AN
UNAUTHORIZED COMMENT
ON THE BOOK OF THE LAW:
THE ALKHEMION WORKING
PART
TWO By Shade
Oroboros 817
R A H O
O R K H U I T A B R A
H A D A B R A H O O R
P A K R A A T
PART II:
AL QUTUB: the Center-Point of Hadit (al-Qutub
is Arabic for axis, pole-star or point)
The
Second Chapter
1. Nu!
the hiding of Hadit.
The opposite or completion
of c.I, v.1: concealment rather than manifestation. The divine spark of
life and consciousness is hidden in the physical world as a mystery
sub-atomic and internal, subjective rather than objective. Suggestive
of the Egyptian High God Amoun, the Invisible or Hidden One.
Invisibility is an attribute of Hoor-par-kraat, the newborn Horus who
was hidden among the papyrus rushes in the swamplands of the Nile by
his mother Isis when he was a child. This landscape intermediate
between earth and water is similar to the First Hill or primeval mound
that emerges from the waters of space at the beginning of time at the
Creation. The Babe in the Egg is
hidden in Darkness, the womb of the Goddess.
Crowley defines Hadit as “the Impersonal Identity within the
Individuality”, and also says: “Every
Individual manifests the Whole; and the Whole conceals every
Individual. The Soul interprets the Universe; and the Universe veils
the Soul. Nature understands Herself by becoming self-conscious in Her
units; and the Consciousness loses its sense of separateness by
dissolution in Her.”
The sage Sankara said: “Liberation
cannot be achieved except through perceiving the identity of the
individual spirit with the Universal Spirit. Atman and Brahman are
identical. Their essence is pure Consciousness.”
A.O. Spare said: "For I
am I: ergo, the truth of myself: my own sphinx, conflict, chaos,
vortex: asymmetric to all rhythms: oblique to all paths. I am the prism
between black and white: mine own unison in duality.”
The sage Shankaracharya
said: “I am
not detachment nor salvation, Nor
anything reached by the senses; I
behold all thought and form. I am
everywhere, and nowhere at all- I am
Consciousness and Bliss. I am
Shiva! I am Shiva!”
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 extended, and Khabs is the
name of my House.
‘Come!’ implies a sacred
gathering, or perhaps is an exhortation to orgasm, the result of the
marriage of Had and Nu; secret may imply secretions in the sexual or
Tantric gnosis of AL, or the secrets of Magick, or the nature of the
True Self.
The Khabs is the
Star, first discussed under c.I, vs.8-9. The House is the meaning of
Beth/2, which is ascribed to the Atu of the Magus (Magician or Juggler)
in the tarot; the physical human body is the dwelling-place of
consciousness and the true temple of spiritual practice (and many forms
of ancient temples are based upon the proportions of the human body).
Hadit is the sub-atomic point, hence unextended but of infinite
potential. It therefore seems that the House of Nuit must be the Khu,
or Manifestation.
3.
In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is
nowhere found. 4.
Yet she shall be known & I never.
Nu-Isis is the expanding
universe spread out before us, constantly revealing Herself; yet Hadit,
the nucleus of the invisible human soul, remains mysterious and
unknowable. ‘Nowhere’ is where She is found, and ‘no-when’.
The sphere is
considered the perfect form, and a word with many meanings. This verse
restates the ancient hermetic aphorism from the Book of the 24
Philosophers: “A Circle whose
Center
is Everywhere, and that has Nowhere a Circumference.” Thomas Huxley said, “The known is finite, the unknown
infinite.”
Crowley says: “Hadit is hidden in Nuit, and knows Her,
She being an object of knowledge; but He is not knowable, for He is
merely that part of Her which She formulates in order that She may be
known.”
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.
The old Aeons are over and
done with, and their more useful practices must be realigned with the
93 current. Knowledge in this sense is gnosis: direct experience of
wisdom, power and ecstasy. Knowledge also pertains to the 11th
non-sphere of Daath. And indeed, reviewing world events, many religious
forms seem to have passed their useful span and are in serious moral
decay.
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.
Hadit is frequently
identified with flame, and in many cosmologies (such as that of the
greek philosopher Heraclitus, who stated that “Fire is All”) this fire
is the original creative element of the primordial Big Bang: the energy
before matter, the light in the darkness. To be fully and consciously
alive implies the awareness of impending death; see Carlos Castaneda’s
writings upon becoming a warrior. Life and death, like all polarities,
each contain their own opposites.
Hadit is seen in
Egyptian terms as the falcon-winged sun, but I also regard him as
powerfully symbolized on my altar in the Siva-lingam, an egg-shaped
sacred stone found in the Narada River in India, similar in some ways
to the greek stone Omphallos, the sacred center or ‘navel of the
world’, the Axis Mundi where all roads meet. And yet another image for
him in sacred art might be the human skull, implying both life and
death: when individuality is stripped away with the flesh, this becomes
an almost universal symbol of eternity, emptiness and ultimate reality.
The skull of a horned beast is also holy.
As Mircea Eliade
observed: "Every Microcosm, every
inhabited region, has a Centre; that is to say, a place that is sacred
above all."
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.
The Magician is the
Creator, and the Exorcist is the Destroyer. Hadit is the omnipresent
center of manifestation; consider Lao-Tzu writing upon the hub of the
wheel, useful only because of its emptiness. See the 30th Aethyr of The
Vision & The Voice, which opens with the words: “I AM in a vast crystal cube in the form of
the Great God Harpocrates. This cube is surrounded by a sphere.”
In much of
ceremonial magick, the cube might be the altar in the center of the
circle, or might be seen as an unfolding geometry in space. Nuit is the
Sphere, Hadit the Cube, whose six sides imply the six directions of
space and the sixth and central sphere of Tiphareth, the Sun. Squaring
the Circle is also a philosophical paradox.
‘To me!’ is the call
of Nuit; Hadit is motion, she is matter; he the spirit, she the matrix
of forms emitted from the formless. TIME is the reversal of EMIT;
both equal 64 or 8x8, the number of hexagrams in the I Ching and
squares on the chessboard, and the Gematria of Mother KALI.
8. Who
worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the
worshipper.
Heru-pa-kraath is a child
form of Horus, here identified with Hadit. The proper attitude of
Thelema is never just one of passively worshipping the gods, but of
actually becoming or manifesting them through communion or
overshadowing or trance or possession; magick is defined as the making
of willed changes in our state of consciousness. By identifying
ourselves with cosmic or cultural archetypes we take on their powers
and aspects, the disguise becoming a reality. We contain every thing
within our selves. We are all the Magical Child. Therefore we do not
worship Hadit, we are Hadit, and worship only Nuit.
As Crowley says: “It is bad Magick
to admit that one is other than One's inmost self.”
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.
As ever, ecstasy is the
theme of AL; and apparently the immortality of the soul may again be
implied (the Big Question that can never be answered until Death
occurs). There are a number of references to transitory shadows, which
occur when material object occlude the Light.
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 knewest not. 13. for
why? Because thou wast the knower, and me.
At this point in the
dictation, Crowley was sulking. He often spoke of his early resistance
to this book, which considering his background may not be surprising;
while the declaration that he was the prophet of a new epoch may have
been quite flattering, his belief structures at the time were not
precisely aligned to those expressed herein, and the peculiar leaps of
grammar and concepts apparently drove him crazy. He has quite
exhaustively documented his early life and the evolution of his
thought, and I see no particular reason to doubt him; while he
personally may have quite often been more than difficult, sarcastic,
egotistical or arrogant he seldom appears as dishonest or completely
oblivious in his appraisal of his own magical work (or in private
journals, of himself and his own foibles). Nor was he without humor,
bravery, intelligence and considerable charm. A Paradox? Hadit is the Knower, and
Knowledge is the meaning of the word Gnosis. Those gnasty gnostics were
a very diverse variety of both late Pagan and early Judeo-Christian
sects who employed extremely magical visionary techniques and sought
direct experience of God rather than faith, not unlike a western
version of Tantra.
14. Now
let there be a veiling of this shrine: now let the light devour men and
eat them up with blindness!
Revealing and re-veiling,
manifesting and concealing, are frequent themes in AL; they reflect the
hide & seek love-play of Had & Nu. One form of the ordeals is
termed ‘the blind ones”, and there are other references to the word
‘blind’. In
Egyptian temples the shrine and image of the patron god were hidden
away in a secret chamber at the very heart of the structure. Light as
blindness is also an interesting paradox.
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.
Back to the mysteries of
the qabala again! Crowley explains these verse in terms of various
tarot trumps, with results rather less that fully illuminating. Nuit or
Not, however, is perfect.
This is Frater Achad’s
interpretation:
“Hadit
here clearly says he is Not, or BEING-NOT (a combination of Nuit and
Hadit as the Perfect and Perfect, which, be it remembered are One, nay
None.) We have considered His particular aspect as AL rather than LA,
but the previous verse indicates a blind. He is the shrine veiled by
Not, for AL is the manifestation of LA, and LA is the hiding of AL (See
first verse of Chapters I and II). He is Eight with the just because
they consider the balance of things and so consider him as AL-LA which
again gives 62 = 8 = Cheth = 418 = Fool = Aleph = None as explained
before in answer to the riddle of Nuit. This shows he is One (Aleph) in
eight, and also None, quite clearly. Now comes
the striking indication of an underlying formula in this Book, which
can be read in two ways, and the very same Word is used to express
this, only in the English instead of the Hebrew, which of course throws
one off the scent of the mystery.”
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.
Sorrow and despair are
self-defeating in both organized theologies and personal life, and are
my main issue with a merely superficial understanding of Buddhism
(which is still in general about the cleanest of the world religions:
rational, genuinely devoted to Compassion, and not an endless parade of
hypocritical Holy Wars). All we can really be sure of is our present
lifetime, and to waste it by overindulgence in useless misery or sordid
escapism is pathetic. The poor and the sad are the unawakened, those
oblivious to the joys and opportunities of life. These dead might be
seen as merely biologically alive drones or zombies (or slaves?). Life is tough. Deal with it.
Crowley is quite harsh with
the general public: “Those who
sorrow are not real people at all, not 'stars'—for the time being. The
fact of their being "poor and sad" proves them to be 'shadows', who
'pass and are done'. The "lords of the earth" are those who are doing
their Will.”
Motta adds: “The lords of the earth are those who have
control over their surroundings, over the material site of their
'existence'. That is, the true men. The others are asleep, and being
asleep are merely animals walking on two legs - the "unfeathered
bipeds" of Diogenes.”
The question is, how often
is an attitude of contempt for one’s fellow humans really justified?
Some might say never, others… pretty damn often.
19. Is a
God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall
rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.
This suspicious reversal of
god/dog may conceal, in the highest, an astronomical secret. In the
esoteric tradition our Sun is the heart of the solar system, but the
dog-star Sirius or Sothis is the third eye; it may indeed be the ‘One
Star In Sight’ or ‘Silver Star’ of the magical order of the Astrum
Argentum. This star is associated with Isis and (before the Aswan dam
project) signaled the annual flooding of the Nile inundation that made
life and agriculture possible in ancient Egypt. The works of Robert
Anton Wilson, Kenneth Grant, and Robert Temple have much more to say
about this complex of ideas. Alternatively, the dog/god
polarity may imply a choice between being and behaving as either a
(relatively, I really do like dogs) mindless animal or a fully aware
human.
20.
Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and
fire, are of us.
‘Beauty and strength‘ are
Tiphareth and Geburah on the Tree of Life, and are linked elsewhere in
AL; while ‘leaping laughter and delicious languor’ celebrate both
active and passive pleasure. It is quite refreshing to see laughter and
languor celebrated as positive values. ‘Force and fire’ are repeated as
aspects of Horus, and Crowley relates them to the titles of priest,
prince and prophet through the initial letters PR: Pe/80 is linked to
Mars or force and the atu of the Lightning-Struck Tower, while Resh/200
is the Sun and fire. See also c.III, vs. 32-33.
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.
Clearly some rather harsh
words; Nietzsche might be proud. Perhaps they reflect the debris of the
huge amounts of self-righteousness and hypocrisy that have resulted
from two thousand years of highly conditional Christian charity; and
anyone who has been involved in the works of social welfare has
probably noticed that many people are in fact their own worst enemies.
Perhaps this is merely some recognition of the simple and harsh reality
of the Darwinian bottom line: some people are just not functional, and
only drain the resources of society. Nature can, of sheer necessity, be
extremely cruel in her judgments. On the other hand, perhaps these
words are intended to make people stand up and fight for themselves and
for their beliefs, for at the same time we must look very closely at
the clear statement that ‘Compassion is the vice of kings’, since AL in
general speaks quite highly of vice, and even kings need a hobby. In
fact, it may be that only kings can truly know compassion, as the
common herd tends towards an excess of blood-thirst and is all too
easily led into hatred and warfare. People who lack empathy are
frequently dangerous. On another hand, human beings have many aspects
other than mere physical strength, and to limit the concept of
unfitness to that dimension is unrealistic in a more advanced situation
than the Law of the Jungle - especially when Thelemites take delight in
breaking laws whenever possible.
However, Motta claims that “Crowley was upset by this verse of the
Second Chapter all his life, and some of his more egregious blunders
were attempts to punish himself for having written it down.” Yet
Crowley also referred to humanitarianism as “the syphilis of the mind”. One
never quite knows when the man was just indulging his urge to shock
people, or when he had some ulterior or superior motive… it is a rather
interesting process writing this commentary, as there are at least four
people in the room: Aiwass dictating the transmission, Crowley
receiving it, myself interpreting them, and my hypothetical
interlocutor, yourself.
Motta’s comment also says
this: “We must seek a clear
definition of our values. Who is strong? The man who delights in the
suffering of other humans, or who needlessly hurts an animal? Or, on
the other hand, the man who condemns scientists who experiment on
animals to learn how to cure diseases, and is always eager to intervene
between his neighbor and his private grief? Who is strong? The man who
allows the existence and prosperity of others who think differently
from him, who refuse to serve him or his ideals, or the man who
interprets every demonstration of autonomy as an affront of his ego?
Who is weaker? The Nazi who burned a dead Jew in an oven, or any man
who worships a God that he considers willing to let a living soul burn
in hell forever? Who is stronger? The man who daily scatters fish among
the hungry, or the man who teaches the hungry how to fish for
themselves?”
From these sordid depths of
misery we leap again to the heights of ecstasy and eternity.
Personally, my own theology is that the cosmos is the Body of God, and
any living consciousness is the Mind of God, and the vast drama of
human history is the Dream of God we all seem to share. Life appearing
at all in this random universe is utterly amazing. We do not know the
nature of Time or the origin of all things, but it seems much more
likely to mean Something than merely Nothing, and our memories may
indeed be immortal. We are told that energy changes forms but is never
lost, and who really knows the true nature of Eternity and it’s
recording?
An essential aspect
of religious thought concerns the concept of life after death: what
happens? Liber AL often espouses an ambiguity appropriate to the
subject. Personally I quite like the notion of reincarnation: the
Universe having labored long to spawn semi-self-aware life, it would
seem discourteous to casually discard this miracle of consciousness.
Yet some magical cultures believe that immortality is not for everyone:
the Egyptians were famous for the elaborate rituals, offerings and
embalming believed to guarantee eternal bliss, while other traditions
maintain that the soul must be individually awakened and evolved if it
is not to simply dissipate into the elements along with the body.
