Ordo Astri is the publishing imprint for books designed to assist in the path of initiation into Esoteric Thelema. All books listed below are written by Oliver St. John. Most books purchased from the author’s website links given below have a discount applied. Click on the images to view at full size.
Babalon Unveiled! Thelemic Monographs
Deluxe (hardbound) Edition Available Now
This collection of 36 monographs serves as a well-rounded introduction to the Law of Thelema. ‘Lapis Philosophorum’ redefines the magical philosophy of Thelema, liberating it from the accretions of the past as well as those of the modern age. Babalon Unveiled forms the centrepiece of this collection and is one of seven related studies on the mystery of the Scarlet Woman. Each shows an aspect of her oracular voice as it has been heard and recorded down the ages. ‘Angels of Sacred Dance, Love and Whoredom’ examines how the divine feminine of pre-religious antiquity was demonised, resulting in a host of ‘fallen angels’ whose identity is yet preserved, albeit under a heavy veil in traditional Qabalistic texts.The book is dedicated to the memory of Rose Edith Kelly, otherwise known as Rose Crowley or Ouarda the Seer. Rose was the medium and intelligence for the transmission activated through the Stele of Revealing in the Cairo museum in 1904.
Read the full description here at Ordo Astri.
Format: 6 x 9 hardcover, dustjacket; blue linen boards; gold foil stamp lettering on spine; white end papers.
View / order book from the author’s website here
Ordo Astri Books: Ritual Magick—Initiation of the Star and Snake
First Edition Available Now (18th October 2019)
Here is the ritual and ceremonial basis underlying the threefold structure of an Esoteric Thelemic Order comprising the Golden Dawn, Rosy Cross and Silver Star. Lucid explanatory texts, plus hundreds of graphic illustrations and diagrams accompany the rituals and methods.
The grade system is worked from Malkuth to Kether, following the paths of the Serpent of Wisdom. The Order of the Golden Dawn comprises the first four degrees. The Golden Dawn thesis concerns the equilibration of the four elements of the natural soul. The Order of the Rosy Cross comprises the fifth, sixth and seventh degrees. The work of the Rose and Cross is to unite the equilibrated soul to her opposite, the antithesis or Holy Guardian Angel. The Order of the Silver Star comprises the 8th, 9th and 10th degrees, summed up as the spiritual fruit or synthesis of the soul’s union with her Holy Guardian Angel.
Subjects include the Circle of the Place, Mudras or ‘signs of the grades’, Ritual of the Gates of Babalon, the Golden Mean, formulation of the Magical Name, Opening and Closing the Temple, Star and Snake Tantra-yoga, the (revised) Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram, Rising on the Planes, Skrying and Clairvoyance, Consecration of Talismans, the Thelemic Mass of Hormaku, Ritual for Psychic Self-defence, the Holy Guardian Angel, Ritual of the Rosy Cross, Consecration of the Magical Sword, Goetic Evocation, the Ceremony of the Watchtowers and Enochian Magick.
Read the full description here, with the author’s Preface to the First Edition.
Format: Trade paperback; perfect binding (6” x 9”); 304 pages in total.
View / order book from author’s website here.
Ordo Astri Books: Phoenix and other Stellar Rites of Initiation
Third Edition, Revised, Extended, Available Now (November 2019)
The Phoenix is the rite of admission to Neophyte, the first degree of the Order. The first degree is called the ‘Grade of Earth’ because it corresponds to Malkuth, the Kingdom. Within this ritual are the keys to forging the necessary inner plane contacts of a Thelemic magical Order.
Included here is the admission to the grade of Zelator, the Ceremony for making the Khu perfect. The Adeptus Minor does not truly enter the Second Order until the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel is experienced. We therefore present here Liber 717 Zain, our modern version of the Bornless Ritual. The three rituals of initiation each come with a full commentary. The ‘flashing colours’ are particular to the Magick of Light and have a special rôle in theurgical rites. This book is therefore printed on photographic paper and includes 35 luxurious full colour diagrams and graphic illustrations.
A preview and full description of The Phoenix can be read at Ordo Astri here.
View / buy The Phoenix from author’s website here (discount applied).
Format: 6 x 9 full interior colour PBK.
Ordo Astri Books: The Enterer of the Threshold
Third Edition Available Now (18th October Anno V–5)
The Third Edition (October 2019) includes Key Scale correspondence tables, expanded and corrected to follow the allocation of Tarot trumps as instructed in the (Egyptian) Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis. As well as the primary Qabalistic Sephiroth, Gods and Angels, the correspondence tables cover everything needed by the practical magician: colours, magical powers, magical weapons, perfumes, precious stones, plants, animals and legendary creatures.
