Outside the Circles Of Time

Typhonian Trilogies #5

by Kenneth Grant

Outside the Circles of Time is the fifth volume in the series of Grant’s Typhonian Trilogies. This is a work that covers an extremely wide area and exposes - to quote from the jacket of the 1980 edition - “a network more complex than was ever imagined: a network not unlike H.P. Lovecraft’s dark vision of sinister forces lurking at the rim of the universe”. Outside the Circles of Time explores a complex of such ideas, from Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine, Crowley’s The Book of the Law, Lovecraft’s Necronomicon, and Frater Achad’s researches. It also explores the work of Soror Andahadna, a contemporary Priestess of Maat whose work has parallels with that of Frater Achad some decades previously when he announced the inauguration of the Aeon of Maat in 1948. On the more orthodox premise that each Aeon lasts 2,000 years, we are at the beginning of the Aeon of Horus, so the Aeon of Maat might appear a long way off yet. However, the following passage from Outside the Circles of Time puts the matter in a different light:

"Myths and legends are of the past, but Maat should not be thought of in terms of past or future aeons. Maat is present now for those who, knowing the ‘sacred alignments’ and the ‘Gateway of Inbetweenness’, experience the Word ever coming, ever emaning, from the Mouth, in the ever new and ever present forms that are continually being generated from the mystical Atu or House of Maat, the Ma-atu . . ."

Genres: Occult, Thelema, Nonfiction, Esoterica, Religion

332 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Kenneth Grant was the head of several important Thelemic orders and author of the influential “Typhonian Trilogies” series (1972–2002) that includes The Magical Revival, Nightside of Eden and Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God.

In 1939, Kenneth Grant chanced upon Crowley’s Magick in Theory and Practice and a few years later began a correspondence with the author (see Remembering Aleister Crowley, Skoob Books, 1991) that would lead to him joining the Ordo Templi Orientis. In 1946, he was initiated into the Argentum Astrum and was confirmed as an IX° in the O.T.O.

Shortly after Crowley’s death in 1947 Grant met David Curwen. Also member of the O.T.O. Sovereign Sanctuary, a keen alchemist and a student of tantra, Curwen initiated Grant into “a highly recondite formula of the tantric vama marg.” This experience further deepened Grant’s interest in oriental mysticism and he detailed his work with the Advaita Vedanta in a number of essays for Asian journals in the early 1950s (later published as At the Feet of the Guru, Starfire, 2006).

In 1948, Kenneth Grant’s wife Steffi (they were married in 1946) wrote to Austin Osman Spare and the couple began an eight-year friendship with the artist. The bookseller Michael Houghton had already introduced Grant to Spare’s opus, The Book of Pleasure, and Spare elucidated his theories with letters and enclosures of manuscripts, with Kenneth acting as amanuensis. In 1954, Spare and Grant co-founded the Zos Kia Cultus: not a cult in the objective sense, but a designation given to the creative nexus of personal magical experience (see Zos Speaks!, Fulgur, 1999).

In the same year Grant founded the New Isis Lodge, with the intention of providing a conduit for “the influx of cosmic energy from a transplutonic power-zone known to initiates as Nu-Isis.” The group ran until 1962 and various accounts of the experiences of the group may be found throughout the “Typhonian Trilogies”.

Coetaneous with the New Isis Lodge, Kenneth and Steffi Grant began work on the Carfax Monographs. This series of ten essays was issued between 1959 and 1963 with the explicit intention to “elucidate the hidden lore of the West according to canons preserved in various esoteric orders and movements of recent times.” It was the beginning of a unique 50 year contribution to Thelemic literature and art that spans poetry, biographical works, fact and fiction.

Copyright © Robert Ansell, 2007

http://www.fulgur.co.uk/authors/grant/

Reviews

[Gordan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As is typicall for Kenneth Grant's books, this one also seems to hover in the inbetween spaces between waking and dreaming mind. The main subject is the relationship between the Aeons of Horus and of Maat, which latter is traditionally assumed to have its beginning some 2000 years from now, but which Grant - following Frater Achad and especially Nema (called Andahadna here) - understands as existing right now as a particular mode of consciousness (ih one is awaken to it, that is). In other words, Horus and Maat are seen as a double-current. Grant also suggests his grand idea that Magick is the apotheosis of the irrational (the rational being perceived as limited). Another very interesting idea is that the time from the Aeon of Maat flows backward and that it is perhaps that our enlightened selves from that Aeon are trying to help ourselves in this Aeon, in order to make a necessary transition. I find the great deal of the subject matter highly speculative but Grant is without question important at least as a magical speculator.

