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- November 13, 1988 e.v. key entry by Bill Heidrick T.G. O.T.O.
- (c) O.T.O. NOT PROOFED!
- for special characters and alphabets. ---- This is an ASCII file
- Items in Curly Braces are Descriptions of Single Characters --Tony
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- Liber CXI vel {HB:Aleph } Aleph
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- The Book of Wisdom and Folly.
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- {Epsilon }{Pi }{Iota }{Sigma }{Tau }{Omicron }{Lambda }{Eta }
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- Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
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- --------------
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- Love is the law, love under will.
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- 666
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- AN X I V
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- Liber CXI vel {HB:Aleph } Aleph
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- The Book of Wisdom and Folly.
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- {Alpha }{Upsilon }{Tau }{Omicron }{Upsilon }{Gamma }{Epsilon }{Sigma }{Rho }{Alpha }{Mu }{Mu }{Alpha }{Tau }
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- Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
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- {alpha } A P O L O G I A
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- I have begotten thee, o my Son, and that strangle, as thou
- knowest, upon the Scarlet Woman called Hilarion, as it was
- mysteriously foretold unto me in "The Book of the Law." Now
- therefore that thou art come to the Age of Understanding, do
- thou give ear unto my Wisdom, for that therein lieth a simple
- and direct Way for every Man that he may attain to the End.
- Firstly, then, I would have thee to know that Spiritual
- Experience and Perfection have no necessary connection with
- Advancement in our Holy Order. But for each Man is a Path:
- there is a Constant, and there is a Variable. Seek ever
- therefore in thy Work of the Promulgation of the Law to
- discover in each Man his own true Nature, that
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- he may in due Season accomplish it not only for himself, but
- for all who are bound unto him. There are very many for whom
- in their present Incarnations this Great Work may be
- impossible; since their appointed Work may be in Satisfaction
- of some Magical Debt, or in Adjustment of some Balance, or in
- Fulfilment of some Defect. As is written: Suum Cuique.
- (Jedem das Seine.)
- Now because thou art the Child of my Bowels, I yearn
- greatly towards thee, o my Son, and I strive strongly with my
- Spirit that by my Wisdom I may make plain thy Way before thee;
- and thus in many Chapters will I write for thee those things
- that may profit thee.
- Sis benedictus.
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- {beta } DE ARTE KABBALISTIKA.
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- Do thou study most constantly, my Son, in the Art of the
- Holy Qabalah. Know that herein the Relations between Numbers,
- though they be mighty in Power and prodigal of Knowledge, are
- but lesser Things. For the Work is to reduce all other
- conceptions to these of Number, because thus thou wilt lay
- bare the very Structure of thy Mind, whose rule is Necessity
- rather than Prejudice. Not until the Universe is thus laid
- naked before thee canst thou truly anatomize it. The
- Tendencies of thy Mind lie deeper far than any Thought, for
- they are the Conditions and the Laws of Thought; and it is
- these that thou must bring to Nought.
- This Way is most sure; most sacred; and the Enemies thereof
- most awful, most sublime. It is for the Great Souls to enter
- on this Rigour and Austerity. To them the Gods themselves do
- Homage; for it is the Way of Utmost Purity.
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- {gamma } DE VITA CORRIGENDA.
-
- Know, son, that the true Principle of Self-Control is
- Liberty. For we are born into a World which is in Bondage to
- Ideals; to them we are perforce fitted, even as the Enemies to
- the Bed of Procrustes. Each of us, as he grows, learns
- Repression of himself and his true Will. "It is a lie, this
- folly against self.": these Words are written in "The Book of""
- ""the Law". So therefore these Passions in ourselves which we
- understand to be Hindrances are not part of our True Will, but
- diseased Appetites, manifest in us through false early
- Training. Thus the Tabus of savage Tribes in such matter as
- Love constrain that True Love which is born in us; and by this
- Constraint come ills of Body and Mind. Either the Force of
- Repression carries it, and creates Neuroses and Insanities; or
- the Revolt against that Force, breaking forth with Violence,
- involves Excesses and Extravagances. All these Things are
- Disorders, and against Nature. Now then learn of me the
- testimony of History and literature as a great Scroll of
- Learning. But the Vellum of the Scroll is of Man's Skin, and
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- its Ink of his Heart's Blood.
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- {delta } LEGRENDA DE AMORE.
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- The Fault, that is Fatality, in Love, as in every other
- Form of Will, is Impurity. It is not the Spontaneity there-of
- which worketh Woe, but some Repression in the Environment.
- In the Fable of Adam and Eve is this great Lesson taught by
- the Masters of the Holy Qabalah. For Love were to them the
- eternal Eden, save for the Repression signified by the Tree of
- the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Thus their Nature of Love was
- perfect; it was their Fall from that Innocence which drove
- them from the Garden.
- In the Love of Romeo and Juliet was no Flaw; but family
- Feud, which imported nothing to that Love, was its Bane; and
- the Rashness and Violence of their Revolt against that
- Repression, slew them.
- In the pure Outrush of Love in Desdemona for Othello was no
- Flaw; but his Love was marred by his consciousness of his Age
- and his Race, of the Prejudices of his Fellows and of his own
- Experience of Woman-Frailty.
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- {epsilon } GESTA DE AMORE.
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- Now as Literature overfloweth with the Murders of Love, so
- also doeth History, and the Lesson is ever the same.
- Thus the Loves of Abelard and of Heloise were destroyed by
- the System of Repression in which they chanced to move.
- Thus Beatrice was robbed of Dante by social
- Artificialities; and Paolo slain on account of Things external
- to his Love of Francesca.
- Then, per contra, Martin Luther, being a Giant of Will, and
- also the Eighth Henry of England, as a mighty King, bent them
- to overturn the whole World that they might have satisfaction
- of their Loves.
- And who shall follow them? For even now we find great
- Churchmen, Statesmen, Princes, Dramamakers, and many lesser
- Men, overwhelmed utterly and ruined by the conflict between
- their Passions and the Society about them. Wherein which
- Party errs is no matter of Moment for our Thought; but the
- Existence of the War is Evidence of Wrong done to Nature.
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- {digamma } UTIMA THESIS DE AMORE.
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- Therefore, o my Son, be thou wary, not bowing before the
- false Idols and ideals, yet not flaming forth in Fury against
- them, unless that be thy will.
- But in this Matter be prudent and be silent, discerning
- subtly and with acumen the nature of the Will within thee; so
- that thou mistake not Fear for Chastity, or Anger for Courage.
- And since the fetters are old and heavy, and thy Limbs
- withered and distorted by reason of their Compulsion, do thou,
- having broken them, walk gently for a little while, until the
- ancient Elasticity return, so that thou mayst walk, run, and
- leap naturally and with Rejoicing.
- Also, since these Fetters are as a Bond almost universal,
- be instant to declare the Law of Liberty, and the full
- Knowledge of all Truth that appertaineth to this Matter; for
- if in this only thou overcome, then shall all Earth be free,
- taking its Pleasure in Sunlight without Fear or Phrenzy. Amen.
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- {zeta } DE NATURA SUA PERCIPIENDA.
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- Understand,o my Son, in thy Youth, these Words which some
- wise One, now nameless, spake of old; except ye become as
- little Children ye shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of
- Heaven. This is to say that thou must first comprehend thine
- original Nature in every Point, before thou wast forced to bow
- before the Gods of Wood and Stone that Men have made, not
- comprehending the Law of Change, and of Evolution Through
- Variation, and the independent Value of every living Soul.
- Learn this also, that even the Will to the Great Work may
- be misunderstood of Men; for this Work must proceed naturally
- and without Overstress, as all true Works. Right also is that
- Word that the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence, and the
- violent take it by Force. But except thou be violent by
- Virtue of thy true Nature, how shalt thou take it? Be not as
- the Ass in the Lion's Skin; but if thou be born Ass, bear
- patiently thy Burdens, and enjoy thy Thistles; for an Ass
- also, as in the Fables of Apuleius and Matthaiss, may come to
- Glory in the Path of his own Virtue.
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- {eta } ALTERA DE VIA MATURAE.
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- Sayest thou (methinks) that here is a great Riddle, since
- by Reason of much Repression thou hast lost the Knowledge of
- thine original Nature?
- My son, this is not so; for by a peculiar Ordinance of
- Heaven, and a Disposition occult within his Mine, is every Man
- protected from this Loss of his own Soul, until and unless be
- be by Choronzon disintegrated and dispersed beyond power of
- Will to repair; as when the Conflict within him, rending and
- burning, hath made his Mind utterly desert, and his Soul
- Madness.
- Give Ear, give Ear attentively; the Will is not lost;
- though it be buried beneath a life-old midden of Repressions,
- for it persisteth vital within thee (is it not the true Motion
- of thine inmost Being?) and for all thy conscious Striving
- cometh forth by Night and by Stealth in Dream and Phantasy.
- Now is it naked and brilliant, now clothed in rich Robes of
- Symbol and Hieroglyph; but always travelleth it with thee upon
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- thy Path, ready to acquaint thee with thy true Nature, if thou
- attend unto its Word, its Gesture, or its Show of Imagery.
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- {theta } QUO MODO NATURA SUA EST LEGENDA.
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- Therefore deem not that thy lightest Fancy is
- insignificant. Thy most unconscious Acts are Keys to the
- Treasure-Chamber of thine own Palace, which is the House of
- the Holy Ghost. Consider well thy conscious Thoughts and
- Acts, for they are under the Dominion of thy Will, and moved
- in Accord with the Operation of thy Reason; this indeed is a
- necessary work, enabling to comprehend in what manner thou
- mayst adjust thyself to thine Environment. Yet is this
- Adaptation but Defence for the most Part, or at the best
- Subterfuge and Stratagem in the Tactics of thy Life, with but
- an accidental and subordinate Relation to thy true Will,
- whereof by Consciousness and by Reason thou mayst be ignorant,
- unless by Fortune great and rare thou be already harmonized in
- thyself, the Outer with the Inner, which Grace is not common
- among Men, and is the Reward of previous Attainment.
- Neglect not simple Introspections, therefore; but give yet
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- greater Heed unto those Dreams and Phantasies, those Gestures
- and Manners unconscious, and of undiscovered Cause, which
- betoken thee.
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- {kappa } DE SOMNISS. {alpha } CAUSA PER
- ACCIDENS.
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- As all diseases have two conjunct causes, one immediate,
- external and exciting, the other constitutional, internal, and
- predisposing, so it is with Dreams, which are Dis-Eases, or
- unbalanced States of Consciousness, Disturbers of Sleep as
- Thoughts are of Life.
- This exciting Cause is commonly of two kinds: videlicet,
- imprimis, the physical Condition of the Sleeper, as a Dream of
- Water caused by a shower without, or a Dream of Strangulation
- caused by a Dyspnoea, or a Dream of Lust caused by the seminal
- Congestions of an unclean Life, or a Dream of falling or
- flying caused by some unstable Equilibrium of Body.
- Secundo, the psychic condition of the Sleeper, the Dream
- being determined by recent Events in his Life, usually those
- of the Day previous, and especially such Events as have caused
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- Excitement of Anxiety, the more so if they be unfinished or
- unfulfilled.
- But this exciting Cause is of a superficial Nature, as it
- were a Cloke or a Mask; and thus it but lendeth Aspect to the
- other Cause, which lieth in the Nature of the Sleeper himself.
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- {kappa } DE SOMNIIS. {beta } CAUSA PER
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- The deep, constitutional, or predisposing Cause of Dreams
- lieth within the Jurisdiction of the Will itself. For that
- Will, being alway present, albeit (it may be) latent,
- discovereth himself when no longer inhibited by that conscious
- Control which is determined by Environment, and therefore oft
- times contrary to himself. This being so, the Will declareth
- himself, as it were in a Pageant, and showeth himself thus
- apparelled, unto the Sleeper, for a Warning or Admonition.
- Every Dream, or Pageant of Fancy, is therefore a Shew of Will;
- and Will being no more prevented by Environment or by
- Consciousness, cometh as a Conqueror. Yet even so he must
- come for the most Part throned upon the Chariot of the
- exciting Cause of the Dream, and therefore is his Appearance
- symbolic, like a Writing in Cipher, or like a Fable, or like a
- Riddle in Pictures. But alway does he triumph and fulfil
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- himself therein, for the Dream is a natural Compensation in
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- {lambda } DE SOMNIIS. {gamma } VESTIMENTA
- HORRORIS.
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- Now then if in a Dream the Will be always triumphant, how
- cometh it that a Man may be ridden of the Nightmare? And of
- this the true Explanation is that in such a case the Will is
- in Danger, having been attacked and wounded or corrupted by
- the Violence of some Repression. Thus the Consciousness of
- the Will is directed to the sore Spot, as in Pain, and seeketh
- comfort in an Externalisation, or shew, of that Antagonism.
- And because the Will is sacred, such dreams excite an Ecstacy
- or Phrenzy of Horror, Fear or Disgust. Thus the true Will of
- Oedipus was toward the bed of Jocasta, but the Tabu, strong
- both by Inheritance and by Environment, was so attached to
- that Will that his Dream concerning his Destiny was a Dream of
- Fear and of Abhorrence, his Fulfilment thereof (even in
- Ignorance) a spell to stir up all the subconscious Forces of
- all the People about him, and his Realization of the Act a
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- madness potent to drive him to self-inflicted Blindness and
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- {mu } DE SOMNIIS. {delta } SEQUENTIS.
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- Know firmly, o my son, that the true Will cannot err; for
- this is thine appointed course in Heaven, in whose order is
- Perfection.
- A Dream of Horror is therefore the most serious of all
- Warnings; for it signifieth that thy Will, which is Thy Self
- in respect of its Motion, is in Affliction and Danger. Thus
- thou must instantly seek out the Cause of that subconscious
- Conflict, and destroy thine Enemy utterly by bringing thy
- conscious Vigour as an Ally to that true Will. If then there
- be a Traitor in the Consciousness, how much the more is it
- necessary for thee to arise and extirpate him before he wholly
- infect thee with the divided Purpose which is the first Breach
- in that Fortress of the Soul whose Fall should bring it to the
- shapeless Ruin whose Name is Choronzon!
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- {nu } DE SOMNIIS. {epsilon } CLAVICULA.
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- The Dream delightful is then a Pageant of the Fulfilment of
- the true Will, and the Nightmare a symbolic Battle between it
- and its Assailants in thyself. But there can be only one true
- Will, even as there can be only one proper Motion in any Body,
- no matter of how many Forces that Motion be the Resultant.
- Seek therefore this Will, and conjoin with it thy conscious
- Self; for this is that which is written; "Thou hast no right
- but to do thy Will. Do that, and no other shall say nay."
- Thou seest, o my Son, that all conscious Opposition to thy
- Will, whether in Ignorance, or by Obstinacy, or through Fear
- of others, may in the end endanger even thy true Self, and
- bring thy Star into Disaster.
- And this is the true Key to Dreams; see that thou be
- diligent in its Use, and unlock therewith the secret Chambers
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- {xi } DE VIA PER EMPYRAEUM.
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- Concerning they Travellings in thy Body of Light, or
- Astral journeys and Visions so-called, do thou lay this Wisdom
- to thy Heart, o my Son, that in this Practice, whether Things
- Seen and Heard be Truth and Reality, or whether they be
- Phantoms in the Mind, abideth this Supreme Magical Value,
- namely: Whereas the Direction of such Journeys is consciously
- willed, and determined by Reason, and also unconsciously
- willed, by the true Self, since without It no Invocation were
- possible, we have here a Cooperation of Alliance between the
- Inner and the Outer Self, and thus an Accomplishment, at least
- partial, of the Great Work.
- And therefore is Confusion or Terror in any such Practice
- an Error fearful indeed, bringing about Obsession, which is a
- temporary or even it may be a permanent Division of the
- Personality, or Insanity, and therefore a defeat most fatal
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- and pernicious, a Surrender of the Soul to Choronzon.
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- {omicron } DE CULTU.
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- Now, o my Son, that thou mayst be well guarded against thy
- ghostly Enemies, do thou work constantly by the Means
- prescribed in our Holy Books.
- Neglect never the fourfold Adorations of the Sun in his
- four Stations, for thereby thou doest affirm thy Place in
- Nature and her Harmonies.
- Neglect not the Performance of the Ritual of the Pentagram,
- and of the Assumption of the Form of Hoor-pa Kraat.
- Neglect not the daily Miracle of the Mass, either by the
- Rite of the Gnostic Catholic Church, or that of the Phoenix.
- Neglect not the Performance of the Mass of the Holy Ghost,
- as Nature herself prompteth thee.
- Travel also much in the Empyrean in the Body of Light,
- seeking ever Abodes more fiery and lucid.
- Finally, exercise constantly the Eight Limbs of Yoga., And
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- {pi } DE CLAVIGULA SOMNIORUM.
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- And now concerning Meditation let me disclose unto thee
- more fully the Mystery of the Key of Dreams and Phantasies.
- Learn first that as the Thought of the Mind standeth before
- the Soul and hindereth its Manifestation in consciousness, so
- also the gross physical Will is the Creator of the Dreams of
- common Men, and as in Meditation thou doest destroy every
- Thought by mating it with its Opposite, so must thou cleanse
- thyself by a full and perfect Satisfaction of that bodily will
- in the Way of Chastity and Holiness which has been revealed
- unto thee in thy Initiation.
- This inner Silence of the Body being attained, it may be
- that the true Will may speak in True Dreams; for it is written
- that He giveth unto His Beloved in Sleep.
- Prepare thyself therefore in this Way, as a good Knight
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- {koppa } DE SOMNO LUCIDO.
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- Now know this also that at the End of that secret Way lieth
- a Garden wherein is a Rest House prepared for thee.
- For to him whose physical Needs of whatever Kind are not
- truly satisfied cometh a Lunar or physical Sleep appointed to
- refresh and recreate by Cleansing and Repose; but on him that
- is bodily pure the Lord bestoweth a Solar or Lucid Sleep,
- wherein move Images of pure Light fashioned by the True Will.
- And this is called by the Qabalists the Sleep of Shiloam, and
- of this doeth also Porphyry make mention mention, and Cicero,
- with many other Wise Men of Old Time.
- Compare, o my Son, with this Doctrine that which was taught
- thee in the Sanctuary of the Gnosis concerning the Death of
- the Righteous; and learn moreover that these are but
- particular Cases of an Universal Formula.
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- {rho } DE VENEMIS.
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- My Son, if thou fast ahwile, there shall come unto thee a
- second State of physiological Being, in which is a delight
- passive and equable, without Will, a contentment of Weakness,
- with a Feeling of Lightness and of Purity. And this is
- because the Blood hath absorbed, in its Need of Nutriment, all
- foreign Elements. Such also is the Case with the Mind which
- hath not fed itself on Thought. Consider the placid and
- ruminent Existence of such Persons as read little, are removed
- from worldy Struggle by some sufficient Property of small and
- unexciting Value, stably invested, and by Age and Environment
- are free from Passion. They live, according to their own
- Nature, without Desire, and they oppose no Resistance to the
- Operations of Time. Such are called Happy, and in their Way
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- {sigma } DE MOTU VITAE.
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- Learn then, o my Son, that all Phenomena are the effect of
- Conflict, even as the Universe itself is a Nothing expressed
- as the Difference of two Equalities, or, an thou wilt, as the
- Divorce of Nuith and Hadith. So therefore every Marriage
- dissolveth a more material, and createth a less material
- Complex; and this is our Way of Live, rising ever from Ekstacy
- to Ekstacy. So then all high Violence, that is to say, all
- Consciousness, is the spiritual Orgasm of a Passion between
- two lower and grosser Opposites. Thus Light and Heat result
- from the Marriage of Hydrogen and Oxygen; Love from that of
- Man and Woman, Dhyana or Ekstacy from that of the Ego and the
- non-Ego.
- But be thou well grounded in this Thesis corollary, that
- one or two such Marriages do but destroy for a Time the
- Exacerbation of any Complex; to deracinate such is a Work of
-
- long Habit and deep Search in Darkness for the Germ thereof.
- But this once accomplished, that particular Complex is
- destroyed, or sublimated for ever.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -22-
-
-
- {tau } DE MORBIS SANGUINIS.
-
-
- Now then understand that all Opposition to the Way of
- Nature createth Violence. If thine excretory System do its
- Function not at its fullest, there come Poisons in the Blood,
- and the Consciousness is modified by the conflicts or
- Marriages between the elements heterogeneous. Thus if the
- Liver be not efficient, we have Melancholy; if the Kidneys,
- Coma; if the Testes or Ovaries, loss of Personality itself.
- Also, an we poison the Blood directly with Belladonna, we have
- Delirium vehement and furious; with Hashish, Visions
- phantastic and enormous; with Anhiolonium, Ekstacy of colour
- and what not; with diverse Germs of Disease, Disturbances of
- Consciousness varying with the Nature of the Germ. Also with
- Ether, we gain the Power of analysing the Consciousness into
- its Planes; and so for many others.
- But all these are, in our mystical Sense, Poisons; that is,
-
- we take two Things diverse and opposite, binding them together
- so that they are compelled to unite; and the Orgasm of each
- Marriage is an Ekstacy, the Lower dissolving in the Higher.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -23-
-
-
- {upsilon } DE CURSU AMORIS.
-
-
- I continue then, o my son, and reiterate that this Formula
- is general to all Nature. And thou wilt note that by repeated
- Marriage cometh Toleration, so the Ekstacy appeareth no more.
- Thus his half grain of Morphia, which first opened his Gates
- of Heaven, is nothing worth to the Self-poisoner after a Year
- of dayly Practice. So too the Lover findeth no more Joy in
- Union with his Mistress, so soon as the original Attraction
- between them is satisfied by repeated Conjunctions. For this
- Attraction is an Antagonism; and the greater this Antinomy,
- the more fierce the Puissance of the Magnetism, and the
- Quality of Energy disengaged by the Coition.
- Thus in the Union of Similars, as of Halogens with each
- other, is no strong Passion of explosive Force, and the Love
- between two Persons of the like Character and Taste is placid
- and without Transmutation to higher Planes.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -24-
-
-
- {phi } DE NUPTIIS MYSTICIS.
-
- O my Son, how wonderful is the Wisdom of this Law of Love!
- How vast are the Oceans of uncharted Joy that lie before the
- Keel of thy Ship! Yet know this, that every Opposition is in
- its Nature named Sorrow, and the Joy lieth in the Destruction
- of the Dyad. Therefore, must thou seek ever those Things
- which are to thee poisonous, and that in the highest Degree,
- and make them thine by Love. That which repels, that which
- disgusts, must thou assimilate in this Way of Wholeness. Yet
- rest not in the Joy of the Destruction of each complex in thy
- Nature, but press on to that ultimate Marriage with the
- Universe whose Consummation shall destroy thee utterly,
- leaving only that Nothingness which was before the Beginning.
- So then the Life of Non-Action is not for thee; the
- Withdrawal from Activity is not the Way of the Tao; but rather
- the Intensification and making universal every Unit of thine
- Energy on every Plane.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -25-
-
-
- {chi } DE VOLUPTATE POENARUM.
-
- Go forth, o my Son, o Son of the Sun, rejoicing in thy
- Strength, as a Warrior, as a Bridegroom, to take thy Pleasure
- upon the Earth, and in every Palace of the Mind, moving ever
- from the crass to the subtle, from the coarse to the fine.
- Conquer every Repulsion in thy self, subdue every Aversion.
- Assimilate all Poison, for therein only is there Profit. Seek
- constantly therefore to know what is painful and to cleave
- thereunto, for by Pain cometh true Pleasure. Those who avoid
- Pain physical or mental remain little Men, and there is no
- Virtue in them. Yet be thou ware lest thou fall into the
- Heresy which maketh Pain, and Self-sacrifice as it were Bribes
- to corrupt God, to secure some future Pleasure in an imagined
- After-life. Nay, also of the other Part, fear not to destroy
- thy Complexes, thinking dreadfully thereby to lose the Power
- of creating Joy by their Distinction. Yet in each Marriage be
- thou bold to affirm the spiritual Ardour of the Orgasm, fixing
-
- it in some Talisman, whether it be Art, or Magick, or Theurgy.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -26-
-
-
- {psi } DE VOLUNTATE ULTIMA.
-
-
- Say not then that this Way is contrary to Nature, and that
- in Simplicity of Satisfaction of thy Needs is perfection of
- thy Path. For to thee, who hast aspired, it is thy Nature to
- perform the Great Work, and this is the final Dissolution of
- the Cosmos. For though a Stone seem to lie still on a
- Mountain Top, and have no care, yet hath it an hidden Nature,
- a Task Ineffable and Stupendous; namely, to force its Way to
- the Centre of Gravity of the Universe, and also to burn up its
- Elements into the final Homogeneity of Matter. Therefore the
- Way of Quiet is but an Illusion of Ignorance. Whoever thou
- mayst be now, thy Destiny is that which I have declared unto
- thee; and thou art most fixed in the true Way when, accepting
- this consciously as thy Will, thou gathereth up thy Powers to
- move thy Self mightily within it.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -27-
-
-
- {omega } DE DIFFERENTIA RERUM.
-
-
- But, o my Son, although thine ultimate Nature be Universal,
- thine immediate Nature is Particular. Thy Way to the Centre
- is not oriented as that of any other Being, and thine elements
- are no kin, but alien, to his. For Shame! Is it not the most
- transcendent of all the Wisdoms of this Cosmos, that no two
- Beings are alike? Lo! This is the Secret of all Beauty, and
- maketh Love not only possible, but necessary, between every
- Thing and every other Thing. So then, lest thou in thine
- Ignorance take the false Way, and divigate, must thou learn
- thine own particular and peculiar Nature in its Relation to
- all others. For though it be Illusion, it is by the true
- Analysis of Falsehoods that we are able to destroy them, just
- as the Physician must understand the Disease of his Patient if
- he is to choose the fitting Remedy. Now therefore will I make
- yet more clear unto thee the Value of thy Dreams and
-
- Phantesies and Gestures of thine unconscious Body and Mind, as
- Symptoms of thy particular Will, and show thee how thy mayst
- come to their Interpretation.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -28-
-
-
- {Alpha }{alpha } DE VOLUNTATE TACITA.
-
-
- All Disturbances, o my Son, are Variations from
- Equilibrium; and just as thy conscious Thoughts, Words, and
- Acts are Effects of the Displacement of the conscious Will, so
- is it in the Unconscious. For the most Part, therefore, all
- Dreams, Phantasies, and Gestures represent that Will
- subliminal; and if the physical Part of that Will be
- unsatisfied, its Utterance will predominate in all these
- automatic Expressions. Do thou then note what Modifications
- thereof follow such Changes in the conscious Foundation of
- that Part of thy Will as thou mayst make in thy Experiments
- therewith, and thus separate, as sayeth Trismegistus, the fine
- from the coarse, Fire from Earth, or, as we may say, assign
- each Effect to its true Cause. Seek then to perfect a
- conscious Satisfaction of every Part of that Will, so that the
- unconscious Disturbances be at last brought to Silence. Then
-
- will the Residuum be as an Elixir clarified and perfected, a
- true Symbol of that other hidden Will which is the Vector of
- thy Magical Self.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -29-
-
-
- {Alpha }{beta } DE FORMULA SUMMA.
-
-
- Learn moreover that thy Self includeth the whole Universe
- of thy Knowledge, so that every increase upon every Plane is
- an Aggrandisement of that Self. Yet the greater Part of this
- Universe is common Knowledge, so that thy Self is interwoven
- with other Selves, save for that Part peculiar to thy Self.
- And as thou growest, so also this peculiar Part is ever of
- less Proportion to the Whole, until when thou becomest
- infinite, it is a Quantity infinitesimal and to be neglected.
- Lo! When the All is absorbed within the I, it is as if the I
- were absorbed within the All; for if two Things become wholly
- and indissolubly One Thing, there is no more Reason for Names,
- since Names are given to mark off one Thing from another. And
- this is that which is written in "The Book of the Law": "...Let
- there be no difference made among you between any one thing &
- any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt. But whoso
-
- availeth in this, let him be the chief of all!"
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -30-
-
-
- {Alpha }{gamma } DE VIA INERTIAE.
-
-
- Of the Way of the Tao I have already written to thee, o my
- Son, but I further instruct thee in this Doctrine of doing
- everything by doing nothing. I will first have thee to
- understand that the Universe being as above said an Expression
- of Zero under the Figure of the Dyad, its Tendency is
- continually to release itself from that strain by the Marriage
- of Opposites whenever they are brought into Contact. Thus thy
- true Nature is a Will to Zero, or an Inertia, or Doing
- Nothing; and the Way of Doing Nothing is to oppose no Obstacle
- to the free Function of that true Nature. Consider the
- Electrical Charge of a Cloud, whose Will is to discharge
- itself in Earth, and so release the Strain of its Potential.
- Do this by free conduction, there is Silence and Darkness;
- oppose it, there is Heat and Light, and the Rending asunder of
- that which will not permit free Passage to the Current.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -31-
-
-
- {Alpha }{delta } DE VIA LIBERTATIS.
-
- Do not think then that by Non-Action thou doest follow the
- Way of the Tao, for thy Nature is Action, and by hindering the
- Discharge of thy Potential thou doest perpetuate and aggravate
- the Stress. If thou ease not Nature, she will being thee to
- Dis-Ease. Free thereof every Function of thy Body and of
- every other Part of thee according to its true Will. This
- also is most necessary, that thou discover that true Will in
- every Case, for thou art born into Dis-Ease; where are many
- false and perverted Wills, monstrous Growths, Parasites,
- Vermin are they, adherent to thee by Vice of Heredity, or of
- Environment or of evil Training. And of all these Things the
- subtlest and most terrible, Enemies without Pity, destructive
- to thy will, and a Menance and Tyranny even to thy elf, are
- the Ideals and Standards of the Slave-gods, false Religion,
- false Ethics, even false Science.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -32-
-
-
- {Alpha }{epsilon } DE LEGE MOTUS.
-
-
- Consider, o my Son, that Word in the Call or Key of the
- Thirty Aethyrs: Behold the Face of your God, the Beginning of
- comfort, whose Eyes are the Brightness of the heavens, which
- provided you for the Government of the Earth, and her
- unspeakable Variety! And again: Let there be no Creature upon
- her or within her the same. All here Members let them differ
- in their Qualities, and let there be no Creature equal with
- another. Here also is the Voice of true Science, crying
- aloud: Variation is the Key of Evolution. Thereunto Art
- cometh the third, perceiving Beauty in the Harmony of the
- Diverse. Know then, o my Son, that all Laws, all Systems, all
- Customs, all Ideals and Standards which tend to produce
- Uniformity, being in direct Opposition to Nature's Will to
- change and to develop through Variety, are accursed. Do thou
- with all thy Might of Manhood strive against these Forces, for
-
- they resist Change, which is Life: and thus they are of Death.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -33-
-
-
- {Alpha }{digamma } DE LEGIBUS CONTRA MOTUM.
