The Secret Sexual Teachings of Aleister Crowley
J.Edward Cornelius
Cornelius Publications
This book. It will either say nothing, say little, or outline the principles, but not the psychology or philosophy. It doesn’t actually tempt the reader with the ‘never before revealed’ garb, which is a good start.
I seem to recall reading Francis kings, hidden secrets of the OTO years ago and finishing it, none the wiser and perhaps even more perplexed, or perhaps I dismissed it. Francis King also produced the book, Sexuality, Magic and Perversion, which raises more questions on how the subject is regarded, perhaps. Or is it just a selling point.
As a Preface:Prejudgement…Sexual workings in the occult are the principle of building up inertia and releasing it at orgasm, like breathing furiously and then at last releasing it when the mind is swimming and dissociated with self, or alike Shamanic drumming/dance, when the self becomes the beat and at last, the beat stops and you are one again, having released at the exact moment of ‘rapture’ your will and desire into that last gasp of momentum. But Cornelius will dispute that summary. He will call me ignorant and dabbling and whatnot.
Sex and the occult do not have a good press, any cult or organisation promoting sex in their activities, either blatantly or even worse subliminally has the cult-witch-finders and the villagers with pitch forks close on their heels. And it’s a strange one. Undoubtably there is in some quarters exploitation, there is abuse under the cloak in some seedy sects, there is also a valid concept, the basics I’ve already outlined but needs be emphasized from my point of view.
All spell work is a matter of dance and repetition, it is by its very nature song, e.g. knotwork, dancing widdershins, chant, and then releasing that coiled spring/ spiral (!) impetus into the manifest.
It will only work of course when the ‘wish’ is actually seen as a part of the inevitable absolute, there is no question of maybe or what-ifs, the desired is moulded and cast into being at the exact moment the self is lost into the primordial, at ‘orgasm’, a point of nothingness, an exploding vision of unity. But Cornelius will dispute that and consign it to the rubbish bin.
A book describing this fundamental principle would be better served, though I suspect would not entice dribbling ‘wankers’ to purchase. This soft (ouch) cover book isn’t cheap either, £35!
The danger in describing technique is that it can be mechanical, and it shouldn’t be.
The whole point is to meld the emotions, bring them to fruition, focus, target and release.
An example of obfuscating the issue, for instance ;-books on Astral projection, Do this, then do that, then this should happen etc, when in fact it is always a case of doing less and thinking less, except focus on the subject. Will.
This is different to meditation when focus say on the breathe is requisite to non-focusing on anything.
To illustrate further;- Sticking pins in a clay effigy will not do a thing. However, regarding and knowing the effigy is moulded by emotions of the object/target, each thumb sculpture crafted by the same manner which the person it is intended to replicate would be (sympathy/empathy). e.g. If they were a bully, each knead and craft upon the effigy would be carried out as if a bully were constructing it-poking sarcastically, moulding aggressively, pinching needlessly, it is made thus not just in the likeness of ‘so and so’ but in their manner. (manna ! ) Making the object, the crafter becomes the person- IS the person, emotionally instilling into the object at a sympathetic/empathetic manner. It IS that person, It IS the object. And sticking pins into it, dressed perhaps with links and artefacts, hair, clothes, or even the soil upon which they regularly walk, those pins will connect.
But let’s see what Cornelius says about ‘Sex’
It is, so sayeth Cornelius all about the phallus φαλλός, it’s a man thing. The viii° of the O.T.O. where Perfect Pontiff of the Illuminati/Epopt of the Illuminati ritual shews the hooded seeker (as illuminated in Pyramid Texts, Utterance 527, Heliopolitan creation myth of Atum~)
He put his phallus in his fist,
to excite desire thereby.
The twins were born, Shu and Tefnut.
( Shu is the God of Air and Tefnut the Goddess of moisture and the life given preserve. Thus, the ejaculation gave birth to its own reflection, in the air, the lifegiving seed.~ Cornelius doesn’t say this, I just made it up because there’s a lot of wandering reading this book and most of it is all about blatant Cock-worship)
We’re jumping the gun, Prematurely ejaculating. And Cornelius will disregard my analogy anyway.
Cornelius, tells us, this book, is for men ! because men have penises and they should know how to use them, like PArzival.
If the warning flags begin to rise, belabouring Cornelius then hammers it home, many times, that, in case you didn’t hear him the first time~ this is for men ! men have penises, this teaching is for Men, Geezers, blokes. It’s a cock house. Only men, with penises know the lost word!
