the occult scene after Crowley...

[l'appeso]

Hi,

I'm quite a newbie on the matter... I was just curious to know who are the big names (if there are any) in occult-esoteric matters today. Could you suggest some readings? Thanks!

[Abrac]

Probably two of the most well-known today would have to be Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan and Michael A. Aquino with the Temple of Set. The Temple of Set is probably more influential though not as high-profile as the CoS. Several of their members have authored influential occults books in recent years. There are some other offshoots of the CoS still around like the Order of the Nine Angles.

[Always Wondering]

It's a rather big field. You seem to be asking a general question in a Thoth specific forum.

What are your interests? There are lots of books out.

AW

[l'appeso]

thanks for the answers.

I understand that there has been some continuity in the occult tradition, starting from Eliphas Lévi down to the Golden Dawn and to Crowley. So I was just asking who were the offsprings of such a tradition today.

I am mainly interested in Aleister Crowley's writings but I was hoping that someone had pushed forward his research, especially in relation to the tarot.

I've already heard of LaVey, but I didn't know he was a former member of the O.T.O. The Church of Satan hasn't designed a specific tarot, right?

[Laura Borealis]

You might want to look into Israel Regardie, and also Lon Milo DuQuette.

[Always Wondering]

I second DuQuette.

Also James Esehelman made available Liber Theta: Tarot Symbolism and Divination last year.

http://www.thelema.org/publications/index.html

He's also published some books, has a facebook page and another forum you could find by following The Temple of Thelema links.

AW

[closrapexa]

I third DuQuette, but Crowley himself was prolific enough to last a lifetime, writing everything from the occult to philosophy to short stories to poetry. If you haven't read him, I heartily reccommend him, he will lead you naturally to others (unless I'm off-track and you have, in which case I suppose he has already done so). Plus, he has a great sense of humor, and is really more accessible than most people give him credit for.

[l'appeso]

I like DuQuette, I have read his book on the Thoth Tarot, really handy & witty, a useful companion to the BoT; I don't know about Eshelman, sounds interesting, I'll surely put some of his books in my reading list...

But, back to my point: basically DuQuette and Eshelman have written commetaries on Aleister Crowley's works (please correct me if I'm wrong), that is they don't have developed his intuitions into original new writings (much like Crowley did in relation to the Golden Dawn).

Is the present interest in the occult just a revival? Are there any hopes for a new Crowley ?

[Abrac]

Assuming Crowley was the next phase of the GD, building on the GD foundation, then what's the next phase? After Crowley, the occult scene went in two divergent directions. One fork was what we now recognize as New Age, which, as I see it, includes neo-paganism and witchcraft. The other is Satanism. Even though Crowley advocated "Do what thou wilt," he never did fully break free from the rigid structures of the old occult brotherhood/fraternity system. What has evolved today is a very individualistic philosophy, emphasizing the self over fraternity. There are still GD and Crowley based groups out there, but they're really just interpreters of the old, not anything truly new.

[l'appeso]

I never considered the fact that new age and satanism stemmed from the same source but that definitely makes sense!

however satanism seems to reject the occult element (at least LaVey)

http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/L...Occultism.html