[I wrote this commentary back in August 1994. It is presented here without any editing… I added some comments on February 11, 2015.]
COMMENTRY ON CROWLEY’S “THE BOOK OF LIES“
FOREWORD
Crowley (1875 – 1947) was 38 years old when this book written by him was first published in London in 1913. Revised edition was published in 1952 with author’s own commentary (circa 1921). First reprint has recently been published in 1992 by SAMUEL WEISER, Box 612, York Beach, Maine 03910.
Crowley’s philosophy derives from eastern thought. It matured in the background provided by Free Masonry.
“… it is composed of more or less disconnected elements.” An original creation is obviously unique and not connected to anything but itself. At the level of pure creation, there are no connections, and therefore, no logic.
“… obscure oracles… obscure allusions… cryptograms…” Appearances, such as problems and mysteries, disappear when they are perceived in their entirety. Truth has to be altered to make it persist before it can be communicated.
“… invoked Dionysus…” In Greek mythology, Dionysus (also known as Bacchus) was the god of wine whose mysteries inspired ecstatic orgiastic worship. Worshipers invoked ecstasy through loud singing, wild dancing, intoxication, drugs, licentiousness, and debauchery. When in a state of ecstasy, ego and identity are completely bypassed and one feels in complete harmony, and this leads to new realizations about life. But where one is dependent on physical vias (sex and drugs) one cannot sustain that ecstatic state and eventually degrades oneself.
“… the spirit came over me…” In its native state a being is totally at cause and it can confront and understand anything. When this state occurs, one feels completely in tune with life and totally aware. One is totally THERE and CONFRONTING whatever is there. This brings about an understanding of deeper meanings of life accompanied by indescribable ecstasy.
COMMENT February 11, 2015: I no longer think in terms of “a being at cause,” which was an idea from Scientology. This idea assumes there is a constant called a “being”. There is no such constant. Cause is not a property of being. Cause and effect are relationships that simply occur in associations. In native state the attention is totally free and it has no inertia because it has no fixed structure. A free attention can totally mould itself around whatever it perceives and understand it completely.
“The entire symbolism… blazed upon my spiritual vision.” Anything that we perceive is a symbol in one form or another. The question is, “What is beyond all symbolism?”
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THE TWO VEILS
? – perplexed, confused… NOT KNOW, WANT TO KNOW
! – sudden realization… WONDEROUS ECSTASY OF KNOWING
COMMENT February 11, 2015: One may see “confusion of not knowing” as a veil. But the “ecstasy of knowing” could act as a veil too. One may get stuck in that ecstasy and become unable to mould the attention to what is now there. The flexibility gets lost with slightest bit of structure that stays even as ecstasy.
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THE CHAPTER THAT IS NOT A CHAPTER
O!
It refers to Silence. “O” is NOTHING in the absolute sense. “O!” is the exclamation of wonder or ecstasy, which is the ultimate nature of things.
COMMENT February 11, 2015: The ultimate nature of things is that there is no constant, except a wonder about what is there.
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THE ANTE PRIMAL TRIAD WHICH IS NOT-GOD
Nothing is.
– potential CAUSE unmanifested.
COMMENT February 11, 2015: What is not manifested can only be assumed even as “cause.”
Nothing becomes.
– CAUSE manifests itself.
COMMENT February 11, 2015: What manifests is maybe the assumption. Ha ha.
Nothing is not.
– CAUSE unmanifested, or its manifestation perverted to something else.
COMMENT February 11, 2015: An assumption is not what is truly there.
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At a lower harmonic, these basic actions may be perceived as
– being there
– assuming a viewpoint
– taking full responsibility for that viewpoint, or without taking responsibility changing it to something else.
COMMENT February 11, 2015: These earlier ideas were from Scientology. They provide a fixed structure. Any structure has inertia. But the ultimate reality has no inertia.
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THE FIRST TRIAD WHICH IS GOD
I AM
– TOTAL AWARENESS
I utter the word
– TOTAL CAUSE
I hear the word
– TOTAL RESPONSIBILITY (a totally willing effect of one’s cause)
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At a lower harmonic, this is having full awareness at each single moment – BEING THERE and CONFRONTING.
COMMENT February 11, 2015: Many ideas in Scientology have been borrowed from Crowley. Such ideas interiorize attention into a sense of “I”. Such sense of “I” provides a structure that has the property of fixedness. The fixedness gradually congeals into ego. “I” develops as the “center of ego.” It believes itself to be “cause” that can also become “effect.” But cause and effect are truly the result of relationships only. They are not properties of “I”.
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THE ABYSS
The word is broken up.
– alteration of what was originally created.
There is Knowledge.
– sequences and trail of alterations that can be known.
Knowledge is Relation.
– association among alterations which is logic and knowledge.
These fragments are Creation.
– the alterations hide the original creation, and, therefore, persist.
The broken manifests Light.
– because they persist they can be communicated or exchanged.
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