Crowley on Existence

Crowley stated the following in Chapter V of Magick Without Tears.

A.  We are aware.

B.  We cannot doubt the existence (whether "real" or "illusory" makes no difference) of something, because doubt itself is a form of awareness.

C.  We lump together all that of which we are aware under the convenient name of "Existence", or "The Universe".  Cosmos is not so good for this purpose; that word implies "order", which in the present stage of our argument, is a mere assumption.

D.  We also tend to think of the Universe as containing things of which we are not aware; but this is altogether unjustifiable, although it is difficult to think at all without making some such assumption.  For instance, one may come upon a new branch of knowledge—say, histology or Hammurabi or the language of the Iroquois or the poems of the Hermaphrodite of Panormita.  It seems to be there all ready waiting for us; we simply cannot believe that we are making it all up as we go along.  For all that, it is sheer sophistry; we may merely be unfolding the contents of our own minds.  Then again, does a thing cease to exist if we forget it?  The answer is that one cannot be sure.

Personally, I feel convinced of the existence of an Universe outside my own immediate awareness; but it is true, even so, that it does not exist for me unless and until it takes its place as part of my consciousness.

E.  All this paragrpah D is in the nature of a digression, for what you may think of it does not at all touch the argument of this letter. But it had to be put in, just to prevent your mind from raising irrelevant objections.  Let me continue, then, from C.

F.  Something is.*  This something appears incalculably vast and complex.  How did it come to be?

This, briefly, is the "Riddle of the Universe," which has been always the first preoccupation of all serious philosophers since men began to think at all.

Bibliography

Crowley, Aleister. Magick Without Tears. Tempe, Arizona: New Falcon, 1991.