Sword of Song

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A01=Aleister Crowley
AGNOSTICISM
ALEISTER CROWLEY
ALLEGORY
Author_Aleister Crowley
BUDDHISM
Category=DNBM
Category=QRYX
Category=QRYX2
Category=VXW
Category=VXWM
CHRISTIANITY
CULTURAL IMPACT
DIVINE REVELATION
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_mind-body-spirit
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
ESOTERIC STUDIES
FICTION
GOLDEN DAWN
HISTORICAL ANALYSIS
MAGICAL PHILOSOPHY
MAGICAL PRACTICES
MAGICAL TEXTS
MAGICAL WRITINGS
MYSTICAL ESSAYS
MYSTICISM
OCCULT FIGURES
OCCULT HISTORY
POETRY
SEX MAGIC
SPIRITUAL AWAKENING
SPIRITUAL JOURNEY
THELEMA

Product details

  • ISBN 9798888501511
  • Weight: 1458g
  • Dimensions: 178 x 254mm
  • Publication Date: 03 Jul 2025
  • Publisher: Inner Traditions Bear and Company
  • Publication City/Country: US
  • Product Form: Hardback
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A fully annotated, deluxe hardcover edition of one of Aleister Crowley’s formative works

• Presents Crowley’s preferred text, drawing on all existing draft manuscripts and margin notes from Crowley’s personal copies

• Contains an introduction and explanatory notes by Crowley biographer Richard Kaczynski, helping to illuminate obscure passages and references

• Includes Crowley’s mystical essays on his first forays into sex magic, his initial embrace of the legendary title of “the Beast,” and his encounters with the Golden Dawn, Buddhism, Agnosticism, and Christianity

Too inflammatory for English publishers, Aleister Crowley printed The Sword of Song, his first talismanic work, in Paris in 1904, releasing a mere one hundred copies. Deconstructing his encounters with the Golden Dawn, Buddhism, Agnosticism, and Christianity, the book explored Crowley’s magic and spiritual philosophy before he experienced the revelation that led to The Book of the Law. The Sword of Song also contained Crowley’s first manifesto, his first forays into sex magic, his initial embrace of the legendary title of "the Beast," the occult poem "Ascension Day," and mystical essays.

Now in this fully annotated deluxe hardcover edition, renowned Crowley biographer Richard Kaczynski presents Crowley’s preferred text for The Sword of Song, drawing on all existing draft manuscripts as well as unpublished margin notes from Crowley’s personal copies of the book. Kaczynski clarifies all the significant changes and additions throughout the book’s various iterations and provides explanations for the many occult and popular culture references. He also includes a substantial scholarly introduction, reflecting an intimate knowledge of Crowley and the development of his magical practice.

Kaczynski demonstrates how The Sword of Song was not only a prototype for Crowley’s later works such as Konx Om Pax and The Book of Lies, but that The Sword of Song's blend of poetry, allegory, fiction, and essay reveals the formative inner workings of one of the twentieth century’s most provocative thinkers just before he received the life-changing Book of the Law from the discarnate entity Aiwass.
Aleister Crowley (1875–1947), English magician, poet, philosopher, and artist, is widely regarded as one of the most important occult figures of the twentieth century. His famous and oft-misunderstood maxim "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law" stems from his received text The Book of the Law, which announced Thelema (Greek for "will") as the philosophy for a new era of humankind.

Richard Kaczynski is a lifelong student, international speaker, and writer on Western esotericism and an authority on the life and works of Aleister Crowley. The author of Perdurabo: The Life of Aleister Crowley, he lives in Raleigh, North Carolina.

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