Confessions of Aleister Crowley

422 Hunting!" (The International, March 1918) that this central idea is universal in all the best comedy and tragedy from the "Bacchae" of Euripides, the story of Esther, the Crucifixion and the murder of Hiram Abif, to the plays of Shakespeare, Ibsen and many others. I now turn to my magical writings during this astounding summer. In my spare time I began to make a list of Greek words connected with Magick and similar subjects, arranging them by their numerical order. The idea was to construct a dictionary of the Greek Cabbala1 similar to that of the Hebrew Cabbala on which I had been at work since 1899 and ultimately published in The Equinox, vol. I, No. VIII. But the Greek Cabbala presents difficulties which do not arise in the case of Hebrew. First, we have no sacred text in Greek save a few imperfect and most unsatisfactory gnostic documents2, the hopelessly garbled Apocalypse and a few oddments like the Emerald Table of Hermes, the Divine Pymander and the Golden Verses of Pythagoras. Secondly, the various dialects of Greek affect the computations and there is no means of choosing between them. Thirdly, the terminations alter the values. It is even difficult to decide whether or no to reckon the article. Fourthly, the actual examples of Cabbala existent are shamefully unconscientious, as may be seen by reference to Messrs Lea and Bond's brochure. The equate words and phrases quite arbitrarily. If it suits them to count the article they count it. That this Cabbala exists is nevertheless certain. The correspondences in the Apocalypse in connection with the series 111 to 999 is undeniably intentional. Nor can it be an accident that Mithras (360) was altered to Meithras (365) to suit the correction of the calendar. The matter is of extreme importance; because Aiwass in dictating The Book of the Law repeatedly makes use of correspondences in Greek, such as Thelema, Will, 93 --- Agape, Love, 93. 718 = Stele 666, and so on. He also equates Greek and Hebrew words. Thus his own name spelt in Hebrew has the value 93, but in Greek that of 418, thus bringing into relation the Word of the Law of the Aeon with the Magical Formula of the Great Work. My preliminary studies, however, tended to discourage me, for the fourfold reason above stated; and the proposed dictionary remains uncompleted to this day. During this summer I wrote no less than nineteen books of magical and 1. WEH Note: This was to be published as "Liber MCCLXIV", but despite being cited in "Magick in Theory and Practice" it was not published in Crowley's lifetime. The first publication came in the May 1979 e.v. issue of "The O.T.O. Newsletter", pp. 9 to 44. Unfortunately, when I edited the material together for that publication, I discovered that the most interesting entries had been lost. Crowley kept the Greek Cabbala on slips of paper in a cigar box. Apparently, whenever he wanted to use some entry for his various writings, he fished out a slip from the box. It would appear that he failed to replace most of the slips so extracted. A search of his works will restore many of the missing entries. 2. WEH Note: Wrong! The works of Homer are considered the classical source, and both the "Septuagint" and Greek New Testament have been heavily used. {672} mystical instruction. Each is characterized by the simplest, sublimest and most concentrated prose of which I was master. The sceptical attitude is rigorously preserved; and, with the instructions already issued and a few minor matters to which I attend later, they comprise an absolutely comprehensive practical guide to every branch of the technique of spiritual attainment. The methods of every country, 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.