While searching through the bookshelves of my local library, I’ve noticed Moonchild by Aleister Crowley. I’m somewhat familiar with his work – not much, but I’m a horror freak, and weird and occult interest me – and the covers said it was his most famous occult novel. I don’t usually pay much attention to book covers, since they’ll say anything to sell the book, but I was curious about this one, so I took it.

The writing of Moonchild is lousy; it’s second-rate at its best. Crowley’s sarcasm is amusing sometimes. It reminded me of Dickens, in a way, except that Dickens was much more subtle in his humor. I don’t think, though, that Crowley cared much about his style; the true value of this book is that it explains some of the basic ideas (nature of soul, the New Eon, the basic principles of magick, the basic methods of casting spells, principles of Universe, possible advancement of human being…) of Crowley’s teachings in a simple, easy-to-understand way (mostly through dialogue, in the usual question-answer way). It’s also the sole reason for the four stars I gave to the book.

For those of you who are curious about Crowley’s life, Moonchild also contains some autobiographical material, though, like always when reading Crowley, you shouldn’t take anything he says literally.

The Plot

Lisa la Giuffria, an English (I think) lady, is a traveling companion of Lavinia King, a famous dancer. On the evening of her birthday (it never says which one) she meets a mysterious man, Cyril Grey (please note that I’ve read the Serbian translation, so it’s possible I’ve misspelled some names) and falls in love with him. They also become lovers. After the night spent with him, Lisa becomes hysterical. For those of you who don’t know it, Crowley was a misogynist. He believed women have no soul (they only have their sex), no moral (just changes of mood) and no brain (just psychology of the masses). Lisa is a perfect example of these beliefs. After many days, Lavinia notices something’s wrong with her companion, and takes her to Paris. Once in Paris, Lisa receives a postcard with no signature, just with an address and a question mark. Guessing it was from Cyril, she rushes to him. The postcard was from him, but Cyril is not alone; his teacher, mystique Simon If, is with him.

You see, Cyril is a magician. He belongs to a secret order; the goals of the order are the same goals Crowley had set for O.T.O. (proclamation of the New Eon, influencing politics in order to speed up that New Eon, creating new, more aware and more powerful human beings (through methods of studying magick) , etc. etc.). His order is in a magickal war with the evil Black Lodge (the Black Lodge wants to, more or less, destroy everything – they’re evil, perverted, and, since the book partly happens during the World War One, the Black Lodge is, of course, on the wrong side). One of the chiefs of the Black Lodge, Douglas, hates Cyril personally, and does everything in his power to destroy Cyril and to spoil Cyril’s experiment.

Moonchild is mostly about this magickal war, and about Cyril’s experiment with Lisa, an attempt to create a super human being (sounds familiar?), namely, this Moonchild. Will he succeed in defeating the Black Lodge and creating this super being? Knowing that Cyril is how Crowley envisions himself, and also knowing Crowley was an egomaniac, do you really need to ask?

The Characters

Ugh. In short, men are wise and powerful, though the one with the greatest potential is Cyril Grey (like I said, Crowley himself; false modesty was not among his sins); some of the men are evil and perverted and disgusting (members of the Black Lodge, of course, though some of them are redeemable). Women can be useful, in one way or another (their holiest purpose is to be incubators), but they have neither souls nor brains nor moral. All the female characters in Moonchild are pathetic, though in different ways. If you’re a feminist, you’ll hate this book.

A Warning

If you’re a skeptic, skip this part and move on to the next section. This warning is for you, too, but since you won’t believe in it, there’s no need to waste your time reading it.

The warning is for all of you, regardless of your religion (or the lack of it) and your beliefs.

If you read Crowley’s books (this or any other) you will probably experience some unpleasant side effects. You might have very emotional dreams; sometimes they’re connected to the books, sometimes they’re not, but the emotions are very strong and you wake up feeling exhausted. This usually passes a few days after you’ve finished reading the book. Or you might get depressive for no apparent reason, or nervous or aggressive even though nothing wrong happened, or full of energy but in unpleasant way. This usually lasts for two-three months after you’ve finished reading the book.

Am I making this up? No. I’m not the only one who had experienced this; and this warning is for people who are not using any medicaments. If you’re using, say, prozac, the side effects will probably be much worse. In other words, if you’re on prozac, don’t read Crowley.

Another warning: Crowley’s books are not for children of any age. Don’t let the silly magickal war in Moonchild fool you. If your kid is reading this book, feel free to be a tyrant and take it away. You’ll just be protecting your child from harm.

Recommended…

Considering the side effects, no.

However, if you’re an adult and wish, for whatever reason, to get acquainted with Crowley’s theories, this is probably the best book to start with. The ideas and principles are so well-explained that a twelve-year-old could understand them, and you’ll get solid enough base to build on, that is, to move on to harder works.

Thanks for reading!


Recommended: No