5Oct 49

DearCandida

Accordingto your last letter - although I may be able to give you valuable technicaladvice from time to time - still you have probably reached the point whereyour guidance - in terms of that necessary for an appropriate decision- is adequate for your needs.

However,since Rome is such a new center, I wonder if it would not be worth yourwhile to spend a little time there. It is only one of the three centersof opposition. I don't see how you will meet destiny in Guadalahara - onthe other hand you might - or in Oshkosh, Minsk, Flatbush or any otherplace you may decide to go. This is quite uninspired - as it should be- it is really not my concern at all.

Afterall, the other name of Armageddon will not be written until the morningof Ragnarok, when at last Her banner is unfolded before the armies. Thispart of the prophecy I have never told, and do not know that I ever shall.So far it has been quite literal. I suppose I shall see that bloody sunset,just as I have seen the rest. Well, I can change nothing, nor do I careto. What is loosed is loosed, and well loosed. All the rest calls for redemption;and nature moves inexorably towards a balance. If I am used in that work- however ill used - I am glad of it.

Wecan be insulated against everything but death - in fact, death is the verysubstance of our insulation. But to be used by life we must be naked andto be naked is to be hurt. But it is also to be alive.

-------

InTarot Divination - the IHVH method is better to show how the cards arerunning and indicate the general situation - the Celtic mode is best forparticulars. Notice that you can detail either method by increasing thenumber of houses - and the pack dealt into the blocks so that the relationshipcan be studied. Usually this is not necessary. Remember, divination isthe least of the powers of the Tarot. It is also a key to the highest initiation.Each trump and its relations.

Therest of the happenings that befell are secret. They concern things of whichI never can tell, and never shall try to tell. Let this suffice. I knowthat Babalon is incarnate upon earth at this moment, although I do notknow where or as whom. I believe that She will manifest in Her proper time,and that thereafter the rest of the prophecy will naturally follow. Andin that knowledge and belief I rest content.
 
 

[HotelRaleigh, Washington, D.C. letterhead]
 
 

Jan.15 [1950?]

DearCandida

93.

Iam enclosing the 7th Aire. Copy it into a permanent note book along withany other rituals you intend to use. You should have the plan in detail,order of rituals, layout of temple, procedure etc. I will send you theritual of the Bornless One, probably in a small Goetia, since it is ratherlong to copy. It is a very ancient, potent & dangerous ritual, oftenused by bold magicians in the Guardian Angel Working. It is useful as apreliminary in almost any sort of work, causing a tremendous concentrationof force. It is, however, liable to produce dangerous side phenomena andsometimes permanent haunting in an area where it is repeated, & isfor this reason often avoided. Never do it without banishing & openingthe temple, then closing and banishing again. I'm tired from the trip andwill myself close now.

------

Jan.16

Methodof invoking
1.Banishing pentagram
2.Opening Hexagram
3.Ritual (may be preceded by Bornless One, or other preliminary
invocation).
Then,for a superior force (god)
a.Supplication of the force
b.Description of the Force
c.Identification (or union) with the Force.
Fora lesser force (spirit, angel, demon, elemental)
a.Supplication of a superior force (appropriate god)
b.Description of a superior force.
c.Identification with superior force.
d.As superior force, invocation and command of lesser force.
4.Closing Hexagram
5.Banishing pentagram.

Forgods, an appropriate altar is used. For the rest, the magician stands withinan appropriate circle, and invokes the force into a triangle. In any casethe appropriate weapons, perfume, colors, should be used, the names andsigns of the appropriate angels, planets should be drawn or written ontalismans.

Themagician should be robed and wear the sign or talisman of the highest forceappropriate to the invocation. He should exhibit this when it is necessaryto command, and (except in the case of Gods to whom it is inappropriate)a sword which he should not hesitate to use on anything or anyone who threatensto intrude or break the ritual. Once started, a ritual must not be stoppedfor any reason. It should be done in a secluded place, and no one shouldenter who has not been tested and consecrated by the magician.

Theinvocation of Gods (which pertains to a higher magic) is subtle and subjectto individual variation and personal composition.

Theinvocation of lesser forces is exact, and, since love does not usuallyenter in so much, in one sense far more dangerous. In the higher work youare actually wooing the god - it is an act of art. In the lower you arecompelling, it is an act of science.

Thestate in a proper working is indescribable but unmistakable. It is essentialthat everything be prepared and learned properly well in advance, sincewhen things start to happen much of the work will have to go on automatically.

Theprimary methods are
1.Goetia (Demonic)
2.Planetary (Clavicle)
3.Enochian (Elementals and Aires)
4.Solar (Guardian Angel)

Ihave found the Enochian the best (although complicated). The Tarot correspondsto the Enochian system obtained by Dr. Dee - the Trumps to the Aires andthe courts to the Gods, Seniors and Angels and the numbers to the lesserangels.

Probablyyou can use the Tarot alone if you follow the following steps.

1.Consecrate the appropriate weapons to Earth, Air, Fire and Water. (TheSword also to Mars and Bartzabel.)
2.Consecrate the appropriate card as a talisman.
3.Construct the entire ritual. Invoke the card down from the appropriatetrumps, and across by the appropriate correspondences. Don't forget thematerial link and vital fluid. Blood will do in a pinch.
4.Fast, for the day before starting.
5.Consult the cards first to see if the ritual is appropriate and correct.
6.Remember that the Tarot is a great and sacred arcanum - its abuse is anobscenity in the inner and a folly in the outer. It is intended for quiteother purposes than to determine when the tall dark man will meet the fairrich widow.

