Professional Documents
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I was in the death struggle with self: God and Satan fought for my soulthose three long
hours. God conquered — now I have only one doubtleft — which of the twain was God?
Aceldama : A Place To Bury Strangers In (1898) Preface.
I am certainly of opinion that genius can be acquired, or, in the alternative, that it is an
almost universal possession. Its rarity may be attributed to the crushing influence of
a corrupted society. It is rare to meet a youth without high ideals, generous thoughts, a sense
of holiness, of his own importance, which, being interpreted, is, of his own identity with God.
Three years in the world, and he is a bank clerk or even a government official. Only those who
intuitively understand from early boyhood that they must stand out, and who have the
incredible courage and endurance to do so in the face of all that tyranny, callousness, and the
scorn of inferiors can do; only these arrive at manhood uncontaminated.
"Energized Enthusiasm : A Note On Theurgy" in The Equinox Vol. 1 no. 9 (Spring 1913).
I am inclined to agree with the Head Master of Eton that pæderastic passions among
schoolboys 'do no harm'; further, I think them the only redeeming feature of sexual life at public
schools.
"Energized Enthusiasm : A Note On Theurgy" in The Equinox Vol. 1 no. 9 (Spring 1913).
There seems to be much misunderstanding about True Will … The fact of a person being
a gentleman is as much an ineluctable factor as any possible spiritual experience; in fact,
it is possible, even probable, that a man may be misled by the enthusiasm of an
illumination, and if he should find apparent conflict between his spiritual duty and his
duty to honour, it is almost sure evidence that a trap is being laid for him and he should
unhesitatingly stick to the course which ordinary decency indicates … I wish to say
definitely, once and for all, that people who do not understand and accept this position have
utterly failed to grasp the fundamental principles of the Law of Thelema.
Magical Diaries of Aleister Crowley : Tunisia 1923 (1996), edited by Stephen Skinner p. 21.
Black magic is not a myth. It is a totally unscientific and emotional form ofmagic, but it
does get results — of an extremely temporary nature. The recoil upon those who practice it
is terrific.
It is like looking for an escape of gas with a lighted candle. As far as the search goes, there is
little fear of failure!
To practice black magic you have to violate every principle of science, decency, and
intelligence. You must be obsessed with an insane idea of the importance of the petty
object of your wretched and selfish desires.
I have been accused of being a "black magician." No more foolish statement was ever made
about me. I despise the thing to such an extent that I can hardly believe in the existence of
people so debased and idiotic as to practice it.
Article "The Worst Man in the World" in The Sunday Dispatch (2 July 1933); quoted in The
Magical Revival (1972) by Kenneth Grant.
The best models of English writing are Shakespeare and the Old Testament, especially the
book of Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon. … In writing
English the most important quality that you can acquire is style. It makes all the difference to
anyone who reads what you write, whether you use the best phrases in the best way.
First and only letter to his son Aleister Ataturk (May 1947), as quoted in Do What Thou Wilt :
A Life of Aleister Crowley (2000) by Lawrence Sutin, p. 416.
The Book of the Law (1904)[edit]
These are fools that men adore; both their Gods & their men are fools.
I:11.
I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.
I:13.
Then saith the prophet and slave of the beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall be
the sign? So she answered him, bending down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all
penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her
soft feet not hurting the little flowers: Thou knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy,
the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body.
I:26.
Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels! Drink to
me, for I love you! I love you!
I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-
sky.
To me! To me!
The Manifestation of Nuit is at an end.
I:63-66.
...Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture!
If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if
thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein!
But exceed! exceed!
II:70-71.
There is a splendour in my name hidden and glorious, as the sun of midnight is ever the son.
III:74.
The old spelling MAGICK has been adopted throughout in order to distinguish the
Science of the Magi from all its counterfeits.
Part II : Magick (1912).
ALL may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every relation with every
other human being and every circumstance, depend upon MAGICKand the right
comprehension and right application thereof.
Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.
There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is the uniting of the
Microcosm with the Macrocosm.
The first task of the Magician in every ceremony is therefore to render his Circle absolutely
impregnable.
