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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry
Friday, 22 June 1923
Die Venus
12.20 a.m. Note on N.M.'s [Norman Mudd] chess. He constantly violates elementary principles, but with such insight into the actual position that he often escapes punishment. As soon as he grasps the Proprieties (in the Chinese sense) he should become a very high-class player. His chief faults: 1. He wastes moves in the Opening-moving pieces twice. 2. He has no sense of aesthetic form. He develops raggedly. 3. He seeks isolated advantages instead of the control of the position which would bring victory automatically.
O.P.V. [Norman Mudd] has discussed ‘What is good evidence?’ It has got me going. The existence of ‘evidence’ of any kind involves so many arbitrary assumptions that I simply give up! But is not this one more token of the nature of Analysis? It inevitably destroys all coherence in ideas, at the end of the journey.
Synthesis is then an act of pure will, which the touch of Reason would disintegrate. ‘Conquer! That is enough.’ My job is to construct an Universe according to my Will as expressed in CCXX. I must issue orders to forbid all analytical work. (Query what this may mean: what of the Comment?)
11.40 p.m. I ask my conscience per O.P.V. whether my breathing is at this moment noticeably worse than usual. ‘Momentarily’—i.e., intermittently. 2 [Heroin] today.
12.03 a.m. No! This is honest to God Bad Lands! I have breathed Ethel’s soul [Ether] into my lungs till all is blue, & still I wheeze. Also, it is now past Beetle-Bliss.[1]
Pause for Adoration to Khephra.
12.10 a.m. I ease my symptoms with [Heroin].
Note: The disturbance of my Chittam caused by [Dr.] Domela’s[2] disappointing me at dinner—he had accepted my invitation & did not even telephone—is partly responsible for this asthmatic attack.
McDonnell’s Double Gambit Refused.[3]
1—Midnight, the hour of Khephra, the winged beetle form of the Egyptian Sun god. 2—Crowley’s doctor in Tunis, who he went to see about stopping his heroin habit. 3—The complete details of the moves of this chess game have been omitted from this record.
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