August 3-August 8 - The Equinox #3 - Editorial - nothing particular to note.
"Graduum Montis Abiegni" - The syllabus of the grades. All the vague allusions to things the reader of The Equinox has not seen serve no purpose whatosever.
"Aha" - I know a lot of people like this; but really Crowley's time would have been better spent writing straight forward instructions, rather than this contrived allegory ... and it goes on and on and on.
"The Herb Dangerous" - this is a waste of time too. I really feel that it goes nowhere.
"An Origin" (Neuburg)
"The Soul-Hunter" - This is totally insane. i get the point. He was looking for the soul. But you can't find it, not physically - but it's still there.
"Madeleine" - Nothing special to comment on.
"The Temple of Solomon the King" - This is really quite dry, and the installment in The Equinox #1 was so promising ... I've gotten to the end of this, and I'm a little bit more kindly disposed about this installment.
"The Coming of Apollo" (Neuburg)
"The Brighton Mystery" - This is an odd backwards sort of story.
"The Shadowy Dill-Waters" - ??? - Okay, who was Crowley insulting here?
"ΘΗΣΑΥΡΟΥ ΕΙΔΩΛΩΝ" - "The Treasure-House of Images" - "The probationer should learn by heart the chapter corresponding to the Zodiacal Sign that was rising at his birth; or, if this be unknown, the chapter "The Twelvefold Unification of God."
Also read "Note".
I really don't see where this wordy mess has much to offer. It seems hard to read these lines with much emotion.
August 8-15 - The Equinox #4 - "Editorial" asked for people who read The Equinox to contact the A.'.A.'.. Apparently the Order wasn't growing fast enough. Other than this, this piece contains a lot of silly one-liners.
"Liber Jugorum" - Speech, Action, thought! I understand the need for self-control but these steps seem a little extreme. Someone using these practices today could very well get locked up. Things have changed since 1910.
"Liber Armorum" - To create these (pantacle, sword, cup, wand, and lamp) according to instructions, one would need, at any length, some very serious black-smithing skills.
"Insit Naturae Regina Isis" (Neuburg) - This is actually kind of nice.
"My Lady of the Breeches" - There are parts of this story that make no sense to me. Why did the protagonist abandon his first love, but get interested in some "butch" girl.
"At Bordj-an-Nus" - it's okay. i guess.
"ΑΙΝΟΣ ΙΣΙΔΟΣ" - This is okay. it is as though Crowley wants to throw a host of Egyptian names at us, but of course Egyptology wasn't that advanced in his day.
"The Temple of Solomon the King" - An interesting section, but I had already rad much on Yoga, written on it too, so that much of this was repetition. i find "John St. John" and this installment of "The Temple of Solomon the King" to be quite interesting. i, too, have encountered "atmospherics". Over all, this is an interesting passage en toto.
"Pan to Artemis" - Somewhat pleasant.
"The Interpreter" - obviously written by someone in love.
"The Daughter of the Horseleech" - This is really a little piece of nonsense that doesn't seem to go anywhere.
"The Dreamer" - It has a nice rhyme scheme but doesn't do anything for me.
"Mr. Todd" - Bizarre and strange.
"The Gnome" (Neuburg)
"The Herb Dangerous" - I don't get the point of going through all this.
""The Buddhist" - Quite nice.
"The Mantra-Yogi" - It's okay.
"The Violinist" - This is the most passionate piece I've read in The Equinox! Bravo!
"Ehe!" - Not the parody I expected, but i quite liked it.
"Half-Hours with Famous Mahatmas" - I believe this was based on a real event.
"The Thief-Taker" - This is sort-of cute.
"The eyes of St. Ljubov" - This is a really nice little fable ... and the narrator is a delightful curmudgeon.
"Midsummer Eve" - ehe! - The supernatural touch was rather weak.
"Adela" - this was just OK.
"The Three Worms" - Morbid much! Actually I like the bizarre point of view of this story.
"The Felon Flower" - I have no comment.
"Glaziers' Houses" - What is the point of all this?
"In the Temple" (Neuburg)
"The High History of Good Sir Palamedes ..." - It's all about the journey. This also relates to the Angel. We search and search for him/her, but the Angel is right there within us ... I think this really is one of Crowley's better pieces.
August 12 - Happy First Day of the Prophet and His Bride.
August 15-19 - Liber ABA, Parts 1-2
Part 1: Mysticism
"Preliminary Remarks" I love the parts of this essay that deal with religious genius, and i don't care that Crowley drew on other inspirations to write this piece. It is absolutely wonderful.
"Asana" - This seems simple and straight-forward. I have nothing to add.
"Pranayama ..." - He actually didn't talk that much about "Pranayama" in this chapter.
"Yama and Niyama" - I have studied everything Crowley wrote about these; and I tend to define them as "Getting right with the Universe" and "Getting right with yourself".
"Pratyhara" - To Clear the mid of ... everything.
"Dharana" - Staying focused on one single thing.
