The Western Gate

Magickal
by Aleister Crowley
Hell Fire Publishing

By rights nothing from Hell Fire Books should be reviewed, and thereby promoted. Hell Fire Books operate from Lincolnshire in England and ran by the shady character Eammon Loughran, you purchase the books on his website and then, more often than not, never see the books you ordered, luckily for those paying with PayPal or Credit, you will have to go through their procedures to get the money back.
They(He) will also plagiarise books, publish texts without credit (financially) to those who should benefit, he will publish authors and not pay them or breech the contract to publish as in the case of Maxine Sanders who with Hell Fire Books was to publish the notebooks of “Witch King” – Alex Sanders, and though some of these do appear on the second-hand market or from reputable booksellers, the quantity was never published as agreed. Maxine chased him through the courts and sued him. The book was later published under the title ‘Born To Be King: A Glimpse Into The Apprenticeship Of The Witch And Magician Alex Sanders’ by Rose Ankh publishing, a facsimile of those notes which fathoms the wanderings of Alex Sanders and his influences etc.

However, Magickal~ the commentaries of The Book Of The Law by HellFire Books, was available from a very reputable bookstore, I knew they would have it in stock and it wouldn’t be a purchase via the author. It was quite a lot of money considering, but as an avid collector of Aleister Crowley and as luck and fortune had gifted me some unexpected windfall I purchased.

To be brief, the Book of the Law was dictated from an entity named Aiwass, its three chapters each influenced or themselves dictated to Crowley via, Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
It became the focal point of Thelema, Crowleys own system/religion.
Each phrase and line within the ‘Book’, here, has been analysed by Crowley, the collected commentaries appearing in the 1974 collection by 93 Publishing, of which this here is a copy of, apparently.
There has, also, been criticism of HellFire books of print errors, print quality~ particularly colour photographic prints/plates etc.
My first initial impressions were good, it definitely looks good on the bookshelf. The slipcase is covered with faux marbled printed (!) ‘endpapers’. Not to worry, its the slipcase after all and as long as it protects the content then it does its job. It is slightly buckled, i.e. not a snug fit as such, but, adequate, though there is no inner lining, just the board that the slipcase is made from, as a ‘luxury’ and ‘artisanal’ publication it would have been nice to see an inner covering, some scarlet woven cloth would have looked very nice.
The books themselves, all four are bound nicely though the paper looks as though they have been stored perhaps in a humid climate, they are not crisp and flat. Again, am I picky, but again, it is a ‘fine bound’ book.

So… the quality of the print, and here we inspect the colour plates of Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Khuit. I have photographed them, bearing in mind, no doubt HellFire have not credited the authors or publishers, editors et al of the original, bypassing any copyright (in all probability copyright does not exist anymore on these works). Now, they, the prints, are adequate, they could easily have been enhanced digitally and made vibrant, as it is they are printed sated and muted.

The text within itself is quite heavy, almost as if the whole book were printed using inkjet, which it wasn’t, (see readers comment below ) but almost has that feel and would account for the wavering pages within. Throughout, all four books, the first being a facsimilie of the original crafted by the hand of Crowley, which by Crowley’s own request demands be included in any publication, through to each of the printed and commentaries of the three chapters , all are legible, bold and heavy but all clear (ish). Perhaps the facsimile of the notebook itself could have been enhanced, enriched, made clear? The ‘missing’ front page is included, this never usually printed with any issues of The Book Of The Law;-

Throughout the book, looking for errors, print anomolies I only found one, and glaring and annoying it is too, bearing in mind, again, this is classed as a ‘fine’ publication, a collectors piece and even to the borders of ‘luxury’ ;-

This was the only print misalignment or warped print I found, which for HellFire Books isn’t bad, just bad.
This begs the question, is it worth the money, c.£350 ? and the honest answer is no, though what should be charged given that it is crafted by an ‘artisan’ and therefore costs will of course be higher. The more you analyse the costing the more that you would have to surmise that its not far off the £350 mark. HellFire books, are not really seen as an investment, whether that’s the integrity of collectors who refuse to acknowledge the unscrupulous or whether the faults, however small, inherent in HellFire works plays a part, they never really increase in value despite the limited print run.
I bought this because it is unlikely I would get a chance to own the 1974 93Publishing version, and certainly, if I did I wouldn’t get any change from triple the price as paid here. I also bought only because I had an unexpected windfall which allowed me to carefree purchase at a whim. I bought it also because it arrived days before the 120th anniversary of the reception of the Book of the Law -April 8th,9th and 10th April 1904.

