





                                   ZNUZ IS ZNEES

                               MEMOIRS OF A MAGICIAN

                                  EDITED & REVISED

            

                                  By C.F. Russell

























































                                         I
                              The Magical Commentaries
            From Volume I:

                                    ``Therion''

            In 1917 I bought a copy of Vierick's ``International'' & was
            intrigued by  a series  of articles:  The Revival of Magick.
            From their  author I  secured several books along this line,
            and in  June, 1918,  on  my  birthday,  I  saw  him  at  his
            apartment, then  on West  9th  St.  in  New  York  City.  He
            answered my  knock  with  a  hypnotic  stare,  and  made  an
            appointment for  lunch. I  remained most of the day; we took
            an astral  journey together,  and in the evening he and some
            others, including  ...A and his wife, ...IWDWIC initiated me
            into the IIIo of O.T.O., a synthetic society which gives the
            gist of  Freemasonry and more in Eleven Degrees, the rest of
            which I  acquired later.  Appropriately enough,  there was a
            total eclipse  of the Sun that day. Returning to N.Y. in the
            Fall, had further experiences with A.C. One eve before going
            to a  party given by Mme. G., I visited his new apartment on
            the south side of Washington Square, where he lived with the
            ``Dead Soul'',  to pick  up his  latest book,  and make  the
            decision (after  a Tarot  seance) to  go to  Detroit to help
            ...A organize  a group  of higher Masons. Successful in this
            [see Vol.  II], at  the end  of 1920, I joined the Wizard in
            Sicaly  to   study  and  do  secretarial  work.  Documentary
            evidence, if C or Y or is it Symonds, will ever let loose of
            it, exists  of my  sorjourn which I would like to see first,
            mostly to  refute and  debunk, so that I will not waste time
            discussing distortions  here. Not worth while to set matters
            straight, at  least not  while some  persons  who  might  be
            involved have  not been  as yet  consulted to  see how  they
            would react  to revelations I might make. After all, I am no
            cad or muckraker, there has been enough of that! Here I will
            be content  simply to  dispel the  illusion held by this man
            and his  disciples that he was ``The Beast.'' In this he was
            never sincere except in a psychopathic manner until later he
            became addicted  to drugs and lost capacity to overcome this
            obsession. The  real Beast is Sorath, the Sun Demon (spelled
            Samech,   Vau,    Resh,   Tau),   described   by   John   in
            ``Revelations.'' Crowley's complex was a feeble imitation of
            the genuine, unless we have to admit that coming events cast
            their light  before them.  Evil as  he  was,  his  game  was
            childish play  in ace  of what  mankind in centuries to come
            has to  endure. A.C.  was a  poet,  litterateur,  and  Adept
            enough to  gather earnest  disciples  of  yoga,  magic,  and
            occultism. He  failed because  of disloyalty to his friends,
            and through  his whole performance runs a thread of quackery
            which  can  be  uncovered  by  logic  and  honest,  unbiased
            research. I  retired from  the Outer  College, and ceased to
            promote his  work over 30 years ago, although in view of the
            fact that  Light must  have Darkness  as a foil, I can still
            find use for his masterpiece, Liber Legis, which he wrote as












            directed by ...Aiwaz in 1904. [See Vol. II] Lapses of memory
            about this  are due  to his  having taken  a large  dose  of
            anhalonium at  the  time.  Sufficit,  Perdurabl,  et  longum
            probitas perdurat in aevum. (Ovid, Med. Fac. 49).

                                  ``Collectanea''

            In Provenance  (1944) and its Continuation, I have cataloged
            and analyzed  my book collecting in a way never done before.
            I still  have some  35 out of the first 315 numbered items &
            selections from  Chapter VI.  Other inanimate  objects  were
            acquired such as Stamps, Coins, Knives, Firearms and Radios,
            the bulk  of which are long gone, since I couldn't take them
            with me; value of pieces intrinsically was minimal - maximal
            was acquired  ability and  know how  to get  what I  need or
            want.

