while on holiday in Cairo, Egypt, in 1904.



There are mountains out there, but you can hardly see them.

If a Google Search for Crowley has brought you here, I recommend Timothy d'Arch Smith's entertaining work, "The Books of the Beast" (Crucible Press, [London] 1987) which includes essays on Aleister Crowley and others from the point of view of a bookseller with an interest in the occult.  [Ed. query: has anyone read d'Arch Smith's "Alembic"? Plz. advise]. 

You see, all I'd intended to do this morning was mention the Tarot, in passing, because I drew a card the other day in answer to the question, "What should I be working on in the next six months?" By the way, I don't even use the Rider-Waite deck (I prefer "The Mythic Tarot" by Juliet Sharman-Burke and Liz Greene, illustrated by Tricia Newell).  And I had no plans to get into the subject of Crowley at all but the next thing I know I'm reading Timothy and distracted and completely off track and now it's time to wrap up and move on to other pressing matters and I think this all points to the power of the subject matter and the chaotic energy swirling all around us.

So much has been going on.  Not just quakes and cyclones with their dreadful toll but people being away (T in Japan, J in London and now off to Paris, E in Miami) and uncertainty and confusion in all directions, what with the SAG contract due, and the upcoming handful of primaries left and then eventually the election, and the price of gas, and the continued increase in the rate of foreclosures although they keep saying the worst is over (except the people who say that's not true at all), not to mention having to go to the gym by myself because E. is in Miami.  Crazy.

So in answer to the question, "What do I need to be working on?" what card do I draw?  Strength.

"On a divinatory level, the card of Strength... implies a situation where a collision with the lion is inevitable, and where a creative handling of one's own rage and senseless pride is desirable." 

Oh dear.