-
-
- Say not, in thine Haste, that such Stagnations are Unity
- even as the last Victory of thy Will is Unity. For thy Will
- moveth through free Function, according to its particular
- Nature, to that End of Dissolution of all Complexities, and
- the Ideals and Standards are Attempts to halt thee on that
- Way. Although for thee some certain Ideal be upon thy Path;
- yet for thy Neighbour it may not be so. Set all Men a-
- horseback: thou speedest the Foot-soldier on his Way, indeed:
- but what hast thou done to the Bird-Man? Thou must have
- simple Laws and Customs to express the general Will, and so
- prevent the Tyranny of Violence of a few; but multiply them
- not! Now then herewith I will declare unto thee the Limits of
- the Civil Law upon the rock of the Law of Thelema.
-
-
-
-
-
- -34-
-
-
- {Alpha }{zeta } DE NECESSITATE COMMUNI.
-
-
- Understand first that the Disturbers of the Peace of
- Mankind do so by Reason of their Ignorance of their own true
- Wills. Therefore as this Wisdom of mine increaseth among
- Mankind, the false Will to Crime must become constantly more
- rare. Also, the Exercise of our Freedom will cause Men to be
- born with less and ever less Affliction from that Dis-Ease of
- Spirit, which breedeth these false Wills. But, in the while
- of waiting for this Perfection, thou must by Law assure to
- every Man a Means of satisfying his bodily and his mental
- Needs, leaving him free to develop any Super-Structure in
- Accordance with his Will, and protecting him from any that may
- seek to deprive him of these vertebral Rights. There shall be
- therefore a Standard of Satisfaction, though it must vary in
- Detail with Race, Climate, and other such Conditions. And
- this Standard shall be based upon a large Interpretation of
-
- Facts biological, physiological, and the like.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -35-
-
-
- {Alpha }{eta } DE LIBERTATE CORPORIS.
-
-
- There shall be no Property in Human Flesh. Every Man and
- every Woman hath Right Indefeasable to give the Body for the
- Enjoyment of any other. The Exercise of this Right shall not
- be punished either by Law or by Custom; there shall be no
- Penalty either by Loss or Curtailment of Liberty, of Rights,
- of Wealth, or of Social Esteem; but this Freedom shall be
- respected of all, seeing that it is the Right of the Bodily
- Will. For this same Reason thou shalt cause full Restriction
- and Punishment of any who may seek to limit that Freedom for
- the sake of his own Profit, or Desire, or Ideal. Every Man
- and every Woman has full right either to grant or to deny the
- Body, as the Will speaketh within. This being made Custom,
- the Evils of Love, which are many, extending to the
- Disturbance not only of Body but of Mind, and that in obscure
- Paths, shall little by little disappear from the Face of His
-
- unspeakable Glory.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -36-
-
-
- {Alpha }{theta } DE LIBERTATE MENTIS.
-
-
- There shall be no Property in Human Thought. Let each
- think as he will concerning the Universe; but let none seek to
- impose that Thought upon another by any Threat of Penalty in
- this World or any other World. Look now, though I enkindle
- thee to Effort in thy Way, yet it is the Way of thy Will, and
- I say not even that thou dost well to hasten therein, for the
- whole Matter lieth in thy Will, and to force thyself against
- thy Nature would be an Obstacle to thy Passage. But if I urge
- thee to run well this Race as an Athlete, it is because I have
- perceived in thy Nature that firce Lust and mighty
- Concentration in that Will, and I write this Letter unto thee,
- knowing well that thou wilt rejoice exceedingly therein, since
- it is an Expression of thine own Will, and it may be a
- Discovery thereof, which Thing thou vehemently seekest. I
- charge thee therefore that thou permit none to tyrannize any
-
- other in Thought, or to threaten, or in any other Wise to
- blaspheme the great Liberty of our Father the Sun in the Great
- Cosmos, or of His Vice-Regent in the Little.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -37-
-
-
- {Alpha }{iota } DE LIBERATATE JUVENUM
-
-
- O thou that art the Child of mine own Bowels, how shall I
- write to thee concerning Children? For herein is the Gordian
- Knot in our whole Rope of Wisdom, and it may not be severed by
- Sword, no, not of a Greater than Alexander the Two-Horned.
- And it is a Balance like that of the Egg, and the Violence of
- a Columbus will but crack the tender Shell which we must first
- of all preserve.
- Now Sentinel to this Fortress standeth a certain Paradox of
- general Application, and in this large Order I will declare
- it, so that its particular Sense may enlighten thee hereafter.
- And this is the Paradox, that there are Bonds which lead to
- Slavery, and Bonds which lead to Freedom. All we are bound in
- many Fetters by Environment, and it is for ourselves in great
- Part to determine whether they shall enslave us or emancipate
- us. And I will make clear this Thesis to thee by the Way of
-
- Illustration.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -38-
-
-
- {Alpha }{kappa } DE VI PER DISCIPLINAM COLENDA.
-
-
- Consider the Bond of a cold Climate, how it maketh Man a
- Slave; he must have Shelter and Food with fierce Toil. Yet
- hereby he becometh strong against the Elements, and his moral
- Force waxeth, so that he is Master of such Men as live in
- Lands of Sun where bodily Needs are satisfied without
- Struggle.
- Consider also him that willeth to exceed in Speed or in
- Battle, how he denieth himself the Food he craveth, and all
- Pleasures natural to him, putting himself under the harsh
- Order of a Trainer. So by this Bondage he hath, at the last,
- his Will.
- Now then the one by natural, and the other by voluntary,
- Restriction have come each to greater Liberty. This is also a
- general Law of Biology, for all Development is
- Structuralization; that is, a Limitation and Specialization of
-
- an originally indeterminate Protoplasm, which latter may
- therefore be called free, in the Definition of a Pedant.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -39-
-
-
- {Alpha }{lambda } DE ORDINE VERUM.
-
-
- In the Body every Cell is subordinated to the general
- physiological Control, and we who will that Control do not ask
- whether each individual Unit of that Structure be consciously
- happy. But we do care that each fulfil its Function, and the
- Failure of even a few Cells, or their Revolt, may involve the
- Death of the whole Organism. Yet even here the Complaint of a
- few, which we call Pain, is a Warning of general Danger. Many
- Cells fulfil their Destiny by swift Death, and this being
- their Function, they in no wise resent it. Should Haemoglobin
- resist the Attack of Oxygen, the Body would perish, and the
- Haemoglobin would not even save itself. How, o my Son, do
- thou then consider deeply of these Things in thine Ordering of
- the World under the Law of Thelema. For every Individual in
- the State must be perfect in his own Function, with
- Contentment, respecting his own Task as necessary and holy,
-
- not envious of another's. For so only mayst thou build up a
- Free State, whose directing Will shall be singly directed to
- the Welfare of all.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -40-
-
-
- {Alpha }{mu } DE FUNDAMENTIS CIVITATIS.
-
-
- Say not, o my Son, that in this Argument I have set Limits
- to individual Freedom. For each Man in this State which I
- purpose is fulfilling his own true Will by his eager
- Acquiescence in the Order necessary to the Welfare of all, and
- therefore of himself also. But see thou well to it that thou
- set high the Standard of Satisfaction, and that to everyone
- there be a surplus of Leisure and of Energy, so that, his Will
- of Self-Preservation being fulfilled by the Performance of his
- Function in the State, he may devote the remainder of his
- Powers to the Satisfaction of the other Parts of his Will.
- And because the People are oft times unlearned, not
- understanding Pleasure, let them be instructed in the Art of
- Life; to prepare Food palatable and wholesome, each to this
- own Taste, to make Clothes according to Fancy, with Variety of
- Individuality and to prractise the manifold Crafts of Love.
-
- There Things being first secured, thou mayst afterward lead
- them into the Heavens of Poesy and Tale, of Music, Painting,
- and Sculpture, and into the Lore of the Mind itself, with its
- insatiable Joy of all knowledge. Thence let them soar!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -41-
-
-
- {Alpha }{nu } DE VOLUNTATE JUVENUM.
-
-
- Long, o my Son, hath been this Digression from the plain
- Path of my Word concerning Children; but it was most needful
- that thou shouldst understand the Limits of true Liberty. For
- that is not the Will of any Man which ultimateth in his own
- Ruin and that of all his Fellows; and that is not Liberty
- whose Exercise bringeth him to Bondage. Thou mayst therefore
- assume that it is always an essential Part of the Will of any
- Child to grow to Manhood or to Womanhood in Health, and his
- Guardians may therefore prevent him from ignorantly acting in
- Opposition thereunto, Care being always taken to remove the
- Cause of the Error, namely, Ignorance, as aforesaid. Thou
- mayst also assume that it is Part of the Child's Will to train
- every Function of the Mind; and the Guardians may therefore
- combat the inertia which hinders its Development. Yet here is
- much Caution necessary, and it is better to work by exciting
-
- and satisfying any natural Curiosity than by forcing
- Application to set Tasks, however obvious this Necessity may
- appear.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -42-
-
-
- {Alpha }{chi } DE MODO DISPUTANDI.
-
-
- Now in this Training of the Child there is one most dear
- Consideration, that I shall impress upon thee as in Conformity
- with our Holy ?Experience in the Way of Truth. And it is
- this, that since that which can be thought is not true, every
- Statement is in some Sense false. Even on the Sea of pure
- Reason, we may say that every Statement is in some Sense
- disputable, there fore in every Case, even the simplest, the
- Child should be taught not only the Thesis, but also its
- opposite, leaving the Decision to the Child's own Judgment and
- good Sense, fortified by Experience. And this Practice will
- develop its Power of Thought, and its Confidence in itself,
- and its Interest in all Knowledge. But most of all beware
- against any Attempt to bias its Mind on any point that lieth
- without the Square of ascertained and undisputed Fact.
- Remember also, even when thou art most sure, that so were they
-
- sure who gave instruction to the young Copernicus. Pay
- Reverence also to the Unknown unto whom thou presumeth to
- impart the Knowledge; for he may be one greater than thou.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -43-
-
-
- {Alpha }{omicron } DE VOLUNTATE JUVENIS COGNOSCENDA.
-
-
- It is important that thou shouldst understand as early as
- may be what is the true Will of the Child in the Matter of his
- Career. Be thou well ware of all Ideals and Day-dreams; for
- the Child is himself, and not thy Toy. Recall the comic
- Tragedy of Napoleon and the King of Rome; build not an House
- for a wild Goat, nor plant a Forest for the Domain of a Shark.
- But be thou vigilant for every Sign, conscious or unconscious
- of the Will of the Child, giving him then all Opportunity to
- pursue the Path which he thus indicates. Learn this, that he,
- being young, will weary quickly of all false Ways, however
- pleasant they may be to him at the Outset; but of the true Way
- he will not weary. This being in this Manner discovered, thou
- mayst prepare it for him perfectly; for no Man can keep open
- all Roads for ever. And to him making his Choice explain how
- one may not travel far on any Road without a general Knowledge
-
- of Things apparently irrelevant. And with that he will
- understand, and bend him wisely to his Work.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -44-
-
-
- {Alpha }{pi } DE AURO RUBEO.
-
- I would have thee to consider, o my son, that Word of
- Publius Vergilius Maro, that was the greatest of all the
- Magicians of his time: in medio tutissimus ibis. Which Thing
- has also been said by many wise Men in other Lands; and the
- Holy Qabalah confirmeth the same, placing Tipheret, which is
- the Man, and the Beauty and Harmony of Things, and Gold in the
- Kingdom of the Metals, and the Sun among the Planets, in the
- Midst of the Tree of Life. For the Centre is the Point of
- Balance of all Vectors. So then if thy wilt live wisely,
- learn that thou must establish this Relation of Balance with
- every Thing soever, not omitting one. For there is nothing so
- alien from thy Nature that it may not be brought into
- harmonious Relation therewith; and thy Stature of Manhood
- waxeth great even as thou comest to the Perfection of this
- Art. And there is nothing so close Kin to thee it may not be
- hurtful to thee if this Balance is not truly adjusted. Thou
-
- hast need of the whole Force of the Universe to work with thy
- Will; but this Force must be disposed about the Shaft of that
- Will so that there is no Tendency to Hindrance or to
- Deflection. And in my Love of thee I will adorn this Thesis
- with Example following.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -45-
-
-
- {Alpha }{koppa } DE SAPIENTIA IN RE SEXUALI.
-
-
- consider Love. Here is a Force destructive and corrupting
- where by many Men have been lost. Yet without Love Man were
- not Man. Therefore thine Uncle Richard Wagner made of our
- Doctrine a musical Fable, wherein we see Amfortas, who yielded
- himself to Seduction, wounded beyond Healing; Klingsor, who
- withdraw himself from a like Danger, cast out for ever from
- the Mountain of Salvation'; and Parsifal, who yielded not,
- able to exercise the true Power of Live, and thereby to
- perform the Miracle of Redemption. Of this also have I myself
- written in my Poema called Adonis. It is the same with Food
- and Drink, with Exercise, with Learning itself, the Problem is
- ever to bring the Appetite into right Relation with the Will.
- Thus thou mayst fast or feast; there is no Rule than that of
- Balance. And this Doctrine is of general Acceptation among
- the better Sort of Men; therefore on thee will I rather
-
- impress more carefully the other Part of my Wisdom, namely,
- the Necessity of extending constantly thy Nature to new Mates
- upon every Plane of Being, so that thou mayst become the
- perfect Microcosm, an Image without Flaw of all that is.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -46-
-
-
- {Alpha }{rho } DE GRADIBUS AEQUIS SCIENTIAE.
-
-
- I say in sooth, my son, that this Extension of thy Nature
- is not in Violation thereof; for it is the Nature of thy
- Nature to grow continually. Now there is no Part of Knowledge
- which is foreign to thee; yet Knowledge itself is of no avail
- unless it be assimilated and co-ordinated into Understanding.
- Grow therefore, easily and spontaneously, developing all Parts
- equally, lest thou become a Monster. And if one Thing tempt
- thee overmuch, correct it by Devotion to its Opposite until
- Equilibrium be re-established. But seek not to grow by sudden
- Determination toward Things that be far from thee; only, if
- such a Thing come into thy Thought, construct a Bridge
- thereunto, and take firmly the first Step upon the Bridge. I
- shall explain this. Dost thou speculate upon the Motives of
- the Stars, and on their Elements, their Size and Weight? Then
- thou must first gain Knowledge of Doctrine mathematical, of
-
- Laws physical and chemical. So then first, that thou mayst
- understand clearly the Nature of thine whole Work, map out thy
- Mind, and extend its Powers from the essential outwards, from
- the near to the far, always with Firmness and great
- Thoroughness, making every Link in thy Chain equal and
- perfect.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -47-
-
-
- {Alpha }{sigma } DE VIRTUTE AUDENDI.
-
-
- Yet this I charge thee with my Might: Live Dangerously.
- Was not this the Word of thine Uncle Friedrich Nietzsche? Thy
- meansest Foe is the Inertia of the Mind. Men do hate most
- those things which touch them closely, and they fear Light,
- and persecute the Torchbearers. Do thou therefore analyse
- most fully all those Ideas which Men avoid; for the Truth
- shall dissolve Fear. Rightly indeed Men say that the Unknown
- is terrible; but wrongly do they fear lest it become the
- Known. Moreover, do thou all Acts of which the common Sort
- beware, save where thou hast already full knowledge, that thou
- mayest learn Use and Control, not falling into Abuse and
- Slavery. For the Coward and the Foolhardy shall not live out
- their Days. Every Thing has its right Use; and thou art great
- as thou hast Use of Things. This is the Mystery of all Art
- Magick, and thine Hold upon the Universe. Yet if thou must
-
- err, being human, err by excess of courage rather than of
- Caution, for it is the Foundation of the Honour of Man that he
- dareth greatly. What sayth Quintus Horatius Flaccus in the
- third Ode of his First Booki? Die thou standing!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -48-
-
-
- {Alpha }{tau } DE ARTE MENTIS COLLENDI. (1)
- MATHEMATICA.
-
-
- Now concerning the first Foundation of thy Mind I will say
- somewhat. Thou shalt study with Diligence in the mathematics,
- because thereby shall be revealed unto thee the Laws of thine
- own Reason and the Limitations thereof. This Science
- manifesteth unto thee thy true Nature in respect of the
- Machinery whereby it worketh; and showeth in pure Nakedness,
- without Clothing of Personality or Desire, the Anatomy of thy
- conscious Self. Furthermore, by this thou mayst understand
- the Essence between the Relation of all Things, and the Nature
- of Necessity, and come to the Knowledge of Form. For this
- Mathematics is as it were the last Veil before the Image of
- Truth, so that there is no Way better than our Holy Qabalah,
- which analyseth all Things soever, and reduceth them to pure
- Number; and thus their Natures being no longer coloured and
-
- confused, they may be regulated and formulated in Simplicity
- by the Operation of Pure Reason, to thy great Comfort in the
- Work of our Transcendental Art, whereby the Many become One.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -49-
-
-
- {Alpha }{upsilon } SEQUITUR. (2) CLASSICA.
-
-
- My son, neglect not in any wise the Study of the Writings
- of Antiquity, and that in the original Language. For by this
- thou shalt discover the History of the Structure of thy Mind,
- that is, its Nature regarded as the last term in a Sequence of
- Causes and Effects. For thy Mind hath been built up of these
- Elements, so that in these Books thou mayst bring into the
- Light thine own subconscious Memories. And thy Memory is as
- it were the Mortar in the House of thy Mind, without which is
- no Cohesion or Individuality possible, so that the Lack
- thereof is called Dementia. And these Books have lived long
- and become famous because they are the Fruits of ancient Trees
- whereof thou art directly the Heir, wherefrom (say I) they are
- more truly german to thine own Nature than Books of Collateral
- Offshoots, though such were in themselves better and wiser.
- Yes, o my Son, in these Writings thou mayst study to come to
-
- the true Comprehension of thine own Nature, and that of the
- whole Universe, in the Dimension of Time, even as the
- Mathematic declareth it in that of Space: That is, of
- Extension. Moreover, by this Study shall the Child comprehend
- the Foundation of Manners: the which, as sayeth one of the
- Sons of Wisdom, maketh Man.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -50-
-
-
- {Alpha }{phi } SEQUITUR. (3) SCIENTIFICA.
-
- Since Time and Space are the Conditions of Mind, these two
- Studies are fundamental. Yet there remaineth Causality, which
- is the Root of the Actions and Reactions of Nature. This also
- shalt thou seek ardently, that thou mayst comprehend the
- Variety of the Universe, its Harmony and its Beauty, with the
- Knowledge of that which compelleth it. Yet this is not equal
- to the former two in Power to reveal thee to thy Self; and its
- first Use is to instruct thee in the true Method of
- Advancement in Knowledge, which is fundamentally, the
- Observation of the Like and the Unlike. Also, it shall arouse
- in thee the Ekstacy of Wonder; and it shall bring thee to a
- proper Understanding of Art Magick. For our Magick is but one
- of the powers that lie within us undeveloped and unanalysed;
- and it is by the Method of Science that it must be made clear,
- and available to the Use of Man. Is not this a Gift beyond
- Price, the Fruit of a Tree not only of knowledge by to Life?
-
- For there is that in Man which is God, and there is that also
- which is Dust; and by our Magick we shall make these twain one
- Flesh, to the Obtaining of the Empery of the Universe.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -51-
-
-
- {Alpha }{chi } DE MODO QUO OPERET LEX MAGICA.
-
-
- Give Ear attentively, o my Son, while I expound unto thee
- the true Doctrine of Magick. Every force acteth, in due
- Proportion, on all Things with which it is connected. Thus a
- burning Forest causes chemical Change by Combustion, and
- giveth Heat and Motion to the Air about it by the Operation of
- physical Laws, and exciteth thought and Emotion in the Man
- whom it reacheth through his Organs of Perception. Consider
- (even though it were by Legent) the Fall of the apple of Isaac
- Newton, its Effect upon the Spiritual Destinies of Man!
- Consider also that no Force cometh ever to the end of its
- work! The Air that is moved by my Breath is a Disturbance or
- Change of Equilibrium that cannot be fully compensated and
- brought to naught, though the Aeons be endless. Who then
- shall deny the Possibility of Magick? Well said Frazer, the
- most learned Doctor of the College of the Holy Trinity in the
-
- University of Cambridge, that Science was but the Name of any
- Magick which failed not of its intended Effect.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -52-
-
-
- {Alpha }{psi } DE MACHINA MAGICA.
-
-
- Lo! I put forth my Will, and my Pen moveth upon the Paper,
- by Cause that my will mysteriously hath Power upon the Muscle
- of my Arm, and these do Work at a mechanical Advantage against
- the Inertia of the Pen. I cannot break down the Wall opposite
- me by Cause that I cannot come into mechanical Relation with
- it; or the Wall at my Side, by Cause that I am not strong
- enough to overcome its Inertia. To win that Battle I must
- call Time and Pick-axe to mine aid. But how could I retard
- the Motion of the Earth in Space? I am myself Party of its
- Momentum. Yet every Stroke of my Pen affecteth that Motion by
- changing the Equilibrium thereof. The Problem of every Act of
- Magick is then this: to exert a Will sufficiently powerful to
- cause the required Effect, through a Menstruum or Medium of
- Communication. By the common Understanding of the Word
- Magick, we however exclude such Media as are generally known
-
- and understood. Now then, o my Son, will I declare unto thee
- first the Nature of the Power, and afterward that of the
- Medium.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -53-
-
-
- {Alpha }{omega } DE HARMONIA ANIMAE CUM CORPORE.
-
- All Things are interwoven. The most spiritual Thought in
- thy Soul (I speak as a Fool) is also a most material Change in
- Blood or Brain. Anger maketh the Blood acid; Hate poisoneth
- Mother's milk; even as I showed formerly in reverse, how
- Disturbance of physical Function altereth the States of
- Consciousness. Now no Man doubteth the Power of the Will of
- Man, whether it be his love that begetteth Children or causes
- wars wherein many Men be slain, whether it be his Eloquence
- that moveth a Mob or his Vanity that destroyeth a People.
- Only in all such Cases we understand how Nature worketh,
- though known Laws physical or psychical. That is, there is a
- State of unstable Equilibrium, so that one Machine setteth
- another in Motion as soon as the first Disturbance ariseth.
- Therefore, it is not proper to regard all Consequence of a
- Will as its Effect. Without the Revolution there could have
- been no great Effect of the Will of Napoleon; and moreover his
-
- Will was broken in the End, to the present Misfortune (as it
- seems to many beside myself) of Mankind. This Magick
- therefore, dependeth greatly on the Art to set many other
- Wills in sympathetic Motion; and the greatest Magus may not be
- the most successful in a mean conception of a Limit of Time.
- He may need to strike many Blows before he breaketh down his
- Wall, if that be strong, while a Child may push over one that
- is ready to crumble.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -54-
-
-
- {Beta }{alpha } DE MYSTERIO PRUDENTIAE.
-
-
- Behold now nature, how prodigal is She of her Forces! The
- evident Will of every Acorn is to become an Oak; yet night all
- fail of that Will. Therefore one Secret of Magick is Oeconomy
- of thy Force; to do no Act unless secure of its Effect. And
- if every Act has an Effect on every Plane, how canst thou do
- this unless thou be connected with all Planes? For this
- Reason must thou know thoroughly not only thy Body and thy
- Mind, but thy Body of Light and all its subtler Principles
- soever. But I will have thee consider most especially what
- powers thou hast within thee which are certainly capable of
- great Effects, yet which are constantly wasted. Think then
- whether, if these Powers, frustrate of their End upon one
- Plane, might not be turned to high Purpose and assured Success
- upon another. For an hundred Acorns, rightly set in
- Conditions fit for their true Growth, will become an hundred
-
- Oaks, while otherwise they make but one Meal for one Hog, and
- their subtle Nature is wholly lost to them. Learn then, o my
- Son, this Mystery of Oeconomy, and apply it faithfully and
- with Diligence in thy Work.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -55-
-
-
- {Beta }{beta } DE ARTE ALCHEMICA.
-
-
- Here then I must write concerning Talismans for thine
- Instruction. Know first that there are certain Vehicles
- proper for the Incarnation of the Will. I instance Paper,
- whereon by thine Art thou writest a symbolic Representation of
- thy Will, so that when thou next seest it, thou are reminded
- of that Will, or it may be that another, seeing it, will obey
- that Will. Here then is a case of Incarnation and Assumption,
- which, before it was understood, was rightly considered
- Gramarye or Magick. Again, thy Will to live causeth thee to
- plant Corn, which in due Season being eaten is again
- transmuted into Will. Thus thou mayst in many Ways impress
- any particular Will upon the proper Substance, so that by due
- Use thou comest at last to its Accomplishment. So general is
- this Formula, in Truth, that all conscious Actions may be
- included within its scope. There is also the Converse, as
-
- when external Objects create Appetite, whose Satisfaction
- again reacteth upon the physical Plane. Praise thou the
- wonder of the Mystery of Nature, rising and falling with every
- Breath, so that there is no Part which is not mystically
- Partaker of the Whole.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -56-
-
-
- {Beta }{gamma } DE ARCANO SUBTILISSIMO.
-
- O my Son, there is that within thee of marvellous Puissance
- which is by its own Nature the Incarnation of thy Will, most
- ready to receive the Seal thereof. Therein lie hidden all
- Powers, all Memories, more than thou hast teen thousand fold!
- Learn then to draw from that great Treasure-House the Jewel of
- which thou art in any present Need. For all things that are
- possible to thy Nature are already hidden within thee; and
- thou hast but to name them, and to bring them back into the
- Light of thy Consciousness. Then squander not this Gold of
- thine, but put it to most fruitful Usury. Now then of the Art
- and Craft of this most Holy Mystery I write not, for a Reason
- that thou already knowest. Moreover, in this Matter, thou
- shalt best learn by thine own Experience, and thine
- Observation in true Science shall guide thee. For this Secret
- is still of Magick, and Occult, so that I know not certainly
- if thy Will lieth with my Way or no.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -57-
-
-
- {Beta }{delta } DE MENSTRUO ARTIS.
-
-
- But concerning the Medium by whose sensitive Nature our
- Magick Force is transmitted to the Object of our Working,
- doubt not. For already in other Galaxies of Physics have we
- been compelled to postulate an Aethyr wholly hypothetical in
- order to explain the Phenomena of Light, Electricity, and the
- like; nor doeth any Man demand Demonstration of the Existence
- of that Aethyr other than its Conformity with general Law.
- Thou therefore, Creator and Transmitter of thine own Energy,
- needest not to ask whether by this or by some other Means thou
- performest thy Work. Yet I know not why this Aethyr of the
- Mathematicians and the Physicians should not be one with the
- Astral Light, or Plastic Medium or Aub, Aud, Aur (these three
- being a Trinity) of which our own Sages have spoken. And this
- Meditation may bring forth much Knowledge physical, which is
- good, for that which is above is like that which is beneath,
-
- and the Study of any Law leadeth to the Understanding of all
- Law. So mayst thou learn in the End that there is no Law
- beyond Do what thou wilt.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -58-
-
-
- {Beta }{epsilon } DE NECESSITATE VOLUNTATIS.
-
-
- And how then (mayest thou) shall I reconcile this Art
- Magick with that Way of the Tao which achieveth all Things by
- doing nothing? But this have I already declared to thee in
- Part, showing that thou canst do no Magick save it be thy
- Nature to do Magick and so the true Nothing for thee. For to
- do nothing signifieth to interfere with nothing so that for a
- Magician to do no Magick is to commit Violence on himself.
- Yet learn also that all Action is in some sense Magick, being
- an essential Part of that Great Magical Work which we call
- Nature. Then thou hast no free Will? Verily, thou hast said.
- Yet nevertheless it is thy necessary Destiny to act with that
- free Will. Thou canst do nothing save in accordance with that
- true Nature of thine and of all Things, and every Phenomenon
- is the Resultant of the Totality of Forces; Amen. Then thou
- needest take no Thought and make no Effort? Thou sast sooth;
-
- yet, art thou not compelled to Thought and Effort in the Way
- of Nature? Yea, I, thy Father, work for thee solicitously,
- and also I laugh at thy Perplexities; for so was it fore-
- ordained that I should do, by Me, from the Beginning.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -59-
-
-
- {Beta }{digamma } DE COMEDIA UNIVERSA, QUAE DICTUR MAN.
-
- So, therefore, o my Son, count thyself happy when thou
- understandest all these Things, being one of those Beings (or
- By-comings) whom we call Philosophers. All is a never ending
- Play of Love wherein our Lady Nuit and her Lord Hadit rejoice;
- and every Part of the Play is Play. All pain is but sharp
- Sauce to the Dish of Pleasure; for it is the Nature of the
- Universe that hath devised this everlasting Banquet of Joy.
- And he that knoweth not this is necessary as an Ingredient
- even as thou art; wouldst thou change all and spoil the Dish?
- Art thou the Master-Cook? Yea, for thy Palate is become fine
- with thy great Dalliance with the Food of Experience;
- therefore thou art one of them that rejoice. Also it is thy
- Nature as it is mine, o my Son, to will that all Men share our
- Mirth and Jollity; wherefore have I proclaimed my Law to Man,
- and thou continuest in that Work of Joyance.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -60-
-
-
- {Beta }{zeta } DE CAECITIA HOMINUM.
-
-
- Learn also of my wisdom that this Vision of the Cosmos
- whereof I have written unto thee is not given unto thy Sight
- at all Times; for in that Vision is all Will fulfilled. Thou
- seest the Universe as None, and as One, and as many, and the
- Play thereof; and therewith art thou (who art no longer thou)
- content. For in one Phase art thou also None, in another One,
- and in the third an organised and necessary Part of that great
- Structure, so that there is no more conflict at all in thy
- whole By-coming. But now will I make Light for thine Eyes in
- this Matter as thou gropest, asking: but of them that see not
- this, what sayst thou, o my Father? But in that Vision thou
- sayst not thus, my Son! Learn then of me the Secret Mystery
- of Illusion, and how it Worketh, and other Holy Law that is
- its Nature, and of thine Action therein; for this is an
- Arcanum of the Wisdom of the Magi, and proper unto thee that
-
- dwellest in the Land of Understanding.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -61-
-
-
- {Beta }{eta } ALLEGORIA DE CAISSA.