Butthe master don't give a shit for that. He will tell the yokels fortunestill the cows come home, if it suits his purposes.

9393/93

Love,Jack
 
 

27Jan [1950]

TheRoosevelt, Madison Ave. and 45th St., New York

DearCandida,

Well,here is where I met you two years ago, and I wish that you were with menow, my dear, so that we could do New York together again.

Ithas been an interesting trip - I saw Haly of course, and Dan Kimball inWashington, then down to the grim heart of the coal region in Cumberland,then to Princeton, where I spent an afternoon with Martin Summerfield.I will see Hap and Germer, and try to find you a copy of the Goetia whileI am here.

Thereis a Rocket Company starting in Paris, and I have an opening there whichI am keeping an eye on if my plans at Hughes do not materialize. I shouldrather live in Paris, but am on to a big thing here which I had betterstay with until it breaks. Is there anything you particularly need or wouldlike for a post Christmas present?

Ifyou are right in your choice of San Miguel as the place for your work,you will undoubtedly find means to complete it there. If not, I shouldbe glad to help you get established there, if it looks like your financeswould necessitate some such move.

Asa rule no one is sure of his will until he has made a variety of experiments.

Onething about Magick, there is too much claptrap in the present method ofpresentation, too much indirection. It is all there, but overlaid, likeTroy before Schlieman. The modern spirit requires an austere simplicityof approach, a burning passion to truth beyond all partiality and predilection.

Eventwo thousand years ago that was the reason for the victory of Christianityover gnosticism, because gnosticism, although true, was too complex, andChristianity, although false, was simple and direct. Simplicity has beenthe key to victory in all the idea wars, and, at present, Magick does nothave it. There is the skeleton, in the Rights of Man and in the coveringsin the main literature. But the true body has never been shown forth.

Thedifficulty with the truth is the subtle and pervasive nature of rationalization.Existentialism is just as much on one side as Christianity is on the other,science is as weighted as Shakerism. There can be no objectivity so longas there is preference.

Weare not Aristotilean - not brains but fields - consciousness. The insideand the outside must speak, the guts and the blood and the skin; the penisand the vagina, as well as the brain. We must have it all out, the fearand the disgust, the hatred and cowardice, and the beauty, tenderness andcourage as well, and balance all. Then we can get at the truth. The mindis an instrument that measures itself with itself and as such a contradiction- an impossibility. But out of this abyss, as we know, we can make significance,but to be cogent it must be significance for the entire field.

Ina world of partialities and pseudo-ideals, the truths on the other sideopen as horrors and we admit them with a sense of despair, of utter abnegation.But the conflict is real, and the solution cannot be "thought up" as such,it is as obviously ersatz as Esperanto. These continual things that wereach for are just obviously fake, and I must confess that much of Magickseems that way to me.

These"returns," as though we, of a grown generation could go back to anything,are all off the track - we must go forward to what we are, and no one hasever been there. It's no use pretending to be adults when you are children,or children when you are adults, and we, unfortunately, do both. The onlything is to find out what you are, and try to be it. Of course, if thereis no faith (and there shouldn't be, if we have thought through) then theremust be an act of faith, but this should come after an experiment in truththat comes clean.

Somethingis moving now - in France, and England, and in Berlin - even moving a littlein this benighted country, like the slow, shallow ripple, far out to sea,that hints of a great wave that will flood the land four thousand milesaway; and strange as it may be - and brutal and savage as it could be,yet I sense a sort of searching sincerity in it, that has not been knownin the world before.

Wecan sense it, partially predict it, perhaps even guide it a little, andthose of us that do may be the makers of a new world. It is all strangeand uncharted - nothing but truth will serve us here, and it must be thetruth of dream and hallucination and frenzy equally with the truth of scienceand dialectics and economics. And that truth must be [hounded?] and huntedto its last resting place in the ultimate abyss.

Indeedmy personal and interior experience, however hallucinated, must be at leastequally valid with the things I have been taught to call "objective" and"real." But these are also my truths - they are part of me - part of theequipment of my cosmic laboratory wherein I can begin an experiment intruth. Somewhere I must get interior and personal experience - I am shutoff from it and starved for it, as we all are in the West. I can thinkof no better starting point than "Do what thou wilt shall be the wholeof the Law" - no better equipment than the magical, scientific, and psychologicaltechniques I have inherited. But all these boil down to will, experiment,and honesty in regard to data.

Love,Jack
 
 

27Jan 50

DearCandida

Ihave suffered some vicious astral attacks lately and my skryings indicatethat they relate to a fruition of one aspect of the Babalon working, andthis because I have willfully and knowingly accepted the counter charge.It is now four years since I saw the words of destiny in blood and fire,and transcribed to my own disaster. I should have died that time, whatlived has had one purpose, to teach and to transmit.

Crowleyis dead, Max Schneider dead of a stroke, Roy Leffingwell paralyzed witha stroke, Jones insane - you see - this is a strong magic - and Germerand Smith both old and in bad health. I do not know who else stirs in Herwomb, but you are the only hope I know. If you only had with you an imageof Kali - or could spend some time with Ixcunia[?] in Mexico City - tocomprehend the intolerable self - the vile, frightful aspects of the motherthat yet lifts up the upholding hand in the immemorial gesture of - peace,child, all is well.

Itis in the passage fo the barrier that lies just one inch beyond the possiblethat the attainment is made - the going down of the ego between the adamantor malefic back [black?] sides of the gods, that the fusion of infinitytakes place.

Togo deep you must reject each phenomenon, each illumination, each ecstasy,going ever downward, until you reach the last avatars of the symbols thatare also the racial archetypes. In this sacrifice to the abysmal gods isthe apotheosis that transmutes them to the beauty and power that is youreternity, and the redemption of mankind.

Neurosisand initiation are the same thing, except that neurosis stops short ofapotheosis, and the tremendous forces that mold all life are encysted -short circuited and turned poisonous. Psychoanalysis transforms the falseego symbols - it is a confusion of conformity and cure in terms of groupbehavior. But initiation must go on until the barrier is passed, the mistybastions of infantile Trawenfells in to the rocks and crags of eternity,the garden of Klingsor in to the City of God.

Theapotheosis is in short the translation of good and evil in terms of thefather and mother Imago into Isis and Christ, Swa and Panita [?] and duadbeyond duality and causality, above the abyss - and these in turn to theOne that is beyond speech and sight and knowledge.

Tragedyis diurnal, comedy annual [?], the laughter and dance of the great year,where all crucifixions are only birthday parties of the Gods. Change anddeath are the song of the immortal, incarnate spirit, and the triple flameof greed, lust and hate no more than its mortal vestment.

Butwe are here all diurnal, tragedy to us, however hysterical, is real. Thatis why we must for ever have the message, ever old, ever new, that we areportions of eternity. We must have it as a sacrament from the great nobleego that goes down to its own crucifixion and returns an immortal spiritwith celestial song. You, Cinderella of the Wastelands, have chosen theway of the hero - and the gods alone may guess the end of your path. Youare, as Bolitho [?] says, "Camped out with Mystery" with only Karma-Mayaand the archetypes for your companions. All the eyes of the secret worldare on you, wondering and hoping. May you win through.

Love,Jack

P.S.Do you fully understand the nature of your magical relation with Freya?

P.P.S.Your show had some short press notices, which I thought I sent you, butperhaps didn't. I haven't written about it probably because I felt badlyat the time. I don't think that Tato's [?] is a very good place to show- or the Coast at all.

Rethe divorce. I would have preferred that you get it, but it seemed importantto take decisive action in order to clear up the loose ends of the past.My lawyer says it would help if you furnished a letter stating that youare in accord with the divorce proceedings. Can you do this?

Thereis some literature and MSS that you should have. If you wish, I will listand tell you how to get them.

9393/93 J.
 
 

25Jan 50

Ihave the text of Dee's skrying in the 7th Aire, as he said "so terrifiedme that, beseeching God to have mercy upon me, I finally answer that Iwill from this day forward meddle no more herein." The voice, speakingfrom Kelly, resulted in a sinister dissociation of Kelly's personality.The parallel with my own working with Ron is appalling. After this Kellyrobbed Dee, absconded with his wife, and developed a criminal confidencecareer. This is the voice:

"Iam the daughter of Fortitude. (La Force = Babalon) and ravished every hourfrom my youth. For behold, I am Understanding, and Science dwelleth inme; and the heavens oppress me. They cover and desire me with infiniteappetite; few or none that are earthly have embraced me, for I am shadowedwith the Circle of the Stars, and covered with the morning clouds. My feetare swifter than the winds, and my hands are sweeter than the morning dew.My garments are from the beginning, and my dwelling place is in myself.The Lion knoweth not where I walk, neither do the beasts of the field understandme. I am deflowered, yet a virgin, I sanctifie and am not sanctified. Happyis he that embraceth me: for in the night season I am sweet, and in theday full of pleasure. My company is a harmony of many symbols, and my lipsare sweeter than health itself. I am a harlot for such as ravish me, anda virgin with such as know me not. Purge your streets, O ye sons of men,and wash your houses clean; make yourselves holy, and put on righteousness.Cast out your old strumpets, and burn their clothes and then I will comeand dwell amongst you; and behold, I will bring forth children unto you,and they shall be the Sons of Comfort in the Age that is to come."

Inview of the fact that this MSS was unknown to Hubbard and I [sic], theparallelism is really extraordinary. I have found another prophecy in KhaledKhan which I shall send later.

Thevoice is of course disembodied, and the problem to furnish an appropriatebody. The formula, it would seem, is that of Inanna descending (or thePistis Sophia). At the first stage she takes off her clothes, the soul,and so on until she stands completely naked before Anunnaki, the eyes ofdeath, with only love in her heart, and this is what ascends in her castoff garments.

Itis all a matter of devotion - of willed inversion. The Bornless One (LiberSamekh) is a Sumerian ritual of the same period. If you can listen to primitivechants, Zuni, Vaadon [?], Ashanti - they may be of some use. I have someethnic records that are really unusual, and invaluable in establishingconnection.

