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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Friday, 1 June 1923
Die Venus
12 Noon. Slept late but well. Find great difficulty every morning in
a) waking up at all—even cold water on head, etc., leaves me ready to doze off again at once,
b) collecting my thoughts even when awake. As to
c) getting on to any given job, that is becoming harder every day.
Dictated by the Beast 666 to Alostrael 31-666-31 [Leah Hirsig] Marsa Plage, Tunisie June 1, 1923
3 p.m. Difficulty of reconciling intellectual scorn of humanity with a sentimental sympathy with it. I questioned whether I had any further work to do on this planet. It seemed to me that I could hardly pretend any longer to be concerned with emancipating humanity, even on the ground that I was one of them. However, if there is any solution, it must be a public career. Ought not then I to concentrate on something of the sort. The question is of course, the Hag [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley], Comment [on The Book of the Law], and perhaps a certain amount of private teaching may appear to have some claim on me. I notice that the idea of preparing for a public career appears to me in the light of a pure ordeal. I can say quite unhesitatingly that there was not a particle of ‘lust of result’.
There were several other observations following these, but I have forgotten them for the moment. I don’t think there was anything of great importance.
1.30 p.m. Have dictated Hag for last hour or so.
7. p.m. What is Qabalah
a) A language fitted to describe certain classes of phenomena, and to express certain classes of ideas which escape regular phraseology.
b) An unsectarian and infinitely elastic terminology by means of which it is possible to equate the mental processes and results of people, apparently diverse and disconnected, owing to the constraint or deviation imposed upon them by the peculiarities of their literary or artistic expression.
c) A system of symbolism which enables thinkers to formulate their ideas with complete precision, and to find simple expression for complex thoughts, especially such as include previously disconnected orders of conception.
d) An instrument for interpreting symbols whose meaning has become obscure, forgotten, or misunderstood by establishing a necessary connection between the essence of forms, sounds, simple ideas (such as number) and their spiritual, moral, or intellectual equivalents.
e) A system of classification of omniform ideas so as to enable the mind to increase its vocabulary of thoughts and facts through organising and correlating them.
f) An instrument for proceeding from the known to the unknown on similar principles of those of mathematics.
g) A system of criteria by which the truth of correspondences may be tested with a view to criticizing new discoveries in the light of their coherence with the whole body of truth.
[Supplemented later by Crowley with these examples:] a) [You might] as well object to the technical terminology of Chemistry.
b) [You might] as well object to a Lexicon, or a Treatise on Comparative Religions.
c) [You might] as well object to algebraic symbols.
d) [You might] as well object to interpreting ancient Art by consideration of Beauty as determined by physiological facts.
e) [You might] as well object to the mnemonic value of Arabic modifications of roots.
f) [You might] as well object to the use of √—1, x4, etc.
g) [You might] as well object to judging character and status by educational and social convention.
11.10 p.m. I have been spiritually poxed up to the eyes for some time. My sudden impulses to go that solitary stroll this afternoon—which meant merely two Kabwah at the Arab’s—led to that question: ‘What is the Qabalah?’ Forthwith I became full of energy of all sorts, and have felt well and happy ever since.
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