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Page 124 of 1301904 · PDF PAGE 100
…. I boldly take up the glove against all previous wisdom, 1 Or, as the Sunday -school boy said: “Faith is the power of believing what we know to be untrue.” I quote Deussen with the more pleasure, because it is about the only sentence in all his writings with which I am in accord .—A.C. revert to the most elementary ideas of c anni- bal savages, challenge all the m ost vital premisses a nd axiomata that have passed current coin with philosophy for centuries, and present my theory. I clearly foresee the one difficulty, and will discuss it in adv…
1907 · PDF PAGE 230
…hes and the fairies and the angels, and the visions of divine St. John? You are annoyed at my mention of angels and witches; because you know yourselves to be sceptics, and that I have any amount of ‘‘scriptural warrant” to throw at your heads, if I deigned; you are all embar- rassed when Maude Adams Jeans over the footlights with a goo-goo accent so ex- cessive that you die of diabetes in a week, and asks you point-blank: ‘‘ Do you believe in fairies?’’ while, for your visions, you do not go to St. John’s Island, and share his exile; but to hi…
1929 · PDF PAGE 33
…ion With love in her luminous eyes." It is possible that my own indiscretion may have produced the catastrophe. I may have let my mother know that I was happy by the tone of my letters. In any case, her suspicions were aroused. Uncle Tom appeared upon the scene. Got Douglas out of the way by some lie, rifled his belongings, stole his private letters and dismissed him. But it was too late; my eyes were opened and I had become as a god, knowing good and evil. I was in a position to take the initiative. Till them, I could only aim at escaping from…
1929 · PDF PAGE 59
… Spanish, because it was considered the easiest way into the service, but Russian, on account of its extreme difficulty, and because the knowledge of it made one eligible for appointment to the most interesting and brilliant court in Europe. This led to my going to St. Petersburg, a journey which worked wonders in enlarging my outlook on the world. {115} The passion for travel was already very strong in me. Home was my idea of hell; and London itself had a sordid aspect which never appealed to me. The idea of wickedness in London is connected w…
1929 · PDF PAGE 476
…x. But nobody in British Intelligence had sufficient of that quality to notice me. I have always been unduly optimistic about England. I know such a lot of people who are far from being fools. But war seems to deaden perception. Men who are in ordinary times quite acute become ready to assume that anyone who is waving a Union Jack and singing "Britannia Rules the Waves" must be an Admiral of the Fleet. Everybody assumed that the irritating {752} balderdash I wrote for The Fatherland must be the stark treason that the Germans were stupid enough …
1929 · PDF PAGE 263
…nto consideration all sorts of circumstances, the importance of which they did not understand and other of which {435} they did not even know, and they did not realize that to deviate from my instructions in any way might be disastrous. Their disobedience having resulted in things going wrong, they proceeded to blame me. Righi had refused point blank to send Nanga on my express command; he had failed to send up any supplies, so that we were absolutely out of petroleum and short of food, both for ourselves an for our men.
1929 · PDF PAGE 76
…s. Keats, on the contrary, no matter how hard he endeavours to end on a note of optimism, always leaves an impression of failure. I well know how strangely perverse this criticism must sound, but I feel its truth in the marrow of my bones. In my own writings the tempestuous energy of my soul invariably sweeps away the wreckage of my mind. No matter to what depth I plunge, I always end with my wings beating steadily upwards towards the sun. The actual writing which releases my unconscious produces the effect. I inevitably end by transcending the…
1906 · PDF PAGE 258
…ave- not experienced, and conse- quently do not treat of, being content to accept the highly probable statements of those who profess to know, and who have so far not deceived me (z.e. as to Dhyana), is a question which it is not pertinent to the present argument to discuss.’ I shall, however, suggest certain ideas in the follow- ing section, in which I propose to discuss the most famous of the Buddhist medita- tions (Mahasatipazthana), its method, object, and results. VIII. MAHASATIPATTHANA. This meditation differs fundamentally from the usual…
1929 · PDF PAGE 469
… degenerate, I mean I, went to Bern and asked the British Minister how to get home. The B. M. (which does not mean Blasted Mutt) did not know; he said it was impossible --- there might be a train in six weeks. Would Mr. Crowley write his name in a book to reserve a seat in that phantasmagoric train? Mr Crowley wrote it; the B. M. might be hard up one day and get a meal --- or an annuity --- by selling my autograph. But he didn't wait for the train. The "British Committee" --- headed by two gentlemen who sounded like a vaudeville combination, Mr…
1929 · PDF PAGE 544
…piritual intensity and exaltation, in every way the greatest work ever yet achieved by a woman? I say, emphatically, on my honour that I know of nothing in the whole range of literature which compares with it for all those qualities which are the root of beauty and power, and so saying, I am mindful of my exaggerated enthusiasm about my own achievements in precisely these directions.) {859} 89 I go back in time to Fontainebleau. The winter was superb. It rained rarely, and the sun was so strong that even in February we used to picnic in the for…
