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1909 · PDF PAGE 38

John St. John

…all things and endured all things! The first operation of Ritual DCLXXI is the prepara- tion of the Place. There are two forces ; that of Death and that of Natural Life. Death begins the Operation by a knock, to which Life answers. Then Death, banishing all forces external to the opera- tion, declares the Speech in the Silence. Both officers go from their thrones and form the base of a triangle whose apex is the East. They invoke the Divine Word, and then Death slays with the knife, and embalms with the oil, his sister Life. Life, thus prepared, …

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1909 · PDF PAGE 63

John St. John

…? We may admit their unsubstantiality without denying their power; the phantoms of absinthe and love are potent enough to drive a man to death or marriage; while reverie may end in anti-vivisectionism or nut— food-madness. On the whole, I prefer to explain the many terrible catastrophes I have seen caused by magic misunder— stood by supposing that in magic one is working with some very subtle and essential function of the brain, whose disease may mean for one man paralysis, for another mania, for a third melancholia, for a fourth death. It is n…

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1909 · PDF PAGE 42

John St. John

…e a good mind to write it straight off—no! I’ll be patient and tease the Spirit a little. I will be coquettish as a Spanish catamite. I. Death summons Life and clears away all other forces. 2. The Invocation of the Word. Death consecrates Life, who in her whirling dance invokes that Word. 3. They salute the Word. The Signs and M M must be a Chorus, if anything. 4. The Miraculous appearance of Iacchus, un- invoked.

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1909 · PDF PAGE 116

John St. John

…r is in His hands; He must end it, either with that mighty spiritual Experience which I have sought, or else with black madness, or with death. By the Body of God, swear thou that death would come— welcome, welcome, welcome!

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1909 · PDF PAGE 136

John St. John

… latter day upon the earth. For I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold! I am alive for evermore, and have the Keys of Hell and of Death. I am Amoun the Sun in His rising; I have passed from darkness into Light. Iam Asar Un—nefer the Perfected One. I am the Lord of Life, triumphant over death. . . . There is no part of me that is not of the Gods. . . . The dead man Ankh-af-na-khonsu Saith with his voice of truth and calm : 0h Thou that hast a single arm ! Ο Thou that glitterest in the moon ! I weave Thee in the spinning charm ; 1 lure The…

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1909 · PDF PAGE 40

John St. John

…that he is under the Shadow of the Eternal Wings of the Holy One. Yet at the end, at the supreme accusation, the Hiereus smites him into death. The same answer avails him, and in its strength he is uplifted by his aspiration— and now he stands upright. Now then he makes a journey in his new house, and perceives at stated times, each time preceded by a new ordeal and equilibration, the forces that surround him. Death he sees, and the Life of Nature whose name is Sorrow, and the Word that quickeneth these, and his own self—and when he hath recogn…

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1909 · PDF PAGE 137

John St. John

…, still wearing the Ring of the Masters, and bearing my wand in my hand. For to me now sleep is the same as waking, and life the same as death. In Thy L.V.X. are not light and darkness but twin children that chase each other in their play? Awoke from long sweet dreamless sleep, like a young eagle that soars to greet the dawn. After breakfast, have strolled, on my way to the studio, through the garden of the Luxembourgto my favourite fountain. It is useless to attempt to write of the dew and the flowers in the clear October sunlight. Yet the ligh…

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1909 · PDF PAGE 119

John St. John

…mething—something pretty drastic, or he will find himself in serious trouble of body and mind, the shadows of his soul, that is sick unto death. For “ where are now their gods?” Where is the Lord, the Lord Adonai? The beast feels decidedly better; but whether he is more concentrated one may doubt. Honestly, he is now so blind that he cannot tell! Perhaps a “cafe, cognac, et Cigare” may tune him up to the point of either going back to work, or across Paris to the Hammam. He will make the experiment, reading through his proofs the while. One good …

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1909 · PDF PAGE 98

John St. John

…e body and mind no worse, apparently ; but they hurt the Self, and later that is reflected into the lower parts of the man as insanity or death. I must attain, or . . . an end of John St. John. An end of him, one way or the other, then l Good-bye, John ! Ten minutes wasted in sheer mooning! I’m getting worse every minute. Fooled away ten minutes more! Humiliation enough! For though I made the cross with Blood and Flame, I cannot even remain concen- trated in humiliation, which yet I feel so acutely. What a wormy worm I am! I tried the new strict…

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1909 · PDF PAGE 105

John St. John

… dangerous stream a heap of wreckage. . . . He, himself in danger, thought ofhis magical career. Alcoholism, insanity, disease, faddism, death, knavery, prison—every earthly hell, reflection of some spiritual blunder, had seized his companions. By dozens had that band been swept away, dashed to pieces on one rock or another. He, alone almost upon that angry stream, still held on, his life each moment the play- thing of giant forces, so enormous as to be (once they were loose) quite out of proportion to all human wit or courage or address—and he …

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1909 · PDF PAGE 48

John St. John

…s seem to lack a sense of proportion. When the Yogi, by turning his tongue back for one half— minute, has conquered old age, disease and death; then instead of having a good time he patiently (and rather pathetically, I think !) devotes his youthful

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1909 · PDF PAGE 33

John St. John

…as been Apophis! Think of the wild cursing and black magic, etc. . . . we must hope for the Osiris section to-morrow or next day. Birth, death, resurrection! IAOI The Sandwich duly chewed, and two Coffees drunk, I resume the mystic Mantra. Why? Because I dam well choose to. 31

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1909 · PDF PAGE 102

John St. John

…ime; his agony of failure was awful; {or he knew that he was failing; but though he cried a thousand times unto Adonai with the Voice of Death, he could not—he could not. Again and again he stood at the gate, and could not enter. And the Violet Flames of Ajna triumphed over him. Then Brenner said: “ Let us take a little rest!”—oh irony l—and he came down from his throne, staggering with fatigue. . . . If you can conceive of all his anger and despair! His pen, writing this, forms a letter badly, and through clenched teeth he utters a fierce curse…

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1909 · PDF PAGE 76

John St. John

…in the slave-market . . . and night is fallen! I await Thee, Ο my Lord, with a great longing, stronger than Life; yet am I as patient as Death. There was a certain Darwesh whose turban a thief stole. But when they said to him, “ See ! he hath taken the road to Damascus !" that holy man answered, as he went quietly to the cemetery, “I will await him here ! " So, therefore, there is one place, O thou thief of my heart’s love, Adonai, to which Thou must come at last ; and that place is the tomb in which lie buried all my thoughts and emotions, all…

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1909 · PDF PAGE 66

John St. John

…in-Laeca. See Lord Lytton’s ”Strange Story.“—ED.] I will now devote myself to sleep, willing Adonai. Lord Adonai, give me deep rest like death, so that in very few hours I may be awake and active, full of lion- strength of purpose toward Thee! My heroic conduct was nearly worth a “ Nuit Blanche.” For, being so thoroughly awake, I had all my Prana irritated, a feeling like the onset of a malarial attack, twelve hours before the temperature rises. I dare say it was after 3 o’clock when I slept ; I woke too, several times, and ought to have risen …

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1909 · PDF PAGE 35

John St. John

…ness does not now contain. But I swear by Thine own glory that I will not be satisfied with this, that I will go on even unto madness and death if it be Thy will—but I will know Thee as Thou art. It is strange how my cries died down; how I found myself quite involuntarily swinging back to the old mantra that I worked all yesterday. However, I shall try a little longer in the Position of the Hanged Man, although sleep is again attacking me. I am weary, yet content, as if some great thing had indeed happened. But if I lost consciousness— a thing n…

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