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Page 1 of 31996 · PDF PAGE 130
…man must find his own happiness in a purely personal way. Our troubles have been caused by the assumption that everybody wanted the same things, and thereby the supply of those things has become artificially limited; even those benefits of which there is an inexhaustible store have been cornered. For example, fresh air and beautiful scenery. In a world where everyone did his own will none would lack these things. In our present society they have become the luxuries of wealth and leisure, yet they are still acces sible to anyone who possesses s…
1996 · PDF PAGE 62
…he world, the little world my sister”. The misunderstanding of sex, the ignorant fear like a fog, the ignorant lust like a miasma, these things have done more to keep back humanity from realization of itself, and from intelligent cooperation with its destiny, than any other dozen things put together. The vileness and falseness of reli gion itself have been the monsters aborted from the dark womb of its infernal mystery. There is nothing unclean or degrading in any manifestation soever of the sexual instinct, because, without exception, every a…
1996 · PDF PAGE 131
… to his own Taste, to make Clothes according to Fancy, with Variety of Individuality, and to practice the manifold Crafts of Love. These Things being first secured, thou mayst afterward lead them into the Heav ens of Poesy and Tale, of Music, Painting, and Sculpture, and into the Lore of the Mind itself, with its insatiable Joy of all Knowledge. Thence let them soar! 59. Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a King concealed! Say you so? Fool! If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him. Commentary: We must abolish the shadows by the Radi…
1996 · PDF PAGE 110
…of William James.1 2 Thelemites are “thrice-born”; we accept everything for what it is, without “lust of result,” without insisting upon things conforming with a priori ideals, or regretting their failure to do so. We can therefore “enjoy all things of sense and rapture” according to their true nature. For example, the average man dreads tuberculosis. The “Christian Scientist” flees this fear by pretending that the disease is an illu sion in “mortal mind.” But the Thelemite accepts it for what it is, and finds interest in it for its own sake. …
1996 · PDF PAGE 121
…estroy conventional Logic, for that is exactly what it is intended to do. I may also mention briefly one line of analysis. 1 [Lat., “all things go forth into mystery,” and “the highest knowledge is to know nothing.”] I ask “What is (e.g.) a tree?” The dictionary defines this simple idea by means of many complex ideas; obviously one gets in deeper with every stroke one takes. The same applies to any “Why” that may be posed. The one existing mystery disappears as a consequence of innumerable antecedents, each equally mysterious. To ask questions …
1996 · PDF PAGE 145
…erminate Protoplasm, which latter may therefore be called free, in the Definition of a Pedant. AX—DE ORDINE RERUM [38—On the Ordering of Things] In the Body every Cell is subordinated to the general physio logical Control, and we who will that Control do not ask whether each individual Unit of that Structure be consciously happy. But we do care that each shall fulfil its Function, and the Failure of even a few Cells, or their Revolt, may involve the Death of the whole Organism. Yet even here the Com plaint of a few, which we call Pain, is a W…
1996 · PDF PAGE 135
…re is the seal unloosed, that guarded the Eighth abyss; therefore is the vast sea as a veil; therefore is there a rending asunder of all things.1 1 “Liber LXV,” 111:38-48. 2 “Liber LXV,” 1:64. * 64. Intoxicate the inmost, O my lover, not the outermost!1 2 68. Harder! Hold up thyself! Lift thine head! breathe not so deep—die!
