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Technical Extracts
[Consists of fragments of Crowley's writings acquired by Cosmo Trelawny during World War II. These fragments were copied by Cosmo Trelawny from a mass of Crowley's papers and typescripts left in his rooms by Macgregor Reid. The originals were then sold to a bookseller, and lost when his shop was bombed during the war.]
1.
Ethyl Oxide may be used in connection with Magical Invocations to "Loosen the girders of the Soul".
2. Spiritualism—for What it is Worth.
Of the semi-occult bodies in England perhaps the most formidable numerically is Spiritualism. It was even proposed to construct a political party with the special object of getting the laws against mediums repealed. But from the strictly magical point of view Spiritualism can never be a force, for the simple reason that it is bound by its very nature to the energies of disruption.
Spiritualism implicitly makes the assumption, which they explicitly deny, that communicating intelligences possess a certain binding moral and intellectual authority. They take no magical precautions whatever against impersonations of these spirits; they are constantly the prey of the most degrading and disgusting delusions.
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has never been taken seriously by any serious person. Contemptible as an artist, he was ignorant even of the medical knowledge his diploma presumed him to possess; see his 'Round the Red Lamp'; and his adventures in Spiritism are merely the work of the senile decay of such microscopic intellect as he ever owned.
As to the utility of the phenomena themselves, it is just as well to keep a conservative opinion.
Spiritualists constantly lay stress on the fact than many eminent men of science have joined their ranks. One has only to enquire the age at which these men of science became converts to Spiritualism. It will be found to coincide with that which marks the decline of creative vital energy. The man suddenly realises that he is mortal; and, being inhibited from seeking consolation in any of the religions whose authority is based on alleged revelation by his scientific training, he looks for a refuge in some faith which purports to afford scientific proof.
3. Breath-flow.
The Ida nerve, or left nostril, is feminine, and associated with the moon. It regulates the distribution of the fluids within the body, and tempers excessive heat. It carries currents of negative etheric electrons. When it is fully functioning the sense of smell should be very keen. It is the Guardian of the left side of the body.
The Sushumna, or equal breath-flow of both nostrils, is destructive and malevolent in character. It symbolises the meeting place of the positive current of human electricity which flows down the Pingala Nerve, and the negative current of human electricity which flows down the Ida Nerve.
The equal breath-flow is likened unto fire and death by occult Adepts, because it is at the time of its activity that terrible accidents transpire. When both nostrils are in equal breath-flow, commercial undertakings result in disaster.
To my exact knowledge the Sushumna Current overtook several editors who were ill-advised enough to suppress my teaching. I name the victims:—
(1) Professor Allen Haddock, editor of 'Human Nature'. He lost everything, and suffered inconsequence from an attack of paralysis. He lost his business; became bankrupt and then killed himself with an overdose of morphia. Nothing is more despicable in the eyes of the Gods than a weak man. Debility of spirit is never forgiven. In point of fact his young wife pitied and yet detested him. Had he whipped her occasionally she would not have looked beyond him to the grave. He who loveth his wife shall lose her.
(2) Henry Sampson (Pendragon). Founder of that acrimonious abortion the 'Sunday Referee', was a devotee of boxing (I could have boxed him in every sense of the word with pleasure). Though a much smaller man he claimed to have knocked out Mathers at his house at Forest Hill. Samson certainly knocked a number of people out—but it was with the jaw-bone of a very silly ass—his own.
I myself had the pleasure of knocking out the 'Sunday Referee' a few years ago. They commissioned me to write a series of articles on my Magickal experiences and then promptly suppressed them. The fact that V.N. [Victor B. Neuburg] contributed some of his poetical piffle to the paper in question no doubt also helped a great deal in bringing about its desirable demise.
(3) William Gibson (Mental) Ward. Hailed from Brummagem. He was a mass of footling fanaticism. He used to distribute tracts tending to prove that there was no such place as Hell—in spite of the fact that he lived in Birmingham. On one occasion he refused to partake of a fine salmon on the grounds that it was a corpse, yet he would gorge himself on eggs. He loudly abused the 'landed gentry', and yet had a feverish desire to show that by right he belonged to that class. In reality he owned six acres and kept on gardener—hungry.
(4) Dr. Kenealey. A blustering humbug; stubborn and most erratic; a fanatical, foolish destructive super moron; an inveterate talker inclined to slander and gossip, and ill-wind bag. He was furious when frustrated, and habitually espoused the most absurd ideas. He held that he was the Twelfth Avatar or chosen Messenger.
(5) W.T. Stead. A brilliant journalist crank with a nose for stews—and news. He 'did time' for 'buying' a girl and failing to rape her. He wrote me from Holloway prison—
"Never tell anyone any more to be a Christian. The word Christian has become a label covering mush of self but little of God".
I faithfully promised him not to.
(6) Naka Yama Miki. A woman teacher in Japan. She had three children and was 90 years of age when she died. She certainly anticipated Mrs. Eddy's nonsense. Miki taught that disease is in the mind, and that 'heart purity' was the only way to health. One is cheered somewhat by learning that she was persecuted and spent some time in prison. Still she was more Eddy-fying than her bitch of a witch of a follower, who had more husbands than children.
