Path: typhoon.sonic.net!pants.skycache.com!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gctr.net!enews.sgi.com!korova.insync.net!solomon.io.com!hiram.io.com!taliesin From: taliesin@NOSPAMio.com (G. Leake ) Newsgroups: alt.magick Subject: unidentified notebook in HRC Crowleyana turns out to be Westcott MSS Date: Sat, 18 Dec 1999 14:18:20 -0600 Organization: Illuminati Online Lines: 63 Message-ID: X-Trace: hiram.io.com 945548247 19566 208.2.105.98 (18 Dec 1999 20:17:27 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@io.com X-Newsreader: MT-NewsWatcher 2.4.4 Xref: typhoon.sonic.net alt.magick:171776 In my personal research at the HRC at UT I have recently positively identified the texts in a previously unidentified notebook. More work needs to be done on provenance and who the scribe is (the handwriting is far too neat to be Crowley's or Westcott's and is not a hand I recognize, not as if I'm some sort of expert). The notebook itself is pretty old--dating at least to the 1920s, if not to the 1890s in my view. The paper itself is in good condition, for the most part, though there is one example of 2 pages stuck together. The notebook itself is a transcription of four discrete Golden Dawn essays. The first one is really only the last portion of a text--thus there was no title or intro unlike the last four essays. This I have positively identified, thanks to the suggestion of Poke Runyon, as something he has recently published in The Seventh Ray (Book I, "The Blue Ray"), Book H (Clavicula Tabularum Enochi) by W. Wynn Westcott. Some of you might have seen this Seventh Ray or might recall my review of it (sometime last summer). To refresh people's memories, Westcott's work here really seems to be a transcription partially edited by Westcott of certain Sloane Mss at the British Library (Poke, feel free to elaborate on this bit). The Sloane MSS themselves are the work of Meric Causabon based on notes of Dee and Kelley. Since this initial essay (with depictions of Quadrangles btw, not unlike the edition presented in The Seventh Ray) is heavily imbued with Christian mysticism, it was a bit jarring to find it amongst the Crowley materials, though Crowley and Thelemic material of course does owe itself partially to some Christian paradigms. One thing Poke could do is talk about the source for the version of the text he published--that would be interesting and could be the key to finding the source for this notebook. The other texts include "The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster" (really just a sort of florilegium, a series of quotes from ancient Greek authors generally on magic and mysticism), "Analogy, a Lecture on Mystic Learning" by S.A. (the magickal handle of Westcott), and finally "The General Guidance and Purification of the Soul (from the Ancient Cipher MSS)". I think all three of these are the work of Westcott. Here's the interesting thing--correct me if I'm wrong. All four of these texts have been relatively secret through most of this century--these last three essays I think were never published til Regardie's Golden Dawn published by Llewellyn in '71--I think (please correct this impression if someone out there knows the precise bibliographic history here). These materials, on the other hand, have been at the Ransom Center since '67 at the latest, some of the Crowley materials have been at the HRC as early as the late 1950s. Before that, one assumes only Golden Dawn people had access. The point is, how did this material end up in Crowley related material (if I have time I'll find out which collection--the impression out there is the lion's share of HRC Crowleyana is from the Fuller collection--having seen the Collection files, let me correct this impression--I'd say only a third at most if from Fuller, there are other sources, many small ones, and I think materials purchased from El Dieff were much more numerous)? I wonder if this might've been at some point amongst the material Crowley nicked from Mathers--fuck me, maybe he published some of this in those Equinoxes where he revealed the Golden Dawn rituals. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to devote to this, but my intention is to continue working on unidentified Crowley material at the HRC in January. There is quite a bit still there, and some material there I don't think people know about, including a substantial amount of A.A. material. If I don't get to it, and I get this job in California I'm applying for, serious minded scholars of modern magick really should think about looking at this material at some point.