Ben Fernee’s latest – and, predictably, excellent – list includes the offer for sale of a fascinating edition of Crowley’s Little Essays Toward Truth.
Only the lack of £1200 cash in hand prevents me buying it!
But read on for something really quite intriguing…
Aleister Crowley, Little Essays Toward Truth, Privately issued by O.T.O. Winter Solstice 1938 96pp, fold-out diagram, (4pp) adverts. A form which precedes the adverts has been removed and the remaining stub has been used anchor the loose addendum page. There is very slight and unobtrusive foxing throughout and some candlewax on cloth covering rear board. Overall a Very Good minus copy.
The particularly striking aspect of this item is the important inscription.
This appears to be a pre-nuptial declaration of Magickal Union for Kenneth and Steffi Grant inscribed by an unknown hand. The pastedowns have their civilian names (using what must be Steffi’s maiden name) and their magical mottos. For Kenneth this is Frater Aossic and Kralnia (“a pseudonym under which Frater Aossic received certain oracles in the nineteen-forties”, pp221, Kenneth Grant, “Ninth Arch”) plus another and titles. For Steffi this is Soror Ilyarun and the two are combined in Ilyaos followed by the word Stegoica which is the Transylvanian for Witch, a word mentioned in Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a work which inspired the Grant’s as testified by their reference to the Count’s estate in the title of the Carfax Monographs (Kenneth and Steffi Grant 1959 – 1963). The word “Thelema” is added in the bottom right hand corner. The front free endpaper is inscribed with an elaborate pen-drawn sigil which combines the words Therion (Beast – male) and Babalon (the Whore – woman) with the Greek Thelema and Agape, the crucial components of the Thelemic formula. These words form a womblike device containing the Seal of Aossic and the seal of Ilyarun (as illustrated in Kenneth Grant, Outer Gateways 1994) plus an ornate combination of the two.
It is hard to imagine a more important Typhonian inscription Order No. 0004 £1200
Email Ben Fernee at Caduceus Books if you find yourself with a spare £1200! Let him know you saw it mentioned at LAShTAL.COM