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Aleister Crowley

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Famous Aleister Crowley Quotes

“OLYMPAS: There is one doubt. When souls attain Such an unimagined gain Shall not others mark them, wise Beyond mere mortal destinies? MARSYAS: Such are not the perfect saints. While the imagination faints Before their truth, they veil it close As amid the utmost snows The tallest peaks most straitly hide With clouds their lofty heads. Divide The planes! Be ever as you can A simple honest gentleman! Body and manners be at ease. Not bloat with blazoned sanctities! Who fights as fights the soldier-saint? And see the artist-adept paint! Weak are those souls that fear the stress Of earth upon their holiness! The fast, they eat fantastic food, They prate of beans and brotherhood, Wear sandals, and long hair, and spats, And think that makes them Arhats! How shall man still his spirit-storm? Rational Dress and Food Reform! OLYMPAS: I know such saints. MARSYAS: An easy vice: So wondrous well they advertise! O their mean souls are satisfied With wind of spiritual pride. They're all negation. "Do not eat; What poison to the soul is meat! Drink not; smoke not; deny the will! Wine and tobacco make us ill." Magic is life; the Will to Live Is one supreme Affirmative. These things that flinch from Life are worth No more to Heaven than to Earth. Affirm the everlasting Yes! OLYMPAS: Those saints at least score one success: Perfection of their priggishness! MARSYAS: Enough. The soul is subtlier fed With meditation's wine and bread. Forget their failings and our own; Fix all our thoughts on Love alone!”

AsceticismSaintsAusterityThelema1910Fakirs
Book:Aha!
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“Therefore whoso worshippeth thee [Jehovah] is accursed. He shall be brayed in a mortar and the powder thereof cast to the winds, that the birds of the air may eat thereof and die; and he shall be dissolved in strong acid and the elixir poured into the sea, that the fishes of the sea may breathe thereof and die. And he shall be mingled with dung and spread upon the earth, so that the herbs of the earth may feed thereof and die; and he shall be burnt utterly with fire, and the ashes thereof shall calcine the children of the flame, that even in hell may be found an overflowing of lamentation.”

JehovahThelema19094 Elements
Book:The Vision and the Voice: With Commentary and Other Papers
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“All that was ordered and stable is shaken. The Æon of Wonders is come. Like locusts shall they gather themselves together, the servants of the Star and the Snake, and they shall eat up everything that is upon the earth. For why? Because the Lord of Righteousness delighteth in them. (16:6)”

Thelema1909Locusts
Book:Visions & Voices: Aleister Crowley's Enochian Visions with Astrological & Qabalistic Commentary
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“For, indeed, this is the great horror, solitude, when the soul can no longer bathe in the ever-changing mind, laugh as its sunlit ripples lap its skin, but, shut up in the castle of a few thoughts, paces its narrow prison, wearing down the stone of time, feeding on its own excrement. There is no star in the blackness of that night, no foam upon the stagnant and putrid sea. Even the glittering health that the desert brings to the body, is like a spear in the soul's throat. The passionate ache to act, to think: this eats into the soul like a cancer. It is the scorpion striking itself in its agony, save that no poison can add to the tortue of the circling fire; no superflux of anguish relieve it by annihilation. But against these paroxisms is an eightfold sedative. The ravings of madness are lost in soundless space; the struggles of the drowning man are not heeded by the sea.”

MeditationDesertThelemaEgo Death1914
Book:The Soul of the Desert
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“This is the supreme anguish of the soul; it realizes itself as itself, as thing separate from that which is not itself, from God. In this spasm there are two ways: if fear and pride are left in the soul, it shuts itself up, like a warlock in a tower, gnashing its teeth with agony. "I am I," it cried, "I will not lose myself," and in that state damned, it is slowly torn by the claws of circumstance disintegrated bitterly, for all its struggles, throughout ages and ages, its rags to be cast piecemeal upon the dungheap without the city. But the soul that has understood the blessedness of that resignation which grasps the universe and devours it, which is without hope or fear, without faith or doubt, without hate or love, dissolves itself ineffable into the abounding bliss of God. It cries with Shelley, as the "chains of lead about its flight of fire" drop molten from its limbs: "I pant, I sink, I tremble, I expire," and in that last outbreaking is made one with the primal and final breath, the Holy Spirit of God. Such must be the climax of any retirement to the Desert on the part of any aspirant of the Mysteries who has the spark of that fire in him.”

DesertRetirementRetreatThelema1914Union With God
Book:The Soul of the Desert
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“Sex is, directly or indirectly, the most powerful weapon in the armoury of the Magician; and precisely because there is no moral guide, it is indescribably dangerous. I have given a great many hints, especially in Magick , and The Book of Thoth —some of the cards are almost blatantly revealing; so I have been rapped rather severely over the knuckles for giving children matches for playthings. My excuse has been that they have already got the matches, that my explanations have been directed to add conscious precautions to the existing automatic safeguards.”

MoralityThelema1945Sex Magick
Book:Magick Without Tears
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“This formula of Love is universal; all the laws of Nature are its servitors. Thus, gravitation, chemical affinity, electrical potential, and the rest - and these are alike mere aspects of the general law - are so many differently-observed statements of the unique tendency.”

LoveLawLove IsUniqueAspectUniversalMereStatementsTendenciesFormulasChemicalsLaws Of NatureElectricalAffinityGravitation
Book:Little Essays Toward Truth
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“The Quest of the Holy Grail, the Search for the Stone of the Philosophers - by whatever name we choose to call the Great Work - is therefore endless. Success only opens up new avenues of brilliant possibility. Yea, verily, and Amen! the task is tireless and its joys without bounds; for the whole Universe, and all that in it is, what is it but the infinite playground of the Crowned and Conquering Child, of the insatiable, the innocent, the ever-rejoicing Heir of Space and Eternity, whose name is MAN?”

MenChildrenWholeJoySpiritualityUniverseNamesSpacePossibilityHolyStonesTasksEternityInfiniteBoundsPhilosopherBrilliantEndlessInnocentConquerRejoiceQuestsGreat WorkAvenuesHeirsAmenPlaygroundsInsatiableHoly Grail
Book:Little Essays Toward Truth
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“I must make MAGICK the essential factor in the life of ALL. In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and justify my position by formulating a definition of MAGICK and setting forth its main principles in such a way that ALL may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every relation with every other human being and every circumstance, depend upon MAGICK and the right comprehension and right application thereof.”

WorldWayHumansMayBookSoulHuman BeingsPrinciplesPositionDependsCircumstancesEssentialsRelationDefinitionsSettingFactorsSettingsJustifyApplicationComprehensionPresenting
Book:Magick: In Theory and Practice
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“The discovery of radioactivity created a momentary chaos in chemistry and physics; but it soon led to a fuller interpretation of the old ideas. It dispersed many difficulties, harmonized many discords, and yea, more! It shewed the substance of Universe as a simplicity of Light and Life, manners to compose atoms, themselves capable of deeper self-realization through fresh complexities and organizations, each with its own peculiar powers and pleasures, each pursuing its path through the world where all things are possible.”

WorldIdeasSelfLightUniversePleasurePathCapableDiscoveryAll ThingsOrganizationDifficultyChaosSimplicityDeeperPhysicsSelf RealizationRealizationMannersSubstanceComplexityInterpretationChemistryPeculiarAtomsMomentaryDiscordOld Ideas
Author:Aleister Crowley
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“The Inmost is one with the Inmost; yet the form of the One is not the form of the other; intimacy exacts fitness. He therefore who liveth by air, let him not be bold to breathe water. But mastery cometh by measure: to him who with labour, courage, and caution giveth his life to understand all that doth encompass him, and to prevail against it, shall be increase. "The word of Sin is Restriction": seek therefore Righteousness, enquiring into Iniquity, and fortify thyself to overcome it.”

FormWaterSinAirOvercomingIncreaseBreatheIntimacyLabourRighteousnessMasteryCautionThyselfRestrictionIniquity
Author:Aleister Crowley
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“I believe in one secret and ineffable Lord; and in one Star in the Company of Stars of whose fire we are created, and to which we shall return; and in one Father of Life, Mystery of Mystery, in His name Chaos, the sole viceregent of the Sun upon the Earth; and in one Air the nourisher of all that breathes. And I believe in one Earth, the Mother of us all, and in one Womb wherein all men are begotten, and wherein they shall rest, Mystery of Mystery, in Her name Babalon.”

MenBelieveEarthMotherFatherNamesI BelieveStarsSecretCompanyLordSunFireAirMysteryReturnChaosI Believe InBreatheSoleWombIneffable
Author:Aleister Crowley
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“As soon as you put men together, they somehow sink, corporatively, below the level of the worst of the individuals composing it. Collect scholars on a club committee, or men of science on a jury; all their virtues vanish, and their vices pop out, reinforced by the self-confidence which the power of numbers is bound to bestow.”

MenSelfTogetherIndividualLevelsNumbersVirtueWorstBoundsVicesClubsPopsSelf ConfidenceScholarCommitteesJuryComposing
Author:Aleister Crowley
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“But neither Europe nor Africa can show any such desolation as America. The proudest, stubbornest, bitterest peasant of deserted Spain, the most primitive and superstitious Arab of the remotest oases, are a little more than kin and never less than kind at their worst; whereas in the United States one is almost always conscious of an instinctive lack of sympathy and understanding with even the most charming and cultured people.”

PeopleKindLittlesStatesShowsAmericaUnderstandingUnitedUnited StatesWorstConsciousEuropePrimitiveCharmingSpainPeasantsSuperstitiousDesolationDesertedOasis
Author:Aleister Crowley
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“In every Magical, or similar system, it is invariably the first condition which the Aspirant must fulfill: he must once and for all and for ever put his family outside his magical circle.Even the Gospels insist clearly and weightily on this.Christ himself (i.e. whoever is meant by this name in this passage) callously disowns his mother and his brethren (Luke VIII, 19). And he repeatedly makes discipleship contingent on the total renunciation of all family ties. He would not even allow a man to attend his father's funeral!Is the magical tradition less rigid?Not on your life!”

MenFirstsMotherFatherNamesChristConditionsTraditionCirclesTiesFuneralPassagesDiscipleshipBrethrenLukeRenunciationFamily Ties
Author:Aleister Crowley
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“The affiliation clause in our Constitution is a privilege: a courtesy to a sympathetic body. Were you not a Mason, or Co-Mason, you would have to be proposed and seconded, and then examined by savage Inquisitors, and then-probably-thrown out on the garbage heap. Well, no, it's not as bad as that; but we certainly don't want anybody who chooses to apply. Would you do it yourself, if you were on the Committee of a Club? The O.T.O. is a serious body, engaged on a work of Cosmic scope. You should question yourself: what can I contribute?”

IfsWantShouldWellsBodySeriousConstitutionPrivilegeClubsEngagedThrownCosmicSavagesCommitteesScopeGarbageCourtesySympatheticDo It YourselfClausesMasonsAffiliation
Author:Aleister Crowley
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“You must on no account attempt to use the squares given in the Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage until you have succeeded in the Operation. More, unless you mean to perform it, and are prepared to go to any length to do so, you are a fool to have the book in your possession at all. Those squares are liable to get loose and do things on their own initiative; and you won't like it.”

MeanBookUseGivenMagicFoolAccountsSacredPreparedPossessionOperationsLengthSquaresInitiativeLiable
Author:Aleister Crowley
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“What is it in absinthe that makes it a separate cult? The effects of its abuse are totally distinct from those of other stimulants. Even in ruin and in degradation it remains a thing apart: its victims wear a ghastly aureole all their own, and in their peculiar hell yet gloat with a sinister perversion of pride that they are not as other men.”

MenHellEffectsPrideAbuseVictimRemainsRuinsPeculiarCultDegradationSinisterPerversionGhastlyStimulantsAbsinthe
Book:Absinthe: The Green Goddess
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“Genuine recollections almost invariably explain oneself to oneself. Suppose, for example, that you feel an instinctive aversion to some particular kind of wine. Try as you will, you can find no reason for it. Suppose when you explore a previous incarnation, you remember you died by a poisoned administered in a wine of that kind, your aversion is explained by the proverb: 'A burnt child dreads the fire.'”

FeelsTryingKindChildrenReasonRememberFireExampleParticularDiedWineOneselfGenuineNo ReasonDreadIncarnationRecollectionRemember YouRemembers YouAversion
Author:Aleister Crowley
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“The 'lords of the earth' are those who are doing their Will. It does not necessarily mean people with coronets and automobiles; there are plenty of such people who are the most sorrowful slaves in the world. The sole test of one's lordship is to know what one's true Will is, and to do it.”

PeopleKnowsWorldMeanDoeEarthLordTestsSlavePlentySoleAutomobileMean PeopleSorrowfulLordship
Book:The Commentaries of AL: Being the Equinox Volume V, No. 1
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“Here again, there is no tabulation; for us it is left to sacrifice literary charm, and even some accuracy, in order to bring out the one great point. The cause of human sectarianism is not lack of sympathy in thought, but in speech; and this it is our not unambitious design to remedy.”

HumansOrderLeftCausesSacrificeDesignSpeechCharmRemedyAccuracySectarianism
Book:777 revised: vel, Prolegomena symbolica ad systemam sceptico-mysticae viae explicandae, fundamentum hieroglyphicum sanctissimorum scientiae summae
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“My observation of the Universe convinces me that there are beings of intelligence and power of a far higher quality than anything we can conceive of as human; that they are not necessarily based on the cerebral and nervous structures that we know, and that the one and only chance for mankind to advance as a whole is for individuals to make contact with such beings.”

KnowsHumansWholeUniverseIndividualChanceQualityMankindHigherStructureContactNervousObservationConvinceCerebral
Author:Aleister Crowley
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