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Magic without Tears
November 13, 1988 e.v. key entry and first proof by Bill Heidrick T.G. O.T.O.
(c) O.T.O. disk 1/4
This is a XYWrite file. Additional proofing and supplimental material
required to produce complete and unabridged version. Germer omits still a
problem.
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Key entry by Bill Heidrick, (415) 454-5176
P.O.Box 430
Fairfax, CA 94930
1
A l e i s t e r C r o w e y
MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS
Complete and Unabridged, edited with a Foreword by Karl J. Germer
2
(c) 1954 Karl J. Germer for Ordo Templi Orientis
Renewed 1982
(c) BLURB
Ordo Templi Orientis
JAF Box 7666
New York, NY 10116 USA
3
FOREWORD
In 1943 Aleister Crowley met a lady who, having heard of his wide
knowledge and experience, asked his advice on occult, spiritual, and
practical matters.
This chance connection resulted in a stimulating exchange of letters.
Crowley then asked others to put similar questions to him. The result
was this collection of over eighty letters which are now being issued
over the title that he chose, "MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS".
Crowley did not keep copies of his early letters to the above-mentioned
lady, so was unable to include them in the collection that he planned
to publish. Fortunately they have been preserved and are now included
in the introduction to this book. Their original form has been retained
with the opening and closing formulae which Crowley used in all his
letters.
Crowley at first intended to call the book "ALEISTER EXPLAINS EVERYTHING",
and sent the following circular to his friends and disciples asking them
to suggest subjects for inclusion.
ALEISTER EXPLAINS EVERYTHING.
__________
"Much gratified was the author of THE BOOK OF THOTH to have so
many letters of appreciation, mostly from women, thanking him for
not 'putting it in unintelligible language', for 'making it all
so clear that even I with my limited intelligence can understand
it, or think I do.'
"Nevertheless and notwithstanding! For many years the Master
Therion has felt acutely the need of some groundwork-teaching
suited to those who have only just begun the study of Magick and
its subsidiary sciences, or are merely curious about it, or
interested in it with intent to study. Always he has done his
utmost to make his meaning clear to the average intelligent edu-
cated person, but even those who understand him perfectly and are
most sympathetic to his work, agree that in this respect he has
often failed.
"So much for the diagnosis --- now for the remedy!
"One genius, inspired of the gods, suggested recently that the
riddle might be solved somewhat on the old and well-tried lines
of 'Dr. Brewer's Guide to Science'; i.e., by having aspirants
write to the Master asking questions, the kind of problem that
naturally comes into the mind of any sensible enquirer, and getting
his answer in the form of a letter. 'What is it?' 'Why should I
bother my head about it?' 'What are it's principles?' 'What use
is it?' 'How do I begin?', and the like.
"This plan has been put into action; the idea has been to cover
the subjects from every possible angle. The style has been collo-
quiel and fluent; technical terms have either been carefully
avoided or most carefully explained; and the letter has not been
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admitted to the series until the querent has expressed satisfaction.
Some seventy letters, up to the present have been written, but still
there seem to be certain gaps in the demonstration, like those white
patches on the map of the World, which looked so tempting fifty years
ago.
"This memorandum is to ask for your collaboration and support. A
list, indicating briefly the subject of each letter already written,
is appended. Should you think that any of those will help you in
your own problems, a typed copy will be sent to you at once ...
Should you want to know anything outside the scope, send in your
question (stated as fully and clearly as possible) ... The answer
should reach you, bar accidents, in less than a month ... It is
proposed ultimately to issue the series in book form."
_______
This has now been done.
Karl J. Germer
Frater Saturnus X¿
Frater Superior, O.T.O.
January, 1954 e.v.
Hampton, N.J.
5
I N T R O D U C T I O N
LETTERS WRITTEN BY MASTER THERION TO A STUDENT
Letter No. A
March 19, 1943
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
I was very glad to gather from your conversation yesterday afternoon that
you have a serious intention of taking up the Great Work in the proper
spirit. Your criticisms of previous experience in the course of your ad-
ventures appeared to be singularly sane and just. As I promised I am
writing this letter to cover a few practical points which we had not time
to discuss and which in any case I think it better to arrange by correspon-
dence.
1) It is of the first importance that you should understand my personal
position. It is not actually wrong to regard me as a teacher, but it
is certainly liable to mislead; fellow-student, or, if you like, fellow-
sufferer, seems a more appropriate definition.
The climax of my life was what is known as the Cairo Working, described in
the minutest detail in the Equinox of the Gods. At that time most of The
Book of the Law was completely unintelligible to me, and a good deal of it
- especially the third chapter - extremely antipathetic. I fought against
this book for years; but it proved irresistible.
I do not think I am boasting unfairly when I say that my personal researches
have been of the greatest value and importance to the study of the subject
of Magick and Mysticism in general, especially my integration of the vari-
ous thought-systems of the world, notably the identification of the system
of the Yi King with that of the Qabalah. But I do assure you that the whole
of my life's work, were it multiplied a thousand fold, would not be worth
one tithe of the value of a single verse of The Book of the Law.
I think you should have a copy of the Equinox of the Gods and make The
Book of the Law your constant study. Such value as my own work may possess
for you should amount to no more than an aid to the interpretation of this
book.
2) It may be that later on you will want a copy of Eight Lectures on Yoga
so I am putting a copy aside for you in case you should want it.
3) With regard to the O.T.O., I believe I can find you a typescript of
all the official documents. If so, I will let you have them to read,
and you can make up your mind as to whether you wish to affiliate to the
Third Degree of the Order. I should consequently, in the case of your de-
ciding to affiliate, go with you though the script of the Rituals and ex-
plain the meaning of the whole thing; communicating, in addition, the real
secret and significant knowledge of which ordinary Masonry is not possessed
4) The horoscope; I do not like doing these at all, but it is part of the
agreement with the Grand Treasurer of the O.T.O. that I should under-
take them in worthy cases, if pressed. But I prefer to keep the figure to
myself for future reference, in case any significant event makes consulta-
tion desirable.
6
Now there is one really important matter. The only thing besides The Book
of the Law which is in the forefront of the battle. As I told you yester-
day, the first essential is the dedication of all that one is and all that
one has to the Great Work, without reservation of any sort. This must be
kept constantly in mind; the way to do this is to practice Liber Resh vel
Helios, sub figura CC, pp. 425-426 - Magick. There is another version
of these Adorations, slightly fuller; but those in the text are quite al-
right. The important thing is not to forget. I shall have to teach you
the signs and gestures which go with the words.
It is also desirable before beginning a formal meal to go through the fol-
lowing dialogue: Knock 3-5-3: say, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole
of the Law." The person at the other end of the table replies: "What is
thy Will?" You: "It is my Will to eat and drink." He: "To what end?"
You: "That my body may be fortified thereby." He: "To what end?" You:
"That I may accomplish the Great Work." He: "Love is the law, love under
will." You, with a single knock: "Fall to." When alone make a monologue
of it: thus, Knock 3-5-3. Do what, etc. It is my Will to, etc., that my
body, etc., that I may, etc., Love is, etc. Knock: and begin to eat.
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance of performing these small
ceremonies regularly, and being as nearly accurate as possible with regard
to the times. You must not mind stopping in the middle of a crowded thor-
oughfare --- lorries or no lorries --- and saying the Adorations; and you must
not mind snubbing your guest --- or your host --- if he or she should prove
ig-
norant of his or her share of the dialogue. It is perhaps because these
matters are so petty and trivial in appearance that they afford so excellent
a training. They teach you concentration, mindfulness, moral and social
courage, and a host of other virtues.
Like a perfect lady, I have kept the tit bit to the last. It is absolutely
essential to begin a magical diary, and keep it up daily. You begin by an
account of your life, going back even before your birth to your ancestry.
In conformity with the practice which you may perhaps choose to adopt later,
given in Liber Thisarb, sub figura CMXIII, paragraphs 27-28, Magick,
pp. 420-422, you must find an answer to the question: "How did I come to
be in this place at this time, engaged in this particular work?" As you
will see from the book, this will start you on the discovery of who you
really are, and eventually lead you to your recovering the memory of pre-
vious incarnations.
As it is difficult for you to come to Town except at rare and irregular
intervals, may I suggest a plan which has previously proved very useful,
and that is a weekly letter. Eliphas Lâvi did this with the Baron Spedalieri,
and the correspondence is one of the most interesting of his works. you
ask such questions as you wish to have answered, and I answer them to the
best of my ability. I, of course, add spontaneous remarks which may be
elicited by my observations on your progress and the perusal of your magi-
cal diary. This, of course, should be written on one side of the paper
only, so that the opposite page is free for comments, and an arrangement
should be made for it to be inspected at regular intervals.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
7
666
Letter No. B
April 20, 1943
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
I was very glad to have your letter, and am very sorry to hear that you
have been in affliction. About the delay, however, I think I ought to tell
you that the original Rule of the Order of A.'. A.'. was that the introducer
read over a short lection to the applicant, then left him alone for a quar-
ter of an hour, and on coming back received a "yes" or "no." If there was
any hesitation about it the applicant was barred for life.
The reason for the relaxation of the rule was that it was thought better
to help people along in the early stages of the work, even if there was no
hope of their turning out first-class. But I should like you to realize
that sooner or later, whether in this incarnation or another, it is put up
to you to show perfect courage in face of the completely unknown, and the
power of rapid and irrevocable decision without without counting the cost.
I think that it is altogether wrong to allow yourself to be worried by
"psychological, moral, and artistic problems." It is no good your starting
anything of any kind unless you can see clearly into the simplicity of
truth. All this humming and hawing about things is moral poison. What is
the use of being a woman if you have not got an intuition, an instinct en-
abling you to distinguish between the genuine and the sham?
Your state of mind suggests to me that you must have been, in the past,
under the influence of people who were always talking about things, and
never doing any real work. They kept on arguing all sorts of obscure phil-
osophical points; that is all very well, but when you have succeeded in
analyzing your reactions you will understand that all this talk is just an
excuse for not doing any serious work.
I am confirmed in this judgment by your saying: "I don't know if I want to
enter into a great conflict. I need peace." Fortunately you save yourself
by adding: "Real peace, that is living and not stagnant." All life is con-
flict. Every breath that you draw represents a victory in the struggle of
the whole Universe. You can't have peace without perfect mastery of circum-
stance; and I take it that this is what you mean by "living, not stagnant."
But it is of the first consequence for you to summon up the resolution to
stamp on this sea of swirling thoughts by an act of will; you must say:
"Peace be still." The moment you have understood these thoughts for what
they are, tools of the enemy, invented by him with the idea of preventing
you from undertaking the Great Work --- the moment you dismiss all such con-
siderations firmly and decisively, and say: "What must I do?" and having
discovered that, set to work to do it, allowing of no interruption, you will
find that living peace which (as you seem to see) is a dynamic and not a
static condition. (There is quite a lot about this point in Little Essays
Toward Truth, and also in The Vision and the Voice.)
Your postscript made me smile. It is not a very good advertisement for the
8
kind of people with whom you have been associated in the past. My own posi-
tion is a very simple one. I obeyed the injunction to "buy a perfectly
black hen, without haggling." I have spent over 100,000 pounds of my in-
herited money on this work: and if I had a thousand times that amount to-
day it would all go in the same direction. It is only when one is built
in this way, to stand entirely aloof from all considerations of twopence
halfpenny more or fourpence halfpenny less, that one obtains perfect free-
dom on this Plane of Discs.
All the serious Orders of the world, or nearly all, begin by insisting that
the aspirant should take a vow of poverty; a Buddhist Bhikku, for example,
can own only nine objects - his three robes, begging bowl, a fan, tooth-
brush, and so on. The Hindu and Mohammedan Orders have similar regulations;
and so do all the important Orders of monkhood in Christianity.
Our own Order is the only exception of importance; and the reason for this
is that it is much more difficult to retain one's purity if one is living
in the world than if one simply cuts oneself off from it. It is far easier
to achieve technical attainments if one is unhampered by any such considera-
tions. These regulations operate as restrictions to one's usefulness in
helping the world. There are terrible dangers, the worst dangers of all,
associated with complete retirement. In my own personal judgment, moreover,
I think that our own ideal of a natural life is much more wholesome.
When you have found out a little about your past incarnations, you should
be able to understand this very clearly and simply.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
Letter No. C
April 30, 1943
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law
Thank you for your long letter of no date, but received two days ago. I am
very sorry you are still feeling exhausted. I am not too good myself, for
I find this weather very trying. I will answer your various points as best
I can.
I am arranging to send you the official papers connected with the O.T.O., but
the idea that you should meet other members first is quite impossible. Even
after affiliation, you would not meet anyone unless it were necessary for
you to work in cooperation with them. I am afraid you have still got the
idea that the Great Work is a tea-party. Contact with other students only
means that you criticize their hats, and then their morals; and I am not
going to encourage this. Your work is not anybody else's; and undirected
chatter is the worst poisonous element in human society.
When you talk of the "actual record" of the "Being called Jesus Christ," I
don't know what you mean. I am not aware of the existence of any such re-
cord. I know a great many legends, mostly borrowed from previous legends
of a similar character.
9
It would be better for you to get a copy of the Equinox of the Gods and
study it. The Great Work is the uniting of opposites. It may mean the
uniting of the soul with God, of the microcosm with the macrocosm, of the
female with the male, of the ego with the non-ego --- or what not.
By "love under will" one refers to the fact that the method in every case
is love, by which is meant the uniting of opposites as above stated, such
as hydrogen and chlorine, sodium and oxygen, and so on. Any reaction what-
ever, any phenomenon, is a phenomenon of "love", as you will understand
when I come to explain to you the meaning of the word "point-event". But
love has to be "under will," if it is to be properly directed. You must
find your True Will, and make all your actions subservient to the one great
purpose.
Rahoor is the Sun God; Tahuti is the Egyptian Mercury; Kephra is the Sun
at midnight.
About your problems; what I have to do is to try to teach you to think
clearly. You will be immensely stimulated by having all the useless trim-
mings stripped from your thinking apparatus. For instance, I don't think
you know the first principles of logic. You apparently take up a more or
less Christian attitude, but at the same time you like very much the idea
of Karma. You cannot have both.
The question about money does not arise. This old and very good rule (which
I have always kept) was really pertinent to the time when there were actual
secrets. But I have published openly all the secrets. All I can do is to
train you in a perfectly exoteric way. My suggestion about the weekly
letter was intended to exclude this question, as you would be getting full
commercial value for anything paid.
Your questions about the Spirit of the Sun, and so on, are to be answered
by experience. Intellectual satisfaction is worthless. I have to bring
you to a state of mind completely superior to the mechanism of the normal
mind.
A good deal of your letter is rather difficult to answer. You always seem
to want to put the cart before the horse. Don't you see that, if I were
trying to get you to do something or other, I should simply return you to
the kind of answer which I thought would satisfy you, and make you happy?
And this would be very easy to do because you have got no clear ideas a-
bout anything. For one thing, you keep on using terms about whose signifi-
cance we are not yet in agreement. When you talk about the "Christian
path," do you believe in vicarious atonement and eternal damnation --- or
don't you? A great deal of the confusion that arises in all these ques-
tions, and grows constantly worse as fellow-students talk them over --- the
blind leading the blind --- is because they have no idea of the necessity
of defining their terms.
Then again, you ask me questions like "What is purity?" that can be an-
swered in a dozen different ways; and you must understand what is meant
by a "universe of discourse." If you asked me --- "Is this sample of clo-
ride of gold a pure sample?" I can answer you. You must understand the
value of precision in speech. I could go on rambling about purity and
selflessness for years, and no one would be a penny the better.
P.S. --- or rather, I did not want to dictate this bit. --- Your ideas about
the O.T.O. remind me of some women's idea of shopping. You want to
10
maul about the stock and then walk out with a proud glad smile: NO. Do
you really think that I should muster all the most distinguished people
alive for your inspection and approval?
The affiliation clause in our Constitution is a privilege: a courtesy to
a sympathetic body. Were you not a Mason, or Co-Mason, you would have to
be proposed and seconded, and then examined by savage Inquisitors; and
then --- probably --- thrown out on to the garbage heap. Well, no, it's not
as bad as that; but we certainly don't want anybody who chooses to apply.
Would you do it yourself, if you were on the Committee of a Club? The
O.T.O. is a serious body, engaged on a work of Cosmic scope. You should
question yourself: what can I contribute?
Secrets. There is one exception to what I have said about publishing
everything: that is, the ultimate secret of the O.T.O. This is really
too dangerous to disclose; but the safeguard is that you could not use
it if you knew it, unless you were an advanced Adept; and you would not
be allowed to go so far unless we were satisfied that you were sincerely
devoted to the Great Work. (See One Star in Sight). True, the Black
Brothers could use it; but they would only destroy themselves.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
Letter No. D
June 8, 1943
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Thanks for your letter. I couldn't find the O.T.O. typescript --- and then
it struck me that it would be useful to await your reactions. If I were
expecting some presumably important papers by post, I should get anxious
after 24 hours delay (at most) and start enquiries. Anyhow, I can't find
them for the moment; but Mr. Bryant said he would lend you his Blue
Equinox: pages 195-270 give what you require.
But the real point of your affiliating is that it saves me from constantly
being on my guard lest I should mention something which I am sworn not to
reveal. As in every serious society, members are pledged not to disclose
what they may have learnt, whom they have met; it is so, even in Co-Mason-
ry: isn't it: But one may mention the names of members who have died. (See
Liber LII, par. 2.) Be happy then; the late X... Y... was one of us.
I hope that he and Rudolph Steiner will (between them) satisfy your doubts.
The A.'.A.'. is totally different. One Star in Sight tells you every-
thing that you need to know. (Perhaps some of these regulations are hard
to grasp: personally, I can never understand all this By-Law stuff. So
you must ask me what, and why, and so on.)
There is really only one point for your judgment. "By their fruits ye
shall know them." You have read Liber LXV and Liber VII; That shows you
11
what states you can attain by this cirriculum. Now read "A Master of the
Temple" (Blue Equinox, pp. 127-170) for an account of the early stages of
training, and their results. (Of course, your path might not coincide with,
or even resemble, his path.)
But do get it into you head that "If the blind lead the blind, they shall
both fall into the ditch." If you had seen 1% of the mischief that I
have seen, you would freeze to the marrow of your bones at the mere idea
of seeing another member through the telescope! Well, I employ the figure
of hyperbole, that I admit; but it really won't do to have a dozen cooks
at the broth! If you're working with me, you'll have no time to waste on
other people.
I fear your "Christianity" is like that of most other folk. You pick out
one or two of the figures from which the Alexandrines concocted "Jesus"
(too many cooks, again, with a vengeance!) and neglect the others. The
Zionist Christ of Matthew can have no value for you; nor can the Asiatic
"Dying-God" --- compiled from Melcarth, Mithras, Adonis, Bacchus, Osiris,
Attis, Krishna, and others --- who supplied the miraculous and ritualistic
elements of the fable.
Rightly you ask: "What can I contribute?" Answer: One Book. That is the
idea of the weekly letter: 52 of yours and 52 of mine, competently edited,
would make a most useful volume. This would be your property: so that you
get full material value, perhaps much more, for your outlay. I thought of
the plan because one such arrangement has recently come to an end, with
amazingly happy results: they should lie open to your admiring gaze in
a few months from now. Incidentally, I personally get nothing out of it;
secretarial work costs money these days. But there is another great advan-
tage; it keeps both of us up to the mark. Also, in such letters a great
deal of odds and ends of knowledge turn up automatically; valuable stuff,
frequent enough; yes, but one doesn't want to lose the thread, once one
starts. Possibly ten days might be best.
But please understand that this suggestion arose solely from your own
statement of what you thought would help in your present circumstances.
Anyway, as you say, decide! If it is yes, I should like to see you before
June 15 when I expect to go away for a few days; better to give you some
groundwork to keep you busy in my absence.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
Letter No. E
Aug. 18, 1943
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Much thought has gone into the construction of your Motto. "I will become"
can be turned neatly enough as "Let there be;" by avoiding the First Pro-
noun one gets the idea of "the absorption of the Self in the Beloved,"
12
which is exactly what you want.
"The creative Force of the Universe" is quite ready-made. Pyramis1, a
pyramid, is that Force in its geometrical form; in its biological form
it is Phallus2, the Yang or Lingam. Both words have the same numerical
value, 831. These two words can therefore serve you as the secret object
of your Work. How than can you construct the number 831?
The Letter Kaph3, Jupiter (Jehovah), the Wheel of Fortune in the Tarot ---
the Atu X is a picture of the Universe built up and revolving by virtue of
those Three Principles: Sulphur, Mercury, Salt; or Gunas: Sattvas, Rajas,
Tamas --- has the value 20. So also has the letter Yod4 spelt in full.
One Gnostic secret way of spelling and pronouncing Jehovah is IAO5 and
this has the value 811. So has "Let there be," Fiat, transliterating into
Greek.
Resuming all these ideas, it seems that you can express your aspiration
very neatly, very fully, by choosing for your motto the words FIAT YOD.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
P.S. Please study this letter, and these explanatory figures (the author,
BAPHOMET X¿ O.T.O., in the original spells each word, giving the
numerical equivalent of each letter in puramis, etc. This is here not
copied.) and meditate upon them until you have fully assimilate not only
the matter under immediate consideration, but the general method of Qabal-
istic research and construction. Note how new cognate ideas arise to
enrich the formula.
666
Letter No. F
Aug. 20, 1943
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Let me begin by referring to my letter about the motto and make clear to
you the working of this letter.
In this motto you have really got several ideas combined, and yet they are
really, of course, one idea. Fiat, being 811, is identical with IAO, and
therefore FIAT YOD might be read not only as "let there be" (or "Let me
become"), the secret source of all creative energy, but as "the secret
source of the energy of Jehovah." The two words together, having the value
1* In the original in Greek
2* In the original in Greek.
3* In the original in Hebrew.
4* In the original in Hebrew.
5* In the original in Greek.
13
of 831, they contain the secret meanings Pyramis and Phallos, which is the
same idea in different forms; thus you have three ways of expressing the
creative form, in its geometrical aspect, its human aspect, and its divine
aspect. I am making a point of this, because the working out of this motto
should give you a very clear idea of the sort of way in which Qabalah should
be used. I think it is rather useful to remember what the essence of the
Qabalah is in principle; thus, in your correspondence for Malkuth, Yesod,
and Hod you are simply writing down some of the ideas which pertain to the
numbers 10, 9, and 8 respectively. Naturally, there is a great deal of re-
dundancy and overloading as soon as you get to ideas important enough to
be comprehensive; as is mentioned in the article on the Qabalah in Equi-
nox Vol. I, No. 5, it is quite easy to prove 1 = 2 = 3 = 4, etc.
On the other hand, you must be careful to avoid taking the correspondences
given in the books of reference without thinking out why they are so given.
Thus, you find a camel in the number which refers to the Moon, but the Tarot
card "the Moon" refers not to the letter Gimel which means camel, but to
the letter Qoph, and the sign Pisces which means fish, while the letter
itself refers to the back of the head; and you also find fish has the
meaning of the letter Nun. You must not go on from this, and say that the
back of your head is like a camel - the connection between them is simply
that they all refer to the same thing.
In studying the Qabalah you mention six months; I think after that time
you should be able to realize that, after six incarnations of uninterrupted
study, you may realize that you can never know it; as Confucius said about
the Yi King. "If a few more years were added to my life, I would devote a
hundred of them to the study of the Yi."
If, however, you work at the Qabalah in the same way as I did myself, in
season and out of season, you ought to get a very fair grasp of it in six
months. I will now tell you what this method is: as I walked about, I
made a point of attributing everything I saw to its appropriate idea. I
would walk out of the door of my house and reflect that door is Daleth,
and house Beth; now the word "dob" is Hebrew for bear, and has the number
6, which refers to the Sun. Then you come to the fence of your property
and that is Cheth - number 8, number of Tarot Trump 7, which is the Chariot:
so you begin to look about for your car. Then you come to the street and
the first house you see is number 86, and that is Elohim, and it is built
of red brick which reminds you of Mars and the Blasted Tower, and so on.
As soon as this sort of work, which can be done in a quite lighthearted
spirit, becomes habitual, you will find your mind running naturally in
this direction, and will be surprised at your progress. Never let your
mind wander from the fact that your Qabalah is not my Qabalah; a good
many of the things which I have noted may be useful to you, but you must
construct your own system so that it is a living weapon in your hand.
I think I am fair if I say that the first step on the Qabalah which may be
called success, is when you make an actual discovery which throws light on
some problem which has been troubling you. A quarter of a century ago I
was in New Orleans, and was very puzzled about my immediate course of action;
in fact I may say I was very much distressed. There seemed literally no-
thing that I could do, so I bethought myself that I had better invoke
Mercury. As soon as I got into the appropriate frame of mind, it naturally
occurred to me, with a sort of joy, "But I am Mercury." I put it into
Latin --- Mercurius sum, and suddenly something struck me, a sort of nameless
reaction
which said: "That's not quite right." Like a flash it came to me to put
14
it into Greek, which gave me "Hermes Eimi", {Keynote: may wish to convert to
true Greek} and adding that up rapidly, I
got the number 418, with all the marvellous correspondences which had been
so abundantly useful to me in the past (See Equ. of the Gods, p. 138). My
troubles disappeared like a flash of lightning.
Now to answer your questions seriatum; it is quite all right to put ques-
tions to me about The Book of the Law; a very extended commentary has
been written, but it is not yet published. I shall probably be able to
answer any of your questions from the manuscript, but you cannot go on
after that when it would become a discussion; as they say in the law-
courts, "You must take the witness' answer."
II. The Qabalah, both Greek and Hebrew, also very likely Arabic, was used
by the author of The Book of the Law. I have explained above the proper
use of the Qabalah. I cannot tell you how the early Rosicrucians used it,
but I think one may assume that their methods were not dissimilar to our
own. Incidentally, it is not very safe to talk about Rosicrucians, because
their name has become a signal for letting loose the most devastating floods
of nonsense. What is really known about the original Rosicrucians is prac-
tically confined to the three documents which they issued. The eighteenth
century Rosicrucians may, or may not, have been legitimate successors of
the original brotherhood - I don't know. But from them the O.T.O. derived
its authority; The late O.H.O. Theodor Reuss possessed a certain number
of documents which demonstrated the validity of his claim according to him;
but I only saw two or three of them, and they were not of very great impor-
tance. Unfortunately he died shortly after the last War, and he had got
out of touch with some of the other Grand Masters. The documents did not
come to me as they should have done; they were seized by his wife who had
an idea that she could sell them for a fantastic price; and we did not
feel inclined to meet her views. I don't think the matter is of very great
importance, the work being done by members of the Order all over the place
is to me quite sufficient.
III. The Ruach contains both the moral and intellectual worlds, which is
really all that we mean by the conscious mind; perhaps it even includes
certain portions of the subconscious.
IV. In initiation from the grade of Neophyte to that of Zelator, one
passes by this way. The main work is to obtain admission to, and control
of, the astral plane.
Your expressions about "purifying the feelings" and so on are rather vague
to enter into a scientific system like ours. The result which you doubt-
less refer to is attained automatically in the course of your experiments.
Your very soon discover the sort of state of mind which is favourable or
unfavourable to the work, and you also discover what is helpful and harm-
ful to these states in your way of life. For instance, the practice like
the non-receiving of gifts is all right for a Hindu whose mind is branded
for ten thousand incarnations by the shock of accepting a cigarette or a
cup of tea. Incidentally, most of the Eastern cults fall down when they
come West, simply because they make no allowance for our different tempera-
ments. Also they set tasks which are completely unsuitable to Europeans -
an immense amount of disappointment has been caused by failure to recognize
these facts.
Your sub-questions a, b, and c are really answered by the above. All the
terms you use are very indefinite. I hope it will not take too long to
15
get you out of the way of thinking in these terms. For instance, the word
"initiation" includes the whole process, and how to distinguish between it
and enlightenment I cannot tell you. "Probation," moreover, if it means
"proving," continues throughout the entire process. Nothing is worse for
the student than to indulge in these mild speculations about ambiguous
terms.
V. You can, if you like, try to work out a progress of Osiris through
Amennti on the Tree of Life, but I doubt whether you will get any satis-
factory result.
It seems to me that you should confine yourself very closely to the actual
work in front of you. At the present moment, of course, this includes a
good deal of general study; but my point is that the terms employed in
that study should always be capable of precise definition. I am not sure
whether you have my Little Essays Toward Truth. The first essay in the
book entitled "Man" gives a full account of the five principles which go
to make up Man according to the Qabalistic system. I have tried to define
these terms as accurately as possible, and I think you will find them,, in
any case, clearer than those to which you have become accustomed with the
Eastern systems. In India, by the way, no attempt is ever made to use
these vague terms. They always have a very clear idea of what is meant by
words like "Buddhi," "Manas" and the like. Attempts at translation are
very unsatisfactory. I find that even with such a simple matter as the
"Eight limbs of Yoga," as you will see when you come to read my Eight
Lectures.
I am very pleased with your illustrations; that is excellent practice for
you. Presently you have to make talismans, and a Lamen for yourself, and
even to devise a seal to serve as what you might call a magical coat-of-
arms, and all this sort of thing is very helpful.
It occurs to me that so far we have done nothing about the astral plane
and this path of Tau of which you speak. Have you had any experience of
travelling in the astral? If not, do you think that you can begin by your-
self on the lines laid down in Liber O, sections 5 and 6? (See Magick,
pp. 387-9). If not you had better let me take you through the first gates.
The question of noise instantly arises; I think we should have to do it
not earlier than nine o'clock at night, and I don't know whether you can
manage this.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
Letter No. G
September 4.
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
"shall be" (instead of "Do what thou wilt is ... ") not "is". See Liber AL,
I, 36, 54, and II, 54. Not "Master Perdurabo": see Magick p. XXIX. "Care
Frater" is enough.
777 is practically unpurchaseable: copies fetch Ï10 or so. Nearly all im-
16
portant correspondences are in Magick Table I. The other 2 books are
being sent at once. "Working out games with numbers." I am sorry you
should see no more than this. When you are better equipped, you will see
that the Qabalah is the best (and almost the only) means by which an in-
telligence can identify himself. And Gematria methods serve to discover
spiritual truths. Numbers are the network of the structure of the Universe,
and their relations the form of expression of our Understanding of it. (He
gives the numerical value of the letters of the Greek alphabet - not copied
here. - ed.) In Greek and Hebrew there is no other way of writing numbers;
our 1, 2, 3 etc. comes from the Phoenicians through the Arabs. You need
no more of Greek and Hebrew than these values, some sacred words --- know-
ledge grows by use --- and books of reference.
One cannot set a pupil definite tasks beyond the groundwork I am giving
you, and we should find this correspondence taking clear shape of its own
accord. You have really more than you can do already. And I can only tell
you what the right tasks --- out of hundreds --- are by your own reactions to
your own study and practice.
"Osiris in Amennti" - see the Book of the Dead. I meant you might try to
trace a parallelism between his journeyings and the Path of Initiation.
Astral travel - development of the Astral Body is essential to research;
and, above all, to the attainment of "the Knowledge and Conversation of
the Holy Guardian Angel."
You ought to demonstrate your performance of the Pentagram Ritual to me;
you are probably making any number of mistakes. I will, of course, take
you carefully through the O.T.O. rituals to III¿ as soon as you are fairly
familiar with them. The plan of the grades is this: ---
0¿ Attraction to the Solar System
I¿ Birth
II¿ Life
III¿ Death
IV¿ "Exaltation"
P.I, "Annihilation"
V¿-IX¿ Progressive comment on II¿ with very special reference to
the central secret of practical Magick.
There is thus no connection with the A.'.A.'. system and the Tree of Life.
Of course, there are certain analogies.
Your suggested method of study: you have got my idea quite well. But no-
body can "take you through" the Grades of A.'.A.'.. The Grades confirm
your attainments as you make them; then, the new tasks appear. See One
Star in Sight.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
Letter No. H
17
November 10 - 11. 11 p.m. - 2 a.m.
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Your's of yestere'en came to gladden me just when the whole evening lay
blank before me: the one job such a big job that I simply can't get down
to it until I get help: How annoying! Still, yours the gain!
1. That verse (AL. I, 44) condenses the whole magical technique. It makes
clear --- when you have understood it --- the secret of success in the Great
Work. Of course at first it appears a paradox. You must have an aim, and
one aim only: yet on no account must you want to achieve it!!!
Those chapters of the Book of Lies quoted in my last letter6 do throw some
light onto this Abyss of self-contradiction; and there is meaning much
deeper than the contrast between the Will with a capital W, and desire,
want, or velleity. The main point seems to be that in aspiring to Power
one is limited by the True Will. If you use force, violating your own
nature either from lack of understanding or from petulant whim, one is
merely wasting energy; things go back to normal as soon as the stress is
removed. This is one small case of the big Equation "Free Will = Necessity"
(Fate, Destiny, or Karma: it's all much the same idea). One is most rigid-
ly bound by the causal chain that has dragged one to where one is; but it
is one's own self that has forged the links.
Please refrain from the obvious retort: "Then, in the long run, you can't
possibly go wrong: so it doesn't matter what you do." Perfectly true, of
course! (There is no single grain of dust that shall not attain to Buddha-
hood:" with some such words did the debauched old reprobate seek to console
himself when Time began to take its revenge.) But the answer is simple
enough: you happen to be the kind of being that thinks it does matter
what course you steer; or, still more haughtily, you enjoy the pleasure
of sailing.
No, there is this factor in all success: self-confidence. If we analyze
this, we find that it means that one is aware that all one's mental and
physical faculties are working harmoniously. The deadliest and subtlest
enemy of that feeling is anxiety about the result; the finest gauze of
doubt is enough to dim one's vision, to throw the entire field out of focus.
Hence, even to be aware that there is a result in prospect must militate
against that serenity of spirit which is the essence of self-confidence.
As you will know, all our automatic physiological functions are deranged
if one is aware of them. This then, is the difficulty, to enjoy conscious-
ly while not disturbing the process involved. The obvious physical case
is the sexual act: perhaps its chief importance is just that it is a type
of this exceptional spiritual-mental condition. I hope, however, that you
will remember what I have said on the subject in paragraphs 15 - 17 of my
3rd Lecture on Yoga for Yellowbellies (pp. 71-72); there is a way of
obtaining ecstacy from the most insignificant physiological function. Ob-
serve that in transferring the whole consciousness to (say) one's little
finger or big toe is not trying to interfere with the normal exercise of
sits activities, but only to realize what is going on in the organism, the
6* A letter dated Oct. 12, '43 constituted No. 48 in Magick Without Tears and
the following chapters from the Book of Lies: - "Peaches", "Pilgrim-Talk",
"Buttons and Rosettes", "The Gun-Barrel and the Mountaineer".
18
exquisite pleasure of a function in its normal activity. With a little
imagination one can conceive the analogical case of the Universe itself;
and, still less fettered by even the mildest limitation which material
symbols necessarily (however little) suggest, "Remember all ye that exis-
tence is pure joy; ..." (AL, II, 9).
Is it too bold to suggest that the gradual merging of all these Ways into
an interwoven unity may be taken as one mode of presentation of the Accom-
plishment of the Great Work itself?
At least, I feel fairly satisfied the meditation of them severally and
jointly may help you to an answer to your first question.
2. Most people in my experience either cook up a hell-broth of self-induced
obstacles to success in Astral traveling, or else shoot forth on the wings
of romantic imagination and fool themselves for the rest of their lives in
the manner of the Village Idiot. Yours, luckily, is the former trouble.
But --- is it plain obstinacy? --- you do not exercise the sublime Art of
Guru-
bullying. You should have made one frenzied leap to my dying bed, thrust
aside the cohorts of Mourning Archimandrites, and wrung my nose until I
made you do it.
And you repeatedly insist that it is difficult. It isn't. Is there, how-
ever, some deep-seated inhibition - a (Freudian) fear of success? Is there
some connection with that sense of guilt which is born in all but the very
few?
But you don't give it a fair chance. There is, I admit, some trick, or
knack, about getting properly across; a faculty which one acquires (as a
rule) quite suddenly and unexpectedly. Rather like mastering some shots at
billiards. Practice has taught me how to communicate this to students; only
in rare cases does one fail. (It's incredible: one man simply could not
be persuaded that intense physical exertion was the wrong way to to it.
There he sat, with the veins on his forehead almost on the point of burst-
ing, and the arms of my favourite chair visibly trembling beneath his power-
ful grip!) In your case, I notice that you have got this practice mixed up
with Dharana: you write of "Emptying my mind of everything except the one
idea, etc." Then you go on: "The invoking of a supersensible Being is im-
possible to me as yet." The impudence! The arrogance! How do you know,
pray madam? (Dial numbers at random: the results are often surprisingly
delightful!) Besides, I didn't ask you to invoke a supersensible (what a
word! Meaning?) Being right away, or at any time: that supersensible is
getting on my nerves: do you mean "not in normal circumstances to be ap-
prehended by the senses?" I suppose so.
In a word: do fix a convenient season for going on the Astral Plane under
my eye: half an hour (with a bit of luck) on not more than four evenings
would put you in a very different frame of mind. You will soon "feel your
feet" and then "get your sea-legs" and then, much sooner than you think
"Afloat in the aethyr, O my God! my God!". . . . . "White swan, bear thou
ever me up between thy wings!"
3. Now then to your old Pons Asinorum about the names of the Gods! Stand
in the corner for half an hour with your face to the wall! Stay in after
school and write Malka be-Tharshishim v-Ruachoth b-Schebralim 999 times!
19
My dear, dear, dear sister, a name is a formula of power. How can you talk
of "anachronism" when the Being is eternal? For the type of energy is eter-
nal.
Every name is a number: and "Every number is infinite; there is no differ-
ence." (AL I, 4). But one Name, or system of Names, may be more convenient
either (a) to you personally or (b) to the work you are at. E.g. I have
very little sympathy with Jewish Theology or ritual; but the Qabalah is so
handy and congenial that I use it more than almost any --- or all the others
together --- for daily use and work. The Egyptian Theogony is the noblest,
the most truly magical, the most bound to me (or rather I to it) by some
inmost instinct, and by the memory of my incarnation as Ankh-f-n-Khonsu,
that I use it (with its Graeco-Phoenician child) for all work of supreme
import. Why stamp my vitals, madam! The Abramelin Operation itself turned
into this form before I could so much as set to work on it! like the
Duchess' baby (excuse this enthusiasm; but you have aroused the British
Lion-Serpent.)
Note, please, that the equivalents given in 777 are not always exact.
Tahuti is not quite Thoth, still less Hermes; Mercury is a very much more
comprehensive idea, but not nearly so exalted: Hanuman hardly at all. Nor
is Tetragrammaton IAO, though even etymology asserts the identity.
In these matters you must be catholic, eclectic, even syncretic. And you
must consider the nature of your work. If I wanted to evoke Taphthartharath,
there would be little help indeed from any but the Qabalistic system; for
that spirit's precise forms and numbers are not to be found in any other.
The converse, however, is not so true. The Qabalah, properly understood,
properly treated, is so universal that one can vamp up a ritual to suit
almost "any name and form." But in such a case one may expect to have to
reinforce it by a certain amount of historical, literary, or philosophic
study --- and research.
4. Quite right, dear lady, about your incarnation memories acting as a
"Guide to the Way Back." Of course, if you "missed an Egyptian Incarnation,"
you would not be so likely to be a little Martha, worried "about much serv-
ing." Don't get surfeited with knowledge, above all things; it is so very
fascinating, so dreadfully easy; and the danger of becoming a pedant ---
"Deuce take all your pedants! say I." Don't "dry-rot at ease 'till the
Judgment Day."
No, I will NOT recommend a book. It should not hurt you too much to browse
on condensed hay (or thistles) such as articles in Encyclopedias. Take
Roget's Thesaurus or Smith's Smaller Classical Dictionary (and the like) to
read yourself to sleep on. But don't stultify yourself by taking up such
study too seriously. You only make yourself ridiculous by trying to do at
50 what you ought to have done at 15. As you didn't --- tant pis! You can't
possibly get the spirit; if you could, it would mean merely mental indi-
gestion. We have all read how Cato started to learn Greek at 90: but the
story stops there. We have never been told what good it did to himself or
anyone else.
5. God-forms. See Magick pp. 378-9. Quite clear: quite adequate: no
use at all without continual practice. No one can join with you --- off you
go again! No, no, a thousand times no: this is the practice par excellence
where you have to do it all yourself. The Vibration of God-names: that
perhaps, I can at least test you in. But don't you dare come up for a test
20
until you've been at it --- and hard --- for at least 100 exercises.
I think this is your trouble about being "left in the air." When I "present
many new things" to you, the sting is in the tail --- the practice that vi-
talizes it. Doctrinal stuff is fine "Lazily, lazily, drowsily, drowsily,
in the noo-on-dye shaun!" An ounce of your practice is worth a ton of my
teaching. GET THAT. It's all your hatred of hard work:
"Go to the ant thou sluggard!
Consider her ways and be -----."
I am sure that Solomon was too good a poet, and too experienced a Guru, to
tail off with the anticlimax "wise."
6. Minerval. What is the matter? All you have to do is understand it:
just a dramatization of the process of incarnation. Better run through it
with me: I'll make it clear, and you can make notes of your troubles and
their solution for the use of future members.
7. The Book of Thoth. Surely all terms not in a good dictionary are
explained in the text. I don't see what I can do about it, in any case;
the same criticism would apply to (say) Bertrand Russell's Introduction
to Mathematical Physics, wouldn't it?
Is x an R-ancestor of y if y has every R-hereditary that x has, provided
x is a term which has the relation R to something or to which something has
the relation R? (Enthusiastic cries of "Yes, it is!") He says "A number
is anything which has the number of some class." Feel better now?
Still, it would be kind of you to go through a page or so with me, and tell
me where the shoe pinches. Of course I have realized the difficulty long
ago; but I don't know the solution --- or if there is a solution. I did
think of calling Magick "Magick Without Tears"; and I did try having my
work cross-examined as I went on by minds of very inferior education or
capacity. In fact, Parts I and II of Book 4 were thus tested.
What about applying the Dedekindian cut to this letter? I am sure you
would not wish it to develop into a Goclenian Sorites, especially as I
fear that I may already have deviated from the diapantos7 Hapaxlegomenon.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
Letter No. I
January 27, 1944
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
7* Greek letters in the original
21
It is very good hearing that these letters do good, but rather sad to re-
flect that it is going to make you so unpopular. Your friends will notice
at once that glib vacuities fail to impress, and hate you, and tell lies
about you. It's worth it.
Yes, your brain is quite all right; what is wanted is to acquire the habit
of pinning things down instantly. (He says 're-incarnation' --- now what
exactly does he mean by that? He says "it is natural to suppose . . . ":
what is "natural", and what is implied by supposition?) Practice this style
of criticism; write down what happens. Within a week or two you will be
astounded to discover that you have got what is apparently little less than
a new brain! You must make this a habit, not letting anything get by the
sentries.
Indeed, I want you to go even further; make sure of what is meant by even
the simplest words. Trace the history of the word with the help of Skeat's
Etymological Dictionary. E.g. "pretty" means tricky, deceitful; on the
other hand, "hussy" is only "housewife". It's amusing, too, this "tabby"
refers to Prince Attab, the grandson of Ommeya --- the silk quarter of
Baghdad where utabi, a rich watered silk was sold. This will soon give
you the power of discerning instantly when words are being used to hide
meaning or lack of it.
About A.'.A.'., etc.: your resolution is noble, but there is a letter ready
for you which deals with what is really a legitimate enquiry; necessary,
too, with so many hordes of "Hidden Masters" and "Mahatmas" and so on
scurrying all over the floor in the hope of distracting attention from the
inanities of their trusted henchmen.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
P.S. I must write at length about the Higher Self or "God within us," too
easy to get muddled about it, and the subject requires careful pre-
paration.
CHAPTER I.
WHAT IS MAGICK?
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
What is Magick? Why should anyone study and practice it? Very natural;
the obvious preliminary questions of any subject soever. We must cer-
tainly get all this crystal clear; fear not that I shall fail to set
forth the whole business as concisely as possible yet as fully, as cogent-
ly yet as lucidly, as may prove within my power to do.
At least I need not waste any time on telling you what Magick is not; or to
go into the story of how the word came to be misapplied to conjuring tricks,
and to sham miracles such as are to this day foisted by charlatan swindlers,
either within or without the Roman Communion, upon a gaping crew of pious
imbeciles.
22
First let me go all Euclidean, and rub your nose in the Definition, Postu-
late and Theorems given in my comprehensive (but, alas! too advanced and
too technical) Treatise on the subject. Here we are!
I. DEFINITION:
Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity
with Will.
(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts
within my knowledge. I therefore take "magical weapons," pen, ink,
and paper; I write "incantations" --- these sentences --- in the "magi-
cal language" i.e. that which is understood by people I wish to
instruct. I call forth "spirits" such as printers, publishers,
booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message
to those people. The composition and distribution is thus an act
of --- MAGICK --- by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity
with my Will.8)
II. POSTULATE:
ANY required Change may be effected by application of the proper kind
and degree of Force in the proper manner through the proper medium to
the proper object.
(Illustration: I wish to prepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold. I
must take the right kind of acid, nitro-hydrochloric and no other,
in sufficient quantity and of adequate strength, and place it, in a
vessel which will not break, leak or corrode, in such a manner as
will not produce undesirable results, with the necessary quantity
of Gold, and so forth. Every Change has its own conditions.
In the present state of our knowledge and power some changes are
not possible in practice; we cannot cause eclipses, for instance,
or transform lead into tin, or create men from mushrooms. But it
is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which
that object is capable by nature; and the conditions are covered
by the above postulate.)
III. THEOREMS:
1. Every intentional act is a Magical Act.9
(Ilustration: See "Definition" above.)
2. Every successful act has conformed to the postulate.
3. Every failure proves that one or more requirements of the postu-
late have not been fulfilled
(Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as
when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures
his patient. There may be failure to apply the right kind of force,
8* By "intentional" I mean "willed". But even unintentional acts so seem-
ing are not truly so. Thus, breathing is an act of the Will-to-live.
9* In one sense Magick may be defined as the name given to Science by the
vulgar.
23
as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light. There may be
failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a wrestler has
his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the force in the
right manner, as when one presents a cheque at the wrong window of
the Bank. There may be failure to employ the correct medium, as
when Leonardo da Vinci found his masterpiece fade away. The force
may be applied to an unsuitable object, as when one tries to crack
a stone, thinking it a nut.)
4. The first requisite for causing any change is thorough qualita-
tive and quantitative understanding of the condition.
(Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is ignorance
of one's own True Will, or of the means by which to fulfill that Will.
A man may fancy himself a painter, and waste his life trying to become
one; or he may be really a painter, and yet fail to understand and
to measure the difficulties peculiar to that career.)
5. The second requisite of causing any change is the practical
ability to set in right motion the necessary forces.
(Illustration: A banker may have a perfect grasp of a given situa-
tion, yet lack the quality of decision, or the assets, necessary to
take advantage of it.)
6. "Every man and every woman is a star." That is to say, every
human being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own
proper character and proper motion.
7. Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the
self, and partly on the environment which is natural and necessary
for each. Anyone who is forced from his own course, either through
not understanding himself, or through external opposition, comes in-
to conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly.
(Illustration: A man may think it his duty to act in a certain way,
through having made a fancy picture of himself, instead of investi-
gating his actual nature. For example, a woman may make herself
miserable for life by thinking that she prefers love to social con-
sideration, or vice versa. One woman may stay with an unsympathetic
husband when she would really be happy in an attic with a lover,
while another may fool herself into a romantic elopement when her
only true pleasures are those of presiding at fashionable functions.
Again, a boy's instinct may tell him to go to sea, while his parents
insist on his becoming a doctor. In such a case, he will be both
unsuccessful and unhappy in medicine.
8. A man whose conscious will is at odds with his True Will is
wasting his strength. He cannot hope to influence his environment
efficiently.
(Illustration: When Civil War rages in a nation, it is in no condi-
tion to undertake the invasion of other countries. A man with cancer
employs his nourishment alike to his own use and to that of the enemy
which is part of himself. He soon fails to resist the pressure of
his environment. In practical life, a man who is doing what his
conscience tells him to be wrong will do it very clumsily. At first!)
24
9. A man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of the Universe
to assist him.
(Illustration: The first principle of success in evolution is that
the individual should be true to his own nature, and at the same
time adapt himself to his environment.)
10. Nature is a continuous phenomenon, thought we do not know in all
cases how things are connected.
(Illustration: Human consciousness depends on the properties of
protoplasm, the existence of which depends on innumerable physical
conditions peculiar to this planet; and this planet is determined
by the mechanical balance of the whole universe of matter. We may
then say that our consciousness is causally connected with the re-
motest galaxies; yet we do not know even how it arises from --- or
with --- the molecular changes in the brain.)
11. Science enables us to take advantage of the continuity of Nature
by the empirical application of certain principles whose interplay
involves different orders of idea, connected with each other in a
way beyond our present comprehension.
(Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of-thumb methods.
We do not know what consciousness is, or how it is connected with
muscular action; what electricity is or how it is connected with
the machines that generate it; and our methods depend on calcula-
tions involving mathematical ideas which have no correspondence in
the Universe as we know it.10)
12. Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and powers.
Even his idea of his limitations is based on experience of the past.
and every step in his progress extends his empire. There is, there-
fore, no reason to assign theoretical limits11 to what he may be,
or to what he may do.
(Illustration: Two generations ago it was supposed theoretically
impossible that man should ever know the chemical composition of
the fixed stars. It is known that our senses are adapted to receive
only an infinitesimal fraction of the possible rates of vibration.
Modern instruments have enabled us to detect some of these supra-
sensibles by indirect methods, and even to use their peculiar quali-
ties in the service of man, as in the case of the rays of Hertz and
Roentgen. As Tyndall said, man might at any moment learn to per-
ceive and utilize vibrations of all conceivable and inconceivable
kinds. The question of Magick is a question of discovering and em-
ploying hitherto unknown forces in nature. We know that they exist,
and we cannot doubt the possibility of mental or physical instru-
ments capable of bringing us in relation with them.)
13. Every man is more or less aware that his individuality comprises
several orders of existence, even when he maintains that his subtler
principles are merely symptomatic of the changes in his gross vehicle.
A similar order may be assumed to extend throughout nature.
10* For instance, "irrational," "unreal," and "infinite" expressions.
11* i.e. except --- possibly --- in the case of logically absurd questions,
such as the schoolmen discussed in connection with "God."
25
(Illustration: One does not confuse the pain of toothache with the
decay which causes it. Inanimate objects are sensitive to certain
physical forces, such as electrical and thermal conductivity; but
neither in us nor in them --- so far as we know --- is there any direct
conscious perception of these forces. Imperceptible influences are
therefore associated with all material phenomena; and there is no
reason why we should not work upon matter through those subtle ener-
gies as we do through their material bases. In fact, we use magnetic
force to move iron, and solar radiation to reproduce images.)
14. Man is capable of being, and using, anything which he perceives;
for everything that he perceives is in a certain sense a part of his
being. He may thus subjugate the whole Universe of which he is con-
scious to his individual Will.
(Illustration: Man has used the idea of God to dictate his personal
conduct, to obtain power over his fellows, to excuse his crimes, and
for innumerable other purposes, including that of realizing himself
as God. He has used the irrational and unreal conceptions of mathe-
matics to help him in the construction of mechanical devices. He
has used his moral force to influence the actions even of wild ani-
mals. He has employed poetic genius for political purposes.)
15. Every force in the Universe is capable of being transformed
into any other kind of force by using suitable means. There is thus
an inexhaustible supply of any particular kind of force that we may
need.
(Illustration: Heat may be transformed into light and power by
using it to drive dynamos. The vibrations of the air may be used
to kill men by so ordering them in speech as to inflame war-like
passions. The hallucinations connected with the mysterious energies
of sex result in the perpetuation of the species.)
16. The application of any given force affects all the orders of
being which exist in the object to which it is applied, whichever
of those orders is directly affected.
(Illustration: If I strike a man with a dagger, his consciousness,
not his body only, is affected by my act; although the dagger, as
such, has no direct relation therewith. Similarly, the power of my
thought may so work on the mind of another person as to produce far-
reaching physical changes in him, or in others through him.)
17. A man may learn to use any force so as to serve any purpose,
by taking advantage of the above theorems.
(Illustration: A man may use a razor to make himself vigilant over
his speech, by using it to cut himself whenever he unguardedly utters
a chosen word. He may serve the same purpose by resolving that every
incident of his life shall remind him of a particular thing, Making
every impression the starting point of a connected series of thoughts
ending in that thing. He might also devote his whole energies to
some particular object, by resolving to do nothing at variance
therewith, and to make every act turn to the advantage of that object.)
18. He may attract to himself any force of the Universe by making
himself a fit receptacle for it, establishing a connection with it,
26
and arranging conditions so that its nature compels it to flow to-
ward him.
(Illustration: If I want pure water to drink, I dig a well in a
place where there is underground water; I prevent it from leaking
away; and I arrange to take advantage of water's accordance with
the laws of Hydrostatics to fill it.)
19. Man's sense of himself as separate from, and opposed to, the
Universe is a bar to his conducting its currents. It insulates him.
(Illustration: A popular leader is most successful when he forgets
himself, and remembers only "The Cause." Self-seeking engenders
jealousies and schism. When the organs of the body assert their
presence otherwise than by silent satisfaction, it is a sign that
they are diseased. The single exception is the organ of reproduc-
tion. Yet even in this case self-assertion bears witness to its.
dissatisfaction with itself, since in cannot fulfill its function
until completed by its counterpart in another organism.)
20. Man can only attract and employ the forces for which he is
really fitted.
(Illustration: You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear.
A true man of science learns from every phenomenon. But Nature is
dumb to the hypocrite; for in her there is nothing false12.)
21. There is no limit to the extent of the relations of any man
with the Universe in essence; for as soon as man makes himself one
with any idea, the means of measurement cease to exist. But his
power to utilize that force is limited by his mental power and
capacity, and by the circumstances of his human environment.
(Illustration: When a man falls in love, the whole world becomes,
to him, nothing but love boundless and immanent; but his mystical
state is not contagious; his fellow-men are either amused or an-
noyed. He can only extend to others the effect which his love has
had upon himself by means of his mental and physical qualities.
Thus, Catullus, Dante, and Swinburne made their love a mighty mover
of mankind by virtue of their power to put their thoughts on the
subject in musical and eloquent language. Again, Cleopatra and
other people in authority moulded the fortunes of many other people
by allowing love to influence their political actions. The Magician,
however well he succeeds in making contact with the secret sources
of energy in nature, can only use them to the extent permitted by
his intellectual and moral qualities. Mohammed's intercourse with
Gabriel was only effective because of his statesmanship, soldier-
ship, and the sublimity of his command of Arabic. Hertz'; discovery
of the rays which we now use for wireless telegraphy was sterile
until reflected through the minds and wills of the people who could
take his truth, and transmit it to the world of action by means of
mechanical and economic instruments.)
12* It is no objection that the hypocrite is himself part of Nature. He
is an "endothermic" product, divided against himself, with a tendency to
break up. He will see his own qualities everywhere, and thus obtain a
radical misconception of phenomena. Most religions of the past have
failed by expecting Nature to conform with their ideals of proper conduct.
27
22. Every individual is essentially sufficient to himself. But he
is unsatisfactory to himself until he has established himself in his
right relation with the Universe.
(Illustration: A microscope, however perfect, is useless in the
hands of savages. A poet, however sublime, must impose himself upon
his generation if he is to enjoy (and even to understand) himself, as
theoretically should be the case.)
23. Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and one's condi-
tions. It is the Art of applying that understanding in action.
(Illustration: A golf club is intended to move a special ball in a
special way in special circumstances. A Niblick should rarely be
used on the tee, or a Brassie under the bank of a bunker. But, also,
the use of any club demands skill and experience.).
24. Every man has an indefeasible right to be what he is.
(Illustration: To insist that anyone else shall comply with one's own
standards is to outrage, not only him, but oneself, since both parties
are equally born of necessity.)
25. Every man must do Magick each time that he acts or even thinks,
since a thought is an internal act whose influence ultimately affects
action, thought it may not do so at the time.
(Illustration: The least gesture causes a change in a man's own body
and in the air around him: it disturbs the balance of the entire
universe and its effects continue eternally throughout all space.
Every thought, however swiftly suppressed, has its effect on the
mind. It stands as one of the causes of every subsequent thought,
and tends to influence every subsequent action. A golfer may lose
a few yards on his drive, a few more with his second and third, he
may lie on the green six bare inches too far from the hole; but the
net result of these trifling mishaps is the difference of a whole
stroke, and so probably between having and losing the hole.)
26. Every man has a right, the right of self-preservation, to ful-
fill himself to the utmost.13.
(Illustration: A function imperfectly performed injures, not only
itself, but everything associated with it. If the heart is afraid
to beat for fear of disturbing the liver, the liver is starved for
blood, and avenges itself on the heart by upsetting digestion, which
disorders respiration, on which cardiac welfare depends.)
27. Every man should make Magick the keynote of his life. He should
learn its laws and live by them.
(Illustration: The Banker should discover the real meaning of his
existence, the real motive which led him to choose that profession.
He should understand banking as a necessary factor in the economic
existence of mankind, instead of as merely a business whose objects
13* Men of "criminal nature" are simply at issue with their true Wills. The
murderer has the Will-to-live; and his will to murder is a false will at
variance with his true Will, since he risks death at the hands of Society by
obeying his criminal impulse.
28
are independent of the general welfare. He should learn to distin-
guish false values from real, and to act not on accidental fluctua-
tions but on considerations of essential importance. Such a banker
will prove himself superior to others; because he will not be an
individual limited by transitory things, but a force of Nature, as
impersonal, impartial and eternal as gravitation, as patient and
irresistible as the tides. His system will not be subject to panic,
any more than the law of Inverse Squares is disturbed by Elections.
He will not be anxious about his affairs because they will not be
his; and for that reason he will be able to direct them with the
calm, clear-headed confidence of an onlooker, with intelligence un-
clouded by self-interest and power unimpaired by passion.)
28. Every man has a right to fulfill his own will without being
afraid that it may interfere with that of others; for if he is in
his proper path, it is the fault of others if they interfere with
him.
(Illustration: If a man like Napoleon were actually appointed by
destiny to control Europe, he should not be blamed for exercising
his rights. To oppose him would be an error. Anyone so doing
would have made a mistake as to his own destiny, except in so far
as it might be necessary for him to learn the lessons of defeat.
The sun moves in space without interference. The order of Nature
provides a orbit for each star. A clash proves that one or the
other has strayed from its course. But as to each man that keeps
his true course, the more firmly he acts, the less likely are others
to get in his way. His example will help them to find their own
paths and pursue them. Every man that becomes a Magician helps
others to do likewise. The more firmly and surely men move, and the
more such action is accepted as the standard of morality, the less
will conflict and confusion hamper humanity.)
Well, here endeth the First Lesson.
That seems to me to cover the ground fairly well; at least, that is what
I have to say when serious analysis is on the agenda.
But there is a restricted and conventional sense in which the word may be
used without straying too far from the above philosophical position. One
might say: -
"Magick is the study and use of those forms of energy which are (a) subtler
than the ordinary physical-mechanical types, (b) accessible only to those
who are (in one sense or another) 'Initiates'." I fear that this may
sound rather obscurum per obscurius; but this is one of these cases ---
we are likely to encounter many such in the course of our researches ---
in which we understand, quite well enough for all practical purposes,
what we mean, but which elude us more and more successfully the more
accurately we struggle to define their import.
