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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Thursday, 24 May 1923
Die Jupiter
2.45 a.m. ‘The little more how much it is’. The four golden balls which adorn the coronet of a Baron—how many have paid for that one extra! (Above comic relief to more serious meditations.)
The Sign of a Magus—the gesture of readiness to write—involves not only obvious ideas like that of the vertical (Heaven—Phallus) preparing to make its mark on the Horizontal (Earth—Kteis), the Line upon the Plane, the Point upon Blank Space, but also a certain position of the arms which is (I incline to fancy) symbolic of certain geometrical truths pertaining to the Grade, and illustrative of the Formula of Creation. Let O.P.V. [Norman Mudd] demonstrate the theorems and problems appertaining to this Arcanum! (There is some point about dimensions; and the Swastika—in 3 dimensional form—is a prominent feature of this affair.) The ‘Tathagata Teaching’ statues and pictures show the sign slightly different from those of Tahuti!: each Magus gives it his own peculiar way, no doubt. The geometry depends upon the relative positions of the upper and lower arms: these should be measured. The lower are parallel and at right angles? The upper at right angles and parallel, but in a different sense? One pair cross, the other diverge? I will make a diagram [diagram of swastika position].
11.30 a.m. Ethyl [Ether] and Chione [probably Heroin] have the same defect as Gurls [sic]: they do so well a very little at a time, that one is tempted to make an all-night of it. A grave error: one gets ‘naturally tired’ one ought to stop with firm correctness: one never gets any real good out of going on. Thus, I did splendidly till 12.30—went on till all hours and got nothing but the idea of training up a child from the start-with what object I cannot remember. I recognized the banality of the idea at the time: its only value was that it had been ‘tested’ by getting rid of all the possible criticisms. Also, I got into some argument which landed me in various fallacies: altogether a hopeless rotten show. Moral: don't be tempted to keep going after one’s evening’s work is over.
[Note added later:] I forgot one point: a reminder that I work much better if I tie myself to a formal programme: witness Liber 418 [The Vision and the Voice], Mortadello, etc.
Curiously I woke fresher than I have done for weeks: I think I had unravelled some complex which was pressing upon my nerves, which was ‘as good as a night's rest’. (I was awake till long after daylight, woke at 9.0, worked a little, and am ready to go for a walk before tiffin . . .)
Did so: slept till near 6.0 p.m.: dictated Hag [Confessions of Aleister Crowley] for 2 hours, and made myself sick: dined well, went 3/4 hour’s walk by moonlight; read Keats aloud to Alostrael [Leah Hirsig]: very lovely ‘nice tired’ time till midnight. Said Adoration [of the midnight sun].
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