Crowley_A Magick_Without

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worse, logical precision of the kind that distinguishes many
lunatics),
dispersion, indecision, failure to estimate values correctly
--- oh! ---
there is no end to the list. So much so, indeed, that there
is no
specific critical test, it is all part of the routine, and
goes on
incessantly.
Well, there is just one. Without warning a decision of
critical
importance has to be made by the candidate, and he is given
so many
minutes to say Yes or No. He gets no second chance.
But I must warn you of one particular disgrace. You know
that people
of low mentality haunt fortune-tellers of equal calibre, but
with more
low cunning. They do not really want to know the future, or
to get
advice; their real object is to persuade some supposed
"authority"
to flatter them and confirm them in their folly and
stupidity.
It is the same thing with a terrifying percentage of the
people that
come for "teaching" and "initiation." The moment they learn
anything
they didn't know before, off they fly in a temper! No
sooner does
it become apparent that the Master is not a stupid middle-
class prig
and hypocrite --- another edition of themselves, in short --
- they are
frightened, they are horrified, they flee away on both their
feet,
like the man in the Bible! I have seen people turn fish-
belly pale
in the face, and come near fainting outright, when it has
dawned upon
them suddenly that magick is a real thing!
21
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
272
It's all beyond me!
Cups: we are much more definite again. The great test is so
well
known, and accounts have already been published, that it can
be here
plainly stated. Early in his career, the Aspirant is
exposed to the
seductions of a Vampire, and warned in due form and due
season.
"Sleep with A,B,C,D,E and F, my lad, and our hearty best
wishes! But
not with G on any account, on peril of your work!"
So off he goes to G, without a second's hesitation. This
test may be
prolonged; the deadliness and subtlety of the danger has
been recog-
nized, and he may have half a dozen warnings, either direct
or springing
from his relations with her. And the penalty is not so
drastically
final; often he gets off with a term of penal servitude.
On the other hand, the Aspirant who can spot at the first
hint why the
Masters think that particular woman a danger, and acts
promptly and
decisively as he should, is secretly marked down as a sword
of very
fine temper indeed!
The rest of the Cup Ordeals consists for the most part of
progressive
estimations of the quality of the Postulant's devotion to
the work;
there is not, as a rule, anything particularly spectacular
or dramatic
in it. If you stick to your Greetings and Adorations and
all such
mnemonics, you are not likely to go very far wrong.
Wands: this obviously a pure question of Will. You will
find as
you go on that obstacles of varying degrees of difficulty
confront you;
and the way in which you deal with them is most carefully
watched.
The best advice that I can give is to remember that there is
little
need of the Bull-at-a-Gate method, though that must always
be ready
in reserve; no, the best analogy is rapier-play. Elastic
strength.
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
273
Warfare shows us.
That seems to cover your question more or less; but don't
forget that
it depends on yourself how much of the dramatic quality
colours your
Path. I suppose I have been lucky to have had the use of
all the
traditional trappings; but it is always possible to make a
"coat of
many colours" out of a heap of rags. To show you that you
have had
Chaucer and John Bunyan --- yes, and Laurence Sterne: to
bring up the
rear, James Thomson (B.V.) to say nothing of Conrad and
Hardy. Nor
let me forget The Cream of the Jest and The Rivet in
Grandfather's
Neck of my friend, James Branch Cabell.
So now, fair damozel, bestride thy palfrey, and away to the
Mountains
of Magick!
Love is the law, love under will.
Fraternally,
666
P.S. One danger I had purposely passed over, as it is not
likely to
come your way. But, since others may read these letters ---
Some, and these the men of highest promise, often of great
achievement,
22
are tempted by Treason. The acquire a "Judas-complex,'
think how
splendid it would be if they were to destroy the Order ---
or, at the
very least, unhorse the Master.
This is, of course, absurd in itself, because if they had
crossed the
Abyss, they would understand why it is impossible. It would
be like
"destroying Electricity," or "debunking" the Venus of Milo.
The maxi-
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MAGIC WITHOUT TEARS
274
mum of success possible in such an operation would be to
become a
"Black-Brother;" but what happens in practice, so far as my
own
experience goes, is complete dispersion of the mental
faculties amount- [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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