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Aleister Crowley Diary Entry Saturday, 23 February 1924
Die Saturn.
Hail unto thee who art Ra in thy Silence. Kephra the Beetle!
Sleep! For the first time in years, I have slept! A lump on my head a mile long a canal a mile deep, my head having dropped (while cooking up a bouillon for which I had [illegible] called after waking from a short nap [?].
I’m full of [illegible]—but stop between each half line. I could do deeds of dauntless daring—do all day to please Kate Seabrook—and there’s that sword of Path between us in the bed! (In the above is ah! So pure and deep a Sea of Truth—and all tails off into that babbling brook!) full of filth from the Village!) (Strange! I’m full (myself) of the liveliest wit rolling over and over itself—anarithmon gelasma!)
[On the other side of the page]
My Kate
Kate of Kate-Hall my super dainty Kate! I suppose you have always known it, since you divined my story of the Haunted Sea Captain. Quote R.B. He pulled his [illegible] gauntlet on etc. Using no sleight of fence . . . Millenium—the Lion lies down with the Lamb! Why I could never fuck her or even try. Now only fully awake to Truth. Converted to ‘spiritual twin’ New York Times theory during my sleep to-night.
10.30 or 11 to 12.44 [illegible] Lea’s [Leah Hirsig] resemblance to Kate her Key to my prick— [illegible]
Aiwass! Can this be the Birth I’ve been waiting for? I’ve been trying (for one of the very many things) for near an hour to put down the best part of an hour.
The Volstead Act[1] passed behind the back of the A.E.F. (P.S. ! I’ve been trying to write a joke made in sleep).—so there were some people who were afraid of it! I must have slept like a stone—I’m not really awake yet. That, of course, is the Heroin (not the Salmon!) I am virgin to it, all night, praise be to the Gods!
Last night (well, from early afternoon) I came out of my 5 years sleep since I met Kate (the true climax of my Initiation as Magus) as follows. I had been strangely and acutely exhausted (about 10) and gone off, bang. I woke (11 circa) with an attack of a Solluma [sign of] M A [asthma] impending. Tried the new way of taking aq. [Heroin]. It worked the miracle—AND knocked me out, as I had not thought possible [illegible].
(Is there a new star now visible in the West, these few last days? Something hints it might be, adding Spica or Vesta or ----- B? Lyrae or Virgo. Or ---? Very low down. (Any how the message is to Kate, I think, from me) This all came to me in my deep sleep which crushed me as I was writing above.
It’s now 1.50 a.m. I slept nearly an hour—and now five minutes as I turn the page.
Last night (Thurs. Fri) I took a lot of Gardenal[2] and then couldn’t sleep—and got the idea of sleep coming down on me [illegible].
(Pause—Cold Water on Head!)
1—The National Prohibition Act, known informally as the Volstead Act, was enacted to carry out the intent of the 18th Amendment, which prohibited the production, sale, and transport of "intoxicating liquors" in the United States. 2—Gardenal contains phenobarbital, a barbituate.
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