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Page 1 of 31929 · PDF PAGE 46
few simple and comprehensive propositions stated in very general terms I might expend a life-time in exploring the details of one plane, just as an explorer might give his life to one corner of Africa, or a chemist to one subgroup of compounds. Each surh detailed piece of work may be very valuable, but it does not as a rule throw light on the main principles of the universe. Its truth is the truth of one angle. It might even lead to error, if some inferior person were to generalize from too few facts. Imagine an inhabitant of Mars who wished to…
1929 · PDF PAGE 78
…ver, a little different in symbolism, since it is a Woman whose Cup must be filled. It is rather the sacrifice of the Man, who transfers life to his descendants. For a woman does not carry in herself the principle of new life, except tem- porarily, when it is given her. But here the formula implies much more even than this. For it is his whole life that the Magus offers to Our Lady. The Cross is both Death and Génération, and it is on the Cross that the Rose blooms. The full significance of these symbols is so lofty that it is hardly fitted for…
1929 · PDF PAGE 90
…lly misleading. One of the great tests of the genuineness of any recollection is that one remembers the really important things in one’s life, not those which mankind commonly classes as such. For instance, iUeister Crowley does not remember any of the décisive events in the life of Eliphas Levi. He recalls intimate trivialities of childhood. He has a vivid recollection of certain spiritual crises; in particular, one which was fought out as he paced up and down a lonely stretch of road in a fiat and desolate district. He remembers ridiculous in…
1929 · PDF PAGE 91
…ing missed at the wicket. One has the sly satisfaction of having done an outrageously foolish thing and got off scot free. When one sees life in perspective, it is an immense relief to discover that things like bankruptcy, wedlock, and the gallows made no particular différence. They were only accidents such as might happen to anybody; they had no real bearing on the point at issue. One consequently remembers having one’s ears cropped as a lucky escape, while the casual jest of a drunken skeinsmate in an all-night café stings one with the shame …
1929 · PDF PAGE 18
…scorned, hated and feared. I hâve kept my Word. But the time is now corne for me to carry my banner into the thick of the press of human life. I must make MAGICK the essential factor in the life of ALL. In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and justify my position by formulating a définition of MAGICK and setting forth its main principles in such a way that ALL may understand instantly that their soûls, their lives, in every relation with every other human being and every circumstance, dépend upon MAGICK and the right compré…
1929 · PDF PAGE 69
…ool O Aleph (an ox) I Air (The con- The free breath. The (The Babe English A, dit ion of Svastika. The Holy Ghost in thc Eg£ more or ail Life, The Virgin’s Womb. Par- on the Lo- less. the impar- zi val as “der reine Thor” tus, Bacchus tial vehicle. who knows nothing. D i p h u e s, S e. x u a 11 y Horus. Christ-Bacchus as etc. undevelop- the innocent babe, pursued ed). Life j by Herod-Héré. Hercules i.e. the or- strangling the serpents. t gan of nos- The Unconscious Self not sible exprès- yet determined in any sion. direction. The Devil XV A y …
1929 · PDF PAGE 130
…, and “raise it from the dead”; and flies drowned in ice- water can be resuscitated. That it should be impossible to create high organic life is scientifically unthinkable, and the Master Therion believes it to be a matter of few years indeed before this is done in the laboratory. Already we restore the apparently drowned. Why not those dead from such causes as syncope? If we understood the ultimate physics and chemistry of the brief moment of death we could get hold of the force in some way, supply the missing element, reverse the electrical c…
1929 · PDF PAGE 20
… any change is ihorough qualitative and quantitative understanding of the conditions. (Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is ignorance of one’s own True Will, or of the means by which to fulfil that ill. A man may fancy himself a painter, and waste his life trying to become one; or he may be really a painter, and yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculiar to that career.) (5) The second requisite of causing any change is the practical ability to set in right motion the necessary forces. (Illustration: A …
1929 · PDF PAGE 50
…e course of Nature, its madness, its prodigality, its intoxication, its joy, and above ali its sublime persistence through the cycles of Life and Death. The pagan reader must labour to understand this in Pater’s “Greek Studies”, and the Christian reader will recognise it, incident for incident, in the story of Christ. This legend is but the dramatization of Spring. The magician who wishes to invoke Bacchus by this method must therefore arrange a ceremony in which he takes the part of Bacchus, undergoes ail His trials, and emerges triumphant fro…
1929 · PDF PAGE 87
… enough by the mechanism of the brain, we fail to recall it, or recall it wrong, because it is painful. “The Psychopathology of Everyday Life” analyses and illustrâtes this phenomenon in detail. Now, the King of Terrors being Death, it is hard indeed to look it in the face. Mankind has created a host of phantastic masks; people talk of “going to heaven”, “passing over”, and so on; banners flaunted from paste- board towers of baseless théories. One instinctively flinches from remembering one’s last, as one does from imagining one’s next, death. …
