And include his instruction letters to Cameron because they are the most lucid of his writings.

Freedom is a lonely star is another essay to include.
I would also wanna purchase a collected works. Great idea. Hoping someone picks this up and runs with it.

Some of JWP's writings have been published/reprinted and are online, but I would still prefer to have a hard copy of his complete works in one volume. I wonder who would write an introduction to such a publication?

I give Songs for the Witch Woman my highest recommendation. Fulgur really knocked it out of the park.

Well, here's the thing.  I believe that the latter two manuscripts (or at least one) are held in different hands, so to speak, than the others.  You see, there was an auction of Parsons mss sometime back with O.T.O. Inc. winning some bids and someone, let's just say NOT O.T.O. Inc., winning others.  I heard this story directly from said person, and I believe it.  Not be nosey, I didn't ask for specific mss titles, but I think said person mentioned his "instructional" papers during the course of the conversation, and this would refer the latter two unpublished mss, I think. 

Would said person collaborate with O.T.O. Inc. to publish a volume like the one quoted above....I dunno?  Are they gonna publish said mss alone....I dunno?  I'm not gonna go outta my way to go ask them, but perhaps said individual will read this post, create a new "incognito" type account, and give us an answer....or perhaps not.  Either way, this is the situation as I understand it.

Oriflamme 1 (1989) claims "This volume makes available for the first time all of Parsons' surviving essays", and includes "The Witchcraft", "The Gnostic Creed" and "The Gnostic Doctrine", among several other essays.

The bibliography indicates that "The Book of Babalon" and "The Book of Antichrist" have also been published before, although in editions likely to be hard to find.

Is it known whether this would include the "missing"verses from The Book Of Babalon, namely 5 to 8 inclusive - even with its earliest publication, have these always been missing?  It would seem an odd thing to do, to send an obviously incomplete manuscript to the printers, which is arguably of great importance at least to its creator?

And as well as correspondence of value, I wonder what would have become of Parsons' magickal record or diaries?  These items are often of some considerable use/ interest as well. 

(As a matter of fact, we are still holding on for & awaiting all of the Master Therion's - and will have to wait a pretty while longer, I fear).

Norma N Joy Conquest

Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword includes a text called "The Star of Babalon", which is prefaced by the editorial note: "This essay is a surviving fragment of 'The Book of Babalon' which was a book of instructions to the avatar or incarnation of the goddess Parsons expected as a result of his Babalon Working. This essay formed Chapter VII of the original, which is now lost. Another chapter survives, but is almost entirely composed of quotations from O.T.O. degree papers." (p. 90)

This book seems to still be in print, or at least it is priced as if it were.

By "Book of Babalon's missing verses" I think you mean Liber 49, which is only part of the The Book of Babalon. Those verses have always been missing in every edition I have seen of that text, including that of its first editor in 1982.

Except for "Songs for the Witch Woman" and Parsons' diaries, most of what is not in "Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword" - such as his correspondence with Cameron - can be found online at respectable places like hermetic.com.

Thanks belmurru – yes, you're right, that would have been Liber XLIX.  I thought it was a "sub figura".

Maybe there is a copy of the full version in the extensive archives of L. Ron Hubbard which would be sequestered away somewhere in Scientology® Headquarters.  In which case it would be very unlikely to come to light except by chance, I would have thought, as I don't think the business has much truck with Thelema anymore (more's the pity).

But apart from Marjorie Cameron and possibly Crowley, Germer, Wilfred T. Smith and/or Jane Wolfe I can’t think who else might have been sent a copy of the whole thing, and Crowley/ Germer's at least may have gotten burnt.

'N Joy

Since I believe Cameron helped edit the 1982 edition, and also subsequent editions of her late husband's work, I imagine that those few lines really were lost, or were never written. How could a few lines be lost? Perhaps they were were written on a separate piece of paper - maybe he wrote it in VERY LARGE CHARACTERS, and so three or four lines per page, and that page got lost. Who knows?

Yes, these sort of ‘mysteries’ hold a particular attraction and fascination for me.  I didn’t know that the first time that was ever published was as late as 1982; I somehow had the idea that Parsons may have done a small print run himself while still alive since he looked on it as such an important document, on a revelatory par with The Book of the Law itself.

Can you possibly be suggesting this was some sort of bizarre prank on Parsons’ part – namely, to write all of the verses out except for four, which he would then pretend to have mislaid?  Why not “lose” the first four in that case - unless maybe his reasoning was the loss of the second four would be serious but not that serious, whereas the loss of the first four would be nothing short of catastrophic in terms of having his work taken seriously??

I think your explanation is the likeliest – that verses 5 to 8 were probably written on a separate sheet of paper which somehow became dislodged from the rest – this would also fit if we assumed it would be the second page, with verses 1 to 4 comprising the first.

Short of scouring the Akashic record, there seems to be little alternative but to wait on the increasingly slim chance this piece of the original manuscript will ever surface, given there now appears to have been no definitive first edition with which to refer back.  Perhaps we could even instigate a competition on Lashtal to supply the missing lines and see what inspiration (or apathy) may bring forth… sometimes the results of this sort of thing can be interesting…

Ever hopeful,
N Joy

Here are the first ones I thought of -

5. Let it be that I shall come.
6. Set Thou the WORD.
7. I AM that ye SHALL BE.
8. For in ALL that is NOT ALL shall ye be known.

Yes this is a most promising start belmurru – you immediately set the bar at a high mark there & I think you have fairly caught the flavour!  Please excuse me if I don’t jump in at the moment with my own contribution (maybe later).  Anyone else like to have a shot?
It may help if you have sight of the first four verses “to start you off” - maybe the four verses immediately following as well so that the immediate context is apparent, but although there are 77 in all it’s probably not necessary for this experiment to include anywhere near the whole text.

1.  Yea, it is I, BABALON.
2.  And this is my book, that is the fourth chapter of the Book of the Law, He completing the Name, for I am out of NUIT by HORUS, the incestuous sister of RA-HOOR-KHUIT.
3.  It is BABALON.  TIME IS.  Ye fools.
4.  Thou hast called me, oh accursed and beloved fool.

5 - 8. 

9.  Now know that I, BABALON, would take flesh and come among men.
10.  I will come as a penelous flame, as a devious song, a trumpet in judgement halls, a banner before armies.
11.  And gather my children unto me, for THE TIME is at hand.
12.  And this is the way of my incarnation.  Heed!

иJoy

Just received 'Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword and Other Essays', the contents are:

1. Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword
2. On Magick
3. Basic Magick: Fundamental Theory and Practice
4. The Gnostic Creed
5. The Gnostic Doctrine
6. Manifesto of the Witchcraft
7. The Witchcraft
8. The Children
9. The Cup, the Sword and the Crux Ansata
10. General Field Theory
11. Analysis of the Ring
12. The Star of Babalon

"Three Essays on Freedom" Hardcover – January 1, 2008

This book is made up of three essays by Parsons:
a never-before published "Freedom is a Lonely Star,"
and his better known work "Freedom is a Two-Edged Sword" (previously published only in softcover)
and a short piece entitled "Doing Your Will."