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Page 1 of 51954 · PDF PAGE 528
…plicated. I think I will leave it to you to construct your series of syllogisms yourself from the arguments of this letter. In your main question the operative word is "valuable." Why, I ask, in my turn, 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 evid…
1954 · PDF PAGE 333
300 MAGICK WITHOUT. TEARS wann Spain rather than warm India? To the last question: Because Spain is nearer to his home. Then why is his home near Spain? Because his parents were Germans. And why did they go to Germany? And so during the whole meditation. On another day let him begin with a question of another kind and every day devise new questions, not concerning his present situation, but also abstract questions. Thus let him connect the prevalence of water upon the surface of the globe with its necessity to such life as we know with the spec…
1954 · PDF PAGE 501
…piriting-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 the performance of strange dances and the vibration of m…
1954 · PDF PAGE 314
…he word. Their actions in fact are merely re-actions. They are, of course, entirely lacking in the Supernal Triad. There is therefore no question of anything in them which would persist through change. Perhaps it would be better to say that change does not really affect them. Another way to put it would be that they are adjectives, not nouns. They are merely sensible manifestations of the elements to which they are attributed , and to the letters of their name. Now, on the othe: hand, there is an entirely different type of angel; and here we mu…
1954 · PDF PAGE 157
…CK WITHOUT TEARS and they confer upon him, gradually , the Magical Secrets which make him Master of Life. To return for a moment to that question of Secrecy: there is no rule to prevent you from quoting against me such of my brighter remarks as "Mystery is the enemy of Truth" ; but , for one thing, I am, and always have been, the leader of the Extreme Left in the Council-Chamber of the City of the Pyramids, so that if I acquiesce at all in the system of the O.T.O. so far as the "secret of secrets" of the IXo is concerned, it is really on a poin…
1954 · PDF PAGE 436
…cted. I wrote you a long while ago about doubt, and now I suppose the seed fell in fertile ground! My chaste remarks have prompted a new question "arising out of the previous answer, Sir." You point out quite correctly that the doubt of which I wrote in passages of such burning eloquence is after all what used to be called "philosophic" doubt; and by "philosophic" people apparently meant something rather Ii ke "Pickwickians. " Not the genuine McCoy, determining action, but-well, rather like scoring points in an intellectual game. Now then (air …
1954 · PDF PAGE 256
… and Venus, you would indeed have been a Wild Man of the Woods, arrogant, bigoted, domineering, incapable of seeing a second side to any question, headstrong, haughty, a seething hell-broth of hate; and this fact disables your judgment." All perfectly true. My equable nature is congenitally hostile to extreme measures, except in imagination. I cannot bear sudden violent movements. Climbing rocks, people used to say that I didn't climb them, that I oozed over them! This explains, I think, my deep-seated dislike of many passages in The Book of th…
1954 · PDF PAGE 251
… Religion"? Cara Soror, Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. "Would you describe your system as a new religion?" A pertinent question, you doubtless suppose; whether it may happen to mean anything is-is-is-well, is what we must try to make clear. True, it's a slogan of A:. A:.: "The method of science-the aim of religion." Here the word 'aim' and the context help the definition; it must mean the attainment of Knowledge and Power in spiritual matters-or words to that effect: as soon as one selects a phrase, one starts to kick holes in…
1954 · PDF PAGE 484
…N THE PATH 451 Greetings and Adorations and all such mnemonics, you are not likely to go very far wrong. Wands: this is obviously a pure question of Will. You will find as you go on that obstacles of varying degrees of difficulty confront you ; and the way in which you deal with them is most carefully watched. The best advice that I can give is to remember that there is little need of the Bull-at-a-Gate method , though that must always be ready in reserve; no, the best analogy is rapier-play. Elastic strength . Warfare shows us. That seems to c…
1954 · PDF PAGE 64
…ntgen. As Tyndall said, man might at any moment learn to perceive and utilize vibrations of all conceivable and inconceivable kinds. The question of Magick is a question of discovering and employing hitherto unknown forces in nature. We know that exist, and we cannot doubt the possibility of mental or physical instruments capable of bringing us in relation with them.) 13. Every man is more or less aware that his individuality comprises several orders of existence, even when he maintains 3. For instance, ''irrational,'' "unreal," and "infinite" …
1954 · PDF PAGE 402
