Subject: Best of Crowley's Magick
From: cbwillis@netcom.com (C. B. Willis)
Date: Fri, 11 Jun 1999 21:36:04 GMT

COMMENTARY ON CROWLEY'S _MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE_
Introduction and Definitions
by C.B. Willis

(C) Copyright by C.B. Willis, 1996.*
All rights reserved.**

* This commentary was written using the online reference URL: http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~eclectic/o/thelema/mitap/defs.html containing Aleister Crowley's book MAGICK IN THEORY AND PRACTICE, copyright held by O.T.O. Hardcopy is published by Castle Books, 1991, ISBN # 1-55521-766-4.

** Written permission has been granted by Frater H.B., Frater Superior and Outer Head of the O.T.O., the organization founded by Karl Kellner and joined about a decade later by Crowley, that this commentary may exceed the bounds of copyright fair-use for the purpose of publication on alt.clearing.technology and emailed to a few friends of C.B. Willis. Publication beyond that use, presumably including web sites, would require additional permission.

In this commentary, I will attempt a sympathetic reading of the Introduction and Definitions Chapter, selectively interpret Crowley, and add historical notes for the fuller understanding of readers. At other times, I will challenge Crowley's position. There is no attempt to be exhaustive, or to take an overall position either for or against Crowley or magick. Rather, the article should be viewed as a published exercise in philosophical journalizing as I grapple informally with Crowley's text in light of the history of philosophy both east and west, and esoteric [beyond the 5 senses, metaphysical, initiatory] philosophy in particular, and my own developed philosophy. There are times when the commentary will admittedly seem dry, yet I hope the reader will endure to consider the later sections on True Will and how to handle opposition.

Disclaimer: I am not a member of O.T.O., nor do I identify myself as being in the magickal tradition per se, though I have addressed many similar themes such as creation, intention and initiation in my other writings and classes over the last 27 years.

------------------------------ Begin Excerpts and Commentary: [Crowley's text is indented in quotes; however, note that he begins this work with several quotes from others.]

"{Illustration on page VIII described: This is the set of photos originally published facing page 12 in EQUINOX I, 2 and titled there: "The Signs of the Grades."}"

Grades and levels of initiation are common in secret societies and esoteric schools, similar to grades K-12 and college in exoteric [worldly] education.

_Initiation_ is a primary objective of esoteric schools and personal development classes, and refers to [successive] expansion of awareness, consciousness becoming increasingly inclusive, and unfoldment of spiritual consciousness which is then practically applied to life conditions in many dimensions of being.

Esoteric schools complete an aspirant's education in life by filling in the gaps left by both worldly and conventional religious education, especially in the areas of self-knowledge and identity, intuition, creativity, manifestation, and relationship to all kingdoms in nature, spirit, and the whole.

INTRODUCTION "Esseai athanatos theos, ambrotos, oyk eti thnétos Pythagoras."

We will study the nature of divinity, eternalities beyond time and death.

""Magic is the Highest, most Absolute, and most Divine Knowledge of Natural Philosophy, advanced in its works and wonderful operations by a right understanding of the inward and occult virtue of things; so that true Agents being applied to proper Patients, strange and admirable effects will thereby be produced. Whence magicians are profound and diligent searchers into Nature; they, because of their skill, know how to anticipate an effect, the which to the vulgar shall seem to be a miracle." -

The Goetia of the Lemegeton of King Solomon."

The true Agent refers to a person's fundamental identity as consciousness, as spirit.

Regarding anticipation of an effect, St. Thomas Aquinas wrote that the future can be predicted by studying causes, and that science is the study of causes. Therefore, Crowley alludes to the fact that we can anticipate an effect as an observer of causes, and we can anticipate an effect also as the true Agent who causes the effect.

[Crowley quoting Frazer] "Wherever sympathetic magic occurs in its pure unadulterated form, it is assumed that in nature one event follows another necessarily and invariably without the intervention of any spiritual or personal agency.

"Thus its fundamental conception is identical with that of modern science; underlying the whole system is a faith, implicit but real and firm, in the order and uniformity of nature. The magician does not doubt that the same causes will always produce the same effects, that the performance of the proper ceremony accompanied by the appropriate spell, will inevitably be attended by the desired results, unless, indeed, his incantations should chance to be thwarted and foiled by the more potent charms of another sorcerer."

The reference is to the cause-and-effect mechanism, with attention to degrees of power and force as mitigating any outcome(s).

"He supplicates no higher power: he sues the favour of no fickle and wayward being: he abases himself before no awful deity. Yet his power, great as he believes it to be, is by no means arbitrary and unlimited."

Supplication to God would indeed be degrading, if such a god were capricious, threatening or otherwise abusive, as assumed here. The reader must decide for himself whether Frazer and/or Crowley has seen God.

"He can wield it only so long as he strictly conforms to the rules of his art, or to what may be called the laws of nature as conceived by him. To neglect these rules, to break these laws in the smallest particular is to incur failure, and may even expose the unskillful practitioner himself to the utmost peril.

The rules of magick and the laws of nature are the magician's observation of what works and how it works: cause-and-effect.

"If he claims a sovereignty over nature, it is a constitutional sovereignty rigorously limited in its scope and exercised in exact conformity with ancient usage.

In Genesis, we read that God gave man dominion [stewardship, guardianship] over the other kingdoms in nature.

"Thus the analogy between the magical and the scientific conceptions of the world is close. In both of them the succession of events is perfectly regular and certain, being determined by immutable laws, the operation of which can be foreseen and calculated precisely; the elements of caprice, of chance, and of accident are banished from the course of nature.

The world of the magician is thus one of necessity, not accident [contingency], and control based on understanding of cause and effect.

"Both of them open up a seemingly boundless vista of possibilities to him who knows the causes of things and can touch the secret springs that set in motion the vast and intricate mechanism of the world. Hence the strong attraction which magic and science alike have exercised on the human mind; hence the powerful stimulus that both have given to the pursuit of knowledge. They lure the weary enquirer, the footsore seeker, on through the wilderness of disappointment in the present by their endless promises of the future: they take him up to he top of an exceeding high mountain and shew him, beyond the dark clouds and rolling mists at his feet, a vision of the celestial city, far off, it may be, but radiant with unearthly splendour, bathed in the light of dreams." Dr. J. G. FRAZER, "The Golden Bough".

