Misogyny in Liber Aleph?
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What do you make of the following passages from Liber Aleph? I'd be particularly interested in how female Thelemites approach and understand these selections:
DE VERITATE QUEM FEMINAE NON DICERE LICET.
My Son, I charge thee, however thou beest provoked hereunto, tell not the Truth to any woman. For this is that which is written, Cast not thy pearls before swine, lest they urn again and rend thee. Behold, in the nature of woman is no truth, nor apprehension of truth, nor possibility of truth, only, if thou entrust this jewel unto them, they forthwith use it to thy loss and destruction. But they are ware of thine own love of truth, and thy respect thereunto, so therefore hey tempt thee, flattering with their lips, that thou betray hyself to them. And they feign falsely, with every wile, and cast about for thy soul, until either in love or in wrath or in some other folly thereof, thou speak truth, profaning thy sanctuary. So was it ever, and herein I call to my witness Samson of Timmath, that was lost by this error. Now for any woman, any lie sufficeth; and think not in thine extremity hat truth is mighty, and shall prevail, as it does with any man, for with a woman her whole craft and device is to persuade thee of this, so that thou utter the secret of thy soul, and become her prey. But so long as thou feed her with her own food of falsity, thou art secure.
DE NATURA FEMINAE.
The nature of woman, o my Son, is as thou hast learned in our most Holy Qabalah; and she is the clothing in sex of man, he magical image of his will to love. Therefore was it said by thine uncle Wolfgang von Goethe: Das Ewigweibliche zieht uns hinan. But therefore also hath she no nature of truth, because she is but the Eidolon of an excitement and a going of hy star, and appertaineth not unto its essence and stability. So then to thee she is but matter and to her thou art but energy, and neither is competent to the formula of the other. Therefore also thy will is itself imperfection, as I have shewed thee aforetime, thou art not in the way of love except hou be dressed in that robe of thine which thou callest woman. And thou canst not lure her to this action proper to her by thy truth; but thou shalt, as our grammar sayeth, assume the mask of the spirit, that thou mayst evoke it by sympathy. But thou shalt appear in thy glory only when she is in thy power, and bewildered utterly by ecstasy. This is a mystery, o my Son, and of old times it was declared in the fable of Scylla and Charybdis, which are the formula of the rock and the whirlpool. Now then meditate thou strictly upon his most worthy and adorable arcanum, to thy profit and enlightenment.
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Let the white washing begin. You will be told that since it isn't a class A document, it's weight will be individual. You're also going to be told that Crowley was a "product" of his age, therefore to be forgiven his lack of modern appeal regarding sex and race. You'll be reminded of the cherry picked verses giving women equal status and girdings of swords to further confuse the issue as more whitewash is applied by discussing some perceived differences between the daily Crowley and the holy Crowley.
I have never been able to fully agree with the whitewash. Take it as you will.
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I find them to be an unacceptably generalized portrayal of the shortcomings of one half of homo normalis without equal weight given to the obvious and plentiful shortcomings of the other half as well.
That said, I don't typically turn to Crowley's life and attitudes as a source for my personal morality, nor would he want me to. At the end of another of his blatantly misogynistic passages, he writes the following, which I take to be the most useful way to approach the parts of his personality that run contrary to my own Path:
"...you will never, never, never find a woman or a degenerate who is capable of any trance of type higher than Vedana. Take my word for it!
No! take my word for nothing: try all things; hold fast that which is good!
- The Psychology of Hashish, Equinox I.2 p.89"
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@Gnosomai Emauton said
"I find them to be an unacceptably generalized portrayal of the shortcomings of one half of homo normalis without equal weight given to the obvious and plentiful shortcomings of the other half as well.
That said, I don't typically turn to Crowley's life and attitudes as a source for my personal morality, nor would he want me to. At the end of another of his blatantly misogynistic passages, he writes the following, which I take to be the most useful way to approach the parts of his personality that run contrary to my own Path:
"...you will never, never, never find a woman or a degenerate who is capable of any trance of type higher than Vedana. Take my word for it!
No! take my word for nothing: try all things; hold fast that which is good!
- The Psychology of Hashish, Equinox I.2 p.89"
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Good stuff. For ultimately it will be:
"Since I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt. But whoso availeth in this, let him (or HER!!!) be the chief of all!"
- The Psychology of Hashish, Equinox I.2 p.89"