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Magick (Book 4)
''Magick, Liber ABA, Book 4'' is widely considered to be the ''magnum opus'' of 20th-century occultist Aleister Crowley, the founder of Thelema. It is a lengthy treatise on magick, his system of Western occult practice, synthesised from many sources, including Eastern Yoga, Hermeticism, medieval grimoires, contemporary magical theories from writers like Eliphas Levi and Helena Blavatsky, and his own original contributions. It consists of four parts: Mysticism, Magick (Elementary Theory), Magick in Theory and Practice, and ΘΕΛΗΜΑ—the Law (The Equinox of The Gods). It also includes numerous appendices presenting many rituals and explicatory papers. In November 1911, Crowley carried out a ritual during which he reports being commanded to write ''Book 4'' by a discarnate entity named "Abuldiz" (sometimes spelled "Ab-ul-diz") in Crowley's incomplete record of the working, which came around the time that ''Liber Legis'' was ready to be published in ''The Equinox'' No VII. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gematria
Gematria (; he, גמטריא or gimatria , plural or , ''gimatriot'') is the practice of assigning a numerical value to a name, word or phrase according to an alphanumerical cipher. A single word can yield several values depending on the cipher which is used. Hebrew alphanumeric ciphers were probably used in biblical times, and were later adopted by other cultures. Gematria is still widely used in Jewish culture. Similar systems have been used in other languages and cultures: the Greeks isopsephy, and later, derived from or inspired by Hebrew gematria, Arabic abjad numerals, and English gematria. Although a type of gematria system ('Aru') was employed by the ancient Babylonian culture, their writing script was logographic, and the numerical assignations they made were to whole words. The value of these words were assigned in an entirely arbitrary manner and correspondences were made through tables, and so cannot be considered a true form of gematria. Aru was very different fr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Asana
An asana is a body posture, originally and still a general term for a sitting meditation pose,Verse 46, chapter II, "Patanjali Yoga sutras" by Swami Prabhavananda, published by the Sri Ramakrishna Math p. 111 and later extended in hatha yoga and modern yoga as exercise, to any type of position, adding reclining, standing, inverted, twisting, and balancing poses. The '' Yoga Sutras of Patanjali'' define "asana" as " position thatis steady and comfortable". Patanjali mentions the ability to sit for extended periods as one of the eight limbs of his system. Patanjali ''Yoga sutras'', Book II:29, 46 Asanas are also called yoga poses or yoga postures in English. The 10th or 11th century '' Goraksha Sataka'' and the 15th century ''Hatha Yoga Pradipika'' identify 84 asanas; the 17th century ''Hatha Ratnavali'' provides a different list of 84 asanas, describing some of them. In the 20th century, Indian nationalism favoured physical culture in response to colonialism. In that envir ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yajnavalkya
Yajnavalkya or Yagyavalkya ( sa, याज्ञवल्क्य, ) is a Hindu Vedic sage figuring in the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad (c. 700 BCE)., Quote: "Yajnavalkya, a Vedic sage, taught..."Ben-Ami Scharfstein (1998), ''A comparative history of world philosophy: from the Upanishads to Kant'', Albany: State University of New York Press, pp. 9-11 Yajnavalkya proposes and debates metaphysical questions about the nature of existence, consciousness and impermanence, and expounds the epistemic doctrine of neti neti ("not this, not this") to discover the universal Self and Ātman. Texts attributed to him include the '' Yajnavalkya Smriti'', '' Yoga Yajnavalkya'' and some texts of the Vedanta school. He is also mentioned in Brahma puran and various Brahmanas and Aranyakas. Setting The ''Brihadaranyaka Upanishad'' is dated at c. 700 BCE,. Staal notes that though the name Yajnavalkya is derived from ''yajna'', which connotes ritual, Yajnavalkya is referred to as "a thinker, not a ri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Patanjali
Patanjali ( sa, पतञ्जलि, Patañjali), also called Gonardiya or Gonikaputra, was a Hindu author, mystic and philosopher. Very little is known about him, and while no one knows exactly when he lived; from analysis of his works it is estimated that it was between the 2nd and 4th centuries CE. He is believed to be an author and compiler of a number of Sanskrit works. The greatest of these are the '' Yoga Sutras'', a classical yoga text. There is speculation as to whether the sage Patañjali is the author of all the works attributed to him, as there are a number of known historical authors of the same name. A great deal of scholarship has been devoted over the last century as to the issue of the historicity or identity of this author or these authors. lists ten separate authors by the name of "Patañjali." Amongst the more important authors called Patañjali are: * The author of the '' Mahābhāṣya'', an ancient treatise on Sanskrit grammar and linguistics, based o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yoga
Yoga (; sa, योग, lit=yoke' or 'union ) is a group of physical, mental, and spiritual practices or disciplines which originated in ancient India and aim to control (yoke) and still the mind, recognizing a detached witness-consciousness untouched by the mind ('' Chitta'') and mundane suffering (''Duḥkha''). There is a wide variety of schools of yoga, practices, and goals in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism,Stuart Ray Sarbacker, ''Samādhi: The Numinous and Cessative in Indo-Tibetan Yoga''. SUNY Press, 2005, pp. 1–2.Tattvarthasutra .1 see Manu Doshi (2007) Translation of Tattvarthasutra, Ahmedabad: Shrut Ratnakar p. 102. and traditional and modern yoga is practiced worldwide. Two general theories exist on the origins of yoga. The linear model holds that yoga originated in the Vedic period, as reflected in the Vedic textual corpus, and influenced Buddhism; according to author Edward Fitzpatrick Crangle, this model is mainly supported by Hindu scholars. Accordi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gerald Yorke
