the true Principle of Self-Control is Liberty. For we are born into a World which is in Bondage to Ideals; to them we are perforce fitted, even as the Enemies to the Bed of Procrustes. Each of us, as he grows, learns Repression of himself and his true Will. … these Passions in ourselves which we understand to be Hindrances are not part of our True Will, but diseased Appetites, manifest in us through false early Training.
Aleister Crowley, Liber Aleph, γ De Vita Corrigenda
Witchcraft in the Middle Ages by Jeffrey Burton Russell, the 1992 fourth printing paperback from Cornell University Press, is part of the collection at the Reading Room.
“All the known theories and incidents of witchcraft in Western Europe from the fifth to the fifteenth century are brilliantly set forth in this engaging and comprehensive history. Building on a foundation of newly discovered primary sources and recent secondary interpretations, Professor Russell first establishes the facts and then explains the phenomenon of witchcraft in terms of its social and religious environment, particularly in relation to medieval heresies. He treats European witchcraft as a product of Christianity, grounded in heresy more than in the magic and sorcery that have existed in other societies. Skillfully blending narration with analysis, he shows how social and religious changes nourished the spread of witchcraft until large portions of medieval Europe were in its grip—’from the most illiterate peasant to the most skilled philosopher or scientist.’ A significant chapter in the history of ideas and their repression is illuminated by this book. Our growing fascination with the occult gives the author’s affirmation that witchcraft arises at times and in areas afflicted with social tensions a special quality of immediacy.” [via]
Pax Hominibus Bonae Voluntatis by Aleister Crowley in International, Dec 1917.
“The idea of resisting repression is a totally wrong one. Christ submitted willingly to what is generally admitted to be the greatest crime ever perpetrated, although, as he himself explained, he had twelve legions of angels actually mobilized, which would have made as short work of the Romans as the angels of Mons did of the Germans in the early part of the war.” [via]
“Pathology of the Sublime” from Problems on the Path of Return by Mark Stavish, M.A. in Vol 3 No 1 of Caduceus.
“Ferrucci states that repression of the sublime is the most common defense mechanism of the ego and is often the cause for deep melancholy, a subject treated at length by Ficino. It results in our feelings of loss, dissatisfaction, boredom, and feelings of inauthenticity. (Binah/Saturn)” [via]
“Pathology of the Sublime” from Problems on the Path of Return by Mark Stavish, M.A. in Vol 3 No 1 of Caduceus.
“The pathologies most often encountered are: repression, projection, compensation, desacralization, defensive pessimism, routinization, and dogmatization.” [via]
Psychosynthesis from Problems on the Path of Return by Mark Stavish, M.A. in Vol 3 No 1 of Caduceus.
“One of these fields represents our repression, feelings of fear and guilt, libidinal (sexual-psychic-creative) drives, and other forces that risk bringing chaos into our world, as well as power, if directed and controlled. This is our lower unconscious (Yesod and Elemental forces).” [via]
ζ Altera de Via Naturae from the Book of Wisdom or Folly in The Libri of Aleister Crowley
“Give Ear, give Ear attentively; the Will is not lost; though it be buried beneath a life-old Midden of Repressions, for it persisteth vital within thee (is it not the true Motion of thine inmost Being?) and for all thy conscious Striving cometh forth by Night and by Stealth in Dream and Phantasy.” [via]
ε Gesta de Amore from the Book of Wisdom or Folly in The Libri of Aleister Crowley
“Thus the Loves of Abelard and of Heloise were destroyed by the System of Repression in which they chanced to move. Thus Beatrice was robbed of Dante by social Artificialities; and Paolo slain on account of Things external to his Love of Francesca.” [via]
δ Legenda de Amore from the Book of Wisdom or Folly in The Libri of Aleister Crowley
“In the Love of Romeo and Juliet was no Flaw; but family Feud, which imported nothing to that Love, was its Bane; and the Rashness and Violence of their Revolt against that Repression, slew them.” [via]
δ Legenda de Amore from the Book of Wisdom or Folly in The Libri of Aleister Crowley
“In the Fable of Adam and Eve is this great Lesson taught by the Masters of the Holy Qabalah. For Love were to them the eternal Eden, save for the Repression signified by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thus their Nature of Love was perfect; it was their Fall from that Innocence which drove them from the Garden.” [via]