Perhaps this is among the secret teachings of AL: that practices such
as enlightenment, cohesion of and communion with the soul, yoga, astral
travel and union with one’s highest aspects may “strengthen the flames
of our true being” to insure survival beyond... Roger Zelazny’s
brilliant novel Lord of Light
may be a manual of apotheosis for the
discerning mage, a word to the wise.
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.
The identification of Hadit
as a snake has many dimensions; in Egyptian myth the gods themselves
begin and end in the form of serpents in the dark primordial ocean of
the Nun, and the great magical power (Heka) may be portrayed either as
or with a serpent. Any Tantric reading of AL must clearly link the
multiple references to serpents with the fire-snake of Kundalini-yoga,
which lies coiled at the base of the spinal column and ascends the
internal cosmos of the chakras when awakened.
Serpents have an ancient history as symbols of mystery, wisdom, and
phallic vitality; of chthonic energies rising from the underworld and
celestial forces writhing like lightning through the heavens. How many
cultures still remember their ancient dragons? How many people recall
their brief careers as spermatozoa? Serpents hatch from eggs like
birds, yet live invisibly underground. They shed their skin, like the
chrysalis of the butterfly a symbol of metamorphosis. They produce
venom, which is sometimes used as a healing medicine; the protective
cobra-goddess or uraeus-serpent crowns many of the egyptian gods, the
alchemical circular Oroboros who devours his own tail is a symbol of
both wholeness and the emptiness of Zero, the norse Midgard-serpent
encircles the world… they are the rainbow spectrum, they entwine in
spiraling coils upon the hermetic wand or caduceus.
The resounding endorsement
of ‘wine and strange drugs’ is also quite prophetic in light of 20th
and 21st century history; the explosive influence of mind-expanding
substances on western society is undeniable, and despite the desperate
attempts of the civil authorities to repress such illuminating
developments the fact remains that ‘illegal’ drugs are easily available
in every American community, and regardless of brainless hysteria and
propaganda the vast majority of normal people using them are otherwise
leading perfectly reasonable lives (with most of the mass deaths caused
by legal alcohol and toxic cigarettes). Despite bourgeois
respectability (which is largely a scam to keep the population
passively in line) it is quite clear that psychedelic entheogens are
sacraments and that many other intoxicants, like rampant sensuality,
are very close to the core of the Dionysian practices of Thelemic
magick and modern tantra. Sex, drugs and rock & roll are all
liberating experiences, and there is nothing that political ideologues
fear more than free people thinking for themselves.
23. I am
alone: there is no God where I am.
The Scarlet Sisterhood
Commentary declares: “I am
more alone than this, for there in no I where I am.”
In an infinite and
unbounded Universe every single point is the Center. To stand alone in
the cosmos, taking full responsibility for one’s own experiences, is a
powerful meditation fully in harmony with the spirit of AL. To accept
the notion that you are the opening center of the universe is
thrilling. That you are the sole and universal consciousness is
liberating. In many ways I read this as a statement that there is no
other God than the Self. God, in my sensorium, should clearly be
understood as internal as much as external, since a transcendent rather
than immanent deity seems to be one of the major diseases of our
civilization. It is essential to understand that if there is a God,
S/he is not and never can be in any way separate from the entire cosmos
that S/he incarnates; and really, even if there is not a God it still
may be wonderful and useful to assume that there is and that we are It.
God is one of those big open-ended conceptions that serve to expand our
horizons. ‘Alone’ may be ‘All One’?
‘No God’ is Nuit?
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.
Clearly this verse shows a
very left-hand Tantric understanding of the concept of a hermit or
saddhu; asceticism is not the way of Thelema, nor is non-action
considered anything but cowardice. To live, and yet not to participate
in life, is pointless. To avoid ecstasy on any imposed dogmatic
principle is even worse. The true Tantric path is one of action. Does
‘magnificent beasts of women’ imply female Great Beasts? One certainly
hopes so.
“The
pleasures of Paradise are withheld from the poor in spirit and all
ascetics, because they would not understand them.” - Jorge Luis Borges, The Book of Imaginary Beings
The ‘low men’ are simply
those who are unaware. In terms of tarot, the
Hermit is Yod/10 (the numeration of HAD), meaning a hand, half of
Spare’s formulation of the Kia & Zos, or Hand & Eye (the eye
would be Ayin/70, the Devil card).
Parsons, in his
Babalon Working, was
told ‘Flame is
our Lady, Flame is her hair, I am Flame!’ (and then, of course,
he blew himself up in a laboratory explosion).
Aquino states “Strengthening of self-awareness is not to
be achieved through isolation and meditation, as in the Hindu and
Buddhist systems, but through exposure and expression of the self.”
I heartily agree. What is the point of incarnation if it is spent in
cowardly escapism? Is death not final enough for you?
25. Ye
are against the people, O my chosen!
In many ways the masses are
complete idiots and their leaders are even worse, while what passes for
human culture on this planet is very often so utterly vile, oppressive,
destructive and dysfunctional that a moral stance of complete
opposition to what is accepted as normal is the only form of decency
left. In other ways, I suppose the very existence of humanity is still
all pretty damn miraculous… ‘the people’ may also be seen as the masses
of random thoughts, inchoate desires, dreams and sensory impressions
that rattle around inside our primate brains.
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.
This must again refer to
Heka the great magical power or Kundalini, which does have its dangers
and both positive and negative aspects; or to an even wider view of the
chosen interaction of consciousness with all otherness. Venom and
nectar are two different forms of internal energy and external
experience. The distinction made seems to be between mystical energy
devoted to Nuit in the heavens and magical force directed to the
fulfillment of desire upon the earth, without any moral difference
between them. Spirit and Matter are equally educational. In general the
magical path, like life itself, can be both volatile and perilous; one
is dealing with forces, entities, complexes, and aspects of ‘reality’
and ‘self’ that cut very close to the core of being. Choose your
desires wisely.
27.
There is a 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.
The use of the word ‘runes’
is very significant in light of c.II, v.55 and its comments on the
english alphabet. The Old Norse system of poetic runic word-sorcery
(Galdra) is extremely potent, and the qabalistic Tree of Life is only
Yggdrasill in Hebrew; Odin is very clearly another name for Hadit (both
having winged and serpent forms), and Freya has much in common with
Babalon. Ragnarok is very likely the Age of Horus. I consider this one
of the great secrets of this chapter, and in recent decades Asatru and
Runelore have seen a considerable public revival, although many may
prefer the term ‘retro-heathen’ to ‘neo-pagan’.
Freya in her chariot drawn by cats has been associated in at least one
academic study with middle-eastern love & war goddesses such as
Qatesh and Astarte who, like Babalon in the Lust card of the Tarot,
stand upon or ride lions; and an alternate name for the atu Lust or
Strength is the Enchantress, while Freya is also a lady of magick
(Seidhr). We could certainly include Odin’s wife with Freya in many
ways, and some of their aspects frequently overlap (depending on the
location, Freya being more widespread in Scandinavia and Frigg
better-known among the Germans) but Queen Frigg seems likely to be more
closely related to Fate (Wyrd) and to the sky, so I ascribe her to
Nuit.
Thor and Hoor have warrior aspects in common, and two of Odin's other
sons who survive the fires of Ragnarok (the new aeon) are Vali the
Avenger and Vidar the Silent: Ra-hoor-khuit and Hoor-par-kraat? All of
this, of course, may be purely my personal vision; Crowley in one of
his rare lucid moments clearly warns against mistaking a personal
revelation for a universal formula. However, there are Norse and Celtic
elements in The Vision &
the Voice and the other Holy Books, and Thelema unites all.
Motta claims that “REASON = 200+5+1+7+70+50 = 333, the
number of Choronzon, ‘Dispersion’”; whose name also totals 333.
Reason is a wonderful tool in its sphere, but has limits. Daath or the
Abyss is a major turning point in the soul, and ‘not understand’ may
imply the Crossing the Great Sea to the sphere of Binah or
Understanding. The inclusion of the non-sphere of Daath is one of the
evolutions of Thelemic Magick, the Golden Dawn adepts stalled at
Chesed. Crowley’s effort to go further, to attain the Crown, was quite
insanely courageous in its way.
28. Now
a curse upon Because and his kin! 29. May
Because be accursed for ever!
Warns of addiction to the
notion of causality and the limitations of merely rational thought when
faced with the random vicissitudes of life, the whims of Woman (or
Man?), synchronicity, and a quantum universe.
30. If
Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does
nought. 31. If
Power asks why, then is Power weakness.
We hold these truths to be
self-evident: ‘Thou hast no right but to do thy will’. Somewhere,
Nietzsche is finally happy now.
32. Also
reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; &
all their words are skew-wise.
Modern physics and
semantics have discovered the near-impossibility of perfectly observing
and explaining the ultimate nature of reality. Reason and knowledge
have some limitations (we can never predict all unknown factors), and
qabalistically correspond to the non-sphere of Knowledge or Daath. Zen
koans, jokes and puns, and other paradoxes are useful shocks for
breaking down the barriers of the mind.
Most official codes
of human morality (aside from the sublime simplicity of that golden
rule of treating one’s neighbor as oneself) are made up by nasty old
men with serious control issues and a sick need to dominate other
people’s lives with false laws. What exactly is a “victimless crime”?
Crowley, on the other hand, states: “All
this talk about 'suffering humanity' is principally drivel based on the
error of transferring one's own psychology to one's neighbour. The
Golden Rule is silly.”
33.
Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog!
See my remarks on c.II,
vs.28-29 above; but let us not forget Sirius the Dog Star. DOG, GOD,
SIVA, BEAST and OZ all equal 77.
34. But
ye, o my people, rise up & awake!
Awakening and ascent are
both frequent themes. It is safe to say that the goals of magick and
mysticism include awakening or enlightenment.
35. Let
the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty!
Joy and beauty are
attributes of the solar sphere of Tiphareth, where the Knowledge &
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Spirit takes place and Cosmic
Consciousness and the True Will are found.
36.
There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times.
These are workings of fire,
water, earth, air and spirit for the elements, while the times referred
to form the sacred calendar of the Thelemic year, especially the
solstices and equinoxes. Rituals are acts of Will that focus, encode
and transmit energy, while Feasts are nourishing and revitalizing
celebrations of Love.
37. A
feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!
Commemorates the wedding of
Crowley and his first wife Rose on August 12th, 1903. I always remember
the more scurrilous Crowley biographies, which claim that after they
performed a ritual in the Great Pyramid he awoke one night to find her
hanging upside down in the mosquito netting screaming like a rabid bat…
what fun!
38. A
feast for the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law.
Celebrated at Noon on April
8th, 9th, and 10th with readings of the Three Chapters of Liber AL vel Legis: The Book of
the Law. The full ritual Crowley used in preparation may be
found in his book The
Equinox of the Gods. In celebration I usually
include the three invocations of Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor from his long
poem AHA!, which is
an attempt to summarize his whole system in verse.
39. A
feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet -- secret, O Prophet!
Tahuti is the ibis-headed
Egyptian god of magick and writing better known as Thoth or Hermes
Trismegistus, the mercurial patron of the Tarot and Alchemy. Crowley is
quite secretive about this feast, which might be celebrated on January
18th. Possibly a divination by Tarot? The magickal childe is an ongoing
theme in Crowley’s later work and life, in a sense a code for the
results of magical and alchemical operations, although he was also
somewhat obsessed with begetting a genetic heir.
40. A
feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods.
So sayeth the Great Wild
Beast, Mr. Crowley: “The
Supreme Ritual is the Invocation of Horus which brought about the
Opening of the New Aeon. The date is March 20.The Equinox of the Gods
is the term used to describe the Beginning of a New Aeon, or a New
Magical Formula. It should be celebrated at every Equinox, in the
manner known to Neophytes of the A.'.A.’.”
The A.’.A.’. is the Astrum
Argentum or Silver Star, while the O.’.T.’.O.’. is the Order of
Oriental Templars, Crowley’s two main magical orders after his
unceremonious departure from the G.’.D.’. or Golden Dawn. Whatever
happened to the Lamp of Invisible Light?
41. A
feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater
feast for death!
Crowley again: “The feasts of fire and water indicate
rejoicings to be made at the puberty of boys and girls respectively.”
For life celebrate birthdays, for death the departures of your heroes
and saints. Any excuse for many annual parties!
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!
Customs devoted to union
with Had & Nu respectively: joyously awakening in the morning,
entering sleep and dream in full awareness at night.
44. Aye!
feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution,
and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu. 45.
There is death for the dogs.
Again the question of
unending bliss as the afterlife - ecstasy, or oblivion? Perhaps implies
that genuine adepts, with subtle bodies strengthened by practices such
as pranayama, astral travel, and genuine self-awareness, can hold
themselves together long enough to reincarnate, while lesser souls just
eventually disintegrate. Note that many of the Pagan systems predicate
multiple souls and astral or aetheric bodies of various kinds, and that
the Star-Seed may survive while some other aspects of the personality
fade away over time. The late Tupac Shakur once said, “My only fear of death is reincarnation.”
More unkind
words about dogs as well, perhaps implying the vast and obvious
superiority of cats? It should be said that Crowley wrote this in
Egypt, a Moslem country, where dogs and pigs are considered unclean. Considering that his father
was a fanatical preacher who proselytized England with Bible in hand,
hypocrisy in mouth, and young Aleister in tow, or that Crowley was
being exposed to Islam at this time, the concepts of these prophets and
their holy books cannot have failed to influence him. Significantly,
all his biographers note that he idolized his father, who died when he
was quite young, and pretty much hated his mother…
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.
Hadit is essentially
immortal ecstasy, whose flame is beyond sorrow and hence rejects all
fear, doubt, sentimentality and weakness as essentially useless and
soul-destroying. To fear Death is in some sense to reject the very
nature and pattern of joyous and anarchic and Dionysian Life.
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.)
Hadit is declared to be
beyond such sordid limitations by virtue of divine nature. A slave is one who
surrenders to coercion or fate or dogma, rather than creating their own
destiny. The 4 refers to the occult and material elements of earth,
water, air and fire or solid, liquid, gas and energy, while the fifth
is spirit. The invisible babe is Hoor-par-kraat, the egg a symbol of
Akasha or spirit or the womb.
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.
These color-codes may
reveal methods of evoking Hadit (as also described in Liber Had) and to
me also recall serpent symbolism (spangles/scales?). Blue and gold are
the colors of Nu and Had. Red is the base color of the visible spectrum
and purple or violet the highest, with green found at the center.
‘Purple beyond purple’ again suggests spirit, and the ultraviolet that
extends beyond the rainbow that arises out of infrared. I tend to see
infrared as Horus and ultraviolet as Maat, the two outermost extremes
of visible light. In Vodou Damballah and
Ayida Wedo form the Rainbow Serpent of the high Loa; perhaps avatars of
Had and Nu. The Marassa or Twins are also very important.
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 reward you here and hereafter.
Another blow against the
black dharmas of the monotheist era, which have caused so much social
and psychological damage. As for modesty, recent anthropology draws a
distinction between the simple Pagan ‘shame’ and the more insidious
Christian ‘guilt’ cultures in terms of their severity and internal
conflicts. Freedom is celebrated, also
honesty; and vice again hailed as a path to enlightenment as well as
pleasure.
