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Member's Review: The Book of Pleasure in Plain English

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lashtal:
This review submitted by member chrischibnall…

The Book of Pleasure in Plain English
Chris Chibnall
2009
132pp
Cover price £9.99

Obtainable from chrischibnall@hotmail.com
Reviewed by Fr. Balphegor

As the cover-blurb states, Austin Osman Spare was “an artistic genius, the cockney forerunner of Surrealism, the grandfather of Chaos Magick”. It’s hard to overstate the importance of AOS to both twentieth century culture and to contemporary occultism. His insights regarding sigil magick, automatic writing and belief shifting have become vital components of modern, and even post-modern, magick. The trouble has been, that his writings are somewhat less comprehensible than Finnegan’s Wake!

Most of Spare’s writing could be politely categorised as “evocative” - or, less politely, impenetrable and rather pretentious. It is largely due to his work being so difficult that Chris Chibnall’s recent paraphrase of The Book of Pleasure is so welcome. Chris has worked painstakingly to allow us to understand the meaning of Spare’s profound insights while still retaining the poetry and Spirit of the original.

Originally published by Spare in 1913, one cannot but be struck by the freshness that this new rendering brings. Whether it’s by the unconventionality of his insights- “Riding the Shark of his desire, he (the adept) crosses the ocean of the dual principle”, or by his scathing polemic against stale ceremonialists – “the unemployed dandies of the brothels”!
Spare’s wit and wisdom seem all the more relevant. Possibly one reason for much of the spiritual sterility that plagues contemporary occultism is the way in which it has adopted much of Spare’s magickal technology without understanding the depth of the Taoist inspired mysticism that underpins his approach.

Peter Carroll wisely (and somewhat dryly) noted of Spare “Read it all; there is not much”. Through his work with the death posture and the neither-neither position Spare has not only provided our generation with the tools for effective results magick, he has also given us valuable insights as to how one sits with the emptiness of Chaos. Via the insights of The Book of Pleasure we are given the beginnings of a middle way between materialist reductionism on the one hand and the theological naivety of much contemporary paganism on the other. Such is the subtlety of Kia!

Chris has done us a great favour by making this work all the more accessible. This is a labour of love, and both the paraphrased text and the extensive and illuminating footnotes are excellent, tracing important influences on Spare, such as Charcot and Haeckel, as far as I can see, for the first time anywhere. Even with paraphrasing, The Book of Pleasure still demands persistence, but it’s the kind of application that most of us could benefit from. This is a book that deserves a wide audience, although I suspect that there may well be some self-styled “Masters of the Dark Arts” and “Commanders of the Four Elements” who find this book too hot to handle!

In his introduction Chris states his purpose: “I like to think that I may at least have helped transform a book that was nearly impossible to comprehend into one that is merely difficult.” A mission that in my view he has accomplished well!

Frater Balphegor

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