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object:Liber 111 - The Book of Wisdom - LIBER ALEPH VEL CXI
class:chapter
THE BOOK OF WISDOM OR FOLLY
in the Form of an Epistle of
666
THE GREAT WILD BEAST
to his Son 777
being
THE EQUINOX VOLUME III No. vi
by
THE MASTER THERION
(Aleister Crowley)
An LVII Sol in O O' O"
September 23 1961 e.v. 6:19 a.m.

A.. A..
Publication in Class B.
Imprimatur
N. Fra: A.. A..
O.M. 7 = 4 R.R. et A.C.
  6 = 5 Imperator

Crowley - n Hastings (with little left but pipe and wit)
In Hastings
(with little left but pipe and wit)

ENGLISH LIST OF CHAPTERS

  1. APOLOGIA
  2. ON THE QABALISTIC ART
  3. ON CORRECTING ONE'S LIFE
  4. FABLES OF LOVE
  5. OF LOVE IN HISTORY
  6. A FINAL THESIS ON LOVE
  7. ON PERCEIVING ONE'S OWN NATURE
  8. MORE ON THE WAY OF NATURE
  9. HOW ONE SHOULD CONSIDER ONE'S NATURE
10. ON DREAMS (ACCIDENTAL)
11. ON DREAMS (NATURAL)
12. ON DREAMS (CLOTHED WITH HORROR)
13. ON DREAMS (CONTINUATION)
14. ON DREAMS (THE KEY)
15. ON ASTRAL TRAVEL
16. ON THELEMIC CULT
17. ON THE KEY OF DREAMS
18. ON THE SLEEP OF LIGHT
19. ON POISONS
20. ON THE MOTION OF LIFE
21. ON DISEASES OF THE BLOOD
22. ON THE WAY OF LOVE
23. ON THE MYSTICAL MARRIAGE
24. ON THE JOY OF SORROWS
25. ON THE ULTIMATE WILL
26. ON THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THINGS
27. ON THE HIDDEN WILL
28. ON THE SUPREME FORMULA
29. ON THE WAY OF INERTIA
30. ON THE WAY OP FREEDOM
31. ON THE LAW OF MOTION
32. ON THE LAWS AGAINST MOTION
33. ON THE COMMON NEED
34. ON THE FREEDOM OF THE BODY
35. ON THE FREEDOM OF THE MIND
36. ON THE FREEDOM OP CHILDREN
37. ON CULTIVATING STRENGTH THROUGH DISCWLINE
38. ON THE ORDER OF THINGS
39. ON THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE STATE
40. ON THE WILL OF CHILDREN
41. ON HOW TO TEACH
42. ON LEARNING TO KNOW THE WILL OF A CHILD
43. ON THE RED GOLD
44. ON WISDOM IN SEXUAL AFFAIRS
45. ON THE RIGHT GAIN OF KNOWLEDGE
46. ON THE VIRTUE OF DARING
47. ON THE ART OF TRAINING THE MIND (MATHEMATICS)
48. CONTINUED (THE CLASSICS)
49. CONTINUED ((SCIENCE)
50. HOW MAGICKAL LAW WORKS
51. ON THE MECHANISM OF MAGICK
52. ON THE HARMONY OF SOUL WITH BODY
53. ON THE MYSTERY OF CECONOMY
54. ON THE ALCHEMICAL ART
55. ON THE MOST SUBTLE SECRET
56. ON THE MEDIUM OF THE ART
57. ON THE NECESSITY OF THE WILL
58. ON THE UNIVERSAL COMEDY WHICH IS CALLED PAN
59. ON THE BLINDNESS OF MEN
60. AN ALLEGORY ON CHESS
ON THE TRUTH OF FALSEHOOD
ON THE RELATIONS OF ILLUSIONS
ON PRUDENCE
ON THE3?.ATIONALITY OF THE LIFE OF THE MAGICIAN
ON THE PURE HEART
ON THE CONFORMITY OF THE MAGICIAN
ON THE POETS
ON THE MAGI OF THE A.. A.. IN WHOM THE TAKES FLESH
ON THE MAGI OF OLD; FIRST. OF LAO-TZE 7O. ON GAUTAMA
ON SRI KRISHNA AND DIONYSUS
ON TAHUTI
ON THAT EGYPTIAN MAGUS WHOM THE JEWS MOSHEH
ON THE ARABIAN MAGUS MOHAMMED
ON THE GREAT BEAST HIMSELF, THE LOGOS OF AEON, WHOSE WORD IS
THELEMA
A COMMAND TO HIS SON
WHEREFORE HE BEGAT HIS SON: SO THAT THERE FREEDOM
ON HIS FRAILTY
ON THE HAND THAT UPHOLDS THE MAGUS 8O. ON HIS SIN
ON HIS VICTORY THROUGH THE NAME BABALON
ON THE FORBIDDEN SECRET
ON THE SECRET THROUGH WHICH ANY SPIRIT IS R- CEIVED IN THE BODY
ON THE QABALISTIC KEY OF THIS ART
ON THE MASS OF THE HOLY GHOST
ON THE COMPLETE FORMULA
QABALISTIC CONSIDERATIONS ON THIS FORMULA
ON CERTAIN ARTS MAGICK
ON THE GREAT WORK
9O ON THE STEPS TO THE GREAT WORK
91 ON THE FORMULA OF THE MOON
ON TAKING THE EAGLE
ON CHEMICAL AGENTS ACCORDING TO THE FOUR RI MENTS
ON THE VIRTUE OF EXPERIENCE IN THIS ART
ON THE TRUE SACRAMENT
ON DIRECTING DISCIPLES
ON CERTAIN DISEASES OF DISCIPLES
ON WATCHING FOR FAULTS IN THE HOUSE
ON THE BODY, THAT IS THE SHADOW OF MAN 1OO. ON SIRENS
1O1. ON A CERTAIN WOMAN
1O2. ON HER VIRTUE
1O3. ON SEEKING FOR CERTAIN TYPES OF ORACLE
1O4. ON THE BLACK BROTHERS, SONS OF INIQUITY
1O5. ON THE VIRTUE OF SURGERY
1O6. ON THE FOUR LESSER OPERATIONS OF THE MICROCOSMIC STAR
1O7. ON THE FOUR MAJOR OPERATIONS OF THE MICROCOSMIC STAR
1O8. ON THE MACROCOSMIC STAR
1O9. ON HIS WOMAN OLUN AND ON THE ECSTASY THAT SURPASSES ALL
11O. ON THE NAME OLUN
111.
