ZNUZ IS ZNEES, Excerpt from vol. I

MEMOIRS OF A MAGICIAN

EDITED & REVISED

By C.F. Russell

I

The Magical Commentaries

From Volume I:

``Therion''

In 1917 I bought a copy of Vierick's ``International'' & was

intrigued by a series of articles: The Revival of Magick.

From their author I secured several books along this line,

and in June, 1918, on my birthday, I saw him at his

apartment, then on West 9th St. in New York City. He

answered my knock with a hypnotic stare, and made an

appointment for lunch. I remained most of the day; we took

an astral journey together, and in the evening he and some

others, including ...A and his wife, ...IWDWIC initiated me

into the IIIo of O.T.O., a synthetic society which gives the

gist of Freemasonry and more in Eleven Degrees, the rest of

which I acquired later. Appropriately enough, there was a

total eclipse of the Sun that day. Returning to N.Y. in the

Fall, had further experiences with A.C. One eve before going

to a party given by Mme. G., I visited his new apartment on

the south side of Washington Square, where he lived with the

``Dead Soul'', to pick up his latest book, and make the

decision (after a Tarot seance) to go to Detroit to help

...A organize a group of higher Masons. Successful in this

[see Vol. II], at the end of 1920, I joined the Wizard in

Sicaly to study and do secretarial work. Documentary

evidence, if C or Y or is it Symonds, will ever let loose of

it, exists of my sorjourn which I would like to see first,

mostly to refute and debunk, so that I will not waste time

discussing distortions here. Not worth while to set matters

straight, at least not while some persons who might be

involved have not been as yet consulted to see how they

would react to revelations I might make. After all, I am no

cad or muckraker, there has been enough of that! Here I will

be content simply to dispel the illusion held by this man

and his disciples that he was ``The Beast.'' In this he was

never sincere except in a psychopathic manner until later he

became addicted to drugs and lost capacity to overcome this

obsession. The real Beast is Sorath, the Sun Demon (spelled

Samech, Vau, Resh, Tau), described by John in

``Revelations.'' Crowley's complex was a feeble imitation of

the genuine, unless we have to admit that coming events cast

their light before them. Evil as he was, his game was

childish play in ace of what mankind in centuries to come

has to endure. A.C. was a poet, litterateur, and Adept

enough to gather earnest disciples of yoga, magic, and

occultism. He failed because of disloyalty to his friends,

and through his whole performance runs a thread of quackery

which can be uncovered by logic and honest, unbiased

research. I retired from the Outer College, and ceased to

promote his work over 30 years ago, although in view of the

fact that Light must have Darkness as a foil, I can still

find use for his masterpiece, Liber Legis, which he wrote as

directed by ...Aiwaz in 1904. [See Vol. II] Lapses of memory

about this are due to his having taken a large dose of

anhalonium at the time. Sufficit, Perdurabl, et longum

probitas perdurat in aevum. (Ovid, Med. Fac. 49).

``Collectanea''

In Provenance (1944) and its Continuation, I have cataloged

and analyzed my book collecting in a way never done before.

I still have some 35 out of the first 315 numbered items &

selections from Chapter VI. Other inanimate objects were

acquired such as Stamps, Coins, Knives, Firearms and Radios,

the bulk of which are long gone, since I couldn't take them

with me; value of pieces intrinsically was minimal - maximal

was acquired ability and know how to get what I need or

want.

Contributions to the Great Work (defined elsewhere) consist

of what improvements I could make on efforts of

predecessors, plus methods of my own discovery or invention

to educate thinking, feeling, and willing - all these are

suitable for study and practice by any person with

sufficient interest and enough intelligence. In my works,

the mathematician finds new Algorithms and Viewpoints

hitherto unknown - see Chapter VII and Bibliography - e.g.,

I was the first to enumerate permutations and combinations

and develop the corresponding Arithmetic, codify the cubic

components, construct an electrical engine to solve

syllogisms (predating all other attempts), reduce the

centuries-old A Fortiori Argument to a perfect three-termed

syllogism (Barbara Cubed, April, 1944), and so on! My books

must now speak for themselves - I am retired!

For the curious, I recommend highly The Complete Magick

Curriculum of the Secret Order, G...B...G (Llewellen

Publications, P.O. Box 3383, St. Paul, MN 55101 - $10.00, or

your favorite book seller) by an ex-pupil, Louis T. Culling,

who has full responsibility for its contents - I did not

proof reed this pregnant volume - they thought I was dead.

