Occult-Magick

Part four of the most revealing manuscript "Magick Without Tears", by Aleister Crowley, featuring a series of letters between Crowley himself and one of his Acolytes.
Magick Without Tears - part 1 | Magick without Tears part 2 | Magick without Tears part 3

Letter No. D June 8, 1943

Cara Soror,

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Thanks for your letter. I couldn't find the O.T.O. typescript and then it struck me that it would be useful to await your reactions. If I were expecting some presumably important papers by post, I should get anxious after 24 hours delay (at most) and start enquiries. Anyhow, I can't find them for the moment;

but Mr. Bryant said he would lend you his Blue Equinox: pages 195-270 give what you require.
But the real point of your affiliating is that it saves me from constantly being on my guard lest I should mention something which I am sworn not to reveal. As in every serious society, members are pledged not to disclose what they may have learnt, whom they have met; it is so, even in Co-Masonry: isn't it: But one may mention the names of members who have died. (See Liber LII, par. 2.) Be happy then; the late X... Y... was one of us. I hope that he and Rudolph Steiner will (between them) satisfy your doubts.
The A.'.A.'. is totally different. One Star in Sight tells you everything that you need to know. (Perhaps some of these regulations are hard to grasp: personally, I can never understand all this By-Law stuff. So you must ask me what, and why, and so on.) There is really only one point for your judgment. "By their fruits ye shall know them." You have read Liber LXV and Liber VII; That shows you what states you can attain by this cirriculum. Now read "A Master of theTemple" (Blue Equinox, pp. 127-170) for an account of the early stages of training, and their results. (Of course, your path might not coincide with, or even resemble, his path.)

But do get it into you head that "If the blind lead the blind, they shall both fall into the ditch." If you had seen 1% of the mischief that I have seen, you would freeze to the marrow of your bones at the mere idea of seeing another member through the telescope! Well, I employ the figure of hyperbole, that I admit; but it really won't do to have a dozen cooks at the broth! If you're working with me, you'll have no time to waste on other people.
I fear your "Christianity" is like that of most other folk. You pick out one or two of the figures from which the Alexandrines concocted "Jesus" (too many cooks, again, with a vengeance!) and neglect the others. The Zionist Christ of Matthew can have no value for you; nor can the Asiatic "Dying-God" --- compiled from Melcarth, Mithras, Adonis, Bacchus, Osiris, Attis, Krishna, and others --- who supplied the miraculous and ritualistic elements of the fable.
Rightly you ask: "What can I contribute?" Answer: One Book.
That is the idea of the weekly letter: 52 of yours and 52 of mine, competently edited, would make a most useful volume. This would be your property: so that you get full material value, perhaps much more, for your outlay. I thought of the plan because one such arrangement has recently come to an end, with amazingly happy results: they should lie open to your admiring gaze in a few months from now. Incidentally, I personally get nothing out of it; secretarial work costs money these days. But there is another great advantage; it keeps both of us up to the mark. Also, in such letters a great deal of odds and ends of knowledge turn up automatically; valuable stuff, frequent enough; yes, but one doesn't want to lose the thread, once one starts. Possibly ten days might be best.

But please understand that this suggestion arose solely from your own statement of what you thought would help in your present circumstances. Anyway, as you say, decide! If it is yes, I should like to see you before June 15 when I expect to go away for a few days; better to give you some groundwork to keep you busy in my absence.

Love is the law, love under will.

Fraternally,

666




Letter No. E Aug. 18, 1943

Cara Soror,

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Much thought has gone into the construction of your Motto. "I will become" can be turned neatly enough as "Let there be;" by avoiding the First Pronoun one gets the idea of "the absorption of the Self in the Beloved," which is exactly what you want.
"The creative Force of the Universe" is quite ready-made. Pyramis1, a pyramid, is that Force in its geometrical form; in its biological form it is Phallus2, the Yang or Lingam. Both words have the same numerical value, 831. These two words can therefore serve you as the secret object of your Work. How than can you construct the number 831? The Letter Kaph3, Jupiter (Jehovah), the Wheel of Fortune in the Tarot the Atu X is a picture of the Universe built up and revolving by virtue of those Three Principles: Sulphur, Mercury, Salt; or Gunas: Sattvas, Rajas, Tamas has the value 20. So also has the letter Yod4 spelt in full. One Gnostic secret way of spelling and pronouncing Jehovah is IAO5 and this has the value 811. So has "Let there be," Fiat, transliterating into Greek. Resuming all these ideas, it seems that you can express your aspiration very neatly, very fully, by choosing for your motto the words FIAT YOD.

Love is the law, love under will.

Fraternally,

666

P.S. Please study this letter, and these explanatory figures (the author, BAPHOMET X? O.T.O., in the original spells each word, giving the numerical equivalent of each letter in puramis, etc. This is here not copied.) and meditate upon them until you have fully assimilate not only the matter under immediate consideration, but the general method of Qabalistic research and construction. Note how new cognate ideas arise to enrich the formula.


Letter No. E Aug. 18, 1943

Cara Soror,

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. Much thought has gone into the construction of your Motto. "I will become" can be turned neatly enough as "Let there be;" by avoiding the First Pronoun one gets the idea of "the absorption of the Self in the Beloved," which is exactly what you want.
"The creative Force of the Universe" is quite ready-made. Pyramis1, a pyramid, is that Force in its geometrical form; in its biological form it is Phallus2, the Yang or Lingam. Both words have the same numerical value, 831. These two words can therefore serve you as the secret object of your Work. How than can you construct the number 831?
The Letter Kaph3, Jupiter (Jehovah), the Wheel of Fortune in the Tarot the Atu X is a picture of the Universe built up and revolving by virtue of those Three Principles: Sulphur, Mercury, Salt; or Gunas: Sattvas, Rajas, Tamas has the value 20. So also has the letter Yod4 spelt in full. One Gnostic secret way of spelling and pronouncing Jehovah is IAO5 and this has the value 811. So has "Let there be," Fiat, transliterating into Greek. Resuming all these ideas, it seems that you can express your aspiration very neatly, very fully, by choosing for your motto the words FIAT YOD.

Love is the law, love under will.

Fraternally,

666

P.S. Please study this letter, and these explanatory figures (the author, BAPHOMET X? O.T.O., in the original spells each word, giving the numerical equivalent of each letter in puramis, etc. This is here not copied.) and meditate upon them until you have fully assimilate not only the matter under immediate consideration, but the general method of Qabalistic research and construction. Note how new cognate ideas arise to enrich the formula.