> bobo wrote:
>>> they are from Liber Aleph, by Crowley. I enjoyed that more
>>> than all others of his works save his "Book of Thoth".
>>> Joseph's been posting them in sprinklings, and i hadn't
>>> checked for any patterns, precisely. :) I wasn't even sure
>>> they were from Aleph, but i confirmed it here:
>>>
http://www.hermetic.com/crowley/aleph/tbwf1.html>
> Joseph Littleshoes
isp.com>:
>>>The kernel of wisdom buried in the magnificent prose that strikes me
>>most forcibly is the idea of letting the child express itself
>
> and then afterwards disowning or denying the child's authority?
> Crowley did this to his "Magical Child" Frater Achad merely,
> if stories be believed, because the latter had deigned to
> turn the Tree of Life on its head (admirable, i say!).
Some people have parents in name only. Their parents are so far from
benevolent given that they are struggling to emerge from the chaos
within and without themselves that they are seem more like stereotypes
to a child who can still see the merits of other humans and wish they
were their parents - and I speak of both maternal and paternal parents
here.
I think Crowleys parents were .... shall we just say - not the best
material? And the man - however brillient and inspired struggled
throughout his life to understand and adopt the sort of parentage
attitiude to others that he would have wished for himself. He was not
a particularly old man when he adopted Frater Achad, and I think he
did what he sensed his parents had did to him - and that is to abandon
them in the hope that it would make them stronger. Perhaps that was
the best and only thing that his parents could give him - and he
arrived at his indominateable and sometimes scarey behaviour towards
his friends and fraters because he had to survive on his own - this
strange unworldy poetic figure of a man...
However - The above does not mean that there is nothing of worth in
Crowleys Picture of the child expressing itself - only that his
interpretation was skwed and somewhat more unkind that is necessary.
We do have to remember that Victorian England promoted and praised
this attitude amongst presbiterian parents and whilst Crowley battled
against his inner demons he was also ruled by them too. An awareness
of ones inclinations can not always lead to their transformation
without outside help, and I do not think Crowley .... could ever
submit himself to the will of another even if it was an entirely
benevolent will that only sought to teach him what any parent would
teach them - and it's ironic that it's probably only by accepting this
that he could progress in the great work to the level he aspired to.
Without it he paid the price of egomania, and was not fit for anything
more than to be reborn.
>>and any fundamental orientation it may have before a
>>superstructure is imposed on that child.
>
> that's a style of "loose" parenting. one might say that
> the "Tough Love" movement runs counter to this theme.
>
>>Then any superstructure may be tailored to that child's
>>own expression of itself rather than trying to impose
>>a standard on the child.
>
> oh sure, the elder generation is going to refashion
> their whole universe around their children? doubtful.
>
>>Reading between the lines it is possible to construe
>>Crowley's meaning to suggest that, for what ever
>>reason, some people are born more animalistic and
>>are more problematical in their socialization.
>
> that temperament varies is certainly true, and one
> child seems to fare better from slight discipline
> or from harsh standards than another of different
> character. the level of harshness brought to bear
> upon me in my family served to destroy the integrity
> of the whole, dividing it as surely as death. some
> children have no tolerance for violence, even as it
> may be brought to the service of "a greater good"
> (to bring in a theme from the Harry Potter series
> which i just finished).
>
> "Joseph Littleshoes"
isp.com> quotes Crowley's
> "Liber Agape":
>>>>>>Ai
>>>>>DE LIBERATATE IUVENUM
>
>>>>>O thou that art the Child of mine own Bowels, how shall I write to thee
>>>>>concerning Children? For herein is the Gordian Knot in our whole Rope of
>>>>>Wisdom, and it may not be severed by Sword, no, not of a Greater than
>>>>>Alexander the Two-Horned. And it is a Balance like that of the Egg, and
>>>>>the Violence of a Columbus will but crack the tender Shell which we must
>>>>>first of all preserve.
