There is a highly popular school of “occultists” which is 99 % an escape-mechanism.  The fear of death is one of the bogeys; but far deeper is the root-fear—fear of being alone, of being oneself, of life itself.  With this there goes the sense of guilt.  The Book of the Law cuts directly at the root of all this calamitous, this infamous tissue of falsehood.

What is the meaning of Initiation?  It is the Path to the realisation of your Self as the sole, the supreme, the absolute of all Truth, Beauty, Purity, Perfection!  What is the artistic sense in you?  What but the One Channel always open to you through which this Light flows freely to enkindle you (and the world through you) with flowers of inexhaustible fervour and flame?

-A. Crowley,  Magick Without Tears