ON GREAT MEN, FAMOUS IN LOVE
112.
ON CHASTITY
113.
ON THE CEREMONY OF THE EQUINOX
114.
ON THE LIG4HT OF THE STARS
115.
ON SONG
116.
ON HUMAN STUPIDITY
117.
ON HIS STRUGGLE
118.
ON THE NEED FOR DECLARING THE WORD
119.
ON THE MYSTERY OF THE UNIVERSAL SACRAMENT
12O.
ON THE RIGHTNESS OF THINGS
121.
ON THE BLESSED VIRGIN
122.
ON THE SPORT OF HIS MISTRESS
123.
ON A DANGER IN THE SPORTS OF' LOVE
124.
ON THE UNCONSCIOUS, OR LIBIDO
125.
ON THE ORGANIZATION OF COMMUNITIES
126.
ON THE METHOD OF SCIENCE
127.
ON MONSTERS
128.
ON THE HIDDEN PALACE OF WISDOM
129.
ON THE DEFECTS OF THE HIDDEN WILL
13O.
ON REASON, THE MINISTER OF THE WILL
131.
ON THE WAY OF' WISDOM
132.
ON REASON, SOURCE OF' MADNESS WHEN NOT UNDER WILL
133.
ON TRUTH, WHICH MAY NOT BE TOLD TO A WOMAN
134.
ON THE NATURE OF WOMAN
135.
ON THE TWO REWARDS OF' THE PATH
136.
ON THE ECSTASY OF SAMADHI AND HOW IT DIFFERS FROM OTHERS
137.
ON THE ART OF LOVE AND THE PLEASURES OF THE MYSTIC
138.
ON THE HIGHEST REWARD, TRUE WISDOM AND PERFECT HAPPINESS
139.
ON THE HELL OF THE SLAVES
14O.
A RHAPSODY TO OUR LADY
141.
A RHAPSODY TO HIS STAR
142.
ON THE HARMONY OF WILL AND FATE
143.
A PARENTHESIS ON A CERTAIN VIRGIN
144.
ON CONSTANCY IN LOVE, TO A WHITE RAVEN
145.
ON THE MYSTERY OF EVIL
146.
ON THE VIRTUE OF TOLERANCE
147.
ON THE FORMULA OF THE DYING GODS
148.
ON MALIGN FOOLS
149.
AN APOLOGY FOR HIS WRITINGS
15O.
IN PRAISE OF THE LAW OF THELEMA
151.
ON THE SPHINX OF THE EGYPTIANS
152.
ON THE NATURE OF THE SPHINX
153.
ON THE BULL
154.
ON THE LION
155.
FURTHER ON THE LION
156.
ON THE MAN
157.
ON THE DRAGON, WHICH IS EAGLE, SERPENT AND SCORPION
158.
ON THE FOUR VIRTUES OF THE SPHINX
159.
ON THE BALANCE IN WHICH THE FOUR VIRTUES GATHER POWER
16O.
ON THE PYRAMID
161.
CONCERNING SILENCE
162.
ON THE NATURE OF OUR SILENCE
163.
ON THE CORRECT FORMULA OF THE DRAGON
164.
ON HIS HOROSCOPE
165.
ON HIS WORK
166.
ON THE BLACK BROTHERS
ON THE ALCHEMICAL ART
ON WOMAN. WHO IS FIT FOR A TEST
ON THE FORMULA OF WOMAN 17O. HIS MASTER'S WORDS ON WOMAN
ON THE PROPER CONDUCT OF WOMAN
FURTHER CONCERNING THIS
ON THE KEYS OF DEATH AND THE DEVIL, ARCANA OF THE TAROT OF THE R.
C. BROTHERHOOD
FURTHER ON THESE PATHS
ON THE EYE OF HOOR
ON HIS INITIATION
ON THE MOST HOLY GRASS OF THE ARABS
ON CERTAIN MYSTERIES THAT I HAVE SEEN
ON A CERTAIN METHOD OF MEDITATION 18O. FURTHER ON THIS
FURTHER ON THIS
CONCLUSION ON THIS METHOD OF HOLINESS
ON THE ONE WAY OF THE SUN
ON THE PRUDENCE OF THE A.. A..
