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Section I |
Section II Addenda |
Section III |
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To see what we've been doing, visit The Change Page! |
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Section I |
Section II Addenda |
Section III |
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The
Book of the Law
One of the central books of study, included here for your convenience. Online text here from "dowhatthouwilt.org" |
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Zanoni, by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton. Crowley remarked: "Valuable for its facts
and suggestions about Mysticism." The Gutenberg project has published an online edition. The Victorian Web has a page on the life of Bulwer-Lytton and analyses of his works. Amazon critics say: "This book, written in 1842, is one of the finest examples of Spiritual Fiction and influenced the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. Divided in seven sections, the fourth, entitled, "The Dweller of the Threshold" is an extremely profound expression of profound occult facts and experiences recognized as true by anyone possessing spiritual insight." From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "We will be discussing A Strange Story (1862) and Zanoni (1845), the two magical novels of Lord Lytton. Edward Bulwer-Lytton, first baron Lytton, besides being one of the most popular novelists of nineteenth century England, was a Member of Parliament and Colonial Secretary before being elevated to the peerage. In a letter to Dr. W. Wynn Westcott on 24th March 1881, the Masonic scholar Kenneth Mackenzie wrote 'It has taken me a quarter of a century to obtain them [the 'real degrees' of Rosicrucian freemasonry] and the whole of the degrees are different to anything known to the Roci. Society of England --- those few who have these degrees dare not communicate them. Read H. Jennings again, and Zanoni. Even Lytton, who knew so much, was only a Neophyte and could not reply when I tested him years ago.' MacGregor Mathers, who led the early Golden Dawn along with Westcott, was so impressed with Lytton's Zanoni that his wife Moina called him 'Zan' around the house, and was thought by their friends to be following the example of the novel's heroine, Viola." |
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Strange
Story
Last
Days of Pompeii
The
Coming Race
VRIL |
A Strange Story, by Sir Edward Bulwer Lytton.
Crowley remarked: "Valuable for its
facts and suggestions about Magick."
(Couldn't find an English online link, but here is a German
one.) (The books below do have online texts, and the link will take you to them.) From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "The Thelema Lodge Section Two reading group will meet to discuss and read selections from Lytton's novel A Strange Story (1862). Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, created the first Baron Lytton of Knebworth, died in 1873 at the age of seventy, and during his own century seemed to rank with his contemporaries Dickens, Collins, Trollope, and Thackeray among the foremost mid-Victorian novelists. His works range from high-fashion stories of wealthy life, and serious novels of Victorian social criticism, to crime stories, supernatural fiction, and works of pure fancy. He also wrote many historical novels and romances, some of which included substantial scholarly and archaeological data, especially The Last Days of Pompeii (1834). The mythos of the Golden Dawn and its Secret Chiefs was imprinted by Lytton's 'Rosicrucian tale' Zanoni (1842), which so fascinated MacGregor Mathers that his wife used often to call him 'Zan' around the house. More influential on Crowley himself was Lytton's last and most interesting novel, The Coming Race (1871), a utopian fantasy of the hollow earth, where a race of winged supermen have been evolving along Darwinian lines, adapting to harsh subterranean conditions, until they conquer the secret and explosive force of natural life known as VRIL, (provided by the Sacred Text Society) and begin to arm themselves for an invasion of the surface world. Besides earning a living writing novels -- before his mother, who cut off his income when he married, died and released his inheritance -- Lytton was not only a profound student of the occult, recognized as an adept and befriended by Eliphas Levi, but a very effective and successful politician as well. First elected a Member of Parliament in 1831, he eventually served several years as Colonial Secretary in the Tory government of Lord Derby, which led to his peerage. His collected Works were published in a thirty-eight volume edition during the year following his death. The Strange Story is subtitled An Alchemical Novel, though it is in many ways a typical melodramatic and contrived travesty of romantic psychology, as other significant novels of the early 1860s (such as The Woman in White (e-text by Bibliomania.com) or Great Expectations) [Study materials provided by UCSC] tend to be. There is a Paracelsian aura of medical mystery also present, however, as the handsome young genius Dr. Allen Fenwick probes 'the great principle of animal life' in response to his beloved Lillian's mysterious lapses into trance, which -- like the much earlier Frankenstein (1818) -- significantly foreshadows the central themes of science fiction writing in our own century. There are interesting discussions of drug use (including nitrous oxide in chapter 71), numerous metaphysical footnotes, and a veiled Australian priestess named Ayesha (after a wife of Muhammad; the same name which Rider Haggard used twenty-five years later for his goddess She). Crowley also recognized this book as an antecedent to some of his own formulations, and listed it with Zanoni at the head of its section in the A.'. A.'. reading list, where it is recommended as 'valuable for its facts and suggestions about Magick.' "Full e-text of Great Expectations from Bibliomania. Full e-text of The Incantation, which includes the character Margrawe from Strange Story. |
| The Blossom and the
Fruit, by Mabel Collins. Crowley said: "Valuable for its
account of the Path."
Online text here. The publisher, in 1997, said, "This strange story has come from a far country and was brought in a mysterious manner; we claim only to be the scribes and the editors. We therefore ask that the reader will accept the theory of the reincarnation of souls as a living fact." From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "The Blossom and the Fruit, is by a relatively obscure novel by Madame Blavatsky's close friend, the pop-Theosophist and psychological 'ladies' novelist' Mabel Collins (1851-1927 e.v.), who published a prolific stream of fiction and non-fiction of appeal to esoteric enthusiasts at the turn of the aeon. Her novels include The Idyll of the White Lotus [e-text], Through the Gates of Gold, and The Star Sapphire, as well as The Blossom and the Fruit (1889) [e-text], which Crowley recommended as 'valuable for its account of the Path.' Originally published with the subtitle A True Story of a Black Magician, the novelist and her anonymous co-author 'claim only to be the scribes and the editors' of a 'strange story . . . brought in a mysterious manner' which outlines a 'theory of the re-incarnation of souls.' " (Here is a link to some brief commentary on many of these works from the Blavatsky archives.) Light on the Path e-text |
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| Satyricon,
by Gaius Petronius Arbiter. (Link
to Gutenberg e-text)
From The Thelema Lodge Calendar: "Gaius Petronius, an
imperial civil servant and celebrated "fashion arbiter" in Roman high
society, writing in the middle of the first century of the past aeon,
ended his career by suicide on orders from the Emperor Nero in the year
66. His work, an extensive collection of stories, essays, and poems,
linked by a picaresque narrative thread, has survived only in fragments.
