You have misfiled this post. It should be under 'members creations'.

OK

I don’t recall stating that it was a “member’s creation”, unless it was a fiendish creation of the Amado disciple who forwarded it to me?  The [serious] point I was making, whether it turns out to be a “creation” in the end or not (I myself am keeping an open  mind on the matter!) is that it is germane, in the midst of much talk of ‘bogus’ documents and ‘hoax’ accounts of reception, etc., that one should apply the sword of discrimination & weigh things upon their internal evidence, or otherwise, of incorruptibility (cf. Orson Welles’s F is for FAKE? etc…).  If someone (e.g., Amado's follower) says it is "real", who exactly is going to say "nay" & say that it is "not" real?

Is this Not so?
N. Joy

No. It's utter bollocks as you well know. Anyway, whatever it is it's not Thelema so should go somewhere else.

OK

Utter is an interesting word to use, but perhaps we may be digressing here?  Anyway: if it is “not Thelema” (your description), it is certainly not not Magick (if you grasp what I mean), which is the section in Lashtal under which it appears & of which A.C. says: “Every intentional act is a magickal act” (in Magick and Theory and Practice, or Book Four as it now seems to have become).

Maybe one of Amado’s followers can throw some more light on the position, as the book is quite clearly referred to in the master’s (Amado’s) writings as superceding  Liber AL?

Booking in with Robert Johnson to a chalet at the Crossroads (cardboard motel),
N. Joy

Oh! I once read the THE BOOK OF DESOLATION.....I thought it rather a bleak read!

The bit you've posted, Jamie, is clearly a pastiche of Liber Aleph.

"A pastiche is a work of art, literature, film, music or architecture that closely imitates the work of a previous artist ..."

I think it's someone who is trying to imitate the stream-of-consciousness style of Not The Life And Adventures Of Sir Roger Bloxam, in the "missive" form of Liber Aleph.

It might be called a pseudepigraphon, a "falsely so-attributed work", if it were an ancient work. More modern such works might be called "forgeries". But given the quality of the writing, I think it deserves, at best, the title of "parody".

Yes, I think 'parody' is the better term here.

As parodies go it's actually not too bad. I wouldn't mind reading the whole thing if it ever turns up.

In fact

"Aiwass was mine manswervant [sic, corrected typing error] and Waiter and a most excellente Raconteur of Rare Wit & Distinction, as well as Cooke formidable & extraordinaire who made most wonderfull red hot Curries & other diverse dishes of the desert"

is a treat.

Especially "manswervent."

...and the supposed date of signing should give a clue to the veracity ...

You can pepper the paragraphs with borrowed words and phrases, glue them together and frame them how you like; however it clearly lacks the direct wit and rhythm of authentic AC. 

Kenneth Grant refers to Amado's notions of a 'Book of Desolation' in The Ninth Arch and manages to make it sound interesting.

Pastiche? Parody?  The thing is simply abominable.  OKontrair is probably nearest the mark when he defines it as "utter bollocks".

Agreed.

I'm going to lock this thread, now. It has nothing to do with AC, his legacy or Thelema. Actually, I'm baffled as to why it was posted here in the first place.

Moderator's Note: Thread unlocked at request of OP.

Parody or pastiche?  You say tomato, and I say potato…  A ‘piss-take’ would be a third option; ‘the Real McCoy’ a fourth.    Whether by A.C., Amado or that well known author A.N. Other, the style does appear to be broadly based upon Liber Aleph, as Michael correctly pointed out.  However this is not altogether surprising as it is purportedly a direct communication of and by A.C. with his magickal Son & both examples would seem to share a common epistolary style.  Belmurru is also quite accurate in his learned assessment

I also liked

LOL!

I was not slow myself to recognize a grand total of 18 anomalous phrasings etc. of varying degrees which did not strike me as typical “Crowleyisms” and which may be interpreted as the following list which I have compiled suggests:

Liber Desolationis
My knowledge of Latin is fairly rudimentary (read GCSE ‘O’ level) but I would lay pretty good odds that “Desolationis” is not an accurate transcription of the genitive singular “of Desolation”.

carny sideshow
Was this colloquialism for ‘carnival’ known at the time (1947)?  It sounds more like something out of The Simpsons.

faze
This similarly strikes me as a fairly modern neologism.

And most fine desserts too, I might add
This would seem to be a pun of sorts, following on as it does so closely from ‘desert’ four words earlier.  But would A.C. pun so mercilessly in a ‘sacred’ document?

