Crowley

[The Great Quail]

JD writes,

> that Crowley was primarily a dingbat (and I've read Book of Lies) and
> not much else... from Crowley spawned Scientology (If you're confused
> I could supply a link), anyways, and I apologize if anyone on the list
> is a Scientologist, but that shit is messed up and you should be aware
> of it. 

Wow! Man -- Crowley was a lot more than a dingbat. I would recommend the
"Book of Lies" to you, but clearly you don't regard it the same way I do --
a sublime work of poetic mystery, suffused with humor.

http://www.meta-religion.com/Esoterism/Thelemae/the_book_of_lies.htm

I'm not going to say that Crowley was an awesome dude -- he was a
manipulative egomaniac who destroyed a few lives and always had one foot in
the world of the carnival barker. But he also wrote some pretty interesting
things, and his life and work are worth studying.

And -- as much as I am amused by Scientology, I really don't think you can
blame Crowley for it! That's a further stretch than blaming Brian Eno for
New Age music, or De La Soul for the prevalence of skits on rap albums.

--Quail

45: CHINESE MUSIC

"Explain this happening!"

"It must have a 'natural' cause."

"It must have a 'supernatural' cause."

Let these two asses be set to grind corn.

May, might, must, should, probably, may be, we may safely assume, ought, it
is hardly questionable, almost certainly -- poor hacks! let them be turned
out to grass! Proof is only possible in mathematics, and mathematics is only
a matter of arbitrary conventions.

And yet doubt is a good servant but a bad master; a perfect mistress, but a
nagging wife. "White is white" is the lash of the overseer: "white is black"
is the watchword of the slave. The Master takes no heed.

The Chinese cannot help thinking that the octave has 5 notes. The more
necessary anything appears to my mind, the more certain it is that I only
assert a limitation.

I slept with Faith, and found a corpse in my arms on awaking; I drank and
danced all night with Doubt, and found her a virgin in the morning.

     --Crowley, "Book of Lies"