eight lectures on yoga A. ..A . .. Publication in Class B. eight lectures on BY ALEISTER CROWLEY (MAHATMA GURU SRI PARAMAHANSA SHIV AJI) being THE EQUINOX VOLUME III, NUMBER FOUR An. IIIxxi GIN:::::: ISSUED BY THE O.T.O. in association with NEW FALCON PUBLICATIONS New Falcon Publications 7025 FirstAvenue,#5,Scottsdale,Az 85251 USA Also published in cloth by 93 Publishing Limited JAF Box 7865 New York, NY IOII6-4634 ©I939 Ordo Templi Orientis. Revised edition ©I99I Ordo Templi Orientis All rights reserved. First edition published in 1939 EV by Ordo Templi Orientis, London. This second revised edition published in 199 I by Ordo Templi Orientis, International Headquarters, JAF Box 7666, New York, NY 101 16 USA. ISBN 1-56184-007-6 Printed in the United States of America. The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials Z39.48-I984 contents Foreword 7 YOGA FOR YAHOOS First Lecture. First Principles 13 Second Lecture. Yama 23 Third Lecture. Niyama 33 Fourth Lecture. Asana and PratJ,ayama 47 YOGA FOR YELLOWBELLIES First Lecture 65 Second Lecture 79 Third Lecture 97 Fourth Lecture 107 Editorial Notes 121 Index 125 Foreword to the Second Edition Do what thou wilt shall be the whole if the LAw. MEISTER CROWLEY WAS AMONG THE FIRST EUROPEANS TO STUDY, practice and teach Yoga. Before the turn of the last century, what little was known of Yoga in the West was largely due to the Theosophical Society. Crowley credited its founder H. P. Blavatsky with opening up the East, but had far less sympathy for her successors; he was only half joking when he defined "Theos ophist" as "a person who talks about Yoga, but does no work. "19 Several Theosophical editions of Pataiijali's Aphorisms had appeared, but Swami Vivekananda's Raja Yoga (1897) first intro duced Yoga to a wider public.2 Within a few years Dr. Carl Kellner, a German high-grade freemason and student of Yoga, founded the Ordo T empli Orientis with the aim of synthesizing the esoteric traditions of East and West. 3 Crowley would become the British head of the O.T.O. in 1912, and world head in 1923. It was in this climate of fin de siecle spiritual ferment that Aleister Crowley met the man who would become his preceptor in Yoga. Allan Bennett was a leading member of the English magical cofraternity, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.4 Crowley entered the G.D. in 1898, meeting Bennett in the spring of 1899. Both magicians were young men in their twenties, and Bennett came to share Crowley's London fiat, where he tutored Crowley in ceremonial magic. Bennett soon relocated to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), both for reasons of health, and to pursue his interest in Yoga and Buddhism. Crowley's earliest training in Yoga began not in London, nor in the East, but in Mexico, where in 1900 he was indoctrinated in simple but effective techniques for training the mind. Crowley would later classify these techniques as Raja Yoga, but it is