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Crowley's Book of Lies

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alejandrodelloco

23:40 / 11.05.05

So, I was poking around at it and wondering what you guys think about it. I am curious to see if any of you have any guesses as to which chapter is the one that reveals all the masonic secrets, or if you just think that is all a crock of bull.

link to html version

07:05 / 12.05.05

I,ve just taken it as his own version of Zen/Buddisht Koans ? A western/hermetic tool in the same model to help deconstruct the intellect and ego ?

You mean theres Masonic secrest in it as well damn it !!

alejandrodelloco

07:10 / 12.05.05

Here's the bit from the introduction:

"Shortly after publication, the O.H.O. (Outer
Head of the O.T.O.) came to me. (At that time I did
not realise that there was anything in the O.T.O.
beyond a convenient compendium of the more
important truths of Free Masonry.) He said that since
I was acquainted with the supreme secret of the
Order, I must be allowed the IX {degree} and obligated in
regard to it. I protested that I knew no such secret.
He said `But you have printed it in the plainest
language'. I said that I could not have done so
because I did not know it. He went to the book-
shelves; taking out a copy of THE BOOK OF LIES, he
pointed to a passage in the despised chapter. It
instantly flashed upon me. The entire symbolism not
only of Free Masonry but of many other traditions
blazed upon my spiritual vision. From that moment
the O.T.O. assumed its proper importance in my
mind. I understood that I held in my hands the key
to the future progress of humanity...."

07:43 / 12.05.05

from what i understand the big 'secret' OTO sex magick ritual was divulged by crowley in psalm 69 'the way to suck-seed (semen) and the way to suck-eggs (ovum).

Professor Silly

21:09 / 12.05.05

well, that't what Robert Anton Wilson suggested, but I'd hesitate to believe it. There's several chapters that have sexual meanings in this book, as well as many that seem utterly incomprehensible.

I guess the only real way to find out is to become a IXth degree within the O.T.O....

Nalyd Khezr Bey

22:56 / 13.05.05

The "secret" of the OTO seems to be laced throughout the text of the entire book even though chapters 18. Dewdrops, 25. The Star Ruby, 36. The Star Saphire, and the already mentioned chapter 69 seem to be more overt about the practices of those "secrets" that aren't really secrets at all. Crowley also talks about it rather overtly in his Magick: Book 4 after he says he cannot discuss it (another Crowleyian joke?). His most explicit account of those "secrets" was in his "Energized Enthusiasm" and I recommend that in addition to reading The Book of Lies.

15:15 / 17.05.05

There are no secrets and if there was one it would be, the mind directs the Chi.

00:54 / 19.05.05

"D'ye want a clip on the jaw?"

I think this is a beautiful little book. Favourite quote: "The price of eternal warfare is existence." It's a simple enough inversion of a fairly common sentiment, but there's a profundity and a joke there - Crowley contemplating the Absolute Bliss of the Pure White Light and well, yeah, it's sublime, perfect, yeah yeah yeah but maybe it'd get a bit dull after a bit...

"The game goes on; it may have been too rough for Buddha, but it's (if anything) too slow for me."

joi de vivre...

As far as the secret Sex Magick stuff goes - I'd imagine it seems a lot more blatant to us than it did to readers way back when. There are vastly fewer mechanisms of censorship - external and internal - now, and most of us presumably got directed to AC from Morrison, RAW, or whoever... So the sex is a given. Back in the early 1900s things would presumably have been much much more uptight, both for the writer and the reader. (I read his "Book of Thoth" just recently and I was getting wound-up by the constant "Oh well this refers to a SECRET DOCTRINE which I certainly can't reveal to the LIKES OF YOU" - it seemed snotty and ridiculous and also hypocritical, after he published all the secret Golden Dawn material. And then it struck me that if AC was writing about sex magick, and specifically homosexual acts, then he really COULDN'T reveal that - because the Inquisition never ended and they would have destroyed him if he had done... Remember that joke which was a bit more than a joke: Epstein's nude statue of Oscar Wilde with its genitals tastefully covered up by the authorities with a butterfly, and Crowley creeping in there one evening to remove that butterfly... and then wearing it over his own crotch in the clubs that night...)

