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THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS
Copyright 1985
by
Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O. Box 2303
Berkeley, California
94702
PRIVATELY PUBLISHED
for
ORDO TEMPLI ORIENTIS
by
Fr. A.U.D.C.A.L.
SAN FRANCISCO
(typed by Soror Alice)
ANNUM Lxxx
SOL IN AQUARIUS
LUNA IN VIRGO
A PARAPHRASE OF THE INSCRIPTIONS UPON
THE OBVERSE OF THE STELE OF REVELLING
Above, the gemmed azure is
The naked splendour of Nuit;
She bends in ecstasy to kiss
The secret ardours of Hadit.
The winged globe, the starry blue
Are mine, o Ankh-f-n-Khonsu.
I am the Lord of Thebes, and I
The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu;
For me unveils the veiled sky,
The self-slain Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet
Thy presence, o Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
Unity uttermost showed!
I adore the might of Thy breath,
Supreme and terrible God,
Who makest the gods and death
To tremble before Thee:--
I,I adore thee!
Appear on the throne of Ra!
Open the ways of the Khu!
Lighten the ways of the Ka!
The ways of the Khabs run through
To stir me or still me!
Aum! let it kill me!
The Light is mine; its rays consume
Me: I have made a secret door
Into the House of Ra and Tum,
Of Khephra, and of Ahathoor.
I am thy Theban, o Mentu,
The prophet Ankh-f-n-Khonsu!
By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;
By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell.
Show thy star-splendour, O Nuith!
Bid me within thine House to dwell,
O winged snake of light, Hadith!
Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
(next two pages are front and back of Stele)
A PARAPHRASE OF THE HIEROGLYPHS OF THE
II LINES UPON THE REVERSE OF THE STELE
Saith of Mentu the truth-telling brother
Who was master of Thebes from his birth:
O heart of me, heart of my mother!
O heart which I had upon earth!
Stand not thou up against me a witness!
Oppose me not, judge, in my quest!
Accuse me not now of unfitness
Before the Great God, the dread Lord of the West!
For I fastened the one to the other
With a spell for their mystical girth,
The earth and the wonderful West,
When I flourished, o earth, on the breast!
The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
Saith with his voice of truth and calm:
O thou that hast a single arm!
O thou that glitterest in the moon!
I weave thee in the spinning charm;
I lure thee with the billowy tune.
The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
Hath parted from the darkling crowds,
Hath joined the dwellers of the light,
Opening Duant, the star-abodes,
Their keys receiving.
The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
Hath made his passage into night,
His pleasure on the earth to do
Among the living.
THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS.
The Official Organ of the A A
(pic of eye in triangle)
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Love is the law, love under will.
The word of the law is
THELEMA (in Greek)
The Official Organ of the O.T.O.
Deus est Homo (lamen in middle)
Vol. III No. III
An I x Sol in Libra
SEPTEMBER MCMXXXVI E.V.
Issued by the O.T.O.
A.'. A.'. Publication in Class E.
(A.'. A.'. SIGIL)
(O.T.O. LAMEN)
(BAPHOMET'S SIGNATURE)
(FOLLOWING ARE PICTURES OF ASTROLOGICAL CHARTS)
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THE NATIVITY OF FRA. P. |THE FIRST INITIATION OF FRA. P.
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OF THE GODS | THE ANNIHILATION OF FRA. P.
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CONTENTS
Page
The Summons .............................................. I
A Summary .............................................. 3
LIBER AL vel LEGIS
Sub Figura CCXX as Delivered by XCIII==
4I8 to DCLXVI ............................................I3
GENESIS LIBRI AL ............................................39
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Stele of Revealing ........................... Frontispiece
Four Horoscopes ................................ Facing Summons
First sketch of a Qabalistic Key to Liber AL ................I38
POCKET
THE COMMENT
Facsimile of the MS. of Liber AL
THE SUMMONS.
On April 8, 9 and I0, I904, e.v. this book was dictated to 666 (Aleister Crowley) by
Aiwass, a Being whose nature he does not fully understand, but who described Himself as
"the Minister of Hoor-
Paar-Kraat"(the Lord of Silence).
The contents of the book prove to strict scientific demon-stration that He possesses
knowledge and
power quite beyond anything that has been hitherto associated with human faculties.
The circumstances of the dictation are described in the Equinox, Vol. I, No. vii: but a
fuller
account, with an outline of the proof of the character of the book is now here to be
issued.
The book announces a New Law for mankind.
It replaces the moral and religious sanctions of the past, which have everywhere broken
down, by a
principle valid for each man and woman in the world, and self-evidently indefeasible.
The spiritual Revolution announced by the book has already taken place: hardly a country
where it
is not openly manifest.
Ignorance of the true meaning of this new Law has led to gross anarchy. Its conscious
adoption in
its proper sense is the sole cure for the political, social and racial unrest which have
brought about
the World War, the catastrophe of Europe and America, and the threatening attitude of
China, India
and Islam.
Its solution of the fundamental problems of mathematics and philosophy will establish a
new epoch
in history.
But it must not be supposed that so potent an instrument of energy can be used without
danger.
I summon, therefore, by the power and authority entrusted to me, every great spirit and
mind now on
this planed incarnate to take effective hold of this transcendent force, and apply it to
the
advancement of the welfare of the human race.
For as the experience of these two and thirty years has shown too terribly, the book
cannot be
ignored. It has leavened Mankind unaware: and Man must make thereof the Bread of Life. Its
ferment has begun to work on the grape of thought: Man must obtain therefrom the Wine of
Ecstasy.
Come then, all ye, in the Name of the Lord of the Aeon, the Crowned and Conquering Child,
Heru-
Ra-Ha: I call ye to partake this sacrament.
Know-will-dare-and be silent!
The Priest of the Princes,
ANKH-AF-NA-KHONSU.
A SUMMARY
MARSYAS. (As for TheBeast 666). I bear a message. Heaven hath sent
The knowledge of a new sweet way
Into the Secret Element.
OLYMPAS. (Any Aspirant). Master, while yet the glory clings
Declare this mystery magical!
MARSYAS. I am yet borne on these blue wings
Into the Essence of the All.
Now, now I stand on earth again,
Though, blazing through each nerve and vein,
The light yet holds its choral course,
Filling my frame with fiery force
Like God's. Now hear the Apocalypse!
New-fledged on these reluctant lips!
OLYMPAS. I tremble like an aspen, quiver
Like light upon a rainy river !
MARSYAS. Do what thou wilt ! is the sole word
Of law that my attainment heard.
Arise, and lay thine hand on God !
Arise, and set a period Unto Restriction ! That is sin :
To hold thine holy spirit in !
O thou that chafest at thy bars,
Invoke Nuit beneath her stars
With a pure heart (Her incense burned Of gums and woods, in gold inurned)
And let the serpent flame therein
A little, and thy soul shall win
To lie within her bosom. Lo !
Thou wouldst give all------and she cries : No ! Take all, and take me ! Gather spice And
virgins and
great pearls of price !
Worship me in a single robe,
Crowned Richly ! Girdle of the globe,
I love thee. I am drunkenness
Of the inmost sense, my soul's caress
Is toward thee ! Let my priestess stand
Bare and rejoicing, softly fanned
By smooth-lipped acolytes, upon
Mine iridescent altar-stone,
And in her love-chaunt swooningly
Say evermore : To me ! To me !
I am the azure-lidded daughter
Of sunset; the all-girdling water;
The naked brilliance of the sky
In the voluptuous night am I !
With song, with jewel, with perfume,
Wake all my rose's blush and bloom !
Drink to me ! Love me ! I love thee,
My love, my lord -- to me ! to me !
OLYMPAS. There is no harshness in the breath
Of this -- is life surpassed, and death ?
MARSYAS. There is the Snake that gives delight
And Knowledge, stirs the heart aright With drunkenness. Strange drugs are thine, Hadit,
and
draughts of wizard wine !
These do no hurt. Thine hermits dwell
Not in the cold secretive cell,
But under purple canopies
With mighty-breasted mistresses
Magnificent as lionesses --
Tender and terrible caresses !
Fire lives, and light, in eager eyes;
And massed huge hair about them lies.
They lead their hosts to victory :
In every joy they are kings ; then see
That secret serpent coiled to spring
And win the world ! O priest and king,
Let there be feasting, foining, fighting,
A revel of lusting, singing, smiting !
Work ; be the bed of work ! Hold ! Hold !
The stars' kiss is as molten gold.
Harden ! Hold thyself up ! now die --
Ah ! Ah ! Exceed ! Exceed !
OLYMPAS. And I ?
MARSYAS. My stature shall surpass the stars :
He hath said it ! Men shall worship me
In hidden woods, on barren scaurs,
Henceforth to all eternity.
OLYMPAS. Hail ! I adore thee ! Let us feast.
MARSYAS. I am the consecrated Beast.
I build the Abominable House.
The Scarlet Woman is my Spouse---
OLYMPAS. What is this word ?
MARSYAS. Thou canst not know
Till thou hast passed the Fourth Ordeal.
OLYMPAS. I worship thee. The moon-rays flow
Masterfully rich and real
From thy red mouth, and burst, young suns
Chanting before the Holy Ones
Thine Eight Mysterious Orisons !
MARSYAS. The last spell ! The availing word !
The two completed by the third !
The Lord of War, of Vengeance
That slayeth with a single glance !
This light is in me of my Lord.
His Name is this far-whirling sword.
I push His order. Keen and swift
My Hawk's eye flames ; these arms uplift The Banner of Silence and of Strength--- Hail !
Hail !
thou are here, my Lord, at length !
Lo, the Hawk-Headed Lord am I :
My nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.
Hail ! ye twin warriors that guard
The pillars of the world ! Your time
Is nigh at hand. The snake that marred
Heaven with his inexhaustible slime
Is slain ; I bear the Wand of power,
The Wand that waxes and that wanes ;
I crush the Universe this hour
In my left hand ; and naught remains !
Ho ! for the splendour in my name
Hidden and glorious, a flame
Secretly shooting from the sun.
Aum ! Ha !--my destiny is done.
The Word is spoken and concealed.
OLYMPAS. I am stunned. What wonder was revealed ?
MARSYAS. The rite is secret.
OLYMPAS. Profits it ?
MARSYAS. Only to wisdom and to wit.
OLYMPAS. The other did no less.
MARSYAS. Then prove
Both by the master-key of Love.
The lock turns stiffly ? Shalt thou shirk
To use the sacred oil of work ?
Not from the valley shalt thou wrest
The eggs that line the eagle's nest !
Climb, with thy life at stake, the ice,
The sheer wall of the precipice !
Master the cornice, gain the breach,
And learn what next the ridge can teach !
Yet -- not the ridge itself may speak
The secret of the final peak.
OLYMPAS. All ridges join at last.
MARSYAS. Admitted,
O thou astute and subtle-witted !
Yet one -- loose, jagged, clad in mist !
Another -- firm, smooth, loved and kissed
By the soft sun ! Our order hath
This secret of the solar path,
Even as our Lord the Beast hath won
The mystic Number of the Sun.
OLYMPAS. These secrets are too high for me.
MARSYAS. Nay, little brother ! Come and see !
Neither by faith nor fear not awe
Approach the doctrine of the Law !
Truth, Courage, Love, shall win the bout, And those three others be cast out.
OLYMPAS. Lead me, Master, by the hand d
Gently to this gracious land !
Let me drink the doctrine in,
An all-healing medicine !
Let me rise, correct and firm,
Steady striding to the term,
Master of my fate, to rise
To imperial destinies ;
With the sun's ensanguine dart
Spear-bright in my blazing heart,
And my being's basil-plant
Bright and hard as adamant !
MARSYAS. Yonder, faintly luminous,
The yellow desert waits for us.
Lithe and eager, hand in hand,
We travel to the lonely land.
There, beneath the stars, the smoke
Of our incense shall invoke
The Queen of Space ; and subtly She
Shall bend from Her Infinity
Like a lambent flame of blue,
Touching us, and piercing through
All the sense-webs that we are
As the aethyr penetrates a star !
Her hands caressing the black earth,
Her sweet lithe body arched for love,
Her feet a Zephyr to the flowers,
She calls my name -- she gives the sign
That she is mine, supremely mine,
And clinging to the infinite girth
My soul gets perfect joy thereof
Beyond the abysses and the hours ;
So that -- I kiss her lovely brows ;
She bathes my body in perfume
Of sweat....O thou my secret spouse,
Continuous One of Heaven ! illume
My soul with this arcane delight,
Voluptuous Daughter of the Night !
Eat me up wholly with the glance
Of thy luxurious brilliance !
OLYMPAS. The desert calls.
MARSYAS. Then let us go !
Or seek the sacramental snow,
Where like an high-priest I may stand
With acolytes on every hand,
The lesser peaks -- my will withdrawn
To invoke the dayspring from the dawn,
Changing that rosy smoke of light
To a pure crystalline white ;
Though the mist of mind, as draws
A dancer round her limbs the gauze,
Clothe Light, and show the virgin Sun
A lemon-pale medallion !
Thence leap we leashless to the goal,
Stainless star-rapture of the soul.
So the altar-fires fade
As the Godhead is displayed.
Nay, we stir not. Everywhere
Is our temple right appointed.
All the earth is faery fair
For us. Am I not anointed ?
The Sigil burns upon the brow
At the adjuration -- here and now.
OLYMPAS. The air is laden with perfumes.
MARSYAS. Behold ! it beams -- it burns -- it blooms.
. . . . .
OLYMPAS. Master, how subtly hast thou drawn
The daylight from the Golden Dawn,
Bidden the Cavernous Mount unfold
Its Ruby Rose, its Cross of Gold ;
Until I saw, flashed from afar,
The Hawk's Eye in the Silver Star !
MARSYAS. Peace to all beings. Peace to thee,
Co-heir of mine eternity !
Peace to the greatest and the least,
To nebula and nenuphar !
Light in abundance be increased
On them that dream that shadows are !
OLYMPAS. Blessing and worship to The Beast,
The prophet of the lovely Star !
LIBER
AL VEL
LEGIS
SUB FIGURA
C C X X
AS DELIVERED BY
XCIII == 418
TO
DCLXVI
A' A' sigil
Liber 220: THE BOOK OF THE LAW
1. Had! The manifestation of Nuit.
2. The unveiling of the company of heaven.
3. Every man and every woman is a star.
4. Every number is infinite; there is no
difference.
5. Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my
unveiling before the Children of men!
6. Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my
heart & my tongue!
7. Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the min-
ister of Hoor-paar-kraat.
8. The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs.
9. Worship then the Khabs, and behold my
light shed over you!
10. Let my servants be few & secret: they
shall rule the many & the known.
11. These are fools that men adore; both
their Gods & their men are fools.
12. Come forth, o children, under the stars,
& take your fill of love!
13. I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see
your joy.
14. Above, the gemmed azure is
The naked splendour of Nuit;
She bends in ecstasy to kiss
The secret ardours of Hadit.
The winged globe, the starry blue,
Are mine, O Ankh-af-na-khonsu!
15. Now ye shall know that the chosen priest
& apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called
the
Scarlet Woman is all power given. They shall gather my children into their fold:
they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.
16. For he is ever a sun, and she a moon.
But to him is the winged secret flame, and to her the stooping starlight.
17. But ye are not so chosen.
18. Burn upon their brows, o splendrous
serpent!
19. O azure-lidded woman, bend upon them!
20. The key of the rituals is in the secret
word which I have given unto him.
21. With the God & the Adorer I am nothing:
they do not see me. They are as upon the
earth; I am Heaven, and there is no other God
than me, and my lord Hadit.
22. Now, therefore, I am known to ye by
my name Nuit, and to him by a secret name
which I will give him when at last he knoweth me. Since I am Infinite Space, and the
Infinite
Stars thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you
between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt.
23. But whoso availeth in this, let him be
the chief of all!
24. I am Nuit, and my word is six and fifty.
25. Divide, add, multiply, and understand.
26. Then saith the prophet and slave of the
beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall
be the sign? So she answered him, bending
down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the
black
earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting the little
flowers: Thou
knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of
exist-ence,
the omnipresence of my body.
27. Then the priest answered & said unto
the Queen of Space, kissing her lovely brows, and the dew of her light bathing his whole
body in a sweet-smelling perfume of sweat: O Nuit, continuous one of Heaven, let it be
ever
thus; that men speak not of Thee as One but as None; and let them speak not of thee at
all,
since thou art continuous!
28. None, breathed the light, faint & faery,
of the stars, and two.
29. For I am divided for love's sake, for the
chance of union.
30. This is the creation of the world, that
the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.
31. For these fools of men and their woes
care not thou at all! They feel little; what is, is balanced by weak joys; but ye are my
chosen
ones.
32. Obey my prophet! follow out the ordeals
of my knowledge! seek me only! Then the
joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so: I swear it by the vault of my
body; by my
sacred heart and tongue; by all I can give, by all I desire of ye all.
33. Then the priest fell into a deep trance
or swoon, & said unto the Queen of Heaven;
Write unto us the ordeals; write unto us the rituals; write unto us the law!
34. But she said: the ordeals I write not:
the rituals shall be half known and half con-cealed: the Law is for all.
35. This that thou writest is the threefold
book of Law.
36. My scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu, the priest
of the princes, shall not in one letter change this book; but lest there be folly, he
shall com-ment
thereupon by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-Khu-it.
37. Also the mantras and spells; the obeah
and the wanga; the work of the wand and the
work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach.
38. He must teach; but he may make severe
the ordeals.
39. The word of the Law is >THELEMA.<
40. Who calls us Thelemites will do no
wrong, if he look but close into the word. For
there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit,
and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do
what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man!
refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if
thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can
unite the divided but love: all else is a curse.
Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell.
42. Let it be that state of manyhood bound
and loathing. So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will.
43. Do that, and no other shall say nay.
44. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose,
delivered from the lust of result, is every way
perfect.
45. The Perfect and the Perfect are one Per-
fect and not two; nay, are none!
46. Nothing is a secret key of this law. Sixty-
one the Jews call it; I call it eight, eighty, four hundred & eighteen.
47. But they have the half: unite by thine
art so that all disappear.
48. My prophet is a fool with his one, one,
one; are not they the Ox, and none by the
Book?
49. Abrogate are all rituals, all ordeals, all
words and signs. Ra-Hoor-Khuit hath taken
his seat in the East at the Equinox of the Gods; and let Asar be with Isa, who also are
one. But
they are not of me. Let Asar be the adorant, Isa the sufferer; Hoor in his secret name and
splendour is the Lord initiating.
50. There is a word to say about the Hiero-
phantic task. Behold! there are three ordeals in one, and it may be given in three ways.
The
gross must pass through fire; let the fine be tried in intellect, and the lofty chosen
ones in the
highest. Thus ye have star & star, sys-tem & system; let not one know well the
other!
51. There are four gates to one palace; the
floor of that palace is of silver and gold; lapis lazuli & jasper are there; and all
rare scents;
jasmine & rose, and the emblems of death. Let him enter in turn or at once the four
gates;
let him stand on the floor of the palace. Will
he not sink? Amn. Ho! warrior, if thy ser-
vant sink? But there are means and means.
Be goodly therefore: dress ye all in fine ap-
parel; eat rich foods and drink sweet wines
and wines that foam! Also, take your fill and
will of love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto me.
52. If this be not aright; if ye confound the
space-marks, saying: They are one; or saying, They are many; if the ritual be not ever
unto
me: then expect the direful judgments of Ra Hoor Khuit!
53. This shall regenerate the world, the little
world my sister, my heart & my tongue, unto whom I send this kiss. Also, o scribe and
prophet, though thou be of the princes, it shall not assuage thee nor absolve thee. But
ecstasy be
thine and joy of earth: ever To me! To me!
54. Change not as much as the style of a
letter; for behold! thou, o prophet, shalt not
behold all these mysteries hidden therein.
55. The child of thy bowels, he shall behold
them.
56. Expect him not from the East, nor from
the West; for from no expected house cometh
that child. Aum! All words are sacred and
all prophets true; save only that they under-
stand a little; solve the first half of the equa-tion, leave the second unattacked. But
thou hast all
in the clear light, and some, though not all, in the dark.
57. Invoke me under my stars! Love is the
law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There
is the
dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the
law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God.
All these old letters of my Book are aright; but TS is not the Star. This also is secret:
my prophet
shall reveal it to the wise.
58. I give unimaginable joys on earth: cer-
tainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I
de-mand
aught in sacrifice.
59. My incense is of resinous woods & gums;
and there is no blood therein: because of my hair the trees of Eternity.