It doesn’t end there. We have a dismissal of Crowley’s obvious Chauvinism as being the fault of, of course, his mother. However, Cornelius wants us to brush all this aside, so we can examine his (Crowleys) teachings. Unless you’re a woman. He’s not banning women per se, but like a shaved headed middle aged man walking into a Dianic Feminist Coven, …. not really welcomed.
Cornelius, not only dismisses all women from these teachings but lets us know our/your/any conception of God is always subjective. This is a great ploy to be able to use as leverage in any subsequent failure. Clearly, your conception of God is wrong. WE all have our own interpretation of ‘One True God’ , so sayeth the great ape Cornelius.
Not content with ostracising women and anyone who has a perception of God, Cornelius berates fellow Fraternal brothers who he dissmisses in the main and majority as being lost in the realm of Malkuth (Earthly suchness).
All in all, the only one worthy it seems to drink from the Grail (ahem) is Cornelius himself and as he tells us, he and his words are like jewels in the rough ashler.(something like that, I am loathe to root through the book to find the actual quote so you can dismiss it if you want)
More warning signs appear as the reader is informed no-one below the seventh degree should be given these secret instructions. So why has he wrote this book? Well, Crowley said Knowledge is to be shared, “to each man and woman that thou meetest … it shall be given.” But not too much !!! as later on apparently that Pandora’s box (ahem) is only for certain people, who have passed the ordeal.
Of course.
Cornelius gives us a diatribe of himself and his credentials including a foray into his Qabalah. It is odd that he rebuffs many who talk of ‘One true God’ as being subjective when his descriptions of the Qabalah he uses is wholly subjective, but that’s alright? Cornelius uses the Western Traditional concept of The Otz Chiim (Tree of Life) and rests his laurels and worth upon it. Others don’t. It’s Subjective.
Eventually, after being offered this degree and that, Cornelius lets his membership lapse, due to differences. He doesn’t like the way the land lies, or the way things are going.
He has the cheek to quote Dion fortune who explained how, the Qabalah can be different to different ways/ viewpoints. Again. Subjective. And it was Dion Fortune who said, things evolve, in the light of new knowledge our views may change. But not so for ol’ sulky Ed’ who beats his chest at the rise of the LSD love generation and the emancipation of women. Damn them all.
The OTO today, according to Cornelius is woefully askew from Crowley’s vision, apparently.
There is no mind centred on the Great ineffeable One True God. (That subjective God, Today’s society are all dancers to the tune of Nietzche and the God Is dead brigade.)
In order for sex magic to work, one needs to understand and believe in’The One True God’, to believe “in him”
In bold letters like a billboard announcement Cornelius tells us, “Only the One True God resides Above the Abyss, all other Gods are creations in the mind of men Below.”
Cornelius then demands we know that all those Gods ‘below’ are aspects of the One True God, the kingpin, the Daddy.
The goalposts move whether attacking or defending in Cornelius’s world, and he spends more time moaning about members of the OTO being granted ix° grades at the guvnor’s death bed, presumably because he’s moping that he wont become the chief, the daddy.
I’m halfway through this book, and haven’t a clue where its going. This is right, This is wrong, but they’re the same, they’re different, I hate Minnesota Millie because she was made school prefect and didn’t even give the teacher an apple. And still we haven’t had one direction of focus during ejaculation, in fact Cornelius has a pop at the chaos magicians who dare to seal their intent with their seed (so to speak, or is that sow to seed)
Cornelius soon gets round to some cock worship again with another bold billboard statement;-
The final secret of the OTO is that the Phallus is an instrument of this One True God, and it belongs to no other !
We, all, are berated again for not believing The one True God, that we fall into a convenient pigeonhole of atheist cubby holes, and he uses the phrase of One True God as a politician continually battering us with the same soundbite dreamt up by an advisor. “Strong and Stable”. “Brexit means Brexit” “For the Many NotThe Few ” “Peace in our Time “… (oh no lets forget that one.)
Just as I reckon upon the political rantings of Cornelius he discusses at length Liber OZ, the declaration of the rights of Man. (viz;- )
Quite what this has to do with ‘sexual teachings’ is anyones guess, it seems to be more a case that Cornelius wants to emphasize, its all about men, and it starts to get worrying, I start to feel for what must have happened to SteadyEddie that turned him into a MrHyde with a propensity for dominance. But, He’s bought up good ol’ Liber Oz so let’s discuss.