[Gaze Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very much a continuation of ideas explored in The Magickal Revival. This book seeks to explore and prove the idea that we are living in a double current: The Aeon of Horus as ushered in by Aleister Crowley, and the Aeon of Maat, first introduced by Crowley's magickal son Charles Stanfield Jones. Grant goes to a third source to try and prove this. Nema's books, here referred to as Soror Andahadna, Liber Pannae Praenumbra and her Book of the Forgotten Ones, are often referred to as current proof of the double Aeon. Grant points to interesting similarities between the works of the three and makes a somewhat convincing case. Although as usual, I do find his use of Gematria to be rather suspect, he raises some interesting ideas that should be taken with generous heaps of salt. This is a book of Magickal philosophy more than anything, and it is very speculative. I admire the audacity of the speculations, if not their overall scholarship.

[Yaag Ghael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kenneth Grant is always downplayed by Magicians who want to be considered normal from societal viewpoints, his Qabala is often suspect, his history is unorthodox, but he worked the system. His passion and urgency come from his actual progress through a series of received texts and workings starting with the Tunnels of Set outlined in his book The Nightside of Eden. Because he admittedly is working with another world, one contained in the Qabalistic Waters of Chaos an element of the incongruous and disjointed inevitably finds it's way into his writings. He successfully describes the inner reality and subjective experiences of those who throughout history have worked with these potencies and acurately conveys the purpose and methods used by those who have harnessed this current. It is interesting to note how quickly strange objective occurances surround one who is having these types of subjective experiences. Especially interesting is his description of how the non human practitioners of this current in the other universe achieve their results. That this is a fast track system to radically alter ones experiences and perceptions and make some extreme transformations in ones identity and cognition cannot be denied by anyone who has undertaken the practical work described. The writings of Kenneth Grant are recently inspiring and informing a fairly large movement in the Satanist and Setian circles where they are rapidly changing the terrain and what can be expected from these traditions. Outside of these circles several rather wonderful traditions and orders have sprung up directly in response to these writings and the strange and pioneering practitioners are beginning to make serious inroads into altering consensus reality in some very significant ways. It will be interesting to watch how this all plays out. All of the works in the Typhonian Trilogies are wonderful and transformative in their own right and this book is no different. It is a shame that recent publishers are seeking to exploit the niche market and are demanding rather unreasonable prices for these great works as this limits access to them and keeps these ideas somewhat contained. Well worth reading. Highly recommended.

[Esotericob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kenneth Grant has a reputation for writing weird books. I'd agree with that assessment insofar as his books are written in a nonlinear style, filled with cryptic references in the form of gematria (numbers), and letter-combinations. There are various references to arachnids, underground channels, and alternative universes. People probably get scared off by Grant's work because it's psychedelic in a "bad vibey" sort of way. And most people, especially spiritual people, have very little patience for things that give them "bad vibes." But I'd point out that Grant's writing is *not* sinister or evil, but difficult. Much like reality.

The real significance of Grant's work is not that it is weird, or disturbing, but that it is scholarly in a unique, DIY sort of way. As far as I can tell, he had no postsecondary education, and thus his thinking is the product of his own learning. And it shows, in a good way. Grant's scholarship is never sloppy, but remains faithful to its sources and its unique inspiration.

In each of the Typhonian Trilogies, Grant runs through a body of mystical literature, carefully analyzing the most relevant topics and bringing different themes into focus. He carefully and lovingly describes the works of his favorite occultists, while putting a bit of his own spin on things. It's that "spin" which eventually amounts to Grant's unique mystical vision. Unlike most other mystical thinkers, Grant does not spend a whole lot of time criticizing other writers. This is a refreshing approach, when compared to writers like Blavatsky, Crowley, and Waite who spend as much time lambasting their perceived opponents as they do sharing new information. Grant uses themes he picks up elsewhere to evoke new ideas. It's in that sense that his writing can be called "postmodern."

[Richard · Rating 2 out of 5]

Madness.

[Sue Dounim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I actually finished reading this book. I have to confess, I did not exactly meticulously follow the author into the more labyrinthine reaches of his gematrial excursions...
How do you possibly assign a 1-dimensional value as a rating for a book like this? For entertainment value, I give it a 4; for gematrial acrobatics I give it a "pi" (3.14i5...); for alignment with reality a 0; for value to researchers into the Tunnels of Set, an infinity.
How would you describe this book to someone not steeped in Crowley, Thelema, Lovecraft, etc.? Fortunately I've never been called on to try.
One also needs to consider that this book, like all of Grant's, is part of a series of related volumes. For instance, in this one there are many references to Nightside of Eden, which I believe just preceded it.
Also, over the decades there have been many of his books that have gone through careful revisions; some of his earlier printings were rife with typos, which is definitely a negative when your argument depends on complicated qabalistic forumale. I am pleased to report that the typos in this book are very minimal and very few (I think I found three).

[Marco Alto Marco · Rating 5 out of 5]

So valuable.

[Mando473 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great gnosis