This book is a work of fiction that is strange beyond most of the familiar genres today. It is one that encompasses the ideas of the occult, “The Golden Dawn”, and through the discussions, it wraps around ideas from Magick, the Tao te Ching, politics, history, and a variety of writers. It is rumored too, that it is based off of his own experiences in Magickal battles, and that he made a few points in making fun of the “other side”. Before I get into the review of this book, I think it is necessary to say that the word occult simply means “hidden”, and that Magick isn’t “magic”, like hocus-pocus, shooting fireballs from your fingertips, or based off of illusion tricks.

With that said, the book’s plot is based off of a war between the sorcerers (evil) and the magician (good). With the backdrop of World War I, which is the time when this book was written, Crowley also characterizes the two sides by revealing aspects of psychology, motivation, as well as reasoning preceding the action. The comments towards society, politics, and the war are sporadic throughout the book, showing up in conversations between magicians. The main plot is spurred on by a girl, Lisa la Guiffra, who was pulled into the magickal war between her two lovers, Cyril Grey (good) and Abdul (evil). Without spoiling the ending, I’ll just extract a few ideas out of the book…

The premise for the occult, or things that are hidden, is quite fascinating. Crowley explains this in a form of dimensions. Imagine, for instance, a two dimensional plane (like the surface of water), and that a three dimensional object were to act itself in two dimensions. Take a cone, a 3 dimensional object, and place it into two dimensions. Dip the pointy part of it, and the water will see a succession of circles. Dip a side of it, and the flat piece of paper will see a succession of parabolas. Dip the side in an angle, and it will see ellipses. With all these impressions (and more), the 2 dimensional consciousness may or may not even have the idea that all these things were all related to each other!

The human existence is somewhat like that in terms of fate and meaningful coincidences as we try to divine which is actually coincidental or luck. The universe keeps its secret, and everything that man knows really doesn’t amount to much - despite all scientific advances, man is still ignorant to truth and reality as he was thousands of years ago. Skipping over Crowley’s history of man’s development, he says (through Cyril Grey), “Perhaps the universe is a four dimensional object, manifesting itself in diversity, regular or irregular, just as the cone did to the water.” The metaphor expands to illustrate the manifestation of ideas, the soul, and of infinity…

Another part of the book discusses the “moon”. The moon is a symbol in astrology; it is the object that reflects the light of the sun, representing emotions. The soul is something that is eternal, and is symbolized in astrology by the sun, and the mood is just a projection of it. The moon, subject to change, sorrow, the play of all the universe’s forces, and the redemption of the moonlike qualities is the solution to the “cosmic problem”. In the experiment conducted by her lover Cyril Grey, Lisa la Guiffra was to be the moon, the one who would transform herself into an extremely passive energy in order to receive a collection of visions from the “fourth dimension”. The second vision includes the manifestation of a soul into the material dimension. Then Crowley goes into the “dark side of the moon” (haha, this was written before the pink floyd song).

Well, a big part of the last pages is about Lisa’s dark mentalities, and then comes out to go seek the “moonchild” (the manifestation of the soul is born into the world). The end wraps up everything quite nicely, and leaves the reader with a good discourse on the ideas behind the occult, the world, and the ways. There are some things that are beyond worldly sense that might throw you off, but then again it is just a piece of fiction, and Crowley always brings it back to some philosophical point. We can find a lot of realism in this book, as well as nuggets of allegorical phrases and descriptions. At times, it makes for a difficult read, for Crowley does make a lot of quick references to outside names and things. Another drawback is there are a few incomprehensible events that are left without explaining its relevance. Your eyes may glaze over a few portions, but overall an engaging book!

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