Spare said “Let this be my
one excuse, I pleasured myself.”
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 thou
shalt 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.
Few people accept radical
new prophets when they first appear. Crowley in many ways did
have a rather hard life, faced with a fundamentalist family, the early
deaths of his own children, the difficulties of sustaining romantic
relationships, years of poverty after a life of affluence, serious
health problems, the struggle to make his voice heard while being
scandalously vilified by the gutter press, and the considerable
self-inflicted troubles of his own deeply conflicted personality.
However, he always did persevere, and his work is now better known and
much more influential than at any period during his lifetime. It is
also notable that he kept his sense of humor, which is not an ability
that the insane are generally known for; something those who have dared
to question his psychological stability might well consider. Unlike
many people, he really worked hard on himself! I know I keep quoting
the bastard, but this is his Book, and one could hardly discuss the New
Testament or Koran without mentioning Jesus or Mohammed.
54. Nor
shall they who cry aloud their folly that thou meanest nought avail;
thou shall reveal 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!
Indeed, his posthumous
stature seems to easily exceed that of his shrillest critics. While not
every (or, I would hope, any) sane modern magician blindly accepts
every word of Crowley, his remarkable life and spirit has undeniably
inspired many of the basic techniques and much of the ethos of modern
magick. There is also a strong element of courage in his personality:
record-setting mountain climbing exploits, world travel in some very
dangerous places, big game hunting, an extensive career in espionage,
and fervent attacks on the status quo of an unforgiving society.
In response to an
unspoken question, he is kindly given full latitude as to the
punctuation of AL, but again warned to leave the actual words
untouched. I myself
struggle with an addiction to semicolons.
55. Thou
shalt obtain the order & value of the English Alphabet; thou shalt
find new symbols to attribute them unto.
An ongoing project for
many, and a variety of new english qabalas have been tentatively
proposed. While new symbols, order & numerical values are
prophesied, I still maintain the belief that the Runes are key to the
English alphabet; it is, after all, arguably Anglo-Saxon, hence
respectably British. Again, there has been a considerable Norse revival
of Asatru in recent years, a parallel to the more Celtic influences in
Wicca, which is fast becoming a major world religion.
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 forsaken you. 57. He
that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is filthy shall be
filthy still.
Aiwaz here asserts the
authority, integrity, and inevitable victory of Liber AL over the
carping of its detractors; and also affirms the essential stability (or
inertia) of human nature: by serious effort we may change ourselves,
but the hard truth is that it is almost impossible to impose change on
others. That verse 57 all sounds a bit too damn biblical… no
predestination, please!
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.
The individual’s rights and
true nature are paramount; by doing one’s true will one becomes a king.
Destiny or fate appears to take a hand: we are what we are. Clearly,
‘the slaves shall serve‘ is one of the less democratic statements in
Liber AL; I interpret it to mean that many are prisoners of their own
natures: slaves to each other, or to obsessions, addictions, ideologies
or institutions. People must ultimately liberate themselves. As Prosper
Jolyot de Crebillon said, "Fear
created Gods; Audacity created Kings.” And as for these kings
in disguise, we all play many roles and assume many personas in life;
one should not be bound by any one illusion in particular. The poor in
spirit, however, really are with us always. These references to slaves
do grate upon my own anarchist and libertarian tendencies; perhaps we
should simply interpret them in terms of the sadomasochist subculture,
to which Crowley was no stranger. The reference to ‘masked ones’ is
very significant in light of the later system of Magick involving Masks
and Dances in the Maatian current as transmitted by Soror Nema.
Nietzsche once said, "All
profound spirits love a mask."
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!
A world without competition
or victory, without genius, art, science, struggle or the possibility
of excellence, is eternally condemned to mediocrity. Unconditional love
is just cheap emotion, unearned forgiveness is moral vanity, and the
free ride of “vicarious atonement” is one of the very worst things in
Christianity’s so-called theology.
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.
The inner and outer
manifestations of Hadit and Nuit.
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.
We return again to the
exultations of ecstasy: each breath drawn an orgasm, each exhale a
dissolution: life and death. Perhaps inspiration and expiration are
exhortations to the beneficial practice of pranayama; and ‘hell’s own
worm’ is a phallic metaphor that any feminist might appreciate. The
mention of Hell should probably not be seen as referring to any
particular culture or religious tradition, but to the depths of the
subconscious. Note that there is no devil in any Christian sense to be
found in Thelemic eschatology; he always was an unfortunate concept.
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!
The result of the practice
of Thelemic invocation is often a high pitch of ecstasy, which may be
translated into magical power or earthed in Art. Crowley appears to be
peaking at this point in his trip.
65. I am
the Master: thou art the Holy Chosen One.
The symbolism of the word
‘Master’ recalls the whole guru/disciple relationship central to Asian
religious traditions; also, of course, the Knowledge & Conversation
of the Holy Guardian Angel experience essential to Crowleyan magick. A
common name for the HGA is Adonai or ‘lord’, which shares this verse’s
numeration of 65, and 6+5=11. This is also the 131st verse of the Book
as a whole, the number of the Great God PAN.
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: whoso seeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of
the promise of our agelong love. Come! lift up thine heart &
rejoice! We are one; we are none.
Writing, working, cheap
sordid thrills: the Great Work is doing your own will, expressing your
own art, your being. This is the only truly meaningful game in life. In
terms of AL as a sexual or Tantric gnosis, death must be seen as orgasm
- one of the peak experiences of magick, as well as in sexuality. Much
of this chapter appears devoted to redefining the techniques of arcane
empowerment and questions of personal morality, while the first chapter
established the outlines of Thelemic cosmology and ritual structure.
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!
Crowley notes a memory that
the word may actually have been ‘Harden’, not ‘Harder’; both pretty
phallic. In such sensual yogas, prolonged Tantric intercourse with
delayed orgasm (sometimes called ‘karezza’) is often practiced. The
‘head’ may again be a phallic reference. Here is the entire essence of
sexual magick:
“Although
a jealously guarded secret for many centuries, allegedly because the
powers unleashed are too dangerous to be revealed to all, the technique
is simple enough to be revealed in a single sentence: Orgasm should be
avoided for as long as possible, by always slowing down or altering
position when it seems imminent, and each partner should
visualize/idealize the other as some specially meaningful deity – e.g.,
in Thelemic magick the male usually identifies the female with Nuit,
the sky goddess, and the female usually identifies the male with Pan.” - Robert Anton Wilson, Everything Is Under Control
69. Ah!
Ah! What do I feel? Is the word exhausted?
As the mouth speaks the
word, so the phallus emits semen. Crowley happily defined his cult as
‘solar-phallic’. At this point Crowley may be feeling the stress of the
transmission.
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!
Again, sage advice on the
usage of sensuality and intoxication as keys to success. One may
fortify oneself by many means. But hey! Show a little class!
Crowley says: “Why "eight and ninety" rules of art? I am
totally unable to suggest a reason satisfactory to myself; but 90 is
Tzaddi, the 'Emperor', and 8 Cheth, the 'Charioteer' or Cup-Bearer; the
phrase might then conceivably mean 'with majesty'. Alternatively, 98=2
x 49: now, Two is the number of the Will, and Seven of the passive
senses. 98 might then mean the full expansion of the senses (7 x 7)
balanced against each other, and controlled firmly by the Will.”
He adds: “We therefore employ various magical means
to increase the vigour of our bodies and the energy of our minds, to
fortify and to sublime them. The result is that we of Thelema are
capable of enormously more achievement than others, even in terrestrial
matters, from sexual orgia to creative Art. Even if we had only this
one earth-life to consider, we exceed our fellows some thirtyfold, some
sixtyfold, some an hundredfold.”
71. But
exceed! exceed!
William Blake said, “The Road of Excess leads to the Palace of
Wisdom.”
Moderation is for Buddhists, vegetarians, teetotalers
and the dead.
72. Strive ever to more! and if thou art
truly mine -- and doubt it not, and 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.
More on the question of
death; and we must not forget the close connection of Eros and
Thanatos, sex and death. What this rather obviously seems to say is
that a long life of struggling toward self-perfection is far better
than surrender to entropy. Life is extended foreplay and Death becomes
the Ultimate Orgasm.
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 chosen
one, 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.
The most complex of the
qabalistic conundrums of Liber AL; a cipher many have labored to
interpret, including Crowley, and I doubt if he would have expended the
effort if Liber AL was actually a fraud. The “one to follow” may have
been Frater Achad, or still to come… could Y & X refer to our human
chromosomes? The runic Futhark or alphabet consists of 24 letters. 89
reverses the “eight and ninety rules of art” just mentioned. RPSTOVAL
equals 696, the same number as the Maatian Mahamantra IPSOS, if both
are spelled using Shin/300 for ‘S’ and Vau/6 for the ‘O’ in IPSOS.
77. O be
thou proud and mighty among men!
Proud is the Sun and mighty
is Mars, again associated with the Age of Horus and the
Tiphareth/Geburah link, whose connecting path is Lamed/30, the atu
Balance or Justice. This implies transition from Inspiration to Action.
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.
418 is the numeration of
the word ABRAHADABRA, and of the Hebrew letter Cheth spelled in full
(Cheth/8 + Yod/10 + Tau/400) which is linked to the tarot image of the
Chariot, which was often seen in talismanic images of solar Apollo in
ancient times. Under the later Greek and Roman occupations of Egypt and
the influence of syncretism there evolved a composite deity merging
Horus and Apollo as Horapollo.
Also, Crowley’s
house on Loch Ness in Scotland was Boleskine (located at Latitude 57.14
N. Longitude 4.28 W. about 17 miles from Inverness; Crowley’s ritual of
the Mark of the Beast is directed to this point). Jimmy Page of Led
Zeppelin purchased it in 1970 but later sold it in 1992, it is now a
posh resort hotel. Boleskine as Beth/2 + Vau/6 + Lamed/30 + Shin/300 +
Kaph/20 + Yod/10 + Nun/50 = 418.
Liber 418 is The Vision & The Voice,
Crowley’s account of his marathon Enochian working in the desert. It
chronicles his initiation and the transformation of the world by the
Word of Thelema, and includes many insights upon Liber AL. I mention
this repeatedly in hopes that people will read it; along with the other
Holy Books, it is fairly essential.
79. The
end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the prophet
of the lovely Star!
The theme of hiding or
concealment which opened the second chapter is repeated, as
manifestation was in the first and last verses of the first chapter. Liber Had sub figura DLV
contains the magical and meditation practices for achieving Hadit. Read
it!
I might add this, by
Crowley in the New Comment:
“To the
beginner I would offer this programme. 1.
Furnish your mind as completely as possible with the knowledge of how
to inspect and to control it. 2.
Train your body to obey your mind, and not to distract its attention. 3.
Control your mind to devote itself wholly to discover your true Will. 4.
Explore the course of that Will till you reach its source, your Silent
Self. 5.
Unite the conscious will with the true Will, and the conscious Ego with
the Silent Self. You must be utterly ruthless in discarding any atom of
consciousness which is hostile or neutral. 6. Let
this work freely from within, but heed not your environment, lest you
make difference between one thing and another. Whatever it be, it is to
be made one with you by Love.”
PART
III: SAIF AL-HAQ: the Sword of Truth: Ra-hoor-khuit (the
Arabic term for ‘Sword of Truth’, uniting Horus & Maat)
The
Third Chapter
1.
Abrahadabra! the reward of Ra Hoor Khut.
ABRAHADABRA is a key word
of power totaling 418, the formula of the Aeon and of cosmic
consciousness. The seed-name of HAD appears in the center, and the twin
ABRAs, appearing on each side like the wings of the solar orb, are
likely derived from the gnostic deity Abraxas or Abrasax, whose
essential nature is not unlike that of Hadit. The reward of these
practices is thus the transfiguration of the Self. The five A’s and six
other letters are again the 5 and 6, Mars and the Sun. RA-HOOR as
Resh/200 + Aleph/1 + He/5 + Vau/6 + Vau/6 + Resh/200 = 418.
Reward (re-ward: to
guard again?) joins the quintessential Words of Manifestation and
Hiding in the first verses of each chapter. I use them as the sides of
the Triangle of Art that is traditionally outside the Magical Circle. See my essay on the Origins
of Abrahadabra in Silver
Star 10.
"God is
that, having the head of a Hawk and a spiral force." - Oracles of Zoroaster
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!
The curious phrase
‘division hither homeward‘ is rather odd; perhaps it implies the
cleaving of an original unity as the creation of the universe, and its
reversal by reuniting as the completion of the quest to return; perhaps
to the necessary divisions of nature, society, and reality. The word
unknown may be that of Creation, or of the lost word of the master
mason, or IHVH, a version of the holy unspeakable name of God, or more
likely the truer name which has superseded that now obsolete formula.
The notion that ‘spelling is defunct‘ was clearly seized upon by the
group called Thee Temple ov Psychick Youth. Could ‘spelling’ really
mean ‘to make spells’, and that Old Aeon techniques are defunct and
must be rejuvenated? Crowley notes “this
is characteristic of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, that He demands not words, but
acts.” ‘all is not aught‘ may be a barbed dig at monotheism, or
perhaps ‘One is not Zero’? Had & Nu, AL & LA again? ‘Beware!’
or ‘be aware’ is usually good advice, although I sometimes take this as
a misspelling of “Be were!”, possibly an exhortation to become a
werewolf via the happy practice of lycanthropy. The play upon words
between magical spells and mundane orthography is clearly significant.
3. Now
let it be first understood that I am a god of War and of Vengeance. I
shall deal hardly with them.
Declares the nature of
Horus as a god of battle, ruthless in the pursuit of victory. The Third
Chapter is usually the hardest to accept for most people, as much of
the tone is violent, raging, and even bloodthirsty. We cannot excuse
this as mere rhetoric; it turned out that Hitler really meant what he
said about the Jews (and a hell of a lot of other people, including
gypsies, freemasons and occultists). This martial Warrior aspect of the
reigning god-form hardly seems an improvement on all of previous
history, but merely a continuation. How then can we view it? As a clear
reflection of humanity itself in a mirror of the terrible events of our
age? Or as the violence necessary to overthrow grotesquely tyrannical
systems, such as the Colonial empires with their invasions and
massacres and slavery, the Communist dictatorships with their gulags
and purges and genocides, and the Islamist extremists foaming at the
mouth and buying nukes on the black market… right-wing or left-wing,
they are all scum, and the rebel leader in the hills turns into the
dictator in the presidential palace with a simple change of uniform. To
fight the powers that be, must we become them, or is another way of
liberation beginning to appear? And are all collective movements doomed
to hypocrisy and hysteria, and our only hope the individual? Perhaps…
James Joyce said that “History is a nightmare from which we are
trying to awaken”. We must acknowledge that an estimated 160
million people perished in the wars of the 20th century, and that more
violence, disease and famine define countless lives today. Revolutions
may be how our changes happen, but there may be ways of doing battle
that do not imply bloodshed. For the last century (since 1904?) our
world has been evolving far more quickly than ever before: science and
medicine, art and technology have made huge advances, our store of
information multiplies, and a new international disorder is coming into
being. Genocides and wars still continue, yet many of the secular
abominations and more appalling religious doctrines are falling. The
Internet and multiple media, global trade and mass migrations, have
linked all the corners of the world. Our children are growing wilder
and wiser, mutating in strange new ways. We are Waking Up!