We might fare even worse if we tried to clear things up by making lists
of events in history, tradition, or experience and classifying this as
being, and that as not being, true Magick. The borderland cases would
confuse and mislead us.
But --- since I have mentioned history --- I think it might help, if I went
straight on to the latter part of your question, and gave you a brief
29
sketch of Magick past, present and future as it is seen from the inside.
What are the principles of the "Masters"? What are They trying to do?
What have They done in the past? What means do They employ?
As it happens, I have by me a sketch written by M. Gerard Aumont of Tunis
some twenty years ago, which covers this subject with reasonable adequacy.
I have been at the pains of translating it from his French, I hope not
too much reminiscent of the old traduttore, traditore. I will revise
it, divide it (like Gaul) into Three Parts and send it along.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER II
THE NECESSITY OF MAGICK FOR ALL
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Right glad am I to hear that you have been so thoroughly satisfied with
my explanation of what Magick is, and on what its theories rest. It is
good, too, hearing how much you were interested in the glimpse that you
have had of some of its work in the world; more, that you grasped the
fact that this apparently recondite and irrelevant information has an
immediate bearing on your personal life of today. Still, I was not sur-
prised that you should add: "But why should I make a special study of,
and devote my time and energy to acquiring proficiency in, the Science
and Art of Magick?
Ah, well then, perhaps you have not understood my remarks at one of our
earliest interviews as perfectly as you suppose! For the crucial point
of my exposition was that Magick is not a matter extraneous to the main
current of your life, as music, gardening, or collection jade might be.
No, every act of your life is a magical act; whenever from ignorance,
carelessness, clumsiness or what not, you come short of perfect artistic
success, you inevitably register failure, discomfort, frustration. Luck-
ily for all of us, most of the acts essential to continued life are in-
voluntary; the "unconscious" has become so used to doing its "True Will"
that there is no need of interference; when such need arises, we call it
disease, and seek to restore the machine to free spontaneous fulfillment
of its function.
But this is only part of the story. As things are, we have all adventured
into an Universe of immeasurable, of incalculable, possibilities, of situ-
ations never contemplated by the trend of Evolution. Man is a marine
monster; when he decided that it would be better for him somehow to live
on land, he had to grow lungs instead of gills. When we want to travel
over soft snow, we have to invent ski; when we wish to exchange thoughts,
we must arrange a conventional code of sounds, of knots in string, of
carved or written characters --- in a word --- embark upon the boundless ocean
of hieroglyphics or symbols of one sort or another. (Presently I shall
have to explain the supreme importance of such systems; in fact, the
Universe itself is not, and cannot be, anything but an arrangement of
30
symbolic characters!)
Here we are, then, caught in a net of circumstances; if we are to do
anything at all beyond automatic vegetative living, we must consciously
apply ourselves to Magick, "the Science and Art" (let me remind you!) "of
causing change to occur in conformity with the Will." Observe that the
least slackness or error means that things happen which do not thus con-
form; when this is so despite our efforts, we are (temporarily) baffled;
when it is our own ignorance of what we ought to will, or lack of skill
in adapting our means to the right end, then we set up a conflict in our
own Nature: our act is suicidal. Such interior struggle is at the base
of nearly all neuroses, as Freud recently "discovered" --- as if this had
not been taught, and taught without his massed errors, by the great
teachers of the past! The Taoist doctrine, in particular, is most pre-
cise and most emphatic on this point; indeed, it may seem to some of us
to overshoot the mark; for nothing is permissible in that scheme but
frictionless adjustment and adaptation to circumstance. "Benevolence and
righteousness" are actually deprecated! That any such ideas should ever
have existed (says Lao-tse) is merely evidence of the universal disorder.
Taoist sectaries appear to assume that Perfection consists in the absence
of any disturbance of the Stream of Nescience; and this is very much like
the Buddhist idea of Nibbana.
We who accept the Law of Thelema, even should we concur in this doctrine
theoretically, cannot admit that in practice the plan would work out; our
aim is that our Nothing, ideally perfect as it is in itself, should enjoy
itself through realizing itself in the fulfillment of all possibilities.
All such phenomena or "point-events" are equally "illusion"; Nothing is
always Nothing; but the projection of Nothing on this screen of the phen-
omenal does not only explain, but constitutes, the Universe. It is the
only system which reconciles all the contradictions inherent in Thought,
and in Experience; for in it "Reality" is "Illusion", "Free-will" is
"Destiny", the "Self" is the "Not-Self"; and so for every puzzle of
Philosophy.
Not too bad an analogy is an endless piece of string. Like a driving
band, you cannot tie a knot in it; all the complexities you can contrive
are "Tom Fool" knots, and unravel at the proper touch. Always either
Naught or Two! But every new re-arrangement throws further light on the
possible tangles, that is, on the Nature of the String itself. It is
always "Nothing" when you pull it out; but becomes "Everything" as you
play about with it,14
since there is no limit to the combinations that
you can form from it, save only in your imagination (where the whole thing
belongs!) and that grows mightily with Experience. It is accordingly well
worth while to fulfill oneself in every conceivable manner.
It is then (you will say) impossible to "do wrong", since all phenomena
are equally "Illusion" and the answer is always "Nothing". In theory one
can hardly deny this proposition; but in practice --- how shall I put it?
"The state of Illusion which for convenience I call my present conscious-
ness is such that the course of action A is more natural to me that the
course of action B?"
Or: A is a shorter cut to Nothing; A is less likely to create internal
conflict.
14* N – N = Two or Naught; one is the Magical, the other the mystical,
process. You will hear a lot about this one day!
31
Will that serve?
Offer a dog a juicy bone, and a bundle of hay; he will naturally take
the bone, whereas a horse would choose the hay. So, while you happen to
imagine yourself to be a Fair Lady seeking the Hidden Wisdom, you come to
me; if you thought you were a Nigger15 Minstrel, you would play the banjo,
and sing songs calculated to attract current coin of the Realm from a
discerning Public! The two actions are ultimately identical - see AL I,
22 - and your perception of that fact would make you an Initiate of very
high standing; but in the work-a-day world, you are "really" the Fair
Lady, and leave the minstrel to grow infirm and old and hire an orphan
boy to carry his banjo!
Now then, what bothers me it this: Have I or have I not explained this
matter of "Magick" - "Why should I (who have only just heard of it, at
;east as a serious subject of study) acquire a knowledge of its principles,
and of the powers conferred by its mastery?" Must I bribe you with pro-
mises of health, wealth, power over others, knowledge, thaumaturgical
skill, success in every worldly ambition - as I could quite honestly do?
I hope there is no such need - and yet, shall I confess it? - it was only
because all the "good things of life" were suddenly seen of me to be worth-
less, that I took the first steps towards the attainment of that Wisdom
which, while enjoying to the full the "Feast of Life," guarantees me against
surfeit, poison or interruption by the knowledge that it is all a Dream,
and gives me the Power to turn that dream at will into any form that hap-
pens to appeal to my Inclination.
Let me sum up, very succinctly; as usual, my enthusiasm has lured me into
embroidering my sage discourse with Poets' Imagery!
Why should you study and practice Magick? Because you can't help doing
it, and you had better do it well than badly. You are on the links,
whether you like it or not; why go on topping your drive, and slicing
your brassie, and fluffing your niblick, and pulling your iron, and socket-
ing your mashie and not being up with your putt - that's 6, and you are
not allowed to pick up. It's a far cry to the Nineteenth, and the sky
threatens storm before the imminent night.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER III
HIEROGLYPHICS: LIFE AND LANGUAGE NECESSARILY SYMBOLIC
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Very natural, the irritation in your last! You write: ---
"But why? Why all this elaborate symbolism? Why not say straight out
15^ WEH NOTE: Expound here a bit to clarify Crowley's attitude toward race.
refer to Chapter LXXIII.
32
what you mean? Surely the subject is difficult enough in any case --- must
you put on a mask to make it clear? I know you well enough by now to be
sure that you will not fob me off with any Holy-Willie nonsense about the
ineffable, about human language being inadequate to reveal such Mysteries,
about the necessity of constructing a new language to explain a new
system of thought; of course I know that this had to be done in the case
of chemistry, of higher mathematics, indeed of almost all technical sub-
jects; but I feel that you have some other, deeper explanation in reserve.
After all, most of what I am seeking to learn from you has been familiar
to many of the great minds of humanity for many centuries. Indeed, the
Qabalah is a special language, and that is old enough; there is not much
new material to fit into that structure. But why did they, in the first
place, resort to this symbolic jargon?"
You put it very well; and when I think it over, I feel far from sure
that the explanation which I am about to inflict upon you will satisfy
you, or even whether it will hold water! In the last resort, I shall
have to maintain that we are justified by experience, by the empirical
success in communicating thought which has attended, and continues to
attend, our endeavors.
But to give a complete answer, I shall have to go back to the beginning,
and restate the original problem; and I beg that you will not suppose
that I am evading the question, or adopting the Irish method of answer-
ing it by another, though I know it may sound as if I were.
Let me set out by restating our original problem; what we want is Truth;
we want an even closer approach to Reality; and we want to discover and
discuss the proper means of achieving this object.
Very good; let us start by the simplest of all possible enquiries --- and
the most difficult --- "What is anything?" "What do we know?" and other
questions that spring naturally from these.
I see a tree..
I hear it --- rustling or creaking in the wind.
I touch it --- hard.
I smell it --- acrid.
I taste it --- bitter.
Now all the information given by these five senses has to be put together,
although no two agree in any sort of way. The logic by which we build up
our complex idea of a tree has more holes than a sponge.
But this is to jump far ahead: we must first analyze the single, simple
impression. "I see a tree." This phenomenon is what is called a "point-
event." It is the coming together of the two, the seer and the seen. It
is single and simple; yet we cannot conceive of either of them as any-
thing but complex. And the Point-Event tells us nothing whatever about
either; both, as Herbert Spencer and God knows how many others have
shown, unknowable; it stands by itself, alone and aloof. It has happened;
it is undeniably Reality. Yet we cannot confirm it; for it can never
happen again precisely the same. What is even more bewildering is that
since it takes time for the eye to convey an impression to the conscious-
ness (it may alter in 1,000 ways in the process!) all that really exists
is a memory of the Point-Event. not the Point-Event itself. what then is
this Reality of which we are so sure? Obviously, it has not got a name,
since it never happened before, or can happen again! To discuss it at
33
all we must invent a name, and this name (like all names) cannot possibly
be anything more than a symbol.
Even so, as so often pointed out, all we do is to "record the behaviour
of our instruments." Nor are we much better off when we've done it; for
our symbol, referring as it does to a phenomenon unique in itself, and
not to be apprehended by another, can mean nothing to one's neighbors.
What happens, of course, is that similar, though not identical, Point-
Events happen to many of us, and so we are able to construct a symbolic
language. My memory of the mysterious Reality resembles yours suffi-
ciently to induce us to agree that both belong to the same class.
But let me furthermore ask you to reflect on the formation of language
itself. Except in the case of onomato-poetic words and a few others,
there is no logical connection between a thing and the sound of our name
for it. "Bow-wow" is a more rational name than "dog", which is a mere
convention agreed on by the English, while other nations prefer chien,
hund, cane, kalb, kutta and so on. All symbols, you see, my dear child,
and it's no good your kicking!
But it doesn't stop there. When we try to convey thought by writing, we
are bound to sit down solidly, and construct a holy Qabalah out of nothing.
Why would a curve open to the right, sound like the ocean, open at the
top, like you? And all these arbitrary symbolic letters are combined by
just as symbolic and arbitrary devices to take on conventional meanings,
these words again combined into phrases by no less high-handed a proce-
dure.
And then folk wonder how it is that there should be error and misunder-
standing in the transmission of thought from one person to another!
Rather regard it as a miraculous intervention of Providence when even
one of even the simplest ideas "gets across." Now then, this being so,
it is evidently good sense to construct one's own alphabet, with one's
own very precise definitions, in order to handle an abstruse and techni-
cal subject like Magick. The "ordinary" words such as God, self, soul,
spirit and the rest have been used so many thousand times in so many
thousand ways, usually by writers who knew not, or cared not for the
necessity of definition that to use them to-day in any scientific essay
is almost ludicrous.
That is all, just now, sister; no more of your cavilling, please; sit
down quietly with your 777, and get it by heart!
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER IV
THE QABALAH, THE BEST TRAINING FOR MEMORY
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Now you must learn Qabalah. Learn this Alphabet of Magick. You must
take it on trust, as a child does his own alphabet. No one has ever
34
found out why the order of the letters is what it is. Probably there
isn't any answer.
If you only knew what I am grappling with in the Yi King! the order of
the sixty-four hexagrams. I am convinced that it is extremely signifi-
cant, that it implies a sublime system of philosophy. I've got far enough
to be absolutely sure that there is a necessary rhythm; and it's killing
me by millimetres, finding out why each pair succeeds the last. Forgive
these tears!
But our Magical Alphabet is primarily not letters, but figures, not sounds
but mathematical ideas. Sir Humphrey Davy16, coming out of his famous
illumination (with some help from Nitrous Oxide he got in) exclaimed:
The Universe is composed solely of ideas. We, analyzing this a little,
say: The Universe is a mathematical expression.
Sir James Jeans might have said this, only his banker advised him to cash
in on God. The simplest form of this expression is 0 = 2, elsewhere
expounded at great length. This 2 might itself be expressed in an indefin-
itely great number of ways. Every prime number, including some not in the
series of "natural numbers", is an individual. The other numbers with
perhaps a few exceptions (e.g. 41817) are composed of their primes.
Each of these ideas may be explained, investigated, understood, by means
very various. Firstly, the Hebrew, Greek and Arabic numbers are also
letters. Then, each of these letters is further described by one of the
(arbitrarily composed) "elements of Nature;" the Four (or Five) Elements,
the Seven (or Ten) Planets, and the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac.
All these are arranged in a geometrical design composed of ten "Sephiroth"
(numbers) and twenty-two "paths" joining them; this is called the Tree
of Life.
Every idea soever can be, and should be, attributed to one or more of
these primary symbols; thus green, in different shades, is a quality or
function of Venus, the Earth, the Sea, Libra, and others. So also abstract
ideas; dishonesty means "an afflicted Mercury," generosity a good, though
not always strong, Jupiter; and so on.
The Tree of Life has got to be learnt by heart; you must know it back-
wards, forwards, sideways, and upside down; it must become the automatic
background of all your thinking. You must keep on hanging everything
that comes your way upon its proper bough.
At first, of course, all this is dreadfully confusing; but persist, and
a time will come when all the odd bits fit into the jig-saw, and you
behold --- with what adoring wonder! --- the marvellous beauty and symmetry
of the Qabalistic system.
And then --- what a weapon you will have forged!
16^ WEH NOTE: Option to add a comment of Humphrey Davy and the invention of
modern anesthesia to clarify the reference. On the occasion of a Nitrous
Oxide party, such as he catered, he chanced to note that one of the
participants had taken injury but felt no pain. This led to the practice
of administrating anesthetics to patients in operations, and gave the time
in surgery to perfect modern procedural medicine.
17^^ WEH NOTE: 418 = give the prime factors.
35
What power to analyze, to order, to manipulate your thinking!
And please remember when people compliment you on your memory or the clarity
of your thought, to give credit to the Qabalah!
That's fine, I seem to hear you purr; that looks a lovely machine. The
Design is just elegant; that scarf-pin of yours is perfectly sweet.
There's only one point: how to make the damn thing work?
Ah yes, like the one in the Apocalypse, the sting is in your tail.
Honest, you needn't worry; it works on ball-bearings, and there's always
those "Thirteen Fountains of Magnificent Oil flowing down the Beard of
Macroprosopus" in case it creaks a little at first. But seriously, all
the mathematics you need is simple Addition and Multiplication.
"Yeah!" you rudely reply. "That's what you think; but you haven't got
very far in the Qabalah!"
Too true, sister.
The Book of the Law itself insists upon the fact that it contains a
Qabalah which was beyond me at the time of its dictation, is beyond me
now, and always will be beyond me in this incarnation. Let me direct
your spiritual attention to AL I, 54; I, 56; II, 54-55; II, 76; III,
47.
Now there was enough comprehensible at the time to assure me that the
Author of the Book knew at least as much Qabalah as I did: I discovered
subsequently more than enough to make it certain without error that he
knew a very great deal more, and that of an altogether higher order, than
I knew; finally, such glimmerings of light as time and desperate study
have thrown on many other obscure passages, to leave no doubt whatever
in my mind that he is indeed the supreme Qabalist of all time . . . .
"I asked you how to work it."
Don't be so peevish, querulous, and impatient; your zeal is laudable,
but it's wasting your own time to hurry me.
Well, when you've got this Alphabet of Numbers (in its proper shape)
absolutely by heart, with as many sets of attributions as you can commit
to memory without getting confused, you may try a few easy exercises,
beginning with the past.
("How many sets of attributions?" - Well, certainly, the Hebrew and
Greek Alphabets with the names and numbers of each letter, and its mean-
ing: a couple of lists of God-names, with a clear idea of the character,
qualities, functions, and importance of each; the "King-scale" of colour,
all the Tarot attributions, of course; then animals, plants, drugs, per-
fumes, a list or two of archangels, angels, intelligences and spirits ---
that ought to be enough for a start.)
Now you are armed! Ask yourself: why is the influence of Tiphareth
transmitted to Yesod by the Path of Samekh, a fence, 60, Sagittarius,
the Archer, Art, blue - and so on; but to Hod by the Path of Ayin, an
eye, 70, Capricornus, the Goat, the Devil, Indigo, K.T.
36
Thirteen is the number of Achad {Hebrew option}, Unity, and Ahebah {Hebrew
option}, Love; then what word
should arise when you expand it by the Creative Dyad, and get 26; what
when you multiply it by 4, and get 52? Then, suppose the Pentagram gets
busy, 13 x 5 = 65, what then?
Now don't you dare to come round crawling to me for the answers; work
it out yourself what sort of words they ought to be, and then check
your result by looking up those numbers in the Sepher Sephiroth:
Equinox Vol. I, No. 8, Supplement.
When you are a real adept at all these well-known calculations "prepare
to enter the Immeasurable Region" and dig out the Unknown.
You must construct your own Qabalah!
Nobody can do it for you. What is your own true Number? You must find
it and prove it to be correct. In the course of a few years, you should
have built yourself a Palace of Ineffable Glory, a Garden of Indescrib-
able Delight. Nor Time nor Fate can tame those tranquil towers, those
Minarets of Music, or fade one blossom in those avenues of Perfume!
Humph! Nasty of me: but it has just stuck me that it might be just as
well if you made a Sepher Sephiroth of your own! What a positively
beastly thing to suggest! However, I do suggest it.
After all, it's simple enough. Every word you come across, add it up,
stick it down against that number in a book kept for the purpose. That
may seem tedious and silly; why should you do all over again the work
that I have already done for you? Reason: simple. Doing it will teach
you Qabalah as nothing else could. Besides, you won't be all cluttered
up with words that mean nothing to you; and if it should happen that you
want a word to explain some particular number, you can look it up in my
Sepher Sephiroth.
By this method, too, you may strike a rich vein of words of your own
that I have altogether missed.
No doubt, a Really Great Teacher would have said: "Beware! Use my
Dictionary, and mine alone! All others are spurious!" But then I'm not
a R.G.T. of that kind.
For a start, of course, you should put down the words that are bound to
come in your way in any case: numbers like 11, 13, 31, 37, and their
multiples; the names of God and the principal angels; the planetary
and geomantic names; and your own private and particular name with its
branches. After that, let your work on the Astral Plane guide you.
When investigating the name and other words communicated to you by such
beings as you meet there, or invoke, many more will come up in their
proper connections. Very soon you will have quite a nice little Sepher
Sephiroth of your very own. Remember to aim, above all things, at
coherence.
It is excellent practice, but the way, to do some mental arithmetic on
your walks; acquire the habit of adding up any names that you have come
across in your morning's reading. Nietzsche has well observed that the
best thoughts come by walking; and it has happened to me, more than
once or twice, that really important correspondences have come, as by
37
a flashlight, when I was padding the old hoof.
You will have noticed that in this curt exposition I have confined myself
to Gematria, the direct relation of number and work, omitting any refer-
ence to Notariqon, the accursed art of making words out of initials,
like (in profane life) Wren and Gestapo and their horrid brood, or to
Temurah, the art of altering the position of the letters in a word, a
sort of cipher; for these are almost always frivolous. To base any
serious calculations on them would be absurd.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
P.S. You should study the Equinox Vol. I, No. 5, "The Temple of Solomon
the King" for a more elaborate exposition of the Qabalah.
CHAPTER V
THE UNIVERSE. THE 0 = 2 EQUATION
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Yes, I admit everything! It is all my fault. Looking over my past writ-
ings, I do see that my only one-opointed attempt to set forth a sound
ontology was my early fumbling letter brochure Berashith18. Since then,
I seem to have kept assuming that everybody knew all about it; referring
to it, quoting it, but never sitting down seriously to demonstrate the
thesis, or even to state it in set terms. Chapter 0 of Magick in Theory
and Practice skates gently over it; the "Naples Arrangement" in The
Book of Thoth dodges it with really diabolical ingenuity. I ask myself
why. It is exceedingly strange, because every time I think of the Equa-
tion, I am thrilled with a keen glow of satisfaction that this sempiternal
Riddle of the Sphinx should have been answered at last.
So then let me now give myself the delight, and you the comfort, of stat-
ing the problem from its beginning, and proving the soundness of the
solution --- of showing that the contradiction of this Equation is unthink-
able. --- --- Are you ready? Forward! Paddle!
A. We are aware.
B. We cannot doubt the existence (whether "real" or "illusory" makes no
difference) of something, because doubt itself is a form of awareness.
C. We lump together all that of which we are aware under the convenient
name of "Existence", or "The Universe". Cosmos is not so good for this
purpose; that word implies "order", which in the present stage of our
argument, is a mere assumption.
D. We also tend to think of the Universe as containing things of which
we are not aware; but this is altogether unjustifiable, although it is
difficult to think at all without making some such assumption. For
18* See Crowley, Collected Works.
38
instance, one may come upon a new branch of knowledge --- say, histology
or Hammurabi or the language of the Iroquois or the poems of the Herma-
phrodite of Panormita. It seems to be there all ready waiting for us;
we simply cannot believe that we are making it all up as we go along.
For all that, it is sheer sophistry; we may merely be unfolding the
contents of our own minds. Then again, does a thing cease to exist if we
forget it? The answer is that one cannot be sure.
Personally, I feel convinced of the existence of an Universe outside my
own immediate awareness; but it is true, even so, that it does not exist
for me unless and until it takes its place as part of my consciousness.
E. All this paragrpah D is in the nature of a digression, for what you
may think of it does not at all touch the argument of this letter. But
it had to be put in, just to prevent your mind from raising irrelevant
objections. Let me continue, then, from C.
F. Something is19. This something appears incalculably vast and complex.
How did it come to be?
This, briefly, is the "Riddle of the Universe," which has been always the
first preoccupation of all serious philosophers since men began to think
at all.
G. The orthodox idiot answer, usually wrapped up in obscure terms in the
hope of concealing from the enquirer the fact that it is not an answer
at all, but an evasion, is: God created it.
Then, obviously, who created God? Sometimes we have a Demiurge, a creative
God behind whom is an eternal formless Greatness --- anything to confuse
the issue!
Sometimes the Universe is supported by an elephant; he, in turn, stands
on a tortoise . . . by that time it is hoped that the enquirer is too
tired and muddled to ask what holds up the tortoise.
Sometimes, a great Father and Mother crystallize out of some huge cloudy
confusion of "Elements" - and so on. But nobody answers the question;
at least, none of these God-inventing mules, with their incurably common-
place minds.
H. Serious philosophy has always begun by discarding all these pueril-
ities. It has of necessity been divided into these schools: the Nihilist,
the Monist, and the Dualist.
I. The last of these is, on the surface, the most plausible; for almost
the first thing that we notice on inspecting the Universe is what the
Hindu schools call "the Pairs of Opposites."
This too, is very convenient, because it lends itself so readily to ortho-
dox theology; so we have Ormuzd and Ahriman, the Devas and the Asuras,
Osiris and Set, et cetera and da capo, personifications of "Good" and
"Evil." The foes may be fairly matched; but more often the tale tells
of a revolt in heaven. In this case, "Evil" is temporary; soon, espe-
cially with the financial help of the devout, the "devil" will be "cast
into the Bottomless Pit" and "the Saints will reign with Christ in glory
19* You must read The Soldier an The Hunchback: ! and ? in the Equinox
I, 1.
39
for ever and ever, Amen!" Often a "redeemer," a "dying God," is needed
to secure victory to Omnipotence; and this is usually what little vulgar
boys might call a "touching story!"
J. The Monist (or Advaitist) school, is at once subtler and more refined;
it seems to approach the ultimate reality (as opposed to the superficial
examination of the Dualists) more closely.
It seems to me that this doctrine is based upon a sorites of doubtful
validity. To tell you the hideously shameful truth, I hate this doc-
trine so rabidly that I can hardly trust myself to present it fairly!
But I will try. Meanwhile, you can study it in the Upanishads, in the
Bhagavad-Gita, in Ernst Haeckel's The Riddle of the Universe, and
dozens of other classics. The dogma appears to excite its dupes to
dithyrambs. I have to admit the "poetry" of the idea; but there is
something in me which vehemently rejects it with excruciating and vin-
dictive violence. Possibly, this is because part of our own system
runs parallel with the first equations of theirs.
K. The Monists perceive quite clearly and correctly that it is absurd
to answer the question "How came these Many things (of which we are aware)
to be?" by saying that they came from Many; and "Many" in this connec-
tion includes Two. The Universe must therefore be a single phenomenon:
make it eternal and all the rest of it --- i.e. remove all limit of any
kind --- and the Universe explains itself. How then can Opposites exist,
as we observe them to do? Is it not the very essence of our original
Sorites that the Many must be reducible to the One? They see how awk-
ward this is; so the "devil" of the Dualist is emulsified and evaporated
into "illusion;" what they call "Maya" or some equivalent term.
"Reality" for them consists solely of Brahman, the supreme Being "without
quantity or quality." They are compelled to deny him all attributes,
even that of Existence; for to do so would instantly limit them, and so
hurl them headlong back in to Dualism. All that of which we are aware
must obviously possess limits, or it could have no intelligible meaning
for us; if we want "pork," we must specify its qualities and quantities;
at the very least, we must be able to distinguish it from "that-which-
is-not-pork."
But - one moment, please!
L. There is in Advaitism a most fascinating danger; that is that, up
to a certain point, "Religious Experience" tends to support this theory.
A word on this. Vulgar minds, such as are happy with a personal God,
Vishnu, Jesus, Melcarth, Mithras, or another, often excite themselves -
call it "Energized Enthusiasm" if you want to be sarcastic! --- to the
point of experiencing actual Visions of the objects of their devotion.
But these people have not so much as asked themselves the original
question of "How come?" which is our present subject. Sweep them into
the discard!
M. Beyond Vishvarupadarshana, the vision of the Form of Vishnu, beyond
that yet loftier vision which corresponds in Hindu classification to our
"Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel", is that called
Atmadarshana, the vision (or apprehension, a much better word) of the
Universe as a single phenomenon, outside all limitations, whether of
time, space, causality, or what not.
40
Very good, then! Here we are with direct realization of the Advaitist
theory of the Universe. Everything fits perfectly. Also, when I say
"realization," I want you to understand that I mean what I say in a
sense so intense and so absolute that it is impossible to convey my
meaning to anyone who has not undergone that experience20.
How do we judge the "reality" of an ordinary impression upon conscious-
ness? Chiefly by its intensity, but its persistence, by the fact that
nobody can argue us out of our belief in it. As people said of Berkeley's
'Idealism' - "his arguments are irrefutable but they fail to carry con-
viction." No sceptical, no idealist queries can persuade us that a kick
in the pants is not 'real' in any reasonable sense of the word. More-
over memory reassures us. However vivid a dream may be at the time,
however it may persist throughout the years (though it is rare for any
dream, unless frequently repeated, or linked to waking impressions by
some happy conjunction of circumstances, to remain long in the mind with
any clear-cut vision) it is hardly ever mistaken for an event of actual
life. Good: then, as waking life is to dream, so --- yes, more so! --- is
Religious Experience as above described to that life common to all of
us. It is not merely easy, it is natural, not merely natural, but inevi-
table, for anyone who has experienced "Samadhi" (this word conveniently
groups the higher types of vision21) to regard normal life as "illusion"
by comparison with this state in which all problems are resolved, all
doubts driven out, all limitations abolished.
But even beyond Atmadarshana comes the experience called Sivadarshana22,
in which this Atman (or Brahman), this limit-destroying Universe, is
itself abolished and annihilated.
(And, with its occurrence, smash goes the whole of the Advaitist theory!)
It is a commonplace to say that no words can describe this final destruc-
tion. Such is the fact; and there is nothing one can do about it but
put it down boldly as I have done above. It does not matter to our
present purpose; all that we need to know is that the strongest prop of
the Monist structure has broken off short.
Moreover, is it really adequate to postulate an origin of the Universe,
as they inevitably do? Merely to deny that there ever was a beginning
by saying that this "one" is eternal fails to satisfy me.
What is very much worse, I cannot see that to call Evil "illusion" helps
us at all. When the Christian Scientist hears that his wife has been
savagely mauled by her Peke, he has to smile, and say that "there is a
claim of error." Not good enough.
N. It has taken a long while to clear the ground. That I did not
expect; the above propositions are so familiar to me, they run so
cleanly through my mind, that, until I came to set them down in order,
I had no idea what a long and difficult business it all was.
Still, it's a long lane, etc. We have seen that "Two" (or "Many") are
20* I have discussed this and the following points very fully in Book 4
Part I, pp. 63-89
21* "Vision" is a dreadfully bad word for it; "trance" is better, but
idiots always mix it up with hypnotism.
22** Possibly almost identical with the Buddhist Neroda-Samapatti.
41
unsatisfactory as origin, if only because they can always be reduced to
"One"; and "One" itself is no better, because, among other things, it
finds itself forced to deny the very premises on which it was founded.
Shall we be any better off if we assume that "Ex nihilo nihil fit" is
a falsehood, that the origin of All Things is Nothing? Let us see!
O. Shall we first glance at the mathematical aspect of Nothing?
(Including its identical equation in Logic.) This I worked out so long
ago as 1902 e.g. in Berashith, which you will find reprinted in The
Sword of Song, and in my Collected Works, Vol. I.
The argument may be summarized as follows.
When, in the ordinary way of business, we write 0, we should really
write 0n23. For 0 implies that the subject is not extended in any dimen-
sion under discussion. Thus a line may be two feet in length, but in
breadth and depth the coefficient is Zero. We could describe it as
2f + 0b + 0d, or n2f + 0b + 0d.
What I proposed in considering "What do we mean by Nothing?" was to
consider every possible quality of any object as a dimension.
For instance, one might describe this page as being nf + n'b + n"d + 0
redness + ) 0 amiability + 0 velocity + 0 potential and so on, until you
had noted and measured all the qualities it possesses, and excluded all
that it does not. For convenience, we may write this expression as
Xf+b+d+r+a+v+p --- using the initials of the qualities which we call
dimensions.
Just one further explanation in pure mathematics. To interpret X1,
X1+1 or X2, and so on, we assume the reference to be to spatial dimen-
sions. Thus suppose X1 to be a line a foot long, X2 will be a plane a
foot square, and X3 a cube measuring a foot in each dimension. But
what about X4? There are no more spatial dimensions. Modern mathemat-
ics has (unfortunately, I think) agreed to consider this fourth dimen-
sion as time. Well, and X5? To interpret this expression, we may
begin to consider other qualities, such as electric capacity, colour,
moral attributes, and so on. But this remark, although necessary,
leads us rather away from our main thesis instead of toward it.
P. What happens when we put a minus sign before the index (that small
letter up on the right) instead of a plus? Quite simple.
23^ WEH NOTE: Add comments to distinguish indices (Abstract Algebra) from
powers of numbers.
{Keynote: I shouldn't, but as a physicist, I have to say}
{that Crowley is giving an erroneous layman's opinion }
{and his usage of math notation cannot be considered }
{correct. These expressions are ok as text, but not as }
{math without redefinition through Abstract Algebra, a }
{field Crowley appears not to know by name. The ideas }
{are valid, but the expressions are misleading. It might}
{be wise to add a footnote about the notation being non-}
{traditional. Notably, this line defies Pythagoras! }
{Crowley's notation with superscripts is the problem. }
{It looks like powers of numbers instead of indices. }
{He probably intended indices, but didn't know how to }
{represent them or flag them in typography. }
42
x2 = X1+1 = X1 + X1. With a minus, we divide instead of multiplying.
Thus, X3-2 = X3 š X2 = X1, just as if you had merely subtracted the 2
from the 3 in the index.
Now, at last, we come to the point of real importance to our thesis:
how shall we interpret X0? We may write it, obviously, as X1-1 or
Xn-n. Good, divide. Then X1 š X1 = 1. This is the same, clearly
enough, whatever X may be.
Q. Ah, but what we started to do was discover the meaning of Nothing.
It is not correct to write it simply as 0; for that 0 implies an index
01, or 02, or 0n. And if our Nothing is to be absolute Nothing, then
there is not only no figure, but no index either. So we must write it
as 00.
What is the value of this expression? We proceed as before; divide.
0n 1
0 = 0n-n = 0n š 0n = -- x --. Of course 0n š 1 remains 0;
1 0n
but 1 š 0n = “ {Keynote: this last is an elongated infinity symbol}.
That is, we have a clash of the "infinitely great" with the "infinitely
small;" that knocks out the "infinity" (and Advaitism with it!) and
leaves us with an indeterminate but finite number of utter variety.
That is: 00 can only be interpreted as "The Universe that we know."
R. So much for one demonstration. Some people have found fault with
the algebra; but the logical Equivalent is precisely parallel. Suppose
I wish to describe my study in one respect: I can say "No dogs are in
my study," or "Dogs are not in my study." I can make a little diagram:
D is the world of dogs; S is my study. Here it is:
The squares are quite separate. The whole world outside the square D
is the world of no dogs: outside the square S, the world of no-study.24
But suppose now that I want to make the Zero abso-
lute, like our 00, I must say "No dogs are not in my study."
Or, "There is no absence-of-dog in my study." That is the same as saying:
"Some doge are in my study;" diagram again: 25
In Diagram 1, 26 "the world where no dogs are" included the whole of my
study; in Diagram 2 that absence-of-dog is no longer there; so one
or more of them must have got in somehow.
That's that; I know it may be a little difficult at first; fortunately
there is a different way --- the Chinese way --- of stating the theorem in
very much simpler terms.
S. The Chinese, like ourselves, begin with the idea of "Absolute Nothing."
They "make an effort, and call it the Tao;" but that is exactly what
24^ } ò€€€À ò€€€À
lute>} 3 D 3 3 S 3
Ë€€€ô Ë€€€ô
25^{Keynote: Same two labeled squares, but this time the}
{square with S overlaps lower
right of D square at an angle}
{--gratuitious comment: Crowley's
language is invalid but diagrams ok}
26^{Keynote: need to label these two figures}
43
the Tao comes to mean, when we examine it. They see quite well, as we
have done above, that merely to assert Nothing is not to explain the
Universe; and they proceed to do so by means of a mathematical equation
even simpler than ours, involving as it does no operations beyond simple
addition and subtraction. They say "Nothing obviously means Nothing;
it has no qualities nor quantities." (The Advaitists27 said the same, and
then stultified themselves completely by calling it One!) "But," con-
tinue the sages of the Middle Kingdom, "it is always possible to reduce
any expression to Nothing by taking any two equal and opposite terms."
(Thus n = (-n) = 0.) "We ought therefore to be able to get any expres-
sion that we want from Nothing; we merely have to be careful that the
terms shall be precisely opposite and equal." (0 = n + (-n). This then
they did, and began to diagrammatize the Universe as the Î {S.B. cap "I"} - a
pair of
opposites, the Yang or active male, and the Yin or passive Female,
principles. They represented the Yang by an unbroken ( ------- ), the Yin
by a broken ( --- --- ), line. (The first manifestation in Nature of these
two is ThÄi Yang, the Sun, and the ThÄi Yin, the Moon.) This being a little
large and loose, they doubled these lines, and obtained the four Hsiang.
They then took them three at a time, and got the eight Kwa. These
represent the development from the original Î {S.B. cap "I"} to the Natural
Order of
the Elements.
I shall call the male principle M, the Female F.
M.1. ------ Khien "Heaven-Father" F.1. -- -- Khw n "Earth-Mother"
------ -- --
------ -- --
M.2. ------ LÎ The Sun F.2. -- -- KhÄn The Moon
-- -- ------
------ -- --
M.3. -- -- K n Fire F.3. -- -- Tui Water
-- -- ------
------ ------
M.4. ------ Sun Air F.4. ------ K n Earth
------ -- --
-- -- -- --
Note how admirably they have preserved the idea of balance. M.1. and
F.1. are perfection. M.2. and F.2. still keep balance in their lines.
The four "elements" show imperfection; yet they are all balanced as
against each other. Note, too, how apt are the ideograms. M.3. shows
the flames flickering on the hearth, F.3., the wave on the solid bottom
of the sea; M.4., the mutable air, with impenetrable space above, and
finally F.4., the thin crust of the earth masking the interior energies
of the planet. They go in to double these KwÄ, thus reaching the sixty-
four Hexagrams of the YÎ King, which is not only a Map, but a History
of the Order of Nature.
It is pure enthusiastic delight in the Harmony and Beauty of the System
that has led me thus far afield; my one essential purpose is to show
how the Universe was derived by these Wise Men from Nothing.
27^ WEH NOTE: Do an Arthur Avalon plug here, highlighting his "Garland of
Letters"
44
When you have assimilated these two sets of Equations, when you have
understood how 0 = 2 is the unique, the simple, and the necessary solu-
tion of the Riddle of the Universe, there will be, in a sense, little
more for you to learn about the Theory of Magick.
You should, however, remember most constantly that the equation of the
Universe, however complex it may seem, inevitably reels out to Zero;
for to accomplish this is the formula of your Work as a Mystic. To
remind you, and to amplify certain points of the above, let me quote
from Magick pp. 152-3 footnote 2.
"All elements must at one time have been separate --- that would be the
case with great heat. Now when atoms get to the sun, we get that immense
extreme heat, and all the elements are themselves again. Imagine that
each atom of each element possesses the memory of all his adventures in
combination. By the way, that atom (fortified with that memory) would
not be the same atom; yet it is, because it has gained nothing from
anywhere except this memory. Therefore, by the lapse of time, and by
virtue of memory, a thing could become something more than itself; thus
a real development is possible. One can then see a reason for any ele-
ment deciding to go through this series of incarnations, because so, and
only so, can he go; and he suffers the lapse of memory which he has
during these incarnations, because he knows he will come through un-
changed.
"Therefore you can have an infinite number of gods, individual and equal
though diverse, each one supreme and utterly indestructible. This is
also the only explanation of how a "Perfect Being" could create a world
in which war, evil, etc., exist. God is only an appearance, because
(like "good") it cannot affect the substance itself, but only multiply
its combinations. This is something the same as mystic monotheism; but
all parts of himself, so that their interplay is false. If we presuppose
many elements, their interplay is natural.
"It is no objection to this theory to ask who made the elements --- the
elements are at least there, and God, when you look for him, is not
there. Theism is obscurum per obscurius. A male star is built up from
the centre outwards; a female from the circumference inwards. This is
what is meant when we say that woman has no soul. It explains fully
the difference between the sexes."
Every "act of love under will" has the dual result (1) the creation of
a child combining the qualities of its parents, (2) the withdrawal by
ecstasy into Nothingness. Please consult what I have elsewhere written
on "The Formula of Tetagrammaton;" the importance of this at the
moment is to show how 0 and 2 appear constantly in Nature as the common
Order of Events.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER VI
THE THREE SCHOOLS OF MAGICK (I)
45
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Here is the first section of M. Gerard Aumont's promised essay28; it was
originally called "The Three Schools of Magick". (Don't be cross,
please, because it is not in the form of a personal letter!)
There is today much misunderstanding of the meaning of the term "Magick".
Many attempts have been made to define it, but perhaps the best for our
present purpose of historical-ideological exposition will be this --
Magick is the Science of the Incommensurables.
This is one of the many restricted uses of the word; one suited to
the present purpose.
It is particularly to be noted that Magick, so often mixed up in the
popular idea of a religion, has nothing to do with it. It is, in fact,
the exact opposite of religion; it is, even more than Physical Science,
its irreconcilable enemy.
let us define this difference clearly.
Magick investigates the laws of Nature with the idea of making use of
them. It only differs from "profane" science by always keeping ahead
of it. As Fraser29 has shown, Magick is science in the tentative stage;
but it may be, and often is, more than this. It is science which, for
one reason or another, cannot be declared to the profane.
Religion, on the contrary, seeks to ignore the laws of Nature, or to
escape them by appeal to a postulated power which is assumed to have
laid them down. The religious man is, as such, incapable of understand-
ing what the laws of Nature really are. (They are generalizations from
the order of observed fact.)
The History of Magick has never been seriously attempted. For one
reason, only initiates pledged to secrecy know much about it; for
another, every historian has been talking about some more or less con-
ventional idea of Magick, not of the thing itself. But Magick has led
the world from before the beginning of history, if only for the reason
that Magick has always been the mother of Science. It is, therefore,
of extreme importance that some effort should be made to understand
something of the subject; and there is, therefore, no apology necessary
for essaying this brief outline of its historical aspects.
There have always been, at least in nucleus, three main Schools of
Philosophical practice. (We use the word "philosophical" in the old
good broad sense, as in the phrase "Philosophical Transactions of the
Royal Society for the Advancement of Knowledge.")
It is customary to describe these three Schools as Yellow, Black, and
White. The first thing necessary is to warn the reader that they must
by no means be confounded with racial distinctions of colour; and they
correspond still less with conventional symbols such as yellow caps,
yellow robes, black magick, white witchcraft, and the like. The danger
28* A few amendments - very few - have been necessitated by the lapse
of time.
29^ WEH NOTE: Mention Fraser source, locate it in G.B.
46
is only the greater that these analogies are often as alluring as the
prove on examination to be misleading.
These Schools represent three perfectly distinct and contrary theories
of the Universe, and, therefore, practices of spiritual science. The
magical formula of each is as precise as a theorem of trigonometry.
Each assumes as fundamental a certain law of Nature, and the subject is
complicated by the fact that each School, in a certain sense, admits the
formulae of the other two. It merely regards them as in some way incom-
plete, secondary, or illusory. Now, as will be seen later, the Yellow
School stand aloof from the other two by the nature of its postulates.
But the Black School and the White are always more or less in active
conflict; and it is because just at this moment that conflict is
approaching a climax that it is necessary to write this essay. The
adepts of the White School consider the present danger to mankind so
great that they are prepared to abandon their traditional policy of
silence, in order to enlist in their ranks the profane of every nation.
We are in possession of a certain mystical document30 which we may
describe briefly, for convenience sake, as an Apocalypse of which we
hold the keys, thanks to the intervention of the Master who has appeared
at this grave conjuncture of Fate. This document consists of a series
of visions, in which we hear the various Intelligences whose nature it
would be hard to define, but who are at the very least endowed with
knowledge and power far beyond anything that we are accustomed to regard
as proper to the human race.
We must quote a passage from one of the most important of these documents.
The doctrine is conveyed, as is customary among Initiates, in the form
of a parable. Those who have attained even a mediocre degree of enlight-
enment are aware that the crude belief of the faithful, and the crude
infidelity of the scoffer, with regard to matters of fact, are merely
childish. Every incident in Nature, true or false, possesses a spiritual
significance. It is this significance, and only this significance, that
possesses any philosophical value to the Initiate.
The orthodox need not be shocked, and the enlightened need not be contemp-
tuous, to learn that the passage which we are about to quote, is a parable
based on the least decorous of the Biblical legends which refer to Noah.
It simply captures for its own purposes the convenience of Scripture.
(Here follows the excerpt from the Vision.)
"And a voice cries: Cursed be he that shall uncover the nakedness of
the Most High, for he is drunken upon the wine that is the blood of the
adepts. And BABALON hath lulled him to sleep upon her breast, and she
hath fled away, and left him naked, and she hath called her children
together saying: Come up with me, and let us make a mock of the naked-
ness of the Most High.
"And the first of the adepts covered His shame with a cloth, walking
backwards, and was white. And the second of the adepts covered his
shame with a cloth, walking sideways, and was yellow, And the third of
the adepts made a mock of His nakedness, walking forwards, and was black.
And these are the three great schools of the Magi, who are also the
three Magi that journeyed unto Bethlehem; and because thou hast not
30* Liber CDXVIII, The Vision and the Voice, edition with Introduction
and Commentary by 666. Thelema Publishing Co., Barstow, California.
47
wisdom, thou shalt not know which school prevaileth, or if the three
schools be not one."
We are now ready to study the philosophical bases of these three Schools.
We must, however, enter a caveat against too literal an interpretation,
even of the parable. It may be suspected, for reasons which should be
apparent after further investigation of the doctrines of the Three
Schools, that this parable was invented by an Intelligence of the Black
School, who was aware of his iniquity, and thought to transform it into
righteousness by the alchemy of making a boast of it. The intelligent
reader will note the insidious attempt to identify the doctrine of the
Black School with the kind of black magic {sic} that is commonly called
Diabolism. In other words, this parable is itself an example of an
exceedingly subtle black magical operation, and the contemplation of
such devices carried far enough beings us to an understanding of the
astoundingly ophidian processes of Magicians. Let not the profane
reader dismiss such subtleties from his mind as negligible nonsense.
It is cunning of this kind that determines the price of potatoes.
The above digression is perhaps not so inexcusable as it may seem on a
first reading. Careful study of it should reveal the nature of the
thought-processes which are habitually used by the secret Masters of
the human race to determine its destiny.
When everyone has done laughing, I will ask you to compare the real
effects produced on the course of human affairs by Caesar, Attila, and
Napoleon, on the one hand; of Plato, the Encyclopaedists, and Karl Marx31
on the other.
The Yellow School of Magick considers, with complete scientific and
philosophical detachment, the fact of the Universe as a fact. Being
itself apart of that Universe, it realizes its impotence to alter the
totality in the smallest degree. To put it vulgarly, it does not try to
raise itself from the ground by pulling at its socks. It therefore
opposes to the current of phenomena no reaction either of hatred or of
sympathy. So far as it attempts to influence the course of events at
all, it does so in the only intelligent way conceivable. It seeks to
diminish internal friction.
It remains, therefore, in a contemplative attitude. To use the terms
of Western philosophy, there is in its attitude something of the stoicism
of Zeno; or of the Pickwickianism, if I may use the term, of Epicurus.
The ideal reaction to phenomena is that of perfect elasticity. It
possesses something of the cold-bloodedness of mathematics; and for
this reason it seems fair to say, for the purposes of elementary study,
that Pythagoras is its most adequate exponent in European philosophy.
Since the discovery of Asiatic thought, however, we have no need to
take our ideas at second-hand. The Yellow School of Magick possesses
one perfect classic. The Tao Teh King32.
31* It is interesting to note that the three greatest influences in the
world today are those of Teutonic Hebrews: Marx, Hertz, and Freud.
32* Unfortunately there is no translation at present published which is
the work of an Initiate. All existing translations have been garbled by
people who simply failed to understand the text. An approximately per-
fect rendering is indeed available, but so far it exists only in manu-
script. One object of this letter is to create sufficient public interest
to make this work, and others of equal value available to the public.
48
It is impossible to find any religion which adequately represents the
thought of this masterpiece. Not only is religion as such repugnant to
science and philosophy, but from the very nature of the tenets of the
Yellow School, its adherents are not going to put themselves to any
inconvenience for the enlightenment of a lot of people whom they consider
to be hopeless fools.
At the same time, the theory of religion, as such, being a tissue of
falsehood, the only real strength of any religion is derived from its
pilferings of Magical doctrine; and, religious persons being by defini-
tion entirely unscrupulous, it follows that any given religion is likely
to contain scraps of Magical doctrine, filched more or less haphazard
from one school or the other as occasion serves.
Let the reader, therefore, beware most seriously of trying to get a
grasp of this subject by means of siren analogies. Taoism has as little
to do with the Tao Teh King as the Catholic Church with the Gospel.
The Tao Teh King inculcates conscious inaction, or rather unconscious
inaction, with the object of minimizing the disorder of the world. A
few quotations from the text should make the essence of the doctrine
clear.
X 3 "Here is the Mystery of Virtue. It createth all and nourisheth
all; yet it doth not adhere to them. It operateth all; but
knoweth not of it, nor proclaimeth it; it directeth all, but
without conscious control."
XXII 2 "Therefore the sage concentrateth upon one Will, and it is as
a light to the whole world. Hiding himself, he shineth;
withdrawing himself, he attracteth notice; humbling himself,
he gaineth force to achieve his Will. Because he striveth
not, no man may contend against him."
XLIII 1 "The softest substance hunteth down the hardest. The Unsub-
stantial penetrateth where there is no opening. Here is the
Virtue of Inertia."
2 "Few are they who attain: whose speech is Silence, whose
Work is Inertia."
XLVIII 3 "He who attracteth to himself all that is under Heaven doth
so without effort. He who maketh effort is not able to
attract it."
LVIII 3 "The wise man is foursquare and avoideth aggression; his
corners do not injure others. He moveth in a straight line,
and turneth not aside therefrom; he is brilliant, but doth
not blind with his brightness."
LXIII 2 "Do great things while they are yet small, hard things while
they are yet easy; for all things, how great or hard soever,
have a beginning when they are little and easy. So thus the
wise man accomplisheth the greatest tasks without undertaking
anything important."
{Keynote: This footnote is obsolete. The "Tao Teh King" was published
as "Equinox" III - 8, 1975 e.v. by H.P.S.}
49
LXXVI 2 "So then rigidity and hardness are the stigmata of death;
elasticity and adaptability of life."
3 "He then who putteth forth strength is not victorious; even
as a strong tree filleth the embrace."
4 "Thus the hard and rigid have the inferior place, the soft
and elastic the superior."
Enough, I think, for this part of the essay.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER VII
THE THREE SCHOOLS OF MAGICK (2)
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Hoping that you are now recovered from the devastating revelations in
the matter of the Yellow School, I must ask you to brace yourself for
disclosures even more formidable about the Black. Do not confuse with
the Black Lodge, or the Black Brothers. The terminology is unfortunate,
but it wasn't I that did it. Now then, to work!
The Black School of Magick, which must by no means be confused with the
School of Black Magick or Sorcery, which latter is a perversion of the
White tradition, is distinguished fundamentally from the Yellow School
in that it considers the Universe not as neutral, but as definitely a
curse. Its primary theorem is the "First Noble Truth" of the Buddha ---
"Everything is Sorrow." In the primitive classics of this School the
idea of sorrow is confused with that of sin. (This idea of universal
lamentation is presumably responsible for the choice of black as its
symbolic colour. And yet? Is not white the Chinese hue of mourning?)
The analysis of the philosophers of this School refers every phenomenon
to the category of sorrow. It is quite useless to point out to them
that certain events are accompanied with joy: they continue their ruth-
less calculations, and prove to your satisfaction, or rather dissatis-
faction, that the more apparently pleasant an event is, the more
malignantly deceptive is its fascination. There is only one way of
escape even conceivable, and this way is quite simple, annihilation.
(Shallow critics of Buddhism have wasted a great deal of stupid ingenuity
on trying to make out that Nirvana or Nibbana means something different
from what etymology, tradition and the evidence of the Classics combine
to define it. The word means, quite simply, cessation: and it stands
to reason that, if everything is sorrow, the only thing which is not
sorrow is nothing, and that therefore to escape from sorrow is the attain-
ment of nothingness.)
Western philosophy has on occasion approached this doctrine. It has at
least asserted that no known form of existence is exempt from sorrow.
50
Huxley says, in his Evolution and Ethics, "Suffering is the badge of
all the tribe of sentient things."
The philosophers of this School, seeking, naturally enough, to amend the
evil at the root, inquire into the cause of this existence which is
sorrow, and arrive immediately at the 'Second Noble Truth' of the Buddha:
"The Cause of Sorrow is Desire". They follow up with the endless conca-
tenation of causes, of which the final root is Ignorance. (I am not
concerned to defend the logic of this School: I merely state their
doctrine.) The practical issue of all this is that every kind of action
is both unavoidable and a crime. I must digress to explain that the
confusion of thought in this doctrine is constantly recurrent. That is
part of the blackness of the Ignorance which they confess to be the
foundation of their Universe. (And after all, everyone has surely the
right to have his own Universe the way he wants it.)
This School being debased by nature, is not so far removed from conven-
tional religion as either the White or the Yellow. Most primitive
fetishistic religions may, in fact, be considered fairly faithful
representatives of this philosophy. Where animism holds sway, the
"medicine-man" personifies this universal evil, and seeks to propitiate
it by human sacrifice. The early forms of Judaism, and that type of
Christianity which we associate with the Salvation Army, Billy Sunday
and the Fundamentalists of the back-blocks of America, are sufficiently
simple cases of religion whose essence is the propitiation of a malig-
nant demon.
When the light of intelligence begins to dawn dimly through many fogs
upon these savages, we reach a second stage. Bold spirits master cour-
age to assert that the evil which is so obvious, is, in some mysterious
way, an illusion. They thus throw back the whole complexity of sorrow
to a single cause; that is, the arising of the illusion aforesaid. The
problem then assumes a final form: How is that illusion to be destroyed.
A fairly pure example of the first stage of this type of thought is to
be found in the Vedas, of the second stage, in the Upanishads. But the
answer to the question, "How is the illusion of evil to be destroyed?",
depends on another point of theory. We may postulate a Parabrahm infi-
nitely good, etc. etc. etc., in which case we consider the destruction
of the illusion of evil as the reuniting of the consciousness with
Parabrahm. the unfortunate part of this scheme of things is that on
seeking to define Parabrahm for the purpose of returning to Its purity,
it is discovered sooner or later, that It possesses no qualities at all!
In other words, as the farmer said, on being shown the elephant: There
ain't no sich animile. It was Gautama Buddha who perceived the inutility
of dragging in this imaginary pachyderm. Since our Parabrahm, he said to
the Hindu philosophers, is actually nothing, why not stick to or original
perception that everything is sorrow, and admit that the only way to
escape from sorrow is to arrive at nothingness?
We may complete the whole tradition of the Indian peninsula very simply.
To the Vedas, the Upanishads, and the Tripitaka of the Buddhists, we
have only to add the Tantras of what are called the Vamacharya Schools.
Paradoxical as it may sound the Tantrics are in reality the most advanced
of the Hindus. Their theory is, in its philosophical ultimatum, a primi-
tive stage of the White tradition, for the essence of the Tantric cults
is that by the performance of certain rites of Magick, one does not only
escape disaster, but obtains positive benediction. The Tantric is not
51
obsessed by the will-to-die. It is a difficult business, no doubt, to
get any fun out of existence; but at least it is not impossible. In
other words, he implicitly denies the fundamental proposition that
existence is sorrow, and he formulates the essential postulate of the
White School of Magick, that means exist by which the universal sorrow
(apparent indeed to all ordinary observation) may be unmasked, even as
at the initiatory rite of Isis in the ancient days of Kehm. There, a
Neophyte presenting his mouth, under compulsion, to the pouting buttocks
of the Goat of Mendez, found himself caressed by the chaste lips of a
virginal priestess of that Goddess at the base of whose shrine is written
that No man has lifted her veil.
The basis of the Black philosophy is not impossibly mere climate, with
its resulting etiolation of the native, its languid, bilious, anaemic,
fever-prostrated, emasculation of the soul of man. We accordingly find
few true equivalents of this School in Europe. In Greek philosophy there
is no trace of any such doctrine. The poison in its foulest and most
virulent form only entered with Christianity33. But even so, few men of
any real eminence were found to take the axioms of pessimism seriously.
Huxley, for all of his harping on the minor key, was an eupeptic Tory. The
culmination of the Black philosophy is only found in Schopenhauer, and
we may regard him as having been obsessed, on the one hand, by the despair
born of that false scepticism which he learnt from the bankruptcy of Hume
and Kant; on the other, by the direct obsession of the Buddhist docu-
ments to which he was one of the earliest Europeans to obtain access.
He was, so to speak, driven to suicide by his own vanity, a curious
parallel to Kiriloff in The Possessed of Dostoiewsky.
We have, however, examples plentiful enough of religions deriving almost
exclusively from the Black tradition in the different stages. We have
already mentioned the Evangelical cults with their ferocious devil-god
who creates mankind for the pleasure of damning it and forcing it to
crawl before him, while he yells with druken glee over the agony of his
only son34. But in the same class, we must place Christian Science, so
grotesquely afraid of pain, suffering and evil of every sort, that its
dupes can think of nothing better than to bleat denials of its actuality,
in the hope of hypnotizing themselves into anaesthesia.
Practically no Westerns have reached the third stage of the Black tradi-
tion, the Buddhist stage. It is only isolated mystics, and those men
who rank themselves with a contemptuous compliance under the standard
of the nearest religion, the one which will bother them least in their
quest of nothingness, who carry the sorites so far.
The documents of the Black School of Magick have already been indicated.
They are, for the most part, tedious to the last degree and repulsive to
every wholesome-minded man; yet it can hardly be denied that such books
as The Dhammapada and Ecclesiastes are masterpieces of literature. They
represent the agony of human despair at its utmost degree of intensity,
and the melancholy contemplation which is induced by their perusal is
not favourable to the inception of that mood which should lead every
truly courageous intelligence to the determination to escape from the
33* Anti-semite writers in Europe --- e.g. Weininger --- call the Black
theory and practice Judaism, while by a curious confusion, the same ideas
are called Christian among Anglo-Saxons. In 1936 e.v. the "Nazi" School
began to observe this fact.
34* N.B. Christianity was in its first stage a Jewish Communism, hardly
distinguishable from Marxism.
52
ferule of the Black Schoolmaster to the outstretched arms of the White
Mistress of Life.
Let us leave the sinister figure of Schopenhauer for the mysteriously
radiant shape of Spinoza! This latter philosopher, in respect at least
of his Pantheism, represents fairly enough the fundamental thesis of the
White tradition. Almost the first observation that we have to make is
that this White tradition is hardly discoverable outside Europe. It
appears first of all in the legend of Dionysus. (In this connection
read carefully Browning's Apollo and the Fates.)
The Egyptian tradition of Osiris is not dissimilar. The central idea
of the White School is that, admitted that "everything is sorrow" for
the profane, the Initiate has the means of transforming it to "Every-
thing is joy". There is no question of any ostrich-ignoring of fact,
as in Christian Science. There is not even any more or less sophisti-
cated argument about the point of view altering the situation as in
Vedantism. We have, on the contrary, and attitude which was perhaps
first of all, historically speaking, defined by Zoroaster, "nature
teaches us, and the Oracles also affirm, that even the evil germs of
Matter may alike become useful and good." "Stay not on the precipice
with the dross of Matter; for there is a place for thine Image in a
realm ever splendid." "If thou extend the Fiery Mind to the work of
piety, thou wilt preserve the fluxible body."35
It appears that the Levant, from Byzantium and Athens to Damascus,
Jerusalem, Alexandria and Cairo, was preoccupied with the formulation
of this School in a popular religion, beginning in the days of Augustus
Caesar. For there are elements of this central idea in the works of
the Gnostics, in certain rituals of what Frazer conveniently calls the
Asiatic God, as in the remnants of the Ancient Egyptian cult. The doc-
trine became abominably corrupted in committee, so to speak and the
result was Christianity, which may be regarded as a White ritual over-
laid by a mountainous mass of Black doctrine, like the baby of the
mother that King Solomon non-suited.