-
-
- Consider for an Example the Game and Play of the Chess,
- which is a Pastime of Man, and worthy to exercise him in
- Thought, yet by no means necessary to his Life, so that he
- sweepeth away Board and Pieces at the least Summons of that
- which is truly dear to him. Thus unto him this Game is as it
- were an Illusion. But insofar as he entereth into the Game he
- abideth by the Rules thereof, though they be artificial and in
- no wise proper to his Nature; for in this Restriction is all
- his Pleasure. Therefore, though he hath All-Oower to move the
- Pieces at his own Will, he doth it not, enduring Loss,
- Indignity, and Defeat rather than destroy that Artifice of
- Illusion. Think then that thou hast thyself created this
- Shadow-world the Universe, and that it pleasureth thee to
- watch or to actuate its Play according to the Law that thou
- hast made, which yet bindeth thee not save only by Virtue of
-
- thine own Will to do thine own Pleasure therein.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -62-
-
-
- {Beta }{theta } DE VERITATE FALSORUM.
-
- Moreover this Matter touches the Nature of Truth. For
- although to thee in thy True Self, absolute and without
- Conditions, all this Universe, which is relative and
- conditioned is an Illusion; yet to that Part of Thee by which
- thou perceivest it, the Law of its Being (or By-coming) is a
- Law of Truth. Learn then that all Relations are true upon
- their own Plane, and that it would be a Violation of Nature to
- adjust them skewwise. Thus, albeit thou hast found thy Self,
- and knowest Thy Self immortal and immutable beyond Time and
- Space, free of Causality, so thoroughly that even thy Mind
- partaketh constantly thereof, thou hast in no wise altered the
- Relations of thy Body with its Syndromics in the World whereof
- it is a Part. Wouldst thou lengthen the Life of thy Body?
- Then accommodate thou the Conditions of thy Body to its
- Environment by giving it Light, Air, Food, and Exercise as its
- Nature requireth. So also, mutatis mutandis, do thou cherish
-
- the Health of thy Mind.
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -63-
-
-
- {Beta }{iota } DE RELATIONE ILLUSIONUM.
-
-
- Of this will I speak further with thee, for here behold a
- great Rock of Ignorance on the one Hand, and on the other a
- Whirlpool of Error; in this Strait are many Wrecks of Magick
- Ships. Knowest thou not that Riddle of old, whether it be
- lawful to pay Tribute to Caesar or no? Give therefore to the
- Body the Things of the Body, and to the Mind the Things of the
- Mind. Yet because of the interior Harmony of all Things that
- proceedeth from their Original One Nature, there is Action and
- Reaction of the one upon the other, as I have already set
- forth in this mine Epistle. But Law is universal, and between
- these two Kinds of Illusion there is an ordered Proportion,
- and it is proper to thy Science to delimit and describe this
- Law of Interaction, for to deny it wholly (as to extend it to
- Infinity) is Folly, born of Ignorance, Idleness, and
- Incapacity to observe Fact.
-
-
-
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-
-
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-
-
- -64-
-
-
- {Beta }{kappa } DE PRUDENTIA.
-
-
- Consider Drunkenness, how by Variation of bodily Conditions
- thou mayst alter its Effect upon the Mind, and the Contrary,
- remembering the Discipline of Theophrastus Paracelsus, how,
- opposing Wine to bodily Exercise, he obtained a certain
- Purification and Exaltation/ Yet, were he seven times
- greater, he had not done this with Oil of Vitriol. Learn then
- that there are certain definite Channels of Action and
- Reaction between Body and Mind; sound these, and trim thy
- Sails accordingly, not thinking that thou art in the open Sea.
- And if so be that thou in thy sounding findest new Channels,
- rejoice and map them for the Profit of thy Fellows; But
- remember always that to find a new Way up a Precipice removeth
- not the Precipice. For where thou, o Angel and yet Man, hast
- trod delicately albeit without Fear, Fools will rush in to
- their Destruction.
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-
-
-
-
-
- -65-
-
-
- {Beta }{lambda } DE RATIONE MAGI VITAE.
-
-
- Study Logic, which is the Code of the Laws of Thought.
- Study the Method of Science, which is the Application of Logic
- to the Facts of the Universe. Think not that thou canst ever
- abrogate these Laws, for though they be Limitations, they are
- the rules of thy Game which thou dost play. For in thy
- Trances though thou becomest That which is not subject to
- those Laws, they are still final in respect of these Things
- which thou hast set them to govern. Nay, o my son, I like not
- this Word, govern, for a Law is but a Statement of the nature
- of the Thing to which it applieth. Nor nothing is compelled
- save only by Nature of its own true Will. So therefore human
- Law is a Statement of the Will and of the Nature of Man, or
- else it is a Falsity contrary thereunto, nad becometh null and
- of no Effect.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
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-
-
-
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-
-
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-
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-
-
-
-
-
- -66-
-
-
- {Beta }{mu } DE CORDE CANDIDO.
-
-
- Think also, o my Son, of this Image, that if two States be
- at Peace, a Man goeth between them without Let; but if there
- be War, all Gateways are forthwith closed, save only for a
- few, and these are watched and guarded, so that the Obstacles
- are many. This then is the Case of Magick; for if thou have
- brought to Harmony all Principles within thee, thou mayst work
- easily to transmute a Force into its semblable upon another
- Plane, which is the essential Miracle of our Art; but if thou
- be at War within thyself, how canst thou work? For our Master
- Hermes Tresmegistus hat written at the Head of His Tablet of
- Emerald this Word: That which is above is like that which is
- below, and that which is below is like that which is above,
- for the Performance of the Miracle of the One Substance. How
- then, if these be not alike? If the Substance of Thee be Two,
- and not One? And herein is the Need of the Confession of a
-
- pure Heart, as is written in the Book of the Dead.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-
-
-
-
-
- -67-
-
-
- {Beta }{nu } DE CONFORMITATE MAGI.
-
-
- See to it therefore, o my Son, that thou in thy Working
- dost no Violence to the whole Will of the All, or to the Will
- common to all those Beings (or By-comings) that are of one
- general Nature with thee, or to thine own particular Will.
- For first of all thou art necessarily moved toward the One End
- from thine own Station, but secondly thou art moved toward the
- End proper to thine own Race, and Caste, and Family, as by
- Virtue of thy Birth. And these are, I may say it, Conditions
- or limits, of thine own individual Will. Thou dost laugh?
- Err not, my Son! The Magus, even as the Poet is the
- Expression of the true Will of his Fellows, and his Success is
- his Proof, as it is written in "The Book of the Law". For his
- Work is to free Men from the Fetters of a false or a
- superannuated Will, revealing unto them, in Measure attuned to
- their Needs, their true Natures.
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-
-
-
-
- -68-
-
-
- {Beta }{xi } DE POETIS.
-
-
- For this Reason is the Poet called an Incarnation of the
- Zeitgeist, that is, of the Spirit or Will of his Period. So
- every Poet is also a Prophet, because when that which he
- sayeth is recognized as the Expression of their own Thought by
- Men, they translate this into Act, so that, in the Parlance of
- the Folk vulgar and ignorant, "that which he foretold is come
- to pass". Now then the Poet is Interpreter of the Hieroglyphs
- of the Hidden Will of Man in many a matter, some light, some
- deep, as it may be given unto him to do. Moreover, it is not
- altogether in the Word of any Poem, but in the quintessential
- Flavour of the Poet, that thou mayst seek this Prophecy. And
- this is an Art most necessary toe every Statesman. Who but
- Shelley foretold the Fall of Christianity, and the
- Organisation of Labour, and the Freedom of Woman; who by
- Nietzsche declared the Principle at the Root of the World-War?
-
- See thou clearly then that in these Men were the Keys of the
- Dark Gates of the Future; Should not the Kings and their
- Ministers have taken heed thereto, fulfilling their Word
- without Conflict.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -69-
-
-
- {Beta }{omicron } DE MAGIS ORDINIS A{.'.} A{.'.}
-
- quibus caro fit verbum.
-
- Now, o my Son, the Incarnation of a Poet is particular and
- not Universal; he sayeth indeed true Things but not the Things
- of All-Truth. And that these may be said it is necessary that
- One take human Flesh, and become a Magus in our Holy Order.
- He then is called the Logos, or Logos Aiones, that is to say,
- the Word of the Aeon or Age, because he is verily that Word.
- And thus may be be known, because He hath it given unto Him to
- prepare the Quintessence of the Will of God, that is, of Man,
- in its Fullness and Wholeness, comprehending all Planes, so
- that his Law is simple, and radical, penetrating all Space
- from its single Light. For though His Words be many, yet is
- His Word One, One and Alone; and by this Word he createth Man
- anew, in an essential Form of Life, so that he is changed in
- his inmost Knowledge of himself. And this Change worketh
-
- outwards, little by little, unto its visible Effect.
-
-
-
-
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-
-
-
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-
-
-
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-
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-
-
-
-
-
-
- -70-
-
-
- {Beta }{pi } DE MAGIS TEMPORI ANTIQUI:
-
- IMPRIMIS, DE LAO-TZE.
-
-
- It may be unto thy Profit, o my Son, if I relate unto thee
- the secret History of those who have gone before me in this
- Grade of Magus, so far as their Memory hath remained among
- Mankind. For what would it avail thee should I recount the
- deeds of those whom I indeed may know, but thou not? Thou
- knowest well how I keep me from all Taint of Fable, or any
- Word unproven and undemonstrable. First then I speak of Lao-
- Tze, whose word was the Tao. Hereof have I already written
- much unto thee, because His Doctrine has been lost or
- misinterpreted, and it is most needful to restore it. For
- this Tao is the true Nature of Things, being itself a Way or
- Going, that is, a kinetic and not a static Conception. Also
- He taught this Way of Harmony in Will, which I myself have
-
- thought to show thee in this little book. So then this Tao is
- Truth, and the Way of Truth, and therefore was He Logos of His
- Aeon, and His true Name or Word was Tao.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -71-
-
-
- {Beta }{koppa } DE GAUTAMA.
-
-
- Whom Men call Gotama, or Siddartha, or the Budha, was a
- Magus of our Holy Order. And His Word was Anatta; for the
- Root of His whole Doctrine was that there is no Atman, or
- Soul, as Men ill translate it, meaning a Substance incapable
- of Change. Thus, He, like Lao-Tze, based all upon a Movement,
- instead of a fixed Point. And His Way of Truth was Analysis,
- made possible by great Intention of the Mind toward itself,
- and that well fortified by certain tempered Rigour of Life.
- And He most thoroughly explored and Mapped out the Fastnesses
- of the Mind, and gave the Keys of its Fortresses into the Hand
- of Man. But of all this the Quintessence is in this one Word
- Anatta, because this is not only the foundation and the Result
- of his whole Doctrine, but the Way of its Work.
-
-
-
-
-
- -72-
-
-
- {Beta }{rho } DE SRI KRISHNA ET DE DIONYSO.
-
-
- Krishna has Names and Forms innumerable, and I know not His
- true Human Birth, for His Formula is of the Major Antiquity.
- But His Word hath spread into many Lands, and we know it to-
- day as INRI with the secret IAO concealed therein. And the
- Meaning of this Word is the Working of Nature in Her Changes;
- that is, it is the Formula of Magick whereby all Things
- reproduce and recreate themselves. Yet this Extension and
- Specialisation was rather the Word of Dionysus; for the true
- Word of Krishna was AUM, importing rather a Statement of the
- Truth of Nature than a practical Instruction in detailed
- Operations of Magick. But Dionysus, by the Word INRI, laid
- the Foundation of all Science, as We say Science to-day in a
- particular Sense, that is, of causing external Nature to
- change in Harmony with our Wills.
-
-
-
-
-
-
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-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -73-
-
-
- {Beta }{sigma } DE TAHUTI.
-
-
- Tahuti, or Thot, confirmed the Word of Dionysus by
- continuing it; for he showed how by the Mind it was possible
- to direct the Operations of the Will. By Criticism and by
- recorded Memory Man avoideth Error. But the true Word of
- Tahuti was A M O U N, whereby He made Men to understand their
- secret Nature, that is, their Unity with their true Selves,
- or, as they then phrased it, with God. And He discovered unto
- them the Way of this Attainment, and its Relation with the
- Formula of INRI. Also by His Mystery of Number He made plain
- the Path for His Successor to declare the Nature of the whole
- Universe in its Form and in its Structure, as it were an
- Analysis thereof, doing for Matter what the Buddha was decreed
- to do for Mind.
-
-
-
-
-
- -74-
-
-
- {Beta }{tau } DE QUODAMM MAGO AEGYPTIORUM.
-
- QUEM APPELUNT JUDAEI MOSHEH.
-
- The Follower of Tahuti was an Egyptian whose Name is lost;
- but the Jews called Him Mosheh, or Moses, and their Fabulists
- made Him the Leader of their Legendary Exodus. Yet they
- preserved His Word, and it is IHVH, which thou must understand
- also as that Secret Word which thou hast seen and heard in
- Thunders and Lightnings in thine Initiation to the Degree thou
- wottest of. But this Word is itself a Plan of the Fabrick of
- the Universe, and upon it hath been elaborated the Holy
- Qabalah, whereby we have Knowledge of the Nature of all Things
- soever upon every Plane of By-coming, and of their Forces and
- Tendencies and Operations, with the Keys to their Portals.
- Nor did He leave any Part of His Work unfinished, unless it be
- that accomplished three hundred Years ago by Sir Edward Kelly,
- of whom I also come, as thou knowest.
-
-
-
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-
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-
-
- -75-
-
-
- {Beta }{upsilon } DE MAGO ARABICO MOHAMMED.
-
-
- Behold! In these Chapters have I, thy Father, restricted
- myself, not speaking of any immediate Echo of a Word in the
- World, because, there Men being long since withdrawn into
- their Silence, it is their One Word, and that Alone, that
- resoundeth undiminished through Time. How Mohammed, who
- followeth, is darkened and confused by His Nearness to our own
- Time, so that I say not save with Diffidence that His Word
- ALLH may mean this or that. But I am bold concerning His
- Doctrine of the Unity of God, for God is Man, and he said
- therefore: Man is One. And His Will was to unite all Men in
- One reasonable Faith: to make possible international Co-
- operation in Science. Yet, because He arose in the Time of
- the greatest possible Corruption and Darkness, when every
- Civilisation and Every Religion had fallen into Ruin, by the
- malice of the great Sorcerer of Nazareth, as some say, He is
-
- still hidden in the Dust of the Simoom, and we may not
- perceive Him in His true Self of Glory.
- Nevertheless, behold, o My Son, this Mystery. His true
- Word was La ALLH, that is to say: (there is) No God, and LA AL
- is that Mystery of Mysteries which thine own Eye pierced in
- thine Initiation. And of that Truth have the Illusion and
- Falsehood enslaved the Souls of Men, as is written in the Book
- of the Magus.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -76-
-
-
- {Beta }{phi } DE SE IPSO {Tau }{Omega }{Iota }
- {Mu }{Epsilon }{Gamma }{Alpha }{Lambda }{Omega }{Iota }
-
- {Theta }{Eta }{Rho }{Iota }{Omega }{Iota }, {Tau }{Omega }{Iota }
- {Lambda }{Omicron }{Gamma }{Omega }{Iota }
-
- {Alpha }{Iota }{Omega }{Nu }{Omicron }{Sigma } CUJUS VERBUM EST
- {Theta }{Epsilon }{Lambda }{Eta }{Mu }{Alpha }.
-
-
- O my son! me seemeth in certain Hours that I am myself
- fallen on a Time even more fearful and fatal than did
- Mahommed, peace be upon Him! But I read clearly the Word of
- the Aeon, that is A B R A H A D A B R A, wherein is the whole
- Mystery of the great Work, as thou knowest. And I have "The""
- ""Book of the Law", that was given unto me by Him thou wottest
- of; and it is the Interpretation of the Secret Will of Man on
- every Plane of his By-coming; and the Word of the Law is T H E
-
- L E M A. 'Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law."
- Now because "Love is the law, love under will." do I write
- this Epistle for thee, that thou mayst fulfil this inmost Will
- of Mankind, making them capable of Light, Live, Love and
- Liberty by the Acceptance of this Law. And the Hindrance
- thereunto is but as the Shell of its Egg to an Eaglet, ad
- Thing foreign to itself, a Protection till the Hour strike,
- and then --- no more!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -77-
-
-
- {Beta }{chi } MANDATUM AD FILIUM SUUM.
-
-
- Here I reach forth mine Hands against thee in the Sign of
- the Enterer, o son of my Bowels, for with all my Magical Might
- I will that thou fight manfully and labour with Diligence
- (with Sword and Trowel; say I) in this Work. For this is the
- first and last of all, that thou bid every Man do What he
- will, in accord with his own true Nature. Therefore also
- blast thou that Lie that Man is of a fallen and evil Nature.
- For the Word of Sin is Restriction, the Doubt of his own
- Godhead, the Suppression of, which is the Blasphemy against,
- his own Holy Spirit. Saith not "The Book of the Law" that
- "...It is a lie, this folly against self. ..."? Therefore to
- every Man, in every Circumstance, say thou: Do what thou wilt;
- and teach him, if he yet waver, how to discover his true
- Nature, earnestly and with Ardour, even as I have striven to
- teach thee --- yea, and more also!
-
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- -78-
-
-
- {Beta }{psi } QUARE FILIUM CREAVIT: UT
-
- FIAT LIBERTAS.
-
-
- Do what thou wilt! be this our Slogan of Battle in every
- Act; for every Act is Conflict. There Victory leapeth shining
- before us; for who may thwart true Will, which is the Order of
- Nature Herself? "...thou hast no right but to do thy will.
- Do that, and no other shall say nay." For if that Will be
- true, its Fulfilment is of a Surety as Daylight following
- Sunrise. It is as certain as the Operation of any other Law
- of Nature; it is Destiny. Then, if that Will be obscured, if
- thou turn from it to Wills diseased or perverse, how canst
- thou hope? Fool! Even thy Turns and Twists are in the Path
- to thine appointed End. But thou art not sprung of a Slave's
- Loins; thou standest firm and straight; thou dost thy Will;
- and thou are Chosen, nay, for this Work wast thou begotten in
-
- a Magick Bed, that thou shouldst make Man free.
-
-
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-
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-
-
- -79-
-
-
- {Beta }{omega } DE SUA DEBILITATE.
-
-
- Listen attentively, my Son, while I with heavy Heart make
- Confession to thee of mine own Frailty. Thou knowest that I
- made Renunciation of my Wage, taking this Body immediately
- after my Death, the Death of Eliphas Levi Zahed, as Men say,
- that I might attain to this great Work. It is now twenty
- Years, as Men count years, that I came to my first
- Understanding of my true Nature, and aspired to that Work.
- Now then at first I made no Error. I abandoned my chosen
- Career; I poured out my whole Fortune without one Thought; I
- gave my Life utterly to the Work, without keeping back the
- least imaginable Thing. So then I made swift Strides along
- the Path. But in the Dhyanas that were granted unto me in
- kKandy, in the Island of Lanka, I used up my whole Charge of
- Magical Energy; and for two Years I fell away from the Work.
-
-
-
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-
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-
-
- -80-
-
-
- {Gamma }{alpha } DE MANU QUAE MAGUM SUSTINET.
-
-
- Now it may be well that such Periods of Recuperation are
- necessary to such souls as mine; and so no Ill. But I fell
- from my Will, and sought other Ends in Life; and so the Hand
- came upon me, and tore away that which I desired, as thou
- knowest; also it is written in the Temple of Solomon the King.
- Yet consider also these two Years as a necessary Preparation
- for that greatest of all Events which befell me in El-Kahira,
- in the Land of Khem, the Choice of me as the Word of the Aeon.
- Now then for a while I worked with my Will, though not wholly;
- and again the Hand reached forth and smote me. This, albeit
- my Slackness was but as a Boy playing Truant, not a revolt
- against my Self. Wherefore, despite all, I made much Progress
- in short Time.
-
-
-
-
-
- -81-
-
-
- {Gamma }{beta } DE SUO PECCATO.
-
-
- Now then, well schooled, I strove no more against my
- Nature, and worked with all my Will. Thou knowest well how
- greatly I was rewarded. Yet in this last Initiation to the
- Grade of Magus, wherein three-and-seventy Days, as Men count
- Days, is but One Day, the Ordeal grew so fierce and
- intolerable that I gave back a Step. I did not utterly
- renounce the Work, but I swore not to continue unless mine
- Agony were abated. But after fifteen Days, I came to myself
- in a certain Ordeal, wherein I knew myself finally, that I
- could do no other than take up that fearful Burden that had
- broken my Spirit. And for these fifteen Days have I not
- suffered infinite Things? Was not the Tree of my Work frozen,
- one Branch withered, and on blasted? Look no more, o my son,
- upon thy Father's Shame!
-
-
-
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-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -82-
-
-
- {Gamma }{gamma } DE SUA VICTORIA PER NOMEN B A B A L O N.
-
-
- And after? This Dawn (for I have toiled through the Night
- in my great Love and Care of thee) how is it with me? it is
- well. For I have found myself; I have found my Will; the
- Obstacles that daunted me are seen to be by the Shadows of
- Shadows. Grace be unto Lady B A B A L O N.
- Thus it is written in "The Book of the Law": "Remember all
- ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as
- shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which
- remains."
- Learn then that it is in the contemplation of Division that
- Sorrow is, for Division is the Formula of Choronzon. It is
- therefore discreet for thee to unite each element of Sorrow
- with its Opposite; in whose Triumph of Hymen is Ekstacy, until
- by Apprehension of the new great Opposite the Idea is again
- seen as Sorrow. This then is the Issue from Sorrow; and thou
-
- mayst understand that I now also am confident in the Necessity
- of this my Fall to prepare the formula of my Exaltation.
- Therefore, my Son, thus Hail Me: Blessing and worship to the
- Beast, the Prophet of the Lovely Star.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -83-
-
-
- {Gamma }{delta } DE ARCANO NEFANDO.
-
-
- O my Son, learn this concerning Magick, that the Yang
- moveth, and thus giveth itself up Eternally; but the Yin
- moveth not, seeking ever to enclose or restrict, reproducing
- in its own likeness what Impressions soever it made thereon,
- yet without Surrender. Now the Tao absorbeth all without
- Reproduction; so then let the Yang turn thereto, and not unto
- the Yin. And that thou mayst understand this, I say: It is a
- Mystery of O.T.O. For the Sun ariseth not and entereth to
- strike upon the High Altar of the Minster by the Great Western
- Gates, but by the Rose Oriel doth he make Way and Progress in
- His Pageant. O my Son, the Doors of Silver are wide open, and
- they tempt thee with their Beauty: but by the narrow Portal of
- Pure Gold shalt thou come nobly to thy Sanctuary. Behold!
- Thou knowest not how perfect is this Magick; it is the
- dearest-bought and holiest of our Arcana. What then is like
-
- unto my Love toward Thee, that bestoweth upon thee this
- Treasure of my Wisdom? My Son, neglect it not; for it is the
- Exorcism of Exorcisms, and the Enchantment of Enchantments.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -84-
-
-
- {Gamma }{epsilon } DE ARCANO, PER QUOD SPIRITUS
-
- QUIDAM IN CORPORE RECIPIATUR.
-
-
- Here now is another Formula of Power, good to invoke any
- Being to manifest in thyself. First, invoke him by the Power
- of all thy Spells and conjurations, with Mind concentrated and
- Will vehement, toward him, as I have written in many Books.
- But because thou are NEMO, thou mayst safely invoke him, no
- matter of what Nature, within thy Circle. Now then do thou
- confer on him as a Guerdon of his Obedience the Dignity of a
- Soul seeking Incarnation, and so precede to consecrate thine
- Act by performing the Mass of the Holy Ghost. Then shall that
- Spirit make himself Body from those Elements, and thou
- partaking thereof makest thine own Body his Machinery of
- Manifestation, and thus mayst thou work with any Spirit
- soever; yet this shall serve thee most in common Life. Also
-
- the Qualities are well defined in the Cards of the Tarot, so
- that thou hast a clear-cut Means of developing thy Powers
- according to the Needs of the Time. But learn also this, to
- work constantly under the Guidance of thine Holy Guardian
- Angel, so that thy Workings be alway in Harmony and Accord
- with thy true Will.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -85-
-
-
- DE CLAVE KABBALISTICA HUJUS ARTIS.
-
-
- Now then to thee who art long since Master of High Magick,
- it will be easy to shew how the Mass of the Holy Ghost, sung
- even in Ignorance, may work many a Wonder by Virtue of the
- Force generated being compelled to manifest on other than its
- own Plane. Here then is a Theory of the Mystery of the Aeon,
- that I, being the Logos appointed thereunto, did create an
- Image of my little Universe in the Mind of the Woman of
- Scarlet; that is, I manifested my whole Magical Self in her
- Mind. Thus then in Her, as in a Mirror, have I been able to
- interpret myself to myself. Thou also in thine own Way hast
- the Power to create such an Image; but be thou sure and alert,
- testing constantly the Persons in that Image by the Holy
- Qabalah and by the true Signs of Brotherhood. For each Person
- therein shall be a Part of thyself, made individual and
- perfect, able to instruct thee in thy Path. Yet often there
-
- shall be others, that are to aid thee in thy Working, or to
- oppose it. And in this Matter thou shalt read especially the
- Record of thy Father His Workings with Soror Ahita (blessed be
- Her Name unto the Ages) and certain others to Boot.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -86-
-
-
- {Gamma }{zeta } DE MISSA SPIRITUS SANCTI.
-
-
- Now at last, o my son, may I being thee to understand the
- Truth of this Formula that is hidden in the Mass of the Holy
- Ghost. For Horus that is Lord of the Aeon is the Child
- crowned and conquering. The formula of Osiris was, as thou
- knowest, a Word of Death, that is, the Force lay long in
- Darkness, and by Putrifaction came to Resurrection. But we
- take living Things, and pour in Life and Nature of our own
- Will, so that instantly and without Corruption the Child (as
- it were the Word of that Will) is generated; and again
- immediately taketh up his Habitation among us to manifest in
- Force and Fire. This Mass of the Holy Ghost is then the true
- Formula of the Magick of the Aeon of Horus, blessed by He in
- His Name Ra-Hoor-Khuit! And thou shalt bless also the Name of
- our Father Merlin, Frater Superior of the O.T.O., for that by
- seven Years of Apprenticeship in His School did I discover
-
- this most excellent Way of Magick. Be thou diligent, o my
- son, for in this wondrous Art is no more Toil, Sorrow, and
- Disappointment, as it was in the dead Aeon of the Slain Gods.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -87-
-
-
- {Gamma }{eta } DE FORMULA TOTA.
-
-
- Here then is the Schedule for all the Operations of Magick.
- First, thou shalt discover thy true Will, as I have already
- taught thee, and that Bud thereof which is the Purpose of this
- Operation.
- Next, formulate this Bud-Will as a Person, seeking or
- constructing it, and naming it according to thine Holy
- Qabalah, and its infallible Rule of Truth. Third, purify and
- consecrate this Person, concentrating upon him and against all
- else. This Preparation shall continue in all thy daily Life.
- Mark well, make ready a new Child immediately after every
- Birth. Fourth, make an especial and direct Invocation at thy
- Mass, before the Introit, formulating a visible Image of this
- Child, and offering the Right of Incarnation. Fifth, perform
- the Mass, not omitting the Epiklesis, and let there be a
- Golden Wedding Ring at the Marriage of thy Lion with thine
-
- Eagle. Sixth, at the Consumption of the Eucharist accept this
- Child, losing thy Consciousness in him, until he be well
- assimilated with thee. Now then do this continuously, for by
- Repetition cometh forth both Strength and Skill, and the
- Effect is cumulative, if thou allow no Time to dissipate
- itself.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -88-
-
-
- {Gamma }{theta } DE HAC FORMULA CONSIDERATIONES KABBALISTICAE.
-
-
- Behold moreover, my Son, the Oeconomy of this Way, how it
- is according to the Tao, fulfilling itself wholly within thine
- own Sphere. And it is utterly in Tune with thine own Will on
- every Plane, so that every Part of thy Nature rejoiceth with
- every other Part, communicating Praise. Now then learn also
- how this Formula is that of the Word ABRAHADABRA. First, HAD
- is the Triangle erect upon twin Squares. Of Hadit need I not
- to write, for He hath hidden Himself in "The Book of the Law".
- This Substance is the Father, the Instrument is the Son, and
- the Metaphysical Ekstacy is the Holy Ghost, whose Name is
- HRILIU. These are then the Sun, Mercury, and Venus, whose
- sacred letters are R ({HB:Resh }), B ({HB:Bet }), and D ({HB:Dalet }). But the
- last of the Diverse Letters is H ({HB:Heh }), which in the Tarot
- is the Star whose Eidolon is D ({HB:Dalet }); and herein is that
- Arcanum concerning the Tao of which I have already written.
-
- Of this will I not write more plainly. But mark this, that
- our Trinity is our Path inwards in the Solar System, and that
- H being of our Lady Nuith starry, is an Anchor to this Magick
- which else were apt to deny our wholeness of Relation to the
- Outer as to the Inner. My son, ponder these Words, and profit
- by them; for I have wrought cunningly to conceal or to reveal,
- according to thine Intelligence, o my Son!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -89-
-
-
- {Gamma }{iota } DE QUIBUSDAM ARTIBUS MAGICIS.
-
-
- Now of those Operations of Magick by which thou seekest to
- display unto some other Person the Righteousness of thy Will I
- make haste to instruct thee. First, if thou have a reasonable
- Link with him by Word or Letter, it is most natural simply to
- create in thyself, as I have taught, a Child or Bud-Will, and
- let that radiate from thee through the Channels aforesaid.
- But if thou have no Link, the Case is otherwise and is not
- easy. Here thou mayst make Communication through others, as
- it were by Relays; or thou mayst act directly upon his Aura by
- Magical Means, such as the Projection of the Scin-Laeca. But
- unless he be sensitive and well-attuned, thou mayst fare but
- ill. Yet even in this Case thou mayst attain much Skill by
- Practice with Intelligence. In the End it is better
- altogether to work wholly within thine own Universe, slowly
- and with firm Steps advancing from the Centre, and dealing,
-
- one by one, with those unharmonized Parts of the Not-Self
- which lie close to thee. This therefore closeth the Circle of
- my Speech, for now I am returned to that which I spake
- aforetime concerning the general Method of love, and thy
- Development by that Way.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -90-
-
-
- {Gamma }{kappa } DE MAGNO OPERE.