We stand as always between
the moment of final disaster and the cusp of unknown Utopias, dancing
on the razor edge of the Sword Bridge that crosses the Abyss. We have
left our home planet Earth and walked upon the face of the Moon, in the
light of the Sun, in the Space Age.
My answer is this: the
Justice of the Aeon of Maat must balance the inevitable War promised by
the Aeon of Horus. It is Time for a Change. The seminal traditions of
East and West, North and South, cross-pollinate one another and breed
the hybrid seeds of new Stars. The received wisdom of old is being
challenged and tested and often discarded, mere anarchy coalesces into
art and action and eventually understanding, the people unite and
revolt and finally take action. Instead of rules, we have choices.
Instead of the senile tribal elders of obsolete cultures enforcing
total obedience, there are now many very vocal movements fighting for
personal liberation and equality in every sphere: political, economic,
spiritual, sensual, artistic, musical, and ultimately magical. In many
places racism, sexism, anti-Semitism and the persecution of sexual,
ethnic and religious minorities are, if not eradicated, at least
regarded as bad taste; a huge change from the beginning of the last
century. Progress has been made, but our civilizations still have a
long way to go. Jihad in Islam is the concept of ‘struggle’, an
internal process in the Sufi sense, or a Holy War in the oxymoronic
minds of others; we must begin to understand this in the higher sense.
Here is the true war of the
Magical Child: the merging of the Dual Aeons, where the Warrior
Hawk-God serves Liberty and Truth in the cause of Justice. This is the
tidal wave of our time, when we all finally learn to think for
ourselves. The ultimate victory of this battle will be quite simple: at
last the rights of the Individual become more sacred than the
Collective, the parent gives way to the child, the unique Will of the
Secret Self is King and the unquestioning mindless dominion of the herd
is always challenged. The tide of history is on our side, conformity is
dead, morality is now a matter of personal honor, and the rhythms of
our songs and the pace of our dance are continually changing.
The war of
Ra-Hoor-Khu is for Freedom and against Slavery!
"There
will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes
to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from
which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him
accordingly."
- Henry David Thoreau, Civil
Disobedience
I will add this comment
from my good friend Frater Aion:
“As for
all the demonic/martial stuff in AL, both Buddhism & Taoism clearly
have some suggestions: It is all illusion. Much of all that blood &
crap in AL.III is about dealing with your own Darkside, channeling
one's own energies appropriately and (in places) there are silly shreds
of a very repressed mind (Crowley’s) working out some
Victorian psychosexual stuff- but Horus is clear: Fiery Chaos is
here/now- like we didn't know? But ALL is ILLUSION and the sooner one
truly GETS that, the sooner one stops being manipulated by seemingly
external forces and then one simply IS- this is, in my opinion, being a
KING (The Tao Te Ching clearly explains this and calls it the same as
does Tibetan Buddhism) and a King always defaults to, as both AL and
the Dalai Lama say, COMPASSION. Horus could be called the ultimate
Wrathful Deity I believe, but like all Gods (Fear neither men nor
gods!!!) is also Illusion and exists to tell and teach and wake us up,
NOT help us have “few and secret” rule over the slaves and create some
sort of wet-dream Thelemite D&D kingdom. There is no real dualism
in Taoism nor Buddhism; that is a distinctly western perspective. Some
reading will show you that the original terms/glyphs for YIN and YANG
referred to the shadow side and the sunlit side of a mountain. There is
only one mountain. And the shadow/light sides change. The Tao is ever
moving & changing, there is no difference between one thing and any
other thing (NU is right!) and as both Buddha and Nuit say, attaching
to illusion causes hurt. Avoid pain. So, be happy, that is my opinion.
War is internal and part of life- but it need not be violent or even
terrible. Thelema is about finding one's ORBIT, there is no other work
to be done- find that and one is happy and one is going with the Tao.
Everyone has to do this on their own. Gods won’t help, demons won’t
help, books won’t help (except to help you remember)... yet it is right
there all the time. Often I
forget, but sometimes I remember...”
4.
Choose ye an island! 5.
Fortify it! 6.
Dung it about with enginery of war!
This speaks to the
establishment of a place of power, to be physically impregnable and
unassailable. It is quite possible that this enginery is something
other than mere firepower, in the conventional sense of moving to outer
Montana or Mongolia and forming a militia group. Crowley defines verses
4-8 as a new method of meditation: by choosing a chakra, concentrating
upon it, preventing outside impressions from affecting it, thus forming
a mechanism that will overcome and still the hordes of unsteady or
invading thought-forms.
7.
I will give you a war-engine. 8.
With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall stand before you.
There have been several
nominations for this device: in light of the history of the 20th
century, the atomic bomb must certainly be considered, as must the
ubiquitous flying saucer. In terms of Thelemic tantra the sexual drive
is certainly an option, but some suggest the computer and the new
structures of the Internet may be more likely. If knowledge is power,
then information is a weapon; and the Stele of Revealing strongly
resembles a computer screen above, while the lines of hieroglyphics
below look very like a keyboard. As for the World Wide Web, ‘www’ as
three 6’s (Vau, the Hierophant trump) would be 666!
As I write this in
2009 there are riots afoot in Iran over the fraudulent elections
blatantly stolen by the clerical hardliners. The opposition is linked
by the Internet, their news and communications are sidestepping
traditional means (going through FaceBook and Twitter). Their
government is trying to shut down these channels with limited success,
but it may be hard to delete the future. China and many other dying
dictatorships rigidly control access as well, but it is usually very
difficult to get the Jinn back in the lamp… could cyberspace be our
invisible or secret house?
9. Lurk!
Withdraw! Upon them! this is the Law of the Battle of Conquest: thus
shall my worship be about my secret house.
For formulae of battle,
read Sun-Tzu’s Art of War. The
‘secret house‘ was discussed in the previous chapter.
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.
The Stele of Revealing is
the primary icon of the Thelemic Cultus; everyone should place the best
possible reproduction upon their altar. The prophecies regarding color
may refer to a deepening sense of meaning, or be a physical phenomenon
of miraculous nature. Locked in glass would be typical of the museum
environment where it currently resides. There is a lovely typographical
error in The Equinox of the
Gods that has it as the Stele of Revelling!
In Islam the Kiblah
is the niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the direction
towards the holy city of Mecca and the Kaaba where prayers are
directed; it strongly resembles the ‘false door’ found in ancient
Egyptian tombs, which served as a gateway for spirits. While the
stricter forms of Islam forbid depictive art there is a strong
tradition of decorative calligraphy that as an architectural element
recalls the ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic texts found in temples and
tombs.
Crowley describes
the temple of his original invocation as octagonal with mirrors on each
wall, entrances at each quarter, an altar flanked by twin obelisks,
with a lamp hanging over it. The Golden Dawn and Freemasonry also
employ two columns, often seen in the Atus of the Priestess and
Hierophant.
I have thought for
some time that the link between the Beast or Aiwaz and the Maatian
concept of N'Aton begins with Ankh-f-n-Khonsu as the representative of
humanity on the Stele of Revealing, where he is depicted along with the
company of heaven (Nuit, Hadit, Ra-Hoor-Khu). Crowley thought his
previous incarnation as the priest of the princes Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
brought about the aeonic change from Isis to Osiris, as Crowley himself
did with Horus. All three may be avatars of the world-spirit or
zeitgeist, first at the in-betweeness-point of the Aeon of Isis/Aeon of
Osiris juncture; then Therion the Beast sparks the contemporary Aeon of
Osiris/Aeon of Horus changeover; and then we all manifest as the
awakened N'Aton when Aeon of Horus/Aeon of Maat occurs. These are the
silences in-between the sequence of Mother, Father, Son, Daughter, and
the Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow of my personal continuum, the link
with the Nameless Aeons beyond...
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!
Unfortunately, it appears
that Crowley was unable to loot the (ill-ordered then, and apparently
still rather cluttered to this day) Cairo Museum in his lifetime
(Al-Kahira is the victorious city), although one strongly suspects he
must have tried bribery at some point. Perhaps he already had enough
trouble in his life. I have no doubt that he would have made efforts to
acquire the original, but he had to settle for a copy, stating: “Abstruction'. It was thought that this
meant to combine abstraction and construction, i.e. the preparation of
a replica, which was done.”
The true goal
of Conquest (or jihad, which in Islam means ‘struggle’ and is often
seen as an internal spiritual process) is to master one’s Self. Judging
others is both futile and none of your affair. Fire & blood, swords
& spears, still seem to be remarkably accurate depictions of
current conditions in the Middle East. Swords represent Intellect and
the Mind, while Spears unite the Wand and Sword as a symbol of the
Magical Will.
Motta notes: “Aspirants should understand that to
Thelemites the verb 'to worship' means 'to identify with'. It is 'love
under will'.”
The woman
girt with a sword might be Maat as the atu Justice with sword &
scales of balance; contrasted to Babalon, with her cup or grail. ‘flesh
to eat!’ suggests the very primal ritual of cannibalism; it was
believed that one could absorb the courage of a slain foe by devouring
his heart, for instance, and the theme appears in many cultures.
Weapons are among the earliest artifacts seen as inherently magical,
holding the power of life & death, of battle and of sacrifice, and
are still used in many arcane rites worldwide.
Hopefully trampling
the Heathen does not refer to our Wiccan and other Pagan brethren;
Crowley suggests “Christians and other troglodytes”. Sadly, other slurs
appear in his writings, including some anti-Semitism, rather strange
for someone so deeply enmeshed in the Hebrew Qabala; he was inevitably
something of a typical product of his times, and a lot of his attitudes
appall us today. Perhaps humanity has made some progress since then…
though not yet nearly enough, I suspect.
Motta notes that “HEATHEN=5+5+1+9+5+5+50=80, one of the
Holy Numbers.” He also states that “the Heathen are all those who do not
accept the Law of Thelema: Do what thou wilt. It does not mean "people
who are not of our religion". Thelema is NOT, repeat NOT, a religion.
It is a Method of Theurgy - or of Parapsychoanalysis, if you prefer.”
12.
Sacrifice cattle, little and big: after a child.
The widespread incidents of
mysterious cattle mutilations are rather disquieting in this context;
one hopes fundamentalist Crowleyites are not taking things too
literally, and it really is cute little aliens in shiny UFOs with a
taste for hamburgers. The reference to a child is even more disturbing,
but see below. ‘after a child’, in honor of a child?
13. But
not now.
A divine exhortation to
joyous procrastination, which is one of the guiding principles of my
life.
This verse can be written as a magical square: B U T N O T N O W
14. Ye
shall see that hour, o blessed Beast, and thou the Scarlet Concubine of
his desire! 15. Ye
shall be sad thereof.
Returning to the subject of
the sacrificial child, Crowley sadly endured the deaths of two of his
children (by Rose and by Leah). This was far more common even in
developed countries and very recent times than we tend to realize in
our era of more advanced medicine. The constant death toll of children
in much of the world today makes a hideous mockery of progress and of
any notion of compassion among nations. Crowley was actually very fond
of children in general.
16. Deem
not too eagerly to catch the promises; fear not to undergo the curses.
Ye, even ye, know not this meaning all.
Any preconceptions limit
one’s possibilities; and the Book of the Law clearly still has encoded
mysteries to reveal. ‘know not this meaning all’ is obviously LA and AL
again.
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.
Fear kills, courage
triumphs. The phrase ‘in heaven or upon the earth or under the earth‘
echoes the ritual refrain of Liber
Samekh s.f. LX (often called the
Ritual of the Bornless One) and the traditional tripartite division of
Indo-European cosmology into the upper or celestial realm of the gods,
the human level of earthly nature, and the daemonic underworld of the
dead. The ‘arms’
may be the elemental blade, cup, wand and disk that correspond to the
four powers of the Magus: to know, to dare, to will, and to keep silent.
18.
Mercy let be off: damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not; be
upon them!
More brutal rhetoric, but
perhaps with an underlying purpose; in the last analysis, victory is
survival and defeat is death. We in the western democracies like to
assume that human progress is inevitable, but this simply ignores the
fact that large portions of the globe are currently falling into
warfare and famine, and that there are no sure bets in history: all
empires do eventually fall. Darwinian evolution implies natural and
unnatural selection. To pity another person implies a condescending
attitude of superiority over them. Also, there may also be an
alchemical element to this, as descriptions of the fiery process of
purifying and refining the Philosopher’s Stone use metaphors of
torture, death and incest to describe some phases of the Great Work.
The initiation experiences of shamans and mystics often recount visions
of dismemberment, seething in cauldrons, and being reborn and
reassembled with magical changes like bones of gold or flesh of crystal
or new eyes or heart.
Personally, I do
strive to maintain my Buddhist Compassion, but in dealing with people
in general I am often forced to redefine it as diminished expectations.
Motta has this to say:
“Mercy
let be off': Let Chesed, Mercy, be under control of Tiphareth and Binah
(OFF = 6+6+6=18=3x6). "damn
them who pity" —Pity is, as we have already explained, unnecessary; it
is also misleading, harmful and disorderly. Those who preach this
diseased outlook of their fellowmen are vain, arrogant, and
fundamentally selfish. The healthy man never worries about his health;
the virtuous man never worries about the salvation of his soul; the
true saint never has any doubts as to the ultimate welfare of the
entire company of mankind. "Kill"
- dying, physically or mystically, "them who pity" experience Hadit. "and
torture" - see the description of the work of the Master of the Temple
in his underground garden, in Liber 418. "spare
not" - as the acid eats into the soul, only the gold will ultimately be
left. See LXV, I, 14-17. "be
upon them!" The Dance of Shiva on the body of the devotee. See LXV, I,
57-58; V, 61-63; VII, 36-48. These
quotes should give an idea of how the Lord of the Aeon goes about
setting back the right pegs into the right holes.”
Crowley, from his comment
on Liber LXV, c.IV,
v.59:
“There
is a practical aspect to this whole question that had better be
mentioned, and it consists of the Ordeal that might be called 'Invoking
Mercy'. Aspirants will occasionally try to blackmail Heru-ra-ha, or
Aiwass, or 666, into 'saving them'. Such Aspirants will deliberately
get themselves into dangerous situations, into desperate straits,
hoping for a last minute 'rescues by "the Gods". Such Aspirants usually
die. When they do not die, they go insane. Let this be a warning.
Heru-ra-ha shows no mercy. What He has to say to anybody in a desperate
situation is this: "Success is your proof; courage is your armour.
There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt."
19. That
stele they shall call the Abomination of Desolation; count well its
name, & it shall be to you as 718.
In the old testament the
phrase Abomination of Desolation seems to refer to pagan idolatry and
the desecration and eventual destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem,
while it later also became part of the overwrought biblical symbolism
of the Antichrist in End Times fundamentalism based upon the Revelation
of St. John. Now it may seem that the Great Beast of the Apocalypse is
Mr. Crowley, Damien the Omen, Ozzy Osborne, Barak Obama, or ourselves.
After much
qabalistic research Crowley found the Greek word for Stele as CYHAH =
52; the exhibit catalog description in the Boulak museum is Stele 666,
and 52+666 =718= STELE 666. Half of 718 is 359, SHaiTaN or Satan. To be
‘desolate’ is to be utterly alone.
20. Why?
Because of the fall of Because, that he is not there again.