            Contributions to  the Great Work (defined elsewhere) consist
            of  what   improvements  I   could  make   on   efforts   of
            predecessors, plus  methods of my own discovery or invention
            to educate  thinking, feeling,  and willing  - all these are
            suitable  for   study  and   practice  by  any  person  with
            sufficient interest  and enough  intelligence. In  my works,
            the  mathematician   finds  new  Algorithms  and  Viewpoints
            hitherto unknown  - see Chapter VII and Bibliography - e.g.,
            I was  the first  to enumerate permutations and combinations
            and develop  the corresponding  Arithmetic, codify the cubic
            components,  construct   an  electrical   engine  to   solve
            syllogisms  (predating   all  other  attempts),  reduce  the
            centuries-old A  Fortiori Argument to a perfect three-termed
            syllogism (Barbara  Cubed, April, 1944), and so on! My books
            must now speak for themselves - I am retired!

            For the  curious, I  recommend highly  The  Complete  Magick
            Curriculum  of   the  Secret   Order,  G...B...G  (Llewellen
            Publications, P.O. Box 3383, St. Paul, MN 55101 - $10.00, or
            your favorite book seller) by an ex-pupil, Louis T. Culling,
            who has  full responsibility  for its  contents -  I did not
            proof reed  this pregnant  volume - they thought I was dead.
            However, certain  contextual  errors  are  O.K.,  e.g.,  (1)
            meaning of  the letters  as on  title page  is not correct -
            leave it that way!; (2) Page 17, oath as stated is wrong; to
            have given  it as it truly is would be to violate it. Credit
            Louis for using discretion; (3) Page 5, ``Russell went up on
            `The Rock' for food or water. Jane W---- took food and water
            to Russell  and brought  him down.''  I cannot  endorse this
            mistake which  conflicts with  John  Symond's  account  (the
            Symonds of Chapter VI), both in his Great Beast, and also in
            his edition  of the  Confessions (Hill  & Wang, 1st American
            Ed, February,  1970). In  neither case  am I mentioned by my
            right name,  either magical  or otherwise - so why did Louis
            have to  identify me?  I will deal with this garbled tale in
            my chapter on `The Rock.' The Beauty who came calling in the
            moonlight was not named ``Jane,'' nor did she bring me down.












            Having finish  my  self-appointed  task  in  eight  days  as
            planned, I returned to the Abbey, voluntarily, took up where
            I had  left off  and commingled  other chores with passing a
            test for a higher grade - dig infra!; (4) Page 69, ssq, here
            Louis must  have mixed  up  his  ``Opera''  with  his  ``One
            iron'', or  perhaps confused  Q with  Omega, a typographical
            error? In  two books (Louis never got the final editions), I
            explained the  Jack and Jill Formula: J-J deals with Alpha &
            Diana, Book  E is on Omega, but ``Q'' is something else, not
            found in  Heavenly Bridegrooms  (N.Y., 1918),  edited by Dr.
            Theodore  Schroeder,   nor  in  any  other  thing  by  ``Ida
            C[raddock]'', nor  in anything authored by Aleister Crowley,
            published or  not, nor  in any of my own writings, public or
            private. WAW's  Essay on  #43 in  my Book CHAM (2nd Edition,
            June, 1976) goes no farther than Substance of J-J & E, omits
            their Technic  and does not discuss ``Q''. Need I say More?;
            (5) Page  53, Louis  gives Chapter  I of  Liber Al vel Legis
            with some  of his  own comment. Revised exegesis by Crowley,
            himself, fills  a volume  of 224  single-spaced  typewritten
            pages, plus  index - please permit me a word or two. Therion
            admits that Liber Trigrammaton is unsatisfactory solution of
            II, 55, but in latest editions of my Book Y (See also CHAM),
            I have  out the  correct 27 attributions - i.e., the ``order
            and value of the English Alphabet.'' In another instruction,
            I explained  II, 76!; (6) Page 105 - Since we parted company
            circa 1936, Culling, of course was n'au courant pas my books
            G-W and B-W (See Page 97 of Provenance) & CHAM, 1st edition,
            never published  before April  1940. Other  errata are  less
            important, some  omission, perhaps reserved for later, e.g.,
            no mention  of  such  effectual  occult  exercises  as  P-W.
            Finally -  except for  incompleteness and  obsolescence, the
            ``Curriculum'' has  merit -  read it,  shows a  heap of hard
            work, utmost sincerity and loyalty! How could I possibly put
            down (Page 2):

            ``Well the  Frater ...Genesthai,  C.F. Russell, as a teacher
            in Practicing  Magick, was,  without question,  the greatest
            genius of  this Century,  or several  past centuries  that I
            have been able to trace.''

