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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Tuesday, 7 August 1923
Die Mars
2.20 p.m. My health is still far from normal: in particular, my mind is morbid. It is feeling the strain of its own independence: it would distinctly relieve it to be able to accept some puerile religious belief. There is also the idea of death, which I ‘desire much’ as expugnating the pain of the Ahamkara1 which lurks about the solar plexus or in the cerebellum (so fancy assumes). I am sure that a thorough physical change is necessary if I am to do my Work without being cramped by this moral rheumatism.
3.0. p.m. I must concentrate entirely in The Spirit of Solitude, [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley] revising the ms. systematically, a definite number of pages daily. We must have a representative in Paris to persuade a publisher to take it up, or alternatively to find a capitalist to pay for the printing á la Ulysses. Limited to 2000 copies at 250 francs subscription price, 500 at least to be kept up our sleeves to sell at a high price when the rest are exhausted.
The mere manifestation of the various articles about me should convince any go-ahead publisher. I will nevertheless ask the Yi how to set about the business.
Thus:
[1] Question. Advise us how to act as to The Spirit of Solitude in all points from the present state of the work to the final publication.
Earth/Phallus Tâ Khű [I Ching Hexagram XXVI]
Restraint/accumulation. ‘The material . . . of the Creative Impulse’. Thwan: treat the matter as pertaining to the Hierophantic Task. Do not think of personal profit, but of ‘service at court’. Be firm, correct, & bold. Seek American Market.
Line 1. Refers to the situation with Wm. Collins. Q[uer]y: how to act. [Line] 2. Get rid of existing contract, & prepare a new one. [Line] 3. Obtain go-ahead courageous & spirited publisher. Revise ms. daily with infinite care & energy. Make very clear the main object of 666 & the Apologia pro sua aspect of the book. [Line] 4. Remember that the publication of the book will raise an unprecedented tempest. Take unusual precautions of secrecy as to movements of 666 & of legal security. Cover risks by insurance, perhaps. [Line] 5. Make it absolutely clear that the Great Work of 666 is not dangerous to the true interests of Mankind. [Line] 6. The publication of the book will bring 666 into his proper place as in command of the Galaxy of Free Men & Women.
Be ready with the necessary organization to take full advantage of this situation.
2. Question. Advise 666 how to arrange his material environment for the period from today until the Autumnal Equinox.
[Air/Earth] [Kien Hexagram] LIII
The Solution of Material things: the Mind improving the Body Gradual advance. Thwan: ‘Marriage with a young lady’. Can this refer to actual events?
Line 1. Approach shore. There may be some scandal against me; but I shall make no error. [Line] 2. Approach ‘large rocks’. Eat & drink joyfully, & at ease. (Can this be return to Cefalu?) Or visit to some mountainous resort—Hamman-Lif, Al-Kantara, or the like. P.S. Al-Kantara, I think. [Line] 3. Advance to ‘dry plains’. Desert—Biskra & Beyond. [Line] 4. Advance to ‘trees’—Oasis? [Line] 5. Advance to ‘high mound’. Qy: the Corbeille at ‘Tizi’? [Line] 6. Reach the ‘large heights’. Qy: above Corbeille? (On 5, note the possibility of certain event mentioned in the text. 1923-1920 = 3.)
(This Hexagram has some special reference to Wesrun [Dorothy Troxel]. See 729 Working.)[1]
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