The Sword of Song

NOTES 61 are sectarians, and only sectarians of no more value to humanity than those who think that the English soil is the only soil worth defending, and the Baptist chapel the only chapel worth of worship (sic). But Mr. Crowley is a strong and genuine poet, and we have little doubt that he will work up from his appreciation of the Temple of Osiris to that loftier and wider work of the hum an im agination, the appreciation of the Brixton chapel. G. K. CHESTERTON. ——— 778, 779. The rest of life, for self-control, For liberation of the soul.81 Who said Rats ? Thanks for your advice, Tony Veller, but it came in vain. As the ex-monk* (that shook the bookstall) wrote in confidence to the publisher : “ Existence is mis’ry I’ th’ month Tisri * Joseph McCabe, who becam e a Rationalist writer. The allusion is to Crowley’s marriage and subsequent return to the East. At th’ fu’ o’ th’ moon I were shot wi’ a goon. (Goon is no Scots, But Greek, Meester Watts.) We’re awa’ tae Burma, Whaur th’ groond be firmer Tae speer th’ Mekong, Chin Chin ! Sae long. [Long sald be lang : She’ll no care a whang.] Ye’re Rautional babe, Audra McAbe.” Note the curious confusion of personality. This shows A bsence of Ego, in Pali A natta, and will seem to my poor spiritually-mind friends an excuse for a course of action they do not understand, and whose nature is beyond them. 782. Christ ascends.82—And I tell you frankly that if he does not come back by the time I have finished reading these proofs, I shall give him up. 783. Bell.83—The folios have “bun.” NOTES TO PENTECOST 22. With sacred thirst.1—“He, soul-hy- droptic with a sacred thirst. ” A Grammarian’s Funeral. 23. Levi.2—Ceremonial magic is not quite so silly as it sounds. Witness the following mas-terly elucidation of its inner quintessence :— THE INITIATED INTERPRETATION OF CEREMONIAL MAGIC* It is loftily amusing to the student of magical literature who is not quite a fool—and rare is such a combination!—to note the criticism directed by the Philestine against the citadel of his science. Truly, since our childhood has ingrained into us not only literal belief in the Bible, but also substantial belief in Alf Laylah wa Laylah,† and only adolescence can cure us, we are only too liable, in the rush and energy of dawning manhood, to overturn roughly and rashly both these classics, to regard them both on the same level, as interesting documents from the standpoint of folk-lore and anthropology, and as nothing more. Even when we learn that the Bible, by a * This essay forms the introduction an edition of the “Goetia” of King Solomon † “A T housand and One Nights, ” com monly called “Arabian Nights.” profound and minute study of the text, may be forced to yield up Qabalistic arcana of cosmic scope and importance, we are too often slow to apply a similar restorative to the companion volume, even if we are the lucky holders of Burton’s veritable edition. To me, then, it remains to raise the A lf Laylah wa Laylah into its proper place once more. I am not concerned to deny the objective reality of all “magical” phenomena ; if they are illusions, they are at least as real as many unquestioned facts of daily life; and, if we follow Herbert Spencer, they are at least evidence of some cause.* Now, this fact is our base. What is the cause of my illusion of seeing a spirit in the triangle of Art? Every smatterer, every expert in psychology, will answer: “That cause lies in your brain.” English children are taught (pace the Education Act) that the Universe lies in infinite Space; Hindu children, in the Aka sa, which is the same thing. Those Europeans who go a little deeper learn from Fichte, that the phenomenal Uni- verse is the creation of the Ego; Hindus, or Europeans studying under Hindu Gurus, are *This, incidentally, is per haps the gr eatest argument we possess, pushed to its extr eme, against the Advaitist theories.—A.C.