Liber OZ. Crowley calls it the book of the Goat. He lists Oz in Sepher Sephiroth as being gematria number 77 and meaning Strength; He-Goat. It doesn’t. It means Strength, yes, but Oz strictly speaking means She-Goat. Oz is a feminine noun. Ask a rabbi. It means She-Goat. Crowley got it wrong. End Of.
Cornelius would be better served to look at Frank Baums Masonic work, the wizard of Oz. The clues are there, The Brain,-the mind, The Heart- the Soul, and Courage- the Will. The Rainbow? The Emerald City denotes the Mid Point, the centre. in mystical kabbalah, the Heart, aye even Tiphareth was Green, but dismissing that we can say that Green is the Centre of the Rainbow, or in Qabbalah of the Aeon, Netzach, to which we Either Return home, or Remain. Be Aware that the Slippers that carry you upon that Golden Road, Yellow_ Tiphareth are not actually Ruby, they are in fact Silver (read the book), denoting the Lunar, the tidal and Yesod. Of course, Dorothy and her Familiar, being a Female with a Pet Boy dog wouldn’t appeal to Cornelius, and the Wizard, himself, was a fraud. And anyway, It’s just a stupid children’s story, isnt it.
Oz in the context of Strength, is correct, however it is more a poetic statement of strength, the strength of mind, be strong in heart etc as opposed to the active strength of ‘Geburah’- That strength wielded by the strong, a Male attribute yes, on the Female Pillar, Has Samson lost his locks?
Cornelius bemoans candidates not realising symbolism, they rarely catch on he spits. He then uses Liber Librae to say, that Equilibrium is the basis of the work. Well yes! Cornelius ! polarity, equilibrium, dynamism, balance. Positive, negative ~~does not mean one is above/greater than the other, just reflections, Male, Female.
Cornelius, tells us he doesnt much care for people who have sex when they want, even though he quotes Liber Oz… take your fill &c. And then creates little boundaries around people inclinations and morals. He knows best.
It all seems contradictory,
“The frowns and furrows that besiege my brow
Can scarcely reckon with the foolery I behold;
Yet rise they same as ever,
even as laughter doth.”
Cornelius then refers, again, to Liber AL vel Legis, Chapter I, verse 51: (viz)
Also, take your fill and will of love as ye will,
when, where and with whom ye will!
But always unto me
Remember, the ‘me’ referred in this line, is not as Cornelius would have us maybe believe of ‘The One True God’ but is of course to Nuit.
Islam teaches that all actions should be focused to Allah, and that activity such as drinking, fornication, drugs take the mind away from the thought of Allah, and thus are haram.
With that in mind (!) we could agree, that sex, for frivolous purposes is not considered part of ‘magical’ work. However, in a sacred space I’m assuming Cornelius is alluding to perceptions that magical rites include wanton orgies. Bear in mind, in some ‘circles’ these activities are used, to raise energy, excite, Rajas, to enflame. However, if we are talking of the mind fixed on the purpose of spiritual evolvement, that is the dissolution of the ‘self/ego’, then accepted, the will, the focus is on the absolute. It cannot be the One True God, because that IS subjective. Nuit is Not-
To return to our Arched Goddess . Nuit is infinite space, limitless possibility, and the totality of existence.
How can you focus on such a concept during a rite of coitus?
Cornelius begins to discuss Yoga, but doesn’t make the connection between Nuit and the Balancing of polarity, between Male/Female.
Instead he talks of the ‘Eight limbs of Yoga’ which are (because he doesnt clearly reference them)
यम — Yama
नियम — Niyama
आसन — Āsana
प्राणायाम — Prāṇāyāma
प्रत्याहार — Pratyāhāra
धारणा — Dhāraṇā
ध्यान — Dhyāna
समाधि — Samādhi
He states, that Yama,” “the easiest” is all about control, discipline. Towing the line perhaps. In fact, it is about Balance ! Walking the tightrope, certainly. It is a fine line between them both but philosophically, one is for the sheep and one is for the sovereign individual—the magician who consciously adjusts their conduct to the demands of the Work. However, Cornelius does quote Crowley’s interpretation of Yama from his Eight lectures of Yoga, and it is (supposed to be) about the Old Boys teachings, cant really digress, comment or otherwise.