Initiation works through the formula called the Enterer of the Threshold. The Probationer enters the pyramid of Malkuth from ‘outside’ to become a Neophyte. They square the infinite circle of all that they are and can ever be. The 0 = 0 grade lays the foundation and provides the magical link between the outer world of Darkness and the interior world of Illuminated Souls or inner plane Adepti. It is the aim of magick to forge contacts with the latter. The squaring of the circle applies to every grade and every sephira of the Tree of Life.
Content of the Third Edition includes:
Circle of the Place; Microcosm; Intelligence of Luminosity; Occult Science; Hermetic and Brotherly Love; Esoteric Doctrine of Thelema; Astrosome; Primary Mudras; Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram; Quantum Yoga; Logos Method of Meditation; Secret Serpent; Art of Recollection; Art of Invocation; Song of the Stele; Keeping of the Record; Thelemic Calendar; Feasts of the Times; Tree of Life; Da’ath; Orbicular Tree (Tree of Life in a Sphere); Curriculum of the Golden Dawn; Temple of the Golden Dawn; Oaths and Tasks of the Grades; Key Scale Correspondence Tables.
Read some of the content of this book here.
Format: 6 x 9 perfect bound paperback
View / buy book from the author’s website
Liber 373 Astrum Draconis
Second Edition (Revised, extended) Available Now (October 2019)
The purpose of this book is to provide a substantial praxis for the Thelemic magical degree of Philosophus 4 = 7. “Philosophy is the Equilibrium of him that is in the House of Venus that is the Lady of Love.” The Initiate of Netzach must therefore study and practice the love of wisdom. The Lady of Love assumes seven different aspects, each associated with a chakra or ‘star’ in the cosmos. Various supporting rituals and methods are given here and explained, along with the planetary Kameas, Seals and Signatures of the Intelligences and Spirits.
This Second Edition begins with two new essays, ‘The Threefold Book of Lore’ and ‘Thelema Beyond Self-Love’. These were not included in Babalon Unveiled but are very much part of the same knowledge stream. This is a course in advanced practical magick that includes knowledge lectures, rituals, yoga, meditation, invocation, skrying and tasks to perform. Content of Liber 373 includes:
The Magick Temple, Bhakti Yoga, Magick of Earth and Stars, Ascent of the Celestial Serpent, the Gates of the Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, Ritual of the Gates of Babalon, Star and Snake Tantra-yoga (revised), Rite of Dedication, Mass of Hormaku with Litany and Collects, Signatures of the Spirits.
View / buy Liber 373 from author’s website (discount applied)
Format: 6 x 9 perfect bound paperback
Ordo Astri Books: Magical Theurgy—Rituals of the Tarot
Third Edition Available Now (Nov. 2019) only from author’s website
Paperback or hardback available (discounts applied)
The Law of Thelema is an expression of timeless wisdom. The work of theurgy is to practice and understand this. Magical Theurgy presents a complete course in ritual magick and the Tarot. The book gives the extended use of elemental mudras or Godforms, meditation and Tantra-yoga plus simple and advanced magical rituals. The book includes a guide on how to make and charge magical talismans with illustrations of the Kameas or Magic Squares and sigils of the planetary spirits. Included in the Third Edition is a new compilation of the Qabalistic Key Scale magical correspondences: powers, potencies, perfumes, magical weapons, plants, gems, legendary creatures, vices and virtues.
Divination is a magical means of opening and extending lines of communication between the temporal and eternal worlds. The most important function of the Tarot is as an initiatory device. The core of this book is the Grand Tarot Operation, a 30-day theurgic operation aimed at mystical and magical initiation.
The book includes more than 20 photographs of the elemental mudras.
Format: 6 x 9 paperback or hardbound format: 6 x 9 dustjacket; blue linen boards; gold foil stamp lettering on spine; white end papers.
View / buy paperback book from the author’s website.
View / buy hardbound edition here.
Ordo Astri Books: Flaming Sword Sepher Sephiroth
Volumes One and Two Available (2017)
The Flaming Sword consists of more than 1000 pages, in two volumes. In addition to the substantial Sepher Sephiroth there is an introductory guide to the use of the book, tables of Hebrew, Greek and Enochian values, prime numbers, and a complete set of Magical Kameas with corrected and redrawn planetary seals and sigils.
The Flaming Sword is the result of many years of practical work and research by the author. Greek words from the New Testament and Hermetica are included, in addition to the usual Hebrew words; the entire Enochian vocabulary of John Dee is included, as well as Latin, Sanskrit, Arabic and ancient Egyptian. Where appropriate, Gematria with detailed Qabalistic notes has been provided. The book also serves as a veritable grimoire for those engaged with the more specialised work of the Egyptian Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis, and the Thelemic or ‘93’ current. The Flaming Sword provides multiple solutions to all of the riddles of Liber AL, as well as some of the most cryptic passages.
See more detailed information about The Flaming Sword here.