FURTHER ON THIS PATH
OF PRUDENCE IN THE ART OF TEACHING
ON THE MIND ENEMY OF THE SOUL
ON DIFFERENT WORKS OF THE ILLUMINATORS
FURTHER WORDS ON THIS
19O. ON PERFECT PEACE WITH LIGHT
ON PERFECT PEACE
ON DEATH
ON THE ESCHATOLOGY OF THE R. C. ADEPTS
ON THE SUPREME MARRIAGE
ON A CERTAIN PROBLEM IN THE ART OF PLEASURE
AN UNRAVELLING OF THIS KNOT
ON THE COMEDY WHICH IS CALLED PAN
ON THE GAME OF LOVE
ON THE PLEASURE OF DEBAUCHERY
2OO. ON THE BLINDNESS OF THE ANTIENT PHILOSOPHERS
2O1. ON THE MANICHAEAN HERESY
2O2. ON THE TRUTH OF THINGS
2O3. ON MY APHORISM: ALL ARE
2O4. ON THE REASON FOR WRITING THIS LETTER
2O5. ON THE NATURE OF THIS LETTER
2O6. HOW I WROTE THIS LETTER
2O7. ON WISDOM AND FOLLY
2O8. ON THE LAST ORACLE

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.
1. APOLOGIA (Apology)
I have begotten thee, o my Son, and that strangely, as thou knowest,
upon the Scarlet Woman called Hilarion, as it was mysteriously foretold
unto me in The Book of the Law. Now therefore that thou art come to the
Age of Understanding, do thou give ear unto my Wisdom, for that therein
lieth a simple and direct Way for every Man that he may attain to the
End.
Firstly, then, I would have thee to know that Spiritual Experience and
Perfection have no necessary connection with Advancement in our Holy
Order. But for each Man is a Path: there is a Constant, and there is a
Variable. Seek ever therefore in thy Work of the Promulgation of the
Law to discover in each Man his own true Nature, that he may in due
Season accomplish it not only for himself, but for all who are bound
unto him. There are very many for whom in their present Incarnations
this Great Work may be impossible; since their appointed Work may be in
Satisfaction of some Magical Debt, or in Adjustment of some Balance, or
in Fulfillment of some Defect. As is written: Suum Cuique.
Now because thou art the Child of my Bowels, I yearn greatly towards
thee, o my Son, and I strive strongly with my Spirit that by my Wisdom
I may make plain thy Way before thee; and thus in many Chapters will I
write for thee those things that may profit thee. Sis benedictus.
2. DE ARTE KABBALISTICA. (On the Qabalistic Art)
Do thou study most constantly, my Son, in the Art of the Holy Qabalah.
Know that herein the Relations between Numbers, though they be mighty
in Power and prodigal of Knowledge, are but lesser Things. For the Work
is to reduce all other conceptions to these of Number, because thus
thou wilt lay bare the very Structure of thy Mind, whose rule is
Necessity rather than Prejudice. Not until the Universe is thus laid
naked before thee canst thou truly anatomize it. The Tendencies of thy
Mind lie deeper far than any Thought, for they are the Conditions and
the Laws of Thought; and it is these that thou must bring to Naught.
This Way is most sure; most sacred; and the Enemies thereof most awful,
most sublime. It is for the Great Souls to enter on this Rigour and
Austerity. To them the Gods themselves do Homage; for it is the Way of
Utmost Purity.

3. DE VITA CORRIGENDA. (On Correcting One's Life)
Know, son, that the true Principle of Self-Control is Liberty. For we
are born into a World which is in Bondage to Ideals; to them we are
perforce fitted, even as his Enemies to the Bed of Procrustes. Each of
us, as he grows, learns Repression of himself and his true Will. "It is
a lie, this folly against self.": these Words are written in The Book
of the Law. So therefore these Passions in ourselves which we
understand to be Hindrances are not part of our True Will, but diseased
Appetites, manifest in us through false early Training. Thus the Tabus
of savage Tribes in such matter as Love constrain that True Love which
is born in us; and by this Constraint come ills of Body and Mind.
Either the Force of Repression carries it, and creates Neuroses and
Insanities; or the Revolt against that Force, breaking forth with
Violence, involves Excesses and Extravagances. All these Things are
Disorders, and against Nature. Now then learn of me the testimony of
History and literature as a great Scroll of Learning. But the Vellum of
the Scroll is of Man's Skin, and its Ink of his Heart's Blood.
4. LEGENDA DE AMORE. (Fables of Love)
The Fault, that is Fatality, in Love, as in every other Form of Will,
is Impurity. It is not the Spontaneity thereof which worketh Woe, but
some Repression in the Environment.
In the Fable of Adam and Eve is this great Lesson taught by the Masters
of the Holy Qabalah. For Love were to them the eternal Eden, save for
the Repression signified by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Thus their Nature of Love was perfect; it was their Fall from that
Innocence which drove them from the Garden.
In the Love of Romeo and Juliet was no Flaw; but family Feud, which
imported nothing to that Love, was its Bane; and the Rashness and
Violence of their Revolt against that Repression, slew them.
In the pure Outrush of Love in Desdemona for Othello was no Flaw; but
his Love was marred by his consciousness of his Age and his Race, of
the Prejudices of his Fellows and of his own Experience of
Woman-Frailty.
5. GESTA DE AMORE. (Of Love in History)
Now as Literature overfloweth with the Murders of Love, so also doeth
History, and the Lesson is ever the same.
Thus the Loves of Abelard and of Heloise were destroyed by the System
of Repression in which they chanced to move.
Thus Beatrice was robbed of Dante by social Artificialities; and Paolo
slain on account of Things external to his Love of Francesca.
Then, per contra, Martin Luther, being a Giant of Will, and also the
Eighth Henry of England, as a mighty King, bent them to overturn the
whole World that they might have satisfaction of their Loves.
