Aleister Crowley & the Hidden God

Typhonian Trilogies #2

by Kenneth Grant, Christopher Johnson (Editor), Aleister Crowley

In this study of Aleister Crowley's system of sexual magic, Kenneth Grant reveals the occult workings of the Fire Snake or Kundalini-Goddess the cosmic power that when awakened by magical means assumes the form that Crowley called the Scarlet Woman. Grant also describes a method of dream control that Crowley and others used to establish contact with extraterrestrial and non-human beings and to prepare themselves for the realization of true cosmic consciousness.

Genres: Occult, Thelema, Esoterica, Magic, Nonfiction, Magick, Mysticism

256 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1973

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

[Leo . · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aleister Crowley. Who was he? What did he do? Maybe reading this book one will find out.


I see Demons, everywhere

In solid objects, liquid, and air

I see them in the curls, of celebrities hair

I see them in triangles, circles but, mostly the square

In straight lines, and nature, the patterns on a curtain, the colours of dye

The folds in clothing, the shadow in the corner, the twinkle in an eye

The flames of the fire, the smoke, the steam,

The mud on the banks, the water in the stream

The Titan is the landscape, the giants of Past

A petrified dragon in Egypt, leaves me aghast!

Serpents, and dragons, red and blue

Holding the Matrix together, like Dark Matter glue

A binary code of red and blue globes

Spiraling in a tunnel, a magician in purple robes

I hear visions, I see sound

I feel words, vibrations, all around

Red and blue matrix, demons and entities, infecting all

The aged, the young, the big, and the small

Mischievous, cunning, deceitful, persuasive and wicked, unclean

Morphing, hidden in plain sight, rarely seen

Logos, pictures, hieroglyphs, sigils and runes

Vibrations, tones, phonics, musical tunes

Chanting, praying, humming, together as one

The power manifests, magic, a puzzle, a conundrum

A pattern, a sequence, a material thing

A design, a bloodline, Return of the King

Corporations, CEO's, profit and ruin

Hollywood, parties, sacrifice, and screwing

Nonce's, deviants, rapists, and politicians

Mayors, Lords, lawyers, Dames and Morticians

Clones, and plastic, and 3D printers

Technology, futurism, transhumanism, the mind splinters

Mk-Ultra, CIA, Mossad, Mi6 and NSA

NASA, Nazi, Operation Paperclip, Chief of the US of A

DUMB's and bunkers, and naughts and crosses in the sky

5G, D-Wave, Edgar Allen Poe, microwaves, and Wi-Fi

A chip in the hand, the forehead, connected

Ready for the King, to be resurrected

Osiris, Apolyon, Odin or Zeus

Jupiter, Diana, The Green Man, Jesus👍🐯👍🐯

By Leo.

[Gaze Santos · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dissertation on Aleister Crowley's brand of sex magick, and how it compares to the Tantric and Kundalini practices of the east. It also discusses the current Aeon of Horus and how we should be conducting ourselves now that it is upon us. And the spiritual significance of the relationship between Isis, Set and Horus and how this relates to Sex Magick. There are some interesting insights contained within this books, but it is buried amongst Kenneth Grant's suspect gematria and idiosyncratic lexicon. Make no mistake, this book has some spiritual value. Some. The rest seems like propaganda for his own Typhonian O.T.O. and how it exclusively holds the correct spiritual understanding of the current Aeon.

[Yaag Ghael · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wonderful read, it brings together many disparate facts to orchestrate a coherent worldview for the practitioners of this unique current. Anyone interested in Tantric Buddhism and Tantric Hinduism from an unorthodox viewpoint will certainly benefit from this book. Some of the strange world of Voodoo Bokors can be apprehended, and understood, and developed, and experienced with this book but you will need access to several other books to accomplish this. Many underground and ancient, half forgotten systems become accessible and vibrant as a result of the Typhonian Trilogies. Grant really deserves a better reputation as a writer or occult fiction and non fiction, just as his hero Lovecraft never received his due regard during his lifetime so too will the influence and importance of Grant not be recognized until long after his death. Grant was involved in practical research which was very non traditional and extremely pioneering, his bravery, resolve, and courage in sharing his findings should be appreciated. He has left behind a very active legacy which cannot be disregarded with impunity. The echos of what Grant has done will ring far into the future and the past of this planet. That being said, this book is as unique as Grant was and the reader will be the better for having read this book. Understand though that Grant was working with another universe and while his Qabala and history are often at odds with those in this universe a great deal can be obtained by reading his works and undertaking the necessary practices.