Icannot overemphasize the danger to health, character, life and sanity ifthe whole mystical doctrine is not properly understood - if the will isnot properly dedicated.

Theway to individual initiation has never been closed - you simply see thedross and the gold, and exchange the one for the other, and keep your counsel,save where it will do some good. But the way to racial redemption has beenopened but rarely by those rare, intense, passionate souls that range farbeyond ordinary initiation, into realms that no man knows.

Thereis really not much else that I can think of. You have the techniques andthe essential information - the rest is up to you. But I do not want totincture your work with my own predilections. I can see something dimly- but it is so strange, dangerous, fantastic, that I do not now wish toeven think too far on it. You understand the link between us in this work- it is fraught with all sorts of hazard, and mistake would involve usboth in disaster. For over two thousand years now every one who tackledthis job has made a fool of themselves - it is time some one was makingmore sense.

Love,Jack
 
 

1Feb 50

Huntsville,Ala.

DearCandida

Astralwork is the most important part of practical magick, all magical effectsand magical knowledge are gained, one way or another, by its media. Whatthe Astral Plane is, is too abstruse a matter to take up here, you mayhave gotten some ideas from my past letters. How it works, in the beginning,is easy, any one with any psychic development whatever may learn it. Howeverit can be extremely dangerous to the careless and unwary.

Somemagicians use drugs, fasting, dance, mantra or yoga to get on the astral.This is almost unnecessary - all you need is a calm, steady will, quietand plenty of determination. Then try this.

1.Banish

2.Open the temple

3.Get yourself in a comfortable ritual position (the Egyptian God - handson knees with palms open - back straight, feet square - will do).

4.Calm you mind and body with deep regular breaths.

5.Close your eyes and imagine yourself standing outside your body, besideyour altar. Keep up this practice until you get a clear image.

6.Transfer your consciousness to the astral body and open your (its) eyes.This is a trick. It will all be rather dim at first, but persevere.

7.Practice the pentagram and the hexagram (rituals) until you become usedto working in the astral body. Turning is usually difficult, but it canbe mastered. Keep at it. Make the pentagrams appear in fire - the namesvibrate in the four corners. Visualize yourself standing on the earth,with the four archangels about you.

8.When this is easy, pick a plane and a purpose (i.e. to get information,to test someone, to determine the nature of a god, symbol, or spirit ordream). The plane is that appropriate - each idea has its own plane - i.e.the Egyptian, Arthurian, Artistic etc. When in doubt, use the general Magicalplane. (At first avoid dead people and the plane of the dead. This belongsto the department of necromancy which is something else.)

9.In your astral. Rise straight up (always straight up) until you come toyour plane. Then go about your business. Question and test the figuresyou meet. Get what you go after. Banish (with an earth pentagram) thosethat seem doubtful. Use your magical weapons as necessary. Use your headas necessary.

10.Return straight down. Return to your body. Banish. Record everything thathas happened in detail.

Notes.

A.Return to your body after any sort of astral work. This is important, infact, vital. It is a trick, you click into place. Absorb everything. Leaveno residue.

B.Banish bodily before and after each working. If there is any doubt or residue,banish again, with sulphur if necessary. Two things are most dangerous- to lose contact with the astral body (Scin Lica) and to bring back unbanishedresidues.

C.Rising for information is all that should be done until you are an expert.It is least dangerous. It may lead at any time to illuminations, whichshould not be taken too seriously. Always test, check, record.

D.Talismans and signs can be carried and used, according to your knowledge.

E.Advanced experiments.

1.Healing. Summon the astral body, diagnose the trouble and cure astrally(by banishings and invoking the appropriate conditions).

2.Injury. Vice versa. (This is very poor policy.)

3.Questioning. (a) ask the appropriate god. (b) summon the astral body andask it. It may lie, but an answer can be forced. Don't try to push thereal powers around.

4.Astral intercourse. An amusing experiment for the advanced student. Yousimply visit the sleeping person in the astral. Some of the whitest andblackest Magick is done by this means.

5.Lycanthropy. You kill the animal in the magic circle and appropriate itsform. It becomes your permanent familiar, you are responsible for it, andcan be injured through it. Sometimes an inconvenience. Very evil magiciansuse children in this manner. Advanced magicians simply make the requiredform out of a body of darkness, but this is rather complicated.

6.Also you can manipulate the gods, spirits, talismans etc. on the astralto get almost anything you want. It is a wonderful method for the studyof the Tarot.

7.Skrying. The greatest and final form of astral work. The investigationof planes and states of being (such as Aires) for illumination and initiation.

Allmagical work is actually done on the astral. It is the true home of everymagician and should become as familiar to you as your study. The astralbody is as truly your body as your physical. While your higher self residesin it, it is deathless and independent of the life of the body.

Youcan, I have discovered, use it to explore past lives - a much simpler waythan the Magical Memory method. The dangers are through ignorance, carelessness,or stupidity - or overweening lust of result. Its proper knowledge anduse is a tremendous and valuable tool, which you should use only to developyour own initiation. If you get in trouble call on me or Babalon. I havedeveloped a strong sensibility on this plane. But don't visit me, or tryto. You know that we are taboo to each other until this work is finished.

