Magick Without Tears

328 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS were Persian Nuts! The stupid coincidence angered me, and yet some irresistible instinct compelled me to take out my note book and pencil and jot down the name written over the gate- Villa Caldarazzo . Idly I added up the letters. Their sum struck me like a bullet in my brain. It was 418, the number of the Magical Formula of the Aeon, a numerica hieroglyph of the Great Work. Ab-ul-Diz had made no mistake. My recognition of the right place was not to depend on a mere matter of trees, which might be found almost anywhere. Recognition beyond all possibility of doubt was what he promised . He had been as good as his word. I was entirely overwhelmed. I jumped out of the car and ran up to the house. I found Virakam in the main room. The instant I entered I understood that it was entirely suited for a temple. The walls were decorated with crude frescoes which somehow suggested the exact atmosphere proper to the Work. The very shape of the room seemed somehow significant. Further, it seemed as if it were filled with a peculiar emanation . This impression must not be dismissed as sheer fancy. Few men but are sufficiently sensitive to distinguish the spiritual aura of certain buildings. It is impossible not to feel reverence in certain cathedrals and temples. The most ordinary dwelling houses often possess an atmosphere of their own ; some depress, some cheer; some disgust, others strike chill to the heart. Virakam of course was entirely certain that this was the Villa for us. Against this was the positive statement of the people in charge that it was not to be let. We refused to accept this assertion . We took the name and address of the owner , dug him out , and found him willing to give us immediate possession at a small rent. We went in on the following day, and settled down almost at once to consecrate the Temple and begin the book. 4 I knew in myself from the first that the revelation in 4. From The Confessions of Aleister Crowley (New York: Hill and Wang, 1970) p. 598 et seq.