60. My number is 11, as all their numbers
who are of us. The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the circle is
Red. My
colour is black to the blind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing. Also I have
a secret
glory for them that love me.
61. But to love me is better than all things:
if under the night-stars in the desert thou pres-ently burnest mine incense before me,
invoking
me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my
bosom. For one kiss wilt thou then be willing to give all; but whoso gives one particle of
dust
shall lose all in that hour. Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye shall
wear
rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations of the earth in spendour & pride; but always
in the
love of me, and so shall ye come to my joy. I charge you earnestly to come before me in a
single robe, and covered with a rich headdress. I love you! I yearn to you! Pale or
purple,
veiled or voluptuous, I who am all pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost
sense, desire you. Put on the wings, and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto
me!
62. At all my meetings with you shall
the priestess say -- and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bare and rejoicing
in my
secret temple -- To me! To me! calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her
love-chant.
63. Sing the rapturous love-song unto me!
Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels!
Drink to me, for I love you! I love you!
64. I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset;
I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky.
65. To me! To me!
66. The Manifestation of Nuit is at an end.
***
1. Nu! the hiding of Hadit.
2. Come! all ye, and learn the secret that
hath not yet been revealed. I, Hadit, am the complement of Nu, my bride. I
am not ex-tended, and Khabs is the name of my House.
3. In the sphere I am everywhere the cen-
tre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.
4. Yet she shall be known & I never.
5. Behold! the rituals of the old time are
black. Let the evil ones be cast away; let the good ones be purged by the
prophet! Then shall this Knowledge go aright.
6. I am the flame that burns in every heart
of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet
therefore is the knowledge of me the knowledge of death.
7. I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I
am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. "Come unto me"is a foolish
word: for it
is I that go.
8. Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have
worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper.
9. 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.
10. O prophet! thou hast ill will to learn
this writing.
11. I see thee hate the hand & the pen; but
I am stronger.
12. Because of me in Thee which thou knew-
est not.
13. for why? Because thou wast the know-
er, and me.
14. Now let there be a veiling of this shrine:
now let the light devour men and eat them up with blindness!
15. For I am perfect, being Not; and my
number is nine by the fools; but with the just
I am eight, and one in eight: Which is vital, for I am none indeed. The Empress and the
King are not of me; for there is a further secret.
16. I am The Empress & the Hierophant.
Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven.
17. Hear me, ye people of sighing!
The sorrows of pain and regret
Are left to the dead and the dying,
The folk that not know me as yet.
18. These are dead, these fellows; they feel
not. We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk.
19. Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the
highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chos- en: who sorroweth is not of us.
20. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter
and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.
21. We have nothing with the outcast and
the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of
kings:
stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law and
the
joy of the world. Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shalt
not die,
but live. Now let it be understood: If the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain in
pure
ecstasy for ever. Nuit! Hadit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit! The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light; these
are
for the servants of the Star & the Snake.
22. I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge
& Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me
take
wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall
not
harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie.
Be strong, o
man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee
for this.
23. I am alone: there is no God where I am.
24. Behold! these be grave mysteries; for
there are also of my friends who be hermits.
Now think not to find them in the forest or on
the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed
by magnificent beasts of women with large
limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and
masses of flaming hair about them; there shall
ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at
victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall
be in them a joy a million times greater than
this. Beware lest any force another, King
against King! Love one another with burning
hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath.
25. Ye are against the people, O my chosen!
26. I am the secret Serpent coiled about to
spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I
droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and
I and the earth are one.
27. There is great danger in me; for who
doth not understand these runes shall make a great miss. He shall fall down into
the pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason.
28. Now a curse upon Because and his kin!
29. May Because be accursed for ever!
30. If Will stops and cries Why, invoking
Because, then Will stops & does nought.
31. If Power asks why, then is Power weak-
ness.
32. Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor
infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew-wise.
33. Enough of Because! Be he damned
for a dog!
34. But ye, o my people, rise up & awake!
35. Let the rituals be rightly performed with
joy & beauty!
36. There are rituals of the elements and
feasts of the times.
37. A feast for the first night of the Prophet
and his Bride!
38. A feasy for the three days of the writing
of the Book of the Law.
39. A feast for Tahuti and the child of the
Prophet -- secret, O Prophet!
40. A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a
feast for the Equinox of the Gods.
41. A feast for fire and a feast for water;
a feast for life and a greater feast for death!
42. A feast every day in your hearts in the
joy of my rapture!
43. A feast every night unto Nu, and the
pleasure of uttermost delight!
44. Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread
hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eter-
nal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu.
45. There is death for the dogs.
46. Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear
in thine heart?
47. Where I am these are not.
48. Pity not the fallen! I never knew them.
I am not for them. I console not: I hate the
consoled & the consoler.
49. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of
the slaves that perish. Be they damned & dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a
fifth
who is invisible, & therein am I as a babe in an egg.)
50. Blue am I and gold in the light of my
bride: but the red gleam is in my eyes; & my spangles are purple & green.
51. Purple beyond purple: it is the light
higher than eyesight.
52. There is a veil: that veil is black. It is
the veil of the modest woman; it is the veil of sorrow, & the pall of death: this is
none of
me.
Tear down that lying spectre of the centuries:
veil not your vices in virtuous words: these
vices are my service; ye do well, & I will re-
ward you here and hereafter.
53. Fear not, o prophet, when these words
are said, thou shalt not be sorry. Thou art emphatically my chosen; and blessed are the
eyes that thoushalt look upon with gladness.
But I will hide thee in a mask of sorrow: they that see thee shall fear thou art fallen:
but
I lift thee up.
54. Nor shall they who cry aloud their folly
that thou meanest nought avail; thou shall re-
veal it: thou availest: they are the slaves of
because: They are not of me. The stops as
thou wilt; the letters? change them not in style or value!
55. Thou shalt obtain the order & value of
the English Alphabet; thou shalt find new sym-bols to attribute them unto.
56. Begone! ye mockers; even though ye
laugh in my honour ye shall laugh not long:
then when ye are sad know that I have for-
saken you.
57. He that is righteous shall be righteous
still; he that is filthy shall be filthy still.
58. Yea! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not
other. Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for ever: the slaves shall serve.
There is none
that shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there are masked ones my
servants: it
may be that yonder beggar is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will: there is no
certain
test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.
59. Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a King
concealed! Say you so? Fool! If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him.
60. Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master!
61. There is a light before thine eyes, o prophet, a light undesired,
most desirable.
62. I am uplifted in thine heart; and the kisses of the stars rain hard
upon thy body.
63. Thou art exhaust in the voluptuous fullness of the
inspiration; the expiration is sweeter than death, more rapid and laughterful than a
caress of Hell's
own worm.
64. Oh! thou art overcome: we are upon thee; our delight is all over
thee: hail! hail:
prophet of Nu! prophet of Had! prophet of Ra-Hoor-Khu! Now rejoice! now come
in our splendour & rapture! Come in our passionate peace, & write sweet words for
the
Kings.
65. I am the Master: thou art the Holy Chosen One.
66. Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in
working! Thrill with the
joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whososeeth it shall be glad. Thy
death shall be the seal of the promise of our age long love. Come! lift up thine heart
& rejoice! We are one; we are none.
67. Hold! Hold! Bear up in thy rapture; fall not in swoon of the
excellent kisses!
68. Harder! Hold up thyself! Lift thine head! breathe not so deep --
die!
69. Ah! Ah! What do I feel? Is the word exhausted?
70. There is help & hope in other spells. 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!
71. But exceed! exceed!
72. Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine -- and doubt it not,
an if thou art ever
joyous! -- death is the crown of all.
73. Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden,
o man, unto thee.
74. The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He
that lives long &
desires death much is ever the King among the Kings.
75. Aye! listen to the numbers & the words:
76. 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A L.
What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There
cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it. But remember, o chose none, to be me;
to follow the love of Nu in the star-lit heaven; to look forth upon men, to tell them this
glad word.
77. O be thou proud and mighty among men!
78. Lift up thyself! for there is none like unto thee among men or among
Gods! Lift up
thyself, o my prophet, thy stature shall surpass the stars. They shall worship thy
name, foursquare, mystic, wonderful, the number of the man; and the name of thy
house 418.
79. The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the
prophet of the lovely
Star!
***
1. Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut.
2. There is division hither homeward; there is a word not known.
Spelling is
defunct; all is not aught. Beware! Hold! Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
3. Now let it be first understood that I am a god of War and of
Vengeance. I shall deal
hardly with them.
4. Choose ye an island!
5. Fortify it!
6. Dung it about with enginery of war!
7. I will give you a war-engine.
8. With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall stand before you.
9. Lurk! Withdraw! Upon them! this is the Law of the Battle of Conquest:
thus shall
my worship be about my secret house.
10. Get the stele of revealing itself; set it in thy secret temple --
and that temple is
already aright disposed -- & it shall be your Kiblah for ever. It shall not fade,
but miraculous colour shall come back to it day after day. Close it in locked glass
for a proof to the world.
11. This shall be your only proof. I forbid argument. Conquer!
That is enough. I will make easy to you the abstruction from the ill-ordered house
in the Victorious City. Thou shalt thyself convey it with worship, o prophet,
though thou likest it not. Thou shalt have danger & trouble. Ra-Hoor-Khu is
with thee. Worship me with fire & blood; worship me with swords & with spears.
Let the woman be girt with a sword before me: let blood flow to my name.
Trample down the Heathen; be upon them, o warrior, I will give you of their flesh
to eat!
12. Sacrifice cattle, little and big: after a child.
13. But not now.
14. Ye shall see that hour, o blessed Beast, and thou the Scarlet
Concubine of his
desire!
15. Ye shall be sad thereof.
16. Deem not too eagerly to catch the promises; fear not to undergo the
curses. Ye,
even ye, know not this meaning all.
17. Fear not at all; fear neither men nor Fates, nor gods, nor anything.
Money fear
not, nor laughter of the folk folly, nor any other power in heaven or upon the earth
or under the earth. Nu is your refuge as Hadit your light; and I am the strength,
force, vigour, of your arms.
18. Mercy let be off; damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not;
be upon them!
19. That stele they shall call the Abomination of Desolation; count well
its name, & it
shall be to you as 718.
20. Why? Because of the fall of Because, that he is not there again.
21. Set up my image in the East: thou shalt buy thee an image which I
will show
thee, especial, not unlike the one thou knowest. And it shall be suddenly easy for
thee to do this.
22. The other images group around me to support me: let all be
worshipped, for they
shall cluster to exalt me. I am the visible object of worship; the others are secret;
for the Beast & his Bride are they: and for the winners of the Ordeal x. What is
this? Thou shalt know.
23. For perfume mix meal & honey & thick leavings of red wine:
then oil of
Abramelin and olive oil, and afterward soften & smooth down with rich fresh
blood.
24. The best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood of a
child, or
dropping from the host of heaven: then of enemies; then of the priest or of the
worshippers: last of some beast, no matter what.
25. This burn: of this make cakes & eat unto me. This hath also
another use; let it be
laid before me, and kept thick with perfumes of your orison: it shall become full of
beetles as it were and creeping things sacred unto me.
26. These slay, naming your enemies; & they shall fall before you.
27. Also these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eating
thereof.
28. Also ye shall be strong in war.
29. Moreover, be they long kept, it is better; for they swell with my
force. All before
me.
30. My altar is of open brass work: burn thereon in silver or gold!
31. There cometh a rich man from the West who shall pour his gold upon
thee.
32. From gold forge steel!
33. Be ready to fly or to smite!
34. But your holy place shall be untouched throughout the centuries:
though with
fire and sword it be burnt down & shattered, yet an invisible house there standeth,
and shall stand until the fall of the Great Equinox; when Hrumachis shall arise
and the double-wanded one assume my throne and place. Another prophet shall
arise, and bring fresh fever from the skies; another woman shall awakethe lust &
worship of the Snake; another soul of God and beast shall mingle in the globed
priest; another sacrifice shall stain the tomb; another king shall reign; and blessing
no longer be poured To the Hawk-headed mystical Lord!
35. The half of the word of Heru-ra-ha, called Hoor-pa-kraat and
Ra-Hoor-Khut.
36. Then said the prophet unto the God:
37. I adore thee in the song --
I am the Lord of Thebes, and I
The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu;
For me unveils the veiled sky,
The self-slain Ankh-af-na-khonsu
Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet
Thy presence, O Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
Unity uttermost showed!
I adore the might of Thy breath,
Supreme and terrible God,
Who makest the gods and death
To tremble before Thee: --
I, I adore thee!
Appear on the throne of Ra!
Open the ways of the Khu!
Lighten the ways of the Ka!
The ways of the Khabs run through
To stir me or still me!
Aum! let it fill me!
38. So that thy light is in me; & its red flame is as a sword in my
hand to push thy
order. There is a secret door that I shall make to establish thy way in all the
quarters, (these are the adorations, as thou hast written), as it is said:
The light is mine; its rays consume
Me: I have made a secret door
Into the House of Ra and Tum,
Of Khephra and of Ahathoor.
I am thy Theban, O Mentu,
The prophet Ankh-af-na-khonsu!
By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;
By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell.
Show thy star-splendour, O Nuit!
Bid me within thine House to dwell, O winged snake of light, Hadit!
Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
39. All this and a book to say how thou didst come hither and a
reproduction of this
ink and paper for ever -- for in it is the word secret & not only in the English --
and
thy comment upon this the Book of the Law shall be printed beautifully in red ink
and black upon beautiful paper made by hand; and to each man and woman that
thou meetest, were it but to dine or to drink at them, it is the Law to give. Then they
shall chance to abide in this bliss or no; it is no odds. Do this quickly!
40. But the work of the comment? That is easy; and Hadit burning in thy
heart shall
make swift and secure thy pen.
41. Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well and with
business way.
42. The ordeals thou shalt oversee thyself, save only the blind ones.
Refuse none,
but thou shalt know & destroy the traitors. I am Ra-Hoor-Khuit; and I am
powerful to protect my servant. Success is thy proof: argue not; convert not; talk
not over much! Them that seek to entrap thee, to overthrow thee, them attack
without pity or quarter; & destroy them utterly. Swift as a trodden serpent turn
and strike! Be thou yet deadlier than he! Drag down their souls to awful torment:
laugh at their fear: spit upon them!
43. Let the Scarlet Woman beware! If pity and compassion and tenderness
visit her
heart; if she leave my work to toy with old sweetnesses; then shall my vengeance be
known. I will slay me her child: I will alienate her heart: I will cast her out from
men: as a shrinking and despised harlot shall she crawl through dusk wet streets,
and die cold and an-hungered.
44. But let her raise herself in pride! Let her follow me in my way! Let
her work the
work of wickedness! Let her kill her heart! Let her be loud and adulterous! Let her
be covered with jewels, and rich garments, and let her be shameless before all
men!
45. Then will I lift her to pinnacles of power: then will I breed from
her a child
mightier than all the kings of the earth. I will fill her with joy: with my force shall
she see & strike at the worship of Nu: she shall achieve Hadit.
46. I am the warrior Lord of the Forties: the Eighties cower before me,
& are abased.
I will bring you to victory & joy:
I will be at your arms in battle & ye shall delight to slay. Success is your proof;
courage is your armour; go on, go on, in my strength; & ye shall turn not back for
any!
47. This book shall be translated into all tongues: but always with the
original in the
writing of the Beast; for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to
one another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine. Let him not seek to
try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it
all. Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key
also. And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that strangely. Let him not seek after
this; for thereby alone can he fall from it.
48. Now this mystery of the letters is done, and I want to go on to the
holier place.
49. I am in a secret fourfold word, the blasphemy against all gods of
men.
50. Curse them! Curse them! Curse them!
51. With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the
cross.
52. I flap my wings in the face of Mohammed & blind him.
53. With my claws I tear out the flesh of the Indian and the Buddhist,
Mongol and
Din.
54. Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous creeds.
55. Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: for her sake let all chaste
women be utterly
despised among you!
56. Also for beauty's sake and love's!
57. Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare not fight,
but play; all fools
despise!
58. But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye are
brothers!
59. As brothers fight ye!
60. There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
61. There is an end of the word of the God enthroned in Ra's seat,
lightening the
girders of the soul.
62. To Me do ye reverence! to me come ye through tribulation of ordeal,
which is bliss.
63. The fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its comment; & he
understandeth it not.
64. Let him come through the first ordeal, & it will be to him as
silver.
65. Through the second, gold.
66. Through the third, stones of precious water.
67. Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire.
68. Yet to all it shall seem beautiful. Its enemies who say not so, are
mere liars.
69. There is success.
70. I am the Hawk-Headed Lord of Silence & of Strength; my nemyss
shrouds the
night-blue sky.
71. Hail! ye twin warriors about the pillars of the world! for your time
is nigh at hand.
72. I am the Lord of the Double Wand of Power; the wand of the Force of
Coph Nia --
but my left hand is empty, for I have crushed an Universe; & nought remains.
73. Paste the sheets from right to left and from top to bottom: then
behold!
74. There is a splendour in my name hidden and glorious, as the sun of
midnight is
ever the son.
75. The ending of the words is the Word Abrahadabra.
The Book of the Law is Written
and Concealed.
Aum. Ha.
THE COMMENT.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The study of this Book is forbidden. It is wise to destroy this copy after the first
reading.
Whosoever disregards this does so at his own risk and peril.
These are most dire.
Those who discuss the contents of this Book are to be shunned by all, as centres of
pestilence.
All questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my writings, each for
himself.
There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
Love is the law, love under will.
The priest of the princes,
ANKH-F-N-KHONSU
GENESIS LIBRI AL
CHAPTER I.*1*
The Boyhood of Aleister Crowley.
At 36 Clarendon Square, Leamington, Warwickshire, England, at I0.50 p.m. on the twelfth
day of
October, in the Eighteen Hundred and Seventy-Fifth Year of the vulgar era, was born the
person
whose history is to be recounted.
His father was named Edward Crowley; his mother, Emily Bertha, her maiden name being
Bishop.
Edward Crowley was an Exclusive Plymouth Brother, the most considered leader in that sect.
This
branch of the family of Crowley has been settled in England since Tudor times, but is
Celtic in
origin, Crowley being a clan in Kerry and other counties in the South-West of Ireland, of
the
same stock as the Breton `de Querouaille' or `de Kerval' which gave a Duchess of
Portsmouth to
England. It is supposed that the English branch---the direct ancestry of Edward Alexander
Crowley---came to England with the Duke of Richmond, and took root at Bosworth.
In I88Ihe went to live at The Grange, Redhill, Surrey. In I884 the boy, who had till then
been
educated by governesses and tutors, was sent to a school at St. Leonards, kept by some
extreme
Evangelicals named Habershon. A year later he was transferred to a school at Cambridge
kept
by a Plymouth Brother of the name of Champney. (The dates in this paragraph are possibly
inaccurate. Documentary evidence is at the present moment unavailable. Ed.)
On March 5, I887, Edward Crowley died. Two years later the boy was removed from the
school.
Those two years were years of unheard-of torture. He has written details in the Preface to
"The
World's Tragedy."This torture seriously undermined his health. For two years he
travelled,
mostly in Wales and Scotland, with tutors. In I890 he went for a short time to a school at
Streatham, kept by a man named Yarrow, his mother having moved there in order to be near
her
brother, an extremely narrow Evangelical named Tom Bond Bishop. This prepared him for
Malvern, which he entered at the summer term of I89I. He only remained there a year, as
his
health was still very delicate. In the autumn he entered for a term at Tonbridge, but fell
seriously ill,
and had to be removed. The year I893 was spent with tutors, principally in Wales, the
north of
Scotland, and Eastbourne. In I895 he completed his studies in chemistry at King's College,
London, and in October of that year entered Trinity College, Cambridge.
With this ends the first period of his life. It is only necessary to state briefly that
his brain
developed early. At four years old he could read the Bible aloud, showing a marked
predilection
for the lists of long names, the only part of the Bible which has not been tampered with
by
theologians.*1* He could also play chess well enough to beat the average amateur, and
though
constantly playing never lost a game till I895.*2* He was taught by a tailor who had been
summoned
to make clothes for his father, and was treated as a guest on account of his being a
fellow "Plymouth
Brother". He beat his teacher uniformly after the first game. He must have been six
or seven years
old at this time.
He began to write poetry in I886, if not earlier. Vide "Oracles".
After the death of his father, who was a man of strong common sense, and never allowed his
religion to interfere with natural affection, he was in the hands of people of an entirely
contrary
disposition. His mental attitude was soon concentrated in hatred of the religion which
they taught,
and his will concentrated in revolt against its oppressions. His main method of relief was
mountaineering, which left him alone with nature, away from the tyrants.