Very significant in the
light of quantum physics, which now seems to have effectively kissed
causality in any absolute sense goodbye. This is a very sharp ax at the
very roots of western philosophy.
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.
A possible reference to the
god Set? The altar should usually
face the rising sun in the east, although it is occasionally oriented
otherwise for special purposes (Norse and Wiccan altars usually face
north). Every adept who is fully aligned to the 93 current of energy
may find that the appropriate image of the Deity who best expresses the
quest of their individual Self will indeed mysteriously find them.
Magick is applied synchronicity.
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.
These ‘other images’ are
suggestive of the personal practice of a universal or pantheist or
syncretistic Paganism, with all gods drawn into the orbit of the New
Aeon. Horus is the central focus, but the key of Thelema reconciles
many belief systems. There are currently active groups espousing
Thelemic Buddhism, Vodou and Tantra, even a Christian version. Most
mages tend to intuitively discover their own personal patron deities
who act to guide and expedite their evolution. Bhakti-yoga or devotion
to these archetypes is a vital path to the centers of your Self. See Liber Astarte. Crowley
again:
“There
are to be no regular temples of Nuith and Hadit, for They are
incommensurables and absolutes. Our religion therefore, for the People,
is the Cult of the Sun, who is our particular star of the Body of Nuit,
from whom, in the strictest scientific sense, come this earth, a
chilled spark of Him, and all our Light and Life. His vice-regent and
representative in the animal kingdom is His cognate symbol the Phallus,
representing Love and Liberty. Ra-Hoor-Khuit, like all true Gods, is
therefore a Solar-Phallic deity. But we regard Him as He is in truth,
eternal; the Solar-Phallic deities of the old Aeon, such as Osiris,
"Christ", Hiram, Adonis, Hercules, &c., were supposed, through our
ignorance of the Cosmos, to 'die' and ‘rise again'. Thus we celebrated
rites of 'crucifixion' and so on, which have now become meaningless.
Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the Crowned and Conquering Child. This is also a
reference to the 'Crowned' and Conquering 'Child' in ourselves, our own
personal God.”
The ‘ordeal X’ has a rather
ominous ring to it, and Motta suggests it means accepting Crowley as
the Prophet of the Aeon. I suspect that it must naturally be a
different challenge for every individual; we will not know what it may
be until the moment it leaps at our throats with great grinning teeth.
The process of initiation is like that. As a symbol of crossing ‘X’ may
well refer to the Abyss, or the Throne of the Siege Perilous in
Arthurian myth and the writings of Robert Anton Wilson. Excuse me; what
I meant to say was ‘a seemingly never-ending series of challenges’. The
Abyss must be crossed far more than once!
I might also note that
being expelled from one O.T.O. group or another is virtually a rite of
passage in the initiation of many independent Thelemites. I myself am
the O.H.O. of the O.O.O. (Out Of Order), the largest occult group in
the world! (aside from Freemasons…) I will ask a purely hypothetical
question: is the One True Way of a centralized and rigid hierarchy and
an authoritarian belief structure which allows for no change not
somewhat more typical of a certain somewhat older aeon which shall
remain nameless? In my opinion, religions are simply dead magicks, and
world events show clearly that monotheism has passed its time and begun
to rot. Who among us can truly now be the Grand Supreme
Crowlier-than-Thou One?
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.
A very specific formula for
the Cakes of Light, used as a sacrament in the Gnostic Mass and other
rites. For ‘thick leavings of red wine’, perhaps the residue of port
would be suggested; wheat or perhaps corn flour? Here is a recipe I
once saved from a passed-on email, with many thanks:
“2 cups whole wheat pastry
flour (add more if the dough is
too runny) 3/4 cup honey (I used tupelo because it's
got a molasses-y flavor I like) dab leavings of red wine 3 T extra virgin (are there
any non-virgin olives?) olive oil (add more if the dough is
too dry) dash salt 4 drops oil of Abramelin 3 drops cinnamon oil to
boost flavor drop from spoons onto
non-stick cookie sheet Bake 10 minutes at 375
degrees F” - Kala
Finish by glazing with
fresh blood or sexual secretions (usually of the Priesthood of the
Gnostic Mass, although in recent years AIDS has become a concern), and
perhaps the Mark of the Beast in chocolate icing? The Abramelin formula
consists of the essential oils of cinnamon, myrrh, galangal, and olive
oil; some commercial sources have very nice versions, and it is
powerful (and can burn sensitive tissues, do not use it as a
lubricant!).
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 worshipers: last of some beast, no matter what.
Crowley suggests either
menstrual blood (for much more on that consult the works of Kenneth
Grant) or dragon’s blood (an herbal substance common in magical
incenses, definitely not recommended for taste). We enter the realm of
sex-magick: the Child is the union of Babalon and the Beast, of the
sperm fertilizing the ovum, traditionally depicted as a serpent coiled
around an egg, a symbol of the mysteries.
In a personal
insight, I ascribe this verse’s (seldom-used?) formula to the planetary
spheres as follows: the clearly menstrual blood of the moon to Yesod;
of a child (semen I might assume; or blood from oneself, or perhaps the
uterine fluids and afterbirth?) to Tiphareth; of the host of heaven
(coming from bleeding statues of the Virgin or of Elvis, and the
stigmata of living saints?) to Chesed; of enemies to Geburah; of the
priest to Hod and of the worshippers to Netzach; and of some beast to
Malkuth. As for Binah, Nuit in c.I, v.59 states “My incense is of
resinous woods & gums; and there is no blood therein; because of my
hair the trees of Eternity". In other words, beyond the abyss all the
blood of the adept has been poured out into the Cup of Babalon, and the
illusory and limited nature of the individual ego is no more than
scattered ashes drifting away on the winds of time...
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.
Regarding the use of the
cakes for burning, Crowley remarks “This
incense was made; and the prediction most marvellously fulfilled.”
27. Also
these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eating thereof.
Crowley remarks “These experiments, however, were not
made.”
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.
This whole sequence would
appear to be a formula for an altar full of swarming beetles, which may
be sacrificed to destroy one’s enemies or eaten to increase the libido.
The god Khephra is represented by the scarab-beetle as a symbol of
endless becoming, transformation and regeneration. Crowley in his
Confessions recounts
discovering an unknown species of one-horned
beetles at Boleskine House in 1904. Many cultures do consume insects
for protein. Naming and stomping on cockroaches is a useful practice in
urban sorcery. Is it the beetles or the cakes that are to be ‘kept
long’?
Motta has this to say:
“A
profane slew a beetle before Ra-Hoor-Khuit, naming a person he
considered his enemy; and soon after, the profane went mad. An Initiate
slew a beetle before Ra-Hoor-Khuit, naming a person he considered his
enemy; and soon after, this person fell before him. An Exempt Adept
slew a beetle before Ra-Hoor-Khuit, naming the person he considered his
worst enemy, that is, himself and soon after, he became a Master of the
Temple.”
30. My
altar is of open brass work: burn thereon in silver or gold!
A specific ritual
instruction for the burning of incense and offerings. Silver for Woman and Moon,
Gold for Man and Sun.
31.
There cometh a rich man from the West who shall pour his gold upon thee.
Crowley spent much of his
later life looking for this guy. Still waiting. In Egypt and elsewhere the
West is the Land of the Dead, the setting sun.
32. From
gold forge steel! 33. Be
ready to fly or to smite!
A very alchemical
reference. The path of Lamed or Balance sacred to Maat connects
Tiphareth (the Sun, gold, the flight of the hawk) and Geburah (Mars,
iron or steel, battle) and this movement from the golden solar center
(the Augoeides) to the warrior-sphere of action and Horus seems to be a
key of the third chapter; from Hadit to Ra-Hoor, personal initiation to
external commitment to change in the world. The Falcon God soars as the
Sun, smites as the Warrior.
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 awake the 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!
This is often seen as a
prophecy of the future Aeon of Maat, the Double-Wanded One, and the
Aeon of the Daughter to follow that of the Son. Three quotes from
Crowley in his Comment summarize this event:
“This
prophecy, relating to centuries to come, does not concern the present
writer at the moment. Yet he must expound it. The
Hierarchy of the Egyptians gives us this genealogy: Isis, Osiris,
Horus. Now the 'pagan' period is that of Isis; a pastoral, natural
period of simple magic. Next with Buddha, Christ, and others there came
in the Equinox of Osiris; when sorrow and death ware the principal
objects of man's thought, and his magical formula is that of sacrifice.
Now, with Mohammed perhaps as its forerunner, comes in the Equinox of
Horus, the young child who rises strong and conquering (with his twin
Harpocrates) to avenge Osiris, and bring on the age of strength and
splendour. His formula is not yet fully understood. Following
him will arise the Equinox of Ma, the Goddess of Justice, it may be a
hundred or ten thousand years from now; for the Computation of Time is
not here as There.”
“Hrumachis
is the Dawning Sun; he therefore symbolizes any new course of events.
The "double-wanded one" is "Thmaist of dual form as Thmais and Thmait",
from whom the Greeks derived their Themis, goddess of Justice.”
“Note
the close connexion between Leo and Libra in the Tarot, the numbers
VIII and XI of their Trumps being interchanged with XI and VIII. There
is no such violent antithesis as that between Osiris and Horus;
Strength will prepare the Reign of Justice. We should begin already, as
I deem, to regard this Justice as the Ideal whose Way we should make
ready, by virtue of our Force and Fire.”
Frater Achad and Soror Nema
later independently experienced adumbrations of this Aeon of Maat, and
Kenneth Grant has also expanded on the concept of the Double Aeon of
the Son & Daughter, Horus & Maat. Some still insist that Her
time has not yet come, but many of us have found that her magicks do
indeed transcend time.
Crowley exalted the concept of TRUE WILL; if Will is Horus, Truth
is Maat, and both are essential. The widespread revival of
new Goddess-based spiritualities in recent years is clearly a
significant sign of change. In Egyptian terms Maat is the first-born
daughter of Ra, Goddess of Truth, Balance, Justice and Measure, a
concept very like the primal Way of the Tao. She is the necessary
counterpart to the Force & Fire of Ra-Hoor-Khu, as the Form &
Flow, and the Black Flame that mirrors the Bright.
I would also revise
the IHVH formula of the previous Aeon: the letters (Yod, He, Vau, He
final) represent the Father, Mother, Son, and Daughter. Rearranged in
the proper order of the Aeons as Isis, Osiris, Horus, Maat (and with He
final used as an ‘E’) we find instead the Maatian power-word HIVE,
linked to Her totem of the Bee. The Word or mantra of Maat is IPSOS
(‘by that same mouth’) and her symbol is the Feather. The vehicle of
Horus is the Hawk, of Maat the Vulture. See Liber Pennae Praenumbra and
other works by Nema.
35. The
half of the word of Heru-ra-ha, called Hoor-pa-kraat and Ra-Hoor-Khut.
This may indicate that half
of the word of Horus is concealed in Maat. It might also show the dual
nature of Horus, who in Egyptian myth had a younger (Hoor-pa-kraat,
Horus the child, the babe in the lotus, son of Isis & Osiris) and
an older form (Horus as god of kingship, linked to Ra, present in the
original Ennead of the primal gods). These are the passive,
inward-turning, silent-meditation and active, outward-facing,
word-speaking aspects of the god, the paths of yogic mysticism and
gnostic magick respectively. They are our internal and external
experiences. Note that the Twins are Gemini, ascribed to the letter
Zayin/7 that means a Sword.
Heru-ra-ha unites
both and as HeRU-RA-HA equals 418, and may well be the ultimate name of
the Lord of the Aeon. HRU is also the Spirit of the Tarot or Book of
Thoth. One of the very last and crowning achievements of Crowley’s life
was the completion of the Thoth
Tarot deck that he designed and Lady Frieda Harris brilliantly
painted. It encodes his entire system and map of the cosmos, and is
virtually the Body of Aiwass just as Liber AL is his Voice. When
published long after his death, it instantly renewed interest in his
Great Work and became and remains one of the best-selling packs in the
world, exposing many thousands of people to Thelema for the first time.
Aside from his own guide, The
Book of Thoth, several excellent books by other authors have
also explored its infinite dimensions.
36. Then
said the prophet unto the God: 37. I
adore thee in the song –
This song consists of the
remaining verses of Crowley’s poetic translation of the text of the
Stele of Revealing, which as you may recall was used as part of the
invocation that led to the transmission, and which began with the first
verse back in c.I, v.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!)
and now continues:
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!
These are the names of the
gods worshipped by the priest Ankh-af-na-khonsu, who dwelt in the city
of Thebes and apparently served Mentu (the warrior-god Montu, who is
armed with a spear) and revered Ra and Horus.
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!
The Egyptian
transliteration of this potent mantra is allegedly: “A ka dua, tuf ur biu, bia
chefu, dudu ner af an nuteru!”
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!
He invokes the solar power
to awaken the various parts of his soul. I have discussed the Khabs and
the Khu previously. The Ka is the double, sometimes identified as the
HGA or the astral body. The ancient Egyptians had several other
components of the soul, including the Akh, the Shadow and the Ba.
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!
This solar energy is adored
at the four quarters of the world (space) and four times daily (time),
establishing the 93 current both in the adepts and in their
surroundings. These are the four names of the sun god used in the daily
salutations at sunrise, noon, sunset, and midnight in Liber Resh vel Helios. Ra
or Re is the ‘Sun’ god, Tum or Atum is the ‘Complete One’, Khephra is
the scarab-beetle and the principle of eternal transformation (‘the
Being, the Extant’) and was originally ascribed to the dawn rather than
midnight as Crowley has it. Ahathoor is the golden goddess Hathor, the
‘House (or womb) of Horus’, the mother, sister, bride and daughter of
the supreme deity. She is the Sky in daytime, as Nuit is in the night.
The monotheist heretic Pharaoh Akhenaton’s god Aton is the visible disk
of the Sun. I see
the atavistic tetramorphs as a Lion at dawn, a Hawk at noon, a Ram at
sunset, and a Scarab-Beetle at midnight.
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!
Bes is a grotesque
dwarf-god, a musician and protector much invoked in ancient magick, and
like another phallic god named Min he is sometimes linked to Pan. Maut
is a vulture-goddess, perhaps connected to Maat. Of Nuit, Hadit,
Ra-Hoor-Khuit we have already spoken. (Bes-na-Maut and Ta-Nech are
probably the parents of Ankh-f-n-Khonsu; it was common to identify
yourself with them in formal inscriptions.)
This is all, of course,
Crowley’s paraphrase of the Stele. A modern translation (from
Lashtal.com and other locations, but without any identification of the
translator?) of the original hieroglyphics on the front reads:
“Hadit,
the great god, lord of the sky.
Ra-Hoor-Khut,
chief of the gods.
The
deceased, prophet of Mentu, lord of Thebes, the one for whom the doors
of the sky are opened in Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu.
Bread,
water, cattle and fowl."
(These are the names of the
gods on the upper section. “Bread, water, cattle and fowl’ is a common
offering formula, referring to the table of offerings being made by the
deceased, who will be sustained by them in the afterlife. Such spells
from the funerary Book of
Coming Forth by Day have been called passports to eternity.)