Major Gerald Joseph Yorke (10 December 1901 – 29 April 1983) was an English soldier and writer. He was a Reuters correspondent while in China for two years in the 1930s, and wrote a book ''China Changes'' (1936). Life Gerald Joseph Yorke was born in the family home, Forthampton Court, near Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire, on 10 December 1901; the second son of Vincent Wodehouse Yorke and Hon. Maud Evelyn Wyndham.Charles Mosley, editorBurke's Peerage Baronetage & Knightage, 107th edition, 3 volumes (Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003), volume 2, page 1778. His younger brother was the novelist, Henry Yorke, who wrote under the penname 'Henry Green'. He attended Eton College, and then Trinity College, Cambridge University, where he gained a first class degree in history Bachelor of Arts. On leaving university, an interest in the occult and mysticism led him to contact Aleister Crowley, with whom he was closely associated for four years. Yorke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leah Hirsig
Leah Hirsig (April 9, 1883 – February 22, 1975) was an American schoolteacher and occultist, notable for her magical record, ''The Magical Record of the Scarlet Woman'', which describes her experiences as a victim of occult writer Aleister Crowley. She was the most famous of Crowley's " Scarlet Women". Early life Hirsig was born into a family of nine siblings in Trachselwald, Canton of Bern, Switzerland. However, they moved to the United States when she was a child aged two, and she grew up in New York City. Growing up in the city, she was taught at a high school in the Bronx. Interest in occultism Hirsig and her older sister Alma were drawn to the study of the occult, and this interest led them in the spring of 1918 to pay a visit to Aleister Crowley, who was living at the time in the Manhattan neighborhood of Greenwich Village. Crowley and Hirsig felt an immediate and instinctive connection. Leah asked him to paint her as a "dead soul" and in fact Crowley painted several po ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Frederick Charles Fuller
Major-General John Frederick Charles "Boney" Fuller (1 September 1878 – 10 February 1966) was a senior British Army officer, military historian, and strategist, known as an early theorist of modern armoured warfare, including categorising principles of warfare. With 45 books and many articles, he was a highly prolific author whose ideas reached army officers and the interested public. He explored the business of fighting, in terms of the relationship between warfare and social, political, and economic factors in the civilian sector. Fuller emphasised the potential of new weapons, especially tanks and aircraft, to stun a surprised enemy psychologically. Fuller supported the organised British fascist movement. He was also an occultist and Thelemite who wrote a number of works on esotericism and mysticism. Early life Fuller was born in Chichester, West Sussex, the son of an Anglican clergyman. After moving to Lausanne with his parents as a boy, he returned to England at t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rose Edith Crowley
Rose Edith Kelly (23 July 1874 – 1932) married noted author, magician and occultist Aleister Crowley in 1903. In 1904, she aided him in the Cairo Working that led to the reception of ''The Book of the Law'', on which Crowley based much of his philosophy and religion, Thelema. Early life Rose Edith Kelly was born at 78 Cambridge Terrace, Paddington, to Frederic Festus Kelly and Blanche (Bradford) Kelly. Her grandfather, also named Frederic Festus Kelly, was the founder of Kelly's Directories Ltd. The eldest of three children -- her siblings being Eleanor Constance Mary and Gerald Festus -- the family moved to the Camberwell vicarage in 1880. Her father served as the curate for the Parish of St. Giles for the next 35 years. In 1895, Rose escorted her brother Gerald to Cape Town, South Africa, where he convalesced from a liver ailment during the winter of 1895–96. On 31 August 1897, she married Major Frederick Thomas Skerrett at St Giles' Church, Camberwell. He was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mary Butts
Mary Francis Butts, (13 December 1890 – 5 March 1937) also Mary Rodker by marriage, was an English modernist writer. Her work found recognition in literary magazines such as '' The Bookman'' and ''The Little Review'', as well as from fellow modernists, T. S. Eliot, H.D. and Bryher. After her death, her works fell into obscurity until they began to be republished in the 1980s.Jane Garrity, "Butts, Mary" in Faye Hammill, Ashlie Sponenberg and Esme Miskimmin (ed.), ''Encyclopedia of British Women's Writing, 1900-1950''. Basingstoke : Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. (p.37-38) Life Butts was born on 13 December 1890 in Poole, Dorset, the daughter of Mary Jane (née Briggs) and Captain Frederick John Butts. She had a younger brother, Anthony. In later life she and her brother were estranged. Her great-grandfather was Thomas Butts, the friend of William Blake, the poet and artist. She was brought up at Salterns, an 18th-century house overlooking Poole Harbour (described in her book, ''Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leila Waddell
Leila Ida Nerissa Bathurst Waddell, also known as Laylah, (10 August 1880 – 13 September 1932), born Leila Ida Bathurst Waddell, was a violinist who became a famed Scarlet Woman of Aleister Crowley, and a powerful historical figure in magick and Thelema in her own right. While biographer Toby Creswell posited that Leila was part- Maori,. he provides no evidence of this; in fact NSW birth deaths and marriages records show she was the granddaughter of John Crane (Coventry, England) and Janet McKenzie (Fort William, Inverness-shire, Scotland) and John Waddell and Elizabeth McAnally (both of County Monaghan, Ireland). Musician Leila Ida Bathurst Waddell was born in Bathurst, New South Wales, the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. David Waddell. She began her professional career as a violin teacher at Presbyterian Ladies College, Croydon, and Ascham and Kambala schools. In 1908, Waddell was a member of the gypsy band in ''A Waltz Dream'' at Daly's London Theatre. It was while in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
