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Page 82 of 841929 · PDF PAGE 343
…summer and the south With our passion in your body and our love upon your mouth --- With our wonder and our worship be the world aflame anew! My Gitana, my Saliya! I am coming back to you!1 This year was indeed my annus mirabilis in poetry. It began with Clouds Without Water, to which I have already called attention in the matter of its {555} 1. Crowley made a sound recording of this poem. It is widely extant. technique. The question of its inspiration is not less interesting. At Coulsdon, at the very moment when my conjugal cloudburst was impe…
1929 · PDF PAGE 95
…to the invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel. I should have preferred it without them. There is, however, a reason. Anyone who reaches a new world must conform with all the conditions of it. It is true, of course, that the hierarchy of evil appears somewhat repugnant to science. It is in fact very hard to explain that we mean by saying that we invoke Paimon; but, to go a little deeper, the same remark applies to Mr. Smith next door. We do not know who Mr. Smith is, or what is his place in nature, or how to account for him. We cannot even be sur…
1929 · PDF PAGE 248
… the consonants I cannot tell whether I need an "a" or an "o". Now this perception is obvious to everybody, yet everybody acts as if he knew exactly what would be the result of writing "a" instead of "o", assuming that he is free to choose which he will do --- which he isn't. But I bring this principle into my life; it governs me in every action outside my regular reflexes. I am really aware that I do not know whether it would be to my advantage to be hanged. I have only attained to a standard of conduct by referring all my judgments to my will…
1929 · PDF PAGE 300
…t all why he should discard his own beliefs which seem to him more vivid and more veracious, better adapted and better attested than the new. It is in fact only among the very lowest class of superstitious savages that Christianity makes any headway. Where Christian and Moslem missions are in direct rivalry, Islam collects the higher and Christianity the lower sections of the society. Disappointed about learning Chinese ideas at first hand in this remote region, I hoped at least to get available information about the effects of opium smoking. D…
1929 · PDF PAGE 366
…lemma set forth above. We need no longer doubt that white is white, because that proposition implicitly asserts what white is black. Our new instrument assures us that the whiteness of white depends on the fact of its blackness. This statement sounds more than absurd; it is a meaningless assertion. But we have already seen that the axioms of the intellect involve absurdity. They only impose upon us at first because
1929 · PDF PAGE 48
…inality. In other districts I could be no more than primus inter pares. On Beachy Head I was the only one --- I had invented an entirely new branch of the sport. For a number of weeks I slept in a Mummery tent on one of the traverses. It was my first experience of camp life, which is, one thing with another, the best life I know. The mere feeling of being in the fresh air under the stars when one goes to sleep, and of waking at dawn because it is dawn, raises one's animal life ipso facto to the level of poetry. There have always been in me two …
1929 · PDF PAGE 294
…nt afforded a series of superb views. The Salween has the reputation of being the most deadly river in the world. Its only rivals are in New Guinea and, at an earlier day, the Amazon, the Niger and the Congo. It is supposed to have a specially fatal form of malaria which kills most people outright and from which on one ever wholly recovers. No doubt, some of the lower reaches are extremely pestilential; but in this section one might establish an ideal sanatorium. The course of the Salween had not at that time been completely explored. There is …
1904 · PDF PAGE 71
…ency of my celebrated essay : AFTER AGNOSTICISM Allow me to introduce myself as the original Irishman whose first question on landing at New Yor k was, “I s t here a Gover nment in this country? ” and on being told “Yes,” instantly replied, “Then I’m agin it. ” For after some years of consistent Agnosticism, being at last asked to contribute to an Agnostic organ, for the life of me I can think of nothing better than to attack my hosts! Insidious cuckoo! Ungrateful Banyan! My shame drives me to Semetic analogy, and I sadly reflect that if I had …
1929 · PDF PAGE 369
…er matter; it was something, and something very great, to know that my work gained me the respect of the very few men on the planet who knew the difference between Keats and Lewis Morris. I had been recognized as a poet of the first class by my peers and the applause of the mob would leave me as cold as its neglect or hostility does at present. I kept hard at work in London until after the publication of the first number of The Equinox. There was, besides, much work to be done in reorganizing the order, to which many people were anxious to obta…
1929 · PDF PAGE 448
…ince I was acquainted with the supreme secret of the Order, I must be allowed the IX° and obligated in regard to it. I protested that I knew no such secret. He said, "But you have printed it in the plainest language." I said that I could not have done so because I did not know it. He went to the bookshelves and, taking out a copy of The Book of Lies, pointed to a passage in the despised chapter. It instantly flashed upon me. The entire symbolism, not only of freemasonry but of many other traditions, blazed upon my spiritual vision. From that mo…