With all the gavel stamp’ering Cornelius at last tells us, we can now discuss Magickal Theory with regards to the Phallus.
We don’t, he says, need to be masters in the ancient art of sex magick, but ! we do need, nay, MUST know the laws of יהוה. We MUST practice them using the ritual known as the Mass of the Holy Ghost. After all it’s been practised from time immemorial since…. well at least in theory 1913, and to a captivated audience by Wilfred T. Smith and Regina Kahl in 1933.
Thus, a Note on the Mass of the Holy Ghost
chapter 85 of Liber Aleph vel CXI: The Book of Wisdom or Folly
Aleister Crowley
DE ARCANO, PER QUOD SPIRITUS QUIDAM
IN CORPORE RECIPIATUR.
HERE now is another Formula of Power, good to invoke
any Being to manifest in thyself. First, invoke him by
the Power of all thy Spells and Conjurations, with Mind
concentrated and Will vehement, toward him, as I have
written in many Books. But because thou art NEMO, thou
mayst safely invoke him, no matter of what Nature, within
thy Circle. Now then do thou confer on him as the Guer-
don of his Obedience the Dignity of a Soul seeking Incar-
nation, and so proceed to consecrate thine Act by per-
forming the Mass of the Holy Ghost. Then shalt that
Spirit make himself Body from those Elements, and thou
partaking thereof makest him one Body; his Machinery
of Manifestation. And thus mayst thou work with any
Spirit soever; yet this shall serve thee most in common
Life. Also, the Qualities are well defined in the Cards of
the Tarot, so that thou hast a clear-cut Means of develop-
ing thy Powers according to the Need of the Time. But
learn also this, to work constantly under the Guidance of
thine Holy Guardian Angel, so that thy Workings be
alway in Harmony and Accord with thy True Will.
With reference to the essential ‘knowing of the secret law of יהוה,
It wouldn’t be possible to dissimilate the whole nature of IHVH, suffice to say, Father, Mother, son, daughter, the symbology of all condensed is seen in Crowley’s Lovers Card;-
The Red Lion, The white Eagle et al.
However, during Cornelius’s (aft.Crowley) rite we imagine two interlocking triangles (As above, so below), the descending red triangle, and the ascending blue triangle, which are merged… via faith. The base line of the Blue Triangle being between Netzach-Hod, these are merged, the Son and Daughter. This from the Hermetic marriage of the Lower sephiroth in O.T.O. II° rite.
When this union is achieved the Descending red triangle, begins to merge and we hope (Faith) achieve that union with the Ascended blue Triangle.
This, Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-pa-kraat. Speech and Silence, and negated, as fire and water, we reach Heru-Ra-Ha, balance and equilibrium, Above and Below cojoined.
Hoorah ! we exclaim at the moment of Orgasm, though Cornelius would have us shout the word Hriliu ! from that well known language -Bathyllic,… don’t bother looking for it.
It may seem like my review is a deliberate attempt to refute and argue against anything Cornelius has written or believes, but it IS to challenge the perception of holier than thou, the idea of I AM right, one moment there is acknowledgement of subjective belief, the next, THIS IS THE WAY, one moment he will pick and choose between Greek, Egyptian Gods, and the next force our heads down to read the commandment, Thou shall have no other strange Gods.
He uses the western tradition qabalah, as if it is a Sacred Cow, aye, even the Golden Calf he assigns to all us Ignorant wayfarers as following, “The Devil is between Netzach and Tiphareth”, it is set in Stone, according to Cornelius. “Water~ Mem is between Hod and Geburah”, according to Cornelius.
Ingredi
The three mother letters;- Shin, Aleph and Mem are arranged across the Sephirahs that hold the pillars, they are the elemental and balancing Principles. Water as it flows downwards – Mem is between Hod and Netzach. Shin as it rise upwards~ Fire is between Binah and Chokmah and Aleph ~ As air is the mediating force is between Geburah and Chesed. The final elemental is the last of the Sevenths, That is the Rest, the path between Yesod and Malkuth – Tau and Completion to the manifest.
This is explicit and correlates with no ambiguity. But I guess Mother Letters play no part in a phallo-centred Desert jealous storm ‘god’ … The one and True in his own image.