-
-
- But now give Ear most eagerly, thou Son of my Loins, for I
- will now discourse unto thee of thine Own Attainment, without
- which all is but Idleness. Know first that conscious Thought
- is but phenomenal, the Noise of thy Machine. Now Chemistry,
- or Al-Chem-y meaneth the Egyptian Science, and the true Magick
- of Egypt hath this for its Foundation. We have in our House
- many Substances which act directly upon the Blood, and many
- Practices of Virtue similar, to simulate, compose, purify,
- analyse, direct, or concentrate the Thought. Confer "CCXX". 11,
- 22. But this Action is subtle and of man Modes, and dependeth
- heavily on the Conditions of the Experiment, whereof the first
- is thine own Will therein. Therefore I say unto thee that
- this is thy Work immediate and necessary, to discover openly
- thy Will unto thyself, and to fortify and enkindle it by all
- One-Pointedness of Thought and Action, so that thou mayst
-
- direct it inwards unto its Core, that is Thyself in thy Name
- HADIT. For thereby is thy Will made white with Heat, so that
- no Dross may cling to it. But this Work is the Great Work,
- and standeth alone.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -91-
-
-
- {Gamma }{lambda } DE GRADIBUS AD MAGNUM OPUS.
-
-
- This Great Work is the Attainment of the Knowledge and
- Conversation of thine Holy Guardian Angel. In the Eight
- Aethyr is the Way thereof revealed. But I say: prepare
- thyself most heartily and well for that Battle of Love by all
- means of Magick. Make thyself puissant, wise, radiant in
- every System, and balance thyself well in thine Universe.
- Then with a pure Will tempered in the thousand Furnaces of thy
- Trials, burn up thyself within thy Self. In the Preparation
- thou shalt have learnt how thou mayst still all Thoughts, and
- reach Ekstacy of Trance in many Modes. But in these Marriages
- thy conscious Self is Bridegroom, and the not-Self Bride,
- while in this Great Work thou givest up that conscious Self as
- Bride to thy true Self. This Operation is then radically
- alien from all others. And it is hard, because it is a total
- Reversal of the Current of the Will, and a Transmutation of
-
- its Formula and Nature. Here, o my son, is the One Secret of
- Success in this Great Work: Invoke often.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -92-
-
-
- {Gamma }{mu } DE FORMULA LUNAE.
-
-
- Thus then concerning Operations of the Tao with the Yang
- and the Yin is there enough; for thine own Art of Beauty shall
- divine for thee, and devise new Heavens. But in all these is
- the Formula of the Serpent with the Head of the Lion, and all
- this Magick is wrought by the Radiance and Creative Force
- thereof. And this Force leapeth continually from Plane to
- Plane, and breaketh forth from his Bonds, so that Constraint
- is Labour. Now then learn that the Yin hath also a Formula of
- Force. And the Nature of the Yin is to be still, and to
- encircle of limit, and it is as a Mirror, reflecting diverse
- Images without Change in its own Kind. So then it seeketh
- never to overlap the Barriers of its Plane; for this Reason it
- is well to use it in Operations of a very definite and
- restricted Type. But although it be inert, yet is it most
- subject to Change; for its Number is four Score and one, which
-
- is the Moon; and these are A L O ,, the Gods elemental before
- H descending in their midst made them Creative. So then thou
- mayst use constantly this Formula to rearrange Things in their
- own Planes; and this is a most pragmatic Consideration.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -93-
-
-
- {Gamma }{nu } DE AQUILAE SUMKNDA.
-
-
- Take in this Work the Eagle all undefiled and virginal for
- thy Sacrament. And thy Technick is the Magick of Water, so
- that thine Act is of Nourishment, and not of Generation.
- Therefore the Prime Use of this Art is to build up thine own
- Nature. But if thou hast Skill to control the Mood of the
- Eagle, then mayst thou work many an admirable Effect upon
- thine Environment. Thou knowest how great is the Fame of
- Witch-Women (old and without Man) to cause Events, although
- they create nothing. It is this Straitness of the Channel
- which giveth Force to the Stream. Beware, o my Son, lest thou
- cling overmuch to this Mode of Magick; for it is lesser than
- that Other, and if thou neglect That Other, then is thy Danger
- fearful and imminent, for it is the Edge of the Abyss of
- Choronzon, where are the lonely Towers of the Black Brothers.
- Also the Formulation of the Object in the Eagle is by a
-
- Species of Intoxication, so that His Nature is of Dream or
- Delirium, and thus there may be Illusion. For this Cause I
- deem it not wholly unwise if thou use this Way of Magick
- chiefly as a Cordial; that is for the Fortifying of thine own
- Nature.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -94-
-
-
- {Gamma }{chi } DE MEDICINIS SECUNDUM QUATTUOR ELEMENTA.
-
-
- Concerning the Use of chemical Agents, and be mindful that
- thou abuse them not, learn that the Sacrament itself relateth
- to Spirit, and the Four Elements balanced thereunder in its
- Perfection. So also thy Lion himself hath a fourfold
- Menstruum for his Serpents. Now to Fire belong Cocaine, which
- fortifieth the Will, loosing him from bodily Fatigue,
- Morphine, which purifieth the Mind, making the Thought safe,
- and slow, and single, Heroin which partaketh as it seemeth, of
- the Nature of these twain aforesaid albeit in Degree less
- notable than either of them, and Alcohol, which is Food, that
- is, Fuel, for the whole Man. To Water, attribute Hashish and
- Mescal, for they make Images, and they open the hidden Springs
- of Pleasure and of Beauty. Morphine, for its Ease, hath also
- part in Water. Air ruleth Ethyl Oxide, for it is as a Sword,
- dividing asunder ever Part of thee, making easy the Way of
-
- Analysis, so that thou comest to learn thyself of what
- Elements thou art compact. Lastly, of the Nature of Earth are
- the direct Hypnotics, which operate by Repose, and restore thy
- Strength by laying thee as a Child in the Arms of the Great
- Mother, I say rather of Her material and physiological
- Vicegerent.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -95-
-
-
- {Gamma }{omicron } DE VIRTUTE EXPERIMENTIAE IN HOC ARTE.
-
-
- Not Sleep, not Rest, not Contentment are of the Will of the
- Hero, but these Things he hateth, and consenteth to enjoy them
- only with Same of his weak Nature. But he will analyse
- himself without Pity, and he will do all Things soever that
- may free and fortify his Mind and Will. Know that the
- Technick of the Right Use of this Magick with Poisons is
- subtle; and since the Nature of every Man differeth from that
- of his Fellow, there entereth Idiosyncrasy, and thine
- Experience shall be thy Master in this Art. Heed also this
- Word following: The Right Use of these Agents is to gain a
- Knowledge preliminary of thine own Powers, and of High States,
- so that thou goest not altogether blindly and without Aim in
- thy Quest, ignorant of the Ways of thine own inner Being.
- Also, thou must work always for a definite End, never for
- Pleasure or for Relaxation, except thy wilt, as a good Knight
-
- is sworn to do. And thou being Hero and Magician art in Peril
- of abusing the fiery Agents only, not those of Earth, Air or
- Water; because these do really work with thee in Purity,
- making thee wholly what thou wouldst be, an Engine
- indefatigable, a Mind clear, calm, and concentrated, and a
- Heart fierce aglow.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -96-
-
-
- {Gamma }{pi } DE SACRAMENTO VERO.
-
-
- But in the Sacrament of the Gnosis, which is of the Spirit,
- is there naught hurtful, for its Elements are not only Food,
- but a true Incarnation and Quintessence of Life, Love, and
- Liberty, and at its Manifestation thy Lion is consecrated by
- pure Light of Ekstacy. Also, as this is the strongest so also
- it is the most sensitive of all Things soever, and both proper
- and ready to take Impress of Will, not as a Seal passively but
- with true Recreation in a Microcosm thereof. And this is a
- God alive and puissant to create, and He is a Word of Magick
- wherein thou mayst read Thyself with all thine History and all
- thy Possibility. Also as to thine Eagle, is not this chosen
- by Nature Herself by Her Way of Attraction, without which
- harmony Aesthetic and Magnetic thy Lion is silent, and inert,
- even as Achilles before his Rage in his Tent. Now also
- therefore I charge thee, o my Son, to partake constantly of
-
- this Sacrament for it is proper to all Virtue, and as thou
- dost learn to us it in Perfection, thou wilt surpass all other
- Modes of Magick. Yea, in good Sooth, no Herb or Potion is
- like unto this, supreme in every Case, for it is the True
- Stone of Philosophers, and the Elixir and Medicine of all
- Things, the Universal Tincture or Menstruum of thine own Will.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -97-
-
-
- {Gamma }{koppa } DE DISCIPULIS REGENDIS.
-
-
- I will have thee to know, moreover, my dear Son, the right
- Art of Conduct with them whom I shall give thee for
- Initiation. And the Rule thereof is one Rule; Do that thou
- wilt shall be the whole of the Law. See thou constantly to it
- that this be not broken; especially in the Section thereof (if
- I dare say so) which readeth Mind thine own Business. This is
- of Application equally to all, and the most dangerous Man (or
- Woman, as has occurred, or I err) is the Busy-body. Oh how
- ashamed are we, and moved to Indignation, seeing the Sins and
- Follies of our Neighbours! Of all the Occasions of this
- Grievance the most common is the Desire of Sex unsatisfied;
- and thou knowest already, even in thy young Experience, how in
- that Delirium the Weal of the Whole Universe appeareth of no
- Account. Do thou wean thy Babes from that Simplicity, and
- instil the Sense of true Proportion. For verily this is a Way
-
- of Madness, Love, unless it be under Will. And the Cure of
- this Madness is not so good as its Prevention, so that thou
- shouldst be beforehand with these Children, shewing them the
- right Importance of Love, how it should be a sacred Rite,
- exalted above Personality, and a Fire to enlighten and serve
- Man, not to devour him.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -98-
-
-
- {Gamma }{rho } DE QUIBUSDAM MORBIS DISCIPULORUM.
-
-
- And thus, if any Babe of thine be ill at ease, look closely
- first whether this Love be not the Root of his Distemper.
- Watch also Idleness, for whoso presseth eagerly forward in
- Will heedeth little the Affairs of this Fellows. O my Son, if
- every Man doth his own Will, there is no more to Say! But the
- Busy-body nor mindeth his own Business, nor leaveth others to
- mind theirs. Be thou instant therefore with such an one, to
- cure him by enlightening his Will, and speeding him therein.
- Remember also that if one speak ill of another, the Fault is
- first of all in himself, for we know naught but that which is
- within us. Did not the great Witch-Finder end by confessing
- that he also was a Sorcerer? We become that which obsesseth
- us, either through extreme Hate or Extreme Love. Knowest thou
- not how the one is a Symbol of the other? For this Reason,
- since Love is the Formula of Life, we are under Bond to
-
- assimilate (in the End) that which we fear or hate. So then
- we shall be wise to mould all Things within ourselves in
- Quietness and Modulation. But above all must we use all to
- our own End, adapting with Adroitness even our Weakness to the
- Work.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -99-
-
-
- {Gamma }{sigma } DE CULPIS DOMI PETENDIS.
-
-
- Therefore, watch heedfully the Fault of another, that thou
- mayst correct it in thyself. For if it were not in thee, thou
- couldst not perceive it or understand it. Lo, in thine
- Ekstacy of Love, thou callest upon the Universe to bear
- Witness that to this End alone was it created; it is
- unthinkable that thou shouldst love another, and
- incomprehensible that any Man should grieve. Yet ere the Moon
- change her Quarter, thou art free of thy Lunes, and lovest
- another, and it may be grievest in thyself while he that
- amazed thee hath joined the Company of the Rejoicing. Watch
- then, and heed thyself; and pay no Heed to thy Fellows,
- insofar as they impede thee not. And let this be the Rule.
- For every Will is pure and every Orbit free; but Error
- bringeth Confusion. See therefore that none leave his Path,
- lest he foul that of his Brother; and remember also that with
-
- Speed cometh Ease of Control. Let each Man therefore urge
- briskly his Chariot in a right Line toward the Centre; for two
- Radii cannot cross. And beware most of this Love, because it
- lieth so close to Will that Dis-ease thereof easily imparteth
- his Error to the Whole Way of the Magician.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -100-
-
-
- {Gamma }{tau } DE CORPORE UMBRA HOMINIS.
-
-
- Concerning the Aeon, o my Son, learn that the Sun and His
- Vicegerent are in all Aeons, of Necessity, Father, Centre,
- Creator, each in His Sphere of Operation. But the Formula of
- the past Aeon was of the Dying god, and was based upon
- Ignorance. For Men thought that the Sun died and was reborn
- alike in the Day and in the Year; and so also was the Mystery
- of Man. Now already are we well assured by Science how the
- Death of the Sun is in Truth but the Shifting of a Shadow; and
- in this Aeon (o my son, I lift up my Voice and I make
- Prophecy!) so shall it be proven as to Death. For the Body of
- Man is but his Shadow, it cometh and goeth even as the tides
- of Ocean; and he only is in Darkness who is hidden by that
- Shadow from the Light of his true Self. Now therefore
- understand thou the Formula of Horus, the Lion God, the Child
- crowned and conquering that cometh forth in Force and Fire!
-
- For thy Changes are not Phases of thee, but of the Phantoms
- which thou mistakest for thy Self.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -101-
-
-
- {Gamma }{upsilon } DE SIRENIS.
-
-
- concerning the Love of women, o my Son, it is written in
- " ""The Book of the Law" that all is Freedon, if it be cone unto
- our Lady Nuit. Yet also there is this Consideration,that for
- every Parsifal there is a Kundry. Thou mayst eat a thousand
- Fruits of the Garden; but there is one Tree whose name for
- thee is Poison. In every great Initiation is an Ordeal,
- wherein appeareth a Siren or Vampire appointed to destroy the
- Candidate. I have myself witnessed the Blasting of not less
- that ten of my own Flowers, that I tended when I was Nemo, and
- that although I saw the Cankerworm, and knew it, and gave
- urgent Warning. How then consider deeply in thyself if I were
- rightly governed in this Action, according to the Tao. For we
- that are Magicians work without Fear or Haste, being
- omnipotent in Eternity, and each Star must go his Way; and who
- am I that should save this People? "Wilt thou smite me as
-
- thou smotest the Egyptian yesterday?" Yes, although mine were
- the Might to save these Ten, I reached not forth mine Arm
- against Iniquity, I spake and I was silent; and that which was
- appointed came to pass. As it is written, the Pregnant
- Goddess hath let down Her Burden upon the Earth.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -102-
-
-
- {Gamma }{phi } DE FEMINA QUADAM.
-
-
- Knowest thou for what Cause I am moved to write this unto
- thee, my Son only-begotten, Child of Magick and of Mystery?
- It is that I thy Father am also in this Ordeal of Initiation
- at this Hour. For the Sun is nigh unto the End of the Sign of
- the Fishes in the Thirteenth Year of the Aeon, and the New
- Current of High Magick leapeth forth as a Flood from the Womb
- of my True Lady B A B A L O N. And a Word hath come to me by
- the Mouth of thee Scarlet Woman, whose Name is E V E, or A H I
- T H A, concerning the Temple of Jupiter that is builded for
- me. And therein is a Woman appointed to a certain Office.
- Now this Woman appeared to me in a Vision when I was in the
- House of the Juggler by the Lake among the Mountains, the Sun
- being in Cancer in the Eleventh Year of the Aeon, even in the
- Week after thy Birth. And I think this Woman to be Her whom I
- call W E S --- R U N. But even while with a pure Heart I did
-
- invoke Her, there came unto me another like unto Her, so that
- I am confused in my Mind and bewildered. And this other Woman
- stirreth my true Nature in its Depth, so that I will not call
- it Love. For the Voice of Love I know of old; but this other
- Woman speaketh in a tongue whereof I have no Understanding.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -103-
-
-
- {Gamma }{chi } DE SUA VIRTUTE.
-
-
- What then shall I do therein? For the Scarlet Woman
- adjureth me by the great Name of God ITHUPHALLOS that I deal
- with the Other Woman as with any Woman, according to my Will.
- But this I fear for that she is not as any Woman, and I deem
- her to be the Vampire of this Ordeal. Now then? Shall I
- fear? Said I not long since, when I was called of Men Eliphaz
- Levi Zahed, that the Error of Oedipus was that he should have
- tamed the Sphinx, and ridden her into Thebes? Shall I not
- take this Vampire, if she be such, and master her and turn her
- to the Great End? "Am I such a Man as should flee?" Is not
- all Fear the Word of Failure? Shall I distrust my Destiny?
- Am I that am the Word of the Aeon of so little avail that even
- the whole Powers of Choronzon can disperse me? Nay, o my Son,
- there is Courage of Ignorance and Discretion of Knowledge, and
- by no less Virtue will I win through unto mine End. As it is
-
- written: with Courage conquering Fear will I approach thee.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -104-
-
-
- {Lambda }{psi } DE ALIQUIBUS MODIS ORACULI PETENDI.
-
-
- My Son, in all Judgment and Decision is great Delicacy, but
- most in these Matters of the Will. For thou art Advocate as
- well as Judge, and unless thou have well organized thy Mind
- thou art Bondslave of Prejudice. For this Cause it is
- adjuvant to thy Wisdom to call Witnesses that are not of thine
- own Nature, and to ask Oracles whose Interpretation is bound
- by fixed rule. This is the Use of the Book T A R O T, of the
- Divination by Earth, or by the other Elements, or by the Book
- " ""Yi-King", and many another Mode of Truth. Thou knoest by thine
- Experience that these Arts deceive thee not, save insofar as
- thou deceivest thyself. So then to thee that art NEMO is no
- Siege Perilous at this Table, but to them that are yet below
- the Abyss is very notable Danger of Error. Yet must they
- train themselves constantly in these Modes, for Experience
- itself shall teach them how their Bias toward their Desires
-
- reacteth in the End against themselves, and hindereth them in
- the Execution of their Wills. Nevertheless, as thou well
- knowest, the best Mode is the Creation of an Intelligible
- Image by Virtue of the Mass of the Holy Ghost, declaring the
- true Will unto thee in Terms of thy Qabalah!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -105-
-
-
- {Gamma }{omega } DE FRATRIBUS NIGRIS? FILIIS INIQUITATIS.
-
-
- Of the Black Brothers, o my Son, will I write these Things
- following. I have told thee already concerning Change, how it
- is the Law, because every Change is an Act of Love under will.
- So then He that is Adept Exempt, whether in our Holy Order or
- another, may not remain in the Pillar of Mercy, because it is
- not balanced, but is unstable. Therefore is the Choice given
- unto him, whether he will destroy his Temple, and give up his
- Life, extending it to Universal Life, or whether he will make
- a Fortress about that Temple, and abide therein, in the false
- Sphere of Daath, which is in the Abyss. And to the Adepts of
- our Holy Order this Choice is terrible; by Cause that they
- must abandon even Him whose Knowledge and Conversation they
- have attained. Yet, o my Son, they have much Help of our
- Order in this Aeon, because the general Formula is Love, so
- that their habit itself urges them to the Bed of our Lady
-
- BABALON. Know then the Black Brothers by this true Sign of
- their Initiation of iniquity, that that they resist Change,
- restrict and deny Love, fear Death. Percutiantur.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -106-
-
-
- {Delta }{alpha } DE VIRTUTE CHIRURGICA.
-
-
- Know that the Cult of the Slave-Gods is a Device of those
- Black Brothers. All that stagnateth is thereof, and thence
- cometh not Stability, but Putrefaction. Endure not thou the
- static Standards either in Thought or in Action Resist not
- even the Change that is the Rottenness of Choronzon, but
- rather speed it, so that the elements may combine by Love
- under Will. Since the Black Brothers and their Cults set
- themselves against Change, do thou break them asunder. Yea,
- though of bad come worse, continue in that Way; for it is as
- if thou didst open an Abscess, the first Effect being noisome
- exceedingly, but the last Cleanness. Heed not then, whoso
- crieth Anarchy, and Immorality, and Heresy against thee, and
- feareth to destroy Abuse lest worse Things come of it. For
- the Will of the Universe in its Wholeness is to Truth, and
- thou dost well to purge it from its Constiveness. For it is
-
- written that there is no bond that can unite the Divided by
- Love, so that only those Complexes which are in Truth
- Simplicities, being built Cell by Cell unto an Unity by Virtue
- of Love under Will, are worthy to endure in their Progression.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -107-
-
-
- {Delta }{beta } DE OPERIBUS STELLAE MICROCOSMI.
-
- QUORUM SUNT QUATTOUR MINORES.
-
-
- I have already written unto thee, my Son, of the Paradox of
- Liberty, how the Freedom of thy Will dependeth upon the
- Bending of all thy forces to that one End. But now also learn
- how great is the Oeconomy of our Magick, and this will I
- declare unto thee in a Figure of the Holy Qabalah, to wit, the
- Formula of the Tetragrammaton. Firstly, the Operation of Yod
- and He is not Vau only, but with Vau appeareth also a new He,
- as a By-OProduct, and She is mysterious, being at once the
- Flower of the three others, and their Poison. Now by the
- Operation of Vau upon that He is no new Creation, but the
- Daughter is set upon the Throne of Her Mother, and by this is
- rekindled the Fire of Yod, which, consuming that Virgin, doth
- not add a Fifth Person, but balanceth and perfecteth all. For
-
- this Shin, that is the Holy Spirit, pervadeth these, and is
- immanent. Thus in three Operations is the Pentagram
- formulated. But in the Figure of that Star these Operations
- are not indicated, for the five Lines of Force connect not
- according to any of them; but five new Operations are made
- possible; and these are the Works proper to the perfected man.
- First, the Work which lieth level, the Vau with the He, is of
- the Yang and the Yin, and maketh One the Human with the
- Divine, as in the Attainment of the Master of the Temple. Yet
- this Work hath his Perversion, which is of Death. Thus then
- for thee four Works, they pertain all to the Natural Formula
- ofthe Cross and Rose.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -108-
-
-
- {Delta }{gamma } DE OPERIBUS STELLAE MICROCOSMI.
-
- QUORUM SUNT QUATTUOR MAJORES.
-
-
- O my Son, behold now the Virtue and Mystery of the Silver
- Star! For of these four Works not one leadeth to the Crown,
- because Tetragrammaton hath his Root only in Chokmah. So
- therefore the Formula of the Rosy Cross availeth no more in
- the Highest. Now then in the Pentagram are two Lines that
- invoke Spirit, though they lead not thereunto, and they are
- the Works of He with He, and of Yod with Vau. Of thee twain
- the former is a Work Magical of the Nature of Music, and it
- draweth down the Fire of the HIGHER by Seduction or
- Bewitchment. And the latter is a Work opposite thereunto,
- whose Effect forumlateth itself by direct Creation in the
- Sphere of its Purpose and Intent. But there remain yet two of
- the Eight Works, namely, the straight Aspiration of the Chiah
-
- or Creator in thee to the Crown, and the Surrender of the
- Nephesh or Animal soul to the Possession thereof; and these be
- the twin principal Formulae of the Final Attainment, being
- Archetypes of the Paths of Magick (the one) and Mysticism (the
- other) unto the End. From each of these Eight Works is
- derived a separate Mode of practical Use, each after his Kind;
- and it should be well for thine Instruction if thou study upon
- these my Words, and found upon them a System. O my son,
- forget not therein the Arcanum of their Balance and
- Proportion; fort herein lieth the Mystery of their Holiness.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -109-
-
-
- {Delta }{delta } DE STELLA MACROCOSMI.
-
-
- Thus far then concerning the Pentagram, how it is of the
- Cross, and its Virtue of the Highest; but the Hexagram is for
- the most Part a Detail of the Formula of the Rose and Cross.
- Already have I shewed unto thee how the Most Holy Trinity is
- the Yang; but the Spirit, and the Water (or Fluid) and the
- Blood, that bear Witness in the Inferior, are of the Yin.
- Thus the Operation of the Hexagram lieth wholly within the
- Order of our Plane, uniting indeed any soul with its Image,
- but not transcendentally, for its Effect is Cosmos, the Vau
- that springeth from the Union of the Yod and the He. Thus is
- it but a Glyph of that first Formula, not of the others. But
- of all these Things shalt thou thyself make Study with ardent
- Affection; for therein lie many Mysteries of practical Wisdom
- in our Magick Art. And this is the Wonder and Beauty of this
- Work, that for every Man is his own Palace. Yea, this is
-
- Life, that the Secrets of our Order are not fixed and dead, as
- are the Formulae of the Outer. Know that in the many thousand
- Times that I have performed the Ritual of the Pentagram or the
- Invocation of the Heart girt with a Serpent, or the Mass of
- the Phoenix, or of the Holy Ghost, there has not been one Time
- wherein I did not win new Light, or Knowledge or Power or
- Virtue, save through mine own Weakness or Error.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -110-
-
-
- {Delta }{epsilon } DE SUA FEMINA OLIM, ET DE ECSTASIA
-
- PRAETER OMNIA.
-
-
- My Son, I am enflamed with Love. I burn up eagerly in the
- Passion that thus mightily consumeth me. Yet in myself I know
- not at all That which constraineth me, and enkindleth my Soul
- in Ekstacy. There is Silence in my Soul, and the Fear round
- about me, as I were Syrinx in the Night of the Forest. This
- is a great Mystery that I endure, a Mystery too great for the
- mortal Part of me. For but now, when I cried out upon the
- Name Olun, which is the secret Name of my Lady that hath come
- to me --- most strangely! --- then I was rapt away altogether
- subtly yet fiercely into a Trance that hath transformed me
- with Attainment, yet without Trace in Mind. O my son! there
- is the Transfiguration of Glory, and there is the Jewel in the
- Lotus-flower; yea, also is many other whereof I am Partaker.
-
- But this last Passion, that my Lady Olun hath brought unto me
- upon this last Day of the Winter of the thirteenth Year of the
- Aeon, even as I wrote these Words unto thee, is a Mystery of
- Mysteries beyond all these. Oh my son, thou knowest well the
- Perils and the Profit of our Path; continue thou therein.
- Olun! {Mu }{alpha }{pi }{iota }{epsilon } BABALON! Adsum.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -111-
-
-
- {Delta }{digamma } DE NOMINE OLUN.
-
-
- Four Seasons, or it may be night five, ago, I thy Father
- was in the City called New-Orleans, and being in Travail of
- Spirit I did invoke the God that giveth Wisdom, bearing the
- Word of the All-Father by his Caduceus. Then, suddenly, as I
- began (as it were a Gust of Fire whirled forth against that
- Idea) cam the Wit of mine utter Identity, so that I ceased
- crying Mercurius Sum. Also instantly I knew in myself that
- there was a Mystery hidden, and translating into the Greek
- Tongue, exclaimed '{Epsilon }{Pi }{Mu }{Eta }{Sigma } '{Epsilon }{Iota }{Mu }{Iota },
- whose Numeration did I make in my Mind forthwith, and it is
- Four Hundred and Eighteen, like unto the Word of the Aeon. So
- by this I knew that my Work was well wrought in Truth. Thus
- then also was it with this my Lady; for after many Questions I
- obtained from the wizard Amalantrah that Name Olun, that is
- One Hundred and Fifty and Six even as that of our Lady
-
- BABALON; and then, being inspired, I wrote down Her Earth-name
- in Greek, {Mu }{Alpha }{Rho }{Iota }{Epsilon }, which is also that this Name
- (as I have learned) is in the Phoenician Tongue, who^len;
- which by Interpretation is That which is Infinite, and Space;
- so that all is consonant with NUITH Our Lady of the Stars.
- Thus, o my Son, is the Word of Truth echoed throughout all
- Worlds; and thus have the Wise mighty Assurance in their Way.
- See, o my Son, that thou work not without this Guard
- inflexible, lest thou err in thy Perceptions.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -112-
-
-
- {Delta }{zeta } DE VIRIS MAGNANIMIS, AMORE PRAECLARISSIMIS.
-
-
- Know that in the Mind of Man is much Wisdom that is hidden,
- being the Treasure of his Sire that he inheriteth. Thus,
- night all of his moral Nature is unknown to him until his
- Puberty; that is, this Nature pertaineth not unto the
- Recording and Judging Apparatus of his Brain until it is put
- therein by the Stirring of that deeper Nature within him.
- Thou wilt mark also that great Men are commonly great Lovers;
- and this is in Part also because (consciously or not) they are
- ware of that Secret following, that every Act of Love
- communicateth somewhat of the Wisdom stored within him to his
- percipient Mind. Yet must such Act be done rightly, according
- to Art; and unless such Act is of Profit alike to Mind and
- Body, it is an Error. This then is true Doctrine; which if it
- be understanded aright of thee, shall make diamon-clear thy
- Path in Love, which (to them that know not this) is so obscure
-
- and perilous that I believe there is not one Man in Ten
- Thousand that cometh not to Misadventure therein.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -113-
-
-
- {Delta }{eta } DE CASTITATE.
-
-
- My son, be fervent! Be firm! Be stable! Be quick to make
- Impurity, how one Course of Ideas seeketh to infringe upon
- another, to quell the Virtue thereof. Gold is pure, but to
- drink molten Gold were Impurity to thy Body, and its
- Destruction. Law is a Code of the Customs of a People; if it
- intrude thereon to alter them, it is an Impurity of
- Oppression. So also Diet is to be in Accord with Digestion;
- Ethics were an Impurity therein. Love is an Expression of the
- Will of the Body, yea, and more also, of That which created
- the Body; and its Operation is commonly between One and One,
- so that the Interference of a Third Person is Impurity, and
- not to be endured. Nay, even the thought of Third Person hath
- but ordinary not Part in Love; so that, as thou seest
- constantly in thy Life, Love being strong, taketh no heed of
- others, and some after Interference bringeth Misfortune. Now
-
- then shell we therefore cast out Love, or accept Impurity
- therein? God forbid. And for this Cause see thou well to it
- that in thy Kingdom there be no Interference there with, nor
- Hindrance from any. For it is perfect in itself.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -114-
-
-
- {Delta }{theta } DE CEREMONIO EQUINOXI.
-
-
- My Son, our Father in Heaven hath passed into the Sign of
- the Ram. I have performed the Rite of Union with Him
- according to the ancient Manner, and I know the Word that
- shall rule the Semester. Also it is given unto my Spirit to
- write unto thee concerning the Virtue of this Rite, and many
- another of Antiquity. And it is this, that our Forefathers
- made of these Ceremonies an Epitome Mnemonic, wherein certain
- Truths, or true Relations, should be communicated in a magical
- Manner. Now therefore by the Practice of these mayst thou
- awaken thy Wisdom, that it may manifest in thy conscious Mind.