The Satyricon follows the travels and adventures of Encolpius, who
is pursued by the wrath of Priapus and wanders through the empire amid
scenes of greed and fortune, viewing society from the bottom up." Amazon's Ingram Reviews: The most celebrated prose work to have survived from the ancient world, THE SATYRICON recounts the sleazy progress of a pair of literate scholars as they wander through the cities of the southern Mediterranean in the age of Nero, encountering type-figures whom the author wishes to satirize. P.G. Walsh captures the spirit of the original in this new and lively translation Just for fun, a link to Fellini's movie, Satyricon, described at Amazon as: Amazon.com essential video Trippy is as trippy does, even when you're talking about a movie set in ancient Rome. This 1969 Fellini opus was among the most visually arresting entries in a year when the psychedelic experience was trying to claw its way into every movie coming down the pike. But Fellini, in telling a negligible story about two young men tasting the various pleasures of Nero's hedonistic and priapic reign, aimed for images that jarred as well as seduced. He found humor in freakishness, contrasting beauty and ugliness while effortlessly passing judgment on the emptiness of a life devoted to sensation and personal freedom. More of a fever dream than a linear story, Fellini Satyricon crystallized the director's reputation as a visionary--but may have trapped him into spending the rest of his career (with the exception of Amarcord) trying to top himself in reaching new levels of outrageousness. --Marshall Fine Description Encolpius is a Roman student who begins by arguing with his friend Ascyltus over the affections of androgynous youth Giton. Ascyltus wins, whereupon Encolpius embarks upon an odyssey, partaking in a drunken orgy and being kidnapped by a bisexual sea captain and his concubine. Encolpius eventually rejoins Ascyltus to visit a suicidal Roman couple, join in a plot to kidnap a "sacred" hermaphrodite, and much more. Loosely based on the book "Satyricon" by Gaius Petronius, the "Arbiter of Elegance" in the court of Nero, Federico Fellini wrote and directed this tongue-in-cheek hymn to the "glories" of pagan times via a bizarre journey through the decadence and debauchery of Nero's Rome. |
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| The Golden Ass, by Apuleius. (Parallel English and Latin texts here) Link to an analysis
of The Golden Ass From The Thelema Lodge Calendar: "Join the Section Two Reading Group at Oz House for a literary discussion of The Golden Ass. The pagan philosopher and magician Apuleius was a Roman African, educated at Carthage and Athens, writing in the second half of the second century of the past aeon. A number of his works have been influential: De Deo Socratis [link to a Latin e-text] [Concerning the Daemon of Socrates] is the most comprehensive classical account of the 'genius' spirit or Holy Guardian Angel; the Apology outlines his successful defense against legal persecution for magical practices. The Golden Ass (an informal name for the prose narrative originally entitled The Metamorphosis) retells an older tale of the tribulations of a Greek named Lucius, whose magical curiosity gets him transformed into a donkey. To this Apuleius adds a detailed account of pagan redemption in the cult of Isis, and a series of interpolated stories, most notably the classic account of the romance of Eros and Psyche. Several translations of the Ass are easily available, though few are accurate with regard to the details of technical magick it contains, nor concerning the erotic descriptions." The Doo-Yoo bookstore in England has customer reviews, and here is one for this work: "Lucius Apuleius's 'The Golden Ass' is a bawdy, ribald and hilarious story of magic and erotica from the 2nd century A.D. But don’t let the date put you off—this book is unique, entertaining and thoroughly readable, with a very modern feel. Not stuffy in the least, I assure you! 'The Golden Ass' (sometimes known as 'The Metamorphosis') tells the story of Lucius, a young libertine, whose curiosity and fascination for sex and magic result in his transformation into a donkey. After suffering a series of trials and humiliations, he is eventually returned to human form by the kind intervention of the goddess Isis. Simultaneously a blend of erotic adventure, romantic comedy, and religious fable, 'The Golden Ass' is one of the truly seminal works of early European literature, with a distinctly Eastern flavouring and a very modern feel. "Lucius Apuleius lived and wrote in Latin in Romanised North Africa around the middle of the 2nd century A.D. He was well versed in the popular Greek writing of the time, and shows in all his prose a strong interest in the supernatural, in Eastern religions, and in magic. In fact he was accused of casting spells on his wife by her family, and defended himself in the legal defense, or Apologia is still existent. His interest in Greek philosophy led to the writing of a book of philosophical extracts, the 'Florida', an essay on Plato, another on Socrates' theology." Latin & English translations of Apologia online, along with several scholarly analyses. Latin e-text and commentaries of Florida, (no English translations are known to exist online) Page discussing Apuleius' life and linking to the various works above.
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| Le Comte de
Gabalis. (Link
to a French manuscript reproduction and a French online
text.) Crowley remarked: "Valuable for its hints of those things
which it mocks." (Have not been able to find an English text online.) From The Thelema Lodge Calendar: "First published anonymously in Paris in 1670, bearing the subtitle The Extravagant Mysteries of the Cabalists, expounded in Five pleasant Discourses on the Secret Societies, this oddly unbalanced satirical treatise touches upon elemental sex magic, and was quickly banned in France after selling out several editions in its first few months. Written by an obscure cleric called the Abbé Nicholas P. H. de Montfaucon de Villars (born 1635, ordained 1667, assassinated 1673), who had come to Paris from Toulouse, The Extravagant Mysteries of the Comte de Gabalis became popular again in English translation early in the following century. Along with several imitations and related works, it created a popular interest in erotic contacts with elemental spirits, which continued to raise eyebrows as these ideas were absorbed back into the folk-tale tradition." The Abredor bookstore in France sells an attractive version (in French, alas!). Here is an extract from that edition. |
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| The Rape of the Lock, by Alexander Pope.
The University of Massachusetts has a whole
page devoted to Pope and, specifically, this poem. Carnegie Mellon
has also put up the text. From The Thelema Lodge Calendar: "Alexander Pope's satire of heroic poetry, one of the most skillful pieces of verse in the language, was written and revised between 1711 and 1714 of the past aeon. The story is based upon a scandal among London fashion celebrities of the period, and involves not the forceful insertion of a key, but the covert clipping of a lock of hair. We will examine the poem in light of Crowley's recommendation that, like Undine, it is valuable for its account of elementals. The following comes from the Twickenham Edition of Pope's poems: 'The families concerned in the Rape of the Lock--the Fermors, Petres, and Carylls--were prominent members of that group of great intermarried Roman Catholic families owning land in the home counties, most of whom came within the circle of Pope's friends and acquaintances and to whom Pope considered his own family to belong. Some time before 21 March, 1712, when Pope sold his poem to Lintott, Robert, Lord Petre had cut off a lock of Arabella Fermor's hair, and John Caryll had suggested to Pope that he should write a poem to heal the estrangement that followed between the two families: "The stealing of Miss Belle Fermor's hair, was taken too seriously, and caused an estrangement between the two families, though they had lived so long in great friendship before. A common acquaintance and well-wisher to both, desired me to write a poem to make a jest of it, and laugh them together again. It was with this view that I wrote the Rape of the Lock."A brief biography of Pope: "Pope was born 21 May, 1688, in London. His father was a cloth merchant living in the City (a part of London); both his parents were Catholic. It was a period of intense anti-Catholic sentiment in England, and at some point (ca. 1700) in Alexander's childhood, the Pope family was forced to relocate to be in compliance with a statute forbidding Catholics from living within ten miles of London or Westminster. They moved to Binfield (Berkshire). Pope's early education was affected by his Catholicism: Catholic schools, although illegal, were allowed to survive in some places. Prior to the move to Binfield Pope spent a year at Twyford, where he wrote 'a satire on some faults of his master,' which led to his being 'whipped and ill-used...and taken from thence on that account.' (Spence). From Twyford Alexander went to study with Thomas Deane, a convert to Catholicism (who lost his position at Oxford as a result of his religious beliefs). After the Pope family moved to Binfield Alexander became self-taught. Pope's disease--apparently tuberculosis of the bone--became evident when he was about twelve. Later in Pope's life, Sir Joshua Reynolds described him as 'about four feet six high; very humpbacked and deformed.' (A sketch of Pope) A more recent biographer (Maynard Mack 155-6) has written that Pope was 'afflicted with constant headaches, sometimes so severe that he could barely see the paper he wrote upon, frequent violent pain at bone and muscle joints...shortness of breath, increasing inability to ride horseback or even walk for exercise....' Pope moved to his villa in Twickenham in 1717. While there he received visitors (just about everyone), attacked his literary contemporaries (just about everyone, although notable exceptions were Swift and Gay, with whom he had close friendships), and continued to publish poetry. He died on 21 May, 1744, at Twickenham." |
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Undine (May 2002 ed)at Amazon
at Amazon In the box below are links to other works by de la Motte Fouque, and analyses of his works. If you click on a link, a new window will open. |
Undine, by de la Motte Fouque. (Link to the Gutenberg project English
translation.)