"The
deceased, the prophet of Mentu, lord of Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu,
true-of-voice, says: "O sublime one! I adore the greatness of your
spirits, o formidable soul, who inspires terror of himself among the
gods. Appearing on his great throne, he travels the path of the soul,
of the spirit, and of the body, having received the light, being
equipped, I have made my path towards the place in which Ra, Tum,
Khephra, and Hathor are; I, the deceased priest of Mentu, lord of
Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu, son of a person of the same rank, Bes-n-Maut,
and of the priestess of Amoun-Ra, the mistress of the house Ta-Nech."
And on the often neglected
reverse of the stele:
“The
deceased, the prophet of Mentu, lord of Thebes, Ankh-f-n-khonsu,
true-of-voice, says: "O my heart of my mother, O heart which I had
while I was on earth, do not rise up against me in witness, do not
oppose me as a judge, do not charge me in the presence of the great
god, lord of the West, because I have joined the land to the great West
when I was flourishing on earth!" The deceased, priest of Thebes,
Ankh-f-n-khonsu, true-of-voice, says: "O, you who only has one arm, who
shines in the moon, the deceased Ankh-f-n-khonsu has left the
multitudes and rejoined those who are in the light, he has opened the
dwelling-place of the stars (the Duaut); now then, the deceased
Ankh-f-n-khonsu has gone forth by day in order to do everything that
pleased him upon earth, among the living."
In Crowley’s hands this
verse became:
“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 thy 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
Duaut, 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.”
39. All
this and a book to say how thou didst come hither and a reproduction of
this ink and paper for ever -- for it is in 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!
This spreading of the Word
continues. The Equinox of
the Gods is Crowley’s official account of these stellar events,
and is supplemented by the autobiographical Temple of Solomon the King,
his Confessions and
other writings, and touched upon by later
biographies. The various editions of his Commentary were discussed in
my introduction. To date, few published versions have properly utilized
red and black ink (the palette of ancient Egyptian scribes). Again, the
original manuscript is required to be included.
Giving this book to
an acquaintance can be a serious test of both your friendship and the
character of the other person. ‘to dine or to drink at them’ is odd; at
their home, in their honor?
40. But
the work of the comment? That is easy; and Hadit burning in thy heart
shall make swift and secure thy pen.
Actually, Crowley labored
over his comments for many years and we must admit that much of what he
wrote has not aged well; they do, however, contain some of his livelier
and more heartfelt tirades and reveal both his intellect and devotion.
41.
Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well and with
business way.
Professional organization
is very practical advice, not always followed. A mage must be competent
in the material as well as spiritual realms. The Kaaba is the site of
the black stone fallen from heaven, worshipped in Pagan times and
preserved by Islam as the goal of pilgrimage in the holy city of Mecca.
The Palladium was a similar meteoric stone sacred to Athena.
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 overmuch! 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!
The blind ordeals are those
presented by life’s random events, rather than planned by any
structured initiatory scheme. There is more rather savage rhetoric,
which we must assume serves a real purpose for the survival and
dissemination of this message and its adherents. Clearly the Hawk-God
does not suffer fools gladly.
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.
A dire prophecy concerning
those who take a solemn oath to complete this work and then break it.
Unfortunately, fates not unlike this befell some of Crowley’s working
partners, a very clear demonstration of the extreme volatility of these
forces and practices. Magical oaths are serious things, and tend to
work out in very unexpected and occasionally explosive ways.
One of the
criticisms frequently aimed at Crowley was his treatment of women, and
frankly he could be pretty hard on his male disciples as well.
Admittedly some did not end well, but others survived, and without
trying to defend him on this issue I will say that he was a pretty wild
man and women slightly crazy to begin with were probably the ones most
attracted to him. He was also clearly a hopeless romantic and tended to
fall deeply in love; he really was quite capable of deep human emotion
and even idealism. Don Webb has said: “Crowley’s
misogyny neither invalidates his work nor does his Work pardon his
misogyny.” I concur.
44. But
let her raise herself with 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!
These are some very
specific formulas for the Scarlet Woman. I might ascribe them either to
the Tree of Life or alternatively to the chakras: But let her raise herself
with pride! (ascent from Malkuth into Yesod, or activate Kundalini at
the base of spine chakra) Let her follow me in my
way! (learning of magick in Hod, or activate genital chakra) Let her work the work of
wickedness! (eroticism of Netzach, or activate solar plexus chakra
where magical energy is stored) Let her kill her heart!
(the heart centers in Tiphareth, or heart chakra) Let her be loud and
adulterous! (activities of Geburah, or words from throat chakra) Let her be covered with
jewels, and rich garments (the wealth of Chesed, or 3rd eye and aura) and let her be shameless
before all men! (naked in Binah, the ultimate sphere of Babalon, or
clothed in stars for the crown chakra).
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.
‘Joy’ and ‘force’ again
suggest the move from Tiphareth to Geburah, consciousness to action.
There is also the notion of the magical child as the manifestation of
occult workings or encoded sigils. The Crowned & Conquering Child
is Horus, and now we are all Horus.
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!
‘Warrior Lord of the
Forties‘ is a clear prediction of WWII; ‘the Eighties cower‘ is a
pretty accurate depiction of a spineless and venal decade, which still
saw the overthrow of a number of dictators. Victory refers to the
sphere of Netzach, and joy again to Tiphareth. Sometimes,
unfortunately, it seems that fighting wars may be necessary, and WWII
is probably a good example. One hopes that this whole chapter is not
just a survival manual for conditions in some sort of post-apocalyptic
Road Warrior state of existence. The early publishing history of AL
itself must be mentioned: according to Crowley, nine months after each
edition was released conflict or war of some kind broke out.
Crowley states: “Forty is Mem, Water, the Hanged Man; and
Eighty is Pe, Mars, the blasted Tower. These Trumps refer respectively
to the "Destruction of the World by Water" and "by Fire."
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.
To date I am aware of
German, French, Spanish, Finnish and Japanese translations of the Law,
and am quite sure there are more. It is clearly stated that others
shall continue to explore the mysteries encoded therein. One such is
clearly Frater Achad, whose name means ‘One’, and whose contributions
in Liber 31 were
accepted by Crowley during his lifetime. The Key which
he discovered is the formula of AL/LA: AL or EL is an ancient Semitic
name of God, while the reversal LA is naught or night; one is Had or
All, the other Nu or Not. This interplay of existence and emptiness
runs throughout the text of the Book as a whole (as I keep saying).
The ‘line drawn’ is
an oddity of the original manuscript, which on page 16 of the third
chapter is overlaid by a mysterious grid (1-10 vertically, A to H
horizontally), where Crowley was clearly trying to figure it all out;
there has been much effort expended in attempts to find codes in the
letters which this line connects by the various ‘english qabala’
experts. ‘this circle squared in its failure’ is a circle with an
equilateral cross within, the Mark of the Beast? Abrahadabra is
discussed under c.III, v.1. There is, however, a very interesting (but
anonymous) solution suggested in the current edition of The Law Is For All:
“In The
Book of the Law (ch. 3, v. 47) “this circle squared in its failure is a
key also.” By “in its failure” is implied, as Aiwaz knew, that the
figures were not fully correct. But in the concealed collocation of
letters on that page is found the figure 3.141593, which is the correct
value of π to six places of decimals. (This figure is obtained by
taking the Hebrew value of the letters crossed by a line slashed
diagonally across the page of the original manuscript.) It will
be noted that this figure begins with 31 – the secret “Key of it all” –
and ends with 93, the esoteric key of the whole book.“
I have not been able to
figure out quite how this number was obtained myself, so I’m not sure I
buy into this, but if true it is a remarkable discovery. According to
Wikipedia:
“Pi
or π is a mathematical constant whose value is the ratio of any
circle's circumference to its diameter in Euclidean space; this is the
same value as the ratio of a circle's area to the square of its radius.
The symbol π was first proposed by the Welsh mathematician William
Jones in 1706. It is approximately equal to 3.14159 in the usual
decimal notation... π is one of the most important mathematical and
physical constants: many formulae from mathematics, science, and
engineering involve π… π is an irrational number, which means that its
value cannot be expressed exactly as a fraction m/n, where m and n are
integers. Consequently, its decimal representation never ends or
repeats. It is also a transcendental number, which implies, among other
things, that no finite sequence of algebraic operations on integers
(powers, roots, sums, etc.) can be equal to its value; proving this was
a late achievement in mathematical history and a significant result of
19th century German mathematics. Throughout the history of mathematics,
there has been much effort to determine π more accurately and to
understand its nature; fascination with the number has even carried
over into non-mathematical culture. The Greek letter π, often spelled
out pi in text, was adopted for the number from the Greek word for
perimeter…”
If this calculation is
accurate, and if we also see the pentagram as encoding the Fibonacci
series, then AL conceals the formulas of both ‘Pi’ and the Golden
Ratio, which I regard as the veritable and identifiable thumbprints
left by the Creatrix upon the clay of Hir Creation. (On a side note,
the great 1998 film Pi
(Faith in Chaos) by Darren Aronofsky is a fascinating qabalistic
enigma well worth seeing.)
Crowley says: “I note that the letters of the Book are
the letters of the Book of Enoch; and are stars, or totems of stars.”
Later, he wrote: “The attribution
(in the Old Comment) of the letters to those of the Book of Enoch is
unsupported.”
Motta says: “The injunction that AL be always
translated along with a facsimile of the original is important, since
no translation, no matter how good, can maintain all the keys, subtle
double-meanings, and qabalistic puns of the original. If a student
hopes to accomplish much, he will be forced to learn the English
language very thoroughly. This suggests that English may in future
centuries achieve the distinction of a hieratic language.”
Motta also includes this
note: “There are only two MMSS of AL
extant in the writing of the Beast. The original MMSS was published in
facsimile by Frater Saturnus in The Equinox of the Gods. It accompanies
this edition of the Commentaries. While in Cefalu, Crowley made the
mistake of copying AL in his own hand, to give as a present to a
favorite disciple. The favorite disciple promptly went mad (the quartos
have madder) and ran away. Years later, having apparently recovered his
wits, he sold this copy, pretending it was the true original MMSS of
Liber AL. Last heard of, the buyer was announcing that he was the proud
owner of the original MMSS of the "bible of hell." Even if he were, we
still don't know what physical possession of the MMSS of AL is supposed
to prove. That you are an Ipsissimus, perhaps?... Would it were so
easy!”
It is my understanding that
several years ago the O.T.O. recovered the original manuscript, found
lurking in a basement? Crowley, after trying to ignore it for a while,
says that he found it again while searching for his skis in the attic.
Skrying with my Astral Vision through the Akashic Record, my Third Eye
hath seen the historical moment when he pulled on the skis and The Book
of the Law flew out and cracked him on the head!
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.
The fourfold word may be
‘Do What Thou Wilt!’ The ‘blasphemy against all gods of men’ is that
now we become gods, instead of worshipping them. We are our own secrets.
50.
Curse them! Curse them! Curse them!
Cursing, reviling, and
rejecting past imposed beliefs and false idols may be a necessary stage
of freeing yourself from them. Changing old habits takes time and
energy, but Magick is the formula of Change. Much of what we think we
are is just social programming; to become fully human we must finally
think for ourselves. No small task. Freedom must be fought for.
51. With
my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross.
A blow against
Christianity. The viewpoint and theology (as it has now decayed and
devolved) of Jesus in incorrect. It is not unfair to say that this
particular movement has set back human progress by 2,000 years and been
a disaster for the world. Being ‘born-again’ is what criminals do right
before their parole board meets. It does not mean that you get an extra
navel and twice as many civil rights as everyone else.
As Nietzsche said, "Christianity remains to this day the
greatest misfortune of humanity." Organized religion is a
contradiction in terms, and seldom works out well. I am sick to death
of inquisitions and pogroms, crusades and jihads, holy wars and murder
in the name of God.
52. I
flap my wings in the face of Mohammed & blind him.
Another blow against Islam,
but Mohammed seems to be a bit less hawk-pecked. Religions tend to
deteriorate into nonsensical dogma and self-serving hierarchies over
time, and Islam as a younger movement may still be closer to its
“sell-by date”; Crowley did have some admiration for it. There was a
time when Islam was the light of civilization and culture, and
preserved the precious books of Classical literature, mathematics and
philosophy that the Christians were burning as rapidly as possible.
Now, sad to say, most Islamic countries seem to be rancid theocratic
dictatorships; perhaps a doctrine of submission is incompatible with
freedom. Fundamentalisms are the desperate death-throes of religions.
The mystics, ecstatics and visionaries of most traditions are usually
quite remarkable, hence often persecuted for heresy by their brethren.
Buddhist, Qabalist, Taoist, Shamanic, Tantric and Sufi masters often
retain their genuine connection to the Source.
53. With
my claws I tear out the flesh of the Indian and the Buddhist, Mongol
and Din.
Note that the first and
most virulent pair of religions are referred to by their prophets, and
their eyes (viewpoints, perspective) rather than their flesh (or
people, adherents?). Here is another taste of Crowley in full swing,
just to show why I am trying to produce a slightly more civilized
Comment:
“The
Indian." The religion of Hindustan, metaphysically and mystically
comprehensive enough to assure itself the possession of much truth, is
in practice almost as superstitious and false as Christianity, a faith
of slaves, liars and dastards. The same remarks apply roughly to
Buddhism. “Mongol:"
presumably the reference is to Confucianism, whose metaphysical and
ethical flawlessness has not saved its adherents from losing those
ruder virtues which are proper to a Fighting Animal, and thus yielding
at last a civilization coeval with history itself to the barbarous
tribes of Europe. "Din" -
'severity' or 'judgment' may refer to the Jewish Law, rather than to
the Faith (ad 'din') of Islam. Assuming this, the six religions whose
flesh must be torn out cover the whole globe outside Islam and
Christianity. Why
assault their flesh rather than their eyes, as in the other cases?
Because the metaphysics, or point of view, is correct - I take Judaism
as Qabalistic - but the practice imperfect.”
54.
Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous creeds.
A curse formula. So much
for organized religions! I much prefer joyously disorganized cults. All
Hail Eris! Praise Discordia! According to Crowley, “By sound, Bahlasti suggests "hurling" or
"blasting"; Ompehda is not too phantastically onomatopaeic for "an
explosion". Motta suggests that this may be in the Angelic or
Enochian language, without any apparent basis.
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!
Medieval psychotherapy
featured tying the insane to wheels and spinning them until their
demons flew out. Beauty and Love may imply Tiphareth and Netzach,
wheels are chakras. This condemns the withdrawal from participation in
life of women...
57.
Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare not fight, but
play; all fools despise!
....and equally the
contempt for life of men.
Of women, Crowley says “She is Sakti, the Teh, the Magical Door
between the Tao and the Manifested World. The great Obstacle than is if
that Door be locked up. Therefore Our Lady must be symbolized as an
Whore. (Note Daleth, the Door = Venus.)” Babalon the Great as a
Whore is something of an unhealthy obsession for some. After a fairly
impassioned yet chauvinistic defense of equality for women, Motta still
remarks: “By function, a woman
cannot rise above the Grade of Magister Templi while manifested as a
woman. She does not have the necessary anatomical instrument to
function as a Magus.”!!! Apparently both of these boys had deep
cultural and personal gender issues… though at least they did criticize
both genders fairly even-handedly!
58. But
the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye are brothers! 59. As
brothers fight ye!
