plus rare ancient texts that were Crowley's own inspiration.
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, and includes detailed notes on the 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.
Well I do not know if I would call this a grimoire per se of Aleister Crowley, A magician like that most likely had several grimoires, None the less if you bought the book you will probably still get a lot out it, After all you will now have a copy of his rituals, The rituals have been modified for group use and they are of the thelemic rituals, Of course Crowley himself modified his own rituals and this guy has enough experience so you know that what you are getting is something real and not faked.
None the less rituals I feel probably much like this author should be modified based on current circumstances and what is good for the practitioners.
Perhaps even more valuable then the rituals is the essence of the book and the little whispering of wisdom that one gets on the in between.
He has a nice little section on safety, Rather important and I imagine that in the past many magicians have been injured do to unsafe working conditions,
There is a nice section on Ritual leadership where in the author draws a line between someone leading a ritual or guiding the group as opposed to someone who is ultra tyrannical.
A good breath of common sense, The common sense continues with him saying that under no circumstances should children be involved in ritual, no matter how innocent,
The book opened my eyes as to the nature of demons and why it is ok to work with them, I think we all know by that Heaven and Hell are not real places but rather metaphorical references, Demons live within our own subconscious and are evoked to come out of us, They get some karmic credits for helping humans do things especially if they are righteous, However if your acts are unrighteous then you will lose the respect of the demon, Demon can be hard to deal with and very dishonest which is why it might seem needed to constantly hammer them with divine quabbalistic energy.
Included are rituals likie mark of the beast, invocation of Horus, Ritual to invoke Hice, rite of isis, mithraic liturgy,Baccahanal andd a few chapters on Goetia.
The Goetia is used to summoning a demon and getting some answers, I found this to be the strongest part of the book and the part I enjoyed the most, You will see or learn that Crowley went from complex Golden Dawn style rituals to more simplified rituals, You will enjoy the poetic language of Crowleys rituals and even if you are not into Ceremonial Magic or do not want to tread upon the path of Crowley what you find here will definitely help your rituals.
Great ritual book! I own the hard cover edition sinceand I can say that this book has been very useful, I especially like the chapter on L, I. L. Lamp of the Invisible Light because there is not much written about that period of Crowleys life, Also The Mass of Babalon is within these pages, Whether if you are in the O, T. O. or not this book is for the Thelelmite, The format is very inviting and easy to follow, If you are new to Thelema or a seasoned vet, this book has something for you, I highly recommend it. For those that dont know, a grimoire is a textbook of magic not the saw the pretty lady in half kind of magic but more of the ritual Magic the robes, candles, blood and incantations kind.
Of course, theres more to it and this book throws a ray of light into all that,
And, I'd like to point out that this is not a "book of spells" it is a book of ritual, IF you want to think of spells as analogous to prayer, then the rituals in this book are similar to what you'd see in most churches on Sundays the Mass and all its workings and paraphernalia.
While it is written by Rodney Orpheus, a leading member of the O, T. O. Ordo Templi Orientis, it draws heavily on the work by Aleister Crowley of the same O, T. O. though their membership numbers are dozens and dozens of years apart, If youre not acquainted with the O, T. O. , or Crowley in particular, it is worth a google and will save you pages of my fatfingered interpreting, An example of this would be my saying, “This guy Crowley seems to be on to something, ” so, yeah google away.
The book also features a forward by Lon Milo DuQuette which is itself entertaining and educational whatever value you place on his own numerous books on Freemasonry, Tarot, Kabbalah.
So, very much a modern take on Thelemic rituals and the creation or support of an Order with or without the support of something larger like the O.
T. O. Very safety conscious as well, with practical notes on using fire, using dulled blades, ethics and more than a nod toward technology and convenience, Using images of deities rather than actual statues and to be sure and use sturdy holders for candles, for example, Im waiting for the “Summon Bael” App,
It brings much of what is thought to happen in dark places dirty deeds and evil well into the light of day and ritual magics practical, almost social, application.
Not that a thing cant be misused, but this book definitely doesnt promote that angle,
It does this by taking Crowleys work and modifying it to make it digestible yet, theoretically, workable, I take this purely on faith, but Rodney presents the material as actual, this stuff works, fact, There is no discussion on efficacy it purely is what it is,
There are a few initiation rites, again usable by a new organization or an arm of the O, T. O. I think the assumption is that most will seek membership rather than go it alone, These are detailed "this guy stands here and wears this while soandso does this with that while saying, . . ". And there are rites on preparation, invocations and evocations as well as other related rituals, Enlightening stuff, to be sure,
Good appendixes that include thespirits of Goetia, Again, this material isnt to be taken lightly and, as an individual, I wouldnt mess with it,
Overall an entertaining and fascinating read with explanations that compensate greatly for Crowleys sometimes cryptic big surprise texts, Youll gain more perspective on Aleister Crowley, without a doubt and that's always a fun time,
Finally, it serves well at showing Rodney Orpheus clear expertise of the subject matter, demonstrating his sense of easy comfort with a wide range of ceremonial magic.