>
>>>>>Now Sentinel to this Fortress standeth a certain Paradox of general
>>>>>Application, and in this large Order I will declare it, so that its
>>>>>particular Sense may enlighten thee hereafter. And this is the Paradox,
>>>>>that there are Bonds which lead to Slavery, and Bonds which lead to
>>>>>Freedom.
>
> note here that the Bonds mentioned only pertain to the condition of
> the child, possibly the parents, but nothing about their relation.
>
>>>>> Â Â Â Â Â All we are bound in many Fetters by Environment, and it is for
>>>>>ourselves in great Part to determine whether they shall enslave us or
>>>>>emancipate us. And I will make clear this Thesis to thee by the Way of
>>>>>Illustration.
>
> this sets the stage of a "liberation" of the child through the
> artifice of repudiation. we might wonder whether the parent,
> and in this case the father, sought to repudiate the (magical)
> son on account of his fear of being eclipsed by him. why
> otherwise bother to make such a fuss? fear of being
> disappointed? upstaged? the biographers can speculate.
>
>>>>>37
>
>>>>>Ak
>>>>>DE VI PER DISCIPLINAM COLENDA
>
>>>>>Consider the Bond of a cold Climate, how it maketh Man a Slave; he must
>>>>>have Shelter and Food with fierce Toil. Yet hereby he becometh strong
>>>>>against the Elements, and his moral Force waxeth, so that he is Master of
>>>>>such Men as live in Lands of Sun where bodily Needs are satisfied without
>>>>>Struggle.
>
> no children here, just struggling men.
>
>>>>>Consider also him that willeth to exceed in Speed or in Battle, how he
>>>>>denieth himself the Food he craveth, and all Pleasures natural to him,
>>>>>putting himself under the harsh Order of a Trainer. So by this Bondage he
>>>>>hath, at the last, his Will.
>
> here's the training integral to the indoctrination so mentioned.
>
>>>>>Now then the one by natural, and the other by voluntary, Restriction have
>>>>>come each to greater Liberty.
>
> again, the focus here is *freedom*, not security. your focus is good
> in selecting this text, and yet we are not given any illustration of
> the sensitive child, the one who needs not the rough discipline of
> the harsh parent, by whose severe training such a Will emerges. Â
>
>>>>> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â This is also a general Law of Biology,
>>>>>for all Development is Structuralization; that is, a Limitation and
>>>>>Specialization of an originally indeterminate Protoplasm, which latter
>>>>>may therefore be called free, in the Definition of a Pedant.
>
> like Crowley's failure to appreciate the ovum, so his appreciation
> of the "laws" of biology seem imprecise and ineffective. here he
> lays emphasis on structuralization, when in fact a host of other
> factors also contribute to development, most importantly DNA and
> its integral facets of potentia. Crowley's Homunculus was his
> blindspot, and link with an old-age, misogynist, gnostic delusion.
>
>
>
>
>
>>>>>38
>
>>>>>Al
>>>>>DE ORDINE RERUM
>
>>>>>In the Body every Cell is subordinated to the general physiological
>>>>>Control, and we who will that Control do not ask whether each individual
>>>>>Unit of that Structure be consciously happy. But we do care that each
>>>>>fulfil its Function, and the Failure of even a few Cells, or their Revolt,
>>>>>may involve the Death of the whole Organism. Yet even here the Complaint
>>>>>of a few, which we call Pain, is a Warning of general Danger. Many Cells
>>>>>fulfil their Destiny by swift Death, and this being their Function, they
>>>>>in no wise resent it. Should Hemoglobin resist the Attack of Oxygen, the
>>>>>Body would perish, and the Hemoglobin would not even save itself. How, o
>>>>>my Son, do thou then consider deeply of these Things in thine Ordering of
>>>>>the World under the Law of Thelema.
>
> here is the supreme arrogance: conceiving that "the World" would need
> such an ordering, that it is not in fact already so ordered, that it
> needs some kind of human input to "perfect". this is a post-religious
> bias which Crowley never relinquished. his training left him a cynic,
> seeing the world as in need of management, reordering, and revision.
>
>>>>> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â For every Individual in the State must
>>>>>be perfect in his own Function, with Contentment, respecting his own Task
>>>>>as necessary and holy, not envious of another's. For so only mayst thou
>>>>>build up a Free State, whose directing Will shall be singly directed to
>>>>>the Welfare of all.
>
> "the greater good" always justifies the efforts to achieve it.
>
>>>>>39
>
>>>>>Am
>>>>>DE FUNDAMENTIS CIVITATIS
>
>>>>>Say not, o my Son, that in this Argument I have set Limits to individual
>>>>>Freedom.
>
> does Crowley ever write about security, about the virtue of community,
> of the convention borne aloft by countless generations? or is his a
> soliloquy of becoming liberated, wrenching free of That from which
> he could never emerge unconstrained?
>
>>>>> Â Â Â Â For each Man in this State which I purpose is fulfilling his own
>>>>>true Will by his eager Acquiescence in the Order necessary to the Welfare
>>>>>of all, and therefore of himself also.
>
> as a jumble of contending forces does this Crowley portray the cosmos.
> how they shall resolve is always ambiguous in his writ, from Liber OZ
> with its "kill them" solution to volitional intervention to this text
> and its conglomerate of vying irreconcilables.
>
>>>>> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Â But see thou well to it that thou
>>>>>set high the Standard of Satisfaction, and that to everyone there be a
>>>>>surplus of Leisure and of Energy, so that, his Will of Self-Preservation
>>>>>being fulfilled by the Performance of his Function in the State, he may
>>>>>devote the remainder of his Powers to the Satisfaction of the other Parts
>>>>>of his Will.
>
> exemplary of one subsumed to the remedial quality of nationalism.
>
>>>>> Â Â Â Â Â Â Â And because the People are oft times unlearned, not
>>>>>understanding Pleasure, let them be instructed in the Art of Life;
>
> and, ultimately, fascism, which Crowley supported and admired.
>
>>>>>to prepare Food palatable and wholesome, each to this own Taste, to make
>>>>>Clothes according to Fancy, with Variety of Individuality and to practise
>>>>>the manifold Crafts of Love. There Things being first secured, thou mayst
>>>>>afterward lead them into the Heavens of Poesy and Tale, of Music,
>>>>>Painting, and Sculpture, and into the Lore of the Mind itself, with its
>>>>>insatiable Joy of all knowledge. Thence let them soar!
>
> a top-down direction. we the parental shall indoctrinate you in the
> 3 and 90 rules of the art before you may shine your "Will" for us.
>
>
>
>
>
>>>>>40
>
>>>>>An
>>>>>DE VOLUNTATE IUVENUM
>
>>>>>Long, o my Son, hath been this Digression from the plain Path of my Word
>>>>>concerning Children; but it was most needful that thou shouldst understand
>>>>>the Limits of true Liberty. For that is not the Will of any Man which
>>>>>ultimateth in his own Ruin and that of all his Fellows; and that is not
>>>>>Liberty whose Exercise bringeth him to Bondage. Thou mayst therefore
>>>>>assume that it is always an essential Part of the Will of any Child to
>>>>>grow to Manhood or to Womanhood in Health, and his Guardians may therefore
>>>>>prevent him from ignorantly acting in Opposition thereunto, Care being
>>>>>always taken to remove the Cause of the Error, namely, Ignorance, as
>>>>>aforesaid. Thou mayst also assume that it is Part of the Child's Will to
>>>>>train every Function of the Mind; and the Guardians may therefore combat
>>>>>the inertia which hinders its Development. Yet here is much Caution
>>>>>necessary, and it is better to work by exciting and satisfying any natural
>>>>>Curiosity than by forcing Application to set Tasks, however obvious this
>>>>>Necessity may appear.
>
> this and a good bit of the balance is sound principle.
>
> bobo
>
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