Magick Without Tears

Preface When I first read Magick without Tears some ten years ago, I confess it left very little impression on me. It seemed long and tedious to say the least. I suppose I was more accustomed to the dazzling pyrotechnics and virtuosity of the earlier Crowley, to The Equinox, and other books of sixty years ago. But my reaction was a serious mistake, as I discovered several years later when the opportunity to read it again presented itself. For despite its wit and humor, Magick without Tears is a serious, sober and sophisticated piece of good writing. It dazzles, but in a rather more restrained way than his antecedent work. It requires quiet study and sober meditation to appreciate its scholarship, its profound insight and its great worth. The letters that comprise this volume were written fairly close to the end of Crowley's life here on earth. (It seems difficult at this writing to realize that he was born almost a century ago-in 1875!) Some critics are inclined to believe that he had become feebleminded toward the end, a condition which some felt to be due to the "softening" of his brain through his use of drugs. He was troubled by emphysema it is true, brought about by many years of asthma and heavy smoking. Heroin had long before been prescribed to manage his bronchial asthma and because it was about the only medication that gave him relief, permitting him to breathe with some ease, he eventually became addicted. For the benefit of those who would like to believe Xl