No more the heart; but sobbing through the sky,
Came trembling the more awful beat, the blast
Of a million trumpets blazoning the past,
Heralding the to-be, and on their wings
Whirred incommunicable things.
And in their wake, tremendous and austere,
A form of fear,
Awe in the shape of the Most Holy One,
A globe, an eye, a hawk, a lion, a lord,
A bowl of brilliance, a winged globe, a sword –
All these in one, and one beyond all these,
Mute, ithyphallic, caryatides
Like gods about his car, came crested on
The one true God, the Sun!
Instant, the city swirling to its brim
With Life unthinkable, dissolved in Him.
Instant, explosion shook the bounding night,
Most appropriately for a tome encouraging active participation, Lion of Light ends with two questions to the reader. The questions pertain to an alternate cover illustration submitted by Chris Mazur that had garnered serious consideration.
I love this cover submission; it reminded me of Horus as the Crowned and Conquering Child but there was some concern that the figure didn't resemble Crowley enough. However, if you've seen any photographs of little Alex at age 4, it appears the spitting image of the precocious tyke who would grow up to become either the Magus of the Aeon or the Wickedest Man in the World depending upon one's point of view; or both or neither or something in between.
And then there's the extensive, but occult qabalistic imagery that appeared on every cover submission thanks to publisher and graphic designer Richard Rasa who wrote the end note: "A Search for a Cover." Note that the "t" in Robert and the "t" in Aleister bear an uncanny resemblance to the torso and arms in the illustration. An important Thelemic formula = the word ON which acquires multiple ramifications in its wake. It landed briefly a few weeks ago in the comments here. ON occurs no less than four times in this cover: Lion, Anton, Wilson, on. This suggests Tetragrammation, the four-fold aspect of God: Yod He Vau He. In some respects, O + N represent the Yang and Yin of Qabalah. O = male energies and you can probably infer what N represents. When these are equally balanced in one body you get a hermaphroditic nature. Cue up Rebel Rebel by David Bowie.
When I began this journey of self-Initiation in the early 1980s I invariably had difficulties putting the words into concrete action. I had to get by with a little help from my friends along the way. If the intention is there, synchronicities, or as John Lilly put it, Coincidence Control, opens doors and presents opportunities. On the other hand, as Crowley notes in The Confessions, as soon as you make the intention to make these efforts, all kinds of obstacles, challenges, distractions and barriers pop up in a variety of ways attempting to thwart your efforts. Believe it or not, that appears a good sign.
Aleister Crowley's elder brother, G.I. Gurdjieff, writes of two basic laws in the morphogenesis, manifestation and process of voluntary human evolution: the Law of Octaves and the Law of Three. The latter maintains that it requires 3 different types of energy or forces to manifest any phenomena. He labelled it as affirming, denying and reconciling forces. It aligns with the Christian trinity of the Father (affirming), the Son (denying) and the Holy Spirit (reconciling) and from the Hindu, Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, Shiva the destroyer. More scientifically and practically speaking, the Law of Three can be compared to Ohm's Law of Electricity which describes the relationship between Voltage (V), Current (I), and Resistance (R). It shows that V = IR, that voltage (spirit) results from the multiplication of current and resistance. I call this practical, due to the fact that the brain and nervous system function through electricity. My guess: higher states of consciousness increases the voltage of certain parts of the brain. A psychedelic will electrically stimulate the brain; it can also be stimulated through non-chemical means. Timothy Leary originally called the Sixth Circuit the neuro-electric circuit. I connect C6 with Tiphareth and the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. This seems a long-winded way of saying that the resistance of obstacles and challenges facing the seeker becomes necessary for pushing the current of spiritual growth.
The Ezra Pound quote that opens this post was inspired by Confucius. For all I know, it may be the words of Confucius translated by Pound. It shows that this information exists and has existed for a long time outside of Crowley; he channelled or created a particular assemblage of it known as Thelema or Magick and attempted to make self-empowerment and mutual respect more widely known. For me, studying different things: Joyce, Gurdjieff, Deleuze, The Beatles and Stones, etc. etc. helps with understanding Magick and Magick helps to understand and deeply appreciate these various other disciplines.
* * * * * *
I was in the happiest place in the world when I first read some of Crowley's Eight Lectures on Yoga. It was humid, odd and unattractive. But Crowley was writing about how to be, how to deal, if you will, with humidity and oddness.
Welcome to the plateau of humidity and oddness. The two of us write this together. Since each of us is several, there is already quite a crowd. Here we have made use of everything that came within range, what was closest as well as what was farthest away. We have assigned clever pseudonyms to prevent recognition. Why have we kept our own names? Out of habit, purely out of habit. To make ourselves unrecognizable in turn. To render imperceptible, not ourselves, but what makes us act, feel and think. Also because it's nice to talk like everybody else, to say the sun rises, when everybody knows it's only a manner of speaking. To reach, not the point where one no longer says I, but the point where it is of no longer of any importance whether one says I. We are no longer ourselves. Each will know his own. We have been aided, inspired, multiplied. (Slightly paraphrased from Rhizome by Deleuze & Guattari.)
A quality Deleuze and Crowley share in common = re-contextualizing standard philosophical principles and beliefs to suit their own purposes. Some people wish to know how an advocacy of Horus gets reconciled with an advocacy for Peace being that Horus commonly gets thought of as a God of War. To start, Crowley emphasizes the dual aspect of Horus – Ra Hoor Khuit (the male, war-like aspect) and Hoor pa Kraat (the female, silent aspect). Things change when becoming more balanced. Crowley also introduced the concept: "the Red Triangle reversed" which describes Horus as a triangle on the Tree of Life with its base formed by the path Teth (= Horus) connecting Geburah (Severity) with Chesed (Mercy) and the paths of Yod and Lamed going down from there to form the apex of the triangle in Tiphareth. Crowley said he saw Horus as an aspect of Tiphareth that included Geburah and Chesed. He said that the Red Triangle reversed came from Rose, that it was new to him. The triangle in Goetic magic ritual is where the spirit or demon manifests. Red = anger or war. Reversing the red triangle reverses the manifestation of war-like spirits. To repeat: Horus = an aspect of Tiphareth that balanced Severity with Mercy.
Crowley heard about Thelema from Rose. John Lennon heard about it from Yoko. Love is the law, love under will helped inspire the song All You Need is Love which Lennon wrote for the first satellite transmission around the world. Later, Lennon wrote:
