600. Obstruction (III)
The other day, I produced an article about Aleister Crowley; and the same night the owls called out very loudly—they had not called for a long time, and they called so loudly they woke me up in the night. I always sleep with my window open, even in the winter, so I heard them all too well. When I fell asleep again, I dreamed that I was in a small boat surrounded by bats—fairly vicious bats. The next day, I read another chapter in Crowley’s biography: it related how Crowley had hunted for bats in a punt—and then how, in the night, his wife was possessed and became a bat; she even looped her legs over the bed railings as if she were an upside down bat. It seems that I had a precognitive dream.
Further, before I went to bed that night I read my customary story from the Grimm Brothers; it related a tale about blackbirds (not crows, not Crow-ley) and an apprentice. The final injunction was that you should follow no master except your own internal master, your own command—your blackbird, not Crow-ley. This is essentially Crowley’s message, his Thelema religion, expressed in an old fairy tale—no need for masters, just follow your own inner will and everything will be fine. Follow your bliss (or the voice of God), as Joseph Campbell might have said.
A further synchronicity occurred the day after my dream: in the evening I searched for “the Aeon of Horus and Crowley” and found a webpage about Crowley and Horus. It contained a quote from a Dr. Crile, a noted American surgeon from the thirties, who described how all human bodies have light (suns) trapped within them. The previous night, I had read a chapter in a William S. Burroughs biography that named his very able lawyer in New Orleans as “Crile”—except this was a pseudonym, an unusual name. Burroughs was also an occultist who, as with Crowley, lived in Mexico City for a time—directly after he left New Orleans, in fact.
The webpage also contained this quote: “In each age, say Theosophists and Thelemites, the spirit of Horus the Liberator returns. Once every 2,160 years the archetype manifests to destroy the ‘dark Satanic mills.’ In other words, the spirit of Horus is the Spirit of Rebellion that takes birth in certain iconoclastic men and women, who as society’s artists, poets, musicians, writers, and activists, actively push for reform and justice. The Spirit of Rebellion shakes traditional paradigms and brings radical change to individuals and countries. It also brings change to religious ideas and beliefs. According to occultist Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones), the archetype of Horus ‘is within each of us as the true urge of our Being.’”
It struck me that I have always loved the Peregrine Falcon (Horus); it has always been my favourite animal, as a child I had a large Peregrine Falcon poster on my wall. Further, I even have a stylised Peregrine Falcon tattoo on my left wrist—a tattoo I acquired in Jerusalem, a spiritual centre. It strikes me that Horus, the Peregrine Falcon, must be what Crowley calls a “guardian angel”; and, further, Horus symbolises hermaphroditic unity in Egyptian lore—thanks to his union with Set. Finally, the webpage I visited above had an embedded video at the bottom about “the path of the fool” with a bald-headed man as the presenter—I have shaved my head and often identify with the fool or the joker, yet another synchronicity.
One final observation about Crowley, the other day I noted that his name contains “crow”—totem of Britain’s ancient god “Lud” (of London, Lud-don) and also holy to Apollo. I should have added that his name also contains “ley”, as in the “ley lines”—the spiritual geometries that crisscross Britain. So it is no wonder Crowley was such a powerful mage; he contained within his name Britain’s most holy bird and also Britain’s sacred geometry.