Overthrowing the Old Gods: Aleister Crowley and the Book of the Law

New commentaries on Aleister Crowley’s Book of the Law reveal how it is connected to both Right- and Left-Hand Paths

• Examines each line of the Book of the Law in the light of modern psychology, Egyptology, Gurdjieff’s teachings, and contemporary Left-Hand Path thought

• Explores Crowley’s identification with the First Beast of Revelation as well as his adoption of the Loki archetype for becoming a vessel of love for all humanity

• Recasts the Cairo Working as a text of personal sovereignty and a relevant tool for personal transformation

• Includes commentary on the Book of the Law by Dr. Michael A. Aquino, who served as High Priest of the Temple of Set from 1975 to 1996

Received by Aleister Crowley in April 1904 in Cairo, Egypt, the Book of the Law is the most provocative record of magical working in several hundred years, affecting not only organizations directly associated with Crowley such as the Ordo Templi Orientis but also modern Wicca, Chaos Magic, and the Temple of Set.

Boldly defying Crowley’s warning not to comment on the Book of the Law, Ipsissimus Don Webb provides in-depth interpretation from both Black and White Magical perspectives, including commentary from Dr. Michael A. Aquino, who served as High Priest of the Temple of Set from 1975 to 1996. Webb examines each line of the Book in the light of modern psychology, Egyptology, existentialism, and competing occult systems such as the teachings of G. I. Gurdjieff and contemporary Left-Hand Path thought. Discarding the common image of Crowley formulated in a spiritually unsophisticated time when the devotee of the Left-Hand Path was dismissed as a selfish evil doer, Webb unveils a new side of Crowley based on his adoption of the Loki archetype and his aim to become a vessel of love for all humanity. In so doing, he shows how the Book of the Law is connected to both Right- and Left-Hand Paths and reveals how Crowley’s magical path of mastery over the self and Cosmos overthrew the gods of old religion, which had kept humanity asleep to dream the nightmare of history.

Providing in-depth analysis of Crowley’s sources and his self-identification with the First Beast of Revelation from a profound esoteric perspective, Webb takes his views out of the Golden Dawn matrix within which he received the Book of the Law and radically recasts the Cairo Working as a text of personal sovereignty and a relevant tool for personal transformation.

Table of Contents:
Part One Centers of Pestilence

Introduction: Two Paths - Out of the Confusion of the World
Liber Legis: The Book of the Law - Commentary by Michael A. Aquino
A Great Shadow in His Soul: Commentary on The Book of the Law by Don Webb
The Grade of Magus
The Grade of Ipsissimus
The Stele of Ankh-ef-en-Khonsu
Thelema and Xeper
“Alastor; or, The Spirit of Solitude” by Percy Bysshe Shelley

Part Two Aleister Crowley: The Force and the Fire

Introduction: Uncle Al and Me
The Force
The Fire
An Afterword to “The Force and the Fire”

Appendix: Inner and Outer Mysteries

Resources and Suggested Reading

Index

About the Author :
Ipsissimus Don Webb joined the Temple of Set in 1989 and served as its High Priest from 1996 to 2002. He has written and lectured on Left-Hand Path topics and the occult practices of Late Antiquity since 1995. He lives in Austin, Texas.

Review :
"Aleister Crowley wrote many works himself, and many works have been written about him. Most of the latter focus on his colorful lifestyle, while others seek to interpret his meta-poetic words in terms of one or another Thelemite orthodoxy. In this volume, Don Webb goes beyond either of these approaches. Webb, who made his way along the same arduous initiatory pathways pioneered by the First Beast, here focuses on the initiatory and philosophical meanings of Crowley’s life work. He does so in a way that can be of personal magical benefit to all who read the book." “Don Webb uses his commentaries and essays to clearly communicate the nature of this elite spiritual path to those who seek it. Hence this work is important in both its insight into Thelema and The Book of the Law and its clear exposition of the Left Hand Path and its practice in the modern world.”
“This is a must read book for any modern magician, indeed anyone who treks beyond the boundaries of the conventional spirituality.”