The Magical Revival

Description

When the original manuscript of this book was submitted for publication, the author was told he had provided “too much material for one book”. This proved to be correct. The work here presented - in an enhanced edition - became the first volume of three Trilogies. They deal with a detailed analysis of certain occult traditions which existed long before the Christian epoch, survived its persecutions and anathemas, and reappeared in recent times with renewed vigour. The continuity of this magical current as reflected in the work of Aleister Crowley, Austin Osman Spare, Dion Fortune and others is here traced through the Tantrik Tradition of the Far East, the Sumerian Cult of Shaitan and the Draconian, Sabian, or Typhonian rites of the ‘dark’ dynasties of ancient Egypt. Sexual magick and mysterious rites have always been practised; drugs and other substances have constantly been used to induce ecstasy, to produce visions and to facilitate traffic with the denizens of other worlds or planes of consciousness; but an initiated rationale of the process such as presented here has been rarely forthcoming. The genuine magical tradition as revived by Adepts like Crowley is here related to its ancient sources and brought into line with phases of contemporary occultism that are evolving a New Gnosis to supercede the sterile superstitions bred of an aeon-long misunderstanding of the old. As a contribution to occult lore, The Magical Revival and its companion volumes have become standard source-books in their special field. Dustwrapper - front ......Page 1 Flyleaf - front ......Page 2 Flyleaf - rear ......Page 3 Endpapers - front ......Page 4 Frontispiece: Profile of the Author ......Page 7 Short Title ......Page 8 Other titles by Kenneth Grant ......Page 9 Title Page ......Page 10 Printer's imprint ......Page 11 CONTENTS ......Page 12 Illustrations ......Page 14 Key to Endpapers ......Page 15 Dedication ......Page 16 Foreword to the 1991 Edition ......Page 17 Quotation from Mahavakyaratnamala ......Page 18 Introduction ......Page 20 1. Return of the Phoenix ......Page 24 2. Metaphysical Bases of Sexual Magick ......Page 45 3. Dark Dynasties ......Page 70 4. Centres of Power ......Page 89 5. Drugs and the Occult ......Page 106 6. Barbarous Names of Evocation ......Page 123 7. Star Fire ......Page 143 8. Blood, Vampirism, Death and Moon Magick ......Page 162 Plate 1. Aleister Crowley at the age of fifty-six ......Page 168 Plate 2. Liber OZ (The Book of Strength) ......Page 169 Plate 3. The magical seals of Crowley’s occult organizations ......Page 170 Plate 4. Magical designs of the Vault of the Adepts ......Page 171 Plate 5. Lam, an extra-terrestrial Intelligence in astral contact with Crowley ......Page 172 Plate 6. Aleister Crowley in 1910 by A.O. Spare, from memory, 1953 ......Page 173 Plate 7. The Stélé of Revealing ......Page 174 Plate 8. The Death Posture, A.O. Spare self-portrait ......Page 175 Plate 9. Formula of Zos vel Thanatos ......Page 176 Plate 10. The Self in Ecstasy ......Page 177 Plate 11. NU-Isis ......Page 178 Plate 12. Black Eagle, A.O. Spare's Familiar ......Page 179 Plate 14. The Magical Thought-Stream ......Page 180 Plate 15. Self-Portrait with Rodent, by A.O. Spare ......Page 181 Plate 16. A.O. Spare ca. 1954 ......Page 182 Plate 17. Preliminaries to the Witches’ Sabbath ......Page 183 9. Strayed Gods ......Page 192 10. Dion Fortune ......Page 216 11. Austin Osman Spare and the Zos Kia Cultus ......Page 223 12. The Death Posture and the New Sexuality ......Page 243 13. Conclusion ......Page 254 Diagram: The Qabalistic Tree of Life: initiated Occult Tradition ......Page 258 Diagram: The Qabalistic Tree of Life: Crowley’s reorganized system of grades ......Page 259 Glossary ......Page 260 Bibliography ......Page 278 Index ......Page 283 Endpapers - rear ......Page 301 Dustwrapper - rear ......Page 303