Format: 6 x 9 high quality paperback, in two volumes
Volume One: 684 pages (now in Second edition)
Volume Two: 584 pages
View / buy The Flaming Sword Volume One from author’s website
View / buy The Flaming Sword Volume Two from author’s website
Books: Hermetic Qabalah Foundation—Complete Course
The Second Edition (Revised) is available from the author’s website as of 11th June, 2019. The course is now consistent with Esoteric Thelema and has been reintroduced to the curriculum of the O∴ A∴
Hermetic Qabalah and Initiation Workbook are placed here under one cover in a portable paperback format. Herein is the key to spiritual alchemy and the operation of tantrik magick and yoga: the Tree of Life is seeded in the astrosome of the magician so the rituals and practices are a gateway to true knowledge.
“Reawakening the Serpent Power allows the release of the energies required to transcend the ordinary perceptions of mind and realise the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. The Angel or supranatural power of divinity can assist in opening the door of eternity that marks the return to the Garden of Eden.”
The Qabalah is the framework for magick, including astrology, tarot, gematria, talismans, meditation, invocation and evocation, the pentagram and hexagram, elemental weapons, the sphere of sensation and the astral plane. The Hermetic Qabalah is seamlessly integrated with the one-year practical coursework through ritual meditations upon the paths. Preliminary work includes the Wisdom of Breath, Ritual Sonics, Assumption of the Godform and a powerful variation of the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. The student then moves, step-by-step, towards creation of an astral double as a medium for forging the inner plane contacts that make real initiation possible.
Format: 6 x 9 paperback
View / buy book from author’s website
Ordo Astri Books: The Mystic Tarot and the Trees of Eternity
Available in paperback and hardbound editions
The Mystic Tarot and the Trees of Eternity is an advanced, visionary treatise on the Tarot. Each of the twenty-two chapters is divided into two sections, the Light-path and the Night-path, and is headed by a luminous commentary on the relevant Qabalistic text from the Sepher Yetzirah. The methods include Theurgic, Goetic and Enochian magick. Following Tantrik tradition, the book’s narrative is centred on the ‘Island’ to the west of St. Ives in Cornwall. The book thus has a distinctly elemental nature, reflective of changing weather and seasons as focussed through the lens of Tarot and Tree of Life correspondences. The book embraces the work of Aleister Crowley as well as the Nightside or Typhonian conjurations of Kenneth Grant, providing rare insights into the interior magical worlds of Thelema.
View / buy paperback from the author’s website.
View / buy hardback from the author’s website.
Format: 6 x 9 high quality paperback or hardbound format: 6 x 9 dustjacket; blue linen boards; gold foil stamp lettering on spine; white end papers.
Ordo Astri Books: The Law of Thelema—Quantum Yoga
Hardbouind, dustjacket; illustrated throughout
With this book, the author discloses the Quantum Yoga treatise, or “Reification of Starlight”, that was not included in The Ending of the Words, first published in 2007 e.v.
The work was tempered by correspondence with Kenneth Grant, who inspired the experimental magical operations that led to the book’s conception. In the words of the author, the Law of Thelema—Quantum Yoga, presents “the secret teachings of the Typhonian Tradition, heretofore never revealed”. The text to The Ending of the Words has also been updated to include the events of 2015 e.v. that fulfilled the prophecy encrypted in the third chapter of the Egyptian Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis.
Format: 6 x 9 Hardbound, dustjacket; blue linen boards; gold foil stamp lettering on spine; white end papers.
View / order book from author’s website here.
Dreaming Thelema of Kenneth Grant and H. P. Lovecraft
Paperback; full colour interior on white photographic paper
This book sets out to explain what Kenneth Grant’s cosmic vision is really about. We know that American writer HP Lovecraft had no mystic pretensions, though he did say the dream that inspired the short story Nyarlathotep “might have been prophetic”. Grant made much use of Lovecraft’s work, using it to reformulate the ideal of Thelema. The book is primarily concerned with art and magick; it is not a book about art, but a book that is a work of art in itself, featuring seventeen full colour reproductions of Surrealist paintings created as part of this unique project. Also included are three complete short stories by HP Lovecraft: Nyarlathotep, The Crawling Chaos, and The Haunter of the Dark, plus a reconstruction of the Lovecraftian Necronomicon.
For more detailed information about this book, and a preview of some of the artwork, see our post here.
Formats available:
6 x 9 Perfectbound; full colour interior illustrations on white photographic paper
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Ordo Astri Books: Magical Art of Surreal Romanticism
Available in hardbound and paperback editions; full colour interior
The book is an in-depth illustrated study that takes in the use of occult methods such as automatism in the arts and literature, and compares the results with the Left-hand path or way of retroversion of the senses as termed by Kenneth Grant and typified by the work of artist Austin Osman Spare.