And who shall follow them? For even now we find great Churchmen,
Statesmen, Princes, Dramamakers, and many lesser Men, overwhelmed
utterly and ruined by the conflict between their Passions and the
Society about them. Wherein which Party errs is no matter of Moment for
our Thought; but the Existence of the War is Evidence of Wrong done to
Nature.
6. ULTIMA THESIS DE AMORE. (A Final Thesis on Love)
Therefore, o my Son, be thou wary, not bowing before the false Idols
and ideals, yet not flaming forth in Fury against them, unless that be
thy Will.
But in this Matter be prudent and be silent, discerning subtly and with
acumen the nature of the Will within thee; so that thou mistake not
Fear for Chastity, or Anger for Courage. And since the fetters are old
and heavy, and thy Limbs withered and distorted by reason of their
Compulsion, do thou, having broken them, walk gently for a little
while, until the ancient Elasticity return, so that thou mayst walk,
run, and leap naturally and with Rejoicing.
Also, since these Fetters are as a Bond almost universal, be instant to
declare the Law of Liberty, and the full Knowledge of all Truth that
appertaineth to this Matter; for if in this only thou overcome, then
shall all Earth be free, taking its Pleasure in Sunlight without Fear
or Phrenzy. Amen.
7. DE NATURA SUA PERCIPIENDA. (On Perceiving One's Own Nature)
Understand, o my Son, in thy Youth, these Words which some wise One,
now nameless, spake of old; except ye become as little Children ye
shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. This is to say that
thou must first comprehend thine original Nature in every Point, before
thou wast forced to bow before the Gods of Wood and Stone that Men have
made, not comprehending the Law of Change, and of Evolution Through
Variation, and the independent Value of every living Soul.
Learn this also, that even the Will to the Great Work may be
misunderstood of Men; for this Work must proceed naturally and without
Overstress, as all true Works. Right also is that Word that the Kingdom
of Heaven suffereth Violence, and the violent take it by Force. But
except thou be violent by Virtue of thy true Nature, how shalt thou
take it? Be not as the Ass in the Lion's Skin; but if thou be born Ass,
bear patiently thy Burdens, and enjoy thy Thistles; for an Ass also, as
in the Fables of Apuleius and Matthias, may come to Glory in the Path
of his own Virtue.

8. ALTERA DE VIA NATURAE. (More on the Way of Nature)
Sayest thou (methinks) that here is a great Riddle, since by Reason of
much Repression thou hast lost the Knowledge of thine original Nature?
My son, this is not so; for by a peculiar Ordinance of Heaven, and a
Disposition occult within his Mind, is every Man protected from this
Loss of his own Soul, until and unless he be by Choronzon disintegrated
and dispersed beyond power of Will to repair; as when the Conflict
within him, rending and burning, hath made his Mind utterly desert, and
his Soul Madness.
Give Ear, give Ear attentively; the Will is not lost; though it be
buried beneath a life-old Midden of Repressions, for it persisteth
vital within thee (is it not the true Motion of thine inmost Being?)
and for all thy conscious Striving cometh forth by Night and by Stealth
in Dream and Phantasy. Now is it naked and brilliant, now clothed in
rich Robes of Symbol and Hieroglyph; but always travelleth it with thee
upon thy Path, ready to acquaint thee with thy true Nature, if thou
attend unto its Word, its Gesture, or its Show of Imagery.
9. QUO MODO NATURA SUA EST LEGENDA. (How One Should Consider One's
Nature)
Deem not therefore that thy lightest Fancy is witless: it is a Word to
thee, a Prophecy, a Sign or Signal from thy Lord. Thy most unconscious
Acts are Keys to the Treasure-Chamber of thine own Palace, which is the
House of the Holy Ghost. Consider well thy conscious Thoughts and Acts,
for they are under the Dominion of thy Will, and moved in Accord with
the Operation of thy Reason; this indeed is a necessary work, enabling
to comprehend in what manner thou mayst adjust thyself to thine
Environment. Yet is this Adaptation but Defence for the most Part, or
at the best Subterfuge and Stratagem in the Tactics of thy Life, with
but an accidental and subordinate Relation to thy true Will, whereof by
Consciousness and by Reason thou mayst be ignorant, unless by Fortune
great and rare thou be already harmonized in thyself, the Outer with
the Inner, which Grace is not common among Men, and is the Reward of
previous Attainment.
Neglect not simple Introspections, therefore; but give yet greater Heed
unto those Dreams and Phantasies, those Gestures and Manners
unconscious, and of undiscovered Cause, which betoken thee.
10. DE SOMNIIS. (On Dreams) CAUSA PER ACCIDENS. (Accidental)
As all diseases have two conjunct causes, one immediate, external and
exciting, the other constitutional, internal, and predisposing, so it
is with Dreams, which are Dis-Eases, or unbalanced States of
Consciousness, Disturbers of Sleep as Thoughts are of Life.
This exciting Cause is commonly of two kinds: videlicet, imprimis, the
physical Condition of the Sleeper, as a Dream of Water caused by a
shower without, or a Dream of Strangulation caused
by a Dyspnoea, or a Dream of Lust caused by the seminal Congestions of
an unclean Life, or a Dream of falling or flying caused by some
unstable Equilibrium of Body.
Secundo, the psychic condition of the Sleeper, the Dream being
determined by recent Events in his Life, usually those of the Day
previous, and especially such Events as have caused Excitement of
Anxiety, the more so if they be unfinished or unfulfilled.
