Black Magic is Not a Myth in Articles by Aleister Crowley.

“I have prepared the elixir of life, that magical draught which gives eternal youth. Like the touch of Midas, it is not an unmixed blessing.” [via, also]

Consider also:

  1. “These fantastic physical powers lasted for about two months, and were followed by reaction. For half a year I was in a state of lassitude. I had been playing with a dangerous recipe.”
  2. “I was then a neophyte–a new being born into a new world. I have never gone back to the old world of the gross deceptions and illusions of matter as the senses describe it.”
  3. “Thus it is with the world, Lomellino; what is one person’s misery is another’s happiness.”
  4. “I made it first when I was forty. It was done hastily and with imperfect knowledge. I took seven doses, as the first two or three had no apparent effect. The consequences were extremely violent.”
  5. “The ‘Black Mass’ is a totally different matter. I could not celebrate it if I wanted to, for I am not a consecrated priest of the Christian Church. The celebrant must be a priest, for the whole idea of the practice is to profane the Sacrament of the Eucharist. Therefore you must believe in the truth of the cult and the efficacy of its ritual.”