From The Thelema Lodge Calendar: "We will be looking this month at Undine, by Friedrich Freiherr de la Motte Fouqué,
a fairy-tale novella originally published in German in 1811. Exploring the
possibilities for relations between elemental water spirits and humans,
this story was seen frequently in dramatic adaptation throughout the last
century, especially in opera and ballet. Its author was a Prussian
military officer who wrote prolifically in the German Romantic
manner." Link to the Project Gutenberg English and German edition. Links in the paragraph below are to e-text versions of the texts mentioned. Catherine Yonge, in her biography of Fouque, says this in the introduction: "Four tales are, it is said, intended by the Author to be appropriate to the Four Seasons: the stern, grave 'Sintram', to winter; the tearful, smiling, fresh 'Undine', to Spring; the torrid deserts of the 'Two Captains', to summer; and the sunset gold of 'Aslauga's Knight', to autumn. Of these two are before us. The author of these tales, as well as of many more,
was Friedrich, Baron de la Motte Fouque, one of the foremost of the
minstrels or tale-tellers of the realm of spiritual chivalry--the realm
whither Arthur's knights departed when they 'took the Sancgreal's holy
quest,'--whence Spenser's Red Cross knight and his fellows came forth on
their adventures, and in which the Knight of la Mancha believed, and
endeavoured to exist. "This genius is especially traceable in his two masterpieces, Sintram and Undine. Sintram was inspired by Albert Durer's engraving of the 'Knight of Death,' of which we give a presentation. It was sent to Fouque by his friend Edward Hitzig, with a request that he would compose a ballad on it. The date of the engraving is 1513, and we quote the description given by the late Rev. R. St. John Tyrwhitt, showing how differently it may be read. ' 'Some say it is the end of the strong wicked man, just overtaken by Death and Sin, whom he has served on earth. It is said that the tuft on the lance indicates his murderous character, being of such unusual size. You know the use of that appendage was to prevent blood running down from the spearhead to the hands. They also think that the object under the horse's off hind foot is a snare, into which the old oppressor is to fall instantly. The expression of the faces may be taken either way: both good men and bad may have hard, regular features; and both good men and bad would set their teeth grimly on seeing Death, with the sands of their life nearly run out. Some say they think the expression of Death gentle, or only admonitory (as the author of 'Sintram'); and I have to thank the authoress of the 'Heir of Redclyffe' for showing me a fine impression of the plate, where Death certainly had a not ungentle countenance--snakes and all. I think the shouldered lance, and quiet, firm seat on horseback, with gentle bearing on the curb-bit, indicate grave resolution in the rider, and that a robber knight would have his lance in rest; then there is the leafy crown on the horse's head; and the horse and dog move on so quietly, that I am inclined to hope the best for the Ritter.' "Thus he lived, felt, and believed what he wrote, and though his dramas and poems do not rise above fair mediocrity, and the great number of his prose stories are injured by a certain monotony, the charm of them is in their elevation of sentiment and the earnest faith pervading all. His knights might be Sir Galahad –
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| Black Magic, by Marjorie
Bowen. Crowley remarked: "An intensely interesting story of
sorcery."
( There is a portrait of Ms. Bowen (as well as commentary in German) at a page entitled "SPEURTOCHT NAAR DE GÓTHS: het verhaal van twee portretten " From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "Crowley described Marjorie Bowen's historical fantasy of the dark ages (originally published in 1909 e.v.) as "an intensely interesting story of sorcery." Black Magic, however, is apt to strike modern readers as a shallow and conventional narrative, written quickly by a precocious nineteen-year-old, and relying for its interest on its sensational themes: the reign of Anti-Christ within the Roman Catholic church, the millennium, and the legendary Pope Joan. Approach the novel as an exercise in speed-reading. As an indication of the conflicting responses provoked by this book, we reprint here the brief review of it which Crowley published the year after it appeared.
"I have always admired your work so greatly — I think 'Love' one of the best stories ever written — that I ordered your autobiography with a great deal of excited interest. I didn't expect to be so much moved. I don't mean only that it is wonderful for you to have developed your art in such adverse circumstances. I mean also that you have had the courage to admit that you have been unhappy and have been the victim of continuous misfortune. The world is more hostile to such admissions than to any confession of guilt. You have to pretend that you've never been unlucky and that people have not been cruel, for no other reason than that the world is too ungenerous to like feeling pity. | |
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Unabridged Audiobook
Downloadable
In the box below are links to other works by Balzac, and analyses of his works. If you click on a link, a new window will open.
 |
Le Peau de Chagrin, by Honoré de Balzac.
Crowley remarked: "A magnificent magical allegory"
From The Thelema Lodge Calendar: " 'A magnificent magical allegory' is Crowley's
recommendation of Balzac's novel Le Peau de
Chagrin, the title of which is variously rendered in English as The Magic Skin, [plain text English link at
Gutenberg with lots of Gutenberg promo material at the front], The Wild Ass's Skin, The Deadly Skin etc., and
perhaps literally means 'the sorry pelt.' We will be reading and
discussing this very enjoyable supernatural tragedy. Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850), author of the grand series of nearly fifty novels and many short and long stories, collectively known as The Human Comedy, [another plain text English link at Gutenberg with lots of Gutenberg promo material at the front] was an almost scientific novelist, systematically recording the complexities of sensibility and the developing styles and values of French culture during his lifetime. Although especially concerned with the psychology of social manners, the Balzac oeuvre also contains precisely formulated studies of mystical and philosophical problems, with the story of the magic skin (a beautiful piece of onager hide which has been charged as a talisman) outstanding among the latter category. The novel was first published in 1831, but Balzac loved to go back and revise his work, and issued seven new versions of this book through 1845. The story explores the human faculty of will, about which Balzac enjoyed speaking in grandiose, confidant, and progressive nineteenth-century terms as a potential 'material force similar to steam-power.' It would become capable of powerful new achievements when refined by the development of subtle techniques in new directions of research involving ethereal mechanics, animal magnetism, mental electricity, and other marvels of the day. In another story a Balzac character claims of the human will that 'nothing in the moral world could resist it when a man trained himself to concentrate it, to control the sum of it, and constantly to direct upon other men's minds the projection . . .' of his will ('Louis Lambert' in Le Livre mystique, 1835)." From The March 2000 Thelema Lodge Calendar: "The collection of Amusing Tales by Honoré de Balzac (1799-1850) will be our subject for reading and discussion together. Join Caitlin for a good look at this classic imitation of late medieval narrative styles, comprising thirty stories in the tradition of Boccaccio and Rabelais. Balzac devoted most of his career to the dozens of stories and more than thirty novels depicting early nineteenth century French life, known collectively as the Human Comedy. Renowned for this overarching and interwoven fictional chronicle of his times, Balzac was not content to let his 'modern' fictional studies drift without an anchor to the traditional range of French narrative attitudes from the past. Thus the Droll Stories lie outside the bounds of the great 'comedy' of Balzac's France; as their author expressed the relationship, 'like a laughing child' he strung up 'the arabesque' of these old- style comic stories around the established structure of his great fictional project. "This month's entry by Balzac, which includes the
shocking tale of 'The Succuba,' comes down to
us with the Artemis Iota seal of approval."
(Here is
an excerpt from The Succuba in one of the Northern
European languages. I don't think it's German....)
This link
is to an interesting essay linking Lilith to the myth of the succubae.
(Hosted by the United Satan Covenire. Pop-up warning.)
The Literature Network has a biography and a
comprehensive link to many of his works in e-text, and is well worth
exploring.
Here is
an excerpt from the biography on that site: "French journalist and writer, one of the creators of
realism in literature. Balzac's huge production of novels and short
stories are collected under the name La Comédie
humaine, which originated from Dante's The
Divine Comedy. Before his breakthrough as an author, Balzac wrote
without success several plays and novels under different pseudonyms. |
| No.
19 by Edgar Jepson. Crowley remarked: "An excellent tale of modern
magic."
