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-
- BAPHOMET XI°
-
- Liber CVI
-
- {Book 106}
-
- Concerning Death
-
- This Epistle first appeared in The International, and its appearance
- here is dedicated to the late Frater Superior Hymenaeus Alpha 777 X°
- O.T.O.--H.B.
-
- AN EPISTLE OF BAPHOMET to the Illustrious Dame Anna Wright,
- Companion of the Holy Graal, shining like the moon, concerning Death,
- that she and her sisters may bring comfort to all them that are nigh
- death, and unto such as love them.
-
- Beloved Daughter and Sister,
-
- Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
-
-
- Let it be thy will and the will of all them that tend upon the sick,
- to comfort and to fortify them with these words following.
-
- I
-
-
- IT IS WRITTEN in The Book of the Law: Every man and every woman is a
- Star. It is Our Lady of the Stars that speaketh to thee, O thou that
- art a star, a member of the Body of Nuith! Listen, for thine ears
- become dulled to the mean noises of the earth; the infinite silence of
- the Stars woos thee with subtile musick. Behold her bending down above
- thee, a flame of blue, all-touching, all-penetrant, her lovely hands
- upon the black earth, and her lithe body arched for love, and her soft
- feet not hurting the little flowers, and think that all thy grossness
- shall presently fall from thee as thou leapest to her embrace, caught
- up into her love as a dewdrop into the kisses of the sunrise. Is not
- the ecstasy of Nuit the consciousness of the continuity of existence,
- the omnipresence of her body? All that hath hurt thee was that thou
- knewest it not, and as that fadeth from thee thou shalt know as never
- yet how all is one. Again She saith: I give unimaginable joys upon
- earth, certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death. This thou hast
- known. Time that eateth his children hath not power on them that would
- not be children of Time. To them that think themselves immortal, that
- dwell alway in eternity, conscious of Nuit, throned upon the chariot
- of the sun, there is no death that men call death. In all the universe
- darkness is only to be found in the shadow of a gross and opaque
- planet, as it were for a moment; the universe itself is a flood of
- light eternal. So also death is but through accident; thou hast hidden
- thyself in the shadow of thy gross body, and taking it for reality,
- thou hast trembled. But the orb revolveth anon; the shadow passeth
- away from thee. There is the dissolution, and the eternal ecstasy in
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- the kisses of Nu! For inasmuch as thou hast made the Law of Freedom
- thine, as thou hast lived in Light and Liberty and Love, thou hast
- become a Free-man of the City of the Stars.
-
- II
-
-
- LISTEN AGAIN to thine own voice within thee. Is not Hadit the flame
- that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star? Is
- not He Life, and the giver of Life? And is not therefore the knowledge
- of Him the knowledge of Death? For it hath been shown unto thee in
- many other places how Death and Love be twins. Now art thou the
- hunter, and Death rideth beside thee with his horse and spear as thou
- chasest thy Will through the forests of Eternity, whose trees are the
- hair of Nuit thy mistress! Thrill with the joy of life and death!
- Know, hunter mighty and swift, the quarry turns to bay! Thou hast but
- to make one sharp thrust, and thou hast won. The Virgin of Eternity
- lies supine at thy mercy, and thou art Pan! Thy death shall be the
- seal of the promise of our agelong love. Hast thou not striven to the
- inmost in thee? Death is the crown of all. Harden! Hold up thyself!
- Lift thine head! breathe not so deep--die!
-
- III
-
-
- OR ART THOU STILL ENTANGLED with the thorny plaits of wild briar rose
- that thou hast woven in thy magick dance on earth? Art not thine eyes
- strong enough to bear the starlight? Must thou linger yet awhile in
- the valley? Must thou dally with the shadows in the dusk? Then if it
- be Thy Will, thou hast no right but to do Thy Will! Love still these
- phantoms of the earth; thou hast made thyself a King; if it please
- thee to play with toys of matter, were they not made to serve thy
- pleasure? Then follow in thy mind the wondrous word of the St^ele of
- Revealing itself. Return if thou wilt from the abode of the Stars;
- dwell with mortality, and feast thereon. For thou art this day Lord of
- Heaven and of Earth.
-
- ``The dead man Ankh-f-na-Khonsu
-
- Saith with his voice of truth and calm:
-
- O thou that hast a single arm!
-
- O thou that glitterest in the moon!
-
- I weave thee in the spinning charm
-
- I lure thee with the billowy tune.
-
- The dead man Ankh-f-na-Khonsu
-
- Hath parted from the darkling crowds
-
- Hath joined the dwellers of the light
-
- Opening Duant, the star-abodes,
-
- Their keys receiving.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- The dead man Ankh-f-na-Khonsu
-
- Hath made his passage into night
-
- His pleasure on the earth to do
-
- Among the living.''
-
- Love is the law, love under will.
-
-
- The Benediction of the All-Begetter, All-Devourer be upon thee.
-
- Baphomet X° O.T.O.
-
-
- Given under Our hand and seal this day of An XII the Sun our Father
- being in Leo, and the Moon in Pisces, from the throne of Ireland, Iona
- and all the Britains that is in the Sanctuary of the Gnosis.