If you want to read Crowley online...
Try this link:
http://www.the-equinox.org/ The Equinox was his bi-annual magazine where he revealed secrets of the Golden Dawn. As for those who say Crowley enjoyed his reputation, I've read letters written by him that lead me to believe that was certainly not always the case. Many of the letters dealt with him attempting to gain membership in a recognized branch of Freemasonry, which according to Masonic records he failed to do.
Crowley was also kicked out of France, which couldn't have been very pleasant. His interpersonal relationships, at least with fellow occultists, never lasted very long. Even as a child, temperamental Aleister was not easy to manage for his mother, Emily Bertha Bishop, who came from a devout religious background. Aleister grew up in a staunch Protestant Evagelical household. After retiring, his wealthy father took up the practice of preaching at a fanatical pace. Daily Bible studies and private tutoring were mainstays for young Aleister. Instead of childhood efforts indoctrinating their son into Christianity they only served to provoke skepticism in the youth. As a child, constant rebelious behavior displeased his mother to such an extent she would chastize Aliester by calling him "The Beast" an epithet that he eventually adopts with zeal. Six emerges as his favorite number and some sources claim at times he signed his name as 666.
In studying Crowley, seperating myth from fact is the most challenging aspect because the man is a legend in a literal sense. This brings to mind an obscure quote by Crowley that he offers as a guidline in reading occult literature:
Crowley writes: “There must have been a time in the life of every student of the Mysteries when he has paused whilst reading the work or life of some well-known Mystic, a moment of perplexity in which, bewildered, he has turned to himself and asked the question: Is this one telling me the truth?"
As for the Book of Thoth deck, very few Tarot packs can compete with the beauiful artwork of Lady Frieda Harris. I feel no collection could possibly be complete without this influential contribution. On a year to year basis, in modern times it is bought more than any other deck and may even eventually outsell the RWS, which still holds the record of the best-selling deck of all time. I personally have trouble reading with it because of the court cards: No kings; no pages, instead the deck offers Prince and Princess cards.
I'll close with another poignant quote by Crowley but don't let these two quotes mislead you. His writings rage from a level of lucidity bordering on brilliance to what appears to be drug-induced ravings.
Crowley writes:
“Primitive Christianity had a greater adaptability than any other contemporary religion of assimilating to itself all that was more particularly pagan in polytheism; the result being that it won over the great masses of the people, who then were, as they are now, inherently conservative.” He then goes on to state: “Truth is Truth; and the Truth of yesterday is the Truth of to-day, and the Truth of to-day is the Truth of tomorrow. Our quest, then, is to find Truth, and to cut the kernel from the husk, the text from the comment.”
“The science of learning is how not to say ‘Yes’ until you know that it is YES, and how not to say ‘No’ until you know that it is NO. It is the all-important word of our lives, the corner- stone of the Temple, the keystone of the arch, the flail that beats the grain from the chaff, the sieve through which Falsehood passes and in which Truth remains. It is, indeed, the poise of the balance, the gnomon of the sun-dial; which, if we learn to read aright, will tell us at what hour of our lives we have arrived. Through the want of it kingdoms have fallen into decay and by it empires have been created; and its dreaded foe is of necessity "dogma." Directly a man begins to say ‘Yes’ without the question ‘Why?’ he becomes a dogmatist, a potential, if not an actual liar. And it is for this reason that we are so bitterly opposed to and use such scathing words against the present- day rationalist when we attack him. For we see he is doing for Darwin, Huxley, and Spencer what the early Christian did for Jesus, Peter, and Paul; and that is, that he, having already idealised them, is now in the act of apotheosising them. Soon, if left unattacked, will their word become THE WORD, and in the place of the ‘Book of Genesis’ shall we have the ‘Origin of Species,’ and in the place of the Christian accepting as Truth the word of Jesus shall we have the Rationalist accepting as Truth the word of Darwin. What of the true man of science? say you; those doubting men who silently work in their laboratories, accepting no theory, however wonderful it may be, until theory has given birth to fact. We agree --- but what of the Magi? answer we; the few fragments of whose wisdom which escaped the Christian flames will stand in the eyes of all men as a wonder. It was the Christians who slew the magic of Christ, and it be, if they are allowed to live, the Rationalists who will slay the magic of Darwin. Four hundred years hence perchance will some disciple of Lamarck be torn to pieces in the rooms of the Royal Society by the followers of Haeckel, just as Hypatia, that disciple of Plato, was torn to pieces in the Church of Christ by followers of St. John. We have nothing to say against the men of science. We have nothing to say against the great Mystics. All hail to both! But followers who accept doctrines of either as dogma we pronounce to be a bane, a curse and a pestilence to mankind.”