Vigorous competition of
ideas leads to progress. Crowley says:
“There
is perhaps a magical second-meaning in this verse, a reference to the
Ritual of which we find hints in the legend of Cain and Abel, Esau and
Jacob, Set and Osiris, et cetera. The "Elder Brother" within us, the
Silent Self, must slay the younger brother, the conscious self, and he
must be raised again incorruptible.”
Note that there are also
many myths of combat and slaying by brother or twin gods: Horus &
Set, Baldur & Hod, Llew & Goronwy for examples. These are often
interpreted as the changing halves of the year, summer & winter,
life & death.
60.
There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
Frater Aion has pointed out
that the Tree of Life can be seen as:
DO THOU
WHAT WILT BE
SHALL THE OF
WHOLE THE
LAW
See also Crowley’s
depiction of the Tree of Life as a lightning-bolt. This verse again asserts the
sovereignty of the individual genius. See also the monosyllabic
manifesto Liber OZ s.f.
LXXVII, which every Thelemite should traditionally publish and
distribute (as I am now):
OZ:
Liber LXXVII
"the
law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world." -AL.
II. 2 "Do
what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." -AL. I. 40 "thou
hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay." -AL. I.
42-3 "Every
man and every woman is a star." -AL. I. 3 There
is no god but man. 1. Man
has the right to live by his own law- to live
in the way that he wills to do: to work
as he will: to play
as he will: to rest
as he will: to die
when and how he will. 2. Man
has the right to eat what he will: to
drink what he will: to
dwell where he will: to move
as he will on the face of the earth. 3. Man
has the right to think what he will: to
speak what he will: to
write what he will: to
draw, paint, carve, etch, mould, build as he will: to
dress as he will. 4. Man
has the right to love as he will:- “take your fill and will of love as
ye will, when,
where, and with whom ye will." -AL. I. 51 5. Man
has the right to kill those who would thwart these rights. "the
slaves shall serve." -AL. II. 58 "Love
is the law, love under will." -AL. I. 57
61.
There is an end of the word of the God enthroned in Ra's seat,
lightening the girders of the soul.
Horus as Heru-Ra-Ha is the
god; he releases the inherent bonds (’girders’) of incarnation that
limit the growth of the soul, the genetic and cultural structures of
our being, the habits and compulsions. The Throne of the falcon-god is
the ever-moving horizon. Compare this to ‘The Manifestation of Nuit is
at an end.’ 0 = 2.
To me, this means
that any psychological or alchemical union of opposites… any pair of
dualities, light & dark, male & female, subject & object,
innocence & experience, idealism & cynicism, faith & doubt,
wrong & right, whatever... when you combine, resolve, and
understand them, both releases a burst of magical energy and take
awareness up to the next level. Paired concepts are often the way our
minds work, how we each create our own universe; but taking that step
beyond them, to where they complement and complete rather than conflict
with each other, is a wider view. One way to see it is this formula
where AL (God or All) is also LA (Not or Naught), similar to the core
Buddhist concept that manifestation is essentially an overlay on
emptiness or transparency, or the qabalistic notion that above the
Abyss things exist only as their own opposites, that Unity is Paradox,
that the things we perceive both Are and Are Not. The gnostic sects
largely saw the cosmos as a prison created by these pairs of opposites.
The sorcerer Austin Osman Spare believed that any sudden loss of faith
in something (the Church or the State, or ending a romantic
relationship, for example) releases a burst of Free Belief usable to
sustain a new creation, hence he focused upon sigilized desires at
times of despair or loss or crisis (or at peak experiences of orgasm,
joy and aesthetic ecstasy, or even in states of raging anger). Out of
such an empty moment, new creations spawn and cycles begin again. We
can see such magick as the circular self-devouring serpent called the
Oroboros, or as the doubled symbol of the cosmic lemniscate: twisted in
a figure-8, Duality! Unwound as circular Zero, the Void! Thelema just
makes this a more interactive and personal process.
62. To
Me do ye reverence! to me come ye through tribulation of ordeal, which
is bliss.
‘To me!’ is the refrain of
Nuit. ‘tribulation of ordeal’ is the confrontation and integration of
the Shadow, in the process of initiation and individuation, of growth
and awakening, ‘which is bliss’. Crowley suggests psychoanalysis for
aspirants, and Regardie concurs. Who am I to say they are wrong?
63. The
fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its comment; & he
understandeth it not.
Again, coded references
regarding Fool/fools and Nuit/not. And really, most people never even
get the Cosmic Joke, let alone manage to grok Thelema. Understanding
pertains to the sphere of Binah; and I hope I have made some small
contribution to this process.
64. Let
him come through the first ordeal, & it will be to him as silver.
Verses 64-67 appear to be
an alchemical process of evolving and transforming the human into a
perfected form. First is Yesod, the lunar sphere, linked to witchcraft
and the goddess Hekate, the astral plane and the generative organs. One
must traditionally strengthen the aura and the subtle Body of Light.
65.
Through the second, gold.
Tiphareth, the solar
sphere; Opening the Heart. In Crowlean terms, Knowledge &
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. Much of what Crowley taught
was focused upon this dramatic central opus, and I have found it one of
most powerful and transformative and best ongoing creative processes of
my life. There is much to debate about the nature or existence of this
being, whether it is a separate entity or one of multiple souls or a
personified projection of That Which Is Great Within Us. In the N’Aton
paradigm it might well be our future perfected self. My question: is
not this Angel really Hadit?
The usual model of
the Book of the Sacred Magic
of Abramelin the Mage is late medieval or Renaissance, when the
reality of angels and demons was unquestioned; yet the primary vehicle
of this process in Thelemic terms is Liber Samekh s.f. LX, the Ritual
of the Bornless One, based upon a much earlier Graeco-Egyptian
text intended for inspiring and empowering the mage to master, control
or exorcise spirits. Such rites for apotheosis or self-deification were
not uncommon in the ancient world, so my question remains this: is the
fiery unfolding of the power of Hadit at one’s core the true essence of
this operation? Yes, magicians do interact with any variety of
entities, but is not the secret of the HGA really the discovery of the
Cosmic Self and access to the levels of wisdom and genetic memory it
contains? Is it the KIA of A.O. Spare, the atavistic reversion to the
original source of all, the evolutionary chain that begins with the Big
Bang of Hadit awakening in the void of Nuit, that ultimately links all
terrestrial life and all human and cosmic consciousness as the Child
that is now Heru-Ra-Ha and eventually N’Aton? Are we not essentially
our own HGA? Aiwass aside (and Crowley went back and forth on his
nature, sometimes regarding him as a separate being, and sometimes his
own HGA) the Book of the Law is not big on intermediaries. Is the high
psychodrama of dedication and considerable effort in Achieving the
Knowledge & Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel just a clever
way of getting us to WAKE UP!? Is the Angel actually our Self, as God
incarnated?
Motta says: “It is fatally false to form an astral
image of our Guardian Angel, instead of to perceive that He is equally
manifested in all things. See LXV, iii, 25-39.”
66.
Through the third, stones of precious water.
The Stone of the
Philosophers, and the cosmic ocean of Nuit. Crossing the Abyss, the
waters of Nun or None. The throat, the Word of Silence. Again, it is notable that Crowley
seems to have been the mage who in modern times really pioneered
Crossing the Abyss. The Golden Dawn system of human initiation pretty
much ends with Chesed. Progressing onward to the Supernals, using Daath
as a gateway, accepting the idea of the Tree has having 11 spheres and
then going beyond them, is an enormous and innovative leap into the
unknown. If we pass beyond the Tree of Life that embodies our own solar
system, is it possible to journey to other worlds or new dimensions?
Can we transcend time?
67.
Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire.
The soul of Hadit. Kether,
the Crown. The Third Eye or Ajna-chakra, with Nuit as Sahasrara? I
should add that Crowley seems to regard ‘stones of precious water’ as
Kether, and ‘ultimate sparks of the intimate fire’ as going beyond…
68. Yet
to all it shall seem beautiful. Its enemies who say not so, are mere
liars. 69.
There is success.
Accepting this may be the
point of becoming a Thelemite. Despite the paradoxes, challenges and
oddities, something in this book truly speaks to the soul. Yehuda
Amichai has said that “…the soul is
a search, the soul is a dance of searches for whatever is lost.”
Thelema is not a dogma, but a process of exploration and human
evolution. It is essentially an ever-spreading meme, a meta-program of
self-creation, which has been wrapped and disguised in the mystery and
romance of ancient gods, using deeply magical poetic images that move
us on many levels, from the erotic to the intellectual to the sacred,
to draw us out of our shells and provide new mythic archetypes to
expand our horizons. It initiates the process of awakening within us,
as it opens the visions and omens, the dreams and desires that live
latent at our cores. The beauty of these words and images enthralls us,
and then liberates us. The darkness and blood and violence and darkness
that accompany them is no less a part of our human existence, shocking
contrasts and shadowed ambiguity, meaning and emptiness. The infinite
ever-changing beauties of Nuit, the shining beacon of Hadit, inspire us
and nurture the seeds of the universal Child who grows into an
absolutely unique individual, a perfect Star. There has never been
anyone like you before, and in all of eternity there never will be
again. Dare to be great, strive to be strong, live as everything that
you can possibly become, no matter how wild and strange…
In many religious
traditions the initiate takes a new Name to bring about change, and in
magical careers many of us find more than a few. The creation of new
identities, serial reincarnation in the living flesh, multiple facets
of change and being, are our birthright and art. We can always discover
new gods and new meaning in ourselves.
"By
names and images are all powers awakened and reawakened." - G. I. Gurdjieff
70. I am
the Hawk-Headed Lord of Silence & of Strength; my nemyss shrouds
the night-blue sky.
Heru-Ra-Ha combines the
aspects of both Harpocrates and Horus. The ‘night-blue sky’ of Nuit is
a shade that you will instinctively know when you see it. It may also
imply the colors beyond the visible spectrum that humans can perceive.
The nemyss is a form of head covering worn by the Egyptian gods, often
combined with the diadem or crown of the Royal Uraeus Serpent.
71.
Hail! ye twin warriors about the pillars of the world! for your time is
nigh at hand.
In Egyptian cosmology the
Two Pillars of Heaven are Mount Bakhau in the east and Mount Manu in
the west, and the feet and hands of Nut the sky goddess rest upon them.
Some have related this verse to the fall of the twin towers in the 9/11
World Trade center attacks, which have had a huge impact on current
events. About the last thing we needed on this planet was a new holy
war between jihadists and crusaders.
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.
The Double Wand of Power
might represent the dual functions of Creation and Destruction. The
Egyptian gods generally carried the Uas scepter, which had the head of
the Set-beast on top and a fork at the lower end, derived from forked
sticks used by snake-catchers, an interesting correlation to the
Serpent Power. I have seen a double wand offered for sale by an online
dealer in magical artifacts: a short rod painted half white and half
black, one end for invoking and the other for banishing. I’m not sure
that is the reality, but it is still a rather clever idea. The Golden
Dawn’s Lotus Wand was used the same way, but it included the spectrum
of colors in-between the black and white ends, the concept being that
you would hold the wand by the colored segment that corresponded to the
sphere you were invoking. As for the formula of Coph Nia, it is
interesting to note that this is the last of the interpolations
provided by Rose and the only one in her own hand; her contributions to
Liber AL cannot be overlooked.
Crowley says: “Coph Nia. I cannot trace this anywhere;
but KOPhNIA adds to 231, Nia is Ain backwards; Coph suggests Qoph. All
very unsatisfactory.” Grant has much more to say on the subject.
We might also try relating Coph to Kaph, the Hebrew letter 20 ascribed
to the Wheel of Fortune atu and palm of the hand, rather than Qoph
equalling 100, the back of the head, the card of the Moon.
Crowley also ruminates
further:
"The
Double Wand of Power" is a curious variant of the common "Wand of
Double Power"; the general meaning is "I control alike the Forces of
Active and Passive". "Coph
Nia": the original MS has — left incomplete as not having been properly
heard. The present text was filled in later in her own hand by the
first Scarlet Woman. The
Egyptian Gods are usually represented as bearing an Ankh, or
sandal-strap, in the left hand, the wand being in the right. This ankh
signifies the power to go, characteristic of a god. But apparently Ra
Hoor Khuit had an Universe in his left hand, and crushed it so that
naught remains. I think this "Universe" is that of monistic
metaphysics; in one hand is the "Double Wand", in the other "naught".
This seems to refer to the 'None and Two' ontology outlined in previous
notes.”
The well-known symbol of
the Ankh or ‘Life’ has many meanings in addition to sandal-strap, which
refers to the power of Going. It is also related to a very similar
amulet called the Knot of Isis (knots and binding have a long history
in magical methods), is an image of the hand-mirror sacred to Hathor or
Venus (which were sometimes in pairs, gold for sun and silver for
moon), and has also been interpreted as a bouquet of flowers, a
sweet-scented offering to the gods.
73.
Paste the sheets from right to left and from top to bottom: then behold!
Rather a mysterious
instruction. Regardie attempted to try this with the reproduced
manuscript pages of AL, and created what was popularly known as the
“postage-stamp edition”. Crowley’s earlier attempt produced “nothing
remarkable”.
74.
There is a splendour in my name hidden and glorious, as the sun of
midnight is ever the son.
The sun of midnight is the
dark or invisible phase, the sun on the opposite side of the earth,
essentially the nightly journey of the solar barque in its circuit
through the underworld of Amenta, when Osiris dies and is born anew as
Ra each dawn. In the more biological form of the earliest mythos the
sun god is swallowed by the sky goddess at dusk and passes through her
body to be reborn with each sunrise. Crowley associates the
scarab-beetle form of Khephra with midnight, but originally he
represented daybreak, transformation and endless becoming. In the
reversal or negative reflection of the Maatian Aeon the Sun or
Tiphareth is seen as Black Flame, which may also be an esoteric Sufi
concept and is used in the Temple of Set.
75. The
ending of the words is the Word Abrahadabra.
This is the final Word that
completes Liber AL and also the Work of the previous prophets who
uttered aeonic Words… until the next Aeon of Maat, when we find Ipsos,
‘By that same Mouth’. Nothing is Forever.
The Book
of the Law is Written and
Concealed. Aum. Ha.
That is to say that it is
both manifested (Horus) and contains hidden meanings for each
individual (invisible, as Harpocrates). Aum is the Sanskrit Mahamantra
OM, and HA the seed-syllable of Spirit, a very cosmic ending to our
journey.
A final Crowley quote, to
give him the last word:
“Aum-Ha,
Aum = 111, Ha = 6, 111 x 6 = 666, the Seal of the Beast. Note well that
AUM with a Mem final adds to 671, Throa, the Gate, Adonai spelt in
full, etc. Using the Keys of Aum Ha, we get XII. + XV. + 0, and IV. +
0, their sum, 31 = LA, Not. Aum is
of course the Sanskrit "Word" familiar to most students. (See Book 4
Part III). Ha is a way of spelling the letter whose value is 5 so that
it shall add to 6. This uniting the 5 and the 6 is a symbol of the
Great Work.”