(No
Online or in-print text has been found yet, but the E-Book Mall claims they will stock Jepson
Soon.) From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "No. 19 is one of the most obscure works on Crowley's original bibliography of secondary and 'suggestive' occult writings. Jepson was primarily a humor writer on the staff of the original Vanity Fair magazine, which was edited in London by Frank Harris and numbered Aleister Crowley among its contributors. He also published several popular novels, but is hardly remembered at all today, although No. 19 is an enjoyable occult thriller, interesting as a possible influence upon the concept and structure of Crowley's Rites of Eleusis. It appeared in the spring of 1910 e.v. and went through two editions in its first season, portraying ceremonial magic as a serious and effective study involving discipline, dedication, and enormous risk. We learn gradually from a concerned neighbor's narration about a series of rites being celebrated in the back garden of No. 19 Walden Road in Hertford Park, an otherwise respectable London suburb. There are seven rites, each invoking a different ancient god, and in addition to tedious recitations they involve periodic libations from a shared cup of drugged wine, orgiastic dancing, and the concluding embodiment of chaos as the great god Pan (with destructive results). They are produced seasonally, year after year, by organized magical students in robes at night according to a lunar schedule, and led by an accomplished, sincere, but dangerously obsessed world-traveling magus. It is very likely that Crowley and some of his students read and enjoyed No. 19 very shortly before writing and producing The Rites of Eleusis during the summer and autumn of that same year. Although the weaker participants fail in terror as the operation proceeds, those who are pure of heart, and able to keep the power of their wills concentrated, not only survive these rites but successfully channel the power generated in the ritual to their own good, discovering in the end that 'woman is the key of the ultimate lock.' Only those who become distracted, or complain during rehearsals, or are not able to learn their lines properly, end up driven mad or crushed by the sacred forces, or scared to death by the results. 'Uncle! Uncle! There's something horrible in the garden!'" Arsin Lupine by Jepson is available in several sites on the Net. | |
Dracula
(MassMarket Paperback) at Amazon
Contexts, Reviews, and Reactions Dramatic and Film Variations Criticism (Norton Critical Edition) at Amazon  Edward Gorey's Dracula: A Toy Theatre: Die Cut, Scored and Perforated Foldups and Foldouts |
Dracula, by Bram Stoker. (This link is to the
Norton edition, as the one Sr. Petra prefers.) Crowley remarked: "Valuable
for its account of legends concerning vampires."
From The Thelema Lodge Calendar: "The Thelema Lodge Section Two (Suggestive Literature)
Reading Group will discuss the initiated implications of vampirism as
presented in Bram Stoker's novel Dracula.
Abraham Stoker of Dublin was a civil servant, drama critic, and the
manager of the period's greatest actor, Henry Irving. Dracula, his only significant literary
production, was published to immediate success in 1897. Thematically, as
the story of the nearly apocalyptic introduction of a foreign personality
of supernatural evil into Victorian England, Dracula is prototypical of the "horror" genre of
popular literature. As a novel it is skillfully told, using a narrative
technique of stringing together fictional journals, letters, reports, and
depositions, which maintains the reader close to the characters" momentary
impressions. (This manner of constructing a novel had been developed
thirty years earlier by Dickens" friend and partner, Wilkie Collins,
perhaps the greatest narrative craftsman of the mid-Victorian novelists.)
Stoker, who was not associated with the Golden Dawn (as claimed in the
careless French best-seller of 35 years ago, Morning of the Magicians), was an infamous Irish
lecher, much concerned with syphilis (from which he suffered). This can be
relevant to a reading of Dracula, where
vampirism threatens the "decent" characters very much in the manner of a
venereal infection, so consistently that the book can easily be read as an
allegory of sexually transmitted disease, as well as an epitome of the
last gasp of decadent Christian theology. Online, searchable version conveniently divided into chapters by the Literature Network. The Literature Network introduction to Dracula: One of the most popular stories ever told, Dracula has been re-created for the stage and screen hundreds of times in the last century. Yet it is essentially a Victorian saga, an awesome tale of thrillingly bloodthirsty vampire whose nocturnal atrocities reflect the dark underside of a supremely moralistic age. Above all, Dracula is a quintessential story of suspense and horror, boasting one of the most terrifying characters in literature: centuries-old Count Dracula, whose diabolical passions prey upon the innocent, the helpless, the beautiful. Bram Stoker, who was also the manager of the famous actor Sir Henry Irving, wrote seventeen novels. Dracula remains his most celebrated and enduring work -- even today this Gothic masterpiece has lost none of the spine-tingling impact that makes it a classic of the genre. |
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Scientific Romances First and Second Series (2 Vols in 1) at Amazon Amazon Notes on Availability: This title usually ships within 3 to 4 weeks.  The Fourth Dimension (1904) at Amazon |
Scientific Romances, by
H. Hinton. Crowley remarked: "Valuable as an introduction to the study of
the Fourth Dimension."
(An
Excerpt, "A Picture of Our Universe" in e-text) (A complete translation into Japanese) From The Thelema Lodge Calendar: "Hinton was an English academic mathematician who lived from 1853 to 1907 e.v., devoting much of his energy to the popularization of fourth-dimensional concepts, especially for use in memory and modeling systems. He coined the term "tesseract" for the hypercube, and published a series of essays to explain its use in 1884-1886, which were afterwards collected as the Scientific Romances. Hinton saw his mission as the education of the imagination, working with a system of colored wooden blocks (which he designed and marketed) to illustrate concepts of "double-rotation" between dimensions. 'Start with the idea of your entire life as being a fixed object in 4-D space time, then imagine that while some second time lapses, your entire life gradually evolves into a different one.' " Here is an essay by Historian Bruce Clarke on Hinton's work. An Analysis of the stories from the e-mag Alive.
Eldritch
Press Site has e-text of many of Hinton's work, including The
Fourth Dimension. Their biography of Hinton reads: "Charles H. Hinton, (1853-1907), invented a gun used
in baseball batting practice. [Harper's Weekly, Mar. 20, 1897, 301-2.] He
is also known for his speculations on the fourth dimension. He married a
daughter of logician George Boole, but was forced to leave England after a
bigamy conviction. An instructor of mathematics at Princeton (fired) and
assistant professor at Minnesota, he served at the Naval Observatory and
as patent examiner in Washington. There he died suddenly when asked to
give a toast to "female philosophers" at the Society of Philanthropic
Inquiry meeting." |
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Illustrated Works: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, the Hunting of the Snark (Literary Classics) (Note from Sr. Petra: A great edition with super illustrations)
The
following box is a list of |
Alice in Wonderland, Alice Through the Looking
Glass, and The Hunting of the Snark,
by Lewis Carroll. Crowley remarked: "Valuable to those who understand the
Qabalah."