We may define the doctrine of the White School in its purity in very
simple terms.
Existence is pure joy. Sorrow is caused by failure to perceive this
fact; but this is not a misfortune. We have invented sorrow, which
does not matter so much after all, in order to have the exuberant satis-
faction of getting rid of it. Existence is thus a sacrament.
Adepts of the White School regard their brethren of the Black very much
as the aristocratic English Sahib (of the days when England was a nation)
regarded the benighted Hindu. Nietzsche expresses the philosophy of
this School to that extent with considerable accuracy and vigour. The
man who denounces life merely defines himself as the man who is unequal
to it. The brave man rejoices in giving and taking hard knocks, and the
brave man is joyous. The Scandinavian idea of Valhalla may be primitive,
but it is manly. A heaven of popular concert, like the Christian; of
unconscious repose, like the Buddhist; or even of sensual enjoyment, like
the Moslem, excites his nausea and contempt. He understands that the
only joy worth while is the joy of continual victory, and victory itself
would become as tame as croquet if it were not spiced by equally contin-
35* This passage appears to be a direct hint at the Formula of the IX¿
O.T.O., and the preparation of the Elixir of Life.
53
ual defeat.
The purest documents of the White School are found in the Sacred Books
of Thelema. The doctrine is given in excellent perfection both in the
book of the Heart Girt with the Serpent and the book of Lapis Lazuli.
A single passage is adequate to explain the formula.
7. Moreover I beheld a vision of a river. There was a little boat
thereon; and in it under purple sails was a golden woman, an
image of Asi wrought in finest gold. Also the river was of
blood, and the boat of shining steel. Then I loved her; and,
loosing my girdle, cast myself into the stream.
8. I gathered myself into the little boat, and for many days and
nights did I love her, burning beautiful incense before her.
9. Yea! I gave her of the flower of my youth.
10. But she stirred not; only by my kisses I defiled her so that
she turned to blackness before me.
11. Yet I worshipped her, and gave her of the flower of my youth.
12. Also it came to pass, that thereby she sickened, and corrupted
before me. Almost I cast myself into the stream.
13. Then at the end appointed her body was whiter than the milk of
the stars, and her lips red and warm as the sunset, and her
life of a white heat like the heat of the midmost sun.
14. Then rose she up from abyss of Ages of Sleep, and her body
embraced me. Altogether I melted in her beauty and was glad.
15. The river also became the river of Amrit, and the little boat
was the chariot of the flesh, and the sails thereof the blood
of the heart that beareth me, that beareth me.
Liber LXV, Cap. II.
We find even in profane literature this doctrine of the White School of
Magick: -
O Buddha! couldst thou nowhere rest
A pivot for the universe?
Must all things be alike confessed
Mere changes rung upon a curse?
I swear by all the bliss of blue
My Phryne with her powder on
Is just as false - and just as true -
As your disgusting skeleton.
Each to his taste: if you prefer
This loathly brooding on Decay;
I call it Growth, and lovelier
Than all the glamours of the day.
You would not dally with Doreen
Because her fairness was to fade,
54
Because you know the things unclean
That go to make a mortal maid.
I, if her rotten corpse were mine,
Would take it as my natural food,
Denying all but the Divine
Alike in evil and in good.
Aspasia may skin me close,
And Lais load me with disease.
Poor pleasures, bitter bargains, these?
I shall despise Diogenes.
Follow your fancy far enough!
At last you surely come to God.
There is thus in this School no attempt to deny that Nature is, as
Zoroaster said, "a fatal and evil force"; but Nature is, so to speak,
"the First Matter of the Work", which is to be transmuted into gold.
The joy is a function of our own part in this alchemy. For this reason
we find the boldest and most skillful adepts deliberately seeking out
the most repugnant elements of Nature that their triumph may be the
greater. The formula is evidently one of dauntless courage. It expresses
the idea of vitality and manhood in its most dynamic sense.
The only religion which corresponds to this School at all is that of
ancient Egypt; possibly also that of Chaldea. This is because those
religions are Magical religions in the strict technical sense; the
religious component of them is negligible. So far as it exists, it
exists only for the uninitiate.
There are, however, traces of the beginning of the influence of the
School in Judaism and in Paganism. There are, too, certain documents
of the pure Greek spirit which bear traces of this. It is what they
called Theurgy.
The Christian religion in its simplest essence, by that idea of over-
coming evil through a Magical ceremony, the Crucifixion, seems at first
sight a fair example of the White tradition; but the idea of sin and
of propitiation tainted it abominably with Blackness. There have been,
however, certain Christian thinkers who have taken the bold logical step
of regarding evil as a device of God for exercising the joys of combat
and victory. This is, of course, a perfectly White doctrine; but it
is regarded as the most dangerous of heresies. (Romans VI. 1,2, et al.)
For all that, the idea is there. The Mass itself is essentially a
typical White ritual. Its purpose is to transform crude matter directly
into Godhead. It is thus a cardinal operation of Talismanic Magick. But
the influence of the Black School has corroded the idea with theological
accretions, metaphysical on the one hand, and superstitious on the other,
so completely as to mask the Truth altogether.
At the Reformation, we find a nugatory attempt to remove the Black ele-
ment. The Protestant thinkers did their best to get rid of the idea of
sin, but it was soon seen that the effort could only lead to antinomian-
ism; and they recognized that this would infallibly destroy the religious
idea as such.
55
Mysticism, both Catholic and Protestant, made a further attempt to free
Christianity from the dark cloud of iniquity. They joined hands with
the Sufis and the Vedantists. But this again led to the mere denial of
the reality of evil. Thus drawing away, little by little, from clear
appreciation of the facts of Nature, their doctrine became purely
theoretical, and faded away, while the thundercloud of sin settled down
more heavily than ever.
The most important of all the efforts of the White School, from an exo-
teric point of view, is Islam. In its doctrine there is some slight
taint, but much less than in Christianity. It is a virile religion.
It looks facts in the face, and admits their horror; but it proposes
to overcome them by sheer dint of manhood. Unfortunately, the meta-
physical conceptions of its quasi-profane Schools are grossly material-
istic. It is only the Pantheism of the Sufis which eliminates the
conception of propitiation; and, in practice, the Sufis are too closely
allied to the Vedantists to retain hold of reality.
That will be all for the present.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER VIII
THE THREE SCHOOLS OF MAGICK (3)
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
It has been a long --- I hope not too tedious --- voyage; but at last the
harbour is in sight.
Our Essay approaches its goal; the theory of Life to which initiation
tends.
Let us continue!
There is in history only one movement whose object has been to organize
the isolated adepts of the White School of Magick, and this movement
was totally unconnected with religion, except in so far as it lent its
influence to the reformers of the Christian church. Its appeal was not
at all to the people. It merely offered to open up relations with, and
communicate certain practical secrets of wisdom to, isolated men of
science through Europe. This movement is generally known by the
name of Rosicrucianism.
The word arouses all sorts of regrettable correspondences; but the
adepts of the Society have never worried themselves in the least about
the abuse of their name for the purposes of charlatanism, or about the
attacks directed against them by envious critics. Indeed, so wisely
have they concealed their activities that some modern scholars of the
shallower type have declared that no such movement ever existed, that
it was a kind of practical joke played upon the curiosity of the credu-
lous Middle Ages. It is at least certain that, since the original
56
proclamations, no official publications have been put forward. The
essential secrets have been maintained inviolate. If, during the last
few years, a considerable number of documents have been published by
them, though not in their name, it is on account of the impending crisis
to civilization, of which mention will later be made.
There is no good purpose, even were there license, to discuss the nature
of the basis of scientific attainment which is the core of the doctrines
of the Society. It is only necessary to point out that its correspondence
with alchemy is the one genuine fact on the subject which has been allowed
to transpire; for the Rosicrucian, as indicated by his central symbol,
the barren cross on which he has made a rose to flower, occupies him-
self primarily with spiritual and physiological alchemy. Taking for
"The First Matter of the Work" a neutral or inert substance (it is con-
stantly described as the commonest and least valued thing on earth, and
may actually connote any substance whatever) he deliberately poisons it,
so to speak, bringing it to a stage of transmutation generally called
the Black Dragon, and he proceeds to work upon this virulent poison until
he obtains the perfection theoretically possible.
Incidentally, we have an almost precise parallel with this operation in
modern bacteriology. The apparently harmless bacilli of a disease are
cultivated until they become a thousand times more virulent than at
first, and it is from this culture that is prepared the vaccine which
is an efficacious remedy for all the possible ravages of that kind of
micro-organism.
. . . . . . . .
We have been obliged to expose, perhaps at too considerable a length,
the main doctrines of the three Schools. The task, however tedious,
has been necessary in order to explain with reasonable lucidity their
connection with the world which their ideas direct; that is to say,
the nature of their political activities.
The Yellow School, in accordance with its doctrine of perfectly elastic
reaction and non-interference, holds itself, generally speaking, entirely
apart from all such questions. We can hardly imagine it sufficiently
interested in any events soever to react aggressively. It feels strong
enough to deal satisfactorily with anything that may turn up: and
generally speaking, it feels that any conceivable action on its part
would be likely to increase rather than to diminish the mischief.
It remains somewhat contemptuously aloof from the eternal conflict of
the Black School with the White. At the same time, there is a certain
feeling among the Yellow adepts that should either of these Schools
become annihilated, the result might well be that the victor would
sooner or later turn his released energy against themselves.
In accordance, therefore, with their general plan of non-action, as
expressed in the Tao Teh King, of dealing with mischief before it
has become too strong to be dangerous, they interfere gently from time to
time to redress the balance.
During the last two generations the Masters of the Yellow School have
been compelled to take notice of the progressive ruin of the White
adepts. Christianity, which possessed at least the semblance of a
White formula, is in the agonies of decomposition, even before it is
57
actually dead. Materialistic science has overwhelmed the faith and
hope of the Christians (they never possessed any charity to overwhelm)
with a demonstration of the sorrow, transitoriness and cruel futility
of the Universe. A vast wave of pessimism has engulfed the fortress
of Mansoul.
It was indeed a deadly blow to the adepts of the White School when
Science, their own familiar friend in whom they trusted, lifted up
his heel against them. It was in this conjuncture that the Yellow
adepts sent forth into the Western world a messenger, Helena Petrowna
Blavatsky, with the distinct mission to destroy, on the one hand, the
crude schools of Christianity, and, on the other, to eradicate the
materialism from Physical Science. She made the necessary connection
with Edward Maitland and Anna Kingsford, who were trying rather
helplessly to put the exoteric formulae of the White School into th
hands of students, and with the secret representatives of the Rosicru-
cian Brotherhood. It is not for us in this place to estimate the
degree of success with which she carried out her embassy; but at
least we see today that Physical Science is at last penetrating to the
spiritual basis of material phenomena. The work of Henry PoincarS,
Einstein, Whitehead, and Bertrand Russell is sufficient evidence of
this fact.
Christianity, too, has fallen into a lower degree of contempt than
ever. Realizing that it was moribund, it made a supreme and suicidal
effort, and plunged into the death-spasm of the first world-war. It
was too far corrupt to react to the injections of the White formula
which might have saved it. We see today that Christianity is more
bigoted, further divorced from reality, than ever. In some countries
it has again become a persecuting church.
With horrid glee the adepts of the Black School looked on at these
atrocious paroxysms. But it did more. It marshalled its forces
quietly, and prepared to clean up the debris of the battlefields. It
is at present (1924 e.v.) pledged to a supreme attempt to chase the
manly races from their spiritual halidom. (The spasm still [1945 e.v.]
continues; note well the pro-German screams of Anglican Bishops, and
the intrigues of the Vatican.)
The Black School has always worked insidiously, by treachery. We need
then not be surprised by finding that its most notable representative
was the renegade follower of Blavatsky, Annie Besant, and that she was
charged by her Black masters with the mission of persuading the world
to accept for its Teacher a negroid36 Messiah. To make the humiliation
more complete, a wretched creature was chosen who, to the most loath-
some moral qualities, added the most fatuous imbecility. And then
blew up!
. . . . . .
This, then, is the present state of the war of the Three Schools. We
cannot suppose that humanity is so entirely base as to accept Krishna-
murti; yet that such a scheme could ever have been conceived is a
symptom of the almost hopeless decadence of the White School37. The
36^ WEH NOTE: Inject something about Krishnamurti here, and soften the racial
remark made above.
37* Note. This passage was written in 1924 e.v. The Master Therion arose
and smote him. What seemed a menace is now hardly even a memory.
58
Black adepts boast openly that they have triumphed all along the line.
Their formula has attained the destruction of all positive qualities.
It is only one step to the stage when the annihilation of all life and
thought will appear as a fatal necessity. The materialism and vital
scepticism of the present time, its frenzied rush for pleasure in total
disregard of any idea of building for the future, testifies to a condi-
tion of complete moral disorder, of abject spiritual anarchy.
The White School has thus been paralysed. We are reminded of the spider
described by Fabre, who injects her victims with a poison which paralyzes
them without killing them, so that her own young may find fresh meat.
And this is what is going to happen in Europe and America unless some-
thing is done about it, and done in very short order.
The Yellow School could not remain impassive spectators of the abomina-
tions. Madame Blavatsky was a mere forerunner. They, in conjunction
with the Secret Chiefs of the White School in Europe, Chiefs who had
been compelled to suspend all attempts at exoteric enlightenment by the
general moral debility which had overtaken the races from which they
drew their adepts, have prepared a guide for mankind. This man, of an
extreme moral force and elevation, combined with a profound sense of
worldly realities, has stood forth in an attempt to save the White School,
to rehabilitate its formula, and to fling back from the bastions of moral
freedom the howling savages of pessimism. Unless his appeal is heard,
unless there comes a truly virile reaction against the creeping atrophy
which is poisoning them, unless they enlist to the last man under his
standard, a great decisive battle will have been lost.
This prophet of the White School, chosen by its Masters and his brethren,
to save the Theory and Practice, is armed with a sword far mightier than
Excalibur. He has been entrusted with a new Magical formula, one which
can be accepted by the whole human race. Its adoption will strengthen
the Yellow School by giving a more positive value to their Theory; while
leaving the postulates of the Black School intact, it will transcend them
and raise their Theory and Practice almost to the level of the Yellow.
As to the White School, it will remove from them all taint of poison of
the Black, and restore vigour to their central formula of spiritual al-
chemy by giving each man an independent ideal. It will put an end to
the moral castration involved in the assumption that each man, whatever
his nature, should deny himself to follow out a fantastic and impracti-
cable ideal of goodness. Incidentally, this formula will save Physical
Science itself by making negligible the despair of futility, the vital
scepticism which has emasculated it in the past. It shows that the joy
of existence is not in a goal, for that indeed is clearly unattainable,
but in the going itself.
This law is called the Law of Thelema. It is summarized in the four
words, "Do what thou wilt."
It should not be necessary to explain that a full appreciation of this
message is not to be obtained by a hasty examination. It is essential
to study it from every point of view, to analyse it with the keenest
philosophical acumen, and finally to apply it as a key for every problem,
internal and external, that exists. This key, applied with skill, will
open every lock.
From the deepest point of view, the greatest value of this formula is
that it affords, for the first time in history, a basis of reconciliation
59
between the three great Schools of Magick. It will tend to appease the
eternal conflict by understanding that each type of thought shall go on
its own way, develop its own proper qualities without seeking to inter-
fere with other formulae, however (superficially) opposed to its own.
What is true for every School is equally true for every individual.
Success in life, on the basis of the Law of Thelema, implies severe
self-discipline. Each being must progress, as biology teaches, by
strict adaptation to the conditions of the organism. If, as the Black
School continually asserts, the cause of sorrow is desire, we can still
escape the conclusion by the Law of Thelema. What is necessary is not
to seek after some fantastic ideal, utterly unsuited to our real needs,
but to discover the true nature of those needs, to fulfill them, and
rejoice therein.
This process is what is really meant by initiation; that is to say, the
going into oneself, and making one's peace, so to speak, with all the
forces that one finds there.
It is forbidden here to discuss the nature of The Book of the Law, the
Sacred Scripture of Thelema. Even after forty years of close expert
examination, it remains to a great extent mysterious; but the little
we know of it is enough to show that it is a sublime synthesis of all
Science and all ethics. It is by virtue of this Book that man may
attain a degree of freedom hitherto never suspected to be possible, a
spiritual development altogether beyond anything hitherto known; and,
what is really more to the point, a control of external nature which
will make the boasted achievements of the last century appear no more
than childish preliminaries to an incomparably mighty manhood.
It has been said by some that the Law of Thelema appeals only to the
âlite of humanity. No doubt here is this much in that assertion, that
only the highest can take full advantage of the extraordinary opportuni-
ties which it offers. At the same time, "the Law is for all." Each in
his degree, every man may learn to realise the nature of his own being,
and to develop it in freedom. It is by this means that the White School
of Magick can justify its past, redeem its present, and assure its
future, by guaranteeing to every human being a life of Liberty and of
Love.
Such, then, are the words of Gârard Aumont. I should not like to endorse
every phrase; but the whole exposition is so masterly in its terse, tense
vigour, and so unrivalled by any other document at my disposal, that I
thought it best to let you have it in its own original form, with only
those few alterations which lapse of time has made necessary.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
P.S. Our own School unites the ruby red of Blood with the gold of the
Sun. It combines the best characteristics of the Yellow and the White
Schools. In the light of M. Aumont's exposition, it is easy to under-
stand.
To us, every phenomenon is an Act of Love, Every experience is necessary,
60
is a Sacrament, is a means of Growth. Hence, "...existence is pure joy;..."
(AL II, 9) "A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture!
A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight!"
(AL II, 42-43).
Let this soak in!
CHAPTER IX
THE SECRET CHIEFS
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Very glad I am, since at one time I was obliged to be starkly stern
about impertinent curiosity, to note that your wish to be informed about
the Secret Chiefs of the A.'.A.'. is justified; it is most certainly of
the first importance that you and I should be quite clear in our minds
about Those under whose jurisdiction and tutelage we both work.
The question is beset with thickets of tough thorn; what is worse, the
path is so slippery that nothing is easier than to tumble head first
into the spikiest bush of them all.
You justly remind me that one of my earliest slogans was "Mystery is the
enemy of Truth;" how then is it what I acquiesce in the policy of con-
cealment in a matter so cardinal?
Perhaps the best plan is for me to set down the facts of the case, so
far as is possible, from them it may appear that no alternative policy
is feasible.
The first condition of membership of the A.'.A.'. is that one is sworn
to identify one's own Great Work with that of raising mankind to higher
levels, spiritually, and in every other way.
Accordingly, it stands to reason that those charged with the conduct of
the Order should be at least Masters of the Temple, or their judgment
would be worthless, and at least Magi (though not that particular kind
of Magus who brings the Word of a New Formula to the world every 2,000
years of so) or they would be unable to influence events on any scale
commensurate with the scope of the Work.
Of what nature is this Power, this Authority, this Understanding, this
Wisdom --- Will?
(I go up from Geburah to Chokmah.)
Of the passive side it is comparatively easy to form some idea; for the
qualities essential are mainly extensions of those that all of us possess
in some degree. And whether Understanding - Wisdom is "right" or "wrong"
must be largely a matter of opinion; often Time only can decide such
points.
But for the active side it is necessary to postulate the existence of a
form of Energy at their disposal which is able "to cause change to occur
in conformity with the Will" --- one definition of "Magick".
61
Now this, as you know, is an exceedingly complex subject; its theory
is tortuous, and its practice encompassed with every kind of difficulty.
Is there no simple method?
Yes: the thaumaturgic engine disposes of a type of energy more adaptable
than Electricity itself, and both stronger and subtler than this, its
analogy in the world of profane science. One might say, that it is elec-
trical, or at least one of the elements in the "Ring-formula" of modern
Mathematical Physics.
In the R.R. et A.C., this is indicated to the Adept Minor by the title
conferred upon him on his initiation to that grade: Hodos Camelionis:
--- the Path of the Chameleon. (This emphasizes the omnivalence of the
force.) In the higher degrees of O.T.O. --- the A.'.A.'. is not fond of
terms like this, which verge on the picturesque --- it is usually called
"the Ophidian Vibrations", thus laying special stress upon its serpentine
strength, subtlety, its control of life and death, and its power to insin-
uate itself into any desired set of circumstances.
It is of this universally powerful weapon that the Secret Chiefs must be
supposed to possess complete control.
They can induce a girl to embroider a tapestry, or initiate a political
movement to culminate in a world-war; all in pursuit of some plan wholly
beyond the purview or the comprehension of the deepest and subtlest
thinkers.
(It should go without saying that the adroit use of these vibrations
enables one to perform all the classical "miracles.")
These powers are stupendous: they seem almost beyond imagination to
conceive.
"Hic ego nec metas rerum nec tempora pono;
Imperium sine fine dedi."
as Vergil, that mighty seer and magician of Rome at her perihelion says
in his First Book of the Aenead. (Vergil whose every line is also an
Oracle, the leaves of his book more sacred, more significant, more sure
than those of the Cumaean Sibyl!)
These powers move in dimensions of time and space quite other than those
with which we are familiar. Their values are incomprehensible to us.
To a Secret Chief, wielding this weapon, "The nice conduct of a clouded
cane" might be infinitely more important than a war, famine and pesti-
lence such as might exterminate a third part of the race, to promote
whose welfare is the crux of His oath, and the sole reason of His
existence!
But who are They?
Since They are "invisible" and "inaccessible," may They not merely be
figments invented by a self-styled "Master," not quite sure of himself,
to prop his tottering Authority?
Well, the "invisible" and "inaccessible" criticism may equally be
62
leveled at Captain A. and Admiral B. of the Naval Intelligence
Department. These "Secret Chiefs" keep in the dark for precisely the
same reasons; and these qualities disappear instantaneously the moment
They want to get hold of you.
It is written, moreover, "Let my servants be few & secret: they shall
rule the many & the known." (AL I, 10)
But are They then men, in the usual sense of the word? They may be
incarnate or discarnate: it is a matter of Their convenience.
Have They attained Their position by passing through all the grades of
the A.'.A.'.?
Yes and no: the system which was given to me to put forward is only
one of many. "Above the Abyss" all these technical wrinkles are ironed
out. One man whom I suspect of being a Secret Chief has hardly any
acquaintance with the technique of our system at all. That he accepts
The Book of the Law is almost his only link with my work. That, and
his use of the Ophidian Vibrations: I don't know which of us is better
at it, but I am sure that he must be a very long way ahead of me if he
is one of Them.
You have already in these pages and elsewhere in my writings examples
numerous and varied of the way in which They work. The list is far
from complete. The matters of Ab-ul-Diz and of Amalantrah show one
method of communication; then there is the way of direct "inspiration,"
as in the case of "Hermes Eimi" in New Orleans38.
Again, They may send an ordinary living man, whether one of Themselves
or no I cannot feel sure, to instruct me in some task, or to set me
right when I have erred. Then there have been messages conveyed by
natural objects, animate or inanimate39. Needless to say, the outstand-
ing example in my life is the whole Plan of Campaign concerning The
Book of the Law. But is Aiwaz a man (presumably a Persian or Assyrian)
and a "Secret Chief," or is He an "angel" in the sense that Gabriel is
an angel? Is Ab-ul-Diz an Adept who can project himself into the aura
of some woman with whom I happen to be living, although she has no pre-
vious experience of the kind, or any interest in such matters at all?
Or is He a being whose existence is altogether beyond this plane, only
adopting human appearance and faculties in order to make Himself sensible
and intelligible to that woman?
I have never attempted to pursue any such enquiry. It was not forbidden;
and yet I felt that it was! I always insisted, of course, on the strict-
est proof that He actually possessed the authority claimed by Him! But
I felt is improper to assume any other initiative. Just a point of good
manners, perhaps?
You ask whether, contact once made, I am able to renew it should I so
wish. Again, yes and no. But the real answer is that no such gesture
on my part can ever be necessary. For one thing, the "Chief" is so far
38* I will remember to give you details of these incidents when the
occasion arises.
39* One thing I regard from my own experience as certain: when you call,
They come. The circumstances usually show that the call had been fore-
seen, and preparations made to answer it, long before it was made. But
I suppose in some way the call has to justify the making.
63
above me that I can rely on Him to take the necessary steps, whenever
contact would be useful; for another, there is one path always open
which is perfectly sufficient for all possible contingencies.
Elsewhere I will explain why they picked out so woebegone a ragamuffin
as myself to proclaim the Word of the Aeon, and do all the chores appur-
tenant to that particular Work.
The Burden is heavier as the years go by; but --- Perdurabo.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
P.S. Reading this typescript over for "literals," it struck me that you
would ask, very reasonably: "But if the Secret Masters have these bound-
less powers, why do They allow you to be plagued by printers, held up
for lack of secretaries, worried by all sorts of practical problems?
. . . Why, in a word, does anything ever go wrong?"
There are several lines of reply; coalescing, they suffice:
1. What is "wrong?" Since four wars is Their idea of "right," you may
well ask by what standard you may judge events.
2. Their Work is creative; They operate on the dull mass of unrealized
possibilities. Thus they meet, firstly, the opposition of Inertia;
secondly, the recoil, the reaction, the rebound.
3. Things theoretically feasible are practically impossible when (a)
desirable though their accomplishment may be, it is not the one feat
essential to the particular Work in hand and the moment; (b) the sum
total of available energy being used up by that special task, there is
none available for side-issues; (c) the opposition, passive or active,
is too strong, temporarily, to overcome.
More largely, one cannot judge how a plan is progressing when one has
no precise idea what it is. A soldier is told to "attack;" he may be
intended to win through, to cover a general retreat, or to gain time by
deliberate sacrifice. Only the Commander in Chief knows what the order
means, or why he issues it; and even he does not know the issue, or
whether it will display and justify his military skill and judgment.
Our business is solely to obey orders: our responsibility ends when we
have satisfied ourselves that they emanate from a source which has the
right to command.
P.P.S. A visitor's story has just reminded me of the possibility that
I am a Secret Chief myself without knowing it: for I have sometimes
been recognized by other people as having acted as such, though I was
not aware of the fact at the time.
CHAPTER X
THE SCOLEX SCHOOL
64
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
You actually want to know how to distinguish gold from copper pyrites40 ---
"fool's gold" they called it in '49 California --- no! I wasn't there ---
or "absolute" alcohol and --- Liqueur Whisky from "alki" (commercial alcohol
---
see Jack London's The Princess, a magnificent story --- don't miss it!)
and Wartime Scotch as sold in most British pubs in 1944, era vulgari.
One pretty good plan is to take a masterpiece, pick out a page at random,
translate it into French or German or whatever language you like best,
walk around your chair three times (so as to forget the English) and then
translate it back again.
You will gather a useful impression of the value of the masterpiece by
noticing the kind of difficulty that arises in the work of translation;
more, by observing the effect produced on you by reading over the result;
and finally, by estimating the re-translation; has the effect of the
original been enhanced by the work done on it? Has it become more lucid?
Has it actually given you the information which it purported to do?
(I am giving you credit for very unusual ability; this test is not easy
to make; and, obviously, you may have spoilt the whole composition,
especially where its value depends on its form rather than on its sub-
stance. But we are not considering poetry, or poetic prose; all we
want is intelligible meaning.)
It does not follow that a passage is nonsensical because you fail to
understand it; it may simply be too hard for you. When Bertrand Russell
writes "We say that a function R is 'ultimately Q-convergent ˆ' if
there is a member y of the converse domain of R and the field of Q such
that the value of the function for the argument y and for any argument
to which y has the relation Q is a member of ˆ." Do we?
But you do not doubt that if you were to learn the meaning of all these
unfamiliar terms, you would be able to follow his thought.
Now take a paragraph from an "occult teacher."
What's more, I'll give you wheat, not tares; it seems terrifyingly easy
for sound instruction to degenerate in to a "pi-jaw." Here goes!
"To don Nirmanakaya's humble robe is to forego eternal bliss for
self, to help on man's salvation. To reach Nirvana's bliss but to
renounce it, is the supreme, the final step --- the highest on Renun-
ciation's Path."
Follows a common-sense comment by Frater O.M.
"All this about Gautama Buddha having renounced Nirvana is apparently
all a pure invention of Mme. Blavatsky, and has no authority in the
Buddhist canon. The Buddha is referred to, again and again, as having
'passed away by that kind of passing away which leaves nothing what-
40^ WEH NOTE: If Homer can nod, so can Crowley. The mineral called fool's
gold is actually iron pyrites, not copper. It has a brassy look, and that
might account for this error.
65
ever behind.' The account of his doing this is given in the
Mahaparinibbana Sutta; and it was the contention of the Toshophists
that this 'great, sublime Nibbana story' was something peculiar to
Gautama Buddha. They began to talk about Parinibbana, super-Nibbana,
as if there were some way of subtracting one from one which would
leave a higher, superior kind of a nothing, or as if there were some
way of blowing out a candle which would leave Moses in a much more
Egyptian darkness than we ever supposed when we were children.
"This is not science. This is not business. This is American Sun-
day journalism. The Hindu and the American are very much alike in
this innocence, this 'naivetâ' which demands fairy stories with ever
bigger giants. They cannot bear the idea of anything being complete
and done with. So, they are always talking in superlatives, and are
hard put to it when the facts catch up with them, and they have to
invent new superlatives. Instead of saying that there are bricks of
various sizes, and specifying those sizes, they have a brick and a
super-brick, and 'one' brick, and 'some' brick; and when they have
got to the end they chase through the dictionary for some other
epithet to brick, which shall excite the sense of wonder at the
magnificent progress and super-progress --- I present the American
public with this word --- which is supposed to have been made. Probably
the whole thing is a bluff without a single fact behind it. Almost
the whole of the Hindu psychology is an example of this kind of
journalism. They are not content with the supreme God. The other
man wishes to show off by having a supremer God than that, and when
a third man comes along and finds them disputing, it is up to him to
invent a supremest super-God.
"It is simply ridiculous to try to add to the definition of Nibbana
by this invention of Parinibbana, and only talkers busy themselves
with these fantastic speculations. The serious student minds his
own business, which is the business in hand. The President of a
Corporation does not pay his bookkeeper to make a statement of the
countless billions of profit to be made in some future year. It
requires no great ability to string a row of zeros after a signifi-
cant figure until the ink runs out. What is wanted is the actual
balance of the week.
"The reader is most strongly urged not to permit himself to indulge
in fantastic flights of thought, which are the poison of the mind,
because they represent an attempt to run away from reality, a dis-
persion of energy and a corruption of moral strength. His business
is, firstly, to know himself; secondly, to order and control him-
self; thirdly, to develop himself on sound organic lines little by
little. The rest is only leather and prunella.
"There is, however, a sense in which the service of humanity is
necessary to the completeness of the Adept. He is not to fly away
too far.
"Some remarks on this course are given in the note to the next verse.
"The student is also advised to take note of the conditions of member-
ship of the A.'.A.'.". (Equinox III, Supplement pp. 57 - 59).
So much for the green tree; now for the dry!
66
We come down to the average popular "teacher," the mere humbug. Read
this: ---
"One day quite soon an entirely different kind of electricity will
be discovered which will bring as many profound changes into human
living as the first type did. This new electricity will move in a
finer ether than does our familiar kind, and thus w
CHAPTER XVI
ON CONCENTRATION
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
You wisely ask me for a special letter on Concentration; you point out
that I have implied it constantly, but never given plain instruction.
It hope I have not been so vague as to allow you to suppose that Concen-
tration Camps are evidence that benevolent and enlightened governments
are at last seriously concerned to educate the world to Yoga; but I do
agree that it cannot do great harm if I take a dose of my own medicine,
and gather into one golden sheaf all the ripe corn of my wisdom on this
subject.
For concentration does indeed unlock all doors; it lies at the heart of
every practice as it is of the essence of all theory; and almost all
the various rules and regulations are aimed at securing adeptship in
this matter. All the subsidiary work --- awareness, one-pointedness, mind-
fullness and the rest --- is intended to train you to this.
All the greetings, salutations, "Saying Will," periodical adorations, even
saying "apo pantos kakodaimonos" with a downward and outward sweep of the
arm, the eyes averted, when one sees a person dressed in a religious
(Christian) uniform: all these come under "Don't stroke the cat the wrong
way!" or, in the modern pseudo-scientific journalese jargon "streamlining
life."
Let us see if Frater Perdurabo has anything to the point! Of course,
Part I of Book 4 is devoted to it; but there is too much, and not enough,
to be useful to us just now.
What your really need is the official Instruction in The Equinox, and the
very fullest and deepest understanding of Eight Lectures on Yoga; but
these lectures are so infernally interesting that when I look into the
book for something to quote, it carries me away with it. I can't put it
down, I forget all about this letter. Rather a back-handed advertisement
for Concentration!
The best way is the hardest; to forget all this and start from the begin-
ning as if there had never been anything on the subject written before.
I must keep always in mind that you are assumed to know nothing whatever
about Yoga and Magick, or anything else beyond what the average educated
person may be assumed to have been taught.
What is the problem? There are two.
Beta: To train the mind to move with the maximum speed and energy,
with the utmost possible accuracy in the chosen direction, and
with the minimum of disturbance or friction. That is Magick.
1
Alpha: To stop the mind altogether. That is Yoga.
The rules, strangely enough, are identical in both cases; at least, until
your "Magick" is perfect; Yoga merely goes on a step further. In Beta
you have reduced all movements from many to One; in Alpha you reduce that
One to Zero.
Now then, with a sigh of relief, know you this: that every possible inci-
dent in the Beta training is mutatis mutandis, perfectly familiar to the
engineer.
The material must be chosen and prepared in the kind and in the manner,
best suited to the design of the intended machine; the various parts
must be put together with the utmost precision; every obstacle to the
function must be removed, and every source of error eliminated. Now cheer
up, child! In the case of a machine that he has devised and constructed
himself with every condition in his favour, he thinks he is doing not too
badly if he gets some fifteen or twenty per cent of the calculated effi-
ciency out of the instrument; and even Nature, with millions of years
to adjust and improve, very often cannot boast of having done much better.
So you have no reason to be discouraged if success does not smile upon you
in the first week or so of your Work, starting as you do with material of
whose properties you are miserably ignorant, with means pitifully limited,
with Laws of Nature which you do not understand; in fact, with almost
everything against you but indomitable Will and unconquerable courage.
(I know I'm a poor contemptible Lowbrow; but I refuse to be ashamed for
finding Kipling's If and Henley's Don't remember-the title; they may not
be poetry --- but they are honest food and damned good beer for the plebeian
wayfarer. It was such manhood, not the left-wing high-brow Bloomsbury
sissies, that kept London through the blitz. Pray forgive the digression!)
There is only one method to adopt in such circumstances as those of the
Aspirant to Magick and Yoga: the method of Science. Trial and error.
You must observe. That implies, first of all, that you must learn to ob-
serve. And you must record your observations. No circumstance of life
is, or can be irrelevant. "He that is not with me is against me." In
all these letters you will find only two things: either I tell you what
is bad for you, or what is good for you. But I am not you; I don't know
every detail of your life, every trick of your thought. You must do ninety
percent of the work for yourself. Whether it is love, or your daily avo-
cation, or diet, or friends, or amusement, or anything else, you must
find out what helps you to your True Will and what hinders; cherish the
one and eschew the other.
I want to insist most earnestly that concentration is not, as we nearly
all of us think, a matter of getting things right in the practices; you
must make every breath you draw subservient to the True Will, to fertilize
the soil for the practices. When you sit down in your Asana to quiet your
mind, it is much easier for you if your whole life has tended to relative
quietude; when you knock with your Wand to announce the opening of an
Invocation, it is better if the purpose of that ceremony has been simmer-
ing in the background of your thought since childhood!
Yes indeed: background!
Deep down, on the very brink of the subconscious, are all those facts
which have determined you to choose this your Great Work.
2
Then, the ambition, conscious, which arranges the general order and dispo-
sition of your life.
Lastly, the practices themselves. And my belief is that the immense
majority of failures have their neglect to brush up their drill to thank
for it.
For technical advice on all these subjects, I shall refer you to those
official works mentioned in the early part of this letter; I shall be
happy if you will take to heart what I am now so violently thrusting at
you, this Middle Work of Concentration.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XVII
ASTRAL JOURNEY, EXAMPLE. HOW TO DO IT:
HOW TO VERIFY YOUR EXPERIENCES
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
There is no better way of training the memory than the practice of the
Holy Qabalah.
The whole mechanism of memory depends on joining up independent data.
You must go on adding a little to little, always joining the simple impres-
sions by referring them to others which are more general; and so on
until the whole of your universe is arranged like the brain and the
nervous system. This system in fact, becomes the Universe. When you
have got everything properly correlated, your central consciousness
understands and controls every tiniest detail. But you must begin at
the beginning --- you go out for a walk, and the first thing you see is
a car; that represents the Atu VII, the Chariot, referred to Cancer.
Then you come to a fishmonger, and notice certain crustacea, very mala
chostomous. This comes under the same sign of Cancer. The next thing
you notice is an amber-coloured dress in Swan and Edgar's; amber also
is the colour of Cancer in the King's Scale. Now then you have a set
of three impressions which is joined together by the fact that they all
belong to the Cancer class; experience will soon teach that you can
remember all three very much more clearly and accurately than you could
any one of the three singly.
You have not increased the burden on your memory, but diminished it.
What you say about tension and eagerness and haste is very true. See
The Book of the Law, Chapter I, 44.
"For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of
result, is every way perfect."
This, from a practical point of view, is one of the most important verses
3
in the book.
The unusual word "unassuaged" is very interesting. People generally
suppose that "will" is the slave of purpose, that you cannot will a thing
properly unless you are aiming at a definite goal. But this is not the
case. Thinking of the goal actually serves to distract the mind. In
these few words is included the whole method without all the bombastic
piety of the servile doctrine of mysticism about the surrender of the
Will. Nor is this idea of surrender actually correct; the will must be
identified with the Divine Will, so-called. One wants to become like a
mighty flowing river, which is not consciously aiming at the sea, and is
certainly not yielding to any external influence. It is acting in
conformity with the law of its own nature, with the Tao. One can describe
it, if necessary, as "passive love"; but it is love (in effect) raised
to its highest potential. We come back to the same thing: when passion
is purged of any "lust of result" it is irresistible; it has become "Law."
I can never understand why it is that mystics fail to see that their
smarmy doctrine of surrender actually insists upon the duality which they
have set out to abolish!
I certainly have no intention of "holding you down" to "a narrow path of
work" or any path. All I can do is to help you to understand clearly the
laws of your own nature, so that you may go ahead without extraneous
influence. It does not follow that a plan that I have found successful
in my own case will be any use to you. That is another cardinal mistake
of most teachers. One must have become a Master of the Temple to annihi-
late one's ego. Most teachers, consciously or unconsciously, try to get
others to follow in their steps. I might as well dress you up in my cast-
off clothing! (In the steps of the Master. At the feet of the Master.
Steward!)
Please observe that the further you get on, the higher your potential,
the greater is the tendency to leak, or even to break the containing
vessel. I can help you by warning you against setting up obstacles, real
or imaginary, in your own path; which is what most people do. It is
almost laughable to think that the Great Work consists merely in "letting
her rip;" but Karma bumps you from one side of the toboggan slide to the
other, until you "come into the straight." (There's a chapter or two in
the Book of Lies about this, but I haven't got a copy. I must find one,
and put them in here. Yes: p. 22)
O thou that settest out upon the Path, false is the Phantom that thou
seekest. When thou hast it thou shalt know all bitterness, thy teeth
fixed in the Sodom-Apple.
Thus hast thou been lured along that Path, whose terror else had
driven thee far away.
O thou that stridest upon the middle of the Path, no phantoms mock
thee. For the stride's sake thou stridest.
Thus art thou lured along that Path, whose fascination else had
driven thee far away.
O thou that drawest toward the End of The Path, effort is no more.
Faster and faster dost thou fall; thy weariness is changed into
Ineffable Rest.
4
For there is no Thou upon that Path: thou hast become The Way.
As in the Yi King, the 3rd hexagram has departed from the original perfec-
tion, and it takes all the rest of the hexagrams to put things right again.
The result, it is true, is superior; the perfection of the original has
been enhanced and enriched by its experience.
There is another way of defining the Great Work. That explains to us the
whole object of manifestation, of departing from the perfection of "Nothing"
towards the perfection of "everything", and one may consider this advan-
tage, that it is quite impossible to go wrong. Every experience, whatever
may be its nature, is just another necessary bump.
Naturally one cannot realize this until one becomes a Master of the Temple;
consequently one is perpetually plunged in sorrow and despair. There is,
you see, a good deal more to it than merely learning one's mistakes. One
can never be sure what is right and what is wrong, until one appreciates
that "wrong" is equally "right." Now then one gets rid of the idea of
"effort" which is associated with "lust of result." All that one does is
to exercise pleasantly and healthfully one's energies.
It will not do to regard "man" as the "final cause" of manifestation.
Please do not quote myself against me.
"Man is so infinitely small,
In all these stars, determinate.
Maker and master of them all,
Man is so infinitely great."
The human apparatus is the best instrument of which we are, at present,
aware in our normal consciousness; but when you come to experience the
Conversation of the higher intelligences, you will understand how imper-
fect are your faculties. It is true that you can project these intelli-
gences as parts of yourself, or you can suppose that certain human vehicles
may be temporally employed by them for various purposes; but these specu-
lations tend to be idle. The important thing is to make contact with
beings, whatever their nature, who are superior to yourself, not merely
in degree but it kind. That is to say, not merely different as a Great
Dane differs from a Chihuahua, but as a buffalo differs from either.
Of course you are perfectly right about the senses, though I would not
agree to confine the meaning to the five which are common to most people.
There must, one might suspect, be ways of apprehending directly such
phenomena as magnetism, electrical resistance, chemical affinity and the
like. Let me direct you once more to The Book of the Law, Chapter II, vs.
70 - 72.
"There is help & hope in other spells. Wisdom says: be strong!
Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture!
If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou
love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be
subtlety therein!
"But exceed! exceed!
"Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine --- and doubt it not,
an if thou art ever joyous! --- death is the crown of all."
5
The mystic's idea of deliberately stupefying and stultifying himself is
an "abomination unto the Lord." This, by the way, does not conflict with
the rules of Yoga. That kind of suppression is comparable to the restric-
tions in athletic training, or diet in sickness.
Now we get back to the Qabalah --- how to make use of it.
Let us suppose that you have been making an invocation, or shall we call
it an investigation, and suppose you want to interpret a passage of Bach.
To play this is the principal weapon of your ceremony. In the course of
your operation, you assume your astral body and rise far above the terres-
trial atmosphere, while the music continues softly in the background.
You open your eyes, and find that it is night. Dark clouds are on the
horizon; but in the zenith is a crown of constellations. This light
helps you, especially as your eyes become accustomed to the gloom, to
take in your surroundings. It is a bleak and barren landscape. Terrific
mountains rim the world. In the midst looms a cluster of blue-black crags.
Now there appears from their recesses a gigantic being. His strength,
especially in his hands and in his loins, it terrifying. he suggests a
combination of lion, mountain goat and serpent; and you instantly jump
to the idea that this is one of the rare beings which the Greeks called
Chimaera. So formidable is his appearance that you consider it prudent
to assume an appropriate god-form. But who is the appropriate god? You
may perhaps consider it best, in view of your complete ignorance as to
who he is and where you are, to assume the god-form of Harpocrates, as
being good defence in any case; but of course this will not take you very
far. If you are sufficiently curious and bold, you will make up your mind
rapidly on this point. This is where your daily practice of the Qabalah
will come in useful. You run through in your mind the seven sacred planets.
The very first of them seems quite consonant with what you have so far
seen. Everything suits Saturn well enough. To be on the safe side, you
go through the others; but this is a very obvious case --- Saturn is the
only planet that agrees with everything. The only other possibility will
be the Moon; but there is no trace noticeable of any of her more amiable
characteristics. You will therefore make up your mind that it is a
Saturnian god-form that you need. Fortunate indeed for you that you have
practiced daily the assumption of such forms! Very firmly, very steadily,
very slowly, very quietly, you transform your normal astral appearance
into that of Sebek. The Chimaera, recognizing your divine authority,
becomes less formidable and menacing in appearance. He may, in some way,
indicate his willingness to serve you. Very good, so far; but it is of
course the first essential to make sure of his integrity. Accordingly
you begin by asking his name. This is vital; because if he tells you the
truth, it gives you power over him. But if, on the other hand, he tells
you a lie, he abandons for good and all his fortress. He becomes rather
like a submarine whose base has been destroyed. He may do you a lot of
mischief in the meantime, of course, so look out!
Well then, he tells you that his name is Ottillia. Shall we try to spell
it in Greek or in Hebrew. By the sound of the name and perhaps to some
extent by his appearance one might plump for the former; but after all
the Greek Qabalah is so unsatisfactory. We give Hebrew the first chance ---
we start with Ayin Teth Yod Lamed Yod Aleph Hay {render in Hebrew}. Let us
try this lettering for a start. It adds
up to 135. I daresay that you don't remember what the Sepher Sephiroth
tells you about the number; but as luck will have it, there is no need
to inquire; for 135 = 3 x 45. Three is the number, is the first number
of Saturn, and 45 the last. (The sum of the numbers in the magic {sic} square
6
of Saturn is 45.) That corresponds beautifully with everything you have
got so far; but then of course you must know if he is "one of the beliv-
ing Jinn." Briefly, is he a friend or an enemy? You accordingly say to
him "The word of the Law is Thelema {spell it in Greek}" It turns out that he
doesn't under-
stand Greek at all, so you were certainly right in choosing Hebrew. You
put it to him, "What is the word of the Law?" and he replies darkly.
"The word of the Law is Thora." That means nothing to you; any one might
know as much as that, Thora being the ordinary word for the Sacred Law of
Israel, and you accordingly ask him to spell it to make sure you have
heard aright; and he gives you the letters, perhaps by speaking them,
perhaps by showing them: Teth, Resh, Ayin. You add these up and get
279. This again is divisible by the Saturnian 3, and the result is 93;
in other words, he has been precisely right. On the plane of Saturn one
may multiply by three and therefore he has given you the correct word
"Thelema" in a form unfamiliar to you. You man now consider yourself
satisfied of his good faith, and may proceed to inspect him more closely.
The stars above his head suggest the influence of Binah, whose number also
is three, while the most striking thing about him is the core of his being:
the letter Yod. (One does not count the termination "AH": being a divine
suffix it represents the inmost light and the outermost light.) This Yod,
this spark of intense brilliance, is of the pale greenish gold which one
sees (in this world) in the fine gold leaf of Tibet. It glows with ever
greater intensity as you concentrate upon observing him, which you could
not do while you were preoccupied with investigating his credentials.
Confidence being thus established, you inquire why he as appeared to you
at this time and at this place; and the answer to this question is of
course your original idea, that is to say, he is presenting to you in
other terms that "mountainous Fugue" which invoked him. You listen to
him with attention, make such enquiries as seem good to you, and record
the proceedings.
The above example is, of course, pure imagination, and represents a very
favourable case. You are only too likely, and that not only at the begin-
ning, to meet all sorts of difficulties and dangers.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XVIII
THE IMPORTANCE OF OUR CONVENTIONAL GREETINGS, ETC.
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
From time to time I have exhorted you with mine accustomed matchless
eloquence never to neglect the prescribed Greetings: but I think it just
as well to collect the various considerations connected with their use ---
and in "Greetings" I include "saying Will" before set meals, the four
daily adorations of the Sun (Liber CC, vel Resh) and the salutation of
Our Lady the Moon. I propose to deal with the general object of the
combined rituals, not with the special virtues of each separately.
7
The practice of Liber III vel Jugorum1 is the complement of these grouped
customs. By sharp physical self-chastisement when you think, say, or do
whatever it is that you have set yourself to avoid doing, you set a sentry
at the gate of your mind ready to challenge all comers, and so you acquire
the habit of being on the alert. Keep this in mind, and you will have no
difficulty in following the argument of this letter.
When you are practicing Dharana2 concentration, you allow yourself so
many minutes. It is a steady, sustained effort. The mind constantly
struggles to escape control. (I hope you remember the sequence of "breaks."
In case you don't, I summarize them.
(1) Immediate physical interruptions: Asana should stop these.
(2) Things that are "on you mind."
(3) Reverie, and "Wouldn't it help if I were to --- ?"
(4) Atmospherics --- e.g. voices apparently from some alien source.
(5) Aberrations of the control itself; and the result itself.
(Remember the practice of some Hindu schools: "Not that, not
that!" to whatever it is the presents itself as Tat Sat ---
reality, truth).
Need I remind you how urgent the wish to escape will assuredly become,
how fantastic are the mind's devices and excuses, amounting often to
deliberate revolt? In Kandy I broke away in a fury, and dashed down to
Colombo with the intention of painting the very air as red as the betel-
spittle on the pavements! But after three days of futile search for
satisfying debauchery I came back to my horses, and, sure enough, it was
merely that I had gone stale; the relaxation soothed and steadied me; I
resumed the discipline with redoubled energy, and Dhyana dawned before a
week had elapsed.
I mention this because it is the normal habit of the mind to organize
these counter-attacks that makes their task so easy. What you need is a
mind that will help rather than hinder your Work by its normal function.
This is where these Greetings, and Will-sayings, and Adorations come in.
It is not a concentration-practice proper; I haven't a good word for it.
"Background-concentration" or "long-distance-concentration" are clumsy,
and not too accurate. It is really rather like a public school education.
One is not constantly "doing a better thing that one has ever done;" one
is not dropping one's eye-glass every two minutes, or being a little
gentleman in the act of brushing one's hair. The point is that one trains
oneself to react properly at any moment of surprise. It must become
"second nature" for "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." to
spring to the forefront of the mind when one is introduced to a stranger,
or comes down to breakfast, or hears the telephone bell, or observes the
hour of the adoration, (these are to be the superficial reactions, like
instinctively rising when a lady enters the room), or, at the other end,
in moments of immediate peril, or of sudden apprehension, or when in one's
meditation, one approaches the deepest strata.
1* See Magick in Theory and Practice, pp. 427 - 429.
2** Book 4, Part I.
8
One need not be dogmatic about the use of these special words. One might
choose a formula to represent one's own particular True Will. It is a
little like Cato, (or Scipio, was it?) who concluded every speech, whether
about the Regulations of the Roman Bath or the proposal to reclaim a marsh
of the Maremma, with the words: "And moreover, in my opinion, Carthage
ought to be destroyed."
Got it?
You teach the mind to push your thought automatically to the very thing
from which it was trying to wander. "Yes, I get you Stephen! . . . But,
Uncle Dudley, come clean, do you always do all this yourself? Don't you
sometimes feel embarrassed, or fear that you may destroy the effect of
your letter, or "create a scene" in the public street when you suddenly
stop and perform these incomprehensible antics, or simply forget about
the whole thing?"
Yes, I do.
Peccavi.
Mea culpa, mea macima culpa.
I am not your old and valued friend, Adam Qadmon, the Perfect Man.
I am a pretty poor specimen.
I am nothing to cable about to Lung Peng Choung, or Himi, or Monsalvat.
I do forget now and again; though, I am glad to say, not nearly as often
as I used to do. (As the habit is acquired, it tends to strengthen
itself). But often I deliberately omit to do my duty. I do funk it.
I do resent it. I do feel that it's too much bother.
As I said above, Adam Qadman is not my middle name.
Well now, have I any shadow of an excuse? Yes, I have, after a fashion;
I don't think it good manners to force my idiosyncrasies down people's
throats, and I don't want to appear more of an eccentric than I need.
It might detract from my personal influence, and so actually harm the
Work that I am trying to perform. . .
"Yes, that's all very well, Alibi Ike; you are exceedingly well know as
a Scripture-quoting Satan, as a Past-Master in self-justification.
Trained from infancy by the Plymouth Brethern, who for casuistry leave
the Jesuits at the post!" "Yes, yes, but --- --- ---."
"You needn't but me no buts, you old he-goat! Wasn't there once a Jonas
Hanway, the first man to sport an umbrella? Wouldn't your practice be
natural, and right, and the cream of the cream of good manners as soon
as a few hundred people of position took to doing it? And wouldn't
Thomas, Richard, and Henry, three months later, make a point of doing the
same as their betters?" (That was Conscience speaking.)
All right, you win.
Love is the law, love under will.
9
Yours Fraternally,
CHAPTER XIX
THE ACT OF TRUTH
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
It seems that last Wednesday I so far forgot myself as to refer to the
"Act of Truth" in conversation, and never mentioned what it is when it's
at home, or why anyone should perform it, or what happens when one does
perform it!
All right, I will remedy that; luckily, it is a very simple matter;
very important, perfectly paradoxical and devastatingly effective.
Analysed, it is to make the assumption that something which seems very
wrong is actually all right, that an eager wish is an accomplished fact.
a reasonable anxiety, entirely unfounded --- and to act accordingly.
For instance, I'm in some desolate place, dependent for my food supply
on a weekly messenger. If he is a day late, it is awkward; if two, it
means hardship; if three, serious risk. One is naturally anxious as the
day approaches; perhaps the weather, or some similar snag, makes it
likely that he will be late. From one cause or another, I have rather
exceeded my ration. There is nothing I can do about it, materially.
The sensible course of action is to draw in my horns, live on the mini-
mun, necessary to life, which involves cutting the day's work down to
almost noting, and hope for the best, expecting the worst.
But there is a Magical mode of procedure. You say to yourself: I am
here to do this Work in accordance with my true Will. The Gods have got
to see to it that I'm not baulked by any blinking messenger. (But take
care They don't overhear you; They might mistake it for Hybris, or pre-
sumption. Do it all in the Sign of Silence, under the aegis of Harpocrates,
the "Lord of Defence and Protection"; be careful to assume his God-form,
as standing on two crocodiles. Then you increase your consumption, and
at the same time put in a whole lot of extra Work. If you perform this
"Act of Truth" properly, with genuine conviction that nothing can go
wrong, your messenger will arrive a day early, and bring an extra large
supply.
This, let me say at once, is very difficult, especially at first, until
one has gained confidence in the efficacy of the Formula; and it is very
nastily easy to "fake." Going through the motions (as they say) is more
futile here than in most cases, and the results of messing it up are
commonly disastrous.3
You must invent your act to suit your case, every time; suppose you
expect a cable next Friday week, transferring cash to your account. You
need $500 to make up an important payment, and you don't know whether
they will send even $200. What are you going to do about it? Skimp,
and save your expenses, and make yourself miserable and incapable of
3* Do not be misled by any apparent superficial resemblance to "Christian
Science" and "Coueism" and their cackling kin. They miss every essential
feature of the formula.
10
vigorous thought or action? You may succeed in saving enough to swing
the deal; but you won't get a penny beyond the amount actually needed ---
and look at the cost in moral grandeur!
No, go and stand yourself a champagne luncheon, and stroll up Bond Street
with an 8 1/2 "Hoyo de Monterey," and squander $30 on some utterly useless
bauble. Then the $500 will swell to $1000, and arrive two days early at
that!
There are one or two points to consider very carefully indeed before you
start: ---
1. The proposed Act must be absurd; it won't do at all if by some
fluke, however unlikely, it might accomplish your aim. For
instance, it's no use backing an outsider. there must be no
causal link.
2. The Act must be one which makes the situation definitely worse.
E.g.: suppose you are counting on a new dress to make a hit at
a Reception, and doubt whether it is so much better than your
present best, or whether it will be finished in time. Then,
wear that present best to-night (wet, of course), knowing you
are sure to soil it.
3. Obviously, all the usual conditions of a Magical Operation apply
in this as in all cases; your aim must conform with your True
Will, and all that; but there is one curious point about an
Act of Truth: this, that one should resort to it only when there
is no other method possible. In the explorer's case, above, it
won't do if he has any means of hurrying up the messenger.
It seems to me that the above brief sketch should suffice an intelligent
and imaginative student like yourself; but if any point remains darkling,
let me know, and I will follow up with a postscript.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
P.S. --- I thought it might help you if I were to make a few experiments.
I have done so. Result: this is much more difficult and delicate an
affair than I had thought when I wrote this letter. For instance, one
single thought of a "second string" --- e.g. "if it fails, I had better do
so and so" --- is enough to kill the while operation stone dead. Of course,
I am totally out of practice; but, even so . . . . . .
CHAPTER XX
TALISMANS: THE LAMEN: THE PANTACLE
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Really you comfort me when you turn from those abstruse and exalted themes
with which you have belaboured me so often of late to dear cuddlesome
11
little questions like this in our letter received this morning: "Do
please, dear Master, give me some hints about how to make Talismans (that's
the same as Telesmata, isn't it? Yes, 666) and the Pantacle. The
official instructions are quite clear, of course; but somehow I find them
just a little frightening."
Well, I think I know pretty well what you mean; so I will try to imitate
the style of Aunt Tabitha in "The Flapper's Fireside."
For one thing, you forgot to mention the Lamen. Now what are these things
when they are at home? That's easy enough.
The Lamen is a sort of Coat of Arms. It expresses the character and powers
of the wearer.
A talisman is a storehouse of some particular kind of energy, the kind
that is needed to accomplish the task for which you have constructed it.
The Pantacle is often confused with both the others; accurately, it is a
"Minutum Mundum", "the Universe in Little"; it is a map of all that
exists, arranged in the Order of Nature. There is a chapter in Book 4,
Part II, devoted to it (pp. 117 - 129); I cannot make up my mind whether
I like it. At the best it is very far from being practical instruction.
(The chapter on the Lamen, pp. 159 - 161, is even worse.)
An analogy, not too silly, for these three; the Chess-player, the Open-
ings, and the Game itself.
But --- you will object --- why be silly at all? Why not say simply that the
Lamen, stating as it does the Character and Powers of he wearer, is a
dynamic portrait of the individual, while the Pantacle, his Universe, is
a static portrait of him? And that, you pursue flattering, is why you
preferred to call the Weapon of Earth (in the Tarot) the Disk, emphasizing
its continual whirling movement rather than the Pantacle of Coin, as is
more usual. Once again, exquisite child of our Father the Archer of Light
and of seaborn Aphrodite, your well-known acumen has "nicked the ninety and
nine and one over" as Browning says when he (he too!) alludes to the Tarot.
As you will have gathered from the above, a Talisman is a much more
restricted idea; it is no more than one of the objects in his Pantacle,
one of the arrows in the quiver of his Lamen. As, then, you would expect,
it is very little trouble to design. All that you need is to "make consi-
derations' about your proposed operation, decide which planet, sign,
element or sub-element or what not you need to accomplish your miracle.
As you know, a very great many desirable objects can be attained by the
use of the talismans in the Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon the King;
also in Pietro di Abano and the dubious Fourth Book of Cornelius Agrippa.
You must on no account attempt to use the squares given in the Book of the
Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage until you have succeeded in the Opera-
tion. More, unless you mean to perform it, and are prepared to go to any
length to do so, you are a fool to have the book in your possession at
all. Those squares are liable to get loose and do things on their own
initiative; and you won't like it.
The late Philip Haseltine, a young composer of genius, used one of these
squares to get his wife to return to him. He engraved it neatly on his
12
arm. I don't know how he proceeded to set to work; but his wife came
back all right, and a very short time afterwards he killed himself.
Then there are the Elemental Tablets of Sir Edward Kelly and Dr. John Dee.