- And this Way is of Use even when the Ceremonies, as those of
- the Christians, are corrupt and deformed; but in such a Case
- thou shalt seek out the true ancient Significance thereof.
- For there is that within thee which remembereth Truth, and is
- ready to communicate the same unto thee when thou hast Wit to
-
- evoke it from the Aditum and Sanctuary of thy Being. And this
- is to be done by this Repetition of the Formula of that Truth.
- Note thou further that this which I tell thee is the Defence
- of Formalism; and indeed thou must work upon a certain
- Skeleton, but clothe it with live Flesh.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -115
-
-
- {Delta }{iota } DE LUCE STELLARUM.
-
-
- It was that most Holy Prophet, thine Uncle, called upon
- Earth William O'Neill, or Blake, who wrote for our
- Understanding these Eleven Sacred Words! ---
- If the Sun and Moon should doubt
- They'd immediately go out.
- O my Son, our Work is to shine by Fore and Virtue of our own
- Natures without Consciousness or consideration. Now,
- notwithstanding that our Radiance is constant and undimmed, it
- may be that Clouds gathering about us conceal our Glory from
- the Vision of other Stars. These Clouds are our Thoughts; not
- those true Thoughts which are but conscious Expressions of our
- Will, such as manifest in our Poesy, or our Music, or other
- Flower-Ray of our Life quintessential. Nay, the Cloud-Thought
- is born of Division and of Doubt; for all Thoughts, except
- they be creative emanations, are Witnesses to Conflict within
-
- us. Our settled Relations with the Universe do not disturb
- our Minds, as, by Example, our automatic Functions, which
- speak to us only in the Sign of Distress. Thus all
- consideration is Demonstration of Doubt, and Doubt of Duality,
- which is the Root of Choronzon.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -116-
-
-
- {Delta }{kappa } DE CANTU.
-
-
- So then, o my Son, there is my Wisdom, that the Voice of
- the Soul in its true Nature Eternal and Unchangeable,
- comprehending all Change, is Silence; and the Voice of the
- Soul, dynamic, in the Way of its Will, is song. Nor is there
- any Form of utterance that is not, as song is, the Music
- proper to that Motion, according to the Law. Thus, as thy
- Cousin Arthur Machen hath rejoiced to make plain unto Men in
- his Book called "Hieroglyphics", the first Quality of Art is its
- Ekstacy. So, night to all Men at one Time or other, cometh
- Joy of Creation, with the Belief that their Utterance is holy
- and beautiful, glorious with Banners. This would indeed be
- the Case, an we could discern their Thought from their Words;
- but because they have no technical Skill to express
- themselves, the do not enable others to reproduce or recreate
- the original Passion which inspired them, or even any Memory
-
- thereof. Understand then what is the Agony of the Great Soul
- who hath every Key of Paradise at his Girdle, when he would
- open the Gate of Holiness, or of Beauty, or any Virtue soever,
- to the Men of his Age!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -117-
-
-
- {Delta }{lambda } DE STULTITIA HUMANA.
-
-
- Know that a Mind can only apprehend those Things with which
- it is already familiar, at least in Part. Moreover, it will
- ever interpret according to the Distortion of its own Lenses.
- Thus, in a great War, all Speech soever may be understood as
- if it were of Reference thereunto; also, a Guilty Person, or a
- Melancholic may see in every Stranger an Officer of Justice,
- or one of them that are banded together to persecute him, as
- the Case may be. But consider moreover that the Mysterious is
- always the Terrible, for Vulgar Minds. How then when a New
- Word is spoken? Either it is not heard, or it is
- misunderstood; and it evoketh Fear and Hate as a Reaction
- against Fear. Then Men take him and set him at naught, and
- spit upon him and scourge him, and lead him away to crucify
- him; and the third Day he riseth from among the Dead, and
- ascendeth into Heaven, and sitteth at the right Hand of God,
-
- and cometh to judge the Quick and the Dead. This, o my son,
- is the History of Every Man unto whom is given a Word.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -118-
-
-
- {Delta }{mu } DE SUO PROELIO.
-
-
- Now therefore thou seest how Men take the Son of Science,
- and burn him for a Sorcerer or a Heretic; the Poet and cast
- him out as Reprobate; the Painter, as deforming Nature, the
- Musician, as denying Harmony; and so for every New Word. How
- much more, then, if the Word be of Universal Import, a Word of
- Revolution and of Revelation in the Deep of the Soul? A new
- Star; that is for the Astronomers, and maybe setteth them by
- the Ears. But a new Sun! That were for all Men; and a Seed
- of Tumult and Upheavel in every Land. consider in thyself,
- therefore, what is the Might of the Adepts, the Energy of the
- Sancturary, that can endow one Man with the Word of an Aeon,
- and bring him to the End in Victory, with his Chariot wreathed
- in Flowers, and his Head bound round with a Fillet of Blood-
- honoured Laurel! My Son, thou are entered into the Battle;
- and the Men of our Race and our Clan return not save in Glory.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -119-
-
-
- {Delta }{nu } DE NECESSITATE VERBI CLAMANDI.
-
- He that striveth against his own Nature is a Fool, and
- wotteth not his Will, darkening Counsel in himself, and
- denying his own God, and giving Place to Choronzon. So then
- his Work becometh Hotchpot, and he is shattered and dispersed
- in the Abyss. Nor is it better for him if he do this for the
- supposed Good of another, and for that other is it Evil also
- in the End of the Matter. For to manifest thine own Division
- to another, and to deceive him, is but to confirm him in
- blindness, or Illusion, and to hinder or to deflect him in his
- Way. Now to do thine own Will is to leave him free to do his
- own Will, but to mask thy Will is to falsify one of the
- Beacons by which he may steer his Ship. My son, all division
- of Soul, that begetteth Neurosis and Insanity, cometh from
- wrong Adjustment to Reality, and to Fear thereof. Wilt thou
- then hide Truth from thy Brother, lest he suffer? Thou dost
- not well, but confirmest him in Iniquity, and in Illusion, and
-
- in Infirmity of Spirit.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -120-
-
-
- {Delta }{xi } DE MYSTERIO EUCHARISTICO UNIVERSALI.
-
-
- My son, heed also this Word of thine Uncle William O'Neill;
- Everything that lives is holy. Yea, and more also, every Act
- is holy, being essential to the Universal Sacrament. Knowing
- this, thou mayst conform with that which is written in "The""
- ""Book of the Law": to make no Distinction between any one Thing
- and any other Thing. Learn well to apprehend this Mystery,
- for it is the Great Gate of the College of Understanding,
- whereby each and all of thy Senses become constant and
- perpetual Witnesses of the One Eucharist, whereunto also they
- are Ministers. So then to thee every Phenomenon soever is the
- Body of Nuith in her Passion; for it is an Event; that is, the
- Marriage of some one Point of view with some One Possibility.
- And this State of Mind is notably an Appurtenance of thy Grade
- of Master of the Temple, and the Unveiling of the Arcanum of
- Sorrow, which is thy Work, as it is written in Liber Magi.
-
- Moreover, this State, assimilated in the very Marrow of thy
- Mind, is the first Stop toward the comprehension of the
- Arcanum of Change, which is the Root of the Work of a Magus of
- Our Holy Order. O my Son, bind this within thine Heart, for
- its Name is the Beatific Vision.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -121
-
-
- {Delta }{omicron } DE RECTO IN RECTO.
-
-
- Now also then I bid thee use all filial Diligence, and
- attend to this same Word in the Mouth of thine earliest
- Ancestor (except we adventure to invoke the Name F U --- H S
- I) in our known Genealogy, the Most Holy, the True Man, Lao-
- Tze, that gave His Light unto the Kingdom of Flowers. For
- being questioned concerning the abode of the Tao, he gave
- Answer that It was in the Dung. Again, the Tathagata, the
- Buddha, most blessed, most perfect and most enlightened, added
- His Voice, that there is no Grain of Dust which shall not
- attain to the Arhan. Keep therefore in just Balance the
- Relation of Illusion to Illusion in that Aspect of Illusion,
- neither confusing the Planes, nor confounding the Stars, nor
- denying the Laws of their Reaction, yet with Eagle's Vision
- beholding the One Sun of the True Nature of the Whole. Verily,
- this is the Truth, and unto it did also Dionysus and Tahuti
-
- and Sri Krishna set the seal of their Witness. Cleanse
- therefore thine Heart, o my son, in the Waters of the Great
- Sea, and enkindle it with the Fire of the Holy Ghost. For
- this is His peculiar Work of Sanctification.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -122-
-
-
- {Delta }{pi } DE VIRGINE BEATA.
-
-
- Understand then well this Mystery of Universal Godliness;
- for it is the naked Beauty of the Virgin of the World. Lo!
- Since the End is Perfection, as I have already shewn unto
- thee, and since also every Event is inexorably and ineluctably
- interwoven in the Web of that Fate, as it is certain that
- every Phenomenon is (as thou art sworn to understand) "a
- particular Dealing of God with thy Soul". Yea, and more also,
- it is a necessary Rubric in this Ritual of Perfection. Turn
- not therefore away thine Eyes, for that they are too pure to
- behold Evil; but look upon Evil with Joy, comprehending it in
- the Fervour of this Light that I have enkindled in thy Mind.
- Learn also that every Thing soever is Evil, if thou consider
- it as apart, static and in Division; and thus in a Degree must
- thou apprehend the Mystery of Change, for it is by Virtue of
- Change that this Truth of Beauty and Holiness is made
-
- steadfast in the Universe. O my son, there is no Delight
- sweeter than the continuous Contemplation of this Marvel and
- Pageant that is ever about thee; it is the Beatitude of the
- Beatitudes.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -123-
-
-
- {Delta }{koppa } DE LOCO SUAE MOECHAE.
-
- Resist not Change, therefore, but act constantly according
- to thy True Nature, for here only thou standest in Sorrow, if
- there be a Division conscious of itself, and hindered from its
- Way (whose Name is Love) unto its Dissolution. It is written
- in "The Book of the Law" that the Pain of Division is as
- nothing, and the Joy of Dissolution all. Now then here is an
- Art and Device of Magick that I will declare unto thee, albeit
- it is a Peril if thou be not fixed in that Truth and in that
- Beatific Vision whereof I have written in the three Chapters
- foregoing. And it is this, to create by Artifice a Conflict
- in thyself, that thou mayst take thy Pleasure in its
- Resolution. Of this Play is thy sweet Stepmother, my
- concubine, the Holy and Adulterous Olun, sublimely Mistress;
- for she invoketh in her Fancy a thousand Obstacles to Love, so
- that she shuddereth at a Touch, swooneth at a Kiss, and
- suffereth Death and Hell in the Ekstacy of her Body. And this
-
- is her Art, and it is of Nuit Our Lady, for it is the Drama of
- Commemoration of the whole mystery of By-coming.
-
-
-
-
- -124-
-
-
- {Delta }{rho } DE PERICULO JOCORUM AMORIS.
-
-
- Yet be thou heedful, o my son, for this Art is set upon a
- Razor's Edge. In our Blood is this great Pox of Sin, whose
- Word is Restriction, as Inheritance of our Sires that served
- the Slave-Gods. Thou must be free in the Law of Thelema,
- perfectly one with thy true Self, singly and wholly bound in
- thy true Will, before thou durst (in Prudence) invoke the Name
- of Choronzon, even for thy good Sport and Phantasy. It is but
- to pretend, thou sayst; and that is Sooth; yet thou must make
- Pretence so well as to deceive thyself, albeit for a Moment;
- else were thy Sport savourless. Then, and thou have one point
- of Weakness in thee, that Thought of thine may incarnate, and
-
- destroy thee. Verily, the wise Enchanter is sure beyond Doubt
- of his Charm ere he toy with a Fanged Cobra; and thou will
- knowest that this Peril of Division in thy Self is the only
- one that can touch thee. For all other Evil is but
- Elaboration of this Theme of Choronzon. Praise therefore thy
- sweet Stepmother my concubine, the Holy and Adulterous Olun;
- and thine own Mother Hilarion, for in this Art was she also
- pre-eminent.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -125-
-
-
- {Delta }{sigma } DE LIBIDINE SECRETA.
-
-
- It is said among Men that the Word Hell deriveth from the
- Word helan, to hele or conceal, in the Tongue of the Anglo-
- Saxons. That is, it is the concealed Place, which, since all
- things are in thine own Self, is the Unconscious. How then?
- Because Men were already aware how this Unconscious, or
- Libido, is opposed, for the most Part , to the conscious Will.
- In the Salve-Ages this is a Truth Universal, or well night to
- it; for in such Times are Men compelled to Uniformity by the
- Constraint of Necessity herself. Yea, of old it was a
- continual Siege of every Man of every Clan, of every
- Environment; and to relax guard was then Self-murdr, or also
- Treachery. so then no Man might chose his way, until he were
- Hunter, Fighter, Builder; not any Woman, but she must first be
- Breeder. Now in the Growth of States by Organisation came,
- stepping stealthily, a certain Security against the grossest
-
- Perils, so that a few Men could be spared from Toil to
- cultivate Wisdom, and this was first provided by the Selection
- of a caste Pontifical. By this Device came the Alliance of
- King and Priest, Strength and Cunning fortifying each the
- other through the Division of Labour.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -126-
-
-
- {Delta }{tau } DE ORDINE CIVITATUM.
-
-
- So presently, O my son, this first Organisation among Men,
- by a Procedure parallel to that of the Differentiation of
- Protoplasm, made the State competent to explore and to control
- Nature; and every Profit of this sort released more energy,
- and enlarged the class of the Learned, until, as it is this
- day, only a small proportion of any man's work must needs go
- to the satisfaction of first will essential and common, the
- provision of shelter, food, and protection. Verily, also thou
- seest many women made free to live as they will, even o the
- admiration and delight of the Sage whose eye laugheth to
- contemplate mischief. Thus the duty of every Unit towards the
- whole is diminished, and also the necessity to conform with
- those narrow laws which preserve primitive tribes in their
- struggle against environment. Thus the State need suppress
- only such heresies as directly threaten its political
-
- stability, only such modes of life as work manifest and proven
- hurt to others, or cause general disorder by their scandal.
- Therefore save and except he interferes thereby with the root
- laws of common weal, a man is free to develop as he will
- according to his true nature.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -127-
-
-
- {Delta }{upsilon } DE SCIENTIAE MODO.
-
-
- To the mind of the early Philosopher, therefore, any
- variation in type must appear as a disaster; yea, intelligence
- itself must perforce prove its value to the brute, or he
- distrusteth it and destroyeth it. Yet as thou knowest, that
- variation which is fitted to the environment is the salvation
- of the species. Only among men, his fellows turn ever upon
- the Saviour, and rend him, until those who follow him in
- secret, and it may be unconsciously, prove their virtue and
- his wisdom by their survival when his persecutors perish in
- their folly. But we, being secure against all primary enemies
- to the individual, or the common weal, may, nay, we must, if
- we would attain the summit for our race, devote all spare
- leisure, wealth, and energy to he creation of variation from
- the Norm, and thus by clear knowledge bought of experiment and
- of experience, move with eyes well open upon our true path.
-
- So therefore Our Law of Thelema is justified also of biology
- and of social science. It is the true Way of Nature, the
- right strategy in the way of man with his environment, and the
- life of his soul.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -128-
-
-
- {Delta }{phi } DE MONSTRIS.
-
-
- Sayst thou, o my son, that not thus, but by forced
- training, one cometh to perfection. This indeed is sooth,
- that by artificial selection and well-watched growth and
- environment, one hath dogs, horses, pigeons, and the like,
- which excel their forebears in strength, in beauty, in speed,
- as one will. Yet is this work but a false magical artifice,
- temporary and of illusion; for thy masterpieces are but
- monsters, not true variations, and if thou leave them, they
- revert swiftly to their own proper and authentic type, because
- that type was fitted by experience to its environment. So
- every variation must be left free to perpetuate itself of
- perish, not cherished for its beauty, or guarded for its
- appeal to thine ideal, or cut off in thy fear thereof. For
- the proof of its virtue lieth in the manifestation of its
- power to survive, and to reproduce itself after its kind.
-
- Nurse not the weakness of any man, nor swaddle and cosset him,
- not though he were poet or artist because of his value to thy
- fancy, for if thou do this, he shall grow in his informity, so
- that even his work for which thou lovest him, shall be
- enfeebled also.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -129-
-
-
- {Delta }{chi } DE INFERNO PALATIO SAPIENTIAE.
-
-
- Now then thou seest that this Hell, or concealed place
- within thee, is no more a fear or hindrance to men of a free
- race, but the treasure house of the assimilated wisdom of the
- ages, and the knowledge of the True Way. Thus are we just and
- wise to discover this secret in ourselves, to conform the
- conscious mind therewith. For that mind is compact solely
- (until it be illuminated) of impressions and judgments, so
- that its will is but directed by the sum of the shallow
- reactions of a most limited experience. But thy true will is
- the wisdom of the ages of thy generations, the expression of
- that which hath fitted thee exactly to thine environment.
- Thus thy conscious mind is oftentimes foolish, as when thou
- admirest an ideal, and wouldst attain it, but thy true will
- letteth thee, so that there is conflict, and the humiliation
- of that mind. Here will I call to witness the common event of
-
- "Good Resolutions" that defy the lightning of destiny, being
- puffed up by the mind of an indigestible ideal putrefying
- within thee. Thence cometh colic, and presently the poison is
- expelled, or else thou diest. But resolutions of true will
- are mighty against circumstance.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -130-
-
-
- {Delta }{psi } DE VITIIS VOLUNTATIS SECRETAE.
-
-
- Learn moreover concerning this Hell, or hidden wisdom, that
- is within thee, that it is modified, little by little, through
- the experience of the conscious mind, which feedeth it. For
- that wisdom is the expression, or rather symbol and
- hieroglyph, of the true adjustment of thy being to its
- environment. Now, then, this environment being eroded by
- time, this wisdom is no more perfect, for it is not absolute,
- but standeth in relation to the Universe. So then a part
- thereof may become useless, and atrophy as (I will instance
- this case) Man's wit of smell; and the bodily organ
- corresponding degeneratheth therewith. But this is an effect
- of much time, so that in thy hell thou art like to find
- elements vain, or foolish, or contrary to thy present weal.
- Yet, o my Son, this hidden wisdom is not thy true will, but
- only the levers (I may say so) thereof. Notwithstanding,
-
- there lieth therein a faculty of balance, whereby it is able
- to judge whether any element in itself is presently useful and
- benign, or idle and malignant. Here then is a root of
- conflict between the conscious and the unconscious, and a
- debate concerning the right order of conduct, how the will may
- be accomplished.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -131-
-
-
- {Delta }{omega } DE RATIONE PRAESIDIO VOLUNTATIS.
-
-
- O my Son, in this case is there darkness, yet this comfort
- as a lamp therein, that there is no error in the will, but
- only doubt as to the means of success, else were we as
- children afeared of Night. Thus we have need of naught but to
- consider the matter by wit of reason, and of prudence, and on
- common sense, and of experience, and of science, adjusting
- ourselves so far as we may. Here is the key of success, and
- its name is the skill to make right use of circumstance. This,
- then is the virtue of the mind, to be the Wazir of the will, a
- true counsellor, through intelligence of the Universe. But o,
- my Son, do thou lay this word beneath thine heart, that the
- mind hath no will, nor right thereto, so the Usurpation
- bringeth forth a fatal conflict in thyself. For the mind is
- sensitive, unstable as air, and may be led foolishly in leash
- by a stronger mind that worketh as the cunning tool of a will.
-
- Therefore thy safety and defence is to hold thy mind to his
- right function, a faithful minister to thine own true will,
- but election of nature. Heed well this, o my Son, for thy
- mind passive is rightly a mirror to reflect all things clearly
- without prejudice, and to remain unstained by them.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -132-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{alpha } DE CURSU SAPIENTIS.
-
-
- Therefore consider this again in a figure, that thy mind is
- as the marshal of an army, to observe the dispositions of the
- enemy, and to order his own forces rightly, according to that
- information; but he hath no will, only obedience to the word
- of his king to outwit and to overcome the Opposite. Nor doth
- that king make war by his own whim, if he be wise and true,
- but solely because of the necessity of his country, and its
- nature, whereof he is but executive officer and interpreter,
- its voice as the Marshal is its arm. Thus then do thou
- understand thyself, not giving place to thy mind to dispute
- thy will, nor through ignorance and carelessness allowing the
- enemy to deceive thee, nor by fear, by imprudence and
- foolhardiness, by hesitation and vacillation, by disorder and
- the lack of firm correctness, by failure in elasticity or in
- obstinacy, each at its moment, suffering defeat in the hour of
-
- shock. So, then, o my Son, this is thy work, to know the word
- of thy will without error, and to make perfect every faculty
- of thy mind, in right order and readiness to impose that word
- as law upon the Universe. So mote it be!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -133-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{beta } DE RATIONE QUAE SINE VOLUNTATE EST
-
- FONS MANIAE.
-
-
- Is it not a marvel how he that worketh with his will and is
- in constant touch with the reality external, maketh his mind
- to serve him? How eagerly runneth it and returneth,
- gathering, arranging, clarifying, classifying, organizing,
- comparing, setting in array, with skill and might and energy
- that faileth never! Nay, my son, in this way thou canst be
- pitiless with thy mind, and it will not rebel against thee, or
- neglect thine Ordinance. But now consider him that worketh
- not with his will, how his mind is idle, not reaching out
- after reality, but debating within itself of its own affairs,
- like a democracy, introspective. Then this mind, not reacting
- equally and with elasticity to the world, is lost in its own
- anarchy and civil war, so that although it works not, it is
-
- overcome by weakness of division, and becometh Choronzon. And
- unto these words I call to my witness the madness of the soul
- of Muscovy, in this year XIII, of our Aeon that is ended.
- Therefore behold how this our Law of Thelema, Do what thou
- wilt, is the first foundation of health, whether in the body
- or in the mind, either of a simple, or a complex organism.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -134-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{gamma } DE VERITATE QUEM FEMINAE NON DICERE LICET.
-
-
- My Son, I charge thee, however thou beest provoked
- thereunto, tell not the Truth to any woman. For this is that
- which is written, Cast not thy pearls before swine, lest they
- turn again and rend thee. Behold, in the nature of woman is
- no truth, nor apprehension of truth, nor possibility of truth,
- only, if thou entrust this jewel unto them, they forthwith use
- it to thy loss and destruction. But they are ware of thine
- own love of truth, and thy respect thereunto, so therefore
- they tempt thee, flattering with their lips, that thou betray
- thyself to them. And they feign falsely, with every wile, and
- cast about for thy soul, until either in love or in wrath or
- in some other folly thereof, thou speak truth, profaning thy
- sanctuary. So was it ever, and herein I call to my witness
- Samson of Timmath, that was lost by this error. Now for any
- woman, any lie sufficeth; and think not in thine extremity
-
- that truth is mighty, and shall prevail, as it does with any
- man, for with a woman her whole craft and device is to
- persuade thee of this, so that thou utter the secret of thy
- soul, and become her prey. But so long as thou feed her with
- her own food of falsity, thou art secure.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -135-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{delta } DE NATURA FEMINAE.
-
-
- The nature of woman, o my Son, is as thou hast learned in
- our most Holy Qabalah; and she is the clothing in sex of man,
- the magical image of his will to love. Therefore was it said
- by thine uncle Wolfgang von Goethe: Das Ewigweibliche zieht
- uns hinan. But therefore also hath she no nature of truth,
- because she is but the Eidolon of an excitement and a going of
- thy star, and appertaineth not unto its essence and stability.
- So then to thee she is but matter and to her thou art but
- energy, and neither is competent to the formula of the other.
- Therefore also thy will is itself imperfection, as I have
- shewed thee aforetime, thou art not in the way of love except
- thou be dressed in that robe of thine which thou callest
- woman. And thou canst not lure her to this action proper to
- her by thy truth; but thou shalt, as our grammar sayeth,
- assume the mask of the spirit, that thou mayst evoke it by
-
- sympathy. But thou shalt appear in thy glory only when she is
- in thy power, and bewildered utterly by ecstasy. This is a
- mystery, o my Son, and of old times it was declared in the
- fable of Scylla and Charybdis, which are the formula of the
- rock and the whirlpool. Now then meditate thou strictly upon
- this most worthy and adorable arcanum, to thy profit and
- enlightenment.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -136-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{epsilon } DE DUOBUS PRAEMIIS VIAE.
-
-
- Let it be a treasure in thine heart, o my Son, this mystery
- that I shall next unveil before thine eyes, O eagle that art
- undazzled by the brilliance of light, that soarest continually
- with virile flight to thine august inheritance. Behold the
- Beatific Vision is of two orders, and in the formula of the
- Rosy Cross it is of the Heart and is called Beauty; but in the
- formula of the silver star (id est, of the eye within the
- triangle) it is of the mind, and is called wonder. Otherwise
- spoken, the former is of Art, a sensuous and creative
- perception; but the latter of science, and intellectual and
- intelligible insight. Or again, in our Holy Qabalah, the one
- is of Tiphereth, the other of Binah, and in pure philosophy,
- this is a contemplation of the Cosmos, causal and dynamic, and
- that of its effect in static presentation. Now this rapture
- of art is a virtue or triumph of Love in his most universal
-
- comprehension, but the ecstasy of science is a continual
- orgasm of light; that is, of the mind. Thou sayest, o my
- Father, how may I attain to this fulness and perfection? Art
- thou there, o my Son? It is well, and blessed be the bed
- wherein thou was begotten, and the womb of thy sweet Mother
- Hilarion, my concubine, holy and adulterous, the Scarlet
- Woman! Amen!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -137-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{digamma } DE ECSTASIA SAMADHI, QUO ILLIS DIFFERT.
-
-
- Confuse thou not this beatific vision with the Trances
- called Samadhi; yet is Samadhi the Pylon of the Temple
- thereof. For Samadhi is the orgasm of the coition of the
- Unlike, and is commonly violent, even as the lightning cometh
- of the discharge between two vehicles of extreme difference of
- potentials. But as I shewed formerly concerning love, how
- each such discharge bringeth either component more nigh to
- equilibrium, so is it in this other matter, and by experience
- thou comest constantly to integration of love (or what not)
- within thyself, just as all effort becometh harmonious and
- easy by virtue of practice. Rememberest thou the first time
- thou was thrown into water, thy fear and thy struggles, and
- the vehemence of thy joy when first thou didst swim without
- support? Then, little by little all violence dieth away,
- because thou art adjusted to that condition. Therefore the
-
- fury of thine early victory in these arts magical and sciences
- is but the sign of thine own baseness and unworthiness, since
- the contrast or differential is so overwhelming to thee; but,
- becoming expert and adept, thou art balanced in the glory, and
- calm, even as the stars.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -138-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{zeta } DE ARTE AMORIS ET DELICIARUM MYSTICI.
-
-
- The path therefore unto this beatific vision of beauty, o
- my Son, is that practice of Bhakti Yoga which is written in
- the book called Eight Score and Fifteen, or "Astarte", by this
- mine hand when I was in Gaul the beloved, at Montigny that is
- hard by the Forest of the Blue Fountain, with Agatha my
- concubine, the very soul of love and of musick, that had
- ventured herself from beneath the Cross Austral that she might
- seek me, to inspire and comfort me, and this was my reward
- from the masters, and consolation in the years of my sorrow.
- But the way that leadeth to the other form of this vision of
- beatitude, to with, science is Gana Yoga or Raja Yoga, of
- which I have written only here and there, as one who should
- throw great stones upon the earth in disorder, by default of
- building them nobly into a pyramid. And of this do I heartily
- repent me, and ask of the God Thoth that he may give me
-
- (albeit at the eleventh hour) virtue and with that I may
- compose a true book upon these ways of union. Thy first step,
- therefore, o my Son, is to attain unto Samadhi, and to urge
- thyself perpetually to repetition of thy successes therein,
- for it hat been said by philosophers of old that practice
- maketh perfect, and that manners, being the constant habit of
- life, maketh man.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -139-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{eta } DE PRAEMIO SUMMO, VERA SAPIENTIA ET
- BEATITUDINE
-
- PERFECTA.
-
-
- Now then presently shall it some to pass, as by dint of
- each experience that component thereof which is within thee is
- attuned to it, and this without shock, so that thou art no
- longer thrown back from the trance, as exhausted, but abidest
- therein, almost without knowledge of thy state. So then at
- last this Samadhi shall become normal to thy common
- consciousness, as it were a point of view. Thus all things
- shall appear to thee very continually as to one in his first
- love, by the vision of beauty, and by the vision of science
- thou shalt marvel constantly with joy unfathomable at the
- mystery of the laws whereby the Universe is upheld. This is
- that which is written: True wisdom and perfect happiness, o my
-
- son, it is in this contemplation that on hath the reward of
- the oath; it is by this that the tribulations are rolled away
- as a stone from thy tomb; it is with this that thou art wholly
- freed from the illusions of distinctions, being absorbed into
- the body of our Lady Nuith. May she grant thee this
- beatitude; yea, not to thee only, but to all that are.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -140-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{theta } DE INfERNO SERVORUM.
-
-
- Now, o my Son, having understood the heaven that is within
- thee, according to thy will, learn this concerning the hell of
- the slaves of the slave-gods, that it is a true place of
- torment. For they, restricting themselves, and being divided
- in will, are indeed the servants of sin, and they suffer,
- because, not being united in love with the whole Universe,
- they perceive not beauty, but ugliness and deformity, and, not
- being united in understanding thereof. Conceive only of
- darkness and confusion, beholding evil therein. Thus at last
- they come, as did the Manichaeans, to find, to their terror, a
- division even in the one, not that division which we know for
- the craft of love, but a division of hate. And this,
- multiplying itself, conflict upon conflict, endeth in
- hotchpot, and in the impotence and envy of Choronzon, and in
- the abominations of the abyss. And of such the Lords are the
-
- Black Brothers, who seek by their sorceries to confirm
- themselves in division, yet in this even is no true evil, for
- love conquereth all, and their corruption and disintegration
- is also the victory of Babalon.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -141-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{iota } RHAPSODIA DE DOMINA NOSTRA.
-
-
- Blessed be She, ay, blessed unto the Ages be our Lady B A B
- A L O N, that plieth her scourge upon me, {Tau }{Omicron }
- {Mu }{Epsilon }{Gamma }{Alpha } {Tau }{Theta }{Eta }{Rho }{Iota }{Omicron }{Nu }, to compel
- me to creation and to destruction, which are one, in birth and
- in death, being Love! Blessed be She, uniting the egg with
- the serpent, and restoring man unto his mother, the earth!
