At a glance
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Hardcover, 512 pages
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Author: Tobias Churton, Honorary Fellow of Exeter University
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Published: December 03, 2019
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Dimensions: 1.4 x 9.1 x 6.1 in
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Draws on excerpts from Crowley's unpublished diaries
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Covers jnana yoga, Vedantist, Tantric and Buddhist philosophy, and how each entered Crowley's Magick
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Also covers Theosophy, Blavatsky and Olcott, the O.T.O. line through Hartmann and Reuss, and the 1901 and 1905 Himalayan expeditions
How to read it
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Read it as biography first. The chronology carries the argument; the doctrine follows the travel.
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Watch for the correspondences. Churton's extended look at Crowley's theory of correspondences and the symbology of 777 is the analytic heart of the book.
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Keep a map open. Madurai, Anuradhapura, Benares, K2, Kangchenjunga — the geography matters.
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Follow it with Aleister Crowley in America if you want the rest of Churton's sequence.
✨ Temple Tip — the yoga came first
Read this before any general history of Thelema. Once you have seen how much of the system arrived through jnana yoga, Vedanta and Buddhism, the later material stops looking like invention and starts looking like synthesis.
Questions we get asked
What years does it cover?
Crowley's travels in India, Burma and Sri Lanka from 1901 to 1906, including his three voyages to the subcontinent.
Does it use new sources?
Yes — Churton shares excerpts from Crowley's unpublished diaries.
Is the mountaineering covered?
It is: the record-breaking attempt on Chogo Ri (K2) in 1902 and the Kangchenjunga disaster of 1905.
Who is Tobias Churton?
Britain's leading scholar of Western esotericism and a world authority on Gnosticism, Hermeticism, Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism. He was appointed Honorary Fellow of Exeter University in 2005 and holds a master's degree in theology from Brasenose College, Oxford.
How long is it?
512 pages in hardcover.
Before the Beast, there was the pilgrim. #TempleOfDesire