From these you can extract a square to perform almost any conceivable
operation, if you understand the virtue of the various symbols which they
manifest. They are actually an expansion of the Tarot. (Obviously, the
Tarot itself as a whole is a universal Pantacle --- forgive the pleonasm!
Each card, especially is this true of the Trumps, is a talisman; and the
whole may also be considered as the Lamen of Mercury. It is evidently an
Idea far too vast for any human mind to comprehend in its entirety. For
it is "the Wisdom whereby He created the worlds.")
The decisive advantage of this system is not that its variety makes it so
adaptable to our needs, but that we already posses the Invocations
necessary to call forth the Energies required. What is perhaps still more
to the point, they work without putting the Magician to such severe toil
and exertion as is needed when he has to write them out from his own
ingenium. Yes! This is weakness on my part, and I am very naughty to
encourage you to shirk the hardest path.
I used often to make the background of my Talismans of four concentric
circles, painting then, the first (inmost) in the King (or Knight) scale,
the second in the Queen, the third in the Prince, and the outermost in
the Princess scale, of the Sign, Planet, or Element to which I was devoting
it. On this, preferably in the "flashing" colours, I would paint the
appropriate Names and Figures.
Lastly, the Talisman may be surrounded with a band inscribed with a suit-
able "versicle" chosen from some Holy book, or devised by the Magician to
suit the case.
In the British Museum (and I suppose elsewhere) you may see the medal
struck to commemorate the victory over the Armada. This is a reproduction,
perhaps modified, of the Talisman used by Dee to raise the storm which
scattered the enemy fleet.
You must lay most closely to your heart the theory of the Magical Link
(see Magick pp . 107 - 122) and see well to it that it rings true; for
without this your talisman is worse than useless. It is dangerous; for
all that Energy is bound to expend itself somehow; it will make its own
links with anything handy that takes its fancy; and you can get into any
sort of the most serious kind of trouble.
There is a great deal of useful stuff in Magick; pp. 92 - 100, and pp.
179 - 189. I could go on all night doing nothing but indicating sources of
information.
Then comes the question of how to "charge" the Talisman, of how to evoke
or to invoke the Beings concerned, and of --- oh! of so much that you need
a lifetime merely to master the theory.
Remember, too, please, what I have pointed out elsewhere, that the greatest
Masters have quite often not been Magicians at all, technically; they
have used such devices as Secret Societies, Slogans and Books. If you
are so frivolous as to try to exclude these from our discourse, it is
merely evidence that you have not understood a single word of what I have
been trying to tell you these last few hundred years!
13
May I close with a stray example or so? Equinox III, 1, has the Neophyte's
Pantacle of Frater O.I.V.V.I.O. The Fontispiece of the original (4 vol-
ume) edition of Magick, the colors vilely reproduced, is a Lamen of my
own Magick, or a Pantacle of the Science, I'm sure I'm not sure which!
Most of my Talismans, like my Invocations, have been poems. This letter
must be like the Iliad in at least one respect: it does not end; it
stops.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XXI
MY THEORY OF ASTROLOGY
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
A few well-chosen words about Astrology? Madam, I am only too happy to
oblige: our aim is to serve. The customer is usually wrong; but statis-
tics indicate that it doesn't pay to tell him so.
It seems a long while since I set up your Nativity, and read it, but it
is very clear in my mind that you were astonished, as so many others
have been, by the simplicity and correctness of my reading. It began,
you remember, by your giving me the usual data when we dropped in for
tea at the Anglers' Rest,. I calculated the Ascendant on the spot, and
remarked "Rubbish!" I looked at you again very carefully; and, after
many grunts, observed, "More likely half-past ten --- within an hour one
way or the other." You insisted; I insisted. Unwilling to make a Fracas
in the Inn, we decided to put you to the trouble of writing to your
mother to settle the dispute. Back came the answer: "within a few
minutes of eleven. I remember because your father had hung on as long
as he could --- he had to take the morning service."
This occurrence is very common in my experience; I have contradicted
what sounded like ascertained fact and proved on enquiry to have been
right; so, considering that the statistics I made many years ago showed
me to have been right 109 times out of 120, I think two things are fairly
near probation; firstly, I am not guessing --- that doesn't matter much;
but, secondly, which is of supreme importance, there is a definite con-
nection between the personal appearance and manner of the native, and
the Sign of the Zodiac which was rising when he first drew air into his
lungs.
Let me add, to strengthen the argument, that on the few occasions where
I have erred there has been a good astrological reason for it. E.g. I
might plump for Pisces rising when it was actually Capricornus; but in
that case Saturn would have been afflicted by being in Cancer, with
bad aspects from Venus and the Moon, thus taking away all his rugged,
male, laborious qualities, and in the Ascendant might have been Jupiter,
suggesting many of the qualities of Pisces: and so forth.
14
Now let me start! You want me to explain the system --- or no-system! ---
which I use. I do not "move in a mysterious way My wonders to perform;"
for nothing could be simpler. For its origin I have to thank Abramelin
the Mage, who empties the vials of his scorn upon the astrologers of his
time with their meticulous calculations of "the hours of the planets"
and so on. I think he goes too far when he says that a planet can have
no influence at all, or very little, unless it is above the horizon;
but he meant well, bless him! And, though he does not say so, I believe
that I do my stuff in very much the same way as he did.
Modern astrologers multiply their charts until their desks remind me of
a Bargain Basement in the rush hour! They compare and contrast until
they are in bat-eyed bewilderment bemused; and when the answer turns
out absolutely false, exclaim, what a shout: "By Ptolemy, I forgot to
look at the last Luniation for Buda-Pesth!" But then they can always
find something or other which will explain how they came to go wrong:
naturally, when you have several hundred factors, helplessly bound and
gagged, it would be just too bad if you couldn't pick out one to serve
your turn --- after the event! No, dear girl, it should be obvious to an
unweaned brat: (a) they can't see the wood for the trees, (b) they are
using Ruach on a proposition which demands Neschamah. Intellect is quite
inadequate; the problem requires mother-wit, intuition, understanding.
Here is my system in a Number 000 Ampoule.
Put up the figure at birth: study it, make notes of the aspects and
dignities, concentrate --- and turn on the Magical Tap!
Occasionally, when I began, I set up the "progressed figure" to see how
the patient was doing this week, but it never seemed to help enough to
compensate for the distraction caused by the complication. What I do
observe to examine the situation of to-day is Transits. These I have
found very reliable; but even with these I usually ignore aspects of
minor importance. Truth to tell, conjunctions mean very much more than
the rest put together.
Talking of aspects, I think it ridiculous to allow vast "orbs" like 15¿
for Luna, and 12¿ for Sol. Astrologers go to extreme lengths to calculate
the "solar revolution" figure not to a degree, not to a minute, but to a
second: and that when they don't know the exact time of birth within
half an hour or more! Talk about straining at a gnat and swallowing a
camel! Then what does an hour or so matter anyhow, if you are going to
allow an aspect, whether it is 2¿ or 10¿ off? This even with delicate
aspects like the quintile or semi-sextile. What would you think of a
doctor who had a special thermometer made to register -1/100 of a degree,
and never took notice of the fact that the patient had just swallowed
a cupful of scalding hot tea?
In my own work, I disallow a deviation of 5¿ or 6¿ from the exact aspect,
unless there is some alien reason for thinking that it is actually opera-
tive. With the minor aspects, I dislike reckoning with them if they are
even 3¿ away.
Nor do I see any sense in marking the odd minutes in the Ascendant, when
one is not sure even of the decan.
That seems to be about all that is necessary for my "morning hate;"
suppose we go on to the question of interpretation.
15
Thousands of books have been written on Astrology; nobody could possible
read them all thoroughly, and he would be a great fool to try. But he
may do little harm by going into them far enough to observe that hardly
any half-dozen are agreed even on the foundations of their system,
hardly any two upon the meaning of any given aspect, dignity, or posi-
tion; there is not always agreement even upon what questions pertain
to which houses.
There are a few completely quack systems, such as those which mix up
the science with Toshosophical4 hypotheses; naturally you discard these.
But even of generally acceptable forms of Astrology, such as Mundane
and Horary, I tend to be distrustful. I ask, for instance, why, if
Taurus rules Poland and Ireland, as is no doubt the case, the crash
and massacres of 1939 e.v. and later in the one did not take place in
the other. All the seaports of the world naturally come under one of
the three watery signs; but we do not find that an affliction of Pisces,
which hits Tunis, should do harm to all the other harbours similarly
ruled.
This brings us to the first Big Jump in the steeplechase of the whole
science. We hear of thousands of people being killed at the same time
(within an hour or two, perhaps a minute or two) by earthquake, ship-
wreck, explosion, battle or other form of violence. Was the horoscope
of every one of the victims marked with the probability of some such
end? I have known very strange cases of coincidence, but not to that
extent!
The answer, I believe, is manifold. It might be, for example, that
Poland and Ireland are ruled by different degrees of Taurus; that there
are major and minor figures, the former overruling the latter, so that
the figure of the launching of the "Titanic" swallowed up the nativities
of the victims of her wreck.
Something of this sort is really an obvious truth. Flood in China,
famine in India, pestilence anywhere, evidently depend on maps of a
scale far more enormous than the personal.
Then --- on this point I feel reasonably sure --- there may be one or more
factors of which we know nothing at all, by which the basic possibilities
of a figure are set to work. (Just as a car with engine running will not
start until the clutch is put in.)
I will conclude by announcing a rather remarkable position.
1. I see no objection at all to postulating that certain "rays,'
or other means of transmitting some peculiar form or forms of
energy, may reach us from the other parts of the solar system;
for we can in fact point to perfectly analogous phenomena in
the discoveries of the last hundred years or so.
But that is no more than a postulate.
4^ WEH NOTE: By now this term has appeared several times, and it will be
going by more than a few times ahead. Crowley disdained to apply
"Theosophical"
to the movement of Anne Besant, preferring to reserve the word for older
systems. He coined the word "TOSHosophical" to replace "Theosophical" in
these references.
16
2. The objections to Astrology as such, indicated by what I have
already pointed out, and several others, would suffice to place
me among the most arrogant disbelievers in the whole study, were
it not for what follows.
3. The facts with regard to the Ascendant are so patent, so undeni-
able, and so inexplicable without the postulate in (1), that I
am utterly convinced of the fundamental truth of the basic
principles of the science.
I said, "I will conclude"; and I meant it. For now that (or so I hope)
you respect sufficiently my conviction that Astrology is a genuine science
and not a messy mass of Old Wives' Tales, you will obviously demand
instruction as to how to learn it, that you may verify my opinion in the
light of your own experiments.
This will look much better if I put it in a separate letter.
'Till then ---
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
CHAPTER XXII
HOW TO LEARN THE PRACTICE OF ASTROLOGY
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
"Up guards, and at 'em!" First, you must know your correspondences by
heart backwards and upside down (air connu.) They are practically all
in The Book of Thoth; but "if anyone anything lacks," look for it in
777.
Then, get a book on Astrology, the older the better. Raphael's Shilling
Handbook is probably enough for the present purpose. Get well into your
head what the menu says about the natures of the planets, the influence
of the aspects, what is meant by dignities, the scope of the houses, and
so on.
Dovetail all this with your classical knowledge; the character and
qualities, the powers and the exploits, of the several deities concerned.
Next, learn how to set up a figure of the heavens. This need not take an
average intelligent person more than an hour at the most. You can learn
it from a book. Lastly, get Barley's 1001 Notable nativities and More
Nativites. Also any other collections available. Practice setting up
the horoscopes. Use the Chaldean square system; it shows at the first
glance what is happening in the angular houses, which are the keys of
the whole figure.
compare and contrast what you know of the natives, from history, with
what is said of the aspects (and the rest) in the books you have read.
Put together similar horoscopes; e.g. a dozen which have Sagittarius
17
rising, another lot with Jupiter in the hid-heaven, and so on; see if
you can find a similarity in their lives with what the books will have
led you to expect.
Don't be afraid to criticise; on the contrary, do some research work on
your own, and find cases which seem to contradict tradition.
Instance: Saturn in the M.C. is said to cause a spectacular rise in a
man's career, ending in an equally notable crash. Examples: Napoleon I
and III, Oscar Wilde, Woodrow Wilson, Lord Northcliffe, Hitler. Look for
figures with Saturn thus placed, whose natives have jogged along equably
and died in the odour of sanctity. Find out why what worked in some
cases failed in the others.
By the time you have studied (say) 500 nativities you will be already a
fairly competent judge. Work your bloody guns! as Kipling says; get a
friend --- just this once I allow you human intercourse --- to set up for you
figures of historical importance, or with some outstanding characteristic
(e.g. murderers, champions of sport, statesmen, monsters, philanthropists,
heresiarchs) without telling you to whom it refers.
Build up the character, profession, story from the nativity. It sounds
incredible; but more than a score of times I have been actually able to
name him!
By the time you have got good at this game --- and a most amusing game it
is --- you may call yourself a very competent astrologer.
Sometimes, even now, you may assign the figure of the Archbishop of York
to Jabez Balfour or Catherine de Medici; or mix up Moody and Sankey with
Brown and Kennedy; don't be discouraged; perhaps there may be something
to be said for you after all!
I believe, as I hope, that you will be surprised at the speed with which
you acquire proficiency.
All this time, moreover, you have not been wholly idle. You will have
been running about like a demented rabbit, and trying to spot the rising
sign of everybody you know. Look at them full-face, then profile; and
note salient characteristics, pendulous lips, receding chins, bulbous
noses, narrow foreheads, stuck-out ears, pimples, squints, warts, shape
of face (three main types; thin, jutting, for cardinal signs; square,
steadfast for cherubic; weak, nondescript, for the rest); then the
stature, whether lithe, well-knit, sturdy, muscular, fat or what not;
in short every bodily feature in turn; make up your mind what sign was
rising at birth, and stick to it!
Now to verify your suspicions. The conversation may run thus:
You: "Can you answer a question without answering another which you were
not asked?"
It, surprised: "Why, yes, of course I can."
You: "Good. Then, do you know the date of the Battle of Waterloo?"
It: "1815."
18
You probably have to explain! In any case you begin all over again, when
he has contented himself with "Yes" or "No" you say "Do you know the hour
of your birth?" If he says "No," you ask if he can find out, and so on.
It he says "Yes;" "Then tell me either the hour or the day and month;
but not both." If he gives you the hour, you calculate a bit, and say:
"Then you were born on the nth of Xember, within a fortnight either way."
If he tells you his birthday, work it out as before and then: "You were
born at P in the morning within an hour either way." (This makes it
about 11 to 1 against your being right, in either case, on pure chance.)
Again, you can practise this in cafâs, when you visit civilized countries,
and it is often possible to scrape acquaintance with people who look
specially interesting, and do not, as in England, instantly suspect you
of dishonourable advances, and get them to play up. This is sometimes
easier when you are already with that friend which I was so lax as to
allow you; and it is, I own, very helpful to discuss strange faces if
only to make it quite clear to your own mind why you decide on one as
Virgo, another as Taurus.
A strange thing happened once; I had explained all this to the girl
that I happened to be living with: that is, I taught her the names of
the signs; she knew no Astrology, net even the simple correspondences.
After about a month, she was better at it than I was! ("Why strange?"
you mutter rudely. "Quite right, my dear! I have always been a wretched
reader of character. Bless my soul! there was a time when I had hopes
of you," I savagely retort.) She had picked up the knack, the trick
of it; she could select, eliminate, re-compose, compare with past
experience, and form a judgment, without knowing the names of its
materials.
When you have got your sea-legs at both these parts of your astrological
education, you may (I think) put out to sea with some confidence. Perhaps
a fair test of your fitness would be when you got three people right out
of four, in a total of a score or so. Well, allow for my being in a
"mood" to-night; call it two out of three. If it were guesswork, after
all, that means you are bringing it off at seven to one. Obviously, when
you do go wrong, set up the figure, study it more carefully than ever,
and find out what misled you.
Remember constantly that the Statistical Method is your one and only
safeguard against self-deception.
Within the limits of a letter I could hardly hope to go into matters much
more fully or deeply than I have done; but 'pon my soul! I think that
what I have said should be enough for an intelligent and assiduous student.
Let me insist that all that is worth while comes by experience. Learning
one thing will give you the clue to another.
Well do I know to my sorrow how hard it is, as a rule, to learn how to
do a thing solely from written instruction; so perhaps you had better
arrange to see me one day about the actual setting-up of a figure.
Probably, too, there will be a few points that you would like to discuss.
I will end by betting you six clothing coupons to a pound of sugar that
in two years' concentrated work on these lines you will become a better
astrologer than ever I was. (This is very cunning of me; in two years
we shall all be getting clothes without coupons.)
19
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
CHAPTER XXIII
IMPROVISING A TEMPLE
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
(This letter has been provoked by points discussed in your recent visit.)
As some of your daily practices are ceremonial, it should not come amiss
to vouchsafe a few hints of practical service. For in ritual Magick, it
will of course be the first care to get everything balanced and tidy.
If you propose to erect a regular Temple, the most precise instructions
in every detail are given in Book 4, Part II. (But I haven't so much
as seen a copy for years!) There is a good deal scattered about in
Part III (Magick, which you have) especially about the four elemental
weapons.
But if circumstances deny you for the moment the means of carrying out
this Aedification as the Ideal would have it, you can certainly do your
best to create a fairly satisfactory --- above all, workable --- substitute.
(By the way, note the moral aspect of a house, as displayed in our language.
"Edification" -- "house-making": from Latin Aedes, "house". "Economy" ---
"house-
ruling": from the Greek "OIKOC", "House" and "NOMOC", "law".)
I was often reduced to such expedients when wandering in strange lands,
camping on glaciers, and so on. I fixed it workably well. In Mexico,
D.F. for instance, I took my bedroom itself for the Circle, my night-
table for the Altar, my candle for the Lamp; and I made the Weapons
compact. I had a Wand eight inches long, all precious stones and enamel,
to represent the Tree of Life; within, an iron tube containing quick-
silver --- very correct, lordly, and damsilly. What a club! Also, bought,
a silver-gilt Cup; for Air and Earth I made one sachet of rose-petals
in yellow silk, and another in green silk packed with salt. In the wilds
it was easy, agreeable and most efficacious to make a Circle, and build
an altar, of stones; my Alpine Lantern served admirably for the Lamp.
It did double duty when required: e.g. in partaking of the Sacrament of
the Four Elements, it served for Fire. But your conditions are not so
restricted as this.
Let us consider what one can do with an ordinary house, such as you are
happy enough to possess.
First of all, it is of immense advantage to have a room specially conse-
crated to the Work, never used for any other purpose, and never entered
by any other person than yourself, unless it were another Initiate,
either for inspection or in case you were working together.
The aura accumulates with the regularity and frequency of Use.
20
The first point is the Banishing: Everything is to be removed from the
room which is not absolutely necessary to the Work.
in this country, one must attend to the heating. An electric stove in
the East or the South, is best: it must not need attention. One can
usually buy stoves with excellent appropriate symbolism. (Last time I
did this --- 13 e.v. --- I got a perfect Ferranti at Harrods. The circular
copper bowl, with the central Disk as the source of heat, is unsurpas-
sable.) The walls should be "self-coloured," a neutral tint --- green,
grey or blue-grey? and entirely bare, unless you put up, in the proper
quarters, the proper designs, such as the "Watch Towers" --- see The
Equinox I, 7.
Remember that your "East," your Kiblah, is Boleskine House, which is as
near as possible due North from Plymouth. Find North by the shadow of
a vertical rod and noon, or by the Pole-Star. Work out the angle as
usual.
The Stâlâ of Revealing may be just on the N. Wall to make your "East."
Next, your Circle. The floor ought to be "Earth" green; but white will
serve, or black. (A Masonic carpet is not at all bad.) The Circle it-
self should be as shown in Book 4, Part II; but as this volume is
probably unavailable, ask me to show you the large painted diagram in
my portfolio when next you visit me, and we can arrange for it to be
copied.
This should then be painted in the correct colours on the floor: the
Kether Square to the North, your "East."
The Altar must fit exactly the square of Tiphareth; it is best made as
a cupboard; of oak or acacia, by preference. It can then be used to hold
reserves of incense and other requisites.
Note that the height of the Altar has to suit your convenience. It is
consequently in direct relation with your own stature; in proportion,
it is a double cube. This then determines the size of your circle; in
fact the entire apparatus and furniture is a geometrical function of
yourself. Consider it all as a projection of yourself in terms of these
conventional formulae. (A convention does really mean "that which is
convenient." How abject, then to obey a self-styled convention which
is actually as inconvenient as possible!)
Next, the Lamp. This may be of silver, or silver-gilt, (to represent
the Path of Gimel) and is to be hung from the ceiling exactly above the
centre of the altar. There are plenty of old church lamps which serve
very well. The light is to be from a wick in a floating cork in a glass
of olive oil. (I hope you can get it!) It is really desirable to make
this as near the "Ever-burning Lamp of the Rosicrucians" as possible;
it is not a drawback that this implies frequent attention.
Now for the Weapons!
The Wand. Let this be simple, straight and slim! Have you an Almond or
Witch Hazel in your garden --- or do I call it park? If so, cut (with the
magick knife --- I would lend you mine) a bough, as nearly straight as
possible, about two feet long. Peel it, rub it constantly with Oil of
Abramelin (this, and his incense, from Wallis and Co., 26 New Cavendish
21
Street, W.1) and keep wrapped in scarlet silk, constantly, I wrote, and
meant it; rub it, when saying your mantra, to the rhythm of that same.
(Remember, "A ka dua" is the best; ask me to intone it to you when you
next visit me.)
The Cup. There are plenty of chalices to be bought. It should be of
silver. If ornamented, the best form is that of the apple. I have seen
suitable cups in many shops.
The Sword. The ideal form is shown in the Ace of Swords in the Tarot.
At all events, let the blade be straight, and the hilt a simple cross.
(The 32¿ Masonic Sword is not too bad; Kenning or Spencer in Great Queen
Street, W.C.2 stock them --- or used to do.)
The Disk. This ought to be of pure gold, with your own Pantacle, designed
by yourself after prolonged study, graved thereupon. While getting ready
for this any plain circle of gold will have to serve your turn. Quite
flat, of course. If you want a good simple design to go on interim, try
the Rosy Cross or the Unicursal Hexagram.
So much for the Weapons! Now, as to your personal accoutrements, Robe,
Lamen, Sandals and the like, The Book of the Law has most thoughtfully
simplified matters for us. "I charge you earnestly to come before me in
a single robe, and covered with a rich headdress." (AL I, 61) The Robe
may well be in the form of the Tau Cross; i.e. expanding from axilla to
ankle, and from shoulder to --- whatever you call the place where your hands
come out. (Shape well shown in the illustration Magick face p. 360).
You being a Probationer, plain black is correct; and the Unicursal Hexa-
gram might be embroidered, or "applique" (is it? I mean "stuck on"), upon
the breast. The best head-dress is the Nemyss: I cannot trust myself to
describe how to make one, but there are any number of models in the British
Museum, on in any Illustrated Hieroglyphic text. The Sphinx wears one,
and there is a photograph, showing the shape and structure very clearly,
in the Equinox I, 1, frontispiece to Supplement. You can easily make one
yourself out of silk; broad black-and-white stripes is a pleasing design.
Avoid "artistic" complexities.
Well, that ought to be enough to keep you out of mischief for a little
while; but I feel moved to add a line of caution and encouragement.
Listen!
Faites attention!
Achtung!
Khabardar karo!
Just as soon as you start seriously to prepare a place for magical Work,
the world goes more cockeyed than it is already. Don't be surprised if
you find that six weeks' intense shopping all over London fails to provide
you with some simple requisite that normally you could buy in ten minutes.
Perhaps your fires simply refuse to burn, even when liberally dosed with
petrol and phosphorus, with a handful of Chlorate of Potash thrown in just
to show there is no ill feeling! When you have almost decided that you
had better make up your mind to do without something that seems really
quite unobtainable --- say, a sixty-carat diamond which would look so well
on the head-dress --- a perfect stranger comes along and makes you a present
of one. Or, a long series of quite unreasonable obstacles or silly acci-
dents interfere with your plans: or, the worst difficulty in your way is
incomprehensibly removed by some extraordinary "freak of chance." Or, . . .
22
In a word, you seem to have strolled into a world where --- well, it might
be going too far to say that the Law of Cause and Effect is suspended;
but at least the Law of Probability seems to be playing practical jokes
on you.
This means that your manoeuvres have somehow attracted the notice of the
Astral Plane: your new neighbours (May I call them?) are taking an
interest in the latest Tenderfoot, some to welcome, to do all they can
to help you to settle down, others indignant or apprehensive at this
disturbance of routine. This is where your Banishings and Invocations
come to the rescue. Of course, I am not here referring to the approach
to Sanctuaries which of necessity are closely guarded, but merely to the
recognition of a new-comer to that part of the world in general.
Of course all these miracles are very naughty of you; they mean that your
magical power has sprung a few small leaks; at least, the water is oozing
between some planks not sealed as Hermetically as they should be. But oh
and this is naughtier still --- it is a blessed, blessed comfort that they
happen, that chance, coincidence and all the rest will simply not explain
it all away, that your new vision of life is not a dream, but part and
parcel of Experience for evermore, a real as any other manifestation of
Reality through sense such as is common to all men.
And this brings us --- it has been a long way round --- from the suggestion of
your visit to the question (hitherto unanswered) in your letter.
You raise so vast and razor-edged a question when you write of the supposed
antinomy of "soul" and "sense" that it seemed better to withhold comment
until this later letter; much meditation was most needful to compress
the answer within reasonable limits; even to give it form at all is no
easy matter. For this is probably the symptom of the earliest stirring of
the mind of the cave-man to reflection, thereunto moved by other symptoms ---
those of the morning after following upon the night before. It is --- have
we not already dealt with that matter after a fashion? --- evidence of disease
when an organ become aware of its own modes of motion. Certainly the mere
fact of questioning Life bears witness to some interruption of its flow,
just as a ripple on an even stream tells of a rock submerged. The fiercer
the torrent and the bigger the obstacle, the greater the disturbance to
the surface --- have I not seen them in the Bralduh eight feet high?
Lethargic folk with no wild impulse of Will may get through Life in bovine
apathy; we may well note that (in a sense) the rage of the water seems to
our perturbed imagining actually to increase and multiply the obstructions;
there is a critical point beyond which the ripples fight each other!
That, in short, is a picture of you!
You have mistaken the flurry of passing over some actual snag for a snag
in itself! You put the blame on to your own quite rational attempts to
overcome difficulties. The secret of the trick of getting past the rocks
is elasticity; yet it is that very quality with which you reproach your-
self!
We even, at the worst, reach the state for which Buddhism, in the East
presents most ably the case: as in the West, does James Thomson (B.V.) in
The City of Dreadful Night; we come to wish for --- or, more truly to
think that we wish for "blest Nirvana's sinless stainless Peace" (or some
23
such twaddle --- thank God I can't recall Arnold's mawkish and unmanly
phrase!) and B.V.'s "Dateless oblivion and divine repose."
I insist on the "think that you wish," because, if the real You did really
wish the real That, you could never have come to exist at all! ("But I
don't exist." --- "I know --- let's get on!")
Note, please, how sophistically unconvincing are the Buddhist theories of
how we ever got into this mess. First cause: Ignorance. Way out, then,
knowledge. O.K., that implies a knower, a thing known --- and so on and so
forth, thought all the Three Waste Paper Baskets of the Law; analysed, it
turns out to be nonsense all dolled up to look like thinking. And there
is no genuine explanation of the origin of the Will to be.
How different, how simple, how self-evident, is the doctrine of The Book
of the Law!
There are any number of passages dealing with this matter in my writings:
let's forget them, and keep to the Text!
Cap. I, v. 26 ". . my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of
existence, the omnipresence of my body."
V. 30 "This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is
as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all." (There is a Qabalistic inner
meaning in this text; "the pain," for instance, {Greek caps:
OmicronAlphaLambdaGammaOmicronSigma}, may be read
XVII x 22 "the expression of Star-love," and so on: all too complicated
for this time and place!)
V. 32. "Then the joys of my love" (i.e. the fulfillment of all possible
experiences) "will redeem ye from all pain."
V. 58. "I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while
in life, upon death; peace5 unutterable, rest, ecstasy; . . ."
Cap. II, v. 9 "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the
sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that
which remains."
(The continuation is amusing! vv. 10 and 11 read:
"O prophet! thou hast ill will to learn this writing. I see thee hate
the hand & the pen; but I am stronger."
At that time I was a hard-shell Buddhist, sent out a New Year's Card
"wishing you a speedy termination of existence!" And this as a young man,
with the world at my feet. It only goes to show . . . . .)
Vv. 19, 20. "Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. . . .
Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and
fire, are of us."
This chapter returns over and over again to this theme in one form or
5* "Peace": the glow of satisfaction at achievement. It is not "eternal,"
rather, it whets the appetite for another adventure. (Peace, {GK: H. EIPHNH}
=
189 = 7 x 9 x 13 ' the Venusian plus Lunar form of Unity.)
24
another.
What is really more significant is the hidden, the unexpressed, soul of
the Book; the way in which it leaps into wild spate of rhapsody on any
excuse or no excuse.
This is surely more convincing than some dreary thesis plodding along
doggedly with the "proof" (!) that "God is good," every sentence creaking
with your chalk-stones and squeaking with the twinges of your toe!
Yet just because I proclaim a doctrine of joy in the language of joy,
people -- dull camels --- say I am not "serious."
Yet I have found pleasure in harnessing the winged horses of the Sun to
the ploughshare of Reason, in showing the validity of this doctrine in
detail. It satisfies my sense of rhythm and of symmetry to explain that
every experience, no matter what, must of necessity be a gain of grandeur,
of grip, of comprehension and enjoyment ever growing as complexity and
simplicity succeed each other in sublime systole and diastole, in strophe
and antistrope chanting against each other to the stars of the Night and
of the Morning!
Of course it is easy as pie to knock all this to pieces by "lunatic logic,"
saying: "Then toothache is really as pleasant as strawberry shortcake:"
You are hereby referred to Eight Lectures of Yoga. None of the terms I
am using have been, or can be defined. All my propositions amount to no
more than tautology: A. is A. You may even quote The Book of the Law
itself: "Now a curse upon Because and his kin! . . . . Enough of Because!
Be he damned for a dog!" (AL II, 28-33). These things stink of
Ignoratio Elenchi, or something painfully like it: as sort of slipping up
a cog, of "confusing the planes" of willfully misunderstanding the gist of
an argument. (All magicians, by the way, ought to be grounded solidly in
Formal Logic.)
Never forget, at the least, how simple it is to make a maniac's hell-broth
of any proposition, however plain to common sense.
All the above, now: --- Buddhism refuted. Yet it is a possibility and
therefore one facet of Truth. "Rest" is an idea: so immobility is one
of the moving states. A certain state of mind is (almost by definition)
"eternal," yet it most assuredly begins and ends.
And so on for ever --- I fear it would be nugatory, pleonastic (and oh!
several other lovely long adjectives!) to try to guard you from these
hydra-headed and protean booby-traps; you must tackle them yourself as
they arise, and deal with them as best you can: always remembering that
often enough you cannot tell which is you and which is the Monkey Puzzle,
or who has won. ("Everybody's won; so everybody must have a prize"
applies beautifully). And none of it all matters a row of haricots verts
sautâs; for the conclusion must always be Doubt (see that beastly Book of
Lies again --- there's a gorgeous chapter about it) and the practical moral
is this: these contradictions don't occur (or don't matter) in Neschamah.
Also, it might help you quite a lot (by encouraging you when depressed, or
amusing you when you want to relax) to read Sir Palamede the Saracen;
Supplement to The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 4. I expect quite a few of his
tragi-comic misadventures will be already familiar to you in one disguise
or another.
25
And if the above remarks should embolden you to exclaim: "Perhaps a little
drink would do me no great harm" I shall feel that I have deserved well of
my country!
For --- see Liber Aleph, after Rabelais --- the Word of the Last Oracle is
TRINC.
. . . . . . . .
This plaint of yours tails off --- and perks up in so doing --- with
confession
of Ambition, and considerations of what you must leave over to your next
life. Very right! but all that is covered by your general programme. It
is proper to assimilate these ideas with the fundamental structure of your
mind: "Perhaps I had better leave 'The Life and opinion of Battling Bill,
the Ballarat Bruiser' till, shall we say, six incarnations ahead" --- But
perhaps you have acquired that already.
No, better still, concentrate on the Next Step! After all, it is the only
one you can take, isn't it! Without lust of result, please!
And I shall leave anything else to the next letter.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
P.S. "Next letter," yes, they are running into one another more than some-
what; it is better so, for life is like that. And we have the bold bad
editor to sort them out.
CHAPTER XXIV
NECROMANCY AND SPIRITISM
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Really, you make me ashamed of You! To write to ignorant me to wise you
up about necromancy, when you have at your elbow the one supreme classic ---
Lâvi's Chapter XIII in the Dogme et Rituel!6"
What sublimity of approach! What ingenuity of "considerations!" With
what fatally sure steps marches his preparation! With what superb tech-
nique does he carry out his energized enthusiasm! And, finally, with
what exact judicial righteousness does he sum the results of his great
Evocation of Apollonius of Tyana!
Contrast with this elaborate care, rightness of every detail, earnestness
and intentness upon the goal --- contrast, I say, the modern Spiritist in
the dingy squalor of her foul back street in her suburban slum, the room
musty, smelling of stale food, the hideous prints, the cheap and rickety
furniture, calling up any one required from Jesus Christ to Queen Victoria,
6* Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, by Eliphas Lâvi.
26
all at a bob-a-nob!
Faugh! Let us return to clean air, and analyse Lâvi's experiment; I
believe that by the application of the principles set forth in my other
letters on Death and Reincarnation, it will be simple to explain his par-
tial failure to evoke Apollonius. You had better read them over again,
to have the matter clear and fresh in your mind.
Now then, let me call you attention to the extreme care which Lâvi took
to construct a proper Magical Link between himself and the Ancient Master.
Alas! It was rather a case of building with bricks made without straw;
he had not at his command any fresh and vital object pertaining intimately
to Apollonius. A "relic" would have been immensely helpful, especially if
it had been consecrated and re-consecrated through the centuries by devout
veneration. This, incidentally, is the great advantage that one may often
obtain when invoking Gods; their images, constantly revered, nourished by
continual sacrifice, serve as a receptacle for the Prana driven into them
by thousands or millions of worshippers. In fact, such idols are often
already consecrated talismans; and their possession and daily use is at
least two-thirds of the battle.
Apollonius was indeed as refractory a subject as Lâvi could possibly have
chosen. All the cards were against him.
Why? Let me remind you of the sublimity of the man's genius, and the
extent of his attainment. Apollonius must certainly have made the closest
links between his Ruach and his Supernal Triad, and this would have gone
seeking a new incarnation elsewhere. All the available Ruach left float-
ing around in the Akasha must have been comparatively worthless odds and
ends, true Qlippoth or "Shells of the Dead" --- just those parts of him, in
a word, which Apollonius would have deliberately discarded at his death.
So what use would they be to Lâvi? Even if there were among them a few
such elements as would serve his purpose, they would have been devitalized
and frittered away by the mere lapse of the centuries, since they had lost
connection with the reality of the Sage. Alternatively, they might have
been caught up and adopted by some wandering Entity, quite probably some
malignant demon.
Qlipoth --- Shells of the Dead --- Obsessing Spirits! Here we are back in
the pestilent purlieus of Walham Green, and the frowsty atmosphere of the
frowsy "medium" and the squalid sâance. "Look! but do not speak to them!"
as Virgil warned Dante.
So let us look.
No! Let us first congratulate ourselves that this subject of Necromancy is
so admirably documented. As to the real Art, we have not only Eliphas
Lâvi, but the sublimely simple account in the Old Testament of the Witch
of Endor, her conjuring up of the apparition of Samuel to King Saul. A
third classic must not be neglected: I have heard or read the story else-
where --- for the moment I cannot place it. But it is so brilliantly told
in I Write as I Please by Walter Duranty that nothing could be happier
than to quote him verbatim.
"It was the story of a Bolshevik who conversed with a corpse. He told it
to me himself, and undoubtedly believed it, although he was an average
tough Bolshevik who naturally disbelieved in Heaven and Hell and a Life
beyond the Grave. This man was doing 'underground' revolutionary work in
27
St. Petersburg when the War broke out; but he was caught by the police
and exiled to the far north of Siberia. In the second winter of the War
he escaped from his prison camp and reached an Eskimo village where they
gave him shelter until the spring. They lived, he said, in beastly condi-
tions, and the only one whom he could talk to was the Shaman, or medicine
man, who knew a little Russian. The Shaman once boasted that he could
foretell the future, which my Bolshevik friend ridiculed. The next day
the Shaman took him to a cave in the side of a hill in which there was a
big transparent block of ice enclosing the naked body of a man --- a white
man, not a native --- apparently about thirty years of age with no sign of
a wound anywhere. The man's head, which was clean-shaven, was outside
the block of ice; the eyes were closed and the features were European.
The shaman then lit a fire and burnt some leaves, threw powder on them
muttering incantations, and there was a heavy aromatic smoke. He said
in Russian to the bolshevik, 'Ask what you want to know.' The Bolshevik
spoke in German; he was sure that the Shaman knew no German, but he was
equally sure he saw the lips move and heard it answer, clearly, in German.
He asked what would happen to Russia, and what would happen to him. From
the moving lips of the corpse came the reply that Russia would be defeated
in war and that there would be a revolution; the Tzar would be captured
by his enemies and killed on the eve of rescue; he, the Bolshevik, would
fight in the Revolution but would suffer no harm; later, he would be
wounded fighting a foreign enemy, but would recover and live long."
"The Bolshevik did not really believe what he had seen although he was
certain that he had seen it. I mean that he explained it by hypnotism
or auto-suggestion or something of the kind; but it was true, he said,
that he passed unscathed through the Revolution and the Civil War and
was wounded in the Polish War when the Red Army recovered Kiev."
So also we are most fortunate in possessing the account almost beyond
Heart's desire of Spiritism, in Robert Browning's Mr. Sludge the Medium.
You see that I write "Spiritism" not "Spiritualism." To use the latter
word in this connection is vulgar ignorance; it denotes a system of
philosophy which flourished (more or less) is the Middle Ages --- read
your Erdmann if you want the gruesome details. But why should you?
The model for Mr. Sludge was David Dunbar (? Douglas) Home, who was really
quite a distinguished person in his way, and succeeded in pulling some
remarkably instructed and blue-blooded legs. Personally, I believe him
to have been genuine, getting real results through pacts with elementals,
demons or what not; for when he was in Paris, arrangements were made
for him to meet Eliphas Lâvi; forthwith "he abandoned the unequal
contest, and fled in terror from the accursed spot."
What annoyed Browning was that he had added to his collection of "Femora
I have pulled", those appendages of Elizabeth Barrett; and where R.B.
was there was no room for anyone else --- as in the case of Allah!
R.B. was accordingly as spiteful as he could be, and that was not a little.
It is not fair to tar all mediums with the Sludge brush; there are many
who could advance quite sincerely some of the apologia of Sludge. Why
should a medium be immune to self-deception spurred by the Wish-Fiend?
While there are people walking about outside the Bug-house who can find
Mrs. Simpson and Generals de Gaulle, Franco, Allenby, Montgomery and who
else in the "Centuries" of Nostradamus, we should be stupid to assign
everything to conscious fraud.
28
In that case what about poor Tiny Aleister? Do please allow me the
happy young Eagles of the Old Testament; what clearer prophecy of
psychoanalysis, it's only the English for Freud and Jung and Adler!
No, by no means always fraud. Yet at any sâance the "investigators" take
no magical precautions soever --- against, say, the impersonation of Iophiel
by Hismael, or the Doves of Venus by the A'arab Zareq. All they attempt
especially at "demonstrations" and "materializations," is to guard with
great elaboration and (as a rule) complete futility against the deceptions
of the common conjuror. They are not expecting any genuine manifestation
of the "Spirit World;" and this fact makes clear their true subconscious
attitude.
As for those mediums who possess magical ability, they almost always come
from the most ignorant classes --- Celts are an exception to this rule --- and
have no knowledge whatever of the technique of the business. Worse, they
are usually of the type that delights in the secret dirty affinities, and so
naturally and gladly attract entities of the Qliphothic world to their
magical circle. Hence tricksters, of the lowest elemental orders, at the
best, come and vitalize odds and ends of the Ruach of people recently
deceased, and perform astonishing impersonations. The hollow shells glow
with infernal fire. Also, of course, they soak up vitality from the
sitters, and from the medium herself.
Altogether, a most poisonous performance. And what do they get out of
it? Even when the "Spirits" are really spirits, they only stuff the party
up with a lot of trashy lies.
To this summary the Laws of Probability insist that there shall be occa-
sional exceptions.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XXV
FASCINATIONS, INVISIBILITY, LEVITATION, TRANSMUTATIONS, KINKS IN TIME
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Dear me! dear me! The world's indeed gone topsy-turvy if you have to ask
me for the secrets of Fascination! Altogether tohu-bohu and the Temurah
Thash raq!
So much for a display of Old-World Courtly Manners; actually rubbish,
for you might very well be fascinating without knowing how you worked the
trick. In fact, I think that is the case ninety-nine times in a hundred.
Besides, I read your letter carelessly; I overlooked the phrase in which
you mention that you use the word as Lâvi did; i.e. to cover all those
types of "miracle" which depend on distracting the attention of, or other-
wise composing, the miraclee --- I invent a rather useful word, yes?
So let us see what sort of miracles those are.
29
To start with, I doubt if we can. Many of such thaumaturgic phenomena
contain elements of illusion in greater or less degree; if the maraclee's
mind is 100% responsible, I think the business becomes a mere conjuring
trick.
My dictionary defines the verb: "to charm, to enchant; to act on by some
irresistible influence; to captivate; to excite and allure irresistibly
or powerfully."
For the noun it gets even deeper into technical Magic {sic}: "the act or power
of fascinating or spell binding, often to one's harm; a mysterious, irre-
sistible, alluring influence." (Personally, I have always used, or
heard, it much less seriously: "attractive" hardly more). Skeat, sur-
prisingly, is almost dumb: p. part. of "to enchant" and "from L. fascinum,
a spell."
Yes, surprisingly; for the word is one of the many that means the Phallus.
The implication is that there is some sexual element in the exciting and
alluring quality, which lifts it altogether above mere "pleasing."
To my mind the implication is that there is some quality inherent which
is cognate to that too totally irrational quasimagnetic force which has
been responsible not only for innumerable personal tragedies --- and comedies
--- but for the fall of dynasties and even the wreck of Empires.
"Christ" is reported as having said: "If I be lifted up from the earth,
I will draw all men unto me." Interpret this in the light of the Cross
as a Phallic emblem, and --- how lurid a flash!
Compare AL II, 26. "I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in
my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one.
If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the
earth, and I and the earth are one."
This versicle is deep, devilish deep; and it is chock-a-block with the
mysteries of Fascination. Dig into this, dear sister! dig with your
Qabalistic trowel; don't blame me if you don't get a Mandrake with the
very first thrust!
But most certainly I shall say nothing here. Yes, indeed, nothing was
ever more sternly forbidden than prattle on subjects like this! Look!
It goes right on: "There is great danger in me; for who doth not understand
these runes shall make a great miss. He shall fall down into the
pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason."
(v. 27) The pit is of course the Abyss: see The Vision and the Voice,
Xth Aethyr. A very sticky --- or rather, unstuck! finish; so 'ware Hawk!
To business! Fascination No! Invisibility, is obviously penny plain S.A.
This is notably an affair of the subconscious; it often masters open
dislike and distaste; it never yields to reason. It destroys all sense
of values. Its origin is usually obscure. The least irrational base of
it is the sense of smell. It was, if I remember rightly, the Comte de
St. Germain who advised Loise de la ValliSre to fix her exquisitely
broidered kerchief in such wise that it protected her from contact with
her saddle, and then, after a morning's hard gallop, to find an excuse
for using it to wipe the brows of the perspiring king. It took him years
to recover! The story is well known, and the plan widely adopted with
30
remarkably unvarying success. But be careful not to overdo it; for if
the source of the perfume is recognized the consciousness takes charge,
and the result is antipathy.
Many years ago I composed a scent based on similar principles, which I
intended to market under the title "Potted Sex Appeal." We tried it out
with the assistance of a certain noble Marquess, whose consequent mis-
adventures --- won't he laugh when he reads this!
But there are other senses: "l'amour de l'oreille" may refer not only to
Othello's way of snaring Desdemona, but subtleties of timbre in the voice...
Yes, yes, you say impatiently, but there isn't any miracle about all this
in the ordinary sense of the word.
True, but why the devil do you want me, so long as you're getting what you
need? Just being childlike, I suppose! No? Merely that you can explain
such matters to yourself well enough. All right; on to No. 2. Shall we
look at levitation for a change?
This power --- if it be one --- is very curious indeed. It connects more
directly with magnetism than almost any other. The first thing we think
of when someone says "magnet" is picking up iron filings as a child.
Age before honesty! Let Father Poulain S.J. speak first! He is obliged
to admit the phenomenon, because the Church has done so. But precisely
similar accounts of the levitation of pagans and heretics must be accord-
ing to him, lies, or Works of the Devil. As for the method, "God employs
the angels to raise the saint, so as to avoid the necessity of intervening
Himself." Lazy old parishioner!
Now for a douche of common sense. Hatha-Yoga is quite clear and simple,
even logical, about it. The method is plain Pranayama. Didn't I tell
you onetime of the Four Stages of Success? 1. Perspiration --- of a very
special kind. 2. Sukshma-Khumbakam: automatic rigidity. One stiffens
like a dog in a bell-jar when you pump in Carbon Dioxide (is it?) 3. The
Bhuchari-Siddhi, "jumping about like a frog." One is wafted, without one's
Asana being disturbed, about the floor, rather as fragments of paper, or
dry leaves, might be in a slight draught under the door. 4. If one is
quite perfectly balanced one cannot be moved sideways; so one rises.
And there you are!
Personally, I reached the Bhuchari-Siddhi quite a number of times; but I
never observed No. 4. On several occasions other people have seen me levi-
tated, though never to a height of more than a foot or so. Here is the
best account of such an incident, of those at my immediate disposal.
"Nearly midnight. At this moment we stopped dictating, and began to con-
verse. Then Fra. P. said: "Oh, if I could only dictate a book like the
Tao Teh King!" Then he close his eyes as if meditating. Just before I
had noticed a change in his face, most extraordinary, as if he were no
longer the same person; in fact, in the ten minutes we were talking he
seemed to be any number of different people. I especially noticed the
pupils of his eyes were so enlarged that the entire eye seemed black.
(I tremble so and have such a quaking feeling inside, simply in thinking
of last night, that I can't form letters). Then quite slowly the entire
room filled with a thick yellow light (deep golden, but not brilliant.
I mean not dazzling, but soft.) Fra. P. Looked like a person I had never
31
seen but seemed to know quite well --- his face, clothes and all were of
the same yellow. I was so disturbed that I looked up to the ceiling to
see what caused the light, but could only see the candles. Then the chair
on which he sat seemed to rise; it was like a throne, and he seemed to
rise; it was like a throne, and he seemed to be either dead or sleeping;
but it was certainly no longer Fra. P. This frightened me, and I tried
to understand by looking round the room; when I looked back the chair
was raised, and he was still the same. I realized I was alone; and
thinking he was dead or gone --- or some other terrible thing --- I lost
consciousness."
This discourse has been thus left unfinished: but it is only necessary
to add that the capacity to extract such spiritual honey from these un-
promising flowers is the mark of an adept who has perfected his Magick
Cup. This method of Qabalistic exegesis is one of he best ways of
exalting the reason to the higher consciousness. Evidently it started
Fra. P. so that in a moment he become completely concentrated and entranced.
Note that this has nothing at all to do with any Pranayama. It seems a
matter of ecstatic concentration, which chose this mode of expression
instead of bringing on Samadhi --- though that, too, occurred in some of
the cases.
By the way, there is a fairly full account of the whole business; I have
just remembered --- it is in my Autohagiography.
"Pranayama produced, firstly, a peculiar kind of perspiration; secondly,
an automatic rigidity of the muscles; and thirdly, the very curious
phenomenon of causing the body, while still absolutely rigid, to take
little hops in various directions. It seems as if one were somehow raised,
possibly an inch from the ground, and deposited very gently a short dis-
tance away.
I saw a very striking case of this at Kandy. When Allan was meditating,
it was my duty to bring his food very quietly (from time to time) into
the room adjoining that where he was working. One day he missed two
successive meals, and I thought I ought to look into his room to see if
all was well. I must explain that I have known only two European women
and three European men who could sit in the attitude called Padmasana,
which is that usually seen in seated images of the Buddha. Of these men,
Allan was one. He could knot his legs so well that, putting his hands
on the ground, he could swing his body to and fro in the air between them.
When I looked into his room I found him not seated on his meditation mat,
which was in the centre of the room at the end farthest from the window,
but in a distant corner ten or twelve feet off, still in his knotted
position, resting on his head and right shoulder, exactly like an image
overturned. I set him right way up, and he came out of his trance. He
was quite unconscious that anything unusual had happened. But he had
evidently been thrown there by the mysterious forces generated by
Pranayama.
"There is no doubt whatever about this phenomenon; it is quite common.
But the Yogis claim that the lateral motion is due to lack of balance, and
that if one were in perfect spiritual equilibrium one would rise directly
in the air. I have never seen any case of levitation, and hesitate to say
that it has happened to me, thought I have actually been seen by others, on
several occasions, apparently poised in the air. For the first three
phenomena I have found no difficulty in devising quite simple physiologi-
32
cal explanations. But I can form no theory as to how the practice could
counteract the force of gravitation, and I am unregenerate enough to allow
this to make me sceptical about the occurrence of levitation. Yet, after
all, the stars are suspended in space. There is no ... priori reason why
the forces which prevent them rushing together should not come into
operation in respect of the earth and the body."
The Allan part of this is the best evidence at my disposal. He couldn't
have got where he did by hopping, and he couldn't have got into that
position intentionally; he must have been levitated, lost balance, and
dropped upside down. In any case, there is no trace of fascination about
it, as there may have been in Soror Virakam's observation.
About invisibility, now? Of this I have so much experience that the
merest outline could take us far beyond the limits of a letter. In Mexico
D.F., I worked at acquiring the power by means of ritual. I worked desper-
ately hard. I got to the point where my image in a pier-glass flickered,
rather like the very earliest films did. Possibly more work, after more
skill had come to me, might have done the whole trick. But I did not
persist when I found out how to do it by fascination. (Here we are at
last!)
Roughly, this is how to do it. If one is concentrated to the point when
what you are thinking of is the only reality in the Universe, when you
lose all awareness of who and where you are and what you are doing, it
seems as though that unconsciousness were in some way contagious. The
people around you just can't see anybody.
At one time, in Sicily, this happened nearly every day. Our party, strolling
down to our bathing bay --- the loveliest spot of its kind that I have ever
seen --- over a hillside where there wasn't cover for a rabbit, would lose
sight of me, look, and fail to find me, though I was walking in their midst.
At first, astonishment, bewilderment; at last, so normal had it become:
"He's invisible again."
One incident I remember very vividly indeed; an old friend and I were
sitting opposite each other in armchairs in front of a large fire, smoking
our pipes. Suddenly he lost sight of me, and actually cried out in alarm.
I said: "What's wrong?" That broke the spell; there I was, all present
and correct.
Did I hear you mutter "Transmutations? Werwolves? Golden Hawks?" Likely
enough; it's time we touched on that.
In certain types of animal there appears, if tradition have any weight, to
be a curious quality of --- sympathy? I doubt if that be the word, but can
think of none better --- which enables them to assume at times the human
form. No. 1 --- and the rest are also rans --- is the seal. There is a whole
body of literature about this. Then come wolves, hyaenas, large dogs of
the hunting type; occasionally leopards. Tales of cats and serpents are
usually the other way round; it is the human (nearly always female) that
assumes these shapes by witchcraft. But in ancient Egypt they literally
doted on this sort of thing. The papyri are full of formulas for operating
such transmutations. But I think that this was mostly to afford some relaxa-
tion for the spirit of the dead man; he nipped out of his sarcophagus,
and painted the town all the colours of the rainbow in one animal shape or
another.
33
The only experience I have of anything of this sort was when I was in Pacific
waters, mostly at Honolulu or in Nippon. I was practising Astral projection.
A sister of the Order who lived in Hong Kong helped me. I was to visit her,
and the token of perfect success was to be that I should knock a vase off
the mantel-piece. We appointed certain days and hours --- with some awkward-
ness, as my time-distance from her was constantly growing shorter --- for me
to pay my visit. We got some remarkable results; our records of the inter-
view used to tally with surprising accuracy; but the vase remained intact!
This is not one of my notorious digressions; and this is how transmu-
tation comes into it. I found that by first taking the shape of a golden
hawk, and resuming my own form after landing in her "temple" --- a room
she had fitted ad hoc --- the whole operation became incomparably easier.
I shall not indulge in hypotheses of why this should have been the case.
A little over four years later --- in the meantime we had met and worked
at Magick together --- we resumed these experiments in a somewhat different
form. The success was much greater; but though I could move her, and
even any objects which she was touching, I could make no impression on
inanimate objects at a distance from her. The behaviour of her dogs, and
of her cat, was very curious and interesting. Strangest of all, there
appeared those "kinks in Time" which profane science is just beginning
to discuss. Example: on one occasion our records of an "interview"
agreed with quite extraordinary precision; but, on comparing notes, it
was found that owing to some stupid miscalculation of mine, it was all
over in Hong Kong some hours before I had started from Honolulu! Again,
don't ask me why, or how, or anything!
Talking of kinks in Time, I shall now maintain my aforesaid evil notor-
iety --- the story is totally asynartete from fascinations of whatever
variety --- by recounting what is by far the most inexplicable set of facts
that ever came my way.
In the summer of 1910 e.v. I was living at 125 Victoria Street, in a
studio converted into a Temple by means of a Circle, an Altar and the
rest. West of the Altar was a big fireplace with a fender settee; the
East wall was covered with bookshelves. Enter the late Theodor Reuss,
O.H.O. and Frater Superior of the O.T.O. He wanted me to join that Order.
I recommended him, in politer language to repeat the Novocastrian Experi-
ment. Undeterred, he insisted: "But you must."
(Now we go back, or forward, I know not which, to a night when I found
myself stranded in London. I asked hospitality of a stranger; it was
readily afforded. Some hours later my hostess fell asleep; I could not
do so; something was nagging me. I suddenly took my notebook, and wrote
a certain passage in a certain book, since published.)
"Must, my foot!" He persisted: "You have published the secret of the
nth degree of O.T.O., and you must take the corresponding oaths." "I
have done nothing of the sort. I don't know the secret. I don't want
to know it. I don't . . . " He interrupted me; he strode across the
room; he plucked a book from the shelves; he opened it; he thrust it
under my nose; he pointed out a passage with a minatory index. I began
to stammer. "Yes, I wrote that. I don't know what it means; I don't
like it; I only put it in because it was written in rather curious cir-
cumstances, and I was too lazy --- or perhaps a little afraid --- to reject
it and write what I wanted." He fastened on one point: "You don't know
what it means?" I repeated that I did not, even now that he had claimed
34
it as important. He explained it to me, as to a child. I was merely
surprised; it didn't sound possible. (Sister, all this while I've been
lying to you like an Archbishop; it is connected wit fascinations;
indeed, it has very little to do with anything else!)
Finally, he won me over, I went down to his G.H.Q., took the Oaths, was
installed in the Throne of the X¿ of O.T.O. as National Sovereign Grand
Master General, and began to establish the Order as a going concern.
Well, you say, that is a very simple story, nothing specially hard to
believe in it.
True, but consider the dates.
That scene in Victoria Street, is as clear and vivid in my mind, in every
detail, as if it were yesterday. That secret is published only in that
passage of that book. And --- the book was not published until three
years later, and from an address of which in 1910 I had not so much as
thought of. The date of my adhesion to the O.T.O. (which, by the way,
upset every principle and plan that I had ever held) is equally certain
by virtue of subsequent published writings.
Now go away and explain that!
Well I've given you a fair account of some of the principal fascinations;
as to the rest, bewitchments, sorceries, inhibitions and all that lot, it
is enough if I say that they follow the regular Laws of Magick; in some,
fascination proper plays a prominent part; in others, it is barely more
than walking on to say "My lord, the carriage waits!" But --- even that
can be done well or ill, and a small mistake may work a mighty mischief.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XXVI
MENTAL PROCESSES --- TWO ONLY ARE POSSIBLE
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
"Occult" science is the most difficult of them all. For one thing, its
subject-matter includes the whole of philosophy, from ontology and
metaphysics down to natural history. More, the most rarefied and recon-
dite of these has a direct bearing upon the conduct of life in its most
material details, and the simplest study of such apparently earthbound
matters as botany and mineralogy leads to the most abstruse calculations
of the imponderables.
With what weapons, then, are we to attack so formidable a fortress?
The first essential is clear thinking.
In a previous letter I have dealt to some extent with this subject;
but it is so important that you must forgive me if I return to it, and
35
that at length, from the outset, and in detail.
Let us begin but having our own minds clear of all ambiguities, ignoring
for the purpose of this argument all metaphysical subtleties.7 I want
to confine it to the outlook of the "plain man."
What do we do when we "think?"
There are two operations, and only two, possible to thought. However
complex a statement may appear, it can always be reduced to a series of
one or other of these. If not, it is a sham statement; nonsense mas-
querading as sense in the cloak of verbiage and verbosity.
Analysis, and Synthesis; or,
Subtraction, and Addition.
1. You can examine A, and find that it is composed of B and C. A = B + C.
2. You can find out what happens to B when you add C to it. B + C = A.
As you notice, the two are identical, after all; but the process is
different.
Example: Raise Copper Oxide to a very high temperature; you obtain
metallic copper and oxygen gas. Heat copper in a stream of oxygen; you
obtain copper oxide.
You can complicate such experiments indefinitely, as when one analyzes
coal-tar, or synthesizes complex products like quinine from its elements;
but one can always describe what happens as a series of simple operations,
either of the analytical or the synthetic type.
(I wonder if you remember a delightful passage in Anatole France where
he interprets an "exalted" mystical statement, first by giving the words
their meaning as concrete images, when he gets a magnificent hymn, like
a passage from the Rig-Veda; secondly, by digging down to the original
meaning, with an effect comical and even a little ribald. I fear I have
no idea where to find it; in one of the "odds and ends" compilations
most likely. So please, look somebody; you won't have wasted your time!)
This has been put in a sort of text, because the first stumbling-block
to study is the one never has any certainty as to what the author means,
or thinks he means, or is trying to persuade one that he means.
Try something simple: "The soul is part of God." Now then, when he
writes "soul" does he mean Atma, or Buddhi, or the Higher Manas, or
Purusha, or Yechidah,or Neschamah, or Nepheshch, or Nous, or Psyche, or
Phren, or Ba, or Khu, or Ka, or Animus, or Anima, or Seele, or what?
As everybody will he nill he, creates "God" in his own image, it is
perfectly useless to inquire what he may happen to mean by that.
But even this very plain word "part". Does he mean to imply a quantita-
tive assertion, as when one says sixpence is part of a pound, or a factor
7* I mean criticisms such as "Definition is impossible;" "All arguments
are circular;" "All propositions are tautological." These are true, but
one is obliged to ignore them in all practical discussions.
36
indispensable, as when one says "A wheel is part of a motor-car", or . . .
(Part actually means "a share, that which is provided," according to
Skeat; and I am closer to the place where Moses was when the candle
went out than I was before!)
