New book on Aleister Crowley and the Abbey of Thelema

Thelema Revisited: In Search of Aleister Crowley is a new book compiled and edited by Richard T. Cole. It contains more than 200 colour and black and white images, the majority previously unseen and unpublished, including pictures of the interior and exterior of the Abbey as it stands today, floor plans, photographs of Crowley’s artwork inside the Abbey, and rare photographs of the Abbey through the years.

From the author’s website:

In June, 2007, I travelled to a small fishing village on the north-east coat of Sicily in order to obtain a complete photographic record of Aleister Crowley’s former ‘Abbey of Thelema’, before it crumbles into the dust of Cefalu. Also, to stand in the same room where, exactly fifty years ago, the building’s owner gave a curious keepsake to a young child – a small glass phial on which was stuck a label neatly written by the hand of the previous tenant.

The photographs and 8mm movie footage taken by the child’s grandparents that morning were to feature in a publication intended to cash-in on the growing interest in Aleister Crowley created by John Symonds’ 1951 biography ‘The Great Beast’ and a three-part series of articles printed in Picture Post magazine (1955). However, the proposed book was never completed. Consequently, this material has languished quietly in a chest of drawers for the last fifty years.

Thelema Revisited is an account of the events I experienced during my recent visit to Cefalu and also of various correspondences which developed in the subsequent months. Due to a fortunate set of circumstances and coincidences, this travelogue has expanded far beyond its original scope and to a point at which I am reasonably confident to suggest that it answers most, if not all of the questions you are ever likely to ask abut Crowley’s (very Thelemic) three year and one month long residence at the Abbey of Thelema, in Cefalu.

I received an e-mail announcement earlier this week from Caduceus Books. It’s limited to 666 copies, and the hardcover has already sold out. I’ve already placed my order; I’m intensely curious.

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