Frazer's vision of the celestial city harks back to St. Augustine's City of God, the society of saints. Classical idealism abounds in alluding to the radiance of unearthly [heavenly] splendor, bathed in the light of dreams [a reference to spiritual substance that forms dreams and that operates in creative imagination].

"So far, therefore, as the public profession of magic has been one of the roads by which men have passed to supreme power, it has contributed to emancipate mankind from the thraldom of tradition and to elevate them into a larger, freer life, with a broader outlook on the world. [Ibid.]

Note the ease at which "tradition" is shunted in favor of a large, free life. Of course, Frazer refers to bypassing the _limitations_ of tradition, not eliminating what is still valuable in tradition, but one wonders about rhetorical irresponsibility here. The force of the position is that Frazer articulates the esoteric, initiatory promise: freedom and expansive outlook, manifest destiny.

"This is no small service rendered to humanity. And when we remember further that in another direction magic has paved the way for science, we are forced to admit that if the black art has done much evil, it has also been the source of much good; that if it is the child of error, it has yet been the mother of freedom and truth." Ibid.

We can learn what NOT to do from what DOESN'T work. All this is science, learning about cause and effect.

Don't get stuck in failures, as failures are just part of the learning process. We can almost always recover from failures, course-correct, and resume our course in a more constructive direction.

"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." St. Paul.

Esoteric schools set forth teachings and ideas for consideration, but insist that the student experiment to gain an understanding of the truth and usefulness of those teachings for himself. The student has to _own_ the knowledge by having a clear sense within himself [self-evidence] of its truth value and/or be able to prove it to himself via trials in application. Something can be told to a student, but until the student makes it his own in the manner above, it is just someone else's idea and will never have healthy power in his life. Knowledge is power, but only if you own [validate, confirm] the knowledge.

[Crowley now:] "The word of the Law is [in Greek] Thelema."

________________________________________________________________ "This book is for ALL: for every man, woman, and child.

My former work has been misunderstood, and its scope limited, by my use of technical terms. It has attracted only too many dilettanti and eccentrics, weaklings seeking in "Magic" an escape from reality. I myself was first consciously drawn to the subject in this way. And it has repelled only too many scientific and practical minds, such as I most designed to influence.

[...]

"In my third year at Cambridge, I devoted myself consciously to the Great Work, understanding thereby the Work of becoming a Spiritual Being, free from the constraints, accidents, and deceptions of material existence.

"I found myself at a loss for a name to designate my work, just as H. P. Blavatsky some years earlier. "Theosophy", "Spiritualism", "Occultism", "Mysticism", all involved undesirable connotations. I chose therefore the name.

"MAGICK" as essentially the most sublime, and actually the most discredited, of all the available terms.

I swore to rehabilitate MAGICK, to identify it with my own career; and to compel mankind to respect, love, and trust that which they scorned, hated and feared. I have kept my Word.

But the time is now come for me to carry my banner into the thick of the press of human life.

I must make MAGICK the essential factor in the life of ALL.

In presenting this book to the world, I must then explain and justify my position by formulating a definition of MAGICK and setting forth its main principles in such a way that ALL may understand instantly that their souls, their lives, in every relation with every other human being and every circumstance, depend upon MAGICK and the right comprehension and right application thereof.

Crowley speaks of grand, sweeping goals. The magick he has in mind is applicable to all people.

"I) DEFINITION.

"Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur in conformity with Will.

Magick is conscious, intentional transformation.

(Illustration: It is my Will to inform the World of certain facts within my knowledge. I therefore take "magickal weapons", pen, ink, and paper; I write "incantations"---these sentences---in the "magickal language" ie, that which is understood by the people I wish to instruct; I call forth "spirits", such as printers, publishers, booksellers and so forth and constrain them to convey my message to those people. The composition and distribution of this book is thus an act of Magick by which I cause Changes to take place in conformity with my Will.)

The practical act of gathering supporters, a team, or group in order to accomplish specific purposes and mission is one form of "calling forth spirits." While many have been conditioned to eschew calling forth spirits, if you think about Crowley's example, it is clear that we do call forth spirits whenever we seek help or enroll others for any purpose. Therefore calling forth spirits is a natural thing; the prohibition has been on calling forth spirits of the dead for our own selfish purposes, as this practice can bring in lower astral vibrations and may keep the spirit earthbound and distracted from healing he might otherwise receive on the "inner planes".

"In one sense Magick may be defined as the name given to Science by the vulgar.

Crowley's use of the term "vulgar" here would be akin to "common," another reference that the magick he has in mind is for Everyman. The link between Magick and Science is an empirical, experiential approach, making heavy use of both inductive and deductive logic; and observable, repeatable, reliable results.

"II) POSTULATE.

"ANY required change may be effected by the application of the proper kind and degree of Force in the proper manner, through the proper medium to the proper object.

Here is Crowley's formula for transformation. He analyzes force into 1) kind of force, 2) degree of force, and 3) manner of application of force. Further, force must be exercised in the proper medium, context, or space, and that medium may need to be created before force can be applied. That force be directed to the proper object seems almost too obvious to be stated, but since errors could occur here, one would do well to make sure he has the right target before proceeding.

"(Illustration: I wish to prepare an ounce of Chloride of Gold. I must take the right kind of acid, nitro-hydrochloric and no other, in a vessel which will not break, leak or corrode, in such a manner as will not produce undesirable results, with the necessary quantity of Gold: and so forth. Every change has its own conditions.

That every change has its own conditions suggests the need to respect and attend to the particular case situation, even though the principles used are general or even universal. The magician inspects and fine-tunes each variable in the formula to suit the particular case situation. Both physical and intuitive senses are pressed into service in assessing the situation and process.

"But it is theoretically possible to cause in any object any change of which that object is capable by nature; and the conditions are covered by the above postulate.)

"III) THEOREMS.

"1) Every intentional act is a Magickal act.

" By "intentional" I mean "willed". But even unintentional acts so seeming are not truly so. Thus, breathing is an act of the Will to Live.

All acts, intentional or seemingly-unintentional, are acts of will at some "level." Magick is the study of intentionality.

"2) Every successful act has conformed to the postulate.

Postulates are intentions, ideas posited [to use a Hegelian term].

Here we have the model of success. First we examine _what_ works, what we call successful, then reverse-engineer it and find out _how_ it works. If we check, postulate and/or intention will be found at the basis of successful acts.

