Aleister Crowley - Magick In Theory And Practice

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law

MAGICK

IN THEORY AND

PRACTICE

by

The Master Therion

Aleister Crowley

{Based on the Castle Books edition of New York}

HYMN TO PAN

epsilon-phi-rho-iota-xi epsilon-rho-omega-tau-iota pi-epsilon-rho-iota-alpha-rho-

chi-eta-sigma delta alpha-nu-epsilon-pi-tau-omicron-mu-alpha-nu

iota-omega iota-omega pi-alpha-nu pi-alpha-nu

omega -pi-alpha-nu pi-alpha-nu alpha-lambda-iota-pi-lambda-alpha-gamma-chi-

tau-epsilon, chi-upsilon-lambda-lambda-alpha-nu-iota-alpha-sigma chi-iota-

omicron-nu-omicron-chi-tau-upsilon-pi-omicron-iota

pi-epsilon-tau-rho-alpha-iota-alpha-sigma alpha-pi-omicron delta-epsilon-iota-

rho-alpha-delta-omicron-sigma phi-alpha-nu-eta-theta, omega

theta-epsilon-omega-nu chi-omicron-rho-omicron-pi-omicron-iota alpha-nu-

alpha-xi

SOPH. AJ.

Thrill with lissome lust of the light,

O man! My man!

Come careering out of the night

Of Pan! Io Pan!

Io Pan! Io Pan! Come over the sea

From Sicily and from Arcady!

Roaming as Bacchus, with fauns and pards

And nymphs and satyrs for thy guards,

On a milk-white ass, come over the sea

To me, to me,

Come with Apollo in bridal dress

(Shepherdess and pythoness)

Come with Artemis, silken shod,

And wash thy white thigh, beautiful God,

In the moon of the woods, on the marble mount,

The dimpled dawn of the amber fount!

Dip the purple of passionate prayer

In the crimson shrine, the scarlet snare,

The soul that startles in eyes of blue {V}

To watch thy wantonness weeping through

The tangled grove, the gnarled bole

Of the living tree that is spirit and soul

And body and brain --- come over the sea,

(Io Pan! Io Pan!)

Devil or god, to me, to me,

My man! my man!

Come with trumpets sounding shrill

Over the hill!

Come with drums low muttering

From the spring!

Come with flute and come with pipe!

Am I not ripe?

I, who wait and writhe and wrestle

With air that hath no boughs to nestle

My body, weary of empty clasp,

Strong as a lion and sharp as an asp ---

Come, O come!

I am numb

With the lonely lust of devildom.

Thrust the sword through the galling fetter,

All-devourer, all-begetter;

Give me the sign of the Open Eye,

And the token erect of thorny thigh,

And the word of madness and mystery,

O Pan! Io Pan!

Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan Pan! Pan,

I am a man:

Do as thou wilt, as a great god can,

O Pan! Io Pan!

Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! I am awake

in the grip of the snake.

The eagle slashes with beak and claw;

The gods withdraw:

The great beasts come, Io Pan! I am borne

To death on the horn

Of the Unicorn.

I am Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! {VI}

I am thy mate, I am thy man,

Goat of thy flock, I am gold, I am god,

Flesh to thy bone, flower to thy rod.

With hoofs of steel I race on the rocks

Through solstice stubborn to equinox.

And I rave; and I rape and I rip and I rend

Everlasting, world without end,

Mannikin, maiden, Maenad, man,

In the might of Pan.

Io Pan! Io Pan Pan! Pan! Io Pan!

-------------

{VII}

{Illustration on page VIII described:

This is the set of photos originally published facing page 12 in EQUINOX I, 2 and

titled there: "The Signs of the Grades."

These are arranged as ten panels: * * * *

* *

*

In this re-publication, the original half-tones have been redone as line copy. Each

panel consists of an illustration of a single human in a black Tau robe, barefoot with

hood completely closed over the face. The hood displays a six-pointed figure on

the forehead --- presumably the radiant eye of Horus of the A.'. A.'., but the

rendition is too poor in detail. There is a cross pendant over the heart. The ten

panels are numbered in black in the lower left corner.