The fact is that very few of us know what words mean; fewer still take
the trouble to enquire. We calmly, we carelessly assume that our minds
are identical with that of the writer, at least on that point; and then
we wonder that there should be misunderstandings!
The fact is (again!) that usually we don't really want to know; it is
so very much easier to drift down the river of discourse, "lazily, lazily,
drowsily, drowsily, In the noonday sun".
Why is this so satisfactory? Because although we may not know what a
word means, most words have a pleasant or unpleasant connotation, each
for himself, either because of the ideas or images thus begotten, of
hopes or memories stirred up, or merely for the sound of the word itself.
(I have gone a month's journey out of my way to visit a town, just because
I liked the sound of the name!)
Then there are devices: style --- rhythm, cadence, rime, ornamentation
of a thousand kinds. I think one may take it that the good writer makes
use of such artifice to make his meaning clear; the bad writer to obscure
it, or to conceal the fact that he has none.
One of the best items of the education system at the Abbey in Cefal- was
the weekly Essay. Everyone, including children of five or six, had to
write on "The Housing Problem," "Why Athens Decayed," "The Marriage
System," "Buddhist Ethics" and the like; the subject didn't matter much;
the point was that one had to discover, arrange and condense one's ideas
about it, so as to present it in a given number of words, 93 or 156, or
418 as like as not, that number, neither more nor less. A superb disci-
pline for any writer.
I had a marvellous lesson myself some years earlier. I had cut down a
certain ritual of initiation to what I thought were the very barest bones,
chiefly to make it easy to commit to memory. Then came a candidate who
was deaf --- not merely "a little hard of hearing;" his tympana were rup-
tured --- and the question was How?
All right for most of it; one could show him the words typed on slips.
But during part of the ceremony he was hoodwinked; one was reduced to
the deaf-and-dumb alphabet devised for such occasions. I am as clumsy
and stupid at that as I am at most things, and lazy, infernally lazy, on
top of that. Well, when it came to the point, the communication of the
words became abominably, intolerably tedious. And then! Then I found
that about two-thirds of my "absolutely essential" ritual was not neces-
asary at all!
That larned 'im.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XXVII
37
STRUCTURE OF MIND BASED ON THAT OF BODY (HAECKEL AND BERTRAND
RUSSELL)
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Was the sudden cloudburst at the end of my last letter somewhat of a
surprise, and more that somewhat of a shock? Cheer up! The worst is
yet to come.
This is where clean thinking --- a subject whose fringes I seem to remember
having touched --- wins the Gold Medal of the Royal Humane Society.
It is surely the wise course to accept the plain facts; to try to
explain them away, or to excuse them, is certain to involve one in a
maelstrom of sophistry; and when, despite these laudable efforts, the
facts jump up and land a short jab to the point, one is even worse off
than before.
This has to be said, because Sammasati is assuredly one of the most
useful, as well as one of the most trustworthy and most manageable,
weapons in the armoury of the Aspirant.
You stop me, obviously with a demand for a personal explanation. "How
is it," you write, "that you reject with such immitigable scorn the
very foundation-stones of Buddhism, and yet refer disciples enthusiasti-
cally to the technique of some of its subtlest super-structures?"
I laff.
It is the old, old story. When the Buddha was making experiments and
recording the results, he was on safe ground: when he started to
theorize, committing (incidentally) innumerable logical crimes in the
process, he is no better a guesser than the Arahat next door, or for
the matter of that, the Arahat's Lady Char.
So, if you don't mind, we will look a little into this matter of Samma-
sati: what is it when it's at home?
It may be no more than a personal fancy, but I think Allan Bennett's
translation of the term, "Recollection," is as near as one can get in
English. One can strain the meaning slightly to include Re-collection,
to imply the ranging of one's facts, and the fitting of them into an
organized structure. The term "sati" suggests an identification of
Being with Knowledge --- see The Soldier and the Hunchback ! -- ! and ?
(Equinox I, 1). So far as it applies to the Magical Memory, it lays stress
on some such expedient, very much as is explained in Liber Thisarb
(Magick, pp. 415 - 422).
But is it not a little strange that "The Abomination of Desolation
should be set up in the Holy Place," as it were? Why should the whole-
bearted search for Truth and Beauty disclose such hateful and such
hideous elements as necessary components of the Absolute Perfection?
Never mind the why, for a moment; first let us be sure that it is so.
38
Have we any grounds for expecting this to be the case?
We certainly have.
This is a case where "clean thinking" is most absolutely helpful. The
truth is of exquisite texture; it blazons the escutcheon of the Unity
of Nature in such delicate yet forceful colours that the Postulant may
well come thereby to the Opening of the Trance of Wonder; yet religious
theories and personal pernicketiness have erected against its impact the
very stoutest of their hedgehogs of prejudice.
Who shall help us here? Not the sonorous Vedas, not the Upanishads,
Not Apollonius, Plotinus, Ruysbroeck, Molinos; not any gleaner in the
field of ... priori; no, a mere devotee of natural history and biology:
Ernst Haeckel.
Enormous, elephantine, his work's bulk is almost incredible; for us
his one revolutionary discovery is pertinent to this matter of Samma-
sati and the revelations of one's inmost subtle structure.
He discovered, and he demonstrated, that the history of any animal
throughout the course of its evolution is repeated in the stages of
the individual. To put it crudely, the growth of a child from the
fertilized ovum to the adult repeats the adventures of its species.
This doctrine is tremendously important, and I feel that I do not know
how to emphasize it as it deserves. I want to be exceptionally accurate;
yet the use of his meticulous scientific terms, with an armoury of
quotations, would almost certainly result in your missing the point,
"unable to see the wood for the trees."
Let me put it that the body is formed by the super-position of layers,
each representing a stage in the history of the evolution of the species.
The foetus displays essential characteristics of insect, reptile, mammal
(or whatever they are) in the order in which these classes of animal
appeared in the world's history.
Now I want to put forward a thesis --- and as far as I know it is personal
to myself, based on my work at Cefal- --- to the effect that the mind is
constructed on precisely the same lines.
You will remember from my note on "Breaks" in meditation how one's
gradual improvement in the practice results in the barring-out of
certain classes of idea, by classes. The ready-to-hand, recent fugi-
tive thoughts come first and first they go. Then the events of the
previous day or so, and the preoccupations of the mind for that period.
Next, one comes to the layer of reveries and other forms of wish-phanstasm;
then cryptomnesia gets busy with incidents of childhood and the like;
finally, there intrudes the class of "atmospherics," where one cannot
trace the source of the interruption.
All these are matters of the conscious rational mind; and when I explored
and classified these facts, in the very first months of my serious prac-
tice of Yoga, I had no suspicion that they were no more than the foam on
a glass of champagne: nay, rather of
"black wine in jars of jade
39
Cooled all these months in hoarded snow,
Black wine with purple starlight in its bosom,
Oily and sweet as the soul of a brown maid
Brought from the forenoon's archipelago,
Her brows bound bright with many a scarlet blossom
Like the blood of the slain that flowered free
When we met the black men knee to knee."
How apt the verses are! How close are wine and snow to lust and slaughter!
I have been digressing, for all that; let us return to our goats!
The structure of the mind reveals its history as does the structure of the
body.
(Capitals, please, or bang on something; that has got to sink in.)
Just as your body was at one stage the body of an ape, a fish, a frog
(and all the rest of it) so did that animal at that stage possess a mind
correlative.
Now then! In the course of that kind of initiation conferred by Samma-
sati, the layers are stripped off very much as happens in elementary
meditation (Dharana) to the conscious mind.
(There is a way of acquiring a great deal of strange and unsuspected
knowledge of these matters by the use of Sulphuric Ether, [C2H5]2O,
according to a special technique. I wrote a paper on it
once, 16 pp. 4to, and fearing that it might be lost had many copies made
and distributed. Where is it? I must write you a letter one day.)
Accordingly, one finds oneself experiencing the thoughts, the feelings,
the desires of a gorilla, a crocodile, a rat, a devil-fish, or what have
you! One is no longer capable of human thoughts in the ordinary sense
of the word; such would be wholly unintelligible.
I leave the rest to your imagination; doesn't it sound to you a little
like some of the accounts of "The Dweller on the Threshold?"
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XXVIII
NEED TO DEFINE "GOD", "SELF", ETC.
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Artless remark!8 Oh you!
Well, I suppose it's a gift --- to stir Hell to its most abysmal horror
with one small remark slipped in at the end. Scorpion!
8* Refers to a pious phrase at the end of her letter.
40
"Higher self" --- "God within us."
Dear Lady, you could never have picked five words from Iroquois, or Banti,
or Basuto or the Jargon of Master Franàois Villon, or Pictish, which
severally and together convey less to my mind.
No, no, not Less: I mean More, so much more that it amounts to nothing
at all. Spencer Montmorency Bourbon Hohenstaufen sounds very exclusive
and aristocratic, and even posh or Ritzy; but if you bestow these names
upon every male child, the effect tends to diminish. The "Southern
Gentleman" Lee Davis9
recently hanged for rape and murder, was not a near
relation either of the General or the President: he was a Nigger.
Gimme the old spade, I've got to go digging again.
1. Higher. Here we fall straight into the arms of Freud. Why "higher?"
Because in a scrap it is easier to strangle him if you are on top. When
very young children watch their parents in actu coitus, a circumstance
exceedingly usual almost anywhere outside England, and even here where
houseroom is restricted, the infant supposes that his mother, upon whom
he depends entirely for nourishment, is being attacked by the intrusive
stranger whom they want him to address as "Dad." From this seed springs
an "over-under complex," giving rise later on, in certain cases to whole
legions of neuroses.
Now then make it a little clearer, please, just what you mean by "higher."
Skeat seems to connect it with hills, swellings, boils, the maternal
breast; is that reason enough for us to connect it with the idea of
advantage, or --- "superiority" merely translates it into Latin! --- worth,
or --- no, it's really too difficult. Of course, sometimes it has a "bad"
meaning, as of temperature in fever; but nearly always it implies a
condition preferable to "low."
Applied to the "self," it becomes a sort of trade name; nobody tells
me if he means Khu, or Ba, or Khabs, or Ut of the Upanishads or Augoeides
of the Neo-Platonists, or Adonai of the Bulwer-Lytton, or --- --- here we are
with
all those thrice-accurs't alternatives. There is not, cannot be, any
specific meaning unless we start with a sound skeleton of ontogenic
theory, a well-mapped hierarchy of the Cosmos, and define the term anew.
Then why use it? To do so can only cause confusion, unless the context
helps us to clarify the image. And that is surely rather a defeatist
attitude, isn't it?
When I first set myself to put a name to my "mission" --- the contempla-
9^ WEH NOTE: Crowley sometimes carries his despite for euphemism to a point
that obscures his purpose. The use of the term "nigger" here gives such
offense to the modern reader that the point can be missed! This was not so
in Crowley's youth, when this term was used without regard for its effect.
For the record, "nigger" does not derive from "negro" = "black" but from
"niggard" = "lazy". Crowley uses it here for the stereotype; but he also
uses it deliberately to shock, as a lazy way to make such an effect. That
makes Crowley a "nigger" at this point, as the word is properly defined!
{Research Lee Davis --- }
41
tion carried me half-way across South-West China --- I considered these
alternatives. I thought to cut the Gordian Knot, and call it by
Abramelin's title the "Holy Guardian Angel" because (I mused) that will
be as intelligible to the villagers of Pu Peng as to the most learned
Pundits; moreover, the implied theory was so crude that no one need
be bound by it.
All this is rubbish, as you will see when we reach the discussion on
"self:" To explain now would lead to too unwieldy a digression.
2. "Within." If you don't mind, we'll tackle this now, while "higher"
is fresh in our minds; for it is also a preposition. First you want
to go up; then you want to go in. Why?
As "higher" gave the idea of aggression, of conquest, "within" usually
implies safety. Always we get back to that stage of history when the
social unit, based on the family, was little less than condition No. 1
of survival. The house, the castle, the fortified camp, the city wall;
the "gens," the clan, the tribe, the "patrie," to be outside means dan-
ger from cold, hunger and thirst, raiding parties, highway robbers,
bears, wolves, and tigers. To go out was to take a risk; and, your
labour and courage being assets to your kinsmen, you were also a bad
man; in fact, a "bounder" or "outsider." "Debauch" is simply "to go
out of doors!" St. John says: "without are dogs and sorcerers and
whoremongers and adulterers and idolaters and. ." --- so on.
We of Thelema challenge all this briskly. "The word of Sin is Restriction."
(AL I, 41). Our formula, roughly speaking, is to go out and
grab what we want. We do this so thoroughly that we grow thereby,
extending our conception of "I" by including each new accretion instead
of remaining a closely delineated self, proud of possessing other things,
as do the Black Brothers.
We are whole-hearted extroverts; the penalty of restricting oneself is
anything from neurosis to down right lunacy; in particular, melancholia.
You ask whether these remarks do not conflict with my repeated definition
of Initiation as the Way In. Not at all; the Inmost is identical with
the All. As you travel inward, you become able to perceive all the
layers which surround the "Self" from within, thus enlarging the scope
of your vision of the Universe. It is like moving from a skirmishing
patrol to G.H.Q.; and the object of so doing is obviously to exercise
constantly increasing control over the whole Army. Every step in rank
enables you both to see more and to do more; but one's attention is
inevitably directed outward.
When the entire system of the Universe is conterminous with your compre-
hension, "inward" and "outward" become identical.
But it won't do at all to seek anything within but a point of view, for
the simple reason that there is nothing else there!
It is just like all those symbols in The Book of Thoth; as soon as you
get to the "end" of anything, you suddenly find it is the "beginning."
To formulate the idea of "self" at all, you must posit limitations; any-
thing that is distinguishable is a mere temporary (and arbitrary)
selection of the finite from the infinite; whatever you chose to think
42
of, it changes, it grows, it disappears.
You have got to train your mind to canter through those leafy avenues of
thought upon the good green turf of Indifference; when you can do it
without conscious effort, so that up-down, in-out, far-near, black-white
(and so on for everything) appears quite automatically, you are already
as near an Initiate as makes no matter.
3. "Self." For a full discussion of this see Letter XLII.
4. "God." This is really to bad of you!
Of all the hopelessly mangled words in the language, you settle with
unerring Sadism on the most brutally butchered.
Crippen10 was an amateur.
Skeat hardly helps us at all, except by warning us that "good" has nothing
whatever to do with it.11 Dieu comes from Deus, with all its Sol-Jupiter
references, and Deos, which Plato thought meant a runner; hence, Sun,
Moon, Planets.
The best I can do for you, honest Injun! is the Russian word for god
Bog; connected probably, though the Lithuanian, with the Welsh Bwq
a spectre or hobgoblin. Bugge, too. Not very inspiring, is it, to
replace the Old Hundredth by "Hush! Hush! Hush! here come the Bogey
Man." Or is it.
Enough of this fooling! Out, trusty rapier, and home to the stone heart
of the audacious woman that wrote "God within us."
I know you thought you knew more or less what you meant when you wrote
it; but surely that was a mere slip. An instant's thought would have
warned you that the word wouldn't stand even the most superficial analysis
You meant "Something which seems to me the most perfect symbol of all
that I love, worship, admire" --- all that class of verb.
But nobody else will have the same set of qualities in his private museum;
you have, as every one has always done, made another God in your own image.
Then the Vedantists define God as "having neither quality nor quantity;"
and some Yogis have a practice of setting up images to knock them down
at once with "Not that! Not that!"
And the Buddhists won't admit any God at all in anything at all like the
sense in which you use the word12.
What's worse, whatever you may mean by "God" conveys no idea to me: I
10* Crippen was a famous English poisoner who was caught and hung.
11^ WEH NOTE: Shipley's Dictionary of Word Origins sneaks the following in
under the word "goodbye": "God, Goth. guth, may be traced to Aryan ghut,
god, from ghuto, to implore: God is the one to whom we pray." "God" might
also be a contraction of "Odin", as "'Od" --- have the English speaking
Christians been praying to the Aesir all this time?
12* One of the most amusing passages of irony is to be found in The
Questions of King Milinda where the Arhat Nagasena demolishes Maha
Brahma.
43
can only guess by the light of my exceedingly small knowledge of you and
your general habits of thought and action. Then what sense was there in
chucking it at my head? Half a brick would have served you better.
You think you can explain to me viva voce, perhaps? Don't you dare try!
Whatever you said, I should prove to be nonsense, philosophically and in
a dozen other ways. And the County Council Ambulance would bundle you
off in your battered and bewildered dâbris to the Bug-house, as is so
etymologically indicated.
Do see it simply; the word must in any event connote ideas of Neschamah,
not of Ruach.
"But you use the word all the time." Yes, I do, and rely on the context
to crystallize this most fluid --- or gaseous --- of expressions.
5. "Us". Why "Us"?
Is this a reference to the Old School Tie, or that Finishing School in
Brussels, and the ticket to the Royal enclosure at Ascot? I do not
suppose for a moment that you meant it that way: but it's there. And
so ---
Anecdote of Lao-Tze.
The Old One was surrounded as usual by a galaxy of adoring disciples,
and they were trying to get him to show them where the Tao was to be
found.
It was in the Sun and Moon, he admitted; it was in the Son of Heaven
and in the Superior Man. (Not George Nathaniel Curzon, however). It
was in the Blossoms of Springtide, and in the chilling winds that swept
over from Siberia, and in the Wild Geese that it bore Southward when
their instinct bade them. In short, the catalogue began to look is if
it were going to extend indefinitely; and an impatient disciple, pointing
to certain traces left by a mule in its recent passage, asked: "And is
the Tao also in that?" The Master nodded, and echoed: "Also in that."
. . . . . . . .
Then what becomes of this privileged "us"? We are obliged to extend it
to include everything. Then, as we have just seen, "God" also is un-
fettered by definitions.
Net result: "God within us" means precisely nothing at all.
And so it does, By Bradman!
"Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any
one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt. But
whoso availeth in this, let him be the chief of all!" (AL I, 22 - 23)
I implore you not to point out that, this being the case, words like
"hurt" and "chief" cannot possibly mean anything. The fact is that if
we are to get on peaceably in the Club, we have to know when to take
any given expression in a Pickwickian sense.
In the Ruach all the laws of logic apply: they don't in Neschamah.
44
The real meaning of the passage is simple enough, if you understand
that it refers to a specific result of Initiation. You have to be able
to reckon up the Universe, as a whole and in every part; and to get
rid of all its false or partial realities by discarding everything but
the One Reality which is the sole truth in, and of Illusion.
There is one set of equations which express the relation of the Perceiver
and the Perceived, adjusted in accordance with the particular limitations
on both sides; another cancels out all the finite terms, and leaves us
with an ultimate x = o = O¿.
See?
I know I'm a disheartening kind of bloke, and it does seem so unfriendly
to jump down a fellow's throat every minute or so when she tries to put
it ever so nicely, and it is so easy --- isn't it? --- to play the game of
Sanctimonious Grandiloquence, and surely what was said was perfectly
harmless, and . . . .
No, N.O., no: not harmless at all. My whole object is it train you to
silence every kind of hypothetical speculation, and formulae both reso-
nant and satisfying. I want you to ---
abhor them
abominate them
despise them
detest them
escew them
hate them
loathe them
and da capo.
and to get on with your practice. Then when you get the results, you
can try, albeit uselessly, to fit your own words to the facts, if you
should wish to communicate, for any good reason, your experiences to
other people.
Then, despairing of your impotence, how glad you will be that you have
been trained not to let anyone fob you of with phrases.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally yours,
666
CHAPTER XXIX
WHAT IS CERTAINTY
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Well, I suppose I ought to have expected you to cock that wise left
eyebrow at me! Right you are to wonder precisely what I mean by
"certainty", in the light of:
45
"On Soul's curtain
Is written this one certainty, that naught is certain."
Then there is that chapter in The Book of Lies (again!)
"The Chinese cannot help thinking that the Octave has five notes."
"The more necessary anything appears to my mind, the more certain
it is that I only assert a limitation."
"I slept with Faith, and found a corpse in my arms on awaking."
"I drank and danced all night with Doubt, and found her a virgin
in the morning."
I wouldn't start to argue with the Chinese, if I were you; they might
remind you that you exude the stench peculiar to corpses.
Again, that other "Hymn to St. Thomas", as I ought perhaps to have
called it:
"Doubt.
Doubt Thyself
Doubt even if thou doubtest thyself.
Doubt all
Doubt even if thou doubtest all."
"It seems sometimes as if beneath all conscious doubt there lay
some deepest certainty. O kill it! slay the snake!"
"The horn of the Doubt-Goat be exalted!"
"Dive deeper, ever deeper, into the Abyss of Mind, until thou
unearth that fox THAT. On, hounds! Yoicks! Tally-ho!
Bring THAT to bay!"
"Then, wind the Mort!"
Once more --- what a book that is: I never realized it until now! it says
--- see that double page at the onset, one with "?" and the other with "!"
alone upon the blank. Moreover you should read the long essay "The
Soldier and the Hunchback: ! and?" in the first volume and number of
The Equinox.
But every one of those --- rather significant, nich wahr? --- slides into
a rhapsody of exaltation, a dithyramb, a Paean13. No good here. For
13* It seems natural to me --- apodeictic after a fashion --- to treat Doubt
as positive, even aggressive. There is none of the wavering, wobbling,
woebegone wail of the weary and bewildered wage-slave; it is a trium-
phant challenge, disagreement for its own sake. Irish!
Browing painted a quite perfect picture of my Doubt.
"Up jumped Tokay on our table,
Like a pigmy castle-warder,
Dwarfish to see but stout and able,
Arms and accoutrement all in order;
46
what you want is a penny plain pedestrian prose Probability-Percentage.
You want to know what the Odds are when I say "certain".
A case for casuistry? At least, for classification. It depends rather
on one's tone of voice? Yes, of course, and as to the classification,
off we jog to the Divine Pymander, who saw, and stated, the quiddity of
our query with his accustomed lucidity. He discerns three degrees of
Truth; and he distinguishes accordingly: ---
1. True
2. Certain without error
3. Of all truth.
Clear enough, the difference between 1 and 2: ask me the time, I say
half-past two; and that's true enough. But the Astronomer Royal is by
no manner of means satisfied with any approximation of that kind. He
wants it accurate. He must know the longitude to a second; he must
have decided what method of measuring time is to be used; he must make
corrections for this and for that; and he must have attached an (arbitrary)
interpretation to the system; the whole question of Relativity pops up.
And, even so, he will enter a caveat about every single ganglion in the
gossamer of his calculations.
Well then, all this intricate differentiation and integration and verifi-
cation and Lord knows what leads at last to a statement which may be
called "Certain without Error".
Excuse me just a moment! When I was staying at the Consulate of Tengyueh,
just inside the S.W. frontier of China, our one link with England, Home,
and Beauty was the Telegraph Service from Pekin. One week it was silent,
and we were anxious for news, our last bit of information having been
that there was rioting in Shanghai, seventeen Sikh policemen killed.
For all we knew the whole country might rise en masse at any moment to
expel the "Foreign Devils". At last the welcome messenger trotted across
from the city in the twilight with a whole sheaf of telegrams. Alas,
save for the date of dispatch, the wording in each one was identical:
each told us that it was noon in Pekin!
They had to be relayed at Yung Chang, and both the operators had taken
ten days off to smoke opium, sensible fellows!
And fierce he looked North, then wheeling South
Blew with his bugle a challenge to Drouth,
Cocked his flap-hat with the tosspot feather,
Twisted his thumb in his red moustache,
Jingled his huge brass spurs together,
Tightened his waist with its Buda Sash,
And then, with an impudence nought could abash
Shrugged his hump-shoulder, to tell the beholder,
For twenty such knaves he should laugh but the bolder;
And so, with his sword-hilt gallantly jutting,
And dexter hand on his haunch abutting,
Went the little man, Sir Ausbruch, strutting!"
It's not the least bit like Tokay; rather the Bull's Blood its neighbor,
or any rough strong red wine like Rioja. Curious, though, his making him
a hunchbacked dwarf; there must be something in this deep down. I wonder
what! (Ask Jung!)
47
But Hermes Trismegistus is not content with any such fugues as the
Astronomer, however cunning and colossal his Organ; his Third Degree
demands much more than this. The Astronomer's estimate has puttied every
tiniest crack, he concedes it, but then waves it brusquely away: all
the time the door is standing wide open!
The Astronomer's exquisitely tailored figure stands in abashed isolation,
like a gawky young man at his first Ball; he feels that he doesn't
belong, For this D.S.T., or Greenwich, or what not, however exact in
itself, is so only in reference to some other set of measurements which
themselves turn out to be arbitrary; it is not of any ultimate import;
nobody can dispute it, but it simply doesn't matter to anybody, apart
from the particular case. It is not "Of all Truth."
What Hermes means by this it will be well to enquire.
May we call it "a truth of Religion?" (Don't be shocked! The original
word implies a binding-together-again, as in a "Body of Doctrine:" com-
pare the word "Ligature". It was only later by corruption, that the
word came to imply "piety;" re-ligens, attentive (to the gods) as opposed
to neg-ligens, neglectful.)
I think that Hermes was contemplating a Ruach closely knitted together
and anchored by incessant Aspiration to the Supernal Triad; just such
an one, in short, as appears in those remarks on the Magical Memory, a
God-man ready to discard his well-worn Instrument for a new one, bought
up to date with all the latest improvements (the movement of the Zeit-
geist during his past incarnation, in particular) well wrought and ready
for his use.
This being so, a truth which is "of all Truth" should mean any proposi-
tion which forms an essential part of this Khu --- this "Magical Identity"
of a man.
How how curious it must appear at the first glance to note that the
truths of this order should prove to be what we call Axioms --- or even
Platitudes ---
. . . . . . What's that noise?
. . . . . . I think I hear Sir Ausbruch!
And in full eruption too! And hasn't he the right? For all this time
we've bluffed our way breezily ahead over the sparkling seas, oblivious
of that very Chinese Chinese-puzzle that we started with, the paradox
(is it?) of the Chinese Gamut.
(We shan't get into doldrums; there's always the way out from "?" to
"!" as with any and every intellectual problem whatsoever: it's the
only way. Otherwise, of course, we get to A is A, A is not-A, not-A
is not-A, not-A is A, as is inevitable).
"The more certain I am of anything, the more certain it is that I am
only asserting a limitation of my own mind."
Very good, but what am I to do about it? Some at least of such certain-
ties must surely be "of all Truth". The test of admission to this class
ought to be that, of one were to accept the contradictory of the proposi-
tion, the entire structure of the Mind would be knocked to pieces, as is
48
not at all the case with the Astronomer's determination, which may turn
out to be wrong for a dozen different reasons without anybody getting
seriously wounded in his tenderest feelings.
The Statesman knows instinctively, or at worst, by his training and
experience, what sort of assertion, harmless enough on the surface,
may be "dangerous thinking", a death-blow to his own idea of what is
"of all Truth", and strikes out wildly in a panic entirely justifiable
from his own point of view. Exhibit No. 1: Galileo and that lot. What
could it possibly matter to the Gospel story that people should think
that the Earth moves round the Sun? (Riemann, and oh! such a lot of
things, have shewn that it didn't and doesn't! This sort of "Truth"
is only a set of conventions.)
"Oh, don't gas away like this! I want to know what to do about it. Am
I to accept this cauerwauling Gamut, and enlarge my Mind, and call it
an Initiation? Or am I to nail my own of-all-Truth Tonic Solfa to the
Mast, and go down into the Maelstrom of Insanity with colours flying?
Do you really need Massed Bands to lull Baby to sleep?
The Master of the Temple deals very simply and efficiently with problems
of this kind. "The Mind" (says he) of this Party of the First Part,
hereinafter referred to as Frater N (or whatever his 8¿ = 3† motto may
be) is so constructed that the interval from C to C is most harmoniously
divided into n notes; that of the Party of the Second Part hereinafter
referred to as --- not a Heretic, an Atheist, a Bolshie, ad Die-hard, a
Schismatic, and Anarchist, a Black Magician, a Friend of Aleister Crowley,
or whatever may be the current term of abuse --- Mr. A, Lord B, the Duke
of C, Mrs. X, or whatever he or she may chance to be called --- into five.
The Structure called of-all-Truth in neither of us is affected in the
least, any more than in the reading of a Thermometer with Fahrenheit on
one side and Centigrade on the other.
You naturally object that this answer is little better than an evasion,
that it automatically pushes the Gamut question outside the Charmed of-
all-Truth Circle.
No, it doesn't really; for if you were able to put up a Projection of
those two minds, there would be, firstly, some sort of compensation
elsewhere than in the musical section; and secondly, some Truth of a
yet higher order which is common to both.
Not unaware am I that these conceptions are at first exceedingly diffi-
cult to formulate clearly. I wouldn't go so far as to say that one would
have to be a Master of the Temple to understand them; but it is really
very necessary to have grasped firmly the doctrine that "a thing is only
true insofar as it contains its contradiction in itself." (A good way to
realize this is by keeping up a merry dance of paradoxes, such as infest
Logic and Mathematics. The repeated butting of the head against a brick
wall is bound in the long run to shake up the little grey cells [as
Poirot might say], teach you to distrust any train of argument, however
apparently impeccable the syllogisms, and to seek ever more eagerly the
dawn of that Neschamic consciousness where all these things are clearly
understood, although impossible to express in rational language.)
The prime function of intellect is differentiation; it deals with marks,
with limits, with the relations of what is not identical; in Neschamah
49
all this work has been carried out so perfectly that the "rough working"
has passed clean out of mind; just so, you say "I" as if it were an
indivisible Unity, unconscious of the inconceivably intricate machinery
of anatomical, physiological, psychological construction which issues in
this idea of "I".
We may then with some confidence reaffirm that our certainties do assert
our limitations; but this kind of limitation is not necessarily harmful,
provided that we view the situation in its proper perspective, that we
understand that membership of the of-all-Truth class does not (as one is
apt to think at first sight) deepen the gulfs which separate mind from
mind, but on the contrary put us in a position to ignore them. Our acts
of "love under will," which express our devotion to Nuit, which multiply
the fulfillments of our possibilities, become continually more efficacious,
and more closely bound up with our Formula of Initiation; and we progres-
sively become aware of deeper and vaster Images of the of-all-Truth class,
which reconcile, by including within themselves, all apparent antinomies.
It is certain without error that I ought to go to bed.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XXX
DO YOU BELIEVE IN GOD?
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
You are quite right, as usual. True, we have gone over a great deal of
the ground in various learned disquisitions of Gods, Angels, Elves, et
hoc genus omne.
But God with a capital "G" in the singular is a totally different pair of
Bl*chers --- nicht wahr?
Let me go back just for a moment to the meaning of "belief". We agreed
that the word was senseless except as it implies an opinion, instinct,
conviction --- what you please! --- so firmly entrenched in our natures
that we act automatically as if it were "true" and "certain without
error," perhaps even "of the essence of truth." (Browning discusses this
in Mr. Sludge the Medium.) Good: the field is clear for an enquiry into
this word "God".
We find ourselves in trouble from the start.
We must define; and to define is to limit; and to limit is to reduce
"God" to "a God" or at best "the God".
He must be omniscient ({symbol of alchemical mercury}) omnipotent, ({Al.
Sulfur}) and omnipresent ({Al. Salt});
yet to such a Being no purpose would be possible; so that all the apol-
ogies for the existence of "evil" crash. If there be opposites of any
kind, there can be no consistency. He cannot be Two; He must be One;
50
yet, as is obvious, he isn't.
How do the Hindu philosophers try to get out of this quag? "Evil" is
"illusion;" has no "real" existence. Then what is the point of it?
They say "Not that, not that!" denying to him all attributes; He is
"that which is without quantity or quality." They contradict themselves
at every turn; seeking to remove limit, they remove definition. Their
only refuge is in "superconsciousness." Splendid! but now "belief" has
disappeared altogether; for the word has no sense unless it is subject
to the laws of normal thought...Tut! you must be feeling it yourself;
the further one goes, the darker the path. All I have written is some-
how muddled and obscure, maugre my frenzied struggle for lucidity,
simplicity . . . .
Is this the fault of my own sophistication? I asked myself. Tell you
what! I'll trot round to my masseuse, and put it up to her. She is a
simple country soul, by no means over-educated, but intelligent; capable
of a firm grasp of the principles of her job; a steady church-goer on
what she considers worthwhile occasions; dislikes the rector, but
praises his policy of keeping his discourse within bounds. She has
done quite a lot of thinking for herself; distrusts and despises the
Press and the Radio, has no use for ready-made opinions. She shares
with the flock their normal prejudices and phobias, but is not bigoted
about them, and follows readily enough a line of simply-expressed
destructive criticism when it is put to her. This is, however, only a
temporary reaction; a day later she would repeat the previous inanities
as if they had never been demolished. In the late fifties, at a guess.
I sprang your question on her out of the blue, ... la "doodle-bug;"
premising merely that I had been asked the question, and was puzzled as
to how to answer it. Her reply was curious and surprising: without a
moment's hesitation and with great enthusiasm, "Quickly, yes!" The
spontaneous reservation struck me as extremely interesting. I said:
of course, but suppose you think it over --- and out --- a bit, what am I
to understand? She began glibly "He's a great big --- " and broke off,
looking foolish. Then, although omnipotent, He needed our help --- we
were all just as powerful as He, for we were little bits of each other
--- but exactly how, or to what end, she did not make clear. An exclama-
tion: "Then there is the Devil!"
She went on without a word from me for a long while, tying herself up
into fresh knots with every phase. She became irreverent, then down-
right blasphemous; stopped short and began to laugh at herself. And
so forth --- but, what struck me as curious and significant, in the
main her argument followed quite closely the lines which came naturally
to me, at the beginning of this letter!
In the end, "curiouser and curiouser," she arrived at a practically
identical conclusion: she believed, but what she believed in was
Nothing!
As to our old criterion of what we imply in practice when we say that
we believe, she began by saying that If we "helped" God in His mysterious
plan, He would in some fashion or other look after us. But about this
she was even more vague than in the matter of intellectual conviction;
"helping God" meant behaving decently according to one's own instinctive
ideas of what "decently" means.
It is very encouraging that she should have seen, without any prompting
51
on my part, to what a muddle the question necessarily led; and very
nice for me, because it lets me out, cara soror!
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
P.S. I thought it a good plan to put my fundamental position all by
itself in a postscript; to frame it. My observation of the Universe
convinces me that there are beings of intelligence and power of a far
higher quality than anything we can conceive of as human; that they are
not necessarily based on the cerebral and nervous structures that we
know; and that the one and only chance for mankind to advance as a
whole is for individuals to make contact with such Beings.
CHAPTER XXXI
RELIGION --- IS THELEMA A "NEW RELIGION?"
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
"Would you describe your system as a new religion?" A pertinent question,
you doubtless suppose; whether it may happen to mean anything is --- is ---
is --- well, is what we must try to make clear.
True, it's a slogan of A.'. A.'. "The method of science --- the aim of
religion." Here the word "aim" and the context help the definition;
it must mean the attainment of Knowledge and Power in spiritual matters
--- or words to that effect: as soon as one selects a phrase, one starts
to kick holes in it! Yet we both know perfectly well all the time what
we do mean.
But this is certainly not the sense of the word in your question. It
may clear our minds, as has so often happened, if we examine it through
the lens of dear old Skeat.
Religion, he says, Latin: religio, piety. Collection or paying atten-
tion to: religens as opposed to negligens, neglecting; the attitude
of Gallio. But it also implies a binding together i.e. of ideas; in
fact, a "body of doctrine." Not a bad expression. A religion then, is
a more or less coherent and consistent set of beliefs, with precepts and
prohibitions therefrom deducible. But then there is the sense in which
Frazer (and I) often use the word: as in opposition to "Science" or
"Magic". Here the point is that religious people attribute phenomena
to the will of some postulated Being or Beings, placable and moveable
by virtue of sacrifice, devotion, or appeal. Against such, the scienti-
fic or magical mind believes in the Laws of Nature, asserts "If A, then
B" --- if you do so-and-so, the result will be so-and-so, aloof from
arbitrary interference. Joshua, it is alleged, made the sun stand still
by supplication, and Hezekiah in the same way cause it to "go back upon
the dial of Ahaz;" Willett did it by putting the clock back, and getting
an Act of Parliament to confirm his lunacy. Petruchio, too "It shall be
what o'clock I say it is!" The two last came close to the magical
method; at least, to that branch of it which consists of "fooling all
52
the people all the time." But such an operation, if true Magick were
employed, would be beyond the power of any magician of my acquaintance;
for it would mess up the solar system completely. (You remember how
this happened, and what came of it, in a rather clever short story by
H.G. Wells.14) For true Magick means "to employ one set of natural forces
at a mechanical advantage as against another set" --- I quote, as closely
as memory serves, Thomas Henry Huxley, when he explains that when he
lifts his water-jug --- or his elbow --- he does not "defy the Law of
Gravitation." On the contrary, he uses that Law; its equations form
part of the system by which he lifts the jug without spilling the water.
To sum up, our system is a religion just so far as a religion means an
enthusiastic putting-together of a series of doctrines, no one of which
must in any way clash with Science or Magick.
Call it a new religion, then, if it so please your Gracious Majesty;
but I confess that I fail to see what you will have gained by so doing,
and I feel bound to add that you might easily cause a great deal of
misunderstanding, and work a rather stupid kind of mischief.
The word does not occur in The Book of the Law.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XXXII
HOW CAN A YOGI EVER BE WORRIED?
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
That question I have been expecting for a very long time! And what you
expect is to see my middle stump break the wicket-keeper's nose, with
the balls smartly fielded by Third Man and Short Leg!
I admit that it looks like a strong case. Here (you put it in your more
elegant prose) we have a Yogi, nay more, a Paramahamsa, a Bodhisattva of
the best: yea, further, we have a Master of the Temple --- and is not his
Motto "Vi veri vniversom vivus vici?" and yet we find him fussing like
an old hen over the most trivial of troubles; we find him wrapped in the
lacustrine vapours of Avernus, fretting himself into a fever about imagi-
nary misfortunes at which no normal person would do more than cast a
contemptuous glance, and get on with the job.
Yes, although you can scarcely evade indictment for unnecessarily employ-
ing the language of hyperbole, I see what you mean. Yet the answer is
adequate; the very terms of his Bargain with Destiny not only allow for,
but imply, some such reaction on the part of the Master to the Bludgeon-
ings of Fate. (W. E. Henley15)
There are two ways of looking at the problem. One is what I may call
the mathematical. If I have ten and sixpence in the world and but a
14^ WEH NOTE: {Research it --- may be "The Man Who Could Work Miracles" --
also the British film made of the story about the time Crowley was writing.}
15* An English poet.
53
half-guinea cigar, I have no money left to buy a box of matches. To
"snap out of it" and recover my normal serenity requires only a minute
effort, and the whole of my magical energy is earmarked for the Great
Work. I have none left to make that effort. Of course, if the worry
is enough to interfere with that Work, I must detail a corporal's file
to abate the nuisance.
The other way may be called the Taoist aspect. First, however, let me
explain the point of view of the Master of the Temple, as it is so
similar. You should remember from your reading what happens in this
Grade. The new Master is "cast out" into the sphere appropriate to the
nature of his own particular Great Work. And it is proper for him to
act in true accordance with the nature of the man as he was when he passed
through that Sphere (or Grade) on his upward journey. Thus, if he be
cast out into 3¿ = 8ß, it is no part of his work to aim at the virtues
of a 4¿ = 7ß; all that has been done long before. It is no business
of his to be bothering his head about anything at all but his Work; so
he must react to events as they occur in the way natural to him without
trying to "improve himself." (This, of course, applies not only to worry,
but to all his funny little ways.)
The Taoist position differs little, but it is independent of all consi-
derations of the man's attainment; it is an universal rule based on a
particular theory of things in general. Thus, "benevolence and right-
eousness" are not "virtues;" they are only symptoms of the world-disease,
in that they should be needed. The same applies to all conditions, and
to all modes of seeking to modify them. There is only one proper reaction
to event; that is, to adjust oneself with perfect elasticity to whatever
happens.
That tiger across the paddy-field looks hungry. There are several ways
of dealing with the situation. One can run away, or climb a tree, or
shoot him, or (in your case) cow him by the Power of the Human Eye; but
the way of the Tao is to take no particular notice. (This, incidentally,
is not such bad Magick; the diversion of your attention might very well
result in your becoming invisible, as I have explained in a previous
letter.) The theory appears to be that, although your effort to save
yourself is successful, it is bound to create a disturbance of equili-
brium elsewhere, with results equally disastrous. Even more so; it
might be that to be eaten by a tiger is just what you needed in your
career through the incarnations; at that moment there might well be a
vacancy somewhere exactly where it will do most good to your Great
Work. When you press on one spot, you make a corresponding bulge in
another, as we often see a beautiful lady, unhappy about her waist-line,
adopt drastic measures, and transform herself into the semblance of a
Pouter Puffin!
In theory, I am particularly pleased about this Method, because it goes
for everybody, requires no knowledge, no technical training, "no nuffin."
All the same, it won't do for me, except in a much modified form, and
in very special cases; because no course of action (or inaction) is
conceivable that would do great violence to my nature.
So let me worry along, please, with the accent on the "along;" I will
grin and bear it, or, if it gets so bad that I can't do my Work, I will
make the necessary effort to abate the nuisance, always most careful to
do as little damage as possible to the main current of my total Energy.
54
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER XXXIII
THE GOLDEN MEAN
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
You would think that one who like myself has the Sun, the Lord of His
Horoscope, in Libra, with Venus who rules that sign in close conjunction
with him, with Saturn trine, Uranus sextile, Mars square and Luna quincunx
to him, would wear the Golden Mean as a breastplate, flaunt it on my
banneret, quarter it on my escutcheon, and grave it on the two-edged blade
of my thrice trusty falchion!
Just so, objects that instinct itself! "Had you been born a few hours
earlier, with Aries rising, its lord Mars aggravated by the square of
Sol and Venus, you would indeed have bee a Wild Man of the Woods, arro-
gant, bigoted, domineering, incapable of seeing a second side to any
question, headstrong, haughty, a seething hell-broth of hate; and this
fact disables your judgment."
All perfectly true. My equable nature is congenitally hostile to extreme
measures, except in imagination. I cannot bear sudden violent movements.
Climbing rocks, people used to say that I didn't climb them, that I oozed
over them!
This explains, I think, my deep-seated dislike of many passages in The
Boot of the Law. "O prophet! thou hast ill will to learn this writing.
I see thee hate the hand & the pen; but I am stronger." (AL II, 10-11)
Well, what is the upshot of all this? It answers your question about the
value to be attached to this Golden Mean. There is no rule about it;
your own attitude is proper for yourself, and has no value for anybody
else. But you must make sure exactly what that attitude actually is,
deep down.
Let us go back for a moment to the passage above quoted. The text goes
on to give the reason for the facts. "Because of me in Thee which thou
knewest not. for why? Because thou wast the knower, and me." (AL II, 12
-13) The unexpected use or disuse of capitals, the queer syntax, the
unintelligibility of the whole passage: these certainly indicate some
profound Qabalistic import in these texts.
So we had better mark that Strictly Private, and forget it.
One point, however, we have forgotten: although my Libra inclinations
do bias me personally, they also make me fair-minded, "a judge, and a good
judge too" in the memorable phrase of the late William Schwenk Gilbert.
So I will sum up what is to be said for and against this Golden Mean.
As usual, nobody has taken the trouble to define the term. We know that
it was extolled by both the Greek and the Chinese philosophers; but I
55
cannot see that they meant much more than to counsel the avoidance of
extremes, whether of measures or of opinions; and to advocate modera-
tion in all things.
James Hilton has a most amusing Chinese in his Lost Horizon. When the
American 100% he-man, mixer, joiner, and go-getter, agrees with him
about broadmindedness in religious beliefs, and ends "and I'm dead sure
you're right!" his host mildly rebukes him, saying: "But we are only
moderately sure." S
CHAPTER XVI.
"SERIOUS" STYLE OF A.C., OR THE APPARENT FRIVOLITY OF SOME OF MY REMARKS.
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Alas! It is unlikely that either you or I should come upon a copy of
Max Beerbohm's portrait of Mathew Arnold; but Raven Hill's famous car-
toon is history, and can be told as such without the illustration.
We shall have to go into the matter, because of your very just criticism
of my magical writings in general --- and these letters, being colloquial,
are naturally an extreme case.
Far-off indeed those sunny days when life in England was worth living;
when one could travel anywhere in Europe --- except Russia and Turkey,
which spiritually, at least, are in Asia --- or America, without a pass-
port; when we complained that closing time was twelve-thirty a.m.;
when there was little or no class bitterness, the future seemed secure,
and only Nonconformists failed to enjoy the fun that bubbled up on every
side.
Well, in those days there were Music-halls; I can't hope to explain to
you what they were like, but they were jolly. (I'm afraid that there's
another word beyond the scope of your universe!) At the Empire, Leicester
Square, which at that time actually looked as if it had been lifted
bodily from the "Continong" (a very wicked place) there was a promenade,
with bars complete (drinking bars, my dear child, I blush to say) where
one might hope to find "strength and beauty met together, Kindle their
image like a star in a sea of glassy weather." There one might always
find London's "soiled doves" (ass they revoltingly called them in the
papers) of every type: Theodora (celebrated "Christian" Empress) and
Phryne, Messalina and Thais, Baudelaire's swarthy mistress, and Nana,
Moll Flanders and Fanny hill.
But the enemies of life were on guard. They saw people enjoying them-
selves, (shame!) and they raked through the mildewed parchments of
obsolete laws until they found some long-forgotten piece of mischief
that might stop it. The withered husks of womanhood, idle, frustrated,
spiteful and malignant, called up their forces, blackmailed the Church
into supporting them, and began a senseless string of prosecutions.
Notable in infamy stands out he name of Mrs. Ormiston Chant.
So here we had the trial of some harmless girl for "accosting;" it was
a scene from this that inspired Raven Hill's admirable cartoon.
A "pale young curate" is in the witness box. "The prisoner," he drawled
"made improper proposals to me. The actual words used were: "why do
you look so sad, Bertie?'"
The magistrate: "A very natural question!"
Now, fifty years later, here am I in the dock.
1
("How can you expect people to take your Magick seriously!" I hear from
every quarter, "when you write so gleefully about it, with your tongue
always in your cheek?")
My dear good sister, do be logical!
Here am I who set out nigh half a century ago to seek "The Stone of the
Wise, the Summum Bonum, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness:" I get it,
and you expect me to look down a forty-inch nose and lament!
I have plenty of trouble in life, and often enough I am in low enough
spirits to please anybody; but turn my thoughts to Magick --- the years
fall off. I am again the gay, quick, careless boy to whom the world
was gracious.
Let this serve for an epitaph: Gray took eleven years; I, less.
Elegy Written in a Country Farmyard
By
Cock-a-doodle-doo
Here lies upon this hospitable spot
A youth to flats and flatties unknown;
The Plymouth Brethren gave it to him hot;
Trinity, Cambridge, claimed him for her own.
He climbed a lot of mountains in his time
He stalked the tiger, bear and elephant.
He wrote a stack of poems, some sublime,
Some not. Tales, essays, pictures, plays my aunt!
At chess a minor master, Hoylake set
His handicap at two. Love drove him crazy.
Three thousand women used to call him pet;
In other matters --- shall we call him "lazy"?
He had the gift of laughing at himself;
Most affably he walked and talked with God;
And now the silly bastard's on the shelf,
We'll bury him beneath another sod.
- - - - -
In all the active moods of Nature --- her activity is Worship! there is
an element of rejoicing; even when she is at her wildest and most
destructive. (You know Gilbert's song "When the tiger is a-lashing of
his tail"?) Her sadness always goes with the implied threat of cessa-
tion --- and that we know to be illusion.
There is nothing worse in religion, especially in the Wisdom-Religion,
than the pedagogic-horatory accents of the owlish dogmatist, unless it
be the pompous self-satisfaction of the prig. Eschew it, sister, eschew
it!
Even in giving orders there is a virile roar, and the commander who is
best obeyed is he who rages cheerfully like an Eights Coach or a Rugger
Captain. "Up Guards and at 'em!" may not be authentic; but that is the
right spirit.
2
The curate's twang, the solemnity of self-importance, all manners that
do not disclose the real man, are abominations, "Anathema Maranatha" ---
or any other day of the week. These painted masks are devised to conceal
chicanery or emptiness. The easy-going humorous style of Vivekananda is
intelligible and instructive; the platitudinous hot potatoes of Waite
are neither. The dreadful thing is that this assumption of learning, of
holiness, of mysterious avenging powers, somehow deceives the average
student. He does not realise how well and wisely such have conned Wilde's
maxim: "To be intelligible is to be found out."
I know that I too am at times obscure; I lament the fact. The reason is
twofold: (a) my ineradicable belief that my reader knows all about the
subject better than I do myself, and (at best) may like to hear it tackled
from a novel angle, (b) I am carried away by the exultant exaltation of
my theme: I boil over with rapture --- not the crystal-clear, the cool
solution that I aimed at.
On the Path of the Wise there is probably no danger more deadly, no
poison more pernicious, no seduction more subtle than Spiritual Pride;
it strikes, being solar, at the very heart of the Aspirant; more, it is
an inflation and exacerbation of the Ego, so that its victim runs the
peril of straying into a Black Lodge, and finding himself at home there.
Against this risk we look to our insurance; there are two infallible:
Common Sense and the Sense of Humour. When you are lying exhausted and
exenterate after the attainment of Vishvarupadarshana it is all wrong to
think: "Well, now I'm the holiest man in the world, of course with the
exception of John M. Watkins;" better recall the words of the weary
sceptical judge in A. P. Herbert's Holy Deadlock; he makes a Mantram of
it! "I put it to you --- I put it to you --- I put it to you --- that you have
got a boil on your bottom."
To this rule there is, as usual with rules, an exception. Some states of
mind are of the same structure as poetry, where the "one step from the
sublime to the ridiculous" is an easy and fatal step. But even so,
pedantry is as bad as ribaldry. Personally, I have tried to avoid the
dilemma by the use of poetic language and form; for instance, in AHA!
It is all difficult, dammed difficult; but if it must be that one's most
sacred shrine be profaned, let it be the clean assault of laughter rather
than the slimy smear of sactimoniousness!
There, or thereabouts, we must leave it. "Out of the fullness of the heart
the mouth speaketh;" and I cannot sing the words of an epithalamium to
the music of a dirge.
Besides, what says the poet? "Love's at its height in pure love? Nay,
but after When the song's light dissolves gently in laughter."
Oh! "One word more" as Browning said, and poured forth the most puerile
portentous piffle about that grim blue-stocking "interesting invalid,"
his spouting wife. Here it is, mercifully much shorter, and not in
tripping trochees!
"Actions speak louder than words." (I positively leak proverbs this
afternoon --- country air, I suppose): and where actions are the issue,
devil a joke from Aleister!
3
Do you see what is my mark? It is you that I am going to put in the dock
about "being serious;" and that will take a separate letter --- part of the
answer to yours received March 10th, 1944 and in general to your entire
course of conduct since you came to me --- now over a year ago.
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally yours,
666
CHAPTER XLV
"UNSERIOUS" CONDUCT OF A PUPIL
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Here pops us Zola again --- this time he says J'Accuse! To day's Hexa
gram for me is No. X. LÎ, the Tiger: and the Duke of Chau comments on
the last line as follows: "The sixth line, undivided, tells us to
look at the whole course that is trodden, and examine the presage which
that gives. If it be complete and without failure, there will be great
good fortune." O.K.; Let's!
It is now well over a year since you came to me howling like a damned
soul in torment --- and so you should be! --- and persuaded me to take you
as my pupil. What have you done with that year?
. . . . . . . .
First, suppose we put down what you agreed to do: The essential prelim-
inaries of the work of the A.'. A.'. --- you are to be heartily congratu-
lated upon your swift perception that the principles of that august
body were absolute.
1. Prepare and submit your Magical Record. (Without this you are
in the position of a navigator with neither chart nor log.)
It would have been quite easy to get this ready in a week. Have
you done so in a year? No.
2. Learn to construct and perfect the Body of Light. This might
have required anything up to a dozen personal lessons. You were
urged to claim priority upon my time. What did you do?
You made one experiment with me fairly satisfactory, and got full
instructions for practice and experiment at home.
You made one experiment, ignoring every single one of the recom-
mendations made to you.
You kept on making further appointments for a second personal
lesson; and every one of them you broke.
3. Begin simple Yoga practices.
This, of course, cannot be checked at all in the absence of a
4
careful record and of instructed critical analysis. You do not
make the one, and are incapable of the other.
so I suppose you are very well satisfied with yourself!
4. Your O.T.O. work.
You were supplied with copies of those rituals to which you were
entitled.
You were to make copies of these.
Your were to go through them with me, so as to assimilate their
Symbolism and teaching.
Have you done any of this? No.
5. You were to write me a letter of questions once every fortnight.
Have you done so? No.
. . . . . . . .
Have you in thirteen months done as much as honest work would have
accomplished in a week? No.
. . . . . . . .
What excuses do you drag out, when taxed with these misdemeanors?
You are eager to make appointments to be received in audience; then you
break them without warning, explanation, apology or regret.
You are always going to have ample time to devote to the Great Work;
but that time is always somewhere after the middle of next week.
If you put half as much enthusiasm into what you quite rightly claim to
be the most important factor in life as other old ladies do into Culbert-
son Contract, you might get somewhere.
What you need, in the way of a Guru, is some fat, greasy Swami, who
would not allow you to enter or leave his presence without permission,
or address him without being formally invited to do so. After seven
years at menial household drudgeries, you might with luck be allowed to
listen to some of his improving discourse.
Pretentious humbug is the only appeal to which you can be relied on to
respond. Praxiteles would repel you, unless you covered the marble
completely with glittering gew-gaws, tinsel finery, sham jewels from
the tray of Autolycus! Yet it was precisely because you were sick of
all this that you came to me at all.
How can one take you as a serious student? Only because you do have
moments when the scales fall from your eyes, and your deep need tears
down the tawdry counterfeits which hide the shrine where Isis stands
unveiled --- but ah! too far. You must advance.
To advance --- that means Work. Patient, exhausting, thankless, often
5
bewildering Work. Dear sister, if you would but Work! Work blindly,
foolishly, misguidedly, it doesn't matter in the end: Work in itself
has absolute virtue.
But for you, having got so far in this incarnation, there must be a
revolution. You must no longer hesitate, no longer plan; you must
leap into the dark, and leap at once.
"The Voice of my Higher Soul said unto me: Let me enter the Path of
Darkness; peradventure thus I may attain the Light."
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally yours,
666
P.S. Let me adduce an example of the way in which the serious Aspirant
bends to the oar. This is not boasting as if the facts denoted super-
lative excellence; they speak. The only comment is that if such conduct
is not normal and universal, it ought to be. Yet no! I would add this:
that I have not yet heard of anyone who has attained to any results of
importance who does not attribute his success to devotion of quite
similar quality.
Here they are:
1. The Cloud on the Sanctuary. On reading this book, Mr. X., who was
desperate from the conviction that no success in life was worth a tinker's
dam, decided: "This is the answer to my problem; the members of the
Secret Fraternity which this book describes have solved the riddle of
life. I must discover them, and seek to be received amongst them."
2. X., hearing a conversation in a cafâ which made him think that the
speaker might be such an one as he sought, hunted him down --- he had gone
on his travels --- caught him, and made him promise an interview at the
earliest possible date.
3. This interview leading to an introduction to the Fraternity, he
joined it, pledging his fealty. But he was grievously shocked, and
nearly withdrew, when assured: "There is nothing in this Oath which
might conflict in any way with your civil, moral or religious obliga-
tions." If it was not worth while becoming a murderer, a traitor, and
an eternally damned soul, why bother about it? was his attitude.
The Head of the Fraternity being threatened with revolt, X. when to him,
in circumstances which jeopardised his own progress, and offered his
support "to the last drop of my blood, and the last penny of my purse."
Deciding to perform a critical Magical Operation, and being warned that
serious opposition might come from his own friends, family, etc., he
abandoned his career, changed his name, cut himself off completely from
the past, and allowed no alien interest of any sort to interfere with
his absorption in the Work. His journey to see the Head seemed at that
time a fatal interruption; at the least, it involved the waste of one
whole year. He was wrong; his gesture of setting the interests of the
Order before his personal advancement was counted unto him for right-
eousness.
6
There should be no need to extend this list; it could be continued
indefinitely. X. had one rule of life, and one only; to do whatever
came first on the list of agenda, and never to count the cost.
Because this course of conduct was so rigidly rational, it appeared to
others irrational and incalculable; because it was so serenely simple,
it appeared an insoluble mystery of a complexity utterly unfathomable!
But --- I fear that you are only too likely to ask --- is not this system
(a) absurd, (b) wrong, as certain in the long run to defeat its own
object.
Well, as to (a), everything is absurd. The Universe is not constructed
to gratify the mania of "social planners" and their tedipus kind. As
to (b), there you said something; the refutation will lead us to open
a new chapter. Ought not X. to have laid down a comprehensive scheme,
and worked out the details, so that he would not break down half-way
through for lack of foresight and provision for emergencies?
An example. Suppose that the next step in his Work involved the sacri-
fice of a camel in a house in Tooting Bec, furnished in such fashion as
his Grimoire laid down, and that the purchase of the house left him with-
out resources to but that furniture, to say nothing of the camel. What
a fool!
No, that does not necessarily follow. If the Gods will the End, They
also will the means. I shall do all that is possible to me by buying
the house: I shall leave it to Them to do Their share when the time
comes.
This "Act of Truth" is already a Magical Formula of infallible puissance;
the man who is capable of so thinking and acting is far more likely to
get what he wanted from the Sacrifice --- when at long last the Camel
appears on the premises --- then he who, having ample means to carry out
the whole Operation without risk of failure, goes through the ceremony
without ever having experienced a moment's anxiety about his ability to
bring it to a successful conclusion.
It think personally that the error lies in calculating. The injunction
is "to buy the egg of a perfectly black hen without haggling." You have
no means of judging what is written in Their ledger; so "...reason is a
lie;...", ..." & all their words are skew-wise...." AL II, 32.
Let me add that it is a well-attested fact of magical experience ---
beginning with Tarquin and the Sibylline books! --- as well as a fact of
profane psychology, that if you funk a fence, it is harder next time.
If the boy falls off the pony, put him on again at once: if the young
airman crashes, send him up again without a minute's avoidable delay.
If you don't, their nerve is liable to break for good and all.
I am not saying that this policy is invariably successful; your judg-
ment may have misled you as to the necessity of the Operation which
loomed so large at the moment. And so on; plenty of room for blunders!
But it is a thousand times better to make every kind of mistake than
to slide into the habit of hesitation, of uncertainty, of indecision.
7
For one thing, you acquire also the habit of dishonourable failure;
and you very soon convince yourself that"the whole thing is nonsense."
confidence comes from exercise, from taking risks, from picking your-
self up after a purler; finding that the maddest gambles keep oncoming
off, you begin to suspect that there is no more than Luck in it; you
observe this closely, and there forms, in the dusk dimly, a Shape; very
soon you see a Hand, and from its movements you divine a Brain behind
the whole contrivance.
"Good!" you say quietly, with a determined nod; "I'm watched, I'm
helped: I'll do my bit; the rest will come about without my worrying
or meddling."
And so it is.
Good-night.
666.
CHAPTER XLVI
SELFISHNESS
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Selfishness? I am glad to find you worrying that bone, for it has
plenty of meat on it; fine juicy meat, none of your Chilled Argentine
or Canterbury lamb. It is a pelvis, what's more; for in a way the
whole structure of the ethics of Thelema is founded upon it. There is
some danger here; for the question is a booby trap for the noble, the
generous, the high-minded.