The years from March, I887, until entering Trinity College, Cambridge, in October, I895,
represented a continual struggle towards freedom. At Cambridge he felt himself to be his
own
master, refused to attend Chapel, Lectures or Hall, and was wisely left alone to work out
his won
salvation by his tutor, the late Dr. A. W. Verrall.
It must be stated that he possessed natural intellectual ability to an altogether
extraordinary degree.
He had the faculty of memory, especially verbal memory, in astonishing perfection.
As a boy he could find almost any verse in the Bible after a few
minutes search. In I900 he was tested in the works of
Shakespeare, Shelley, Swinburne (Ist series of Poems and
Ballads), Browning and The Moonstone. He was able to place exactly any phrase from any of
these books, and in nearly every case to continue with the passage.
He showed remarkable facility in acquiring the elements of Latin, Greek, French,
Mathematics and
Science. He learnt "little Roscoe"almost by heart, on his won initiative. When
in the Lower
Fifth at Malvern, he came out sixth in the school in the annual Shakespeare examination,
though he
had given only two days to preparing for it. Once, when the Mathematical Master, wishing
to devote
the hour to cramming advanced pupils, told th class to work out a set of examples of
Quadratic
Equations, he retorted by asking at the end of forty minutes what he should do next, and
handed up
the whole series of 63 equations, correct.
He passed all his examinations both at school and university with honours, though refusing
uniformly
to work for them.
On the other hand, he could not be persuaded or constrained to apply himself to any
subject which
did not appeal to him. He showed intense repugnance to history, geography, and botany,
among
others. He could never learn to write Greek and Latin verses, this probably because the
rules of
scansion seemed arbitrary and formal.
Again, it was impossible to him to take interest in anything from the moment that he had
grasped the
principles of "how it was, or might be done."This trait prevented him from
putting the
finishing touches to anything he attempted.
For instance, he refused to present himself for the second part
of his final examination for his B.A. degree, simply because
he knew himself thoroughly master of the subject!*1*
This characteristic extended to his physical pleasures. He was abjectly incompetent at
easy
practice climbing on boulders, because he knew he could do them. It seemed incredible to
the
other men that this lazy duffer should be the most daring and dexterous cragsman of his
generation, as he proved himself whenever he tackled a precipice which had baffled every
other
climber in the world.*2* Similarly, once he had worked out theo-retically a method of
climbing a
mountain, he was quite content to tell the secret to others, and let them appropriate the
glory. (The
first ascent of the Dent du Geant from the Montanvers is a case in point.) It mattered
everything to
him that something should be done, nothing that he should be the one to do it.
This almost inhuman unselfishness was not incompatible with consuming and insatiable
personal ambition. The key to the puzzle is probably this ; he wanted to be something that
nobody
else had ever been, or could be. He lost interest in chess as soon as he had proved to
himself (at the
age of 22) that he was a master of the game, having beaten some of the strongest amateurs
in
England, and even one or two professional "masters."He turned from poetry to
painting, more or
less, when he had made it quite certain that he was the greatest poet of his time. Even in
Magick,
having become The Word of the Aeon, and thus taken his place with the other Seven Magi
known to
history, out of reach of all possible competition, he began to neglect the subject. He is
only able to
devote himself to it as he does because he has eliminated all personal ideas from his Work
; it has
become as automatic as respiration.
We must also put on record his extraordinary powers in certain
unusual spheres. He can remember the minutest details of a rock-
climb, after years of absence. He can retrace his steps over any
path once traversed, in the wildest weathee or the blackest
night. He can divine the one possible passagr through the most
complex and dangerous ice-fall. (E.g. the Vuibez seraes in I897,
the Mer de Glace, right centre, in I899.)
He possesses a "sense of direction"independent of any known
physical methods of taking one's bearings ; and this is as effec-
tive in strange cities as on mountains or deserts. He can smell
the presence of water, of snow, and other supposedly scentless
substances. His endurance is exceptional. He has been known to
write for 67 consecutive hours : his "Tannhauser"was thus
written in I900. He has walked over I00 miles in 2 I/2 days, in
the desert : as in the winter of I9I0. He has frequently made
expeditions lasting over 36 hours, on mountains, in the most
adverse connditions. He holds the World's record for the great-
est number of days spent on a glacier--65 days on the Baltoro in
I902; also that for the greatest pace uphill over I6,000
feet--4,000 feet in I hour 23 minutes on Iztaccihuatl in I900;
that for the highest peak (first ascent by a solitary
climber)--the Nevado de Toluca in I90I; and numerous others.*1*
Yet he is utterly fagged-out by the mere idea of a walk of a few
hundred yards, if it does not interest him, and excite his
imagination, to take it ; and it is only with the greatest effort
that he can summon the energy to write a few lines if, instead of
his wanting to do them, he merely knows that they must be done.
This account has been deemed necessary to explain how it is that
a man of such unimaginable commanding qualities as to have made
him world-famous in so many diverse spheres of action, should
have been so grotesquely unable to make use of his faculties, or
even of his achievements, in any of the ordinary channels of
human activity; to consolidate his personal pre-eminence, or even
to secure his position from a social or economic standpoint.
CHAPTER II.
Adolescence : Beginnings of Magick.
The Birth of
FRATER PERDURABO.
0 =0 to 4 =7
Having won freedom, he had the sense not to waste any time in
enjoying it. He had been deprived of all English literature but
the Bible during the whole of his youth, and he spent his three
years at Cambridge in repairing the defect. He was also working
for the Diplomatic Service, the late Lord Salisbury and the late
Lord Ritchie having taken an interest in his career, and given
him nominations. In October, I897, he was suddenly recalled to
his understanding of the evils of the alleged 'existing
religion,' and experienced a trance, in which he perceived the
utter folly of all human ambition. The fame of an ambassador
rarely outlives a century. That of a poet is almost as
ephemeral. The earth must one day perish. He must build in some
material more lasting. This conception drove him to the study of
Alchemy and Magick. He wrote to the author of "The Book of Black
Magic and of Pacts,"a pompous American named Arthur Waite,
notorious for the affectations and obscurities of his style, and
the mealy-mouthed muddle of his mysticism. This nebulous
impresario, presentin an asthmatic Isis in the Opera "Bull-Frogs,"had hinted in
his preface that
he knew certain occult sanctuaries wherein Truth and Wisdom were jealously guarded by a
body of
Initiates, to be despensed to the postulant who proved himself worthy to partake of their
privileges. Mr. Waite recommended him to read a book called "The Cloud on the
Sanctuary."
His taste for mountaineering had become a powerful passion, and he was climbing in
Cumberland
when he met Oscar Eckenstein, perhaps the greatest of all the mountaineers of his period,
with
whom he was destined to climb thenceforward until I902.
In the summer a party was fromed to camp on the Schonbuhl Glacier at the foot of the Dent
Blanche,
with a view to an expedition ot the Himalayas later on. During his weeks on the Glacier,
where the
bad weather was continous, he studied assiduously the translation by S. L. Mathers of
three
books which form part of von Rosenroth's "Kabbalah Unveiled."On one of his
decents to
Zermatt, he met a distinguished chemist, Julian L. Bater, who had studied Alchemy. He
hunted this
clue through the valley, and made Baker promise to meet him in London at the end of the
sea-son,
and introduce him to others who were interested in Occult science. This happened in
September ;
through Baker, he met another chemist named George Cecil Jones, who introduced him to the
Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He made rapid progress in this Order, and in the spring
of
I900 was its chief in England. The details of this period must be studied in "The
Temple of
Solomon the King,"where a full account of the Order is given. In the Order he met
one, Allan
Bennett, Frater Iehi Aour. Jones and Bennett were both Adepts of high standing. The latter
came
to live with him in his flat, and together they carried out many operations of ceremonial
magick.
Allan Bennett was constant illhealth, and went to Ceylon at the end of I899. It was on his
entry
into this Order that the subject of this history took the motto of "Perdurabo"--
'I will endure to the
end.'
In July, I900, he went to Mexico, and devoted his whole time to
the continued practice of Magick, in which he obtained
extraordinary success. (See Equinox Vol. I, No. III for a
condensed account of some of these. It may be here stated
summarily that he invoked certain Gods, Goddesses, and Spirits to
visible appearance, learnt how to heal physical and moral
diseases, how to make himself invisible, how to obtain
communications from spiritual sources, how to control other minds, etc., etc.) And
then....
CHAPTER III.
Beginnings of Mysticism.
The Birth of
FRATER OU MH.
7=4
Oscar Eckenstein, on his arrival in Mexico, where he was to climb mountains with the
subject of our
essay, found him in a rather despondent mood. He had attained the most satisfactory
results. He
was able to communicate with thed divine forces, and operations such as those of
invisibility
and evocation had been mastered. Yet with all this there was a certain dissatisfaction.
Success had
not given him all that he had hoped for. He placed the situration before his companion,
rather to
clear his own mind than hoping for any help, for he supposed him to be entirely ignorant
of all
these subjects, which he habitually treated with dislike and contempt. Judge of his
surprise, then,
when he found in this unpromising quarter a messenger form the Great White Brotherhood !
His
companion told him to abandon all magick.
"The Task,"said Eckenstein, "involves the control of the mind. Yours is a
wandering mind."The
proposition was indignantly denied.
"Test it,"said the Master. A short experiment was conclusive.
It was impossible for the boy to keep his mind fixed upon a
single object for even a few seconds at a time. The mind,
thougfh perfectly stable in motion, was unable to rest, just as a
gyroscope falls when the flywheel slows down. An entirely new
course of experiments was consequently undertaken. Half-an-hour
every morning and half-an-hour every evening were devoted to
attempts to control the mind, by the simple process of imagining
a familiar object, and endeavouring to keep concentrated upon
it.*1*
He soon became sufficiently expert in this initial practice to proceed to concentration on
regularly
moving objects such as a pendulum, and, ultimately, on living objects. A further series of
experiments dealt with the other senses. He tried to imagine and retain the taste of
chocolate or of
quinine, the smell of various familiar perfumes, the sound of bells, waterfalls, and so
on, or the
feeling excited by such objects as velvet, silk, fur, sand and steel.
In the spring of I90I, he left Mexico, went to San Francisco, Honolulu, Japan, China and
Ceylon, always continuing these experiments. His Master had not told him to what they
would
ultimately lead. In Ceylon he found Frater I.A. (Allan Bennett), with whom he went to
Kandy,
where they took a bungalow named Marlboroigh, overlooking the lake.
I.A. had himself been developing on similar lines under P.
Ramanathan, the Solicitor-General of Ceylon, known to occultists
under the name of Shri Parananda.*2* I.A. told him that in order
to concentrate he must first see that no interruptions reached
him from the body, and counselled the adoption of Asana, a
settled position in which all bodily movement was to be
suppressed. Further, he was to practice Pranayama, or control of
the breathing, which has a similar effect in reducing to the
lowest possible point the internal movements of the body.*1*
During the months of this stay at Kandy, he practised these, obtained success in Asana,
the
intense pain of the practices being overcome, and changed into an indescribable sense of
physical well-being and comfort.
While in Pranayama he passed through the first stage, which is marked by profuse
perspiration of a
peculiar kind ; the second, which is accompanied by rigidity of the body ; and the third,
in which the
body unconsciously hops about the floor, without in any way disturbing the Asana.
During the latter part of August and the whole of September, his
practices became continous by day and night, in order to create a
rhythm in the mind similar to that which Pranayama produces in
the body. He adopted a Mantra, or sacred sentence, by the
constant repetition of which it became automatic in his brain, so
that it would continue through sleep, and he would wake up
actually repeating the words. Sleep itself, too, was broken up
into short periods of very light sleep of a peculiar kind, in
which consciousness is hardly lost, althougfh the body obtains
perdect rest. These practices continued into October, at the
beginning of which he reached the state of Dhyana, a tremendous
spiritual experience, in which the subject and object of
meditation unite with excessive violence in blinding brilliance
and music of a kind to which earthly harmony affords no
parallel.*1*
The result of this however was to cause so intense a satisfaction with his progress, that
he gave up
work. He then visited Anuradhapura and others of the buried cities of Ceylon. In November
he went to India, and in January visited I.A. at Akyab in Burma,where that Adept was
living in a
monastery, with the intention of preparing himself to take the Yellow Robe of the Buddhist
Sangha. The whole of the summer of I902 was spent in an expedition to Chogo Ri (K2) in the
Himalayas.*2* During the whole of this period he did very little occult work.
November, I902, him in Paris, where he stayed off and on till the spring of I903, when he
returned to
his house in Scotland.
We must now go backwards in time, to take up a thread which had
run through his whole work, so umportant as to demand a chapter
to itself:--
CHAPTER IV.
The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.
The Birth of
FRATER----------*1* 5=6 A. A.
In the autumn of I898 George Cecil Jones had directed the attention of Frater Perdurabo to
a
book entitled "The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage."The essence
of this book is as
follows :
The aspirant must have a house secure from observation and interference. In this house
there
must be an oratory with a window to the East, and a door to the North opening upon a
terrace,
at the end of which must be a lodge. He must have a Robe, Crown, Wand, Altar, Incense,
Anointing Oil, and a Silver Lamen. The terrace and lodge must be strewn with fine sand. He
withdraws himself gradually from human intercourse to devote himself more and more to
prayer
for the space of four months. He must then occupy two months in almost continuous prayer,
speaking
as little as possible to anybody. At the end of this period he invokes a being described
as the Holy
Guardian Angle, who appears to him (or to a child employed by him), and who will write in
dew
upon the Lamen, which is placed upon the Altar. The Oratory is filled d with Divine
Perfume not of
the aspirant's kindling.
After a period of communion with the Angel, he summons the Four Great Princes of the
Daemonic
World, and forces them to swear obedience.
On the following day he calls forward and subdues the Eight Sub-Princes ; and the day
after that, the
many Spirits serving these. These inferior Daemons, of whom four act as familiar spirits,
then
operate a collection of talismans for various purposes. Such is a brief account of the
Operation
described in the book.
This Operation strongly appealed to our student. He immediately
set about to procure a suitable house, and to prepare everything
that might be necessary for the operation. All was ready for the
beginning in Easter of I900, and it must be said that the
preliminary work alone is so tremendous that a long story might
be written of the events of these I8 months of preparation. The
Operation itself was however never begun. A fortnight or so
before the time appointed, he received an urgent appeal from his
Master to save him and the Order from destruction. He gave up
his own prospects of personal advancement without hesitation, and
hastened to Paris.*1*
That the Master proved to be no Master, and the Order no Order, but the incarnation of
Disorder,
had no effect upon the good Karma created by this renunciation of a project on which he
had set
his heart for so long.
In Mexico, he kept vigil during several nights in the Temple of the Order of the Lamp of
the
Invisible Light, an Order whose High Priest is pledged to maintain a Secret and Eternal
Lamp. In
this shrine he received some shadowing forth of the Vision of the Holy Guardian Angel, and
that of
the Four Great Princes : here also he renewed the Oath of the Operation.
(The whole of his magical career is best interpreted as the performance of this Operation.
One
must not suppose that Initiation is a formality, observing the "unities,"like
being made a Mason.
All life pertains to the process, and it pervades the whole personality ; the official
recognition of
attainment is merely a token of what had taken place.)
On his return to Scotland in I903, he found ample evidence of the presence of the forces
of the
Operation, but by now, having conceived that Work in a subtler manner and having prepared
to
carry it out in the Temple of his own body, having seen Magick, in short, more of less in
the manner
in which it is seen in Parts II and III of the Book 4, he was able to dispense with the
exterior
physical appurtenances of this Operation.
We must now pass over a few years, and deal with the completion of this Operation,
although it is
in a sense irrelevant to the purpose of this book.
During the winter of I905-6, he was traveling across China. He had come to the point of
conquering his mind. That mind had broken up. He saw that the human mind is by its very
nature evanescent, because of the fact that nature is not unity but duality. Truth is
relative. All
things end in mystery. In such sentences have the philosophers of the past formulated this
proposition, as announcing the intellectual bankruptcy which he, with greater frankness,
describes as
insanity.
Passing from this, he became as a little child, and on reaching the Unity behind the mind,
found
the purpose of his life formulated in these words, The Obtaining of the Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
He then found himself, having destroyed all other Karma,
perfectly free to pursue this one work. He then accomplished the
six months of Invocation, as prescribed in the Book of the Sacred
Magic, and was rewarded in October, I906, by complete success.*1*
He then proceeded to the evocation and conquest of the Four Great Princes and their
Inferiors, a work
whose results must be studied in the light of his subsequent career.
We have now finished all that is necessary to say concerning him, for the account of some
of his
further Attainment is given fully in Liber CDXVIII, "The Vision and the
Voice,"also in Equinox
Vol. I No. X "The Temple of Solomon the King,"where the unexpected result of the
Communion of the Holy Guardian Angel is shown in a symbolism which can hardly be
understood without reference to the events of I904, which are now wholly pertinent to this
Essay.
CHAPTER V.
The Results of Recession.
The wisest of the Popes, on being shown some miracles, refused to be impressed, remarking
that he
did not believe in them, he had seen too many. The result of the Meditation practices and
their
results, following those of Magick, was to give our student a conception of the Universe
which was
purely mental. Everything was a phenomenon in mind. He did not as yet see that this
conception is self-destructive ; but it made him skeptical, and indifferent to whatever
happened.
You cannot really be impressed by anything which you know to be nothing more than one of
your
own thoughts. Any occurrence can be interpreted as a thought, or as a relation between two
thoughts. In practice this leads to profound indifferentism, miracles having become
commonplace.
But what would be the amazement of the priest who, placing the Host upon his tongue, found
his
mouth full of bleeding flesh ! At the period of writing, it is evident for what purpose
our student was
led into this state. I t was not to the Magician, not to the mystic, it was to a militant
member of
the Rationalist Press Association that the great Revelation was to be made. It was
necessary to
prove to him that there was in actual truth a Sanctuary, that there was in sober earnest a
body of
Adepts. It matters nothing whether these Adepts are incarnated or discarnated, human or
divine. The only point at issue is that there should be conscious Beings in possession of
the
deepest secrets of Nature, pledged to the uplifting of humanity, filled with Truth, Wisdom
and
Understanding. It is practical to prove the existence of individuals whose knowledge and
power,
although not complete -- for the nature of Knowledge and Power is such that they can never
be
complete, since the ideas themselves contain imperfections -- are yet enormously greater
than aught
known to the rest of humanity.
It was of such a body that our student had heard in the "Cloud upon the
Sanctuary"; admission to
its adyta had been the guiding hope of his life. His early attainments had tended rather
to shake
his belief in the existence of such an organization. He had not yet reckoned up the events
of his life
; he had not yet divined the direction and the set purpose informing their apparently
vagrant
course. It might have been by chance that whenever he had been confronted with any
difficulty
the right person had instantly come forward to solve it, whether in the valleys of
Switzerland, the
mountains of Mexico, or the jungles of the East.
At this period of his life he would have scouted the idea as fantastic. He had yet to
learn that the
story of Balaam and his prophetic ass might be literally true. For the great Message that
came to
him came, not through the mouth of any person with any pretensions to any knowledge of
this or
any other sort, but through an empty-headed woman of society. The plain facts of this
revelation
must be succinctly stated in a new chapter.
CHAPTER VI.
The Great Revelation.
The Arising of
THE BEAST 666.
9=2
It has been judged best to reprint as it stands the account of
these matters originally compiled for "The Temple of Solomon the
King."(Equinox Vol. I, No. VII, pp 357-386.)*1*
THE PRIEST
In opening this the most important section of Frater P.'s career,
we may be met by the unthinking with the criticism that since it
deals rather with his relation to others than with his personal
attainment, it has no place in this volume.*2*
Such criticism is indeed shallow. True, the incidents which we are about to record took
place on
planes material or contiguous thereto ; true, so obscure is the light by which we walk
that much
must be left in doubt ; true, we have not as yet the supreme mystical attainment to record
; but on the
other hand it is our view that the Seal set upon Attainment may be itself fittingly
recorded in the
story of that Attainment, and that no step in progress is more important than that when it
is said
to the aspirant: "Now that you are able to walk alone, let it be your first care to
use that strength
to help others!"And so this great event which we are about to describe, an event
which will lead,
as time will show, to the establishment of a New Heaven and New Earth for all men, wore
the
simplest and humblest guise. So often the gods come clad as peasants or as children ; nay,
I have
listened to their voices in stones and trees.
However, we must not forget that there are persons so sensitive and so credulous that they
are
convinced by anything, I suppose that there are nearly as many beds in the world as there
are men ;
yet for the Evangelical every bed conceals its Jesuit.
We get "Milton composing baby rhymes"and "Locke reasoning in
gibberish,"divine revelations
which would shock the intelligence of a sheep or a Saxon ; and we find these upheld and
defended
with skill and courage.
Therefore, since we are to announce the divine revelation made to Fra. P., it is of the
last importance
that we should study his mind as is was at the time of the Unveiling. If we find it to be
the mind of a
neurotic, of a mystic, of a person predisposed, we shall slight the revelation ; if it be
that of a sane
man of the world, we shall attach more importance to it.
If some dingy Alchemist emerges from his laboratory, and proclaims to all Tooting that he
has
made gold, men doubt ; but the conversion to spiritualism of Professor Lombroso made a
great deal
of impression on those who did not understand that his criminology was but the heaped
delusion
of a diseased brain.
So we shall find that the A.A. subtly prepared Fra. P. by over two years' training in
rationalism
and indifferentism for Their message. And we shall find that so well did They do Their
work that
he refused the message for five years more, in spite of many strange proofs of its truth.
We shall find
even that Fra. P. had to be stripped naked of himself before he could effectively deliver
the
message.
The battle was between all that mighty will of his and the Voice of a Brother who spoke
once, and
entered again into His silence ; and it was not Fra. P. who had the victory.
We left Fra. P. in the autumn of I90I having made considerable progress in Yoga. We noted
that in
I902 he did little or nothing either in Magic or Mysticism. The interpretation of the
occult
phenomena which he had observed occupied him exclusively, and his mind was more and more
attracted to materialism.
What are phenomena ? he asked. Of noumena I know and can know nothing. All I know is, as
far
as I know, a mere modification of the mind, a phase of consciousness. And thought is a
secretion of
the brain. Consciousness is a function of the brain.
If this thought was contradicted by the obvious, "And what is the brain ? A
phenomenon in mind !",
it weighed less with him. It seemed to his mind as yet unbalanced (for all men are
unbalanced until
they have crossed the Abyss), that it was more important to insist on matter than on mind.
Idealism
wrought such misery, was the father of all illusion, never led to research. And yet, what
odds ?
Every act or thought is determined by an infinity of causes, is the resultant of an
infinity of forces.
He analysed God, saw that every man had made God in his own image, saw the savage and
cannibal Jews devoted to a savage and cannibal God, who commanded the rape of virgins and
the
murder of little children. He saw the timid inhabitants of India, races continually the
prey
of every robber tribe, inventing the effeminate Vishnu; while, under the same name, their
conquerors worshiped a warrior, the conqueror of Demon Swans. He saw the flower of earth
throughout all time, the gracious Greeks, what gracious gods they had invented. He saw
Rome, in
its strength devoted to Mars, Jupiter and Hercules, in its decay turning to emasculate
Attis, slain
Adonis, murdered Osiris, crucified Christ. He could even trace in his own life every
aspiration,
every devotion, as a reflection of his physical and intellectual needs. He saw, too, the
folly of all this
supernaturalism. He heard the Boers and the British pray to the same Protestant God, and
it
occurred to him that the early success of the former might be due rather to superior
valour than to
superior praying power, and their eventual defeat to the circumstance that they could only
bring
60,000 men against a quarter of a million. He saw, too, the face of humanity mired in its
own
blood that dripped from the leeches of religion fastened to its temples.
In all this he saw man as the only thing worth holding to ; the one thing that needed to
be "saved,"
but also the one thing that could save it.
All that he had attained, then, he abandoned. The intuitions of the Qabalah were cast
behind him
with a smile at his youthful folly ; magic, if true, led nowhere ; Yoga had become
psychology.
For the solution of his original problems of the universe he
looked to metaphysics ; he devoted his intellect to the cult of
absolute reason. He took up once more with Kant, Hume, Spencer,
Huxley, Tyndall, Maudsley, Mansel, Fitche, Schelling, Hegel, and
many another ; while as for his life, was he not a man ? He had
a wife ; he knew his duty to the race, and to his own ancient
graft thereof. He was a traveller and a sportsman ; very well,
then, live it ! So we find that from November, I9OI he did no
practices of any kind until the Spring Equinox of I904, with the
exception of a casual week in the summer of I903, and an
exhibition game of magick in the King's Chamber of the Great
Pyramid in November, I903, when by his invocations he filled that chamber with a
brightness as of
full moonlight. (This was no subjective illusion. The light was sufficient for him to read
the
ritual by.) Only to conclude, "There, you see it ? What's the good of it ?"
We find him climbing mountains, skating, fishing, hunting big game, fulfilling the duties
of a
husband ; we find him with the antipathy to all forms of spiritual thought and work which
marks
disappointment.
If one goes up the wrong mountain by mistake, as may happen, no beauties of that mountain
can
compensate for the disillusionment when the error is laid bare. Leah may have been a very
nice girl
indeed, but Jacob never cared for her after that terrible awakening to find her face on
the pillow
when, after seven years' toil, he wanted the expected Rachel.
So Fra. P., after five years barking up the wrong tree, had lost interest in trees
altogether as far as
climbing them was concerned. He might indulge in a little human pride : "See, Jack,
that's the
branch I cut my name on when I was a boy"; but even the golden fruit of Eternity in
its branches, he
would have done no more than lift his gun and shoot the pigeon that flitted through its
foliage.
Of this "withdrawal from the vision"the proof is not merely deducible from the
absence of all
occult documents in his dossier, and from the full occupation of his life in external and
mundane
duties and pleasures, but is made irrefragible and emphatic by the positive evidence of
his
writings. Of these we have several examples. Two are dramatisations of Greek mythology, a
subject offering every opportunity to the occultist. Both are markedly free from any such
allusions.
We have also a slim booklet, `Rosa Mundi,' in which the joys of pure human love are
pictured
without the faintest tinge of mystic emotion. Further, we have a play, `The God Eater,' in
which
the Origin of Religion, as conceived by Spencer or Frazer, is dramatically shown forth ;
and
lastly we have a satire, `Why Jesus Wept,' hard, cynical, and brutal in its estimate of
society,
but careless of any remedy for its ills.
It is as if the whole past of the man with all its aspiration and attainment was blotted
out. He saw
life (for the first time, perhaps) with commonplace human eyes. Cynicism he could
understand, romance he could understand ; all beyond was dark. Happiness was the bedfellow
of
contempt.
We learn that, late in I903, he was proposing to visit China on a sporting expedition,
when a
certain very commonplace communication made to him by his wife caused him to postpone it.
"Let's go and kill something for a month or two,"said he, "and if you're
right, we'll get back to
nurses and doctors."
So we find them in Hambantota, the south-eastern province of Ceylon, occupied solely with
buffalo, elephant, leopard, sambhur, and the hundred other objects of the chase.
We here insert extracts from the diary, indeed a meagre production -- after what we have
seen
of his previous record in Ceylon.
Whole weeks pass without a word ; the great man was playing bridge, poker, or golf!
The entry of February I9th reads as if it were going to be interesting, but it is followed
by that of
February 20th. It is however certain that about the I4th of March he took possession of a
flat in
Cairo -- in the Season !
Can bathos go further ?
So that the entry of March I6th is dated from Cairo.
(Our notes are given in round brackets.)
Frater P.'s Diary
(This diary is extremely incomplete and fragmentary. Many entries, too, are evidently
irrelevant
or "blinds."We omit much of the latter two types.)
"This eventful year I903 finds me at a nameless camp in the jungle of a Southern
Province of
Ceylon ; my thoughts, otherwise divided between Yoga and sport, are diverted by the fact
of a
wife..."
(This reference to Yoga is the subconscious Magical Will of the Vowed Initiate. He was not
doing
anything ; but, on questioning himself, as was his custom at certain seasons, he felt
obliged to affirm
his Aspiration.)
Jan. I ...(Much blotted out)...missed deer and hare.
So annoyed. Yet the omen is that the year is well
for works of Love and Union ; ill for those of
Hate. Be mine of Love ! (Note that he does not
add "and Union.")*1*
Jan. 28 Embark for Suez.
Feb. 7 Suez.
Feb. 8 Landed at Port Said.
Feb. 9 To Cairo.
Feb. II Saw b.f.g.
b.f.b.
(This entry is quite unintelligible to us.)
Feb. I9 To Helwan as Oriental Despot.
(Apparently P. had assumed some disguise, pro-
bably with the intention of trying to study Islam
from within as he had done with Hinduism.)
Feb. 20 Began golf.
March I6 Began INV. (invocation) IAO*2*
March I7 THOTH [in Greek] appeared.*3*
March I8 Told to INV. (invoke) HORUS*4* [in Greek] as the
sun*5* [drawn] by new way.
March I9 Did this badly at noon 30.
March 20 At I0 p.m. did well -- Equinox of Gods -- Nov--(? new)
C.R.C. (Christian Rosy Cross, we conjecture.)
Hoori now Hpnt (obviously "Hierophant").
March 2I in . I.A.M. (? one o'clock)
March 22 X.P.B.
(May this and the entry March 24, refer to the brother of the A.A. who found him ?)
E.P.D. in 84 m.
(Unintelligible to us ; probably a blind.)
March 23 Y.K. done. (?His work on the Yi King.)*1* March 24 Met [sanskrit] again.
March 25 823 Thus
46I =p f l y 2 b z
2I8 " "
(Blot) wch trouble with ds.
(Blot) P.B. (All unintelligible ; possibly a blind.)
April 6 Go off again to H, taking A's p.
(This is probably a blind.)
Before we go further into the history of this period we must premise as follows.
Fra. P. never made a thorough record of this period. He seems to have wavered between
absolute
scepticism in the bad sense, a dislike of the revelation, on the one hand, and real
enthusiasm on
the other. And the first of these moods would induce him to do thins to spoil the effect
of the latter.
Hence the "blinds"and stupid meaningless cyphers which deface the diary.
And, as if the Gods themselves wished to darken the Pylon, we find later, when P.'s proud
will
had been broken, and he wished to make straight the way of the historian, his memory (one
of the
finest memories in the world) was utterly incompetent to make everything certain.
However, nothing of which he was not certain will be entered in this place.
We have one quite unspoiled and authoritative document:
"The Book of Results,"written in one of the small Japanese vellum note-books
which he used to
carry. Unfortunately, it seems to have been abandoned after five days. What happened
between
March 23rd and April 8th ?
THE BOOK OF RESULTS
March I6th Die [mercury]*1* I invoke IAO.
(Fra. P. tells us that this was done by the ritual of the "Bornless
One,"identical with the
"Preliminary In-vocation"*2* in the "Goetia,"merely to amuse his wife
by showing her the sylphs.
She refused or was unable th see any sylphs, but became "inspired,"and kept on
saying : "They're
waiting for you !")
(Note. The maiden name of his wife was Rose Edith Kelly. He called her Ouarda, the Arabic
for for
"Rose."She is hereafter signified by "Ouarda the Seer"or
"W."for short. Ed.)
W. says "they"are "waiting for me."
I7. [Jupiter]*3* It is "all about the child."Also "all Osiris."(Note
the cynic and sceptic tone of this
entry. How different it appears in the light of Liber 4I8 !) Thoth, invoked with great
success,
indwells us. (Yes ; but what happened ? Fra. P. has no sort of idea.)
I8.[Venus]*4* Revealed that the waiter was Horus, whom I had offended and ought to invoke.
The ritual revealed in skeleton. Promise of success [Saturn]*5* or [Sun]*6* and of
Samadhi.
(Is this "waiter"another sneer ? We are uncertain.)
The revealing of the ritual (by W. the seer) consisted
chiefly in a prohibition of all formulae hitherto used, as will be seen from the text
printed below.
It was probable on this day that P. cross-examined W. about Horus. Only the striking
character of
her identification of the God, surely, would have made him trouble to obey her. He
remembers
that he only agreed to obey her in order to show her how silly she was, and he taunted her
that
"nothing could happen of you broke all the rules."
Here therefore we insert a short note by Fra. P. how W. knew R.H.K. (Ra Hoor Khuit)
I. Force and Fire (I asked her to describe his moral
qualities.)
2. Deep blue light. (I asked her to describe the conditions
caused by him. This light is quite unmistakable and unique ; but
of course her words, though a fair description of it, might
equally apply to some other.)
3. Horus. (I asked her to pick out his name from a list of ten dashed
off at haphazard.)
4. Recognized his figure when shown. (This refers to the striking scene
in the Boulak Museum,
which will be dealt with in detail.)
5. Knew my past relations with the God. (This means, I think, that she
knew I had taken his place
in temple,*1* etc., and that I had never once invoked him.)
6. Knew his enemy. (I asked, "Who is his enemy ?"Reply,
"Forces of the waters -- of the Nile."W. knew no Egyptology -- or
anything else.)
7. Knew his lineal figure and its colour. (A I/84 chance.)
8. Knew his place in temple. (A I/4 chance, at the least.)
9. Knew his weapon (from a list of 6.)
I0. Knew his planetary nature (from a list of 7 planets.)
II. Knew his number (from a list of I0 units.)
I2. Picked him out of (a)Five, (b)Three} indifferent, i,e, arbitrary symbols. (This means
that I settled in my own mind that say D of A,B,C,D, and E should represent him and that
she
then said D.)
We cannot too strongly insist on the extraordinary character of this identification.
We had made no pretension to clairvoyance ; nor had P. ever tried to train her.
P. had great experience with clairvoyants, and it was always a point of honour with him to
bowl them out. And here was a novice, a woman who should never have been allowed
outside a ballroom, speaking with the authority of God, and proving it by unhesitating
correctness.
One slip, and Fra. P. would have sent her to the devil. And that
slip was not made. Calculate the odds ! We cannot find a
mathematical expression for tests I,2,3,4,5, or 6, but the other
7 tests give us
I/I0 x I/84 x I/4 x I/6 x I/7 x I/I0 x I/I5 = I/21,I68,000
Twenty-one million to one against her getting through half the ordeal !
Even if we suppose what is absurd, that she knew the correspondences of the Qabalah as
well
as Fra. P., and had know-ledge of his own secret relations with the Unseen, we must strain
telepathy
to explain test I2.
(Note. We may add, too, that Fra. P. thinks, but is not quite certain, that he also tested
her with the
Hebrew Alphabet and the Tarot trumps, in which case the long odds must be still further
multiplied
by 484, bringing them over the billion mark!
But we know that she was perfectly ignorant of the subtle correspondences, which were only
existing at that time in Fra. P.'s own brain.
And even if it were so, how are we to explain what followed -- the discovery of the Stele
of Revealing
?
To apply test 4, Fra.P. took her to the museum at Boulak, which they had not previously
visited.
She passed by (as P. noted with silent glee) several images of Horus. They went upstairs.
A glass
case stood in the distance, too far off for its contents to be recognized. But W.
recognized it !
"There,"she cried, "There he is !"
Fra. P. advanced to the case. There was the image of Horus in
the form of Ra Hoor Khuit painted upon a wooden stele of the 26th
dynasty -- and the exhibit bore the number 666 !*1*
(And after that it was five years before Fra. P. was force to obedience !)
This incident must have occurred before the 23rd of March, as the entry on that date
refers to Ankh-f-
n-khonsu.
Here is P.'s description of the Stele. "In the museum at Cairo, No. 666 is the stele
of the Priest
Ankh-f-n-khonsu.
Horus had a red Disk and green Uraeus.
His face is green, his skin indigo.
His necklace, anklets, and bracelets are gold.
His nemyss nearly black from blue.
His tunic is the Leopard's skin, and his apron green and gold.
Green is the wand of double Power ; his r.h. is empty.
His throne is indigo the gnomon, red the square.
The light is gamboge.
Above him are the Winged Globe and the bent figure of the heavenly Isis, her hands and
feet
touching earth.
(We print the most recent translation of the Stele, by Messrs. Alan Gardiner, Litt. D.,
and
Battiscombe Gunn. It differs slightly from that used by Fra. P., which was due to the
assistant-curator of the Museum at Boulak.)
STELE OF ANKH-F-NA-KHONSU.
Obverse
Topmost Register (under Winged Disk)
Behdet (? Hadit ?), the Great God, the Lord of Heaven.
Middle Register. Two vertical lines to left :---
Ra-Harakhti, Master of the Gods.
Five vertical lines to right :---
Osiris, the Priest of Montu, Lord of Thebes, Opener of the doors of Nut in Karnak,
Ankh-f-n-Khonsu,
the Justified.
Below Altar :---
Oxen, Geese, Wine (?), Bread.
Behind the god is the hieroglyph of Amenti.
Lowest Register.
(I) Saith Osiris, the Priest of Montu, Lord of Thebes, the opener of the
Doors of Nut in Karnak,
Ankh-f-n-Khonsu, (2) the Justified :--"Hail, Thou whose praise is high (the highly
praised), thou great-willed. O Soul (ba) very awful (lit. mighty, of awe) that giveth the
terror of him (3) among the Gods, shining in glory upon his great throne, making ways for
the
Soul
(ba) for the Spirit (yekh) and for the Shadow (khabt) : I am
prepared and I shine forth as one that is prepared. (4) I have
made way to the place in which are Ra, Tom, Khepri and Hathor."
Osiris, the Priest of Montu, Lord of Thebes (5) Ankh-f-na-Khonsu, the Justified ; son of
MNBSNMT*1* ; born of the Sistrum-bearer of Amon, the Lady Atne-sher.
Reverse.
Eleven lines of writing.
(I) Saith Osiris, the Priest of Montu, Lord of Thebes,
Ankh-f-(2)na-Khonsu, the Justified :--"My
heart from my mother, my heart (different word, apparently synonymous, but probably not so
at
all) of my existence (3) upon earth, stand not forth against me as witness, drive me not
back
(4) among the Sovereign Judges (quite an arbitrary conventional translation of the
original
word), neither incline against me in the presence of the Great God, the Lord of the West
(Osiris
of course) ; (5) Now that I am united with Earth in the Great West, and endure no longer
upon
Earth.
(6). Saith Osiris, he who is in Thebes, Ankh-f-na-Khonsu, the Justified : "O Only (7)
One,
shining like (or in) the Moon;
Osiris Ankh-f-(8)na_Khonsu has come froth upon high among these thy multitudes. (9) He
that gathereth together those that are in the Light, the Underworld (duat) is (also) (10)
opened to
him ; lo Osiris Ankh-f-na-Khonsu, cometh forth (II) by day to do all that he wisheth upon
earth
among the living."
There is one other object to complete the secret of Wisdom--(P. notes "perhaps a
Thoth") or it
is in the hieroglyphs. (This last paragraph is, we suppose, dictated by W.)
We now return to the "Book of Results."
I9 The ritual written out and the invocation done --
little success.
20 Revealed (We cannot make out if this revelation comes from W. or is a
result of the ritual. But
almost certainly the former, as it precedes the "Great Success"entry) that the
Equinox of the
Gods is come, Horus taking the Throne of the East and all rituals, etc., being abrogated.
(To explain this*1* we append to this chapter the G.D. ritual of the Equinox, which was
celebrated in the spring and autumn within 48 hours of the actual dates of Sol entering
Aries and
Libra.)
20 (contd.) Great success in midnight invocation.
(The other diary says I0 P.M. "Midnight"is perhaps a
loose phrase, or perhaps marks the climax of the
ritual.)
I am to formulate a new link of an Order with the
Solar Force.
(It is not clear what happened in this invocation ; but it is evident from another note of
certainly
later date, that "great success"does not mean "Samadhi."For P. writes:
"I make it an absolute
condition that I should attain Samadhi in the god's won interest."His memory concurs
in this. It
was the Samadhi attained in October, I906, that set him again in the path of obedience to
this
revelation.
But that "great success"means something very important is clear enough. The
sneering sceptic of
the I7th of March must have had a shock before he wrote those words.)
2I. [moon]. [sun] enters [aries].*1*
22. [mars]*2* The day of rest, on which nothing whatever of magic is to
be done at all.
[mercury]*3* is to be the great day of invocation.
(This note is due to W.'s prompting or to his own rationalizing imagination.)
23. The Secret of Wisdom.
(We omit the record of a long and futile Tarot divination.) At this point we may insert
the Ritual
which was so successful on the 20th.
INVOCATION OF HORUS
ACCORDING TO THE DIVINE VISION OF W., THE
SEER.
To be performed before a window open to the E. or N. without incense. The room to be
filled with
jewels, but only diamonds to be worn. A sword, unconsecrated, 44 pearl beads to be told.
Stand.
Bright daylight at I2.30 noon. Lock doors. White robes. Bare feet. Be very loud. Saturday.
Use the
Sign of Apophis and Typhon.
The above is W.'s answer to various questions posed by P.
Preliminary. Banish. L.B.R. Pentagram. L.B.R. Hexagram.