The panels are identified by two columns of numbered captions, 1 to 6 to the left

and 7 to 10 to the right. The description is bottom to top and left to right:

"1. Earth: the god Set fighting." Frontal figure. Rt. foot pointed to the fore and

angled slightly outward with weight on ball of foot. Lf. heel almost touching Rt. heel

and foot pointed left. Arms form a diagonal with body, right above head and in line

with left at waist height. Hands palmer and open with fingers outstretched and

together. Head erect.

"2. Air: The god Shu supporting the sky." Frontal. Heels together and slightly

angled apart to the front, flat on floor. Head down. Arms angled up on either side

of head about head 1.5 ft. from head to wrist and crooked as if supporting a ceiling

just at head height with the finger tips. The palms face upward and the backs of

the hands away from the head. Thumbs closed to side of palms. Fingers straight

and together.

"3. Water: the goddess Auramoth." Same body and foot position as #2, but head

erect. Arms are brought down over the chest so that the thumbs touch above the

heart and the backs of the hands are to the front. The fingers meet below the

heart, forming between thumbs and fingers the descending triangle of water.

"4. Fire: the goddess Thoum-aesh-neith." Frontal. Head and body like #3. Arms

are angled so that the thumbs meet in a line over the brow. Palmer side facing.

Fingers meet above head, forming between thumbs and fingers the ascending

triangle of fire.

"5,6. Spirit: the rending and closing of the veil." Head erect in both. #5 has the

same body posture as #1, except that the left and right feet are countercharged and

flat on the floor with the heels in contact. Arms and hands are crooked forward at

shoulder level such that the hands appear to be clawing open a split veil --- hands

have progressed to a point that the forearms are invisible, being directly pointed at

the front. Lower arms are flat and horizontal in the plain of the image.

#6. has the same body posture as #1, feet in same position as #5. The arms are

elbow down against abdomen, with hands forward over heart in claws such that the

knuckles are touching. Passing from #5 to #6 or vice versa is done by motion of

shoulders and rotation of wrists. This is different from the other sign of opening the

veil, the Sign of the Enterer, which is done with hands flat palm to palm and then

spread without rotation of wrists.

"7-10. The L V X signs."

"7. + Osiris slain --- the cross." Body and feet as in #2. Head bowed. Arms directly

horizontal from the shoulders in the plane of the image. Hands with fingers

together, thumbs to side of palm and palmer side forward. The tau shape of the

robe dominates the image.

"8. L Isis mourning --- the Svastica." The body is in semi-profile, head down slightly

and facing right of photograph. The arms, hands, legs and feet are positioned to

define a swastika. Left foot flat, carrying weight and angled toward the right of the

photo. Right foot toe down behind the figure to the left in the photo. Right upper

arm due left in photo and forearm vertical with fingers closed and pointing upward.

Left arm smoothly canted down to the right of the panel, with fingers closed and

pointed down.

"9. V Typhon --- the Trident." Figure frontal and standing on tip toe, toes forward

and heels not touching. Head back. Arms angled in a "V" with the body to the top

and outward in the plain of the photo. Fingers and thumbs as #7, but continuing

the lines of the arms.

"10. X Osiris risen --- the Pentagram." Body and feet as in #7. Head directly frontal

and level. Arms crossed over heart, right over left with hands extended, fingers

closed and thumb on side such that the palms rest on the two opposite shoulders.}

INTRODUCTION

"Epsilon-sigma-sigma-epsilon-alpha-iota alpha-theta-alpha-nu-alpha-tau-omicron-

sigma theta-epsilon-omicron-sigma, alpha-mu-beta-rho-omicron-tau-omicron-

sigma, omicron-upsilon-chi epsilon-tau-iota theta-nu-eta-tau-omicron-sigma

Pythagoras.

"Magic is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural

Philosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right

understanding of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being

applied to proper Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced.

Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because

of their skill, know how to anticipate an effect, the which to the vulgar shall seem to

be a miracle."

"The Goetia of the Lemegeton of King Solomon."

"Wherever sympathetic magic occurs in its pure unadulterated form, it is assumed

that in nature one event follows another necessarily and invariably without the

intervention of any spiritual or personal agency.

