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Page 71 of 801906 · PDF PAGE 251
…may take the matter seriously, and accord a reasonable investigation to its assertions. Examples of such succinctness and clarity may be found in The Four Noble Truths; The Three Characteristics; The Ten Fetters; and there is clearly a definite theory in the idea of Karma. Such ideas are basic, and are as a thread on which 1 See Huxley's classical example of the horse, zebra, and centaur. 2 Similarly, where Buddhist parables are of a mystical’ nature, where a complicated symbolism of numbers (for example) is intended to shadow a truth, we must …
1929 · PDF PAGE 133
… the Unique, when it becomes plain that Magick, mysticism, and the mathematics are triplets, and that the Himalayan Brotherhood is to be found in Brixton. I say little of Singapore; I say enough when I say that its curries, with their vast partitioned platter of curious condiments to lackey them, speak for themselves. They sting like serpents, stimulate like strychnine; they are subtle and sensual like Chinese courtesans, sublime and sacred, inscrutably inspiring and unintelligibly illumination, like Cambodian carvings. Of Penang I will observe…
1929 · PDF PAGE 422
…untry, creed and clime, stripped of their dogma and prejudice, are here presented scientifically and simply. Besides these, there may be found certain methods prescribed in The Book of the Law or invented by myself. I will give a short synopsis of these nineteen Instructions. LIBER I. The Book of the Magus.
1929 · PDF PAGE 139
…umberless impressions connected with the act of crooking one's fingers. This is a revelation in itself; so simple a muscular movement is found to contain an epic of deliciously exciting ingredients. The idea is, of course, not to enjoy such pleasures, subtle and exquisite as they are; but by analysing thoughts and impressions to detect their prodromal symptoms and nip them in the bud. Also, to understand and estimate them by detailed examination. One important result of this is to appreciate the unimportance and equivalence of all thoughts, ver…
1929 · PDF PAGE 277
…ld have no doubt that I was a sahib. For all answer I saw the pallid gleam of a knife. I must really break off to say that I have always found the psychology of this incident enthralling. It stands out in my memory in alto-relievo. I have never on any other occasion had so much time to think --- I am afraid I express it badly. I mean that I was acutely conscious of a few well-marked thoughts, without the usual gradations, sub-thoughts, connections and so forth, that make it hard --- in ordinary life --- to discriminate between conscious and unc…
1929 · PDF PAGE 273
… out, usually by white stones, and here they deposit rice and other products of cultivation at nightfall. In the morning these goods are found to have been replaced by various products of the jungle. It is said that this commerce has never been degraded by dishonesty. Attempts have been made to catch the Jewans in the act of making the exchange, but they have always proved too wary. The maharajah did not shoot, but appointed a forest officer named d'Elbroux to introduce me to the bears and tigers. The only animal I was {449} not allowed to shoo…
1929 · PDF PAGE 79
…Bear at Maidenhead, on the quiet, to write "Jezebel". I only told one person --- in strict confidence --- where I was going; but Pollitt found out that person and forced him to tell my secret. He walked into the room shortly after {148} dinner, to my surprise and rage --- for when I am writing a poem I would show Azrael himself the door! I told him frankly and firmly that I had given my life to religion and that he did not fit into the scheme. I see now how imbecile I was, how hideously wrong and weak it is to reject any part of
1929 · PDF PAGE 206
…achievement --- they formed a noble and harmonious group, the like of which has perhaps never yet been seen1. Another description may be found in the opening chapters of W. S. Maughams The Magician. The reader will wonder how this gentleman could have got there, but here my tale is tangled. Gerald Kelly's elder sister, Rose, had been for some years the widow of a Major Skerrett, and one of her best friends was a woman as beautiful and fascinating as herself, who was the wife of an English solicitor connected with the British Embassy, named Maug…
1929 · PDF PAGE 75
… time women were the source of romantic inspiration; and their caresses emancipated me from the thraldom of the body. When I left them I found myself walking upon air, with my soul free to wing its way through endless empyreans and to express its godhead in untrammelled thought of transcendent sublimity, expressed in language which combined the purest aspirations with the most majestic melodies. Poems like "the Philosopher's Progress" illustrate my unconscious, and poems like "De Profundis" my conscious reaction. But, morally and mentally, wome…
1929 · PDF PAGE 409
… night and watch dancing girls. I need not describe their doings, but I may say that this is the only form of amusement that I have ever found of which I never get tired. I like to drop in pretty early and sit there all through the night, smoking tobacco, or kif, and drinking coffee, cup after cup. The monotonous rhythm of sound and movement dulls the edge of one's intellectual activity in very much the same way as a mantra. The finest concerts and operas, or such spectacles as the Russian ballet, alleviate the pain of existence by putting a po…
1906 · PDF PAGE 275