- Blessed be she, that offereth beauty and ecstasy in the orgasm
- of every change, and that exciteth thy wonder and thy worship
- by the contemplation of her mind many-wiled! Blessed be She,
- that hath filled her cup with every drop of my blood, so that
- my life is lost wholly in the wine of her rapture! Behold,
- how she is drunken thereon, and staggereth about the heavens,
- wallowing in joy, crying aloud the song of uttermost love! Is
- not she thy true mother among the stars, o my Son, and hast
- thou not embraced her in the madness of incest and adultery?
-
- Yea, blessed be she, blessed be her name, and the name of her
- name, unto the ages!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -142-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{kappa } RHAPSODIA DE ASTRO SUO
-
-
- O my Son, knowest thou not the joy to lie in the wilderness
- and to behold the stars, in their majesty of motion calm and
- irresistible? Hast thou thought there that thou art also as
- star, free because consciously in accord with the law and
- determination of thy being? It was thine own true will hat
- bound thee in thine orbit; therefore thou speedest on thy path
- from glory unto glory in continual joy. O Son, o reward of my
- work, o harmony and completion of my nature, o token of my
- toil, o witness of my love for thy sweet Mother, the holy and
- adulterous Hilarion, my concubine, adorable in thine innocence
- as she in her perfection, is not this verily intoxication of
- the spirit in the innermost, to be free absolutely and
- eternally, to run and to return upon the course in the play of
- love, to filfil nature constantly in light and life? "Afloat
- in the Air, o my god!" Without support, without constraint,
-
- wing thine own way, o swan, o bliss of brightness!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -143-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{lambda } DE HARMONIA VOLUNTATIS CUM DESTINIA.
-
-
- This is the evident and final solvent of the Knot
- Philosophical concerning fate and free will, that it is thine
- own self, omniscient and omnipotent, sublime in eternity, that
- first didst order the course of thine orbit, so that the which
- befalleth thee by fate is indeed the necessary effect of thine
- own will. These two, then, that like Gladiators have made war
- in philosophy through these many centuries, are one by the
- love under will which is the Law of Thelema. O my son, there
- is no doubt that resolveth not in certainty and rapture at the
- touch of the wand of our law, as thou apply it with wit. Do
- thou grow constantly in the assimilation of the law, and thou
- shalt be made perfect. Behold, there is a pageant of triumph
- as each star, free from confusion, sweepeth free in his right
- orbit; all heaven acclaimeth thee as thou goest,
- transcendental in joy and in splendour; and thy light is as a
-
- beacon to them that wander afar, strayed in the night. Amon.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -144-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{mu } PARANTHESIS DE QUADAM VIRGINE.
-
-
- Now, o my Son, I will declare unto thee the virtue of that
- part of love which receiveth and draweth, being the
- counterpart of thine own. For behold! I am moved in myself
- by the absence of the virgin that is appointed for me. And
- her eagerness of purity doth encompass me with its soft
- tenderness, and twineth about me with sweet scent so that my
- mind is enkindled with a gentle flame, luminous and subtle,
- and I write unto thee as in a dream; for in this enchantment
- of her devotion I am caught up cunningly into beautitude, with
- great joy of the Gods that have bestrewn my way with flowers,
- ay many flowers and herbs of magick and of holiness withal to
- match their beauty. Nay, o my son, I will cease this epistle
- unto thee for awhile, that I may rest in the pleasure of this
- contemplation, for it is solace ineffable, and recreation like
- unto sleep among the mountains. Yea, can I wish thee more
-
- than this, that, coming to mine age, thou mayst find a virgin
- like unto this to draw thee with her simplicity, and her
- embroidered silence?
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -145-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{nu } DE CONSTANTIA AMORIS, CORVO CANDIDO.
-
-
- Think it not strange, my Son, that I, praising adultery,
- should praise also constancy and delight therein. For this is
- to state ill thy question. Herein is truth and wisdom
- concerning this matter, that so long as love be not wholly
- satisfied, and equilibrated by entire fulfilment and exchange,
- constancy is a point of thy concentration and adultery a
- division in thy will. But when thou hast the summit and
- perfection of any work, of what worth is it to continue
- therein? Hast thou two stomachs, as has a cow, to chew the
- cud of a digested love? Yet, o my Son, this constancy is not
- of necessity a stagnation. Hay, behold the body of our lady
- Nuith, therein are found twin suns, that revolve constantly
- about each other. So also it may be in love, that two souls,
- meeting, discover each in the other such wealth and richness
- of light and love, and in one phase of life (or incarnation)
-
- or even in may, they exhaust not that treasure. Or will I say
- that such are not in their degree and quality thrice
- fortunate. But to persist in dulness, in satiety, and in
- mutual irritation and abhorrence, is contrary to the way of
- nature. So therefore there is no rule in any such case, but
- the law shall give light to every one that hath it in his
- heart, and by that wisdom let him govern himself.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -146-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{xi } DE MYSTERIO MALL.
-
-
- Moreover, say not thou in thy syllogism that, since every
- change soever, be it the creation of a symphony, or a poem, or
- the putrefaction of a carcass, is an art of love, and since we
- are to make no difference between any thing and any other
- thing, therefore all changes are equal in respect of our
- praise. For though this be a right conclusion in the term of
- thy comprehension as a master of the Temple, yet it is false
- in the eyes of the mind that hath not attained this
- understanding. So therefore any change (or phenomenon)
- appeareth noble or base to the imperfect mind, according to
- its consonance and harmony with the will that governeth the
- mind. Thus if it be thy will to delight in rythm and Oeconomy
- of words, the advertisement of a commodity may offend thee;
- but if thou art in need of that merchandise, thou wilt rejoice
- therein. Praise then or blame aught, as seemeth good unto
-
- thee; but with this reflection, that thy judgment is relative
- to thine own condition, and not absolute. This also is a
- point o tolerance, whereby thy shalt avoid indeed those things
- that are hateful or noxious to thee, unless thou canst (in our
- mode) win them by love, by withdrawing thine attention from
- them; but thou shalt not destroy them, for that they are
- without doubt the desire of another.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -147-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{omicron } DE VIRTUTE TOLERANTIA.
-
-
- Understand then heartily, o my son, that in the light of
- this my wisdom all things are one, being of the body or our
- Lady Nuith, proper, necessary and perfect. There is then none
- superfluous or harmful, and there is none honourable or
- dishonourable more than another. Lo! In thine own body, the
- vile intestine is of more worth to thee than the noble hand or
- the proud eye, for thou canst lose these and live, but not
- that. Esteem therefore a thing in relation to thine own will,
- preferring the ear if thou love musick, and the palate if thou
- live wine, but the essential organs of life above these. Have
- respect also to the will of thy fellow, not hindering him in
- his way save as he may overly jostle thee in thine. For by
- the practice of this tolerance thou shalt come sooner to the
- understanding of this equality of all things in our Lady
- Nuith, and so the high attainment of universal love. Yet in
-
- thy partial and particular action, as thou art a creature of
- illusion, do thou maintain the right relation of one thing to
- another; fighting if thou be a soldier, or building if thou be
- a mason. For if thou hold not fast this discipline and
- proportion, which alloweth its true will to every part of thy
- being, the error of one shall draw all after it into ruin and
- dispersion.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -148-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{pi } DE FORMULA DEORUM OCCISORUM.
-
-
- Alas, my son! this hath been fatal constantly to many a
- man of noble aspiration, that these words were hidden from his
- understanding. For there is a balance in all things and the
- body hath charter to fulfil his nature, even as the mind hath.
- So to repress one function is to destroy that proportion which
- is wholesome, and wherein indeed all health and sanity have
- consistency. Verily, it is the art of life to develop each
- organ of body and mind, or, as I may say, each weapon of the
- will to its perfection, neither distorting any use, nor
- suffering the will of one part to tyrannize over that of
- another. And this doctrine (be it accursed!) that pain and
- repression are wholesome and profitable in themselves is a lie
- born of sin and of ignorance, the false vision of the Universe
- and of its laws that is the basis of the averse formula of the
- Slain God. It is true that on occassion one limb must be
-
- sacrificed to save the whole body, as when one cutteth away
- one hand that is bitten by a viper, or as when a man giveth
- his life to save his city. But this is a right and natural
- subordination of the superficial and particular to the
- fundamental and general will, and moreover it is a case
- extraordinary, relating to accident or extremity, not in any
- wise a rule of life, or a virtue in its absolute nature.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -149-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{koppa } DE STULTIS MALIGNIS.
-
-
- My Son, there are afflictions many and woes many, that come
- of the errors of men in respect of the will; but there is none
- greater than this, the interference of the busy-body. For
- they make pretence to know a man's thought better than he doth
- himself, and to direct his will with more wisdom than he, and
- to make plans for his happiness. And of all these the worst
- is he that sacrificeth himself for the weal of his fellows.
- He that is so foolish as not to follow his own will, how shall
- be be so wise as to pursue that of another? If mine horse
- balk at a fence, should some varlet come behind him, and
- strike at his hoofs? Nay, Son, pursue thy path in peace, that
- thy brother beholding thee may take courage from thy bearing,
- and comfort from his confidence that thou wilt not hinder him
- by thy superfluity of compassion. Let me not begin to tell
- thee of the mischiefs that I have seen, whose root was in
-
- kindness, whose flower was in self-sacrifice, and whose fruit
- in catastrophe. Verily I think there should be no end
- thereof. Strike, rob, slay thy neighbour, but comfort him not
- unless he ask it of thee, and if he ask it, be wary.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -150-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{rho } APOLOGIA PRO SUIS LITERIS.
-
-
- How then, sayest thou, concerning this my Counsel unto
- thee? I say Sooth, it is of my will to bring up this my
- Wisdom from its silence into my conscious mind, that I may the
- more easily reflect thereon. Thou art but a pretext for my
- action, and a focus for my light. Nevertheless heed these my
- words, for they shall profit thee, thou being of age
- responsible in judgment, and free in the law of Thelema. Thus
- thou mayst read or no, concur or no, as thou wilt. Have I not
- tutored thee in the way of the balance, or of antithesis,
- shewing thee the art of contradiction, whereby thou dost
- accept no word save as the victor in thy mind over its
- opposites, nay more, as the child transcendental of a marriage
- of opposites. This book then shall serve thee but as a food
- for thy meditation, as wine to excite thy mind to love and
- war. It shall be unto thee as a chariot to carry thee whither
-
- thou wilt; for I have seen in thee independence and sobriety
- of judgment, with that faculty (most rare, most noble) to
- examine freely, neither obsequious nor rebellious to
- authority.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -151-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{sigma } LAUS LEGIS THELEMA.
-
-
- This Property of thy Mind, my Son, is verily of sublime
- Virtue; for the Vulgar are befogged, and their Judgment made
- null, by their emotional Reaction. They are swayed by the
- Eloquence of a Numscull, or overpowered by a Name or an
- Office, or the Magic of a Tailor; else, it may be, they, being
- made Fools too often, reject without Reflection even as at
- first they accepted. Again, they are wont to believe the best
- of the worst, as Hope or Fear predominateth in them at the
- Moment. Thus, they lose Touch of the Blade of Reality, and it
- pierceth them. Then they in Delirium of their Wounds increase
- Delusion fortifying themselves in Belief of those Phantasies
- created by their Emotions or impressed upon their Silliness,
- so that their Minds have no Unity, or Stability, or
- Discrimination, but become Hotchpot, and the Garbage-Heap of
- Choronzon. O my Son, against this the Law of Thelema is a
-
- Sure Fortress, for through the Quest of thy True Will the Mind
- is balanced about it, and confirmeth its Flight, as the
- Feathers upon an Arrow, so that thou hast a Touchstone of
- Truth, Experience holding thee to Reality, and to Proportion.
- Now therefore see from yet another Art of Heaven the Absolute
- Virtue of Our Law.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -152-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{tau } DE SPHINGE AEGYPTIORUM.
-
-
- It is now expedient that I instruct thee concerning the
- Four Powers of the Sphinx, and firstly, that this most arcane
- of the Mysteries of Antiquity was never at any Period the Tool
- of the Slavegods, but a Witness of Horus through the dark Aeon
- of Osiris to His Light and Truth, His Force and Fire. Thou
- canst by no means interpret the Sphinx in Terms of the Formula
- of the Slain God. This did I comprehend even when as Eliphas
- Levi Zahed I walked up and down the Earth, seeking a
- Reconciliation of these Antagonisms, which was a Task
- impossible, for in that Plane they have Antipathy. (Even so
- may no Man form a Square Magical of Four Units.) But the
- Light of the New Aeon revealeth this Sphinx as the true Symbol
- of this our Holy Art of Magick under the Law of Thelema. In
- Her is the equal Development and Disposition of the Forces of
- Nature, each in its Balanced Strength; also Her True Name has
-
- the Digamma for Phi, and endeth in Upsilon, not in Xi, so that
- Her Orthography is {Sigma }{Digamma }{Iota }{Nu }{Upsilon } whose Numeration is
- Six Hundred and Three Score and Six. For the Root thereof is
- {Sigma }{Digamma }, which signifieth the Incarnation of the Spirit; and
- of Kin are not only the Sun, Our Father, but Sumer, where Man
- knew himself Man, and Soma, the Divine Potion that giveth Men
- Enlightenment, and Scin, Light Astral, and Scire also, by a
- far Travelling. But especially is this Root hidden in Sus,
- that is of the Sow, Swine, because the Most Holy must needs
- take its Delight under the Omphalos of the Unclean. But this
- was hidden by Wisdom in Order that the Arcanum should not be
- profaned during the Aeon of the Slain God. But now it has
- been given unto me to understand the Heart of Her Mystery,
- wherefore, o my Son, by Right of the Great Love that I bear
- unto thee, I will inform thee thereof.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -153-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{upsilon } DE NATURA {Sigma }{Digamma }{Iota }{Nu }{Upsilon }.
-
-
- Firstly, this Sphinx is a Symbol of the Coition of Our Lady
- BABALON with me THE BEAST in its Wholeness. For as I am of
- the Lion and the Dragon, so is She of the Man and the Bull, in
- our Natures, but the Converse thereof in our Offices, as thou
- mayst understand by the Study of the Book of the Vision and
- the Voice. It is thus a Glyph of the Satisfaction and
- Perfection of the Will and of the Work, the completion of the
- True Man as the Reconcilor of the Highest with the Lowest, so
- for our Convenience conventionally to distinguish them. This
- then is the Adept, who doth Will with solid Energy as the
- Bull, doh dare with fierce Courage as the Lion, doth know with
- swift Intelligence as the Man, and doth keep Silence with
- soaring Subtilty as the Eagle or Dragon. Moreover, this
- Sphinx is an Eidolon of the Law, for the Bull is Life, the
- Lion is Light, the Man is Liberty, the Serpent Love. Now then
-
- this Sphinx, being perfect in true Balance, yet taketh the
- Aspect of the Feminine Principle that so She may be partner of
- the Pyramid, that is the Phallus, pure Image of Our Father the
- Sun, the Unity Creative. The Signification of this Mystery is
- that the Adept must be Whole, Himself, containing all Things
- in true Proportion, before he maketh himself Bride of the One
- Universal Transcendental, in its most Secret Virtue. And now
- therefore, o my Son, comprehending this Mystery by thine
- Intelligence, I will write further unto thee of these your
- Beasts of Power.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -154-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{phi } DE TAURO.
-
-
- Concerning the Bull, this is thy Will, constant and
- unwearied, whose Letter is Vau, which is Six, the Number of
- the Sun. He is therefore the Force and the Substance of thy
- Being; but besides this, he is the Hierophant in the Taro, as
- if this were said: "that thy Will leadeth thee unto the Shrine
- of Light." And in the Rites of Mithras the Bull is slain, and
- his Blood poured upon the Initiate, to endow him with that
- Will and that Power of Work. Also in the land of Hind is the
- Bull sacred to Shiva, that is God among that Folk, and is unto
- them the Destroyer of all Things that be opposed to Him. And
- this God is also the Phallus, for this Will operateth through
- Love even as it is written in our Own Law. Yet again, Apis
- the Bull of Khem hath Kephra the Beetle upon His tongue, which
- signifieth that it is by this Will, and by this Work, that the
- Sun cometh unto Dawn from Midnight. All these Symbols are
-
- most similar in their Nature, save as the Slaves of the Slave-
- gods have read their own Formula into the Simplicity of Truth.
- For there is naught so plain that Ignorance and Malice may not
- confuse and misinterpret it, even as the Bat is dazzled and
- bewildered by the Light of the Sun. See then that thou
- understand this Bull in Terms of the Law of this our Aeon of
- Life.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -155-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{chi } DE LEONE.
-
-
- Of this, Lion, o my Son, be it said that this is the
- Courage of thy Manhood, leaping upon all Things, and seizing
- them for their Prey. His letter is Teth, whose Implication is
- a Serpent, and the Number thereof Nine, whereof is Aub, the
- secret Fire of Obeah. Also Nine is of Jesod, uniting Change
- with Stability. But in the "Book of Thoth" He is the Atu called
- Strength, whose Number is ELEVEN which is Aud, the Lifht Odic
- of Magick. And therein is figured the Lion, even THE BEAST,
- and Our Lady BABALON with Her Hands upon His Mouth, that She
- may master Him. Here I would have thee to mark well how these
- our Symbols are cognate, and flow forth the one into the
- other, because each Soul partaketh in proper Measure of the
- Mystery of Holiness, and is kin with his Fellow. But now let
- me show how this Lion of Courage is more especially the Light
- in thee, as Leo is the House of the Sun that is the Father of
-
- Light. And it is thus: that thy Light, conscious of itself,
- is the Source and Instigator of thy Will, enforcing it to
- spring forth and conquer. Therefore also is his Nature strong
- with hardihood and Lust of Battle, else shouldst thou fear
- that which is unlike thee, and avoid it, so that thy
- Separateness should increase upon thee. For this Cause he
- that is defective in Courage becometh a Black Brother, and to
- Dare is the Crown of all thy Virtue, the Root of the Tree of
- Magick.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -156-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{psi } ALTERA DE LEONE.
-
-
- Lo! In the firs of thine Initiations, when first the
- Hoodwink was uplifted from before thine Eyes, thou wast
- brought unto the Throne of Horus, the Lord of the Lion, and by
- Him enheartened against Fear. Moreover, in Minutum Mundum, the
- Map of the Universe, it is the Path of the Lion that bindeth
- the two Highest Faculties of thy Mind. Again, it is Mau, the
- Sun at Brightness of high Noon, that is called the Lion, very
- lordly, in our Holy Invocation. Sekhet our Lady is figured as
- a lioness, for that She is that Lust of Nuith toward Hadith
- which is the Fierceness of the Night of the Stars, and their
- Necessity; whence also is She true Symbol of thine own Hunger
- of Attainment, the Passion of thy Light to dare all for its
- Fulfilling. It is then the Possession of this Quality which
- determineth thy Manhood; for without it thou art not impelled
- to Magick, and thy Will is but the Salve's Endurance and
-
- Patience under the Lash. For this Cause, the Bull being of
- Osiris, was it necessary for the Masters of the Aeons to
- incarnate me as more especially a lion, and my Word is first
- of all a Word of Enlightenment and of Emancipation of the
- Will, giving to every Man a Sprint within Himself to determine
- His Will, that he may do that Will, and no more another's.
- Arise therefore, o my son, arm thyself, haste to the Battle!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -157-
-
-
- {Epsilon }{omega } DE VIRO.
-
-
- Learn now that this Lion is a natural Quality in Man, and
- secret, so that he is not ware thereof, except he be Adept.
- Therefore is it necessary for thee also to know, by the Head
- of the Sphinx. This then is thy Liberty, that the Impulse of
- the Lion should become conscious by means of the Man; for
- without this thou art but an Automaton. This Man moreover
- maketh thee to understand and to adjust thyself with
- Environment, else being devoid of Judgment, thou goest blindly
- upon an headlong Path. For every Star in his Orbit holdeth
- not his Way obstinately, but is sensitive to every other Star,
- and his true Nature is to do this. Oh how many are they whom
- I have seen persisting in a fatal Course, in Sway of the
- Belief that their dead Rigidity was Exercise of Will. And the
- Letter of the Man is Tzaddi, whose Number is Ninety; which is
- Maim, the Water that conformeth itself perfectly with its
-
- Vessel, that seeketh constantly its Level, that penetrateth
- and dissolveth Earth, that resisteth Pressure maugre its
- Adaptability, that being heated is the Force to drive great
- Engines, and being frozen breaketh the Mountains in Pieces. O
- my Son, seek well to know!
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -158-
-
-
- {Digamma }{alpha } DE DRACONE, QUAE EST AQUILA, SERPENS, SCORPION.
-
-
- Threefold is the Nature of Live, Eagle, Serpent, and
- Scorpion. And of these the Scorpion is he that, having no
- Lion of Light and of Courage within him, seemeth to himself
- encircled by Fire, and, driving his Sting into himself, he
- dieth. Such are the Black Brothers, that cry: I am I, they
- that deny Love, restricting it to their own Nature. But the
- Serpent is the secret Nature of Man, that is Life and Death,
- and maketh his Way through the Generations in Silence. And
- the Eagle is that Might of Live which is the Key of Magick,
- uplifting the Body and its Appurtenance unto high Ekstacy upon
- his Wings. It is by Virtue thereof that the Sphinx beholdeth
- the Sun unwinking, and confronteth the Pyramid without Shame.
- Our Dragon, therefore, combining the Natures of the Eagle and
- the Serpent, is our Love, thyeOrganon of our Will, by whose
- Virtue we perform the Work and Miracle of the One Substance,
-
- as saith thine Ancestor Hermes Trismegistus, in his Tablet of
- Smaragda. And this Dragon, is called thy Silence, because in
- the Hour of his Operation that within thee which saith "I" is
- abolished in its Conjunction with the Beloved. For this Cause
- also is its Letter Nun, which in our Rota is the Trump Death;
- and Nun hath the value of Fifty, the Number of the Gates of
- Understanding.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -159-
-
-
- {Digamma }{beta } DE QUATTUOR VIRTUTIS
- {Sigma }{Digamma }{Iota }{Nu }{Upsilon }.
-
-
- See now our Sphinx, with what Subtility and Art is She made
- Whole! Here is thy Light, the Lion, the Necessity of thy
- Nature, fortified by thy Life, the Bull, the Power of Works,
- and guided by thy Liberty, the Man, the Wit to adapt Action to
- Environment. These are three Virtues in One, necessary to all
- proper Motion, as I may say in a Figure, the Lust of the
- Archer, the propulsive Force of his Arm, and the equilibrating
- and directing Control of his Eye. Of these three if one fail,
- the Mark is not hit. But hold! Is not a Fourth Element
- essential in the Work? Yea, soothly, all were vain without
- the Engine, Arrow and Bow. This Engine is thy Body, possessed
- by thee and used by thee for thy Work, yet not Part of thee,
- even as are his Weapons to this Archer in my Similitude. Thus
- is thy Dragon to be cherished of thy Lion, but if thou lack
-
- Energy and Endurance of thy Bull, thy Tools lie idle, and if
- Cunning and Intelligence, with Experience also of thy Man, thy
- Shaft flieth crooked. So then, o my son, do thou perfect
- thyself in these Four Powers, and that with Equity.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -160-
-
-
- {Digamma }{gamma } DE LIBRA, IN QUA GUATTUOR VIRTUTES
- AEQUIPOLLENT.
-
-
- By Gana Yoga cometh thy Man to9 Knowledge; by Karma Yoga
- thy Bull to Will; by Raja Yoga is thy Lion brought to his
- Light; and to make perfect thy Dragon, thou hast Bhakta Yoga
- for the Eagle therein, and Hatha Yoga for the Serpent. Yet
- mark thou well how all these interfuse, so that thou mayst
- accomplish no one of the Works separately. As to make Gold
- thou must have Gold (it is the Word of the Alchemists), so to
- become the Sphinx thou must first be a Sphinx. For naught may
- grow save to the Norm of its own Nature, and in the Law of its
- own Law, or it is but Artifice, and endureth not. So
- therefore is it Folly, and a Rape wrought upon Truth to aim at
- aught but the Fulfilment of thine own True Nature. Order then
- thy Workings in Accord with thy Knowledge of that Norm as best
- thou mayst, not heeding the Importunity of them that prate of
-
- the Ideal. For this Rule, this Uniformity, is proper only to
- a Prison, and a Man Liveth by Elasticity, nor endureth Rigor
- save in Death. But whoso groweth bodily by a Law foreign to
- his own Nature, he hath a Cancer, and his whole Oeconomy shall
- be destroyed by that small Disobedience.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -161-
-
-
- {Digamma }{delta } DE PYRAMIDE.
-
-
- Now then at last art thou made ready to confront the
- Pyramid, if thou art established as a Shinx. For It also hath
- the foursquare Base of Law, and the Four Triangles of Light,
- Life, Love and Liberty for its Sides, that meet in a Point of
- Perfection that is Hadith, poised to the Kiss of Nuith. But
- in this Pyramid there is no Difference of Form between the
- Sides, as it is in thy Shinx, for these are wholly One, save
- in Direction. Thou art then an Harmony of the Four by Right
- of thy Attainment of Adeptship, the Crown of thy Manhood, but
- not an Identity, as in Godhead. Therefore may it be said from
- one Point of Sight that thine Achievement is but a
- Preparation, an Adornment of the Bride for the Temple of
- Hymen, and his Rite. Verily, o my Son, I deem in my Wisdom
- that this whole Work of thy Development to Shinxhood cometh
- before the Work of Theurgy, for the Lord descendeth not upon a
-
- Temple ill-conceived, and builded wry, nor abideth in a Shrine
- unworthy. Accomplish then this Task in Patience, with
- Assiduity, not hasting furiously after Godliness. For this is
- most sure, that to the Beauty of a Maiden answereth the Lust
- of her Lord, spontaneous and without Effort or Appeal of her
- Contriving.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -162-
-
-
- {Digamma }{epsilon } PROLEGOMENA DE SILENTIO.
-
-
- But now concerning Silence, o my Son, I will have a further
- Word with thee. For thereby we mean not the Muteness of him
- that hath a dumb Devil. This Silence is the Dragon of thine
- unconscious Nature, not only the Ekstacy or Death of thine Ego
- in the Operation of its Organ, but also, in its Unity with thy
- Lion, the Truth of thy Self. Thus is thy Silence the Way of
- the Tao, and all Speech a deviation thereform. This Lion and
- Dragon are therefore of thy Self, and the Man and the Bull the
- Feminine Counterparts thereof, being the Grace of Our Lady
- BABALON that She bestoweth upon thee in thine Adultery with
- Her. They are then as a Vesture of Honour, and a Reward, that
- are won by the Intensity of thy Light and of thy Love. So
- perperly we esteem Men by the Measure of their Intelligence
- and their Strength, since they are equal in their essential
- Godhead, so far as concerneth the Quality thereof. See thou
-
- closely moreover into it, that if thou be well favoured of Our
- Lady, thy Lion and thy Dragon grow in like Measure, forthe
- Excess of the Feminine is Dead Weight. The Intellectual
- without Virility is a Dreamer of Follies, and the laborious
- Giant without Courage is a Slave.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -163-
-
-
- {Digamma }{digamma } DE NATURA SILENTII NOSTRI.
-
-
- The Nature of this Silence is shewn also by the God
- Harprocrates, the Babe in the Lotus, who is also the Serpent
- and the Egg, that is, the Holy Ghost. This is the most secret
- of all Energies, the Seed of all being, and therefore must He
- be sealed up in an Ark from the Malice of the Devourers. If
- then by thine Art thou canst conceal thyself in thine own
- Nature, this is Silence, this, and not Nullity of
- Consciousness else were a Stone more perfect in Adeptship that
- thou. But, abiding in thy Silence, thou art in a City of
- Refuge, and the Waters prevail not against the Lotus that
- enfoldeth thee. This Ark or Lotus is then the Body of Our
- Lady BABALON, without which thou weret the Prey of Nile and of
- the Crocodiles that are therein. Now, o my Son, mark thou
- well this that I will write for thine Advertisement and
- Behoof, that this Silence, though it be Perfection of Delight,
-
- is but the Gestation of thy Lion, and in thy Season thou must
- dare, and come forth to the Battle. Else, were not this
- Practice of Silence akin to the Formula of Separateness of the
- black Brothers?
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -164-
-
-
- {Digamma }{zeta } DE FORMULA RECTA DRACONIS.
-
-
- Verily, o my Son, herein lieth the Danger and the Treason
- of thy Scorpion. For his Nature is against himself, being the
- deepest Ego, that is, a Being separate from the Universe; and
- this is the Root of the while Mystery of Evil. For he hath in
- him the Magick Power, which if he use not, he is self-
- poisoned, even as any Organ of the Body that refuseth its
- Function. So then his Cure is in his Ally the Lion, that
- feareth not the Crocodiles, nor hideth himself, but leapeth
- eagerly forward. The Path of the Mystic hath this Pitfall;
- for though he unite himself with his God, his Mode is to
- withdraw from that which him seemeth is not God. Whereby he
- affirmeth and confirmeth the Demon, that is Duality. Be thou
- instant therefore, o my Son, to turn from every Act of Love at
- the Moment of full satisfaction, flinging the invoked Might
- thereof against a new Opposite; for the Formula of every
- Dragon is Perpetual Motion or Change, and therefore to dwell
-
- in the Satisfaction of thy Nature is a Stagnation, and a
- Violation thereof, making the Duality of Conflict, which is
- the Falling Away to Choronzon.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -165-
-
-
- {Digamma }{eta } DE SUA CARTA COELORUM.
-
-
- I pray thee to mark, o my Son, how the Grace of Nature was
- benignant at my Nativity, to the right Balance and Formulation
- of my Shinx. For Neptune was in the Sign of the Bull, giving
- Strength and Stability to my Spiritual Essence. Uranus was
- ascending in the Lion, to fortify my Magical Will with
- Courage, and to turn it to the Salvation of Man. In the
- Waterman was Saturnus, to make mine Intelligence sober,
- profound, and capable of Labour. Jupiter, with Mercury His
- Herald, was in Scorpio, harmonizing me and my Word according
- to the Essence of my Nature. Then of the others, Mars was
- exalted in the Goat, for physical Endurance of Toil; Sol was
- conjoined with Venus in the Balance, for judgment in Art and
- in Life, and for Equability of Temple. Lastly, the Moon was
- in the Sign of the Fishes, her loved abode, for a Gift of
- Sensitiveness and of Glamour. What then am I? I am a
-
- transient Effect of infinite Causes, a Child of Changes.
