Magick Without Tears

354 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS it tingles on almost every page. It even goes into details. Strategy: "Lurk! Withdraw! Upon them!" (AL, III: 9) Then AL, III: 3-8. England, I suppose . Verse 6 suggests the mine-layer to anyone who has seen one in action. Verse 7 might refer to the tank or the aeroplane-or to something we haven't yet got. Notice also Verse 28, a surprising conclusion to the long magical instruction about the "Cakes of Light." Then the mysterious opening of Verse 46 demands attention and research! Can "the Forties" refer to the years '39 (e.v.) onward-will this war last till '49 (e.v.)? Can the "Eighties" be symbolic, as the decade in which universal peace seemed to nearly everybody as assured for an indefinite period? There are any number of other passages, equally warlike; but see II: 24. It is a warning against internecine conflict between the masters; see also III: 58, 59. Hitler might well quote these two reminders that the real danger is the revolt of the slave classes. They cannot rule of build; no sooner do they find themselves in a crisis than mephitic rubbish about democracy is swept into the dustbin by a Napoleon or a Stalin. There is just one exception to the general idea of ruthlessness; some shadowy vision of a chivalrous type of warfare is granted to us in AL, III : 59: Significant, perhaps, that this and a restatement of Thelema came immediately before "There is an end of the word of the God enthroned in Ra's seat, lightening the girders of the soul." (AL III: 61) And this is "As brothers fight ye!" Perhaps the Aeon may give birth to some type of warfare "under Queensbery rules" so to say. A baptism of those who assert their right to belong to the Master class. Something, in short, not wholly dissimilar from the jousts of Feudal times. But on such points I should not care to adventure any very positive opinion. The last part of your question refers to politics. "The word politics surprises by himself," as Count Smorltork observed.