Becoming a student

When should I lodge my request?

If you wait for total certainty, it means that your inner fears run deep. As when proposing marriage, you base your decision on available information while accepting that there is always a certain amount of risk. In this case though, you are passing the buck to whichever Master you choose. He must assess the odds of you and he making a winning team. Dither too long though, and he may shut up shop. He does not accept cowards. On the other hand, pop the question too soon and he will think you are rash-but he will ask you to wait. Other things being equal, it is better to make your move promptly.

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Should I shop around a bit?

You are free to do that, but you always have been free and you did not do much about it. How many Masters have you met? They are none too thick on the ground; many Occultists would have a problem naming one. So by all means be prudent, but do not wait for any bargains in the Summer Sale. You have a better chance of finding the right Master if you analyse your needs. If a dozen Masters were available, on what basis would you choose between them? Would you squeeze them like oranges? Sniff them like fish? Try them out like armchairs? How much do you know about Masters anyway? Would you recognise one in the street? Being fussy will just make the job a lot harder.

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But is the choice important?

Well .. that depends. I would worry about that after you have located one. Since they do not cost anything, you will not have to look for the cheapest available. What is more, each and every one of them has access to the same knowledge as all the others, so you do not even have to look for the cleverest. What you need is someone who is willing to take you on, and there is only one way of finding out about that.

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Who should I look for?

As I have just pointed out, you had best look for a Master who regards you favourably. I am not betraying any professional secrets when I say that, in general, Masters prefer to meet candidates who do not carry a shopping-list round with them. When a potential student is wavering between me and a small-ad in the back pages of a magazine such as 'Time Out', I am none too flattered. He will probably find exactly what he needs - an appointment in the next millennium possibly. Masters are usually good people, but if you do not know how to recognise good people or if you cannot bring yourself to trust them, then you might just as well chuck the towel in now.

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What if I want to be my own master?

Well I wish you the best of luck - and you are going to need it. Cheers! I trust that you will be accepted by the powers that be. It took me twenty-one years before I was sufficiently well-trained. Certainly, no other Master would dream of taking you on, or helping you to train, if you display such insufferable arrogance. One assumes that you have made a good job of it so far, otherwise you would not be conceited, and therefore one wonders why you are bothering to read a book like this. Self-proclaimed and self-styled 'Masters' do not usually win approval from the gods. One might even say that they are courting disaster .. or at least they are skating on thin ice.

Since the Gods thought it wise to set up their own system of Masters, they will find it odd or offensive that you have decided to ignore it. In addition to which, your attitude comes within a hair's breadth of spitting in my face. Remind me to describe my 'astral Rottweilers' to you. Apart from these considerations, please feel free to go right ahead.

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Do you accept former Criminals?

Only on condition that their criminal days are well and truly over. I would not be able to help someone who was still interested in illegal activities, and I would not want my name to be associated with his. Good God! I have more than enough trouble from the scandal caused by my father, and he has been dead for fifty years.

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Do you select students for their potential?

Every individual has his own set of potentials and in order to be truly happy he has to fulfil the promise within. All that I look for is whether a person has the will to try and achieve his own destiny and, if so, whether I am the right man to help him do it. It is extremely difficult to say why I choose this or that student, and I have no doubt that I may respond unconsciously to appearances or to other subliminal cues. In my own mind, I believe that I am looking for signs which indicate that this person has a kind of 'supernatural' appointment with me, or that his footsteps were guided towards me by the gods. All that said, of course, I am only too well aware that my 'third eye' is all too easily blinded by dust.

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Will I lose my soul?

Do you mean that you know where it is already and that if you become an Occultist it may do a moonlight flit? Come, come! Let's be grown up about this. One of the principle objectives of magic is to enthrone your soul, crown it, and make it master of your true self. It is absolutely crucial that you claim your own royal destiny and exercise dominion over your own life. So the answer is no. You will not lose your soul.

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Does one make a Pact?

I fear you have seen too many late-night films or else you are fond of the opera. There are no pacts, no signatures in blood, and no due dates by which you must surrender your soul to the devil. That sort of thing may sound exciting but if the concept really grabs you, you are due for a disappointment. The only kind of contractual relationship is the one that exists between yourself and your Master, and its terms are simple and clearly spelled out. He guarantees that he will guide you to the summit of the Sacred Mountain and, to help him achieve this, you undertake to obey his instructions. That is all, and even here you are free to sever the relationship at any time, on the strict understanding that you will never find another Master.

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I am still hesitant.

Then I am afraid you are just a hesitant type or a bit of a ditherer. There is nothing more to be said. Whatever I might say to offer reassurance, you are the kind of person who would continue to tremble at the edge of the crowd. Everyone else would board the ship, but you have heard stories to do with Pied Pipers and such. I think that you ought to have a bit more faith in your own ability to weigh people up. But then again, you may protest that you are a poor judge of character. So what can I do if you are determined to wriggle like a maggot on a fish-hook?

If you are almost sure, if you are almost ready, then I am willing to meet you and allow you to question me in person. I suspect that it will not do much good though; your sort would be suspicious of St Peter and, even when he opened the gates of heaven, you would worry about whether those were duplicate keys. Oh, do pull your socks up. Or to use a modern expression: get a life.

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Then it is possible to hesitate too long?

Well, as far as you are concerned, it is never long enough, but there comes a point in any decision-making process at which the dice have to be cast or else matters have to be called off. If you take too long over making up your mind, there will be no time left to enjoy the consequences. Or, to put it another way: by the time you get up to dance. the music will have stopped.