1996 · PDF PAGE 163
…ther use; let it be laid before me, and kept thick with perfumes of your orison: it shall become full of beetles as it were and creeping things sacred unto me. 26. These slay, naming your enemies; & they shall fall before you. 27. Also these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eating thereof. Commentary: The word “lust” is not necessarily to be taken in the sense familiar to Puritans. It means robustness, “merri ment” as of old understood: the Germans have retained the proper force of the term in lustig. But even the English retain …
1996 · PDF PAGE 213
…ther use; let it be laid before me, and kept thick with perfumes of your orison: it shall become full of beetles as it were and creeping things sacred unto me. 26. These slay, naming your enemies; & they shall fall before you. 27. Also these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eat ing thereof. 28. Also ye shall be strong in war. 29. Moreover, be they long kept, it is better; for they swell with my force. All before me. 30. My altar is of open brass work: burn thereon in silver or gold! 31. There cometh a rich man from the West who s…
1996 · PDF PAGE 138
…or of La physiologie du gout (1825).] 2 [See Psalms 137:5.] 3 “Liber LXV,” 1:45-46. 45. Go thou unto the outermost places and subdue all things. 46. Subdue thy fear and thy disgust. Then— yield!3 * 7. Moreover I beheld a vision of a river. There was a little boat thereon; and in it under pur ple sails was a golden woman, an image of Asi wrought in finest gold. Also the river was of blood, and the boat of shining steel. Then I loved her; and, loosing my girdle, cast myself into the stream. 8. I gathered myself into the little boat, and for many…
1996 · PDF PAGE 203
…ind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing. Also I have a secret glory for them that love me. 61. But to love me is better than all things: if under the night stars in the desert thou presently burnest mine incense before me, invoking me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom. For one kiss wilt thou then be willing to give all; but whoso gives one particle of dust shall lose all in that hour. Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye shall wear rich jew els; ye shall ex…
1996 · PDF PAGE 90
…ncipally to two radical errors. 1. The Universe was conceived as possessing a fixed centre, or summit; an absolute standard to which all things might be referred; an Unity, or God. (Mystics were angry and bewildered, often enough, when attaining to “union with God” they found him equally in all.) This led to making a difference between one thing and another, and so to the ideas of superiority, of sin, etc., ending by absurdities of all kinds, alike in theology, ethics, and science. 2. The absolute antithesis between the pairs of opposites. This…
1996 · PDF PAGE 122
… transactions on the other. 34. But ye, o my people, rise up & awake! Commentary: We are not to calculate, to argue, to criticize; these things lead to division of will and to stagnation. They are shackles of our Going. They hamstring our Pegasus. We are to rise up—to Go—to Love—we are to be awake, alert — Joyous and eager Our tresses adorning, O let us beleaguer The City of Morning!1 1 Crowley, The World’s Tragedy (1910), p. 31, paraphrase; the original poem has “O let us away to / The city of morning!”! The Secret of Magick is to “enflame one…
1996 · PDF PAGE 27
…malarial patient, but “evil” for the germ of the disease. Heat is “bad” for ice-cream and “good” for coffee. The indivisible essences of things, their “Souls,” are indifferent to all conditions soever, for none can in any way affect them. 6. Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue! 7. Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar- kraat. Commentary: Aiwass is the name given by Ouarda the Seer3 as that of the Intelligence Communicating.
1996 · PDF PAGE 94
…mer Night’s Dream. So then we laugh at the mock woes of Pyramus and Thisbe, the clumsy gambols of Bottom; for we understand the Truth of Things, how all is a Dance of Ecstasy. 1 [A Midsummer Night’s Dream v, 1.]
1996 · PDF PAGE 120
…sciousness a third which agrees with neither, is indeed, strictly speaking, not sensible to sight, but to touch! Our senses declare some things at rest and others in motion; our rea son corrects the error, firstly by denying that anything can exist unless it is in motion, secondly by denying that absolute motion possesses any meaning at all. At the time when this Book was written, official Science angrily scouted1 the “factor infinite & unknown”, and clung with pathetic faith to the idea that reason was the touchstone of truth. In a single sen…
1996 · PDF PAGE 127
…, any more than food is; but until people have got satisfaction of these natural hungers, it is useless to expect them to think of other things. This truth is vital to the statesman, now that women have some direct political power; they will certainly overthrow the Republic unless they obtain full sexual satisfaction. Also, women outnumber men; and one man cannot satisfy a woman unless he be skilful and diligent. The New /Eon will have a foundation of Happy Women. A Woman under tabu is loath some to Life, detested by her fellows, and wretched …
1996 · PDF PAGE 174
…ody, and starved in mind; woman, morally fettered by Her heroic oath to save the race, no care of cost, helpless and hard, endured these things, endured from age to age. Hers was no loud spectacular sacrifice, no cross on a hill-top, with the world agaze, and monstrous miracles to echo the applause of heaven. She suffered and triumphed in most shameful silence; she had no friend, no follower, none to aid or approve. For thanks she had but maudlin flatteries, and knew what cruel- cold scorn the hearts of men scarce cared to hide. She agonized, r…
1996 · PDF PAGE 108
…ey shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this. Commentary: Drunkenness is a curse and a hindrance only to slaves. Shelley’s couriers were “drunk on the wind of their own
1996 · PDF PAGE 116
…ion of thought which, if not quite a theoretical necessity, is yet inevitable in practice. The very idea of any relation between any two things appears as causal. Even should we declare it to be 1 [Fr., “to the lamppost (with them),” i.e. hang them.]