Asyou develop, memorize your rituals and do them astrally. You are then workingdirectly, without the intervention of the physical plane. Always know whatyou want and reject what you don't. And don't forget the link, that primeand often forgotten aspect of practical Magick. For the sake of your owninitiation, record.

That'sabout all there really is to it, although volumes could be written. Thereis more twaddle about it, and more people are fouled up on or about it,than almost anything - yet it is the most important aspect of Magick.

Don'tinitiate the unready - it can be fearfully dangerous to anyone withoutsuitable background.

Workslowly and carefully, persistently and you will have the whole of Magickat your command. But don't let success throw you. Be skeptical and test.The astrals can fool and flatter and have overthrown many a foolish magician.

Onceyou have mastered it, you can work the reverse, and materialize astralshere, or yourself at a distance.

Butthat's usually more difficult and extremely exhausting, unless you areup to it. Blood is often used - but of course the sex method is supremehere. Sex is the gateway, and energy is never lost - only transformed.Each sex act creates on the astral plane: under will it creates what youwant. But that is indeed a deep matter, and needless to say one to be cautiousabout. Acquire the techniques first, and save the power until you knowhow to use it.

Well,this is it.

Love,Jack

P.S.Be sure to work only undisturbed. An interruption in the middle can bevery bad. And never, never go to sleep while working. You had better observethe ordinary taboos - nails, hair and personal matters - lock your room,consecrate your food, and banish twice daily while working. Also keep theStar of Babalon with you. Always remember that you are working with yourown purified, consecrated force - a far more delicate and subtile matterthan handling so much Plutonium.

J.
 
 

6Feb. 50

DearCandida.

Isaw David today, and found him somewhat more mature and thoughtful thanI remembered. I found him quite perceptive when I mentioned the malignantossification of the facade.

Yourart books are at your mother's - you asked me not to send anything exceptthe Golden Bough. There are some other books you should have - The Kingand the Corpse by Heinrich Zimmer - The Hero with a Thousand Faces - anda new novel called Rock Pool. I will get you a copy of The Book of Lies,which is a sort of official manual of the Abyss, utterly meaningless induality, however. Also I am sending Liber 7, which is a sort of song fromthe other side, also without meaning in the lower Sephiroth. David's descriptionmakes it sound to me (a skrying between the lines) like Tin Man Beo [?]a dream world with good and evil countercharged upon a field of azure.It may be well.

Letus look for a moment at the other side - assuming we have passed the lastoutposts above the abyss - Binah (= sorrow = understanding) and Chokmah(= wisdom = power) and so come to Kether, the Crown. Here, in the gardensof eternity, only two views are possible - Indifference (Nibbana) and Comedy(N.O.X. = Pan). Of the first, the great expositions are the Bhagavadgitaand the Life of Lord Guatama Buddha, the noble twofold path. Of the second,the Life of Christ and the works of the great western adept, Fran�ois Rabelais.

Fromthis view Christianity is simply hilarious. The idea of God being unableto communicate with his creations, and said creations proceeding to murdereach other in the name of his Love, is high vaudeville. Rabelais' descriptionof the sheer ecstasy of taking a shit in the midst of the serious projectsof life is on the same par. In eternity, you can take nothing seriously,and All turns out to be a bonem [bonum?], so you deliberately limit yourselfjust for the fun of it, for the adventure. It is the Graal told in inverse.Tragedy is the privilege of mortality, and the whole thing trembles onthe verge of a grin, and often a howl.

Thinkingis a language, language is words and the world is a literary creation.That is why a dash of humbug is necessary for any real success, humbugraised to the pitch of fine art. That is why art finally gets bored withits own perfection and winds up deliberately distorting itself - seeinghow far it can go in the ludicrous and still keep touch with perfection.

Itis all a question of spiritual vitality - of maintaining contact with thesecret center that assures us that everything is really a high lark. Theweaker sink down and are absorbed, the stronger may sink, but they popup again with a new and better angle.

Thesecret strength is actually in death, in the link with eternity we wearin our bones. Our true self moves in life and death, in eternity and duality,as we move in sunlight and shadow, and with as much concern. We dance tothe pipe of Pan, whether we know it or not we dance, and the last and greatesttruth is the joy - the pure, sheer joy of the dance. On the face of theDancing Shiva at Delhi someone has carved it - some music - some wordsopen a window on infinity and we look suddenly on Arcady. Only the cry- the whine of the self keeps us from it - forgetting that, and we stepinto it as easily as across the door. Remember this, my dear - what yourKarma has put upon you no one knows but your deep self. It may be to setthe world on fire, or to know - to keep your counsel, and be at peace andin joy. But none of these are to be sought after. It is only to know yourself- to find yourself - to be yourself. That and that alone is the way.
 
 

6.Feb.

Imailed you the Goetia and received your letter of Feb. 2. Yes, I walk onthe brink. We all do, but I know it. Sometimes that knowledge is a terror.But sometimes it is a joy. Regardless of this, I have a job to do, andwill see that it is done. All I ask of you is that you do your part. Betrue to yourself.

Ifyou decide to return here, you could probably do designing or other workthat would allow you the necessary retirement - in a pinch I could helpyou, but you should not be dependent on me in that way. Perhaps otherswill help you - when you move with determination something usually turnsup.