We now have either the problem of inspecting all [possible] successful acts [the problem of induction], itself an impossible task, or we can extrapolate over a collection of cases and make the logical leap to what is now likely self-evident: "Every successful act has conformed to the postulate," Crowley's 2nd theorem.

"3) Every failure proves that one or more requirements of the postulate have not been fulfilled.

Now we look at what happens in failures, by contrast: one or more requirements of the postulate have not been fulfilled. What is "a requirement of the postulate?" From the examples below, Crowley means other aspects of the formula, specifically related to the application of force.

"(Illustrations: There may be failure to understand the case, as when a doctor makes a wrong diagnosis, and his treatment injures the patient. There may be a failure to apply the right kind of force, as when a rustic tries to blow out an electric light. There may be failure to apply the right degree of force, as when a wrestler has his hold broken, There may be failure to apply the force in the right manner, as when one presents a cheque at the wrong window of the Bank. There may be failure to employ the correct medium, as when Leonardo da Vinci saw his masterpiece fade away. The force may be applied to an unsuitable object, as when one tries to crack a stone, thinking it a nut.)

"4) The first requisite for causing any change is thorough qualitative and quantitative understanding of the conditions.

To effect transformation, we first need an accurate assessment of _present reality_, both qualitatively and quantitatively. My own view is that quality, and degrees of quality, are assessed only by the soul, using its spiritual recollection of the ultimate Ideas of the Good, the True, and the Beautiful as best it can. Assessing or quantifying degrees of quality on a gradient scale is the forte of fuzzy logic. Quantity is assessed through application of mathematics to sense- or sense-like perception.

In addition, one needs to be able to monitor the _process_ of transformation as it happens, and confirm the _end product_, which again require assessment of both quality and quantity.

"(Illustration: The most common cause of failure in life is ignorance of one's own True Will, or of the means to fulfill that Will. A man may fancy himself a painter, and waste his life trying to become one; or he may really be a painter, and yet fail to understand and to measure the difficulties peculiar to that career.)

In my own philosophy, True Will is the Heart's Desire, the soul's desire, spiritual will, atma, which is an extension or expression of God's will. The True Will is in natural alignment and harmony with God's will. True Will may be conscious or unconscious. The person is most in integrity as his True Will is made conscious and [ordinary] mind, basic emotions, and physical energy are brought into alignment with True Will.

True Will is in contrast to the whims and conditioning of ordinary mind and worldly personality, what they person _thinks_ he wants but what has no "energy", no basis in, or endorsement from, soul/spirit. True will is in contrast to ego, defined for our purposes here as the separative, competitive, defended, false, imaging, posturing self that seeks to be admired.

"5) The second requisite of causing any change is the practical ability to set in right motion the necessary forces.

"Initiating conditions" must be suitable in order to cause desired change. Attitude, motivation, and context are fundamental to setting these initiating conditions.

"(Illustration: A banker may have a perfect grasp of a given situation, yet lack the quality of decision, or the assets, necessary to take advantage of it.)

"6) "Every man and every woman is a star". That is to say, every human being is intrinsically an independent individual with his own proper character and proper motion.

A star is bright and radiant. In a person, the qualities of radiant intelligence and talent are symbolized in the "Star" card in the tarot.

In my philosophy, true intelligence is spiritual, an attribute of one's nature and identity as individual spirit, and as a person is made in the image of God as creative spirit unlimited. By contrast, the intellect, no matter how high the IQ, is an inferior, smaller, worldly derivative and shadow of spiritual intelligence. Making the distinction between intelligence and intellect can transform 1) a person's attitude about education and learning, 2) his understanding of who he is as a spiritual being, 3) his understanding of who his children and students are as spiritual beings.

Each development and unfoldment of a person takes place in its own soul timing, signaled by interest and attention. The soul then spontaneously awakens or recalls truth, or attracts suitable influences and resources when it's ready to move forward in a given area.

"7) Every man and every woman has a course, depending partly on the self, and partly on the environment which is natural and necessary for each. Anyone who is forced from his own course, either through not understanding himself, or through external opposition, comes into conflict with the order of the Universe, and suffers accordingly.

Crowley notes both an innate self [spiritual self] plus environmental influences that shape worldly personality. Both of these factors contribute to what Rosicrucians call the "soul-personality." The embodied spirit has both aspects, which vary in emphasis from person to person, and vary in emphasis within the same person at different stages in his personal development.

If a person is forced to do something which not in his [true] nature, from a lack of self-knowledge to choose circumstances in alignment with his nature, especially his deep soul-spiritual nature, or forced by external coercion, then he will suffer, being then out of integrity [not whole] and not true to himself.

If a person is out of touch with his own deep self, he may misinterpret even beneficial and aligned influences as external coercion, and he will have no way of correcting the situation without Work-on-self that allows him familiarity with the workings of spirit and energy. Such Work will also allow him to discern when an external influence only appears beneficial and aligned but has no helpful substance in reality.

Crowley gives examples below:

"(Illustration: A man may think it is his duty to act in a certain way, through having made a fancy picture of himself, instead of investigating his actual nature. For example, a woman may make herself miserable for life by thinking that she prefers love to social consideration, or vice versa. One woman may stay with an unsympathetic husband when she would really be happy in an attic with a lover, while another may fool herself into a romantic elopement when her only pleasures are those of presiding over fashionable functions. Again, a boy's instinct may tell him to go to sea, while his parents insist on his becoming a doctor. In such a case he will be both unsuccessful and unhappy in medicine.)

"8) A Man whose conscious will is at odds with his True Will is wasting his strength. He cannot hope to influence his environment efficiently.

Ordinary mind, regardless of IQ, is small compared to the vastness of spirit.

The intentions of ordinary mind, which many call "conscious will," are puny, ineffectual and lacking in power in comparison with the True Will and the postulates of spiritual consciousness.

IF ordinary mind is aligned with, or oriented to, spiritual consciousness, then the True Will can be known, and THE EXPRESSION "CONSCIOUS WILL" TAKES ON A SHIFT IN MEANING.

(Illustration: When Civil War rages in a nation, it is in no condition to undertake the invasion of other countries. A man with cancer employs his nourishment alike to his own use and to that of the enemy which is part of himself. He soon fails to resist the pressure of his environment. In practical life, a man who is doing what his conscience tells him to be wrong will do it very clumsily. At first!)