(Project
Gutenberg e-text of Alice in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, and Hunting of the Snark.) From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "Section Two returns to Wonderland this month; our meeting will be devoted to Lewis Carroll's Alice books, along with The Hunting of the Snark. The mid-Victorian Oxford mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who published Alice to world-wide acclaim in 1865 and 1872 (the Snark following in 1876), brought a careful and complex sense of play to the numbers inside his tales. Crowley's thrice repeated recommendation of these books as 'Valuable to those who understand the Qabalah' is more teasing than elucidating, and a comprehensive assessment of the Alice Qabalah is no simple task. Indeed, it was this very challenge with which our reading group began, and now after four years of investigation into the literature of suggestion we're back for another look. We'll have to deal with being 9 feet high, having 10 hour lessons, and entering a 15 inch door, as well as abiding by Rule 42. Carroll's Qabalah is not limited to figures and sums, for it also includes proportions and alternate methods of counting. It encompasses the system of playing cards in Wonderland and the chess game beyond the Looking Glass. And it extends in all directions into nonsense, though not into chaos or gibberish or vacancy, for Carroll's nonsense is that of a perfect calculating system without any exterior references to give it relation or significance. In Qabalah, however, nothing is without reference: 'Humpty Dumpty is of course the Egg of Spirit, and the wall is the Abyss -- his 'fall' is therefore the descent of spirit into matter; and it is only too painfully familiar to us that all the king's horses and all his men cannot restore us to the height. Only the King Himself can do that! But one can hardly comment upon a theme which has been so fruitfully treated by Ludovicus Carolus, the most holy illuminated man of God. His masterly treatment of the identity of the three reciprocating paths of Daleth, Teth, and Pe, is one of the most wonderful passages in the Holy Qabalah. His resolution of what we take to be the bond of slavery into very love, the embroidered neckband of honour bestowed upon us by the King himself, is one of he most sublime passages in this class of literature' -- from the 'Interlude' in Book Four, part two.There is an interesting essay, entitled "A Theory of Qabalah and Magic -- Part One: Toward a New Definition of the Qabalah" by Nun Tzaddi 950 copyright 1997, on the Magus Books website, which discusses the Qabalah in various art works, including Lewis Carroll's. There is an odd but compelling web page comparing quotes out of Alice to the The Path between Kether and Tiphareth (1 to 6), by a woman who calls herself "An Implicate Empath in the Sun, and who provides several other pages about the Qabalah. (Tripod member, so beware Pop-ups!) As a tangent, here is a review of the Wonderland Tarot deck, at All Things Tarot, and more pictures at the "Official Wonderland Tarot Site." The Sirius-Beta site discusses how various logicians and theologians to analyze language, including using the Qabalah, and describes a new Qabalah system. Among other things, they describe the system this way: "Our simple metaphoric devices are collected in what we call GeoKabbalitter1. They are:
and to a lesser extent:
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"
The Arabian Nights(Burton Translation) at Amazon
Husain Haddawy (Introduction), Muhsin Mahdi (Editor) which really captures the Arab flavor of the stories (Sr. Petra) Finally, if you like Audiobooks, Sr. Petra and her son have really enjoyed this edition, read by male and female Arab native speakers:
[ABRIDGED] by Raad Rawi (Reader), Souad Faress (Reader), N. J. Dawood (Translator)
of Dawood Translation at Amazon In the box below are links to other works by and about Burton, and analyses of his works. If you click on a link, a new window will open. |
The Arabian Nights, translated by either Sir
Richard Burton or John Payne. Crowley remarked: "Valuable as a storehouse
of oriental Magick-lore."
E-text of
the Burton translation, from the Sacred Texts
Society. "Aeladdin and the Enchanted Lamp", e-text of Payne Translation Tales from the Arabic, e-text of the Payne Translation, which include some of the Thousand Night stories and also some other tales. From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "We will continue with the 'suggestive' books, devoting an evening to oriental narrative with Burton's Arabian Nights. This collection is far too extensive for a single evening's survey, but many of the tales are familiar, and if you have a favorite, or have time to sample a few of them, your suggestions will be welcome. We hope to read a tale or two together, and share our impressions of the collection. "Sir Richard Frances Burton's sixteen volume translation of Alf Laylah Wa Laylah assembles a comprehensive collection of the Islamic storytelling traditions of the middle ages, under the name of The Thousand Nights and a Night. The volumes were issued "to subscribers only" between 1885 and 1888. Along with the stories themselves, which Burton first dared print uncensored in their details of erotic lore and carnal magick, more than ten per-cent of the work consists of the translator's commentary and notes. Burton ranks among the greatest travelers, conversationalists, geographers, linguists, and ethnographers of his century, and was also profoundly experienced in several traditions of spiritual discipline (including initiation as a Kamil or Sufi Master, entry into a Sikh worship circle, and a full appreciation for the secret world of Islam from the inside). Devoting the last thirty years of his life to the Nights, Burton supplied a wealth of data from the world of the stories, enough to qualify him easily as the Gnostic saint of footnotes." Amazon Reviewers say about the Burton Translation: "Full of mischief, valor, ribaldry, and romance, The Arabian Nights has enthralled readers for centuries. These are the tales that saved the life of Shahrazad, whose husband, the king, executed each of his wives after a single night of marriage. Beginning an enchanting story each evening, Shahrazad always withheld the ending: A thousand and one nights later, her life was spared forever. This volume reproduces the 1932 Modern Library edition, for which Bennett A. Cerf chose the most famous and representative stories from Sir Richard F. Burton's multivolume translation, and includes Burton's extensive and acclaimed explanatory notes. These tales, including Aladdin; or, the Wonderful Lamp, Sinbad the Seaman and Sinbad the Landsman, and Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, have entered into the popular imagination, demonstrating that Shahrazad's spell remains unbroken." Amazon Reviewers Say (about the new edition): "Haddawy uses Muhsin Mahdi's widely accepted, recent, definitive edition, which is based on the 14th-century Syrian manuscript to form the first serious translation into English in more than a century." Scholar Jeff Leach says of the Dawood Translation (Audiobook source): "This book is a selection of the choicest tales from the Thousand and One Nights. The translator, N.J. Dawood, also translated the Koran for the Penguin Classics series. Dawood explains in the introduction that the first of these tales appeared in a written form around 850 C.E., in a book called, 'A Thousand Legends.' More tales, of lesser quality, were added over the years until an anonymous editor in Cairo finally codified them in the 18th century. A French version of some of the stories appeared in the 17th century, and was followed by several English versions in the 19th century; the best known adaptation came from Sir Richard Burton, in 10 volumes. The stories are a mix of Arabic, Persian, and Indian tales and appear to have been written in response to classical Arabic literature. The Arabs do not consider them part of the classic canon, and after reading these stories, I can see why. They are aggressive and highly sexualized, and are loaded with sorcery, fantasy, and criticism of authority figures. "Whatever their origins and means of transmission, these are excellent and entertaining stories. I cannot think of one tale in this selection that I did not like. Included in the book is the instantly recognizable Aladdin story, as well as the Sinbad voyages. Other tales are just as interesting: 'The Tale of the Hunchback,' 'The Tale of Judar and his Brothers,' 'The Porter and the Three Girls of Baghdad,' and many others. Many of these stories are cycles; they have stories within stories, as characters in one story tell their own stories. At the end of the cycle, the story is cleverly wrapped up, usually with a happy ending. I do not think I need to go into detail about Aladdin or Sinbad, except to say that I was surprised to see Aladdin described as Chinese. Providing details to these stories would be useless anyway because they are so detailed as to be impervious to summary. "There is no doubt that many of these stories started as oral stories, and retained that shape into the written versions. The best example is the Sinbad cycle. All of the stories in this cycle are framed in the same way. This repetition made it easier to memorize the stories, or at least the basic outline. A good storyteller could take the frame and fill in the blanks with whatever his heart desired. You often see this kind of writing in the Bible. "Social roles and class play a large part in these stories. Women are presented as wily and dangerous, but not always. Several stories show men trying to pull fast ones on the ladies, with the results much to the detriment of the men. Many stories show how the high and mighty come crashing down, or how the lowly are elevated to great status. These movements are attributed to the grace or condemnation of Allah, and the characters all act out their movements with Allah close by. "You will not go wrong with this book. These are immensely entertaining stories for both children and adults, although you might want to find a toned down version for the kiddies. Why? I am thinking about the tale where a man and some women play 'name that body part.' My only criticism of this version is that the tale of 'Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves' is absent. I have no idea why it is missing, but the book loses one star for this grave omission." |
 Malory's Le Morte D' Arthur: King Arthur and the Legends of the Round Table Keith Baines, Trs. Robert Graves, Intro.
 The Sword and the Circle Rosemary Sutcliff's juvenile edition
to Malory: Reading the Morte D'Arthur (Arthurian Studies, 20) Terence McCarthy, ed.
The Image of the Vessel in the Queste Del Saint Graal and Malory's Tale of the Sankgreal by Anne Marie D'Arcy (A new book discussing the Search for the Grail and Grail imagery in various Grail-quest stories.)
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Morte d'Arthur, by Sir
Thomas Mallory. Crowley remarked, "Valuable as a storehouse of occidental
Magick-lore."
