The Equinox

The Equinox
Official organ of the A?A?, subtitled ‘‘The Review of Scientific
Illuminism,’’ originally published by magician Aleister
Crowley beginning in March 1909. Each issue amounted to a
book-length journal. It contained the official materials of the
A?A?, articles and stories by Crowley, and book reviews.
Crowley, who had recently left the Hermetic Order of the Golden
Dawn, published many of the secrets of his former colleagues.
The ten issues of the first volume appeared biannually
at the equinoxes, beginning in March 1909.
It appears that Crowley projected alternating five-year periods
of publication and silence. The second volume was thus
designated a volume of silence and was never published.
The issues of the third volume appeared sporadically, the
first in March 1919. The third volume is usually designated the
The ‘‘Blue’’ Equinox, as it was published with a blue cover. It followed
the general format of the earlier volumes. The second
issue made it to galley proofs, but was never published. The
succeeding issues took the form of a series of occasional monographs.
Number three did not appear until 1937. It includes
a commentary on Crowley’s major revelatory work, The Book of
the Law. Number four appeared in 1938 under the title Eight
Lectures on Yoga and number five as The Book of Thoth, Crowley’s
commentary on the tarot. The original edition of The Book of
Thoth was limited to 200 signed and numbered copies.
Crowley died in 1947. His successor as outer head of the
order, Karl Germer, saw to the publication of issue number six
of the third volume, which appeared in 1962 as Liber Aleph. The
last four issues were published by Grady McMurty (‘‘Caliph Hymenaeus
Beta’’), who took charge of the order and revived it
through the 1970s. The first three of these appeared as The
Shih Yi (1971), the Tao Teh King (1975), and The Holy Books of
Thelema (1983). A tenth issue, containing a variety of brief articles,
appeared in 1986.
In 1975 the Society Ordo Templi Orientis, a rival organization
headed by Marcelo Ramos Motta that for a while also
claimed to be the official Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO) headed
by Crowley, began to issue a new series of The Equinox. Four
issues of what was projected as volume five were published before
legal action by McMurty and the OTO stopped further
publication.
Sources
Crowley, Aleister. The Book of Thoth A Short Essay on the Tarot
of the Egyptians. New York Samuel Weiser, 1974.
———. Eight Lectures on Yoga. 1938. Reprint, Phoenix, Ariz.
Falcon Press, 1985.
The Equinox. 1, nos. 1–10. London, 1909–1913. Reprint,
New York Samuel Weiser, 1972.
The Equinox. 3, no. 1. Detroit Universal Publishing, 1919.
Reprint, New York Samuel Weiser, 1972.
The Equinox. 5, nos. 10–4. New York Samuel Weiser,
1975–1981.
The Equinox of the God. London Ordo Templi Orientis,
1936.
Hymenaeus Beta, Caliph [Grady McMurtry]. ‘‘Introduction
Culture vs. Cult.’’ Equinox 3, 10 (1986) 9–12.
———. Tao Teh King. London Askin Publishers; New York
Samuel Weiser, 1976.