                                      ``Lay''

            Exegete recension  on the important I, 51 about entering and
            standing on  the floor  of the  Palace (see  my Siao Shu Jun
            Koong, June,  1955), stresses  what succeeds  ``therefore'',
            endeavoring to explain the text with ten single-spaced pages
            of  Anti-Christian  triage  and  advocacy  of  the  Scribe's
            personal, sacred  fetishism and without dealing specifically
            with the ``means and means'' marked by the minister of Hoor-
            Paar-Kraat, except  actually to ``confound the space-marks''
            here and in the seventeen page explanation of next verse, I,
            52, threatening ``direful judgments'', Ra-Hoor-Khuit has for
            those who  do that very thing! Scholarship demands the whole
            context, which  since it  runs on the same theme through 224












            pages, can't  be reproduced  here, ``therefore'' study Q for
            further enlightenment  - obviously  ``Aiwass'' was not about
            to shed Light on Q, provided He could!

            Truth is best served by a twelve-fold survey of the subject,
            or a succinct summation - poetic license oft can hinder more
            than help,  but on one has yet ascribed accurately all human
            activities to  the Signs  of the Zodiac, although a big step
            has been  made by Dr. Rudolf Steiner in his four lectures in
            Berlin -  20 to  23  January,  1914,  on  Human  and  Cosmic
            Thought,  q.v.,  and  Dr.  Eugen  Kolisko,  M.D.,  in  Three
            Fundamental Problems;  no room  here except for suggestions,
            their solutions  of continuity  supplying shocks to surprise
            scholastic recidivivism  reincarnated among us. Shortness of
            breath puts period here.

            ``For  brevity   is  very   good,  when  w'are  or  are  not
            understood''
                                    Butler, Hudibras, Canto I, line 669.

            No question  about  consecration  in  the  Ritual  (I,  65);
            Crowley's 17  page lectures on his favorite topic is as good
            as elsewhere,  but no gloss on ``space-marks;'' verily these
            may be  the wounds  to terrorize the Old Aeonities - gaps to
            clot rather than thresholds to cross from the Age of Gabriel
            to that of Michael.

            Form must agree with Substance (Page 97) - see also Intro to
            Book CHAM  (2nd ed.),  page xiii - ``CHHING LOI JU YUN''; in
            this new  epoch, our  job is  to do wide-awake what hitherto
            was done  well only  when self-conscious  - asleep,  did not
            interfere. On  Page 120  of The  Great Beast,  John  Symonds
            touts Chapter  36 of  the Book  of Lies  ... (falsely called
            BREAKS) as  ``inadvertent'' disclosure urging Theodore Reuss
            to  induce   Crowley  to   join  O.T.O.  But  beyond  secret
            instructions, this is not A.C.'s most explicit - to wit, the
            Apep Rite  in Vol.  I, No.  7 of  The Equinox (March, 1912).
            Anticipating what may appear elsewhere, note that the ``Star
            Ruby'' is  clear and candid, as I have annotated it, whereas
            the ``Star  Sapphire'', although analeptic, is ambiguous! In
            conjunction with  the printed  evidence, Symonds  had enough
            documentary  to   untangle  twisted  chronology  (page  113,
            supra);  anyway,  we  praise  him  for  the  ne  plus  ultra
            exposition referred  to above,  and later  on in 1958 in The
            Magic of  Aleister Crowley,  page 96 ssq, where the informed
            public, sympathetic  or not,  fairly, further  can judge and
            not quibble  about who,  when, and  where, which  needlessly
            cloud  characin   character  of   the  what,   plainly   and
            penetratingly permeating the Paris Working, ably outlined in
            the bewitching  prose of John Symonds. The Latin invocations
            of Hermes  (Mercury), and  Zeus (Jupiter)  are available, if
            you enjoy  mumbo jumbo  as O.S.V.  and L.T.  did,  but  less
            pompously you  might prefer  - [follows  two pages of purely
            personal poetry, not here reproduced - see Part II].












