Thelema ScholarTHE ALEISTER CROWLEY COLLECTION
FOLLOW A WORD THROUGH THE COLLECTION

Search the corpus.

Phrase search ignores case and repeated whitespace. All-words search finds whole words anywhere on the same page. OCR errors can affect results.

2,091 matching pages

Page 99 of 105
1907 · PDF PAGE 250

Collected Works (Vol. III)

…k my blood in waves appears, ll, 18 Some years ago I thought to try, ii. 178 So much when philosophy’s lacteal river, ii. 168 So not one word derogatory, il. 152 -So now the Earl was-well a-weary, il. 49 SACRED, between the serpent fangs of pain, i. 199 1. Sakkaya-diz¢hi. t 4 D Belief in a ‘‘soul,” ii. 249 Sophie ! I loved her, tenderly at worst, i. 194 (1) Sorrow.—Enxistence is Sorrow, ii. 245 So since in England Christ still stands, ii. 147

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 511

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

…my immeasurable toils. Fortified and rejoiced by this good news, I began at once to devote myself to research in the strict sense of the word. And then the fun began! I found myself unable to do anything of the sort. I am not quite sure how the circumstances responsible for this fit in with my general situation, but they are well worthy of record for their own sake. I have mentioned elsewhere that in the bosom of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis of the O.T.O. is cherished a magical formula, extremely simple and practical, for attaining any desired o…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1906 · PDF PAGE 216

Collected Works (Vol. II)

210 THE SWORD OF SONG You write him, with a face of flint, An order for some soda-mint. So Yoga. Life’s a carcinoma, Its cause uncertain, not to check. In vain you cry to Isis: ‘‘O ma! I’ve got it fairly in the neck.” The surgeon Crowley, with his trocar, Says you a poor but silly bloke are, Advises concentration's knife Quick to the horny growth called life. ‘“ Yoga? There’s danger in the biz ! But, it’s the only chance there is !”’ (For life, if left alone, is sorrow, And only fools hope God’s to-morrow.) Up, Guards, and at’em !/ Second, your…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1904 · PDF PAGE 75

The Sword of Song

THE SWORD OF SONG 68 You write him, with a face of flint, An order for some soda-mint. So Yoga. Life’s a carcinoma, Its cause uncertain, not to check. In vain you cry to Isis : “O ma ! I’ve got it fairly in the neck.” The surgeon Crowley, with his trocar, Says you a poor but silly bloke are, Advises concentration’s knife Quick to the horny growth called life. “Yoga ? There’s danger in the biz ! But, it’s the only chance there is !” (For life, if left alone, is sorrow, And only fools hope God’s to-morrow.) Up, Guards, and at ’em! Second, your fa…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 31

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

…poke with the assurance and authority of a man of fifty on subjects on which I had really no opinion at all in the ordinary sense of the word. There is one amazing incident; at the age of fourteen as near as I can remember. I must premise that I have always been exceptionally tenderhearted, except to tyrants, for whom I think no tortures bad enough. In {73} particular, I am uniformly kind to animals; no question of cruelty or sadism arises in the incident which I am about to narrate. I had been told "A cat has nine lives." I deduced that it mus…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 414

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

… The Book of the Law, cap. I, verse 34: ...the ordeals I write not: ... ... he(the Beast) may make severe the ordeals. (V.38) There is a word to say about the Hierophantic task. Behold! there are three ordeals in one, and it may be

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1904 · PDF PAGE 105

The Sword of Song

…task of the Buddhist recluse is roughly as follows. He must plunge every particle of his being into one idea : right views, aspirations, word, deed, life, will-power, medi- tation, rapture, s uch are the s tages of his liberation, which resolves itself into a struggle against the laws of causality . He cannot prevent past causes taking effect, but he can prevent pres ent caus es from having any future results. The exoteric Christian and Hindu rather rely on another person to do this for them, and are further blinded by the thirst for life and i…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 101

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

…. The amateur status above all! Hospitality is, however, always allowable. But I was careful never to go beyond the strict letter of the word. Iehi Aour came to stay with me and under his tuition I made rapid progress. He showed me where to get knowledge, how to criticize it and how to apply it. We also worked together at ceremonial Magick; evoking spirits, consecrating talismans, and so on. I must relate one episode, as throwing light upon my magical accomplishments and my ethical standards. Jones and I had come to the conclusion that Allan wo…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 340

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

…ver to see that every article of my costume was correct. I then began to recite what I had learnt from my sheikh in Egypt --- the "Great Word to become mad and go about naked". Subhana Allahu walhamdu lilahi walailaha illa allahu wallahu akbar wala baala wala quata illa billahi alaliu ala'zhim. Glory to God and thanks to God, and there is only one God, and God is most great, and there is no strength but in Him, the Exalted, the Great. It does not take me long to work myself up by means of a mantra, even of this lengthy type, into a state of ecs…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 334

