Suster's sober study of Aleister Crowley does much to deflate the many rumors that surround his life. The book is divided into four sections. The first is a very straightforward biography of Crowley's life. The second addresses many of the scandals and legends surrounding Crowley, unfortunately shattering one of his most interesting tendencies—hyperbole. Section three introduces practices that influenced Crowley, such as magick, yoga, poetry and drugs. The final section provides many examples of Crowley's enduring influence and popularity. Suster provides a selection of photographs that showcase Crowley's protean ability to change his appearance. This is a good introductory book on Crowley for either students of the occult or just the interested observer. The only drawback is that Suster seems so bent on deglamorizing Crowley that he takes one of the most idiosyncratic characters of the first half of the 20th century and renders him dull and ordinary. MM

Publisher: Weiser
Paperback: 224 pages
Illustrated

This book is a collection of small essays on Crowley's very personal system of magick. He wrote them in New York, where he lived penniless at the end of the First World War. Although this collection was never published in his lifetime, he intended for it to be a magickal guide for the son he thought was prophesied in The Book of The Law. The title alone indicates the tone of what the reader can expect. The essays are written in a deliberate and sometimes unreadable archaic fashion and are arranged like the essays of Francis Bacon except that instead of “Of Discourse” there is “On the Black Brothers.” Crowley, however, remains a good deal more succinct than Bacon, even when trying to be hopelessly archaic in his writing style. MM

Publisher: Weiser
Paperback: 254 pages

Although this novel lacks the cohesiveness of The Diary of a Drug Fiend, there are several amusing facets to it. Cyril Grey is a very Crowleyesque “magician” who persuades Lisa la Giuffria to bear the Moonchild. Feuding orders of magicians litter the scene and provide a great satire of many of the people in the Golden Dawn whom Crowley scorned. These bits of satire are reason enough to read the entire book, especially his description of William Butler Yeats, whom Crowley detested and felt was a horrible poet (horrible, despite the fact that Crowley himself wrote reams of truly bad poetry). Another interesting section provides insight into the use of correspondences in the practice of ritual magic. As Lisa gestates, she is surrounded with everything associated with the moon. “She lived almost entirely upon milk, and cream, and cheese soft-curdled and mild, with little crescent cakes made of rye with the whiteness of egg and cane sugar; as for meat, venison, as sacred to the huntress Artemis, was her only dish.” As might be expected for anyone with such a bland and unvaried diet, nothing much interesting happens to Miss la Giuffria, not that anything much could as Crowley insists on reminding us that women's minds are “mob rule.” To the general relief of the reader, the characters part and go their separate ways, which is about the only satisfying conclusion to this unresolved work. MM

Publisher: Weiser
Paperback: 336 pages

This slim volume is a reprint of an article from Crowley's journal The Equinox. The sparse description of the cards and their attributions is a great mnemonic device for those already acquainted with Crowley's vision of the Tarot. But those unacquainted with the Tarot or Crowley's unique take on it are best advised to begin with The Book of Thoth, which outlines his ideas in a more thorough manner. The entire contents of this book is included in the weightier Book of Thoth. MM/ES

Publisher: Weiser
Paperback: 72 pages

This book and its companion volume, The Great Secret, comprise the last works of Levi. Born Alphonse Luis Constant in 1810, Levi’s enthusiasm for religion and scholarly pursuits was so great that he entered the seminary at 25 to pursue the priesthood. Although ordained a deacon, he abandoned the goal of priesthood upon realizing his inability to accept celibacy. His career as a scholar and writer brought him greater notoriety as one of the architects of the 19th-century occult revival in France and England. His Dogme et Ritual de la Haute Magie and Histoire de la Magie inspired the work of countless other authors, including Waite’s turgid prose and Crowley’s humorous word-play. The Book of Splendours has as its first part Levi’s commentary on the Zohar, a 13th-century work of Jewish mysticism, by Moses de Leon. Levi effortlessly weaves into his narrative the Hiramic legend of masonry and Krishna. He continues the tradition of a syncretic view of the Kabbalah seen in earlier works of Mirandola and Ruechlin. That view of the Kabbalah, which blends Judaism, Christianity and the pantheons of several polytheistic systems, is perhaps now better known than the historical Kabbalah written of by Gershom Scholem and Moshe Idel. This book remains a lasting testament to Levi’s influence in shaping contemporary occultism. MM

Publisher: Weiser
Paperback: 191 pages

“The Bible… contains numberless obscure and mysterious passages which are utterly unintelligible without some key wherewith to unlock their meaning. That key is given in the Kabbalah.” Medieval alchemists and mystics searched for clues in every letter of the Bible and produced an abundance of Kabbalistic interpretations. The present translation is particularly useful for those interested in the occult and the metaphysical because three Kabbalistic works of paramount importance are included: the Zohar, the Greater Holy Assembly, and the Lesser Holy Assembly, all leading to the proof: “Each effect has a cause and everything which has order and design has a governor.” MET

Publisher: Weiser
Paperback: 388 pages

Dion Fortune’s most famous work is required reading for all students of the mystic and energetic arts. The book’s basic mission is to explain the Tree of Life, the most important symbol in Kabbalistic magic and meditation. Fortune is from the Golden Dawn school of Kabbalism, in the tradition of MacGregor Mathers and Aleister Crowley, whom she references. This is very high magic, rooted in pre-Christian rabbinical ritual. An often-recommended path for magic students is to begin with Kabbalah forms before progressing to more pagan and arcane systems. GE

Publisher: Weiser
Paperback: 320 pages

Of the handful of books which cover the relationship between the occult and its influence on Nazi Germany, this one remains one of the most thoroughly entertaining accounts. The description of a desperate and frustrated young Adolf in Vienna gazing raptly at the Spear of Longinus at the Hofburg Museum between artistic bouts of creating kitschy, sentimental watercolors is priceless. Better still is his victorious re-entry into the city in order to claim the mystic relic, which supposedly was the spear which pierced Jesus’ side. And then there is the strange Thule Gesellschaft, the pseudo-magical order which Ravenscroft says initiated Hitler into the occult; Karl Haushofer’s strange brand of geopolitics; the forged Protocols of the Elders of Zion; Himmler’s occult SS bureau; black magic-homeopathy and Wagnerian imagery aplenty. Yes, this book reads like a novel, or better yet like some Indiana Jones adventure, with Rudolph Steiner as its hero… Despite the overblown, gee-whiz quality of the book, it is an intriguing illustration of just how popular the idea of personal identification with race was before World War II. Ravenscroft’s fast-paced narrative does have a good bibliography, but don’t expect this to be a scholarly tome. MM

Publisher: Weiser
Paperback: 400 pages
Illustrated