Announcing: Visions & Voices
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**Visions & Voices
Aleister Crowley’s Enochian Visions
with Astrological & Qabalistic Commentaryby James A. Eshelman**
Cloth, 600 pp., US$49.00
Scheduled release date: January 2011
Published by College of Thelema
ISBN 0-9704496-4-X“The Æon of Wonder is come!”
In 1909, Aleister Crowley and his protégé Victor Neuburg obtained a series of 33 mystical visions. At once beautiful, horrible, and inspiring, these inner world explorations (and two earlier ones) were published in 1911 as The Vision & the Voice.
A classic, both of the Enochian magick of Elizabethan wizard John Dee and of Crowley’s then-emerging Thelemic magick, The Vision & the Voice remains a living work, its value increasing with each generation.
Astrologers also will find a previously unexploited treasure in this collection: Most of the visions include exact dates, times, and places they were received, providing a unique opportunity to study astrology’s relationship to magical vision.
This research bonanza lay untapped for nearly a century.
In Visions & Voices, James Eshelman joins the text of Aleister Crowley’s Enochian visions with horoscopes for each. To this he adds a masterful astrological and Qabalistic analysis, expanding and deepening his original landmark study (1997-2001). It is his most mature work to date, blending rare expertise in many subjects.
Preliminary chapters provide a valuable introduction to Qabalistic and astrological topics including: the Four Worlds, the Tree of Life, Qabalistic psychology, Enochian magick, the Three Æons, the Holy Guardian Angel and the Abyss, the impact of astrological factors on deep psychological states, and induced mystical vision as a means of exploring the personal and collective unconscious.
The lengthy Glossary will be a standard reference on many an occultist’s book-shelf for decades to come.
Visions & Voices will be of considerable interest to astrologers, ceremonial magicians, devotees of mythology and comparative religion, and all who are interested in the operation of symbols (and the archetypes that engender them) in the workings of the human psyche and in crises of transformation.
This book also describes historically rare, extraordinary spiritual states that are becoming increasingly accessible to living women and men. By its words and images, it engenders a contagion of a higher mode of consciousness spread by sympathy. Reading this book mindfully will provide one form of spiritual initiation.
Additionally, it portrays an eclectic spirituality that enthuses our universal need to intimately connect with our own spiritual ideals, rather than dictating what that ideal should be.
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[From the front flap of the jacket:]
Visions & Voices unites Aleister Crowley’s remarkable and revelatory Enochian astral visions with masterful astrological and Qabalistic commentary by James Eshelman.
Horoscopes (with exact times and places) are given for 33 of Crowley’s 35 visions. Astrologers and ceremonial magicians both have much to learn from the study. Additionally, the initiated Qabalistic commentary provides the deepest look yet at these extraordinary apocalyptic visions.
Preliminary topics include:
• The Four Worlds
• The Tree of Life
• Qabalistic Psychology
• The Three Æons
• The spiritual forces LVX & NOX
• The Holy Guardian Angel
• The Ordeal of the Abyss
• Choronzon & Da’ath
• The Enochian alphabet & æthyrs
• Scrying in the Spirit Vision
• Astrology’s impact on magickSix appendices and a 34-page Glossary further enhance the value of this latest work from the author of The Mystical & Magical System of the A.'.A.'. and 776½.
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We are working on a possible pre-publication offer - either a reduced price or an additional gift included for all orders placed before December 31. Details of that will be posted here when available. An ordering page will be added to helema.org/publication once ordering opens officially, but you can use the Customer Service link on that page to email orders or inquiries in advance.
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The preliminaries are about 80 pages, the glossary is 40.
Yes, the material started with the BP pilot study, but didn't end there. I think it's much stronger now. Nonetheless, I understand your thinking. (It was while I was working on this book that we made BP available to everyone for free, so in any case I'm not hording the information to make a buck
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I've been reading the BP (which is great, and indeed ahead of its time), but have been skipping over those sections because my understanding of astrology is so shallow that the articles go over my head. But I can't wait to understand the subject better, because exploring the nature of these visions astrologically is pretty cool
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Exciting Jim!
I have purchased both your Mystical & Magical System of the A A and 776 1/2 and am impressed not only with the quality of the work but also with it's presentation. I also sold half a dozen of the former for over $300.00 a piece when it was out of print on Amazon and ebay, so I am stock piling them to do the same in the near future .
I can't wait for Visions & Voices to come out! -
@Jim Eshelman said
"Additionally, it portrays an eclectic spirituality that enthuses our universal need to intimately connect with our own spiritual ideals, rather than dictating what that ideal should be."
