" Diving straight into thelema may be unwise, I suspect the basic theory of hermeticism and ritual magick in general are best learned from other authors.
The chapters in book 4 on the weapons and furnitiure of the temple are suitable to beginers. But the Kabbaah and the tables from 777 and number theory are almost inpenatrable. Especially learnig basic kabbapah first is a must. I recomend The witches Qabbalah, as a very simlpified explination of the tree of life, and a way to employ it in practice. Also the Kabballah unveiled by elizabeth claire prophet, its not thelema to be sure, an understanding of the Kabballah ans esoteric christianity do feed into Thelema. I would also recommend Promethius Rising or undoing yourself by Christopher hyatt, and liber kaos by petter caroll, not to mention a broad base of different esoteric systems, learn basics of hindu, buddhism, gnostic christianity, and sufism. And learn the teaching of chaos/discrodianism, That truth is relative, beliefs are tools not ends in themsleves. (this can be applied to the tree of life, every sepheroith has a belief paradigm thatmay well contradict of conflict the others, the middle pillar sythesizes and transcends opposite paradigms.)
Any way once all that is very well established in your mind, you can almost understand what Crowley is talking about, most of the time, until he drops abscure names, riddles, and poems form his time, or just plain talks all around what he means but will not come out and say it. "
Thanks for the title suggestions - it seems that with my admitted inexperience, understanding these basic theories may be a more realistic place to start.
So far, I do find that Magick Without Tears is pretty intelligible to Crowley "newbie"; not nearly as cryptic as some of his other works I have attempted to read. This, along with the other suggested works, will keep me busy for quite a while. Thanks again to all of you for the advice.