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Page 1 of 51954 · PDF PAGE 482
… an enemy, who thought quite seriously that he would go to Hell for being "Open." ("Open" Brethren were lax about the Lord's Supper, let people partake who were not sound upon the Ramsgate Question; and other Theological Atrocities!) It meant that the facts were so undeniable that the "advertisement for Answer to Prayer" outweighed the "miracle of a Heretic." I knew a poetess of great distinction who used to amuse herself by breaking off a conversation and saying, "Give me a franc" (or a shilling, or any small sum) and then going on with her pr…
1954 · PDF PAGE 430
…er assembled. Tete-a-tete, they shake one's resolution, kill one's enthusiasm, devitalize one's faith and courage. Yes, we all know such people. Mercury, by the way, is the planet responsible. I have examined a considerable number of nativities, both of murderers and of people murdered; in both cases it was not a "malefic" that did the dirty work, but poor tiny innocent silvery-shining Mercury! You, however, are thinking more of the vampire of romance. Bram Stoker's Dracula and its kindred. That is a splendidly well-documented book, by the way;…
1954 · PDF PAGE 129
…as just reminded me of the possibility that I am a Secret Chief myself without knowing it: for I have sometimes been recognized by other people as having acted as such, though I was not aware of the fact at the time.
1954 · PDF PAGE 30
PREFACE XXIX Another matter touched upon in these letters is a phenomenon that is current today . Groups of young people are breaking away from the mainstream of society or the so-called establishment , to form little communes which they hope will be free from the disease which they see attacking society. They want none of it. They have high ideals, believing it possible to form utopias of one kind or another where corruption, hypocrisy and deceit will be unable to flourish. There are hundreds of such communes all over the country-all searching…
1954 · PDF PAGE 159
…uperior with the reconstruction of a certain ritual. This was in 1912; already the tempo of the world had speeded up mercilessly; to get people to learn even short passages by heart would be no easy job. So, warned by the prolix, pious, priggish and platitudinous horrors of Freemasonry (especially the advanced degrees of the Scottish and Egyptian Rites), I resolved to cut the cackle and come to the 'osses in the most drastic manner of which I was capable. It was a great success. But then we had a candidate who was stone deaf. (Not "a little har…
1954 · PDF PAGE 502
WORK 469 address a group of just such people-and they gave me three-quarters of an hour's notice . It was really more like ten minutes, as the rest of the time was bespoke by letter-writing and posting which could in no wise be postponed . So I had to devise an adequate gambit, one which ruthlessly excluded any touch of subtlety, or any assumption of previous knowledge of the subject on the part of the audience. It came off. For the first time in history, the laymen elicited intelligent and relevant questions. There were only three half-wits in…
1954 · PDF PAGE 365
…Law. If these events be indeed the result of calculation and control on the part of the Secret Chiefs, it seems at first sight as if the people involved had been prepared to play their parts from the beginning. Our previous relations, the girl's to opium, my friendship with her lover, and his interest in my work ; omit any item and the whole plan fails. But this assumption is unnecessary. The actual preparation need not go back further than three years, when the Stele was embroidered. We may allow the Secret Chiefs considerable option, just as …
1954 · PDF PAGE 102
…of the tenets of the Yellow School, its adherents are not going to put themselves to any inconvenience for the enlightenment of a lot of people whom they consider to be hopeless fools. At the same time, the theory of religion, as such, being a tissue of falsehood, the only real strength of any religion is derived from its pilferings of Magical doctrine; and, religious persons being by definition entirely unscrupulous, it follows that any given religion is likely to contain scraps of Magical doctrine, filched more or less haphazard from one scho…
1954 · PDF PAGE 477
… that strolled out on his balcony with his shotgun to face the mob that had come to lynch him, he can get away with it. "An Enemy of the People" wrote Ibsen, "Ye are against the people, 0 my chosen!" says The Book of the Law. (AL, II: 25) Not only does it seem to me the only conceivable way of reconciling this and similar passages with "every man and every woman is a star" to assert the sovereignty of the individual, and to deny the right-to-exist to "class-consciousness," "crowd-psychology," and so to mob-rule and Lynch-Law, but also the only …
1954 · PDF PAGE 408
… transferable to others by any act of Our will. Our own authority came to Us because it was earned, and when We confer grades upon other people Our gift is entirely nugatory unless the beneficiary has won his spurs. To put it in a slightly different form of words: Any given degree is, as it were, a seal upon a precise attainment; and although it may please Us to explain the secret or secrets of any given degree or degrees to any particular person or persons, it is not of the slightest effect unless he prove in his own person the ability to perf…
1954 · PDF PAGE 343
