As an intelligent sceptic, he first found this improbable means of communication difficult to accept. Yet he could not ignore it or its message. He worked for decades to interpret its meaning for initiates and the general public. Eventually he entrusted the task to his best friend, Louis Wilkinson who possessed impressive literary qualifications. The result of his work, completed and augmented by Frater Superior Hymenaeus Beta of the O.T.O., is this long-awaited authorized popular edition of Crowley's "new commentary" on 'The Book of the Law' and its first appearance as Crowley wished it.

    All we need is the ability to see it, understand it, and apply it. Magic works because of nature's laws, not in spite of them, and Valiente shows how to practice the age-old white magic which has been familiar to the Wise Ones for centuries.

    Magical thought is described and contrasted with Science, Art and Religion. The dynamic relationship between them is explained. Modern magic and its role in the 21st century is outlined with respect to practices ranging from ritual magic, through alchemy to New Age therapies. Specific topics include: secrecy, initiation, sacrifice, cyber-animism, Crowleyanity, morality, pseudo-science, demonology, deity, miracles and divination.

    Traces the history of magic, looks at astrology, magical texts, demons, and spells, and discusses the Order of the Golden Dawn and Aleister Crowley.

    The Sword & the Serpent expounds upon the principles of ceremonial magic and its relationship to the teachings of Qabalah. This volume, the second volume of The Magical Philosophy Series, presents the external Qabalistic universe and the internal Qabalistic universe; together, the two-fold universe--that which surrounds us, and the universe of the psyche within.It is the ultimate integration of the outer world and inner world that is the Great Work and purpose of High Magic. The essential structures of outer and inner worlds are here conceived of in parallel terms, seen through one common comprehensive framework, and their integration is thus revealed as comprehensible and progressive gnosis. For the magician, this is the key to learning to use the psyche, or inner world, to control and direct the forces of the outer worlds of being. Thus, and only thus, do we fulfill our destiny and become masters of our fate.