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Page 1 of 11913 · PDF PAGE 118
…see them if they were historical. Let him avoid the imaginative interpretation of any facts. Let him not put himself in the place of the people of whom the facts are related, or if he does so, let it be done only for the purpose of comprehension. Sympathy,^ indignation, praise and blame, are out of place in the observer. No one has properly considered the question as to the amount and quality of the light afforded by candles made by waxed Christians. Who has any idea which joint of the ordinary missionary is preferred by epicures? It is only a …
1913 · PDF PAGE 167
…ditation-practices the Student hears a bell resound in the depths of his being. It is not subjective, for it is sometimes heard by other people. Some Magicians are able to call the attention of those with whom they wish to communicate at a distance by its means, or, so it is said. 155
1913 · PDF PAGE 138
…. Karma only grows by what it feeds on: and if Karma is to be properly brought up, it requires a very careful diet. With the majority of people their actions cancel each other out; no sooner is effort made than it is counterbalanced by idleness. Eros gives place to x\nteros. Not one man in a thousand makes even an apparent escape from the commonplace of animal life. Birth is sorrow ; Life is sorrow ; Sorrowfiil are old age, disease, and death; But resurrection is the greatest misery of all.
1913 · PDF PAGE 69
…s a wise course to pursue. But it certainly seems easier to strip off first the things which can easily be done without. The majority of people will find most trouble with the Emotions, and thoughts which excite them. But it is both possible and necessary not merely to suppress the emotions, but to turn them into faithful servants. Thus the emotion of anger is occasionally useful against that portion of the brain whose slackness vitiates the control. If there is one emotion which is never useful, it is pride : for this reason, that it is bound …
1913 · PDF PAGE 81
…type of mind than the linguist who speaks twenty. This Tree of Thought is exactly paralleled by the tree of nervous structure. Very many people go about nowadays who are exceedingly " well- informed," but who have not the slightest idea of the meaning of the facts they know. They have not developed the necessary higher part of the brain. Induction is impossible to them.
1913 · PDF PAGE 68
… —but in their intensity. The worst of all is of course the ego, which is almost omnipresent 1 If it were not so there would be very few people in the world who were not blind.
1913 · PDF PAGE 71
… religion will seem so many toys, and your Magical Will will be free from these inhibitions. In Burma there is only one animal which the people will kill, Russell's Viper; because, as they say, "either you must kill it or it will kill you"; and it is a question of which sees the other first. Now any one idea which is not The Idea must be treated in this fashion. When you have killed the snake you can use its skin, but as long as it is alive and free, you are in danger. And unfortunately the ego-idea, which is the real snake, can throw itself in…
1913 · PDF PAGE 112
…agueness. The Will of the King was at least ascertainable at any moment; nobody has yet devised a means for ascertaining the will of the people. All conscious willed action is impeded; the march of events is now nothing but inertia. Let the Magician consider these matters before he takes the Sword in his hand. Let him understand that the Ruach, this loose combina- tion of 6 Sephiroth, only bound together by their attachment to the human will in Tiphereth, must be rent asunder. The mind must be broken up into a form of insanity before it can be …
1913 · PDF PAGE 122
…sised, for it is a very simple one. Waugh ! Waugh ! Waugh! Waugh! Waugh !^ In the question of ethics it again becomes vital, for to many people it seems impossible to consider the merits of any act without dragging in a number of subjects which have no real connection with it. The Bible has been mistranslated by perfectly competent scholars because they had to consider the current theology. The most glaring example is the "Song of Solomon," a typical piece of Oriental erotic- ^ By interrupting thus doggishly, the bark of a dog will remind you, …
1913 · PDF PAGE 180
…out him, at first there is nothing but darkness. If he continues trying to penetrate the gloom, a new pair of eyes gradually opens. Some people think that these are the " eyes of imagination." Those with more experience understand that this truly represents things seen, although those things are themselves totally false. At first the seer will perceive gray gloom ; in subsequent experiments perhaps figures may appear with whom the seer may converse, and under whose guidance he may travel about. This " plane " being quite as large and varied as …
1913 · PDF PAGE 52
…ll wills which are not de- pendent upon this principal will are so many leakages ; they are like fat to the athlete. The majority of the people in this world are ataxic; they cannot co- ordinate their mental muscles to make a purposed movement. They have no real will, only a set of wishes, many of which contradict others. The victim wobbles from one to the other (and it is no less wobbling because the movements may occasionally be very violent) and at the end of life the movements cancel each other out. Nothing has been achieved; except the one…
1913 · PDF PAGE 15
…eys have never been actually lost, they have certainly been little used.^ Again, the confusion of thought caused by the ignorance of the people who did not understand it has discredited the whole subject. It is now our task to re-establish this science in its perfection. To do this we must criticize the Authorities; some of them have made it too complex, others have completely failed in such simple matters as coherence. Many of the writers are empirics, still more mere scribes, while by far the largest class of all is composed of stupid charlat…
1913 · PDF PAGE 59
47 of great price, which when a man hath found he straightway selleth all that he hath, and buyeth that pearl. With many people custom and habit —of which ethics is but the social expression —are the things most difificult to give up: and it is a useful practice to break any habit just to get into the way of being free from that form of slavery. Hence we have prac- tices for breaking up sleep, for putting our bodies into strained and un- natural positions, for doing difficult exercises of breathing — all these, apart from any special merit they…
1913 · PDF PAGE 103
…traordinary, as if he were no longer the same person; in fact in the ten minutes we were talking he seemed to be any number of different people. I especially noticed the pupils of his eyes were so enlarged that the entire eye seemed black. (I tremble so and have such a quaking feeling inside, simply in thinking of last night, that I can't form letters.) Then quite slowly the entire room filled with a thick yellow light (deep golden, but not l)rilliant. I mean not dazzling, but soft). Fra. P. looked like a person I had never seen but seemed to k…
1913 · PDF PAGE 62
… after red has come up once the conditions are changed. It would be useless to insist on such a point were it not for the fact that many people confuse Philosophy with Magick. Philosophy is the enemy of Magick. Philosophy assures us that after all nothing matters, and that che sara sara. In practical life, and Magick is the most practical of the Arts of life, this difficulty does not occur. It is useless to argue with a man who is running to catch a train that he may be destined not to catch it; he just runs, and if he could spare breath would …
1913 · PDF PAGE 181
…; but the moment he ceases to examine, to act from habit and without reflection, he is in trouble. We all of us eat too niucli, l)ecause people, liveried and obsequious, have always bustled up five times daily with six months' provisions, and it was less trouble to feed and be done with it, than to examine the question whether we were hungry. If you cook your own food, you soon find that you don't rook more or less than you want; and health returns. If, however, you go to the other extreme and think of nothing but diet, you are almost sure to a…
1913 · PDF PAGE 182
…e really thought that the majority of mankind w'as doomed to eternal punishment, one would go raving about the w^orld trying to " save " people. Sleep would not be possible until the horror of the mind left the body exhausted. Otherwise, one must be morally insane. Which of us can sleep if one we love is in danger of mere death? We cannot even see a dog drown without at least interrupting all our business to look on. Who then can live in London and reflect upon the fact that of its seven million souls, all but about a thousand Plymouth Brethren…