Occult & Esoterica
See also our Occult New Arrivals
[CROWLEY, Aleister] The Rites of Eleusis
[CROWLEY, Aleister] The Rites of Eleusis
Edited by Keith Richmond
London: Mandrake Press, 1990. First Edition Thus. Hardcover. Large quarto. 304pp. Black boards with original dust jacket. Limited to 1000 hand-numbered copies. This is No. 661. Illustrated with b&w photographs and drawings. A fine copy in a near fine dust jacket.
Contains the complete scripts of all 7 of the Rites, with introduction by Richmond and explanatory essays by Richmond and Terence DuQuesne. Also includes a series of adorations, "The Treasure House of Images" by Capt J.F.C. Fuller, and Crowley's "Magick Book 4 (Liber O)". The Rites of Eleusis were a series of seven public invocations or rites written by Crowley, each centered on one of the seven classical planets of antiquity. They were dramatically performed by Crowley, along with Leila Waddell (Laylah), and Victor Neuburg in October and November, 1910, at Caxton Hall in London. This act brought Crowley's occult organization the A.’. A.’. into the public eye. Crowley claimed that the Rites were designed to inspire the audience with ‘religious ecstasy’, and that merely reading them would help people "cultivate their highest faculties". Some in the popular press thought otherwise, and considered the Rites an immoral display, riddled with blasphemy and erotic suggestion. Included at the end of the volume is Crowley's rebuttal to the critics (from The Bystander, November 16, 1910) entitled: Concerning "Blasphemy" in General and the "Rites of Eleusis" in Particular.