Magick Without Tears

Xli PREFACE that his mental faculties had become impaired, I must assert that these letters give lie to that assumption. They are incomparably lucid and well organized. Even his apparent rambling (at times) had motives, aimed solely at the elucidation of obscure points of doctrine and teaching. Beyond all other considerations, these letters prove the inherent clarity and inexorable logic of his thinking. It never fails or falters, even for a single moment. General semantics finds its most staunch supporter in the person and writing of Aleister Crowley. There is hardly a page in this book that does not insist that the enquirer clarify her referents. Letter 28 is a splendid example of this insistence. There are pitifully few occult writers that even know what general semantics is all about. From personal experience of many years ago, I recall that one of his constant companions, almost a bible, was Skeat's Etymological Dictionary . Here it is thrust repeatedly under the nose of both the enquirer and the reader. At all times he seeks to know what you mean by the terms you employ in your questions and statements. By the same token, he demands that you expect no less of him. In this respect , if in no other, this book is priceless. The first few letters with alphabet headings are essentially by way of introduction, setting the pace, as it were, for the later ones. But they are loaded with the most important details concerning the Great Work, his organization of the A :. A :. , and what is expected of the student once he has become a probationer of that Order. As soon as the chapter letters are reached, however, one is plunged into intellectual and spiritual depths or heights which the author struggles to make reasonably clear. The first letter borrows the axioms, theorems and propositions written for an earlier book, Magick in Theory and Practice. They are certainly worth reviewing and contain more than appears at first sigh t. The order of the letters does not make for easy reading in the sense of being continuous or consecutive. They could