[Steve Cran · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well I read the whole book and I still have not clue who the hidden god is. Be honest with you I am still clueless after reading this book. I will say that the gist of the book involves the raising of the kundalini serpent and how sex magic can change things. Magical children can be born from magical operations using sex on the full moon . No children will be born but magical entities will be about. Full moon is the best time to do this.

By the way we are in a different age. Having left the sacrificing god of Osiris and Jesus behind we are in the age of Aquarius where Set, Horus and Ra Khorr Khurit is the god This is when we fight for ourselves and we shake the shackle of the group mentality and look for ourselves.

The book covers many things from Voodoo, Tantra, Hinduism and several takeaways from Egyptian magic and religion.Definitely not a book for beginners.

[Dr. Barrett Dylan Brown, Phd · Rating 5 out of 5]

93 A Very good Thelemic Lover of Mine reminded me of how _VITAL_ this book is to ANY True Thelemites Spiritual Education.

I look 4-ward to Reading it ASAP. I read most of Grant's (like the President, lolz) work when I was a Young student of Ebony Anpu, who in her Moment Adored Lt. Col. Grady McMurtie, who in _his_ "turn" at the "wheeeeeeel of Fortune" to Steve Zissous Boat!

Untu Nuit! 56/65!

Love Always!

C@ptain Barrett D:. Brown

93/93

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much of this book is about tying Crowly's sex magical system to that of tantra's. To say that Grant's interpretation of tantrik philosophies and practices is a bit dodgy is an understatement. However, Grant is never boring to read and this book was also one of the first if not first book to readress the misogyny in Crowley's conception of magical practice. Grant flips the script and makes women the driving force in thelemic practice rather than mere props for male practitioners' spiritual attainments.

Grant also plays around more with Austin Osman Spare's atavistic resurgence ideas and HP Lovecraft lore than he did in The Magical Revival; concepts that will become more important in his later works. When Grant goes there that is when he is at his most fun. Definitely on the lower end of Grant's nine core typhonian books but there is a charm to it still.

[Steve · Rating 5 out of 5]

Outstanding and filled with useful Tantric information.

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting overview of how modern occultism leverages tantric texts. Since Grant had a brief period of fully embracing Advaita Vedanta, I really rather wish he had kept that wider perspective rather than trying to uphold Thelema as the main substance of modern practice. Crowley is a mixed bag, and that is very evident in this work. In done ways, Grants re-inagining of what Thelema means in practice is possibly more interesting than what Crowley and followers were actually getting up to.

[Elliott Beach · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a sympathetic, not a critical, interpretation, as I was expecting. Instead, this is a real whopper of numerological hocus-pocus - I think I'll author a book in the near future entitled Kenneth Grant and the Hidden Phallus discussing Grant's psychosexual magick. Crowley's Book of the Law is nowhere near as kooky as this one.

[A. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grant never bores.

[TheRisingHuman TheRisingHuman · Rating 5 out of 5]

THIS BOOK contains a critical study of Aleister Crowley's system of sexual magick and its affinities with the ancient Tantric rites of Kali, the dark goddess of blood and dissolution represented in Crowley's Cult as the Scarlet Woman.

Check out "Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God" In a Digital format on Google Books

https://play.google.com/store/books/d...

[Mitchell Stern · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a book that is challenging to follow much of the time. I did my best but still remain a bit lost. That said it is clearly a very thorough book and when it does not embrace outdated values about homosexuality it offers a lot of insight.

[william m manzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful

I really enjoyed this book so much wonderful insight into this great work, he shows such a deep understanding of the subject and the object .

[Jonathan Bartholomew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting continuation of the previous two works by Grant.

[Christina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am not sure if I can actually rate this book because I feel like I should have got Aleister Crowley's books first to fully understand. I have never read anything from him, I just know what he sort of stood for. After reading this book, I will definitely get real Aleisters books because many of the teachings seem very interesting, intertwined and very much correspond to what I believe. However, if you have not read any of his books or you have no idea about Egyptian mythology, Hindu Gods, yoga and Kundalini, and ancient sacred teachings from which everything as we know it started, don't even think about reading this book. Even for me, the book, later on, became really annoying because it is written in so many codes that one has to be really enlightened in this area to be able to comprehend and thus process the core point of this book. However, the book did manage to hook me up on more of his books.

[Lysergius · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched and quite interesting.

[Rodrigo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite book by Grant, although he discusses some important points and symbolism in the practice of tantra