Genesis of The Book of The Law by David Allen Hulse
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Dag nabbit, I would love to read this book! It's out of print. Anyone here ever read it?
From Amazon:
Author's description of Part One of his Crowleyan Trilogy, July 10, 2002
Reviewer: David Allen Hulse (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews
THE GENESIS OF THE BOOK OF THE LAW PART ONE: THE CAIRO WORKING
-1875-1904 -(Edmonds: Holmes Publishing Group, 2001) ISBN 1-55818-439-2
I have studied Aleister Crowley's prophetic text for a new age known as The Book of the Law since 1969. My interest in Western Ritual Magic and especially the tradition of the Golden Dawn led me to a deep study of all that Crowley had written on the subject of the magic. Invariably in my esoteric studies I came across The Book of the Law.
Crowley felt that this special book was to be the religious text not only for his own magical order of the Silver Star but for all of humanity, especially those individuals born after 1904 (the date the manuscript was first received by Aleister Crowley).
A very elaborate story of its reception, publication and interpretation was developed by Crowley 8 years after he first wrote down the 220 verses of this slim volume in 1904. This story is something that I had studied deeply and ultimately accepted as the truth of the matter. However, in the last 10 years, a series of books have been published that contain clues which contradict the very story that Crowley published throughout his life concerning the genesis of The Book of the Law.Three essential new works helped me come to my often radical conclusions. Crowley's Magick Liber ABA Book Four, Parts I-IV (which has been edited by Frater Hymenaeus Beta and published as 3 revisions in 1994, 1997 and 2000 by Weiser) contains the clearest of reproductions in print of the manuscript to The Book of the Law. The eighth volume of the Thelemic Journal Red Flame (edited by J. E. and M. Cornelius and privately printed in 2000) is the most exhaustive comparison to date of all surviving versions of The Book of the Law. Finally the controversial OTO Rituals and Sex Magick edited by A. H. Naylor (published by I-H-O Books of London in 1999) replaces Francis King's Secret Rituals of the OTO as the definitive work detailing the rituals and doctrines of both Reuss' and Crowley's Fringe Masonic order of the O.T.O. In addition countless other minor publications in the last 30 years have served as a great source for constructing a revised and often radical retelling of the genesis of Crowley's The Book of the Law.
Using the vast wealth of new material on Crowley's magic and mysticism, I have created 3 separate pamphlets that contain a continuous timeline of Crowley's life. However I have concerned myself only with those events that directly concern the writing, interpretation and promulgation of the secret doctrines contained in the visionary work The Book of the Law.
Part One in this 3 part series deals with "The Cairo Working", which is the original penning of the text during Crowley's honeymoon in Cairo, Egypt in the spring of 1904. The timeline in this first part spans from October 12, 1875 (the birthdate of Aleister Crowley) to the Summer and Fall of 1904 (when Crowley first forgets the contents and whereabouts of his most prophetic book).
The topics of this first volume include Crowley's magical training in the Golden Dawn that led to the symbolism of The Book of the Law, the slim references in Crowley's writing to the imagery in The Book of the Law before 1904, and the fable of its reception that Crowley would first pen 8 years later in 1912. Possibly the most important part of this first volume is a four page table that tabulates all the additions, deletions, and overwrites to the original text. This is in contradiction to the text itself that demands no alterations to the original, including punctuation. Other topics dealt with include Lilith as Crowley's first magical child and channel to the Egyptian pantheon, the Enochian source for the Thelemic Goddess Babalon in Crowley's translation of The Lesser Key of Solomon, the naming of The Book of the Law in 1902 and the discovery of the secret fourfold word Abrahadabra in 1900.
This first pamphlet is 44 pages, with the cover artwork showing an original magick square created by the author based on Crowley's famous phrase "Do What Thou Wilt". Appended to this first volume is a number key to the Hebrew-Greek-Latin used throughout the text. Every possible noteworthy Qabalistic interpretation of The Book of the Law made by both Crowley and his disciple Frater Achad is captured in each of these 3 parts to GENESIS OF THE BOOK OF THE LAW.
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@Redd Fezz said
"Dag nabbit, I would love to read this book! It's out of print. Anyone here ever read it?
Reviewer: David Allen Hulse (Sacramento, CA) - See all my reviews
THE GENESIS OF THE BOOK OF THE LAW PART ONE: THE CAIRO WORKING
-1875-1904 -"(Is it strange for an author to review his own book on Amazon?)
I've read them. I generally like the series, but I disagree with many of Hulse's conclusions. His most audacious claim, probably, is that the reception of the Book of the Law was pure "automatic writing" - a phrase that Crowley scribbled on the cover page that is reprinted in the most recent "revisionist" Liber ABA.
HB devotes about a page to describing what Crowley "really meant" and argues for the traditional Cairo Marvel Story. I suspect the truth is somewhere in between... but it doesn't change the intrinsic worth of Liber Legis!Hulse really seemed to want to find lots of evidence that Crowley was continually opening himself up to whatever spirit(s) came along -- standing in the triangle of Art, etc. -- and that he was essentially "duped" by spirits throughout his life. Hulse implies that Aiwass had some sinister intentions.