The magician molds his environment to himself, hopefully not at the expense of others. He does not adjust himself to his environment lest he be minimized, overwhelmed and defeated by that environment, lest external influences oppose his True Will, which would degrade his well-being and could jeopardize his vital force, health and sanity.

"9) A Man who is doing his True Will has the inertia of the Universe to assist him.

The physical universe has no will of its own, and can be molded then according to will. Having no will of its own, the physical universe can be said to be inert and passive, a receptacle awaiting the impress of will, intention, goal or purpose.

"(Illustration: The first principle of success in evolution is that the individual should be true to his own nature, and at the same time adapt himself to his environment.)

By "adapt himself to his environment" I interpret Crowley to mean _harmonize_ with his environment like the Taoist sage would seek to be in harmony with nature and the universe, but not allow the environment to overwhelm him or dictate his course.

"10) Nature is a continuous phenomenon, though we may not know in all cases how things are connected.

All things are interrelated in one unified whole.

"11) Science enables us to take advantage of the continuity of Nature by the empirical application of certain principles whose interplay involves different orders of idea connected with each other in a way beyond our present comprehension.

"(Illustration: We are able to light cities by rule-of-thumb methods. We do not know what consciousness is, or how it is connected with muscular action; what electricity is or how it is connected with the machines that generate it; and our methods depend on calculations involving mathematical ideas which have no correspondance in the Universe as we know it.) For instance "irrational", "unreal" and "infinite" expressions.

Crowley marvels at how abstract ideas, logic and mathematics enable us to understand the world and create in the world without necessarily knowing the full extent of how these ideas, logic and mathematics operate and interrelate with other aspects of the whole.

12) Man is ignorant of the nature of his own being and powers. Even his idea of his limitations is based on experience of the past, and every step in his progress extends his empire. There is therefore no reason to assign theoretical limits ... to what he may be, or what he may do.

Do not limit yourself or others. We don't know what the limits of man may be, if any.

"(Illustration: ... As Tyndall said, man might at any moment learn to perceive and utilize vibrations of all conceivable and inconceivable kinds. The question of Magick is a question of discovering and employing hitherto unknown forces in nature....

13) Every man is more or less aware that his individuality comprises several orders of existence, even when he maintains that his subtler principles are merely symptomatic of the changes in his gross vehicle. A similar order may be assumed to extend throughout nature.

There are many dimensions of being, many "mansions" of consciousness.

"(Illustration: ... Imperceptible influences are therefore associated with all material phenomena; and there is no reason why we should not work upon matter through these subtle energies as we do through their material bases. In fact, we use magnetic force to move iron and solar radiation to reproduce images.)

Crowley will transform matter through postulate and subtle energies. He is working with applied metaphysics, the use of invisibles such as consciousness, principles, postulate, and subtle energies applied to material and other circumstances.

"14) Man is capable of being, and using, anything which he perceives, for everything which he perceives is in a certain sense a part of his being. He may thus subjugate the whole of the Universe of which he is conscious to his individual Will.

Man has what I call a "universe of experience" or "personal universe." Crowley calls this the whole of the Universe of which he is conscious. If a person is not aware of something, if it is not in his ken or universe either specifically or generally, then he cannot [consciously] use it.

Following Kabbalistic and neo-Platonic teaching, I hold that a person's universe [of experience] is an emanation of his own being, within the universe of God, just as the universe as a whole is an emanation of God's being. Therefore anything a being perceives in his own universe [of experience] will be in some sense a part of, or extension of, his own being. In that sense, what man perceives is a reflection of himself and can be used just as he would use his own thoughts, hands or tools.

The caveat is that his individual will must be True Will, spiritual will, and subjugation would then ideally be stewardship.

"15) Every force in the Universe is capable of being transformed into any other kind of force by using suitable means. There is thus an inexhaustible supply of any particular kind of force that we may need.

Force is plastic, morphable; thus there is no scarcity of any kind of force. Forces in the universe are, in principle and by magickal practice, totally abundant.

Here is the principle of alchemy: anything not needed, or of inferior value, can be transformed into something needed, or of superior value.

The transformation is effected by that which has _supreme_ value: spirit, i.e., spiritual consciousness.

"16) The application of any given force affects all the orders of being which exist in the object to which it is applied, whichever of those orders is directly affected.

"(Illustration: If I strike a man with a dagger, his consciousness, not his body only, is affected by my act, although the dagger, as such, has no direct relation therewith. Similarly, the power of my thought may so work on the mind of another person as to produce far-reaching physical changes in him, or in others through him.)

Force applied to any aspect of a person carries a ripple effect to all aspects of that person, affecting the person's natural integrity [meaning here 'wholeness'], and the person's tendency to be able to integrate any experience he has.

Also there is a holographic reflection or mirroring of one part [aspect] of the person in the other parts, again based on integrity and the instinct toward integration and wholeness. All things are interrelated.

By the same logic, however, any force applied to another will also have a ripple effect on oneself, on all aspects of oneself, since the contents of a person's own universe of experience are emanations or reflections of his own being. Therefore, force applied to another is, by extension, force applied to oneself.

"17) A man may learn to use any force so as to serve any purpose, by taking advantage of the above theorems.

Crowley does not evaluate regarding use of force or kinds of force, but states what he sees as universal principles that obtain in using force and applying any kind of force.

"(Illustration: A man may use a razor to make himself vigilant over his speech, by using it to cut himself whenever he ungaurdedly utters a chosen word. ...

Crowley references self-conditioning using pain, until a person becomes mindful. This is self-punishment, as if one were receiving punishment from an external source, making the offender total effect. The idea is that the "effect" should wise up and do what the "cause" or punisher demands, and assume the winning awareness! I must say, this is a roundabout way of teaching oneself.

As an alternative, a person could _become mindful directly_ - and simply be cause.

"He may serve the same purpose by resolving that every incident of his life shall remind him of a particular thing, making every impression the starting point of a connected series of thoughts ending in that thing. ...

This is the way of the mystics: allow everything to remind one of God, and be in communion with God eternally. "The Lord is my meditation all the day." - Old Testament.

"He might also devote his whole energies to some one particular object, by resolving to do nothing at variance therewith, and to make every act turn to the advantage of that object.)

True friendship and support are defined: resolve to do nothing at variance with a friend or cause, and make every act turn to their advantage. These are good ideas, except when friend or cause has done something unethical or otherwise untoward. Again True Will vs. the intentions of ordinary mind needs discernment in the particular case situation. There's the rub, because we're dealing with invisibles discernable only by clear spiritual consciousness.