However, certain contextual errors are O.K., e.g., (1)

meaning of the letters as on title page is not correct -

leave it that way!; (2) Page 17, oath as stated is wrong; to

have given it as it truly is would be to violate it. Credit

Louis for using discretion; (3) Page 5, ``Russell went up on

`The Rock' for food or water. Jane W---- took food and water

to Russell and brought him down.'' I cannot endorse this

mistake which conflicts with John Symond's account (the

Symonds of Chapter VI), both in his Great Beast, and also in

his edition of the Confessions (Hill & Wang, 1st American

Ed, February, 1970). In neither case am I mentioned by my

right name, either magical or otherwise - so why did Louis

have to identify me? I will deal with this garbled tale in

my chapter on `The Rock.' The Beauty who came calling in the

moonlight was not named ``Jane,'' nor did she bring me down.

Having finish my self-appointed task in eight days as

planned, I returned to the Abbey, voluntarily, took up where

I had left off and commingled other chores with passing a

test for a higher grade - dig infra!; (4) Page 69, ssq, here

Louis must have mixed up his ``Opera'' with his ``One

iron'', or perhaps confused Q with Omega, a typographical

error? In two books (Louis never got the final editions), I

explained the Jack and Jill Formula: J-J deals with Alpha &

Diana, Book E is on Omega, but ``Q'' is something else, not

found in Heavenly Bridegrooms (N.Y., 1918), edited by Dr.

Theodore Schroeder, nor in any other thing by ``Ida

C[raddock]'', nor in anything authored by Aleister Crowley,

published or not, nor in any of my own writings, public or

private. WAW's Essay on #43 in my Book CHAM (2nd Edition,

June, 1976) goes no farther than Substance of J-J & E, omits

their Technic and does not discuss ``Q''. Need I say More?;

(5) Page 53, Louis gives Chapter I of Liber Al vel Legis

with some of his own comment. Revised exegesis by Crowley,

himself, fills a volume of 224 single-spaced typewritten

pages, plus index - please permit me a word or two. Therion

admits that Liber Trigrammaton is unsatisfactory solution of

II, 55, but in latest editions of my Book Y (See also CHAM),

I have out the correct 27 attributions - i.e., the ``order

and value of the English Alphabet.'' In another instruction,

I explained II, 76!; (6) Page 105 - Since we parted company

circa 1936, Culling, of course was n'au courant pas my books

G-W and B-W (See Page 97 of Provenance) & CHAM, 1st edition,

never published before April 1940. Other errata are less

important, some omission, perhaps reserved for later, e.g.,

no mention of such effectual occult exercises as P-W.

Finally - except for incompleteness and obsolescence, the

``Curriculum'' has merit - read it, shows a heap of hard

work, utmost sincerity and loyalty! How could I possibly put

down (Page 2):

``Well the Frater ...Genesthai, C.F. Russell, as a teacher

in Practicing Magick, was, without question, the greatest

genius of this Century, or several past centuries that I

have been able to trace.''

``Lay''

Exegete recension on the important I, 51 about entering and

standing on the floor of the Palace (see my Siao Shu Jun

Koong, June, 1955), stresses what succeeds ``therefore'',

endeavoring to explain the text with ten single-spaced pages

of Anti-Christian triage and advocacy of the Scribe's

personal, sacred fetishism and without dealing specifically

with the ``means and means'' marked by the minister of Hoor-

Paar-Kraat, except actually to ``confound the space-marks''

here and in the seventeen page explanation of next verse, I,

52, threatening ``direful judgments'', Ra-Hoor-Khuit has for

those who do that very thing! Scholarship demands the whole

context, which since it runs on the same theme through 224

pages, can't be reproduced here, ``therefore'' study Q for

further enlightenment - obviously ``Aiwass'' was not about

to shed Light on Q, provided He could!

Truth is best served by a twelve-fold survey of the subject,

or a succinct summation - poetic license oft can hinder more

than help, but on one has yet ascribed accurately all human

activities to the Signs of the Zodiac, although a big step

has been made by Dr. Rudolf Steiner in his four lectures in

Berlin - 20 to 23 January, 1914, on Human and Cosmic

Thought, q.v., and Dr. Eugen Kolisko, M.D., in Three

Fundamental Problems; no room here except for suggestions,

their solutions of continuity supplying shocks to surprise

scholastic recidivivism reincarnated among us. Shortness of

breath puts period here.

