[kj] Crowley/Coleman/Gurdjieff

Djehuti111 djehuti111 at yahoo.com
Wed Jul 14 01:55:08 EDT 2004


Greetings Si,

--- god botherer <acroastic at hotmail.com> wrote:
> 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,

 Let me interrupt here for just a minute.
 Are implying here that Crowley was responsible for
causing someones death?

 Crowley (the Man) was on occasion a complete bastard,
and systematically drove away most of his closest
friends.

 However the implication that he was directly
responsible for someone's death sound very "yellow
press" to me.

 There is SO much misinformation spread about this man
that it's simply ridiculous, and I'm always astounded
at what people genuinely believe this man was capable
of.

> and I found that I
> could not accept some of 
> his practices.

 Nor can I.
 Nor can a lot of Thelemites.

 One of the things that he insisted on was that people
find their own path, whether they agreed with his
findings or not.

> I also questioned where following the
> labyrinthine path down 
> which studying the correspondences and Gematria was
> actually leading me.

 It's always possible that it might lead you to the
same place that many Initiated systems of Magick (or
Religious beliefs, or Philosophical Schools of
thought, or years of Psychotherapy) might lead you....
  It's quite possible that it might just lead you to
discover who you really are.
  
> 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. 

 Magick (Or Philosophy, or Psychotherapy) is a very
dangerous path.

 It will be useless to you if  fear of the unknown is
your bedrock, or if you choose to go against your
nature and stagnate, or if you want nothing but to
have others do your thinking for you.

 Fear is failure, and the forerunner of failure.
If you convince yourself that you have no voice, then
you don't.

 Fear is how governments keep people docile and under
control.

 Fear is our biggest enemy, because it leads to
inaction.

 Crowley (along with many other leaders of thought)
recognized this, and wrote not only to "Fortify the
fit" but also to "Eliminate the unfit".

 If the comment at the back of the Book of the Law is
all that it takes to dissuade you from Thelema, then
Thelema is certainly not your path.

 Thelema is for the individual, not the herd.

> As for Gurdjieff recognising something
> unclean in Crowley, I am 
> merely paraphrasing Bennett's autobiography.

 So, I'm to understand that because Bennet has
mentioned it in his autobiography (Which in this case,
if I'm reading you correctly, seems to be a
autobiography of Gurdjieff as seen through Bennets
lens) that this is your opinion too?
 
> Let's be cool.

 I have NO issue with you as a person, I have no idea
who you are other than someone who is also a Killing
Joke fan.

  I have issue with people that speak out of ignorance
(you having studied at least some Crowley are
different than the other people who have involved
themselves in this discussion) and assert themselves
as authorities on the subject.

Especially when they admit to knowing next to nothing
on the matter.

 Thelema is a subject that I know at least a little
bit about, and is something that has been maligned
more often than not.
 
 Crowley and Thelema are topics that (at least iup to
"Extremities Era" KJ) are part of the roots of Killing
Joke, and since no one here has much positive to say
about the topic, I'm piping in.

 Killing Joke were my introduction to Crowley, so it's
a vested interest to me to dispel ignorance on  either
topic.

 The same thing happens if someone's only knowledge of
Killing Joke come from the "Liver and Maggots" story.
;)


> 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.

 Heh, then by the same token, one should take
Crowley's opinion of Gurdjieff the same way, right?

 I'd rather form my own opinions on both of them. ;)

> 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.

 What I hear I Jaz's voice when he makes that remark
is nothing but "tongue in cheek" and comes from those
self same years of study.
 But that's just what I hear.

> The case remains open for me on Crowley, but I fear
> I shall never really 
> understand what he was all about. 

 But even the fact that you are "open" to discussion
and asking to be "educated" on the matter puts you
head and shoulders (in my opinion) above those that
believe they know it all without  bothering to delve
into the topic in the least. ;) 

> And is it all that
> important anyway?

 Absolutely not!

 What I hear is that "Every man and every woman is a
Star" and should be left necessarily to their own
devices and opinions.
 This is simply mine, and I hope that no one out there
takes it as anything other than that.

> 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.

 The tricky thing with Crowley (as with all modern
Psychology) is that he acknowledged both a "Light" and
"Dark" side of humanity.

 This is apparent in Nature (ie: Spring and Winter,
Day and Night, Harvest Time and Time to Plant crops
etc. ad infinitum) and since we humans are merely a
part of  that Nature, we are subject to the same
cycles and Light and Dark parts of our
"personalities".

 He recognized this fact and sought to work equally
with BOTH sides.
 How else does one achieve Balance?

 Most religions are loathe to approach this topic in
any way other than the eternal (Exoteric) battle
between "Good" and "Evil".

 "Heat is "Good" for coffee, but it's "Evil" for Ice
Cream."

 Both qualities are inherent in all humans, including
Crowley, Coleman, Gurdjieff, and even the Buddha.

 Very few will cop to this fact.

 So Crowley, by recognizing this fact, and working to
abolish the Victorian Era ideas of Good and Evil which
he was surrounded by at the time gets branded the
"Wickedest Man in the World".

> I am ready to listen to anybody who can shed light
> for me on why Crowley 
> deserves uncritical admiration.

 I'm afraid that I can't be that person.

 Crowley (or anybody, fictional or other) doesn't
deserve those qualities.
 My guess is that he wouldn't have wanted it any other
way.

 Uncritical admiration means that one listens and
agrees passively.

 He very specifically went out of his way to make sure
that he'd never be Deified, and that there would never
be a cult of mindless, non thinking "Crowleyanity".

 Make you own decisions on the topic.

> I would genuinely
> welcome an attempt to 
> defend Crowley on a moral basis.

 Most of what passes for "Morals" in even this day and
age is what Christianity has told us that we need to
adhere to.

 While Christian Morals work for Christians, they
don't work for me since I don't ascribe to their
system of thought.

 I'm a firm believer in "Do What thou Wilt".

 And, if you think that means Do what you WANT, you've
got another think coming. ;)
 
> There is more that unites us than divides us so
> let's not fall out.

 "There is nothing that unites the divided but Love,
all else is a curse...".

 Much Respect, 

 Aleph

> 
> 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."
> >
> >
> >
> >__________________________________
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>
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=====
"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."


		
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