Know ye that the Real Secrets are communicated
Contrast this with A.C.’s other statements (e.g. in connection with the O.T.O.) that “the real secrets are incommunicable”.

For thine Eyes only
Clearly a paraphrase of the title of Ian Fleming’s collection of short stories, “For Your Eyes Only” which was published over a decade later.  However, Amado did claim that his ‘father’ was on far more intimate terms with the celebrated author of James Bond than has previously been intimated…

Valley of the Shadow of the Waste
Clearly also a combination of a parody of the 23rd Psalm, ‘yea though I walk through the shadow of the valley of death’ overlaid with A.C.’s  adopted persona of/as Shelley’s Alastor, the Wanderer in the Waste.

Please turn over
Was this really in the original?  A.C. does not normally include this direction in any of his other typed manuscripts.

[Illegible smudge or smear…]
Very conveniently obliterating some great ‘cosmic’ secret, I notice.

Physickally
Was ‘psychically’ meant here, possibly?  Either way, its context is unknown & therefore its meaning is indecipherable (unless some ‘stain remover’ can be brought to bear).

Put-on and general Foolerie
This might be kosher, but it doesn’t seem like A.C.’s usual style and ‘put on’ might also be a neologism, too.

Add-Eleven to total 729
Appears to be a reference to ‘it shall be to you as 718’ (III.19).  Adding “the magick number” of 11 brings it to 729, which then factorises as 9[sup:15vg1dqi]3[/sup:15vg1dqi] (among other permutations).

Two blocks along from Skid Row
Another colloquialism - although didn’t Charlie Chaplin refer to that cobbled boulevard in one of his silent films?  Maybe this one is kosher, but it still seems an unusual and unnecessary interjection after Carey Street, although it would fit in terms of being where the bankrupts of the latter address might end up, and as A.C. did himself lay up in 1934 e.v.

Hée!
May be a cabbalistic reference to Hé, but why is there an extra ‘e’?  Contrast this also with “[Amn] Ho!” and “[Aum] Ha” within Liber AL itself (I.51 and III.75).

Set down Ex Castro Nemoris Inferioris Aretae Porti Novi by
Wasn’t this address at Netherwood otherwise given as “De Castro…” and: “Ex Nemore Inferiori Aretae Porto Novo”??

Your Dad
Extremely incongruous after all the honorific titles, although he does mention “your anxious and affectionate sire” in Liber Aleph.

) [Moon] in Ω
This appeared to have been a Leo, although as I do not have all the astrological symbols on my font I could not transcribe it thus.  Neither have I checked any Ephemeris for 1947 as to whether this attribution of the day (Monday) on the date below is correct.

1st April, 1947 e.v.
At least a coincidence here (whether or not engineered by the Secret Chiefs), as we were previously discussing whether A.C. ever paid much attention to this as a significant day.  According at least to Kenneth Grant, he did.

Further to this list I would also add that the
“Sundry accounts (laundry and dry cleaning bills from Netherwood, etc., ca.1945-7)” business
appears to be bogus, on reflection.  Still, one never knows…

However to return to the point which I made in Reply #2, whether this particular item is a forged creation of fantasy or not, the point is that Amado nonetheless did make explicit reference to the ‘reality’ of it, and according to that fount of received knowledge and learning “Wikibin”:

The Book Of Desolation, according to Amado Crowley, is the ancient book once housed in the library at Alexandria that his father, Aleister Crowley came across in Egypt in 1904. It was on this trip in 1904 that Crowley wrote The Book Of The Law which later formed the cornerstone of his Thelemic philosophy but it is Amado's claim that the book was merely a 'red herring' and that the real reason that his father was in Egypt was to translate The Book Of Desolation. He quotes his father as saying:
"Liber Legis was written because I had to produce something. Certain people had got wind of bits and pieces of the story. I did Liber Legis to put them off the scent."
"I did what I did for very good reasons. There was the problem of the missing pages, you see. The text had gaps in it. Every scroll was damaged in one or more places. This meant that the book was flawed and left the way open for forgery and fraud."
He is also told by his father, "One day you will tell them. They will not be able to criticize me. I did what I did under instructions."

There is much doubt as to the existence of the book as it has only been seen by Amado himself and just one other person, the occult writer and rare book dealer Jason Brett Serle.  The doubt exists because the book has not yet been published. Amado is working on the final translation of the Text, when it is completed the book will be published. The book has been seen by more than two people; some of his students are given access to it.

