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Page 1 of 81954 · PDF PAGE 64
…ith each other in a way beyond our present comprehension. (Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of-thumb methods. We do not know what consciousness is, or how it is connected with muscular action; what electricity is or how it is connected with the machines that generate it; and our methods depend on calculations involving mathematical ideas which have no correspondence in the Universe as we know it. 3 ) 12. Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and powers. Even his idea of his limitations is based on experience of the pas…
1954 · PDF PAGE 498
…was my private fiend again- the Demon of Digression. Back to our Gods!) 777 itself, to say nothing of The Golden Bough and the Good Lord knows how many other similar monuments of lexicography (for really they are little more) , is our text-book . We are bound to · note at once that the Gods sympathise , run into one another , coalesce much more closely than any other of the Orders of Being. There is not really much in common between a jackal and a beetle , or between a wolf and an owl, although they are grouped under Pisces or Aries respectivel…
1954 · PDF PAGE 225
…him, in politer language, to repeat the Novocastrian Experiment. Undeterred, he insisted: "But you must." (Now we go back, or forward, I know not which, to a night when I found myself stranded in London. I asked hospitality of a stranger; it was readily afforded. Some hours later my hostess fell asleep; I could not do so; something was nagging me. I suddenly took my notebook, and wrote a certain passage in a certain book, since published .) "Must, my foot!" He persisted: "You have published the secret of the nth degree of O.T.O., and you must t…
1954 · PDF PAGE 154
THE LEFT-HAND PATH 121 And he said: Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani. Such an ecstasy of anguish racks me that I cannot give it voice, yet I know it is but as the anguish of Gethsemane . (Ibid., 11 th Aethyr) Love is the law, love under will. Fraternally, 666
1954 · PDF PAGE 229
…is part of a pound, or a factor indispensable, as when one says "A wheel is part of a motor-car," or ... The fact is that very few of us know what words mean; fewer still take the trouble to enquire. We calmly, we carelessly assume that our minds are identical with that of the writer, at least on that point; and then we wonder that there should be misunderstandings! The fact is (again!) that usually we don't really want to know; it is so very much easier to drift down the river of discourse, "lazily, lazily, drowsily, drowsily, in the noonday s…
1954 · PDF PAGE 430
…or details. Vampires, you say, might be a temptation to yourself, or they might sap your energy. Very good. I will tell you the little I know. Listen to Eliphas Levi! He warns us against a type of person, fearless and cold-blooded, who seems to have the power to cast a sudden chill, merely by entering the room, upon the gayest party ever assembled. Tete-a-tete, they shake one's resolution, kill one's enthusiasm, devitalize one's faith and courage. Yes, we all know such people. Mercury, by the way, is the planet responsible. I have examined a co…
1954 · PDF PAGE 77
…? Why not say straight out what you mean? Surely the subject is difficult enough in any case- must you put on a mask to make it clear? I know you well enough by now to be sure that you will not fob me off with any Holy-Willie nonsense about the Ineffable, about human language being inadequate to reveal such Mysteries, about the necessity of constructing a new language to explain a new system of thought; of course I know that this had to be done in the case of chemistry, of higher mathematics, indeed of almost all technical subjects; but I feel …
1954 · PDF PAGE 528
…rn, should you consider your time valuable? It certainly is not valuable unless the universe has a meaning, and what is more, unless you know what that meaning is-at least roughly-it is millions to one that you will find yourself barking up the wrong tree. First of all let us consider this question of the meaning of the universe. It is its own evidence to design, and that design intelligent design. There is no question of any moral significance- "one man's meat is another man's poison" and so on. But there can be no possible doubt about the exi…
1954 · PDF PAGE 196
…o Learn the Practice of Astrology Cara Soror, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. "Up, Guards, and at 'em!" First, you must know your correspondences by heart backwards and upside down (air connu) . They are practically all in The Book of Thoth; but "if anyone anything lacks," look for it in 777. Then, get a book on Astrology, the older the better. Raphael's Shilling Handbook is probably enough for the present purpose. Get well into your head what the menu says about the natures of the planets, the influence of the aspects, what is…
1954 · PDF PAGE 340
…discovery of the key number 31 by Frater Achad. We must also expect a genius to arise who will accomplish all this work for us. Again we know that much information of the utmost value has been given through the Hebrew, the Greek, and very probably the Arabic Qabalah. There is only one logical conclusion of these premises. We know (a) the Book means more than it appears to mean, (b) this inner meaning may modify, or even reverse, the outer meaning, (c) what we do understand convinces us that the Author of the Book is indeed what he claims to be;…
1954 · PDF PAGE 524
