Brother Curwen, Brother Crowley

A new book by the Teitan press, BCBC is an account of correspondence between Netherwood Crowley and a 50-yr-old Jewish Furrier who had some experience of his own under his belt. Like many, Curwen had read many books, but wanted to 'see some magic' as it were, so he wrote to Crowley: "I want someone to show me practical magic.."
After a life of reading and some instruction in the Vama Marga under an Indian Swami, he was anxious to see whether it was all a waste of time. Being Jewish was bad enough, but to demand Crowley to perform his profession in front of him had expected results. Nevertheless, Curwen managed to maintain a fairly long and somewhat friendly (if testy at times) relationship with Crowley by massaging his ego at times, by hinting at hidden knowledge of his own, and by either appearing or being a dupe to Crowley's moneygrubbing. Hard to tell on the latter. He paid some money to find out Crowley's "supreme secret" of ingesting sperm, but paid in installments, and refused to pay after the first, when he had been told what it was. Of course, Crowley felt gypped. But so too did Curwen, not considering the secret worth the first installment.

For anyone wishing to see what was probably a typical interaction between Crowley and a 'seeker', and to get further insights into Crowley's character and what he was or was not able to show to Curwen as an example of his magickal skill, this is an interesting book. It didnt take long to decide where this went in my library: right next to "the progradior correspondence" and "magickal diaries of Aleister Crowley".

A good read, fairly easy, enjoyable. Three stars out of Five.