``For brevity is very good, when w'are or are not

understood''

Butler, Hudibras, Canto I, line 669.

No question about consecration in the Ritual (I, 65);

Crowley's 17 page lectures on his favorite topic is as good

as elsewhere, but no gloss on ``space-marks;'' verily these

may be the wounds to terrorize the Old Aeonities - gaps to

clot rather than thresholds to cross from the Age of Gabriel

to that of Michael.

Form must agree with Substance (Page 97) - see also Intro to

Book CHAM (2nd ed.), page xiii - ``CHHING LOI JU YUN''; in

this new epoch, our job is to do wide-awake what hitherto

was done well only when self-conscious - asleep, did not

interfere. On Page 120 of The Great Beast, John Symonds

touts Chapter 36 of the Book of Lies ... (falsely called

BREAKS) as ``inadvertent'' disclosure urging Theodore Reuss

to induce Crowley to join O.T.O. But beyond secret

instructions, this is not A.C.'s most explicit - to wit, the

Apep Rite in Vol. I, No. 7 of The Equinox (March, 1912).

Anticipating what may appear elsewhere, note that the ``Star

Ruby'' is clear and candid, as I have annotated it, whereas

the ``Star Sapphire'', although analeptic, is ambiguous! In

conjunction with the printed evidence, Symonds had enough

documentary to untangle twisted chronology (page 113,

supra); anyway, we praise him for the ne plus ultra

exposition referred to above, and later on in 1958 in The

Magic of Aleister Crowley, page 96 ssq, where the informed

public, sympathetic or not, fairly, further can judge and

not quibble about who, when, and where, which needlessly

cloud characin character of the what, plainly and

penetratingly permeating the Paris Working, ably outlined in

the bewitching prose of John Symonds. The Latin invocations

of Hermes (Mercury), and Zeus (Jupiter) are available, if

you enjoy mumbo jumbo as O.S.V. and L.T. did, but less

pompously you might prefer - [follows two pages of purely

personal poetry, not here reproduced - see Part II].

``Arcana''

Ordinary invective is emotionally clothed argumentum ad

hominem, the losing disputant's resort. Adequate refutation

must deal with the whole context, point by point, occupies

much space and time, is tedious, dull and usurps more energy

than subject deserves. Extraordinary abuse is rational

invention of vituperation, often profane and obscene, to

test the victim's Znuz. III, 59: ``As brothers fight ye!'';

II, 59-60: ``Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a

King concealed! Say you so? Fool! If he be a King, thou

canst not hurt him. Therefore! strike hard and low, and to

hell with them, Master!'' This wise procedure is adopted by

Fraternities in initiatory Rites and by psychiatrists in

group therapy. As the great Harry Truman said: ``If you

can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen!'' Maturity

will treat insults for what they strictly are - declarations

of love! Love is a form of insanity - to be in love is an

ordeal of Initiation! Symonds (Page 194 of The Great Beast):

``The Confessions, or Autohagiography, of Aleister Crowley,

written with an eye to publication, only skims the surface

of his deeds and thoughts; there the story of The Beast

seems a mere shadow-play compared with the full tide of his

priapic cries in The Magical Record.''

I ought to know, having copies them all up to date as part

of my job as his secretary! Add to that the Diaries of

others concerned, and autograph in Liber Legis given me on

leaving the Abbey, and mutual correspondence after my return

to the U.S. (in one letter, he tried to get me to spy on

Jones) (in another, he wanted me to finance reprinting

Snowdrops), and the high praise in the same text with the

accusations, and you will get a synthetic viewpoint from

which to realize that whatever scolding exists vents and

hides the agony of a grief-stricken lover. To me it was and

is no big deal; the small part of my life meshed with A.C.,

though larger and later than the fifth year episode (page

23) did not ruin me in any way and taught me a lot! Please

allow my own allusions, conducive to a broader perspective,

the same license advocated in his II, 60 and don't ``make a

great miss'' (II, 27) about the provocation! On the wall

above the wide bed on the floor of the Couchemar was a small

plaque engraved with six words, the initial letter of the

fourth was variable, it could be an N or an H:

``ALYS CUSACK IS -to at HOME!''

Unfortunately for her, she was not my type; for me there was

never the physical fascination presumably evoked in Alain

Lutily and Fra. ...L.T., who in time outgrew it.

