80 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
80 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
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LAUGHTER.
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The common defect of all mystical systems previous to that of the Aeon
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whose Law is Thelema is that there has been no place for Laughter. But the
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sadness of the mournful Mother and the melancholy of the dying Man are
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swept in the limbo of the past by the confident smile of the immortal
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Child.
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And there is no Vision more critical in the career of the Adept of Horus
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than the Universal Joke.
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In this Trance he accepts fully the Formula of Osiris, and in the act
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transcends it; the spear of the Centurion passes harmlessly through his
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heart, and the sword of the Executioner strikes idly on his neck. He
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discovers that the Tragedy of which so many centuries have made such a case
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is but a farce for children's pleasure. Punch is knocked down only to get
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up grinning with his gay "Root-too-too-tit! Here we are again!" Judy, the
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Beadle, the Hangman and the Devil are merely the companions of his
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playtime.
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So, since (after all) the facts which he thought tragic are real enough,
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the essence of his solution is that they are not true, as he thought, of
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himself; they are just one set of phenomena, as interesting and as
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fatuously impotent to affect him as any other set. His personal grief was
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due to his passionate insistence on contemplating one insignificant
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congeries of Events as if it were the sole reality and importance in the
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infinite mass of Manifestation.
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It is thus that the Perception of the Universal Joke leads directly to
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the Understanding of the Idea of Self as conterminous with the Universe,
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and at the same time one with it, creator of it, and aloof from it; which
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Triune State is, as is well known, one of the most necessary stages of
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Samadhi. (It is the culmination of one of the two most important chapters
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of the Bhagavadgita.)
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There is a further merit in this matter. In the idea of Laughter is
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inherent that of Cruelty, as has been shewn by many philosophers; and this
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is doubtless why it has been excluded by the Mystic Schools of Pitymongers
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from their dull curricula. The only answer is to shrug the shoulders in
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humorous contempt. For on this rock and no other have all their brave barks
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foundered one by one amid the [GRK WRDS] of Ocean. Nature is full of
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cruelty; its highest points of joy and victory are marked by laughter. It
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is the true physiological explosion and relaxation which produces it.
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Notably, such drugs as Cannabis Indica and Anhalonium Lewinii, which do
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actually "loosen the girders of the soul which give her breathing," cause
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immediate laughter as one of their most characteristic effects.
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Oh the huge wholesome contempt for the limiting self which springs from
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the sense of Gargantuan disproportion perceived by this Laughter! Truly it
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slays, with jolliest cannibal revels, that sour black-coated missionary the
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serious Ego, and plumps him into the pot. Te-he! -- the Voice of
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Civilisation -- the Messenger of the White Man's God -- bubble, bubble,
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bubble! Throw in another handful of sage, brother! And the sweet-smelling
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smoke rises and veils with exquisite shy seduction the shameless bodies of
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the Stars!
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Beyond all this for practical value -- since the signpost at every turn
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of the Path of the Wise reads <20>MDRV<52>DANGER<45>MDNM<4E> -- yet springing directly
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from it by virtue of this very slaying of the Ego, is the use of Laughter
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as a safeguard of sanity. How easy for the charlatans of oratory to seduce
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the simple enthusiasm of the soul! What help have we unless we have the wit
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to know them as ridiculous? There is no limit to the abyss of Idiocy
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wherein the quacks would plunge us -- our only saving reflex is the
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automatic joke of the Sense of Humour!
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Robert Browning was not far from the Kingdom of God when he wrote:
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"Rejoice that man is hurled
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"From change to change unceasingly,
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"His soul's wings never furled";
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and there is after all but little salt in the sneer of Juvenal`s "Satur est
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cum dicit Horatius `Evohe!'" For it is yet to be recorded that any man
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brought aid or comfort to his fellow by moping.
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No, the Universal Joke, though it be not a true Trance, is most
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assuredly a means of Grace, and often proves the chief ingredient of the
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Universal Solvent.
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Back then to Browning, to the brave last words he wrote while fourscore
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struck upon the timepiece of his years:
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"Greet the unseen with a cheer!
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"Bid him forward, breast and back as either should be.
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"`Strive and thrive,' cry `Speed, fight on, fare ever.
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"`There as here!':
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Amen.
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"Were the world understood,
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"Ye would see it was good,
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"A dance to a delicate measure!"
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Ay! let us end with that most sudden surprising Word of a certain Angel of
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the Vision and the Voice, who left the Seer lapsed in his solemn Trance
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with the gay laughing phrase -- "But I go dancing!"
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The Tables of the Law? Bah! <20>MDUL<55>Solvuntur tabulae -- risu!<21>MDNM<4E>
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