Regardlessof what you do or what happens to me, my spirit is with you, and will neverfail you so long as you have the courage and the faith to be true to yourself.When you do, your work must be your decision. I think I have explainedmy part about the best I can.

Perhapsyou will understand something about Freya from my astral notes. She isat present the image of your animal self, your body of desire, sterilizedat a time when you yourself decided to be sterile. She is your familiaron the astral but not the sexual sense and represents both a source ofdanger and a source of power. Someday you will have to destroy (i.e. absorb)her, for by this means she gains a soul and you discharge your responsibility.This is the need of her elemental soul which has attached itself to youin order to gain immortality. Someday I shall send you a secret MSS onthe subject, but it is not time yet.

Bepatient! You are now going about as fast as you can. Magick is growth,you cannot force it. I will directly send you a valuable MSS which willfill in most of the details you need to know at present. In fact, hereit is.

Asfar as the screaming [?] goes, I don't know. It may be the only way towake some people up, but I never cared much for it myself, of course Iknow nothing of what your way may be. I can only tell you how to look.Kali is Mother Ganges - Hindu Goddess of Destruction and Creation. Sheis black, murderous and horrible, but her hand is uplifted in blessingand reassurance. The reconciliation of opposites, the apotheosis of theimpossible. Inanna, the Babylonian Isis, going down to Hell to redeem theChrist Tammuz. The Sophia - the feminine counterpart of God, descendingthrough the Eons to redeem Matter (Ialdeboath = Jehovah) as the bride ofChrist (Horus) is the milder Christian doctrine. (But be patient, and Iwill show you all.)

Iam glad you are painting - it seems to be your material will and althoughthe path destroys (equilibrates) the partial wills, the long test is alwaysresults.

Mywork will keep me here at least until early summer - after that - we shallsee. I want to build up a small cash reserve between now and then, in caseit is needed.

Repaint. I suggest coarse pigment dispersed in mineral oil, or paint on askin tight costume. If you use pigment, be sure it is coarse enough notto stick in your pores, and is non-toxic also. You could try dusting iton over oil or cream.

Iwill send you all the MSS you need. Do you have a photograph. Bear it,my darling. That is the supreme ecstasy - to bear the unbearable.

Love,Jack

P.S.I have asked my lawyer to send you a complaint and waiver of appearance,so you will know the score.
 
 

8Feb. 1950

DearCandida,

Reyour problem of getting the necessary information. You now have the Tarotcorrespondences, the diagrams of the Tree of Life, and the principle correspondencesfrom 777. The intelligent use of these will show you the correspondencesof a large number of ideas - in fact - if you use them right, of all ideas.

Takean idea (phenomena) which you want to examine. You can immediately placeit in the class of Fire, Air, Earth, or Water and the sub class, Fire ofEarth, Water of Air, etc. (Shortly I will send to you the Yi King - Chinesesystem of classification and Divination) again it can be classified asthe Sephiroth. Further it can be classified in the Tarot which includesall these classes. Now you have all the essential open knowledge. A divinationwill give you secret knowledge, and you can develop this to any extentyou wish on the astral. Once you develop the astral technique, you canget information on a subject that is completely unknown to you, then checkit in reverse.

Onthe astral you can question persons living and dead, gods and spirits,read books and records; view scenes past and present, in accordance withyour initiation. But regardless of your method, you will never go furtherthan your grade allows at the time. That is why it is so necessary patientlyto check and compare every source of information, eliminating all possibleerrors and being sure that you are not fooled or fooling yourself. It isin the application of ingenious scientific method to transcendental endsthat success lies, but this is the way of any great artist. The science,or the art, or both may be unconscious, but are always there.

Bynow a picture of Magick must be shaping in you. The temple is your universe,the altar your body, the weapons (instruments) your powers, the Tarot yourhandbook and the astral the medium on which you operate. All phenomena,regardless of the arbitrary classification of objective and non-objective,propounds two questions, What does it mean to you and how you should useit.

Everythingis magical, every act is a magical act, done under will: the small worldof objective consciousness floats in the big world of Magick, separateonly because of the will to separateness. We are surrounded by and immersedin miracles, the only availing miracle is to open the eyes to a miraculousworld. The redemption or initiation of others consists simply in havingbeen there yourself and being able, in some degree, to communicate yourexperiences. It cannot be done by any other means - all other Messianicactivities are futile attempts to convert yourself (in others) to do somethingyou don't believe and don't know. That is why your own attainment is alwaysthe first matter.

Attainmentis simply a matter of consciously seeing what you have known unconsciouslyall along. Actually, the whole thing is almost silly. You bawl and weepto give up the ego, the greasy penny that you have been greedily clutchingin your dirty little paw, and, behold, when you do it, it buys you a ticketto the greatest show on earth, with ice cream and cake free for ever. Naturallythe temporal return is painful - you come back to tell the kids outsidewhat damn fools they are, and what they are missing, and if you have forgottentheir language you usually get kicked for your pains. It is just that -a circus - a carnival in the grand manner, as Finney [?] says and almosttransmitted in Dr. Lao - as the inestimable St. Rabelais saw in his cupswhen he bawled out - Vive Joyeuse!

