Aleister Crowley, Book of the Law

Aleister Crowley, Book of the Law, Xeno Publishing Feb. 1970 (second printing) Los Angeles. Edited, Revised and Enlarged by Jerry Kay. Card covers with coloured illustration which is initialled “J.K.”, presumably Jerry Kay. 44pp Some discolouration Good +

Xeno Publications. (Los Angeles) was founded by Jerry Kay who had some involvement with the notorious Solar Lodge but more with Grady McMurtry, caliph of the O.T.O. Best known as the art director of the cult film Easy Rider (1969) and was, we may guess, responsible for the semi-subliminal Rosicrucian symbolism in the acid trip scene set in the New Orleans cemetery. See still from film posted here. Kay also wrote, directed and produced two horror films, Satan’s Castle (1975) and Waxing Moon (1976), which, perhaps, may be worth a look as there are suggestions that some of the characters were based on people he encountered in occult circles and précis of the plots suggest possible relevance.

This item from the collection of Mr. Clive Harper, the bibliographer of Austin Osman Spare and president of the Fine Madness Society which offered comfort to those souls afflicted with an addiction to the acquisition of rare and obscure Crowley items. Provenance is confirmed by the enclosure of a slip of paper featuring the gilt blocked head of a goat-stag hybrid as envisaged by Austin Osman Spare. Originally this being appeared on the front cover of the Starlit Mire (1911), a book he illustrated. These are handmade and the opportunity this process gives for variation has been embraced, with different papers, foils and so forth.