Crowley

I believe that Dover books has an inexpensive copy still in print, if you find it though and try to follow any of Crowley's rituals, be very careful for Crowley has embedded many traps in them to catch the unwary.

Telemon

Telemon - 93.

The old Dover edition of Magick In Theory And Practice has been out of print for some years...perhaps sad to say, I don't know any inexpensive edition of MT&P currently in print. Dover's is out; the private printing from Magickal Childe, in New York, is out of stock, as the store continues to deteriorate following Herman's death some years back; the old Castle hardback, one of the first steps in Thelema for many, was remaindered about three years ago. The critical edition of Liber ABA-Book 4, from the OTO (Caliphate) is very good, but quite expensive at about $US50 a pop.

However, leaving aside the delights of bibliography...

I have heard this over and over and OVER through the years...I think the earliest reference was an offhand remark in Apprenticed to Magic, by Butler; and I know it has been quoted to me as holy writ because Isaac makes the claim in Real Magic...and yet, despite asking and asking and ASKING (including Isaac) which rituals, and what booby traps, etc. etc. etc. no one who repeats this canard has ever presented a concrete example of one of these notorious traps, or why they think such a thing is so.

Could you oblige me in this matter? After studying Crowley's work for the last 30 years, and working the Stars Ruby and Sapphire, Reguli, Samekh, Mass of the Phoenix, the Gnostic Mass, and a few more to boot, damned if I can find them.

Regards, Paul

PS - I'm an OTO initiator as well, but since no one has claimed there are booby traps in those, that may be why I remain unable to find any in those rituals either, about 100 Minervals and Io's, and 30 or 40 of the higher degrees through IIIo, down the road.

Yup, same here; after many, many years of following Crowley, I've yet to find one of these putative pitfalls or traps that he put into his writings or rituals. Point one out, if you please...

look at the star card in the book of thoth and in his tarot if you study you will see that is only one

All I can or have EVER found are the ones of SELF SELF SELF !!!

pathwalk -

Pardon me if I am slow this morning (wrestling with a balky Informix database since dawn will do that (g)).

Do you mean that his wrestling with what he perceived as an issue with '[inkblot - possibly tzaddi] is not the Star' in Liber AL? The arrangments in the Book of Thoth were only the latest, and last, attempt to reconcile his understanding of Tarot with his feeling that that verse meant a change in the structure of the Tarot. Nor does it necessarily convince.

And I am at a loss as to what work done in the 1940's has to do with alleged traps in rituals written prior to the 1920's publication of Magick In Theory And Practice.

If you were not referring to the Book of Thoth in the light of the 'traps' question, my apologies...as I said, I may be slow this morning.

But if you were, it seems a non sequitur, though I would certainly be interested in what you see as a trap there.

Regards,