Whether in fear of Hell or fear of the end of pleasure, men danced their lives out hopelessly, drank and fucked with abandon in the taverns. Convinced that intoxication could save them from the scourge, they hid against the cold miasma of the plague in the thick, hot mist of wine and sweat.
Mary Sativa, The Lovers’ Crusade [Amazon, Abebooks, Publisher, Local Library]
A person in my position is liable to see Sherlock Holmes in the most beefwitted policeman. I did not feel that I was advancing in the confidence of the Germans. I got no secrets worth reporting to London, and I was not at all sure whether the cut of my clothes had not outweighed the eloquence of my conversation. I thought I would do something more public. I wrote a long parody on the Declaration of Independence and applied it to Ireland.
Aleister Crowley, Confessions, Chapter 76
It turns out that it doesn’t matter much what activity a person is doing. Typically fun activities didn’t correlate much with happiness. Instead, what matters is whether you are paying attention to what you are doing. Focused attention was strongly correlated with feeling happy, whereas having a wandering mind was usually accompanied by unpleasant feelings. Interestingly, human beings are very prone to mind wandering.
Michael Taft, The Mindful Geek: Mindfulness Meditation for Secular Skeptics [Amazon, Bookshop, Publisher, Local Library]
Of what use the wisdom of Virginity to him who has been raped by the seducer, ignorance? Of what use sciences or any knowledge except as medicine? Hidden treasure does not come at the word nor by digging with your hands in the main road. Even with the proper implements and accurate knowledge of place, etc., may be but the acquisition of what you possessed long ago. There is a great doubt as to whether it is hidden, except by the strata of your experience and atmospheres of your belief.
Austin Osman Spare, The Book of Pleasure
In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth and the Paths; of Spirits and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may or may not exist.
It is immaterial whether these exist or not. By doing certain things certain results will follow; students are most earnestly warned against attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.
Aleister Crowley, Liber O vel Manus et Sagittae sub figurâ VI