Agredi
With only a few pages to go, Cornelius has started to grate on me, and this is what is wholly wrong with the OTO (even though he skulked off). Gatekeeping, arrogance, stubborn. I want to say the problem is that Thelema went over the pond, and that’s where it fell apart, the organisation that copyrights rather than bequeaths to the world its teachings, sorry, THE teachings. An organisation that dithers and then covets. I could explain much of these teachings but it would mean quoting rituals from the OTO, and they don’t like that sort of thing, so they call in their lawyers. The rituals are available on the dark web for anyone who can be bothered to peruse, OTO only access the Clearnet because its traceable and therefore sue-able.
But let us finish this damned piece of coprolite.
Cornelius says that Jnana (yep, shoehorning from another culture there) or Knowledge is found in Hod. Which rules our phallus.
Leaving our cock to one side for a moment.
Knowledge is found in Da’ath. It is the confluence of our Understanding (Binah) of Wisdom (Chokmah).
It is the discerning principle by which, as an individual we can cognize and discriminate. Chokmah, Wisdom Does NOT belong to us or derive from us or is born of us. We can only know it by reflection, that is Binah, the Mother, through which all is Born~realized and Dies ~ Judged. These are Primordial, and it is only through Da’ath that we have knowledge, the path of Truth and of knowing death. And we shall not die. ever.
Between Chokmah and Binah, we have an analogy, that the voice of God is discerned by the witness.
In the Qabalah that I ‘know, this Path (viz) is Shin~ Fire hence we could declare – the burning bush.
Shin is assigned to Judgement in the Tarot.
As we have crossed the threshold of Death, this is spiritual Judgement, by which we are are synonymous with Unbounded Conscioussness, in effect ‘we’ no longer exsist, at all, but are everything. Or, we, because there is differential, and dynamism that is at odds with this Original concept are essentially returned.
Whate’er upon this ultimate sacrifice the crown above our head is labelled INRI – All Nature is rejuvenated by Fire (Shin), and The Christ within God is IHSHVH (יהשוה) or Jesus, however, this is an entirely esoteric reasoning, not bound by the Hebrew name or certainly the Aramaic. These are the paths you follow when teachers give you keys and paths that entangle, and are more Cock and Bull than Cornelius’s Cock and BAlls,,, or are they one and the same ?
Now, returning to the Phallus. The Zohar explicitly calls Yesod brit and calls it the unifying link between the divine masculine and feminine aspects. Yesod is primarily known (in modern tradition )as Feminine because of its Lunar perception, but the Zohar calls it the principle between the MAsculine Tiphareth and the Shekinah at Malkuth.
(viz)
זִוּוּג זְעֵיר אַנְפִּין וְנוּקְבָא
Zivug Zeʿir Anpin ve-Nukva
“The union of Zeʿir Anpin and the Female,”
with Nukva normally referring to Malkhut / Shekhinah.
If we use our Understanding we are using our conception of Self, If we are non attached and a conduit we can receive Wisdom, but its not we receiving, it is wisdom manifesting of its own accord because we are not present. This is not taught and no degree or conferring of badges will promote that Understanding.
“Beware the beast man, for he is the Devil’s pawn. Alone among God’s primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed … Shun him, for he is the harbinger of death.”
Cornelius : Planet of the Apes
APPENDIX
The Divine Phallus.
The Phallus at Yesod
ΘΕΛΗΜΑ = 14+38+41 = 93
Grading System of Ordo Templi Orientis
ΘΕ — Hermit =14, goes solitary and gives his light to men.(י)
(Netzach~Tiphareth)~ 0°- iv°
ΛΗ — Lover =38,gives his life to the Work among men (ז)
(Geburah-Chokmah) ~ v°- vii°
ΜΑ — Man of Earth =41, The Adherent (פ)
(Hod-Geburah) ~ viii-xii°
Of Selected Books mentioned in General
Discourse on the worship of Priapus (1776)
Ancient Faiths Embodied in Ancient Names (1868)
Nature worship :Phallic Faiths (1890)
The Eucharist (1906) Georges Le Clement de Saint Marcq
Of Selected Thelemic ~ libers mentioned in General
Liber CCXXVIII De Natura Deorum
Liber de Nuptiis secretis, Deorum cum Hominibus (Liber XXiV)
Miscellanea
MABN — Hebrew מ אב נ / M-A-B-N, totalling 93.
Silence, Breathe, Going, generation.
Ma + Bn of Bann of the mother, son of the widow.
