Magick Without Tears

xiv PREFACE viewpoint, the hand of the master himself will be recognized. Finally, I doubt whether he would have been willing to quote at such great length from the writing of any other author for these letters. Many short quotations from several writers are certainly to be found in this volume, but not one of such great length. In a word, Crowley is quoting from himself. One of Crowley's personal prejudices is highlighted in a curious way in one of these letters. It relates to color. In a quotation from "The Three Schools of Magick" he refers to the stupid attempt by Annie Besant and Bishop Leadbeater to set up Jiddu Krishnamurti as the World Teacher. Both of these Theosophical leaders had made all sorts of preparation for this event, including the organization of special societies and service groups which would do honor to him. Crowley wrote of it: To make the humiliation more complete . a wretched creature was chosen who. to the most loathsome moral qualities. added the most fatuous imbecility . And then blew up! . .. We cannot suppose that humanity is so entirely base as to accept Krishnamurti . ... To this was added a footnote: "This passage was written in 1924 e.v. The Master Therion arose and smote him. What seemed a menace is now hardly a memory ." A more unkind reference could hardly have been made. First of all, Krishnamurti was selected by the two neo-Theosophists while still a minor: on what basis I hardly know. It is quite possible that his boyish vanity may have been flattered by having such fulsome honors and praise heaped upon him. A lengthy reference to this episode was made years earlier in The Equinox , Vol. I, No. 10. There is a section , In Memoriam-John Yarker. which is a record of two meetings of a primitive Rite of Masonry. The first was to give homage to John Yarker, the Sovereign Grand Master General of this Rite, who had died on March 20, 1913. The second protested the attendance of an unnamed follower of