The Magician must be wary in his use of his powers; he must make every act not
only accord with his Will, but with the properties of his position at thetime.
The Inmost is one with the Inmost; yet the form of the One is not the form of the other;
intimacy exacts fitness. He therefore who liveth by air, let him not be bold to breathe water.
This book is for
ALL:
for every man, woman, and child.
My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited, by my use of
technical terms. It has attracted only too many dilettanti and eccentrics, weaklings
seeking in "Magic" an escape from reality. I myself was first consciously drawn to
the subject in this way. And it has repelled only too many scientific and practical
minds, such as I most designed to influence.
But
MAGICK
is for
ALL.
Introduction.
I must make
MAGICK
the essential factor in the life of
ALL.
In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and justify my position by
formulating a definition of
MAGICK
and setting forth its main principles in such a way that
ALL
may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every relation with
every other human being and every circumstance, depend upon
MAGICK
and the right comprehension and right application thereof.
Introduction.
Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with
Will.
(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I
therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" —
these sentences — in the "magical language" ie, that which is understood by the
people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers,
booksellers and so forth and constrain them to convey my message to those
people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of Magick
by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will.)
In one sense Magick may be defined as the name given to Science by the vulgar.
Introduction.
The essence of
MAGICK
is simple enough in all conscience. It is not otherwise with the art of
government. The Aim is simply prosperity; but the theory is tangled, and the
practice beset with briars.
In the same way
MAGICK
is merely to be and to do. I should add: "to suffer". For Magick is the verb; and it is
part of the Training to use the passive voice. This is, however, a matter of Initiation
rather than of Magick in its ordinary sense. It is not my fault if being is baffling, and
doing desperate!
Introduction.
There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is the
uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete
Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel; or, in the language of
Mysticism, Union with God.
Ch. 1 : The Principles of Ritual
Cleanliness is next to Godliness, and had better come first. Purity means
singleness. God is one. The Wand is not a Wand if it has something sticking to it
which is not an essential part of itself. If you wish to invoke Venus, you do not
succeed if there are traces of Saturn mixed up with it.
Ch. 13 : Of the Banishings and of the Purifications.
The first task of the Magician in every ceremony is therefore to render his
Circle absolutely impregnable.
Ch. 13 : Of the Banishings and of the Purifications.
“The Devil” is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes. This
has led to so much confusion of thought that THE BEAST 666 has preferred to let
names stand as they are, and to proclaim simply that AIWAZ, the solar-phallic-
hermetic “Lucifer,” is His own Holy Guardian Angel, and “The Devil” SATAN or
HADIT, the Supreme Soul behind RA-HOOR-KHUIT the Sun, the Lord of our
particular unit of the Starry Universe. This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of
Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade “Know
Thyself!” and taught Initiation. He is “the Devil” of the Book of Thoth, and His
emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection.
Ch. 21 : Of Pacts with the Devil
Thou spiritual Sun! Satan, Thou Eye, Thou Lust! Cry aloud! Cry aloud! Whirl the
Wheel, O my Father, O Satan, O Sun! Thou, the Saviour! Silence! Give me Thy
Secret! Give me suck, Thou Phallus, Thou Sun! Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust! Satan,
thou Eye, thou Lust! Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust! Thou self-caused, self-determined,
exalted, Most High!
Appendix IV : Liber Samekh.
Now this word SABAF, being by number Three score and Ten, is a name of Ayin,
the Eye, and the Devil our Lord, and the Goat of Mendes. He is the Lord of the
Sabbath of the Adepts, and is Satan, therefore also the Sun, whose number of
Magick is 666, the seal of His servant the BEAST.
Appendix IV : Liber Samekh.
Acts which are essentially dishonourable must not be done; they would be
justified only by calm contemplation of their correctness in abstract cases.
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
Love is a virtue; it grows stronger and purer and less selfish by applying it to
what it loathes; but theft is a vice involving the slave-idea that one's neighbor is
superior to oneself.