But this exciting Cause is of a superficial Nature, as it were a Cloke
or a Mask; and thus it but lendeth Aspect to the other Cause, which
lieth in the Nature of the Sleeper himself.
11. DE SOMNIIS. CAUSA PER NATURAM. (Natural)
The deep, constitutional, or predisposing Cause of Dreams lieth within
the Jurisdiction of the Will itself. For that Will, being alway
present, albeit (it may be) latent, discovereth himself when no longer
inhibited by that conscious Control which is determined by Environment,
and therefore of times contrary to himself. This being so, the Will
declareth himself, as it were in a Pageant, and showeth himself thus
apparelled, unto the Sleeper, for a Warning or Admonition. Every Dream,
or Pageant of Fancy, is therefore a Shew of Will; and Will being no
more prevented by Environment or by Consciousness, cometh as a
Conqueror. Yet even so he must come for the most Part throned upon the
Chariot of the exciting Cause of the Dream, and therefore is his
Appearance symbolic, like a Writing in Cipher, or like a Fable, or like
a Riddle in Pictures. But alway does he triumph and fulfil himself
therein, for the Dream is a natural Compensation in the inner World for
any Failure of Achievement in the outer.
DE SOMNIIS.VESTIMENTA HORRORIS. (Clothed with Horror)
Now then if in a Dream the Will be always triumphant, how cometh it
that a Man may be ridden of the Nightmare? And of this the true
Explanation is that in such a case the Will is in Danger, having been
attacked and wounded or corrupted by the Violence of some Repression.
Thus the Consciousness of the Will is directed to the sore Spot, as in
Pain, and seeketh comfort in an Externalization, or Shew, of that
Antagonism. And because the Will is sacred, such dreams excite an
Ecstasy or Phrenzy of Horror, Fear or Disgust. Thus the true Will of
Oedipus was toward the bed of Jocasta, but the Tabu, strong both by
Inheritance and by Environment, was so attached to that Will that his
Dream concerning his Destiny was a Dream of Fear and of Abhorrence, his
Fulfilment thereof (even in Ignorance) a spell to stir up all the
subconscious Forces of all the People about him, and his Realization of
the Act a madness potent to drive him to self-inflicted Blindness and
fury-haunted Exile.
DE SOMNIIS. SEQUENTIA. (Continuation)
Know firmly, o my son, that the true Will cannot err; for this is thine
appointed course in Heaven, in whose order is Perfection.
A Dream of Horror is therefore the most serious of all Warnings; for it
signifieth that thy Will, which is Thy Self in respect of its Motion,
is in Affliction and Danger. Thus thou must instantly seek out the
Cause of that subconscious Conflict, and destroy thine Enemy utterly by
bringing thy conscious Vigour as an Ally to that true Will. If then
there be a Traitor in the Consciousness, how much the more is it
necessary for thee to arise and extirpate him before he wholly infect
thee with the divided Purpose which is the first Breach in that
Fortress of the Soul whose Fall should bring it to the shapeless Ruin
whose Name is Choronzon!
DE SOMNIIS. CLAVICULA. (The Key)
The Dream delightful is then a Pageant of the Fulfilment of the true
Will, and the Nightmare a symbolic Battle between it and its Assailants
in thyself. But there can be only one true Will, even as there can be
only one proper Motion in any Body, no matter of how many Forces that
Motion be the Resultant. Seek therefore this Will, and conjoin with it
thy conscious Self; for this is that which is written; "Thou hast no
right but to do thy Will. Do that, and no other shall say nay." Thou
seest, o my Son, that all conscious Opposition to thy Will, whether in
Ignorance, or by Obstinacy, or through Fear of others, may in the end
endanger even thy true Self, and bring thy Star into Disaster.
And this is the true Key to Dreams; see that thou be diligent in its
Use, and unlock therewith the secret Chambers of thine Heart.
DE VIA PER EMPYRAEUM. (On Astral Travel)
Concerning thy Travellings in thy Body of Light, or Astral journeys and
Visions so-called, do thou lay this Wisdom to thy Heart, o my Son, that
in this Practice, whether Things Seen and Heard be Truth and Reality,
or whether they be Phantoms in the Mind, abideth this Supreme Magical
Value, namely: Whereas the Direction of such Journeys is consciously
willed, and determined by Reason, and also unconsciously willed, by the
true Self, since without It no Invocation were possible, we have here a
Cooperation of Alliance between the Inner and the Outer Self, and thus
an Accomplishment, at least partial, of the Great Work.
And therefore is Confusion or Terror in any such Practice an Error
fearful indeed, bringing about Obsession, which is a temporary or even
it may be a permanent Division of the Personality, or Insanity, and
therefore a defeat most fatal and pernicious, a Surrender of the Soul
to Choronzon.
DE CULTU. (On Thelemic Cult)
Now, o my Son, that thou mayst be well guarded against thy ghostly
Enemies, do thou work constantly by the Means prescribed in our Holy
Books.
Neglect never the fourfold Adorations of the Sun in his four Stations,
for thereby thou doest affirm thy Place in Nature and her Harmonies.
Neglect not the Performance of the Ritual of the Pentagram, and of the
Assumption of the Form of Hoor-pa-Kraat.
Neglect not the daily Miracle of the Mass, either by the Rite of the
Gnostic Catholic Church, or that of the Phoenix.
Neglect not the Performance of the Mass of the Holy Ghost, as Nature
herself prompteth thee.
