“To speak a good word is to build a monument.”

–From the inscription on the Tomb of Petosiris, High Priest of Thoth at Hermopolis

An unfolding tragedy: magickal writers who could nourish their readers with channeled gnosis have begun to adulterate their product by substituting AI-written text. Some of these “know not what they do.” They don’t realize that how they produce their writing directly affects its capacity to carry Spirit. Others are simply panicking, lusting for results (specifically, money to sustain themselves on Malkuth) rather than surrendering all to the Will. Perhaps now is a good time to remember why the god Thoth rules both magick and writing.

Permit me an analogy. By the Victorian age in England, bakers commonly added innutritious and even harmful ingredients to bread—including the ground-up bones of stolen corpses. Why this ghastly adulteration? Quite simply, bread was sold by the weight, and, especially in an increasingly industrialized age, theirs was a laborious and low-paid trade. We witness an analogous phenomenon in magick. Just as wholesome physical bread feeds the body, wholesome spiritual bread feeds the soul. But who dares to produce the latter?

We endure a famine of spiritual substance. Most writing already contains nothing but the qlippothic husks of vain intellect cobbled together by a delusionary “I”—and now also by AI. Worse than the soulless, industrialized physical food that many of our bodies grew up on, our minds were developed largely on foolish ideas designed to keep us soul-hungry, afraid, powerless, greedy, and isolated—slaves, in short.

To be fair, AI writing is no more soulless than most. And often it pleases the reader more than human-made content. So, if someone is “living the dream,” they might as well write using AI (environmental considerations aside, of course). Nothing they produce would carry spiritual substance anyway. (I recently read a well-written book on the Universal Laws of Spirit composed entirely by AI. It does a great job of parasitizing other people’s work and packaging it in an accessible and pleasing form.)[1]

Writing and art, of course, can convey spiritual substance (א). However, inspiring, soul-enriching, world-transformative work can only be produced by an ego, or “I,” that serves as a vessel for gnosis from Above the Abyss.[2] For those with creativity as their mission, the whole purpose of magick is to become able to do this.[3]

“Give Ear, give Ear attentively; the Will is not lost…. but always travelleth it with thee upon thy Path, ready to acquaint thee with thy true Nature, if thou attend unto its Word, its Gesture, or its Show of Imagery.”

–Aleister Crowley, “Altera de Via Naturae,” Liber Aleph[4]

To Revivify the Dead Letter

In his “Account of A∴A∴,” Aleister Crowley characterizes the mission of the Inner School as “to revivify the dead letter.”[5] The “dead letter” is the bulk of purported truths now cut off from spiritual substance. He explains that, because most people are incapable of “comprehending great interior truth,” external religion had to be invented through which such people might “by degrees be enabled safely to approach” such illumination.[6]

Yet, certain forces continually turn people aside from their inner divinity through networks of false words that exploit the natural weakness of the human being—namely, “too easily to forget the spirit in the letter” even where it exists. These contrary forces infect not only religions, but also the natural sciences: “[T]he Brethren delivered unto man the knowledge of nature, and the keys thereof; yet this also was prevented by the Great Sorcery.”[7] Webs[8] of hypnotic words entrance humans with the seemingly separate things of the Earth plane. These webs of seemingly referential marks and sounds constitute the “dead letter” that magicians are asked to revivify by channeling Spirit. To do so, they must enter and remain within what Crowley calls “the Sanctuary”—which “[w]ordly intelligence seeks … in vain”![9]

Freedom from the Slavery of “Things”: Michaelsen on Crowley

One of the clearest explanations of how the intellectually cobbled “dead letter” suffocates the soul may be found in Scott Michaelsen’s essay “Magick and Writing.”[10] In it, Michaelsen shows how intimately tied are magick and language for Aleister Crowley. In a nutshell, only language transforms enigmatic phenomena into a seemingly pre-existing world of “things.” But because even our “I” is one of the things of language, we are born as slaves to the illusory “pre-made” world. The only pathway to freedom is to apprehend the code level of language, discover our own true Word, pronounce It, and energize It with our life force—thus spawning a new Universe.

