I noticed Crowley was horrified of being confronted about racism, but was confronted by a very racist student of his that would refer to people of other races as "Monsters".
"Magick Without Tears" was a collection of letters written by Crowley in response to some of his students letters. During the answering of the letters he was confronted by a very racist student who referred to other races as "Monsters". Supposedly Crowley was asked the following:
"...you say, "Every man and every woman is a star." does need some attention to the definition of "man" and "woman." What is the position, you say, of "monsters"? And men of vinferior" races, like the Veddah, Hottentot and the Australian Blackfellow? There must be a line somewhere, and will I please draw it?" - Magick Without Tears
Crowley responds with:
"Come now, is this quite fair? When I agreed to tip you off about Magick and the rest, I certainly never expected to be treated as if I were being interviewed by an American Sunday Newspaper. What do I prefer for breakfast, and my views on the future of the theatre, and is the Great White Brotherhood in favour of Eugenic Babies? No, dear sister—I nearly said sob-sister. But this I will say, you have been very artful, and led me on very cleverly—you must have been a terror to young men—for the matter of that, I dare say you are still!"
To me it sounds like he's horrified of the question "Is this fair? I didn't know I was being interviewed by an American Sunday Newspaper. You are a terror to young men!"
He then goes on to say the following:
"It is peculiarly noticeable that when a class is a ruling minority, it acquires a detestation as well as a contempt for the surrounding "mob." In the Northern States of U.S.A., where the whites are overwhelming in number, the "nigger" can be more or less a "regular fellow;" in the South, where fear is a factor, Lynch Law prevails."
Then at the very end he says this:
"And so, whenever we find one Man who has no fear like Ibsen's Doctor Stockmann or Mark Twain's Colonel Grainger that strolled out on his balcony with his shotgun to face the mob that had come to lynch him, he can get away with it. "An Enemy of the People" wrote Ibsen, "Ye are against the people, O my chosen!" says The Book of the Law. (AL II, 25).
Not only does it seem to me the only conceivable way of reconciling this and similar passages with "Every man and every woman is a star." to assert the sovereignty of the individual, and to deny the right-to-exist to "class-consciousness," "crowd-psychology," and so to mob-rule and Lynch-Law, but also the only practicable plan whereby we may each one of us settle down peaceably to mind his own business, to pursue his True Will, and to accomplish the Great Work.
So never lose sight for a moment of the maxim so often repeated in one context or another in these letters: that fear is at the root of every possibility of trouble, and that "Fear is failure, and the forerunner of failure. Be thou therefore without fear; for in the heart of the coward virtue abideth not." - Magick Without Tears
So he basically ends it with there is nothing to fear. I really think a lot of people misunderstand this essay though because of the title. You have to read it very closely to understand what he's trying to say. First off he's horrified by the students confrontation and then at the end he says there is nothing to fear. Another interesting is that this book "Magick Without Tears" was not actually a book at all they were just a collection of letters written to students by Crowley. It wasn't until years after his death that someone took these Crowley-to-student letters put them together called it "Magick Without Tears" (I realized the reason why it had such a silly name was because it was published after Crowley's death, therefore Crowley must not have had a say in the title.) and published it after Crowley's death. It reminds me of how they published Kurt Cobain's "Journals" without his permission. "Magick Without Tears" was a collection of letters written by Crowley that were published years after he died, Crowley didn't even get to choose the title of the Chapters nor the name of the book, obviously seeing as how he was dead.
Edit: Notice how he's insulting his racist student by calling her "sob-sister" and the book is called "Magick Without Tears". I think a lot of people misunderstand this.
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