Travel also much in the Empyrean in the Body of Light, seeking ever
Abodes more fiery and lucid.
Finally, exercise constantly the Eight Limbs of Yoga. And so shalt thou
come to the End.
DE CLAVICULA SOMNIORUM. (On the Key of Dreams)
And now concerning Meditation let me disclose unto thee more fully the
Mystery of the Key of Dreams and Phantasies.
Learn first that as the Thought of the Mind standeth before the Soul
and hindereth its Manifestation in consciousness, so also the gross
physical Will is the Creator of the Dreams of common Men, and as in
Meditation thou doest destroy every Thought by mating it with its
Opposite, so must thou cleanse thyself by a full and perfect
Satisfaction of that bodily will in the Way of Chastity and Holiness
which has been revealed unto thee in thy Initiation.
This inner Silence of the Body being attained, it may be that the true
Will may speak in True Dreams; for it is written that He giveth unto
His Beloved in Sleep.
Prepare thyself therefore in this Way, as a good Knight should do.
DE SOMNO LUCIDO. (On the Sleep of Light)
Now know this also that at the End of that secret Way lieth a Garden
wherein is a Rest House prepared for thee.
For to him whose physical Needs of whatever Kind are not truly
satisfied cometh a Lunar or physical Sleep appointed to refresh and
recreate by Cleansing and Repose; but on him that is bodily pure the
Lord bestoweth a Solar or Lucid Sleep, wherein move Images of pure
Light fashioned by the True Will. And this is called by the Qabalists
the Sleep of Shiloam, and of this doeth also Porphyry make mention, and
Cicero, with many other Wise Men of Old Time.
Compare, o my Son, with this Doctrine that which was taught thee in the
Sanctuary of the Gnosis concerning the Death of the Righteous; and
learn moreover that these are but particular Cases of an Universal
Formula.
DE VENENIS. (On Poisons)
My Son, if thou fast awhile, there shall come unto thee a second State
of physiological Being, in which is a delight passive and equable,
without Will, a contentment of Weakness, with a Feeling of Lightness
and of Purity. And this is because the Blood hath absorbed, in its Need
of Nutriment, all foreign Elements. Such also is the Case with the Mind
which hath not fed itself on Thought. Consider the placid and ruminant
Existence of such Persons as read little, are removed from worldly
Struggle by some sufficient Property of small and unexciting Value,
stably invested, and by Age and Environment are free from Passion. They
live, according to their own Nature, without Desire, and they oppose no
Resistance to the Operations of Time. Such are called Happy, and in
their Way of Vegetable Life it is so; for they are free of any Poison.
DE MOTU VITAE. (On the Motion of Life)
Learn then, o my Son, that all Phenomena are the effect of Conflict,
even as the Universe itself is a Nothing expressed as the Difference of
two Equalities, or, an thou wilt, as the Divorce of Nuit and Hadit. So
therefore every Marriage dissolveth a more material, and createth a
less material Complex; and this is our Way of Live, rising ever from
Ecstasy to Ecstasy. So then all high Violence, that is to say, all
Consciousness, is the spiritual Orgasm of a Passion between two lower
and grosser Opposites. Thus Light and Heat result from the Marriage of
Hydrogen and Oxygen; Love from that of Man and Woman, Dhyana or Ecstasy
from that of the Ego and the non-Ego.
But be thou well grounded in this Thesis corollary, that one or two
such Marriages do but destroy for a Time the Exacerbation of any
Complex; to deracinate such is a Work of long Habit and deep Search in
Darkness for the Germ thereof. But this once accomplished, that
particular Complex is destroyed, or sublimated for ever.
DE MORBIS SANGUINIS. (On Diseases of the Blood)
Now then understand that all Opposition to the Way of Nature createth
Violence. If thine excretory System do its Function not at its fullest,
there come Poisons in the Blood, and the Consciousness is modified by
the conflicts or Marriages between the elements heterogeneous. Thus if
the Liver be not efficient, we have Melancholy; if the Kidneys, Coma;
if the Testes or Ovaries, loss of Personality itself. Also, an we
poison the Blood directly with Belladonna, we have Delirium vehement
and furious; with Hashish, Visions phantastic and enormous; with
Anhalonium, Ecstasy of colour and what not; with diverse Germs of
Disease, Disturbances of Consciousness varying with the Nature of the
Germ. Also with Ether, we gain the Power of analysing the Consciousness
into its Planes; and so for many others.
But all these are, in our mystical Sense, Poisons; that is, we take two
Things diverse and opposite, binding them together so that they are
compelled to unite; and the Orgasm of each Marriage is an Ecstasy, the
Lower dissolving in the Higher.
DE CURSU AMORIS. (On the Way of Love)
I continue then, o my son, and reiterate that this Formula is general
to all Nature. And thou wilt note that by repeated Marriage cometh
Toleration, so the Ecstasy appeareth no more. Thus his half grain of
Morphia, which first opened his Gates of Heaven, is nothing worth to
the Self- poisoner after a Year of daily Practice. So too the Lover
findeth no more Joy in Union with his Mistress, so soon as the original
Attraction between them is satisfied by repeated Conjunctions. For this
Attraction is an Antagonism; and the greater this Antinomy, the more
fierce the Puissance of the Magnetism, and the Quality of Energy
disengaged by the Coition.
Thus in the Union of Similars, as of Halogens with each other, is no
strong Passion of explosive Force, and the Love between two Persons of
the like Character and Taste is placid and without Transmutation to
higher Planes.
