U.S. O.T.O. Grand Lodge
Other U.S. O.T.O. bodies
Publications
Book Reviews

Here you will find our reviews of traditional and not-so-traditional books— all reviewed with a Thelemic eye. If you use the link to purchase a book listed here, it will also help support the Lodge since we will receive a small commission from the sale. Keep in mind that these reviews are the opinions of the individual reviewers.

All Reviews:

Featured Reviews
Tantra: Sex, Secrecy, Politics, and Power in the Study of Religion
By Hugh Urban
        Reviewed by Swami Mahalingam
In this lucid book, Urban provides an overview of the development of discourse about “Tantra” and “Tantrism” in India and the West from the 18th through the 20th century. The text includes studies of Tantra in religious, political, literary, scholarly, and commercial contexts.  Read the review...
The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft
By Ronald Hutton
        Reviewed by Fr. D. Sparagmos
Ronald Hutton's history of 20th century Witchcraft and Wicca is a comprehensive and compelling examination of the subject. No other book to date gives such a clear and entertaining view of the origins and development of religious Witchcraft in the modern world. Read the review...

The Slaves Shall Serve
By James Wasserman
       Reviewed by Spartacus
In 1941, Aleister Crowley wrote to Karl Germer:  “There is a vile threat to the ‘rugged American individualism’ that actually created the U.S.A. by the bureaucratic crowd who want society to be a convict prison...” This book is a valiant attempt to “bring home” the nature of that threat to those who identify with the uniquely Thelemic nature of that “rugged American individualism.”  Read the review...
   
The Unknown God: W.T. Smith and the Thelemites
By Martin Starr
       Reviewed by Mutatio est Stabilitas
[This book] represents an enormous amount of research and personal correspondence on the author's part. His access to the major caches of Thelemic archival material as well as first person testimonials to the events reported in the book make The Unknown God an excellent piece of scholarship. Read the review...
   
Hypnerotomachia Poliphili
(The Strife of Love in a Dream)

By Francesco Colonna, (Translated by Joscelyn Godwin)
       Reviewed by Paradoxos Alpha
For half a millenium, the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili has been one of the great literary enigmas of the Italian Renaissance. Read the review...
   
Darker Than You Think
By Jack Williamson
       Reviewed by Dionysos Thriambos
The monster-type of the novel is a sorceror-lycanthrope-vampire, representing the genetic recrudescence of a pre-human race that has interbred with and become submerged in humanity. Read the review...
   
The Book of the Law, Centennial Edition
by Aleister Crowley
       Reviewed by Fr. Ash
This special edition celebrating the 100th anniversary of the writing of Liber Legis is, in several ways, unlike all others.
Read the review...
   
The Book of Dzyan
Edited & introduced by Tim Maroney
       Reviewed by Paradoxos Alpha
Historically, the Theosophical Society (T.S.) is perhaps the single most influential occult organization of modern times. It is interesting, and not too difficult, to note the similarities between O.T.O. and the T.S. Read the review...
   
Yeats W.B. Yeats: Twentieth Century Magus
by Dr. Susan Johnston Graf
        Reviewed by Fr. Mutatio est Stabilitas
When I stumbled across this title in the bookstore, I was thoroughly excited. Finally, a book that explores Yeats’ poetry from the perspective of his magickal career! I was not to be disappointed. Read the review...
   
book New Aeon Magick
by Gerald de Campo,
        Reviewed by Sr. Sphinx
I’m fascinated by the idea of writing as a time capsule to carry your own ideas to your future self...Gerald del Campo’s book New Aeon Magick: Thelema Without Tears is such a time capsule. Read the review...
   
Memoirs of a Gnostic Dwarf
by David Madsen
        Reviewed by Dionysos Thriambos
Surprisingly and delightfully, this novel is exactly what the title promises. Set in the early 16th century e.v., it consists of the memoirs of a dwarf serving as a chamberlain in the court of Leo X, the Medici pope. Read the review...
   
Surpassing Wonder: The Invention of the Bible and the Talmuds
by Donald Harman Akenson
        Reviewed by Paradoxos Alpha
Akenson's book is a lively and substantial exploration of the process of religious canonization of texts in the Biblical tradition.
Read the review...
   
History of My Life
By Giacomo Casanova (Translated by Willard R. Trask)
        Reviewed by Paradoxos Alpha
This huge memoir is as entertaining as any novel, and certainly a whole lot longer! Read the review...
   
The Practice of Magical Evocation
by Franz Bardon
        Reviewed by Fr. Aquarius
The magical universe abounds in various books, grimoires, and manuals of instruction concerning magical evocation. Yet, few of them compare to the depth and scope of Franz Bardon's second work. Read the review...
   
The Baphomet
By Pierre Klossowski
        Review by Geoffery Fulcher
This novel, with its appetizing title, is a brief-but-heavy excursion into and out of history. The prologue takes place in a commandery of the Knights Templar mere days before their arrest by the French authorities. Read the review...
   
The Hermetic Brotherhood Of Luxor
Edited by Joscelyn Godwin, Christian Chanel, & John P. Deveney
        Reviewed by Sr. Sphinx
The new, and only, volume-length study of this 19th Century international magical order shows a level of scholarship that deserves to set a precedent in the treatment of such topics. Read the review...
   
Survivor: A Novel
by Chuck Palahniuk
        Reviewed by Metu Tchetta
The wit, sagacity, and implacable unlikelihoods of Fight Club are all still in full force in Survivor, which counts down from page 289 to 1 with blinding speed. Read the review...
   
  Carnal Alchemy By Crystal Dawn & Stephen Flowers
Sorcerers of Sodom by Roger Elwood
The Golden Dawn Journal: Book I, Divination Edited by Chic and Sandra Tabatha Cicero
Moses the Egyptian: The Memory of Egypt in Western Monotheism By Jan Assman