Thatis why in carnivals and masquerades you always seem to be on the vergeof something so much bigger - you are! - you are on the verge of knowingthat the whole thing is a carnival and a masquerade. You are seeing, howevertawdrily, an image du monde. After that, Weltschmertz, but only becauseyou cannot sustain the wisdom - because you must have your silly pennyback. This is life as it should be lived, in acknowledgement, commensurally.The rituals - the dances - sacred and profane, solemn and wild, alternatingwith festivals. We live a symbol of what we know it is, and, finally transcendingthe symbols, become one with it. This is the wisdom of the cave men, thatwe have lost. It was their sanity - the lack of it is our madness. We nolonger know how to act, and having lost the symbol, we have lost the reality.

Notby logic, not by intellect, nor by reason can we regain it - but by wilddances, solemn rites and chants in unknown tongues - only in the irrationaland unknown direction can we come to it again. We must in fact affrontand overthrow the reason, and relegate it again to the place of servantthat it should occupy. It is by a great act of unreasonableness - in thecourage and high-heartedness that Christ - the real Christ - called debonaire(cf. French bible and Greek source). Childish - certainly - but we areall children - only now we are children in a reform school - in an orphanage- in the dry, dull, foolish, frightened, restricted world that fools callgrown up - in the evil enchantment of the F[uries?] - of Klingsor, wheretwo and two must always make four, instead of twenty-two, or zero, as theyjust as well can. And since Zero itself may be a number indeterminate butfinite, that is, any number - why the whole proof collapses at its mostfundamental point (and 22 is the number of the trumps, clever, what?)

Yeswe are like children, but we must be free children, free as the Greekswere free, and more than that - free as the Gods are free in the show thatis forever.

Onlyseek yourself, my dear, and forget the rest. I know you have taken a terriblepath through an evil wood, but after all, it is only a bogey, and the witchisn't half bad once you get on good terms with her.

Love,Jack

P.S.I might mention my notion of the façade as I outlined it to David- not that you need it - but it might help some of your friends.

Afaçade (pose, attitude) can be useful as a superstructure underwhich the reconstruction of the ego can go on. Its terrible danger liesin its use as a retreat, a defense behind which a mutilated ego burrowsdeeper and deeper into darkness. The real need is always for more contact- more understanding both with ourselves and others - the problem is alwaysone of communication and the fa�ade presents just that.

Toexplain ourselves ably and sincerely - to understand - to communicate -is the greatest art - the greatest pleasure. The true showman, again, needsno fa�ade, he is sure of himself. His effect - his staging, is actuallyhis greatest truths, the reality is in the nuance. But this is not a façade,it is art, and façade is never art - only prop.

P.P.S.The mailing of the MSS and my last letters was held up, so you will probablyreceive this a little ahead.
 
 

9Feb 1950

DearCandida

Youwill now have a part of Part 4 of Magick and I suggest your turning tothe section on the Holy Graal which pertains to Babalon, and to the sectioncalled Astarte vel Berylli, which pertains to your method of work. Nowhints on the nature of a God.

1.A god is a barrier. No unready person can pass (i.e. know) a god or histemple. Of course physical and mental contact is possible - but the spiritual- the essential part must remain outside until one has partaken somewhatof the nature of the god.

2.A god is a gateway. The conversation and knowledge of the god confers initiation- allows one to pass beyond all the opposites thereof. He is thereforea complete cosmos, or macrocosm expressed - as man. A microcosm is a macrocosmimplied.

3.A god is a universe, i.e. the god includes, reconciles, and transcendsall the classes of his class, and all the opposites thereof. He is thereforea complete cosmos, or the macrocosm expressed - as man. 'A microcosm isa macrocosm implied.

Itis essential to grasp the dual nature of a god and its function. The goodand evil, well and ill defined aspect, since it is the god's position asreconciler that is most important. The terrible gods - Hitzilipoctly, Kali,Baal, Moloch and Jahve are intended to portray the diversity - the rightness- of the appearance of evil just as the good, mild gods portray and reconcilethe other aspects. The reconciliation annihilates the split schizoid ego,which has divided the aspects of the parental image into a split, warring,and disastrous cosmos. The evil gods do not demand blood sacrifice - thatis the grisly error of the partial soul. They only demand the perceptionof eternity behind even the appearance of evil. The acceptance of trans-humanand trans-logical values for the standards of impurity. The blood sacrificein society is a national [cleavage?] of the split ego, but even Mars himselfalways offers the kindly alternative of a transcendent union wherein thegod is otherwise - Mars Venemis (?), the God of the Wood.

Whenyou visit a god on his appropriate plane (country) in the astral, you mayfind that the country is also the god. This is the experience of some raretypes of nature mystics, who, adventuring in a familiar place come suddenlyupon a landscape of Arcady, a brief intrusion of the upland meadows offorever in the plainer fields we know. The place is the God, the God isthe place, the seen and the seer are one.

Mydear, do not think you are alone. The legions are with you that tried andhoped, those now trying and typing - the unborn to come, dreaming of aworld to be - all, all are with you. The gods themselves bend and whisperat your doorway, and your windows are portentous with the possible hour.I have heard Aldeberan speak to you of Rigel, and the Pleiades whisperyour name that is to be. All that I have and all that I am am flared upin the birth fires that time and left me just three tasks: to guide ininfancy, to counsel in adolescence, to renounce in maturity - to go onwardswhence I came.