DE NUPTIIS MYSTICIS. (On the Mystical Marriage)
O my Son, how wonderful is the Wisdom of this Law of Love! How vast are
the Oceans of uncharted Joy that lie before the Keel of thy Ship! Yet
know this, that every Opposition is in its Nature named Sorrow, and the
Joy lieth in the Destruction of the Dyad. Therefore, must thou seek
ever those Things which are to thee poisonous, and that in the highest
Degree, and make them thine by Love. That which repels, that which
disgusts, must thou assimilate in this Way of Wholeness. Yet rest not
in the Joy of the Destruction of each complex in thy Nature, but press
on to that ultimate Marriage with the Universe whose Consummation shall
destroy thee utterly, leaving only that Nothingness which was before
the Beginning.
So then the Life of Non-Action is not for thee; the Withdrawal from
Activity is not the Way of the Tao; but rather the Intensification and
making universal every Unit of thine Energy on every Plane.
DE VOLUPTATE POENARUM. (On the Joy of Sorrows)
Go forth, o my Son, o Son of the Sun, rejoicing in thy Strength, as a
Warrior, as a Bridegroom, to take thy Pleasure upon the Earth, and in
every Palace of the Mind, moving ever from the crass to the subtle,
from the coarse to the fine. Conquer every Repulsion in thy self,
subdue every Aversion. Assimilate all Poison, for therein only is there
Profit. Seek constantly therefore to know what is painful and to cleave
thereunto, for by Pain cometh true Pleasure. Those who avoid Pain
physical or mental remain little Men, and there is no Virtue in them.
Yet be thou ware lest thou fall into the Heresy which maketh Pain, and
Self-sacrifice as it were Bribes to corrupt God, to secure some future
Pleasure in an imagined After-life. Nay, also of the other Part, fear
not to destroy thy Complexes, thinking dreadfully thereby to lose the
Power of creating Joy by their Distinction. Yet in each Marriage be
thou bold to affirm the spiritual Ardour of the Orgasm, fixing it in
some Talisman, whether it be Art, or Magick, or Theurgy.
DE VOLUNTATE ULTIMA. (On the Ultimate Will)
Say not then that this Way is contrary to Nature, and that in
Simplicity of Satisfaction of thy Needs is perfection of thy Path. For
to thee, who hast aspired, it is thy Nature to perform the Great Work,
and this is the final Dissolution of the Cosmos. For though a Stone
seem to lie still on a Mountain Top, and have no care, yet hath it an
hidden Nature, a Task Ineffable and Stupendous; namely, to force its
Way to the Centre of Gravity of the Universe, and also to burn up its
Elements into the final Homogeneity of Matter. Therefore the Way of
Quiet is but an Illusion of Ignorance. Whoever thou mayst be now, thy
Destiny is that which I have declared unto thee; and thou art most
fixed in the true Way when, accepting his consciously as thy Will, thou
gathereth up thy Powers to move thy Self mightily within it.
DE DIFFERENTIA RERUM. (On the Difference Between Things)
But, o my Son, although thine ultimate Nature be Universal, thine
immediate Nature is Particular. Thy Way to the Centre is not oriented
as that of any other Being, and thine elements are no kin, but alien,
to his. For Shame! Is it not the most transcendent of all the Wisdoms
of this Cosmos, that no two Beings are alike? Lo! This is the Secret of
all Beauty, and maketh Love not only possible, but necessary, between
every Thing and every other Thing. So then, lest thou in thine
Ignorance take the false Way, and divagate, must thou learn thine own
particular and peculiar Nature in its Relation to all others. For
though it be Illusion, it is by the true Analysis of Falsehoods that we
are able to destroy them, just as the Physician must understand the
Disease of his Patient if he is to choose the fitting Remedy. Now
therefore will I make yet more clear unto thee the Value of thy Dreams
and Phantasies and Gestures of thine unconscious Body and Mind, as
Symptoms of thy particular Will, and show thee how thy mayst come to
their Interpretation.
DE VOLUNTATE TACITA. (On the Hidden Will)
All Disturbances, o my Son, are Variations from Equilibrium; and just
as thy conscious Thoughts, Words, and Acts are Effects of the
Displacement of the conscious Will, so is it in the Unconscious. For
the most Part, therefore, all Dreams, Phantasies, and Gestures
represent that Will subliminal; and if the physical Part of that Will
be unsatisfied, its Utterance will predominate in all these automatic
Expressions. Do thou then note what Modifications thereof follow such
Changes in the conscious Foundation of that Part of thy Will as thou
mayst make in thy Experiments herewith, and thus separate, as sayeth
Trismegistus, the fine from the coarse, Fire from Earth, or, as we may
say, assign each Effect to its true Cause. Seek then to perfect a
conscious Satisfaction of every Part of that Will, so that the
unconscious Disturbances be at last brought to Silence. Then will the
Residuum be as an Elixir clarified and perfected, a true Symbol of that
other hidden Will which is the Vector of thy Magical Self.
DE FORMULA SUMMA. (On the Supreme Formula)
Learn moreover that thy Self includeth the whole Universe of thy
Knowledge, so that every increase upon every Plane is an Aggrandisement
of that Self. Yet the greater Part of this Universe is common
Knowledge, so that thy Self is interwoven with other Selves, save for
that Part peculiar to thy Self. And as thou growest, so also this
peculiar Part is ever of less Proportion to the Whole, until when thou
becomest infinite, it is a Quantity infinitesimal and to be neglected.