"18) He may attract to himself any force of the Universe by making himself a fit receptacle for it, and arranging conditions so that its nature compels it to flow toward him.

A person can't attract something that's not an aspect of his own being. If he can emphasize or strengthen certain qualities of himself, he will attract like. Like attracts like.

However the theorem can be used to deceive by artificially exaggerating or parading a quality in self in order to attract. If what is attracted is a person, the attractee will likely feel betrayed when he finds out about the real proportions of character and the deception. This is the betrayal of "I thought..., I thought..." and the deceiver did nothing to reveal the whole picture in its right proportions and emphases, a revelation that would be natural in the spirit of true friendship and reciprocity, but instead chose to conceal and misrepresent the real situation, to hold back what would have presented the situation in truth and right proportion.

(Illustration: If I want pure water to drink, I dig a well in a place where there is underground water; I prevent it from leaking away; and I arrange to take advantage of water's accordance with the laws of Hydrostatics to fill it.)

Take advantage of a thing's natural tendencies and momentum. "Go with the flow." Don't push the river.

However, taking advantage of _another_ means using his natural tendencies and momentum against him, to one's own advantage, which is an unethical application of the theorem on my view. The one who takes undue advantage for himself, at the expense of another, is only hurting himself, since the other person is an emanation or extension of his own being in some way, if in no other way than the single most important way: the other is, in essence, spiritual consciousness as a fundamental identity. Namaste!

"19) Man's sense of himself as separate from, and opposed to, the Universe is a bar to his conducting its currents. It insulates him.

It also isolates him, makes him insane. From the Greek "idios" - separated, alienated.

If he sees his world as an emanation, expression, or reflection of his own consciousness, then he's much more likely to have confidence, connect with people, and accomplish his purposes.

"(Illustration: A popular leader is most successful when he forgets himself and remembers only "The Cause". Self-seeking engenders jealousies and schism. When the organs of the body assert their presence other by silent satisfaction, it is a sign they are diseased. ...

"20) Man can only attract and employ the forces for which he is really fitted.

"(Illustration: You cannot make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. A true man of science learns from every phenomenon. But Nature is dumb to the hypocrite; for in her there is nothing false.) I

In nature, there is only IS, not OUGHT.

"It is no objection that the hypocrite is himself part of Nature. He is an "endothermic" product, divided against himself, with a tendency to break up. He will see his own qualities everywhere, and thus obtain a radical misconception of phenomena.

"Most religions of the past have failed by expecting nature to conform with their ideals of proper conduct.

While a person's world is an emanation, expression or reflection of his own consciousness [aspects of his own consciousness], it is possible to _project_ other qualities or aspects of oneself onto others erroneously, and expect nature or others to have certain of our qualities when they don't, though others may have these qualities as potentials.

"21) There is no limit to the extent of the relations of any man with the Universe in essence; for as soon as man makes himself one with any idea the means of measurement cease to exist. But his power to utilize that force is limited by his mental power and capacity, and by the circumstances of his human environment.

Crowley speaks of the infinity and eternality of essence, of the divine creative ideas (eidos). Man limits himself by failure to understand these and failure to understand worldly conditions.

22) Every individual is essentially sufficient to himself. But he is unsatisfactory to himself until he has established himself in his right relation with the universe.

The transitory nature of the world can never satisfy the spirit, which seeks in what I call a state of "divine discontent," until it reorients itself to the world of spirit and reconciles itself with the world in harmony.

"23) Magick is the Science of understanding oneself and one's conditions. It is the Art of applying that understanding in action.

A person asks himself the question, "Who am I?", "How do I create my world?", "What is the Good Life?", What are the steps to assess my present condition and improve it, so I may enjoy more of the Good Life in the future?

"24) Every man has an indefeasible right to be what he is.

It is a matter of integrity to be who one is. How could one be other than he is, anyway? Others may see that the person is missing the mark, not developing his character potential, or see that a person could transform himself to something greater, or release a limitation - these are examples of how a person could, hypothetically, be different from what he is. But those are future changes, possibilities, and say nothing of his right and necessity to be who he is in the present moment. Only if the person harbors ill will and harms others could one's "right" to be "oneself" be justly called into question, as it's unlikely that True Will obtained in such a person in that moment.

"(Illustration: To insist that any one else should comply with one's own standards is to outrage, not only him, but oneself, since both parties are equally born of necessity.)

Here is ethical relativism, made extreme by outrage. There are some universal standards agreed upon by all people of goodwill. Other standards are indeed more idiosyncratic and could be called "style issues," and some standards are arguably borderline cases.

However, if one doesn't expect others to abide by one's own standards or ideals, then he will experience less outrage over diversity of method and underlying rationale when these surface.

The question is: what is reasonable to expect from others?

One could, as a defensive method, expect nothing, be pleasantly surprised when agreement shows up, then _not_ be surprised when disagreement obtains. The person who adopts this method says "forget reasonable" - just deal with whatever comes up. While practical as a way to avoid disappointment ("must not happen again"?), failure to honor valid ethical ideals injects an element of confusing chaos and uncertainty into society that erodes the quality of civilization.

The person focused on traditional universal ideals is often disappointed in what he views as the shortcomings and insensitivity of others. He expects agreement and is surprised when he gets disagreement with "his standards," standards that are also widespread, thoughtful, ethical agreements by people of goodwill. However, it is not concensus that validates the correctness of an ethos, it is intrinsic good and the superior consequences of action that ensue from applying that ethos. Eternal values are difficult to "prove," but they can be known spiritually, demonstrated in character, in presence, and in action, and, once grasped, the quality and usefulness of such values is clear.

"25) Every man must do Magick each time he acts or even thinks, since a thought is an internal act whose influence ultimately affects action, though it may not do so at the time.

Man thinks and uses his will continuously; there must be effects of will. Crowley does not here make a distinction between the relatively powerless thoughts and intentions of ordinary mind, the warped attitudes of ego [the false self, the inauthentic self], and the very powerful contemplation of universal ideas and ideals and use of True Will.

"(Illustration: The least gesture causes a change in a man's own body and in the air around him; it disturbs the balance of the entire Universe, and its effects continue eternally throughout all space.

Crowley brilliantly anticipates the Lorenz "butterfly effect," and underscores the interrelatedness of all things.