Also~ the hewn stone, the perfect Ashler and the CArved Stone מְאַבֵּן
Daughter of Fortitude 1587 Actio Tertia~ John Dee
I am the daughter of Fortitude, and ravished every hour from my youth. For behold I am Understanding and science dwelleth in me; and the heavens oppress me. They covet and desire me with infinite appetite; for none, or few, that are earthly have embraced me, for I am shadowed with the Circle of the Sun and covered with the morning clouds.
My feet are 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 understand me. I am deflowered, yet a virgin; I sanctify and am not sanctified. Happy is he that embraceth me: for in the night season I am sweet, and in the day full of pleasure.
My company is a harmony of many cymbals, and my lips sweeter than health itself. I am a harlot for such as ravish me, and a virgin with such as know me not. For lo, I am loved of many, and I am a lover to many; and as many as come unto me as they should do, have entertainment.
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; abstain from the company of other women that are defiled, that are sluttish, and not so handsome and beautiful as I, and then will I come and dwell amongst you: and behold, I will bring forth children unto you, and they shall be the Sons of Comfort.
I will open my garments, and stand naked before you, that your love may be more enflamed toward me.
As yet, I walk in the clouds; as yet, I am carried with the winds, and cannot descend unto you for the multitude of your abominations, and the filthy loathsomeness of your dwelling places.
Behold these four: who is he that shall say they have sinned, or unto whom shall they make account? Not unto you, ye sons of men, nor unto your children: for unto the Lord belongeth the judgment of his servants.
Now therefore, let the earth give forth her fruit unto you, and let the mountains forsake their barrenness where your footsteps shall remain. Happy is he that saluteth you, and cursed is he that holdeth up his hands against you; and power shall be given unto you from henceforth to resist your enemies, and the Lord shall always hear you in the times of your troubles. And I am sent unto you to play the harlot with you, and am to enrich you with the spoils of other men.
Prepare for me, for I come shortly. Provide your chambers for me, that they may be sweet and cleanly; for I will make a dwelling-place amongst you: and I will be common with the father and the son, yea, and with all them that truly favoureth you: for my youth is in her flower, and my strength is not to be extinguished with man. Strong am I above and below; therefore, provide for me: for behold, I now salute you, and let peace be amongst you; for I am the Daughter of Comfort. Disclose not my secrets unto women, neither let them understand how sweet I am, for all things belongeth not to every one. I come unto you again.
Of ‘An improvement On Psycho Analysis’
P.60 & P137
Psychoanalysis, the investigation of the nature of the mind, is an old diversion. But science—if it really be science—found a new method for such analytical parlour games. By the reactions of a man to various impressions, through the nerves, are measured. The quickening of his pulse, when the professor suddenly shouts the word “Murder!” to him; the depressed expression when he whispers the words “income tax”; all these can now be weighed in the scales of science.
After a laborious research of months the whole nature of the soul is laid bare, and the reasons for a preference for Cherrystones over Little Neck clams, unmasked. Even the charms of a man’s dreams are supposed to be brought to reveal his hidden nature. Professor Freud of Vienna is the best known of those who have been developing this line of study, but recently Professor Jung of Zurich has challenged his teaching and his supremacy alike with a book called “Psychology of the Unconscious” (Moffat, Yard & Co.).
There is, in short, a split in the psychoanalysis camp. This essay will give in outline the main doctrine of psychoanalysis, and explain the nature of the quarrel between Freud and Jung. The subject is quite a fascinating one, and will probably be discussed at every dinner table during the coming social season. Our grandmothers, before we had finished teaching them to extract nutriment from owls (by suction), were wont to spend the hours of night lights with disdains—or rather, with their works. They would interpret their own dreams by the air of a variety of theological works. “This moon was change tout cela.” Today our grandmothers dance the hula hula at Montmartre, or at the Castles in the Air, until the dawn breaks, and they now interpret their dreams by the aid of Professor Freud or Professor Jung, for Joseph and his ilk have been tried and found wanting. Psychoanalysis has been but ill understood by the average man. Most of us, however, will acquiesce in the necessity for an enquiry into the cause of dreams—and of the poet’s dreams, dreams which are in reality the myths of a race. For all effects have psychic or hidden causes. The Victorian age was distinguished by its mechanical interpretation of all phenomena. Not only did it destroy our ideas of the divine nature of the soul, but it would not even permit us to be human. A live man only differed from a dead one as a machine in motion does from one at rest. The only exception to this analogy was that we did not know how to account for a man that happened to have stopped. Dreams, therefore, were regarded as undigested thoughts. I made a small research of my own in this matter, recording the dreams of a month.