From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "The Section Two reading group will be looking this
month at the last and greatest achievement of the medieval romance
tradition of Arthur, the archetypal King of Britain, as collected and
translated in the mid-fifteenth century by Sir Thomas Mallory. Join us for
a discussion of the myth and magic of the Arthurian world, with selected
readings from one of the greatest early masters of narrative prose in our
language. Collecting most of his stories from the elaborate French prose
romances of Arthur's knights, Mallory concentrated on their essential
elements, organizing them in dynamic progressions (as in a novel) instead
of interweaving brief incidents in the tapestry fashion of the romances.
Although his view of the supernatural tends to skepticism, his
presentation of the magical aspects of the story is intensified by the
direct precise details of the marvels he does recount. Malory's Works, written during many years of imprisonment
following a career of violent outlawry, do not make a single unified Arthuriad, but a sequence of tales, unified in
style and manner rather than in design and structure. The splendors of
chivalric fraternity which he presents are among the core values of
western civilization, but he recounts them with a haunting undertone of
elegy, a sense of approaching ruin and of the fall of princes, which
reminds us often of the proximity of chaos." E-text at the Sacred Texts site. (Arthur Rackham edition.) Painting by Carrick (Known as a Celtic Twilight Artist) E-text and Beardsley illustrations by Caxton. Selfknowledge.com's e-text and Biography and portraits of Mallory. The Luminarium has a lot of essays and materials on Malory's version of Arthur, as well as discussions on the magical meanings of some of the stories. Go to the Search page and enter "Malory" . Here is a brief excerpt from their biography of Malory: "Sir Thomas Malory of Newbold Revel in Warwickshire "was born into a gentry family that had lived for centuries in the English Midlands near the point where Warwickshire, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire meet. His father, John Malory, was an esquire with land in all three counties, but was primarily a Warwickshire man, being twice sheriff, five times M.P. and for many years a justice of the peace for that county. John married Philippa Chetwynd... and they had at least three daughters, and one son, Thomas, who was probably born within a year either way of 1416" "Of Sir Thomas Malory’s early years, "almost nothing is known." As a young man of 23, records reveal that he was a "respectable country landowner with a growing interest in politics". He "dealt in land, witnessed deeds for his neighbours, acted as a parliamentary elector, and by 1441 had become a knight" <...> "The year 1449 "was a time of increasing division and unrest in the country, which was eventually to lead to civil war". Up to this time, Malory’s life seems to have all the markings of a traditional country gentleman, but then "with the new decade," observes Field, "Malory’s life, for no known reason, underwent a startling change". What this change entailed is obvious from the following account, but the impetus behind it remains enigmatic, although party politics, as usual, may have played a pivotal role. "On January 4, 1450, "[Malory] and 26 other armed men were said to have laid an ambush for [the Duke of] Buckingham in the Abbot of Combe's woods near Newbold Revel" (116). On May 23, 1450, Malory "allegedly rapes Joan Smith at Coventry. The charge is not of abduction but of rape in the modern sense: it says cum ea carnaliter concubit, ‘he carnally lay with her.’ It was, however, brought not by Joan under common law, but by her husband under a statute of Richard II intended to make elopement into rape even when the woman consented.". "On March 5, 1451, a warrant is issued for his arrest, and a few weeks later "he and various accomplices were alleged to have stolen cattle in Warwickshire -- 7 cows, 2 calves, 335 sheep, and a cart worth 22 pounds at Cosford, Warwickshire (116-22). Buckingham, taking with him 60 men from Warwickshire, attempts to apprehend Malory, but "in the meantime Malory apparently raided Buckingham's hunting lodge, killed his deer, and did an enormous amount of damage" -- 500 pounds worth. "<...>Malory’s adventures continued. He was "bailed out several times, and on one occasion seems to have joined an old crony on a horse-stealing expedition across East Anglia that ended in Colchester jail. He escaped from there too, ‘using swords, daggers, and langues-de-boeuf’ (a kind of halberd), but was recaptured and returned to prison in London. After this date he was shifted frequently from prison to prison, and the penalties put on his jailers for his secure keeping reached a record for medieval England". "During Henry VI's insanity, when the Duke of York was Lord Protector, Malory was given a royal pardon," which the court dismissed. Once the Yorkists invaded in 1460 and had expelled the Lancastrians, Malory was "freed and pardoned. He was never tried on any of the charges brought against him". |
Gargantua and PantagruelBurton Raffel, Trans. at Amazon
Gargantua & Pantagruel J. M. Cohen, Trans. at Amazon Click here for other books by and about Rabelais at Amazon. A new window will open when you click. |
The Works of Francois Rabelais. Crowley
remarked: "Invaluable for Wisdom."
Here is a
link to online texts of Gargantua and Pantagruel, from the
Gutenberg project, both in French and English translations. From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "The Thelema Lodge Section Two group will be reading this month from the Works of François Rabelais, the five books of Gargantua and Pantagruel, written in the 1530s and '40s, and recommended to aspirants of the A.'. A.'. as 'invaluable for wisdom.' Join Caitlin to examine selected passages from this series of gigantic prose satires, including the original Thelemites in the first 'Abbey of Thelema,' as well as the virtues of 'the herb Pantagruelion' (hemp). The wonderful illustrations by Gustav Doré will also be on hand. "Although the life of this Gnostic Saint cannot be exactly dated, Rabelais' adulthood covered the first half of the sixteenth century of the last aeon. He entered the Franciscan order as a boy, transferred as a monk to the Benedictines, then left the monastery to pursue an academic career, becoming a doctor of medicine in 1537 while also ordained as a secular priest. His first great work of comic storytelling was Pantagruel, which when published in 1532 revealed Rabelais as the master of a whole new world of comic wisdom and characterization, for which he immediately became widely known. Various later installments, some successful, others censored and unpublishable in those repressive times, or abandoned incomplete, followed for the remainder of his life. "In the words of the literary historian M. A. Screech, the foundation of Rabelais' comic universe was his ideal for a new style of spiritual alignment, individually and communally, which gradually became established as one of the dominant styles of Christian life. Gargantua contrasts superstition with Evangelism and, in the Abbey of Thelema ('will'), opposes the monastic ideal with a free society of noble Evangelicals, living under self-discipline in a community where riches and beauty are good and marriage the norm.' " From the 11/2001 Thelema Lodge Calendar: " 'Faictz ce que vouldras.' In a return to the core curriculum of the original A.'. A.'. bibliography, our Section Two reading group meets this month in appreciation of the Gnostic saint and Thelemic forerunner François Rabelais. His five encyclopedic books of scholastic, social and religious satire were written in the 1530s and '40s, negotiating the complex politics between various secular and ecclesiastical authorities in France. Stringing together his endless sequence of anecdotes are the characters of Gargantua, Pantagruel, and Panurge, whom we follow at their oversized adventures in a leisurely romance fashion, amid a great deal of drinking and destruction, throughout the messy, desperate world of Renaissance France. Bring any of the multitude of translations which you may have been using (the old French original being extraordinarily difficult), and we will compare their virtues in pursuit of this enjoyable, extensive, and problematic text. "Nothing is known of his childhood, but Rabelais lived to be about sixty years old at his death in 1553. His education and early vocation was molded within two of the great orders of religion, first the Franciscan and afterwards the Benedictine, which he left to practice as a physician before pursuing his mature career as a writer, courtier, and humanist. Over the last two decades of his life Rabelais published a miscellany of narratives, commentary, and catalogues in which he satirized the excesses of his age. Its multiple volumes addressed a vast range of concerns, and were not collected into a single book until the posthumous edition of 1567. When his first great satiric adventure of Pantagruel appeared in 1532 it was formally condemned as obscene and sacrilegious by a committee of theologians at the Sorbonne. Then, following it up in 1534 with another rambunctious ramble entitled Gargantua (a 'prequel' to the earlier book, which it precedes in collected editions), Rabelais again had to run for cover to his powerful ecclesiastical and royal patrons in order to avoid the heat. In fact, each of his subsequent volumes stirred up enormous trouble, and there is evidence that he spent time in prison toward the end of his life, although before long strings were pulled to get him out. "With his huge range of interests Rabelais was one of the great minds of the Renaissance, and in the Abbey of Thelema he looked forward into our own new aeon with a vision of cultivated equality and integrated scholarship, constituted under the sole rule of 'Do what thou wilt.' 'Rabelais was a great adept, a sort of prophet of Thelema,' Crowley wrote late in 1926 e.v. to preface his essay on 'The Antecedents of Thelema,' in which he credits 'the sublime Doctor' for setting forth 'in essence the Law of Thelema, very much as it is understood by the Master Therion himself.' Earlier Crowley had afforded Rabelais pride of place at the conclusion to the magical education of his 'son' Frater Achad as outlined in Liber Aleph, where the final enigmatic lesson concerns Panurge's oracle of the bottle and its supremely magical password, 'Trinc'." |
 Kasidah (1924 edition) at Amazon  Kasidah (1991 edition) at Amazon And, here's a list of other books at Amazon by and about Burton. A new window will open if you click on any list below. |
Kasidah of Haji Abdu El-Yezdi
(1924) , by Sir Richard Burton. Crowley remarked: "Valuable as a
summary of philosophy."
