{"id":19501,"date":"2019-04-01T01:10:31","date_gmt":"2019-04-01T06:10:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paganpages.org\/content\/?p=20906"},"modified":"2019-03-20T15:10:18","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T20:10:18","slug":"book-review-the-vision-of-the-pylons-by-j-daniel-gunther","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/2019\/04\/01\/book-review-the-vision-of-the-pylons-by-j-daniel-gunther\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review \u2013 The Vision of the Pylons by J. Daniel Gunther"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Book Review<\/strong>
The Visions of the Pylons<\/strong>
A Magical Record of Exploration in the Starry Abode<\/strong><\/em>
By: J. Daniel Gunther<\/strong><\/em>
Ibis Press<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The author, Mr. Gunther follows Aleister Crowley\u2019s method of enlightenment as put forth by Mr. Crowley in his publication: \u201cThe Equinox<\/a>.\u201d Mr. Gunther used the method labeled \u201cScientific Illuminism\u201d to explore the Egyptian funerary text called \u201cThe Book of Pylons\u201d (or Gates). It is the nocturnal journey of the deceased on the Solar Bark in the Starry Abode. What Mr. Gunther has written is a book that is a record of the meditations the author went through and his exploration of the Starry Abode. These meditations happened between 1975 in 1977.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The subject matter is interesting to read. (I think this is another rabbit hole I am getting ready to jump into.) While the subject matter is interesting the meditations are a little difficult to read. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Gunther seems to be a fan of footnotes; there are footnotes on almost every page. Sometimes the footnotes take up half the page. A lot of the footnotes contain Hebrew lettering, zodiac Glyph, and notes on Sephiroth. (I admit I am not familiar with Hebrew lettering or anything on the Sephiroth. So, I would read the book, and then look stuff up online.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\ndid find this to be an exciting book to read. I found myself reading\nthe passage, then going to the footnote, and then rereading the\npassage in several places of this book, after looking stuff up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not well versed in the Kabbalah, so this book piqued my interest in learning more about that matter. And at the same time, his book confused me with the combination of Biblical references, Egyptian references, and Jewish references. I can see how they all work together. Sometimes the way the footnotes read it made my head spin for a second or two. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare six different appendices in this book. The first is the name of\nthe Pylons; these are color pages that have a different path of the\nPylons. The second is the Sigils of the Guardians of the Pylons. \nThe Sigil of the Guardians can be a bit confusing, because it is a\ngrid of the phonetic sounds for the letters of the ancient Egyptian\nalphabet, and there are 13 of those. There is a section on engraving\nimages into a wax disc. The last two appendices are a full ritual\ncomplete with a recipe for saffron cakes, honey, and milk. The\nappendix on the Signs of Invoking and Banishing is extensive and has\nmore than 30 signs. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nresearcher and student in me found this book fascinating. The student\nin me also realized this is something else I need to explore more\ndeeply.. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Visions of the Pylons: A Magical Record of Exploration in the Starry Abode on Amazon<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

***<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

About the Author:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Dawn\nBorries<\/strong> loves\nreading and was thrilled to become a Reviewer for PaganPages.Org.\nDawn, also, has been doing Tarot and Numerology readings for the past\n25 years. Dawn does readings on her Facebook<\/a>\npage. If you are interested in a reading you can reach her on\nFacebook @eagleandunicorn<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Book Review The Visions of the Pylons A Magical Record of Exploration in the Starry Abode By: J. Daniel Gunther Ibis Press The author, Mr. Gunther follows Aleister Crowley\u2019s method of enlightenment as put forth by Mr. Crowley in his publication: \u201cThe Equinox.\u201d Mr. Gunther used the method labeled \u201cScientific Illuminism\u201d to explore the Egyptian funerary text called \u201cThe Book of Pylons\u201d (or Gates). It is the nocturnal journey of the deceased on the Solar Bark in the Starry Abode. What Mr. Gunther has written is a book that is a record of the meditations the author went through and his exploration of the Starry Abode. These meditations happened between 1975 in 1977. The subject matter is interesting to read. (I think this is another rabbit hole I am getting ready to jump into.) While the subject matter is interesting the meditations are a little difficult to read. Mr. Gunther seems to be a fan of footnotes; there are footnotes on almost every page. Sometimes the footnotes take up half the page. A lot of the footnotes contain Hebrew lettering, zodiac Glyph, and notes on Sephiroth. (I admit I am not familiar with Hebrew lettering or anything on the Sephiroth. So, I would read the book, and then look stuff up online.) I did find this to be an exciting book to read. I found myself reading the passage, then going to the footnote, and then rereading the passage in several places of this book, after looking stuff up. I am not well versed in the Kabbalah, so this book piqued my interest in learning more about that matter. And at the same time, his book confused me with the combination of Biblical references, Egyptian references, and Jewish references. I can see how they all work together. Sometimes the way the footnotes read it made my head spin for a second or two. There are six different appendices in this book. The first is the name of the Pylons; these are color pages that have a different path of the Pylons. The second is the Sigils of the Guardians of the Pylons. The Sigil of the Guardians can be a bit confusing, because it is a grid of the phonetic sounds for the letters of the ancient Egyptian alphabet, and there are 13 of those. There is a section on engraving images into a wax disc. The last two appendices are a full ritual complete with a recipe for saffron cakes, honey, and milk. The appendix on the Signs of Invoking and Banishing is extensive and has more than 30 signs. The researcher and student in me found this book fascinating. The student in me also realized this is something else I need to explore more deeply.. The Visions of the Pylons: A Magical Record of Exploration in the Starry Abode on Amazon *** About the Author: Dawn Borries loves reading and was thrilled to become a Reviewer for PaganPages.Org. Dawn, also, has been doing Tarot and Numerology readings for the past 25 years. Dawn does readings on her Facebook page. If you are interested in a reading you can reach her on Facebook @eagleandunicorn.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":231,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/231"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19501"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18971,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19501\/revisions\/18971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}