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

…e these volumes testify against the tyranny of time1. He had them taken to his camp with the greatest care. Although he could not read a word of the letterpress, the illustrations were in the universal language, which he could read at sight. The first standard work of reference --- the key to the wisdom of the buried past. With this vision before us, we determined on making our record of the highest attainments of human spirits of our generation as worthy as possible of its subject. It annoyed us that we could not engrave our knowledge on ten t…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 406

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

…, writing in some article for the New York Vanity Fair, "Science offers her virgin head to the caress of Magick." The editor thought the word "virgin" a little risky and changed it to "maiden"!) Recovering from the first spasm of cynical appreciation, I saw that there was only one thing to be done in the interests of common decency and respect for Epstein. I detached the butterfly and put it under my waistcoat. The gate keeper did not notice how portly I had become. When I reached London, I put on evening dress and affixed the butterfly to my o…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1907 · PDF PAGE 246

Collected Works (Vol. III)

…i. 8 Farewell! O Light of day, i. 263 First. ‘‘ Here's a johnny with a cancer, ii. 209 First, here’s philosophy’s despair, ii. 166 First word of my song, ili, 131 Fivefold the shape sublime that lifts its head, ili, 150 Fling down the foolish lyre, the witless power ! ili, 159 Floating in the summer air, ii. 2 For, at first, this practice leads, ii. 176 Forged by God's fingers in His furnace, ii. 63 For our God is as a fire, 1. 68 For the web of the battle is woven, i. 74 Fraught with the glory of a dead despair, iii. 59 Fresh breath from the w…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 281

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

… he represents a step ahead in evolution and he is fantastically afraid of "going fanti"; so he has his knife into anyone who has a good word to say for the people. {461} Allan Bennett, by becoming a Buddhist monk, was a lining witness that some Europeans thought Burmese beliefs better than their European equivalents; and the idea --- so far as an idea may be

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 99

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

…eemed, almost menacing tones: "Little Brother, you have been meddling with the Goetia!" (Goetia means "howling"; but it is the technical word employed to cover all the operations of that Magick which deals with gross, malignant or unenlightened forces.) I told him, rather timidly, that I had not been doing anything of the sort. "In that case," he returned, "the Goetia has been meddling with you." The conversation went no further. I returned home in a somewhat chastened spirit; and, having found out where Iehi Aour lived, I determined to call on…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 177

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

…hould temporarily become an absolute savage; but my experience had already shown me that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. I attributed the almost universal mental and moral instability of Europeans engaged in exploring to their lack of proper intellectual relaxation far more than to any irritations and hardships inseparable from physical conditions. Conrad's "An Outpost of Progress" and Kipling's story of the lighthouse keeper who went mad are outstanding examples of the psychological…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1906 · PDF PAGE 274

Collected Works (Vol. II)

…bit al England throughout.”—A. C. ject we too lightly touched on yesterday ; that of TIME, and the real signification of that mysterious word, which isin the mouths of children, and which to affect not to under- stand is to stamp oneself, in the opinion of the so-called intellectual classes, as a fantastic. Myst. Yet who of us does understand it? I, at least, am at one with you in declaring its mystery. Scept. You are of the few. Even Huxley, the most luminous of modern philosophers, evidently misunderstands Kant’s true though partial dictum th…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 532

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

…hat I am more likely to be able to convey some hint of the colossal character of this revelation if I simply quote the broken staggering words in which I wrote it down at the time. As will be seen, I did not dare to write what it actually was, but I remember at this moment how I had to invoke {839} the deep-seated habit of years to get courage to drag myself to my diary. I felt like a soldier wounded to death, scrawling in his own blood the horrifyingly disastrous information which he has lost his life in seeking. 5:00 p.m. The meditation of th…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 263

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

… of the trouble, apart from any ill-feeling, was that none of my companions (except Pache) understood that I expected them to keep their word. I had arranged a plan, taking into 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 exp…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 76

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

… beauty which I can only call hideous and cruel, because it was so hopeless. He totally lacked illumination in the mystical sense of the word. His outlook on life was desperate, very much like that of Des Esseintes. He suffered like Tintagiles. He could not accept any of the usual palliatives and narcotics; he had no creative genius, no ideals; he could not deceive himself about life, art or religion. He merely yearned and moaned. In certain respects he annoyed me, because I was determined to make my dreams come true; and he represented eternal…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →
1929 · PDF PAGE 468

Confessions of Aleister Crowley

…med animosity, demonstrate into what blind rage my normally imperturbably spirit is whirled when any man whom I consider worth wasting a word on suggests that my loyalty to England could be brought in doubt by any aggregation of protoplasm whose intellectual level is above that of a Woodrow Wilson himself. THE LAST STRAW It is a shameful fact that in July 1914 there was an Englishman so dirtily {741} degenerate --- I quote the Patriot Bottomley --- that he was engaged in solitary climbs among the High Alps, daring native and foreigner, professi…

original embedded textRead original & transcription →