Currently Reading

 

I feel like it’s taking me forever to get though this one, I mean, it is like 1000 pages, but still.  It’s two of his novels, a short self published play and a couple other of his works.  Crowley is indeed The Beast.

Let me tell you what I got a real kick out of though.  The war time slang in his novels.  “Good egg.”  We should definitely bring that back.  Also his switch from British speak to American, I really had a good chuckle at that.  It’s so spot on, truly.

Some criticism I have about the two novels however has to do with the non-endings they both have.  In each one he goes through the final chapters in this ridiculous ritualistic haze, probably some Thelema allegory, I don’t know, because I’ve never actually sat down and read what it is Thelema entails, which is a shame because I’m a Thoth deck reader.

Now for the parts that elude me, he makes a ton of references to Freemasonry.  So much so that it sometimes even states something along the lines of “an adept will know this”.  Well, as a member of the fairer sex (there’s a great old fashioned line for ya!), I obviously do not know the ins and outs of Masonry.  I have a rudimentary understanding of it only because it’s sometimes mentioned in different occult books or documentaries.

At times I think he’s joking and writing satire, perhaps poking fun at masons and their pageantry, they aren’t truly engaging in “the great work”.  Other times he’s dead seriously, especially when discussing yoga.  I believe he had a real passion for the practice and that shows in his writing.  Still, other times I think he’s writing pure gibberish for the sake of making all these occult connections only to drive the reader completely bonkers.  Like, am I lucky to be able to read the Greek?  Yeah, but I’m sure there are many arm chair occultists who don’t and thus will be driven mad by his lack of translation.  Granted, Victorian era rich dudes were much better educated than the dip shits we are chucking out of graduate schools today.

So, hopefully I can get through the rest of this this weekend and start something else.  Crowley won’t be driving me mad any time soon, honestly it’s all a riot.

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