Crowley’s Ontology, According to Michaelsen

We can know nothing of a “world” except by apprehending it through language. Although we can imagine a Universe populated by objectively existing “things,” such an image is, as implied, pure imagination—utterly beyond the reach of empirical investigation and by no means necessary for carrying on with our daily lives. It’s a fiction.

Although phenomena may be swirling around relative to our sensory apparatuses, only words and naming package those unmoored phenomena as things. Which “things” “exist” depends on our language. Crowley writes, “[T]he Universe itself is not, and cannot be, anything but an arrangement of symbolic characters!”[11] Further, language delineates, not only the objects of the world, but also the subject (the “I”) who apprehends it.

In the wind of the mind arises the turbulence called I.
It breaks; down shower the barren thoughts.
All life is choked.
This desert is the Abyss wherein the Universe.[12]

The moment of Creation itself is a holy mystery, wholly unthinkable. “Thou art the Word, O my darling, my lord, my master!”[13] In his foundational essay “Berashith [In the Beginning],” Crowley presents the Universe as springing from Absolute Nothingness—devoid of all categories, including time, space, and being. From our perspective within a Universe of things, we can, with Crowley, say of the unfathomable Zero (the Negative Triple-Veil that hangs above the Tree of Life) that it is “primordial void of number, and the conjunction of the infinitely great and small.”[14] It is the unknowable sexual congress between the infinitely great and the infinitely small that results, in Michaelsen’s reading of Crowley, in the Tree of Life with all its possible correspondences of “gods, men, stars, planets, devils, colours, forces, and all the materials of the Cosmos: and with time, space, and causality, the conditions limiting and involving them all.”[15]

On Michaelsen’s interpretation, the Qabalistic Tree of Life (with its “filing drawers” for everything whatsoever) represents the structure of all possible language (and, thus, all possible Universes of things). Thus, for Michaelsen, Crowley intentionally creates his ontology to represent that which cannot possibly be represented: “The formulation of the idea of ‘beginning,’ like God (and even Zero), must take place within Language, already part of the Tree, because Language and the origin of consciousness Write together.”[16] “Berashith,” too, is a fiction. However, it is a highly productive one in that it hands the wily Adept a map for escaping the hypnotic tyranny of Language.

“If vulgar religion is the opiate of the masses, AI-text in supposedly magickal writing is the Mad Dog 20/20 of the wannabe spiritual elites.”

–me, just now

Enslavement to Things and Crowley’s Qabalistic Solution

Now we come to the problem that Crowley’s magick is intended to solve: enslavement to the seeming inevitability of the “things” of the Universe in which one happens to find oneself. From our youngest years, we have been socialized into—and thus brainwashed by—the mob world of our society. In order to be an “I,” we must surrender to the language-universe of our family and greater society. Like the fish in water, we are scarcely aware of the language-world in which we swim. It seems inevitable and “real,” as opposed to but one of the infinite ways in which we might package phenomena.[17]

In the colonialist West, members of other cultures are “dirty primitives.” Meanwhile, rebellious members of its own societies are “insane” or “criminal.” In short, plenty of shaming, jailing, drugging, and even killing are in store for those who openly buck the dominant narrative—which proves that it is an artificial construction, not a God-given reality.

A practitioner of Magick begins to dissolve the illusion of the conventional world’s inevitability by relating all seemingly disparate “things” to the Tree of Life map—“an ‘Alphabet of Magick.’”[18]:

The habit of throwing your thoughts about, manipulating them, giving them a wash and brush-up, packing them away in to their proper places in your ‘Crystal Cabinet [i.e., the spheres and paths of the Tree of Life], gives you immensely increased power over them.”[19]

How does developing the habit of placing everything on the Qabalistic Tree of Life help? Michaelsen explains that “things” “lose their power over you when they are seen as effects of the structurings of Language….”[20] By “constantly asking yourself, ‘Now in which drawer of which cabinet does this thought go?’” you become conscious of the dependency of “things” upon human language. The goal, according to Crowley, is to file everything in your Tree of Life map so that you may surrender all presenting phenomena to the guidance of the Will—“unto Nuit.”