So briefly, what of the commentaries compared to the actual writings of the Book of the LAw.
Wisdom as it stands should be free from the time period to which it relates, whenever wisdom is read, regardless of where or when, it stands the test of time. The Book of the Law is obviously written by someone who once had the fear of God shafted inside them, there is the same vehemence and wrath, the same threat and all the “Lo”, and “verilys” and “Here o thou’s” you’d expect from someone intent on creating works ala Revelations:Apocalypse. Its Aleister Crowley of course. Perhaps this channelled wisdom, then, was formulated and exacted by Crowley. Of the commentaries, little is given away, nowhere do we get lead to the point where the subtle admission, that “the game’s up” appear.
Love Is the Law, Love Under will, Every Man and Woman is a star. We all know these quotes. Farther on in chapter 3,when Ra-Hoor-Khuit gets his platform we have images of crows pecking Christ’s eyes out and other such shock horror spouting’s, these images and rantings designed perhaps to deliberately shock us, to aggregate the fear within and rattle the conscious conditioning, perhaps.
At the end, the final comment reads ;- The study of this Book is forbidden.
This is odd as Crowley himself is studying and commenting on the exact book he forbids to study? likewise, the enigmatic passage Ch.2: Line 76…see photo below with Crowley’s comment… (viz: 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A L. What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it. ) does this mean the ‘one’ who expounds it has not studied or analysed? but simply knows, and how can it be expounded as this would warrant study?

Throughout the Book of the Law with the controversy, the hypocrisy, the awkward, the ornate and grandiloquent prose we can conclude that this , most definitely has come from the mind of Aleister Crowley. If not, then perhaps the mind of a pompous ex Cambridge/Oxford scholar himself with an egomaniac desire to be famous/infamous due to the childhood trauma of strict and overbearing parental guidance, probably from religious nutcases, thankfully he’s now free to go round the world controlling all who would follow him and shooting every animal that moves to reciprocate that childhood repression…. sort of person.

Why would I collect such “rubbish?”.
Aleister Crowley is an Enigma, a fascinating obnoxious Middle class ponce. We can espouse his obvious intelligence just as we could any Oxbridge academic/student/dropout. Crowley has done more for the Occult than any other, which actually means he disregarded the sacred vow of silence to literally spill the beans and take the credit for all the hermetic teachings gained from his admission to secret schools and lodges. And that’s why I like him. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut! He prodded the establishment, the upright illuminati who would sit in shadows and believe themselves superior to everyone else, as Crowley did, except he had to tell everyone about it and stood foursquare in the courtyard overlooked by everyone.

Far from the image of Harpocrates, that priest with a finger to tightly bound lips, Crowley has two outstretched palms, and fingers as feathers spread either side of an open mouth yelling for all to hear, and of course also those who don’t want to. He is Pandora without hesitation, Persephone who is not offered but steals the pomegranate, he is Zu nabbing the scrolls of the ancients like a philistine artful dodger who cares not for the sanctity, and sacred texts he reveals, as long as it is known it is him that revealed them.
In todays Occult forums and social media, teenagers who still live with their parents will convince you that they have achieved more than Crowley ever did in the space of summer holidays. Who are we to say that they have not? and who lies, only lies with their own shame.
Some of Crowley’s work is astounding, illuminating and some is cringeworthy, embarrassing for all us Gen X’ers/ post punk for whom nothing really shocks as much as they would have in the days when the old boy was singing like a canary. Whatever, he is the father of lies and the revealer of truths.