As to Chess, although I did adhere to the prescribed

curriculum (in Provenance Continuation indeed you see many

items acquired later, until I discovered the great secret of

Chess which is simply this: for every move of your opponent,

make the correct adjustment, defensive or offensive, as the

case may be. In games now, I always take Black, which forces

the other to cut bait and fish, or else stew in his own

juice, depending on his Virtue) even then to beat Crowley, I

did not need to study outmoded textbooks (full of

misprints)! In practice, when about to lose he had the habit

of tipping over the board, or else The Great Wild Beast

would stand up suddenly without a word of apology, and stalk

of to perform pressing business in another place - more

often than not the pharmaceutical shelf. Kipling's masterful

exposition in Stalky & Co of sportsmanship would not claim

its most conspicuous champion here. Pari passu recall his

ruthlessness in playing the version of Fives called

``Thelema;'' the words used in scoring were easy to

remember, as well as shocking - but there was no referee!

Once upon a time, showing off the power of his memory and

imagination, he played with me a game of chess blindfolded,

pulling the covers up over his head while I sat at the desk

in the corner telling the moves as we made them. My mistake

was in not recording them! In the end game, respective

positions did not match; he said it was my fault for stating

some move wrongly - so the game was called off. By

continuing it, he would have been mated in short order!

Later on, while making-up the bed (one of my chores as a

Chela), lo and behold, under his pillow (How could he be so

stupid as to leave it there?) a miniature, portable chess

set, peg-pieces and all! On Page 875 of the Confessions, he

writes: ``unless one played to win, there was no point in

playing at all,'' but my notion of winning did not justify

cheating!

Chronology of the ``Rock Retirement'' is tangled in the

published books: compare page 872 of the Confessions, with

page 175 of the Great Beast by Symonds. On his way to swim,

carrying a towel and a cane, unusual - perhaps he forgot I

was not a coolie - he issued his ultimatum. But the ``turnip

with blood-shot eyes'' (I love you too!) was not ``out of

the room by six o'clock'' nor ``By six o'clock was he in his

new quarters.'' Symonds correctly says: ``The Beast came

back from his swim, and finding Fiat Lux (not my magical

name, so who can say, except L.T.C., that this jumbled

jarvel belongs to me?) still adamant, retired to his room to

ponder on the situation.'' The anecdotes are adventitiously

adorned; the unvarnished truth is strange enough and more

sensational than any tea table talk!

Similar appraisal applies to remarks about the Cocaine

Experiment (Page 871 of Confessions; page 163 of The Great

Beast). ``The naval surgeons managed to save his life.''

Nonsense! There was only one, my friend, Dr. P. (who refused

to accept the manufactured evidence of an iodine spot on my

right arm, but kindly consented to cooperate by signing me

to the hospital - he did nothing else, not even to make an

injection of morphine, where I had a ball with the nurses in

an isolation ward waiting for my discharge, which was the

purpose of the whole scheme.) The war was over; as was my

custom, I had reached the top grade I could get in the

foreseeable future, I had served my country well - out of

the hundreds of flu patients in my charge, I lost only one.

I labored hard while my superiors slept, my preparation of

cod-liver-oil emulsion was so good that every examinee

copped some to put out as his own - not the category for any

more, but handled some tasks efficiently which others

avoided and got the credit of being the venereal victims'

best friend! It was not easy to offset my most excellent

reputation and unimpeachable character, so I had to cook up

something weird and against my known grain to make me

undesirable, so I could get out. One week after the

Armistice was declared I made it! Don't confide your

intrigues, even to close friends, they often change the

attitude towards you when it suits them - even a Master is

not always to be trusted! But some did tacitly acquiesce -

the Admiral sympathized and went along. Crowley says (page

871 of the Confessions): ``His experiment, if intended to

escape notice, failed.'' Do I read here that even he had a

faint inkling of the truth?

Now, regarding the Rock, I will not polish up my Record

(which I have) as did ``John St. John'' (Vol I, No. 1 of The

Equinox), nor asterisk gaps my poetical genius can't

fill.Note the consistency of that decoy (Page 840 of the

Confessions):

``The meditation of this afternoon resulted in an Initiation

so stupendous that I dare not hint at its Word. It is the

supreme secret of a Magus, and it is so awful that I tremble

even now - two hours later, and more - 2:20 P.M. was the

time - as I write concerning it. In a single instant, I had

the Key to the whole Chinese [After years of practice with

the Yi King, he did not know the secret of that - see 2nd

ed. of my Book CHAM] Wisdom. In the light - momentary

glimpse as it was - of this truth, all systems of religion

and philosophy become absolutely puerile - The secret comes

along the Path of Aleph to Chokmah. I could write it plainly

in a few words of one syllable, and most people would not

even notice it ...''