…d from on high, not from below; they would be imperative were one always sure of having received them pure, and interpreted them aright. People spoke to me, people whose experience and judgment in all matters of Sacrifice to Dionysus had my very fullest assent and admiration; they told me that of all drinks, the best was Beer. So I have wanted for many years to drink it. I can't. I once tasted a few drops on the end of a teaspoon. They told me that wasn't quite the same thing! That's Nephesch. I cannot bear to do any unkind action , however wis…
1954 · PDF PAGE 215
…ite sincerely some of the apologia of Sludge. Why should a medium be immune to self-deception spurred by the Wish-Fiend? While there are people walking about outside the Bug-house who can find Mrs. Simpson and Generals de Gaulle, Franco, Allenby, Montgomery and who else in the "Centuries" of Nostradamus, we should be stupid to assign everything to conscious fraud. No, by no means always fraud. Yet at any seance the "investigators" take no magical precautions soever-against, say, the impersonation of lophiel by Hismael, or the Doves of Venus by …
1954 · PDF PAGE 17
… he has used this word where Krishnamurti is concerned-which is a nasty piece of Anglo-Saxon assumption of superiority-and for the black people in this country. His racist prejudices are far too evident to leave one comfortable. Following the speech quoted from The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 10, there is an account of the legal proceedings in Chingleput, India, where J. Narayaniah was suing Annie Besant to regain custody of his two sons-one of whom was Krishnamurti. Of the latter, the father said: "the boy was not able to write a decent English lette…
1954 · PDF PAGE 89
56 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS Visions of the objects of their devotion. But these people have not so much as asked themselves the original question of "How come?" which is our present subject. Sweep them into the discard! M. Beyond Vishnarupadarshana, the vision of the Form of Vishnu, beyond that yet loftier vision which corresponds in Hindu classification to our "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel," is that called Atmadarshana, the vision (or apprehension, a much better word) of the Universe as a single phenomenon, outside all lim…
1954 · PDF PAGE 67
…er of mankind by virtue of their power to put their thoughts on the subject in musical and eloquent language. Again, Cleopatra and other people in authority moulded the fortunes of many other people 5. It is no objection that the hypocrite is himself part of Nature. He is an "endothermic" product. divided against himself. with a tendency to break up. He will see his own qualities everywhere. and thus obtain a radical misconception of phenomena. Most religions of the past have failed by expecting Nature to conform with their ideals of proper con…
1954 · PDF PAGE 220
… there you are! Personally, I reached the Bhuchari-Siddhi quite a number of times; but I never observed No.4. On several occasions other people have seen me levitated, though never to a height of more than a foot or so. Here is the best account of such an incident, of those at my immediate disposal. Nearly midnight. At this moment we stopped dictating, and began to converse. Then Fra. P. said: "Oh, if I could only dictate a book like The Tao Teh King!" Then he closed his eyes as if meditating. Just before I had noticed a change in his face, mos…
1954 · PDF PAGE 380
…h of Madrid, we found, one fine morning, that our well-meant attempt to pay our bill at the posada threw a bombshell into the works: the people of the Inn jabbered and gesticulated among themselves for about half an hour before they produced our receipt, and bade us Hasta la vista! Next day, the same thing, rather worse. The day after, worse still; and we saw that they were disputing about the coins that we had handed over. Finally, about 20 miles from Madrid, they wouldn't take our money at all! Instead, they pointed out that we were English g…
1954 · PDF PAGE 175
…This, from a practical point of view, is one of the most important verses in the book . The unusual word unassuaged is very interesting. People generally suppose that 'will' is the slave of purpose, that you cannot will a thing properly unless you are aiming at a definite goal. But this is not the case. Thinking of the goal actually serves to distract the mind. In these few words is included the whole method without all the bombastic piety of the servile doctrine of mysticism about the surrender of the Will. Nor is this idea of surrender actual…
1954 · PDF PAGE 483
…osed "authority" to flatter them and confirm them in their folly and stupidity. It is the same thing with a terrifying percentage of the people that come for "teaching" and "initiation." The moment they learn anything they didn't know before, off they fly in a temper! No sooner does it become apparent that the Master is not a stupid middle-class prig and hypocrite-another edition of themselves, in short-they are frightened, they are horrified, they flee away on both feet, like the man in the Bible! I have seen people turn fish-belly pale in the…
1954 · PDF PAGE 258
THE GOLDEN MEAN 225 in the reaction against ignorant bigotry, people no longer dare to make up their minds about anything. The very practice, which the A:. A:. so strongly and persistently advocates, tends to make people feel that any positive attitude or gesture is certainly wrong, whatever may be right. They forget that the opposite may, within the limit of the universe of discourse, amount to nothing. They fall into flabbiness. I avoid this-see the example at the very outset of this letter-by saying: "Yes, I hate so-and-so like hell; I want …