Crowley Condensed-Magick In Theory and Practice 1.
This article can be more easily read here https://frater370.blogspot.com/2020/12/crowley-condensed.html
Crowley Condensed. I have decided to reread Magick in Theory and Practice and thought I would make notes on each chapter and attempt to anal
https://www.sacred-texts.com/oto/aba/chap0.htm
Magick in Theory and Practice - Chapter 0
I have decided to reread Magick in Theory and Practice and thought I would make notes on each chapter and attempt to analyse where beginners or those less familiar with Crowley may struggle to understand what he is saying. I have also tried to select the important ideas and skim out any information which may overload. I would recommend reading these alongside each chapter, they are written chronologically and so can be referred to in real time. I have also listed some recommended reading which is either considered important to the current chapter or is more beginner friendly and may elucidate it further.
Chapter 0: The Magical Theory of the Universe.
This entire chapter will make little sense to any person without at least a surface level knowledge of Qabalah. The diagram of the Tree of Life should be consulted whilst reading it and it should also be known that Crowley throughout this books was attempting to appeal to the masses and therefore makes some statements which seem overly materialistic at face value, yet are not so when you realise what he is really trying to say.
Firstly Crowley states that there are three main theories of the universe: dualism, monism, and nihilism. However, Crowley posits a theory which unites all these three. This theory is of course based upon the book of the Law and Qabalah. It can be seen that Kether symbolises monism, the Sephiroth below the abyss dualism, and the negative existence beyond Kether is nihilism. All are true depending one where the magician is standing at the current time.
Explanation of Tree of Life as set out in the New Aeon.
Nuit is infinite space- no-thing, the infinite potential for manifestation yet to occur.. Hadit is a minute point within Nuit, atomic and omnipresent. Infinitely small yet everywhere for every focus of consciousness is Hadit. He is a point without extension or direction within the body of Nuit, a singular focus of consciousness which may extend to produce one possible variation of Nuit conjoined with Hadit. One such manifestation of Nuit and Hadit conjoined is Ra-Hoor-Khuit (Heru-ra-ha- in his complete form when joined with Hoor-Paar-Kraat) who in the present Aeon represents a unity which “includes and heads all things”. That is Ra-Hoor-Khuit is Kether, yet since every sephiroth contains a tree of life, which is explained later one, it could be argued that the entire Tree, that is all of existence in the present Aeon, is crowned by Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
Chaos is Chokmah- father of thought and the word.
Babalon is attributed to Binah.
All these three are one, Babalon and Chaos are aspects of the One which is Heru-ra-ha who is but a manifestation of Nuit and Hadit. “All true Gods are attributed to this trinity”- these beings are beyond the abyss, beyond reason and are the primordial powers of creation which other beings which have been clothed in the flesh of men’s ideas can be seen as reverberations of these three. It has been said by those influenced by Crowley that all gods are one God and all Goddesses are one Goddess. This is popular in Neo-Wiccan thought. Whilst it is true above the abyss, below the abyss they may appear separate to the magician. But in truth the magician is also a reverberation of these same very forces.
The abyss crowns the portion of the soul known as the Mind. It is purely intellectual and only confusion lies within- the devil Choronzon.
Below the abyss is the hexad- the six moral qualities of man and the Ruach represented by the sephiroth Chesed, Geburah, Tiphareth, Netzach, Hod, and Yesod.
Chesed is the highest moral faculty and is Four- the father deity. Mercy and authority are attributed to this sephirah. Ruler and Father deities are attributed to this expression of force, such as Zeus and Jupiter.
The number 5 is balanced against it. Energy and justice. Warrior deities fit well with this sephirah.
These two sephirah are combined to produce Tiphareth, the number six. Which represents beauty and harmony. Mortality and Immortality- death and resurrection. The sephirah of the dating God, the saviour of humanity, the solar force.
In the number 7 the feminine nature is predominant, but is the masculine type of female- strong, the Amazonian woman. This is balanced by 8, Hod, the feminine type of male- intellectual and Mercurial.
These are balanced and conjoined in 9, yesod. Which denotes change and stability and is attributed to lunar deities.
Ten is pendant to this systsem which includes the whole of matter as delivered by the five senses. It is a crystallisation of all that came before, a crystal reflection of Kether which in truth contains all sephirah and all planes within itself.
The Four Worlds.
The Four Worlds of the Qabalistic is symbolised by the formula YHVH. Yod=2, Heh=3, Vau= 4-9, Heh= 10. That is Yod is attributed to Chokmah, Heh to Binah, Vau to Chesed-yesod, and the final Heh to Malkuth.
In turn YHVH= The Archetypal world, the Archangelic world, the angelic world, and the world of spirits and matter to Heh.
Kether is only attained when the magician and God become one and attain Samadhi- or complete union with all existence. The magician contains all this within as a microcosm which is an exact image of the macrocosm. The Great Work is balancing of the magician and union with God.
Also mentioned here is that each sephirah contains an entire tree of life. 400 sephiroth- reflected in four worlds. The same is true of the paths of the tree of life, which Crowley does not cover here. That is there are ten sephirah within 10 sephirah reflected across four different states of being.
Crowley likens God to the ideal image of man’s inmost nature. Could be an atheist comment ,however, it is to be remembered that at our core we are all sparks of the divine. Kether is within us, the kingdom of heaven is within.
Crowley emphasises that the tree of life is utilised as a glyph for making sense of experiences, you can place anything in the particular place on the tree of life, thus allowing for correspondence and forming a language for the subconscious. It is no good to copy another persons, it must be done individually. This is to be done until all is reduced to one. This is also the language which is born out of experiences with God or the Holy Guardian Angel. A personal system of correspondences will be born out of these interactions and it is up to the individual magician to make sense of this personal theory of the magical universe.
“Let us say once again, that the magical language is nothing but a convenient system of classification to enable the magician to docket his experiences as he obtains them.”
“The student may mistake the alphabet for the things which the words represent.” This is true of all things magical elemental fire does not denote actual flames which burn within bonfires. When we say that Gabriel is the Angel of Yesod and the moon it doesn’t mean Gabriel is the moon itself or even resides there. It means his nature is similar to that which we have come to learn as magicians to mean ‘lunar’. The qabalah used in this sense is used as a system to make sense of ideas which seem wholly disparate at first.
The aura of the magician is all that exists, within it exists the entire universe. Yet it is also a mirror of the universe and vice versa. This is the body of light in one respect. It is only through our own experience, our own perceptions through this magical mirror that we interact with the magical universe. When we summon a spirit it is not perhaps that we conjure it but imagine it through the visual process of creation within the mind. There are connections and correspondences between things which can be used to create a harmonious environment for spirits or “ideas” which in truth is what lies behind all spirits, including our own.
Solvitur Ambulando!- It is solved by walking. This is Crowley recommending practice in order to understand.
Recommended Reading.
The Chicken Qabalah by Lon Milo DuQuette.
The Mystical Qabalah by Dion Fortune.
A Garden of Pomegranates by Israel Regardie.
Liber LVIII by Aleister Crowley.
One Star in Sight by Aleister Crowley.
The Soldier and the Hunchback by Aleister Crowley.
Berashith by Aleister Crowley.