- There is no I, o thou that art not thou, else were I segrated,
- a Stagnation, a Thing of Hate and of Fear. But ever-moving,
- ever-changing, there is a Star in the Body of Our Lady Nuith,
- whose Word is None and Two.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -166-
-
-
- {Digamma }{theta } DE OPERE SUO.
-
-
- I am not I. Then, sayst thou, why is this Word? Know o my
- Son, that this first Person is but the common Figure of the
- Speech of Men whereof the Magus may avail himself without
- Implication of Metaphysick. Yet in the Mystery of Illusion,
- which is the Instrument of the Universal Will, I will not say
- the Harlot of its Pleasure, are manifested these many Stars,
- and amongst them that Logos of the Aeon of Horus whom thou
- callest {Tau }{Omicron } {Mu }{Epsilon }{Gamma }{Alpha }
- {Theta }{Eta }{Rho }{Iota }{Omicron }{Nu } and THY Father. And this is by-come
- through Virtue of the Intensity of the Will to Change, through
- many a Sepent-Phase of Life and Death, until in the Play of
- the Game its Manifestation is the Utterance of this Word of
- the Aeon, this Law of Thelema, that shall be for a Season the
- Formula of the Magick of the Earth. Who then should inquire
- of the further Destiny of that Star, or of another? It is the
-
- Play of the Game, and the Operation of its Function shall
- suffice it. Rid thyself therefore of this Thought of "I"
- apart from all, but, attaining to Consciousness of All by Our
- True Way, contemplate the Play of Illusion by thine Instrument
- of Mind and Sense, leaving it without Care to continue in its
- own Path of Change.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -167-
-
-
- {Digamma }{iota } DE FRATRIBUS NIGRIS.
-
-
- O my Son, know this concerning the Black Brothers, that
- cry: I am I. This is Falsity and Delusion, for the Law
- endureth not Exception. So then these Brethern are not apart,
- as they vainly think being wrought by Error; but are peculiar
- Combinations of Nature in Her Variety. Rejoice then even in
- the Contemplation of these, for they are proper to Perfection,
- and Adornments of Beauty, like a Mole upon the Cheek of a
- Woman. Shall I then say that were it of thine own Nature,
- even thine, to compose so sinister a Complex, thou shouldst
- not strive therewith, destroying it by Love, but continue in
- that Way? I deny not this hastily, nor affirm; nay, shall I
- even utter a Hint of that which I may foresee? For it is in
- mine own Nature to think that in this Matter the Sum of Wisdom
- is Silence. But this I say, and that boldly, that thou shalt
- not look upon this Horror with Fear, or with Hate, but accept
-
- all this as thou dost all else, as a Phenomenon of Change,
- that is, of Love. For in a swift Stream thou mayst behold a
- Twig held steady for a while by the Play of the Water, and by
- this Analogue thou mayst understand the Nature of this Mystery
- of the Path of Perfection.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -168-
-
-
- {Digamma }{kappa } DE ARTE ALCHEMISTICA.
-
-
- Wilt thou acquaint thyself now further at my Reproof
- concerning this Arcanum of Alchymia, the Art Egyptian, how to
- make Gold? Of a Surety this is already in thy Knowledge, if
- thou examine by Our Holy Qabalah, what be the Forces that are
- the Influx upon Tiphereth, which is the Harmony and Beauty, or
- Sol, in every Kingdom of the Universe, so then also among
- Metals. Now this Influx is Fivefold. First, from the Crown
- descendeth the High Priestess in the Path of the Moon, for
- Inspiration, and Imagination, and Idea: see to it that this
- Virgin be Pure, for herein Error is Illusion. Next, from the
- Father floweth the Power of the Emperor in the Path of the
- Ram, for Initiative, and Energy, and Determination. Third,
- from the Mother are the Lovers in the Path of the Twins, for
- Intellectual Wholeness, and for Adjustment to Environment.
- These Three are from this Superna and complete the Theorick of
-
- thy Work. After this, in the Praxis and Executive thereof
- thou hast the Hermit as an Influence from the Sphere of
- Jupiter in the Path of the Virgin, for Secrecy, and for
- Concentration, and for Prudence. Lastly, from the Sphere of
- Mars, travelleth Justice in the Path of the Balance, for good
- Judgment, and Tact, and Art. O my Son, in this Chapter is
- more wisdom than in Ten Thousand Folios of the Alchemists!
- Study therefore to acquire Skill in this Method, and
- Experience; for this Gold is not only of the Metals, but of
- every Sphere, and this Key is of virtue to enter every Palace
- of Perfection.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -169-
-
-
- {Digamma }{lambda } DE FEMINA: QUAE EST PROPRIA JOCO.
-
-
- O my Son, hear this Wisdom of Experience, how at thy first
- Sight, when I put thee into the Arms of Ahitha, thy sweet
- Stepmother my concubine, such was thy Beauty that she became
- enamoured of thee, crying aloud; Ay me, an such he the Fruit
- of thy Magick, o my Master, then let me, me also, even me,
- give myself utterly to this Holy Art! Then did I, becoming
- heavy in Spirit, make Question of her, saying: To what End?
- And at this was she confounded and brought into Bewilderment;
- but after a great While, fumbling in her Mind, made Answer,
- like a Scarecrow in a Field, so was it for Rags and Tatters of
- Thought. Thus yet more Atrabilious and Sluggard was this
- Liver of thy Father, so that I fell into a Gloom night unto
- Weeping. Then she beholding me with Amazement cried upon me
- thus: Art thou not glad in Heart, o my Master? At this I gave
- a Sigh even as one night unto Death. And She: if this be so,
-
- then is no need anymore for me to give myself to Magick.
- Thereat, perceiving yet again the Just Universal of Our Lord
- Pan, was I swallowed up (like unto Jonah of the Old Fable) in
- the Belly of the Whale called Laughter, and it seemeth to me
- at this present Writing that I am like to abide therein for
- the Time that remaineth to me in this Body.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -170-
-
-
- {Digamma }{mu } DE FORMULA FEMINAE.
-
-
- Now this is the right Power and Property of a Woman, to
- arrange and to adjust all Things that exist in their proper
- Sphere, but not to create or to transcend. Therefore in all
- practical Matters is she of Might and of Wit to produce an
- Effect consonant with her Mood. And her Symbol is Water, that
- seeketh the Level, whether for Wrath, eating away the
- Mountains (yet even in this making smooth the Plains) or for
- Love, in Fecundity of Earth. But it is the Fire of Man that
- hath heaved up those Mountains, in huge Turmoil. Man them
- maketh Mischief and Trouble by his Violence, be his Will
- convenient to His Environment, or antipathetic; but Woman
- disturbeth by Manipulation, adroit or sinister as her Mood may
- be of Order or of Disorder. For any Man to meddle in her
- Affair is Folly, for he comprehendeth not Quiet; so also for
- her to emulate him in his Office is Fatuity. Therefore in
-
- Magick though a Woman excel all men in every Quality that is
- profitable for her for Attainment, yet she is Naught in that
- Work, even as a Man without Hands in the Shop of a Carpenter;
- for She hath not the Organism that might make Use of this
- Opportunity. Of all this is she aware by her Instinct, for
- her Nature is to Understand, even without Knowledge; and if
- thou doubt herin the Wisdom of thy Sire, do thou seek out a
- Woman (but with Precaution) and affirm these my Words. So
- shall she wax woundily wrath, and look grisly upon thee,
- proclaiming in a shrill Voice her manifold Excellences, which
- she hath, and concern the Matter not a Whit.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -171-
-
-
- {Digamma }{nu } VERBA MAGISTRI SUI DE FEMINA.
-
-
- Of a Thousand Years it is nigh unto the Fiftieth Part, o my
- Son, since I obtained Favour in the Light of a great Master of
- the Truth, whom Men call Allan Bennett, so that he received me
- for his Disciple in Magick. And he was instant with me in
- this Matter, and vehement, adjuring his Gods that this (which
- I have myself here above declared unto thee) was the Truth
- concerning the Nature of Woman. But I being but a Youth, and
- Headstrong, and being enraptured in Love of Women, and
- Admiration of Them, and Worship, delighting in them eagerly,
- and learning constantly from them, nourished by the Milk of
- their Mystery, as it should be for all true Men, did resist
- angrily the Doctrine of that most holy Man of God. And
- because, (as it was written) he was a vowed Virgin from his
- Birth, and had no Commerce with any in the Way of Carnality, I
- disabled his Judgment herein, as if he, being a Fish, had
-
- disallowed the Flight of Birds. But I, o my Son, am not
- wholly ignorant of Women, save as all Mem must be in the
- Limitation of their Nature, for the Number of my Concubines is
- not notably or shamefully exceeded by that of the Phases of
- the Moon since my Birth. Many also have been my Disciples in
- Magick that were Women; and (more also) I do owe,
- acknowledging the same with open Gladness, the greater Part of
- mine own Initiation and Advancement to the Operation of Women.
- Notwithstanding all these Things, I bow humbly before Allan
- Bennett, and repent mine Insolence, for his Saying was Sooth.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -172-
-
-
- {Digamma }{xi } DE VIA PROPRIA FEMINIS.
-
-
- It is indeed easy for a Woman to obtain the Experience of
- Magick, in a certain Sort, as Visions, Trances, and the like;
- yet they take not Hold upon Her, to transform Her, as with
- Men, but pass only as Images upon a Speculum. So then a Woman
- advanceth never in Magick, but remaineth the same, rightly or
- wrongly ordered according to the Force that moveth Her. Here
- therefore is the Limit of Her Aspiration in Magick, to abide
- joyous and obedient beneath the Man that her Instinct shall
- divine so that by Habit becoming a Temple well-ordered, comely
- and consecrated, she may in her next Incarnation attract by
- her Fitness a Man-soul. For this Cause hath Man esteemed
- Constancy and Patience as Qualities preeminent in Good women,
- because by these she gaineth her Going toward Our Godliness.
- Her Ordeal therefore is principally to resist Moods, which
- make Disorder, that is of Choronzon. Also, let her be content
-
- in this Way, for verily she hath a noble and an excellent
- Portion in Our Holy Banquet, and escapeth many a Peril that is
- proper to us others. Only, be she in Awe and Wariness, for in
- her is no Principle of Resistance to Choronzon, so that if she
- become disordered in her Moods, as by Lust, or by Drunkenness,
- or by Idleness, she hath no Standard whereunto she may rally
- her Forces. In this see thou her Need of a well-guarded Life,
- and of a True Man for her God.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -173-
-
-
- {Digamma }{omicron } DE HAC RE ALTERA INTELLIGENDA.
-
-
- Mark then, o my Son, how in the Ancient Books of Magick it
- is Man that selleth his Soul unto the Devil, but Woman that
- maketh Pact with him. For she hath constantly the Wit and
- Power to arrange Things at his Bidding, and she payeth this
- Price of his Alliance. But a Man hath one Jewel, and,
- bartering this, he becometh the Mockery of Satanas. Let then
- this tutor thee in thine own Art of Magick, that thou employ
- Women in all Practical Matters, to order them with Cunning,
- but Men in thy Need of Transfiguration or Transmutation. In a
- Trope, let the Woman direct the Chess-Play of Life, but the
- Man alter the Rules, if he so will. Lo! in ill Play is
- Mischief and Disorder, but in a New Law is Earthquake, and
- Destruction of the Root of Things. Therefore is Fear of any
- Man that is in Commerce with his Genius, for none knoweth if
- his Law shall amend the Game or do it Hurt; and of this the
-
- Proof is in Experience, won after the Victory of his Will,
- when there is no Way of Return; as saith the Poet, Vestigia
- Nulla Retrorsum. Nor do thou fear to create: for, even as I
- have written in "The Book of Lies (falsely so-called)", thou
- canst create nothing that is not God. But beware of false
- Creations wrought by Women in whom is no Function thereof; for
- they are Phantoms, poisonous Vapours, bred of the Moon in her
- Witchcraft of Blood.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -174-
-
-
- {Digamma }{pi } DE VIIS MORTIS ET DIABOLI, ARCANIS
-
- TOU TAROT FRATERNITATIS R{.'.} C{.'.}
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- It shall profit thee much, o my Son, or I err, that I
- instruct thee in the Mysteries of the Paths of Nun and of
- Ayin, that in our rota are figured in the Atu called Death,
- and that called the Devil. Of these Nun joineth the Sun with
- Venus, and is referred to Scorpio in the Zodiac. This Path is
- perilous, for it seeketh the Level, and may abase thee, except
- thou take Head unto the Going. Of its three Modes, the
- Scorpio destroyeth himself, as if it were a Type of animal
- Pleasure. Next, the Serpent is proper to Works of Change, or
- Magick; yet is he poisonous also unless thou hast Wit to
- enchant him. Lastly the Eagle is subtlest in this Sort, so
- that this Path is proper to a Transcendental Labour. Yet all
- these are in the Way of Death, so that thy Wand is dissolved
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- and corroded in the Waters of the Cup, and must be renewed by
- Virtue of thy Nature in its Course. For Fire is extinguished
- by Water; but upon Earth it burneth freely, and is inflamed by
- the Wind. Understand also that which is written concerning
- the Vesica, that it is the Mother, giving Ease, Sleep, and
- Death, which Consolations are eschewed by the True Man or
- Hero.
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- -175-
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- {Digamma }{koppa } SEQUITUR DE HIS VIIS.
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- Now the Path of Ayin is a Link between Mercury and the Sun,
- and in the Zodiac importeth the Goat. This Goat is called
- also Strength, and standeth in the Meridian at the Sunrise of
- Spring; and it is His Nature to leap upon the Mountains. So
- therefore he is a Symbol of true Magick, and his Name is
- Baphomet, wherefore did I design him as an Atu of Thoth, the
- Fifteenth, and put his Image in the Front of my Book, the
- " ""Ritual of High Magick", which was the second Part of my Thesis
- for the Grade of Major Adept, when I was clothed about with
- the Body called Alphonse Louis Constant. Now the Goat flieth
- not as doth the Eagle; but consider this also that it is the
- true Nature of Man to dwell upon the Earth, so that his
- Flights are oft but Phantasy; yea, the Eagle also is bound to
- his Eyrie, nor feedeth upon Air. Therefore this goat, making
- each leap with Fervour, yet all Times secure in his own
-
- Element, is a true Hieroglyph of the Magician. Mark also,
- this Path sheweth One continuous in Exaltation upon a Throne,
- and so is it the Formula of the Man, as the other was of the
- Woman.
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- -176-
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- {Digamma }{rho } DE OCULO HOOR.
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- I say furthermore that this Path is of the Circle, and of
- the Eye of Horus that sleepeth not, but is vigilant. The
- Circle is all-perfect, equal every Way, but the Vesica hath
- bitter Need, and seeketh thy Medicine, that is of right
- compounded for High Purpose, to ease her Infirmity. Thus is
- thy Will frustrated, and thy Mind distracted, and thy Work
- lamed, if it be not brought to Naught. Also thy Puissance in
- thine Art isminished, by a full Moiety, as I do esteem it.
- But the Eye of Horus hath no Need, and is free in his Will,
- not seeking a Level, or requiring a Medicine, and is fit and
- worthy to be the Companion and the Ally of thee in thy Work,
- as a Friend to thee, not Mistress and not Slave, that seek
- ever with Slyness and Deceit to encompass their own Ends.
- There is moreover a Reason in Physics for my Word; study thou
- this matter in the Laws of the Changes of Nature. For Things
-
- Unlike do in their Marriage produce a Child which is
- relatively Stable, and resisteth Change; but Things like
- increase mutually the Potential of their particular Natures.
- Howbeit, each Path hath his own Use; and thou, being
- instructed in all Ways, choose thine with Discretion.
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- {Digamma }{sigma } DE SUA INITIATIONE.
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- My son, my Delight, Honey of the Comb of my Life, I will
- say also this concerning the Odds of the Formulae of Male and
- Female, that mine Initiation was ordered as followeth. First,
- unto the Middle of the Way, the Attainment of the Knowledge
- and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel, were these Men
- appointed to mine Aid, Jerome Politt of Kendal, Cecil Jones of
- Basingstoke, Allan Bennett of the Border, and Oscar Exkenstein
- of the Mountain with no Woman. But after that Attainment hath
- Word come to me only through Women, Ouarda the Seer, and
- Virakam, and in mine Initiation in to theDegree of Magus, the
- Cat '{Iota }{Lambda }{Alpha }{Rho }{Iota }{Omega }{Nu } thy Mother, Helen the Play
- Actress the Serpent, with Myriamme the Drunkard, and Rita the
- Harlot to bear Dagger and Poison; then these others Alice the
- Singing Woman for an Owl; then Catherine the Dog of Anubis,
- and Ahitha the Camel that renewed the Work of Virakam, with
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- Ollun the Dragon and --- but here I do restrict myself in
- Speech, for the End is wrapped about with a Veil, as the Face
- of a Virgin. But do thou meditate strictly upon these Things,
- distinguishing the right Property, Order, and Use of the Other
- and the other in the Relative, even as thou makest them All-
- One, that is None, in the Absolute.
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- {Digamma }{tau } DE HERBO SANCTISSIMO ARABICO.
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- Recall, o my Son, the Fable of the Hebrews, which they
- brought from the City Babylon, how Nebuchadnezzar the Great
- King, being afflicted in his Spirit, did depart from among Men
- for Seven Years' Space, eating Grass as doth an Ox. Now this
- Ox is the Letter Aleph, and is that Atu of Thoth whose Number
- is Zero, and whose name is Maat, Truth, or Maut, the Vulture,
- the All-Mother, being an Image of Our Lady Nuith, but also it
- is called the Fool, who is Parsifal, "der reine Tor", and so
- referreth to him thatwalketh in the Way of the Tao. Also, he
- is Harpocrates, the Child Horus, walking, (as saith David, the
- Badavi that became King in his Psalms) upon the Lion and the
- Dragon; that is, he is in Unity with his own secret Nature, as
- I have shewn thee in my Word concerning the Sphinx. O my Son,
- yester Eve came the Spirit upon me that I also should eat the
- Grass of the Arabs, and by Virtue of the Bewitchment thereof
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- behold that which might be appointed for the Enlightenment of
- mine Eyes. Now then of this may I not speak, seeing that it
- involveth the Mystery of the Transcending of Time, so that in
- One Hour of our terrestrial Measure did I gather the Harvest
- of an Aeon, and in Ten Lives I could no declare it.
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- {Digamma }{upsilon } DE QUIBUSDAM MYSTERIIS, QUAE VIDI.
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- Yet even as a Man may set up a Memorial or Symbol to import
- Ten Thousand Times Ten Thousand, so may I strive to inform
- thine Understanding by Hieroglyph. And here shall thine own
- Experience serve us, because a Token of Remembrance sufficeth
- him that is familiar with a Matter, which to him that knoweth
- it not should not be made manifest, no, not in a Year of
- Instruction. Here first then is one amid the uncounted
- Wonders of that Vision; upon a field blacker and richer than
- Velvet was the Sun of all Being, alone. Then about Him were
- little Crosses, Greek, over-running the Heaven. These changed
- from Form to Form geometrical, Marvel devouring Marvel, a
- Thousand Times a Thousand in their Course and Sequence, until
- by their Movement was the Universe churned into the
- Quintessence of Light. Moreover at another Time did I behold
- All Things as Bubbles, iridescent and luminous, self-shining
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- in every Colour, Myriad pursuing Myrad until by their
- perpetual Beauty they exhausted the Virtue of my Mind to
- receive them, and whelmed it, so that I was fain to withdraw
- myself from the Burden of that Brilliance. Yet, o my Son, the
- Sun of all this amounteth not to the Worth of one Dawn-Glimmer
- of Our True Vision of Holiness.
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- {Digamma }{phi } DE QUORUM MODO MEDITATIONES.
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- Now for the Chief of that which was granted unto me, it was
- the Apprehension of those willed Changes or Transmutations of
- the Mind which lead into Truth, being as Ladders unto Heaven,
- or so I called them at that Time, seeking for a Phrase to
- admonish the Scribe that attended on my Words, to grave a
- Balustre upon the Stele of of my Working. But I make Effort
- in vain, o my Son, to record this matter in Detail; for it is
- the quality of the Grass to quicken the Operation of Thought
- it may be Thousandfold, and moreover to figure each Step in
- Images complex and overpowering in Beauty, so that one hath no
- Time wherein to conceive, much less to utter, any Word for a
- Name or any of them. Also, such was the multiplicity of these
- Ladders, and their Equivalence, that the Memory holdeth no
- more any one of them, but only a certain Comprehension of the
- Method, wordless by Reason of its Subtilty. Now therefore
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- must I make by my Will a Concentration mighty and terrible of
- my Thought, that I may bring forth this Mystery in Expression.
- For this Method is of Virtue and Profit, by it mayst thou come
- easily and with Delight to the Perfection of Truth, it is no
- Odds from what Thought thou makest the first Leap in thy
- Meditation, so hat thou mayst know how every Road endeth in
- Monsalvat, and the Temple of the Sangral.
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- -181-
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- {Digamma }{chi } SEQUITUR DE HAC RE.
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- I believe generally, on Ground both of Theory and
- Experience, so little as I have, that a Man must first be
- initiate, and established in Our Law, before he may use this
- Method. For in it is an Implication of our Secret
- Enlightenment, concerning the Universe, how its Nature is
- utterly Perfection. Now every Thought is a Separation, and
- the Medicine of that is to marry Each One with its
- Contradiction, as I have shewed formerly in many Writings.
- And thou shalt clap the one to the other with Vehemence of
- Spirit, swiftly as Light itself, that the Ecstasy be
- spontaneous. So therefore it is Expedient that thou have
- travelled already in this Path of Antithesis, knowing
- perfectly the Answer to every Griph or Problem, and thy Mind
- ready therewith. For by the Property of this Grass all
- passeth with Speed incalculable of Wit, and an Hesitation
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- should confound thee, breaking down thy ladder, and throwing
- back thy Mind to receive Impression from Environment, as at
- thy first beginning. Verily; the nature of this Method is
- Solution, and the Destruction of every Complexity by Explosion
- of Ecstasy, as every Element thereof is fulfilled by its
- Correlative, and is annihilated (since it loseth separate
- Existence) in the Orgasm that is consummated within the Bed of
- thy Mind.
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- -182-
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- {Digamma }{psi } SEQUITUR DE HAC RE.
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- Thou knowest right well, o my Son, how a Thought is
- imperfect in two Dimensions, being separate from its
- Contradiction, but also constrained in its Scope, because by
- that Contradiction we do not (commonly) complete the Universe,
- save only that of its Discourse. Thus if we contrast health
- with Sickness, we include in their Sphere of Union no more
- than one Quality that may be predicated of all Things.
- Furthermore, it is for the most Part not easy to find or to
- formulate the true Contradiction of any Thought as a positive
- Idea, but only as a Formal Negation in vague Terms, so that
- the ready Answer is but the Antithesis. Thus to "White" one
- putteth not the Phrase "all that which is not white", for this
- is void, formless, neither clear, simple, nor positive in
- conception; but one answereth "BBlack", for this hath an Image
- of his Significance. So the Cohesion of Antitheticals
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- destroyeth them only in Part, and one becometh instantly
- conscious of the Residue that is unsatisfied or unbalanced,
- whose Eidolon leapeth in thy Mind with Splendour and Joy
- unspeakable. Let not this deceive thee, for its Existence
- proveth its Imperfection, and thou must call forth its Mate,
- and destroy them by Love, as with the former. This Method is
- continuous and proceedeth ever from the Gross to the Fine, and
- from the Particular to the General, dissolving all Things into
- the One Substance of Light.
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- {Digamma }{omega } CONCLUSIO DE HAC MODO SANCTITATIS.
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- Lean now that Impression of Sense have Opposites readily
- conceived, as long to short, or light to dark; and so with
- Emotions and Perceptions, as Love to Hate, or false to true;
- but the more violent is the Antagonism, the more is it bound
- in Illusion, determined by Relation. Thus the Word "Long"
- hath no Meaning save it be referred to a Standard; but Love is
- not thus obscure, because Hate is its Twin, partaking
- bountifully of a Common Nature therewith. Now, hear this; it
- was given unto me in my Visions of the Aethyrs, when I was in
- the Wilderness of Sahara, by Tolga, that above the Abyss,
- contradiction is Unity, and that Nothing could be true save by
- Virtue of the Contradiction that is contained in itself.
- Behold, therefore, in this method thou shalt come presently to
- Ideas of this Order, that include in themselves their own
- Contradiction, and have no Antithesis. Here then is thy Lever
- of Antinomy broken in thine Hand; yet, being in true Balance,
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- thou mayst soar, passionate and eager, from Heaven to Heaven,
- by the Expansion of thine Idea, and its Exaltation, of
- Concentration as thou understandest by thy Studies in "The Book""
- ""of the Law", the Word thereof concerning Our Lady Nuith and
- Hadith that is the Core of every Star. And this last Going
- upon thy Ladder is easy, if thou be truly Initiate, for the
- Momentum of thy Force in Transcendental Antithesis serveth to
- propel thee, and the Emancipation from the Fetters of Thought
- that thou hast won in that Praxis of Art maketh the Whirlpool
- and Gravitation of Truth of Competence to Draw thee unto
- itself.
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- {Gamma }{alpha } DE VIA SOLA SOLIS.
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- This is the Profit of mine Intoxication of this Holy Herb,
- the Grass of the Arab, that it has shewed me this Mystery
- (with many others) not as a new Light, for I had that
- aforetime, but by its swift Synthesis and Manifestation of a
- Long Sequence of Events in a Moment, I had Wit to analyse this
- Method, and to discover its Essential Law, which before had
- escaped the Focus of the Lens of mine Understanding. Yea, o
- my Son, there is no true Path of Light, save that which I have
- formerly made plain; yet in every Path is Profit, if thou be
- cunning to perceive it and to clasp it. For we win Truth
- oftentimes by Reflection or by the Composition and Selection
- of an Artist in his Presentation thereof, when else we were
- blind thereunto; lacking his Mode of Light. Yet were that Art
- of none avail unless we had already the Root of that Truth in
- our Nature, and a Bud ready to flower at the Summoning of that
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- Sun. In Witness, nor a Boy nor a Stone hath Knowledge of the
- Sections of a Cone, and their Properties; but thou mayst teach
- these to the Boy by right Presentation, because he hath in his
- Nature those laws of Mind that are consonant with our Art
- Mathematical, and hath Need only of the Fledging (I may say
- this) so that he apply them consciously to the Work, when all
- being in Truth, that is, in the necessary Relations that rule
- our Illusion, he cometh in Course to Apprehension.
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- {Delta }{beta } DE PRUDENTIA ORDINIS A{.'.} A{.'.}
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- Here then o my Son, that shall be mightier than all the
- Kings of the Earth, as it is prophesied, ---an thou be He---
- because thou shalt establish the Law which I have given, even
- the Law of Thelema, here in this which I have written is a
- Point of Judgment in they Work to bring into the Light of
- Initiation such as come unto thee, affirming their Will to
- this Attainment. For every One hath his own Path and his own
- Law, and there is no Art in Magick but to seek out that Path
- and that Law, that he may pursue the one by the right Used of
- the Other. It shall be that one cometh unto thee, desiring
- Amen-Ra (I speak in a Figure or Exemplar) another Asi, a third
- Hoor-Pa-Kraat; or again, one seeketh Instruction in Obeah, and
- his Fellow in Wanga; and of all these not one in Ten Thousand
- shall be aware of his true Way. For albeit our last step is
- one for all, yet his next stem is particular to each.
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- Therefore is the Preparation of a Student that seeketh Our
- Holy Order of A{.'.} A{.'.} most general, informing his Mind of
- all known Methods, so that his Will may select among these by
- Instinct: then after, as a Probationer, he practiseth those
- which he hath preferred, and by the Examination of his Record
- after the Period appointed thou mayst have Wisdom concerning
- him, to confirm him in those Ways which are shewed thereby to
- be germane to his True Nature.
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- {Gamma }{gamma } ALTERA DE SUA VIA.
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- Thus I was brought unto the Knowledge of myself in a
- certain secret Grace, and as a Poet, by Jerome Politt of
- Kendal; Oscar Eckenstein of the Mountain discovered Manhood in
- me, teaching me to endure Hardship, and to dare many Shapes of
- Death; also he nurtured me in Concentration, the Art of the
- Mystics, but without Lumber of Theology. Allan Bennett
- bestowed upon me the right Art of Magic, and Our Holy Qabalah,
- with a great Treasure of Learning in many Matters, but
- especially concerning Egypt, and Asia, the Mysteries of their
- Arcane Wisdom. But of Cecil Jones had I the Great Gift of the
- Holy Magick of Abramelin, and he inducted me into that Order
- which we name not, because of the Silliness of the Profane
- that pretend thereto, and he brought me to the Knowledge and
- conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel; also, he was the
- Herald of the Masters of the Temple when They bade me welcome
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- to their Order, appointing a Siege for me in the City of the
- Pyramids, under the Night of Pan; but for three Years I was
- not willing to avail myself thereof. Now mark well this, o my
- Son, that this Path was peculiar to the law of my Star, and
- none other should follow me herein, or seek to follow me, for
- he hath his own proper Orbit. O my Son, err not by
- Generalisation and Conformity, for this is the very Idleness,
- and breedeth Ideals and Standards that are Death.
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- {Gamma }{delta } DE PRUDENTIA ARTIS DOCENDI.
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- Nevertheless, this one Affliction shall touch nigh all that
- come to thee, and that is this great Pox of Sin, that is our
- Bane inherited of the Aeon of Slain Gods. Look the first of
- all, when any Postulant boweth before thee, whether there be
- not Conflict and Restriction in his Mind, and in his Will. If
- he deem Good and Evil to be absolute, instead of as relative
- to the Health of this Body, or the Weal of the Society of
- which he is a Member, or what not, as it may be, instruct him.
- Or, if he will say that he will sacrifice all for Initiation,
- correct him, as it is written: "but whoso gives one Particle
- of Dust shall lose all in that Hour." For it is Conflict if
- he weigh one Thing with another; and Renunciation, being
- sorrowful, is not worthy of Acceptance. But he must with Joy
- unite all he is and hath, heaping the Whole into one Billow of
- Love, under Will. Yea, o my son, until thou hast brought the
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- Postulant into our Freedom from Sin, and the Sense and
- Conviction thereof, he is not ready for the Path of our Magick
- and Illumination; because every Way soever is a Going, and
- this Sin is an obstacle and a Fetter and an Hoodwink on every
- one of them, for it is Restriction, whether he set out by the
- Meditations of the Dhamma, or by Our Qabalah, or by Vision or
- Theurgy, or how else soever.