All but two of some fifty of my dreams were clearly connected, either with the events of the previous day, or with the conditions of the moment. Rainfall on my face would start a dream of some adventure by water, for example. Or a battle royal with a man at chess would fight itself all over again, with fantastic additions, in the overtired and overexcited brain.
I am bound to say that the theory that dreams come from natural causes in our everyday life seems to me perfectly adequate and satisfactory.
I conceive of the brain as an édition de luxe of the vast cylinder of a dictograph. I imagine that disturbances of our blood currents (intoxications, or the like) reawaken some of these impressions at random, with the same result, more or less, as if you started a victrola, and kept on jerking it irregularly.
Our thoughts are normally criticized and controlled by reason and reflection and will; when these are in abeyance they run riot, combine in monstrous conspiracies, weave wizard dances.
Delirium is but exaggerated nightmare. But since the Victorians, the universe is conceived more as dynamic than kinematic, more as force than as motion; and the will has at last become all important to philosophy. We ought not to be surprised to learn that Dr. Jung of Zürich balked at some of Freud’s conclusions. Instead of relating will to sex, he related sex to will. Thus, all unconsciously, he has paved the way for a revival of the old magical idea of the will as the dynamic aspect of the self.
Each individual, according to the initiates, has his own definite purpose, and assumes human form, with its privileges and penalties, in order to execute that purpose. This truth is expressed in magical language by the phrase “Every man and every woman is a star,” which stands at the head of all their writings “Liber Legis.” It follows that “The word of Sin is Restriction”; “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.” So, once more, we see Science gracefully bowing her maiden brows before her old father, Magic.
Dr. Jung has, however, not reached this high point in conscious thought. But he sees clearly enough the neuroses and insanities spring from repressions, from internal conflicts between desire and inhibition; and he does apparently accept fully the definition of “libido” as Will, in the magical sense. Bergson’s “élan vital” is very much the same, if a shallower conception.
At any rate, let us rejoice that the tedious and stupid attempt to relate every human idea to sex has been relegated to oblivion; or, if you prefer to put it that way, that we must now interpret sex in vaster symbols, comprehending and achieving the ancient and modern worship of Pan as embracing the universe more adequately than almost any other conception.
The charge of anthropomorphism still lies; but this is necessary. “God is man”—the third and secret motto of the Knights of the Temple—is, after all, for humanity at least, a proposition of identity, and relative only in so far as all Truth is relative. The main practical issue of Jung’s acquiescence in the magical theory is, as explained above, his interpretation of myths. The myth is the dream of the race. He sees that Freud cannot sustain his thesis that every dream is a picture of unfulfilled desire; but he seeks to prove that the great myths of the race, being really the poems of the race, are the artists’ and religious expression of the will of the race. For the will of the world becomes articulate in the true poet, and he is the incarnation of the spirit of the times (“the Zeitgeist”). He was of old limited by the frontiers of his own civilization and time, but today his footstool is the planet, and he thinks in terms of eternity and of infinite space.
Now Jung’s great work has been to analyze the race myths, and to find in them the expression of the unconscious longings of humanity. We cannot think that he has been particularly happy in selecting wooden, academic exercises like “Hiawatha,” which has as much inspiration as the Greek iambics of a fourth form boy in a fourth rate school; and he is still obsessed by the method and also by the main ideas of Freud. Much of his analysis is startling, and at first sight ridiculous.
Can we close our eyes to the perpetual contradictions in his alleged symbolism? Jung regards a serpent on a monument as desire, or the obstacle to desire, or the presence of desire, or the absence of desire, just as suits his purpose.
There is no consistency in the argument, and there is no serious attempt to bring all cognate symbols into parallel. He brings many, it is true—but he omits certain important ones, so that one is bound to suspect that all his omissions are intentional! However, the main point of this paper is to illustrate the prime line of reasoning adopted by Jung. This understood, the reader can ferret out his own explanations for his own dreams, desires and myths! Jung is a determinist. The Victorians—especially Herbert Spencer—denying “free will,” would argue that a man ate an egg not because he wanted to do so, but because of the history of the universe.
