tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56857895533790300942011-11-27T15:36:42.151-08:00Seek the once and future book.jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.comBlogger141100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-21399867957545074862011-03-13T07:35:00.000-07:002011-03-13T07:35:40.030-07:00

Some time ago, I began a book on the Thoth Tarot. I did a lot of research on it, discovered many things. One of the things I discovered I will reveal here now, as it is a point worth making. Also, this is my last posting to this blog. The character Jess Karlin is no longer alive to finish the work. His creator or manager will do so. The point I wish to make is this, and it is something of the

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-20646099689957045372009-03-19T05:22:00.001-07:002009-03-19T05:22:27.796-07:00

The latest edition of the Tarot News reports on the death of Hajo Banzhaf, one of the several authors who have written popular alternatives to the Aleister Crowley's "Book of Thoth". Banzhaf's approach was never intended to elucidate Crowley's ideas, and this is consistent with the cartofeminist agenda regarding the "patriarchal" or occult Tarots, which a certain group of women (and some men)

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-18262670437935758222009-01-07T03:17:00.001-08:002009-01-07T03:26:11.758-08:00

XX-AEON, Advent of Horus.Someone on an FB group asked today about the interpretation of Aeon, and I thought I would post my answer here as well:"It is first necessary to understand that Aeon has been revisioned by Crowley to fit the New Aeon metaphors. In the Old Aeon of Osiris, the Airy nature of the time denoted a Judgment—so the Last Judgment, the point at which, Crowley says, the world was to

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-89261836904770962992008-11-08T06:41:00.001-08:002008-11-08T06:41:12.631-08:00

Soon we will resurrect the Thoth blog and I will tell you the further adventures of Hadit and me, noting how the Thelemic Pharisees were particularly upset about my article on his pedigree, but other things as well. Stay tuned.Till then, my new Thelemic blog, Onion-Peelings.(jk)

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-16051149295067166352008-04-23T12:33:00.001-07:002008-04-25T14:48:37.056-07:00

The Stele of Revealing showing Nuit, Horus (Winged Disk) and "Hadit" hieroglyphsEarlier this month Thelemites celebrated the birthday of Hadit, which is kind of weird if you think about it because Hadit is supposed to be an Egyptian god, a version of Horus, whose birthday isn't really known. Of course, what Thelemites mean by celebrating Hadit's birthday on a particular day, April 9, is that on

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-57782513345974917272008-04-09T10:35:00.001-07:002008-04-09T10:37:01.089-07:00

Without Form and VoidAnd the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Powers of Nature said: ‘Let there be light! and there was light.—1st Degree Initiation, Ordo Templi Orientis (The quoted text was largely cribbed by AC from the KJV Bible of course)There is no-one who thinks in the lucid way you do, my little paltry cards are lost unless you illumine

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-52443623989293413162008-04-08T05:48:00.001-07:002008-04-08T05:48:46.578-07:00

Mary Greer Admits To Arrien "Nonsense"(jk)

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-91864145581820579872008-04-04T11:02:00.001-07:002008-04-04T11:15:34.098-07:00

When I began this project, a little over a year ago, I had in mind to finish it by a certain deadline, the 60th anniversary of the death of Aleister Crowley. That seemed rather celebratory, and also it focused the work. On the other hand, when this deadline was established, I had done no research into the book, by which I mean the deeper research necessary to truly delve into the mysteries of

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-88246229315129548032007-03-30T13:34:00.000-07:002008-03-19T14:14:21.218-07:00

On page ten of BOT, Crowley sums up the points he alleges to have made so far in the book. It is not quite a masterpiece, but it is certainly an exercise in begging the question(s):1. The origin of the Tarot is quite irrelevant, even if it were certain, It must stand or fall as a system on its own merits.Repeatedly, Crowley begs the question of Tarot’s origin (and more particularly the relevance

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-42800474483888144432007-03-06T13:44:00.000-08:002007-03-06T18:48:04.620-08:00

I will preface this entry with a question about the value of truth.If you can save 1000 lives by lying, is a greater truth served than if you tell the truth and those 1000 lives are lost? And if by lying, you save these 1000 lives, but 10,000 more are made by this to think lying is always a life-saving virtue, and this results in the deaths of many thousands more eventually, have you done the

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-9112159386434429262007-03-05T14:56:00.000-08:002007-03-05T16:57:36.947-08:00

In the last post, I talked a lot about how Crowley was carefully crafting a certain kind of argument in the early pages of BOT, with a certain kind of occult aim. I said that when he employs mentions of science, he is certainly not doing so to demonstrate any legitimate interest in science or its methods, but he is using a popular understanding of science as a kind of meme to communicate what he

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-75136264633184161692007-02-04T07:30:00.000-08:002007-02-05T08:55:49.768-08:00

After discussing the contents of the Tarot, and what he thinks that means, Crowley briefly turns to a discussion of the origin of the cards. One should realize, as is the case with allegedly historical accounts of the cards made by any occultist, that historical accuracy, or being bound to the mundane world of facts and their likely implications, is not the object of the exercise. Instead, an

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-31324857021572019422007-02-03T06:32:00.000-08:002008-03-19T14:21:07.389-07:00

When Aleister Crowley began writing BOT (I will use this abbreviation for The Book of Thoth), he was pushing seventy years of age, and was pushing the thin envelop of the time alloted to him in his life. Thus, with his energy dissipating, and his mind full of personal symbolic resonances for all the occult ideas he had absorbed and developed, he was bound rather like one of the Devil's imps, to

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5685789553379030094.post-80621037495191939272007-02-02T15:29:00.000-08:002007-02-05T10:19:17.409-08:00

Tomorrow I will begin an exploration of Aleister Crowley's Tarot book The Book of Thoth. When this exploration is over, on December 1, 2007, I will publish a book, title yet to be determined, which will be just what the title of this blog says: a concise reader's guide to one of AC's most important books. Why am I blogging about it? For one thing, since the guide is intended to be concise, I will

jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07415144798224976827noreply@blogger.com8