Aleister Crowley and the Practice of the Magical Diary, edited by James Wasserman.

Firstly published in 1993 by New Falcon Publication, reprinted in 2003 by Sekmet Books, revised edition published in 2006 by Redwheel/Weiser. xlvi + 174 pp.

Even if I’m reviewing the 2003 edition, I will comment briefly the 2006 revised edition, basing my considerations on the preview available on Amazon.

Aleister Crowley and the Practice of the Magical Diary is an interesting book, mainly because it is one of the few monographs on the subject. Besides the introduction (38 pp.), written by James Wasserman, the book is composed by material (without further notes) already published in several sources by Aleister Crowley and Charles Stansfeld Jones (aka Fr. Achad): John St. John, A Master of the Temple and, as appendices, The 28 Theorems of Magick, Liber E vel Exercitiorum, The Method of Training, The Book.

The intended audience is formed by both novices and advanced students (interested in the particular reports of the operations described), but I feel that novices (like how I was when I first read this book) can’t really get much from it. John St. John and the later parts of A Master of the Temple are quite advanced and to properly follow them it is not sufficient to just understand the sintax. Moreover, I feel that novices should not emulate Crowley’s journaling style acritically: is it really meaningful to note down how many times you sneezed during asana? Maybe yes, maybe no: the relationship between the magician and the diary is always evolving, but this does not appear to be Crowley’s advice with his (pedantic) Scientific Illuminism.

For the generic reader, the introduction is probably the most interesting part, even if it has a strong Thelemic flavour. Wasserman presents a short biography of Crowley, Jones and himself; he then expounds, with long, but precise, quotes, Crowley’s attitude towards the magical diary. Getting Started and A Word on Content are the most useful paragraphs for the novice, as here shines Wasserman’s experience on journaling and he is more didactic than Crowley. There are great observations in this introduction, but often Wasserman insists to quote Crowley when a resort to common sense (or basic psychology) is more than sufficient.

References to Crowley’s other diaries are useful for further readings, but the bibliography is somewhat self-referential: 4 books by Fr. Achad, 16 by Crowley and 3 by others (William Bloom, Marcello Motta and The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune) [not counting Donald Michael Kraig blank book!]. This is not Wasserman fault as the use of the magical diary, even if fundamental in several paths, is only briefly explained in most introductory books on magick and a proper, aparadigmatic, monography is missing (if one doesn’t want to delve into the realm of psychoanalysis).

The 2006 edition adds a foreword by J. Daniel Gunther, a preface by Wasserman and, as appendices, the Liber O and On the Magical Diary by Crowley [and a Culinary Glossary (!) by Wasserman]. The foreword is quite interesting, but not really readable by the beginner. Accordingly to the preface, the introduction (which, I believe, is the actual core of the book) was improved and updated and some footnotes were added through the book. While the last edition should be more suitable for the novice, it is hard, for me, to think that all the (intrinsic) faults were fixed.