"Selfishness," the great characteristic of the Master of the Temple,
the very quintessence of his attainment, is not its contradictory, or
even its contrary; it is perfectly compatible (nay, shall we say
friendly?) with it.
The Book of the Law has plenty to say on this subject, and it does not
mince its words.
"First, text; sermon, next," as the poet says.
AL II, 18, 19, 20, 21. "These are dead, these fellows; they feel not.
We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our
kinsfolk.
"Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall
rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.
"Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and
fire, are of us.
"We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their
misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp
8
down the wretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our
law and the joy of the world. ..."
That sets up a standard, with a vengeance!
(Note "they feel not," twice repeated. There should be something impor-
tant to the thesis herein concealed.)
The passage becomes exalted, but a verse later resumes the theme, setting
forth the philosophical basis of these apparently violent and arrogant
remarks.
"...It is a lie, this folly against self...." (AL II, 22)
This is the central doctrine of Thelema in this matter. What are we to
understand by it? That this imbecile and nauseating cult of weakness ---
democracy some call it --- is utterly false and vile.
Let us look into the matter. (First consult AL II, 24, 25, 48, 49, 58, 59.
and III, 18, 58, 59. It might be confusing to quote these texts in full;
but they throw much further light on the subject.) The word "compassion"
is its accepted sense --- which is bad ety
CHAPTER LXX
MORALITY (1)
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
"Tu l'as voulu, Georges Dandin!" I knew from the first that your sly,
insidious, poisoned poniard, slipped in between my ribs, would soon
or late involve a complete exposition of the whole subject of Morality.
Of we go! What really is it? The word comes from Mos, Latin for
custom, manner. Similarly, ethics: from Greek ESOC custom. "It
isn't done" may be modern slang, but it's correct. Interesting to
study the usage of "moeurs" and "maniSres" in French. "Manner" from
"manus" --- hand: it is "the way to handle things."
But the theological conception has steered a very wrong course, even
for theology; brought in Divine Injunction, and Conscience, and a
whole host of bogeys. (Candles in hollow turnips deceive nobody out-
side a churchyard!)
So we find ourselves discussing a "palely wandering" phantom idea
whose connotations or extensions depend on the time, the place, and
the victim. We know "the crimes of Clapham chaste in Martaban," and
the difference between Old and New Testament morality in such matters
as polygamy and diet; while the fur flies when two learned professors
go down with a smart attack of Odium Theologicum, and are ready to
destroy a civilization on the question of whether it is right or wrong
for a priest (or presbyter? or minister?) to wear a white nightie or a
black in the pulpit.
But what you want to know is the difference between (a) common or area
morality, (b) Yogin -- or "holy man's" morality, and (c) the Magical
Morality of the New Aeon of Thelema.
1. Area Morality: This is the code of the "Slave-Gods," very thor-
ougly analysed, pulverized, and de-loused by Nietzsche in Antichrist.
It consists of all the meanest vices, especially envy, cowardice,
cruelty and greed: all based on over-mastering Fear. Fear of the
nightmare type. With this incubus, the rich and powerful have devised
an engine to keep down the poor and the weak. They are lavish alike
with threats and promises in Ogre Bogey's Castle and Cloud-Cuckoo-Land.
"Religion is the opium of the people," when they flinch no longer
from the phantom knout.
2. Eight Lectures on Yoga gives a reasonable account of the essence
of this matter, especially in the talks on Yama and Niyama. (A book
on this subject might well include a few quotations, notably from
paragraphs 8, 9 and 10 in the former). It might be summarized as
"doing that, and only that, which facilitates the task in hand." A
line of conduct becomes a custom when experience has shown that to
follow it makes for success. "Don't press!" "Play with a straight
bat!" "Don't draw to five!" do not involve abstract considerations
1
of right and wrong. Orthodox Hinduism has raped this pure system, and
begotten a bastard code which reeks of religion. A political manoeuvre
of the Brahmin caste.
Suppose we relax a little, come down to earth, and look at what the
far-famed morality of the Holy Man was, and is, in actual practice.
You will find this useful to crush Toshophist and Antroposophagist1
cockroaches as well as the ordinary Christian Scolex when they assail
you.
In the lands of Hinduism and (to a less extent) of Islam, the Sultan,
the Dewan, the Maharajah, the Emir, or whatsoever they call "the Grand
Pandjandrum Himself, with the little round button on top," it is almost
a 100 per cent rule that the button works loose and is lost! Even in
less exalted circles, any absolute ruler, on however petty a scale, is
liable to go the whole hog in an unexceptionably hoggish fashion. He
has none to gainsay him, and he sees no reason for controlling himself.
This suits nearly everybody pretty well; the shrewd Wazir can govern
while his "master" fills up on "The King's Peg" (we must try one when
champagne is once again reasonably cheap) and all the other sensuous
and sensual delights unstinted. The result is that by the time he is
twenty --- he was probably married at 12 --- he is no longer fitted to
carry out his very first duty to the State, the production of an heir.
Quite contrary to this is the career of the "Holy Man." Accustomed to
the severest physical toil, inured to all the rigours of climate,
aloof from every noxious excess, he becomes a very champion of virility.
(Of course, there are exceptions, but the average "holy man" is a
fairly tall fellow of his hands). More, he has been particularly
trained for this form of asceticism by all sorts of secret methods and
practices; some of these, but the way, I was able to learn myself, and
found surprisingly efficacious.
So we have the law of supply and demand at work as uncomplainingly as
usual: the Holy Man prays for the threatened Dynasty, blesses the
Barren Queen; and they all live happy ever after. This is not an
Arabian Night's Tale of Antiquity; it is the same today: there are
very few Englishmen who have spent any time in India who have not been
approached with proposals of this character.
Similar conditions, curiously enough, existed in France; the "fils ...
papa" was usually a hopeless rotter, and his wife often resorted to a
famous monastery on the Riviera, where was an exceptionally holy Image
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, prayers unto whom removed sterility. But
when M. Combes turned out the monks, the Image somehow lost it virtue.
Now get your Bible and turn up Luke VIII, 2! When the sal volatile has
worked, turn to John XIII 2,3 and ask a scholar what any Greek of the
period would have understood by the technical expressions there unambigu-
ously employed.
1^ WEH NOTE: This is a reference to the school of thought of Rudolf Steiner.
By the time of this writing, Steiner's students were being taught that Crowley
was a "bad man". Tit for tat. Anthroposophy presents a merging of several
branches of mysticism with dance and movement. It rewards study, but one
shouldn't mention A.C. at the Steiner schools until one has acquired what
one wants!
2
Presently, I hope, you will begin to wonder whether, after all, the
"morality" of the middle classes of the nineteenth century, in Anglo-
Saxon countries, is quite as axiomatic as you were taught to suppose.
Please let me emphasize the fact that I have heard and seen these condi-
tions in Eastern countries with my own ears and eyes. Vivekananda ---
certainly the best of the modern Indian writes on Yoga --- complained
bitterly that the old greymalkin witches of New York who called them-
selves his disciples had to be dodged with infinite precaution whenever
he wanted to spend an evening in the Tenderloin. On the other hand,
the Sheikh of Mish --- and a very holy Sheikh he was --- introduced his
"boy friend" as such to me when I visited him in the Sahara, without
the slightest shame or embarrassment.
Believe me, the humbug about "morality" in this country and the U.S.A.,
yes, even on the Continent in pious circles, is Hobgoblin No. 1 on the
path of the Wise. If you are fooled by that, you will never get out
of the stinking bog of platitudinous mouthings of make-believe "Masters."
Need I refer to the fact that most of the unco' guid are penny plain
hypocrites. A little less vile are those whose prejudices are Freudian
in character, who "compound for sins that they're inclined to, By damn-
ing those they have no mind to."
Even when, poor-spirited molluscs, they are honest, all that twaddle is
Negation. "Hang your clothes on a hickory limb, and don't go near the
water!" does not produce a Gertrud Ederle. Thank God, the modern girl
has cast off at least one of her fetters --- the ceinture de chastâtâ!
Perhaps we have now relaxed enough; we see that the "Holy man" is not
such a fool as he looks; and we may get on with our excursions into
the "Morality" of the Law of the New Aeon, which is the Aeon of Horus,
crowned and conquering child: and --- "The word of the Law is Thelema{this
word in Greek caps}."
3. So much of The Book of the Law deals directly or indirectly with
morals that to quote relevant passages would be merely bewildering.
Not that this state of mind fails to result from the first, second,
third and ninety-third perusals!
"When Duty bellows loud 'Thou must!'
The youth replies 'Pike's Peak or Bust!'"
is all very well, or might be if the bellow gave further particulars.
And one's general impression may very well be that Thelema not only
gives general licence to to any fool thing that comes into one's head,
but urges in the most emphatic terms, reinforced by the most eloquent
appeals in superb language, by glowing promises, and by categorical
assurance that no harm can possibly come thereby, the performance of
just that specific type of action, the maintenance of just that line
of conduct, which is most severely depreciated by the high priests and
jurists of every religion, every system of ethics, that ever was under
the sun!
You may look sourly down a meanly-pointed nose, or yell "Whoop La!" and
make for Piccadilly Circus: in either case you will be wrong; you will
not have understood the Book.
Shameful confession, one of my own Chelas (or so it is rather incredibly
3
reported to me) said recently: "Self-discipline is a form of Restric-
tion." (That, you remember, is "The word of Sin ...".) Of all the utter
rubbish! (Anyhow, he was a "centre of pestilence" for discussing the
Book at all.) About 90 % of Thelema, at a guess, is nothing but
self-discipline. One is only allowed to do anything and everything so
as to have more scope for exercising that virtue.
concentrate on "...thou hast no right but to do thy will." The point is
that any possible act is to be performed if it is a necessary factor
in that Equation of your Will. Any act that is not such a factor,
however harmless, noble, virtuous or what not, is at the best a waste
of energy. But there are no artificial barriers on any type of act in
general. The standard of conduct has one single touchstone. There
may be --- there will be --- every kind of difficulty in determining whether,
by this standard, any given act is "right" or "wrong": but there should
be no confusion. No act is righteous in itself, but only in reference
to the True Will of the person who proposes to perform it. This is the
Doctrine of Relativity applied to the moral sphere.
I think that, if you have understood this, the whole theory is now
within your grasp; hold it fast, and lay about you!
Of course, there must be certain courses of action which, generally
speaking, will be right for pretty well everybody. Some, per contra,
will be generally barred, as interfering with another's equal right.
Some cases will be so difficult that only a Magister Templi can judge
them, and a Magus carry them wisely into effect. Fearsome responsibility,
I should say, that of the Masters who began the building-up of the New
Aeon by bringing about these Wars!
(I do wish that we had the sense to take our ideas of Peace conditions
from the Bible, as our rulers so loudly profess that they do. The
Enemy knows well enough that there is no other way to make a war pay.)
Now then, I hope that we have succeeded in clarifying this exceptionally
muddy marish water of morality from most of its alien and toxic dirt;
too often the Aspirant to the Sacred Wisdom finds no firm path under his
feet; the Bog of Respectability mires him who sought the Garden of
Delights; soon the last bubbles burst from his choked lungs; he is
engulfed in the Slough of Despond.
In the passive elements of Earth and Water is no creative virtue to
cleanse themselves from such impurity as they chance to acquire; it is
therefore of cardinal importance to watch them, guard them, keep their
Purity untainted and unsoiled; shall the Holy Grail brim with poison
of Asps, and the golden Paten be defiled with the Bread of Iniquity?
Come Fire, come Air, cleanse ye and kindle the pure instruments, that
Spirit may indwell, inform, inspire the whole, the One Continuous
Sacrament of Life!
We have considered this Morality from quite a number of very different
points of view; wrought subtly and accurately into final shape, you
should find no further difficulty in understanding fully at least the
theoretical and abstract aspects of the business.
But as to your own wit of judgment as to the general rules of your
own private Code of Morals, what is "right" and what is "wrong" for
you, that will emerge only from long self-analysis such as is the
4
chief work of the Sword in the process of your Initiation.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally.
666
P.S. Most of this is stated or implied in AHA!
MARSYAS . . . . . . . . . . . Be ever as you can
A simple honest gentleman!
Body and manners be at ease,
Not bloat with blazoned sanctities!
Who fights as fights the soldier-saint?
And see the artist-adept paint!
Weak are the souls that fear the stress
Of earth upon their holiness!
They fast, they eat fantastic food,
They prate of beans and brotherhood,
Wear sandals, and long hair, and spats,
And think that makes them Arahats!
How shall man still his spirit-storm?
Rational dress and Food Reform!
OLYMPAS I know such saints.
MARSYAS An easy vice:
So wondrous well they advertise!
O their mean souls are satisfied
With wind of spiritual pride.
They're all negation. "Do not eat;
What poison to the soul is meat!
Drink not; smoke not; deny the will!
Wine and tobacco make us ill."
Magic is life: the Will to Live
Is one supreme Affirmative.
These things that flinch from Life are worth
No more to Heaven than to Earth.
Affirm the everlasting Yes!
OLYMPAS Those saints at least score one success:
Perfection of their priggishness!
MARSYAS Enough. The soul is subtlier fed
With meditation's wine and bread.
Forget their failings and our own;
Fix all our thoughts on love alone!
CHAPTER LXXI
MORALITY (2)
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The contents of your letter appalled me. I had hoped that you had
5
left behind forever all that quality of thinking. It is unclean. It
is stuffy and flabby. You write of a matter about which you cannot
possibly have information, and what you say is not even a good guess;
it is simply contrary to fact. It shows also that you have failed to
grasp the nature of the O.T.O. Its main raison d'etre, apart from
social and political plans, is the teaching and use of a secret method
of achieving certain results. This secret is a scientific secret; it
is guarded against betrayal or abuse by a very simple automatic arrange-
ment. Its guardians cannot be "dying" any more than electricians as
a class can be.
It is really difficult to answer your letters. You have got things so
higgledy-piggledy. You write of the constitutions of two orders, the
A.'. A.'. and the O.T.O.; yet you ignore the printed information about
them which you are supposed to have read.
I have to answer each sentence of your letter separately, so incoherent
have you become!
You are a "student" of A.'. A.'., and become a Probationer as soon as
you take and pass the examination. (This is intended mostly to make
sure that you have some general idea of the principal branches of the
subject, and know the more important correspondences,) The rest: ---
please read One Star in Sight again, and do for God's sake try to
assimilate the information there very clearly and very fully given!
It is terrifyingly near the state of mind which we symbolize by Choron-
zon, this hurrying flustered dash of yours from one point of view to
another: a set of statements all true after a fashion, but flung out
with such apprehensive agitation that a sensitive reader like myself
comes near to being upset.
You say that you must tread the Path alone: quite true, if only because
anything that exists for you is necessarily part of yourself. Yet you
have to "go to others", and you become a veritable busybody. You quote
odd opinions at random without the means of estimating their value.
Cannot I ever get you to understand the difference between an honest
and dishonest teacher? I have always made it a rule never to put for-
ward any statement of which I cannot produce proof; when I venture a
personal opinion it is always Marked in Plain Figures to that effect.
(I refer you to Magick p. 368: p. 375, paragraphs 1 and 2:. and p. 415,
paragraphs 000 and 00. We insist from the beginning on the individual
character of the work, and upon the necessity of maintaining the objec-
tive and sceptical standpoint. You are explicitly warned against
reliance upon "authority," even that of the Order itself.) Consider
my own assets, personal, social, educational, experiential and the
rest: don't you see that all I had to do was to put out some brightly-
coloured and mellifluous lie, and avoid treading on too many toes, to
have had hundreds of thousands of idiots worshipping me?
Please get a Konx om Pax somehow, and read p. XII:
"It's only too easy to form a cult,
"To cry a crusade with 'Deus Vult' . . . .
"A pinch of Bible, a gallon of gas,
"And I, or any otherguess ass,
"Could bring to our mystical Moonlight Mass
6
"Those empty-headed Athenians."
and so on.
But I never forget that I am working on the 2,000 year basis; my work
will stand when all the pompous platitudes and pleasant pieties have
withered for the iridescent soft-soap bubbles that they are.
Soap! yes, indeed. I work on gold, and gold must be cleansed with
acid.
I really cannot understand how you can be so inaccurate, with the very
text before your eyes! You write --- "you write that in Jan. 1899 etc."
But I don't. Captain J. F. C. Fuller wrote it. A small point; but
you must learn to be careful about every tiniest detail.
Then you go on about "not only invisible chiefs2 of the A.'. A.'. . . . . .
but also the Chiefs of the Golden Dawn . . ." The Golden Dawn is merely
the name for the Outer Order: see Magick pp. 230-231. You have never
been taught to read carefully. You write of Theoricus as the grade
following Neophyte: it isn't. Back to Magick pp. 230-231! You have
never taken the trouble to go with me through the Rituals of O.T.O.,
or you would not ask such questions. The O.T.O. is a training of
the Masonic type; there is no "astral" work in it at all, nor any Yoga.
There is a certain amount of Qabalah, and that of great doctrinal value.
But the really vital matter is the gradual progress towards disclosure
of the Secret of the Ninth Degree. To use that secret to advantage
involves mastery both of Yoga and of Magick; but neither is taught in
the Order. Now it comes to be mentioned, this is really very strange.
However, I didn't invent the system; I must suppose that those who
did knew what they were about.
To me it is (a) convenient in various practical ways, (b) a machine
for carrying out the orders of the Secret Chiefs of A.'. A.'. (c) by
virtue of the Secret a magical weapon of incalculable power.
You are not "stuck." You can use your Astral Body well enough: too
well, in one way. But I think you need a few more journeys with me:
you ought to get on to the stage where the vision results from a
definite invocation.
Do please forget all these vague statements about the "clarification
of one's dream-life" (meaning what?) and "shadow-thinking" (meaning
what?) These speculations are idle, and idleness is poison. In your
very next paragraph you give the whole show away! "Artistically it
appeals to me --- but not spiritually." You have been spiritually
poisoned.
What blasphemy more hideous could be penned? What lie so base, so
false, so nasty, what so devilish and deadly a doctrine? I feel con-
taminated by the mere fact of being in a world where such filth is
possible to conceive. I am all but in tears to think of my beloved
sister tortured by so foul a denizen of the Abyss. Cannot you see in
this the root of all your toadstool spawn of miseries, of doubts, of
fears, of indecisions?
2* How do you know They are "invisible?" I foresee that sooner or later
you will be asking for more information about them, so I am planning a
separate letter to supply this. (See Letters IX, L and LXXVII)
7
As an Artist you are a consecrated Virgin Priestess, the Oracle of the
Most High. None has the right to approach you save with the most
blessed awe, with arms outstretched as to invoke your benediction.
By "spiritually" you mean no more than "according to the lower and
middle-middle-class morality of the Anglo-Saxon of the period when
Longfellow and Tennyson were supposed to be poets, and Royal Academi-
cians painters."
There is a highly popular school of "occultists" which is 99 % an
escape-mechanism. The fear of death is one of the bogeys; but far
deeper is the root-fear --- fear of being alone, of being oneself, of
life itself. With this there goes the sense of guilt.
The Book of the Law cuts directly at the root of all this calamitous,
this infamous tissue of falsehood.
What is the meaning of Initiation? It is the Path to the realisation
of your Self as the sole, the supreme, the absolute of all Truth,
Beauty, Purity, Perfection!
What is the artistic sense in you? What but the One Channel always
open to you through which this Light flows freely to enkindle you
(and the world through you) with flowers of inexhaustible fervour and
flame?
And you set up against That this spectre of grim fear, of shame, of
qualms and doubts, of inward quakings lest --- --- you are too stricken
with panic to see clearly what the horror is. You say "the elemental
spirits and the Archangels are watching." (!) My dear, dear, sister,
did you invent these beings for no better purpose than to spy on you?
They are there to serve you; they are parts of your being whose func-
tion is to enable you to reach further in one particular direction or
another without interference from the other parts, so long as you
happen to need them for some service or other in the Great Work.
Please cleanse your mind once and for all of this delusion, disastrous
and most damnable, that there can be opposition between two essential
parts of your nature.
I think this idea is a monstrous growth upon the tetanus-soaked soil
of your fear of "the senses." Observe how all these mealy-mouthed
prigs develop their distrust of Life until hardly an action remains
that is not "dangerous" or in some way harmful. They dare not smoke,
drink, love --- do anything natural to them. They are right!! The Self
in them is Guilt, a marsh miasmal of foul pestilence. Last, since
"nature, though one expel it with a pitchfork, always returns," they
do their "sins" in secret, and pile hypocrisy upon the summit of all
their other vices.
I cannot write more; it makes me too sad. I hope there is no need.
Do be your Self, the radiant Daughter of the Muse!
With that command I turn to other tasks.
Love is the law, love under will.
8
Fraternally yours ever,
666
CHAPTER LXXII
EDUCATION
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Education means "leading out"; this is not the same as "stuffing in".
I refuse to enlarge on this theme; it is all-important. To extract
something, you should first know what is there. Here astrology ought
to give useful hints; its indications give the mind something to work
on. Experience makes "confirmation strong as Holy Writ;" but beware
of ... priori. Do not be dogmatic; do not insist in the face of dis-
appointment. Astrology in education is useful as geology is to the
prospector; it tells you the sort of thing to look for, and the
direction in which to explore.
There are, however, two main lines of teaching which are of universal
value to normal children; it is hardly possible to begin too early.
Firstly, accustom his ear from the start to noble sounds; the music
of nature and the rhythm of great poetry. Do not aim at his understand-
ing, but at his subconscious mind. Protect him from cacophonous noise;
avoid scoring any cheap success with him by inflicting jingles; do not
insult him by "baby-talk."
Secondly, let him understand, as soon as you start actual teaching, the
difference between the real and the conventional in what you make him
memorize. Nothing irritates children more than the arbitrary "because
I say so."
Nobody knows why the alphabet has the order which we know; it is quite
senseless. One could construct a much more rational order: e.g. the
Mother, the Single and the Double letters, all in the natural order of
the elements, planets and signs. Again, we have the "Missionary" Alpha-
bet, arranged "scientifically" as Gutturals, modified ditto, Dentals,
Labials, vowels and so on; a most repulsive concoction! But I would
not accept any emendation from the God Thoth himself; it is infinitely
simpler to stick to the familiar order. But explain to the child that
this is only for convenience, like the rule of the road; indeed, like
almost any rules!
But when your teaching is of the disputable kind, explain that too;
encourage him to question, to demand a reason and to disagree. Get him
to fence with you; sharpen his wits by dialectic; lure him into think-
ing for himself. I want tricks which will show him the advantages of a
given subject of study; make him pester you to teach him. We did this
most successfully at the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu; let me give you an
instance: reading. One of us would take the children shopping and bring
up the subject of ice-cream. Where, oh where could we get some?
Presently one would exclaim and point to a placard and say, "I really
do believe there'll be some there" --- and lo! it was so. Then they
9
would wonder how one knew, and one would say: Why, there's "Helados"
printed on that piece of card in the window. They would want to learn
to read at once. We would discourage them, saying what hard word it
was, and how much crying it cost, at the same time giving another demon-
stration of the advantages. They would insist, and we should yield ---
to active, eager children, not to dullards that hated the idea of
"lessons." So with pretty well everything; we first excited the
child's will in the desired direction.
But (you ask) are there any special branches of learning which you
regard as essential for all?
Yes.
Our old unvalued friend St. Paul, the cunning crook who turned the
Jewish communism of the Apostles into an international ramp, saw in a
vision a man from Macedonia who said "Come over and help us!" This
time it has been a woman from California, but the purport of her plaints
was identical. Much as I should like to see my Father the Sun once more
before I die, nothing doing until --- if ever --- life recovers from the
blight of regulations. Luckily, one thing she said helps us out: some-
one had told her that I had written on Education in Liber Aleph --- The
Book of Wisdom or Folly --- which has been ready for the printer for more
than a quarter of a century --- and there's nothing I can do about it!
However, I looked up the typescript. The book is itself Education;
there are, however, six chapters which treat of the subject in the
Special sense in which your question has involved us.
So I shall fling these chapters headlong into this letter.
DE VOLUNTATE JUVENUM
Long, O my Son, hath been this Digression from the plain Path of
My word concerning Children; but it was most needful that thou
shouldst understand the Limits of true Liberty. For that is not
the Will of any Man which ultimateth in his own Ruin and that of
all his Fellows; and that is not Liberty whose Exercise bringeth
him to Bondage. Thou mayst therefore assume that it is always an
essential Part of the Will of any Child to grow to Manhood or to
Womanhood in Health, and his Guardians may therefore prevent him
from ignorantly acting in Opposition thereunto, Care being always
taken to remove the cause of the Error, namely, Ignorance, as
aforesaid. Thou mayst also assume that it is Part of the Child's
Will to train every Function of the Mind; and the Guardians may
therefore combat the Inertia which hinders its Development. Yet
here is much Caution necessary, and it is better to work by
exciting and satisfying any natural Curiosity than by forcing
Application to set Tasks, however obvious this Necessity may
appear.
DE MODO DISPUTANDI
Now in this training of the Child is one most dear Consideration,
that I shall impress upon thee as is Conformity with out holy
Experience in the way of Truth. And it is this, that since that
which can be thought is not true, every Statement is in some sense
false. Even on the Sea of Pure Reason, we may say that every
10
Statement is in some Sense disputable. Therefore in every Case,
even the simplest, the Child should be taught not only the Thesis,
but also its opposite, leaving the Decision to the child's own
Judgment and good Sense, fortified by Experience. And this Prac-
tice will develop its Power of Thought, and its Confidence in
itself, and its Interest in all Knowledge. But most of all beware
against any Attempt to bias its Mind on any Point that lieth with-
out the Square of ascertained and undisputed Fact. Remember also,
even when thou art most sure, that so were they sure who gave
Instruction to the young Copernicus. Pay Reverence also to the
Unknown unto whom thou presumest to impart thy knowledge; for he may
be one greater than thou.
DE VOLUTATE JVENIS COGNOSCENDA
It is important that thou shouldst understand as early as may be
what is the true Will of the Child in the Matter of his Career.
Be thou well aware of all Ideals and Daydreams; for the Child is
himself, and not thy Toy. Recall the comic Tragedy of Napoleon
and the King of Rome; build not an House for a wild Goat, nor
plant a Forest for the Domain of a Shark. But be thou vigilant
for every Sign, conscious or unconscious, of the Will of the Child,
giving him then all Opportunity to pursue the Path which he thus
indicates. Learn this, that he, being young, will weary quickly
of all false Ways, however pleasant they may be to him at the Out-
set; but of the true Way he will not weary. This being in this
Manner discovered, thou mayst prepare it for him perfectly; for
no man can keep all Roads open for ever. And to him making his
Choice explain how one may not travel far on any one Road without
a general Knowledge of Things apparently irrelevant. And with
that he will understand, and bend him wisely to his Work.
DE ARTE MENTIS COLENDI, (1) MATHEMATICA.
Now, concerning the first Foundation of Thy Mind I will say
somewhat. Thou shalt study with Diligence in the Mathematics,
because thereby shall be revealed unto thee the Laws of thine own
Reason and the Limitations thereof. This Science manifesteth unto
thee thy true Nature in respect of the Machinery whereby it worketh,
and showeth in pure Nakedness, without Clothing of Personality or
Desire, the Anatomy of thy conscious Self. Furthermore, by this
thou mayst understand the Essence of the Relations between all
Things, and the Nature of Necessity, and come to the Knowledge of
Form. For this Mathematics is as it were the last Veil before the
Image of Truth, so that there is no Way better than our Holy
Qabalah, which analyseth all Things soever, and reduceth them
to pure Number; and thus their Natures being no longer coloured
and confused, they may be regulated and formulated in Simplicity
by the Operation of Pure Reason, to their great Comfort in the
Work of our Transcendental Art, whereby the Many become One.
SEQUITUR (2) CLASSICA
My son, neglect not in any wise the study of the Writings of
Antiquity, and that in the original Language. For by this thou
shalt discover the History of the Structure of thy Mind, that is,
its Nature regarded as the last Term in a Sequence of Causes and
Effects. For thy Mind hath been built up of these Elements, so
11
that in these Books thou mayst bring into the Light thine own
sub-conscious Memories. And thy Memory is as it were the Mortar
in the House of thy Mind, without which is no Cohesion or Indi-
viduality possible, so that it is called Dementia. And these
Books have lived long and become famous because they are the
Fruits of ancient Trees whereof thou art directly the Heir, where-
fore (say I) they are more truly germane to thine own Nature than
Books of Collateral Offshoots, though such were in themselves
better and wiser. Yes, O my son, in these Writings thou mayst
study to come to the true Comprehension of thine own Nature, and
that of the whole Universe, in the dimensions of Time, even as
the Mathematic declareth it in that of Space: that is, of Exten-
sion. Moreover, by this Study shall the Child comprehend the
Foundation of Manners: the which, as sayeth one of the Sons of
Wisdom, maketh Man.
SEQUITUR (3) SCIENTIFICA
Since Time and Space are the conditions of Mind, these two
Studies are fundamental. Yet there remaineth Causality, which
is the Root of the Actions and Reactions of Nature. This also
shalt thou seek ardently, that thou mayest comprehend the
Variety of the Universe, its Harmony and its Beauty, with the
Knowledge of that which compelleth it. Yet this is not equal
to the former two in Power to reveal thee to thyself; and its
first Use is to instruct thee in the true Method of Advancement
in Knowledge, which is, fundamentally, the observation of the
Like and Unlike. Also, it shall arouse in thee the Ecstasy
of Wonder; and it shall bring thee to a proper Understanding
of Art Magick. For our Magick is but one of the Powers that
lie within us undeveloped and unanalysed; and it is by the
Method of Science that it must be made clear, and available to
the Use of Man. Is not this a Gift beyond Price, the Fruit
of a Tree not only of Knowledge but of Life? For there is that
in Man which is God, and there is that also which is Dust; and
by our Magick we shall make these twain one Flesh, to the Ob-
taining of the Empery of the Universe.
I suppose I might have put it more concisely: Classics is itself
Initiation, being the key of the Unconscious; Mathematics is the Art
of manipulating the Ruach, and of raising it to Neschamah; and Science
is co-terminous with Magick.
These are the three branches of study which I regard as fundamental.
No others are in the same class. For instance, Geography is almost
meaningless until one makes it real by dint of honest travel, which
does not mean either "commuting" or "luxury cruises," still less
"globe-trotting." Law is a specialized study, with a view to a career;
History is too unsystematic and uncertain to be of much use as mental
training; Art is to be studied for and by one's solitary self; any
teaching soever is rank poison.
The final wisdom on this subject is perhaps the old "Something of
everything, and everything of something."
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours ever,
12
666
P.S. Better mention, perhaps, that literacy is no test of education.
For ignorance of life, the don class leaves all others at the post;
and it is these monkish and monkeyish recluses, with their hideous
clatter and cackle, "The tittering, thin-bearded, epicene," "Dwarf,
fringed with fear," the obscene vole, dweller by and in backwaters
that has foisted upon us the grotesque and poisonous superstition
that wisdom abides only in dogs-eared, worm-eaten, mule-inspired
long-forgotten as misbegotten folios.
I like the story --- it is a true tale --- of the old Jew millionaire who
bought up the annual waste of the Pennsylvania Railroad --- a matter of
Three Million Dollars. He called with his cheque very neatly made
out --- and signed it by making his mark! The Railroad Man was naturally
falbbergasted, and could not help exclaiming, "Yet you made all those
millions of yours --- what would you have been if only you had been able
to read and write?" "Doorkeeper at the Synagogue" was the prompt
reply. His illiteracy had disqualified him when he applied for the
job after landing.
The story is not only true, but "of all Truth;" see my previous letter
on "Certainty.
Books are not the only medium even of learning; more, what they teach
is partial, prejudiced, meagre, sterile, uncertain, and alien to
reality. It follows that all the best books are those which make no
pretence to accuracy: poetry, theatre, fiction. All others date.
Another point is that Truth abides above and aloof from intellectual
expression, and consequently those books which bear the Magic Keys
of the Portal of the Intelligible by dint of inspiration and suggestion
come more nearly to grips with Reality than those whose appeal is only
to the Intellect. "Didactic" poetry, "realistic" plays and novels,
are contradictions in terms.
P.P.S. One more effort: the above reminds me that I have said no
word about the other side of the medal. There are many children who
cannot be educated at all in any sense of the word. It is an abonin-
able waste of both of them and of the teacher to push against brick
walls.
Yet one last point. I am as near seventy as makes no matter, and I
am still learning with all my might. All my life I have been taught:
governesses, private tutors, schools, private and public, the best of
the Universities: how little I know! I have traveled all over the
world in all conditions, from "grand seigneur," to "holy man;" how
little I know!
What then of the ninety-and-nine, dragged by the ears through suicide
examinations, and kicked out of school into factory in their teens?
They have learnt only just enough to facilitate the swallowing of the
gross venal lies of the radio and the Yellow Press; or, if mother-
wit has chanced to warn them, they learn a little --- very little ---
more, getting their Science from a Shilling Handbook and so on, till
they know just enough to become dangerous agitators.
No, anything like a real education demands leisure, the conversation
13
of the wise, the means to travel, and the rest.
There is only one solution: to pick out the diamonds from the clay,
cut them, polish them, and set them as they deserve. Attempt no idiot
experiments with the muck of the mine! You will observe that I am
advocating an aristocratic revolution. And so I am!
P.P.P.S. Short of the ideals above outlined, you may as well have
a pis aller --- words of astonishing insight and wisdom, not alien to
the Law Thelema, and written by one who was trained on The Book of the
Law.
"Self-confidence must be cultivated in the younger members of
the nation from childhood onwards. Their whole education and
training must be directed towards giving them a conviction that
they are superior to others", wrote Hitler.
"In the case of female education," I read on, "the main stress
should be laid on bodily training, after that on character, and,
last of all, on the intellect; but the one absolute aim of female
education must be with a view to the future mother."
They are quoted as an extreme example of all that is horrible and evil
by Mr. George E. Chust of the Daily Telegraph --- from Mein Kampf!
P.P.P.P.S. There is a game, an improvement on the "Spelling Bee" --- I
have anti-christened it "Fore and aft" so as to be natty and naval ---
which is in my opinion one of the three or four best indoor games for
two ever invented., Here are the rules, in brief: any disputed points?
Apply to me.
1. A "Word" consists of four or more letters.
2. It must be printed in big black type in the Dictionary chosen for
reference. (Nuttall's is fairly good, though some very well-known
words are omitted. The Oxford Pocket Dictionary is useless; it is
for morons, illiterates, wallowers in "Basic English" --- and [I suppose]
Oxonians. No proper names, however well-known, unless used as common:
e.g. Bobby, a flatfoot, a beetlecrusher, a harness bull; or Xantippe,
a shrew, a lady. X-rays is given in the plural only: ditto "R"ntgen-
rays", and they give "R"ntgenogram". "You never can tell!" Participles,
plurals and the like are not "words" unless printed as such in big
black type. E.g. Nuttall's "Juttingly" is a word; "jutting" is not,
being in smaller type. "Soaking" is in small type, but also in big
type as a noun; so it is a word.)
3. The Dictionary is the sole and final arbiter. This produces blas-
phemy, but averts assassination.
4. The first player starts with the letter A. The second may put any
letter he chooses either before or after that A. The other continues
as he will, and can.
5. The player who cannot add a letter without completing a "word"
loses.
They proceed to B, and so on to Z.
14
6. A player whose turn it is must either add his letter within a
reasonable (This is a matter of good feeling, courtesy and considera-
tion) time, may say "I challenge" or, alternatively, "That is a 'word'."
The other must then give the "word" that he intends, or deny that it
is a "word" within the meaning of the Art, as the case may be. The
Dictionary decides the winner. The challenged player may give one
word only, and that in the form which is printed in the Dictionary;
e.g. if he were challenged at BRUSS, and answered Brussels, he would
lose; if BRUSSELS-SPROUTS, he would win. Hyphens need not be given.
CASHMERE is a "word"; it is a kind of shawl, etc., so is CHARLEY, a
night-watchman. Don't argue: the Dictionary decides.
7. This game calls not only for an extensive vocabulary but for courage;
foresight, judgment, resource, subtlety and even low cunning. It can
be played by more than two players, but the more there are, the more
the element of chance comes in; and this is hateful to really fine
players and diminishes the excitement. The rapier-play of two experts,
when a word changes from one line of formation to another, and then
again, perhaps even a third time, is as exhilarating as a baseball-
game or a bull-fight.
And what the Tartarus-Tophet-Jehanna has all this to do with Education,
and the Great Work? This, child! H.G.Wells and others have pointed
out with serene justice that a gap in your vocabulary implies a gap in
your mind; you lack the corresponding idea. Too true, "Erbert! But
I threap that a pakeha with such xerotes as his will chowter with an
arsis of ischonophony, beyond aught that any fub, even in Vigonia and
dwale mammodis with a cascade from a Dewan tauty, a kiss-me-quick, a
chou over her merkin and a parka over her chudder could do to save
him, and have an emprosthotonos, when he reads this. Sruti!
(Whaur's your Wullie Chaucer noo?)
I put this in for you because an American officer3, very dear to me,
flited from the Front for a few days to ask me a few questions --- oh,
"very much above your exalted grade" my dear --- and I thought it might
be useful to him to learn this game, needing, as it does, such very
meagre apparatus, to wile away some of the long hours between attacks.
He picked it up quickly enough; but, after a bit when I suggested
that he should pass it on to his comrades-in-arms, he jeered at me
openly!
Their vocabulary to mine, he said, holds just about the same proportion
as mine does to yours; I hypothesized modestly, "about five per cent."
(After all, I am forty-five years his senior.) He roared at me. "Not
one in a hundred," he said, "know so much as the names of nine-tenths
of the subjects that I discuss habitually and fluently. They gasp,
they gape, they grunt, the gibber; it is almost always black bewilder-
ment4. And some of them are college graduates --- which I'm not."
3^ WEH NOTE: Probably Grady Louis McMurtry, who became "Caliph" or
acting head of O.T.O. many years later.
4* They attach no meaning to these words:
Palaeontology
Criterion
Vector
Synthesis (They know "synthetic" but can't connect it with the noun)
Epitome
15
He was snatched from school, and given a commission on the spot, appar-
ently because he was one of very few that could be differentiated from
the average Learned Pig.
All this made me exceeding sorrowful. I began to understand why my
Liber OZ, written entirely in words of one syllable only, with this
very idea in mind, turned out to be completely beyond the average man's
(or woman's) understanding. I had some Mass Observation done on it.
"But this is rank socialism," "Sy, ayn't this all Fascism?" "Oh
Golly!" "Cripes!" "Coo!" "How dreadful!" about the nearest most of
them got to Ralph Straus and Desmond MacCarthy!
Words of one syllable! Louis Marlow5 had already told me what a fool
I was to expect that. "All they can digest," said he, "is a mess of
stewed clichâs with Bird's custard Power."
Damn everything --- it's true, it's true.
So do you at least get together the stones that you need to build
your Basilica!
CHAPTER LXXIII.
"MONSTERS," NIGGERS, JEWS, ETC.
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Come now, is this quite fair? When I agreed to tip you off about
Magick and the rest, I certainly never expected to be treated as if I
were being interviewed by an American Sunday Newspaper. What do I
prefer for breakfast, and my views on the future of the theatre, and
is the Great White Brotherhood in favour of Eugenic Babies? No, dear
sister --- I nearly said sob-sister. But this I will say, you have been
very artful, and led me on very cleverly --- you must have been a terror
to young men --- for the matter of that, I dare say you are still!
And I don't see how to get out of swallowing this last sly bait; as
you say, "Every man and every woman is a star." does need some attention
to the definition of "man" and "woman". What is the position, you say,
of "monsters"? And men of "inferior" races, like the Veddah, Hottentot
and the Australian Blackfellow? There must be a line somewhere, and
Foreign Policy (To them a mere phrase; no idea of its connotation
or principles)
Demology
Entrepreneur
Correspondent and Co-respondent. (They don't know the difference)
Subcutaneous
Chordee)
Gleet ) (Although they have them!)
Histology ("Something to do with history")
5^ WEH NOTE: Louis Umfraville Wilkinson wrote under this pen name. He was
one of two individuals named to be literary executors under Crowley's
Last Will and Testament.
16
will I please draw it? You make me feel like Giotto!
There is one remark which I must make at the beginning. It's some
poet or other, Tennyson or Kipling, I think (I forget who) that wrote:
"Folks in the loomp, is baad." It is true all round. Someone wisely
took note that the vilest man alive had always found someone to love
him. Remember the monster6 that Sir Frederick Treves picked up from
an East End peep-show, and had petted by princesses? (What a cunning
trick!) Revolting, all the same, to read his account of it. He --- the
monster, not Treves! --- seems to have been a most charming individual ---
ah! That's the word we want. Every individual has some qualities
that endear him to some other. And per contra, I doubt if there is any
class which is not detestable to some other class. Artists, police,
the clergy, "reds," foxhunters, Freemasons, Jews, "heaven-born," women's
clubwomen (especially in U.S.A.), "Methodys," golfers, dog-lovers;
you can't find one body without its "natural" enemies. It's right,
what's worse; every class, as a class, is almost sure to have more
defects than qualities. As soon as you put men together, they somehow
sink, corporatively, below the level of the worst of the individuals
composing it. Collect scholars on a club committee, or men of science
on a jury; all their virtues vanish, and their vices pop out, rein-
forced by the self-confidence which the power of numbers is bound to
bestow.
It is peculiarly noticeable that when a class is a ruling minority, it
acquires a detestation as well as a contempt for the surrounding "mob."
In the Northern States of U.S.A., where the whites are overwhelming in
number, the "nigger" can be more or less a "regular fellow;" in the
South, where fear is a factor, Lynch Law prevails. (Should it? The
reason for "NO" is that it is a confession of weakness.) But in the
North, there is a very strong feeling about certain other classes: the
Irish, the Italians, the Jews. Why? Fear again; the Irish in poli-
tics, the Italians in crime, the Jews in finance. But none of these
phobias prevent friendship between individuals of hostile classes.
I think that perhaps I have already written enough --- at least enough
to start you thinking on the right lines. And mark well this! The
submergence of the individual in his class means the end of all true
human relations between men. Socialism means war. When the class
moves as a class, there can be no exceptions.
This is no original thought of mine; Stalin and Hitler both saw it
crystal-clear; both, the one adroitly, the other clumsily, but with
equally consummate hypocrisy, acted it out. They picked individuals
to rule under their autocracy, killed off those that wouldn't fit,
destroyed the power of the Trades Unions or Soviets while pretending
to make them powerful and prosperous, and settled down to the serious
business of preparing for the war which both knew to be inevitable.
It is this fundamental fact which ensures that every democracy shall
end with an upstart autocrat; the stability of peace depends upon
the original idea which aggrandized America in a century from four
millions to a hundred: extreme individualism with opportunity. Our
own longest period of peace abroad (bar frontier skirmishes like the
Crimean war) and prosperity at home coincided with Free Trade and
Laissez-faire.
6^ WEH NOTE {needs research}: Is this the "Elephant Man"?
17
Now we may return, refreshed, to the main question of monsters, real
(like Treves') or imaginary like Jews and niggers.
'Arf a mo! Haven't we solved the problem, ambulando? Everything
would be okydoke and hunkydory if only we can prevent classes from
acting as such?
I suppose so. Then, what about a spot of pithy paradox for a change?
Why should the classes want to act as classes? It's obvious; "Union
is strength." The worst Fifteen can do more with a football than the
best opposing team of one --- excuse my Irish!
Well, that tortoise is that elephant based upon? Why, still obviously,
upon the universal sense of individual weakness. We all want a big
bruvver to tell of him! Hence the Gods and the Classes. It's fear
at the base of the whole pyramid of skulls.
How right politicians are to look upon their constituents as cattle!
Anyone who has any experience of dealing with any class as such knows
the futility of appealing to intelligence, indeed to any other quali-
ties than those of brutes.
And so, whenever we find one Man who has no fear like Ibsen's Doctor
Stockmann or Mark Twain's Colonel Grainger that strolled out on his
balcony with his shotgun to face the mob that had come to lynch him,
he can get away with it. "An Enemy of the People" wrote Ibsen, "Ye
are against the people, O my chosen!" says The Book of the Law. (AL
II, 25).
Not only does it seem to me the only conceivable way of reconciling
this and similar passages with "Every man and every woman is a star."
to assert the sovereignty of the individual, and to deny the right-
to-exist to "class-consciousness," "crowd-psychology," and so to mob-
rule and Lynch-Law, but also the only practicable plan whereby we may
each one of us settle down peaceably to mind his own business, to
pursue his True Will, and to accomplish the Great Work.
So never lose sight for a moment of the maxim so often repeated in
one context or another in these letters: that fear is at the root of
every possibility of trouble, and that "Fear is failure, and the fore-
runner of failure. Be thou therefore without fear; for in the heart
of the coward virtue abideth not."
Good-night; and don't look under the bed!
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER LXXIV.
OBSTACLES ON THE PATH.
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
18
Peccavi! And how! But my excuse is good, and I will try to make
amends.
First, a little counter-attack --- your letter is so rambling and diffuse
that at first I couldn't make out what you were getting at, and at last
decided that it is much too random to reproduce, or even to deal with
in detail. I shall simply formulate the case for the Prosecution, plead
guilty, and appeal for clemency.
The gravamen is that the Path of the Wise is gay with flowers, gilded
with kiosks, and beset with snares; that every step is the Abode of
Terror and Rapture --- and all that! Yet I habitually write in the manner
of a drunken dominie! You "gaped for Aeschylus, and got Theognis."
I tempted you, it seems with The Chymical Marriage of Christian
Rosencreutz, its incomparable mystery and glamour, its fugitive
beauty, its ineffable romance, its chivalry and its adventure, pellucid
gleams as of sunlight under the sea, vast brooding wings of horror
overshadowing the firmament, yet with strong Starlight constant over-
bead. And then I let you down!
You did expect at least something of the atmosphere of the Arabian
Nights; if not so high, of Apuleius and Petronius Arbiter; of Rabelais,
Meinhold, de la Motte Fouquâ; and the Morte d'Arthur in later times, of
Balzac, Dumas, Lytton, Huysmans, Mabel Collins and Arthur Machen.
You look at me with strange sad eyes: "But you, too, Master, have not
you too led a life as strange, as glamourous, as weird and as romantic,
as the best of them? Then why this cold detachment from that ambience?"
Well, if you put it like that, I can only say that I feel at the same
time more guilty and entirely innocent!
For, while the charge is true, the defence is not to be shaken.
The worst of all teachers are the Boloney Magnates, of whom I have
already given some account. But the next worst are just exactly those
who try to create an atmosphere of romance, and succeed only in a crude
theatricalism. So, avoiding the swirling turmoil of Scylla, I have
broken the ship on the barren rock Charybdis.{Editorial Q. --- isn't this bas-
akwards? WEH}
Now let me hearten you, brave sister! All the old tales are true!
You can have as many dragons, princesses, vampires, knights-errant,
glendowers, enchanted apes, Jinn, sorcerers and incubi as you like to
fancy, and --- whoa Emma! did I tell you about Cardinal Newman? Well,
I will.
The one passage in his snivelling Apologia which impressed me was a
tale of his childhood --- before the real poet, lover and mystic had
been buried beneath the dung-heap of Theology. He tells us that he
read the Arabian Nights --- in a heavily Bowdlerized edition, bet you
a tosser! --- and was enchanted, like the rest of us, so that he sighed
"I wish these tales were true!" The same thing happened to me; but
I set my teeth, and muttered: "I will make these tales true!"
Well, I have, haven't I? You said it yourself!
19
Let me be very frank about one point. It has always puzzled me com-
pletely why one is forbidden to relate certain of one's adventures.
You remember, perhaps, in one of these letters I started out gaily to
tell you some quite simple things --- I couldn't, can't, see quite what
harm could come of it --- and I was pulled up sharp --- yes, and actually
punished, like a school-boy! I had often done much more impudent
things, and nobody seemed to give a hoot. Oh somebody tell me why!
The only suggestion that occurs to me is that I might somehow be
"giving occasion to the enemy to blaspheme." Let it go at that!
"Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog!"
Yes child, my deepest attitude is to be found in my life. I have been
to most of the holy inaccessible places, and talked with the most holy
inaccessible men; I have dared all the most dangerous adventures, both
of the flesh and of the spirit; and I challenge the world's literature
to match for sublimity and terror such experiences as those in the
latter half of The Vision and the Voice.
You understand, of course, that I say all this merely in indication;
or rather, as I said before, as an appeal for clemency.
On the contrary (you will retort) you are a mean cat (Felis Leo,
please!) not to let us all in on the ground floor of so imposing a
Cathedral!
To atone? Not a catalogue, which would be interminable; not a classi-
fication, which would be impossible, save in the roughest terms;
nothing but a few short notes, possibly an anecdote or so. Just a
tickle or a dram of schnapps, to enliven the proceedings. ordeals ---
temptations --- that sort of thing. A general Khabardar karo! With
now and then a snappy Achtung!
Oh, curse this mind of mine! I just can't help running to hide under
the broad skirts of the Qabalah! It's Disk, Sword, Cup and Wand again!
Sorry, but c'est trop fort pour moi.
Disks. To master Earth, remember that the Disk is always spinning;
fix this idea, get rid of its solidity.
Commonly, the first tests of the young Aspirant refer to cash --- "that's
God's sol solid in this world." The proper magical attitude is very
hard to describe. (I'm not talking of that black hen's egg any more;
that is simple.) Very sorry to have to say it, but it is not unlike
that of the spendthrift. Money must circulate, or it loses its true
value. A banker in New York once told me that the dollar circulated
nine times as fast as the English equivalent, so that people seemed
to themselves to be nine times as rich. (I told you about the Ï100
note in a special letter on Money). But here I am stressing the
spiritual effect; what happens is that anxiety vanishes; one feel
that as it goes out, so it comes in. This view is not incompatible
with thrift and prudence, and all that lot of virtues, far from it, it
tucks in with them quite easily. You must practise this; there's a
knack in it. Success in this leads to a very curious result indeed;
not only does the refusal to count (Fourpen'north or Yoga, please miss,
and Mum says can I have a penny if I bring back the bottle!), bring
about the needlessness of counting, but also one acquires the power
to command!
20
A century ago, very nearly, there lived in Bristol and "Open Brother"
names Muller, who was a wizard at this; Grace before breakfast, the
usual palaver about the Lord and His blessings and His bounty et
cetera, da capo; to conclude "and, Blessed Lord, we would humbly
venture to remind Thee that this morning Thou art Ï3 4s. 6 1/2d.
short in the accounts; trusting that Thou wilt give this small matter
Thine immediate attention, for Jesus' Christ's sake, Amen." Sure
enough, when he came to open his post, there would be just enough,
sometimes exactly enough, to cover that amount.
This story was told me by an enemy, who thought quite seriously that
he would go to Hell for being "Open." ("Open" Brethren were lax about
the Lord's Supper, let people partake who were not sound upon the
Ramsgate Question; and other Theological Atrocities!) It meant that
the facts were so undeniable that the "advertisement for Answer to
Prayer" outweighed the "miracle by a heretic."
I knew a poetess of great distinction who used to amuse herself by
breaking off a conversation and saying, "Give me a franc" (or a shilling,
or any small sum) and then going on with her previous remarks. She told
me that of over a hundred people I was the second who had passed the coin
to her without remark of any kind.
This story --- do you think? --- is neither here no there. No, my remarks
are rarely asyntartete. The Masters, at one stage or another of initia-
tion --- it is forbidden to indicate the conditions --- arrange for some
test of the Aspirant's attitude in some matter, not necessarily involv-
ing cash. If he fails, goodnight!
Swords, now. The snags connected with this type of test are probably
the nastiest of any. Misunderstanding, confusion, logical error (and,
worse, logical precision of the kind that distinguishes many lunatics),
dispersion, indecision, failure to estimate values correctly --- oh! ---
there is no end to the list. So much so, indeed, that there is no
specific critical test, it is all part of the routine, and goes on
incessantly.
Well, there is just one. Without warning a decision of critical
importance has to be made by the candidate, and he is given so many
minutes to say Yes or No. He gets no second chance.
But I must warn you of one particular disgrace. You know that people
of low mentality haunt fortune-tellers of equal calibre, but with more
low cunning. They do not really want to know the future, or to get
advice; their real object is to persuade some supposed "authority"
to flatter them and confirm them in their folly and stupidity.
It is the same thing with a terrifying percentage of the people that
come for "teaching" and "initiation." The moment they learn anything
they didn't know before, off they fly in a temper! No sooner does
it become apparent that the Master is not a stupid middle-class prig
and hypocrite --- another edition of themselves, in short --- they are
frightened, they are horrified, they flee away on both their feet,
like the man in the Bible! I have seen people turn fish-belly pale
in the face, and come near fainting outright, when it has dawned upon
them suddenly that magick is a real thing!
21
It's all beyond me!
Cups: we are much more definite again. The great test is so well
known, and accounts have already been published, that it can be here
plainly stated. Early in his career, the Aspirant is exposed to the
seductions of a Vampire, and warned in due form and due season.
"Sleep with A,B,C,D,E and F, my lad, and our hearty best wishes! But
not with G on any account, on peril of your work!"
So off he goes to G, without a second's hesitation. This test may be
prolonged; the deadliness and subtlety of the danger has been recog-
nized, and he may have half a dozen warnings, either direct or springing
from his relations with her. And the penalty is not so drastically
final; often he gets off with a term of penal servitude.
On the other hand, the Aspirant who can spot at the first hint why the
Masters think that particular woman a danger, and acts promptly and
decisively as he should, is secretly marked down as a sword of very
fine temper indeed!
The rest of the Cup Ordeals consists for the most part of progressive
estimations of the quality of the Postulant's devotion to the work;
there is not, as a rule, anything particularly spectacular or dramatic
in it. If you stick to your Greetings and Adorations and all such
mnemonics, you are not likely to go very far wrong.
Wands: this obviously a pure question of Will. You will find as
you go on that obstacles of varying degrees of difficulty confront you;
and the way in which you deal with them is most carefully watched.
The best advice that I can give is to remember that there is little
need of the Bull-at-a-Gate method, though that must always be ready
in reserve; no, the best analogy is rapier-play. Elastic strength.
Warfare shows us.
That seems to cover your question more or less; but don't forget that
it depends on yourself how much of the dramatic quality colours your
Path. I suppose I have been lucky to have had the use of all the
traditional trappings; but it is always possible to make a "coat of
many colours" out of a heap of rags. To show you that you have had
Chaucer and John Bunyan --- yes, and Laurence Sterne: to bring up the
rear, James Thomson (B.V.) to say nothing of Conrad and Hardy. Nor
let me forget The Cream of the Jest and The Rivet in Grandfather's
Neck of my friend, James Branch Cabell.
So now, fair damozel, bestride thy palfrey, and away to the Mountains
of Magick!
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
P.S. One danger I had purposely passed over, as it is not likely to
come your way. But, since others may read these letters ---
Some, and these the men of highest promise, often of great achievement,
22
are tempted by Treason. The acquire a "Judas-complex,' think how
splendid it would be if they were to destroy the Order --- or, at the
very least, unhorse the Master.
This is, of course, absurd in itself, because if they had crossed the
Abyss, they would understand why it is impossible. It would be like
"destroying Electricity," or "debunking" the Venus of Milo. The maxi-
mum of success possible in such an operation would be to become a
"Black-Brother;" but what happens in practice, so far as my own
experience goes, is complete dispersion of the mental faculties amount-
ing to suicide; I could quote no less than four cases in which actual
physical self-murder was the direct result.
CHAPTER LXXV.
THE A.'. A.'. AND THE PLANET
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
You Write:
"Am I to understand that the A.'. A.'. has two main lines of Work.
(1) The initiation of Individuals, (2) Action on the world in
general --- say "Weltpolitik"? Because your letters on the History
of Magick do imply (2); and yet the A.'. A.'. discourages any
form of group working. Is it that the Masters (8¿ = 3ß Magistri
Templi) having been admitted to the Third Order --- the A.'. A.'.
proper; below this are R.R. et A.C. and G.'. D.'. --- are no longer
liable to the dangers which make group activity in lower grades
undesirable. Or do they still work as Individuals, yet, because
they are initiates, appear to act as a corporate body? You have
often expressed yourself as if this were so. 'Of course, They had
to pick on me to do the dirty work' is a typical growl of the old
Big Lion! But again there is that Magical Memory of yours when
you came down from that Hermitage in the little wood overhanging
the nullah below the Great Peak 'somewhere in Asia' and sat in
some sort of Consistory in the valley where the great Lamaserai ---
or whatever it was --- towers over the track, (I quote some of your
phrases from memory.) Which is it?"
My dear child, that is all very sensibly put; and the answer is that
Convenience would decide. Then you go on, after a digression:
"Then how are They acting at present? What impact has the new
Word, Thelema, made upon the planet? What are we to expect as a
result? And can we poor benighted outsiders help Them in any way?
I know it's 'cheek' to ask."
then turn the other cheek, and repeat the question! I will do my best
to make it all clear. But do not forget that I am myself completely
in the dark with regard to the special functions of most of my
colleagues.
To begin, then!
Achtung! I am going to be hard-boiled; my first act is to enlist the
23
Devil himself in our ranks, and take the Materialistic Interpretation
of History from Karl Marx, and accept economic laws as the manifest
levers which determine the fortune of one part of the earth or another.
I shall take exception only by showing that these principles are second-
ary: oil in Texas, nitrates on the Pacific slope of the Andes, suphur
in Louisiana (which put Etna's nose out of joint by making it cheaper
for the burgers of Messina to import it from four thousand miles away
instead of digging it out of their own back garden), even coal and
timber, upset very few apple-carts until individual genius had found
for these commodities such uses as our grandfathers never dreamed.
The technical developments of almost every form of wealth are the
forebears of Big Business; and Big Business, directly or indirectly,
is the immediate cause of War.
In the "To-day and to-morrow" series is an essay called Ouroboros, by
Garet Garrett; one of the most shrewd and deep-delving analysis of
economics ever written. May I condense him crudely? Mass Production
for profit fails when its markets are exhausted; so every effort is
made to impose it not only on the native but the foreigner, and should
guile fail, then force!
But the process ineluctably goes on; when the whole world buys the
nasty stuff, and will accept no other, the exploiter is still faced by
diminishing returns. No possibility of expansion; sooner or later
dividends dwindle, and the Business is Bust.
To even the most stupid it becomes plain at this stage that war is
wholly ruinous; organization breaks down altogether; one meaningless
revolution follows another; famine and pestilence complete the job.
Last time --- when Osiris replaced Isis --- the wreck was limited in scope
--- note that it was the civilized, the organized part that broke down.
(Jews and Arabs could remain aloof, and keep a small torch burning
until Light returned with the Renaissance.)
This time there is no civilization which can escape being involved in
the totality of the catastrophe.
Towards this collapse all totalitarian movements inevitably tend.
Bertrand Russell himself admits that, although himself "temperamentally
Anarchistic," Society must be yet more organized than it is to-day if
it is to exist at all.
But his, as Garet Garrett shows, is the John Gilpin type of horseman-
ship. We are to-day more or less at the stage where "off flew Gilpin's
hat and wig."
Achievement of high aims, which tends ultimately to the well-being, the
prosperity of the republic, depends on the proportion of masters to
servants. The stability of a building depends on the proportion of
superstructure to foundations. The rule holds good in every department
of Nature. There is an optimum for every case. If there is one barber
for ten thousand men, most of them will remain unshorn; if there are
five thousand barbers, most of them will be out of a job.
