|
Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Saturday, 10 November 1923
Hail to Khephra!
1. a.m. OUR RECENT MAGICK—AN ANALYSIS.
The sudden, spontaneous and admirable start with clear-cut evidential Vision and Voice, determined, orgiastic, and sure Magick degenerated into doubt, vagueness, distaste, discouragement, disintegration and collapse. Alostrael [Leah Hirsig] and I squabble all day over less than nothing—sheer nervous irritability popping off like NI3 [Nitrogen Tri-Iodide]! We hate the very idea of Work, though we won't admit it. Bab slouched off into vision without Preparation, the last time—AND / 666 / LET / HER / DO / SO / ! / !! / !!! / 666 O[ught] 2[to] b[e] SHOT!
At the bottom of all this is 666's old lack of Faith—no excuse! after 1st November entry and Bab's past Visions with proper Invocation—which takes every mean chance to make a bid for its antient empery, and so pounces on Bab's unhappy state as a Freudian Female Fretting For Fucking!
I made every excuse for postponing my XI°s (and a fortiori, my IX°s). I refuse to take the pains to decipher Bab's record, . . . . . etc. . . . . etc. . . . (Obviously, colds in the head, etc., put the lid on!)
Only one remedy. INVOKE OFTEN!
(93 himself butted in with this order at the end of her unprepared Vision—calling her back to say it!) I therefore make Oath and say: 93. An: XIX, Sun in 17 deg. Scorpio; Moon in 14-21 deg. Sagittarius, Die Saturn; Moon sextile Mars, 2.18 p.m. (Greenwich) Moon trine Neptune, 10.56 p.m. (Greenwich). We both take definite steps during this period to put ourselves in order.
and further daily Invocation to work up to Moon conjunction Uranus, 17th 3.8 a.m. In particular, I am to resume the daily Practice of Liber Samekh.
1.31 a.m. Luna P. Sol and Mercury trine Uranus this morning. I shall now at once read through and re-learn Samekh and invoke before sleeping, inviting direction to my [sign of Venus inverted].
6 p.m. All day pretty rotten with
a pimple on the tip of my nose and general putridity. O.P.V.
[Norman
Mudd] sent leo [Cocaine]: this of Plain Pluck pulled me
round— with the help of Alostrael, who toed the mark
splendidly as soon as she realized how sick I was. She began
her Opus with
10.15 p.m. While acting as GUARDIAN OF THE PYLON during Alostrael's sacrifice, I made a Devout Meditation upon T H E A C T T R U T H. (required by Me of all Aspirants as the First Condition of my taking them to be trained. I summarize my View of the Magical Aspect of the matter as follows:
10.7 p.m. The Act of Truth which I require of every aspirant immediately on his applying to me for Initiation is defined thus:
On receipt of the Summons to present himself in person to the Chancellor of the A∴A∴ from him to receive further instructions, he is to conclude with the utmost rapidity all other business, breaking off all such as cannot be brought to satisfactory issue within the period of grace allowed and specified by my Chancellor in his covering letter which he sends with the Summons. There is a superficial resemblance between this act and that required by my predecessor, some of whose sayings have been more or less accurately reported in the Christian Gospels. (The pertinent passages are to be quoted in a foot-note.)
Before the Nineteenth Year of the Aeon of Heru-Ra-Ha I invariably adopted a contrary policy. I made it as easy as possible for Aspirants and avoided critical tests of their virtue as long as possible. This line of action was in direct conflict with that enjoined upon me by my Chiefs. In Liber LXI, Verse 6, the Aspirant is told that so soon as he has heard the History Lection (Vv. 7-32) he must decide within 15 minutes whether or no he will take the Oath of a Probationer. Refusal to do so cutting him off from renewed application during his present life. So foolishly tender was I that I even became slack in applying this mild test of the ability of the candidate to make up his mind irrevocably and instantly on insufficient data for forming a sound rational judgment. Experience has convinced me of my folly, and the renewed insistence of my Chiefs has constrained me to adopt my present course. Concerning the nature of the Act of Truth viewed as a Magical Gesture. (There seems to be no advantage in discussing whether this Act and that of my predecessor are fundamentally identical).
1. The Act is in no sense of the nature of renunciation or sacrifice. The parable of the Pearl of Great Price forms a pertinent parallel. (i. The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. (Matthew, XIII, 45, 46.)
2. The Act is a Magical Affirmation that the Authority of The Beast 666 is unqualified, irresponsible, and implacable like that of Death itself. It equally demands a leap in the dark, without reference to the interests and all other affairs of the Candidate.
3. This Act affirms that the Candidate is in no way bound by his previous conditions; that he regards the Summons to take his rightful place in the Magical Hierarchy of the Aeon as overriding any other conceivable motive of action.