                                     ``Arcana''

            Ordinary invective  is  emotionally  clothed  argumentum  ad
            hominem, the  losing disputant's resort. Adequate refutation
            must deal  with the  whole context, point by point, occupies
            much space and time, is tedious, dull and usurps more energy
            than  subject  deserves.  Extraordinary  abuse  is  rational
            invention of  vituperation, often  profane and  obscene,  to
            test the  victim's Znuz. III, 59: ``As brothers fight ye!'';
            II, 59-60: ``Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a
            King concealed!  Say you  so? Fool!  If he  be a  King, thou
            canst not  hurt him.  Therefore! strike hard and low, and to
            hell with  them, Master!'' This wise procedure is adopted by
            Fraternities in  initiatory Rites  and by  psychiatrists  in
            group therapy.  As the  great Harry  Truman said:  ``If  you
            can't stand  the heat,  get out  of the  kitchen!'' Maturity
            will treat insults for what they strictly are - declarations
            of love!  Love is  a form  of insanity - to be in love is an
            ordeal of Initiation! Symonds (Page 194 of The Great Beast):

            ``The Confessions,  or Autohagiography, of Aleister Crowley,
            written with  an eye  to publication, only skims the surface
            of his  deeds and  thoughts; there  the story  of The  Beast
            seems a  mere shadow-play compared with the full tide of his
            priapic cries in The Magical Record.''

            I ought  to know,  having copies them all up to date as part
            of my  job as  his secretary!  Add to  that the  Diaries  of
            others concerned,  and autograph  in Liber Legis given me on
            leaving the Abbey, and mutual correspondence after my return
            to the  U.S. (in  one letter,  he tried  to get me to spy on
            Jones) (in  another, he  wanted  me  to  finance  reprinting
            Snowdrops), and  the high  praise in  the same text with the
            accusations, and  you will  get a  synthetic viewpoint  from
            which to  realize that  whatever scolding  exists vents  and
            hides the  agony of a grief-stricken lover. To me it was and
            is no  big deal; the small part of my life meshed with A.C.,
            though larger  and later  than the  fifth year episode (page
            23) did  not ruin  me in any way and taught me a lot! Please
            allow my  own allusions, conducive to a broader perspective,
            the same  license advocated in his II, 60 and don't ``make a
            great miss''  (II, 27)  about the  provocation! On  the wall
            above the wide bed on the floor of the Couchemar was a small
            plaque engraved  with six  words, the  initial letter of the
            fourth was variable, it could be an N or an H:

                          ``ALYS CUSACK IS -to at HOME!''

            Unfortunately for her, she was not my type; for me there was
            never the  physical fascination  presumably evoked  in Alain
            Lutily and Fra. ...L.T., who in time outgrew it.

            As to  Chess,  although  I  did  adhere  to  the  prescribed
            curriculum (in  Provenance Continuation  indeed you see many












            items acquired later, until I discovered the great secret of
            Chess which is simply this: for every move of your opponent,
            make the  correct adjustment, defensive or offensive, as the
            case may be. In games now, I always take Black, which forces
            the other  to cut  bait and  fish, or  else stew  in his own
            juice, depending on his Virtue) even then to beat Crowley, I
            did  not   need  to   study  outmoded   textbooks  (full  of
            misprints)! In practice, when about to lose he had the habit
            of tipping  over the  board, or  else The  Great Wild  Beast
            would stand up suddenly without a word of apology, and stalk
            of to  perform pressing  business in  another place  -  more
            often than not the pharmaceutical shelf. Kipling's masterful
            exposition in  Stalky &  Co of sportsmanship would not claim
            its most  conspicuous champion  here. Pari  passu recall his
            ruthlessness  in   playing  the   version  of  Fives  called
            ``Thelema;''  the   words  used  in  scoring  were  easy  to
            remember, as  well as  shocking -  but there was no referee!
            Once upon  a time,  showing off  the power of his memory and
            imagination, he  played with me a game of chess blindfolded,
            pulling the  covers up over his head while I sat at the desk
            in the  corner telling the moves as we made them. My mistake
            was in  not recording  them! In  the  end  game,  respective
            positions did not match; he said it was my fault for stating
            some  move  wrongly  -  so  the  game  was  called  off.  By
            continuing it,  he would  have been  mated in  short  order!
            Later on,  while making-up  the bed  (one of  my chores as a
            Chela), lo  and behold, under his pillow (How could he be so
            stupid as  to leave  it there?)  a miniature, portable chess
            set, peg-pieces  and all! On Page 875 of the Confessions, he
            writes: ``unless  one played  to win,  there was no point in
            playing at  all,'' but  my notion of winning did not justify
            cheating!

