Beware!! If you buy this film, be prepared for a feature length documentary that is full of half truths, spooky music, and some downright disinformation.  I was heartily disappointed with the film. Thinking I was going to learn something, I watched it eagerly. Fifteen minutes in, I could see that the film makers were trying to make a film to defame Crowley in a way that was hardly entertaining.

Check out these reviews from the iTunes store.

Not bad, and surely not great.
by murkan
This documentary contains a interesting narrative of the life of Crowley, although it mostly highlight’s his cruelty and tunnel-vision obsession with Magick, often at the expense of others. Nevertheless, the film does show that A.C. can’t be typed by any reductionist model – He was a complex and fascinating individual (obviously), and occasionally capable of actually caring about others.

The composition of the film itself, is maddeningly redundant, with a constant, annoying barrage of photographs that have been altered with a sepia, and cracked desert clay photoshop effect. It definitely could have been more creative. I did appreciate the actors playing characters from Crowley’s life, and the actor that played Crowley was not at all compelling, merely adequate. The film does not venture into the nitty gritty of Magickal theory, either.

I barely recommend it. I would rent it, rather than purchase it.

Why?
by pagaza00
I hoping to get scared buy this movie only bored me…I had to force myself to watch it only because I paid for it…don’t waste your money…be warned

In Search of the Great Beast 666: Aleister Crowley
by klf53
One of the previous reviews stated rent this movie…don’t buy it. I’m glad that I heeded that advise. It really is to bad, this movie could have been so much better. This movie reminded me of a cheap paperback book that I read when I was a child. Worth watching once but don’t buy it.

iTunes
Film on Disinfo

IMHO Grant was one of the western mystery traditions living legends up until recently. The amount of books and initiates he left behind attest to how influential he was. Try reading Grant and not be influenced in some way… I dare you!

http://liminalwhispers.blogspot.co.uk/2011/02/beyond-pylons-tribute-to-kenneth-grant.html

Another article on Kenneth’s death published in Feb of 2011  - Right Where You are Sitting Now

Link to episode – http://www.yourpublicmedia.org/node/13044
Link to Show – http://www.cpbn.org/program/colin-mcenroe-show

In 1979, Margot Adler’s book “Drawing Down the Moon” drew back the curtain on a highly developed and surprisingly well-populated world of of wiccans, covens, neopagans, goddess-worshipers, druids and even a group of people calling themselves “Radical faeries.”
Adler brought with her the credibility of a well-known NPR reporter. The book both documented and touched off a time of exploration, mostly among Baby Boomers looking for a religious experience more connected to nature and less connected to male hierarchy.
My own initiation came mainly through a woman named India Blue, a Hartford writer-photographer, who, I think it could be said, was a wiccan before being a wiccan was cool.
In a series of radio interviews and private conversations, India helped me understand her version of wicca and even showed me a little bit of magic.
She died in a car accident in 2003. Today’s show is dedicated to her.

Daniel Pineda is a martial artist, practitioner of the Mystery Tradition, and a devotee of liberty. He holds Black Belts in and teaches various Eastern and Western martial disciplines, as well as Qigong. He lives in south Florida with his wife Julia. This is his first book.

The way he treats the OTO, AA, John Dee, Golden Dawn, and a few other segments also give this impression. I find this flavoring of Thelema tasty and have enjoyed decompressing and flipping through this book which was writing in the format of the other recent ‘field guide titles’.

This book would be a good gift to a person who is fresh to the occult world, and poking his head in various portals, or for the person who needs to have every book on the occult ever published. For me, only lacks citations, and depth in a few sections. I would not recommend this as a book to cite for your college or high school papers, but based on my research just about everything written about is historically accurate. I love the field guide series, and also suggest those as accessible fun books for kids and new comers.

The Book of Secrets – Esoteric Societies and Holy Orders, Luminaries and Seers, Symbols and Rituals, and the Key Concepts of Occult Sciences Through the Ages and Around the World

From the strange symbols on a one-dollar bill to the secret signs of the Knights Templar and Freemasons, invisible societies, and the world of magic and alchemy, The Book of Secrets is a comprehensive introduction to the world of secret and esoteric knowledge throughout history. It offers a doorway into the initiated secret traditions of the fascinating unseen spiritual world: its symbols, secret societies, and seers.

You’ll discover:

Key Concepts: the Great Work, the Universal Force, Polarity, the Four Elements, Magick and Mysticism, Esoteric Anatomy, Qabalah, Alchemy, Astrology, the Astral Plane, and more.

Symbolism: More than 100 secrets symbols, words, objects, including their meanings and the secret powers they invoke.