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
It has always been fatal when somebody finds out too much too suddenly. If John
Huss had cackled more like a hen, he might have survived Michaelmas, and been
esteemed for his eggs. The last fifty years have laid the axe of analysis to the root of
every axiom; they are triflers who content themselves with lopping the blossoming
twigs of our beliefs, or the boughs of our intellectual instruments. We can no longer
assert any single proposition, unless we guard ourselves by enumerating
countless conditions which must be assumed.
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
The Magician must be wary in his use of his powers; he must make every act
not only accord with his Will, but with the properties of his position at the
time. It might be my Will to reach the foot of a cliff; but the easiest way — also the
speediest, most direct least obstructed, the way of minimum effort — would be
simply to jump. I should have destroyed my Will in the act of fulfilling it, or what
I mistook for it; for the True Will has no goal; its nature being To Go.
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
A parabola is bound by one law which fixes its relations with two straight lines at
every point; yet it has no end short of infinity, and it continually changes its
direction. The Initiate who is aware Who he is can always check is conduct by
reference to the determinants of his curve, and calculate his past, his future,
his bearings, and his proper course at any assigned moment; he can even
comprehend himself as a simple idea.
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
His own infinity becomes zero in relation to that of the least fragment of the solid. He
hardly exists at all. Trillions multiplies by trillions of trillions of such as he could not
cross the frontier even of breadth, the idea which he came to guess at only because
he felt himself bound by some mysterious power.
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
His first conception must evidently be a frantic spasm, formless, insane, not to be
classed as an articulate thought. Yet, if he develops the faculties of his mind, the
more he knows of it the more he sees that its nature is identical with his own
whenever comparison is possible.
The True Will is thus both determined by its equations, and free because
those equation are simply its own name, spelt out fully. His sense of being
under bondage comes from his inability to read it; his sense that evil exists to thwart
him arises when he begins to learn to read, reads wrong, and is obstinate that his
error is an improvement.
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
The Inmost is one with the Inmost; yet the form of the One is not the form of
the other; intimacy exacts fitness. He therefore who liveth by air, let him not be
bold to breathe water. But mastery cometh by measure: to him who with labour,
courage, and caution giveth his life to understand all that doth encompass him, and
to prevail against it, shall be increase. "The word of Sin is Restriction": seek
therefore Righteousness, enquiring into Iniquity, and fortify thyself to overcome it.
Appendix VI : A few principal rituals – Liber Reguli.
Book VI : Liber O (1909)[edit]
Book VI : Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae
By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned
against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.
In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and
Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or
may not exist. It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain
things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned
against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.
There is little danger that any student, however idle or stupid, will fail to get
some result; but there is great danger that he will be led astray, obsessed and
overwhelmed by his results, even though it be by those which it is necessary
that he should attain. Too often, moreover, he mistaketh the first resting-place
for the goal, and taketh off his armour as if he were a victor ere the fight is well
begun.
It is desirable that the student should never attach to any result the importance
which it at first seems to possess.
777 (1909)[edit]
The cause of human sectarianismis not lack of sympathy in thought, but inspeech; and
this it is our not unambitious design to remedy.
Liber 777 at bibliotecapleyades.net - The Complete Revised 777 (including Arabic parts)- Liber 777 at hermetic.com PDF file
I believe in one Gnostic and Catholic Church of Light, Life, Love and Liberty, the
Word of whose Law isTHELEMA.
I believe in one secret and ineffable LORD; and in one Star in the
Company of Stars of whose fire we are created, and to which we shall
return; and in one Father of Life, Mystery of Mystery, in His name
CHAOS, the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth; and in one Air
the nourisher of all that breathes.
And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb
wherein all men are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of
Mystery, in Her nameBABALON.
III Of the Ceremony of the Introit, including what is called
the "Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church".
The Confessions of Aleister Crowley : An Autohagiography Only the first 2 Parts were published in 1929, the full 6 Parts in 1969.
The pious pretence that evil does not exist only makes it
vague, enormous and menacing. Its overshadowing
formlessness obsesses the mind. The way to beat an enemy is
to define him clearly, to analyse and measure him. Once an
idea is intelligently grasped, it ceases to threaten the mind with
the terrors of the unknown.
Ch. 33; also quoted with Americanized spelling as The
pious pretense that evil does not exist only makes it
vague, enormous and menacing.