Apply this measure to society; there must be an optimum relation between
24
industry and agriculture, between town and country. When the proper
balance is not struck, the community must depend on outside help,
importing what it lacks, exporting its surplus. This is an unnatural
state of affairs; it results in business, and therefore ultimately in
war. That is, as soon as the stress set up by the conditions becomes
insupportable. So long as "business" is confined to luxuries, no great
harm need result; but when interference with the flow of foreign trade
threatens actual necessities, the unit concerned realizes that it is in
danger of strangulation. Consider England's food supply! Switzerland,
Russia, China, the U.S.A. can laugh at U-boats. England must support
a Navy, a wealth-consuming, not a wealth-producing, item in the Budget.
Similar remarks apply to practically all Government Departments. The
minimum of organization is desirable; all artificial doctrinaire
multiplication of works which produce no wealth is waste; and for
many reasons (some absurd, like "social position") tend to create fresh
unnecessary necessities. Ad infinitum, like the fleas in the epigram!
When laws are reasonable in the eyes of the average man, he respects
them, keeps them, does his best to maintain them; therefore a minute
Police Force, with powers strictly limited, is adequate to deal with the
almost negligibly small criminal class. A convention is laudable when
it is convenient. When laws are unjust, monstrous, ridiculous, that
same average man, will he-nill he, becomes a criminal; and the law
requires a Tcheka or a Gestapo with dictatorial powers and no safeguards
to maintain the farce. Also, corruption becomes normal in official
circles; and is excused. I refer you to Mr. J. H. Thomas.7
One evil leads to another; the seven devils always take possession of
a house that is swept and garnished to he point at which people find
it uncomfortable.
But is not all this beside the point, you ask? No. It was needful to
indicate this cumulative progression to social shipwreck,because,
to-day an obvious peril of the most menacing, in 1904 no ordinary sane
person foresaw anything of the sort. But special knowledge alters
things, and it is certain that the Masters anticipated, with great
exactness of calculation, the way things would go in the political
world.
Practically all the messages received during the "Cairo Working" (March-
April 1904 e.v.) came to me through Ouarda. No woman ever lived who
was more ignorant of, or less interested in, anything to do with poli-
tics, or the welfare of the race; she cared for nothing beyond her
personal comfort and pleasure. When the communications ceased, she
dropped the whole affair without a thought.
She nearly always referred to the authors of these messages as "They:"
when asked who "They" were, she would say haltingly and stupidly "the
gods," or some equally unhelpful term. But she was always absolutely
clear and precise as to the instructions. The New Aeon was to supersede
the old; my special job was to preserve the Sacred Tradition, so that
a new Renaissance might in due season rekindle the hidden Light. I was
accordingly to make a Quintessence of the Ancient Wisdom, and publish
it in as permanent a form as possible. This I did in The Equinox. I
should perhaps have been strictly classical, and admitted only the
7* The Chancellor of the Exchequer, having fixed the increase of Income
Tax at threepence, proceeded to defraud the Insurance Companies by
insuring himself against a rise of the sum!
25
"Publication in Class "A", "A-B", "B " and "D" material. But I had the
idea that it would be a good plan to add all sorts of other stuff, so
that people who were not in any way interested in the real Work might
preserve their copies.
This by the way: the essence this letter is to show that "They",
not one person but a number acting in concert, not only foresaw a
planet-wide catastrophe, but were agreed on measures calculated to
assure the survival of the Wisdom worth saving until the time, perhaps
three hundred or six hundred years later, when a new current should
revive the shattered thought of mankind.
The Equinox, in a word, was to be a sort of Rosetta Stone.
There is one other matter of incomparable importance: the wars which
have begun the disintegration of the world have followed, each at an
interval of nine months, the operative publications of The Book of the
Law. This again seems to make it almost certain that "They" not only
know the future, at least in broad outline, but are at pains to arrange
it. I have no doubt that the advance of Natural Science is in the
charge of a certain group of "Masters." Even the spiritually and
morally as well as the physically destructive phenomena of our age must
be parts of some vast all-comprehensive plan.
Putting two and two together, and making 718, it looks as if the Masters
acquiesced in and helped to fulfill, the formula of the catastrophic
succession of the Aeons.
An analogy. We have the secret of the Elixir of Life, and could carry
on in the same body indefinitely; yet at least some masters prefer to
reincarnate in the regular way, only taking care to waste no time in
Amennti, but to get back to the Old Bench and pick up the New Tools
with the minimum of delay.
By having attained the Freedom of "Elysian, windless, fortunate abodes
Beyond Heaven's constellated wilderness" "we are blessed; and bless"
by refusing to linger therein, but shouldering once more "Atlantean
the load of the too vast orb of" the Karma of Mankind.
This hypothesis does at least make intelligible Their action in riding
for a fall instead of preventing it. It may also be that They feel
that human progress has reached its asymptote so far as the old Formula
can take it. In fact, unless we take some such view, there does not
seem to be much point in taking an action so fundamentally revolutionary
(on the surface) as the proclamation of a New Word.
But then (you will object, if an objection it be) people like Lenin,
Hitler, Mussolini, the Mikado, et hoc genus omne, are loyal emissaries
of the Masters, or the gods! Well, why not? An analogy, once more.
In the Christian legend we find God (omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent)
employing Judas, Pilate and Herod, no less than Jesus, as actors in the
Drama which replaced Isis by Osiris in the Great Formula. Perfectly
true; but this fact does not in any way exculpate the criminals. It is
no excuse for the Commandants of Belsen and Buchenwald that they were
acting under orders. The Drama is not mere play-acting, in which the
most virtuous man may play the vilest of parts.
Your further objection, doubtless, will be that this theory makes the
26
Masters responsible for the agony of the planet. I refer you to The
Book of the Heart Girt with a Serpent, Cp I, v. 33-4-0.
33. Let us take our delight in the multitude of men!
Let us shape unto ourselves a boat of Mother-of-Pearl from
them, that we may ride upon the river of Amrit!
34. Thou seest yon petal of Amaranth, blown by the wind from the
low sweet brows of Hathor?
35. (The magister saw it and rejoiced in the beauty of it) Listen!
36. (From a certain world came an infinite wail) That falling
petal seemed to the little ones a wave to engulph their
continent.
37. So they will reproach thy servant, saying: Who hath set thee
to save us?
38. He will be sore distressed.
39. All they will understand not that thou and I are fashioning
a boat of Mother-of-Pearl. We will sail down the river of
Amrit even to the yew groves of Yama, where we may rejoice
exceedingly.
40. The joy of men shall be our silver gleam, their woe our blue
gleam --- all in the Mother-of-pearl.
And again, Cp. I, v. 50-52 and v. 56-62.
50. Adonai spake yet again with V.V.V.V.V. and said: The earth
is ripe for vintage; let us eat of her grapes, and be drunken
thereon.
51. And V.V.V.V.V. answered and said: O my Lord, my dove, my
excellent one, how shall this word seem unto the children of
men?
52. And He answered him: Not as thou canst see. It is certain
that every letter of this cipher hath some value; but who
shall determine the value? For it varieth ever, according
to the subtlety of him that made it.
. . . . . . . .
56. And Adonai said: The strong brown reaper swept his swathe and
rejoiced. The wise man counted his muscles and pondered, and
understood not, and was sad. Reap thou and rejoice!
57. Then was the adept glad, and lifted his arm. Lo! an earth-
quake, and plague, and terror on the earth! A casting down of
them that sate in high places; a famine upon the multitude!
58. And the grape fell ripe and rich into his mouth.
59. Stained is the purple of thy mouth, O brilliant one with the
white glory of he lips of Adonai.
27
60. The foam of the grape is like the storm upon the sea; the
ships tremble and shudder; the shipmaster is afraid.
61. That is thy drunkenness, O holy one, and the winds whirl away
the soul of the scribe into the happy haven.
62. O Lord God! Let the haven be cast down by the fury of the
storm! Let the foam of the grape tincture my soul with thy
light!
. . . . . . . .
Yes, I dare say. But is there not here a sort of moral oxymoron? Are
not the Masters pursuing two diametrically opposed policies at the same
time?
Genius --- or Initiation, which implies the liberation and development of
the genius latent in us all (is not one of names of the "Holy
Guardian Angel" the Genius?) --- is practically the monopoly of the "crazy
adventurer," as the official mind will most certainly rate him. Then
why do not the Masters oppose all forms of organization tooth-and-nail?
It depends, surely, on the stage which a society has reached on its fall
to the servile state. Civilization of course, implies organization up
to a certain point. The freedom of any function is built upon system;
and so long as Law and Order make it easier for a man to do his True
Will, they are admirable. It is when system is adored for its own sake,
or as a means of endowing mediocrities with power as such, that the
"critical temperature" is attained.
It so happens that I write this on the eve of a General Election in
England; and it seems to me that whichever wins, England loses:
The Socialists openly proclaim that they mean to run the country on
the lines of a convict prison; but the Tories, for all their fine talk,
would be helpless against the Banks and the Trusts to whom they must
look for support.
Still, perhaps with a little help from Hashish, one can imagine a Mer-
chant Prince or a Banker being intelligent, or even, in a weak moment,
human; and this is not the case with officials. The standard, moreover,
of education and Good Manners, low as it is, is less low in Tory circles.
As I think that totalitarian methods are already on the way to extinguish
the last spark of manly independence --- that is, in self-styled civilized
countries --- it seems to me that we all should regard with shrewd suspi-
cion any plans for "perfecting" social conditions. The extreme horror
is the formula of the gregarious type of insect. Inherent in the
premises is the impossibility of advance.
One may sum the policy of the A.'. A.'. as follows:
1. To assist the initiation of the individual.
2. To maintain a form of social order in which the adventure of
initiation is easy --- to undertake!
3. To work out the Magical Formula of the New Aeon.
28
"Ye-e-ss, I s-e-e."
I doubt it. But what you are asking is how to decide upon your personal
programme.
The intelligent visitor from who knows what planet was puzzled. He
chanced to have landed in England --- to find a General Election in full
blast. (The operative word is "blast".) They must be absolute imbeciles,
was his first reaction, to risk upsetting the policy of Government with
a first-class war on.
(There would have been no need of such nonsense --- I interrupted --- if
Parliament was elected by my simple plan. I'll give you the main idea;
I don't insist on the figures. When a candidate is returned by 50 per-
cent over his runner-up, he sits for five years. If forty percent,
four years; and so on. An alternative --- to "stagger" the assembly, as
(I think) is done in the Senate of the United States.)
How are you going to vote?
Rather like the question of the dentist8. The teeth can be tinkered:
of course, sooner or later they have to go. Is it worth the trouble
and expense? The Socialists would have them all out right away, and
replaced by a set of "dentures," which (obviously) are perfect. Arrange
them, change them, choose your own pattern; no trouble, no pain: all
one's dream come true! But hardly biological.
You may argue that convicts are examples of living individuals whose
safety, shelter, nourishment and the rest are organized with the utmost
care; but accidents will happen in the best-regulated "brown stone
jugs." The one ideally automatic case is the foetus. You will agree
that here is lack of initiative; in fact, its "True Will" is to escape,
albeit into a harsh and hostile universe, fraught with unknown and
incalculable dangers.
As the Ritual says: "Prepare to enter the Immeasurable Region!"
I think your decision should depend on how far caries has travelled on
its road of destruction.
I do not think that the Masters need be unanimous.
A practical plan might be for them to concentrate on one particular
group, or one part of the world, and to keep this in as good shape as
possible until the time has come for Nature to grow a new set.
They will be grown on a new Formula, to meet the new needs, just as
when our "permanent" (Alas, not much!) set replace our milk-teeth.
You ask me if I think this change can be made without bloodshed.
No. The obscure autocrats of Diplomacy and Big Business are infinitely
stupid and short-sighted; they cannot see an inch beyond their too
8^ WEH NOTE: Crowley suffered from bad teeth in his last years, finally
having them extracted about six months before his death in 1947 e.v. It is
speculated that secondary infection from the extraction may have contributed
to his death from pneumonia in December of that year.
29
often stigmatically shapen probosces, except where the profit of the
next financial year is concerned. They live in perpetual panic, and
shy at their own shadows. The accordingly attack even the most innoc-
uous windmills in suicidal charges.
Yes: bella, horrida bella,
Et flavem Tibrim spumantem sanguine cerno.
So, whichever way you vote, you are asking for trouble, or would do,
if the vote had any meaning. The result of any election, or for the
matter of that any revolution, is an almost wholly insignificant compo-
nent of those stupendous and inscrutable Magical Forces which determine
the destinies of the planet.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER LXXVI.
THE GODS: HOW AND WHY THEY OVERLAP
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Your last letter.
I am glad: it shows you have been putting in some genuine original
work. Result! You make a very shrewd observation; you have noticed
the curious fashion in which Gods seem to overlap. It is not the same
(you point out) with Angels. In no other system do we find a parallel
for the Living Creatures. Wheels, Wings, Fiery Serpents, with such
quasi-human cohorts as the Beni Elohim who beget the children on women,
to whom the Qabalah has introduced us. The Beni Elohim is actually
an exception; there is the Incubus and some of the Fairy Folk, as
well as certain Gods and demi-Gods, who act thus paternally. But you
are right in the main. The Arabs, for example, have "seven heavens"
and seven Orders of Angels, also Jinn; but the classes are by no means
identical. This, even though certain Archangels, notably Gabriel,
appear in both systems. But then Gabriel is a definite individual, a
person --- and this fact is the key to your puzzle.
For, as I have explained in a previous letter, Gods are people: macro-
cosms, not mere collocations of the elements, planets and signs as are
most of the angels, intelligences and spirits. It is interesting to
note that Gabriel in particular seems to be more than one of these;
he enjoys the divine privilege of being himself. Between you and me
and the pylon, I suspect that Gabriel who gave the Q'uran to
Mohammed was in reality a "Master" or messenger of some such person,
more or less as Aiwass describes himself as "...the minister of Hoor-paar-
kraat." (AL I, 7) His name implies some such function; for G.B.R.
is Mercury between the Two Greater Lights, Sol and Luna. This seems
to mean that he is something more than a lunar or terrestrial arch-
angel; as he would appear to be from 777. (There now! That was my
private fiend again --- the Demon of Digression. Back to our Gods!)
30
777 itself, to say nothing of The Golden Bough and the Good Lord
knows how many other similar monuments of lexicography (for really
they are little more), is our text-book. We are bound to note at
once that the Gods sympathise, run into one another, coalesce much
more closely than any other of the Orders of Being. There is not
really much in common between a jackal and a beetle, or between a
wolf and an owl, although they are grouped under Pisces or Aries
respectively. But Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Melcarth, Mithras, Marsyas
--- --- --- a whole string of them comes tripping off the tongue. They all
have histories; their birth, their life, their death, their subsequent
career; all goes naturally with them exactly as if they were (say) a
set of warriors, painters, anything superbly human. We feel instinc-
tively that we know them, or at least know of them in the same sense
that we know of our fellow men and women; and that is a sense which
never so much as occurs to us when we discuss Archangels. The great
exception is the Holy Guardian Angel; and this as I have shewn in
another letter is for exactly the same reason; He is a Person, a
macrocosmic Individual. (We do not know about his birth and so on;
but that is because he is, so to speak, a private God; he only appears
to the world at all through some reference to him by his client; for
instance, the genius or Augoeides of Socrates).
Let us see how this works in practice. Consider Zeus, Jupiter, Amon-
Ra, Indra, etc., we can think of them as the same identical people
known and described by Greeks, Romans, Egyptians and Hindus; they
differ as Mont Cervin differs from Monte Silvio and the Matterhorn.
(They are bound to appear different, because the mountain does not look
the same from Zermatt as it does from Domodossola, or even as seen by
a French-Swiss and a German-Swiss.) In the same way read the Life of
Napoleon written by one of his marshals, by Michelet (a rabid Republi-
can), by Lord Rosebery, by a patriotic Russian, and by a German poet
and philosopher: one can hardly believe that the subject of any two
of these biographies is the same man.
But upon certain points the identity is bound to transpire; even when
we read of his crushing and classic defeat at Waterloo by the Belgians,
the man is detected. Transferring the analogy to the Gods, it is then
open to us to suppose that Tahuti, Thoth, Hermes, Mercury, Loki, Hanuman
and the rest are identical, and that the diversity of the name and the
series of exploits is due merely to the accidents of time and space.
But it is at least equally plausible to suggest that these Gods are
different individuals, although of the identical Order of Being,
characteristics and function. Very much as if one took Drake, Frobisher,
Raleigh, Hood, Blake, Rodney and Nelson, as seen through the mists of
history, tradition, legend and plain mythopoeia. Add a few names not
English, and our position is closely parallel. Personally, I incline
to the latter hypothesis; but it would be hard to say why, unless that
it is because I feel that to identify them completely would be to re-
duce their stature to that of personifications of various cosmic energies.
History lends its weight to my view. When the philosophic schools,
unable to refute the charge of absurdity leveled at the orthodox
devotee who believed that Mars actually begot Romulus and Remus on a
Vestal Virgin, explained that Mars was no more than the martial instinct,
and the Virgin a type of Purity, their faith declined, and with it
Roman Virtue. "Educate" Colonel Blimp's children and we have the
"intelligentsia" of Bloomsbury. I am very sorry about all this; but
life must always be brutal and stupid so long as it depends upon
31
animals and vegetables for nourishment.
How restore faith in the Gods? There is only one way; we must get to
know them personally. And that, of course, is one of the principal
tasks of the Magician.
One further remark. I have suggested that all these "identical" gods
are in reality distinct persons, but belonging to the same families.
Can we follow up this line of thought? Yes: but I will defer it to
a subsequent letter.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER LXXXVII
WORK WORTH WHILE: WHY?
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Your remarks on my 0 = 2 letter are very apt and inspiriting --- that is
if I have rightly understood what you want to say. (Really, you know,
they are a bit muddled --- or I am!) May I frame your question, if it
is a question, in my own terms? Yes? Right.
You say that I have advanced an invulnerable theory of the Universe
in philosophical and mathematical language, and you suppose (under-
lined three times with two question marks) that one could, with a great
effort, deduce therefrom perfectly good reasons for an unswerving
contemplation of one's umbilicus, or the performance of strange dances
and the vibration of mysterious names. But what are you to say (you
enquire) to the ordinary Bloke-on-the-Boulevard, to the man of the
world who has acquired a shrewd knowledge of Nature, but finds no
rational guide to the conduct of life. He observes many unsatisfactory
elements in the way things go, and for his own sake would like to
"remould them nearer to the heart's desire," to refurbish the clichâ
of Fitzgerald about "this sorry scheme of things." He is not in the
least interested in the learned exposition of 0 = 2. But he is aware
that the A.'. A.'. professes a sound solution of the problem of conduct
and would like to know if its programme can be justified in terms of
Common Sense.
As luck would have it, only a few weeks ago I was asked to address a
group of just such people --- and they gave me three-quarters of an
hour's notice. It was really more like ten minutes, as the rest of
the time was bespoke by letter-writing and posting which could in no
wise be postponed.
So I had to devise an adequate gambit, one which ruthlessly excluded
any touch of subtlety, or any assumption of previous knowledge of the
subject on the part of the audience.
It came off. For the first time in history, the laymen elicited intel-
ligent and relevant questions. There were only three half-wits in the
32
five score or so persons present, and these (naturally!) were just those
people who claimed to have studied the subject.
What follows is a rough outline of my argument.
I began by pointing out that Nature exercises many forms of Energy,
which are not directly observable by the senses. In fact, the History
of Science for the last hundred and fifty years or so has consisted
principally of the discovery of such types, with their analysis, measure-
ment and manipulation. There is every reason to suppose that many such
remain to be discovered.
But what has in no case been observed is any trace of will or of
intelligence, except through some apparatus involving a nervous and
cerebral system.
At this point I want especially to call your attention to certain
species of animals (bees and termites are obvious cases) where a
collective consciousness seems to exist, since the community acts as
a whole in evidently purposeful ways, yet the units of that community
are not even complete in themselves. (Isn't there some series of
worms, each sub-type able only to subsist on the excrement of its
preserver in the series?)
Then there are the phenomena of mob psychology, where a crowd gleefully
combine to perform acts which would horrify any single individual. And
there is the exceeding strange and interesting psychology of the "par-
touse" --- this is a little more, in my judgment, than a spinthria.
In all such cases the operative consciousness does not reside in any
single person, as one might argue that it did when an orator "carries
away" his audience. But these remarks have rather shunted one into a
siding away from the main line of argument. My most important point
is to insist that even with the most familiar forms of energy, man has
done no creative work so ever. He has discovered, examined, measured
(rather clumsily) and used, but in no case has he understood, still
less explained, the causes of phenomena. Sometimes he cannot even
reconcile different "laws of Nature." So we find J.W.N. Sullivan
exclaiming "The scientific adventure may yet have to be abandoned,"
and to me personally he confessed "It may yet turn out that the mathe-
matical approach to Reality may have to be supplanted by the Magical."
Now in Nature it leaps at one that Will and Intelligence are behind
phenomena. My old friend and colleague Professor Buckmaster, who
wrote a book on "Blood" which, he admitted, could not possibly be
understood by more than six people, told me that the ingenuity of the
structure of the human kidney "almost frightened" him. Yet in all
Nature there is no trace whatever of any purpose such as human mentality
can grasp. Again, apparent purpose often appears to be baffled. Take
one example. Evolution, working through thousands of years to estab-
lish a most subtle scheme of cross-fertilization, found, just as it was
perfect, conditions so altered that it was completely useless.
The "law of cause and effect" itself took a death-blow when Hesinger
showed that the old formula "If A then B" was invalid, and must be
altered to "If A, then B or C or D or E or . . . "
But at least we know enough phenomena to make it certain that Will and
33
Intelligence do exist somehow apart from any nervous and cerebral system
of which we are aware, and that these must be of a type which transcends
our human consciousness as that does that of a limpet or a lichen.
It follows that somehow, somewhere, there must be "gods" or "Masters"
--- whatever name you like. And that, I suppose, is what you may call
the premise major of my syllogism.
The minor, I confess, is not so apodeictic. No one, I suppose, is
going to point proudly to the present state of human affairs, as evi-
dence that we are all becoming wiser and nobler every minute, as
people did seventy years ago. (I was brought up in the faith that
Queen Victoria would never die, and that Consols would never go below
par.
In face, one may suspect that the majority of well-instructed men
expect nothing but that History will repeat itself, and our civiliza-
tion go the way of all the others whose ruins we dig up in every quarter
of the earth.
(Our own destruction may be more compete than theirs; for most of
the monuments to our intelligence, sobriety and industry are made of
steel, and would vanish in a very few years after the smash.)
Well, if we have to wait for the calamity, and for evolution to begin
all over again in a number of centuries --- with luck! --- one thing is
at least quite certain: we can do nothing about it. Any form of
activity must be as futile and as fatuous as any other; and the only
sensible philosophy must be "Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die."
Is there a conceivable alternative?
Well, consider the cause of the impending collapse. It is quite simple:
Knowledge is loose, without control of Will and of Intelligence. (How
clearly the Qabalah states and demonstrates this doctrine! But I
musn't be naughty; let me stick to Common Sense!)
Now, these qualities in us having failed to measure up to the situation
of the world, one hope remains; to get into communication with those
"gods" or "masters" whose existence was demonstrated in my Premise Major
and learn from Them.
But is this possible?
Tradition and experience unite to assert that it is so; moreover,
various forms of technique for accomplishing this are at our disposal.
This is what is called The Great Work; and it is abundantly clear that
no other aim is worth pursuit.
So much for the argument; it will be agreed readily enough that to
put it into practice we shall need an Alphabet, a Grammar and a Diction-
ary. Follow the Axioms, the Postulates, the Theorems; finally, the
Experiments.
And that is what all these letters are about.
Love is the law, love under will.
34
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
SORE SPOTS
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Three in one and one in three --- it's the Athanasian Creed in the Black
Mass --- eh! What's that you say? Oh, quite right, quite, quite right
of you to remind me. "Definition first!"
A "sore spot" is one which reacts abnormally and violently, however
gently you touch it; more, all the other bits of you give a painful
jerk, however disconnected they may seem. Still more, the entire
System undergoes a spasm of apprehension; and the total result is
that the mental as well as the physical system is quite unable to
grasp the situation with any accuracy, and the whole man is temporarily
engulphed in what is naturally not far from a condition of insanity.
(Now, Athanasius! It's all right; the lady has gone away to think it
over.)
In --- shall I say "Anglo-Saxondom," or "Teutonic breeds," or "bourgeoisie,
so as to include some of the French whom when they are good are very
good indeed, but when they are bad, they are horrid? --- the presiding
God/Gods of this Trinity is/are: 1. Sex, 2. Religion, 3. "Drugs;" and
the greatest of these is Sex, actually the main root of which the other
two are tough and twisted stems, each with its peculiar species of
poisonous flowers, sometimes superficially so attractive that their
nastiness passes for Beauty.
I shall leave it to the psychoanalysts to demonstrate the reduction to
Sex, merely remarking that though I agree with their analysis as far as
it goes, I do not allow it to stop where they do.
For us, Sex is the first unconscious manifestation of Chiah, the Creative
Energy; and although (like everything else) it is shown both on the
spiritual and the physical planes, its most important forth-showing is
on the "Magical" plane, because it actually produces phenomena which
partake of all these. It is the True Will on the creative plane: "By
Wisdom formed He the worlds." So soon as its thaumaturgy is accomplished,
it is, through Binah, understood as the Logos. Thus in Sex we find
every one of the primary Correspondences of Chokmah. Being thus inef-
fable and sacrosanct, it is (plainly enough) peculiarly liable to
profanation. Being profaned, it is naturally more unspeakably nasty
than any other of the "Mysteries." You will find a good deal on this
subject implied in Artemis Iota, attached to another of my letters to
you.
Before tackling "Sore Spots" seriously, there is after all, one point
which should be made clear as to this Trinitarian simplification.
One of the most interesting and fruitful periods of my life was when
35
I was involved in research as to the meaning of Sankhara: "tendencies"
may be, indeed is, a good enough translation, but it leaves one very
much as deeply in the dark as before. You remember --- I hope! --- that
Sankhara lies between Vinnanam, Pure Consciousness, and Sanna, Percep-
tion. For instance, an electric fan in motion: a house-fly "tends"
to see the vanes as we do when they are still, we "tend" to see a
diaphanous blur.
Then, in delirium tremens, why do we tend to see pink rats rather
than begonias or gazelles?
We tend to see the myriad flashing colours of the humming bird; the
bird itself does not; it has no apparatus of colour-sense; to him
all appears a neutral tint, varying only in degrees of brightness.
Such were some of the fundamental facts that directed the course of
my research, whose results you may read in "The Psychology of Hashish",
by Oliver Haddo in The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 2. The general basis of
this Essay is Sankhara; it shows how very striking are the analogies
between, (1) the results obtained by Mystics --- this includes the Ecstasy
of Sexual Feeling, as you may read in pretty nearly all of them, from
St. Augustine to St. Teresa and the Nun Gertrude. The stages recounted
by the Buddha in his psychological analyses correspond with almost
incredible accuracy. (2) The phenomena observed by those who use
opium, hashish, and some other "drugs" (3) The phenomena of various
forms of insanity.
The facts of this research are infuriating to the religious mystic;
and the fact of its main conclusion is liable to drive him into so
delirious a frenzy of rage as to make one reach for one's notebook ---
one more typical extreme case!
Now of course very few religious persons know that they are mystics ---
already it annoys them to suggest it! --- but, whether the lady doth
protest too much, or too little, the fact is that they are. There is
no true rational meaning in religion. consider the Athanasian Creed
itself!
Observe that the rationalist dare not yield a millionth of a millimetre.
"First cut the Liquefaction, what comes next
But Fichte's clever cut at God himself? . . .
The first step, I am master not to take:"
says Bishop Blougram, and is pinned to the cork labelled "St. Januarius"!
This dilemma, consciously or subconsciously, is well rooted in the
minds of everybody who takes Life, in any one of its forms, seriously.
He feels the touch of the rapier, however shrewdly or cautiously
wielded. The salute itself is more than enough; he feels already
the thrust to his vitals.
I remember sailing happily in to breakfast at Camberwell Vicarage, and
saying cheerfully, in absolute good faith: "A fine morning, Mr. Kelly!"
I was astounded at the reply. The dear old gentleman --- and he really
was one of the best! --- half choked, then gobbled at me like a turkey!
"You're a very insolent young man!" Poor, tiny Aleister! How was I
to know that his son had driven it well home that the hallmark of
36
English stupidity was that the only safe topic of conversation was the
weather. And so my greeting was instantly construed as a deliberate
insult!
A typical example of the irrationality of the reactions of a sufferer!
Now, from this schoolboy level, let us rise and put the case a little
more strongly. Let us quit the shallows of social backchat for the
gloomy and horrific abysses of a murder trial!
To every man and woman that has not seen Sex as it is, faced it,
mastered it --- you will find elsewhere in these letters sufficient on
this matter --- it is his secret guilt. Imagine, then, how at any
reference however remote, the "sinner" quails, his inmost mystery laid
bare, his evil conscience holding up a tarnished mirror to his deformed
and hideous face! Often enough, he does not mind gross jests which
admit complicity on the part of the other; but any allusion to the
Truth, and his soul shrieks: I am found out! Then apoplectic Fear
puts on the mask of Indignation and Disgust.
As for a serious discussion of anything concerned therewith, why, every
word is a new rasping tear. The mind takes refuge in irrational and
irrelevant outbursts of feigned rage and horror.
In the case of religion, the consciousness of guilt extended to cover
everything from "playin' chuch-farden on the blessâd tombstones" to
"the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost." Against this vague and mon-
strous bogey, religion is the only safeguard, and therefore to suggest
the unsoundness of the guarantee is to strike at the roots of all
security. It is like hinting to some besotted and uxorious oldster,
that his young wife may be unfaithful. It is the poison that Iago
dripped so skillfully into the long hairy ear of the dull Moor. So he
reacts irrationally --- every bush conceals a bear --- nay, more likely a
Boojum, or a Bunyip, or some other creature of fear-spurred Imagination!
"Monstrum informe, ingens, horrendum." Note well the "informe."
And because the guarantee is unsound (and must be, or where would be
the point of "Faith"?) reassurance is in the nature of things impossible.
Like the demented rider in The Erl-King, the chase goes ever wilder
and wilder, until he plunges at the end into the bottomless bog of
madness and destruction.
I wonder how many lunatics there are in the "bughouse" to-day --- in the
times of"evangelical revival" the number was fantastic --- who got there
through fear that they had somehow committed the aforesaid "blasphemy
against the Holy Ghost." The unknown again. The Bible does not tell
us that it is; only that it is unpardonable. Nor Grace, nor Faith,
nor predestination avail in the least; for all you know, you may have
committed it. Reassurance is impossible; no ceinture de chastetâ
avails to avert this danger.
Again with drugs, it is the unknown which is the horrific factor. Most
people get their information on the subject from the yellowest of yellow
newspapers, magazines and novels. So darkly deep is their ignorance
that that do not know what the word means --- like us so often, yes?
Wide sections of the U.S.A. are scared of tea and coffee. They blench
when you point out that bicarbonate of soda is a drug just as much as
cocaine; at the same time they literally shovel in the really danger-
37
ous Aspirin, to say nothing of the thousand Patent Medicines blared at
them from every radio --- as if the Press were not enough to poison the
whole population! Blank-eyed, they gasp when they learn that of all
classes, the first place among "drug addicts" is that of the doctor.
But the crisis in which fear becomes phobia is the unreasoning aversion,
the shuddering of panic, above all, the passionate refusal to learn
anything about "drugs," to analyse the conditions, still less to face
them; and the spasmodic invention of imaginary terrors, as if the real
dangers were not enough to serve as a warning.
Now why? Surely because in the sub-conscious lies an instinct that
in these obscure medicines indeed lies the key of some forbidden sanc-
tuary. There is a fascination as irrational and therefore as strong,
as the fear. Here is the point at which they link up with sex and
religion. Oh, how well nigh almighty is the urgency to him who reads
those few great writers who understood the subject from experience:
de Quincey, Ludlow, Poe and Baudelaire: into whom burn the pointed
parallels between their adventures and those of all the mystics, East
and West!
The worst of this correspondence-form is that you are always asking
simple elementary questions which require half a dozen treatises to
answer: so, take this, with my blessing!
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
P.S. One further reflection. With all these "sore spots" is closely
linked the idea of cruelty. I need not touch upon the relation of
cruelty to sex; the theme has been worn threadbare. But in religion,
note the Bottomless Pit and the Eternal Flame; in Buddhism, the eighteen
hot and eighteen cold Hells, with many another beneath. Hindu eschatol-
ogy has countless Hells; even pedestrian, precise Islam, and the
calculating Qabalists, each hoast of Seven. Again with drugs as with
insanity, we are confronted constantly with nameless terrors; the idea
of formlessness, of infinity pervades them alike. Consider the man who
takes every chance gesture of a stranger in the street as a secret
sign passed from one of his persecutors to another; consider those
who refuse food because of the mysterious conspiracy to poison them.
All sanity, which is all Science, is founded upon Limit. We must be
able to cut off, to define, to measure. Naturally, then, their oppo-
sites, Insanity and Religion, have for their prime characteristic, the
Indefinable, Incomprehensible, Immeasurable.
The healing virtue of these words is this: examine the sore spot,
analyse it, probe it; then disinfection and the Vis Medicatrix Naturae,
complete the cure.
I had just finished this when in comes your very pertinent "Supplemen-
tary" Postcard. "Doesn't hypocrisy fit in here, somehow?" Indeed it
does, my child!
Corresponding to, and the poison bacillus of, that centre of infection,
38
is a Trinity of pure Evil, the total abnegation of Thelema. Well known
to the psycho-analyst: the name thereof Shame --- Guilt --- Fear. The
Anglo-Saxon or bourgeois mentality is soaked therein; and his remedy
so far from our exploratory-disinfection method, is to hide the gan-
grened mass with dirty poultices. He has always a text of Scripture
or some other authority to paint his foulest acts in glowing colours;
and if he wants a glass of beer, he hates the stuff, but "doctor's
orders, my boy, doctor's orders."
There is really nothing new to be said about hypocrisy; it has been
analysed, exposed, lashed by every great Artist; quite without effect.
It gets worse as the socialistic idea thrives, as the individual leans
ever harder on the moral support of the herd.9
"My friend Freddy Lyon . . . told me a story . . . of the Volga Famine.
Some A.R.A. 'higher-ups' from New York were making a tour of inspection
. . . Among them was a worthy but sentimental citizen who gushed about
the unhappy Russians and the poor little starving children and what a
privilege it was for Mr. Lyon to be doing this noble work for humanity
and so on and so forth until Lyon said he was ready to choke him . . .
After lunch the visitors suggested they would like to visit the ceme-
tary. It was, said Freddy, a horrid sight, nude, dead bodies piled up
ten high like faggots, because the population was so destitute that
every stitch of clothing was needed for the living. The visitors were
sickened by what they saw, and even the gushing one was silent as they
walked back to the cemetery gate. Suddenly he caught Freddy by the arm.
'Look there!' he said, 'Is not that something to restore our faith in
the goodness of God in the midst of all these horrors?' He pointed to
a big woolly dog lying asleep on a grave with his head between his paws,
and continued impressively. 'Faithful unto death and beyond. I have
often heard of a dog refusing to be comforted when his master died,
lying desolate on his grave, but I never thought to see such a thing my-
self.' That was too much for Freddy Lyon. 'Yes,' he said cruelly, 'but
look at the dog's paws and muzzle' --- they were stiff with clotted blood
--- 'he's not mourning his master, he's sleeping off a meal.'
'At which point,' Lyon concluded his story with gusto, 'that talkative
guy did the opposite of sleeping off his lunch in a very thorough manner,
and there wasn't another peep out of him until we put him on the train.'"
P.S. Here is a very different set of reactions. I do not quite know
why I am putting it in; is it some sub-conscious attraction of my own?
Anyhow, here it is; call it
LA POULE AUX RATS
Time: a fine Sunday evening in June, just one and twenty years ago.
Place: Paris, just off the Place des Tertres, overlooking the city.
A large and lovely studio, panelled in oak. Strange: it was completely
bare, and so far as one could see, it had no door. The skylights, mind-
ful, were carefully screened with broidered stuff. A gallery, some ten
feet from the floor, ran round one corner. Here was a buffet loaded
with priceless wines and liquors of all sorts --- except the "soft" ---
and excellent variety of all cold "snack" refreshments. One gained it
by a staircase from the lower floor.
9* Here is a most pertinent story from I Write as I Please by my old
friend, Walter Duranty. It shows how the sentimental point of view
blinds its addicts to the most obvious facts.
39
By the buffet, the old butler: oh, for a painter to portray his Weari-
ness of Evil Wisdom!
Our host led us to the gallery; "we ate and drank and saw" not God
also, but the lady responsible for the heavy tread upon the stairs. A
woman of the Halles Centrales, in her early forties; coarse, brutal,
ugly, robust, square-set, curiously radiant with some magnetic form of
energy.
I cannot describe her clothes --- for lack of material. She greeted us
all round with a sort of surly good humour. The butler took a pot of
very far-gone Roquefort cheese, and smeared her all over. She drank
to us, and clumped away downstairs. She came out into the studio from
under the gallery, braced herself and shook her mop of hair as if about
to wrestle, waved to us and waited.
A minute later a small trap at the far end of the studio was smartly
pulled up; in rushed a hundred starving rats. There was a moment's
hesitation; but the smell of the cheese was too much, and they rushed
her. She caught one in both hands, bit through its spine, and flung
it aside.
Softly repeating to myself passages from The Revenge by the late Alfred
Lord Tennyson, of which the scene most powerfully reminded me. "Rat
after rat, for half an hour, flung back as fast as it came." Their
courage wilted; the hunted became the huntress; I thought of Artemis
as I sang softly to myself, "When the hounds of spring are on winter's
traces." But she pursued; snapped the last spine, and flung it into
the gallery with a yell of triumph.
It was not so easy a victory as I have perhaps described it, once she
slipped in the slime and came down with a thud; and at the end blood
spurted from innumerable bites.
The whole scene was too much for most of the men; they literally
howled liked famished wolves, and shook the balustrade until it creaked
and groaned. Presently one slipped over, let himself lightly to the
floor and charged. Others followed. All had their heart's desire. I
was reminded of Swinburn's Laus Veneris,
"I let mine eyes have all their will of thee
I seal myself upon thee with my might."
As for the women, the ferocious glitter of their eyes was almost terri-
fying. One of them, true, would have joined the happy warriors below;
but the butler roughly pulled her back, saying in a shocked voice,
"Madame est normale." (I enjoyed that!) Others consoled themselves
by capturing those males who were too timid to risk the jump.
I swallowed a last glass of champagne, and then "je filai a l'Anglais."
Summary: a pleasant time was had by all.
_______________
Note for political economists: the woman took 10,000 francs (at about
125 to the Ï); she took three weeks in hospital and three weeks' holi-
day between the shows. She was, or had been, the mistress of a Minister
40
with "peuple" ideas, though he was an aristocrat of very old vintage;
and he helped her to have her daughters brought up in one of the most
exclusive convents in France.
CHAPTER LXXIX
PROGRESS
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
You will certainly have to have an india-rubber medal for persistence:
this is the nth time that you have tried to catch me contradicting
myself.
Well, so I do, and must, every time I make any statement whatever, as
has been shown several times in this chatty little interchange of views.
But that is not what you mean.
You say --- permit me to condense your more than somewhat tautological,
pleonastic, prolix, diffuse and incoherent elucubrations! --- that the
whole idea of the Great Order is based on faith in Progress. The doc-
trine of successive aeons is nothing else. The system of training is
nothing else. Nothing, in fact, is anything else. Maugrâ this and in
despite thereof (you continue, with a knavish gleam in your hither eye)
I am everlastingly throwing down the whole jerry-built castle by my
cynical reflections. (Some one --- Anthony Hope in a lucid moment, I
thing --- says that cynicism is always a confession of failure --- "sour
grapes.") Maybe, some of the time. But the explanation is very simple,
and you ought to have been able to think it out for yourself. It is a
question of the "Universe of Discourse," of Perspective. An engineer
may swear himself ultra-marine in the map all the time at the daily
mistakes and mishaps that go on all the time under his nose, yet at
dinner tell his friends complacently that the bridge is going up better
than he ever expected.
Just so, my gibes are directed at incidents; but my heart's truth is
fixed on the grand spiral.
All the same, I am glad you wrote; it is a text for a little sermon
that I have had in mind for a long while on the conditions of progress
Number One is obviously Irregularity, Eccentricity, Disorder, the Revolu-
tionary Spirit, Experiment.
I have no patience whatever with Utopia-mongers. Biology simply shouts
at us that the happy contented community, everyone with his own (often
highly specialized) job, nobody in need, nobody in danger, is necessarily
stagnant. Termites and other ants, bees, beavers; these and many
another have produced perfect systems. What is the first characteristic?
Stupidity. "Where there is no vision, the people shall perish." What is
the Fighter Termite to do, after he has been blocked out of his home?
None of these communities possess any resource at all against any unfore-
seen unfavourable change of circumstance. (We look rather like that just
now at the end of 1944 e.v.) Nor does anyone of them show any achievement;
having got to the end of their biological tether, they stay out, without
an aim, an idea, an effort. The leech, an insufferable pest in its
41
belt --- it has killed off tiger, rhinoceros, anything with a nostril! ---
is the curse of our military station at Lebong --- or was when I was
there. At Darjeeling, a few hundred feet higher, devil a one! They
have no one to think: now how can we flourish up higher? Those old
forlorn-hope Miss-Sahibs --- how wide are their nostrils! Then --- how?
Consider for a moment our own Empire. How did that spread all over the
planet? It was the imaginative logic, the audacity, the adroit adapta-
bility, of the Adventurer that blasted the road.
The sunny Socialist smiles his superior smile, and condescends to
instruct us. That was an unfortunate, though perhaps sometimes neces-
sary, stage in the perfection of Society.
Something in that. But there are other kinds of Adventure. My imagina-
tion can set no limit to the possibilities of Science, or of Art: our
own Great Work is evidence of that.
Last Sunday I looked through an interview with the least brain-bound
of these ruminators --- poor old, dear old G. for gaga Bernard Shaw.
The artist, said he, was a special case. he should have a nice easy
job, three or four hours a day, and be free for the rest of it to devote
himself to his Art. I wonder how much of his own work would have seen
daylight if he had been tied to some silly robot soul-killing, nerve-
crushing, mind-infuriating routine job for even one half-hour a day!
When I am on a piece of work, I grudge the time for eating; and when
it's done, I need the absolute relaxation of leisured luxury.
Then what of the Work itself? If the Idea be truly new and important,
God help it! The whole class of men affected jump on it with one accord,
if haply they may crush it in the germ. Read a little of the History of
Medicine! Any man who shows a sign of independent thought is watched,
is thwarted. He persists and is threatened and bullied. He persists;
every engine of oppression is set in motion against him. Then some-
thing snaps; either they succeed in killing him (Ross, who defeated
malaria, nearly starved to death) or they make him a baronet, or a peer,
or make his death a Day of National Mourning, and bury him in the Pan-
theon --- "auc grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante" --- like Pasteur after
one of the most infamous campaigns of persecution in history.
Then, of course, entertainment must be standardized. It costs money to
produce; and who will produce anything which can only appeal to the
very few --- to none at all, soon, if these swine have their way. So, if
it is new, is original, is worth one's while, it must be ignored.
Besides, being new and incomprehensible to the great Us, it may be
dangerous, and must be suppressed.
In all literature I know no pages so terrifying as those in Louis
Marlow's Mr. Amberthwaite, which describe his dream. I wish I could
quote it, with Sinai as the orchestra; never mind, read it again. And
we are on the way --- far on the way --- to That!
Now, obviously, the robot education, robot textbooks stuffed in by robot
teachers, will have done wonders with the help of the bovine well-being
to produce a race of robot boys.
All independence, all imagination, all spirit of Adventure, will have
42
been ground down and rolled out smooth by this ghastly engine. But ---
Nature is not so easily beaten; a few boys and girls will somehow
escape, and either by instinct or by observation, have the sense to
keep secret. Now whatever their own peculiar genius may select as their
line, they will realise that nothing is possible in any way while the
accursed system stands. Their first duty is Revolt. And presently
some one will come along with the wit and the will and the weapon, and
blow the whole most damnable bag of tricks sky-high.
We had better busy ourselves about this while it is still possible to
get back to freedom without universal bloodshed.
"All right, Master, you win! Now give us your own idea of Utopia."
An Utopia to end Utopias? Very good, so I will. Education, to begin
with; well, you've had all that in another letter. The main thing to
remember is that I want every individual taught as such, according to
his own special qualities. Then, teach them both sides of every ques-
tion: history, for example, as the play of economic forces, also, as
due to the intervention of Divine Providence, or of "Sports" of genius:
and so for the rest. Train them to doubt --- and to dare!
Then, somehow, as large a number of the most promising rebels should be
selected to lead a life of luxury and leisure. Let every country, by
dint of honouring its old traditions, be as different as possible from
every other. Restore the "Grant tour," or rather, the roving Englishman
of the Nineteenth Century. Entrust them with the secrets of discipline,
of authority, or power. Hardship and danger in full measure: and
responsibility.
A great deal of such material will be as disgustingly wasted as it has
been in the past; and there will be much abuse of privilege. But this
must be allowed and allowed for; no very great harm will result, as the
weak and vicious will weed themselves out.
The pure gold will repay us ten thousandfold. You ask examples? With
us, the Elizabethan and the Victorian periods stand out. What is most
wanted is opportunity and reward. Under Victoria there was some --- taste
the late Samuel Smiles Esquire, D.D. (wasn't he?) --- but not enough, and
Industrialism, the mother and nurse of Socialism, was destroying the
soul of the people.
In my not very maternal remarks on Mother-love, was included the sub-
stance of the one wise saying of my pet American lunatic "You can't get
past their biology." This is so true, and so disheartening, that it
arouses me to combat. Must we for ever be bound to the inconvenient
habit of sows and cabbages? I pick up the glove.
Isn't it Aldous Huxley who says somewhere that some species or other
can never develop higher powers because its brain is shut in by its
carapace? I thought this too, long ago; and I went into interminable
conferences with my old friend, Professor Buckmaster; I wanted to
extend brain surgery to produce the phenomena of Yoga. Also, I wondered
what would happened if we wedged apart the sections of the cranium at, or
shortly after, birth, so as to prevent them closing and giving the brain
a chance to grow.
I suspect, by the way, that something of the sort is done in China and
43
Bruma; but the object is merely to produce megalocephalic idiots as a
valuable addition to the financial resources of the family.
I thought that modern physiology, with its great recent advances in
knowledge of the specialized functions of the brain, might quite
possibly succeed in producing genius.
You would not surprise me if you told me that something of the sort is
being tried in Russia, with its Communism modelled so closely on that
of Ivan the Terrible at the moment, war or no war! Qui vivra verra.
Anyhow, all that I really want you to get into your head "sunning over
with little curls" is that Progress demands Anarchy tempered by Common
Sense, and that the most formidable obstacle is this Biology.
The experience of the Magician and the Yogi does suggest that there is
room in the human brain as at present constituted for almost limitless
expansion. At least our system of Training is more immediately practi-
cal than digging up our Corpora Quadragenina and planting them in a
Monkey's Medulla just to see what will come of it. So put down that
bread-knife!
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally,
666
CHAPTER LXXX
LIFE A GAMBLE
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
In one or two --- no, I think more like three or four --- letters of yours
to hand in the last couple of months, you have put forward various
excuses for slackness, the necessities of your economic situation.
You say you must have "regular work," and a "steady income" and all
that sort of thing. My innocent child, that species of Magick is
quite simple. Take the horns of a hare . . . That's enough for the
present: I'll tell you what to do with them when you've got them.
In Macbeth we read ---
. . . . "Security
Is mortals' chiefest enemy."
but this is another kind of security; it is the Hubris which "tempts
Providence," the insolence of thinking that nothing can go wrong.
Anyhow, there's no such thing as safety. Life is a gamble. From the
moment of incarnation a million accidents are possible. Miscarriage,
still-birth, abortion; throughout life, until your heart beats for the
last time, "you never can tell" - - - - - and then you start all over
again with your next incarnation!
(I wish I had a copy of a short story of mine called "Every Precaution."
44
The gallant young Uplift Expert, the one hundred per cent red-blooded,
clean-living, heir of the Eternities, takes his young fiancâe and
female counterpart to the "Old Absinthe House" in New Orleans to show
her the terrible results of Wrong-Doing. They are going to avoid all
that; their child is going to be the Quintessence of Americanism.
They marry and take a cottage by Lake Pasquaney. Presently, he being
(so she said) away on a business trip, the tradesmen complained that
she seemed to need very little pabulum. Somehow, people got suspicious,
and sure enough, when they broke in, they found that she had pickled
him! This story is founded on fact; damn it, why did the MS have to
get lost?)
Even suicide is not a "dead bird." I knew a creature once --- careless
observers often mistook him of a man --- who tried three times, pistol,
rope and poison. Something always went wrong. (Like the Babbacombe
murderer, who went to the scaffold three times, and lived to a green
old age!) Finally he did poison himself, by accident, when he had no
intention whatever of doing anything of the sort.
"Where's the Book of Lies? Ah, here we are. "It is chance, and chance
only, that rules the Universe; therefore, and therefore only, life is
good."
Then, is it mere fatuity and folly to make plans? Was not the IXth
Atu, the Hermit, also at one time called "Prudence?" Of course.
Abstract philosophy rarely coincides with common-sense. We should
plan as carefully as we can; but we should always allow a margin for
every conceivable accident.
Nor should we trust to luck, like England, when she goes to war. Bret
Harte has an admirable story "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" in which the
"bad man," the crooked gambler, gives his life for the safety of the
rest of his party, and winds up all with the remark: "Life isn't in
having the luck of the cards, but in playing a poor hand well."
Yes, I daresay, all very fine; but what you wanted to know was about
the propriety of taking risks in Magick.
So off we go.
Risks, we have agreed, are always unavoidable; but we can calculate
them. The best and wisest man I ever knew, the late Oscar Eckenstein,
was once offered a job which gave him a fifty percent chance of survi-
val. He calmly sat down, worked out his "expectation of life," his
"expectation of income," and the Lord alone knows what other factors.
It came out that the pay offered was a thousand pounds or so less than
he might expect normally, so he turned down the offer. Not a trace of
sentiment of any kind!
Now let us consider an "A.B. case." John Jeremiah Jenkins sees a short
cut to his performance of the Great work. To seize this opportunity,
he must give up a steady job with good prospects and as near safety as
is possible in the nature of things, for a slim chance of a career in
the most insecure of all the professions.
He can do it; that is at the mercy of his Will; but he risks something
very close to the utter wreck and ruin of his future. Only a miracle
45
can bring him through. Just so! But is he not neglecting one factor
in his problem? Who put this romantically insane opportunity in his
way? The Gods: it must be, since he is performing the Great Work. Very
well then! It is up to Them to watch: "he shall give his angels charge
over thee to keep thee in all thy ways: in their hands they shall bear
thee up lest thou dash thy foot against a stone."
What's more, he must leave it at that; he must not insult Them by
constantly looking out for extra safeguards, or "hedging." (You remember
the Major in The Suicide Club when Prince Florizel was picking seconds
for a duel? "In all my life I never so much as hedged a bet.") You
must give Them plenty of opportunity to show Their approval by steering
you miraculously through one crisis after another.
This course of conduct may seem to you a little like the "Act of Truth"
but this is only superficially the case. The latter is usually an
emergency measure, and either not particularly serious or as serious
as anything can be. But what I have said above amounts really to a
regular Rule of Life.
Need I add that the prime and essential requisite in all this Work is
that you so devote yourself to, and identify yourself with, the Gods,
that there is never any doubt in your mind as to what They intend you
to do?
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally.
CHAPTER LXXXI
METHOD OF TRAINING
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
In your well-worn copy of the Bagh-i-muattar you have no doubt triply
underlined that great verse:
"Who hath the How is careless of the Why,"
which shows how cunning I was to induce you to put all your "why"
questions first.
But now let us get down to orichalc taques, as the Norman peasant might
say.
The first and absolutely essential task for the Aspirant is to write
his Magical Record.
You know some elementary Mechanics --- the Triangle of Forces, and all
that. Well, if we have a body acted on by two equal forces, one pulling
it East, the other south, it will tend to move in a south-Easterly
direction. But if the "south" force is (say) twice as strong, it will
move south of South-East.
Now you, sitting in your study reading this letter, got there and were
46
compelled to do that, as the result of the impact upon you of countless
quintillions of forces of every kind. I don't expect you to discover
all these and calculate and report them; but I want you to set down
all the main currents. For so you should be able to get some sort of
answer to the question "Where do we go from here, boys?"
I am not a guesser; and I cannot judge you, or advise you, or help you,
unless and until I know the facts as thoroughly as you are able to allow
me to do.
The construction of this Record is, incidentally, the first step in the
practice called Sammasati, and leads to the acquisition of the Magical
Memory --- the memory of your previous incarnations. So there is another
reason, terrifically cogent, for writing this Magical Record as clearly
and as fully as you can.
This best explanation of how to set about the task is given in Liber
Thisharb.
some of this sounds rather advanced and technical; but it ought to give
you the general idea. You should begin with your parents and the family
traditions; the circumstances of your birth and education; your social
position; your financial situation; your physique, health, illnesses;
your vita sexualis; your hobbies and amusements; what you are good at,
what not; how you came to be interested in the Great Work; what (if
you have been on false trails, Toshophists, Antroposophagists, sham
Rosicrucians, etc.) has been "your previous condition of servitude;"
how you found me, and decided to enlist my aid.
That, by itself, helps you to understand yourself, and me to understand
you.
From that point the keeping of the Record is quite easy. All you have
to do is to put down what practices you mean to begin, how you get on
with them from day to day, and (at intervals) what I have to say about
your progress.
Remember always that we have no use for piety, for vague chatter, for
guesswork; we are as strictly scientific as biologists or chemists.
We ban emotion from the start; we demand perception; and (as you will
see later on) even perception is not acceptable until we have made sure
of its bases by a study of what we call the "tendencies."
That is all about the Magical Record; the way is now clear to set
forth our Method. This is two-fold. (1) Yoga, introversion, (2)
Magick, extroversion. (These are rough but useful connotations.) The
two seem, at first glance, to be opposed; but, when you have advanced
a little in both, you find that the concentration learnt in Yoga is
of immense use in attaining the mental powers necessary in magick; on
the other hand, the discipline of Magick is of the greatest service in
Yoga.
Let me remark, by the way, that to my mind one of the greatest beauties,
and most encouraging confirmations of the validity of our system, is
the matchless harmony of its elements. Always, when we pursue any one
path to its end, we find that it has become one with some other path
which at the outset appeared utterly irreconcilable with it.
47
("Write down that the tearing apart is the crushing together" comes
from an actual experience. See Liber 418, The Vision and the Voice,
which teems with similar passages, and is itself an outstanding example
of the unity of the Yogic and the Magical methods.)
To study Yoga, you have my Book 4 Part I and my Eight Lectures on Yoga.
Then there is Vivekananda's Raja Yoga and several little-known Hindu
writers; these latter are very practical and technical, but one really
needs to be a Hindu to make much use of them. The former is very good
indeed, if your remember to switch off when he slides into sloppiness,
which luckily is not often.
To study Magick" Book 4, Parts II, III (Magick in Theory and Practice)
and IV (The Equinox of the Gods.) Add The Book of Thoth and the you
are: ---
"Being furnished with complete armour and armed,
he is similar to the goddess."
Of other writers, you have The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin
the Mage," and any of the works of Eliphaz Lâvi. But that's all.
But --- I suppose you knew all this long ago. It may help if I try to
expound the essence of these two Methods in very simple language, and
very different language. By contrast and comparison, you should be
able, without reading even one of all those books, to get a perfectly
clear idea in perspective of "what's coming to you!"
The process of analysing, developing and controlling the mind is the
essence of all Yoga practices.
Magick explores and learns to control those regions of Nature which lie
beyond the objects of sense. Reaching the highest parts of these
regions, called the divine, one proceeds by the exaltation (? = intoxi-
cation? Yes, of a sublime sort) of the consciousness to identify oneself
with those "celestial" Beings.
In Yoga, various practices prevent the body and its functions from
interrupting the mental process. Then, one inhibits that process
itself: the stilling of "thoughts" allows one to become aware of men-
tal functions beyond the intellectual; these functions have their own
peculiar properties and powers. Each sheath, as one goes deeper, is
discarded as "unreal;" finally one apprehends that nothing which is
the only true and real form of existence. (But then it does not exist:
in these regions of thought words always become nightmares of self-
contradiction. This is as it should be.)
In Magick, on the contrary, one passes through the veil of the exterior
world (which, as in Yoga, but in another sense, becomes "unreal" by
comparison as one passes beyond) one creates a subtle body (instrument
is a better term) called the body of Light; this one develops and con-
trols; it gains new powers as one progresses, usually by means of what
is called "initiation:" finally, one carries on almost one's whole life
in this Body of Light, and achieves in its own way the mastery of the
Universe.
The first step in Yoga is "Keep still."
48
The first step in Magick is "Travel beyond the world of the senses."
There, that is the whole business in a nutshell, and expressed so that
anyone, however ignorant of the subject, may grasp the essentials (I
hope).
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours fraternally.
CHAPTER LXXXII
EPISTOLA PENULTIMA: THE TWO WAYS TO REALITY
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
How very sensible of you, though I admit somewhat exacting!
You write --- Will you tell me exactly why I should devote so much of my
valuable time to subjects like Magick and Yoga.
That is all very well. But you ask me to put it in syllogistic form.
I have no doubt this can be done, though the task seems somewhat compli-
cated. I think I will leave it to you to construct your series of
syllogisms yourself from the arguments of this letter.
In your main question the operative word is "valuable." Why, I ask, in
my turn, should you consider your time valuable? It certainly is not
valuable unless the universe has a meaning, and what is more, unless
you know what that meaning is --- at least roughly --- it is millions to
one that you will find yourself barking up the wrong tree.
First of all let us consider this question of the meaning of the universe.
It is its own evidence to design, and that design intelligent design.
There is no question of any moral significance --- "one man's meat is
another man's poison" and so on. But there can be no possible doubt
about the existence of some kind of intelligence, and that kind is far
superior to anything of which we know as human.
How then are we to explore, and finally to interpret this intelligence?
It seems to me that there are two ways and only two. Imagine for a
moment that you are an orphan in charge of a guardian, inconceivably
learned from your point of view. Suppose therefore that you are puzzled
by some problem suitable to your childish nature, your obvious and most
simple way is to approach your guardian and ask him to enlighten you. It
is clearly part of his function as guardian to do his best to help you.
Very good, that is the first method, and close parallel with what we
understand by the word Magick. We are bothered by some difficulty about
one of the elements --- say Fire --- it is therefore natural to evoke a
Salamander to instruct you on the difficult point. But you must remember
that your Holy Guardian Angel is not only far more fully instructed than
yourself on every point that you can conceive, but you may go so far as
to say that it is definitely his work, or part of his work; remembering
always that he inhabits a sphere or plane which is entirely different
49
from anything of which you are normally aware.
To attain to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel
is consequently without doubt by far the simplest way by which you can
yourself approach that higher order of being.