"Dhyana" - Crowley doesn't say it here: but from his other writings I take it that Dhyana is the uniting of subject and object.
"Samaadhi" - Get rid of everything that hides the lordship of the soul.
This word probably means "Union with god". This is a union of the subject with all of infinity and all of eternity.
At the end of this book some Holy Books are listed as secret; they weren't secret for long.
Part 2: Elementary Theory
"Preliminary Remarks"
"The Temple" - The universe
"The Circle" - Symbol of the Great Work.
"The Altar" - Solid basis of the Work.
"The Scourge, the Dagger and the Chain"
"The Holy Oil" - Aspiration.
"The Wand" - Will.
"The Cup" - Understanding.
"The Sword" - Reason.
"Pantacle" - Body.
"Lamp" - I take it where Crowley is speaking of the Lamp here, he is speaking of the Holy Guardian Angel.
"Crown" - Attainment of the work. This evidently means a great many things.
"The Robe" - I must make the robe from the third paragraph.
"The Book" (the magical diary) - Make it a celebration, something worthy of being self-published.
"The Bell" - This is a sort of exclamation point.
"The Lamen" - I must design a Lamen soon!
"The Magic Fire ..." - This is more than just something used for manifesting spirits.
August 22-26 - The Equinox #5 - "Editorial" - Crowley is lecturing Probationers on what they should be about.
"Liber HHH" - These are more advanced meditations but I am not so crazy about the high-falutin' way these are written.
"The Blind Prophet" I didn't much care for this. It didn't seem to go anywhere. i suppose it was about celebrating the joy of life.
"The Training of the Mind" - This is really very good. It does drag in places, and I'm sure Crowley hated Bennett's moralizing; but it is still exemplary.
"The Sabbath" - This piece seems to have potential - but in the end it really goes nowhere.
"The Temple of Solomon the King" - In an effort to explain how much Crowley had mastered the Qabalah, we are dragged through pages of jumbled numbers with no very good explanation.
"A Nocturne" (Neuburg)
"The Vixen" - Strange, bizarre, pointless.
"The Pilgrim" - I understand the words, but this poem means nothing to me.
"X-Rays on Ex-Probationers" - blah, blah, blah.
"The Vampire" - This doesn't connect for me.
The Vision and the Voice - One should perhaps instead read the version of this with the commentary. However, since I am bound to read The Equinox all the way through, I will attack this version. Although vague and seemingly indecipherable I found "The Vision and the Voice" to also be intriguing this time around. I can't wait to perform the operation myself.
August 29-30 - The Equinox #6 - "Editorial"
"Liber Porta Lucis" - To print the Class A documents without full commentary is pointless.
"Liber Turris vel Domus Dei" - Not bad - it is well to do this in its place.
"Liber Tzaddi vel Hamus Hermeticus" - It is all well and good to study these at the appropriate time, but to print a bunch of these with no annotation is a waste of time.
"Liber Cheth vel Vallum Abiegni" - *SIGH!* Another Class A document.
"Liber Resh vel Helios" - It is my personal experience that you project your energy towards the sun while doing this ... after a while you will be getting much more energy back from the sun than what you are projecting.
"Liber A'ash vel Capricorni Pneumatici" - Oh boy! Another Class A document.
"Three Poems for Jane Cheron" - These have their moment; but as a whole they don't do anything for me.
"Circe" - eh.
"The Electric Silence" - This is terribly obscure. There must be other ways to say the same things. At least it isn't a Class A document."
"Song" (Ethel Archer)
"The Scorpion" - I didn't much care for this either. It wonders around and falls. Apparently Crowley didn't know Saladin was a title, and not a name.
"The Earth" - This has its moments, but overall it fails to satisfy.
"Sleep" - It didn't mean much to me.
"The Ordeal of Ida Pendragon" - This reads like a context to use as many French phrases as possible. This is a long rambling "story" that goes nowhere fast ... having come to the conclusion I have no trouble saying it's absolutely pointless.
"The Autumn Woods" (Neuburg)
"The Dangers of Mysticism" - This is a brilliant piece and should be studied in every grade.
"The Rites of Eleusis" - It would be neat to perform these when the planets are in the sign in which they are planets exalted.
Saturn - this seems okay. It's interesting. i would like to see the music scored for a heavy metal band.
Jupiter - I guess I like the structure of this one better.
Mars - There is no much to add to these. The structure is pretty much the same on these. The poetry is okay, and is quite obviously meant to be read aloud. I suppose one must see these to appreciate them.
Sol - eh.
Venus - I didn't quite get this; and I don't like the resolution.
Mercury - This was short and left me with a big question mark.
Luna - All in all these are okay I guess. they would come across as more of a poetry reading, than as a drama or a play. I'm not sure if I'd actually want to go see these performed, not without taking a pillow..
Could the adorations from "The Treasure-House of Images" be added to these?
August 30-31 - Liber 777 - This is just an incredible cross-reference. I can tell that it will be handy for all kinds of things, such as changing the gods names for an Egyptian Pentagram ritual.