…ut this also, though very affected, is very interesting. But the main fact about it is that it is the expression of a man who has really found Buddhism more satisfactory than Christianity. Mr. Crowley begins his poem, I believe, with an earnest intention to explain the beauty of the Buddhist philosophy; he knows a great deal about it; he believes in it. But as he went on writing one thing became stronger and stronger in his soul — the living hatred of Christianity. Before he has finished he has descended to the babyish ‘‘ difficulties”’ of the …
1929 · PDF PAGE 44
…Church of England. I had even gone to so-called "high" churches and on one occasion dared to enter the portals of the papists. But I had found nothing wicked even there. They all seemed to me to be tarred with the same brush; they were cold, heartless, dull, stupid, vapid and fatuous. The emotionalism of some and the sacramentalism of others seemed to me perfectly insincere. The fact is that (as my brother-in-law, Gerald Kelly, once told me, with astounding insight) I was the most religious man that he had ever met. It is the inmost truth. The …
1904 · PDF PAGE 86
…rough he pa ssed out therewithal, y et ’twas his home until he had attained. So at last he came to a river, and sailing to its source he found a fair woman all naked, and she filled the river from two vessels of pure water. “She-devil,” he cried, “have I gone back one step ?” For the Star Venus burned above. And with his sword he clave her from the head to the feet, that she fell clean asunder. Cried the echo: “Ah ! thou hast slain hope now !” Our Father gladdened at Intellectus. Deus. H. et S. V. A. Luna. Quid Umbra- tur in Mari. Deo Duce Comi…
1929 · PDF PAGE 308
… women and known to be gambling heavily on the races. The postmaster confirmed this estimate of their characters. I inquired further and found that the junior clerk was responsible for the disappearance of the packet; which seemed reasonable enough. But then the cards apparently went crazy. They said that this clerk should not suffer for his act. The postmaster admitted that it might indeed be difficult to bring the theft home to him; but so much the worse, since he himself would be held responsible for the loss. I inquired further and was met …
1929 · PDF PAGE 102
… materialized beings were marching around the main room in almost unending procession. When I finally left the flat for Scotland, it was found that the mirrors were too big to take out except by way of the black temple. This had, or course, been completely dismantled before the workmen arrived. But the atmosphere remained and two of them were put out of action for several hours. It was almost a weekly experience, by the way, to hear of casual callers fainting or being seized with dizziness, cramp or apoplexy on the stair case. It was a long tim…
1929 · PDF PAGE 453
… I was sitting at lunch one day in the Hermitage beginning a lyrical ritual intended for the use of an individual in his private work, I found myself, in the middle of a sentence, at a loss for the next word. I have already explained how swiftly and spontaneously my spirit soars from stanza to stanza without need of previous reflection or subsequent revision. In all these weeks my pen had swung like a skater over the paper. Now suddenly it stopped; an eagle in full flight stricken by a shaft. That sentence has never been completed. The inspirat…
1929 · PDF PAGE 13
… for children on their way to the National School. They had to cross a barrage of arrows and peas and ultimately got so scared that they found a roundabout way. Facing the drive, across the road, was a sand-pit. Alick remembers jumping from the top with a alpenstock and charging a navvy at work in the pit, knocking him down, and bolting home. But he was not always so courageous. He once transfixed, with the same alpenstock, the bandbox of an errand-boy. The boy, however, was an Italian; and pursued the aggressor to The Grange, when of course th…
1904 · PDF PAGE 99
…chool. But, on his basal hypothesis of an infinite God, infinite space, time, and so on, no other conclusion is possible. Dean Mansel is found in the im- possible position of one who will neither g ive up his premisses nor dispute the validity of his logical processes, but who shrinks in horror from the inevitable conclusion; he supposes there must be something wrong somewhere, and concludes that the sole use of reason is to discover its own inferiority to faith. As Deussen 3 well points out, faith in the Christian sense merely amounts to 1 The…
1929 · PDF PAGE 457
…e to look at it, whereas the United States undergoes a revolutionary change continually. I passed through the country in 1900. In 1906 I found it unrecognizable. My third visit in 1914 gave me another surprise, and during the following five years when I was actually resident the panorama shifted with kaleidoscopic swiftness. I have now learnt enough to realize that any attempt at description must inevitably be futile and that any opinion cannot but be presumptuous and misleading. Yet the subject is by far the most important in every respect whi…
1929 · PDF PAGE 129
…imes, so that she might be looking out for me. Several of these visits turned out well. She saw and heard me; and on comparing notes, we found that our reports of the conversation agreed. But I was not able to act on "matter". I used to try to knock things off the mantelpiece, but in vain. On the other hand, when I reached Hong Kong, I recognized the place perfectly and picked out her house on the hillside, thought I had never seen so much as a photograph. These numerous practices were assigned to a regular schedule. Five different periods of t…