Gareth Knight > Quotes

“The Revolutionaries of all times have not known that anarchy, being the conflict of Lusts and the fatal reign of Violence, substitutes might for right, and paves the way ever for the rule of the most audaciously criminal.”
― Gareth Knight, Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism

“The initiation undergone by St. John of the Cross was a very high one, and one which Crowley fancied himself to have taken. He makes much of ‘The Wastelands’ and ‘Babe of the Abyss’ and one of his groups was called the Order of the Silver Star after the title of the Tarot Trump of this Path.
But initiation is not merely a question of knowing the externals of symbolism, it is a state of being, and anyone can judge for themselves the extent of Crowley’s real condition by comparing his writings with those of St. John of the Cross, who achieved without any advanced knowledge of symbols, secret or otherwise, but purely by faith and spiritual will. An even more revealing and damning analysis would be to compare their lives. It seems necessary to emphasise this, not so much for the doubtful pleasure of kicking a man who is already down, but in order to act as a warning to the many who tend to injure themselves by trying to follow the Crowley system without sufficient knowledge of its pitfalls — some of which, sad to say, seem deliberately placed, either through malice or a misplaced sense of humour.”
― Gareth Knight

“Some may feel that no criticism can be made of real religious Faith, and this is true, it is the folly of the faith in dogmatic authority that is at issue really, and needs only the memory of Galileo to serve as an example, though there are countless other examples, particularly in modern political faiths from Liberal laissez-faire to Marxist determinism. In our day it is more the authority of science and reason that has replaced the ecclesiastic authority, though the pendulum is beginning now, in the middle of the twentieth century, to move back towards the equilibrium point, and doubtless, human nature being what it is, will eventually swing to the irrational side, and then back again, and back again, and back again, and back again, until humanity achieves some semblance of permanent balance in its outlook —or even stops being the dupe of external authority.”
― Gareth Knight, Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism

“The past does have a romantic glow for many people though and to such we must give the reminder that an upstart bully of a Roman officer is no more glamorous than his modern West Point or Sandhurst counterpart; similarly, a scheming Egyptian priest of Amon-Ra or Osiris is little different from his modern counterpart jockeying for a sinecure in the church. Not that all military officers are vain bullies or all priests ambitious schemers of course — far from it—but the point is that ancient folly is no more commendable or exciting than modern folly.”
― Gareth Knight, Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism

“An Angel is a perfect entity, it does not evolve. In a way, the lesser Angels are divine automata. In this they are superior to man but they do not have man's potentialities. Man has plucked the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which makes him potentially a God, though only after a long period of travail being strung halfway between the condition of the Angels and the beasts. Man's Path is one of the equilibrium between the opposites, forging the pattern of his humanity. The bestial type of person is really no worse than the one who deviates to the side of the Angels and is 'too good to be true' - in fact the latter can be even more, and literally, inhumane. The glyph of the Pillars is very much of personal as well as Universal application.”
― Gareth Knight, A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism