The Collected Works of Aleister Crowley. Aleister Crowley
throat.
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΛΒ
THE MOUNTAINEER
Consciousness is a symptom of disease.
All that moves well moves without will.
All skillfulness, all strain, all intention is contrary to ease.
Practise a thousand times, and it becomes difficult ; a thousand thousand, and it becomes easy ; a thousand thousand times a thousand thousand, and it is no longer Thou that doeth it, but It that doeth itself through thee. Not until then is that which is done well done.
Thus spoke FRATER PERDURABO as he leapt from rock to rock of the moraine without ever casting his eyes upon the ground.
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BAPHOMET
A black two-headed Eagle is GOD ; even a Black Triangle is He. In His claws He beareth a sword ; yea, a sharp sword is held therein.
This Eagle is burnt up in the Great Fire ; yet not a feather is scorched. This Eagle is swallowed up in the Great Sea ; yet not a feather is wetted. So flieth He in the air, and lighteth upon the earth at His pleasure.
So spake IACOBUS BURGUNDUS MOLENSIS17 the Grand Master of the Temple ; and of the GOD that is Ass-headed did he dare not speak.
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THE SMOKING DOG18
Each act of man is the twist and double of an hare.
Love and death are the greyhounds that course him.
God bred the hounds and taketh His pleasure in the sport.
This is the Comedy of Pan, that man should think he hunteth, while those hounds hunt him.
This is the Tragedy of Man when facing Love and Death he turns to bay. He is no more hare, but boar.
There are no other comedies or tragedies.
Cease then to be the mockery of God ; in savagery of love and death live thou and die !
Thus shall His laughter be thrilled through with Ecstasy.
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VENUS OF MILO
Life is as ugly and necessary as the female body.
Death is as beautiful and necessary as the male body.
The soul is beyond male and female as it is beyond Life and Death.
Even as the Lingam and the Yoni are but diverse developments of One Organ, so also are Life and Death but two phases of One State. So also the Absolute and the Conditioned are but forms of THAT.
What do I love? There is no form, no being, to which I do not give myself wholly up.
Take me, who will !
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THE STAR SAPPHIRE
Let the Adept be armed with his Magick Rood [and provided with his Mystic Rose].
In the centre, let him give the L. V. X. signs ; or if he know them, if he will and dare do them, and can keep silent about them, the signs of N. O. X. being the signs of Puer, Vir, Puella, Mulier. Omit the sign I. R.
Then let him advance to the East, and make the Holy Hexagram, saying : PATER ET MATER UNIS DEUS ARARITA.
Let him go round to the South, make the Holy Hexagram, and say : MATER ET FILIUS UNUS DEUS ARARITA.
Let him go round to the West, make the Holy Hexagram, and say : FILIUS ET FILIA UNUS DEUS ARARITA.
Let him go round to the North, make the Holy Hexagram, and then say : FILIA ET PATER UNUS DEUS ARARITA.
Let him then return to the Centre, and so to The Centre of All [making the ROSY CROSS as he may know how] saying : ARARITA ARARITA ARARITA.
[In this the Signs shall be those of Set Triumphant and of Baphomet. Also shall Set appear in the Circle. Let him drink of the Sacrament and let him communicate the same.]
Then let him say : OMNIA IN DUOS : DUO IN UNUM : UNUS IN NIHIL : HAEC NEC QUATUOR NEC OMNIA NEC DUO NEC UNUS NEC NIHIL SUNT.
GLORIA PATRI ET MATRI ET FILIO ET FILIAE ET SPIRITUI SANCTO EXTERNO ET SPIRITUI SANCTO INTERNO UT ERAT EST ERIT IN SAECULA SAECULORUM SEX IN UNO PER NOMEN SEPTEM IN UNO ARARITA.
Let him then repeat the signs of L. V. X. but not the signs of N.O.X. ; for it is not he that shall arise in the Sign of Isis Rejoicing.
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DRAGONS
Thought is the shadow of the eclipse of Luna.
Samadhi is the shadow of the eclipse of Sol.
The moon and the earth are the non-ego and the ego : the Sun is THAT.
Both eclipses are darkness ; both are exceeding rare ; the Universe itself is Light.
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LAMBSKIN
Cowan, skidoo !
Tyle !
Swear to hele all.
This is the mystery.
Life !
Mind is the traitor.
Slay mind.
Let the corpse of mind lie unburied on the edge of the Great Sea !
Death !
This is the mystery.
Tyle !
Cowan, skidoo !
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THE LOOBY
Only loobies find excellence in these words.
It is thinkable that A is not-A ; to reverse this is but to revert to the normal.
Yet by forcing the brain to accept propositions of which one set is absurdity, the other truism, a new function of brain is established.
Vague and mysterious and all indefinite are the contents of this new consciousness ; yet they are somehow vital. by use they become luminous.
Unreason becomes Experience.
This