[kj] Crowley/Coleman/Gurdjieff

[god botherer]

I became very interested in Crowley many years ago. I read Liber 777, The 
Book Of The Law, Aha, etc. and learned a lot. I also read about Crowley's 
participation in the Golden Dawn and beyond. I recognised that he must have 
been an extraordinary man - highly intelligent, gifted, extremely 
knowledgeable, but I also learned of the many wounded people - even dead 
people - he left in his wake, and I found that I could not accept some of 
his practices. I also questioned where following the labyrinthine path down 
which studying the correspondences and Gematria was actually leading me.

So many people have warned against reading The Book Of The Law - including 
Crowley himself - that it can not be paranoid superstition to refer to such 
admonitions. As for Gurdjieff recognising something unclean in Crowley, I am 
merely paraphrasing Bennett's autobiography.

Let's be cool.

I do not regard myself as qualified to judge Crowley - or indeed Gurdjieff. 
Both men were vastly superior to me in all sorts of ways. But if someone of 
Gurdjieff's standing took the angle he did on Crowley then I have to take 
note.

And what is one to make of Jaz's branding of Crowley as 'a very dubious 
character'? This from someone who went into Crowley fairly deeply, I 
believe.

The case remains open for me on Crowley, but I fear I shall never really 
understand what he was all about. And is it all that important anyway?

As for the Buddha, I sense that following his teachings is more likely to 
bring me to happiness and make the world a better place than following 
Crowley's 'way' (whatever that is) will.

I am ready to listen to anybody who can shed light for me on why Crowley 
deserves uncritical admiration. I would genuinely welcome an attempt to 
defend Crowley on a moral basis.

There is more that unites us than divides us so let's not fall out.

Si





>From: Djehuti111 <djehuti111 at yahoo.com>
>Reply-To: "A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)" 
><gathering at misera.net>
>To: "A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!)" 
><gathering at misera.net>
>Subject: RE: [kj] Crowley/Coleman
>Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 21:18:03 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Greetings Lexi,
>
>--- Alexi Hamilton <alexih at hotmail.com> wrote:
>    Awwww...Nicholas, you just might bring the ever
>elusive Aleph out of hiding with this one...
>
>  Nah, I'm not going to waste my time with opinionated
>rubbish, ("Clearly, he recognised that which was
>unclean in Crowley and didn't want him near his
>students any more.") or paranoid superstition ( "And
>by the way, reading The Book of the Law might not be a
>great idea.").
>
>  And I'm certainly not going to let one of the most
>imbalanced "buddhists" to ever snipe from behind a PC
>get my Goat.
>
>("crowley was a twat who completely wasted the
>insights he had.")
>
>  Talk about the pot calling the kettle black! ;)
>
>  I'll just scrape it off my shoes and ignore the
>stench.
>
>  XoXoX
>  Aleph
>
>
>
>~Alexi
>
>
>
>
>
>=====
>"The scene was wild and somewhat sinister. The
>darkness, the palms, the mountainous background, the
>silent lake below, the impenetrable canopy of space,
>studded with secretive and significant stars, formed a
>stupendous setting for the savage noise and blaze of
>the ceremony."
>
>
>
>__________________________________
>Do you Yahoo!?
>New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages!
>http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
>_______________________________________________
>Gathering mailing list
>Gathering at misera.net
>http://four.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/gathering

_________________________________________________________________
Express yourself with cool new emoticons http://www.msn.co.uk/specials/myemo