Flaming sword. Abrahadabra, Invoke. As before.
(These are P.'s ideas for the ritual. W. replied, "Omit.")
The MS. of this Ritual bears and left unrevised, save perhaps for one glance. There are
mistakes in
grammar and spelling unique in all MSS. of Fra. P. ; the use of capitals is irregular, and
the
punctuation almost wanting.)
CONFESSION
Unprepared and uninvoking Thee, I, OY MH, Fra R.R. et A.C., am here in Thy Presence -- for
Thou art Everywhere, O Lord Horus !--to confess humbly before Thee my neglect and scorn of
Thee.
How shall I humble myself enough before Thee ? Thou art the mighty and unconquered Lord of
the Universe : I am a spark of Thine unutterable Radiance.
How should I approach Thee ? but Thou art Everywhere.
But Thou hast graciously deigned to call me unto Thee, to this Exorcism of Art, that I may
be Thy
Servant, Thine Adept, O Bright One, O Sun of Glory ! Thou hast called me -- should I not
then
hasten to Thy Presence ?
With unwashen hands therefore I come unto Thee, and I lament my wandering from Thee -- but
Thou knowest !
Yea, I have evil !
If one (doubtless a reference to S.R.M.D. who was much obsessed by Mars, P. saw Horus at
first as
Geburah ; later as an aspect of Tiphereth, including Chesed and Geburah -- the red
Triangle
inverted -- an aspect opposite to Osiris.) blasphemed Thee, why should I therefore forsake
Thee ?
But Thou art the Avenger ; all is with Thee.
I bow my neck before Thee ; and as once Thy sword was upon it (see G.D. Ceremony of
Neophyte,
the Obligation), so am I in Thy hands. Strike if Thou wilt : spare if Thou wilt : but
accept me as I
am.
My trust is in Thee : shall I be confounded ? This Ritual of Art ; this Forty and Fourfold
Invocation ; this Sacrifice of Blood--(Merely, we suppose, that 44=DM, blood. Possibly a
bowl of
blood was used. P. thinks it was in some of the workings at this time, but is not sure if
it was this
one.)--these I do not comprehend.
It is enough if I obey Thy decree ; did Thy fiat go forth for my eternal misery, were it
not my joy to
execute Thy Sentence on myself ?
For why ? For that All is in Thee and of Thee ; it is enough if I burn up in the
intolerable glory of
Thy presence.
Enough ! I turn toward Thy Promise.
Doubtful are the Words : Dark are the Ways : but in Thy Words and Ways is Light. Thus then
now as ever, I enter the Path of Darkness, if haply so I may attain the Light.
Hail !
a I [aleph]
Strike, strike the master chord !
Draw, draw the Flaming Sword !
Crowned Child and Conquering Lord,
Horus, avenger !
I. O Thou of the Head of the Hawk ! Thee, Thee, I invoke!
(At every "Thee I invoke,"throughout whole ritual, give the sign of Apophis.)
A. Thou only-begotten-child of Osiris Thy Father, and Isis Thy
Mother. He that was slain ; She that bore Thee in Her womb flying from the Terror of the
Water. Thee, Thee I invoke !
2. O Thou whose Apron is of flashing white, whiter than the Forehead of
the Morning ! Thee,
Thee, I invoke !
B. O Thou who hast formulated Thy Father and made fertile
Thy Mother ! Thee, Thee, I invoke !
3. O Thou whose garment is of golden glory with the azure bars of sky !
Thee, Thee, I invoke !
C. Thou, who didst avenge the Horror of Death ; Thou the slayer of
Typhon ! Thou who didst lift
Thine arms, and the Dragons of Death were as dust : Thou who didst raise Thine Head, and
the
Crocodile of Nile was abased before Thee ! Thee, Thee, I invoke !
4. O Thou whose Nemyss hideth the Universe with night, the impermeable
Blue ! Thee, Thee,
I invoke !
D. Thou who travellest in the Boat of Ra, abiding at the
Helm of the Aftet boat and of the Sektet boat ! Thee, Thee, I invoke !
5. Thou who bearest the Wand of Double Power ! Thee,
Thee, I invoke !
E. Thou about whose presence is shed the darkness of Blue
Light, the unfathomable glory of the outmost Ether, the untravelled, the unthinkable
immensity
of Space. Thou who concentrest all the Thirty Ethers in one darkling sphere of Fire !
Thee,
Thee, I invoke !
6. O Thou who bearest the Rose and Cross of Life and
Light ! Thee, Thee, I invoke !
The Voice of the Five.
The Voice of the Six.
Eleven are the Voices.
Abrahadabra !
[beta] II [beth]
Strike, strike the master chord !
Draw, draw the Flaming Sword !
Crowned Child and Conquering Lord,
Horus, Avenger !
I. By thy name of Ra, I invoke Thee, Hawk of the Sun, the glorious one !
2. By thy name Harmachis, youth of the Brilliant Morning,
I invoke Thee !
3. By thy name, Mau, I invoke Thee, Lion of the Midday
Sun !
4. By thy name Tum, Hawk of the Even, crimson splendour of the Sunset, I
invoke Thee !
5. By thy name Khep-Ra I invoke Thee, O Beetle of the hidden Mastery of
Midnight !
A. By thy name Heru-pa-Kraat, Lord of Silence, Beautiful
Child that standest on the Dragons of the Deep, I invoke Thee !
B. By thy name Apollo, I invoke Thee, O man of Strength and splendour, O
poet, O father
!
C. By thy name of Phoebus, that drivest thy chariot through the Heaven
of Zeus, I invoke
Thee !
D. By thy name of Odin I invoke Thee, O warrior of the
North, O Renown of the Sagas !
E. By thy name of Jeheshua, O child of the Flaming Star,
I invoke Thee !
F. By Thine own, Thy secret name Hoori, Thee I invoke !
The Names are Five.
The Names are Six.
Eleven are the Names !
Abrahadabra !
Behold ! I stand in the midst. Mine is the symbol of Osiris; to Thee are mine eyes ever
turned.
Unto the splendour of Geburah, the Magnificence of Chesed, the mystery of Daath, thither I
lift up
mine eyes. This have I sought, and I have sought the Unity : hear Thou me !
[GAMMA] III [GIMEL]
I. Mine is the Head of the Man, and my insight is keen as the Hawk's. By
my head I invoke Thee !
A. I am the only-begotten child of my Father and Mother.
By my body I invoke Thee !
2. About me shine the Diamonds of Radiance white and pure.
By their brightness I invoke Thee !
B. Mine is the Red Triangle Reversed, the Sign given of none, save it be
of Thee, O Lord !
(This sign had been previously communicated by W. It was entirely new to P.) By the
Lamen I invoke Thee !
3. Mine is the garment of white sewn with gold, the flashing abbai that
I wear. By my robe
I invoke Thee !
C. Mine is the sign of Apophis and Typhon ! By the sign
I invoke Thee !
4. Mine is the turban of white and gold, and mine the blue vigour of the
intimate air ! By
my crown I invoke Thee !
D. My fingers travel on the Beads of Pearl ; so run I after Thee in thy
car of glory. By my
fingers I invoke Thee ! (On Saturday the string of pearls broke : so I changed the
invocation to "My mystic sigils travel in the Bark of the Akasa, etc. By the spells I
invoke
Thee !--P.)
5. I bear the Wand of Double Power in the Voice of the
Master -- Abrahadabra ! By the word I invoke Thee !
E. Mine are the dark-blue waves of music in the song that
I made of old to invoke Thee---
Strike, strike the master chord !
Draw, draw the Flaming Sword !
Crowned Child and Conquering Lord,
Horus, avenger !
By the Song I invoke Thee !
6. In my hand is thy Sword of Revenge ; let it strike at
Thy Bidding ! By the Sword I invoke Thee !
The Voice of the Five.
The Voice of the Six.
Eleven are the Voices.
Abrahadabra !
{help] IV [resh]
(This section merely repeats section I in the first person. Thus it begins : I. "Mine
is the Head of the
Hawk ! Abrahadabra!"and ends : 6. "I bear the Rose and Cross of Life and Light!
Abrahadabra !"giving the Sign at each Abrahadabra. Remaining in the Sign, the
invocation
concludes:)
Therefore I say unto thee : Come forth and dwell in me; so that every my Spirit, whether
of the
Firmament, or of the Ether, or of the Earth or under the Earth ; on dry land or in the
Water, or
Whirling Air or of Rushing Fire; and every spell and scourge of God the Vast One may be
THOU.
Abrahadabra !
The Adoration -- impromptu.
Close by banishing. (I think this was omitted at W.'s order.---P.)
During the period March 23rd -- April 8th, whatever else may have happened, it is at least
certain that
work was continued to some extent, that the inscriptions of the stele were translated for
Fra. P.,
and that he paraphrased the latter in verse. For we find him using, or prepared to use,
the same in
the text of Liber Legis.
Perhaps then, perhaps later, he made out the "namecoincidences of the
Qabalah,"to which we must
now direct the reader's attention.
The MS. is a mere fragmentary sketch.
Ch=8=ChlTh=4I8 Abrahadabra=RA-HVVR (Ra-Hoor).
Also 8 is the great symbol I adore.
(This may be because of its likeness to [?] or because of
its [old G.D.] attributions to Daath, P. being then a
rationalist; or for some other reason.)
So is O.
O=A in the Book of Thoth (The Tarot).
A=III with all its great meanings, [sun]=6
Now 666=My name, the number of the stele, the number of The
Beast (See Apocalypse), the number of the Man.
The Beast AChIHA=666 in full. (The usual spelling is
ChIVA.)
(A=III, Ch=4I8, I=20, H=6, A=III.)
HRV-RA-HA. 2II + 201 + 6=4I8.
This name occurs only in L. Legis, and is a test of that
book rather than of the stele.)
ANKH-P-N-KHONShU-T=666
(We trust the addition of the termination T will be found
justifies.)
{Bes-n-maut, B I Sh N A - M A V T }=888
{Ta-Nich, Th A - N I Ch }=Ch x A.
Nuteru NVTh IRV=666
Montu MVNTV=III.
Aiwass AIVAS=78, the influence or messenger, or the Book T.
(P.S. Note this error ! Ed.)
Ta-Nich TA-NICh = 78. Alternatively, Sh for Ch gives 370, O Sh, Creation.
So much we extract from volumes filled with minute calcula-tions, of which the bulk is no
longer
intelligible even to Fra.
P.
His memory, however, assures us that the coincidences were much more numerous and striking
than those we have been able to reproduce here ; but his attitude is, we understand that
after all
"It's all in Liber Legis. `Success is thy proof: argue not; convert not ; talk not
overmuch !'"And
indeed in the Commentary to that Book will be found sufficient for the most wary of
inquirers.
Now who, it may be asked, was Aiwass ? It is the name given by W. to P. as that of her
informant.
Also it is the name given as that of the revealer of Liber Legis. But whether Aiwass is a
spiritual
being, or a man known to Fra. P., is a matter of the merest conjecture. His number is
78*1*, that
of Mezla, the Channel through which Macroprosopus reveals Himself to, or showers His
influence upon, Microposopus.*2* So we find Fra. P. speaking of him at one time as of
another, but
more advanced man ; at another time as if it were the name of his own superior in the
Spiritual
Hierarchy. And to all questions Fra. P. finds a reply, either pointing out "the
subtle metaphysical
distinction between curiosity and hard work,"or indicating that among the Brethren
"names are
only lies,"or in some other way defeating the very plain purpose of the historian.
The same remark applies to all queries with regard to
V.V.V.V.V.;*3* with this addition, that in this case he
condescends to argue and to instruct. "If I tell you,"he once said to the
present writer, "that
V.V.V.V.V. is a Mr. Smith and lives at Clapham, you will at once go round and tell
everybody that
V.V.V.V.V. is a Mr. Smith of Clapham, which is not true. V.V.V.V.V. is the Light of the
World
itself, the sole Mediator between God and Man ; and in your present frame of mind (that of
a
poopstick) you cannot see that the two statements may be identical for the Brothers of the
A.A. ! Did not your greatgrandfather argue that no good thing could come out of Nazareth ?
`Is not this the carpenter's son ? is not his mother called Mary? and his brethren, James
and Joses,
and Simon, and Judas ? And his sisters, are they not all with us ? Whence then hath this
man all
these things ? And they were offended in him.'"
Similarly with regard to the writing of Liber Legis, Fr. P. will only say that it is in no
way "automatic
writing,"that he heard clearly and distinctly the human articulate accents of a man.
Once, on
page 6, he is told to edit a sentence ; and once, on page 19, W. supplies a sentence which
he had
failed to hear.
To this writing we now turn.
It must have been on the first of April that W. commanded P. (now somewhat cowed) to enter
the
"temple"exactly at 12 o'clock noon on three successive days, and to write down
what he should
hear, rising exactly at 1 o'clock.
This he did. Immediately on his taking his seat the Voice began its Utterance, and ended
exactly at
the expiration of the hour.
These are the three chapters of Liber Legis, and we have nothing to add.
The full title of the book is, as P. first chose to name it,
LIBER L vel LEGIS
sub figura CCXX
as delivered by LXXVIII to DCLXVI
and it is the First and Greatest of those Class A publications of A.A. of which is not to
be altered so
much as the style of a letter.
This was the original title devised by 666 to appear in the 1909 publication. The
"Key of it all"and
the true spelling of Aiwass had not then been discovered.
FESTIVAL OF
(Temple arranged as for 0degree = 0 [?].)
Ht. (knocks) Fratres and Sorores of all grades of the Golden
Dawn in the Outer, let us celebrate the Festival of the (Vernal) Autumnal Equinox !
All rise.
Ht. Frater Kerux, proclaim the fact, and announce the abro-
gation of the present Pass Word.
K. (Going to Ht.'s right, saluting, and facing West).
In the Name of the Lord of the Universe, and by
{ Vernal } command of the V.H.Ht., I proclaim the { Autumnal } Equinox, and declare that
the
Pass Word. . . . . . . is abrogated.
Ht. Let us, according to ancient custom, consecrate the
return of the {Vernal/Autumnal} Equinox.
Light.
Hs. Darkness.
Ht. East.
Hs. West.
Ht. Air.
Hs. Water.
Hg. (knocks) I am the Reconciler between them.
All give signs.
D. Heat.
S. Cold.
D. South.
S. North.
D. Fire.
S. Earth.
Hg. (knocks) I am the Reconciler between them.
All give signs.
Ht. (knocks) One Creator.
D. One Preserver.
Hs. (knocks) One Destroyer.
S. One Redeemer.
Hg. (knocks) One Reconciler between them.
All give signs.
Each retiring officer in turn, beginning with Ht. quits his post by the left hand and goes
to the foot
of Throne. He there disrobes, placing robe and lamen at foot of Throne or Dais. He then
proceeds with the Sun's course to the Altar, and lays thereon his special insignia, viz :
Ht.,
Sceptre : Hs., Sword :
Hg., Sceptre : K., Lamp and Wand : S., Cup : D., Censer :
repeating out-going Password as he does so.
Ht. taking from the Altar the Rose, returns with the Sun
to his post :
Hs. takes Cup of Wine :
Hf. waits for the Kerux and takes his Red Lamp from him.
K. takes nothing.
S. takes platter of salt.
D. takes emblem of Elemental Fire.
Returning each to his place.
The remaining members form a column in the North and, led by Kerux, proceed to the East ;
when all are in column along East side each turns to the left and faces Hierophant.
Ht. Let us adore the Lord of the Universe.
Holy art Thou, Lord of the Air, who has created the Firmament. (Making with the Rose the
sign of
the Cross in the Air towards the East.)
All give signs. Procession moves on to the South, halts, and all face South.
D. (facing South) Let us adore the Lord of the Universe.
Holy art Thou, Lord of the Fire, wherein Thou hast
shown forth the Throne of Thy Glory. (Making with the
Fire the sign of the Cross towards the South.)
All give signs. Procession moves on to the West, halts, and
faces West.
Hs. (facing West) Let us adore the Lord of the Universe.
Holy art Thou, Lord of the Waters, whereon Thy Spirit
moved at the beginning. (Making with the Cup the sign
of the Cross in the Air before him.)
All give sign. Procession passes on to the North. All halt
and face North.
S. (facing North)Let us adore the Lord of the Universe.
Holy art Thou, Lord of the Earth, which Thou hast made
Thy footstool. (Making with the platter of Salt the
sign of the Cross toward the North.)
All give signs. All resume their places and face the usual
way.
Hg. Let us adore the Lord of the Universe.
Holy art Thou, Who art in all things, in Whom are all
things ;
If I climb up into Heaven, Thou art there ;
If I go down into Hell, Thou art there also ;
If I take the Wings of the Morning and remain in the
uttermost parts of the Sea, even there shall Thy hand
lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me.
If I say "Peradventure the Darkness shall cover me,"
even the Night shall be Light unto Thee.
Thine is the Air with its Movement.
Thine is the Fire with its flashing Flame.
Thine is the Water with its Flux and Reflux.
Thine is the Earth with its Eternal Stability.
(Makes the sign of the Cross with Red Lamp.)
All give signs. Ht. goes to Altar and deposits Rose.
Imperator meanwhile assumes the Throne.
Ht. returns to a seat on the immediate left as Past Hiero-
phant. Each old Officer now proceeds in turn to Altar and places upon it the ensign he had
taken
therefrom, returning to places of their grade, not their Thrones, with nothing in their
hands : they
sit as common members, leaving all offices vacant.
Imperator. By the Power and Authority in me vested, I
confer upon you the new Pass Word. It is..........
The Officers of this Temple for the ensuing half-year
are as follows :--
(Reads list of New Officers.)
New Officers come up in turn and are robed by the Imperator.
Each new Officer in turn passes to the Altar and takes his insignia therefrom, repeating
aloud :
By the Pass Word.......I claim my....................
S., after claiming his Cup, purifies the Hall and the Members by Water, without a word
spoken
by the Ht. unless he fails in this duty.
D., after claiming his Censer, consecrates the Hall and the Members by Fire, without
unnecessary
word from Ht.
THE MYSTIC CIRCUMAMBULATION.
This should take place in Silence, but if the Members be unprovided with Rituals, the Ht.
may
order it as follows: All form in North, K., Hg., Members, Hs., S., D.
Each Member as he passes the Throne repeats the Pass Word aloud.
Ht. Let us invoke the Lord of the Universe.
Lord of the Universe, Blessed be Thy Name unto the Eternal Ages.
Look with favour upon this Order, and grant that its members may at length attain to the
true
Summum Bonum, the Stone of the Wise, the Perfect Wisdom and the Eternal Light.
To the Glory of Thine Ineffable Name. AMEN.
All salute.
Ht. Frater Kerux, in the Name of the Lord of the Universe,
I command you to declare that the {Vernal/Autumnal} Equinox has returned, and
that...............is the
Pass Word for the next six months.
K. In the Name of the Lord of the Universe and by com-
mand of the V.H.Ht. I declare that the Sun has enter-
ed {Aries/Libra}, the Sign of the {Vernal/Autumnal}
Equinox, and that the Pass Word for the ensuing half-
year will be............
Ht. Khabs. Pax. In.
Hs. Am. Konx. Extension.
Hg. Pekht. Om. Light.
CHAPTER VII.
Remarks on the method of receiving Liber Legis, on
the Conditions prevailing at the time of the writing,
and on certain technical difficulties connected with
the Literary form of the Book.*1*
I
Certain very serious questions have arisen with regard to
the method by which this Book was obtained. I do not refer to
those doubts -- real or pretended -- which hostility engenders, for
all such are dispelled by study of the text ; no forger could
have prepared so complex a set of numerical and literal puzzles
as to leave himself (a) devoted to the solution for years after,
(b) baffled by a simplicity which when desclosed leaves one gasping at
its profundity, _
enlightened only by progressive initiation, or by "accidental"events apparently
disconnected
with the Book, which occurred long after its publication, (d) hostile, bewildered, and
careless
even in the face of independent testimony as to the power and clarity of the Book, and of
the
fact that by Its light other men have attained the loftiest summits of initiation in a
tithe of the
time which history and experience would lead one to expect, and (e) angrily unwilling to
proceed with that part of the Work appointed for him which is detailed in Chapter III,
even
when the course of events on the planet, war, revolution, and the collapse of the social
and
religious systems of civilization, proved plainly to him that whether he liked it or no,
Ra Hoor
Khuit was indeed Lord of the Aeon, the Crowned and Conquering Child whose innocence
meant no more than inhuman cruelty and wantonly senseless destructiveness as he avenged
Isis
our mother the Earth and the Heaven for the murder and mutilation of Osiris, Man, her son.