Amado himself had this to say in The Secrets of Aleister Crowley (pp. 99-103):

“We were on a sort of holiday,” he explained.  He didn’t give me time to ask who this “we” might be.  “We were visited by a spirit being who said that his name was Aiwass and he, er, acted as our guide.”  He coughed.  “Among many other things, he took me to meet a Beautiful Black Lady.”  He pronounced the last three words as if they were a title.  “She told me where the book was hidden and how it had once been guarded by the Knights Templar for many years.  Even then it was old beyond belief.  It was ancient before it was rescued from the fire at Alexandria.”
I imagined a bundle of newspapers tied together with a string, or something equally shambolic.  Once again he showed that he could read my thoughts.
“It was nothing to do with what we’d think of as a book today,” he went on.  “It was a series of about a dozen scrolls.  The biggest was about as fat as a drain-pipe, and the others were of all kinds of sizes.  It appeared that they were numbered by means of knotted leather thongs, while their contents were indicated by coloured beads threaded between the knots.  Evidently, there was some underlying principle like the Dewey system of modern libraries.  But we never found what it was and I’ve never read about anything similar.”
“The vellum had been specially treated to help preserve it as long as possible.  Sadly however the stuff had been slowly rotting for years and by the time it reached me, the edges of the rolls were eaten away and whole sections had already crumbled into  flakes and dust.  We copied everything down, word for word, symbol for symbol.”  At that he fell silent for a moment.
Of course, I can’t say what the language was.  He didn’t tell and it never crossed my mind to ask.  I don’t even know how it was written down – in hieroglyph, demotic, ideographs, or alphabet.  I wouldn’t have understood, and I wouldn’t have remembered.  Whenever I have thought about it since, and I do think about it often, my guess is some sort of syllabic writing.  This is why Crowley referred to words and symbols alike.
“Sometimes, though, the rolls would crack as I touched them.  One heard the noise – like thin ice on a frosty morning.  When that happened we were faced with the tedious task of putting the fragments together again and we spent the rest of the day lifting flimsy morsels with eye-brow tweezers.  Since we were working in our hotel room, we shut all the windows to stop any breeze, and we hung the place with wet sheets to raise the level of humidity.  What with one thing and another, it was quite hellish.”
He came out now in a fine sweat as if he was living through it again.  “The hotel staff thought we might have been touched by the sun and kept tapping at the door to see if we were all right.  A couple of French guests were so nosey, they sent round an Egyptian doctor in case we’d both gone mad.  God alone knows how they thought an Egyptian doctor would tell!” (pp. 100-1)

He fell silent now as though watching a film that absorbed him.  I hardly dared do it, but I had to give him a prompt.  “What then?” I asked, softly.
His eyes turned to me and there was a look of genuine awe in them.  “We were driven to keep going.  Aiwass pressed us.  It wasn’t that we lacked the will or interest – it was the damn fatigue.  ‘Look how much we’ve done,’ I would say.  ‘Look how little is left,’ my friend would reply.  And that was what kept us at it – the rolls getting fewer, the heap of frass growing as if we were beetles nibbling away the temple roof.”
He slid his arm round my shoulders and now there was a slight catch in his voice, just like my mother when she described ‘Gone With the Wind.’
“It held together just long enough.”  He went to the shelf and brought a huge book.  “Is that Liber Legis” I asked in a hushed voice.
“No,” he said simply.  “It is ‘The Book of Desolation’.”
He gave me that one and only copy to keep safe.  It was not the original transcription though.  It was his own rendition of the text in English.  He had made it with the help of the spirit-being, Aiwass.  I have read it, of course, and there isn’t a great deal I can tell you.  There are some typical Crowley touches, here and there, but on the whole it doesn’t read like anything else he composed.
“But I thought that was the time you produced ‘Liber Legis’?” I said in puzzlement.
“‘Liber Legis’ was written because I had to produce something,” he said bitterly.  “Certain people had got wind of bits and pieces of the story.  I did ‘Liber Legis’ to put them off the scent.”  He shrugged regretfully.  “Just a red herring, really.”
“You mean there’s no truth in it?  You just made it up?”  He smiled sadly.  “Not as simple as that.  I threw in just enough truth to make the cake taste of chocolate.  Otherwise it is a work of my own invention.  Not without merit though.”  But by this time I realized just how much value his followers placed on ‘Liber Legis’, and he could see that I was shocked.  “It wasn’t a question of cheating, old son.  In many ways I may be a rogue, but not to that extent.  I did what I did for very good reasons.  There was the problem of the missing pages, you see.  The text had gaps in it.  Every scroll was damaged in one or more places.  This meant that the book was flawed and left the way open for forgery and fraud.”
He looked at me with eyes that were heavy and suddenly careworn.  “One day you will tell them.  They will not be able to criticise me.  I did what I did under instructions.” (pp.101-2)

