The War Book
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Since we are talking about Book 4, I have another question.
Earlier this week someone told me that Book 4 is often referred to as the "Big Blue Brick" and they also called it the "War Book" because there are some elements about the book that teach one how to attack others. I haven't quiet found it to be about that...
They also claimed that Crowley wrote Moon Child with the intent of it being one big magickal attack on his enemies.
I have not read Moon Child
I was just interested to hear the thoughts and comments of others who have more experience with Crowley's work than I do. Although I don't dismiss it entirely, from what I know so far it doesn't seem like Crowley's style
I like to be a positive person so these sort of practices aren't appealing to me.
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What exactly is your question?
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Moonchild is an "attack" in the sense that the novel's villains are thinly-veiled depracatory caricatures of people that Crowley didn't like. But I doubt it was intended as a "magical attack" -- just Crowley enjoying his genius for sarcasm and vilification.
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Both of theses claims have the flavour of slanderous attacks on Crowley by people who considered themselves his enemies. I can think of nothing in either document which lends credence to either of the claims. Though the tenor of Moonchild may be considered an attack on certain people ("satire" is the word I would use) it is a literary, not a magical, one.
Dan
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@Iugum said
"Moonchild is a fictional piece about two Magicians "battling" one another, one of which needs more power and force so he gets a female pregnant with this "ethereal" child, i.e. Moonchild, and carries out a slew of various preparatory rituals on her in a secluded area in Italy. Maybe there was some verbal attacks, but this was fairly common in all of his books, I wouldn't be able to tell you because I haven't read it in a long time. I don't see any other way this book was used to "attack" his "enemies"."
As far as the premise of the novel is concerned, I believe the purpose of creating the Moonchild was not as a means of power, but an attempt at a sort of Magically-controlled immaculate conception.
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Thank you for your responses.
I did not think that Book 4 contained any themes of "attacking" others, or contain any negativity in regards to hurting others. This was just something that someone else was mentioning. I am a big advocate of "maybe logic" so i usually view claims like this with a skeptical eye. I just wanted to see what this forum had to say about such claims.
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My meager take:
Yes, Moonchild was a literary (satirical) attack on Crowley's contemporaries. For more fun, read some of the writings in The Equinox. The purpose of impregnating the woman in the story was to distract the antagonists so that they may be more successfully attacked. Book Four (Liber ABA) is a treatise on "taking Heaven, even if by force if necessary."