Genesis of The Book of The Law by David Allen Hulse
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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.