The War of 1914-18 and its sequels have proved even to the dullest statesmen, beyond wit
of
even the most subtly sophistical theologians to gloze, that death is not an unmixed
benefit
either to the individual or the community : that force and fire of leaping manhood are
more
useful to a nation than cringing respectability and emasculate servility; that genius goes
with
courage, and the sense of shame and guilt with "Defeatism."
For these reasons and many more I am certain, I the Beast, whose number is Six Hundred and
Sixty Six, that this Third Chapter of the Book of the Law is nothing less than the
authentic
Word, the Word of the Aeon, the Truth about Nature at this time and on this planet. I
wrote it,
hating it and sneering at it, secretly glad that I could use it to revolt against this
Task most
terrible that the Gods have thrust remorselessly upon my shoulders, their Cross of burning
steel
that I must carry even to my Calvary, the place of a skull, there to be eased of its
weight only
that I be crucified thereon. But, being lifted up, I will draw the whole world unto me ;
and
men shall worship me the Beast, Six Hundred and Three-score and Six, celebrating to Me
their
Midnight Mass every time soever when they do that they will, and on Mine altar slaying to
Me
that victim I most relish, their Selves ; when Love designs and Will executes the Rite
whereby
(an they know it or not) their God in man is offered to me The Beast, their God, the Rite
whose virtue, making their God of their throned Beast, leaves nothing, howso bestial,
undivine.
On such lines my own "conversion"to my own "religion"may take
place, though as I write these words all but twelve weeks of
Sixteen years are well nigh past.*1*
II
This long digression is but to explain that I, myself, who issue Liber Legis, am no
fanatic partisan. I
will obey my orders (III, 42) "Argue not, convert not ;"even though I shirk some
others. I shall not
deign to answer sceptical enquiries as to the origin of the Book. "Success is your
proof."I, of all
men on this Earth reputed mightiest in Magick, by mine enemies more than by my friends,
have
striven to lose this Book, to forget it, defy it, criticise it, escape it, these nigh
sixteen years ; and It
holds me to the course It sets, even as the Mountain of Lodestone holds the ship, or
Helios by
invisible bonds controls his planets; yea, or as BABALON grips between her thighs the
Great
Wild Beast she straddles !
So much for the sceptics ; put your heads in the Lion's mouth ; so may you come to
certainty,
whether I be stuffed with straw !
But, in the text of the Book itself, are thorns for the flesh of the most ardent swain as
he buries his
face in the roses; some of the ivy that clings about the Thyrse of this Dionysus is Poison
Ivy. The
question arises, especially on examining the original manuscript in My handwriting:
"Who wrote
these words ?"
Of course I wrote them, ink on paper, in the material sense; but they are not My words,
unless
Aiwaz be taken to be no more than my subconscious self, or some part of it : in that case,
my
conscious self being ignorant of the Truth in the Book and hostile to most of the ethics
and
philosophy of the Book, Aiwaz is a severely suppressed part of me.*1* If so, the theorist
must
suggest a reason for this explosive yet ceremonially controlled manifestation, and furnish
and
explanation of the dovetailing of Events in subsequent years with His word written and
published.
In any case, whatever "Aiwaz"is, "Aiwaz"is an Intelligence possessed
of power and
knowledge absolutely beyond human experience ; and therefore Aiwaz is a Being worthy, as
the current use of the word allows, of the title of a God, yea verily and amen, of a God.
Man has no
such fact recorded, by proof established in surety beyond cavil of critic, as this Book,
to witness
the existence of and Intelligence praeterhuman and articulate, purposefully interfering in
the
philosophy, religion, ethics, economics and politics of the Planet.
The proof of His praeterhuman Nature -- call Him a Devil or a God
or even an Elemental as you will -- is partly external, depending
on events and persons without the sphere of Its influence, partly
internal, depending on the concealment of (a) certain Truths,
some previously known, some not known, but for the most part
beyond the scope of my mind at the time of writing, (b) of an
harmony of letters and numbers subtle, delicate and exact, and
(c) of Keys to all life's mysteries, both pertinent to occult science
and otherwise, and to all the
Locks of Thought ; the concealment of these three galaxies of glory, I say, in a cipher
simple
and luminous, but yet illegible for over Fourteen years, and translated even then not by
me, but
by my mysterious Child according to the Foreknowledge written in the Book itself, in terms
so complex that the exact fulfilment of the conditions of His birth, which occurred with
incredible precision, seemed beyond all possibility, a cipher involving higher
mathematics,
and a knowledge of the Hebrew, Greek and Arabic Qabalahs as well as the True Lost Word of
the Freemason, is yet veiled within the casual silk-stuff of ordinary English words, nay,
even
in the apparently accidental circumstance of the characters of the haste-harried scrawl of
My
pen.
Many such cases of double entendre, paranomasia in one language
or another, sometimes two at once, numerical-literal puzzles,
and even (on one occasion) an illuminating connexion of letters
in various lines by a slashing scratch, will be found in the
Qabalistic section of the Commentary.*1*
III
As an example of the first method above mentioned, we have, Cap.
III, "The fool readeth this Book -- and he understandeth it not."
This has a secret reverse-sense, meaning :
The fool (Parzival = Fra. O.I.V.V.I.O.) understandeth it (being a Magister Templi, the
Grade
attributed to Understanding) not (i.e. to be `not').
This Parzival, adding to 418, is (in the legend of the Graal) the son of Kamuret, adding
to 666, being
the son of me The Beast by the Scarlet Woman Hilarion. This was a Name chosen by her when
half
drunk, as a theft from Theosophical legend, but containing many of our letter-number Keys
to the
Mysteries ; the number of the petals in the most sacred lotus. It adds to 1001, which also
is Seven
times Eleven times Thirteen, a series of factors which may be read as The Scarlet Woman's
Love
by Magick producing Unity, in Hebrew Achad. For 7 is the number of Venus, and the secret
seven-lettered Name of my concubine B A B A L O N is written with Seven Sevens, thus:
77 + _7_ + 7 + 77 = 156, the number of BABALON.
7
418 is the number of the Word of the Magical Formula of this Aeon. (666 is I, The Beast.)
Parzival had also the name Achad as a Neophyte of A.A., and it was Achad whom Hilarion
bare to
Me. And Achad means Unity, and the letter of Unity is Aleph, the letter of The Fool in the
Tarot. Now this Fool invoked the Magical Formula of the Aeon by taking as his Magick, or
True,
Name one which added also to 418.
He took it for his Name on Entering the Gnosis where is Understanding, and he understood
it -- this Book -- not. That is, he understood that this Book was, so to speak, a vesture
or veil upon
the idea of "not."In Hebrew "not"is LA, 31, and AL is God, 31, while
there is a third 31 still
deeplier hidden in the double letter ST, which is a graphic glyph of the sun and moon
conjoined to
look like a foreshortened Phallus, thus -- when written in Greek capitals. This S or Sigma
is like
a phallus, thus,[ Greec] , when writ small ; and like a serpent or spermatozoon when writ
final, thus, [Greec]. This T or Theta is the point in the circle, or phallus in the kteis,
and also the
Sun just as C is the Moon, male and female.
But Sigma in Hebrew is Shin, 300, the letter of Fire and of the "Spirit of the
Gods"which broods
upon the Formless Void in the Beginning, being by shape a triple tongue of flame, and by
meaning a tooth, which is the only part of the secret and solid foundation of Man that is
manifested
normally. Teeth serve him to fight, to crush, to cut, to rend, to bite and grip his prey ;
they witness
that he is a fierce, dangerous, and carnivorous animal. But they are also the best witness
to the
mastery of Spirit over Matter, the extreme hardness of their substance being chiselled and
polished
and covered with a glistening film by Lefe no less easily and beautifully than is does
with more
naturally plastic types of substance.
Teeth are displayed when our Secret Self -- our Subconscious Ego, whose Magical Image is
our
individuality expressed in mental and bodily form -- our Holy Guardian Angel -- comes
forth and
declares our True Will to our fellows, whether to snarl or to sneer, to smile or to laugh.
Teeth serve us to pronounce the dental letters which in their deepest nature express
decision,
fortitude, endurance, just as gutturals suggest the breath of Life itself free-flowing,
and labials the
duplex vibrations of action and reaction. Pronounce T,D,S or N, and you will find them all
continuously forcible exhalations whose difference is determined solely by the position of
the tongue,
the teeth being bared as when a wild beast turns to bay. The sibilant sound of S or Sh is
our English
word, and also the Hebrew word, Hush, a strongly aspirated S, and suggests the hiss of a
snake.
Now this hiss is the common sign of recognition between men when one wants to call
another's attention without disturbing the silence more than necessary. (Also we have
Hist, our
Double letter.) This hiss means :
"Attention ! A man !"For in all Semitic and some Aryan languages, ISh or a
closely similar
word means "a man."Say it: you must bare your clenched teeth as in defiance, and
breathe
harshly out as in excitement.
Hiss ! Sh ! means "Keep silent ! there's danger if you are heard. Attention ! There's
a man
somewhere, deadly as a snake. Breathe hard ; there's a fight coming."
This Sh is then the forcible subtle creative Spirit of Life, fiery and triplex, continous,
Silence of
pure Breath modified into sound by two and thirty obstacles, as the Zero of Empty Space,
though
it contain all Life, only takes form according (as the Qabalists say) to the two and
thirty "Paths"of
Number and Letter which obstruct it.
Now the other letter, Theta or Teth, has the value of Nine, which
is that of AVB, the Secret Magick of Obeah, and of the Sephira
Yesod, which is the seat in man of the sexual function by whose
Magick he overcomes even Death, and that in more ways than one,
ways that are known to none but the loftiest and most upright
Initiates, baptised by the Baptism of Wisdom, and communicants at
that Eucharist where the Fragment of the Host in the Chalice
becomes whole.*1*
This T is the letter of Leo, the Lion, the house of heaven sacred to the Sun. (Thus also
we find in it
the number 6, whence 666). And Teth means a Serpent, the symbol of the magical Life of the
Soul,
lord of "the double wand"of life and death. The serpent is royal, hooded, wise,
silent save for an
hiss when need is to disclose his Will ; he devours his tail---the glyph of Eternity, of
Nothingness
and of Space ; he moves wavelike, one immaterial essence travelling through crest and
trough, as a
man's soul through lives and deaths. He straightens out ; he is the Rod that strikes, the
Light-
radiance of the Sun or the Life radiance of the Phallus.
The sound of T is tenuous and sharply final ; it suggests a spontaneous act sudden and
irrevocable, like the snake's bite, the loin's snap, the Sun's stroke, and the Lingam's.
Now in the Tarot the Trump illustrating this letter Sh is and old form of the Stele of
Revealing,
Nuith with Shu and Seb, the pantacle or magical picture of the old Aeon, as Nuit with
Hadit and Ra
Hoor Khuit is of the new. The number of this Trump is XX.
It is called the Angel, the messenger from Heaven of the new
Word. The Trump giving the picture of T is called Strength. It
shows the Scarlet Woman, BABALON, riding (or conjoined with) me
The Beast ; and this card is my special card, for I am Baphomet,
"the Lion and the Serpent,"and 666, the "full number"of the
Sun.*1*
So then, as Sh, XX, shows the Gods of the Book of the Law and T, XI, shows the human
beings in
that Book, me and my concubine, the two cards illustrate the whole Book in pictorial form.
Now XX + XI = XXXI, 31, which we needed to put with LA, 31 and AL, 31, that we might have
31 x 3 = 93, the Word of the Law, THELEMA [in greek], Will, and hhelp, Love which under
Will, is the Law. It is also the number of Aiwaz, the Author of the Book, of the Lost Word
whose
formula does in sober truth "raise Hiram,"and of many another close-woven Word
of Truth.
Now then this Two-in-One letter [sun, moon], is the third Key to this Law ; and on the
discovery of
that fact, after years of constant seeking, what sudden splendours of Truth, sacred as
secret,
blazed in the midnight of my mind.! Observe now : "this circle squared in its failure
is a key also."
Now I knew that in the value of the letters of ALHIM, "the Gods,"the Jews had
concealed a not
quite correct value of [pi], the ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter, to 4
places of
decimals :
3.1415 ; nearer would be 3.1416. If I prefix our Key, 31, putting [sun, moon], Set or
Satan,
before the old Gods, I get 3.141593, [pi] correct to Six places, Six being my own number
and that of
Horus the Sun. And the whole number of this new Name is 395,*1* which on analysis yields
and
astounding cluster of numerical "mysteries."
Now for an example of the `paronomasia' or pun. Chapter III, 17---"Ye, even ye, know
not this
meaning all."(Note how the peculiar grammar suggests a hidden meaning.) Now YE is in
Hebrew
Yod He, the man and the woman ; The Beast and BABALON, whom the God was addressing in his
verse. Know suggests `no' which gives LA, 31 ; `not' is LA, 31, again, by actual meaning ;
and
`all' refers to AL, 31, again. (Again, ALL is 61, AIN, "nothing.")
V
Then we have numerical problems like this. "Six and fifty. Divide, add, multiply and
understand."6 [divided by] 50 gives 0.12, a perfect glyph-statement of the
metaphysics of the Book.
The external evidence for the Book is accumulating yearly : the incidents connected with
the
discovery of the true spelling of Aiwaz are alone sufficient to place it beyond all quaver
of doubt that
I am really in touch with a Being of intelligence and power immensely subtler and greater
than aught
we can call human.
This has been the One Fundamental Question of Religion. We know
of invisible powers, and to spare ! But is there any
Intelligence or Individuality (of the same general type as ours)
independent of our human brain-structure ? For the first time in
history, yes ! Aiwaz has guven us proof : the most important
gate toward Knowledge suings wide.
I, Aleister Crowley, declare upon my honour as a gentleman that I
hold this revelation a million times more important than the
discovery of the Wheel, or even of the Laws of Physics or
Mathematics. Fire and Tools made Man master of his planet :
Writing developed his mind ; but his Soul was a guess until the
Book of the Law proved this.
I, a master of English, was made to take down in three hours,
from dictation, sixty-five 8"x I0"pages of words not only
strange, but often displeasing to me in themselves ; concealing
in cipher propositions unknown to me, majestic and profound ;
foretelling events public and private beyond my control, or that
of any man.
This Book proves : there is a Person thinking and acting in a
praeterhuman manner, either without a body of flesh, or with the
power of communicating telepathically with men and inscrutably
directing their actions.
VI
I write this therefore with a sense of responsibility so acute that for the first time in
my life I regret
my sense of humour and the literary practical jokes which it has caused me to perpetrate.
I am
glad, though, that care was taken of the MS. itself and of diaries and letters of the
period, so that
the physical facts are as plain as can be desired.
MY sincerity and seriousness are proved by my life. I have fought this Book and fled it ;
I have
defiled it and I have suffered for its sake. Present or absent to my mind, it has been my
Invisible
Ruler. It has overcome me ; year after year extends its invasion of my being. I am the
captive of the
Crowned and Conquering Child.
The point then arises : How did the Book of the Law come to be written ? The description
in The
Equinox, I, VII, might well be more detailed ; and I might also elucidate the problem of
the
apparent changes of speaker, and the occasional lapses from straightforward scribecraft in
the
MS.
I may observe that I should not have left such obvious grounds for indictment as these had
I
prepared the MS. to look pretty to a critical eye ; nor should I have left such curious
deformities of
grammar and syntax, defects of rhythm, and awkwardness of phrase. I should not have
printed
passages, some rambling and unintelligible, some repugnant to reason by their absurdity,
others
again by their barbaric ferocity abhorrent to heart. I should not have allowed such
jumbles of
matter, such abrupt jerks from subject to subject, disorder ravaging reason with
disconnected
sluttishness. I should not have tolerated the discords, jarred and jagged, of manner, as
when a
sublime panegyric of Death is followed first by a cipher and then by a prophecy, before,
without
taking breath, the author leaps to the utmost magnificence of thought both mystical and
practical,
in language so concise, simple, and lyrical as to bemuse our very amazement. I should not
have
spelt "Ay""Aye,"or acquiesced in the horror "abstruction."
Compare with this Book my "jokes,"where I pretend to edit the MS. of another:
"Alice,"
"Amphora,""Clouds without Water."Observe in each case the technical
perfection of the
"discovered"or "translated"MS., smooth skilled elaborte art and craft
of a Past Master Workman ;
observe the carefully detailed tone and style of the prefaces, and the sedulous creation
of the
personalities of the imaginary author and the imaginary editor.
Note, moreover, with what greedy vanity I claim authorship even of all the other A.A.
Books in
Class A, though I wrote them inspired beyond all I know to be I. Yet in these Books did
Aleister Crowley, the master of English both in prose and in verse, partake insofar as he
was That.
Compare those Books with the Book of the Law ! They style is simple and sublime ; the
imagery
is gorgeous and faultless ; the rhythm is subtle and intoxicating ; the theme is
interpreted in
faultless symphony. There are no errors of grammar, no infelicities of phrase. Each Book
is perfect
in its kind.
I, daring to snatch credit for these, in that brutal Index to The Equinox Volume One,
dared nowise to
lay claim to have touched the Book of the Law, not with my littlest finger-tip.
I, boasting of my many Books ; I, swearing each a masterpiece; I attach the Book of the
Law at a
dozen points of literature. Even so, with the dame breath, I testify, as a Master of
English, that I am
utterly incapable, even when most inspired, fo such English as I find in that Book again
and again.
Terse, yet sublime, are these verses of this Book ; subtle yet simple ; matchless for
rhythm, direct
as a ray of light. Its imagery is gorgeous without decadence. It deals with primary ideas.
It
announces revolutions in philosophy, religion, ethics, yea, in the whole nature of Man.
For this it
needs no more than to roll sea-billows solemnly forht, eight words, as `Every man and
every
woman is a star,"or it bursts in a mountain torrent of monosyllables as "Do what
thou wilt shall be
the whole of the Law."
Nuith cries : "I love you,"like a lover ; when even John reached only to the
cold impersonal
proposition "God is love."She woos like a msitress ; whispers "To me
!"in every ear ; Jesus, with
needless verb, appeals vehemently to them "that labour and are heavy laden."Yet
he can promise
in the present, says: "I give unimaginable joys on earth,"making life worth
while ;
"certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death,"the electric
light Knowledge for the churchyard corpsecandle Faith, making
life fear-free, and death itself worth while: "peach
unutterable, rest, ecstasy,"making mind and body at ease that
soul may be free to transcend them when It will.
I have never written such English ; nor could I ever, that well I
know. Shakespeare could not have written it: still less could
Keats, Shelley, Swift, Sterne or even Wordsworth. Only in the
Books of Job and Ecclesiastes, in the work of Blake, or possibly
in that of Poe, is there any approach to such succinct depth of
thought in such musical simplicity of form, unless it be in Greek
and Latin poets. Nor Poe nor Blake could have sustained their
effort as does this our Book of the Law ; and the Hebrews used
tricks of verse, mechanical props to support them.
How then---back once more to the Path !---how then did it come to
be written ?
VIII
I shall make what I may call an inventory of the furniture of the
Temple, the circumstances of the case. I shall describe the
conditions of the phenomenon as if it were any other unexplained
event in Nature.
I. The time.
Chapter 1 was written between Noon and 1 p.m. on
April 8, 1904.
Chapter II between Noon and I p.m. on April 9,
I904.
Chapter III between Noon and I p.m. on April I0,
I904.
The writing began exactly on the stroke of the hour, and ended exactly an hour later ; it
was hurried
throughour, with no pauses of any kind.
2. The place.
The city was Cairo.
The street, or rather streets, I do not remember. There is a `Place' where four or five
streets
intersect ; it is near the Boulak Museum, but a fairly long way from Shepherd's. The
quarter is
fashionable European. The house occupied a corner. I do not remember its orientation ;
but, as
appears from the instructions for invoking Horus, one window of the temple opened to the
East or
Norht. The apatment was of several rooms on the ground floor, well furnished in the Anglo-
Egyptian style. It was let by a firm named Congdon & Co.
The room was a drawing-room cleared of fragile obstacles, but not otherwise prepared to
serve as a
temple. It had double doors, poening on to the corridor to the North and a door to the
East leading
to another room, the dining-room, I think. It had two windows opening on the Place, to the
South,
and a writing table against the wall between them.
