I was not content to believe in a personal devil and serve him, in the ordinary sense of the word. I wanted to get hold of him personally and become his chief of staff.
Interpretation
The quote expresses a desire to not only acknowledge the existence of evil but to actively engage with it and understand its nature.
Aleister Crowley's quote reflects a deep curiosity and fascination with the darker aspects of existence, challenging the conventional understanding of good and evil. Rather than simply accepting the notion of a personal devil as a metaphorical concept, Crowley seeks to personify and comprehend the essence of evil, suggesting that true understanding requires direct interaction with it rather than passive belief. This perspective invites discussion on the complexities of morality and the human condition.
In practice
In a college debate on morality, this quote can highlight the pursuit of knowledge in understanding evil.
People think that talking is a sign of thinking. It isn't, for the most part' on the contrary, it's a mechanical dodge of the body to relieve oneself of the strain of thinking, just as exercising the muscles helps the body to become temporarily unconscious of its weight, its pain, its weariness, and the foreknowledge of its doom.
There is a single main definition of the object of all magical Ritual. It is the uniting of the Microcosm with the Macrocosm. The Supreme and Complete Ritual is therefore the Invocation of the Holy Guardian Angel; or, in the language of Mysticism, Union with God.
Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and one's conditions. It is the Art of applying that understanding in action.
I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.
It will be seen that the formula - 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law' has nothing to do with 'Do as you please.' It is much more difficult to comply with the Law of Thelema than to follow out slavishly a set of dead regulations.
The essence of independence has been to think and act according to standards from within, not without.
People until I was 60 would always say they thought I looked younger, which I think, without flattering myself, I did, but I think I certainly have, as George Orwell says people do after a certain age, the face they deserve.
"Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg."_x000D_ _x000D_ Yes, no matter how right the wall may be and how wrong the egg, I will stand with the egg. Someone else will have to decide what is right and what is wrong; perhaps time or history will decide. If there were a novelist who, for whatever reason, wrote works standing with the wall, of what value would such works be?
The Christ-symbol is of the greatest importance for psychology in so far as it is perhaps the most highly developed and differentiated symbol of the self, apart from the figure of the Buddha.
The first revolt is against the supreme tyranny of theology, of the phantom of God. As long as we have a master in heaven, we will be slaves on earth.
You who read me, are You sure of understanding my language?
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.
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