Lust of Result
(Revision as of 03:09, 26 Mar 2005)
Lust of Result refers to expecting a specific result of an effort, ritual, or other magical action so that the pre-conceived result affects what you perceive to be the outcome. Because magick will often—if not usually—yield results different from what the adept expects, to imagine a certain result may prevent the adept from recognizing the true result from a magical operation.
References in Aleister Crowley's Writings
The term "lust of result" first appears in Crowley's writings in the First Chapter of The Book of the Law:
- For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect. (AL I:44)
In the Old and New Commentaries, Crowley expanded slightly on the concept:
- This verse [I:44] is best interpreted by defining "pure will" as the true expression of the nature, the proper or inherent motion of the matter, concerned. It is unnatural to aim at any goal. (Commentaries, New Comment on I:44) (emphasis added)
The concept shows up throughout Crowley's other writings:
- And I laid my head against the Head of the Swan, and laughed, saying: Is there not joy ineffable in this aimless winging? Is there not weariness and impatience for who would attain to some goal? (Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente, II:24)
Lust of Result and the Holy Guardian Angel
Although the Lust of Result will color any working the Magician may attempt, it is most problematic when attempting to contact the "Astral Planes" and ultimately the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel:
- Each and every man therefore that will be a Magician must explore the Universe for himself. This is pre-eminently the case in the matter of the Astral Plane, because the symbols are so sensitive. Nothing is easier than to suggest visions, or to fashion phantasms to suit one's ideas. It is obviously impossible to communicate with an independent intelligence—the one real object of astral research—if one allows one's imagination to surround one with courtiers of one's own creation. If one expects one's visions to resemble those of the Master Therion, they are only too likely to do so; and if one's respect for Him induces one to accept such visions as authentic, one is being false to one's soul; the visions themselves will avenge it. The true Guide being gone, the seer will stray into a wilderness of terror where he is tricked and tortured; he will invoke his idol the Master Therion, and fashion in His image a frightful phantasm who will mock him in his misery, until his mind stagger and fall; and, Madness swooping upon his carrion, blast his eyes with the horror of seeing his Master dissolve into that appalling hallucination, the "Vision of THE DEMON CROWLEY!" (Book 4, Appendix III, Notes for an Astral Atlas p.504)
The adept is also warned against the Lust of Result in Liber Samekh, the ritual Crowley prescribes for attaining Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel:
- Let [the student] beware of the 'lust of result,' of expecting too much, of losing courage if his first success is followed by a series of failures. (Book 4, Appendix IV, Liber Samekh, p. 539)
References
- Crowley, Aleister. (1997). The Book of the Law [Liber AL vel Legis]. York Beach, Me. : S. Weiser.
- ____. (1997). Magick: Book 4. 2nd ed. York Beach, Me. : S. Weiser.
- ____. (1996). Commentaries on the Holy Books and Other Papers : the Equinox,IV(1). York Beach, Me. : S. Weiser.
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