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Page 151 of 1591929 · PDF PAGE 367
… am acutely aware that many of my most arduous and ardent attempts to interpret mystical experience have resulted in blurred images, sometimes perhaps grandiose and suggestive --- but that is no compensation for obscurity and vagueness. May I present one effort which I myself am able to hold more or less clearly in my ordinary consciousness? The Buddhists describe the closest approximation to true observation of anything by saying that it is seen in the four-fold formless state, which they define in the following terms: Any proposition about an…
1929 · PDF PAGE 570
…glee. It suggested that she imagined herself as a sort of scourge to inflict obscene suffering upon anyone she might meet. I waited some time hoping Betty would return. She did not and it was arranged for me to come to tea the next day. I found her in a curious state. She had lost most of the wholesomeness and health which she had enjoyed when I last saw her. She knew she was going downhill and in danger of stumbling and pitching over the cliffs in the dark. She clung to spiritual aspirations as her only hope and told me her experiences. They r…
1907 · PDF PAGE 115
…” and so on, day after day, till Z. comes round and recognises it for Balzac. odin shakes him warmly by both hands: Balzac it is for all time—and one ceases to wonder that it was rejected! Now, of course, this paper pellet is in any case very wide of its mark. Jodincan easily sculp himself a tabernacle and go in with Whistler—and even drag in Velasquez; but here am [ illustrating, however feebly, the Works, in Poetry: and poetry cannot, un- fortunately, ever be pure technique. I have long wished to write ‘*‘ A Sonnet in W. and P.” (with Whip as…
1929 · PDF PAGE 353
…abbalah Unveiled1 The Life of Paracelsus, The Ritual and Dogma of Transcendental Magic and others had been transcribed, whole pages at a time, with such slight changes as "failed" for "resulted in failure", and occasional additions or omissions. I like Maugham well enough personally, though many people resent a curious trick which he has of saying spiteful things about everybody. I always feel that he, like myself, makes such remarks without malice, for the sake of their cleverness. I was not in the least offended by the attempts of the book to…
1929 · PDF PAGE 228
… her down at last, she clawed and scratched and bit and spat and squealed, exactly as the dying bat had done to her. It was quite a long time before I got her back to her human consciousness. It was the finest case of obsession that I had ever had the good fortune to observe. Of course it is easy to explain that in her hypersensitive condition the incident of the day had reproduced itself in a dream. She had identified herself with her assailant and mimicked his behaviour. But surely, if there be anything in Sir William Hamilton's law of parsim…
1929 · PDF PAGE 544
…and so saying, I am mindful of my exaggerated enthusiasm about my own achievements in precisely these directions.) {859} 89 I go back in time to Fontainebleau. The winter was superb. It rained rarely, and the sun was so strong that even in February we used to picnic in the forest and snatch an hour's sleep upon the hillside. Everything went well.
1929 · PDF PAGE 512
… the Basilisk abode and now I did so. The theory of the Operation was to identify the toad with the "Dying God" and slay it. At the same time I caused the elemental spirit of the slain reptile to serve me. The result was immediately apparent. A girl of the village, three miles away, asked me to employ her as my secretary. I had had no intention of doing any literary work; but as soon as I set eyes on her I recognized that she had been sent for a purpose, for she exactly resembled the aforesaid toad. I therefore engaged her to come out every mor…
1929 · PDF PAGE 21
…oman of infinite kindness. Her health was naturally delicate; an attack of rheumatic fever had damaged her heart and she died before her time. The meanness and selfishness of my Uncle Tom were principally responsible. He would not engage a secretary; he forced her to slave for the Scripture Union and it killed her. One anecdote throws a curious light upon my character in these early days and also reveals her as possessed of a certain sense of humour. Some years before, on the platform at Redhill with my father, I had seen on the bookstall Acros…
1929 · PDF PAGE 155
…the hill weariness overtook me; I sat down, pointing to him a tiny path down the hill slope which he was to pursue. He was rather a long time returning, and I was just about to follow in search when I heard his cooee; in a couple of minutes he rejoined me. I was rather surprised to see that his kukri was covered with blood. I said, "I knew you would fall over something one day. Where have you cut yourself?" He explained that he had not cut himself, but that an animal had tried to dispute the path with him and that he had hit it on the head, whe…
1929 · PDF PAGE 338
…wever, that the presence of the countess, though she was entirely sympathetic and charming, was a hindrance; she took up too much of his time and thought. One of the troubles with the man was that he was shockingly sentimental; it was the worst kind of Dickens. For that and other reasons, we decided to make a Great Retirement in a distant country; our whereabouts was to be concealed; that in itself would tend to confuse and alarm his mother and her fellow witch. We crossed to Paris and wandered down by Marseilles and Gibraltar to Tangiers. I wa…
1929 · PDF PAGE 488
