Who is better at ritual? I think Spare is maybe better at ritual as he doesn’t proclaim to be anything other than a hedonist with a sex drive. Self care is ritual. With that said, I’m not sure Spare took very good care of himself but everybody does their own thing. I think they both probably did too much fucking morphine. Crowley actually wrote a book of fiction about it. I personally think a blunt, and either a glass of wine or a few ounces of whiskey over the rocks and a nice lavender soak is about the best self care ritual there is besides waking up to a sexy thing and getting a blowjob. I don’t see the appeal of Crowley’s ashes of vagina blood cookies but I do like sandalwood oil and sweaty whores.
What am I saying? The occultists would do better to pick up some real herb books. The two best to start with for advanced level work are The Divine Farmer’s Materia Medica and King’s AMERICAN Dispensatory. Of the latter look for the version edited by John Uri Lloyd. It’s to this day one of the most important books on herbal healing ever written. There’s plenty more. Some of the much older works have some superstition and exaggeration sometimes but there’s some good information. For example, John Gerard although an astrologist actually had some practical advice: “The juice of Thornapple, boiled with hog’s grease, cureth all inflammations whatsoever, all manner of burnings and scaldings, as well of fire, water, boiling lead, gunpowder, as that which comes by lightning, and that in very short time, as myself have found in daily practice, to my great credit and profit.” Combined with flowers of sulfur and honey it actually helps literally most anything heal faster and while alleviating pain [applied topically]. Don’t eat datura. Not pleasant. It’s only fit for topical applications. For a styptic there’s alum or puffball spores or anhydrous chitosan gauze or bandages. Iodine is a very effective antiseptic, as is silver nanoparticles. Garlic is the stuff of true legends. Myrrh resin is dirt cheap and amazing stuff. And yet, how many doctors don’t carry these in a medicine bag. Are modern humans nearly as smart as they think they are? They’re pretty fucking smart actually but there’s important practical knowledge that has been mostly lost. And those that study Crowley ain’t doing themselves much favors reading about silly rituals instead of learning the stuff a real Egyptian priest might have known. So yeah the crowleyites, OTO, IOT, and other cacklebrayers don’t know a goddamn thing about anything.