[Rarebooks] FS: Rare Aleister Crowley Related Item

[Michael John Thompson]

SHARPE, Elizabeth.

THE SECRETS OF THE KAULA CIRCLE. A Tale of 
Fictitious People Faithfully Recounting Strange 
Rites Still Practised by the Cult. Followed by a 
translation of a very old MS. on THE SCIENCE OF BREATH.

London: Luzac & Co. 1936.

First Edition, First Printing. Octavo, original 
printed paper wrappers. 96 pp. Covers lightly 
scuffed, small closed tear to spine panel neatly 
repaired. Previous owners ink name and two small 
ownership stamps on inner covers. A few pencil 
marks to the margins (erasable, just faint marks 
by the precious owner). Overall, a clean, very good copy of a very rare book.

¶ Written as fiction, "The Secrets of the Kaula 
Circle" was one of the first books to introduce 
the secret Indian rituals associated with Kaula 
or "Tantric" ritual practices to a Western 
audience. The author chose to address the subject 
by means of a fictional narrative, and the result 
is this intriguing and bizarre novel, which 
blends speculation, hearsay and sometimes 
breathless storytelling with passages of real 
insight; the latter drawn from Sharpe’s own acute 
observations, her translations from Sanskrit 
literature, and perhaps from her own personal 
experience. "The Secrets of the Kaula Circle" was 
intended to serve as a warning, particularly to 
women, not to be drawn into the web of occult 
practice that she described. At one point in the 
narrative she describes a ritual performed by a 
magician named "666", who is obviously Aleister 
Crowley in a thin disguise. Although The Secrets 
of the Kaula Circle did not achieve a wide 
circulation, a copy did find its way into the 
hands of "The Beast 666," who professed outrage 
at the thinly-veiled and unflattering portrait of 
himself, and considered suing the author. The 
rituals described verge into the fields of ritual 
sexual abuse and psychic vampirism. The work was 
recently reprinted in a limited edition by the 
Teitan Press, the new edition bearing a 
frontispiece of "an artist's impression of 
Aleister Crowley as the leader of a 'love cult' 
of the type described by Elizabeth Sharpe." The 
first edition, offered here, is extremely rare.

$375.00 Cdn

http://www.thompsonrarebooks.com/shop/thompson/309277.html



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