1944 · PDF PAGE 127
…their enemy, for my fleece is white and warm, and my teeth are not the teeth of one that teareth flesh; and mine eyes are mild, and they know me not the chief of the lying spirits that the Father of All sent forth from before his face in the beginning. (“His attribution is salt; the wolf mercury, and the raven sulphur.) “Now the Lamb grows small again, there is again nothing but the wheel, and the hand that whirleth it. “And I said: ‘By the word of power, double in the voice of the Master; by the word that is seven, and one in seven; and by the…
1944 · PDF PAGE 72
…ned with his hood spread behind her head; and on his left hand is a figure somewhat like the Hindoo Kali, but much more seductive. Yet I know it to be Lilith. And above him is the Great Sigil of the Arrow, downward, but it is struck through the heart of the child. This child also is Abel. And the meaning of this part of the card is obscure, but that is the correct drawing of the Tarot card; and that is the correct magical fable from which the Hebrew scribes, who were not complete Initiates, stole their legend of the Fall and the subsequent even…
1929 · PDF PAGE 155
…all day at everything, from snipe to heron. Our Burmese boys and the kites had great rivalry in retrieving the game. The kites seemed to know that they would not be shot at. I had another slight attack of fever in the afternoon, but nothing to speak of. We tied up at Sakade for the night. There was no dak bungalow near and one does not sleep in a Burmese village unless necessity compels. And yet By palm and pagoda enchaunted o'ershadowed, I lie in the light Of stars that are bright beyond suns that all poets have vaunted In the deep-breathing a…
1929 · PDF PAGE 488
…ely magnified markets always open. There is no life of any kind outside business. I suppose that poor damned souls are sweating all they know to get out somehow, somewhere. West of the twin cities, even towns become rarer and each is more transient and inhuman than the last. The vastness of nature and the stupendous strength of her elemental forces have cried in vain. They move no man to wonder or admiration. He goes about his ant-like work with hurrying intentness, incapable of seeing or hearing anything not directly bearing on the problems th…
1929 · PDF PAGE 195
195 the trees are enormous and one obtains intoxicating views of the valley framed by their dark splendour. Few men know what a view can be. The European idea is to go, preferably by train, to some high place and obtain a panorama. To me, even the noblest panoramas are somewhat monotonous. Their boundlessness diminishes their aesthetic value. To see distant prospects to the best advantage one needs a foreground. In rock climbing and travelling through mountain forests one sees nature in perfection. At every turn, the foreground picks out specia…
1906 · PDF PAGE 286
…as familiar to him.) ‘‘ Excessive activity of one portion of the brain: relative lethargy of the rest.” ‘“ Of which portion ?”” “It is unknown.” ‘Is the phenomenon of pathological significance ?”’ ‘‘T cannot say so much: it would be a danger- ous habit to acquire: but since recovery is spontaneous, and is apparently complete, it isto be classed as physiological.’ I obtained the idea, however, that the danger was very serious, perhaps more so than the actual words used would imply. A further inquiry as to whether he could suggest any medical, su…
1929 · PDF PAGE 165
… only too well aware of my abject incompetence to provide a remedy for the least of the diseases which have come to actual issue. I only know that one must abdicate one's intelligence and submit to rule-of-thumb government. The best master is a go-as-you-please generous gentleman who settles everything by rude common sense. Our modern pretence at scientific government, based on theories and statistics, possesses all the irremediable inadequacies of purblind pedantry. My wanderings have shown me that individual happiness and prosperity flourishe…
1929 · PDF PAGE 258
… my hand was wet with blood, running fast, and looking down I saw a leech on the back of it. How it managed to fall from the sky I don't know. I have seen leeches up to seven inches long; and there seems hardly any limit to the amount of blood they can assimilate. I heard of a gorged leech weighing nearly two pounds and I believe it without effort. Another strange sight in these parts is the sheep. Tartarin, still proud of his haggis, invented wonderful theories to explain the fact that they are muzzled. However, they are not mountons enragés; …
1905 · PDF PAGE 230
…er beyond these lesser flowers !— In thee at last the live fruit quickeneth ? Eternal bliss of Love in birthless bowers ! There, secret! Knowit! Now forget! Betray not Wisdom unto Folly ! Less sweet is Joy than Melancholy |— Why should our eyes for this be wet.? Enough: be silent and be holy! There, secret! Know it! Now forget! Now I have told thee that I love thee! To me our Star in Heaven burning Tells me thy heart as mine is yearning; Tells me Love’s fragrance stolen above thee Thy soul to mine at last is turning Now I have told thee that I …
1929 · PDF PAGE 435
435 attention, both for her own sake as one of the most remarkable characters I have ever known and for the influence of her intervention on my affairs. Her name was Vittoria Cremers. She claimed to be the bastard of a wealthy English Jew and to have married a knavish Austrian baron. She was an intimate friend of Mabel Collins, authoress of The Blossom and the Fruit, the novel which has left so deep a mark upon my early ideas about Magick. In 1912 she was in her fifties. Her face was stern and square, with terribly intense eyes from which glare…