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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry [undated] Between Monday, 14 November and Saturday, 26 November 1898
Notes of Astral Travel
For strength in aiding my cousin in his straits.
Prayer.
Circle—disturbance when starting, after a little I ascend again.
Big circle ( No. 4 (?)) passed.
Another big circle. I perceive an angel and kneel. He enters, raises me with a kiss, and learns my errand. Takes me in his right arm and flies obliquely upward. I seem reluctant. I am conscious of a marble floor and a fiery pillar rather like the “Stone” in No. 4. Idea of people worshipping. This pillar is the right leg of an immense figure.
Why am I in red garments? (I had put on the white.) Angel says they have been given me. As I kneel I feel embued with power—I stand up (a white wand in my right hand). Fiery rain falleth on me, bursting into little flames on touching me. I seem to grow taller. I try to rise to the face of this figure. I emerge at my own head. I am like a white bird. I ascend and kiss the lips and play around the face. This face is not clear—impressions: like an Assyrian (but clean shaven); like a bull; a hawk; some Egyptian; myself. I enter the mouth—rise—am in a chamber with two square pillars and an eye. I bathe in the light of this eye, and the intense brilliancy of the whole room which I perceive later. I grow bigger. I emerge at the top of the head. I kiss the lips again.
I rejoin the red figure and unite.
I grow great—the wand is of living fire.
The angel has gone—more fiery rain falls.
I depart. In the air I am surrounded by dark forms, whom I command to lead me to the circle.
I sink amid a flock of eagles.
I descend, pray, and rejoin body.
Body intensely strengthened—feeling of power and glory. I give thanks.
[The following narrative is the version of this Astral Vision that was printed in "The Temple of Solomon the King (Book III)" in The Equinox vol. I No. 2.]
No. 7. This vision was undertaken by P. for strength to aid his cousin, who was in distress. As in No. 5, it commenced with a prayer, a circle being drawn around the Skryer.
“As I prayed, a feeling of drowsiness possessed me, and I found myself swinging backwards and forwards ; then after a little while I grew steady, and speedily ascended. As I soared up through the air, I saw above me a great circle; this I passed through, only to behold another one greater still. As I approached it I perceived an angel coming towards me; therefore I entered the circle and knelt down.
“The angel, seeing me kneeling before him, approached me, and taking me by the hand, raised me up, kissing me as he did so. And having thus greeted me, he bade me tell him what I sought; this I did. And when I had finished speaking, he took me by the right hand and flew obliquely upwards. And as I was carried through the air, I looked down, and felt reluctant at leaving the great circle, which had now become as a point below me. And as I thought of it, of a sudden I found myself standing upon a marble floor, from out of which rushed up into the heavens a great pillar of fire. And as I gazed wonderingly at it, though on account of its brightness I could see no one, I became conscious that many people were worshipping around me. Then slowly, as my eyes became accustomed to the light, I saw that the great pillar of fire was in truth the right leg of an immense figure.
“On becoming aware of this, a great awe filled me, and then did bewilderment possess me, for I found that I was robed in red garments in place of the white in which ‘I had dressed myself. And as I wondered, the angel said to me: ‘They have been given thee’ ; therefore again I knelt, and was endued with a great power.
“And as the great strength coursed through me I stood up and the angel gave me a white wand, placing it in my right hand; then fiery rain fell upon me, bursting into little flames as it touched me.
“Taller and taller did I grow, striving up and upwards to reach the face of the great figure. And as I strove, I emerged from the centre of the crown of mine own head like a white bird; and so great had been my desire that I shot upwards past my skull like an arrow from a bended bow. And swerving down, I played around the head of the great image and kissed it on the lips. But though for many minutes did I fly about that immense head, the countenance thereof was ever cloudy as a mountain seen through a storm of snow; yet nevertheless could I distinguish that the head was like an Assyrian clean-shaven, like a bull, a hawk, an Egyptian and myself.
“Intoxicated with rapture, I fluttered about the lips and then entered the great mouth.
“Up! up! I rise. I am in a chamber with two square pillars and an eye . . . I bathe in the light of this eye and the intense brilliancy of the whole room, which swallows me up.
“Bigger and bigger do I grow . . . I fill the room . . . I emerge from the top of the mighty head, and kissing once again the lips, swerve downwards and unite with the red figure below me.
“I grow great, and my white wand becomes a wand of living fire. Then I perceived that the angel had left me, and that once again fiery rain was falling around me.
“After this I departed, and in the air was surrounded by dark forms, whom I commanded to lead me back to the circle. Then I sank amid a flock of eagles, and, descending, prayed and rejoined my body.
“My body was intensely strengthened; I was filled with a feeling of power and glory. I gave thanks.’
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