He reached across to a side-table and picked up a large, heavy volume.  “What does that look like?” he asked, placing the book in front of me.
“I don’t know.  Perhaps an old photograph album?”
“It’s a Bible, you dunderhead.”  He bowed his head and forced himself to speak more calmly.  “I disguised the thing as a Family Bible of the nineteenth century.  Surely, you’ve seen one of those before?”
“In church,” I answered honestly.  “The big book on the back of the brass eagle.”  I heard him suck his tongue in irritation.  “The one we’ve got at home is only very small,” I assured him hastily.  “My Mam won it for good attendance at Sunday School.”
“It doesn’t matter,” he said with a patient sigh.  “It doesn’t have to be a bible at all.  It could be a stamp album, one volume of an encyclopaedia, or even a copy of the Beano Bumper Story Book for Boys [and Girls – j.b.].”  He gazed at me with hard, brilliant eyes.  “The point is this: nobody will see its true form unless they have the special key.”
He recovered his good humour and patted my back jokingly.  “It would probably be as well to change it into something else.  Who knows?  Even bibles might be worth stealing one day.”
How right he was!  The book is now disguised as something else.  I would be daft to say what, so I’m not even admitting that it looks like a book any more.  My whereabouts are not widely known, and I have learned to be fairly secretive.  You have to be when you are Aleister Crowley’s son!  If burglars came to my house, I don’t think they’d even know what they’d stumbled up on.  It doesn’t look like anything of interest and you’d be hard put to it to guess it had any value.  When Aleister first put it into my hands, I was a bit over-awed.  I don’t think I had really taken it all in, so it wasn’t the historical or magical importance that impressed me.  Believe it or not, I was fascinated by the intricate pattern of the carved wooden covers.  It had brass hinges, and a special fastener such as you see on a jewel-box.  “A pity that your original story isn’t true.  What I mean is – if Aiwass had dictated this, then there wouldn’t have been any bits missing, eh?  He’d have done the job properly and the book would be complete.”
“Oh my dear, trusting boy!  We dare not tell the truth.  A book that was written by Aleister Crowley and on sale at many bookshops – that wasn’t going to tempt anybody.  But ‘The Book of Desolation, imperfect and incomplete, would have attracted rogues from every corner of the earth.  Somehow or other, they would have tried to steal it.” […] (pp .102-3)

Gerald Suster, however, was rather scathing and dismissive the entire matter, writing in the Skoob Esoterica Anthology Vol. 1 No. 1:

[...] Thelemites, serious Magicians, Qabalists and otherwise intelligent men and women will no doubt be intrigued to learn that according to Amado, THE BOOK OF THE LAW was merely “a red herring”. Marvellous, isn't it? Aleister Crowley fought against this work for years, then accepted it as the spine of his life, then spent the rest of his life studying it and advancing it in his published and unpublished writings: and Amado informs us that he dismissed it lightly as `a red herring'. Jolly good, Amado: what other delights do you have for us? Ah, apparently the real truths are to be found in The Book of Desolation of which there is unfortunately only one copy and this is in the possession of - yes! you've guessed it! - Amado. […]

I ask again, followers of Amado, where might be the (rest of the) goods?  Or is the whole thing indeed some sort of a fantastic fake/ hoax/ put-on/ scam?

Chortling merrily away now & again over the whole business like Muttley (D. Dastardly’s hound),
N. Joy

I would say with almost certainty that the above text was not written by A.C. It more than likely is an invention by Amado or one of his followers (?!) It's laughable that 418 pages are missing and even more so that I've even given it the time of day. These people need to stop clinging onto Crowley and instead of endlessly searching for the rest of the document find themselves instead. But that may just be my own opinion?

one of the worst examples of parasitizing on the man far greater than they will ever be.

Almost certainly? You're being far too cautious. This is clearly a parody, and designed to be seen as such. A waste of good pixels, and it's a pity that the thread didn't remain locked.

This is clearly a parody, and designed to be seen as such.

I think that too generous a judgement.

Yes I think I was too polite in my post. This was not written by A.C. I do sincerely hope that the person who started this thread was doing so to amuse? Other than that if these 'followers' do believe this to be genuine then I am lost for words! This should be taken for what it is and never again given the time of day.

One more point the word 'disciple' in one instance worries me and makes me laugh all at the same time!

I agree.  Can we lock it?  I don't mean to be rude but this thread is a pointless distraction imo. 