… and diamonds; that is exactly the chance for these tricky earth spirits to take advantage of the ambiguity . I will therefore frame the question so as to cover both sources of riches. I will not specify gold or diamonds. I will say simply "mineral wealth." The answers to his series of questions indicated that he was to go out of the city where he would find a deposit. The next questions in his series were directed to finding the direction in which he should start his exploration . That was easy. The next question was the distance involved, and…
1954 · PDF PAGE 249
… day later she would repeat the previous inanities as if they had never been demolished . In the late fifties, at a guess. I sprang your question on her out of the blue, a la "doodle-bug"; premising merely that I had been asked the question , and was puzzled as to how to answer it. Her reply was curious and surprising: without a moment's hesitation and with great enthusiasm , "Quickly , yes!" The spontaneous reservation struck me as extremely interesting. I said: of course, but suppose you think it over- and out- a bit, what am I to understand?…
1954 · PDF PAGE 205
…ity through sense such as is common to all men. And this brings us-it has been a long way round-from the suggestion of your visit to the question (hitherto unanswered) in your letter. You raise so vast and razor-edged a question when you write of the supposed antinomy of "soul" and "sense" that it seemed better to withhold comment until this later letter; much meditation was most needful to compress the answer within reasonable limits; even to give it form at all is no easy matter. For this is probably the symptom of the earliest stirring of th…
1954 · PDF PAGE 41
…parently take up a more or less Christian attitude, but at the same time you like very much the idea of Karma. You cannot have both. The question about money does not arise. This old and very good rule (which I have always kept) was really pertinent to the time when there were actual secrets. But I have published openly all the secrets. All I can do is to train you in a perfectly exoteric way. My suggestion about the weekly letter was intended to exclude this question, as you would be getting full commercial value for anything paid. Your questi…
1954 · PDF PAGE 353
…ing over what I wrote in my last letter with regard to the verification of appearances in the Astral Plane. I did not mention a parallel question of even greater immediate practical importance: that of one's relations with Astral or discarnate intelligences or with Those whom we call "The Masters" or "The Gods": the messages or gestures which reach us through the normal physical channels. The importance is that they actually determine one's line of conduct in critical situations. It seemed therefore a good idea to give you three examples from T…
1954 · PDF PAGE 303
…elligent man to steal a march on his neighbours! In all this the important point for my present purpose is to show you how entirely this question of probability and coincidence is dependent on your attention . The sequence BBBBBBB at roulette is most unlikely to occur; but so, in exactly the same degree, is the sequence B R B R R B R or any other sequence. The one passes unnoticed, the other causes surprise, only because you have in your mind the idea of "a run on black." Extend this line of thought a little, and link it up with what I was sayi…
1954 · PDF PAGE 325
… a pelvis, what's more; for in a way the whole structure of the ethics of Thelema is founded upon it. There is some danger here; for the question is a booby trap for the noble , the generous, the high-minded . 'Selflessness', the great characteristic of the Master of the Temple, the very quintessence of his attainment, is not its contradictory , or even its contrary ; it is perfectly compatible (nay, shall we say friendly?) with it. The Book of the Law has plenty to say on this subject, and it does not mince its words. AL,II: 18, 19, 20, 21 : T…
1954 · PDF PAGE 298
…o dupe you into passing Captain Coincidence as 'Friend', whereas he is naturally the most formidable of all your foes when it comes to a question of proof." Quite right , Sergeant-Major! But it is not only about prophecy, but about all sorts of things, in particular, of course, the identification of angels and similar problems. Well, we have captured quite a few lads of the company of Captain Coincidence; let us have them up for examination and learn what we can about their weapons and other warlike matters! I take our first prisoner from Magic…
1954 · PDF PAGE 264
…h the latter, until success crowned my work. I also studied all varieties of Asiatic philosophy, especially with regard to the practical question of spiritual development, the Sufi doctrines, the Upanishads, the Sankhya, Veda and Vedanta, the Bhagarad-Gita and Purana, 231
1954 · PDF PAGE 367
…tion by brute arithmetic. Of course, one must be of good family to do anything much that is worth doing; but what is one to say when the question of the Great Work is posed? Bless you, the whole strength of the family is based on the fact that it cares for the family only: therefore its magical formula thus concentrated is of necessity hostile to so exclusively individual an aim as Initiation . Its sentiments are reciprocated. In every Magical, or similar system, it is invariably the first condition which the Aspirant must fulfil: he must once …