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scarletcarnival's review
2.0
Overall? The book gets a D minus. Aside from poor editing and redundancies in the text, this is really "The Magical Essence of Jerry Cornelius" far more than anything about Aleister Crowley. It reads like a closet Christian with a desire to be a Gnostic (not to be confused with having a 'gnostic experience') and recapture some kind of lost Golden Dawn/Hermetic glory past.
I only purchased this book because I'd heard that Cornelius had made a claim that the K&C of the HGA didn't happen at Tiphareth as Crowley claimed and, in fact, that he claimed that Crowley didn't claim that at all. I had to see this with my own eyes.
Cornelius not only states the K&C doesn't happen at Tiphareth, per se, (while trying to talk out the other side of his mouth and say that it does—but only sorta), but goes on to state that there are not one but two HGAs. Cornelius has completely made up his own system of attainment on the shoulders of giants without the decency of even the slightest bit of coherency or logic.
But then, in a brief moment of redemption, I think .. wait .. he might be onto something here. He's just muddled this all up so badly in his terminology, he's just confusing the hell out of people who read his materials. But the basics are all here in a really convoluted manner. Maybe it's just a perspective or language issue going on.
However, the more I reread it, the more off-base it seems. It's so close though to what Crowley laid out. The problem is—to be blunt—in the symbol set. It's the whole Tree of Life, fixed spheres, Golden Dawn, Crossing the Abyss, &c. that is the problem. We've come to associate those ideas with a certain symbol set to the point that they have become the territory rather than the map. And Cornelius is no different in this regard.
And especially when he concludes as his nearly ending coup de grâce: "We mortals are simply incarnated Angels." And there we have our final confirmation of his closet Christian status.
Angels, indeed. Every man and every woman ...
However, before we toss out the book into the rubbish heap, there is some amazing material here. Or I think there is. I'm not entirely sure. Let's just say that I was impressed enough that I'm going to have to shelve it for a while and come back to it when my brain isn't reeling from the whole "You just turned Thelema into Mormonism" shtick. For instance ...
Cornelius has an interesting take on the Aeons. Without going into massive detail—because I don't fully understand it all—he posits that the last Aeon was not that of Osiris but of Horus. What little I grasped of his argument seems sound. I just need to go back through it all with a fine tooth comb. I see his points and they're all based on (the same/similar) criticisms I have of Crowley's aeonic theories (i.e., they're total bunk).
Also, his expositions on Abrahadabra, 418, 156, ON, and several other formula were mind-blowingly worth the price of the book alone. I have not a single clue if they are accurate or right or whatever. But they made sense to me in context of what I know and have learned in the course of my own studies and initiations, therefore all I can say is that I had more Aha! moments through those few chapters than I have had in a dozen books by other authors over the last several years.
So, I say it's worth grabbing a copy for the chapters on the formulas. Ignore the HGA material. It's utter rubbish.
I only purchased this book because I'd heard that Cornelius had made a claim that the K&C of the HGA didn't happen at Tiphareth as Crowley claimed and, in fact, that he claimed that Crowley didn't claim that at all. I had to see this with my own eyes.
Cornelius not only states the K&C doesn't happen at Tiphareth, per se, (while trying to talk out the other side of his mouth and say that it does—but only sorta), but goes on to state that there are not one but two HGAs. Cornelius has completely made up his own system of attainment on the shoulders of giants without the decency of even the slightest bit of coherency or logic.
But then, in a brief moment of redemption, I think .. wait .. he might be onto something here. He's just muddled this all up so badly in his terminology, he's just confusing the hell out of people who read his materials. But the basics are all here in a really convoluted manner. Maybe it's just a perspective or language issue going on.
However, the more I reread it, the more off-base it seems. It's so close though to what Crowley laid out. The problem is—to be blunt—in the symbol set. It's the whole Tree of Life, fixed spheres, Golden Dawn, Crossing the Abyss, &c. that is the problem. We've come to associate those ideas with a certain symbol set to the point that they have become the territory rather than the map. And Cornelius is no different in this regard.
And especially when he concludes as his nearly ending coup de grâce: "We mortals are simply incarnated Angels." And there we have our final confirmation of his closet Christian status.
Angels, indeed. Every man and every woman ...
However, before we toss out the book into the rubbish heap, there is some amazing material here. Or I think there is. I'm not entirely sure. Let's just say that I was impressed enough that I'm going to have to shelve it for a while and come back to it when my brain isn't reeling from the whole "You just turned Thelema into Mormonism" shtick. For instance ...
Cornelius has an interesting take on the Aeons. Without going into massive detail—because I don't fully understand it all—he posits that the last Aeon was not that of Osiris but of Horus. What little I grasped of his argument seems sound. I just need to go back through it all with a fine tooth comb. I see his points and they're all based on (the same/similar) criticisms I have of Crowley's aeonic theories (i.e., they're total bunk).
Also, his expositions on Abrahadabra, 418, 156, ON, and several other formula were mind-blowingly worth the price of the book alone. I have not a single clue if they are accurate or right or whatever. But they made sense to me in context of what I know and have learned in the course of my own studies and initiations, therefore all I can say is that I had more Aha! moments through those few chapters than I have had in a dozen books by other authors over the last several years.
So, I say it's worth grabbing a copy for the chapters on the formulas. Ignore the HGA material. It's utter rubbish.
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