One last thing which maybe someone can confirm or deny: in Chapter 79 Crowley came up with a lovely little line:

"Nature is cruel; but I too am a Sadist."

...and then in the Commentary he explained what the word "Sadist" meant, and who it referred to. So did Crowley come up with the word? That would be a most impressive contribution to the English language...

08:26 / 19.05.05

What does suck the seed and or suck the egg mean and how does it refer to the creation of the sacred spirit body...does anyone know? I'm having problems getting past the gate of life and death and my kidneys hurt.

trouser the trouserian

09:38 / 19.05.05

Mister Moonlight:
The term 'sadism' was first used, I believe, by Richard von Krafft-Ebing, in his Psychopathia Sexualis published in 1885.

Morpheus - you're joking, right? But just in case:
suck seed/suck egg - refers to oral sex, the latter in particular whilst the woman is menstruating. Surely chapter 69 is blatantly obvious?

"Lies" is probably my favourite Crowley text. I bought my first copy in 1980 and its one of the few Crowley books I read on a regular basis.

alejandrodelloco

19:47 / 19.05.05

Mister Moonlight: Thanks for the explanation. Historical context is the best freind of everyone trying to decipher works!

22:44 / 19.05.05

it is chapter 69 that reveals the "secret of the oto".

It does and it doesn´t at the same time.
It reveals one of the "sentences" that you can create by using the grammar of the magickal system of the oto. at least in those days. Crowley changed it a lot. since.

Thin about it as Tantra veiled in western ritualmagickal terms. Oh yeah, and the one , most often missed is also the chapter that contains the star ruby.

Does anyone actually thnk that he just redesigned the hexagram and pentagram rituals?
nope nope....

think of it this way:

"unto thee my phallus the powerfull eucharist" - being the first greek sentence in the star ruby, add in a jerkoff element in the NOX signs with the IO pan being the mantra, and the previous placing out of the gods the sigill, and you have a ritual designed to put you, NOT at the intersection of samekh and Peh, but on the Path of gmmel, just below the abyss but beyond tiphareth.

Fun, ey?

20:20 / 21.05.05

T the trou...I am so glad you don't know. You have the sucking on the wrong end and so for you it is still a secret.

All of the drawing is done internally, microcosmic orbit. And you have to ask was I kidding. I am.

alejandrodelloco

16:55 / 22.05.05

Please make the slightest attempt to explain the jibberish, just this once.

20:15 / 22.05.05

Microcosmic orbit...internal meditation, do you need pictures? Do not ejeculate or menstrate at all. I can do it. Can you?

20:22 / 22.05.05

Here is the diagram jibberman

02:23 / 23.05.05

Have you actually read "The Book of Lies," Murph?

04:28 / 23.05.05

Well it seems that Morpheus (cool name by the way) has read the Book of Lies and has uncovered the great secret that (GASP!) ejaculation is wrong and (GASP! GASP!!) so is menstruation. It is all a metaphor and (JESUS CHRIST DON?T!!) has nothing to do with the actual swallowing of (GOD FORBID!!) real semen or menses. Because , you know, that would be just icky and anyway the whole point of this magic business is to sever our connection to the body because it is EVIL. Anyway that?s what all those Indian and Chinese people say. And they should know, they?ve been living in caves for centuries.

04:39 / 23.05.05

Do not ejeculate or menstrate at all. I can do it. Can you?

That's not too hard. The real trick is being able ejeculate and menstrate AT THE SAME TIME!!

05:15 / 23.05.05

Actually, Morpheus's slightly hysterical bleatings have brought up the interesting subject of how much Tantric rituals such as the Yoni Tantra have been, in a way, cleaned up over the centuries. Is it the case that anything that has been seen as even slightly licentious has been turned into metaphor by an overly puritanical mind? Or has it always been metaphor and it is our licentious minds that just want to do the icky sex stuff (urgh!) I would go with the former.

David Gorden White goes into this in his book Kiss of the Yogini and, as you can see by the reviews posted, it's a subject that gets a lot of peoples blood boiling.