With the best will in the world, and a heart full of compassion, I have to get on with my work and so I can dedicate only a certain amount of time to this kind of 'extended preliminaries'. If the situation seems hopeless, any Master is obliged to walk away and leave you to it.

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What if I am too nervous to meet you?

I can sympathise with that and so we shall arrange to have our first encounter in some public place, like a restaurant, a pub or a hotel lobby. If you are really frightened, you can have a couple of 'minders' standing by, or get MI5 to keep an eye on things. I am willing to do everything in my power to allay your misgivings, but if the fear refuses to go away then I suspect that 'something else' is trying to prevent our meeting.

There is the possibility too that you need some sort of healing before you face the prospect of making a spiritual pilgrimage. After all, there is no point at all in trying to do something that you are not yet ready to handle. If you do find the courage to proceed, then the first thing I would do is to help you tackle your personal problems. But before you decide to walk away without so much as a struggle, ask yourself if your fear is genuine. Are you sure it is not being artificially provoked just to stop you going forward? If I were you, I would not give in without a fight. After all, why let negative forces have such an easy victory?

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If I dawdle too long, will you cancel?

I would not normally put it as bluntly as that, but I think you are beginning to get the picture. If you regard me as a person who is potentially dangerous, then I would rather not go through the unpleasantness of meeting you. I have never deliberately hurt anyone in my whole life, and even those students who have moved on would be the first to confirm that they did benefit from our relationship and they were helped. While you have a perfect right to have a close look at what you might be getting, there is a long queue of people behind you, and my own time is limited. I am getting on in years and I have a lot of work to do. All are welcome to inspect what is on offer and even to try a free sample, but after that, they must kindly leave the premises. I am not here to provide entertainment for curious Occult tourists.

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Could we just be friends?

Ordinarily, with any other kind of person, that would be acceptable, but I am not an ordinary guy; I am a Master. I have every wish and intention to fulfil my own destiny and I cannot afford the luxury of dallying at the side of the road to chat casually with a number of interesting people. Only recently, a young man who works in an Occult Bookshop asked if he could visit some of my students and sit in on their meetings as a sort of guest observer. In other words, he wanted to see what the benefits would be without in any away committing himself. He was a nice person, but Occultism is not a caravan crossing the desert with whom casual travellers may hitch a ride. Taking care of passengers is a different kind of job from taking care of family and friends. As I get older, I have less and less time available for social niceties and pleasant acquaintances. I have to spend my days wisely.

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But ...?

But what? Are you nervous and unsure of yourself? Do you want a guarantee that I shall accept you if you should deign to ask? My only reason for rejecting a candidate is that I doubt my own ability to meet his needs. I shall not tell lies. I cannot give any undertaking that you will get favoured treatment. But is not it rather futile to be paralysed by the fear that you might look foolish? By putting this book before you, I am giving you a chance to reject me. That is good! That is helpful. We will both save a lot of time and heartache if you can 'de-select' yourself. It does not offend me, and I have no wish to offend you. The trouble is that the longer you 'hum and ha', the more you give me the willies. If you are too timid to open the door, do you expect me to be reassured? Listen to me. Let me tell you this. I will not be hurt if we never meet, so shall we end it here?

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What if I find you overwhelming?

That sounds like something from one of Barbara Cartland's more titillating novels. I admit that I am a big man, with a correspondingly big personality, but I try to put people at their ease. The fact that I am a Master can indeed strike some people dumb, and the fact that I am Aleister Crowley's son and look a great deal like him merely adds to their nervous awe. When they see that my feet ache though, and when they note that I like a good laugh, they usually relax and enjoy my company. I do know how to put folk at their ease.

You may find this hard to believe, but I would not allow you to make an important decision while you were still unduly influenced by the impact of meeting me. I would make you wait and think matters over. When I was sure that you were in a fit state to reflect calmly and maturely - only then would I allow our conversation to go down certain paths. I think you would be pleasantly surprised at just how honourable I try to be in such situations.

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If I blew it, could I try again?

If you think you gave the wrong impression, and if the Master has not yet given a formal response, then yes, you can try to rectify the situation. I have met some people three or even four times before I have called a halt. As long as you are not dithering, most Masters will show enormous patience and understanding.

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Will you tell me why you reject me?

It is not always possible to put such thoughts into words since it might be what you would call a 'gut feeling'. Besides which, it might simply be that I am the wrong guide for someone with your interests, personality and characteristics. Always keep in mind that the gods are involved in this. The Beyond has a finger in the pie and the influence is so tenuous and insubstantial that it cannot really be explained. If I were you, I would not look for more excuses to be 'hurt'.

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What if I did not understand it all?

This can happen, in spite of all my efforts to make things clear. Perhaps you are someone who can listen better than they read. You would do better in class than doing homework. This is why I ask all students to meet in groups. There is no point in my offering further written explanation, but if ever we meet, do speak up and I will find some other way of explaining these difficult concepts.

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I wrote to you some time ago.

If your letter reached me, which is never certain, then I would have answered within two days-unless you forgot to enclose return postage. I do not charge fees, but neither do I pay for stamps to answer the thousands of letters I get. To make matters worse (in more ways than one) I live in Switzerland, so there is no point enclosing self-addressed envelopes with British stamps on.

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Will you please accept me as a student?

Well, you have not taken my breath away, but thank you for asking. I travel a lot, but the next time I am in your region, I will invite you to meet me. Please get your questions ready so that we can make best use of the hour or so that we shall spend together.

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