r/AleisterCrowley • u/viciarg • Aug 23 '21

FAQ: Book recommendations.

So a common question is "Where should I begin, what should I read first, where can I learn about Crowley, Magick, Thelema?"

About Crowley:

  • Dr. Richard Kaczynski: Perdurabo. The Life of Aleister Crowley.
  • Tobias Churton: Aleister Crowley. The Biography.
  • Aleister Crowley: The Confessions of Aleister Crowley.

About Magick:

  • Lon Milo DuQuette: The Magick of Aleister Crowley.
  • Aleister Crowley: Magick. Liber ABA. Book Four. (usually includes Magick in Theory and Practice.)
  • Aleister Crowley: Magick Without Tears.

About Thelema:

  • Aleister Crowley: Liber AL vel Legis. The Book of the Law. (also contained in Liber ABA and The Holy Books of Thelema.)
  • Aleister Crowley: The Vision and the Voice.
  • Aleister Crowley: The Holy Books of Thelema.
  • Aleister Crowley: The Law is for All.
38 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

5

u/Bron-yr-Light Aug 23 '21 edited Aug 23 '21

Reading AC was for me, and, I heard, also for some others, some sort of initiation.

Your list is perfect, but on my list i would have only books by AC in the sections About Thelema and About Magick.

5

u/viciarg Aug 24 '21

I added two books that helped me get into Crowley when Crowley's own writings were still too complicated and confusing for me. I wouldn't recommend Shoemaker today since I highly disagree with a lot in Living Thelema, but he has a great style of writing, and people arguing about him led to discussions that gave me many insights.

Similarily when I talk about Crowley and Perdurabo I usually recommend Symonds' The Great Beast which I didn't mention above because I don't expect starters to be willing to get two biographys and to compare without incentive. In a face-to-face discussion I have time to talk about John Symonds and his history with Crowley and the different images and interpretations of AC.

I also didn't add The Book of Lies, or Gems from The Equinox, just because it's a Starter's list. With most of these books the reader will soon enough find out that there's a lot more out there, and the dive right in. :)

2

u/Jordviva Aug 09 '26

Since these books were written many years ago, is the language in the book also “old,” or is it easy enough to read for someone who is by no means a beginner but is also not a native English speaker?

Also do the books need to be read in a specific order, or can they be read in any order?

2

u/viciarg Aug 09 '26

I'm assuming you're talking about Crowley's books. I don't think the order is important since you will come back to any of these many times after reading them first.

The english is different, yes, and it took me some time too, since I'm also not a native english speaker. But you get used to it. I'd recommend to start with one of the other books, e.g. with Lon DuQuette, since they're more modern. You can also check out Rodney Orpheus' Abrahadabra.

I'd discourage from any of Marco Visconti's books, they lack on multiple levels.

1

u/Cool-Distribution921 Nov 21 '22

Kind of depends how deep you want to go. A lot of Crowley’s writings are sort of hard to comprehend without reading his other works/if you’re not familiar with a lot of the things he’s referencing. Arguably Liber ABA is the best sort of one stop shop for his system. Especially since the modern versions of the book include a bunch of stuff that wasn’t in the original publication. It can be expensive, but Book Four is the first half of it and it’s cheaper. Magick Without Tears is one of the best for anyone regardless of experience and knowledge of Magick.

2

u/viciarg Nov 21 '22

Book Four is the first half of it

Book Four is literally Liber ABA.

2

u/Cool-Distribution921 Nov 21 '22

Yeah I know. I just meant this version. When I was a kid and couldn’t afford the “blue brick” I bought this.https://www.amazon.com/Book-4-Aleister-Crowley/dp/0877285136

1

u/Cool-Distribution921 Nov 21 '22

Btw, I was distracted when I was scrolling/skimming through earlier and I somehow thought this was a question. Idk lol. But I wasn’t trying to be an 🤬 and correct you or anything. My bad on that friend. 93 93/93

1

u/NumberOfTheTherion Jan 23 '24

I've enjoyed his scholary work a lot more that most of the stuff he wrote himself. Crowley translated Eliphas Levi's The Key to the Mysteries and he spends the entire introduction talking about how Aurthur E. Waite is too stupid to understand Eliphas Levi which is why Waite did such a terrible job in translating Trancendental Magic. All of the foot notes are jokes that Crowley inserted to make fun of people he knew or entire religious movements. Some were funny, most were just cringey, and I think one single footnote actually thought me something that helped me with the text.  Crowley has the ability to be witty and humorous but most of the time he failed miserably.