Crowley, the awakened one

It is my observation that people in general just don't (or maybe can't?) understand or appriciate the depth of the work Crowley has done.

In my view, he really really knew what he was talking about - he was deeply realized individual. His written records attest to that (Liber LXXIII, comments to Liber B, and Liber AL, to name a few).

He was Awake in the broadest sense of the word.

I love how this exact sentiment was put into words by Karl Germer:


"Words are too weak to express the grief that has been upon me since the fatal news arrived by cable Tuesday morning. It is not so much the sorrow about Aleister’s death.

On that I feel rather a relief that His suffering, the suffering of his body, and his unfathomable loneliness during these last years has been ended at last. This loneliness has been deeper than possibly at any time during the many, many years since he has been awake. (I mean that in the sense of the “Wake World” etc. ) This loneliness is over, and as I see it, the very condition for his final attainment which He expressed in His cable to me of Nov. 18th. After that, it seems, there was nothing left to keep Him here.

But what grieves me so insufferably is that in retrospect I see how often, how very often during the years – over 22 now – that I have known Aleister, I placed obstacles in his path, I obstructed, and sometimes made his life hell for the man A.C. I thought I could make good during the months I thought I could stay with him from September to early December of this year. But the British who have crucified their greatest son, and who persecuted him with their hatred, have remained true to form to the very last by refusing me a visa, and though A.C. knew that the visit was not to be, and must not be, he felt the cancellation of my journey as a deep blow.

There is no secret about it that our relation had been from the start close and intense, closer than men generally can judge.

His Work, that was His Life, must and will continue and be brought gradually to the success and glorification that he should have seen during His earthly life."

--Letter from Karl Germer to Ray and Mildred Burlingame, December 5, 1947, just a few days after Aleister Crowley's death

Reposted from FB post by David Shoemaker

Beyond the Dogs of Reason

It is my observation that many students of Thelema (and other traditions), hmm, how shall I put this gently, well, they think themselves to death, believing that reason or intellect will get them far.

Well, it simply can not.

It is just a stage, a rather basic one at best (around the Zelator grade as per A∴A∴ ladder of things) to rely on the intellect the General and its army of thoughts, supported by defense mechanisms (rationalization, projection, denial, altruism, humor, etc.).

It might be suitable for aspirants lacking deep empirical knowledge and capacity for intuition, yes, but it only gets more and more cold and windy, 

and so, so dry and lifeless from where I stand.

Granted, the mind is an important tool, but intellect isn't. It is inherently limited by itself. 

In practice, this limitation may manifest through the constant drive to understand, connect, and analyze various concepts. It even seems to work, to make sense... 

But at best, such a trip may end in brilliant doctoral / Ph.D. scholarly work, say in Thelema philosophical studies. Still, it will never result in attaining the K&C of the HGA or becoming a Magister Templi.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with being a highly educated intellectual. Some of my best friends are very strong along these lines. It is in spiritual or transpersonal matters that they fall short.



Let us examine what Thelema Libri and Master Therion himself have to say on the subject (emphasis mine):



“There is no ‘reason’ why a Star should continue in its orbit. Let her rip!
Every time the conscious acts, it interferes with the Subconscious, which is Hadit. It is the voice of Man, and not of a God. Any man who ‘listens to reason’ ceases to be a revolutionary…
It is ridiculous to ask a dog why it barks.

One must fulfill one’s true Nature, one must do one’s Will. To question this is to destroy confidence, and so to create an inhibition…

We are not to calculate, to argue, to criticize; these things lead to the division of will and to stagnation. They are shackles of our Going. They hamstring our Pegasus. We are to rise up – to Go – to Love – we are to be awake, alert.”

-The Commentary to The Book of the Law, II:29-31,34

*  *  *

“I distrust any thoughts uttered by any man whose health is not robust.
All other thoughts are surely symptoms of disease.
Yet these are often beautiful and may be true within the circle of the conditions of the speaker.
And yet again! Do we not find that the most robust of men express no thoughts at all? They eat, drink, sleep, and copulate in silence.
What better proof of the fact that all thought is dis-ease?”

–The Book of Lies, chapter 85 “Borborygmi”

*  *  *

“But this is of the essence of the Occult Wisdom concerning Daäth. For Daäth is the crown of the Ruach, the Intellect; and its place is in the Abyss. That is, it breaks into pieces immediately it is examined. There is no coherence below the Abyss, or in it; to obtain this, which is one of the chief canons of Truth, we must reach Neschamah.”

–Little Essays Towards Truth, “Knowledge”

*  *  *

“Here is the Key of Success, and its Name is the Skill to make right Use of Circumstance. This, then is the Virtue of the Mind, to be the Wazir of the Will, a true Counsellor, through Intelligence of the Universe.
 But o, my Son, do thou lay this Word beneath thine Heart, that the Mind hath no Will, nor Right thereto, so the Usurpation bringeth forth a fatal Conflict in thyself.
 For the Mind is sensitive, unstable as Air, and may be led foolishly in leash by a stronger Mind that worketh as the cunning Tool of a Will. Therefore thy Safety and Defence is to hold thy Mind to his right Function, a faithful Minister to thine own True Will, but Election of Nature. ”

–Liber Aleph, chapter 130 “De Ratione Praesidio Voluntatis”

*  *  *

“Thoughts are false.”

–The Book of Lies, chapter 5 “The Battle of the Ants”

“[This line] is another phrasing of the familiar Hindu statement, that that which can be thought is not true.”

- Commentary to chapter 5 of The Book of Lies

*  *  *

"And this is an hard saying against Reason: ye shall comprehend, when, rising above Reason, which is but a manipulation of the Mind, ye come to pure Knowledge by direct perception of the Truth."

- Liber CL

*  *  *

"Reason and Emotion; these are the two great enemies of the Ethic of Thelema. They are the traditional obstacles to success in Yoga as well as in Magick."

- Magick without tears, p. 293-294

*  *  *

"The only correct and adequate mode of the Attainment of Understanding is to shut off and to inhibit the rational mind altogether, thus leaving a Tabula rasa upon which the entirely alien faculty -- de novo and sui generis -- can write its first word."
- The Little Essays, Understanding by A. Crowley

*  *  *

“Now a curse upon Because and his kin! May Because be accursed for ever! If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought. If Power asks why, then is Power weakness. Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew-wise. 

Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog! But ye, o my people, rise up & awake!”

–The Book of the Law II:28-34


I 

rest 

my 

case.

:)