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Page 65 of 711944 · PDF PAGE 22
…on of imperfection on the part of Perfection. The Absolute would be Nothing, would remain in the condition of Nothingness; therefore, in order to be conscious of its possibilities and to enjoy them, it must explore these possibilities. One may here insert a parallel statement of this doctrine from the document called The Book of the Great Auk to enable the student to consider the position from the standpoint of two dif‐ ferent minds. “All elements must at one time have been separate.—That would be the case with great heat.—Now, when the atoms g…
1929 · PDF PAGE 348
…diversion and warning on many a page to come. Recognizing the possibilities of Neuburg, I decided to utilize them for the benefit of the Order, and of himself. The first task was to get rid, as far as possible, of his physical defects, which turned out to be very serious. One day during our walk through Spain, we came upon a waterfall, and, the weather being oppressively hot, we decided to take a dip. In this way I discovered that he was suffering from varicocele very badly indeed and as soon as we got to England I sent him to my doctor, who ad…
1929 · PDF PAGE 127
…t Work." I had mapped out for myself a definite programme which was to combine what I had learnt from Eckenstein with the methods of the Order. For instance: I had extracted the Magical Formula of the Ritual of Neophyte and applied it to a Ceremony of Self-Initiation. I now simplified this and got rid of the necessity of the physical temple by expressing it in a series of seven mental operations. Other practices were the "assumption of God-forms"; by concentrated imagination of oneself in the symbolic shape of any God, one should be able to ide…
1929 · PDF PAGE 91
… so; I have accepted no honour from her; she has had much from me. I wanted the spirit of the university and I passed my examinations in order to be able to imbibe it without interference from the authorities, but I saw no sense in paying fifteen guineas for the privilege of wearing a long black gown more cumbersome than the short blue one, and paying thirteen and fourpence instead of six and eightpence if I were caught smoking in it. I had no intention of becoming a parson or a schoolmaster; to write B.A. after my name would have been a decide…
1906 · PDF PAGE 216
210 THE SWORD OF SONG You write him, with a face of flint, An order for some soda-mint. So Yoga. Life’s a carcinoma, Its cause uncertain, not to check. In vain you cry to Isis: ‘‘O ma! I’ve got it fairly in the neck.” The surgeon Crowley, with his trocar, Says you a poor but silly bloke are, Advises concentration's knife Quick to the horny growth called life. ‘“ Yoga? There’s danger in the biz ! But, it’s the only chance there is !”’ (For life, if left alone, is sorrow, And only fools hope God’s to-morrow.) Up, Guards, and at’em !/ Second, your…
1904 · PDF PAGE 75
THE SWORD OF SONG 68 You write him, with a face of flint, An order for some soda-mint. So Yoga. Life’s a carcinoma, Its cause uncertain, not to check. In vain you cry to Isis : “O ma ! I’ve got it fairly in the neck.” The surgeon Crowley, with his trocar, Says you a poor but silly bloke are, Advises concentration’s knife Quick to the horny growth called life. “Yoga ? There’s danger in the biz ! But, it’s the only chance there is !” (For life, if left alone, is sorrow, And only fools hope God’s to-morrow.) Up, Guards, and at em! Second, your fa…
1929 · PDF PAGE 31
31 luminously in focus, I find it very hard to remember the order in which they occurred. There are, moreover, {72} curious contradictions in myself against which I seem always to be stumbling. For example, as late as 1894, I think it must be, I find myself writing hymns of quite acceptable piety. One was published in "The" "Christian;" it began: I am a blind man on a helmless ship Without a compass on a stormy sea. I cannot sink, for God will hold me up, etc. Again, I wrote a poem on the death of my Aunt Ada, which I thought good enough to inc…
1929 · PDF PAGE 100
…; he regarded the pleasures of living (and above all, those of physical love) as diabolical illusions devised by the enemy of mankind in order to trick souls into accepting the curse of existence. I cannot forbear quoting one most remarkable incident. When he was about sixteen, the conversation in the laboratory where he was working turned upon childbirth. What he heard disgusted him. He became furiously angry and said that children were brought to earth by angels. The other students laughed at him and tried in vain to convince him. He maintain…
1929 · PDF PAGE 243
…r was the offer of one hundred pounds for the best essay on my work. The business idea was to induce people to buy my Collected Works in order to have material for the essay. This offer led ultimately to far-reaching results; in fact, it determined the course of my life for a number of years. The winner of the prize became an
1929 · PDF PAGE 414
…t its vilest. I believed then, and believe now, that the probationer of A.'. A.'. is nearly always offered the opportunity to betray the Order, just as the neophyte is nearly always tempted by a woman. We read in The Book of the Law, cap. I, verse 34: ...the ordeals I write not: ... ... he(the Beast) may make severe the ordeals. (V.38) There is a word to say about the Hierophantic task. Behold! there are three ordeals in one, and it may be
1929 · PDF PAGE 358