05:37 / 23.05.05

Bah! My html has melted. You all get the idea. Look the book up on Amazon.com

06:16 / 23.05.05

I have read the book of lies...wait no I didn't. I read his autohag and he basically discusses most of the reasons and misconceptions he had in writing that book. Did you know that when he was in new yuck city he actually may have become one of the first graf artists by plastering "Do what thou wilt..." on a huge stone face in red painted letters at a fork in a local river near where he was lodgeing. I forget the river and it's been a while since I read it and Rick James made me get rid of the book. I have to get it back from my mother. Please remind me to do that.

06:26 / 23.05.05

By the way you still have the meditation wrong and in fact you do stop ejeculateing and the female in fact really does "Tame the Red Dragon." because you consciously transmute the energy and the seed and circulate it between each other and store it in other cavities of the body. It is the great Taoist process that creates the spirit body and thus you can actually over time become immortal. Or so they say. But for all of you who still enjoy spilling seed, the small death is hard to resist. Fuck like your in a porno...feels so...over. sssnoooore, snoooore...don't bother me. Slap!

trouser the trouserian

07:39 / 23.05.05

Wendy Doniger's review of Kiss of the Yogini from the Times Literary Supplement

09:38 / 23.05.05

Oh for the love of Gods.

No matter if the other stuff is metaphorical or not, Crowleys, and the OTO´s versions of the sexmagickal rituals are NOT metaphorical.

There is ejaculation and menses because those fluids are holy and used as ingredients for things, or smeared onto talismans etc.

OTO style magick is not metaphorical, maybe because tantra isn´t meant to be or maybe because the 3 Founding members just wanted to be able to fuck their members in the rewritten memphis-mizraim rite they had created, but it is NOT metaphorical.

trouser the trouserian

10:21 / 23.05.05

"The Goddess is fond of the vulva and the penis, fond of the nectar of vulva and penis. Therefore, one should fully worship the Goddess with the nectar of vulva and penis. A man who worships the Goddess by the drinking of the virile fluid and by taking pleasure in the wife of another man, as well as the nectar of the vulva and penis knows no sorrow and becomes possessed of perfected mantras. But he who worships Candika without the clan-generated fluids (kulodbhavairdravyar vina) {will see} the good deeds of a thousand lifetimes destroyed."
Kaulavalinirnaya

Pretty metaphorical, huh?

11:14 / 23.05.05

Or the old , multi paths pointing to the same destination ?

The Taosit techniques of immortality , are about building the spirit or "body of light " , however its also about maitining your body as well , to repress any part or deviate from ones nature (release of fluids all together ?) seems to recontoury to an idea of the Tao ?

Unconditional Love

17:04 / 23.05.05

the logic follows that through the act of digestion of the fresh body fluids the energy is also absorbed into the body to be transmuted through the act of digestion and inhalation of semen and menses or each seperate fluid.

retention achieves the same end as consumption, matter is energy and vice a versa. denial or excess to achieve similar results, right hand, left hand.

17:14 / 23.05.05

retention achieves the same end as consumption

With the added wrinkle that a man cannot retain his own menses, nor a woman her own semen. The consumption model retains the duality.

18:15 / 23.05.05

The OTO may believe that, your right. But it doesn't mean that it actually is right. I agree with the fact that The old Crow found it easier to be High and just squirt, it is way easy.
Also the taoist practice is far removed from the Tantric practice, which I know a less about.
After years of thought/practice with this whole method, I've found that the resistance to the knowledge of this practice is great and is founded in years of cultural denial caused by a belief/fear of this weak male archtype. This leads to defensive behavior that would prove the male is instead strong, when in fact men are actually, sexually very weak. Females naturally understand this process and are by far the sexual superior, and adapt to this knowledge easily.
Eating seman/sperm does little if nothing to help you, and it is the energy that is produced in the body that is valuable. If you don't store or circulate it with the added practice of balanceing those energies it can be very dangerous. Tai Chi Chuan is that act of balance. It is the one thing Crowley never learned and he has stated he wish he had, because he felt it was the most powerful form of magic.
For instance celibate monks turn into rapists often. Frustrated men get violent also, but the violence is usually caused by the actual weakening of energy and lose of the seed. Consciousness is weakened...and you must sleep.