(7) George Mitchell. He came from Somerset and did well in business as a marble merchant. In later years when he flopped—after his break with Joseph (Marble) Arch—he gave out that the Labour Movement had cost him £20000. He styled himself 'the ploughman' and organised gatherings of farm workers at Ham Hill. The alleged workers escorted by hired brass bands marched from the neighbouring villages. No doubt the attraction at Ham Hill was Mitchell's pawky humour. Because of his flair for cheap popularity he was of little use to the Order, certainly mo one provided marble for his tombstone, though he died 'stoney'. N.B. Puns should be despised—a remarkable system of divination is founded on punning.
Henry Melville, F. Tennyson and A. Tudor. They conspired together to publish 'Veritas' a work purporting to be a revelation of the secrets of Free Masonry. In 'higher up' circles their action in so doing was considered as presumptuous. I don't see why. The secret about Free Masonry is that there is no secret. Still in trying to expose the 'Craft' they placed themselves on a par with Sedded, the wife poisoner, who subsequently died from a 'drop' too much. The three renegades referred to above were known as 'the unholy trinity'; it beats me why—they were certainly not Christians.
Dr. Berrage. A sponsor of Death, associated with Lake Haris' 'Brotherhood of New Life'. In company with Harris he ruined Laurence Oliphant. Son of Sir Anthony Oliphant C.B., formerly Chief Justice of Ceylon, Laurence was styled in his day 'the pet of the British Government'. Brushing aside that doubtful compliment, Laurence was a brilliant scholar and successful author; a young man whose extraordinary ability caused him to be trained as a boy for the highest duties of Diplomacy. He was Lord Elgin's private secretary during the nobleman's remarkable mission to China, and he was subsequently sent, when less than thirty years of age, as British Ambassador to Japan. He returned from there after being severely wounded during an attack on the foreign minister's house, and soon after became Liberal M.P. for Stirling.
Harris persuaded Laurence Oliphant and his weak-minded mother to interest themselves financially in his schemes. A colony was formed on the shore of Lake Erie in the county of Coutaugna in the state of New York. The organisation was known as the 'Brotherhood of New Life' and every member was pledged by solemn oath to submit to his will with unflinching obedience. Oliphant, like a number of others including fashionable women left the colony broken in body and mind. In relation to Occult rackets the Oliphant family should adopt as its motto:—"Oliphants never Forget".
(8) Gerald (Christ) Massey. A man who started at the 'bottom' and seldom left it; he used to quote in and out of season:—
"The unknown grand sovereign Master of thought, exoterically interpreted, was Dante; the oldest school of European thought united in him the Templars and the Hospitallers, and the unity of all in the Companions of the Hermetic Order".
Now isn't that a Dante dish to make the Templars sing!
(9) G.R. Sims (Dagonet). A hair-raiser in more senses than one. He founded a 'circle' known as the Dagonet Lodge, which met at Anderton's Hotel, Fleet Street. Carados joined him and they used to discuss ancient Egypt, India, Britain, and even 'lost' Atlantis.
Sims wrote some very bad plays and therefore was popular.
The circle tried to do some good for Humanity—which means of course that they only tried.
Sims wrote an atrocity in verse called the 'Dying Communist'. Crappy Jack Williams, a demagogue employed in leading the unemployed used to recite it with tears in his voice. Years afterwards I saw Jack sitting on the door-step of the posh Communist Club in Fitzroy Square, London, trying to beg a few coppers for a night's lodging. The police raided and closed the club in 1917. Arthur Macmanus, whose ashes were placed in Lenin's tomb, complained to me after my expulsion from France, that the police stole £70 worth of wine. Most of the frequenters of the club wore evening dress.
(10) Sir Edwin (Egoist) Arnold. He is said to have written a song especially for the brothers of the Dagonet Lodge; it was called 'Armageddon. A War-song of the Future'. Here is the first verse. Why should I suffer alone?
"Marching down to Armageddon, Brothers stout and strong; Let us cheer the way we tread on, With a soldiers song; Faint we by the weary road, Or fall we in the rout, Dirge or paean, death or triumph, Let this song ring out"
Verb sap.
(11) Florence (Doh rah me) Farr [Florence Farr]. Of the Avenue Theatre. She presented 'The Comedy of Sighs' by Dr. (Sod) Todhunter, in truth a tragedy. For over two hours the outraged gallery and pit hissed the would-be actors and one man shouted "is there a doctor in the house?"
Mabel Collins told me that 'Tautridelta', the star pupil of Bulwer Lytton, was Jack the Ripper. I do know that he was arrested on suspicion but released. Those brothers who deny that 'Tautridelta' was ever a member of the Order are probably jealous.
(12) Eugent Vintras. He was a noted sorcerer who celebrated a mysterious mass in which the sacramental wine was yielded by the atmosphere drop by drop into a chalice. Vintras was excommunicated by the Pope. He retaliated by donning pontifical robes and excommunicating the Pope. Fleeing from France to London he sought to enter the Order, but was refused admission on the grounds that he had flattered the Pope by imitating him.