… degree unfortunate that these things should be connected in the minds of the unthinking with anarchy and other cults implying social disorder. Lord Morley was an atheist, Huxley an agnostic, and Edward the Seventh a freemason; but it would be hard to pick three men more genuinely enlightened or more truly conservative. From Pamplona it is three days' easy walking to Logrono. We left our hotel after dinner and walked in the cool of the night about ten kilometres to a place which we christened "Bats' Culvert" in honour of our shelter. It was big…
1944 · PDF PAGE 73
…the Celebration of the Her‐ metic Marriage. Behind him are the figures of Eve, Lilith and Cupid. This symbolism has been incorporated in order to preserve in some measure the original form of the card, and to show its derivation, its heirship, its continuity with the past. On the quiver of Cupid is inscribed the word Thelema, which is the Word of the Law. (See Liber AL, chap. I, verse 39.) His shafts are quanta of Will. It is thus shown that this fundamental formula of magical working, analysis and synthesis, persists through the Aeons. One may…
1929 · PDF PAGE 334
…g is restored to its proper place in my life. I have made many insurrections since then; but they have always been quelled in very short order and punished as they deserved. This lengthy preamble will enable the reader to fit into their proper places the ostensibly incoherent events of 1907 and 1908. My own continuous illness, the birth of Lola Zaza and the tragedy of Rose had combined to complicate my ordinary business, making it impossible for me to think of making any new plans for exploration. My affairs in Scotland had fallen into great co…
1929 · PDF PAGE 541
…ly, no less than from the humanitarian point of view. We must remember that each man and woman is a star, it is our duty to maintain the order of nature by seeing to it that his orbit is correctly calculated. The revolutions and catastrophes with which history is crammed are invariably due to the rulers having failed to find fitting functions for the people. The obvious result has been social discontent ending in the refusal of the cells to perform their work in the organism. So-called education (on which countless millions are squandered with …
1904 · PDF PAGE 123
…cientific plane. They are (I have little doubt) for those who have attained to them mnemonic keys to whole classes of pheno- mena of the order anciently denominated magical, phenomena which, s ince the h uman mind has had its present constitution, have been translated into language, classified, sought after, alway s above language, but n ot beyond a sane and scientific classification, a rigid and satisfactory method, as I most firmly believe. It is to establish such a method; to record in the language, not of the temple, but of the laboratory ,…
1929 · PDF PAGE 5
…do is to describe everything that I remember, as best I can, as if it were, in itself, the centre of interest. I must trust nature so to order matters that, in the multiplicity of the material, the proper proportion will somehow appear automatically, just as in the operations of pure chance or inexorable law a unity ennobled by strength and beautified by harmony arises inscrutably out of the chaotic concatenation of circumstances. At least one claim may be made; nothing has been invented, nothing suppressed, nothing altered and nothing "yellowe…
1929 · PDF PAGE 96
…of stones by the edge of the sea. I burned my incense, performed my evolutions and made heaven hideous with my enchantments. All this in order to invoke the Undines. I hoped, and more or less expected, to have one come out of the foam and attach herself to my person. I had as yet no notion that this programme might be accomplished far more easily. There are thus two main types of mistake; one in spirit and one in technique. Most aspirants to Magick commit both. I soon learned that the physical conditions of a magical phenomenon were like those …
1904 · PDF PAGE 111
…the aspect not so much of a permanent entity as of a changeful process, in which naught endures save the flow of energy and the rational order which pervades it.” This is an adm irable s ummary of the Buddhist doctrine. (b) See above on the First Noble Truth. (c) This is the grand position which Buddha carried against the Hindu philosophers. In our own country it is the argument of Hume, following Berkeley to a place where B erkeley certainly never meant to go—a curious parallel fulfilm ent of Christ’s curse against Peter (John xxi.). The Bisho…
1929 · PDF PAGE 72
…imbed fairly. The ordinary way up is a matter of engineering by means of pitons and wire ropes. I did not keep my knowledge to myself in order to have the glory of making the first ascent. I indicated the way up to other climbers and was absolutely overjoyed when two Austrian amateurs made the climb. In the same way, I am perfectly satisfied at having broken down the dishonest and imbecile traditions of Badminton and only regret that I was not in command of the the 1922 Everest expedition, because that expedition failed and cost heavily in huma…
1929 · PDF PAGE 570
…d Jane's for the most part, but certain incidents were indubitably evidential of genuine communication with intelligences of a very high order of initiation. Her trouble was that she lacked the means of discrimination between the most contemptible drivel and the most exalted truth. She begged me to stay in her house till I left for Cefalu, urging that I was ill and in need of loving care. She overcame my hesitation by emphasizing her need of a strong hand to guide and help her. Finally I consented. I was well aware that she was precisely one of…