Sincerely speaking, I think the chances of the other (418 is it?) pages of this so-called book turning up to be rather remote.

Surely nobody can believe it to be authentic?  I would be very interested to read so - if so!  It is clearly, as Belmurru correctly avers, a pseudoepigraphon, with the emphasis perhaps firmly on the pseudo.  The "Book" as here written is demonstrably a fake, with a capital F, and I have transparently evidenced the fact with at least 18 different clues/ reasons for why this may be so in a previous post (see Reply #3).  Even so, maybe the hoaxer should be credited with at least a little in the way of wry scepticism...

And yet, other questions remain.  Clues elsewhere suggest there must be something in this charade, even if only ending in the wild proverbial goosechase; does anyone know anything of this alleged connection with "the occult writer and rare book dealer" one Jason Brett Serle, for example (see Wikibin quote referred to supra)?

Do Amado's "literary executors" or those responsible for sorting through his wordly effects & chattels have nothing to remark upon this matter?  Some of his (ex-) "followers"/"disciples" have contributed various postings to Lashtal in the past - do they have nothing to contribute to the matter either ? 

But in the meantime I shall, unsurprisingly, not be bating my breath...

... though remaining utterly desolate at the prospect of the loss (What an abomination! ;D)
'N Joy

If the moderator chooses to not lock a thread, then simply ignore it. Forums, and the world, were not built for your personal satisfaction in which you can simply banish something that doesn't appeal to your sense of propriety.

This has GOT to be the work of Richard Cole. The man is a menace!

I doubt very much that it's the work of Richard Cole. Whoever did it, it's clearly designed to be a joke rather than an attempt at passing it off as genuine.

Hang on a minute

http://www.parareligion.ch/doc.htm

:-[

What's that got to do with this?

Reply #14 by Satan’s Advocaat on May 09, 2013, 02:20:41 pm:
Kenneth Grant refers to Amado's notions of a 'Book of Desolation' in The Ninth Arch and manages to make it sound interesting.

In the interests of arriving at a further completeness, it might be useful to put down for the record exactly what Kenneth Grant has to say about the matter:

[…] It may also be significant that a self-styled ‘son’ of Aleister Crowley claims that a secret ‘Book of Desolation’ exists.  In which case, it may be the Inner Book of the Law hinted at by Andrew Collins in The Seventh Sword [a whole other story/ can of worms – j.b.] (p. 84)

Amado Crowley claims that at the heart of the Book of the Law lies a BooK of Desolation. (p. 113)

[…] It has been claimed that the Book of the Law, even, were a hoax, a “red=herring”, diverting attention away from the real source of Power, as an illusionist flashes with his right hand the bauble that is to deflect attention from the dark deed done by the left? – See Amado Crowley, The Secrets of Aleister Crowley. There is a sense, to be discussed later, in which Amado’s statement is correct. [My emphasis.  But never really discussed later, in this book at any rate.  The extracts quoted here amount to all the meat there is. – j.b.] (p. 79)

Kenneth Grant, The Ninth Arch[/align:39jlhkzr]

Rather interesting that Ken doesn’t denigrate it (The Book of Desolation) outright.  He at least obviously did not consider the whole concept of it a complete waste of good pixels, or whatever the equivalent pre-tech phrase might have been with him. (- space ?!)  Although that in itself shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise, as KG has similarly accepted many other ideas about reality which have an even more ‘fantastic’ (or “goofy”,* to use the vernacular which has been employed by some Lashtalians) basis.  A cynic might ask: Does this apparent approval – or at least , no sign of disapproval – mean that all Typhonians should by extension share a similar accepting (and credulous) ‘party line’ outlook upon it, though? 

(* cf. His seeming acceptance of the reception of The Book of the Law stemming from April Fool’s Day not April 8th – see relevant thread for further discussion.)

I agree.  I doubt very much that it’s the work of Richard Cole, too.

Leaving aside the jokey patent forgery, perhaps there may be apparently more to this than meets the eye?  Or [;)] is that some dust I've got in my eye, there?
N Joy

Hang on a minute

"He at least obviously did not consider the whole concept of it a complete waste of good pixels, or whatever the equivalent pre-tech phrase might have been with him. (- space ?!)" How bout 'waste of good squid juice.' Or is that just a Tyhpo?  :-*

I heard that Richard Cole was Amado Crowley? Anyhow... Tell us bout them there nu isis workings. Nudge, nudge, wink, wink!  ;D

(www.typhonics.con/images/typhoniansonthelamagain.jpg)

Really? You 'heard' that? Time to lock this thread.