Magick Without Tears

PREFACE Xlll have been rearranged in such a way as to give the reader a more steady and gradual introduction to some highly complex and controversial issues. After due reflection however, I have decided to leave them in their present order, and allow the reader to work out his own approach to their contents. It is suggested that the reader first browse through the book as a whole in order to become familiar with the general nature of the material presented. Do remember that there is a table of contents and an index. Later, the reader could take one letter at a time, dealing with a certain topic, study it, and meditate on whatever sections of that letter seem to warrant it. In this way, I believe, he will obtain a great deal more from this very profound book than if he tried to read it straight through as though it were a novel, or an otherwise conventional textbook. Letters (divided here into chapters) 6, 7 and 8 are entitled "The Three Schools of Magick." They were written to expatiate upon a short quotation from Liber 418: The Vision and the Voice, a series of transcendental experiences based upon the Enochian system of Magick. Crowley states that they were written by a Mr. Gerard Aumont, and that he is quoting from that long essay. I met Gerard Aumont late in 1928. He was at that time a French journalist who lived and worked in Tunisia, though he came up to Paris every now and again to meet with Crowley. The entire content of this long essay bears entirely too many distinguishing features of Crowley himself for it to have been penned by anyone other than Crowley. It would appear that Crowley was quite willing to have written essays, etc., and where convenient to use either a pseudonym or to let another party take full credit for the writing. I state categorically that Aumont was incapable of writing this particular essay. Every phrase, most turns of expression , the very egocentricity of the point of view, the penetrating comprehension of Magick and history , are all Crowley's work and none other . If one has studied the numerous works of Crowley and absorbed the uniqueness of his particular