Psychic Questing (PQ) brings psychics into the great outdoors for tutelary adventures. It emerged in the late-1970s as a more harder-edged and goal-orientated reaction to the laid back hippy druggy 1960s Earth Mysteries movement. For those new to the subject, I've compiled some PQ material here, centred on the "Black Alchemist" affair that really put PQ on the map during the late-1980s.
You can read a PQ report by me from 2004, with a photograph of the curious entity we met, here. A more recent PQ report by the Cross Of Light Temple is here.
A lesser-known fact is the link between Psychic Questing and the Thelemic occult scene, via Andrew Collins' non-fictional Twenty-First Century Grail (Virgin, 2004), that features a disembodied Aleister Crowley giving clues and a positive endorsement of the book by Kenneth Grant on its front cover.
So is Thelemic Psychic Questing (or any type of it) a reality elsewhere in the UK or beyond? My colleagues and I would be most interested to hear your PQ reports, techniques, musings, etc.
I've read some of Collins's books, and Psychic Questing interests me.
I've been wondering, does anyone know any more about this incident?
Veteran psychic quester Andrew Collins recounted his encounters over three decades with a malevolent Crowleyesque spirit entity. In keeping with the ideas of Kenneth Grant and TOTO, the entity first manifested in the 1970s, during the hypnosis of a woman who felt that she had been abducted by extraterrestrials. The entity instructed Collins and the abductee to recreate a lost magical order with the “Inner Book of the Law” at its center. To instigate the new movement they were to perform a rite at the site of Crowley’s short-lived Abbey of Thelema at Cefalu, Sicily. Several mediums warned Collins away from the situation and the working never took place, but the entity returned sporadically via a number of different spirit channels.
From where does the quoted passage come, katrice?
From where does the quoted passage come, katrice?
oops! Sorry, I thought I pasted the link in too! It's from Arthur magazine's site:
oops! Sorry, I thought I pasted the link in too! It's from Arthur magazine's site:
Thank you for the link. It was a review of the April 2004 'Thelema Beyond Crowley' Conference, held to mark the Centenary of the transmission of The Book of the Law which I have never come across before, and which made interesting reading.
The passage you quoted is in my opinion conflating two different events. Yes, Andrew Collins did for a while have a relationship with a woman who claimed to be in contact with something that may or may not have been the shade of Crowley. However, I think that the reference to a woman who thought she had been abducted by aliens is pointing to something else, to the Green Stone questing of the 1980s.
I'm not sure why the reviewer mentions Kenneth Grant at that point. I missed most of Andrew's talk, unfortunately, having to sort out a few problems which arose at the time. He was though in correspondence at the time with Kenneth Grant, who had several of his books in his library and who found them interesting.
Thank you for the link. It was a review of the April 2004 'Thelema Beyond Crowley' Conference, held to mark the Centenary of the transmission of The Book of the Law which I have never come across before, and which made interesting reading.
I'm glad that I got to show you something you hadn't seen before. 😀
It's the "recreate a lost magical order with the “Inner Book of the Law” at its center" part that I've wanted to learn more about. I just haven't found anything more detailed yet.
I'm not sure what "In keeping with the ideas of Kenneth Grant and TOTO, the entity first manifested in the 1970s," is in reference to either. Was there anything going on with the TOTO in the 70s that would have related to this?
Was there anything going on with the TOTO in the 70s that would have related to this?
Not that I'm aware of. It was the view of Kenneth Grant that The Book of the Law was a palimpsest, concealing a more essential, more profound inner message. I don't know when he developed this view, but I suspect that the second part of Hecate's Fountain, 'AL in the Light of the Necronomicon Gnosis', was a step along the way. There are glimpses of this - of AL being a palimpsest - in Against the Light, to be developed more fully in Monolith, a further Nightside Narrative which alas was never completed.
It's a very interesting thesis, perhaps prompted by the scintillant, often conflicting threads in The Book of the Law, and an echo perhaps of the idea that what we take as reality is a palimpsest.
Not that I'm aware of. It was the view of Kenneth Grant that The Book of the Law was a palimpsest, concealing a more essential, more profound inner message. I don't know when he developed this view, but I suspect that the second part of Hecate's Fountain, 'AL in the Light of the Necronomicon Gnosis', was a step along the way. There are glimpses of this - of AL being a palimpsest - in Against the Light, to be developed more fully in Monolith, a further Nightside Narrative which alas was never completed.
It's a very interesting thesis, perhaps prompted by the scintillant, often conflicting threads in The Book of the Law, and an echo perhaps of the idea that what we take as reality is a palimpsest.
I agree with the idea of the BotL as a palimpsest, and I can see that connecting to that part of Hecate's Fountain. I've never read Against the Light, or any of the Nightside Narrative stories, though I'd especially love to read Gamaliel and Dance Doll Dance.
The palimpsest idea makes perfect sense, the Book inspires new things from multiple readings. Would an Inner Book of the Law be a deeper revelation of the existing book, or an entirely new transmission? The idea is interesting either way.
And probably more legitimate than the Book of Desolation. 😉
Would an Inner Book of the Law be a deeper revelation of the existing book
"Inner" refers to one (or all) of the subsequent readings. Subsequent readings will provide a deeper meaning. Says so in the Book itself. ...
63. The fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its comment; & he understandeth it not.
64. Let him come through the first ordeal, & it will be to him as silver.
65. Through the second, gold.
66. Through the third, stones of precious water.
67. Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire.
Of course, the implication here is that the interpretation varies with the initiatory level (ordeals), and not with the number of readings
Would an Inner Book of the Law be a deeper revelation of the existing book
"Inner" refers to one (or all) of the subsequent readings. Subsequent readings will provide a deeper meaning. Says so in the Book itself. ...
I got the impression from the context that this would be something more distinct that just personal gnosis from subsequent readings, though.
" recreate a lost magical order with the “Inner Book of the Law” at its center."