The forces of infinity and eternity bent themselves in one herculean effort, and pushed the egg into his mouth! This is quite undeniable; but it is only one way of looking at the egg question.
Now Jung treats literature in just this way. He will not admit that an author has any choice of material. If Rupert of Hentzau wounds somebody in the shoulder, it is because of the story of Pelops and Hera, in which the shoulder is a sexual symbol. If the other man ripostes and touches Rupert in the ear, it is because Pantagruel was born from the ear of Gargamelle. So the ear is a sexual symbol. If the hero of a novel goes from Liverpool to New York, it is the myth of “the night journey by sea of the sun.” If he goes from Brooklyn, it is descent into Hades or Virgil, or Dante, or anybody else!
There is no evasion of this type of argument; but all arguments that prove everything prove nothing. If I prove that some cats are green, it is interesting; but if I go on to show that all cats are green, I destroy myself. “Greenness” becomes included implicitly in the idea of “cat.” It is senseless to say that “all bipeds have two legs.” However, Dr. Jung does not mind this at all. He definitely wishes to reduce the universe of will, which we think so complex and amusing, to a single crude symbol. According to him, the history of humanity is the struggle of the child to free itself from the mother. Every alley needs to be the mother; hunger and fatigue find solace at her breast. Even the final “will to die,” the desire of the supreme and eternal repose, is interpreted as the return to earth, the mother of us all.
It will occur to the reader that there is much in this; for instance, the myth or religion of the race tends to disappear with its emancipation from the mother and family system. But we cannot conquer one’s revolt against what seems the essential absurdity of the whole Jung argument; that, considering—let us say—the importance of the horse to man, with so many horses to choose from, Jung can see nothing in a story of a man on horseback but a reference to the “symbol of the stamping horse,” which has something to do with the dreams of one of his neurotic patients on the one hand, and the mythical horse in the Rig Veda on the other!
We almost prefer the refinement of modesty evidenced by the young lady who always blushed when she saw the number “six”—because she knew Latin!
However, we should all study Jung.
His final conclusions are in the main correct, even if his rough working is a bit sketchy; and we have got to study him, whether we like it or not, for he will soon be recognized as the undoubted Autocrat of the 1917 dinner table. Just ask your pretty neighbor at dinner tonight whether she has introverted her Electra complex; because it will surely become one of the fashionable conversational gambits of the coming social season!
Minerva 0°
[Verse]
Beneath a tent o’ midnight blue, where one lone taper burned,
There come at dusk a guarded wight, bewildered, sore forlorn.
Before the stone lay bread an’ salt, a sword, the Book beside,
An’ Saladin upon his seat did watch him, keen-eyed, wide.
“Who be this wight that treads beneath the heavens o’ my sky,
An’ what be seekin’ here, good sir, wi’ neither kin nor kye?”
“An exile, lord, I be,” quoth he, “a-seekin’ truth an’ light,
Wi’ neither hate within my breast, nor fear o’ mortal wight.”
[Chorus]
ON! Bread an’ salt, an’ flaming blade,
Hold fast thy word, be naught afraid;
By Love an’ Will, through dark till morn,
The hid road winds where none be worn. ON!
[Verse]
He spake his name, he swore his oath beneath the starry night,
An’ vowed to keep the elder words though men should bar his right.
The bonds fell slack, the hood was drawn, the stranger took his breath,
An’ welcomed as a brother-man, he found a bench o’ rest.
“Lo, here be Law,” the chieftain spake, “now seek what lieth in;
For he that would behold the sun must first look through the skin.”
[Chorus]
ON! Bread an’ salt, an’ flaming blade,
Hold fast thy word, be naught afraid;
By Love an’ Will, through dark till morn,
The hid road winds where none be worn. ON!
[Verse]
Twelve wayfarers met beneath the moon, each sworn to stand as one,
Wi’ sword at side an’ dust on boot from many a road they’d run.
They learned that freedom bears a yoke, not wrought for fear nor shame,
But fashioned strong as ox-bone sinew, guiding hand an’ aim.
Then meat was set afore the dawn, an’ ale was raised on high—
“For Love be Law beneath the Will, an’ Freedom be our cry!”
[Chorus]
ON! Bread an’ salt, an’ flaming blade,
Hold fast thy word, be naught afraid;
By Love an’ Will, through dark till morn,
The hid road winds where none be worn. ON!
(Taken From’Fuck The O.T.O. by Creepy Carrie ” )
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