There is more, but I think you will get the point!

I found the secret of Thelema and hinted at it in one volume

of my diary - but he did not catch on, or he would not have

been pleased - see below about Jones. Also, reflect on the

Chapter The Ipsissimus, The Great Beast, Page 165:

``I swore to keep silence, so long as I live, about the fact

of my attainment.''

That's why he recorded the details? Else you might miss the

point?! Horse shit! Again, in his essay, The Psychology of

Hashish (reprinted by Regardie in Roll Away the Stone):

``I sat up all one night embodying the essence of my

knowledge in this.''

Here, as elsewhere, he interprets transcendental trances,

but in purely intellectual terms, by no means inspired, and

not very scholarly at that! Crowley's acquaintance with

Samadhi and up seems to be on a par with his comprehension

of the nature of Cannabis, in fact, poisonous and peculiarly

effective because prematurely developed.

Part I of Book 4 and Eight Lectures on Yoga are built up

from the whole cloth of hearsay, and do not reach the heart

of even that subject! My summary that Magick was a peg on

which to hang his authoring, is well considered. Combination

of magical and literary talents in the same person is rare

but not impossible. Science knows how the investigative

instrument can distort any discovery; we can thank those

like Houdini and John Scarne who do their utmost to expose

charlatanry and self-deception which would deceive the

world. Authentic Spiritual Science Itself has built-in

safeguards; if you are there you get there by the right

Path, and you can make no error, and will be careful to

communicate what you learn! Widespread won't to cross the

Threshold with out facing-up to the Guardian is responsible

mostly for Occultism's bad repute. Emphasize that if you

ignore the Guardian, you don't know yourself! Like a lot of

works of Nietzsche, and W.W., most of A.C.'s were written by

the Devil. Everyone who enters the Path must be Tempted; not

all overcome!

Achad (Jones) was a favorite and most faithful disciple, his

``son'' for who he wrote Liber Aleph (he wrote Liber Samekh

for Progradior, Bennett) - for me he wrote an inscription in

my copy of the Bagh-I-Muattar! At first he obtained results

which supported A.C.s claim of supernaturalness of the

``Book of the Law'' and was welcomed to the Grade of Master

of the Temple. Later, with the same qabalistic keys, he

transcended that stage to open the door wider than A.C.

wanted it. Therion showed me communications from Jones:

``Do you know him better than I do, what do you think of

this?''

wanting me to agree that Achad had flipped his lid. My

honest judgment was that both had blown their tops!

Accepting the rebuff with good grade, Jones slowed his pace,

so as not to outrun the Leader, but put hit keen mind to

work on the foundations, and this was the beginning of the

end of a beautiful partnership. Something similar happened

to me, and explains paragraph on page 874 of the

Constitution. Commenting something in one of my diaries, he

wrote:

``This is remarkable as revealing knowledge belonging to the

most exalted Grade''.

yet coming down to what demands less depth of acuity, but

might become public, he would with mock humility write:

``Even after he had regained sanity in most matters, he

clung to the conviction that his adventure on the Rock had

initiated him to a Grade far superior to mine. I should, of

course, have been only too glad if this had happened. The

decaying debris of my Oedipus complex still stinks,which

stink being interpreted may have rendered in English, `How I

with I had someone to go to, a man like myself, not an

Angel, whose humanity would understand and sympathize with

my weakness and weariness, and on whose shoulders I might

shift at least a little of the responsibility which is

breaking my back' ''!

This was written not after the fact, but rather in

anticipation, for never did I declare any such conviction.

Best to eradicate competition before it stars by

discrediting it reductio ad absurdam. But polemics prove

nothing; I offer all this merely as food for thought. Adepts

do not debate teach other in public (or in private) about

their respective attainments! The layman would be justified

in crying: ``A pox on both your houses''! My compulsion is

simply to rub grains of salt in the wounds made in the

Beautiful Body of Truth by which you may meet here or there.

The proof of my own pudding, if you can eat and digest it,

will be whether or not it can fortify your body, soul, and

spirit, and help you accomplish The Great Work. It is my

opinion that the only chapters of this attempt of Memoirs

with any permanent worth at all are VII and XV (so far!) If

the rest is bait,then in swallowing the husk you may get

hooked on the fruit!

Misit in ignotam qui rude semem humum (Ov.Tr.3,8)