3. The people.
A. Myself, age 28 +. In good health, fond of out-door sports, especially
mountaineering and big-
game shooting. An Adept Major of the A.A. but weary of mysticism and dissatisfied with
Magick. A rationalist, Buddhist, agnostic, anti-clerical, anti-moral, Tory and Jacobite. A
chess-player, first-class amateur, able to play three games simultaneously blindfold. A
reading and writing addict. Education : private governess and tutors, preliminary school
Habershon's at St. Leonards, Sussex, private tutors, private school 5I Bateman St.,
Cambridge,
private tutors, Yarrow's School, Streatham, near London. Malvern College, Tonbridge
School, private tutors, Eastbourne College, King's College, London, Trinity College,
Cambridge.
Morality---Sexually powerful and passionate. Strongly male to women ; free from any
similar
impulse toward my own sex. My passion for women very unselfish ; the main motive to give
them pleasure. Hence, intense ambition to understand the feminine nature ; for this
purpose, to identify myself with their feelings, and to use all means appropriate.
Imaginative,
subtle, insatiable ; the whole business a mere clumsy attempt to quench the thirst of the
soul.
This thirst has indeed been my one paramout Lord, directing all my acts without allowing
any
other considerations soever to affect it in the least.
Strictly temperate as to drink, had never once been even near intoxication. Light wine my
only form of alcohol.
Sense of justice and equity so sensitive, well-balanced and compelling as to be almost an
obsession.
Generous, unless suspicious that I was being fleeced : "penny wise and pound
foolish."
Spendthrift, careless, not a gambler because I valued winning at games of skill, which
flattered
my vanity.
Kind, gentle, affectionate, selfish, conceited, reckless and cautious by turns.
Incapable of bearing a grudge, even for the gravest insults and injuries ; yet enjoying to
inflict
pain for its own sake. Can attack an unsuspecting stranger, and torture him cruelly for
years, without feeling the slightest animosity toward him. Fond of animals and children,
who
return my love, almost always. Consider abortion the most shameful form of murder, and
loathe the social codes which encourage it.
Hated and despised my mother and her family ; loved and respected my father and his.
Critical events in my life.
First travelled outside England, I883.
Father died March 5, I887.
Albuminuria stopped my schooling, I890-92.
First sexual act, probably I889.
Ditto with a woman March, I89I (Torquay -- a theatre girl).
First serious mountain-climbing, in Skye, I892. (The
"Pinnacle Ridge"of Sgurr-nan-Gillean.)
First Alpine climb, I894.
Admitted to the Military Order of the Temple midnight,
December 3I, I896.
Admitted to permanent office in the Temple midnight, December 3I, I897.
Bought Boleskine, I899.
First Mexican climb, I900.
First Big game, I90I.
First Himalayan climb, I902. (Chogo Ri, or "K2"
expedition.)
Married at Dingwall, Scotland, August I2, I903.
Honeymoon at Boleskine, thence to London, Paris, Naples,
Egypt, Ceylon, and back to Egypt, Helwan and then Cairo early in I904.
My "occult"career.
Parents Plymouth Brethren, exclusive.
Father a real P.B. and therefore tolerant to his son.
Mother only became P.B. to please him, perhaps to catch him,
and so pedantically fanatical.
After his death I was tortured with insensate persistency, till I said : Evil, be thou my
good ! I
practised wickedness furtively as a magical formula, even when it was distasteful ; e.g. I
would
sneak into a church*1*---a place my mother would not enter at the funeral service of her
best-loved
sister.
Revolted openly when puberty gave me a moral sense.
Hunted new "Sins"till October, '97, when one of them turned
to bay, and helped me to experience the "Trance of Sorrow."(Perception of the
Impermanence
fo even the greatest human endeavour.) I invoked assistance, Easter, '98.
Initiated in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, November
I8, '98.
Began to perform the Abramelin Operation, I899.
Initiated in the Order R.R. et A.C., January, I909.
Made a 33<degree> Freemason, I900.
Began Yoga practices, I900.
Obtained first Dhyana, October I, I90I.
Abandoned all serious occult work of every sort, October 3,
I90I, and continued in this course of action till July, I903, when I tried vainly to force
myself to
become a Buddhist Hermit Highland Laird.
Marriage was an uninterrupted sexual debauch up to the time of the writing of the Book of
the Law.
B. Rose Edith Kelly.
Born I874 (July 23). About '95 married one Major Skerrett, R.A.M.C., and lived with him
some two
years in South Africa. He died in '97.
She indulged in a few feeble-executed intrigues till August I2, I903, when she became my
wife,
becoming pregnant with a girl born July 28, I904. Health, admirable robust at all points;
she was
both active and enduring, as our travels in Ceylon and across China prove. Figure perfect,
neither
big nor little, face pretty without being petty ; she only missed Beauty by lacking
Goethe's "touch of
the bizarre."Personality intensely powerful and magnevit, intellect absent but mind
adaptable to
that of any companion, so that she could always say the right nothing.
Charm, grace, vitality, vivacity, tact, manners, all inexpressible fascinating.
From her mother she inherited dipsomania, as bad a case for stealth, cunning, falsehood,
treachery, and hypocrisy as the specialist I consulted had ever known. This was, however,
latent
during the satisfacion of sexuality,*1* which ousted all else in her life, as it did in
mine.
Education strictly social and domestic ; she did not even know schoolgirl French. She had
read
nothing, not so much as novels. She was a miracle of perfection as Poetic Ideal, Mistress,
Wife,
Mother, House-president, Nurse Pal and Comrade.
C. Our head servant, Hassan or Hamid, I forget which.
A tall, dignified, hansome athlete of about 30. Spoke good English and ran the household
well ;
always there and never in the way.
I suppose I hardly ever saw the servants under his authority: I do not even know how many
there
were.
D. Lieut.-Col. Somebody, beginning, I think, with a B, married,
middle-aged, with manners like
the Rules of a Prison. I cannot remember that I ever saw him ; but the apartment was
sublet
to me by him.
E. Brugsch Bey of the Boulak Museum dined with us once to discuss the
Stele in his charge,
and to arrage for its "abstruction."His French assistant curator, who translated
the
hieroglyphs on the Stele for us.
A Mr. Bach, owner of the "Egyptian News,"an hotel, a hunk of railway, &c.,
&c., dined once.
Otherwise we knew nobody in Cairo except natives, occasionally
hobnobbed with a General Dickson, who had accepted Islam, carpet
merchant, pimps, jewellers, and such small deer. Contradictory
hints in one of my diaries were inserted deliberately to mislead,
for some sill no-reason unconnected with Magick.*1*
4. The events leading up to the Writing of the Book. I summarize them
from Eqx. I, VII.
March I6. Tried to shew the Sylphs to Rose.*1* She was in a dazed state, stupid, possible
drunk ; possibly hysterical from pregnancy. She could see nothing, but could hear. She was
fiercely excited at the messages, and passionately insistent that I should take them
seriously.
I was annoyed at her irrelevance, and her infliction of nonsense upon me.
She had never been in any state even remotely resembling this, though I ahd made the same
invocation (in full) in the King's chamber fo the Great Pyramid during the night which we
spent there in the previous autumn.
March I7. More apparently nonsensical messages, this time spontaneous. I invoke Thoth,
probably as in Liber LXIV, and presumably to clear up the muddle.
March I8. Thoth evidently got clear through to her ; for she
discovers that Horus is addressing me through her, and
indentifies Him by a method utterly excluding chance or
coincidence, and involving knowledge which only I possessed, some of it arbitrary, so that
she or her
informant must have been able to read my mind as well as if I had spolen it.
Then she, challenged to point out His image, passes by many such to fix on the one in the
Stele. The
cross-examination must hace taken place between March 20 and 23.
March 20. Success in my invocation of Horus, by "breaking all the rules"at her
command. This
success convinced me magically, and encouraged me to test her as above mentioned. I should
certainly have referred to the Stlel in my ritual had I seen it before this date. I should
fix Monday,
March 2I, for the Visit ot Boulak.
Between March 23 and April 8 the Hieroglyphs on the Stele were evidently translated by the
assistant-curator at Boulak, into either French or English -- I am almost sure it was
French -- and
versified (as now printed) by me.
Between these dates, too, my wife must have told me that her informant was not Horus, or
Ra
Hoor Khuit, but a messenger from Him, named Aiwass.
I thought that she might have faked this name from constantly hearing "Aiwa,"the
word for "Yes"
in Arabic. She could not have invented a name of this kind, though ; her next best was to
find a
phrase like "balmy puppy"ofr a friend, or corrupt a name like Neuberg into an
obscene insult.
The silence of my diaries seems to prove that she gave me nothing more of importance. I
was
working out the Magical problem presented to me by the events of March I6-2I. Any
questions
that I asked her were either unanswered, or answered by a Being whose mind was so
different from
mine that we failed to converse. All my wife obtained from Him was to command me to do
things magically absurd. He would not play my game : I must play His.
April 7. Not later than this date was I ordered to enter the "tmeple"exactly at
noon on the three
days following, and write down what I heard during one hour, nor more nor less. I imagine
that
some preparations were made, possilby some bull's blood burned for incense, or order taken
about
details of dress ro diet ; I remember nothing at all, one way or the other. Bull's blood
was burnt
some time in this sojourn in Cairo ; but I forget why or when. I think it was used at the
"Invocation
of the Sylphs."
5. The actual writing.
The three days were precisely similar, save that on the last day I became nervous lest I
should fail to
hear the Voice of Aiwass. They may then be described together.
I went into the "temple"a minute early, so as to shut the door and sit down on
the stroke of Noon.
On my table were my pen -- a Swan Fountain -- and supplies of Quarto typewriting paper,
8"x I0".
I never looked round in the room at any time.
The Voice of Aiwass came apparently from over my left shoulder, from the furthest corner
of the
room. It seemed to echo itself in my physical heart in a very strange manner, hard to
describe. I
have noticed a similar phenomenon when I have been waiting for a message fraught with
great
hope or dread. The voice was passionately poured, as if Aiwass were alert about the
time-limit.
I wrote 65 pages of this present essay (at about my usual rate of composition) in about I0
+ hours as
against the 3 hours of the 65 pages of the Book of the Law. I was pushed hard to keep the
pace ;
the MS. shows it clearly enough.
The voice was of deep timbre, musical and expressive, its tones solemn, voluptuous,
tender, fierce
or aught else as suited the moods of the message. Not bass -- perhaps a rich tneor or
baritone.
The English was free of either native or foreign accent,
perfectly pure of local or caste mannerisma, thus startling and
even uncanny at first hearing.*1*
I had a strong impression*1* that the speaker was actually in the corner where he seemed
to be, in
a body of "fine matter,"transparent as a veil of gauze, or a cloud of
incense-smoke. He seemed to
be a tall, dark man in his thirties, well-knit, active and strong, with the face of a
savage king, and
eyes veiled lest their gaze should destroy what they saw. The dress was not Arab; it
suggested
Assyria or Persia, but very vaguely. I took little note of it, for to me at that time
Aiwass and
an"angel"such as I had often seen in visions, a being purely astral.
I now incline to believe that Aiwass is not only the God or Demon
or Devil once held holy in Sumer, and mine own Guradian Angel,
but also a man as I am, insofar as He uses a human body to make
His magical link with Mankind, whom He loves, and that He is thus
and Ipsissimus, the Head of the A.A. Even I can do, in a much
feebler way, this Work of being a God and a Beast, &c., &c., all
at the same time, with equal fullness of life.*2*
6. The Editing of the Book.
"Change not so much as the style of a letter"in the text saved me from
Crowley-fying the wholde
Book, and spoiling everything.
The MS. shows what has been done, and why, as follows:
A. On page 6 Aiwaz instructs me to "write this (what he had just
said) in whiter words,"for my
mind revelled at His phrase. He added at once "But go forth on,"i.e., with His
utterance, leaving
the emendation until later.
B. On page I9 I failed to hear a sentence, and (later on) the Scarlet
Woman, invoking Aiwass, wrote
in the missing words. (How ? She was not in the room at the time, and heard nothing.)
C. Page 20 of Cap. III, I got a phrase indistinctly, and she put it in,
as for "B."
D. The versified paraphrase of the hieroglyphs on the Stele being ready,
Aiwaz allowed me to insert
these later, so as to save time.
These four apart, the MS. is exactly as it was written on those three days. The Critical
Recension
will explain theses points as they occur.
The problem of the literary form of this Book is astonishingly complex; but the internal
evidence
of the sense is usually sufficient of make it clear, on inspection, as to who is speaking
and who is
being addressed.
There was, however, no actual voice audible save that of Aiwaz. Even my own remarks made
silently were incorporated by him audibly, wherever such occur.
Chapter I
Verse I. Nuit is the speaker. She invokes her lover and then begins to give a title to her
speech in
the end of verse I--20.
In verses 3 and 4, she begins her discourse. So far her remarks have been addressed to no
one in
particular.
Verse 4 startled my intelligence into revolt.
In verse 5 she explains that she is speaking, and appeals to me personally to help her to
unveil by
taking down her message.
In verse 6 she claims me for her chosen, and I think that I then became afraid lest I
should be
expected to do too much. She answers this fear in verse 7 by introducing Aiwaz as the
actual
speaker in articulate human accents on her behalf.
In verse 8 the oration continues, and we now see that it is addressed to mankind in
general. This
continues till verse I3.
Verse I4 is from the Stele. It seems to have been written in by me as a kind of
appreciation of what
she had just said.
Verse I5 emphasizes that it is mankind in general that is addressed; for the Beast is
spoken of in the
third person, though his was the only human ear to hear the words.
Verses I8--I9 seem to be almost in the nature of a quotation from some hymn. It is not
quite natural
for her to address herself as she appears to do in verse I9.
Verse 26. The question "Who am I and what shall be the
sign?"is my own conscious thought. In the previous verses I
have been called to an exalted mission, and I naturally feel
nervous. This thought is then entered in the record by Aiwaz as
if it were a story that he was telling ; and he develops this
story after her answer, in order to bring bvack the thread of the
chapter to the numerical mysteries of Nuith begun in verses 24-
25, and now continued in verse 28.
Another doubt must have arisen in my mind at verse 30 ; and this doubt is interpreted and
explained
ot me personally in verse 3I.
The address to mankind is resumed in verse 32, and Nuith emphasizes the point of verse 30
which
has caused me to doubt. She confirms this with an oath, and I was convinced. I thought ot
myself,
" in this case let us hace written instructions as to the technique,"and Aiwaz
again makes a story
out of my request as in verse 26.
In verse 35 it seems that she is addressing me personally, but in verse 36 she speaks of
me in the
third person.
Verse 40. The word "us"is very puzzling. It apparently means "All those who
have accepted
the Law whose word is Thelema."Among these she includes herself.
There is nwo no difficulty for a long while. It is a general address dealing with varoious
subjects, to the end of verse 52.
From verses 53-56 we have a strictly personal address to me.
In verse 57 Nuith resumes her general exhortation. And I am spoken of once more in the
third
person.
Verse 6I. The word "Thou"is not a personal address. It means any single person,
as pooosed to a
company. The "Ye"in the third sentence indeicates the proper conduct for
worshippers as a body.
The "you,"in sentence 4, of course applies to a single person ; but the plural
form suggests that it is
a matter of public worship as opposed to the invocation in the desert of the first
sentence of this
verse.
There is no further difficulty in this chapter.
Verse 66 is the statement of Aiwaz that the words of verse 65, which were spoken
diminuendo
down to pianissimo, indicated the withdrawl of the goddess.
CHAPTER II
Hadith himself is evidently the speaker from the srart. The remarks are general. In verse
5 I am
spoken of in the third person.
After verse 9 he notices my vehement objections to writing statements to which my
conscious self
was obstinately opposed.
Verse I0, addressed to me notes that fact ; and in verse II he declares that he is my
master, and that
the reason for this is that he is my secret self, as explained in verses I2-I3.
The interruption seems to have added excitement to the discousre, for verse I4 is violent.
Verses I5 & I6 offer a riddle, while verse I7 is a sort of parody of poetry.
Verse I8 continues his attack on my conscious mind. In verses I5-I8 the style is
complicated,
brutal, sneering and jeering. I feel the whole passage as a contemptuous beating down of
the
resistance of my mind.
In verse I9 he returns to the exalted style with which he began until I interfered.
The passage seems addressed to what he calls his chosen or his people, though it is not
explained
exactly what he means by the words.
This passage from verse I9 to verse 52 is of sustained and matchless eloquence.
I must have objected to something in verse 52, for verse 53 is directed to encourage me
personally as
to having transmitted this message.
Verse 54 deals with another point as to the intelligibility of the message.
Verse 55 instructed me to obtain the English Qabalah ; it made me incredulous, as the task
seemed
an impossible one, and probably his perception of this criticism inspired verse 56, though
"ye
mockers"applies evidently to my enemies, referred to in verse 54.
Verse 57 brings us back to the suject begun in verse 2I. It is a quotation from the
Apocalypse
verbatim, and is probably suggested by the matter of verse 56.
There is no real change in the essence of anything, however its combinations vary.
Verses 58-60 conclude the passage.
Verse 6I. The address is now strictly personal. During all this time Hadith had been
breaking down
my resistance with his violently expresses and varied phrases. As a result of this, I
attained to the
trance described in these verses from 6I-68.
Verse 69 is the return to consciousness of myself. It was a sort of gasping question as a
man coming
out of Ether might ask "Where am I ?"I think that this is the one passage in the
whole book which
was not spoken by Aiwaz ; and I ought to say that these verses 63-68 were writeen without
conscious hearing at all.
Verse 70 does not deign to reply to my questions, but points out the way to manage life.
This
continues until verse 74, and seems to be addressed not to me persoanllly but to any man,
despite
the use of the word "Thou."
Verse 75 abruptly changes the subject, interpolating the riddle of verse 76 with its
prophecy. This
verse is addressed to me personally, and continues to the end of verse 78 to mingle
lyrical
eloquence with literal and numerical puzzles.
Verse 79 is the statement of Aiwaz that the end of the chapter has come. To this he adds
his
personal compliment to myself.
Chapter III
Verse I appears to complete the triangle begun by the first verses of the two previous
chapters. It is
a simple statement involving no particular speaker or hearer. The ommission of the
"i"in the name
of God appears to have alarmed me, and in verse 2 Aiwaz offers a hurried explanation in a
somewhat
excited manner, and invokes Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
Verse 3 is spoken by Ra-Hoor-Khuit. "Them"evidently refers to some undescribed
enemies, and
"ye"to those who accept his formula. This passage ends with verse 9. Verse 10
and verse 11 are
addressed to me personally and the Scarlet Woman, as shown in the continuation of his
passage
which seems to end with verse 33, though it is left rather vague at times as to whether
the Beast, or
the Beast and his concubine, or the adherents of Horus, generally, are exhorted.
Verse 34 is a kind of poetical peroration, and is not addressed in particular to anybody.
It is a
statement of events to come.
Verse 35 states simply that section one of this chapter is completed.
I seem to have become enthusiastic, for there is a kind of interlude reported by Aiwaz of
my song of
adoration translated form the Stele; the incident parallels that of chapter I, verse 26,
&c.
It is to be noted that the translations from the Stele in verses 37-38 were no more than
instantanious thoughts to be inserted afterwards.
Verse 38 begins with my address to the God in the first
sentence, while in the second is his reply to me. He then refers
to the hieroglyphs of the Stele, and bids me quote my
praraphrases. This order was given by a species of wordless
gesture, not visible or audible, but sensible in some occult
manner.
Verses 39-42 are instructions for me personally.
Verses 43-45 indicate the proper course of conduct for the
Scarlet Woman.
Verse 46 is again more general -- a sort of address to
soldiers before battle.
Verse 47 is again mostly personal instruction, mixed up with
prophecies, proof of the praeterhuman origin of the Book, and
other matters.
I observe that this instruction, taken with with those not
to change "so much as a style of a letter,"etc., imply that my
pen was under the physical control of Aiwaz; for this dictation
did not include directions as to the use of capitals, and the
occasional mis-spellings are most assuredly not mine!
Verse 48 impatiently dismisses such practical matters as a
nuisance.
Verses 49-59 contain a series of declerations of war; and
there is no further difficulty as to the speaker or hearer to the
end of the chapter, although the subject changes repeatedly in an
incomprehensible manner. Only verse 75 do we find a perroation
on the whole book, presumably by Aiwaz, ending by his formula of withdrawal.
______________________
I conclude by laying down the principles of Exegesis on
which I have based my comment.*1*
I. It is "my scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu"(CCXX, I, 36) who
"shall comment"on "this book""by the wisdom of
Ra-Hoor-Khuit"; that is, Aleister Crowley shall
write the Comment from the point of view of the manifested positive Lord of the Aeon, in
plain
terms of the finite, and not those of the infinite.
2. "Hadit burning in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy
pen"(CCXX, III, 40). My own
inspiration, not any alien advice or intellectual consideration, is to be the energizing
froce of
this work.
