At 10.0 arrived at Brenner’s studio, and took the pose. At once, automatically, the interior trembling began again, and again the subtle brilliance flowed through me. The consciousness again died and was reborn as the divine, always without shock or stress. How easy is magic, once the way is found! How still is the soul! The turbid spate of emotion has ceased; the heavy particles of thought have sunk to the bottom; how limpid, how lucid is its glimmer Only from above, from the overshadowing Tree of Life, whose leaves glisten and quiver in the shining wind of the Spirit, drops ever and anon, self-luminous, the Dew of Immortality. Many and wonderful also were the Visions and powers offered unto me in this hour; but I refused them all; for being in my Lord and He in me, there is no need of these toys.

Aleister Crowley, writing about posing for the statue by Michael Brenner, in John St John, Liber DCCCLX

Hermetic quote Crowley John St John DCCCLX Brenner consciousness died reborn divine without shock stress how easy magic once way found still soul

Michael Brenner Portrait of Aleister Crowley Bronze 1908
“Michael Brenner: Portrait of Aleister Crowley, Bronze, 1908, 15″ x 9-1/2″ x 10-1/2”, Ed. Artist-II/II, Edition-7; The piece was only recently identified. Crowley posed for this in 1908 describing the artist and his session in his notes.”—J C L Fine Art

Consider also:

  1. “Here, she is willing. Stands the Absolute Reaching its arms toward me. I am mute, I draw toward. Oh, suddenly I see The treason-pledge, the royal prostitute. One moment, and I should have passed beyond Linked unto spirit by the fourfold bond. Not dead to earth, but living as divine, A priest, a king, an oracle, a shrine, A saviour! Yet my misty spirit conned The secret murmur: ‘Gereth, I am thine!'”
  2. “While I’ve been ruminating on the availability of trees, Peeta has been struggling with how to maintain his identity. His purity of self.”
  3. Really, people who think Aleister Crowley ever was the “wickedest man in the world” are fooling themselves
  4. How one makes these attempts at parallels between the Tree of Life and psychological models such as presented by Psychosynthesis is somewhat arbitrary. Exact matches across the board rarely occur. Function is what designates similarity, and function in Kabbalah is often a matter of perspective more than anything else. Several models exist for placing the Worlds on the Tree as well as their psycho-spiritual functions. The models put forth by Z’ev ben Shimon Halevi are quite different from the generally accepted Golden Dawn models of the psyche. However, since it is these models, derived from interpretations of late 19th and early 20th century British occultism that most students are familiar with, it is their designations of the Worlds and Sepherotic functions that will be applied.”
  5. “I always think of Mr Wells’ First Men in the Moon. How to act when the fundamental conditions of life are changed? The danger of making fatal mistakes is always present.”