Book : The Grimoire Of Aleister Crowley
by Rodney Orpheus
HB,pages Abrahadabra Press,
I recently bought a book that was more of a manual for group work than an act of intellect.
This book was The Grimoire of Aleister Crowley by Rodney Orpheus, This is the second book I have read by Orpheus, the first being Abrahadabra, which is a primer on thelema with much more emphasis on the individual work.
Before looking at the content of the book, I would like to reflect on the physical book itself, Hardbound with red cloth cover, gold embossing on the spine, a striking dustjacket and with black endpapers this is a very beautiful book, The reason I am looking at this is because this is the first publication of Abrahadabra press, and many occult books published by small or new presses are significantly subpar in layout, quality, and proof reading, often containing pixelated images and inconsistencies of style.
This is not the case with this book, This book continues to be beautiful on the inside, being consistent, well laid out and with beautiful new line drawings of the NOX signs, the sign of the enterer, floorplans for the rituals and more.
I cannot think of any other book which, like the Grimoire, has published Thelemically oriented group rituals, Some can of course be found in the publications/ periodials of Thelemic lodges, or floating around on the internet, but there is much more to this book than just rituals.
The first part that really struck a chord with me was
the chapter A Note On Safety, The dynamics of a group ritual are different from solo rituals, and manxy of us have learned the hard way what can go wrong or be of serious danger.
This note on safety should be included in any book on group ritual, and clearly comes from experience,
The rituals vary, some are written by Crowley but adapted for physical use, some are adaptations of pre Thelemic Crowley rituals such as LIL rituals, some are gnostic adaptations such as the interesting Breaking of the Bread ritual.
These do not stand alone, but are extensively commented upon, with introductions that put them in context and offer other useful advice on group ritual.
For me, the chapter that most resonated with me was the Mass of Babalon, which is a new ritual an equivalent Mass of Baphomet is in Rodneys previous book Abrahadabra.
What is interesting about the chapter is not the ritual itself not to say its not interesting!, but the breaking down of how the ritual was come to.
This included the purpose and basic dynamics of a Eucharistic ritual, the key layers or elements, the identifying of existing literary sources relating to Babalon, and the synthesis thereof.
By going through this process the reader could configure this ritual in any number of other ways to suit a personal vision of what such a ritual might look like.
The keys for constructing ritual while still turning to primary Thelemic texts are given,
Orpheus challenges the perception that selfdevised/ selfwritten is always better, As a text synthesizing numerous sources and doing so to good effect, this stands as an example of how one can borrow from other authors for material.
Certainly Crowley did so ie liber Israfel partially comes from Bennett and the Golden dawn and it did him no harm, Selfwritten is not always better, I agree, but I feel perhaps the use of other sources should be augmented by developing writing skills and a channel for inspiration and revelation from the Gods being worked with.
I work with material that is new and selfwritten material by Crowley and material by other luminaries like Charles Stansfield Jones and Jack Parsons, I think it too easy to say Crowley or Swedenborg knew better, so dont try, I do not find this attitude very thelemic just imagine if Achad or Parsons had that attitude! and runs the risk of developing a cult of Crowleyanity, constantly rehashing the authoritative words of Mega Therion.
I know exactly where Orpheus is coming from, and agree with the background for his words, but I would be wary that his words could be considered as dissuading for potential innovators.
One noteworthy omission from this book has been Liber Samekh, which is often performed in a group context, I came to this musing after reaching the appendix of rituals from Liber O where Orpheus says:
I personally dont consider them LRP, LRH of any value except as historical curiosity and I havent used them in years These older rituals, like much Golden Dawn material, are frequently overly complex.
I cannot see any practical reason for all these pentagrams, or for the difference between invoking and banishing ones,
I find this ironic as Orpheus identifies Liber V vel Reguli mark of the beast ritual as a new aeon pentagram ritual, yet it also uses these specific overly complex pentagrams.
Equally in Samekh not published in this anthology, which is also a pentagram ritual for knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, these formula are used.
Orpheus, by his own admission, also fails to see the need for using hexagram rituals at all, On the point of the irrelevance of these practices we will agree to disagree, This is an interesting/ unusual prefix to an appended Liber O, which is included, and still used by many thelemic magicians, including initiates of such orders of the OTO and the A.
. A. . Perhaps the question arising is why such practices are retained or adapted by so many, and what sits behind, Then again, maybe i'm just a grumpy bear because I like all my complicated pentagrams comfort zone,
Overall I am left with an excellent impression of this book though I will only really know out of doing, and I intend to take up some of these rituals.
I believe it is well worth a read and I will take some very practical indications for group work, .