            Chronology of  the ``Rock  Retirement'' is  tangled  in  the
            published books:  compare page  872 of the Confessions, with
            page 175  of the Great Beast by Symonds. On his way to swim,
            carrying a  towel and  a cane, unusual - perhaps he forgot I
            was not a coolie - he issued his ultimatum. But the ``turnip
            with blood-shot  eyes'' (I  love you  too!) was not ``out of
            the room by six o'clock'' nor ``By six o'clock was he in his
            new quarters.''  Symonds correctly  says: ``The  Beast  came
            back from  his swim,  and finding  Fiat Lux  (not my magical
            name, so  who can  say, except  L.T.C.,  that  this  jumbled
            jarvel belongs to me?) still adamant, retired to his room to
            ponder on  the situation.'' The anecdotes are adventitiously
            adorned; the  unvarnished truth  is strange  enough and more
            sensational than any tea table talk!

            Similar appraisal  applies  to  remarks  about  the  Cocaine
            Experiment (Page  871 of  Confessions; page 163 of The Great
            Beast). ``The  naval surgeons  managed to  save his  life.''
            Nonsense! There was only one, my friend, Dr. P. (who refused
            to accept  the manufactured evidence of an iodine spot on my
            right arm,  but kindly  consented to cooperate by signing me












            to the  hospital -  he did nothing else, not even to make an
            injection of morphine, where I had a ball with the nurses in
            an isolation  ward waiting  for my  discharge, which was the
            purpose of  the whole  scheme.) The  war was over; as was my
            custom, I  had reached  the top  grade I  could get  in  the
            foreseeable future,  I had  served my  country well - out of
            the hundreds  of flu patients in my charge, I lost only one.
            I labored  hard while  my superiors slept, my preparation of
            cod-liver-oil emulsion  was  so  good  that  every  examinee
            copped some to put out as his own - not the category for any
            more,  but  handled  some  tasks  efficiently  which  others
            avoided and  got the  credit of  being the venereal victims'
            best friend!  It was  not easy  to offset  my most excellent
            reputation and  unimpeachable character, so I had to cook up
            something weird  and against  my  known  grain  to  make  me
            undesirable,  so  I  could  get  out.  One  week  after  the
            Armistice  was  declared  I  made  it!  Don't  confide  your
            intrigues, even  to close  friends, they  often  change  the
            attitude towards  you when  it suits them - even a Master is
            not always  to be  trusted! But some did tacitly acquiesce -
            the Admiral  sympathized and  went along. Crowley says (page
            871 of  the Confessions):  ``His experiment,  if intended to
            escape notice,  failed.'' Do  I read here that even he had a
            faint inkling of the truth?

            Now, regarding  the Rock,  I will  not polish  up my  Record
            (which I have) as did ``John St. John'' (Vol I, No. 1 of The
            Equinox),  nor   asterisk  gaps  my  poetical  genius  can't
            fill.Note the  consistency of  that decoy  (Page 840  of the
            Confessions):

            ``The meditation of this afternoon resulted in an Initiation
            so stupendous  that I  dare not  hint at its Word. It is the
            supreme secret of a Magus, and it is so awful that I tremble
            even now  - two  hours later,  and more  - 2:20 P.M. was the
            time -  as I write concerning it. In a single instant, I had
            the Key  to the  whole Chinese [After years of practice with
            the Yi  King, he  did not  know the secret of that - see 2nd
            ed. of  my Book  CHAM] Wisdom.  In  the  light  -  momentary
            glimpse as  it was  - of this truth, all systems of religion
            and philosophy  become absolutely puerile - The secret comes
            along the Path of Aleph to Chokmah. I could write it plainly
            in a  few words  of one  syllable, and most people would not
            even notice it ...''

            There is more, but I think you will get the point!

            I found the secret of Thelema and hinted at it in one volume
            of my  diary - but he did not catch on, or he would not have
            been pleased  - see  below about Jones. Also, reflect on the
            Chapter The Ipsissimus, The Great Beast, Page 165:

            ``I swore to keep silence, so long as I live, about the fact
            of my attainment.''












            That's why  he recorded the details? Else you might miss the
            point?! Horse  shit! Again,  in his essay, The Psychology of
            Hashish (reprinted by Regardie in Roll Away the Stone):

            ``I sat  up all  one  night  embodying  the  essence  of  my
            knowledge in this.''