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- {Gamma }{epsilon } DE MENTE INIMICA ANIMO.
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- How shall a Man attain to the Trance where All is One, if
- he yet debate within his Mind concerning Virtue as a Thing
- Absolute? Thus, o my Son, there be those that are fuddled
- with Doubt whether Meat is to be eaten (I choose this as a
- Reference with Habit is proper to the Lion, as Grass to the
- Horse, so that his right Problem is solely thus, what is
- fitting to his own Nature. Or again, I suppose that he is in
- Vision, and an Angel, visiting him, imparteth a Truth contrary
- to his Prejudice, as it fell out in mine own Case, when I
- inhabited the Body of Sir Edward Kelly, or so do I in Part
- remember, as it seemeth dimly. This nevertheless is sure (or
- the learned Casaubon, publishing the Record of that Word with
- the Magician Dee, sayeth falsely) that an Angel did declare
- unto Kelly the very Axiomata of our Law of Thelema, in good
- Measure, and plainly; but Dee, afflicted by the Fixity of his
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- Tenets that were of the Salve-Gods, was wroth, and by his
- Authority prevailed upon the other, who was indeed not wholly
- perfected as an Instrument, or the World ready for that
- Sowing. Consider also how in this very Life I was the Enemy
- of mine own Law, and wrote down "The Book of the Law" contrary
- to my conscious Will by the Virtue of Obedience as a Scribe,
- and strove constantly to escape mine own Work, and the
- Utterance of my Word, until by Initiation I was made All-One.
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- {Gamma }{digamma } DE ILLUMINATUM OPERIBUS DIVERSIS.
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- Do thou understand how few be they whose Work in this their
- present Lives is our Way of Initiation. Yet it is written in
- " ""The Book of the Law" that the Law is for all, so that thou
- shalt in no wise err if thou establish it as the formula of
- the Aeon, universal among Men. Also, ever for them that are
- fitted to advance in our Light, there is Order and Diversity
- in Function, as reagardeth their Work in our Sub;lime
- Brotherhood, Thus, it might well be that, in a Profess-House
- of the Temple, or College of the Holy Ghost, each Knight or
- Brother might severally attain Experience of every Trance,
- unto the Perfection of all Illumination; yet by this there
- ought not to arise Confusion, one usurping the appointed
- office of another. For the Abbot, although he be not
- enlightened wholly, is yet Abbot; and the Place of the Cook,
- were he Saint, Arhan, and Paramahamsa in one Person, is in his
- Kitchen. Confound not thou in any wise therefore the Degree
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- of Attainment of any Man with his right Function in our Holy
- Order; for although by initiation cometh the Light, and the
- Right, and the Might to accomplish all Works soever, yet these
- are inoperative save as they are able to use a Machine which
- is of the same Order of Things as the Effect required. As the
- best Swordsman hath Need of a Sword, so hath every magician of
- a Body and Mind capable to the Work that he willeth; and he
- can do nothing, save it be proper to his Nature.
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- {Gamma }{zeta } DE EADEM RE ALTERA VERBA.
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- By this Understanding be they rebuked that make a Reproach
- to our Art, saying in their Insolence that if we have all
- Power, why are we betimes in Stress of Poverty, and in
- Contempt of men, and in Pain of Disease, and so forth, mocking
- us, and holding our Magick for Delusion. But they behold not
- our Light, how it guideth us in our Path unto a Goal that is
- not in their Comprehension, so that we crave not that which
- seemeth to them the Sole Food and Comfort of Life. Also, this
- which we attain, though it be the Essence of Omniscience and
- Omnipotence, informeth and moveth the Matherial World (so to
- call it) only according to the Nature of that which is
- therein. For the Light of the Sun (by His very Wholeness
- itself) sheweth a Rose Red, but a Leaf Green; and His Heat
- gathereth the Clouds, and disperseth them also. So I then,
- though I were perfect ion Magick, might not work in Metals as
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- a Smith, or become rich by Commerce as a Merchant; for I have
- not in my Nature the Engines proper to these Capacities, and
- therefore it is not of my will to seek to exercise them. Here
- then is my Case, that I can not because I will not, and it
- were Conflict, should I turn thither. But let every man
- become perfect in his own Work, not heeding the Rebuke of
- another, that some Way not his own is more Noble, or
- Profitable, but being constant in mindfulness concerning his
- Business.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -191-
-
-
- {Gamma }{nu } DE PACE PERFECTA LUCE.
-
-
- How shall the measure our Statue and our Success by that
- Cannon of Relation and Illusion, and their ignorance of our
- Nature? Time is but Sequence, and a moment of Light
- outweigheth an Age of Darkness. What is Happiness but the
- Issue of the Harmony of our Consciousness with our Truth, and
- the Conformity of Will with Action? To the Initiate is
- Certainty of his Fulfilment, which to the Profane is but the
- Effect of Hazard, and he feareth to lose what he loveth, or
- thinketh he loveth. But we, loving only in Light, suffer not
- by Fear or by Bereavement, because to us every Event is
- Welcome, being right, necessary and proper to our particular
- Path. The Knowledge of this one Matter is the End of Dread
- and of Regret; make it the Governor of thy Mind, to rule its
- Pace, lest it hasten or lag by Stress of thine Environment.
- How this Attainment is possible for all Mankind, since it
-
- asketh but Resolution of Complexities that already exist; so
- that this true Wisdom and Happiness cometh by the Acceptance
- of our Law, and its Use is the Key to all locked Doors of the
- Mind, and the Reconcilement of every Contention. O my Son, in
- the Promulgation of the Law lieth the Reward of our Chief
- Work, the making whole of Mankind from the Conscience of Sin
- which divideth him, and afflicteth his Spirit.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -192-
-
-
- {Gamma }{theta } DE PACE PERFECTA.
-
-
- O my Son, is it not a marvel, this Light whereof we are the
- Quintessence and the Seed? By it are we made Whole, dissolved
- in the Body and in the Soul of Our Lady Nuith even as Her Lord
- Hadith, so that the Gnostic Sacrament of the Cosmos is
- perpetually Elevated before us. We behold all that is and
- comprehend its Mystery, and its Order in this High Mass
- eternally celebrated among us, acknowledging the Perfection of
- the Rite, neither confusing the Parts thereof, nor
- discriminating in Worship between them. So unto us is every
- Phenomenon a Shew of Godliness, proceeding continually in a
- Pageant that returneth unto itself, identical in the Phase of
- Naught as of Many, but whirling in the Orgia of Ineffable
- Holiness as it were a Dance that weaveth Figures of Beauty in
- Variety inexhaustible. Shall the Initiate bestir him, to
- better so prime a Perfection? Nay, this Will that was his is
-
- accomplished; he hath attained the Summit; so without Hope or
- Fear he abideth, and leaveth his Vehicle of Illusion and
- Magical Engine, that is, as Man say, his Body and Mind, to
- work out their Ritual of Change without his interference. O
- my son, ask not to what End! As it is written in "The Book of""
- ""the Heart Girt with the Serpent", concerning the Boy and the
- Swan: is there not joy ineffable in this aimless Winging?
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -193-
-
-
- {Gamma }{iota } DE MORTE.
-
-
- Thou hast made Question of me concerning Death, and this is
- my Opinion, of which I say not: this is the Truth. First in
- the Temple called Man is the God, his Soul, or Star,
- individual and eternal, but also inherent in the Body of Our
- Lady Nuith. Now this Soul, as an Officer in the High Mass of
- the Cosmos, taketh on the Vesture of his Office, that is,
- inhabiteth a Tabernacle of Illusion, a Body and Mind. And
- this Tabernacle is Subject to the Law of Change, for it is
- complex, and diffuse reacting to every Stimulus or Impression.
- If then the mind be attached constantly to the Body, Death
- hath no Power to decompose it wholly, but a decaying Shell of
- the dead Man, his Mind holding together for a little his Body
- of Light, haunteth the Earth, seeking a new Tabernacle (in its
- Error that feareth Change) in some other Body. These Shells
- are broken away utterly from the Star that did enlighten them,
-
- and they are Vampires, obsessing them that adventure
- themselves into the Astral World without Magical Protection,
- or invoke them, as do the Spiritists. For by Death is Man
- released only from the Gross Body, at the first, and is
- complete otherwise upon the Astral Plane, as he was in his
- Life. But this Wholeness suffereth Stress, and its Gidrirs
- are loosened, the weaker first and after that the stronger.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -194-
-
-
- {Gamma }{lambda } DE ADEPTIS R. C. ESCATOLOGIA.
-
-
- consider now in this Light what shall come to the Adept, to
- him that hath aspired constantly and firmly to his Star,
- attuning the Mind unto the Musick of its Will. In him, if his
- Mind be knit perfectly together is itself, and conjoined with
- the Star, is so strong a Confection that it breaketh away
- easily not only from the Gross Body, but the fine. It is this
- Fine Body which bindeth it to the Astral, as did the Gross to
- the Material World so then it accomplisheth willingly the
- Sacrament of a second Death and leaveth the Body of Light.
- But the Mind, cleaveth closely, by Right of its Harmony, and
- Might of its Love, to its Star, resisteth the Ministers of
- Disruption, for a Season, according to its Strength. Now, if
- this Star be of those that are bound by the Great Oath,
- incarnating without Remission because of Delight in the Cosmic
- Sacrament, it seeketh a new Vehicle in the appointed Way, and
-
- indwelleth the Foetus of a Child, and quickeneth it. And if
- at this Time the mind of its Former Tabernacle yet cling to
- it, then is there Continuity Character, and it may be Memory
- between the two Vehicles. This is, briefly and without
- Elaboration, the Way of Asar in Amenti, according to mine
- Opinion, of which I say not: This is the Truth.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -195-
-
-
- {Gamma }{mu } DE NUPTIIS SUMMIS.
-
-
- Now then to this Doctrine, o my Son, add thou that which
- thou hast learned in "The Book of the Law", that Death is the
- Dissolution in the Kiss of Our Lady Nuith. This is a true
- Consonance as of Bass with Treble for here is the Impulse that
- setteth us to Magick, the Pain of the Conscious Mind. Having
- then Wit to find the Cause of this Pain in the Sense of
- Separation, and its Cessation by the Union of Live, it is the
- Summit of our Holy Art to present the whole Being of our Star
- to Our Lady in the Nuptial of our Bodily Death. We are then
- to make our whole Engine the true and real Appurtenance of our
- Force, without Leak, or Friction, or any other Waste or
- Hindrance to its Action. Thou knowest well how an Horse, or
- even a Machine propelled by a Man's feet, becometh as it were
- as Extension of the Rider, though his Skill and Custom. Thus
- let thy Star have profit of thy Vehicle, assimilating it, and
-
- sustaining it, so that it be healed of its Separation, and
- this even in Life, but most especially in Death. Also thou
- oughtest to increase thy Vehicle in Mass by true Growth in
- Balance, that thou be a Bridegroom comely and wellfavoured, a
- Man of might, and a Warrior worthy of the Bed of so divine a
- Dissolution.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -196-
-
-
- {Gamma }{nu } DE ARTE VOLUPTATE DILEMMA GUAEDAM.
-
-
- There is a certain Objection, o my Son, to our Thesis
- concerning Will that it should flow freely in its Way: namely
- that for such as I am it is well, because I am endowed by
- Nature with a Lust insatiable in any Kind, so that the
- Universe itself seemeth incapable to appease it. For I have
- poured myself out unceasingly, in Bodily Passion, and in
- Battles with Men, and with Wild Beasts, and with Mountains and
- Deserts, and in Poetry and other Writings of the Musick of
- mine Imagination, and in Books of our own Mysteries, and in
- Works Magical, and so forth, so that in Mine Age I am become
- verily a Slave to mine own Genius and my Law is that unless I
- sleep or create, my Soul is sick, and fain to claim the Reward
- and the Recreation of my Death. But (I hear thee say it) this
- is not the Case of All, or even of many Men; but their Act of
- Will is satisfied easily at its first Guerdon. Should not
-
- then their Wisdom be to resist themselves for a Space, as
- Water heaped up by a Dam gathereth Force, and Hunger feedeth
- upon Abstinence? Also, there is that which I have written in
- a former Chapter of the right Use of Discipline; and thirdly,
- this free Flowing is without Subtility of Art, as it were an
- Harlot that plucketh Men by the Sleeve.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -197-
-
-
- {Gamma }{xi } DE HOC MODO DISSOLUTIO.
-
-
- Here therefore will I write down the Answer to this
- Indictment of our Wisdom; that every Act of Will is to be made
- in its Perfection, which State is to be attained according to
- these Conditions: firs, those of its own Law; second, those of
- its Environment. Judge thine own Case individually, each as
- it pleadeth; for there is no Cannon or Code, since every Star
- hath its own Law diverse from every other. Now there is the
- Restraint of Conflict which is Impotance and Disruption; the
- the Restraint of Discipline is a Fortification of the Will by
- Repose and by Preparation, as a Conqueror resteth his Armies,
- and feedeth them, and looketh to their Furniture and to their
- Spirit, before he joineth the Battle. Also, there is the
- Restraint of Art, which includeth that other of Discipline,
- and its Nature is to adorn the Will and to admire its Strength
- and its Beauty, and to enjoy its Victory by Anticipation in
-
- full Confidence, not fearful of Time that robbeth them that
- are ignorant concerning him, how he is but Mirage and
- Illusion, incapable to besiege the Fortress of the Soul. Work
- thou thy Will, as I said aforetime by the Mouth of Eliphas
- Levi Zahed, knowing thyself Omnipotent, and thine Habitation
- Eternity. O my Son, attend well this Word, for it is an
- Heirloom, and a Ring of Ruby and Emerald in thine Inheritance.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -198-
-
-
- {Gamma }{omicron } DE COMEDIA, QUAE PAN DICTUR.
-
-
- Subtler than the Serpent of Hermes, o my Son, is this Way
- of Restraint of Art, and thou shalt meet therein with the God
- Pan, and have him to thy Playmate. So shalt thou devise
- Comedy and Tragedy, as it were Settings for the Jewel of thy
- Will, to enhance the Beauty thereof, and to refine thy
- Pleasures. This is that which is written in "The Book of the""
- ""Law": "... Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more
- joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink
- by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by
- delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety
- therein! But exceed! exceed!" Thus thou mayst even toy with
- thy tamed Devil of Sin, and use the Pain thereof to sharpen
- the taste of thy Meat, being Adult, and thy Tongue keen to the
- Olive, and cloyed by the Sweet, while a Child is opposite to
- this in his Preference; or as a skilled Match of Love
-
- aboundeth in Pinchings, Slappings, Bitings and the like, to
- intensify the Bout and to prolong it. But this is Risk and
- Peril unless thou be wholly Master, one in thy Will; for there
- is Poison in these dead Snakes, to destroy thee if thou lend
- them of thy Life by so little as one Doubt of thyself, as a
- Seed of Division.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -199-
-
-
- {Gamma }{pi } DE LUDO AMORIS.
-
-
- In this Mystery of the Restraint of Art is also the Secret
- of Illusion. Why, sayest thou, hath not Our Lady Nuith her
- Will of Her Lord Hadith, and He of Her, and so all ended? But
- this is the Play of Her Love, that She veileth Her Beauty in
- the Robe of Illusion many-coloured, and evadeth Him in Sport,
- yea, and divorceth Him from the Embrace, weaving new Modesties
- and allurements in Her Dance. Now, o my Son, the full
- Comprehension of this Arcanum is the Fruit of Contemplation,
- if this be prepared by the Experience of this Art in thine own
- Case. But to them that understand not, and have Grief and
- Separation, being deceived by this Play so that they deem it
- the Division of Hate, She can but speak in Simplicity by that
- Word written in "The Book of the Law": "To me!" For until thou
- love, the Play of Love is but Emptiness; and its cruelty is
- Cruelty indeed, except thou know it to be but a Sauce to wet
-
- Appetite, and to give Emphasis of Contrast, as a Painter
- dimmeth the Light by Cunning of his Shadows. But all this
- Delight that thou mayst have of the Universe both in its Veils
- and in its Nakedness is a Reward of thine Attainment of Truth,
- and followeth after it. Nor canst thou comprehend this
- Doctrine by Mind, for the Division in thee crieth aloud in its
- Agony, denying it, unless thou be wholly Initiate.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -200-
-
-
- {Gamma }{koppa } DE GAUDIO STUPRI.
-
-
- O my Son, this Sin itself that is our Disease is but
- Misunderstanding of the Art of Love of Our Lady Nuith. Yea,
- verily, it is all a Trick of Her Wit, and a Device of Her
- Delight, that Sin should appear, and also (Mark thou well!)
- the Misapprehension of its Nature. Therefore the Pain of any
- Sinner in his Division and His Separation is to Her a little
- Spasm of Pleasure. But as for him, let him apprehend this
- Doctrine, and dissolve himself in Her Love. Thou then, being
- Initiate and Illuminated in this Truth, mayst accept thine own
- Sorrow, or rather that of thy Vehicle, as Lackey to the Joy
- that thou hast in thy True Self, the Star among the Stars of
- Her Body. The Adept of our Art is not compassionate
- concerning Sin, in his own Vehicle or another's, unless the
- Healing thereof were proper to his Will, for he is aware of
- the whole Truth of the Matter. So goeth he upon his Way, and
-
- tighteneth not a Rein upon the Horses of the Universe, but is
- content, beholding the Speed of their Course. Verily, o my
- Son, it is well written in the Book of the Magus that it is
- the Curse of my Grade that I must needs preach my Law unto
- Men. For I am afflicted in my Tabernacle on this Count, but
- in my Self, I rejoice, and join in the Laughter of Her love.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -201-
-
-
- {Gamma }{rho } DE CAECITIA PHILOSOPHORUM ANTIQUORUM.
-
-
- Behold, how comfortable is this thy Wisdom, wherein I have
- resolved every Conflict soever that is or that can be, even in
- all dimensions, that Antagonism of Things no less than their
- Limitations. I have said: Evil be thou my Good; for it is the
- Magical Mirror of Our Astarte and the Caduceus of our Hermes.
- Now this was the Error of Elder Philosophers, that perceiving
- Changeful Duality as the Cause of Sorrow, they sought the
- Reconcilement in Unity and in Stability. But I shew thee the
- Universe as the Body of Our Lady Nuith, who is None and Two,
- with Hadith Her Lord as the Alternator of those Phases. This
- Universe is then a perpetual By-coming, the Vessel of every
- Permutation of infinity, wherein every Phenomenon is a
- Sacrament, Change being the act of Love, and Duality the
- Condition prodromal to that Act even as an Axe must be taken
- back from a Cedar that it may deliver its Stroke. The Error
-
- therefore of thee Philosophers lay in their false Assumption
- that Bliss, Knowledge and Being (the Qualities of their
- Changeless Unity) could be States. O my Son, how pitiful is
- their Beggary, these Paupers of Sense and of Experience and of
- Observation! The Emptiness of their Bellies was it that bred
- Phantoms of Ideal, so that they sought Joy by a crude Denial
- of what Truth (or rather, Fact) they had perceived concerning
- the Universe, so that they set up an Idol of Death for their
- God, in very Rage of Hatred against the Sum of their own
- Selves.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -202-
-
-
- {Gamma }{sigma } DE HERESIA MANICHAEA.
-
-
- These Philosophers, or shall I not say Misosophers and
- Pseudo-Sophists, have been hard put to it to explain the
- Mystery of the Existence of their Evil. They have cried,
- frothing with Words, the Evil is Illusion. But if so, that
- Illusion is Evil, whence came it, and to what End? If their
- Devil created it, who created that Devil? All their
- contention resolveth to this Dilemma of Change in a
- Changeless, Falsity in a True, Hate in a Loving, Weakness in
- an Almighty, Duality in a Simple, Being as they define their
- God. Nor do they see that they restrict their God (whom yet
- they would have to be All) by admitting Opposites to this
- Nature, ever when they sum these Opposites as Illusion, since
- Illusion is the Denial of His Truth. But the Indians, seeing
- this, seek Escape by denying all Duality soever to their God,
- or True State, I speak of Parabrahaman and of Nibbana, thus in
-
- any Reality of Thought rather denying Him or It than
- destroying Illusion. But in our Light we have no Need of any
- Denial, and accept all, yea Illusion itself, discriminating
- only in our Minds between Phenomena by Comparison with some
- convenient Standard, for the Purpose of maintaining the Order
- of our Conceptions in Respect of the Relation of any Being
- with its Environment.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -203-
-
-
- {Gamma }{tau } DE VERITATE RERUM.
-
-
- So do thou apprehend this Wisdom, o my Son, laying it to
- thine Heart, as a Mistress, and hiding it in the Treasury of
- thy Mind as a Jewel of Enlightenment. Consider a Dream, how
- it is unreal in Respect of thine Experience of the Objects of
- thy Waking Sense, but real also, both as it did in Fact
- impress thy Mind, and as it did express some Hunger of thy
- Secret Nature, as I have already shewed in this Letter.
- Consider the Play of the Chess, how its Law hath made for
- itself a Language and a Literature, yet it is but an arbitrary
- invention; without impinging (save as it operateth though
- Pleasure and interest upon Minds) on any other Sphere soever
- of the Universe. Equally, Things called (vulgarly) Real and
- Material exist in the Universe of our Consciousness only by
- the Apprehension of their Images in mind through Sense; as,
- how is Colour Real or Material to a blind may or a Law
-
- mathematical true to a man that is imbecile or demented? All
- things therefore exist in one form or another; but the Reality
- of any, though in itself absolute, is in regard of its
- Relation with any other thing dependent upon the Intercourse
- and Language between them, conscious or unconscious. Consider
- Azote, that hath night Four Parts in Five of the Air, how it
- is not real to the Perception of any human Sense, but yet most
- real to our Lungs, diluting the Oxigen, by whose Love we were
- else violently combust.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -204-
-
-
- {Gamma }{upsilon } DE APHORISMO UBI DICO: OMNIA SUNT.
-
-
- My son, long did I await thee, yearning, and with Price and
- Great Gladness did I bid thee Welcome to my City of the
- Pyramids, under the Night of Pan. Now then in my dear Love of
- thee will I reveal this Secret of Wisdom which I wrote
- occultly in my last Chapter, in these Words: All Things
- Exist. Considered by right Understanding, this is to deny
- that there is anything imaginable or unimaginable which doth
- not exist. That is, the Body of Our Lady Nuith hath no Limit,
- and there is no void that She filleth not with the Variety and
- Beauty of Her Stars in Her Space. Nor is there any one Law of
- her Nature, but in Her are all Laws, so that each Thing or
- each Truth that thou perceiveth is as it were one Gesture of
- Her Dance. Shut up the Book of thy Questions, o my Son,
- concerning nature, Her Way, Her Origin, or Her Purpose, except
- in those Matters which concern thee and thine own Orbit, o
-
- thou Star, begotten of my Loins in my Lust of Hilarion, the
- Golden Rose, mystic and Joyous, the Lily of a Thousand Petals
- and One Petal, subtle and perverse, that thou mightest fulfil
- this Work of a Magus which I cam to accomplish, robing myself
- in Flesh of man, as was my Nature and the Will of my Nature,
- the Name of my Star that flameth in the Body of Nuith our
- Lady.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -205-
-
-
- {Gamma }{phi } DE RATIONE HUJUS EPISTOLAE SCRIBENDAE.
-
-
- Behold, I draw unto the End of this Discourse of Wisdom, as
- a Ship that hath adventured upon Ocean, from whose mast the
- Watcher espieth in the Dimness of the Horizon a Point of Snow,
- being the Peak of a great Mountain that is Guardian of the
- Harbour, the Term of that Voyage. So now do I commit thee
- wholly unto thyself, for I exist not in thine Universe, save
- in my Relation with thee, wherefore this Part of me is in
- Truth thou rather than I. Yet do thou treasure this Letter,
- for it is mine especial Gift, and hath Radiance of the Light
- of my Wisdom, and flameth, being the Blood of my Love of thee
- and of Mankind. Also, it is the Word of my Will, the Charter
- of the Liberty of my Soul, and thine, and that of every Man,
- and every Woman; for we are Stars, O my Son, for many Days was
- I silent, until thou wast fearful lest thou hadst, by
- Ignorance or by Inadvertance, enkindled the Fire of my Wrath.
-
- But I spake not, because I knew in my Wisdom that thou must
- pass a certain Ordeal of thine Initiation by thine own Virtue.
- For this Cause I held aloof; but in my Love I made a Beginning
- of this Letter, beholding thy triumph beforehand; and with
- Prescience, divining thy next Need, that is to say, this Book
- of the Words of my Wisdom.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -206-
-
-
- {Gamma }{chi } DE NATURA HUJUS EPISTOLAE.
-
- O my Son, in this Letter have I written the Name of my own
- Nature, its Law, its Quality, its Will and its Appurtenance or
- Ornament. For it is the Child of my Love toward thee, and the
- Expression through mine Art of my Will so far as that
- regardeth thee. Now every Child is made of the Essence of his
- Father, so that every Creation is a Likeness or image of the
- Creator, but modified by the Mother, that is to say, the
- Material whereon he begetteth it. So then this Letter is a
- Projection of mine own Star in a Mirror, to wit, mine Idea in
- thy Regard; and it shall be unto thee as a clear Vision of thy
- Father, and of the Word of the Aeon that he hath uttered unto
- Man. But also, because this Word is the Formula of the Aeon,
- that is the Law of its Changes or Phenomena, the Equation that
- expresseth its Energy and its Motion, it shall serve every Man
- in his Measure as a Text-Book or Comment upon the Theorick and
- Praxis of Magick. By it may he discover his true Nature, and
-
- its Will, and apply his Force and his Intelligence to the
- right Fulfilment thereof. It shall be a beacon to enlighten
- him, to comfort him, and to direct him; and it shall be a
- Witness and Memorial of my Word and of my Work, as of mine
- Attainment unto Wisdom.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
- -207-
-
-
- {Gamma }{psi } DE MODO QUO HAEC EPISTOLAM SCRIPSI.
-
-
- There is not one Word in this Letter that is not writ with
- mine own Hand and Style, slowly and heedfully (as is contrary
- with my custom) being the Fruit of the Tree of my Mediation,
- well-ripened by the Sun of mine Illumination. With much Toil
- have I done this, being oftentimes seated without Motion save
- of the Hands, while Earth rolled from Twilight unto Twilight,
- so that my Body became cold and rigid, even as is a Corpse.
- Also, in the Intervals of this Scripture, have I been given to
- Contemplation and to Works of High Magick, notably the Mass of
- the Holy Ghost, in the Concentration of my Will to impart this
- Wisdom unto thee, and to reveal the Mysteries of Truth. Now
- of all these this is the Root, that Truth is not fixed with
- the Rigour of Death, but vital with Lust of Change, and
- enflamed with the Love of its opposite. Thus even Falsehood
- is not alien to Truth, for the Perfection of Nature
-
- comprehendeth all. But all these Things are written in "The""
- ""Book of the Law", after which do I limp painfully; afar off,
- upon the poor Crutch of mine Understanding of its Word; yea, I
- am well assured that in that Book are writ all Things soever;
- but we, being mostly without Wit are not able to distinguish
- them. For the Stature of Aiwass is beyond our Measure, seeing
- that he was able to comprehend the whole Mystery of Nuith and
- of Hadith, and yet to declare Their Message in the Language of
- Man.
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- -208-
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- {Gamma }{omega } DE SAPIENTIA ET STULTITIA.
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- O my Son, in this the Colophon of my Epistle will I recall
- the Title and Superscription thereof; that is, "The Book of""
- ""Wisdom or Folly". I proclaim Blessing and Worship to Nuith Our
- Lady and Her Lord Hadith, for the Miracle of the Anatomy of
- the Child Ra-Hoor-Khuit, as it is shewn in the Design Minutum
- Mundum, the Tree of Life. For though Wisdom be the Second
- Emanation of his Essence, there is a Path to separate and to
- join them, the Reference thereof being Aleph, that is One
- indeed, but also an Hundred and Eleven in his full
- Orthography; to signify the Most Holy Trinity, and by
- Metathesis it is Thick Darkness, and Sudden Death. This is
- also the Number of AUM, which is AMOUN, and the Root-Sound of
- OMNE, or, in Greek, PAN, and it is a Number of the Sun. Yet
- is the Atu of Thoth that correspondeth thereunto marked with
- ZERO, and its Name is MAT, whereof I have spoken formerly, and
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- its Image is the Fool. O my Son, gather thou all these Limbs
- together in One Body, and breathe upon it with thy Spirit,
- that it may live; then do thou embrace it with Lust of they
- Manhood, and go in unto it, and know it; so shall ye be One
- Flesh. Now at last in the Reinforcement and Ecstasy of this
- Consummation thou shalt with by what Inspiration thou didst
- choose thy Name in the Gnosis, I mean PARZIVAL, "der reine
- Thor", the True Knight that won Kingship in Monsalvat, and
- made whole the Wound of Amfortas, and ordered Kundry to right
- Service, and regained the Lance, and revived the Miracle of
- the Sangral; yea
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- also upon himself did he accomplish his Work in the End:
- "Hochsten Heiles Wunder! Erlosung dem Erloser !" This is the
- last Word of the Song that thine Uncle Richard Wagner made for
- Worship of this Mystery. Understand thou this, o my son, as I
- take leave of thee in this Epistle, that the Summit of Wisdom
- is the opening of the Way that leadeth unto theCrown and
- Essence of all, to the Soul of the Child Horus, the Lord of
- the Aeon. This Way is the Path of the Pure Fool. Amoun.
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- And who is this Pure Fool? Lo, in the Sagas of Old Time,
- Legend of Scald, of Brad, of Druid, cometh He not in Green
- Like Spring? O thou Great Fool, thou Water that art Air, in
- whom all Complex is resolved! Yes, thou in ragged Raiment,
- with the Staff of Priapus and the Wineskin! thou standest up
- on the Crocodile, like Hoor-pa-Kraat; and the Great Cat
- leapeth upon thee! Yea, and more also I have known Thee who
- Thou art, Bacchus Diphues, none and two, in thy Name I A O !
- Now at the End of all do I come to the Being of Thee, beyond
- By-coming, and I cry aloud my Word, as it was given unto Man
- by thine Uncle Alcofribas Masior, the Oracle of the Bottle of
- BACBUC, and this Word is T R I N C.
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- Love is the law, love under will.
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- 666.
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- AN X I V
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- {Sun} in {Aries}
- {Moon} in {Aries}
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