True automatism is an inexorable condition of mind and soul that to all intents and purposes is exercised outside and beyond the will of the person, whether they are destined to become a master, a magus, or merely another victim swallowed up by an incomprehensible universe. Automatism was not an invention of the Surrealists, or of Sigmund Freud, but has always existed in magick and alchemy.
In many respects this book is a vindication of the work of English scholar and mystic, Thomas De Quincey, who spoke of a more sublime form of divination by which magnetism may call up from the darkness, “sentiments the most august, previously inconceivable, formless, and without life”, so exalting their character as to “lodge them eternally in human hearts”. The book includes six high quality full colour reproductions of fine art, including rarely seen drawings and paintings by Austin Osman Spare and Ithell Colquhoun.
Formats available:
6 x 9 Hardbound, casewrap with full colour illustrations view / buy
6 x 9 Perfect bound paperback with full colour illustrations view / buy
Hermetic Astrology
Available in paperback and hardbound editions
The primary aim of this book is to explain esoteric or magical astrology in a simple and concise way. The veriest beginner will quickly gain an understanding of their natal horoscope. Those already well-versed in the subject will find here magical and esoteric applications for the art that rarely, if ever, appear in textbooks on astrology.
Here is a complete course in astrology covering astrological symbolism, chart interpretation, the dignities of signs, houses and planets, aspects and astrological timing. Esoteric knowledge is revealed concerning the Part of Fortune, the Dragon Stars or Nodes of the Moon, the Egyptian Ka or double, the Holy Guardian Angel and the Evil Genius, Outer Gateways and the use of the natal chart as a Master Key of Life.
View / buy paperback book from the author’s website.
View / buy hardbound book from the author’s website.
Format: 6 x 9 paperback.
6 x 9 Hardbound format, dustjacket; blue linen boards; gold lettering on spine; white end papers.
Ordo Astri Books: The Ending of the Words—Magical Philosophy of Aleister Crowley
The 2016 Revised Edition is available in perfect bound paperback (Crown Quarto) and in a full colour Special Edition (Crown Quarto). The book’s first (2007) edition is also available as an Amazon Kindle eBook. The Ending of the Words examines Liber AL vel Legis, the magical transmission received by Aleister Crowley, through the lens of practical research. The book introduces the Law of Thelema, as given by the goddess Nuit to a Theban priest, and places it in the context of the ancient wisdom tradition, as well as that of an atomic age. The Ending of the Words is a unique publication offering direct insights into the magical Law of Thelema, and an open commentary on esoteric knowledge that has for centuries been kept hidden from the public eye. The book includes a comprehensive glossary of Egyptian, Qabalistic and Thelemic terminology essential to the study of the Book of the Law.
Note: The revised content of this book is included in The Law of Thelema—Quantum Yoga (see above). The latter includes, in addition, the complete “Starlight Reification” papers.
View / buy book from the author’s website.
Format: Crown Quarto pefect bound paperback with black and white illustrations; Crown Quarto Special Edition perfect bound paperback with full colour internal photographs and graphics on high grade white paper.
Ordo Astri Books: Stella Tenebrae Volume One Number 2
The second and last number of the archive Journal, Stella Tenebrae, Journal of Hermetic Magick. There is an emphasis on practical magick while a strong prophetic or oracular sense underscores some of the writing. There are full-length essays as well as knowledge papers. The practical work is supported by explanatory texts and related pieces.
Contents: The Aeon of Hormaku; Cults of the Fire Snake; Thoughts on The Law of Thelema—Quantum Yoga; Starlight Reification; The Alchemy Thoth Tarot Spread; Geomancy; The Saturnian-Uranian Current; The Enochian Ritual of the Pentagram; Ritual for Psychic Self Defence; The Kemetic Pillar; The Star and Snake; The Lord of the South; The Mystic Mass of Hormaku; Sexual Magick: the Real Secret; The Lunar Zodiac.
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Format: A4, perfect bound paperback
Stella Tenebrae Volume One Number 1
The first number of the archive Journal, Stella Tenebrae. The creative stream issuing from the Thelemic 93 Current cannot be set in stone tablets for all time—our methods and rituals are constantly evolving. This, the first number of Stella Tenebrae—Journal of Hermetic Magick, contains twelve essays and is fully illustrated throughout. Subjects include the Qabalah, Extraterrestrialism and subconscious dream control or automatism, Tarot, Egyptian Gods and the Sethian Gnosis. The final piece, Lost Words of the Aeon, is the background story to the writing of The Law of Thelema—Quantum Yoga, our commentary on the Egyptian Book of the Law, Liber AL vel Legis.
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Format: A4, perfect bound paperback.
All books on this page can be ordered direct from the author’s website by following the links given here. Most of these books may be purchased there with a discount. Proceeds of the sales of our books help to fund Ordo Astri.
Subscribe to our monthly Journal, The 93 Current here. The Journal is free of charge and is delivered by email.