Secret Societies and Holy Orders: The gatekeepers and the transmitters of sacred knowledge: Freemasons, O.T.O., Cathars, Templars, Assassins. Pineda places them all in history and geography and explains who they are/were and what they stood for.

Luminaries and Seers: More than 200 legends and historical personages: Hermes Trismegistus, Jesus, Siddartha, Osiris, and other seers from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the 19th and 20th centuries.

Amazon
Weiser

With luck, I’ll be recording another interview tomorrow night with a fantastic guest who some of you may be familiar with, and other may never have heard of.
Check out his latest video project Clarke.

Last night while driving through a blizzard, I listened to a segment of Standing Stone & Garden Gate, and was shocked at how profound yet simple the discussion was revolving around re-constructionist, traditionalist, and personal gnostic solo practices. It is episode 25 on their podcast.

Another goodie is this video with Donald Weiser. He talks about book selling, the history of the business, and Charles Leland, who published “Aradia”(1899) which was recently republished. I have a copy of this book, and am highly impressed with it The fact that it has received such little attention is a little alarming, but nothing to be very concerned with. A full review of Aradia will be published when I finish it.

It is useful to me to see that others out there have a fairly sane post-modern view of the occult. Bending my mind to understand how others can see things in a particular way is one part of why they are useful. The primary useful thing is that others can develop ideas and run with them in ways that I personally never would have considered.

Here are the links of sites I’m currently into. Please share some if you have some favorites.
http://plutonica.net/
http://strategicsorcery.blogspot.com/
http://pallasrenatus.blogspot.com/
http://runesoup.com/
http://headforred.blogspot.com/
http://gnostic-conjure.blogspot.com/

In Fishers, Elenbaas conveys a compelling story of his recovery from addiction and passage to a transformed identity as a Christian, through the use of a Holy vine from the Amazonian jungle brew Ayahuasca. He tells in painful detail familial issues that many would take to their grave. The range of torture he endures spans abuse, affairs, addiction, neglect, evangelical Christianity, and more.

Probably the most elucidating part of the book for me was the inside look at Evangelical culture in America. After speaking in tongues for years, while at the same time covering some of his emotional issues with sex, drugs and alcohol, Adam attends a Christian University, where there appears to be a culture of marriage before sex in relationships. It is interesting to see that this exists in America, and isn’t simply given lip service. How this must affect modern young adults is scary. Regardless Adam survived the repressive regime of Evangelical America, and transformed in a quite holistic way his attitude/relationship with Christianity.

When Adam was speaking to us in Boston, he stated at one point “Its not how much you get, but how much you give”. This struck the intellectual / gnostic in me as awkward, but it really did hit soft spot and I gasped. It wouldn’t have made me do this, if he didn’t first open us up with harrowing stories of the jungle, Ayahuasca, and churches. If Ayahuasca really is about Love, which I think it partly is, makes me feel in awe of the thing, and enormously grateful for its existence and willingness to help humanity.

Adam has been to the Peruvian Amazon to work with various Ayahuasca shamans (Curanderos) more than anyone else that I have met. Most of this path is about moving one’s personal perspective from fear to love. It is beautiful. It is not just happening in the visions given to him by the Vine that some call Grandmother. It is also something that he took back into his daily life to heal the wounds of his addictions, and childhood. Adam says that She will give you homework to complete before your next visit. With the help of some talented Shamans, and Grandmother, he had interacted with deities, ancestors, and plant spirits who all seemed to be conspiring towards his healing.

This book truly is a coming of age story. He starts telling stories of childhood wonder of his parents, and how magical were his perspectives on Earth. Coming out of academia into the professional world, Adam was unable to cope, and almost overdosed on opiates a few times. He then tries to work it out with his family’s help. He is able to recover, but when looking at the story, it does not look like it would have happened without the help of the talking vegetables, or psychedelics. Ayahuasca is getting a lot of press lately. Adam’s book while not primarily about Ayahuasca, is certainly a good place to learn about one person’s perspectives and appreciation for it.

www.fishersofmenbook.com

Here are some incredible links about the lady gaga conspiracy. In particular I would like to have everyone listen to the funniest discordian themed conspiracy theory I’ve bumped into since hearing about the Dealey Lama.  The link is here.

More substantial posts coming in the future

http://vigilantcitizen.com/?p=3423 – original article

http://www.disinfo.com/2010/03/lady-gaga-puppet-of-illuminati-mind-control/

http://www.disinfo.com/2009/08/the-lady-gaga-code-disinformation-world-news/