…at thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. The first and absolutely essential task for the Aspirant is to write his Magical Record. You know some elementary Mechanics-the Triangle of Forces, and all that. Well, if we have a body acted on by two equal forces, one pulling it East, the other South, it will tend to move in a South-Easterly direction. But if the "south" force is (say) twice as strong, it will move south of South-East. Now you, sitting in your study reading this letter, got there and were compelled to do that, as the result of the i…
1954 · PDF PAGE 500
THE GODS 467 How restore faith in the Gods? There is only one way; we must get to know them personally. And that , of course, is one of the principal tasks of the Magician. One further remark. I have suggested that all these "identical" gods are in reality distinct persons , but belonging to the same families. Can we follow up this line of thought? Yes: but I will defer it to a subsequent letter. Love is the law, love under will. Fraternally, 666
1954 · PDF PAGE 501
…aw. Your remarks on my 0 = 2 letter are very apt and inspiriting-that is if I have rightly understood what you want to say. (Really, you know, they are a bit muddled-or I am!) May I frame your question, if it is a question, in my own terms? You say that I have advanced an invulnerable theory of the Universe in philosophical and mathematical language, and you suppose (underlined three times with two question marks) that one could, with a great effort, deduce therefrom perfectly good reasons for an unswerving contemplation of one's umbilicus, or …
1954 · PDF PAGE 539
506 MAGICK WITHOUT TEARS and more towards the side of Magick. I do not know why this should have been, but that it is so I have no doubt whatever. I see quite clearly now that Yoga from its very first beginnings is liable to lead the mind away into a condition of muddle, and though for each such state Yoga itself provides the necessary cure, may not one ask oneself it it is really wise to begin one's work with axioms and postulates which are inherently dangerous. The whole controversy might be expressed as a differential equation. Their curves …
1954 · PDF PAGE 243
… exaltation, a dithyramb, a Paean} No good here. For what you want is a penny plain pedestrian prose Probability-Percentage. You want to know what the Odds are when I say "certain." A case for casuistry? At least, for classification. It depends rather on one's tone of voice? Yes, of course, and as to the classification, off we jog to the Divine Pymander, who saw, and stated, the quiddity of our query with his accustomed lucidity. He discerns three degrees of Truth; and he distinguishes accordingly: 1. True 2. Certain without error 3. Of all tru…
1954 · PDF PAGE 437
…d a beautiful maid. "Where are you going so meek and holy?" "I'm going to temple to worship Crowley. " "Crowley is God then? How did you know?" "Why. it's Captain Fuller that told us so. " "And how do you know that Fuller was right?" "I'm afraid you're a wicked man; good-night. " While this sort of thing is styled success I shall not count failure bitterness. Sometimes, note well! they are even frank about it, and say plainly that there would be no merit in it if there were any reasonable basis for it! This position is at the worst both honest …
1954 · PDF PAGE 374
…ther" must be as nauseating to all properly human minds as it now is to every one that has contemplated the subject with clear vision. I know there is an answer to all this; in fact, The Book of the Law enables us to take it in our stride. But there is another aspect of "mother-love" which is urgent, practical, and in no way dependent upon ideal considerations. What do we find in practice as the immediate consequence of this 'sublime', this 'holy' instinct? Quite a few species of animals habitually devour their offspring; but women "know a tric…
1954 · PDF PAGE 78
…m; and I beg that you will not suppose that I am evading the question, or adopting the Irish method of answering it by another, though I know it may sound as if I were. Let me set out by restating our original problem; what we want is Truth; we want an even closer approach to Reality; and we want to discover and discuss the proper means of achieving this object. Very good; let us start by the simplest of all possible enquiries-and the most difficult- "What is anything?" "What do we know?" and other questions that spring naturally from these. I …
1954 · PDF PAGE 376
…st, the most natural, that is to say, the most brutish. You have complained pathetically on more than one occasion that I do not seem to know my own mind about Nature; that I am always contradicting myself. Sometimes I tell you that everything is in Nature ; that everything moves by Nature; that to oppose Nature is to provoke endothermic reaction, and then I leap headlong through the hoop of my own construction and want you to defy nature, to attack her, to overcome her. Really, dear Master, it is too bad of you! I know it sounds bad but there …
1954 · PDF PAGE 63
… true to his own nature, and at the same time adapt himself to his environment.) 10. Nature is a continuous phenomenon, though we do not know in all cases how things are connected. (Illustration: Human consciousness depends on the properties of protoplasm, the existence of which depends on innumerable physical conditions peculiar to this planet; and this planet is determined by the mechanical balance of the whole universe of matter . We may then say that our consicousness is causally connected with the remotest galaxies; yet we do not know even…