Aleister Crowley on Atheists

Atheists are of three kinds.

1. The mere stupid man.  (Often he is very clever, as Bolingbroke, Bradlaugh and Foote were  clever).  He has found out one of the minor arcana, and hugs it and despises those who see more than himself, or who regard things from a different standpoint.  Hence he is usually a bigot, intolerant even of tolerance.

2. The despairing wretch, who, having sought God everywhere, and failed to find Him, thinks everyone else is as blind as he is, and that if he has  failed—he, the seeker after truth!—it is because there is no goal.  In his cry there is pain, as with the stupid kind of atheist there is smugness and self-satisfaction.  Both are diseased Egos.

3. The philosophical adept, who, knowing God, says “There is No God,” meaning, “God is Zero,” as qabalistically He is.  He holds atheism as a philosophical speculation as good as any other, and perhaps less likely to mislead mankind and do other practical damage as any other. Him you may know by his equanimity, enthusiasm, and devotion.  I again refer to Liber 418 for an explanation of this mystery. The nine religions are crowned by the ring of adepts whose password is “There is No God,” so inflected that even the Magister when received among them had not wisdom to interpret it.

1. Mr Daw, K.C.: M’lud, I respectfully submit that there is no such creature as a peacock

2. Oedipus at Colonus: Alas! there is no sun!  I, even I, have looked and found it not.

3. Dixit Stultus in corde suo: “Ain Elohim.”

There is a fourth kind of atheist, not really an atheist at all.  He is but a traveller in the Land of No God, and knows that it is but a stage on his journey—and a stage, moreover, not far from the goal.  Daath is not on the Tree of Life; and in Daath there is no God as there is in the Sephiroth, for Daath cannot understand unity at all.  If he thinks of it, it is only to hate it, as the one thing which he is most certainly not (see Liber 418, 10th Æthyr.  I may remark in passing that this book is the best known to me on Advanced Qabalah, and of course it is only intelligibile to Advanced Students).

This atheist, not in-being but in-passing, is a very apt subject for initiation.  He has done with the illusions of dogma.  From a Knight of the Royal Mystery he has risen to understand with the members of the Sovereign Sanctuary that all is symbolic; all, if you will, the Jugglery of the Magician.  He is tired of theories and systems of theology and all such toys; and being weary and anhungered and athirst seeks a seat at the Table of Adepts, and a portion of the Bread of Spiritual Experience, and a draught of the wine of Ecstasy.

Excerpt from the book 777 and Other Qabalistic Writings.

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