E. A. Koetting - staticfly.net

CHAPTER fiVE
BURNT OfFERINGS
written (or the Operations of such magic learned by the author,
Abraham), these foods were not so easily come by. Just a tease and a
taste of them was relished and dreamt about by the average man, the
value of what is now commonplace often being above gold.
\ The Black Magician of today has desires and goals quite different
than those of Abraham the Jew in 1397, at least in the beginning.
\ Love, recognition, money and power are chief among his lusts, taking
different forms for different folks, but the desire is same in the end. Just
as he has with food, once the more mundane tasks of life have been
accomplished and the mean desires have been satisfied, the Sorcerer
looks elsewhere, perhaps higher and further beyond for the untouched
regions of his dominion. But all of the lesser desires and vices of man
need to be sated in full before any Great Work can commence.
Love, recognition, money and power. These four desires, as simple
and infantile as they may be, undoubtedly comprise the foundation of
the Ascent of the Black Magician. Without first gaining complete control
over his life in these most basic avenues, he can never hope to gain
absolute autonomy. Godhood will elude him as he grasps for the keys to
a power that he already possesses.
LOVE
Love presents itself in many forms, and obfuscates the observer
just as nonchalantly. As ephemeral as it is, it is rarely called by its true
name. When heard or spoken aloud, the word conjures images of
Valentines candies, wet kisses, and the elation only experienced before
a couple has become comfortable with one another. None of these are
love. They are the cheap imitations concocted by the thalamus of man's
brain to incite him into reproduction and the continuation of the human
species.
In his Eight Lectures on Yoga, the Master Therion, Aleister Crowley,
offers some insight into love, through the eyes of metaphysics - and
physics:
This is that which is written in 'The Book of the Law'
Love is the law, love under will -- for Love is the instinct
to unite, and the act of uniting. But this cannot be
done indiscriminately; it must be done 'under will,'
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