David held out his hands in a gesture that was supposed to mean, So fucking sorry for something that’s not remotely my fault, but people had already lost interest in him.
John Ajvide Lindqvist, Handling the Undead [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]
One thing I will say: that I do not expect anything to come of qabalistic speculations. I think that they may even be extremely mischievous in times like the present. Our sole business should be to use the Law to reconstruct the world from the chaos into which it is already half tumbled. That formula is a simple one, and requires no specialised training. The work requires the cooperation of tens of thousands of people who have never heard of the Qabalah, and they have to be addressed in language which they can understand.
Aleister Crowley to Charles Stansfeld Jones, correspondence on August 28, 1936
Furthermore that I will perform all practical work connected with this Order, in a place concealed … that I will keep secret this inner Rosicrucian Knowledge … that I will only perform any practical magic before the uninitiated which is of a simple and already well-known nature, and that I will show them no secret mode of working whatsoever.
Ritual of the 5○ = 6□ Grade of Adeptus Minor, the Ritual of the Order of Rosæ Rubeæ Et Aureæ Crusis at Aleister Crowley, “The Adept” in The Temple of Solomon the King, Book II, continued, serialized in The Equinox.
I could barely keep upright and despaired of ever reaching the end of this ride through the impossible. We had abandoned the real world, the one made up solely of dressed people, and the time elapsed since then was already so remote as to seem almost beyond reach. Our personal hallucination now developed as boundlessly as perhaps the total nightmare of human society, for instance, with earth, sky, and atmosphere.
Georges Bataille, Story of the Eye [Amazon, Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]
There will be times when the struggle seems impossible. I know this already. Alone, unsure, dwarfed by the scale of the enemy. Remember this. Freedom is a pure idea. It occurs spontaneously and without instruction. Random acts of insurrection are occurring constantly … even the smallest act of insurrection pushes our lines forward. … [The] need for control is so desperate because it is so unnatural. Tyranny requires constant effort. It breaks, it leaks. Authority is brittle. Oppression is the mask of fear. … Remember this. Try.
Tony Gilroy, Andor, s01e12
Demands for sacrifice lack appeal for those who have already sacrificed, and been sacrificed, too much and for too long. The future promised by the left looked to be – at worst, even worse – and at best, not noticeably better than the status quo. Why rush to the barricades or, for that matter, why even bother to vote?
Bob Black, Preface to The Right to be Greedy by “For Ourselves”
I was never that interested in organised games or religion because someone else had already worked out what all the patterns were.
J M R Higgs, KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money [Amazon, Publisher]