Thus its fundamental conception is identical with that of modern science;

underlying the whole system is a faith, implicit but real and firm, in the order and

uniformity of nature. The magician does not doubt that the same causes will

always produce the same effects, that the performance of the proper ceremony

accompanied by the appropriate spell, will inevitably be attended by the desired

results, unless, indeed, his incantations should chance to be thwarted and foiled by

the more potent charms of another sorcerer. He supplicates no higher power: he

sues the favour of no fickle and wayward being: he abases himself before no awful

deity. Yet his power, great as he believes it to be, is by no means arbitrary and

unlimited. He can wield it only so long as he strictly conforms to the rules of his art,

or to what may be called the laws of nature as conceived by {IX} him. To neglect

these rules, to break these laws in the smallest particular is to incur failure, and

may even expose the unskilful practitioner himself to the utmost peril. If he claims

a sovereignty over nature, it is a constitutional sovereignty rigorously limited in its

scope and exercised in exact conformity with ancient usage. Thus the analogy

between the magical and the scientific conceptions of the world is close. In both of

them the succession of events is perfectly regular and certain, being determined by

immutable laws, the operation of which can be foreseen and calculated precisely;

the elements of caprice, of chance, and of accident are banished from the course of

nature. Both of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities to him

who knows the causes of things and can touch the secret springs that set in motion

the vast and intricate mechanism of the world. Hence the strong attraction which

magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful

stimulus that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the weary

enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness of disappointment in the

present by their endless promises of the future: they take him up to he top of an

exceeding high mountain and shew him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mists

at his feet, a vision of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radiant with unearthly

splendour, bathed in the light of dreams."

Dr. J. G. FRAZER, "The Golden Bough"."

"So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic has been one of the roads by

which men have passed to supreme power, it has contributed to emancipate

mankind from the thraldom of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, freer life,

with a broader outlook on the world. This is no small service rendered to humanity.

And when we remember further that in another direction magic has paved the way

for science, we are forced to admit that if the black art has done much evil, it has

also been the source of much good; that if it is the child of error, it has yet been the

mother of freedom and truth."

Ibid.

{X}

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good."

St. Paul.

"Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and

the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach."

"He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals."

"The word of the Law is Theta-epsilon-lambda-eta-mu-alpha."

LIBER AL vel xxxi: The Book of the Law.

-------------

This book is for

ALL:

for every man, woman, and child.

My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited, by my use of

technical terms. It has attracted only too many dilettanti and eccentrics, weaklings

seeking in "Magic" an escape from reality. I myself was first consciously drawn to

the subject in this way. And it has repelled only too many scientific and practical

minds, such as I most designed to influence.

But

MAGICK

is for

ALL.

I have written this book to help the Banker, the Pugilist, the Biologist, the Poet,

the Navvy, the Grocer, the Factory Girl, the Mathematician, the Stenographer, the

Golfer, the Wife, the Consul --- and all the rest --- to fulfil themselves perfectly, each

in his or her own proper function.

Let me explain in a few words how it came about that I blazoned the word

MAGICK

upon the Banner that I have borne before me all my life.

Before I touched my teens, I was already aware that I was THE BEAST whose

number is 666. I did not understand in the least {XI} what that implied; it was a

passionately ecstatic sense of identity.

In my third year at Cambridge, I devoted myself consciously to the Great Work,

understanding thereby the Work of becoming a Spiritual Being, free from the

constraints, accidents, and deceptions of material existence.

I found myself at a loss for a name to designate my work, just as H. P. Blavatsky

some years earlier. "Theosophy", "Spiritualism", "Occultism", "Mysticism", all

involved undesirable connotations.

I chose therefore the name.

"MAGICK"

as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited, of all the

available terms.

I swore to rehabilitate

MAGICK

to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to respect, love, and trust

that which they scorned, hated and feared. I have kept my Word.

But the time is now come for me to carry my banner into the thick of the press of

human life.

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.

I. "DEFINITION."

MAGICK

is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.

{XII}

(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge.