… the coast tend to unite them as against the transmontane tribes. The divergence of economic aims widens yearly. It seems certain that a time will come when the antagonisms of their neighbours will reach a climax. Few English, even those who have travelled in the States, have any real grasp of the geography. West of St Paul only Denver and Salt Lake City boast over a hundred thousand inhabitants in all that weary wilderness. One thinks of Chicago as the capital of the Middle West, as if it were half way across. In fact the distance of the two c…
1929 · PDF PAGE 195
…he expedition. Hardship and sickness had temporarily exhausted my vitality. A queer token of this and the only one. My beard was at this time a mixture of red and black in almost equal proportions. I shaved to go to Europe; and when I let it grow again, all the red hairs had become perfectly white. I left Bombay on the fourth of October, by the poor old Egypt wrecked off Ushant in 1922. On the boat was a young officer returning to England on leave, to get married. It was a romantic story, and for the satisfactory accomplishment of his plan a pl…
1906 · PDF PAGE 286
28a TIME sense of the Bible, thus degrading a sublime text-book of mystic lore into the merest nursery, or too often bawdy-house, twaddle and filth. You wili alter all this, my friends! Let Science keep the books: Scepl, For a cross between a plodding ass and an old stocking, she will do well! And what dividends do you promise? AJyst. In the first year. Dhyana; in the second, Samadhi; and inthe third, Nirvana. Scept, It is not the first year yet. Is this coin current? Afyst. Ah! I remember now your phrase ‘Dhyana a debaucn.’’ You are of course …
1929 · PDF PAGE 66
… the Mönch, the Vuibez Séracs, and the first traverse of the Aiguilles Rouges, climbing all the pinnacles. Travers joined me for a short time in August. We began by making the first guideless traverse of the M"nch. We started for the Guggi hut within two or three hours of his arrival, he having come straight through from London without breaking the journey. We started the next morning very early and made great speed up the lower slopes in our enthusiasm. Travers became extremely mountain sick. It was obvious that the barometric pressure had not…
1929 · PDF PAGE 337
…s incense of the ancient Egyptians; the perfume and oil of Abra-Melin, the unguentum Sabbati, and the like. In particular, he was at one time able to supply onycha. There is an incense sacred to Tetragrammaton. After the cakes of light and the incense of Abra- Melin, it is the most powerful of all known perfumes. In fact, it is in a sense more powerful than they are, for they are definitely consecrated to particular purposes, whereas it is entirely without conscience. It consists of galbanum for air, onycha for water, storax of earth and oliban…
1929 · PDF PAGE 555
555 I begin my training as a general rule by prescribing a few preliminary practices such as are universally beneficial. In the meantime I watch quietly for symptoms by which to determine the diagnosis. He was rather a hard case. I was puzzled. There was clearly something very wrong indeed, but I could not imagine what. Of course in my conscious self I am always stupid, but the Magus who uses me knows his job. {875} One afternoon we went off bathing with the Ape. I prattled as we walked quite pointlessly and just as we reached the edge of the c…
1929 · PDF PAGE 502
… in. (She {792} swears I telephoned to ask her and perhaps I did. I have my moments of imbecile impulse. I undressed her again, but this time not with impunity.) To appease conscience I proceeded to make a sketch, a rough rude scrawl. I had never drawn from the nude before. The essential simplicity of the human body beneath its baffling complexities was the Sphinx itself. I threw down my pencil in disgust and despair. But after she had gone I could not sleep. I lay in the dark and found my thoughts drawn by invisible gossamer to the drawing. I …
1904 · PDF PAGE 55
…rs, a j uster appre- ciation of the glories of our greatest poet, a possibly jejune yet assuredly historic attempt to place of the first time William Shakespeare on his proper pedastal as an early disciple of Mr. George Bernard Shaw ; and by conse- quence to carve myself a little niche in the same temple : the smallest contributions will be thank- fully received. NOTES TO ASCENSION DAY 1. I flung out of chapel.1—Browning, Xmas Eve, III. last line. 3. Venus Bower and Osiris Tomb.2— Crowley, Tannhaäuser. 5. God.3—Hebrew, \yhla, Gen. iii. 5. 5. …
1929 · PDF PAGE 114
114 It is a very curious trait. I used to refuse, sometimes under embarrassing pressure, to taste things whose appearance or whose name displeased me. I would not eat jam, even as a child, because it looked messy. I must have been nearly forty before I would touch salad. It seems absurd. I was very bond of lobster mayonnaise; but lobster salad, never! I dislike the combination of consonants. The word suggests something indefinite. It gives the effect of French poetry, where the absence of accentuation emasculates the rhythm. I found myself spir…
1929 · PDF PAGE 216
…light objects. In this essay, I endeavoured to show how it was the Magical Operations were effective. My collection of facts was at that time comparatively small and I had not yet analysed and classified them properly. But the essay shows that I was on the right track. My interpretation conformed with the mechanical theory of Victorian physics. The sequel shows my development on the same lines as the rest of modern science. The materialists had to include the connotation of "spirit" in their definition of "matter". One of my difficulties was th…