4. By this Act he gives proof of his Sovereign Right to decide upon an irrevocable course of cardinal importance without servile appeal to Prudence, Rational Judgment, and similar inhibitions characteristic of the slave-men of the herd.
5. This Act does not bind him to the assertion of confidence in the Integrity and Wisdom of The Beast 666; but, on the contrary, affirms his entire Independence of any such blind Faith. Form having no adequate grounds for trust or belief in The Beast 666, his obedience to the Summons declares that, even should the Authority of The Beast 666 be an Usurpation, the Aspirant is confident that his Sovereign Right is inalienable and not to be compromised, even by so unqualified an act.
6. By this Act the Aspirant demonstrates his absolute courage, his complete freedom from all bondage of circumstance, his kingly contempt for all material, emotional, and intellectual considerations, his certainty that he has no right but to do his own True Will, his detachment from all less exalted affections, his independence of the opinions and actions of his fellow-men, and his sure insight of essential Truth as potent to dissolve instantly the illusion of those ideas which he has hitherto been tempted to accept as Reality.
7. By this Act he satisfies The Beast 666 that he possesses these evidently necessary qualifications for every Aspirant to Kingship in the Aeon of Heru-Ra-Ha. He demonstrated his fitness to undergo the Ordeals of the Training required to enable him to discover and do his True Will, and to fulfil his proper function as one of the Lords of the Aeon.
8. He gives irrefutable evidence that being free from all bondage to circumstances, he may be trusted not to abuse, prostitute, or dishonour the Magical Power which is the Appanage of the Lords of the Aeon and their Means of Secret Government. The Beast 666 will therefore be compelled by the conditions of His own office ("He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals".) to prepare him for, and to instruct him with, the Knowledge requisite.
9. "Obey my prophet! follow out the ordeals of my knowledge! seek me only! Then the joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so; I swear it by the vault of my body; by my sacred heart on tongue; by all I can give, by all I desire of ye all". (Liber CCXX, I, 32). "Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word. For there are there—in three grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." (I, 40).
"There is a word to say about the Hierophantic task. . . . . : let not one know well the other!". "There are four gates to one palace. . . . But always unto me". "If this be not aright. . . . direful judgment of Ra-Hoor-Khuit!" (I, 50-52). "Is a God to live in a dog? . . . who sorroweth is not of us". "Beauty and strength. . . .are of us". "We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit. . . . The Sun, Strength and Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star and the Snake". "I am the Snake that giveth. . . . fear not that any God shall deny thee for this". (II. 19-22.) "Behold! these be grave mysteries. . . . in the day of your wrath". "Ye are against the people, rise up and awake!" "I am the secret Serpent. . . . and I and the earth are one." (II. 24-6.) "Ye are against the people, O my chosen!" "But ye, o my people, rise up and awake!" "Let the rituals be rightly performed. . . . and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu". (II, 34-44) "There is help and hope in other spells. . . . let there be subtlety therein!" "But exceed! exceed!" "Strive ever to more! . . . death is the crown of all". (II. 70-72.) "For perfume mix. . . . with rich fresh blood". "The best blood. . . . last of some beast, no matter what." "This burn. . . . and creeping things sacred unto me!" "These slay. . . . shall fall before you". "Also these shall breed. . . . at the eating thereof." "Also ye shall be strong in war". (III. 23-28.) "The ordeals thou shalt oversee thyself. . . . spit upon them (III. 42) "I am the warrior Lord of the Forties. . . . and ye shall turn not back for any" (III. 46) "The fool readeth this Book of the Law. . . . are mere liars." "There is success" (III 63-69.)
By this Act he proves himself capable—after the Initiations indicated—of the Mysteries to which the above Texts of the Book of the Law refer.
10. By this Act he makes the Magical Gesture whose Virtue is to demand his irrevocable separation from the mass of mankind, and his inclusion in the Chosen Body of Initiates whose Destiny it is to develop a new Species of Homo Sapiens as definitely beyond the present type as that is beyond the other primates.
11. By this Act he compels the Chancellor of A∴A∴ to put into action on his behalf the Total Magical Energy of the Order. His immediate needs having been determined by the Chancellor, they will be immediately supplied by the Issue of the Second Instruction. It may be stated that, save in exceptional cases where the Chancellor judges the Aspirant not yet ready, this Second Instruction is to proceed to the presence of The Beast 666 Himself, by Him to be personally examined, tested, and trained for such periods as may prove necessary to fit the Aspirant to assume the office of full Kingship and return into the outer World as an Independent Ruler of that Realm which is his by Right and by Fact. 666.
1—Refers to performing a magical sexual operation.
|
[Mohammed ben Brahim]. —too excited, he, to end it—so I
proceeded to OPUS X Mode XI° Mohammed ben Brahim
. . . 666. Operation: Absolutely A.1. E1: Absorbed, copious
and strong. Object: Maximum Efficiency for all my M A G I C
K.