1904 · PDF PAGE 6
…lysis upon the funda- mental problems of religion, as it were an axe laid to the root of the Tree of Life. It seems quite clear that he knew what would result if he did so. We cannot help fancy ing that he was unwilling to do this. The proof of his knowledge I find in the following lines:— “I have read much, thought much, experienced much, Yet would rather die than avow my fear The Naples’ liquefaction may be false . . . I hear you recommend, I might at least Eliminate, decrassify my faith Since I adopt it: keeping what I must And leaving what …
1929 · PDF PAGE 361
…. Magick would yield its secrets to the infidel and the libertine, just as one does not have to be a churchwarden in order to discover a new kind of orchid. There are, of course, certain virtues necessary to the Magician; but they are of the same order as those which make a successful chemist. Idleness, carelessness, drunkenness; the like interfere with success in any serious business, but sound theology and adherence to the code of Hampstead as against that of Hyderabad are only important if the man's body may suffer if his views are erroneous…
1929 · PDF PAGE 362
…to enjoy every incident, to find something to love in every strange face, to admire even the dreariest wilderness of sunburnt scrub. We knew that nothing really mattered so long as we got to Madrid. The world went on very well without us and its fortunes were none of our business. The only thing that could annoy us was interference with out intention to get to Madrid, though we didn't want to go there except insofar as we had taken it into our heads to set our faces towards it. All these lessons would be of value when I got to London. I meant t…
1929 · PDF PAGE 304
…Yangtze; for one thing, the delays at Bhamo and Tengyueh had robbed me of time. I was anxious to get to Europe in good time to prepare a new expedition to Kangchenjunga for 1907. I had the mountain, so to speak, in my pocket. A part of average strength could make as certain of strolling to the top as if it were the Strand. I decided, therefore, to turn south and make for Tonkin. On March 2nd, after breakfast and tiffin with the consul general, who was unfortunately short of stores and could only spare us a couple of tins of butter, we started a…
1906 · PDF PAGE 215
… had toiled all the morning and had caught nothing, and he advised me to try the other side of the lake ; and I caught many fish. But I knew not that it was the Jord. In Australia they were praying for rain in the churches. The Sydwey Bulletin very sensibly pointed out how much more reverent and practical it would be, if, instead of con- stantly worrying the Almighty about trifles, they would pray once and for all for a big range of mountains in Central Australia, which would of course supply rain automatically. No new act of creation would be …
1929 · PDF PAGE 183
… of a rather severe type swept the camp for an hour; but at four o'clock the weather again cleared. "Tomorrow to fresh woods an pastures new" --- except that there were neither woods nor pastures! "We were the first that ever burst into that silent sea" --- except that there wasn't any sea! The poets are really very thoughtless to leave their heir without an appropriate quotation! On the sixteenth of June I marched for a little over four hours where man had never yet trodden. It proved to be the easiest going yet. The eternal moraine was less i…
1929 · PDF PAGE 483
…rica. This chapter should form a framework into which may be fitted the special accounts of my activity. My worst encounter was with the New York World which had distinguished itself by printing Harry Kemp's rubbish about my magical exploits. The editor, a genial Irishman --- remarkable precisely for being half educated neither more nor less correct to eight places of decimals --- observing that Kemp's statements involved numerous physical impossibilities took him to a notary and made him swear to their truth. I have told elsewhere how it came …
1904 · PDF PAGE 74
… had toiled all the morning and had caught nothing, and he advised me to try the other side of the lake ; and I caught many fish. But I knew not that it was the Lord. In Australia they w ere praying for rain in the churches. The Sydney Bulletin very sensibly pointed out how much more reverent and practical it would be, if, instead of con- stantly worrying the Almighty about trifles, they would pray once and for all for a big range of mountains in Central Australia, which would of course supply rain automatically. No new act of creation would be…
1929 · PDF PAGE 115
…ings as they came. In all my travels I have hardly ever "seen the sights". Nothing is so disappointing. My plan is simply to live in any new city the ordinary life of the people. I wander about and presently come unexpectedly upon one of the wonders of the world. In this way one gets the thrill which those who have sold their souls to Baedeker miss. Imagine the delight of discovering the Coliseum or the Taj Mahal for oneself, at a moment, perhaps, when one's mind was preoccupied with commonplace ideas! I may have missed a few masterpieces, but …
1929 · PDF PAGE 255
… do not! On the other hand, I hound the heaven-born and the army as full of cordiality and comradeship as ever. As luck would have it, a new Worshipful Master was to be installed at the Lodge of Freemasons, so I went to the Jadugar-Khana and received a most brotherly welcome to the