3. Where the text is simple straightforward English, I shall not seek,
or allow, and interpretation
at variance with it.
I may admit a Qabalistic or cryptographic secondary meaning when such confirms, amplifies,
deepens, intensifies, or clarifes the obvious common-sense significance ; but only if it
be part of
the general plan of the "latent light,"and self-proven by abundatnt witness.
For example: "To me !"(I, 65) is to be taken primarily in its obvious sense as
the Call of Nuith
to us Her stars.
The transliteration "TO MH"may be admitted as the "signature"of Nuith,
identifying
Her as the speaker; because these Greek Words mean "The Not,"which is Her Name.
This Gematria of TO MH may be admitted as further confirmation, because their number
4I8 is elsewhere manifested as that of the Aeon.
But TO MH is not to be taken as negating the previous verses, or 4I8 as indicating the
fromula of approach to Her, although in point of fact it is so, being the Rubrick of the
Great
Work. I refuse to consider mere appropriateness as conferring title to authority, and to
read my own personal theories into the Book. I insist that all interpretation shall be
incontestably authentic, neither less, more, nor other than was meant is the Mind of
Aiwaz.
4. I lay claim to be the sole authority competent to decide disputed
points with regard to the Book
of the Law, seeing that its Author, Aiwaz, is none other than mine own Holy Guardian
Angel, to Whose Knowledge and Conversation I hace attained, so that I have exclusive
access
to Him. I have duly referred every difficulty to Him directly, and received His answer; my
award
is therefore absolute without appeal.
5. The verse, II, 47, "one cometh after him, whence I say not, who
shall discover the key of it all,"
has been fulfilled by "one"Achad is not said to extend beyond this single
exploit;
Achad is nowhere indeicated as appointed or even authorized to relieve The Beast of His
task
of the Comment. Achad has proved himself,*1* and proved the Book, by his on achievement;
and this shall suffice.
6. Wherever
a. The words of the Text are obscure in themselves; where
b. The expression is strained ; where
c. The Syntax,
d. Grammar,
e. Spelling, or
f. The use of capital letters present peculiarities ; where
g. Non-English words occur ; where the style suggests
h. Paronomasia,
i. Ambiguity, or
j. Obliquity ; or where
k. A problem is explicitly declared to exist; in all such cases I shall
seek for a meaning hidden
by means of Qabalistic correspondences, cryptography, or literary subtleties. I shall
admit no
solution which is not at once simple, striking, consonant with the general plan of the
Book ;
and not only adequate but necessary.
Examples:
i I, 4. Here teh obvious sense of the text is non-sense ; it therefore needs intimate
analysis. ii II, I7,
line 4. The natural order of the words is distorted by placing "not"before
"know me"; it is proper to
ask what object is attained by this peculiarity of phrasing.
iii I, I3. The text as it stands is unintelligible; it
calls attention to itself ; a meaning must be found which will not only justify the
apparent error, but
prove the necessity of employing that and no other expression. iv II, 76. "to be
me"for "to be I."
The unusual grammar invites enquiry ; it suggests that "me"is a concealed name,
perhaps MH,
"Not,"Nuith, since to be Nuith is the satisfaction of the formula of the
Speaker, Hadith.
v III, I. The omission of the "i"in "Khuit"is in-
dicative that some concealed doctrine is based upon
the variant.
vi II, 27. The spelling of "Because"with a capital B
suggests that it may be a proper name, and possibly
that its Greek or Hebrew equivalent may identify the
idea Qabalistically with some enemy of our Hier-
archy ; also that such word may demand a capital
value for its initial.
vii III, II. "Abstruction"suggests that an idea other-
wise inexpressible is conveyed in this manner.
Paraphrase is here inadmissible as a sufficient in-
terpretation; there must be a correspondence in the
actual structure of the word with its etymologically
deduced meaning.
viii III, 74. The words "sun"and "son"are evidently
chosen for the identity of their sound-value; the
inelegance of the phrase therefroe insists on some
such adequate justification as the existence of a
hidden treasure of meaning.
ix III, 73. The ambiguity of the instruction warrants
the supposition that the wrods must somehow contain
a cryptographic formula for so arranging the sheets
of the MS. that an Arcanum becomes manifest.
x I, 26. The apparent evasion of a direct reply in
"Thou knowest !"suggests that the words conceal a
precise answer more convincing in cipher than their
openly-expressed equvialent could be.
xi II, I5. The text explicity invites Qabalistic ana-
lysis.
7. The Comment must be consistent with itself at all points; it must
exhibit ther Book of the
Law as of absolute authority on all possible questions proper to Mankind, as offering the
perfect solution of all problems philosophical and practical without exception.
8. The Comment must prove beyond possibility of error that the Book of
the Law,
a. Bears witness in itself to the quthorship of Aiwaz, an Intelligence
independent of
incarnation ; and
b. Is warranted wrothy of its claim to credence by the evidence of
external events.
For example, the first proposition is proved by the cryptography connected with 3I, 93,
4I8,
666,[pi], etc.; and the second by the concurrence of circumstance with various statements
in the text
such that the categories of time and causality forbid all explanations which exclued its
own postulates,
while the law of probabilities makes coincidence inconceivavle as an evasion of the issue.
9. The Comment must be expressed in terms intelligible to the minds of
men of average
education, and independent of abstruse technicalities.
I0. The Comment must be pertinent to the problems of our own
tiems, and present the principles of the Law in a manner
susceptible of present practical application. It must satisfy
all types of intelligence, neither revolting to rational,
scientific, mathematical, and philosophical thinkers, nor
repugnant to religious and romantic temperaments.
II. The Comment must appeal on behalf of the Law to the authority of
Experience. It must make
Success the proof of the Truth of the Book of the Law at every point of contact with
Reality.
The Word fo Aiwaz must put forth a perfect presentation of the Universe as Necessary,
Intelligible, Self-subsistent, as Integral, Absolute, and Immanent. It must satisfy all
intuitions, explain all enigmas, and compse all conflicts. It must reveal Reality,
reconcile
Reason with Relativity; and, resolving not only all antinomies in the Absolute, but all
antipathies in the appreciation of Aptness, assure the acquiescence of every faculty of
manking in the perfection of its plenary propriety.
Releasing us from every restrition upon Right, the Word of Aiwaz must extend its empire by
enlisting the allegiance of every man and every woman that puts its truth to the test.
On these principles, to the pitch of my power, will I the Beast 666, who received the Book
of
the Law from the Mouth of mine Angel Aiwaz, make my comment thereon ; being armed with
the word : "But the work of the comment ?
That is easy ; and Hadit in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen."
____________________
Editorial Note to this Chapter.
The reader is now in full possession of the account of "how
thou didst come hither". The student who wishes to act
intelligently will be at pains to make himself thoroughly
acquainted at teh outset with the whole of the external
circumstances connected with the Writing of the Book, whether
they are of biographical or other importance. He should thus be
able to approach the Book with his mind prepared to apprehend the
unique character of their contents in repect of its true
Authorship, the peculiarities of Its methods of communicating
Thought, and the nature of Its claim to be the Canon of Truth,
the Key of Progress, and the Arbiter of Conduct. He will be able
to form his own judgment upon It, only insofar as he is fixed in
the proper Point-of-View; the sole question for him is to decide
whether It is or is not that which It claims to be, the New Law
in the same sense as the Vedas, the Pentateuch, the Tao Teh King,
and Qu'ran are Laws, but with the added Authority of Verbal,
Literal, and Graphic inspiration established and counter-checked
by internal evidence with the impeccable precision of a
mathematical demonstration. If It be that, It is an unique
document, valid absolutely within the terms of its self-contained
thesis, incomparabley more valuable than any other Transcript of
Thought which we possess.
If It be not wholly that, it is a worthless curiosity of
literature; worse, it is and appalling proof that no kind or
degree of evidence soever is sufficient to establish any possible
proposition, since the closest concatenation of circumstances may
be no more than the jetsam of chance, and the most comprehensive
plans of purpose a puerile pantomime. To reject this Book is to
make Reason itself ridiculous and the Law of Probabilities a
caprice. In Its fall it shatters the structure of Science, and
buries the whole hope of man's heart in the rubble, throwing upon
its heaps the sceptic, blinded, crippled, and gone melancholy
mad.
The reader must face the problem squarely; half-measures
will not avail. If there be qught he recognize as transcendental
Truth, he cannot admit the possibility that the Speaker, taking
such pains to prove Himself and His Word, should yet incorporate
Falsehood in the same elaborate engines. If the Book be but a
monument of a mortal's madness, he must tremble that such power
and cunning may be the accomplices of insane and criminal
archanarchs.
But if he know the Book to be justified of Itself, It shall
be justified also of Its children; and he will glow with gladness
in his heart as he reads the sixty-third to the sixty-seventh
verses of Its chapter, and gain his first glimpse of Who he
himself is in truth, and to what fulfilment of Himself It is of
virtue to bring Him.
------------------------------------------------------------------
CHAPTER VIII
Summary of the Case.
In this revelation is the basis of the future Aeon. Within the memory of man we have had
the Pagan
period, the worship of Nature, of Isis, of the Mother, of the Past; the Christian period,
the
worship of Man, of Osiris, of the Present. The first period is simple, quiet, easy, and
pleasant; the
material ignores the spiritual; the second is of suffering and death: the spiritual
strives to
ignore the material. Christianity and all cognate religions worship death, glorify
suffering,
deify corpses. The new Aeon is the worship of the spiritual made one with the material, of
Horus, of
the Child, of the Future.
Isis was Liberty ; Osiris, bondage ; but the new Liberty is that of Horus. Osiris
conquered her
because she did not understand him. Horuse avenges both his Father and his Mother. This
child
Horus is a twin, two in one. Horus and Harpocrates are one, and they are also one with Set
or
Apophis, the destroyer of Osiris. It is by the destruction of the principle of death that
they are born.
The establishment of this new Aeon, this new fundamental principle, is the great work now
to be
accomplished in the world.
FRATER PERDURABO, to whom this revelation was made with so many signs and wonders, was
himself unconvinced. He struggled against it for years. Not until the completion of His
own
initiation at the end of I909 did he understand how perfectly he was bound to carry out
this
work.*1* Again and again He turned away from it, took it up for a few days or hours, then
laid it
aside. He even attempted to destroy its value, to nullify the result. Again and again the
unsleeping might of the Watchers drove Him back to the work; and it was at the very moment
when
He thought Himself to have escaped that He found Himself fixed for ever with no
possibility of again
turning asede for the fraction of second from the Path.
The history of this must one day be told by a more vivid voice. Properly considered, it is
a
history of continuous miracle. Enough if it is now said that in this Law lies the whole
future: it
is the Law of Liberty, and those who refuse it proclaim themselves slaves, and as slaves
shall they be
chained and flogged. It is the Law of Love, and those who refuse it declare themselves to
be the
children of hate, and their hate shall return upon them and consume them with its unending
tortures. It is the Law of Life, and those who refuse it shall be subject to death; and
death shall
catch them unawares. Even their life shall be a living death. It is the Law of Light, and
those who
refuse it thereby make themselves dark for ever.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law! Refuse this, and fall under the curse of
destiny.
Divide will against itself, the result is impotence and strife, strife-in-vain. The Law
condemns no
man. Accept the Law, and everything is lawful.
Refuse the Law, you put yourself beyond its pale. It is the Law that Jesus Christ, or
rather the
Gnostic tradition of which the Christ-legend is a degradation, attempted to teach; but
nearly every
word he*1* said was mininterpreted and garbled by his enemies, particularly by those who
called themselves his disciples. In any case the Aeon was not ready for a Law of Freedom.
Of
all his followers only St. Augustine appears to have got even a glimmer of what he meant.
A further attempt to teach this law was made through Sir Edward Kelly at the end of the
sixteenth
century. The bondage of orthodoxy prevented his words from being heard, or understood. In
many ohter ways has the spirit of truth striven with man, and partial shadows of this
truth have been
the greatest allies of science and philosophy. Only now has success been attained. A
perfect
vehicle was found, and the message enshrined in a jewelled casket; that is to say, in a
book with
the injunction "Change not as much as the style of a letter."This book is
reproduced in
facsimile, in order that there shall be no possibility of corrupting it. Here, then, we
have an
absolutely fixed and definite standpoint for the foundation of an universal religion.
We have the Key to the resolution of all human problems, both philosophical and practical.
If we
have seemed to labour at proof, our love must be the excuse for our infirmity ; for we
know well that
which is written in the Book:
"Success is your proof."
We ask no more than one witness ; and we call upon Time to take the Oath, and testify to
the Truth
of our plea.
FOOTNOTES
PAGE 41
1) In the Book of the Law we find in the 3rd chapter and the 39th to the
41st verse an instruction to
issue a book to say how this Revelation was obtained, with certain details with regard to
the style
in which it is to done.
It has hitherto been impossible to comply with this injunc-
tion, although an attempt was made in "The Temple of Solomon the
King". We now proceed to do so; the subject divides itself into
Eight Chapters.----[Ed.]
PAGE 43
1) This curious trait may perhaps be evidence of his poetical feeling,
his passion for the bizarre
and mysterious, or even of his aptitude for the Hebrew Qabalah. It may also be interpreted
as a
clue to his magical ancestry.
2) The first man to beat him was H. E. Atkins, British Chess Champion
(Amateur) for many years.
PAGE 45
1) Swinburne similarly refused to be examined in Classics at Oxford on
the ground that he knew
more than the examiners.
2) In Chess also he has beaten many International Masters, and ranks on
the Continent as a Minor
Master himself. But he cannot be relied upon to win against a second-rate player in a Club
Match.
PAGE 47
1) Written in I920 e.v.: these records may no longer stand.
PAGE 52
1) See Part I of Book 4 for a description of this, and an expla-nation
of the difficulty of the task,
even in the case of one whose powers of concentrated attention, in the ordinary sense of
the
phrase, are highly developed.
2) He is the author of commentaries on the Gospels of Matthew and John,
which he explains as
containing many of the aphorisms of Yoga.
PAGE 53
1) See Part I of Book 4 for full descriptions, and Equinox for some of
FRATER PERDURABO'S
records of these practices.
PAGE 54
1) See Part I of Book 4, and Equinox Vol. I, No. IV.
2) An account of this journey is given by Dr. Jacot-Guillarmod:
"Six mois dans l'Himalaya."His own story is in "The Spirit of
Solitude"(The Confessions of
Aleister Crowley) Vol. II.
PAGE 55
1) The Mystic Name of an Adept of this degree is not to be divulged
without special reasons for
so doing.
PAGE 56
1) See the Equinox "The Temple of Solomon the King"for a
fairly full account of these various
matters. The "Master"was the late S.L. Mathers.
PAGE 58
1) An account of these matters, in part, is to be found in the Equinox,
Vol. I, No. VIII, and in his
own poem "Aha !"
PAGE 6I
1) The notes for this article were worked out in collaboration with
Captain (now Major-General)
J.F.C. Fuller. Every means of cross-examination was pressed to the utmost.
2) Projected by Fuller as no more than a record of the personal
attainment of Aleister Crowley.
PAGE 68
1) As a devotee of Yoga, "Union,"would have done.
2) Given in Liber Samekh: see "Magick."
3) Thoth, the Egytian God of Wisdom and Magick.
4) Horus.
5) The Sun.
PAGE 69
1) More probably a blind.
PAGE 70
1) I.e. Wednesday.
2) See "Magick"Appendix Liber CXX.
3) Thursday.
4) Friday.
5) Saturday.
6) Sunday.
PAGE 7I
1) See Equinox Vol. I, No. II, the Neophyte Ritual of the G.D.
PAGE 73
1) 666 had been taken by Fra. P. as the number of His own Name (The
Beast) long years before, in
His childhood. There could be no physical causal connection here ; and coincidence,
sufficient
to explain this one isolated fact, becomes inadequate in view of the other evidence.
PAGE 75
1) (The father's name. The method of spelling shows that he was a
foreigner. There is no clue to
the vocalisation).
PAGE 76
1) The analogy is between the "new formula"given by the
"Word"every six months in the Order,
and that given every couple of thousand years (more or less) by the Word of a Magus to the
whole or part of Mankind.
PAGE 77
1) "Monday. The Sun enters Aries."i.e. Springs begins.
2) Tuesday.
3) Wednesday.
PAGE 86
1) But see the miraculous events connected with "The Revival of
Magick"described in Magick pp.
257-260, where he is shewn as 93.
2) I.e. the messenger of God to Man.
3) The motto of Fra. P. as a Magister Templi 8[degree] = 3[?];
He used it in His office of giving out the "Official Books of A.A."to the word
in the Equinox.
4) J.F.C. Fuller.
PAGE 94
1) This paper was written, independently of any idea of its present
place in this Book, by The
Beast 666 Himself, in the Abbey of Thelema in Cefalu, Sicily. No further apology is
of-fered
for any repetitious of statements made in previous chap-ters.
PAGE 96
1) Written in I920, e.v.
PAGE 97
1) Such a theory would further imply that I am, unknown to myself,
possessed of all sorts of
praeternatural knowledge and power. The law of Parsimony of Thought (Sir W. Hamilton)
appears in rebuttal. Aiwaz calls Himself "the minister of Hoor-parr-Kraat,"the
twin of Heru-
Ra-Ha. This is the dual form of Horus, child of Isis and Osiris.
PAGE 98
1) In preparation.
PAGE I0I
1) The Chalice is not presented to laymen. Those who understand the
reason for this and other
details of the Mass, will wonder at the perfection with which the Roman Communion has
preserved the form, and lost the substance, of the Supreme Magical Ritual of the True
Gnosis.
PAGE I02
1) The "magical numbers"of the Sun are, according to
tradition, 6, (6 x 6) 36, (666 [divided by] III,
and [epsilon] (I-36) 666.
PAGE I03
1) Shin 300 Teht 9 Aleph I Lamed 30 He 5 Yod I0 Mem 40. Note that 395
being the corrections
required ! Note also the 3I and the 93 in this value of [pi].
PAGE I07
1) See Liber LXV, I, Equinox III, and Liber VII Equinox III, II,
especially.
PAGE II2
1) Church of England. I confidently supposed that Anglicansim was a
peculiarly violent form of
Devil-Worship, and was in de-spair at being unable to discover where the Abomination came
in.
PAGE II3
1) It broke out during my absence (I906), and made it impossible to
resume the previous relations.
PAGE II4
1) See previous chapter.
PAGE II5
1) I invoked them by the Air section of Liber Samekh, and the
appropriate God-names,
Pentagrams, & c.
PAGE II7
1) The effect was thus as if the language were
"English-in-itself,"without any background, such
as exists when one hears any one human speak it, and enables one to assign all sorts of
attributes to the speaker.
PAGE II8
1) This impression seems to have been a sort of visualization in the
imagination. It is not
uncommon for me to receive intima-tions in this manner.
2) I do not necessarily mean that he is a member of human socie-ty in
quite the normal way. He
might rather be able to form for Himself a human body as circumstances indicate, from the
appro-priate Elements, and dissolve it when the occasion for its use is past. I say this
because I
have been permitted to see Him in recent years in a variety of physical appearances, all
equally "material"in the sense in which my own body is so.
PAGE I26
1) The following passage, to the end of the chapter, refers to the
Commentary ; whereas the
Comment itself is printed, above, with the text. This Comment is the really inspired
message, cutting as it does all the difficulties with a single keen stroke. We have
deciede,
however, to retain the passage for its essential interest and as a preliminary to the
publication of
the Commentary---Ed.
PAGE I27
1) I note that A Ch D is "his child"without reference to The
Scarlet Woman ; whereas the Child
who is to be "mightier than all the kings of the earth"is to be bred from Her,
without reference to
the Beast. There is no indication that these two children are not identical ; but there is
none that
they are. Hans "Carter"( or Hirsig) might perfectly well be the latter of these
children.
PAGE I35
1) Indeed, it was not until his Word became conterminous with Himself
and His Universe that all
alien ideas lost their meaning for Him.
PAGE I36
1) Consult Equinox III 2 "Jesus,"a study of the New Testment
by The Beast 666, where it is
proven that "Jesus"is a composite figure of several incompatible elements. There
is therefore
no "he"in the case. The Gospels are a crude compilation of Gnosti-cism, Judaism,
Essenism,
Hinduism, Buddhism, with the watch-words of various sacerdotal-political cults, thrown at
random into a hotch-potch of the distroted legends of the persons of the Pagan Pantheon,
all
glued with a semblance of unity in the interests of sustaining the shaken fabric of lacal
faiths
against the assults of the consolidation of civilization, and of applying the cooper-ative
principle
to businesses whose throats were being cut by competition.
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