Secret Agent 666 & Aleister Crowley & the Ouija Board...any opinions

Hi All,

Has anyone read 'Secret Agent 666' or 'Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board'? Both of these books look quite interesting, but I am leery of their 'pulp fiction' type titles. They look like fun reads.




Freddie

I've read AC and the Quija Board. The title's misleading. There's very little about AC in it. However, what it does have I've never seen anywhere else, though it probably is available if you know where to look. It has a history of the Quija Board and some stuff on scrying. It has some stuff about Joseph Smith and Mormonism that I found the most interesting of all.

I have both of those books. Despite the titles, neither one is 'pulpy' in my opinion.

Secret Agent 666 is an attempt by Richard Spence to view Crowley from the angle of Intelligence agent/espionage. The main drawback to this approach is the relative lack of hard evidence. Spence has done a good job of gathering together what is available from various agencies (British MI5, American FBI, etc.), but it still doesn't amount to much. Spence points out that he was forced to rely on circumstantial evidence and informed speculation more then he would have liked. (Sometimes his speculations go a bit too far in my opinion.) But even so it still makes for an interesting read. I didn't find it a 'fun' read though. Personally the subject of espionage and counter-intelligence leaves me cold. But tastes vary, and it might be your cup of tea.

As Abrac has already said, Aleister Crowley and the Ouija Board, really has very little to do with Aleister Crowley. The only link is Cowley's interest in the board (used correctly of course) and some correspondence with Frater Achad in which they discussed the borads potential and talked about marketing their own design. (Unfortunately nothing ever came of this plan. )
The main meat of the book is historical and theorectical. Jerry Cornelius' explanations of how and why the board works goes far and wide and leaves the "parlour game" image behind. In other hands some of the theory could have been rather dry, but Jerry has a light, conversational style of writing that really does make the book 'fun' to read. I enjoyed it.