            Here, as  elsewhere, he  interprets transcendental  trances,
            but in  purely intellectual terms, by no means inspired, and
            not very  scholarly at  that!  Crowley's  acquaintance  with
            Samadhi and  up seems  to be on a par with his comprehension
            of the nature of Cannabis, in fact, poisonous and peculiarly
            effective because prematurely developed.

            Part I  of Book  4 and  Eight Lectures  on Yoga are built up
            from the  whole cloth of hearsay, and do not reach the heart
            of even  that subject!  My summary  that Magick was a peg on
            which to hang his authoring, is well considered. Combination
            of magical  and literary  talents in the same person is rare
            but not  impossible. Science  knows  how  the  investigative
            instrument can  distort any  discovery; we  can thank  those
            like Houdini  and John  Scarne who do their utmost to expose
            charlatanry  and  self-deception  which  would  deceive  the
            world.  Authentic  Spiritual  Science  Itself  has  built-in
            safeguards; if  you are  there you  get there  by the  right
            Path, and  you can  make no  error, and  will be  careful to
            communicate what  you learn!  Widespread won't  to cross the
            Threshold with  out facing-up to the Guardian is responsible
            mostly for  Occultism's bad  repute. Emphasize  that if  you
            ignore the  Guardian, you don't know yourself! Like a lot of
            works of Nietzsche, and W.W., most of A.C.'s were written by
            the Devil. Everyone who enters the Path must be Tempted; not
            all overcome!

            Achad (Jones) was a favorite and most faithful disciple, his
            ``son'' for  who he wrote Liber Aleph (he wrote Liber Samekh
            for Progradior, Bennett) - for me he wrote an inscription in
            my copy  of the Bagh-I-Muattar! At first he obtained results
            which supported  A.C.s  claim  of  supernaturalness  of  the
            ``Book of  the Law'' and was welcomed to the Grade of Master
            of the  Temple. Later,  with the  same qabalistic  keys,  he
            transcended that  stage to  open the  door wider  than  A.C.
            wanted it. Therion showed me communications from Jones:

            ``Do you  know him  better than  I do,  what do you think of
            this?''

            wanting me  to agree  that Achad  had flipped  his  lid.  My
            honest  judgment   was  that  both  had  blown  their  tops!
            Accepting the rebuff with good grade, Jones slowed his pace,
            so as  not to  outrun the  Leader, but  put hit keen mind to
            work on  the foundations,  and this was the beginning of the
            end of  a beautiful  partnership. Something similar happened
            to  me,   and  explains   paragraph  on   page  874  of  the












            Constitution. Commenting  something in one of my diaries, he
            wrote:

            ``This is remarkable as revealing knowledge belonging to the
            most exalted Grade''.

            yet coming  down to  what demands  less depth of acuity, but
            might become public, he would with mock humility write:

            ``Even after  he had  regained sanity  in most  matters,  he
            clung to  the conviction  that his adventure on the Rock had
            initiated him  to a Grade far superior to mine. I should, of
            course, have  been only  too glad  if this had happened. The
            decaying debris  of my  Oedipus complex  still  stinks,which
            stink being interpreted may have rendered in English, `How I
            with I  had someone  to go  to, a  man like  myself, not  an
            Angel, whose  humanity would  understand and sympathize with
            my weakness  and weariness,  and on  whose shoulders I might
            shift at  least a  little of  the  responsibility  which  is
            breaking my back' ''!

            This  was   written  not  after  the  fact,  but  rather  in
            anticipation, for  never did  I declare any such conviction.
            Best  to   eradicate  competition   before   it   stars   by
            discrediting it  reductio ad  absurdam. But  polemics  prove
            nothing; I offer all this merely as food for thought. Adepts
            do not  debate teach  other in  public (or in private) about
            their respective  attainments! The layman would be justified
            in crying:  ``A pox  on both your houses''! My compulsion is
            simply to  rub grains  of salt  in the  wounds made  in  the
            Beautiful Body of Truth by which you may meet here or there.
            The proof  of my  own pudding, if you can eat and digest it,
            will be  whether or  not it can fortify your body, soul, and
            spirit, and  help you  accomplish The  Great Work.  It is my
            opinion that  the only  chapters of  this attempt of Memoirs
            with any  permanent worth at all are VII and XV (so far!) If
            the rest  is bait,then  in swallowing  the husk  you may get
            hooked on the fruit!

                       Misit in ignotam qui rude semem humum (Ov.Tr.3,8)




