That, then, is a clearly intelligible method of procedure. We call it
Magick.
It is of course possible to strengthen the link between him and your-
self so that in course of time you became capable of moving and,
generally speaking, operating on that plane which is his natural habitat.
There is however one other way, and one only, as far as I can see, of
reaching this state. It is at least theoretically possible to exalt
the whole of your own consciousness until it becomes as free to move
on that exalted plane as it is for him. You should note, by the way,
that in this case the postulation of another being is not necessary.
There is no way of refuting the solipsism if you feel like that.
Personally I cannot accede to its axiom. The evidence for an external
universe appears to me perfectly adequate.
Still there is no extra charge for thinking on those lines if you so
wish.
I have paid a great deal of attention in the course of my life to the
method of exalting the human consciousness in this way; and it is
really quite legitimate to identify my teaching with that of the Yogis.
I must however point out that in the course of my instruction I have
given continual warnings as to the dangers of this line of research.
For one thing there is no means of checking your results in the ordi-
nary scientific sense. It is always perfectly easy to find a subjective
explanation of any phenomenon; and when one considers that the greatest
of all the dangers in any line of research arise from egocentric vanity,
I do not think I have exceeded my duty in anything that I have said to
deter students from undertaking so dangerous a course as Yoga.
It is, of course, much safer if you are in a position to pursue in the
Indian Jungles, provided that your health will stand the climate and
also, I must say, unless you have a really sound teacher on whom you
can safely rely. But then, if we once introduce a teacher, why not go
to the Fountain-head and press towards the Knowledge and conversation
of the Holy Guardian Angel?
In any case your Indian teacher will ultimately direct you to seek
guidance from that source, so it seems to me that you have gone to a
great deal of extra trouble and incurred a great deal of unnecessary
danger by not leaving yourself in the first place in the hands of the
Holy Guardian Angel.
In any case there are the two methods which stand as alternatives. I
do not know of any third one which can be of any use whatever. Logi-
cally, since you have asked me to be logical, there is certainly no
third way; there is the external way of Magick, and the internal way
of Yoga: there you have your alternatives, and there they cease.
Love is the law, love under will.
50
CHAPTER LXXXIII
EPISTOLA ULTIMA
Cara Soror,
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The suggestion in your last letter to me is a very sensible one. I do
think that people in general would like to get some idea of my system
of training as a whole, in a comprehensive form. In the past there has
been far too much of referring them to one quite unprocurable document
and then to another which probably has not even been written. No wonder
that they go away sorrowful. So I am going to put in as the last of
this series of Letters an account, as clear and as succinct as the gods
enable me to do, of what they may expect to have to do to get good marks
from Grandfather. Of course I shall not be able to avoid altogether
reference to the various official documents, but I will make these as
short and as few as I can.
First of all then, my system can be divided into two parts. Apparently
diametrically opposed, but at the end converging, the one helping the
other until the final method of progress partakes equally of both ele-
ments.
For convenience I shall call the first method Magick, and the second
method Yoga. The opposition between these is very plain for the
direction of Magick is wholly outward, that of Yoga wholly inward.
I will deal first then with Magick. How do I define this word?
Magick is the science and art of causing change to occur in accordance
with the will. (Obviously then all scientific methods can be included
in this term.)
I have to assume in all that follows that you have thoroughly under-
stood the doctrine of 0 = 2.
All Magical action may be classed as under the formula of progression
from the "0" to the "2"; in other words it is complete extraversion.
The aspiring Magician only analyses himself for the purpose of finding
new worlds to conquer. His first objective is the astral plane; its
discovery, the classification of its tenants, and their control.
All his early practises therefore are devoted to exploring the worlds
which surround (if you choose, or if your prefer --- are contained in)
the object of sense. If there is a tree in your garden, you want to
find out whether that tree is occupied by a nymph or a nat, and if so,
what are they like? How do they act? How can you make them useful to
your purpose? It is in fact the ordinary every-day scientific method
of exploration. The only difference is that in the course of one's
experiments one becomes aware of parts of the nature of the object to
be examined which are subtler and perhaps more powerful, nearer to
reality, than those which ordinary scientific examination discloses.
You will notice, however, that the qualities above-mentioned are iden-
tical. The chemical elements which go to form a tree are subtler,
51
more powerful and nearer to reality than the tree as it is presented to
the senses.
Finally, we reach the conception of molecules, atoms, electrons, protons,
neutrons and so on, and nobody needs telling nowadays what unfathomable
potencies lie hidden in the atom.
When I say subtler, moreover, I mean it. The analysis of matter has
resulted in the extraordinary discovery that the definition of matter
as given by the physicist of to-day is very similar indeed to the
definition of spirit as stated by the mystics of the middle ages.
Henry Poincarâ has well pointed out that the results of scientific
experiment as we know them, are altogether in their way dependant on
the existence of our own peculiar natures. If, for example, we had no
sense to use in our exploration but that of hearing, we should have
worked out a classification of trees entirely different from that which
we now possess. We should have taught our students how to distinguish
the sounds made by an oak and an elm respectively in a storm; the
differences in the rustling of various kinds of grass, and so on.
Similarly the results of our magical experiments are naturally and
necessarily very distinct from those which we obtain by ordinary
methods. to begin with we must build up an apparatus of examination,
and this we do by discovering and developing qualities in our own sturc-
ture which ware suitable for the purpose.
The first step is the separation of (what we call, for convenience) the
astral body from the physical body. As our experiments proceed, we find
that our astral body itself can be divided into grosser and subtler com-
ponents. In this way we become aware of the existence of what we call,
for convenience, the Holy Guardian Angel, and the more we realise the
implications of the theory of the existence of such a being, the clearer
it becomes that our supreme task is to put ourselves into intimate
communication with him.
For one thing, we shall find that in the object of sense which we
examine there are elements which resist our examination. We must raise
ourselves to a plane in which we obtain complete control of such.
It is found furthermore in the course of experiment that a great many
of the apparent differences in our study conceal a hidden unity, and
vice versa. Like every other science, both the subject and the object
of the work increase as that work proceeds.
Take a simple matter like Mathematics as our analogy. The schoolboy
struggling with the Rule of Three is a very rudimentary image of the
advanced mathematician working on the differential calculus.
From the above it ought to be clear to you that I have said all that
really needs to be said in explaining the whole of Magick as the science
and art of extending, first in oneself, one's own faculties, secondly
in external nature their hidden characteristics.
Before closing the subject entirely I think it well to point out that
there are quite a number of worlds on which a good deal of work remains
to be done. In particular I cannot refrain from mentioning the work of
Dr. Dee and Sir Edward Kelly. My own work on this subject has been so
52
elaborate and extensive that I shall never sufficiently regret that I
never had an opportunity of completing it, but I should like to empha-
size that the obtaining of a book like Liber 418 is in itself so
outstanding an achievement that it should serve as an encouragement to
all Magicians.
In the case of many worlds, in particular that of Abra Melin, of the
greater and lesser Keys of Solomon, of Pietro di Abano, of Cornelius
Agrippa, while we have perfectly adequate information as to the methods
we have very meagre examples of the results, especially so far as refers
to the technical side of the work.
I must conclude with a warning. So many of these branches of magick
are so fascinating that any one of them is liable to take hold of the
Magician by the short hair and upset his balance completely. It should
never be forgotten for a single moment that the central and essential
work of the Magicians is the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversa-
tion of the Holy Guardian Angel. Once he has achieved this he must of
course be left entirely in the hands of that Angel, who can be invari-
ably and inevitably relied upon to lead him to the further great step ---
crossing of the abyss and the attainment of the grade of Master of the
Temple.
Anything apart from this course is a side issue and unless so regarded
may lead to the complete ruin of the whole work of the Magician.
II
The second part of this letter, which appears to be expanding into a
sort of essay, will be devoted to Yoga. You will have noticed that the
grade of Master of the Temple is itself intimately associated with Yoga.
It is when one reaches this plane that the apparently contradictory
forms of the Great Work, Magick and Yoga, begin to converge, though even
earlier in the course of the work it must have been noticed that achieve-
ments in Yoga have been of great assistance to magical operations, and
that many of the mental states necessary to the development of the
Magician are identical with those attained in the course of the strictly
technical Yogic operations.
The literature necessary to the study of Magick is somewhat variegated;
there are quite a number of classics on the subject and though it would
be easy enough for me to draw up a list of not more than half-a dozen
which I consider really essential, there may be as many as an hundred
which in the more or less subsidiary forms are useful to the magician.
With Yoga the case is very different indeed. The literature on the
subject is so enormous and contains so vast a number of more or less
secret documents which circulate from hand to hand, that I believe
that the best advice I can give anyone is to cut one's cloth very
sparingly if one is to make a fitting suit. I do not think I am going
too far if I say that Part I of Book 4 and my Eight Lectures on Yoga
form an absolutely sufficient guide to the useful practise of the
subject; anything else is almost certain to operate as a distraction.
Swami Vivekananda summarised Yoga under four headings, and I do not
think that one can improve on that classification. His four are: Gnana,
Raja, Bhakti and Hatha, and comprise all divisions that it is desirable
to make. As soon as one begins to add such sections as Mantra Yoga, you
53
are adding to without enriching the classification, and once you begin
where are you to stop? But I honestly believe that the excessive
simplication given in Eight Lectures on Yoga is a practical advantage.
Any given type of Yogas is the work of a lifetime and for that reason
alone it is desirable to confine oneself from the beginning to an
absolutely simple programme.
What then is the difference between Yoga and Magick? Magick is extra-
verson, the discovery of and subsequently the classification of and
finally the control of new worlds on new planes. So far as it concerns
the development of the mind its object and method are perfectly simple.
What is wanted is exaltation. The aim is to identify oneself with the
highest essence of whatever world is under consideration.
With Yoga you might easily slip into saying that it was identical, with
the exception that the new worlds are from the start recognised as
already existing within the human cosmos, but nobody is asked to extend
these worlds in any way; on the contrary the object is to analyse ever
more minutely, and the control to which one approaches is not external
but internal. At all times one is concentrated on the idea of simpli-
cation. The recognition of any new idea or form of ideas, is invariably
the signal for its rejection: "not that, not that."
One might simplify this explanation by constructing some sort of
apophthegm; Magick is the journey from 0 to 2, Yoga from 2 to 0. It
is a very good rule for the Yogi to keep this mind constantly fixed on
the fact that any idea soever is false. There is actually a Hindu
proverb "That which can be thought is not true." consequently the
existence of any idea in the mind is an immediate refutation of it,
but equally the contraries as well as contradictory of that idea are
false, and the result of this is to knock the second law of formal logic
to pieces.
One puts up a sort of sorites --- A is B, therefore A is not B; therefore
not A is not B; and all these contrary statements are equally false,
but in order to realise this fact they must themselves be announced by
the mind as ecstatic discoveries of truth.
The result of all this naturally is that the mind very rapidly becomes
a discredited instrument, and one attains to a totally different and
much more exalted type of mind, and the same destructive criticism
which one applied to the original consciousness applies equally to
this higher consciousness, and one gets to one higher still which is
again destroyed. In The Equinox, Vol. I there is an essay called "The
Soldier and the Hunchback: ! and ?" In Liber Aleph too there are
several chapters about attainment by what is called the Method of
Ladders.
All these operations are equally valid and equally invalid, and the
result of this is that the whole subject of Yoga leads to constantly
increasing confusion. The fineness of the analytical instrument seems
to defeat its own purpose and it is perhaps because of that confession
that I have always felt in my deepest consciousness that the method of
Magick is on the whole less dangerous than that of Yoga. This is parti-
cularly the case when discussing these matters with a Western mind.
It is true that our 0 = 2 formula remains infinitely useful because it
is of such potency in destroying the scepticism which so often dis-
54
heartens one, especially in the highest realms of Magick. The criticism
which the enemy directs against your sun-kissed tower is thrown back
from those glittering walls, You accept the criticism at the same time
as you dismiss it with a laugh.
On the whole therefore I continue to regard the discipline of Yoga as
its most valuable feature. The results attained by pushing Yoga to its
end are on their own showing worthless, whereas the attainment of Magick,
however lofty, is still immune to all criticism and at every period of
its construction has been perfectly sympathetic with the normal conscious-
ness of man.
On this view indeed, one might laughingly remark that Yoga at its best
is a smoke-screen thrown out by a battleship in self-protection.
It may seem to you strange as you read this letter to have watched how
the pendulum has swung always a little more and more towards the side
of Magick. I do not know why this should have been, but that it is so
I have no doubt whatever. I see quite clearly now that Yoga from its
very first beginnings is liable to lead the mind away into a condition
of muddle, and though for each such state Yoga itself provides the
necessary cure, may not one ask oneself if it is really wise to begin
one's work with axioms and postulates which are inherently dangerous.
The whole controversy might be expressed as a differential equation.
Their curves become identical only at infinity, and there is no doubt,
at least to my mind, that the curve of Magick follows a more pleasant
track than that of Yoga.
To take one point alone: it is evidently more satisfactory to have
one's malignant demons external to oneself.
As I have written it has become clearer to me that this is the case,
but I should not like you to arise from its perusal with any idea that
I have been in some way derogating Yoga. I would not like to maintain
that it is necessary to Magick because there have been many very great
magicians who knew nothing at all of the subject but I am just as
strongly convinced as I was before that the practice of Yoga in itself
is of enormous assistance to the Magician in his more intelligible
path, only adding that he should beware lest the logical antinomies
inherent in Yoga divert him from or discourage him in his simple path.
Love is the law, love under will.
Yours,
666
THELEMIC BOOKS REFERRED TO IN THIS VOLUME.
BOOK 4, PART I --- A concise and clear treatise on
Yoga and mysticism.
BOOK 4, PART II --- An introductory treatise on the
practice of Magick.
BOOK OF LIES, The --- Which is --- This book deals with many matters
55
also falsely called "Breaks" on all planes of the highest im-
portance.
COLLECTED WORKS --- These works contain many mystical
and magical secrets, both stated
clearly in prose, and woven into
the Robe of sublimest poesy.
DAIRY OF A DRUG FIEND, The --- A true story of drug addicts who
were cured of their affliction by
a strict râgime and the constant
guidance of a Master.
EQUINOX, The
Vol. I, No. 1 - 10
Vol. III, No. 1 --- Contains an immense number and
variety of official publications,
rituals, treatises, etc. Also
special Supplements such as The
Vision and the Voice; translation
of Eliphas Lâvi's The Key of the
Mysteries; Sepher Sephiroth; H.
P. Blavatsky's The Voice of the
Silence, with a Commentary by
Fr. O.M., etc., etc.
Vol. III, 3 --- The Equinox of the Gods
Vol. III, 4 --- Eight Lectures on Yoga --- the
deepest book written on the sub-
ject of Yoga.
Vol. III, 5 --- The Book of Thoth --- a masterpiece
on the Egyptian Tarot, with Appen-
dices, and designs with an entirely
new pack of Tarot cards, executed
by Frieda Harris.
GOETIA, The --- The most intelligible of the mediae-
val rituals of Evocation. Contains
also the favourite Invocation by the
Master Therion.
HEART OF THE MASTER, The --- A sublime Masterpiece, describing
a vision given upon the Holy Hill
of Sidi Bou Said.
THELEMIC BOOKS
KNOX OM PAX --- Four invaluable treatises and a
preface on mysticism and Magick.
LIBER ALEPH --- The Book of Wisdom or Folly. This
book contains some of the deepest
secrets of initiation, with a
clear solution of many cosmic
and ethical problems.
LIBER ARARITA --- This book describes in magical
language a very secret process
56
of initiation.
LIBER CORDIS CINCTI SERPENTE --- The Book of the Heart Girt with
the Serpent: an account of the
Aspirant with his Holy Guardian
Angel.
LIBER 418 --- THE VISION AND --- First published in Equinox I, 5.
THE VOICE A new publication was issued
subsequently with the full text, an
Introduction, and extensive Com-
mentary by The Master Therion.
LIBER LEGIS --- THE BOOK OF --- This Book is the foundation of
THE LAW the New Aeon, and thus of the
whole Work.
LIBER VII --- THE BOOK OF --- Gives in magical language an
LAPIS LAZULI account of the initiation of a
Master of the Temple. This is
the only parallel, for beauty
of ecstasy, to The Book of the
Heart Girt with the Serpent.
LIBER TRIGRAMMATON --- Describes the course of Creation
under the figure of the interplay
of Three Principles. The book
corresponding to the Stanzas of
Dzyan.
LITTLE ESSAYS TOWARD TRUTH --- (Formerly called The Wine of the
Graal) --- --- --- A collection
of 17 Essays which constitute in
themselves a complete system of
initiation.
MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE --- A complete work on Magick, with
Appendices, the more important
columns from 777, etc.
777 --- A complete Dictionary of the cor-
respondences of all magical ele-
ments. It is to the language of
occultism what Webster is to the
English language.
I N D E X
A.'. A.'. xvii, xxiii, xxvii, 46, Alexandria, 36
47, 48, 53, 60, 70, 83, 146, Alexandrines, xviii
151, 167, 202, 210, 212, 214, Alkali, deposit in S. Africa, 270
217, 237, 276, 322, 323, 324, Allah, 311
349, 354 Alphabets --- see Ch. LXVIII, pp. 307
Abano, Pietro di, 98, 379 312, 326
Abrahadabra, 81 --- Greek, xxiii, xxvii
57
Abbey of Cefal-, 128, 180 (see also Amalantrah, 48, 161
Cefal-) Amennti, xxii, xxiii, 346
Abramelin, xxvi, 132, 193, 198, 379; American Tourists, 255
--- demons, 263 --- officer story, 333
--- scorns astrologers, 100 A.M.O.R.C., 55
--- Sacred Magic of, 98, 198, Amoun-Ra, 352
242, 374 Amrit, 37
Ab-ul-Diz, 48, 226, 234, 235, 236 Ananda, 283, 284
Abyss, xxiv, 48, 60, 62, 64, 65, Ananga Ranga, 48, 83
66, 67, 69, 120, 194, 214, Angels, 18, 196, 264, 266, 300,
342, 379 307, 351
--- Oath of, 215 Anima, 127
Achad, 18, 180, 219 Animal Automatism, 301
Adam Qadmon, 93, 94 Animism, 34
Adept, 48, 227, 266 Animus, 127
Adept Minor, 47, 61, 193 Ankh, 155, 286
Adeptus Exemptus, 60, 228, 229 Ankh-f-n-khonsu, xvi, xxvi, 170,
Adler, Dr. Alfred, 117 179, 189, 238
Adonai, 132 Antichrist, 35, 211, 316
Adonis, xviii, 351 Antinomianism, 39
Advaitism, 21, 25 Aphrodite, 97, 197
Advaitist, 21, 23 Apocalypse, 17, 29, 163
Advent, Second, 177 Apollo and the Fates, (Browning) 36;
Adytum, 67 --- Invocation of, 193
Aenead, First Book of, 47 --- God of Music, 287
Aeon, 49, 216, 228, 346, 365, Apollonius of Tyana, 115, 116, 130
--- of Isis, Osiris, Horus, 216 Apophis, 63
Aesopus Island, 161; Hermit of, 166 Apostles, 327
Agrippa, Cornelius, 98, 379 Apuleius, 83, 338
Aha! 201 Arabian Nights, 338, 339
Ahamkara, 191, 192, 284 Arabs, xxiii, 344, 351
Ahaz, 146 Arahat, 129
Aheba, 18 Archangels, 18, 351, 352
Ahriman, 21 Archetypes (Plato), 56, 57
Aiwass, 48, 218, 237, 351 Ark, 67
A ka dua, 109 Armada, 98
Akasha, 116 Armadale, 233
Alchemy, 40 Arnold, 111
Alder, 53 Arnold, Mathew, 199
Aleph, 65 Asana, 92, 121, 213
I N D E X
Asar, 311 Balzac, 83, 338
Asankyas, 192 Banishings, 110
Ascendent, 103 Baphomet, xix
Asi, 37, 311 Barbey d' Aurevilly, 193
Asiatic God, 36 Barrett, Elizabeth, 117
Assyrian, 48 Bartzabel, 180, 226
Astroth, 197, 311 Basilisk, (Egg), 63
Astarte, 197, 311 Baudelaire, 163, 361
Astral Body, xxiii, 167, 324, 378, Beachy Head, dangerous, 243
--- Plane, xxii, xxvi, 19, 110 Beast, 216
231, 260, 263, 264, 272, Beatific Vision, 64
287, 300, 377 Beer, 223
--- Projection, 123, 167 Beerbohm, Max, 199
--- Travel, xxiii, xxv, 273, 276, Bees, 355
287, 310 Belsen, 347
Astrology, 326 Beni Elohim, 351
58
Asuras, 21 Bennett, Allan, 122, 129, 157, 190
Athanasian Creed, 358, 359 261, 262, 307
Athanasius, 358 Berashith (Crowley, Coll. Works)
Athanor, 64 20, 24
Athene, 193 Berkeley, Bishop, 23, 301
Atma, 127, 192 Besant, Annie, 42, 55
Atmadarshana, 22, 23, 62 Bethlehem, 30
Atman, 23 Bhagavad-Gita, 22
Atonement, 315 Bhikkhu, xiv, 191
Attila, 30 Bhikkhu Ananda Metteya: see
Attis, xviii, 351 Bennett, Allan
Atziluth, 57 Big Business, 344, 350
Aucassin et Nicolette, 247 Binah, 77, 78, 91, 222, 358
Augoeides, 132, 193, 352 Black Brothers, xvi, xvii, 33, 60
Augustus Caesar, 36 63, 66, 67, 82, 133, 151, 191,
Aumont, Gârard, 9, 28, 44 193, 230, 342
Auphanim, 196 --- Dragon, 40
Auto-Hagiography, 122 --- Lodges, 74, 201
Autolycus, 204 --- Magician, 60, 71
Ayin, 18 --- Mass, 358
--- Prince, 168
B --- School of Magic, 29 sqq.;
--- --- defined,
Ba, 127, 132 33 sqq., 42
Babalon, 30, 66, 67, 237 --- Star, 224
Babe of the Abyss, 61 Blake, William, 305, 352
Babylon, 68 Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna, 41,
Bach, Joh. Se., (Vision), 90 42, 43, 52, 192, 212, 228,
Bacchae of Euripides, 70 262
Bacchus, xviii Blitz (London) episode, 85, 283
Bacon, Francis, 225 Blougram, Bishop, 359
Baghdad, xxix Bodleian Library, Oxford, 231
Bagh-i-Muattar, 83, 372 Boccaccio, 83
Balfour, Jabez, 105 Bodhisattva, 148
Baltis, 245 Body of Light, 203, 374
Bog, 134, 307
I N D E X
Boleskine, 108, 231 Byzantium, 36
Book of the Dead, xxiii
Book 4, details on, 226, 234
Book 4, Part I, 23, 84, 380, 92 C
--- II, 97, 107, 108
--- III, see "Magick" Cabell, James Branch, 73, 342
--- of Thoth, v, xxvii, 20, 134, Cadiz, 288
153, 155, 219, 311, 373 Caesar, Julius, 30, 168
--- of the Law, xi, xii, xxi, 17, Cairo, 36, 232, 236, 238
44, 48, 80, 87, 89, 111, Cairo Working, xi, 189, 234, 345
147, 150, 152, 159, 173, Caithness, Lady, 168
178, 180, 189, 194, 208, Cakravarti-Rajah, 286
209, 227, 248, 251, 258, Caldarazzo, Villa, 236
286, 305, 331; difficulties Cambridge, 177, 186
of, 216, 218 Capri, 221
--- of Lies, xxiv, 88, 113, 138, Carthage, 93
172, 282, 286, 304, 305, Catholic Church, 31
314 --- Mysticism, 39
--- of Heart Girt with Serpent, Cato, xxvii
(LXV), 347 with quotations Cato, Scipio, 93
59
Boulak Museum, 179 Catullus, 6, 79, 83, 153, 191, 284
Brahma, 192 Caucasians (don't believe in Vedas),
Brahmacharya, 242 243
Brahma Lokas, 167, 192 Cefal-, 128, 130, 178, 253, 326
Brahman, 22, 23, 192 --- Diaries from, 166
Brahmin (caste), 242, 243, 317 Centaur, 299
Bralduh, 110 Centuries of Nostradamus, 117
Brewer's, Dr., Guide, v Ceres, 65
Brocken, 304 Chamelion, Path of, 47
Brontä, Emily, 153 Chaldea, School of, 38
Browning, Robert, 36, 97, 117, 139, Chaldean Square system (Astrol-
144, 202, 177, 256, 312 ogy), 104
Brunton, 55 Chant, Mrs. Ormiston, 199
Buchari-siddhi, 121 Chaos, 63
Buchenwald, 347 Charybdis, 151, 338
Buckmaster, Professor, 355, 368 Chaucer, 342
Buddha, 33, 34, 38, 52, 122, 129 Châron, Jane, 238
191, 192, 359 Chesterton, J.K., 307
Buddhahood, xxiv Chiah, 172, 212, 222, 358
Buddhi, xxii, 127, 192 Chimaera, 90
Buddhism, connected with Black China, walk across, 157, 214,
School of Magick, 33, 35, 37, 290, 368
111, 113, 129, 228, 361 Chinese system of thought, 25,
Buddhist, 112, 128, 135, 155, 159, 26, 33, 157, 158
165, 284, 285 Chokmah, 46, 77, 78, 358
Buer, 262, 263 Choronzon, 66, 67, 68, 322
Bunyan, John, 342 Christ, 21, 119, 241, 260
Buridan's Ass, 174 Christian - attitude, xv
Burin, 63 --- path, xvi, 84, 317, 347
Burma, 299, 368 --- Home, 249
Business, 344, 345 --- Science, 35, 36, 233
I N D E X
Christian Scientist, 23 Darshana, 192
Christianity, xviii, 34, 35-42, 312 Davy, Sir Humphrey, illumination,
Church of Rome, 275 16
Churchill, Winston, (reference to), Death, Fear of, 281
75 Dee, Dr. John, 98, 231, 379
Chymical Marriage of C.R., 338 Demiurge, 21
City of the Pyramids, 68, 71, 224, Democracy, 336
245 Demon, Demons, 163, 194, 196;
Cleopatra, 6, 168 Mercurial, 263
Cloud upon the Sanctuary, 205 Denikin, General, 243
Clymer, 55 Descartes, 225
Collected Works of Aleister Desdemona, 120
Crowley, 24 Destiny, xxiv, 11
Collins, Mabel, 338 Devachan, 167, 212
collins, Wilkie, 223 Devas, 21
Collon, Mont, 261 Devil(s), 21, 22, 120, 145, 197
Communism, 289, 368 Dhamma, Three Baskets of, 283
--- Jewish, 35, 327 Dhammapada, 35, 157
Co-Masonry, xvi, xvii Dharana, xxvi, 92, 131
Combes, 317 Dhyana, 92, 152
Comment/Commentary, 227 Diabolism, 30
Concentration Camps, 84, 218 Dialogue before eating, xii
Confucius, xx Diana, 60
Conrad, 342 Diary, Magical, xii, 203, 281,
Consols, 356 372, 373
60
Contes Cruels, 193 Diary of a Drug Fiend, 154
Coriolanus, 249 Diez, 73
Cotytto, 197, 309 Dionysus, 36, 193, 223
Couâism, 95 Disks (Tarot), 97, 109
Courtier, Jules, 239 Dittany of Crete, 262
Crawford, F. Marion, 255 Divine Pymander, 139
Creative Dyad, 18 Dobson, Austin, 247
Crippen, 134 Dogme et Rituel (Lâvi), 115
Crucifixion, 39 Dolphin, 67
Crux Ansata, 155 Domodossola, 352
Cumaean Sybil, 47 Donne, 83
Cup, 109 Doodle-Bug, 145
Curie (s) The, 218 Dostoievsky, 35
Curtius, 313 Doubt, 303
Curzon, George Nathaniel, 135 Doughty, Dr., 248
Czechoslovakia, rape by Hitler, Dover (Browning story), 313
183 Draco, 222
Dracula, 298, 300
Dragon, 287
D Drake, 352
Dreams, analysis of, 189, 190
Daãth, 62, 66, 77, 229 Drugs, 358, 359, 360, 361
Daleth, 77 Dryads, 197
Damascus, 36; Burden of, 177 Dualism, Dualists, 22, 23
Dante, 6, 116 Dumas, 338
Daphnis and Chloe, 247 Duns Scotus, 56
I N D E X
Duranty, Walter, 116 Excalibur, 43
Dweller of the Threshold, 191 Exempt Adept, see Adept
Dyad, Creative, 18
Dying God, xviii, 21
F
E Fabre, 42
Fabre d'Olivet, 308
Eblis, 286 Fama Fraternitatis, 62
Ecclesiastes, 35 Family system, 250
Eckenstein, Oscar, 157 FarrSrre, Claude, 302
Ecstasy, xxv Fascism, 334
Eden (and the Fall), 210 Fate, xxiv
Ederle, Gertrud, 318 Faubourg St. Germain Aristocracy,,
Egyptian Theogony, xxvi; School, 38 61
Eight Lectures on Yoga, xi, xxii, 84 Ferranti (stove), 108
112, 219, 227, 316, 373, 380 Fielding, Henry, 184
Eight Limbs of Yoga, xxii Fifth Dimension, 53
Einstein, Albert, 42 Fountainebleau (Moröt), 237
Eire, 61 Forth Bridge, 219
Elementals, 163, 262 Fourth Dimension, 155
Elemental Tablets (Watch Towers), France, Anatole, 127
231, 232 Franco, 117
Elephant, 163 Frater O.I.V.V.I.O., 29
Elias, 211 Frazer, Sir William, 28, 36, 146
Elixir of Life, 36 Freemasonry, 74
Elizabethan period, 367 Free Will, xxiv, 11
Elohim, xx Freud, Sigmund, xxv, 11, 30, 117
Eloi, eloi, Iama, sabacthani, 69 132
Empire State Building, 176 Freudian Forgetfulness, 165
61
Empress (Tarot Card), 171 Frobisher, 352
Encyclopaedists, 30 Fugue, 91
End (justifies the means), 221, 225 Fu-Hsi-Trigrams, 270
Endor, Witch of, 116 Fuller, J.F.C., 256, 323
Engergized Enthusiasm, 42, 83 Fundamentalists, 34
England, General Election, 348, 449
Enochian Tablets, see Elemental
Epicurus, 21 G
Equinox, The, general, why begun,
346 Gabriel, 6, 48, 351
--- of the Gods, reporter's Gale, Norman, 247
story quoted, 228 Galileo, 141, 168
Erdmann, 117 Gallio, 146
Ethics of Thelema, 208, 209, 218 Gamiani, 83
228, 318 Ganges, 289
Ethyl Oxide, 266 Garret, Garet, 344
Euclid, 226 Gaulle, Gânâral de, 117
Euripides, 70 Gebhardi, Otto, 217
Evangelical (cults), 35 Geburah, 46, 229
Everest (mystery), 185 Gematria, xxiii, 19
Evolution and Ethics, 33 Genius, 82, 192, 315, 348, 352, 368
Exaltation, xxiii Geomancy, 268
I N D E X
Gertrude, Nun, 359 Hardy, Thomas, 247, 342
Gestapo, 19, 345 Harpocrates, 90, 95
Gethsemane, 69 Harte, Bret, 369
Gilbert, William Schwenk, 150, 200, Haseltine, Philip, 98
281 Hashish, 349, 359
Gillette, William, 196 Hatha Yoga, 121, 222
Gimel, xx, 222 Hathor, 197
Gnomes, 261 Hawk, Golden, 123, 124
Gnostics, 36, 308 Hebrew, Alphabet, 308, 309;
Goat of Mendez, 35 --- Gods, 311
Gobineau, de, 217 Heindl, Max, 55
Goclenian Sorites, xxviii Heinzelmãnner, 261
God, xxvi, xxvii, xxix, 5, 14, 19, Henley, W.E., 14, 148
21, 27, 52, 70, 112, 127, 132, Henry VIII, 168
134-136, 144, 145, 155, 163, Heraclitus, 159
176, 193, 222, 238, 259, 264, Herbert, A.P., 83, 201
266, 286, 347, 358 Hereward the Wake, 224
--- Asiatic Dying, xviii Hermaphrodite of Panormita, 20
God-form, 90, 95 Hermes, xxiv, xxvi, 65, 140, 352
Gods, 95, 115, 163, 193, 196-198, Hermes Eimi, xxi, 48
206, 231, 237, 264, 287, 309- Hermit, 217
311, 336, 347, 351-353, 356, Herod, 347
358, 371, 377 Herrick, 83
Goetia, 73, 262 Hertz, 4, 6, 30; rays, 239
Golden Bough, 351 Heru-pa-kraath, 171
Golden Dawn, Order of The,(G.'.D.'.), Hesinger, 355
280, 323, 343 Hexagram, Unicursal, 109; of Yi
Golden Hawk, 123, 124 King, 26, 270, 286
Good and Evil, 21 Hezekiah, 146
Gordian Knot, 132 Hierophant, 171
Grant, Gregor, 261 Higher Manas, 127, 192
Great Work, xi, xii, xiv, xv, xxv, Higher Self, 132, 192, xxix
77, 80-82, 86-89, 148, 149 Hill, Raven, 199
151, 204, 212, 223, 229, Hilton, James P., 151
62
241-243, 256, 276, 288, 290, Himalayan Sheep, 300
325, 333, 337, 356, 366, 372, Hindu, xxi, 52, 92, 144, 159, 192,
379 285, 308, 317, 361, 373, 380;
Great Work "a tea party," xv Orders, xiv, xxi, 39; Proverb
Greene, Grahame, 210 about women, 258
Guernica, 218 Hinton, P., 155
Gunas, xix Hismael, 117
Guru, xxv, xxvii, 204, 222, 289 Hitler, 60, 77, 104, 259, 288, 331,
336, 347; mag. child of I.W.E.,
217
H Hitler Speaks, 217
Hod, xx, 18
Hadit, 74, 169, 171, 212 Hodos Camelionis, 47
Haeckel, Ernst, 22, 129, 130, 169 Holy Deadlock, 201
Haldane, J.B.S., 282 Holy Ghost, 359, 360
Hamilton, Sir William, 265 Holy Guardian Angel, xxiii, 22, 132,
Hammurabi, 20 193, 196, 222, 348, 252, 375,
Hanuman, xxvi, xvi, 352 378 (see also K. and C. of
H.G.A.)
I N D E X
Holy Man, 316, 317, 318 I.W.E., Soror, 217
Home, D. D., 117, 184
Homer, 180
Hong Kong, 123 J
Hood, 352
Hoor-paar-kraat, 182, 351 Jacobs, Indian Rothschild, 255
H.P.B. --- see Blavatsky Jeans, Sir James, 16
Horoscope, xii Jechidah --- see Yechidah
Horus, 174, 180, 216, 250, 318 Jehannum, 286
Hume, 35 Jehovah, xix
Huxley, Aldous, 248, 368 Jerusalem, 36
--- Thomas Henry, 33, 35, 146, Jesuits, 94, 221
299, 301 Jesus, xviii, 22, 177, 311, 347
Huysmans, 338 Jesus Christ, xv, 115
Hybris, 95 Jew, 289, 344
Jewish (Communism), 327
--- Theology, xxvi
I Jinn, 91, 351
Johannesburg, 268
I, 26 John, 311
Iacchus, 59, 65 Joshua, 146, 310
IAO, xxvi, xvi, xix Judaism, 34, 35, 38
Ibsen, 336, 337 Judas, 347
Iddhi, 290 Jung, 117, 139, 249
Iehi Aour s. Allan Bennett Jupiter, xix, 198, 352
"If" (Kipling), 84 Juvenal, 83
Incarnations, past, xiii, xiv, 281
Incubi, 300
India, xxii, 163
Indifference, 284 K
Indra, 352
Inertia (Formula of Nature), 250 Ka, 127
Initiates, xxii, xxiii, 342 Kama Loka, 167, 212
Initiation, xxii, 133, 136, 141, Kama Shastra, 83
223, 224, 241, 324, 330, 348 Kama Sutra, 83
Inquisitor, 193 Kandy, 92, 122, 157
Instinct, 222, 223 Kant, 35, 222
63
Interlaken, 233 Kaph, xix
Invocation, 86, 110, 193, 194, 311, Karma, xv, xxiv, 88, 211, 212, 224,
324 228, 244, 245, 346; Lords
Iophiel, 117 of, 245
Ipsissimus, 70 Kelly, Edward, 98, 231, 379
Ireland, 102; Irish, 336 Kephra, xv
Iroquois, 20 Kether, 108, 222
Isaacs, Mr., 255 Khabs, 132, 171
Isis, 35, 174, 204, 219, 250, 344, Khamsin, 61
347 Khen, 35
Islam, 39, 311, 317, 361; parable Khu, 127, 141
from, 282 Kiblah, 308
Italians, 336 Kidneys, defective, 280
Itzatccihuatl, 300 King, The, quoted from AL, II, 171,
Ivan the Terrible, 368 208, 209
I N D E X
King Kang Khang, 153 Liber CCCLXX, 83
Kingsford, anna, 41 --- DCCCXXXI, 83
King's Scale, 18, 57, 87, 98 --- CLXXV, 83
Kinks in Time, 124 --- CLVI, 83
Kipling, Rudyard, 84, 104, 179, 335 --- 418 = The Vision and The Voice, 29
Kiriloff, 35 --- III vel Jugorum, 92
Knowledge and Conversation of Holy Lidice, 218
Guardian Angel, xxiii, 61, 193, Lilith, 60, 299
219, 229, 375, 376, 379 Lingam, xix, 287
Konx Om Pax, 323 Little Essays toward Truth, xiv,
Krishna, xviii xxii, 166, 211, 284
Krishnamurti, 42 Lion Serpent, xxvi
Kwa, 26 Litton, 299
Logic, xv, 24
Logos, 358
L Loki, 352
London, Jack, 51
Lafayette, 61 Longfellow, 324
Lakhs, 142 Longus, 247
Lamb, 67 Lorraine, 61
Lamen, xxii Lost Horizon, 151
Lao Tse, 11, 135, 153, 158, 160 Love under will, xv
172 Lovers, The, 222
Lapis Lazuli, 37 Lower Manas, 192
La Poule aux Rats, 364 Ludlow, 361
Laughter, Trance of, 285 Lunn, Colin, 185
Law of Thelema, 43 Lupin, ArsSne, 224
Laylah, 234 Luxor, 189
Leech, 366 Lycanthropy, 289
Left-hand Path, 60, 61, 63, 191 Lynch Law, 335, 337
Legge, 161, 162 Lytton, 338
Lehrjahre, 278
Lenin, 346
Leo, Alan, 225 M
Leonardo da Vinci, 2
Lethe, River of, 167 MacCarthy, Desmond, 334
Levant, 36 Machen, Arthur, 338
Lâvi, Eliphas, xii, 115-119, 168, Macroprosopus, 17
212, 298, 300, 374 Magical Child, 217
Leviathan, 66 --- Formula, 218, 219
Levitation, 289 --- Link, 288
64
Liber Aleph, 113, 284, 327-330 --- Memory, 372
--- Legis, xxiii, 76, 80; Find- --- Power, 256, 289
ing of MS, 212; see also --- Record, see Diary
Book of the Law --- Theory, 275, 288
--- OZ, 333 Magick, v, xi, xii, xxii, xxiii,
--- Resh vel Helios, xii, 92, 281 xxvii, 20, 27, 28, 76, 77,
--- Thisarb, xii, 129, 165, 211, 84, 85, 165, 200, 209, 226,
213, 214, 215, 372 262, 289, 301, 302, 322, 330,
--- LII, xvii 373, 374, sqq.
--- LXV, xvii --- Defined, 28
--- VII, xvii --- History, 288
--- LXVI, 83 --- Wand, xxviii
I N D E X
Magick in Theory and Practice, 20, Medici, Catherine de, 105
211, 219, 266, 373; genesis, 180 Medicine Man, 34
Magician, 66, 368 Meinhold, 338
Magus, Magi, 46, 65, 238, 319 Mein Kampf, 331
Maha Brahma, 135 Melander's Millions, 185
Mahaparinibbana Sutta, 52 Melcarth, xviii, 22, 351
Mahasatipathana, 41, 58, 155 Mendez, Goat of, 35
Mahatmas, xxix Mercury, xix, xxvi, 98
Maitland, Edward, 41 Meru, 163
Malaria, 366 Messiach, 210
Maliel, 57 Messiah, 42, 210
Malkuth, xx, 166, 195 Michelet, 352
Manas, xxii, 127, 192 Mikado, 347
Mandrake, 65 Milinda, Questions of King, 135
Manifesto (of O.T.O.), 70 Mill, John Stuart, 222
Mansoul, 41 Minerval, xxvii
Mantra, 73 Ministry of Fear, 210
Mantra Yoga, 311 Minutum Mundum, 97
Manu, 222 Mirabeau, 61
Maremma, 93 Mithras, xviii, 22, 351
Marie Antoinette, 168 Mohammed, 6, 289, 351
Marlow, Louis, 334 Mohammedan Orders, xiv
Mars, xx, 352 Molinos, 130
Marsyas, 351 Money, xv, 251, 252, 253
Martial, 83 Monist, Monism, 21, 22, 23
Marx, Karl, 30, 343 Mont Cervin, 352
Marxism, 35 Monte Carlo, 187
Mary, blasphemy against Babalon, Monte Silvio, 352
66; Inviolate, 82 Montgomery, General, 117
Mary, Queen of Scots, 168 Moon, salutation, 92; Vision,
Masoch, Sacher, 83 90; Tarot Card, xx
Mason, xv Moröt, 237
Masonry, xi Morningstar, Otto, 272
Mass (Christian), 39 Morte d'Arthur, 338
Master, (opposed to Slave), 217 Moses, 52, 127
--- of the Temple, xvii, 46, Moslem, 37
64, 66, 88, 89, 141, 142, Motte Fouquâ, de la, 338
148, 208, 228, 229, 319, Motto, xviii
343, 379 Mozart, 256
Masters, xxi, 243, 244, 245, 259, M*ller, Max, 158
345, 346, 347, 348, 350, Munich, 183
351, 356 Music Halls, described, 199
--- Who are not magicians, 99 Musset, Alfred de, 83
--- "Hidden", xxix Mussolini, 347
65
Masturbation, 194 Mystic, 26, 89
Masucci, 83 --- danger of the path, 193
Mathematics, 330 Mysticism, xi, 39, 87
Matriarchy, 216
Matterhorn, 352 N
Maya, 22
Means (does it justify the end?), Nagasena, Arahat, 135
221, 225 Naples, 255
I N D E X
Naples Arrangement, 20 Ommeya, xxix
Napoleon (Bonaparte) 8, 30, 104, 239 Onanism, opposed to sexual inter-
259, 352 course, 193
Nats, 197 One Star in Sight, xvi, xvii, xxiv
Nazi (School), 35; party, 289 70, 322
Nechesch, Serpent, 210 Ontology, 126
Necromancy, 289 Ophidian Vibrations, 47
Nelson, 352 Oppenheimer, E. Philips, 187
Nemo, 66 Opus Lutetianum, 212
Nemyss, 109 Oradour-sur-Glane, 218
Neophyte, xxi, 64, 70, 231, 323 Orders, Christian, Monkhood, xiv
--- ceremony of Golden Dawn, 280 --- Hindu, xiv
Nephesch, 127, 166, 222, 223, 224 --- Mohammedan, xiv
Nerciat, Andrâ de, 83 --- A.'.A.'. xiv
Neroda-Sammapatti, 23, 159 Orgasm (s), 78, 152
Neschamah, 103, 113, 127, 135, Ormzd, 21
136, 142, 155, 172, 192, Osiris, xviii, xxii, xxiii, 21,
212, 222, 223, 224, 330 36, 59, 174, 175, 319, 344,
Neschamic, 63, 142 347, 351; in Amennti, xxiii
Nettles (boyhood exper.), 260 --- Aeon of, 250
Neuberg, 231, 232 Othello, 120
New Aeon, 180 O.T.O., xi, xii, xv, xvi, xvii,
Newman, Cardinal, 338 xxi, xxiii, 47, 124, 125,
Newman, John Henry, 298 203, 217, 300, 322
New Orleans, xx, 48 --- Grand Treasurer of, xii
Newton's Third Law of Motion, 211 --- Rituals, xxiii, 323
New York Times, 299 --- System of, 70 sqq.
New York World, 180 Ottilia (vision), 90
Nibbana, 11, 33, 52 Ouarda, 234, 345
Neitzsche, Friedrich, 16, 36, 316 Ouspensky, 55
--- Prophet of Thelema, 217 Owen, Professor, 299
Nihilist, 21
Nineveh, Burden of, 177
Nirmanakaya, 51 P
Nirvana, 33, 51, 52, 111
Noah, 29 Paccheka-Budhha, 167
Nominalists, 56 Padmasana, 122
Northcliffe, Lord, 104 Paganism, 38
Nostradamus, 117 Pairs of Opposites, 21
Nous, 127 Pan, 287
Nu, Nuit, 62, 142, 165, 169, Pantheism, 36, 39
172, 222, 238 Parabrahm, 34
Nymph, 197 Paramahamsa, 148
Parananda, Shri, 157
Parinibbana, 52
O Paris Working, 212
Parsimony, Law of, 265
Oath (of Abyss), 244 Partouse, 355
66
Occult (Sciences), 126 Passover, 67
O.H.O. = Outer Head of O.T.O., xxi Pasteur, 366
Olcott, Colonel, 224 Pastos, 62
Olympus, 163 Patanjali, 157
I N D E X
Path of Ayin, 18 Purana, 157
Path of Gimel, 222 Purusha, 127, 192
Path of Samekh, 18 Pylon, 67, 68
Patriarchy, 216 Pymander, Divine, 139
Paul, Saint, 222, 305, 327 Pyramid (s), 64, 67, 68, 189, 287;
Peer Gynt, 249 City of, 214; Ritual of, 214
Pentagram, 18, 63, 286 Pyramis, xviii, xix, xx
Pentagram Ritual, xxiii Pythagoras, 31
Perdurabo, xxiii, 49, 84, 121, 181,
184
Persian, 48 Q
Petronius Arbiter, 83, 338
Petuchio, 146 Qabalah, xi, xix, xx, xxiii, xxvi,
Phallos, xx xxvii, 13, 14, 17, 57, 58, 66,
Phallus, xix, 119 87, 90, 120, 121, 150, 155,
Phidias, 256 160, 166, 219, 222, 226, 291, 309,
Phoenicians, xxiii 323, 339, 351, 356, 361
Phren, 127 --- Arabic, xxi, 219
Phryne, 33 --- Greek, 219
Picasso, 62 Qabalistic Zero, 153, 192
Pickwickianism, 31 Qedemel, 196
Plato, 30, 159, 222, 286 Qliphoth, 116, 117, 166
Platonic concepts, 160 Qoph, xx
Plymouth Brethren, 94, 260 Queen Scale, 57, 98
Poe, Edgar Allen, 361 Quincey, 361
Poincarâ, Henrie, 42, 378
Point Event, 11, 14, 155, 173
Poirot, 142 R
Poland, 102
Politics, 259 Rabelais, Francois, 83, 113, 138
Polymnia, 287 Raffles, 224
Pope, 275 Ra Hoor, xv
Posilippo, 235 Ra Hoor Khuit, 79
Possessed, The, 35 Rajas, xix
"Potted Sex Appeal," 120 Raleigh, 352
Poulain, Father, S.J., 120 Rameses I, 189
Prana, 115 Raphael, 104
Pranayama, 121, 122, 152 Rats (story Le Poule aux), 363
Praxiteles, 204 Ratziel, Archangel, 196
Price, Harry, 303 Reformation, 39
Priestess, The, 222 Re-incarnamtion, xxviii, 168
Prince, 98 Religion, 358, 361, 362
Princess Scale, 98 Religious Experience, 23
Probation, xxii Remus, 352
Probationer, 109, 231, 322 Renaissance, 344, 346
Propitiation, 39 Reuss, Dr. Theodor, xxi, 71, 124
Protestant Mysticism, 39 Rhys-Davids, 158, 283
Protestants, 39 Riddle of the Universe, The, 21,
Psyche, 127 22, 26
Psychoanalysis, 281 Riemann, 141
Psychology of Hashish, 359 Riemann-Christoffel, 179
Ptolemy, 101 Right-Hand Path, 60
67
I N D E X
Rig-Veda, 127 Sand, Georges, 83
Robbery, breach of Thelema, 224 Sangha, 157
Robin Hood, 224 Sankhara (tendency), 58, 168, 359
Rodney, 352 Sankhya, 157
Rome, 235; Church of, 275 Sanna (perception), 58, 359
Romulus, 352 Sannyasi, 242, 255
R"ntgen, Professor, 4, 218 Sanskrit, 307, 310
Rosebery, Lord, 352 Santa Barbara, 180
Rosencreutz, Christian, 62, 338 Sat, 92
Rosetta Stone, Equinox to be, 346 Satan, 65, 94, 179, 233
Rosetti, 153 Sattvas, xix
Rosicrucians, xxi, 42, 55, 108, 284 Saturn, 90, 91, 233
Rosicrucian system, 243; custom, 278 Saviour, 243
Rosicrucianism, 40 Saul, King, 116, 176
Ross, 366 Scarlet Pimpernel, 224
Rosy Cross, 109, 155 Scarlet Woman, 216
Rotterdam, 218 Scented Garden of the Sheikh
Rousseau, 313 Nefzawi, 83
RR et AC, 47, 343 Schopehauer, 35, 36, 169
Ruach, xxi, 77, 101, 115, 116, 118, Science, method of, 10, 85, 151
135, 136, 140, 166, 192, 195 Scipio, 93
212, 221, 330 Scott, Sir Walter, 260
Rupert of Hentzau, 185 Scylla, 151, 338
Russell, Bertrand, xxviii, 42, 51, Sebek, 90
57, 129, 266, 344 Secret Chiefs, 231, 233, 234, 237,
Russia, 116, 368 239, 324
Ruysbroek, 130 Seele, 127
Sepher Sephiroth, 18, 19, 91
Sephira, 229; Sephiroth, 166
S Set, 21, 179, 311
Sex, 358, 360, 361
Sacrament, 45 Sex and Character, 173
Sade, Marguis de, 83 Sexual Intercourse and Onanism, 193
Sagittarius, 18 Shaivite, 157
Sahara, 158 Shakespeare, 168
Saint Augustine, 359 Shaman, 116
Saint Elmo's Fire, 299 Shavasana, 283
Saint Germain, Comte de, 120 Shaw, George Bernard, 179, 256, 366
Saint John, 133 Sheikh of Mish, 317
Saint Moritz, 233, 234 Shelley, 153
Saint Peter's in Rome, 226 Shiva, 153
Saint Teresa, 359 Shivadarshana, 23, 62
Salamander, 375 Shri Parananda, 157
Salt, xix Siberia, 116, 135
Salvation Army, 34 Sibylline Books, 206
Samadhi, 23, 79, 121, 193, 281, 283 Sicily, 123
Samekh, 18 Siddhi, 165, 290
Sammasati, 129, 130, 131, 191, 198, Sierras (Spain), 158
232, 245, 372 Simpson, Mrs., 117
Samuel, 116 Skeat, xxvii, 119, 127, 132, 134
San Luis Potosi, story of confidence 146, 191, 313
trick, 306 Skooshocks, 167
I N D E X
Sludge, Mr., the Medium, 117, 144, T
177
68
Socialism, 334, 336 Tahuti, xv, xxvi, 81, 352
Socialists, 348, 349, 366 Talisman (s), xxii, 71, 98, 178,
Society for Psych. Research, 239 226, 286, 287
Socrates, 193, 352 Tamas, xix
Solar System, xxiii Tantras, 34, 157
Soldier and the Hunchback, 21, 129, Tao, 25, 88, 135, 136, 149, 155,
139, 381 156, 229, 286, 287
Solomon, xxvii, 36 Taoism, 31
--- The King, Greater and Taoist doctrine; sectaries, 11;
Lesser Keys, 98, 379 aspect, 148, 149, 154
Solon, 222 Tao Teh King, 231, 41, 121, 153
Soviets, 336 154, 157, 158, 160, 161, 166
Spain, walk through, 252, 253 Taphthartharath, xvi, xxvi
Spedalieri, Baron, xii Tarot, 97, 98, 109
Spelling Bee, 331, 332 Tarquin, 206
Spencer, Herbert, 14 Tat, 92, 153
Sphinx, 73, 109; Four Powers of, Tau, path of, xxii
155; fully explained, 255 Tau Cross, xxii, 109
Spinoza, 36 Tcheka, 345
Spinthria, 355 Teh, 172
Spiritist, Spiritism, 115, 117, 176 Telekinesis, 239
Stalag, 218 Telepylus, 180
Stalin, 224, 259, 336 Telesmata, 97
Star, The, 222 Templar (position), 283
Steiner, Rudolph, xvii Temurah, 19
Stâlâ of Revealing, 108, 179, 238 Temurah Thash Raq, 119
Stern, 83 Tengyueh, 140, 299
Sterne, Laurence, 342 Tennyson, Alfred Lord, 324, 335
Stingaree, 224 Termite, 352, 355, 365
Stoker, Bram, 298 Tests, magical, 340, 341
Straus, Ralph, 334 Tetragrammaton, xxvi, 27, 77, 222,
Succubi, 300 255
Sufis, 39, 157, 159 Thai Yang, 26; Thai Yin, 26
Sukshma-Khumbakam, 121 Thebes, 189
Sullivan, J.W.N., 193, 355 Theism, 27
Sulphur, xix Thelema, Law of, 43, 44, 174, 221,
Sun, Spirit of the, xvi 316
Sunday, Billy, 34 Theognis, 338
Supernal Triad, 62, 115, 140, 166, Theoricus, 323
195, 197, 211 Theurgy, 38
Swami, 204 Thomas, J.H., 345
Swastika, 289 Thomson, James, 111, 342
Swift, 83 Thor, Hammer of, 289
Swinburne, Algernon, 6, 300 Thora, 91
Sword, 109 Thoth, xvi, xxvi, 307, 326, 352
Sword of Song, 24 Three Baskets of the Dhamma, 283
Tibet, 91, 221
Tiger, 149
Tiphareth, 18, 57, 78, 108, 195
212, 222, 229
I N D E X
Titanic, 102 Vatican, 42
Titian, 256 Veda, Vedas, 34, 130, 157, 243
Tohu Bohu, 119 Vedana (sensation), 58
Tom Jones, 184 Vedanta, 157
Tories, 349 Vedantism, Vedantists, 36, 39, 135
Totalitarianism, 250 Venus, 196, 197
69
Trance, 23 Venus in Furs (Sacher Masoch), 83
Trance of Wonder, 130 Vergil, 47, 116
Transits, 101 Victoria, Queen, 115, 356
Transmutations, 123 Victorian Period, 367
Tree of Life, xxiv, 16, 57, 76, Vinci, Leonardo da, 2
291 Vinnanam, 359
Treves, Sir Frederic, 335, 336 Virakam, Soror, 122, 226, 233-236
Trimurti, 192 Vishnu, 22
Trinc, 113 Vishvarupadarshana, 22, 101
Tripitika, 34, 283 Vision and The Voice, xiv, 59, 61,
Trismegistus, Hermes, 140 63, 65, 120, 229, 230, 287,
Trotsky, Leon, 243, 244 339, 373; quotations, 63-69
True Will, xv, 77, 80, 95, 96, 154, Vital Force, 300
175, 221, 250, 263, 288, 289, Vivekananda, 157, 201, 318, 373,
313, 319, 337, 348, 350, 358 380
Trusts, 348 Vladivostok, 288
Truth, of All Truth, 140, 141, Volga Famine, Duranty story, 362
142, 330
Tsar, 116
Twain, Mark, 336 W
Tyndall, 4
Typhon, 63 Waite, A. E., 201
Wand, 109
Wanderjahre, 278
U War of the Roses, 168
Ward, Kenneth, 231, 232, 237
U.B., 55 Warren, 283
Udgitha, 192 Waterloo, 352
Unicursal Hexagram, 109 Weiniger, 35, 173
Universe, Force of the, xviii Wells, H.G., 146, 202, 302, 333
--- Riddle of the, xiv, xix, 10 Werewolves, 123, 300
Upanishads, 22, 34, 130, 157, 158 Wesley, John, 76
U.S.W. = German, und so weiter = and Wheel of Fortune, xix
so forth, 265 Whisky anecdote, 273, 274
Ut, 132, 192 White School of Magick, 29 sqq.
Utopia, 367 33 sqq., 40
Utopia mongers, 367 Whitehall, 75
Whitehead, 42, 55
Wilde, Oscar, 104, 201
V Willett, 146
Wilson, Woodrow, 104
Valhalla, 37 Wolfe, Jane, 284
ValliSre, Louise de la, 120 Wonder, Trance of, 284
Vamacharya Schools, 34 Wren, 19
Vampirism, 249
Vannus Iacchi, 245
I N D E X
Y
Yang, xix, 26
Yechidah, 4, 127, 172, 212, 222
Yellow School of Magick, 29 sqq.
33
Yesod, xx, 18
Ygdrasil, 66
Yi King, xi, xx, 26, 88, 270;
70
divination, 237, 238, 239
Yin, 26
Yod, xix
Yoga, 73, 84, 90, 131, 157, 203,
209, 222, 226, 227, 262, 283,
323, 368, 373, 374, 377 sqq;
Danger of, 381, 382
Yoga for Yellowbellies, xxv
Yogi (s), 122, 135, 289, 316, 368,
376
York, Archbishop of, 105
Yucatan, 221
Yun Nan, 158, 299
Z
Zancig, 176, 177
Zelator, xxi
Zeno, 31
Zermatt, 352
Zero, 85, 250
Zeugnis der Suchenden, 217
Zeus, 193, 311, 352
Zola, 203, 247, 248
Zoroaster, 36, 38, 290
Z*rich, 233
BOOKS QUOTED OR REFERRED TO
Raphael's Shilling Handbook on Astrology 104
Barley's 101 "Notable Nativities" 104
"More Nativities" 104
City of Dreadful Night, James Thomson 111
Sir Palamede The Saracen, Equinox I, 4 113
Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie, Lâvi 115
I Write as I Please, Walter Duranty 17, 116, 362
Mr. Sludge the Medium, Robert Browning 117, 144, 177
Lost Horizon, James Hilton 151
Diary of a Drug Fiend, Aleister Crowley 154, 229
Bhagavad Gita 157
Sex and Character, Weiniger 173
Tom Jones, Fielding 184
Rupert of Hentzau 185
John Chilcote, M.P. 185
Melander's Millions 185
Contes Cruels, Barbey d'Aureville 193
Holy Deadlock, A.P.Herbert 201
J'Accuse, Zola 203
Cloud on the Sanctuary, Equinox I, 1 205
Ministry of Fear, Grahame Greene 210
Hitler Speaks, Herman Rauschning 217
Armadale, Wilkie Collins 223
Spirit of Solitude, "Confessions", Crowley 231
La Terre, Emile Zola 247
Brave New World, Aldous Huxley 248
71
Mr. Isaacs, F. Marion Crawford 255
Buddhist Psychology, Mrs, Rhys-Davies 283
La Maison des Hommes Vivants, Claude FarrSrre 302
Antichrist, Friedrich Nietzsche 316
Ouroboros, Garet Garrett 344
The Psychology of Hashish, Oliver Haddo, Equinox I,2 359
Mr. Amberthwaite, Louis Marlow 366
Raja Yoga, Vivekananda 373
The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, 374
MacGregor Mathers
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72
Comments to Maxfield Chandler
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