On Aleister Crowley And Meditation
At the time, I am studying the writings of Aleister Crowley, a man often falsely connected to satanism. "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law", he wrote in Liber AL vel Legis. This was not meant as an approval of heedlessly pursuing one's egoistic desires, but a call to comply with the will of the soul, the higher self, in order to create the necessary space required for spiritual development. Human laws, which more often than not are mere instruments of oppression, even if not directly obvious, have no relevance in the face of god. The goal is to live in accordance with the soul, because a troubled mind will be unable to follow the way that leads far beyond the concepts of good and evil. "Love is the law, love under will", in which will refers to the intent of the higher self. This love has nothing to do with the rather egoistic sexual and possessive emotions for which the word commonly stands, not even the protective love of a mother for her child. It is an unconditional universal love, implied in the unity of all. This is not a concept that can be explained, it has to be experienced. Numerous cursorily diverse instructions on how to evoke that state (Samadhi) or at least to increase the chance of it occurring, exist and Crowley studied many of them. He tried to maintain a truly scientific attitude by taking nothing as granted and repeating the experiments, which in the case of spiritual matters is the only way of verification. Ask youself, why certain religious institutions would not endorse such practices, rather suppress them. In that context, it should be apparent, why a free thinker like Crowley despised the Catholic Church, presenting himself as "To Mega Therion" (The Great Beast) in an act of provocation and refusal. Yet he well recognized and valued the meanwhile concealed gnostical nature of christian religious practices, among those the prayer, abstinence, fasting and celibacy. Crowley, in spite of the leading roles he played, never wanted followers. He attached great importance to a self-determined and sceptical, but not ignorant attitude. Gladly, he was also an excellent writer and left us an extensive collection of documents to learn from.The following poem Crowley wrote on meditation:
There are seven keys to the great gate,
Being eight in one and one in eight.
First, let the body of thee be still,
Bound by the cerements of will,
Corpse-rigid; thus thou mayst abort
The fidget-babes that tease the thought.
Next, let the breath-rhythm be low,
Easy, regular, and slow;
So that thy being be in tune
With the great sea's Pacific swoon.
Third, let thy life be pure and calm,
Swayed softly as a windless palm.
Fourth, let the will-to-live be bound
To the one love of the profound.
Fifth, let the thought, divinely free
From sense, observe its entity.
Watch every thought that springs; enhance
Hour after hour thy vigilance!
Intense and keen, turned inward, miss
No atom of analysis!
Sixth, on one thought securely pinned
Still every whisper of the wind!
So like a flame straight and unstirred
Burn up thy being in one word!
Next, still that ecstasy, prolong
Thy meditation steep and strong,
Slaying even God, should He distract
Thy attention from the chosen act!
Last, all these things in one o'erpowered,
Time that the midnight blossom flowered!
The oneness is. Yet even in this,
My son, thou shall not do amiss
If thou restrain the expression, shoot
Thy glance to rapture's darkling root,
Discarding name, form, sight, and stress
Even of this high consciousness;
Pierce to the heart! I leave thee here:
Thou art the Master. I revere
Thy radiance that rolls afar,
O Brother of the Silver Star!
Hermetic.com offers a large collection of Aleister Crowley's writings for download.
7 Kommentar(e)
- Adam Adanai sagt…I have read the whole of Book 4 (I-IV bound as one) In no way whatsoever does Crowley appear to me as a tyrant of humanity or Heratic, a "satanist" or, whatever other ignorance i hear people bashing his name with, its brilliant literature if you ask me! The man was obviously a Prodigy with the outline of his life or biography a rather short one made by another fellow friend? or editor. Anyway, the Rock Climbing the Intelligence the selflessness to his personality and my most favorable moments i caught myslef laughing my ass off at his sarcasm and banter to humans. Very much reminds me of my teenage years I had a very simmilar sarcastic sneer to the world. If anything he was a "torured soul." So many people are ignorant to no avail. and So shall it be. There are only good methods of living life throughout book 4 or Magick, save maybe a few incidents i might dont recall , but I find him as Brilliant a man as any other (such as Agrippa also a Prodigy or close to it) through his lieterature ive been able to focus my mind im withdrawing from severely strong synthetic opioid medication that ive maintained for the last two years, and it was merely coincidence that i decided as I read the first chapter and having missed a Dr appointment I out of the blue just made it a personal oath im not going to be a slave to that horrible drug (a maintenance pill to the alternative) What a whole lot of good that did me its quite fascinating how much of a failure the western medicine is, "keep you in ill-health to stay in business right?" what a joke! This book did what no other book has ever done to has ever managed to: Arise above the illusion of tricks of the material planes! was this Coincidental? I wonder of that.
- Julian Greene sagt…I struggled endlessly with meditation for years. About 5 years ago, I memorized Crowley's seven keys and repeated it several times a day. Ultimately I was led to binaural beat technology which revolutionized my meditative life, allowing me to achieve a measure of wellness and Samadhi I had never thought possible with my monkey mind. Thank you for publishing this along with your comments.
- eyeoneblack sagt…I can't tell you how much I needed to hear this today. If you've followed my postings on another forum you have sensed the darkness of my thoughts, but I cannot recant. It is what it is and you and Crowley will understand (I hope). i.e. being good is not necessarily being 'good'. Keep up your work, I'll follow along best I can. Richard
- Planewalker sagt…@IndigoGhost: God is all but ego. Anyway, that expression only means that the concentration must be so great that nothing can disturb it.
- IndigoGhost sagt…Thy meditation steep and strong, Slaying even God, should He distract Thy attention from the chosen act! This part is interesting to me, as in a way god is ego.
- Planewalker sagt…@debraJane: I sent you the link. There is a new forum at the board now for discussions on Magick. We can talk about Crowley's ideas there.
- debraJane sagt…Hi Planewalker When I clicked the link to here on saltcube on this my hiptop I was on this page with the thread called: [Start]*Lore * On Alister Crowley and Meditation But I am at Netzone on a computer and cannot find the same page. I copied the whole on line ebook that you gave a link to on saltcube and I am building my staminar up so I can walk 4 hours everyday. This seems to be Alister Crowley's first instruction (to me). Can I talk to you about my Alister Crowley practices here gig. TsunaH (sommenerofnothinginparticular) hasn't responded to my posts on his thread at saltcube. But if you are into Crowley maybe I can talk to you. Please send my the link to the thread called: "On Alister Crowley and Meditation" To (this) my [address removed by editor] email account so I can print out what is posted there. I cannot print out from this hiptop mobile cos I forgot my password. (Bfn debraJane) 12:09 pm Friday 12 march 2010 here.
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