Magick in Theory and Practice (Section 1)

2. Eliphas Levi had a striking personal resemblarice td Aleister Growley’s father. This of course merely suggests a certain degree of suitability from a physical point of view. 3. Aleister Crowley wrote a play called “The Fatal Force” at a time when he had not read any of Eliphas Levi’s Works. The motive of this play is a Magical Operation of a very peculiar kincl The formula which Aleister Crowley supposed to be his original idea is mentioned by Levi. We hâve not been able to trace it anywhere else with such exact correspondent in every dtail. 4. Aleister Crowley found a certain quarter of Paris incom- prehensibly familiar and attractive to him. This was not the ordinary phenomenon of the déjà vu, it was chiefly a sense of being at home again. He discovered long after that Levi had lived in the neighbourhood for many years. 5. There are many curious similarities between the events of Eliphas Levi’s life and that of Aleister Crowley. The intention 6f the parents that their son should hâve a religious career; the inability to make use of very remarkable talents in any regular wây; the inexplicable ostracism which afflicted him, and whose authors seemed somehow to be ashamed of themselves; the events relative to marriage1: ail these offer surprisingly close parallels. 6. The characters of the two men présent subtle identities in many points. Both seem to be constantly trying to reconcile insuperable antagonisms. Both find it hard to destroy the delusion that men’s fixed beliefs and customs may be radically altered by a féw friendly explanations. Both show a curious fondness for oüt-the-way learning, preferring recondite sources of knowledge they adopt eccentric appearances. Both inspire what can only be called panic fear in absolute strangers, who can give no reason wFatever for a repulsion which sometimes almost amounts to I. Levi, on her deliberately abandoning him, withdrew his protection from his wife; she lost her beauty and intelligence, and became the prey of an aged and hideous pithecoid. Aleister Crowley’s wife insisted upon doing her own will, as she defined it; this compelled him to stand aside. What happened to Mme. Constant happened to her, although in a more violent and disastrous form. 52