Links in
the text below are to online e-texts of the various works. From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "Soror Phoenix will lead us in a discussion of the philosophical poem by Gnostic Saint Sir Richard Francis Burton, The Kasîdah. Published pseudonymous in 1880, these couplets are written in the Sufi style of meditative verse for which the Arabic term is qasida. Burton probably wrote the verses over an extended period, beginning in 1853 while in recuperation from his daring pilgrimage to Mecca, and they express a unique syncretic religious attitude combining elements that Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî --- Burton's magical name as a Yezidi Abdullah (leader) and Islamic pilgrim (hajji) --- had explored in his many and varied encounters with spiritual communities and sacred writings. The poem, in its author's description, presents 'an Eastern Version of Humanitarianism, blended with the skeptical, or as we may now say, the scientific habit of mind.' " The Sacred Texts Site says this about Burton: This was written by Sir Richard Burton under the pseudonym of Hâjî Abdû El-Yezdî after his return from Mecca in 1854. Observant readers will note that the Kasîdah contains many references to 19th Century scientific and philosophical concepts, most notably the evolution of species. Nonetheless, it is a Sufi text to the core, and one of the few instances of Burton writing in the first person about his belief system, albeit under the cloak of pseudonymity. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, a Kasidah is a classical Arabic or Persian panegyric, which must begin with a reference to a forsaken campground, followed by a lament, and a prayer to ones comrades to halt while the memory of the departed dwellers is invoked. The same rhyme has to run through the entire composition, not matter how long the poem is. And, Drexel University says this about the period of his life when he wrote this poem: "In 1872 Burton [image] was assigned to Trieste as consul. He wrote extensively there: travel (Iceland, India, and Africa), archaeology (Italy), his own poetry (The Kasidah), and translations of Italian, Roman, Persian poetry, and six volumes of Camoens. He brought the erotica of the East in an unexpurgated form (The Perfumed Garden, The Ananga Ranga, and The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana) to the staid Victorian world, shocking and outraging them. Burton received some measure of acclaim in his later years. Queen Victoria awarded him the honor of Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George for his service to England. Burton died in Trieste on October 20, 1890. Immediately following his death, his wife burned his diaries and current manuscripts, and followed that up with her own whitewashed version of his life, depicting him as a good Catholic, faithful husband, and wronged and misunderstood adventurer. Rebuffed as unfit to be buried in Westminster Abbey with Livingstone, Burton was later buried at Mortlake [image] in London." Another brief Biography of Burton at the Invisible Basilica.William Reddy's analysis of the Kasidah, including excerpts. A Discussion of the Kasidah, in Spanish, as "The last voyage of Sir Richard Burton." For your viewing pleasure, a site offering an animated version of the Kama Sutra. And, a nice selected list of Burton's online works. |
 "Song Celestial" or Bhagavad-Gita, 1885 1991 edition at Amazon The Song Celestial hardcover 1985 edition at Amazon. And here is a list of other translations of the Bhagavad-Gita available from Amazon. A new window will open when you click on one of these links. |
Song Celestial or Bhagavad-Gita, 1885, by Sir
Edwin Arnold. Crowley remarked: "'The Bhagavad-Gita" in verse."
From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: The Song Celestial, Sir Edwin Arnold's Victorian blank-verse translation
of the Bhagavad-Gita. Join Caitlin for a look into one of the earliest
popularly available English versions of the basic text of Vedanta,
excerpted from the Sanskrit Mahabharata. Following his earlier success
with a poetic retelling of the life of the Buddha in 1879 (providing the
first popular exposure to those doctrines among English readers) he
repeated the same strategy over the following decade, producing poetic
versions of Hindu and Islamic texts which had been little known except
among linguistic specialists and esoteric groups. The Song Celestial appeared in 1886, and has been
frequently reprinted as a curiosity, but as it does not seem to be
currently in print, the lodgemaster will have some Xerox copies available
for readers unable to turn it up in the used book shops." Fordham University presents this introduction to the Arnold translation: "During the centuries in which Buddhism was establishing itself in the east of India, the older Brahmanism in the west was undergoing the changes which resulted in the Hinduism which is now the prevailing religion of India. The main ancient sources of information with regard to these Hindu beliefs and practises are the two great epics, the "Ramayana" and the Maha Bharata. The former is a highly artificial production based on legend and ascribed to one man, Valmiki. The latter, a "huge conglomeration of stirring adventure, legend, myth, history, and superstition," is a composite production, begun probably as early as the fourth or fifth century before Christ, and completed by the end of the sixth century of our era. It represents many strata of religious belief. "The Bhagavad-Gita," of which a translation is here given, occurs as an episode in the Maha-Bharata, and is regarded as one of the gems of Hindu literature. The poem is a dialogue between Prince Arjuna, the brother of King Yudhisthira, and Vishnu, the Supreme God, incarnated as Krishna, and wearing the disguise of a charioteer. The conversation takes place in a war-chariot, stationed between the armies of the Kauravas and Pandavas, who are about to engage in battle. "To the Western reader much of the discussion seems childish and illogical; but these elements are mingled with passages of undeniable sublimity. Many of the more puzzling inconsistencies are due to interpolations by later re-writers. "It is," says Hopkins, "a medley of beliefs as to the relation of spirit and matter, and other secondary matters; it is uncertain in its tone in regard to the comparative efficacy of action and inaction, and in regard to the practical man's means of salvation; but it is at one with itself in its fundamental thesis, that all things are each a part of one Lord, that men and gods are but manifestations of the One Divine Spirit." After this introduction follows their translation of the text.The Theosophical University Online has a complete e-text. The Sirtis Website has another version. |
 The Light of Asia at Amazon There is another hardcover version which came out in 2000, but it is generally unavailable at online bookstores.  With an introduction by Sangharakshita |
The Light of Asia , by
Sir Edwin Arnold. Crowley remarked: "An account of the attainment of
Gotama Buddha."
From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "This 'account of the attainment of Gautama Buddha'
takes the form of a vigorous Victorian verse epic, and was originally
published in 1879. The story of Siddhartha, the Indian prince who achieved
illumination as the Buddha and taught the Middle Path of righteousness, is
retold from several sources in a poetic version for English readers, which
helped introduce concepts such as 'Nirvana,' 'Dharma,' and 'Karma' to our
language. We will be reading selected passages from the poem's eight
books, and discussing them in the context of the imperial British
fascination with artifacts of the ancient spiritual cultures of Asia and
Africa." The Boston Friends of the Western Buddhist Order site says of the work: "This inspiring poem, though written more than a hundred years ago, retains the power to move us in a way that no prose rendering of the life of the Buddha can. We cannot but admire the courage, determination, and self-sacrifice of the Indian prince who, out of compassion, left the palace to find a remedy for the suffering of the world. Since its first publication, The Light of Asia has inspired many to learn more about Buddhism and to put its teachings into practice." The Theosophical University Online has a complete e-text. The Dharma Society has another version online. |
 Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries at Amazon. Here is a list of other books carried by Amazon by and about Jennings. If you click on one of the links below, a new window will open.
