Tag Archives: always

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

Any penetration is a grace offered to you by the person you’re inside; it is an intimate way of inclusion, a gift. No matter how hard or rough the fuck, no matter who is the top or bottom or anything else, no matter the genders of the participants, this is a world in which opening one’s self to someone else is always somewhere on the continuum between a gesture of welcome and an office of trust, and you should be grateful.

S Bear Bergman, Butch is a Noun [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]

Hermetic quote Bergman Butch is a Noun penetration gift offered person inside gift world opening self else gesture welcome office trust grateful

What the man in the street means by Atheist is the militant Atheist, Bradlaugh or Foote; and it is a singular characteristic of the Odium Theologicum that, instead of arguing soberly concerning the proposition, which those worthies put forward, they always try to drag the red herring of morality across the track. Of all the stupid lies that men have ever invented, nothing is much sillier than the lie that one who does not believe in God must be equally a disbeliever in morality. As a matter of fact, in a country which pretends so hard to appear theistic as England, it requires the most astounding moral courage, a positive galaxy of virtues, for a man to stand up and say that he does not believe in God; as Dr. Wace historically remarked, ‘it ought to be unpleasant for a man to say that he does not believe in Jesus’; and my dislike to Atheism is principally founded on the fact that so many of its exponents are always boring me about ethics. Some priceless idiot, who, I hope, will finish in the British Museum, remarked in a free-thinking paper the other day, that they need not trouble to pull down the churches, ‘because they will always be so useful for sane and serious discussion of important ethical problems.’ Personally, I would rather go back to the times when the preacher preached by the hour-glass.

Aleister Crowley, Concerning “Blasphemy” in General & the Rites of Eleusis in Particular

Hermetic quote Crowley Concerning Blasphemy stupid lies nothing sillier not believe in god must be disbeliever in morality

Ille argues that art should express spiritual truths, not worldly observations. Rhetoricians and sentimentalists, according to him, cannot be artists, because the artist is always an outsider, a holy hermit living, as Yeats says in Per Arnica, ‘on the threshold of the sacred house’

Susan Johnston Graf, W B Yeats Twentieth Century Magus: An In-Depth Study of Yeat’s Esoteric Practices and Beliefs, Including Excerpts from His Magical Diaries [Amazon, Bookshop, Abebooks, Local Library]

Hermetic quote Graf Yeats art express spiritual truth not wordly observations rhetoricians sentimentalists not artists outside holy hermit living Yeats says threshold sacred house

Suppose truth is not the aim of life. Imagine, all along great minds and intellects have been searching frantically for truth, looking in every nook and cranny of the world to uncover truth. It always seems to be slippery; when we finally grasp what we think is truth, it slips out of our hands and scurries off. Isn’t life all but a frantic search for truth?

Tom Taylor, Aphorisms to the Individual: Notes for my Sons [Amazon]

Hermetic quote Taylor Aphorisms to the Individual

This war is as ancient as the world; the Greeks figured it under the symbols of Eros and Anteros, and the Hebrews by the antagonism of Cain and Abel. It is the war of the Titans and the Gods. The two armies are everywhere invisible, disciplined and always ready for attack or counterattack. Simple-minded folk on both sides, astonished at the instant and unanimous resistance that they meet, begin to believe in vast plots cleverly organized, in hidden, all-powerful societies. Eugène Sue invents Rodin; churchmen talk of the Illuminati and of the Freemasons; Wronski dreams of his bands of mystics, and there is nothing true and serious beneath all that but the necessary struggle of order and disorder, of the instincts and of thought; the result of that struggle is balance in progress, and the devil always contributes, despite himself, to the glory of St. Michael.

Éliphas Lévi, trans Aleister Crowley, Liber XLVI The Key of the Mysteries

Hermetic quote Levi Crowley The Key to the Mysteries war eros anteros cain abel titans gods two armies everywhere invisible necessary struggle order disorder

These fools possess a wisdom so corrosive that it strips them of their ability to behave appropriately or to be members of the status quo. Yeats’s fools are always outsiders, observing circumstances and belief systems with such a degree of objectivity that they become totally subjective and self-absorbed.

Susan Johnston Graf, W B Yeats Twentieth Century Magus: An In-Depth Study of Yeat’s Esoteric Practices and Beliefs, Including Excerpts from His Magical Diaries [Amazon, Bookshop, Abebooks, Local Library]

Hermetic quote Graf W B Yeats Twentieth Century Magus fools possess wisdom corrosive strips ability behave members status quo outsiders totally subjective self absorbed

Some of these societies, being based upon a financial scheme for making money, pretending to be able to employ divine powers in their service and to have the will of God at their command for the purpose of procuring for their adherents physical health and worldly benefits, met with great success; for the multitudes will always rush to that camp, where they think that a mine of gold has been discovered and where they are expecting a share; and the holding out promises of making salvation easy has always been the fundamental power of every clerical institution.

Franz Hartmann, The Dangers of Occultism

Hermetic quote Hartmann The Dangers of Occultism holding out promises making salvation easy always been fundamental power every clerical institution