Hi Jim - would you elaborate on what you mean by "eclectic spirituality"? I'm having difficulty reconciling *Vision and Voice *as a class A publication and your comments.
As I understand,Vision and Voice marked Crowley's crossing of the Abyss. 8=3 signifies leaving one's subjectivity behind (i.e. the sub-Abyss personality) and entering objective awareness at Binah. Yet your above comments suggest the very opposite - that Vision and Voice expresses the sub- and unconscious of one man (Crowley's) rather than his mapping of Supernal awareness.
Please explain.
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@he atlas itch said
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@Jim Eshelman said
"Additionally, it portrays an eclectic spirituality that enthuses our universal need to intimately connect with our own spiritual ideals, rather than dictating what that ideal should be."Hi Jim - would you elaborate on what you mean by "eclectic spirituality"? I'm having difficulty reconciling *Vision and Voice *as a class A publication and your comments."
Only a few brief passages of The Vision & the Voice are Class A (just as one short section is Class D). It's primarily a Class B document.
I mean several things. In part I mean the same thing Crowley meant when he said it shows a "cosmopolitan" spirituality. The book is filled with a diverse range of gods, mythologies, and belief systems which, to me, has much the feel of a "religious marketplace" - not all that different from ancient Rome where the worship of diverse gods was ordinary and highly accepted. Objects of veneration are drawn from many sources to serve many purposes.
And at a deeper level, of course, the work mostly shows a deep spirituality that's independent of any particular gods - that is, the particular gods used are generally just convenient ways to express ideas and perspectives that are independent of the particular god.
"As I understand,Vision and Voice marked Crowley's crossing of the Abyss. 8=3 signifies leaving one's subjectivity behind (i.e. the sub-Abyss personality) and entering objective awareness at Binah. Yet your above comments suggest the very opposite - that Vision and Voice expresses the sub- and unconscious of one man (Crowley's) rather than his mapping of Supernal awareness."
Valid question, but not one easily answered briefly. The demonstration of the answer takes up most of the book. Vision by vision (sometimes paragraph by paragraph), attention is placed on filtering which layer of mind is responding at a particular point. In nearly every case, the gateway to the vision is one man's personal subconscious. However (as you essentially say), with work of this scope it doesn't end there. One goes deeper than the personal parts of Yetzirah, deeper than Yetzirah itself, frequently reaching into Binah and, in a very few places, Atziluth.
BTW I see no inherent contradiction in the two things you have placed at odds with each other. "Objective awareness" is not at odds with actual content of subconscious mind. They coexist in much the same way that the sense of vision and sense of smell coexist. Opening one's eyes does not deprive one of the concurrent ability to detect scents.
Not sure if that helped, but hope it moves some things along.
EDIT: On rereading your post, I suspect this might be a stumbling block: Crowley didn't shed Ruach and Nephesh. They were required to keep the animal and man Aleister Crowley going along as usual. However, his Neshamah was set free from it.
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Thanks for the explanation. I look forward to ordering a copy.
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The Amazon order page is up: www.amazon.com/gp/product/ASIN/097044964X
(Yes, there were a couple of places where the HTML didn't translate special characters right. That's been fixed, but Amazon needs 5 days to roll the changes into place.)Of course, you can also order directly from C.O.T.: <!-- w --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.thelema.org/publications">www.thelema.org/publications</a><!-- w -->
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@Jim Eshelman said
"The Amazon order page is up: www.amazon.com/gp/product/ASIN/097044964X
(Yes, there were a couple of places where the HTML didn't translate special characters right. That's been fixed, but Amazon needs 5 days to roll the changes into place.)Of course, you can also order directly from C.O.T.: www.thelema.org/publication"
Jim,
On Friday, I'm going to order my copy directly from C.O.T, to take advantage of the $10.00 discount, free US priority mail shipping, and your autograph.
Question, I noticed that on the Amazon listing it is noted that the book was printed on Dec.21.
Does this mean that they are already shipping or is mid-Jan still the estimated availability target date?Larry
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@Mahanta70 said
"Question, I noticed that on the Amazon listing it is noted that the book was printed on Dec.21.
Does this mean that they are already shipping or is mid-Jan still the estimated availability target date?"The Amazon date is when they accepted the posting of the book.
The prepublication offer is good, as originally announced, through December 31. (I'll take down the special offer info on thelema.org on Friday.) We'll probably have the books in hand mid-January, and begin shipping over the third and fourth week of January. (They're due to be finished at the bindery roughly today, then travel cross-country by truck to California, which usually takes about 10 days, hence my estimate.)
Thanks for your interest in the book, Larry.
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It's confirmed: Visions & Voices will be in our hands the middle of next week.