But then in other places Hulse is enthusiastically "pro-new-aeon" and praises Crowley! It's obvious that Hulse is a great lover of the Thelemic tradition, but he is extremely skeptical of many things. He doesn't have much respect for, say, OTO secrecy, since he's quite open about things like the traditional III degree word, sexual details of the IX degree, etc. (Being someone who never intends to join the OTO, I'm fine with that.)
I guess I'd recommend the books if you come across them, and if you're not intending to climb the OTO ladder. These out-of-print booklists often have prices that are just crazy, though. (Well, appropriate if you're someone who collects books as "objet d'art" rather than just for the information in them...)
Steve
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93
Personally, I like to go to as-original source material as possible regardless of subject. I'll have to take your words for it how great a book it is.
But to me, "Genesis of The Book of The Law by David Allen Hulse" sounds similar to "Bible Study for Children, grades 3 & up"
93, 93/93
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Dear Redd,
I would totally not read this man, except for curiousity's sake. I find him unreliable and self aggrandizing, and also doesn't have a word that isn't taken from other sources and presented as his own. Yeah, I don't like him.
Others may know and validate him, but that's my opinion.
And yes, there is an aspect of the collector in getting out of print books as precious artifacts hardly anyone has, and others would covet. I am gulity of that. I was pleased and startled to see that as the years pass, my old books are sought after, worn to a nubbin as they are.
In L.V.X.,
chrys333 -
@Draco Magnus said
"I'll have to take your words for it how great a book it is."
Who me? I never said "great!"
"But to me, "Genesis of The Book of The Law by David Allen Hulse" sounds similar to "Bible Study for Children, grades 3 & up""
Hulse's books aren't elementary texts, but just timelines with collected (and mostly second-hand) info sorted by day, month, and year throughout Crowley's life (and up to 1962, the death of Germer). The new bits are provocative and worth a look (IMHO) if the cost is reasonable.
"For Children" reminds me more of the various "Thelema for Dummies" kind of trade paperbacks out there. (I won't name authors...)
Steve
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You know... being the open-minded and tolerant person that I am, I suspended my disbelief and googled up the author's name and found an interview with him on a site called Real Magic. In it, he claims to have had a hand in Regardie's Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, and said "Regardie was able to include my research as a final chapter in this book."
So, being a diligent investigator, I took my copy off the shelf and looked for his name in the back. Nope. Not there. Then I turned to the front under the list of contributors. Not there either.
Am I missing something here?
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@Draco Magnus said
"So, being a diligent investigator, I took my copy off the shelf and looked for his name in the back. Nope. Not there. Then I turned to the front under the list of contributors. Not there either."
Are you looking in the right book? The article does say The Complete Golden Dawn. That's the version printed by New Falcon, not the Llewellyn version which is different.
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Thanks for the correction, Heru.
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<deleted>
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I will take your word for it, since I do not know him as a friend.
I always admire friends standing up for friends.
In L.V.X.,
chrys333 -
i met him some time back as he lives here in sac, had some coffee with him and a former initiator of mine. got the impression that he was an extremely well researched armchair magician, but didn't seem to actually have the presence and energy one recognizes in a long time "practicing' magician.
that being said, "the key of it all" another book by him makes for some great reference material.
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I have them, they are highly interesting, definately worth reading.
It seems he does try to knock Liber Legis down a knotch by saying it is "automatic writing". He also thinks and speculates that much of the Cairo working was aggrandized by Crowley later.
He cites that Crowley wrote himself in 1906 that Liber Legis was "A highly interesting piece of automatic writing."
Although I disagree with him here, I think he is a genius. His "Key of It All" series, later called "The Eastern Mysteries" and "The Western Mysteries" are excellent, and really took 777 type symbolic correlation to a new level.
I have been in contact with him, and what many do not know is that he has an unpublished work entitled Liber CCCXXX Abrahadabra ~1979, which offers a solution to AL II:76 using Serial English (1-26), among many other things.
So it seems to me he is kind of moving on from the Thelemic sphere, I believe to more Eastern ways of practice.
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Steven wrote:
"Hulse's books aren't elementary texts, but just timelines with collected (and mostly second-hand) info sorted by day, month, and year throughout Crowley's life (and up to 1962, the death of Germer). The new bits are provocative and worth a look (IMHO) if the cost is reasonable."
I completely agree with this assessment.
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@redd fezz said
"....The eighth volume of the Thelemic Journal Red Flame (edited by J. E. and M. Cornelius and privately printed in 2000) is the most exhaustive comparison to date of all surviving versions of The Book of the Law. ..."
and very high priced used at this time (400s-500s$).here's pages i through 10: www.parareligion.ch/rf/rf8.htm
is there a list either on this site or on some other of the versions compared? I didn't see one here in the Preface or in other essays (including one on the Tunis "The Comment" text).
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Marlene Cornelius' work on the history of the various editions of Liber L/Liber XXXI and Liber Al Vel Legis/Liber CCXX has been revised and expanded and is currently available in a paperback edition (a hardback edition is forthcoming):
Liber AL Vel Legis: The Book of the Law. An Examination of Liber XXXI & Liber CCXX.