1929 · PDF PAGE 21
…having made a fancy picture of himself, instead of investigating his actual nature. For example, a woman may make hei self misérable for life by thinking that she prefers love to social considération, or vice versa. One woman may stay with an unsympathetic nusband when she would really be happy in an attic with a lover, while another may fool herself into a romande elopement when her only true pleasures are those of presiding at fashionable functions. Again, a boy’s instinct may tell him to go to sea, while his parents insist on his becoming a …
1929 · PDF PAGE 84
…dependent of personality. The G is a silent letter, as in oür word Gnosisj and the sound GN is nasal, suggesting therefore the breath of life as opposed to that of speech. Impelled by these considérations, the Master Therion proposed to replace the M of AUM by a compound letter MGN, symbolizing thereby jthe subtle transformation of the apparent silence and death which terminâtes the manifested life of Vau by a continuous vibration of an impersonal energy of the nature of génération and knowledge, the Virgin Moon and the Serpent furthermore oper…
1929 · PDF PAGE 132
…iangle — the idea being that the spirit might obtain from the blood this subtle but physical substance which was the quintessence of its life in such a manner as to enable it to take on a visible and tangible shape.* 1 Those magiciens wiio object to the use of blood bave endeavored to replace it with incense. For such a purpose the incense of Abramelin may be burnt in large quantities. Dittany of Crete is also a valuable medium. Both these incenses are very catholic in their nature, and suitable for almost any materialization. But the bloody sa…
1929 · PDF PAGE 70
… find the symbolism of the Ark, the Coffin of Osiris, etc. The Lotus is the Yoni; the Water the Amniotic Fluid. In order to live his own life, the child must leave the Mother, and overcome the temptation to return to her for refuge. Kundry, Armida, Jocasta, Circe, etc., are svmbols of this force Which tempts the Hero. He may take her as his servant1 when he has mastered her, so as to heal his father (Amfortas), avenge him (Osiris), or pacify him (Jéhovah). But in order to grow to manhood, he must cease to dépend on her, earning the Lance (Parzi…
1929 · PDF PAGE 73
… fear. He must conceal Himself in his original guise. He therefore becomes apparently the man that he was at the beginning; he lives the life of a man; indeed, he is wholly man. But his initiation has made him master of the Event by giving him the understanding that whatever happens to him is the execution of his true will. Thus the last stage of his initiation is expressed in our formula as the final: F — The sériés of transformations has not affected his identity; but it has explained him to himself. Similarly, Copper is still Copper after Cu…
1929 · PDF PAGE 66
…anscending them. There is no attempt to get rid of death by denying it, as among the once-born; nor to accept death as the gâte of a new life, as among the twice-born. With the A.*. A.*, life and death are equally incidents in a career, very much like day and night in the history of a planet. But, to pursue the simile, we regard this planet from afar. A Brother of A.*. A.*, looks at (what another person would call) “him- self”, as one — or, rallier, sonie — among a group of phenomena. He is that “nothing” whose consciousness is in one sense the…
1929 · PDF PAGE 148
…the Mage. That Angel wrote on the lamen the Word of the Aeon. The Book of the Law is this writing. To this lamen the Master Therion gave life by devoting His own life thereto. We may then regard this talisman, the Law, as the most powerful that has been made in the world’s history, for previous talismans of the same type hâve been limited in their scope by conditions of race and country. Mohammed’s talisman, Allah, was good only from Persia to the Pillars of Hercules. The Buddha’s, Anatta, operated only in the South and East of Asia. The new ta…
1929 · PDF PAGE 135
…u to perform vessel; and it issues in due season refreshed and modified, but still essen- tially itself. The idea is the transmission of life and wisdom from a vehicle which has fulfilled its formula to one capable of further extension. The development of a wild fruit by repeated plantings in suitable soil is an analogous operation. 1. The sacrifice (e.g.) of a bull is sufficient for a large number. of people; hence it is commonly made in public ceremonies, and in some initiations, e.g. that of a King, who needs force for his whole kingdom. Or …
1929 · PDF PAGE 31
…adition) which I came to destroy in order that I might fulfil. I send this book into the world that every man and woman may take hold of life in the proper manner. It does not matter if one’s présent house of flesh be the hut of a shepherd; by virtue of my MAGICK he shall be such a shepherd as David was. If it be the studio of a sculptor, he shall so chisel from himself the marble that masks his idea that he shall be no less a master than Rodin. Witness mine hand : TO META 0HPION (nnn) • The Beast 666; MAGUS 9°=2° A.*. A.*, who is The Word of t…
1929 · PDF PAGE 17
…tion. Let me explain in a few words how it came about that I blazoned the word MAGICK upon the Banner that I hâve borne before me ail my life. Before I touched my teens, I was already aware that I was The Beast whose number is 666. I did not understand in the least — XV