Thelema is a way of life, a dynamic process of working with phenomena. It is not a new dogma that tyrannizes yet another illusory universe. As Michaelsen notes, “Language involves an endless chain of correspondences, and in the same way Magick is not a goal-directed activity but rather a ceaseless practice that puts into question any stop along the way….”[21] Only someone who dynamically chooses language and its associate “things” can possibly channel the Will through writing.[22]

Practices such as those that Crowley outlines in Liber ThIShARB and Liber Jugorum prod the hypnotized, fearful, enslaved mind to throw off its chains. In the latter book, for example, Crowley “recommends breaking ‘the Yoke [language] upon the neck of the Oxen [man]’ by avoiding the use of common words, avoiding the use of the letters of the alphabet, and avoiding the use of pronouns and adjectives of the first person.”[23]

Anyone who purports to write inspired works of magick, upon contemplating Crowley’s program, cannot avoid the obvious conclusion that the Adept, to be an Adept, must operate like Atlas holding the whole world on his shoulders. The Adept, under his or her own power, must fashion magickal writing in the wild, under the proverbial stars, like a poet. It will not do to root around for ready-made phrases in the garbage heap of generic, predigested cogitation.

The function of magickal writing is to allow the Will to create through us, moment by moment—which can only happen through a language not already dead through endless, mechanical repetition. It is “to revivify the dead letter” The use of AI in magickal writing is anathema to this aim.

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

–John 6:51

The Art and Function of Magickal Writing

To write magickally is to select one’s words consciously and creatively while “receiving”[24] inspiration through a “systematised”[25] mind. Again, for the latter to happen, one must have already developed a thoroughgoing habit of relating all phenomena to the Tree of Life. One becomes the pen; one’s blood, the ink. Michaelsen writes, “When it comes to the magician’s arena, the hard and secure temple should be returned to himself.”[26] He continues by quoting Crowley:

Let him seek ever to bring inward the symbols, so that even in his well-ordered shrine the whole ceremony revolve inwardly in his heart, that is to say in the temple of his body, of which the outer temple is but an image.[27]

The Adept has transformed his or her body into a Temple of the Inner God. This was only possible by transforming his or her relationship to language as a whole. Whereas every act is a magical speech act, and whereas habitual “Magic (without a “k”) veils [the] Writing” that creates our prison of seemingly preexisting “things,” the true Word, the “lost Word,” which must be pronounced ever anew, unlocks the prison gate. “By this Word he createth Man anew.”[28]

Think of AI as IAO without the O

I hope by now it’s clear that to write magickally, someone must have already made language his or her own moment by moment. Then they must actually exercise that potential in real time while opening up to Spirit. Although I haven’t gone into the type of devotion they must exercise to receive genuine gnosis, I think it’s clear that to use AI-generated text is the antithesis of “revivifying the dead letter.” One has gone through all the trouble to set oneself up as a receiver and transmitter of Wisdom. To then let a machine crawl through the Qlippoth and shit out text into one’s magickal writing can only adulterate it. Dead letter in, dead letter out.

“Now, o my Son, the Incarnation of a Poet is particular and not Universal; he sayeth indeed true Things, but not the Things of All-Truth. And that these may be said it is necessary that One take human Flesh, and become a Magus in Our Holy Order. … For though His Words be many, yet is His Word One, One and Alone; and by this Word he createth Man anew, in an Essential Form of Life, so that he is changed in his inmost Knowledge of himself. And this Change worketh outwards, little by little, unto its visible Effects.”

–Aleister Crowley, Liber Aleph[29]

“To go beyond the self one must learn to relate to things. To see beyond one’s own reflection and hear beyond one’s own echo, one would have to look and listen in such a way as to let something other than oneself appear.”

–John S. Dunne, Time and Myth[30]

Notes

[1] Some uses of AI do not degrade magickal writing. For example, one could use it to aid with background research. In this article, I address only the use of AI to generate text for purportedly magickal writing.

[2] That is, from the Supernal Spheres on the Qabalistic Tree of Life: Kether-1, Chokmah-2, and Binah-3.