Although perhaps we should
end with something more inspirational:
"The
Love of Liber Legis is always bold, virile, even orgiastic. There is
delicacy, but it is the delicacy of strength. Mighty and terrible and
glorious as it is, however, it is but the pennon upon the sacred lance
of Will, the damascened inscription upon the swords of the Knight-monks
of Thelema." - Aleister Crowley
“The
God wisely refrains from clear expression, so that the event, as it
occurs, may justify His word. This progressive illumination of that
word has served to keep it alive as no single revelation could have
done. Every time that I have dulled to Liber Legis something has
happened to rekindle it in my heart.” - Aleister Crowley
“After
five years of folly and weakness, miscalled politeness, tact,
discretion, care for the feelings of others, I am weary of it. I say
today: to hell with Christianity, Rationalism, Buddhism, all the lumber
of the centuries. I bring you a positive and primaeval fact, Magick by
name; and with this I will build me a new Heaven and a new Earth. I
want none of your faint approval or faint dispraise; I want blasphemy,
murder, rape, revolution, anything bad or good, but strong.” - Aleister Crowley
Appendix
A: A Century After AL
"It is
the dawn of the
æon. The
æons of cursing
are passed away. Force
and fire, strength
and sight, these
are for the servants of the
Star and the Snake." - from The Vision and the
Voice, 26th Æthyr
So: what has happened since
Liber AL came through
in 1904? Well, our world has changed
dramatically, population has exploded exponentially, technology has
advanced and woven the planet far more closely together, human
knowledge is doubling in ever-shorter intervals (each is called a
“Jumping Jesus’), we somehow survived hideous wars, famines, plagues
and natural disasters, and in general Things have Changed. You can
hardly compare the 19th century to the 21st. It has been quite a ride
to the Space Age. As Jimi Hendrix sang, “I’m
coming from the land
of the New Rising Sun…”
Does the Book of the Law
account for this? Probably not, but it certainly seems to have
foreshadowed and reflected it; something is definitely up. Visions of
new religions can become very dominant paradigms, and a Buddhist or
Christian or Islamic era has a huge effect on a civilization over time.
When a New Word is spoken, the momentum of history gathers behind it,
and the masses may follow it. Yet Thelema speaks more to the ‘few &
secret,’ to the individual rather than the collective, and instead of
demanding submission to dogma it exalts freedom. Where does that leave
us as a movement? Marginalized Magicians, or Secret Kings?
Perhaps first of all is the
question of the influence of that mysterious Sphinx, the Demon Crowley
himself, the Master Therion or Great Wild Beast who is very nearly
(perhaps unhealthily) deified by some. Immersion in his works has
definite magical effects and purposes, but it should be a school from
which one someday graduates. As Blake said: “I must create a system or
be enslaved by another man’s; I will not reason and compare: my
business is to create.” The Beast cannot be regarded as the
be-all and
end-all of Thelema, who would want to live in a world of insufferable
Crowley-clone-boyz? The whole point of Thelema is to Be Your Self. But
I do feel that one makes a genuine connection from exploring his works
and his thoughts, and especially by actually experimenting with his
rituals. Something amazing came through him, and while he personally
may be a double-edged example (of what and what not to do!) the 93
Current really did channel through him for a very long time: he opened
the gate that makes the connection. His legacy remains inspirational
and (rather strangely for a prophet!) quite witty and paradoxical,
which I consider important signs of some sort of residual sanity... and
I suppose that shifting people’s allegiance from a mundane
organized-religion paradigm to a New Aeon of unbridled freedom just
doesn't simply happen all by itself... people often need a Guru and a
very sharp kick in the ass! ‘Talk does not cook the rice!’
However, if his system is
embalmed and enshrined rather than expanded and improved, if it does
not organically grow and evolve… well, that would be bad. Crowley successfully
mutated Magick. This is a process that must continue. Indeed, is any
monolithic orthodoxy not completely contrary to the very spirit of
Thelema itself? If I were to do Crowley's Will rather than my own, I
would be a slave and not a King. Are we not about chaos, creativity,
freedom, and revolution? Was Crowley's Magick not the Formula of
Change, and devoted to the liberation of humanity? Must not every
Thelemite have a valid Hadit-point of view? ('make no difference...')
So how do we define or
presage the future of Thelema?
Is it a Message of Freedom?
Ideally, hell yeah! It is about damn time for people to start thinking
for themselves! Being themselves! Freeing themselves! You may have only
one shot at this life, make it count for something!
Have Fun!
Is it a Philosophy? That
implies exploration of the Self, theories about the nature of reality,
and models of living in the world, so another big yes, definitely. It
is a decision to accept a new way of life, a personal quest for
meaning, a morality not imposed by dogma but freely chosen. It requires
the courage to look to the future instead of relying upon the past, in
a world caught up in the throes of radical change. We are the Masked Ones, the
Kings in Disguise.
Is it a Mass Movement?
Well, if so, it will not be terribly massive if we see it as remaining
trapped in the limited in-groups and secretive cells of occultists,
even with the widespread diffusion now allowed by the internet. Not
everyone reads or understands his message, but Crowley is still
becoming an increasingly recognizable figure in avant-garde musical and
artistic circles and various other sub-cultures: bad movies are coming
out, and in 2002 a BBC survey of the 100 most popular Britons ranked
him at 73 (the number of GiMeL spelled in full, ascribed to the atu of
the High Priestess). However, he is simply no longer around to run a
vast theocratic empire. Yet in a global sense the various social
evolutions and disruptions and transformational forces of personal
liberation are achieving a momentum that may lead to monumental changes
in the ways people live. This is the Aeon of Horus in action. It may
seem that damn near everything in the news these days is a Sign of the
Apocalypse, but we have at least the possibility of progress. We may
not pull the strings, but we might have a window behind the scenes.
Ideas have effects, memes multiply, change happens. We live in
interesting times… and the unique individuals who do their True Wills
affect
history. The lives of Stars, of self-realized people like Madame
Blavatsky, Albert Einstein, Wilhelm Reich, Charles Fort, Salvador Dali,
Carl Jung, Krishnamurti, James Joyce, Mahatma Gandhi, Buckminster
Fuller, Joseph Campbell, Gurudev Sri Dadaji Mahendranath, Timothy
Leary, and Robert Anton Wilson all have effects that ripple out and
cause Change, and that is what Magick is all about. Zorn Zuckerman has
said that “The 20th Century has been
so much a time of everything
'losing its magic’, that the only thing left is magic itself.”
Is it Political? It
probably should be, if we are to influence world events. It may be
difficult for those of us regarded as demonic cultists to lobby
politicians who tend to wrap themselves tightly in the purloined
swaddling clothes of the Baby Jesus, but in America we should assume
that the Constitution guarantees our rights and freedoms. Organize, Agitate, Protest!
Make the hypocritical bastards squeal!
Is it a Church? God, I hope
not, we’ve been run through the wringer of history with that for 2,000
years now and it really hasn’t worked out well. One possible reason for
Crowley’s outrageous behavior may have been to avoid deification
(although he clearly had no objections to adulation). I certainly have
no wish to offend my fellow Illuminati, but many O.T.O. groups seem to
have fixated firmly onto Crowley’s Gnostic Mass, which is of course all
very nice and dramatic and certainly much more magical than a Christian
Mass; but while there is great power in such very old and pre-Christian
rites as the Eucharist, they still seem to bring with them all the odd
ecclesiastical trappings and hierarchy and rigid rules that a Church
implies. If this is really your collective Will, okay, but I still see
Thelema as implying changes more radical than another 2,000 years of
Bishops and Deacons and Church on Sundays! Mein Gott, I thought we
left that behind in the Old Aeon!
Is it Pagan Polytheism? In
my own life I have worn many hats. My magical path began early with
Welsh Trad Wicca in Brooklyn (pointy black hat), evolved into Eclectic
Egyptological Thelema and the Maatian Current (that floppy beret with
an Eye in the Triangle that Crowley wore, perhaps with a Feather
added), and saw digressions into Taoism and Zen and Tantra (first there
is a hat, then there is no hat, then there is) and an extensive
immersion into Asatru and Runelore (the shadowing hood of the Vitki)
and the Discordians and Sub-Genii (neon propeller-beanie?). Not to
mention Shamanism, Chaoism, Voudon and an occasional bout of
Agnosticism… I still regard myself first
and foremost as a Polymorphous Pantheist Taoist Thelemite, with a deep
sense
of reverence and wonder for miraculous Nature and for the multiplicity
of the Gods, the countless masks and spirits and aspects of a sentient
universe. I believe that Thelema can harmonize with all world religions
in truly unique ways, but that this requires an understanding of
Esoteric Mysticism rather than Exoteric Religion. The monolithic and
monotheist was monotonous. Collective dogma must now be superseded by
individual inspiration and revelation. Everything old is new
again, the Dionysian ‘new wine in old jars’. If I can plant one seed in
the popular understanding of the revelation of Liber AL, it is that we
need to see it in the context of a Neo-Pagan Syncretism in the
traditions of Neo-Platonism or Theosophy or Universalist Unitarianism
or some such open system, of an organic Vision Quest in the sense of
direct experience and Gnosis. Our living gods are with us
and within us, both old and new!
Is it Magick? That is the
Word! Thelema is a Mystery and a Marvel, a wheel of liquid fire weaving
with solid air to work the Will of Love. It is the soaring Bird of
Flame, the Falcon God plumed with the Feathers of Maat who is Truth,
the Phoenix Fire that renews the Aeon & the World. It is a Dance
between Spirit & Soul, a Romance between Deity & Humanity. It
is the Hidden Name that sings in the Heart, the Light of the Moon &
Sun & Stars forever burning in the Eye of the Self. It is the Alchemical Power
of Change, the Invisible Force that works in Secret!
What that means to me is
that much more is happening in the New Aeon than the lovely yet limited
Golden Dawn/Ordo Templi Orientis/Astrum Argentum paradigm. Our Magical
Revival has seen an explosion of movements both old and new,
transforming the astral landscape and infiltrating the Internet. Wicca
has grown into a mass movement astoundingly quickly (and its founder
Gerald Gardner was a member of the O.T.O.). Santeria and Voudon are
emerging from the shadows. New Age thought is almost mainstream, and
agnostic academics study parapsychology. Tribal and Shamanic traditions
are receiving long overdue respect, and the influence of Eastern
religions on the West has been increasing for the last couple of
centuries. Norse and Celtic and Middle-Eastern and Greek groups have
formed, along with many other strange sects. Chaos Magick is spreading
widely through books and comix and role-playing or computer games, and
the Dual Aeon of Horus/Maat is culturally diverse and becoming wilder
and weirder all the time.
We are Madwands and
Technomages, Anarchopagans and Chaos Engineers. Our ancestors were heathens
and our forbearers were heretics. Nothing is True, All is
Permitted. Nothing is Nuit, All is Hadit. Heru-Ra-Ha Rules, Maat
Balances!
The world is an Egg of
silver & gold, the Egg is hatching the
Hawk. Spreading wide wings of
phoenix fire, the Hawk-lord awakens in
all hearts! In every Child, in every
moment of Truth, in every revolution, in
every broken chain, in every revelation, in
every new dawn the Hawk-lord awakens in
all hearts!
I believe in the power of
magick to plant seeds that manifest change: from vision to art to mass
movement to new paradigm to the total mutation of the world. I believe in alchemy,
turning rage into compassion, inertia into creativity, war into peace,
famine into feast, death into birth. And I believe that out of this
awakening from nightmare, the golden child of a future transformation
will be born to a free and illuminated humanity.
Fay ce que vouldras,
~ Shade Oroboros 817
New York City, Autumnal
Equinox, 2009 e.v.
Appendix
B. Some Notes on
Liber AL
In honor of the date of
2/20 I was rereading Liber
CCXX (The Book of the Law) to follow up on
an idea I once had of listing the gods, colors, beasts, and so forth
mentioned therein. As a rather short work (220 verses) it contains a
limited but (one assumes) carefully chosen vocabulary. This is what I
have come up with so far; the numerals I, II, and III indicate the
chapter where the word first appears:
GODS: (I) Had, Nuit, Hadit,
Aiwass, Hoor-paar-kraat, Ankh-af-na-khonsu, Ra-hoor-khuit, Asar, Isa,
and Hoor. (II) Nu, Heru-pa-kraath, Tahuti,
Ra-hoor-khu. (III) Ra-hoor-khut, Hrumachis, Heru-ra-ha,
Hoor-pa-kraat, and in the Verses from the Stele Mentu, Ra, Tum,
Khephra, Ahathoor, Bes-na-Maut, Ta-nech also appear. As they are being rejected,
we may consider Jesus, Mohammed, the Indian, Buddhist, Mongol &
Din, as well as Mary, as not considered to be Thelemic god-names. The
titles of the Beast and the Scarlet Woman might be mentioned, however.
COLORS: azure, blue,
scarlet, black, silver, gold, red, pale, purple, green, and ‘miraculous
colour”. Also lapis lazuli, jasper, jasmin, rose, blood, wine,
meal, and honey are mentioned as substances rather than colors per se.
BEINGS: include gods,
beasts, men, women, and children. More specifically: serpent, dove,
snake, ox, hawk, spectre, dog, worm, beetles & creeping things, as
well as countless more human roles.
TAROT: I also wondered how
many tarot trumps were named in some way, and came up with almost all
in some manner:
Fool (repeatedly; see the
works of Frater Achad) Magician (& Exorcist) Priestess Empress missing the Emperor; King
among the Kings, or Priest of the Princes, perhaps? Hierophant Lovers (repeatedly) missing the Chariot, unless
we consider the alternate title of War? Justice in references to
‘the just’ and ‘balanced’ and ‘masked one’ Hermit Wheel Lust and Strength are
recurring themes Hanged Man missing, unless
we consider the alternate title of Traitor? Death is a recurring ecstasy Art mentioned several times
in passing Devil extremely conspicuous
by absence? Tower not mentioned
specifically, but there is the ‘law of the fortress and the great
mystery of the House of God’, which is an alternate title. Stars, Moon, Sun; all repeated. Aeon, Judgment World, Universe
Few of these are clear
tarot references, but are words encoded within a veiled and complex
text.
This is a recent revision
of my version of a Thelemic Tree of Life, drawing upon Crowley’s Liber
AL and TV&TV,
and Gerald Del Campo as well:
Ain, Ain Soph, Ain Soph Aur
are the triple veils of negative existence as the 3 forms of Nu, Nuit,
Nuith.
Kether the Crown is Hadit,
Plutonian, the ultimate point, the Child.
Chokmah is Chaos,
Neptunian, as the All-father or thunderbolt.
Binah is Babalon,
Saturnian, as the All-mother or lotus-grail.
Daath is Uranian, Tahuti as
speaker of the Words of the Aeons: “God of all wisdom, scribe of all
sacred books, father of all magicians… Thoth.” (Thomas Ligotti)
Chesed is Hoor-paar-kraat,
Horus the Child in the Lotus, as the potential and formative Jovian
sphere.
Geburah is Ra-hoor-khuit,
Horus the Warrior Hawk-God, as the active and Martial sphere.
Tiphareth is Heru-Ra-Ha,
the balanced form of Horus the Priest-King, the Solar sphere.
Netzach is Venusian, The
Scarlet Woman.
Hod is Mercurial, The Beast
Therion.
Yesod is the Lunar
Ankh-af-na-khonsu, ‘Life-of-the-Moon”.
Malkuth is the Earthly
future kingdom, Hrumachis/Maat?
(Some of this quoted
material may still be Copyright of the O.T.O., many fraternal thanks!
Also, much appreciation to the photographer of the original and
talismanic Stele of Revealing, which is floating virally around the
Web… Beast Wishes to All!)