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Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries , by
Hargrave Jennings. Crowley remarked: "Valuable to those who can read
between the lines."
From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: "We will be
reading from and discussing the significance of two classic volumes of
Victorian Rosicrucian scholarship, by Hargrave Jennings and Arthur Edward
Waite. The first, written by a Gnostic saint, is recommended as 'valuable
to those who can read between the lines.' The Rosicrucians: Their Rites and Mysteries,
first published in 1870, went through several successful editions, despite
being considered by scholars and critics as inaccurate, poorly organized,
and unrealistic. The young A. E. Waite, writing in Walford's Antiquarian
Magazine, reviewed its third edition in 1887, and ended up
pronouncing it a 'worthless book.' In the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition, No. 1, Autumnal Equinox 2001, in an article entitled "The Influence of Egypt on the Modern Western Mystery Tradition: The Hermetic Brotherhood of Luxor" by Samuel Scarborough, writes of the forming of the Rosicrucian order: "The order was very similar to the later Golden Dawn in that it had both an Outer Order or Circle and an Inner Circle. The function of this "Outer Circle" of the H. B. of L. was to offer a correspondence course on practical occultism, which set it apart from the Theosophical Society. Its curriculum included a number of selections from the writings of Hargrave Jennings and Paschal Beverly Randolph. Hargrave Jennings was a prominent Rosicrucian in Europe who wrote The Rosicrucians, Their Rites and Mysteries, in 1870, one of he most influential books on the Rosicrucians to have been written at that time. It is known that Jennings was initiated into a Rosicrucian Order around 1860, possibly by Kenneth R. H. McKenzie, a famous Mason and occultist of the time. Randolph was free African-American sex magician and Spiritualist of the mid-19th Century. Randolph traveled throughout the United States lecturing on such subjects as Abolition, and as a Spiritualist. He also traveled throughout England, Europe, and the Near East, including Egypt, studying both Hermetism and Rosicrucianism. It appears that Hargrave Jennings initiated Randolph into the Rosicrucians while Randolph was in Europe. In about 1860 he originated a magickal order known as the Brotherhood of Eulis. He later reformed the group in 1874, the year before his death, as the Triplicate Order Rosicruciae, Pythianae, and Eluis." The Theosophical University Press Online published a letter from H. P. Blavatsky. Here is an excerpt concerning this work: "The ablest book that was ever written on Symbols and Mystic Orders, is most certainly Hargrave Jennings' The Rosicrucians, and yet it has been repeatedly called "obscure trash" in my presence, and that too, by individuals who were most decidedly well-versed in the rites and mysteries of modern Freemasonry. Persons who lack even the latter knowledge, can easily infer from this, what would be the amount of information they might derive from still more obscure and mystical works than the latter; for if we compare Hargrave Jennings' book with some of the mediaeval treatises and ancient works of the most noted Alchemists and Magi, we might find the latter as much more obscure than the former -- as regards language -- as a pupil in celestial Philosophy would the Book of the Heavens, if he should examine a far distant star with the naked eye, rather than with the help of a powerful telescope." The Gallery of Rosicrucian Images has the Arthurian Round Table image from Jenning's book. The "Mystae" site has a series of essays on Rosicrucian imagery, including Jennings. No complete online e-text has been found. |
 Real History of the Rosicrucians at Amazon
Real History of the Rosicrucians Garber Communications (Anthroposophic Press, 1982) |
Real History of the
Rosicrucians, by A. E. Waite. Crowley remarked: "A good vulgar piece
of journalism on the subject."
From the Thelema Lodge Calendar: [See the note above]
"Waite's own first volume of occult
scholarship (his 'digest' of the work of Eliphas Levi entitled The Mysteries of Magic), had enjoyed modest
success when published the previous year by George Redway, and on the
strength of the review Redway now hired Waite to prepare a rival
Rosicrucian volume. The result, The Real History
of the Rosicrucians, 'founded on their own Manifestos, and on facts
and documents collected from the writings of Initiated Brethren,' was,
Crowley conceded, 'a good vulgar piece of journalism on the subject.' The
work had, however, been thrown together at top speed by an inexperienced
writer, rushing to meet the demands of Redway's marketing scheme, so that
sections were actually being set up in type immediately upon completion,
without opportunity for any redrafting or revision. Understandably, the
reviewers again found many errors and some poor writing in the book,
although it won some praise for historical method and critical
scholarship. "Waite's book was issued with jacket artwork obviously reminiscent of Jennings' book, and the word 'Real' was added to the title (at the last minute, and without Waite's approval) as a sort of challenge to Jennings. All this upset many who saw the 'Real' book as an attack on the mythos celebrated in the earlier study. Jennings, who had himself recently published a different book with George Redway (his well-known study Phallicism) felt betrayed, especially considering the poor reviews his Rosicrucian book was receiving, and it is reported that when the two men chanced to meet in Pall Mall in London, Jennings yelled at Redway 'Et tu, Bruté!' " An article at the Antiquillum site, entitled "THE PURE BRETHREN OF BASRA: Isma'ili, Yezidi, Sufi", quotes extensively from the Waite work. Biography of Waite (in Spanish) The Rosicrucian Archives have posted an essay entitled Bacon & The Rose Cross which discusses Rosicrucian imagery and quotes extensively from Waite. "Master Mason" site lists all the works of Waite related to Freemasonry. |
 The Memoirs of Casanova, Volume II at Amazon.  Great God Pan with an introduction by M. P. Shiel (Ed Aug. 2002) at Amazon  The Great God Pan with Austin Spare (Illustrator), Jan 1995 ed. at Amazon. The Heptameron : tales and novels of Queen Marguerite of Navarre available used through Amazon  The Pleasure of Discernment: Marguerite de Navarre as Theologian by Carol Thysell, Nov 2000 at Amazon Here is a listing of many of the books Amazon carries by Machen. The titles will change from time to time. A new window will open when you click on a link. |
The Works of Arthur
Machen. Crowley remarked: "Most of these stories are of great magical
interest."
Links
below are to the e-texts of the work mentioned. From The Thelema Lodge Calendar: "Machen was the pen name of Arthur Llewellyn Jones (1863-1947), born into a clerical and intellectual Welsh family which was for a time too impoverished to pay the fees for his schooling, although in the 1890s an inheritance freed him to devote his time to literature. He published several important translations, including The Heptameron of Queen Marguerite of Navarre (1886) and twelve volumes of The Memoirs of Casanova (1894), which appeared in the same year as his first widely-known fictional work, a novella called The Great God Pan. In addition to novels and stories, he occupied himself with various journalistic and dramatic enterprises, until by the 1920s he had become quite well known, and his Works were collected in nine volumes. It is very likely this edition which Crowley had in mind when he recommended The Works of Arthur Machen to A.'. A.'. aspirants in the Section Two reading list. Machen was an active occultist, and was initiated into the Golden Dawn on 21st November 1899 as Frater Avallaunius. Over the following five years he attained at least to the grade of Practicus in the original Isis-Urania Temple, and he later described the Order (changing the name to the 'Twilight Star') in his autobiography Things Near and Far (1923). He carried on a friendly correspondence with A. E. Waite for most of their lives, and attended the Second Convocation of Waite's 'Independent and Rectified Rite' in April 1904 e.v." The Order of the Twilight Star has an e-text called Arthur Machen on the Kabbalah,. which is an excerpt from Things Near and Far, and about which they say "May be the only passage where Machen discusses the Kabbalah in any depth". It has some nice illustrations. They also excerpt Chapter 10 of Things Near and Far, which is about "The order of the Twilight Star." The Friends of Arthur Machen say about him: "Machen's work, both fiction and non-fiction, enjoyed high prestige both in Britain and America in the early part of this century, but the rise of modernist taste in fiction led to som |