18:18 / 23.05.05

Oh added.. you are just wrong...sorry.
retention achieves the same end as consumption, matter is energy and vice a versa. denial or excess to achieve similar results, right hand, left hand.

Unconditional Love

21:24 / 23.05.05

i dont mind being wrong.

but just one thing, ejaculation doesnt put me too sleep it fills me with energy, in fact more activity and energy than i had prior to the event, explain that one too me?

i dont feel tired and i dont feel a loss, i feel invigourated and more alive, with or without a partner.

its a common conception that somehow it is draining, it really depends how you relate to the sexual act.

oh and i am right, with regards to the relationship to myself, i cant actually account for others, but i believe the sexual practices your talking about result from the influence of buddhism upon taoism to a large degree and its notion of body as an illusion, and also its conception that in someway that energy is seperate from matter, early taoism, rather than religous doesnt draw that distinction, the body is worshipped, each organ and its attendent diety are intrinsic to each other the organ is the diety, the energy isnt a seperate manifestation from the physicality only shen is seen as distinct.alot of the misconception arises from westerners placing there own notions of spirit onto taoist texts.

dao yin exercises serve just as well as tai chi. so does kung fu in fact any martial art form wether it be sikh, muslim or indian has the potential to balance body energy, as does dance, yoga and various other forms of exercise, alot of the involvement depends on what personal associations are made in my experience.

what do you make of for example the taoists who advocated drinking all day as a way to live with tao? or those that saw philosophical debate as a way? what was once an open path became orthodox very quickly under the influence of certain factors, namely becoming a state sanctioned institution and the influence of buddhism.

Boy in a Suitcase

01:52 / 24.05.05

Tai Chi Chuan is that act of balance. It is the one thing Crowley never learned and he has stated he wish he had, because he felt it was the most powerful form of magic.

Where did you read this? Curious to see the source.

02:27 / 24.05.05

gonna stand on murpheoss side for a moment.

daoism is as diverse-- just like, say, paganism-- so it would misleading to say 'daoism advocates nonejaculation'. some people are led by their dao to indulge, some are led to preserve.

the principle of immortality through internal alchemy is that every cycle of energy through the body (in and out) is imperfect, and actually causes damage to the body. for example, when you eat food, the process of digesting the food wears out your cells (cells only regenerate a certain number of times)-- for example, 'free radicals' (charged particles that escape from chemical reactions). so you should be able to 'live' forever in suspended animation. but every time you consume or create, you 'waste' a little of the finite energy source available for your lifetime. a totally internal cycle minimizes the contact you have with the world, allowing you to live longer. but live better? i think you need to budget your life, whether you are liberal or stingy with it.

anyone else make a connection to egyptian ba and ka souls? after death, when the souls separate, the ka must be fed in order to maintain a connection to the earth, while the ba travels the heavens commensurate with virtue in life.

since egyptian virtue was measured by ones ability to preserve ones character after death, and since the speed of light dictates that the heavens is the reliquary of the past, the ba is clearly related to reproduction-- whether its children to remember and emulate you, or artifacts to inspire future generations.

denial of the ka urge to eat and ba urge to reproduce might let you trick the souls into staying together, thus staying alive forever.

05:54 / 24.05.05

But surley immortality in and of itself is a perversion of the Tao , as teh Tao rises and changes but by becoming "immortal" and remaining in the state of "one" rather then in continuious change . Also if food etc is bad for you yet conatins chi , how can it be "wrong" as (sadly i cant remember the source/exact quote) isnt there an idea that there is no such thing as bad chi , just the incorrect usage of it (i suppose being that if you maitain theres a good and bad chi you get cuaght in duality !).

Crowley poroably never stated directly that he never achieve Tai Chi (it also meaning balance ), but having read what i have he would certain have admitted to having made error of judgment on his usage of drugs, including some of his ideas at the Abbey at Chefalu.

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