(13) Allan Bennett. It is on record that while living in the interior of Ceylon he went out for a walk. In his path he came across a krait (this is a venomous and dangerous little snake) but made no attempts to kill it. Instead he greeted it with the words: "Good day, brother krait" and walked on. Brother was the right word—as there were two of them.
(14) Madame Blavatsky [Helena Petrovna Blavatsky]. An exponent of semi-fake Occultism. She worked for a time with Dr. Annie Besant from 17 Landsown Rd. W. When asked why she came to this country she said "I am a mind-reader and require a rest".
(15) Charles Rosher. Poet, artist, inventor and architect, was associated with the 'Golden Dawn'. He went to Morocco and became chief architect to the Sultan until the French took the place over and deported Rosher for homo-sexual tendencies. On his return to England his sight failed—his blindness was really a punishment for neglecting the Great Work—and reduced to dire poverty he died friendless. He certainly had a glimpse of the 'Vision Splendid'. but like Frank (Stallion) Harris [Frank Harris] couldn't keep his big mouth shut.
(16) Norah Emily Farmario. A silly man-chasing bitch if ever there was one. She used to eat two meals at a sitting—one for herself and the other for the poor. Her naked body was found lying over a large cross cut in the earth at a lonely spot near Stonaig, on the sacred island if Iona. She had died from exposure a few days before the islanders found her body. There was a silver chain round her neck, and a knife lying near the body had evidently been used to cut the large cross on which she lay.
Natives of the island said that they had seen mysterious blue lights while Miss Farmaro was staying there, and had glimpsed strange cloaked figures near the spot where she died. Had she kept her big mouth shut, perhaps she would not have been subtly hounded into the Astral. Her friend Dr. Crawford, also contacted the 'dwellers on the threshold', who hounded him to suicide. Fools sometimes rush in where a Magus fears to tread.
(17) John Ellam. Another foolhardy investigator of Occult activity. He was for some time secretary of the Buddhist Society of Great Britain. He left the Great Work and was, as a punishment, suggestionised into committing suicide.
(18) Trebitsch-Lincoln. Ex-M.P. and German spy—whose son was hanged for murder in England—was 'protected' until June 1935, when he broke the rule which forbids a 'Brother' to rape without permission the mistress of another 'Brother'. The lady in question hanged herself in far off Hwaiting Temple, Tien Dai Mountain, China—The Astral police are well after him!
(19) Swedenborg. Undoubtedly had great analytical and metaphysical talents, but left the path for a ditch and was stricken with epilepsy. His hells are shocking inquisitions—pits full of serpents, toads, and venomous reptiles, to torment those who repudiated his diabolical doctrine; and frightful monsters to swallow them alive and spue them out again alternatively, for an indefinite period. The world beyond the grave—according to this senile seer—is a most horrible place. The spirits in it seem to be a little removed from idiots. The Jews have the smell of mice there, and Jacob complains of their odour.
(20) Florence (so near yet so) Farr [Florence Farr]. Florence, who staged plays at the Avenue Theatre that sometimes bored audiences to the point of rioting is responsible for the following:—
Whilst walking with Mathers [MacGregor Mathers] through a field containing sheep, he told her to look at the animals saying: "I am going to will myself a ram", and all the sheep ran after him. Mathers also told Stead that two of the holy ghost's teeth had been dug up at Boleskine—this is going tooth far.
(21) Three Blind Lice. Dr. Woodman, Dr. W. Westcott [William Wynn Westcott] and E. Maitland founded an Occult School. The general scheme of the 'Work' was taken out of a cipher M.S.S. purchased from an old book stall in Farringdon Street, London. When it leaked out that the M.S.S. had been planted in the stall prior to its purchase by a Brother who was an adept at 'leg-pulling' the school 'broke up' for good.
(22) Miss W. A member of the dud Dagonet Lodge and a pupil of Rossetti's named her house 'Lyonesse'. She had a futile faith in the idea of King Arthur and founded a kindergarten for children. She named each of her snotty-nosed brats after one of the alleged heroes of the lousy legend, and styled herself King Arthur. She died of consumption—sloppy sentiment is often a sign of lung trouble.
(23) Mathers.
Macgregor was a drunken sot, In point of fact God's incarnated snot.
(24) Allan Bennett.
The 'Dawn was Golden' when you met the guide Between the massive pillars White and Black; You took the boat that floated down the tide To leave behind no track.
I got you gold that you might go abroad, And take my Message to another land; I hoped that you would raise my magic Sword Upon another strand.
Buddha who dies from eating too much pig Netted your soul. With corybantic Swine You swilled your fill to prance a porcine jig Beneath an alien vine.
Yellow your heart—as yellow as the Gown You wore—the colour of the sneaking spy, Who from within betrays the tortured town, When victory is nigh.
Rosher was blind, but saw the Vision Splendid, Fielder was mad, and Loveday [Raoul Loveday] devil-led; But you found yourself, ere your drab journey ended Rejected by the dead.
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