I therefore take "magical weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations" ---

these sentences --- in the "magical language" i.e. that which is understood by the

people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers,

booksellers, and so forth, and constrain them to convey my message to those

people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of

MAGICK

by which I cause changes to take place in conformity with my Will<<By "Intentional"

I mean "willed". But even unintentional acts so-seeming are not truly so. Thus,

breathing is an act of the Will-to-Live.>>)

II. "POSTULATE."

ANY required Change may be effected by the application of the proper kind and

degree of force in the proper manner through the proper medium to the proper

object.

(Illustration: I wish to prepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold. I must take the right

kind of acid, nitro-hydrochloric and no other, in sufficient quantity and of adequate

strength, and place it, in a vessel which will not break, leak, or corrode, in such a

manner as will not produce undesirable results, with the necessary quantity of

Gold: and so forth. Every Change has its own conditions.

In the present state of our knowledge and power some changes are not possible

in practice; we cannot cause eclipses, for instance, or transform lead into tin, or

create men from mushrooms. But it is theoretically possible to cause in any object

any change of which that object is capable by nature; and the conditions are

covered by the above postulate.)

III. "THEOREMS."

(1) Every intentional act is a Magical Act.<<In one sense Magick may be defined

as the name given to Science

by the vulgar.>>

(Illustration: See "Definition" above.) {XIII}

(2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate.

(3) Every failure proves that one or more requirements of the postulate have not

been fulfilled.

(Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case; as when a doctor

makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures his patient. There may be

failure to apply the right kind of force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric

light. There may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a wrestler

has his hold broken. There may be failure to apply the force in the right manner, as

when one presents a cheque at the wrong window of the Bank. There may be

failure to employ the correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vinci found his

masterpiece fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable object, as when

one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.)

(4) The first requisite for causing any change is through qualitative and

quantitative understanding of the conditions.

(Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is ignorance of one's own

True Will, or of the means by which to fulfil that Will. A man may fancy himself a

painter, and waste his life trying to become one; or he may be really a painter, and

yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculiar to that career.)

(5) The second requisite of causing any change is the practical ability to set in

right motion the necessary forces.

(Illustration: A banker may have a perfect grasp of a given situation, yet lack the

quality of decision, or the assets, necessary to take advantage of it.)

(6) "Every man and every woman is a star." That is to say, every human being is

intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper

motion.

(7) Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the self, and

partly on the environment which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is

forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or through

external opposition, comes into conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers

accordingly. {XIV}

(Illustration: A man may think it his duty to act in a certain way, through having

made a fancy picture of himself, instead of investigating his actual nature. For

example, a woman may make herself miserable for life by thinking that she prefers

love to social consideration, or "vice versa". One woman may stay with an

unsympathetic husband when she would really be happy in an attic with a lover,

while another may fool herself into a romantic elopement when her only true

pleasures are those of presiding at fashionable functions. Again, a boy's instinct

may tell him to go to sea, while his parents insists on his becoming a doctor. In

such a case, he will be both unsuccessful and unhappy in medicine.)

(8) A Man whose conscious will is at odds with his True Will is wasting his

strength. He cannot hope to influence his environment efficiently.

(Illustration: When Civil War rages in a nation, it is in no condition to undertake

the invasion of other countries. A man with cancer employs his nourishment alike

to his own use and to that of the enemy which is part of himself. He soon fails to

resist the pressure of his environment. In practical life, a man who is doing what

his conscience tells him to be wrong will do it very clumsily. At first!)

(9) A man who is doing this True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him.

(Illustration: The first principle of success in evolution is that the individual should

be true to his own nature, and at the same time adapt himself to his environment.)

(10) Nature is a continuous phenomenon, though we do not know in all cases

how things are connected.

(Illustration: Human consciousness depends on the properties of protoplasm, the

existence of which depends on innumerable physical conditions peculiar to this

planet; and this planet is determined by the mechanical balance of the whole

universe of matter. We may then say that our consciousness is causally connected

with the remotest galaxies; yet we do not know even how it arises from --- or with --

- the molecular changes in the brain.)

(11) Science enables us to take advantage of the continuity of Nature by the

empirical application of certain {XV} principles whose interplay involves different

orders of idea connected with each other in a way beyond our present

comprehension.

(Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of-thumb methods. We do not

know what consciousness is, or how it is connected with muscular action; what

electricity is or how it is connected with the machines that generate it; and our

methods depend on calculations involving mathematical ideas which have no

correspondence in the Universe as we know it.<<For instance, "irrational", "unreal",

and "infinite" expressions.>>)

(12) Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and powers. Even his idea of

his limitations is based on experience of the past, and every step in his progress

extends his empire. There is therefore no reason to assign theoretical limits<<i.e.,

except --- possibly --- in the case of logically absurd questions, such as the

Schoolmen discussed in connection with "God".>> to what he may be, or to what

he may do.

(Illustration: A generation ago it was supposed theoretically impossible that man

should ever know the chemical composition of the fixed stars. It is known that our

senses are adapted to receive only an infinitesimal fraction of the possible rates of

vibration. Modern instruments have enabled us to detect some of these

suprasensibles by indirect methods, and even to use their peculiar qualities in the

service of man, as in the case of the rays of Hertz and Rontgen. As Tyndall said,

man might at any moment learn to perceive and utilise vibrations of all conceivable

and inconceivable kinds. The question of Magick is a question of discovering and

employing hitherto unknown forces in nature. We know that they exist, and we

cannot doubt the possibility of mental or physical instruments capable of bringing

us into relation with them.)

(13) Every man is more or less aware that his individuality comprises several

orders of existence, even when he maintains that his subtler principles are merely

symptomatic of the changes in his gross vehicle. A similar order may be assumed

to extend throughout nature.

(Illustration: One does not confuse the pain of toothache with {XVI} the decay

which causes it. Inanimate objects are sensitive to certain physical forces, such as

electrical and thermal conductivity; but neither in us nor in them --- so far as we

know --- is there any direct conscious perception of these forces. Imperceptible

influences are therefore associated with all material phenomena; and there is no

reason why we should not work upon matter through those subtle energies as we

do through their material bases. In fact, we use magnetic force to move iron, and

solar radiation to reproduce images.)

(14) Man is capable of being, and using, anything which he perceives, for

everything that he perceives is in a certain sense a part of his being. He may thus

subjugate the whole Universe of which he is conscious to his individual Will.

(Illustration: Man has used the idea of God to dictate his personal conduct, to

obtain power over his fellow, to excuse his crimes, and for innumerable other

purposes, including that of realizing himself as God. He has used the irrational and

unreal conceptions of mathematics to help him in the construction of mechanical

devices. He has used his moral force to influence the actions even of wild animals.

He has employed poetic genius for political purposes.)

(15) Every force in the Universe is capable of being transformed into any other

kind of force by using suitable means. There is thus an inexhaustible supply of any

particular kind of force that we may need.

(Illustration: Heat may be transformed into light and power by using it to drive

dynamos. The vibrations of the air may be used to kill men by so ordering them in

speech as to inflame war-like passions. The hallucinations connected with the

mysterious energies of sex result in the perpetuation of the species.)

(16) The application of any given force affects all the orders of being which exist

in the object to which it is applied, whichever of those orders is directly affected.

(Illustration: If I strike a man with a dagger, his consciousness, not his body only, is

affected by my act; although the dagger, as such, has no direct relation therewith.

Similarly, the power of {XVII} my thought may so work on the mind of another

person as to produce far-reaching physical changes in him, or in others through

him.)

(17) A man may learn to use any force so as to serve any purpose, by taking

advantage of the above theorems.

(Illustration: A man may use a razor to make himself vigilant over his speech, but

using it to cut himself whenever he unguardedly utters a chosen word. He may

serve the same purpose by resolving that every incident of his life shall remind him

of a particular thing, making every impression the starting point of a connected

series of thoughts ending in that thing. He might also devote his whole energies to

some one particular object, by resolving to do nothing at variance therewith, and to

make every act turn to the advantage of that object.)

(18) He may attract to himself any force of the Universe by making himself a fit

receptacle for it, establishing a connection with it, and arranging conditions so that

its nature compels it to flow toward him.

Aleister Crowley - Magick In Theory And Practice

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