The Sword of Song - 2nd Edition by Aleister Crowley (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

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Kaczynski presents Crowley's preferred text for The Sword of Song, drawing on all existing draft manuscripts as well as unpublished margin notes from Crowley's personal copies of the book.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.

Review Quotes

"'Post annos CXX patebo.' Perhaps now that 120 years have passed since the first revelation of Crowley's elusive collection, The Sword of Song, it can finally open itself to open minds who, like its author, are eager to challenge and find spiritual satisfaction in challenging religious orthodoxies of all kinds. Richard Kaczynski generously provides apposite, revealing, and wholly admirable assistance to help the new reader access the remarkable genius of 666: an oasis in our current desertion of higher things."-- "Tobias Churton, author of Aleister Crowley in England, Aleister Crowley in Paris, and Aleister Crowl"

"The Sword of Song is the troubadour's voice of a young Aleister Crowley pouring ecstatically from the breast of his soul on the threshold of his great awakening. A masterpiece. A symphony. A divine nightingale's prayer."-- "Lon Milo Duquette, author of The Magick of Aleister Crowley"

"Aleister Crowley's The Sword of Song is a wild beast of a book. It includes poetry and prose touching on topics of Buddhism, Kabbalah, Tarot, cosmology, philosophy, agnosticism, magic, and more, but it is skillfully tamed by its editor, Richard Kaczynski, whose erudite introduction and notes shed light on this fascinating product of an original and extraordinary mind. Brimming with insights and ideas that explode on almost every page of the text, this sword truly sings!"-- "Gordan Djurdjevic, author of India and the Occult: The Influence of South Asian Spirituality on Mod"

"Aleister Crowley's The Sword of Song, as a discursive and complex conglomerate of poetry, metaphysics, philosophical criticism, and more, has long amazed and puzzled readers. At last, Richard Kaczynski's fastidious and insightful annotations to this long-awaited volume help to reveal these branches as a unified organic field. This new edition should prove invaluable to the novice as well as the advanced scholar for exploring a new aeon of penetrating vision into magick as it unfolds in our modern era."-- "Robert Podgurski, author of The Sacred Alignments and Sigils: Angelic Magick, Renaissance Thought, a"

About the Author

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.