Holy Guardian Angel: Encyclopedia II - Holy Guardian Angel - Variations in Crowley's view of the HGA

Holy Guardian Angel - Variations in Crowley's view of the HGA

Crowley only espouses a view that the HGA is the 'silent self' in his early life. In his seventies, when composing Magick without Tears, he presents a completely different and diametrically opposed view. According to this definition, the HGA is not one's 'self', but an independent and discrete being, who may have been a human like oneself at one stage:

"Now, on the other hand, there is an entirely different type of angel; and here we must be especially careful to remember that we include gods and devils, for there are such beings who are not by any means dependent one one particular element for their existence. They are microcosms in exactly the same sense as men and women are. They are individuals who have picked up the elements of their composition as possibility and convenience dictates, exactly as we do ourselves... I believe that the Holy Guardian Angel is a Being of this order. He is something more than a man, possibly a being who has already passed through the stage of humanity, and his peculiarly intimate relationship with his client is that of friendship, of community, of brotherhood, or Fatherhood. He is not, let me say with emphasis, a mere abstraction from yourself; and that is why I have insisted rather heavily that the term "Higher Self" implies "a damnable heresy and a dangerous delusion." - Crowley, Magick Without Tears

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Variations in Crowley's view of the HGA", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki