Aleister and Gerald

Yesterday was a good day and a better evening with excellent friends; but I am too weary to write about it. Tonight was a delightful time with other friends and I am too tired to write about that too. There is a rather nasty little story in my head, and I am way too tired to even start it.

So instead I will talk about the magician Aleister Crowley the man given the title 'Beast 666' and 'The Wickedest man in the world,' whose idea of dealing with negative publicity was to revel in it, take lots of drugs, wear mystic hats and shag as many people as he could between here and the Giza plateau.

It seems only fair, with all the religious furore around us, to mention the Book of The Law, his idea of the dawning of the new age, which couldn't be further from the ideals of the 60s and the crystal commerce of the 90's. This was supposedly channelled from an extra-planar being calling itself 'Aiwaz.' The idea was one of a new kind of law, the law of Thelema, which can be summed up in three principles:

Every man and every woman is a star.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
Love is the law, love under will.



Suddenly I know why I am writing this now. It must be a year, maybe two, since Gerald Suster, an old friend of mine, respected author and devotee of Aleister, died. His wife Michaela died not long after. Gerald used to call me 'Alice,'(as in Wonderland) and laughingly warned me not to be like Alice's grandfather, who never tried anything in case he liked it. This Christmas I dreamt of dancing with Gerald. I never really did anything to mark his passing - indeed, this is a strange time to remember it, for I swear he died in the autumn of the year - but talking with cyanidemigraine and evilwillow about friendship last night reminded me of how irrelevent time is where anything important is concerned.

Because I think Gerald would like it, I will quote some juicy bits from the first part of the book of the law. The first part is all about Nuit (sometimes spelled 'Nut') the Egyptian Goddess of the night and stars, who in Crowley's law of Thelema was both the divine woman and the cosmos waiting for each of us to rush up and meet it in ecstasy. In order to enjoy the following you must enjoy your prose a lush shade of purple, and be comparatively laid back about stuff making sense.

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Ah! My need for purple-bangondom is sated. And of course, some of this stuff is a little impenetrable. For people who find it confusing, Crowley has a little helpful advice:


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But of course. Thank you Aleister.

For those who would prefer to read the book of the law without my loppings, here's the link:

http://www.thelema.org/aa/documents/the_book_of_the_law/chapter_1.html


Good night and thanks for everything, Gerald my dear.