"Every thought, however swiftly suppressed, has its effect on the mind. It stands as one of the causes of every subsequent thought, and tends to influence every subsequent action. A golfer may lose a few yards on his drive, a few more with his second and third, he may lie on the green six bare inches too far from the hole, but the net result of these trifling mishaps is the difference between halving and losing the hole.)

Every thought has its effect on the mind in terms of state of mind (emotional mood, outlook on life), and assessment of self/others/life, also estimation of the future, which may lead to further evaluations, conclusions, judgments, and/or decisions posited, and these, in turn, become creative ideas - ideas that create the future.

One thing leads to another, in a stepping-stone chain of causation. Actions have both short- and long-term consequences. It therefore behooves the esotericist and magician to notice all manner of causes, including his own subtle and not-so-subtle inner workings and determinations. Each cause is part of a longer chain stretching back in time, and projecting probabilities forward in time. Part of the job of the esotericist or magician is to mark and trace these causes back to their origins, and to observe their trajectory in how they are likely to play out into the future, or how much of a factor they will be in the formation of the future.

Each thing bears the spiritual signature of its creator(s) and its history, including the chain of causation, all qualitative and quantitative attributes, and internal and external relationships. These essentials can be stalked, marked and traced by the esotericist or magician as spirit. Because the he knows himself as spiritual consciousness, and knows his own feelings authentically, he can know the truth of any other being or thing.

"26) Every man has a right, the right of self preservation, to fulfill himself to the utmost. Men of "criminal nature" are simply at issue with their true Wills. The murderer has the Will to Live; and his will to murder is a false will at variance with his true Will, since he risks death at the hands of Society by obeying his criminal impulse.

Crowley speaks of the urge and right to survive and flourish. _True Will_ intends toward survival, flourishing and well-being in the largest sense of the terms. Whatever is not constructive in this direction is destructive and is therefore _false will_, which could also be called false purpose.

However, an outworn object or condition may need to be destroyed in order to clear the space and possibly replace it with something constructive and beneficial in present time. So destruction per se is not undesirable, it is destruction at the expense of the well-being of others that may be undesirable.

"27) Every man should make Magick the keystone of his life. He should learn its laws and live by them.

Magick is about the essence of things, metaphysics, purposes, causes, intentions, universal principles in application, and the undercurrents and invisibles of life.

Even in otherwise mundane matter, the magician perceives the realities beyond appearances, and he acts from this awareness. Ironically, metaphysicians can become so good at seeing realities beyond appearances that they can begin to overlook the obvious and even the blatant, a tendency that needs to be offset by deliberately applying attention in both ordinary and extraordinary ways to the obvious and the blatant, as well as to deeper and subtler realities.

"(Illustration: The Banker should discover the real meaning of his existence, the real motive which led him to choose that profession. He should under-stand banking as a necessary factor in the economic existence of mankind instead of merely a business whose objects are independant of the general welfare. He should learn to distinguish false values from real, and to act not on accidental fluctuations but on considerations of essential importance. Such a banker will prove himself superior to others; because he will not be an individual limited by transitory things, but a force of Nature, as impersonal, impartial and eternal as gravitation, as patient and irresistable as the tides. His system will not be subject to panic, any more than the law of Inverse Squares is disturbed by elections. He will not be anxious about his affairs because they will not be his; and for that reason he will be able to direct them with the calm, clear-headed confidence of an onlooker, with intelligence unclouded by self-interest, and power unimpaired by passion.)

Here is a beautiful example of metaphysical studies and consciousness integrated into everyday life. This sort of thing was very much the ideal among practical occultists (e.g., Rosicrucians) of the 1930's, 40's, and 50's. Of course it is also the ideal of sane devotees of any religion, to be able to bring the qualities of character and mindfulness to bear on everyday life, to stabilize and sustain one's endeavors, and to have things go much better for all concerned than if those same qualities were not present.

"28) Every man has a right to fulfill his own will without being afraid that it may interfere with that of others; for if he is in his proper place, it is the fault of others if they interfere with him.

This controversial statement turns on True Will regarding "his own will" and "if he is in his proper place." One who would oppress this True Will would indeed be interfering, acting against the True Will of both parties, and would need to be reoriented to his own True Will which would presumably be in natural harmony with the True Will of others.

All this is fine in theory, but in actual practice it's difficult to determine to everyone's satisfaction that, first, there is a valid distinction to be made between True Will (spiritually-based), and false Will (ego/personality based). Secondly, even granting the distinction, where spirit becomes confused with ego/personality, there are no end of difficulties and recriminations to be dealt with that will keep everyone occupied and distracted for a very long time.

Therefore, we can say that: One who is in True Will about some particular thing WILL NOT OPPOSE another who is also in True Will about that thing, but they will be in natural harmony. Note: One who is in True Will about some things may not be infallible, however, and may not be in True Will about all things.

One who is in True Will about some particular thing MAY OR MAY NOT OPPOSE another who is in false will about that thing, but they will be in natural disharmony to some degree.

One who is in false will about some particular thing MAY OR MAY NOT OPPOSE another who is also in false will about that thing, but they will be in natural disharmony to some degree.

Therefore, to ensure maximum harmony, a person needs to be in True Will as much as possible, and select associates who are in True Will as much as possible. Then the likelihood of both being in True Will on the same thing is greatly increased, and the result will more often be harmonious and successful for both parties. I see this ideal carried to a fullness in Castaneda's contemporary notion of "impeccability" [to be literally "without sin", which is a negative statement, and could be stated positively as always being "on target," "correct," or "in integrity," ethically and spiritually].

All of the foregoing implies that there are ways to get it right (True Will) and ways to get it wrong (false will), so the act of willing something does NOT _in itself_ make it right or true to one's spirit, to God, and/or to the greater whole. Here the distinctions between 1) the spiritual aspect of self [related to True Will] and the worldly-personality-ego aspect of self [related to false will], and 2) the spiritual aspect of self in relation to a larger cosmic context vs. isolated [Greek "idios"], are fundamental to interpreting Theorem 28.

(Illustration: If a man like Napoleon were actually appointed by destiny to control Europe, he should not be blamed for exercising his rights. To oppose him would be an error.

It's an open question what it is to be "appointed by destiny," and whether Napoleon had such a divine appointment, or whether he merely used extreme force to dominate people and ravage nations in Europe. I'll leave it to the reader to speculate on True Will vs. false will in Napoleon's ambitions and exploits.

"Any one so doing [opposing Napoleon] would have made a mistake as to his own destiny, except insofar as it might be necessary for him to learn the lessons of defeat.

It remains to be seen what is valuable in lessons of defeat, save to be better prepared and skilled in battle, in case one did need to do battle again, and also to pick one's battles more wisely if he had a choice in the matter.

"The sun moves in space without interference. The order of nature provides an orbit for each star. A clash proves that one or the other has strayed from its course.

A conflict suggests that one or the other or both has strayed from the ideal of True Will into false will by default. Somebody hasn't got it right, and it may be mutual. The conflict could be a simple as a misunderstanding, a mis-communication, or a lack of communication, or something more serious.

"But as to each man that keeps his true course, the more firmly he acts, the less likely others are to get in his way. His example will help them to find their own paths and pursue them. Every man that becomes a Magician helps others to do likewise. The more firmly and surely men move, and the more such action is accepted as the standard of morality, the less will conflict and confusion hamper humanity.)

Might does not make right. All the force and firmness in the world do not constitute True Will. True Will _results_ in certainty and purposefulness, sometimes seen outwardly as firmness or force, but we cannot infer from force alone that an act is based in True Will. An uncertain act is not solid in True or false will, but in a limbo of doubt. A purposeful act can be based in True or false will. Therefore, _orientation of the will_ is the primary and necessary consideration, and manifestations of force are contingencies according to circumstance.

_________________________________________________________________

[Crowley begins to sum up:]

"I hope that the above principles will demonstrate to ALL that their welfare, their very existence, is bound up in MAGICK. I trust that they will understand, not only the reasonableness, but the necessity of the fundamental truth which I was the means of giving to mankind:

"Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."

"I trust that they will assert themselves as individually absolute, that they will grasp the fact that it is their right to assert themselves, and to accomplish the task for which their nature fits them.

Certainly self-determination is an evolutionary step over outer-determination. Yet the individual can be truly absolute only in relation to God and a greater whole, leading to whole-determinism, lest he lapse into solipcism which degrades all other living beings by default. No, it is divine consciousness and Life [spiritual substance] themselves that are the fundamental orientation points, wherever these are to be found. Insofar as man aligns himself with those, identifies himself as those, then in that sense he is absolute - but absolute as a quality of being and as an act of inclusion, not an act of exclusion.

"Yea, more, that this is their duty, and that not only to themselves but to others, a duty founded upon universal necessity, and not to be shirked on account of any casual circumstances of the moment which may seem to put such conduct in the light of inconvenience or even of cruelty.

Knowing oneself and being true to oneself, within the larger cosmic context has been a guiding ideal for millenia.

On my view, cruelty is not only unnecessary, but degrades the perpetrator and the recipient simultaneously.

"...The essence of MAGICK is simple enough in all conscience. It is not otherwise with the art of government. The Aim is simply prosperity; but the theory is tangled, and the practice beset with briars. In the same way MAGICK is merely to be and to do. I should add: "to suffer". For Magick is the verb; and it is part of the Training to use the passive voice. This is, however, a matter of Initiation rather than of Magick in its ordinary sense. It is not my fault if being is baffling, and doing desperate! Yet, once the above principles are firmly fixed in the mind, it is easy enough to sum up the situation very shortly. One must find out for oneself, and make sure beyond doubt, "who" one is, "what" one is, "why" one is. This done, one may put the will which is implicit in the "Why" into words, or rather into One Word.

The path of [spiritual] initiation into greater realities, greater inclusiveness, greater participation with all Life is, at times, necessarily difficult, but it can be made easier with good teaching and association with exemplars, more difficult and even dangerous with bad teaching and bad examples.

Why don't more people find or persist on the initiatory path? I estimate some 90% of humanity's suffering to be unnecessary, the result of simple ignorance, lack of reason, repression of feeling, short-sightedness, ego defendedness, and lack of consideration for others. Unnecessary suffering takes a major share of time, attention, and effort, so that people then have few resources or little incentive left over for personal growth and unfoldment. Some have been programmed to see personal growth and unfoldment as selfish and therefore to be avoided, rather than a gift one can give to himself and then to his family and to the world. However, if a young person can understand the role and value of spiritual life early on, it's likely he'll continue to orient his life around the nature and workings of spirit and apply himself to worthy goals. Without such an understanding, his orientation points will be inferior, and his character and creations will be inferior.

When Crowley exhorts us to find out about the initiatory path for ourselves. Here is the requirement for esoteric "proof": self-evidence or direct experience of the teachings for ourselves, and experience of those truths in application in life. While the confirmation of others is welcome, the assessments of others, even all others, should not be embraced if those assessments would go against our own inner knowing.

The reference to the "One Word" is the mystical oneness, the wholeness, the alpha and omega, the point from which all proceeds and all returns. Some have seen the alpha and omega as a temporal beginning and end, but I see it as more a qualitative, eternal point of orientation, a symbolic point that contains the perfection of God in all attributes.

"Being thus conscious of the proper course to pursue, the next thing is to understand the conditions necessary to following it out.

Assuming you have a worthy goal, what are the steps to achieving it? How do you get from where you are now - the condition you're in - to where you want to go? What's the next step, and the next step after that?

"After that, one must eliminate from oneself every element alien or hostile to success, and develop those parts of oneself which are specially needed to control the aforesaid conditions.

Virtues and skills must be suited to the tasks to be done. Weed out and purge what does not serve in oneself, in order to create the space for what's needed and constructive.

"Let us make an analogy. A nation must become aware of its own character before it can be said to exist. From that knowledge it must divine its destiny.

From being comes doing. From doing come results.

"It must then consider the political conditions of the world; how other countries may help it or hinder it. It must then destroy it itself any elements discordant with its destiny. Lastly, it must develop in itself those qualities which will enable it to combat successfully the external conditions which threaten to oppose is purpose.

Crowley reveals strong attention on opposition to goals in this section: opposition from within oneself and opposition from others. In the case of groups, there is potentially opposition within the group and opposition from outside the group. However, there are degrees of discordance from the fiercely oppositional to the benignly irrelevant [which is simply different].

The real degree of danger to achieving the goals of True Will must be determined, because if there is no accurate differentiation among degrees of danger, then inordinate amounts of resources will be spent in fighting enemies and removing opposition - which is attention on what you don't want to have happen, when resources would be better spent in achieving the goal more directly - where the attention is on what you do want to have happen.

It's actually self-defeating to have too much attention on opposition, especially if it consumes too many resources, because even if you theoretically have unlimited material and energetic resources to fight battles, the _attention_ and direction of energy is diverted from your own affirmative goal. Further, you may actually _create_ more enemies and backwash of resentment by the act of opposition, than if you had just gone ahead and done your project, trusted in its intrinsic excellence, and arranged for others to perceive that excellence.

The real goal is to have everyone in his right place and in his own True Will, producing natural harmony, not to beat enemies to a pulp. It would be more workable to help opposition find its own True Will, than to beat the opposition up for opposing your will.

"The sincere student will discover, behind the symbolic technicalities of his book, a practical method of making himself a Magician. The processes described will enable him to discriminate between what he actually is, and what he has fondly imagined himself to be.

Crowley underscores the distinction between the True Self and the false self, and suggests that most people imagine the false self to be the True Self. Indeed they do at an early stage on the initiatory path, but the danger of confusion may arise again and again. However Crowley does not make it as clear as in other esoteric writings that the True Self is eternal spiritual self-consciousness [spirit], and the false self is transient, defended worldly-personality-ego consciousness. Confusion about these fundamental identities leads to what classical esotericists would consider aberrations at best and abominations at worst.

"Professor Sigmund Freud and his school have, in recent years, discovered a part of this body of Truth, which has been taught for many centuries in the Sanctuaries of Initiation. But failure to grasp the fullness of Truth, especially that implied in my Sixth Theorem (above) and its corollaries, has led him and his followers into the error of admitting that the avowedly suicidal "Censor" is the proper arbiter of conduct.

Crowley references the superego, which serves the moral should's and ought's to the conscious mind. Crowley calls the superego "suicidal" and a "censor" because much of the content of moral should's and ought's is acquired unthinkingly from social conditioning. Therefore, even if some of the content is valid and workable, until the content of the superego is worked through and reflected on, it remains outer-determinism and cannot have the power of self-determinism (or the power of whole-determinism, I might add). Therefore, such conditioning is oppressive to a person's vitality and well-being. Crowley believes he has found what could literally be a fatal flaw in Freud's psychoanalytic theory.

"Official psycho-analysis is therefore committed to upholding a fraud, although the foundation of the science was the observation of the disastrous effects on the individual of being false to his Unconscious Self, whose "writing on the wall" in dream language is the record of the sum of the essential tendencies of the true nature of the individual. The result has been that psycho-analysts have misinterpreted life, and announced the absurdity that every human being is essentially an anti-social, criminal, and insane animal. It is evident that the errors of the Unconscious of which the psycho-analysts complain are neither more nor less than the "original sin" of the theologians whom they despise so heartily.

Crowley perceives that, in the Freudian system, the false holds wrongful superiority over the true, if the superego and unexamined social morals prevail over the unconscious self, the vital self, the dreaming self.

"He must behold his soul in all its awful nakedness, he must not fear to look on that appalling actuality. He must discard the gaudy garments with which his shame has screened him; he must accept the fact that nothing can make him anything but what he is. He may lie to himself, drug himself, hide himself; but he is always there.

Crowley would embrace the vital self, the energetic self, the true self. He would eschew society's limited mores. Nothing should stand in the way of the true self, nothing can be said to rightly limit it. Crowley would stand psychoanalytic theory on its head! The true self must triumph!

More recent psychological theory, especially what I call neo-Reichian, has integrated the divine consciousness and the vital unconsciousness, and calls them both aspects of spiritual or transpersonal consciousness. Crowley would have probably just called them the true self or phenomena of the true self. But notice Crowley's preoccupation with classical and contemporary themes such as:

the true vs. the false, the vital vs. the deadened, the joie de vivre vs. "well-adjusted," authentic vs. conditioned, energy vs. depression, integration vs. disowned parts of the self freedom vs. suppression.

"Magick will teach him that his mind is playing him traitor. ...

This is a reference to the Upanishads, later picked up by Theosophy that "the [ordinary] mind is the slayer of the Real." Rather it is spiritual consciousness that sees the truth, not ordinary mind which is based in limited worldliness. Man must be initiated into his true identity, spiritual identity, spiritual consciousness. That initiation can take many different forms.

"Magick will show him the beauty and majesty of the self which he has tried to suppress and disguise. Having discovered his identity, he will soon perceive his purpose. Another process will show him how to make that purpose pure and powerful. He may then learn how to estimate his environment, learn how to make allies, how to make himself prevail against all powers whose error has caused them to wander across his path.

Assuming that man comes to know his true nature, he will no longer choose to suppress and hide himself. From being proceeds doing, and true purposes; True Will emerges.

Magickal [esoteric, initiatory] education refines and focuses the purpose, and teaches man how to make the most of the natural abilities of the true self. This is not a naive philosophy in the sense that one should expect things to easily go his way all the time, but it deliberately allows for the possibility of opposition and trains the student in how to handle opposition as part of the process of manifestation. All of this assumes True Will again on the part of the student.

"In the course of this Training, he will learn to explore the Hidden Mysteries of Nature, and to develop new senses and faculties in himself, whereby he may communicate with, and control, Beings and Forces pertaining to orders of existence which have been hitherto inaccessible to profane research, and available only to that unscientific and empirical MAGICK (of tradition) which I came to destroy in order that I might fulfil.

Crowley refers to esoteric education in intuitive unfoldment, and communication with beings in all kingdoms. However, Crowley has set as his task to reinvent the discipline of magick.

"I send this book into the world that every man and woman may take hold of life in the proper manner. It does not matter of one's present house of flesh be the hut of a shepherd; by virtue of my MAGICK he shall be such a shepherd as David was. If it be the studio of a sculptor, he shall so chisel from himself the marble that masks his idea that he shall be no less a master than Rodin.

Crowley exhorts mankind to seize Life and to rightly orient himself to it. His magickal training is intended to produce creators, artists, and stewards of life in all kingdoms.

From this brilliant and provocative introduction to magick, Crowley inspired many who were bold enough to not be afraid of the word "magick" to explore the mastery of Life.

----------
References - articles by C.B. Willis:
"Expanded Integrity," 1994.
"Fundamentals of Creation," 1995.
"3 Levels of Ethics," 1995.

C.B. Willis
Northern California
July 11, 1996,
revised July 16, 1996
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