IfI was the one you could love, yet it was needful for you to learn contemptand hatred, and to equilibrate those again with love. You have done it,and passed that fine passing. You have needed to know loneliness and terrorand despair. You burn there, and it is passing. And now you come to thelast unspeakable barrier, the ultimate thule, that you may labour longand painfully to kindle a small spark that will consume all you have -that will burn down the heavens as a torch until even the black stars burnwith furious joy.

Ifyou only knew the ache to dissolve, to pass away, to go, to be one - todrink utterly of the cup men call death or madness - to be away, at rest,at peace. But I will endure. I will do what must be done to the last [moment?]of putrefying flesh, to the last pulsation of the dying brain. Not formyself, not for you, but for the vision that I saw once - that is for ever.

Oneday my hands will fall away, and you will go alone into the regions thatI cannot follow - take the sky in wings I have only known in dream.

Godknows, it is not my body that now speaks to you, that is a tedious thingof days - of dim awareness in the half-shadow. It is my spirit - that spoketo you in the beginning, that speaks to you again now, that will alwaysbe with you, until we meet and fuse in the darkness of which light is ashadow.

Love,Jack

P.S.You can see that you must some time renounce all reliance upon me, thatthat is a critical point in the adventure. I do not mean that the timehas come - but will you will know when it comes. In the great acts of creationand destruction, timing is of the essence. A teacher, like a god, mustbe surpassed. He is something to come up to, but who, for the adept inhis critical moment steps aside, or is pushed aside, so that the initiatecan go beyond - into the void. Once you are at that point, the problemsare how to pass over into the deep world, how to dwell there, and how toreturn. Here the individual can only rely on his own supernatural [sic],it is a purely individual matter.

C.G.Jung has explained it all in great detail. As he himself says, he willnot be understood for nearly 100 years. 40 years of the period has passedand the Bollingen Society has done much to hasten the day. Crowley's hintson techniques and viewpoints are invaluable, and Joseph Campbell has donean excellent job of simplifying Jung's concept of the nature and functionof the hero- adept in the cosmic myths cycle.

However,it may be possible to know too much on these matters. The important thingis to get to work and find your own way. You will find the informationyou really need is usually available. Of course, there have been people- like Joan of Arc, Mary Baker Eddy, and even Aimee Semple Macpherson.But in these cases also the quality of the force and mentality was commensuratewith the spiritual state. There is a balance that goes far deeper thanappearances.

Onetrouble is understanding and explaining all this in the abstract qualityof speech and thought. No speech or thought can describe or communicatethe deep creative and destructive processes that go on within the organism,let alone the ultimate force that lies behind them both. Even objectivelythere is no description of the growth of a bean, much less a man. It isall by analogy - if we have felt the same we know what the other personmeans. But even the feeling is done with an unknown and indescribable organor field of organs.

Butsome kinds of speed, actions, situations can touch the deep forces, andthere you see the awesome spectacle of an individual or a group - or sometimesan entire race, moving in the supernal rhythms of a cosmic circle.

Civilizationis an [...], the animal is in the culture - he is the culture. Touch thatand he moves. But all the intellectual - the reasonable approaches elicitno more response than would sucking on a rubber prick.
 
 

12.Feb.

Donot let my katabolistic moods upset you unduly - they are only antistrophe- the diastole. Perhaps this incarnation would not made [sic] to supportthe beatific vision, and I may have gone too far too fast. In any event,I do not regret it. The end is magnificent - and the means not unworthy.

Backto the gods - there must be an apotheosis with our own, irascible Jahve,and it is all in Job - the destruction of the categories when God, havingreduced man to abject misery, destroyed all his faith, speaks at last outof the whirlwind. "Gird up thy loins now like a man and declare thou untome. Wilt thou also disannul my judgement? Wilt thou condemn me, that thoumayest be like God righteous? Hast thou an arm like God? Or canst thouthunder with a voice like Him? Deck thyself now with majesty and excellency:and array thyself with glory and beauty. Cast abroad the rage of thy wrath:and behold everyone that is proud and abase him. Then I will also confessunto thee that thine own right hand can save thee."

Whythis arrogance? The answer is in Othin, the all-god's song in the Edda.

Iween that I hung on a windy tree,
Hungthere for nights full nine,
withthe spear I was wounded, aid offered I was
ToOthin, myself to myself,
Onthe tree that none may ever know
Whatroot beneath it runs.

Naturallythe essential force lives in all of us, but only in those rare times whenthe flesh is dissolved can we see it, and even then seldom see it and live.The Path, as Buddha said, is beyond good thoughts and good works, and evilthoughts and evil works. It is the Path of the unmoved mover, the "hidmotive" of Lao Tze.

Fromthat vision we are flung back across the abyss into the heaven - the vehicle,that our incarnation, tendencies, circumstances, provide. For Mahomet itwas Geburah - Force. For Buddha, Chesed - mercy, compassion. But in anycase this is simply a vehicle for something that is utterly beyond alltendencies, all dualities. That force is in you, the problem is to providea suitable vehicle, empty it and let it flow in.
 

Editedby Cameron and Hymenaeus Beta (Fra. Superior, OTO)
©1989Marjorie Cameron Parsons Kimmel