[3] Therefore, how to do this lies far beyond the scope of this essay.

[4] Crowley, A. (1991). Liber Aleph. Boston, MA and York Beach, ME: Weiser Books, p. 8.

[5] Crowley, A. (1982). Gems from the Equinox. Phoenix, Arizona: Falcon Press, p. 37.

[6] Ibid, p. 36.

[7] Ibid, p. 38.

[8] Christopher Reed Johnson’s phrase, in private correspondence.

[9] Ibid, p. 40.

[10] Crowley, A. (1989). Portable Darkness (S. Michaelsen, Ed.). New York: Harmony Books, pp. 3-17.

[11] “The Necessity of Magick for All” in Crowley, A. (1986). Magick Without Tears (I. Regardie, Ed.). Phoenix, Arizona: Falcon Press, p. 40.

[12] Chapter 42, “Dust-Devils” in Crowley, A.(1986). The Book of Lies. York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, Inc., p. 94.

[13] Liber Liberi vel Lapidis Lazuli Adumbratio kbbalae Aegyptiorum Sub Figurâ VII, vii: 6-14 in Aiwass and Crowley, A. (1972). The Holy Books. Dallas, TX: Sangreal Foundation, Inc., p. 45.

[14] Michaelsen’s formulation in Crowley, A. (1989). Portable Darkness (S. Michaelsen, Ed.). New York: Harmony Books, p. 5.

[15] Crowley, A. (1906), “Berashith, in Collected Works of Aleister Crowley Vol II. N.P.: Foyers Society for the Propagation of Religious Truth, p. 237, quoted in Ibid, p. 6.

[16] Michaelsen’s formulation in Crowley, A. (1989). Portable Darkness (S. Michaelsen, Ed.). New York: Harmony Books, p. 8.

[17] Phenomena, too, are relative to language and our sensory apparatuses, but there is no need to complicate this exposition.

[18] “The Qabalah: The Best Training for Memory” in Crowley, A. (1986). Magick Without Tears (I. Regardie, Ed.). Phoenix, Arizona: Falcon Press, p. 48, quoted in Crowley, A. (1989). Portable Darkness (S. Michaelsen, Ed.). New York: Harmony Books, p. 8.

[19] “Woolly Pomposities of the Pious ‘Teacher’” in Crowley, A. (1986). Magick Without Tears (I. Regardie, Ed.). Phoenix, Arizona: Falcon Press, p. 106 quoted in Crowley, A. (1989). Portable Darkness (S. Michaelsen, Ed.). New York: Harmony Books, p. 9.

[20] Crowley, A. (1989). Portable Darkness (S. Michaelsen, Ed.). New York: Harmony Books, p. 9.

[21] Ibid, pp. 11-12.

[22] This is a necessary, but not sufficient condition. It is not possible to cover all the requirements in an essay of this length.

[23] Michaelsen’s formulation in Crowley, A. (1989). Portable Darkness (S. Michaelsen, Ed.). New York: Harmony Books, p. 13. Square brackets in the original.

[24] Qaballah קַבָּלָה derives from קבל (QBL) = to receive, to accept.

[25] See the Preface to 777 in Crowley, A. (1998). 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley (I. Regardie, Ed.). York Beach, Maine: Samuel Weiser, Inc., p. ix.

[26] Michaelsen’s formulation in Crowley, A. (1989). Portable Darkness (S. Michaelsen, Ed.). New York: Harmony Books, p. 15.

[27] “Liber Astarte” in Crowley, A. (1982). Gems from the Equinox. Phoenix, Arizona: Falcon Press, p. 187, quoted in in Crowley, A. (1989). Portable Darkness (S. Michaelsen, Ed.). New York: Harmony Books, p. 15.

[28] Chapter 68, “On the Magi of the A∴A∴ in Whom the Word Takes Flesh” of Crowley, A. (1991). Liber Aleph. Boston, MA and York Beach, ME: Weiser Books.

[29] Ibid.

[30] Dunne, J. (1983). Time and Myth: A Meditation on Storytelling as an Exploration of Life and Death. Notre Dame and London: University of Notre Dame Press, p. 75.