Lo! When the All is absorbed within the I, it is as if the I were
absorbed within the All; for if two Things become wholly and
indissolubly One Thing, there is no more Reason for Names, since Names
are given to mark off one Thing from another. And this is that which is
written in The Book of the Law: Let there be no difference made among
you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh
hurt. But whoso availeth in this, let him be the chief of all!
DE VIA INERTIAE. (On the Way of Inertia)
Of the Way of the Tao I have already written to thee, o my Son, but I
further instruct thee in this Doctrine of doing everything by doing
nothing. I will first have thee to understand that the Universe being
as above said an Expression of Zero under the Figure of the Dyad, its
Tendency is continually to release itself from that strain by the
Marriage of Opposites whenever they are brought into Contact. Thus thy
true Nature is a Will to Zero, or an Inertia, or Doing Nothing; and the
Way of Doing Nothing is to oppose no Obstacle to the free Function of
that true Nature. Consider the Electrical Charge of a Cloud, whose Will
is to discharge itself in Earth, and so release the Strain of its
Potential. Do this by free conduction, there is Silence and Darkness;
oppose it, there is Heat and Light, and the Rending asunder of that
which will not permit free Passage to the Current.
DE VIA LIBERTATIS. (On the Way of Freedom)
Do not think then that by Non-Action thou doest follow the Way of the
Tao, for thy Nature is Action, and by hindering the Discharge of thy
Potential thou doest perpetuate and aggravate the Stress. If thou ease
not Nature, she will being thee to Dis-Ease. Free thereof every
Function of thy Body and of every other Part of thee according to its
true Will. This also is most necessary, that thou discover that true
Will in every Case, for thou art born into Dis-Ease; where are many
false and perverted Wills, monstrous Growths, Parasites, Vermin are
they, adherent to thee by Vice of Heredity, or of Environment or of
evil Training. And of all these Things the subtlest and most terrible,
Enemies without Pity, destructive to thy will, and a Menace and Tyranny
even to thy self, are the Ideals and Standards of the Slave-gods, false
Religion, false Ethics, even false Science.
DE LEGE MOTUS. (On the Law of Motion)
Consider, o my Son, that Word in the Call or Key of the Thirty Aethyrs:
Behold the Face of your God, the Beginning of comfort, whose Eyes are
the Brightness of the heavens, which
provided you for the Government of the Earth, and her unspeakable
Variety! And again: Let there be no Creature upon her or within her the
same. All her Members let them differ in their Qualities, and let there
be no Creature equal with another. Here also is the Voice of true
Science, crying aloud: Variation is the Key of Evolution. Thereunto Art
cometh the third, perceiving Beauty in the Harmony of the Diverse. Know
then, o my Son, that all Laws, all Systems, all Customs, all Ideals and
Standards which tend to produce Uniformity, being in direct Opposition
to Nature's Will to change and to develop through Variety, are
accursed. Do thou with all thy Might of Manhood strive against these
Forces, for they resist Change, which is Life: and thus they are of
Death.
DE LEGIBUS CONTRA MOTUM. (On the Laws Against Motion)
Say not, in thine Haste, that such Stagnations are Unity even as the
last Victory of thy Will is Unity. For thy Will moveth through free
Function, according to its particular Nature, to that End of
Dissolution of all Complexities, and the Ideals and Standards are
Attempts to halt thee on that Way. Although for thee some certain Ideal
be upon thy Path; yet for thy Neighbour it may not be so. Set all Men
a- horseback: thou speedest the Foot-soldier on his Way, indeed: but
what hast thou done to the Bird-Man? Thou must have simple Laws and
Customs to express the general Will, and so prevent the Tyranny of
Violence of a few; but multiply them not! Now then herewith I will
declare unto thee the Limits of the Civil Law upon the rock of the Law
of Thelema.
DE NECESSITATE COMMUNI. (On the Common Need)
Understand first that the Disturbers of the Peace of Mankind do so by
Reason of their Ignorance of their own true Wills. Therefore as this
Wisdom of mine increaseth among Mankind, the false Will to Crime must
become constantly more rare. Also, the Exercise of our Freedom will
cause Men to be born with less and ever less Affliction from that
Dis-Ease of Spirit, which breedeth these false Wills. But, in the while
of waiting for this Perfection, thou must by Law assure to every Man a
Means of satisfying his bodily and his mental Needs, leaving him free
to develop any Super-Structure in Accordance with his Will, and
protecting him from any that may seek to deprive him of these vertebral
Rights. There shall be therefore a Standard of Satisfaction, though it
must vary in Detail with Race, Climate, and other such Conditions. And
this Standard shall be based upon a large Interpretation of Facts
biological, physiological, and the like.
DE LIBERTATE CORPORIS. (On the Freedom of the Body)
There shall be no Property in Human Flesh. Every Man and every Woman
hath Right Indefeasable to give the Body for the Enjoyment of any
other. The Exercise of this Right shall not be punished either by Law
or by Custom; there shall be no Penalty either by Loss or Curtailment
of Liberty, of Rights, of Wealth, or of Social Esteem; but this Freedom
shall be respected of all, seeing that it is the Right of the Bodily
Will. For this same Reason thou shalt cause full Restriction and
Punishment of any who may seek to limit that Freedom for the sake of
his own Profit, or Desire, or Ideal. Every Man and every Woman has full
right either to grant or to deny the Body, as the Will speaketh within.
This being made Custom, the Evils of Love, which are many, extending to
the Disturbance not only of Body but of Mind, and that in obscure
Paths, shall little by little disappear from the Face of His
unspeakable Glory.
DE LIBERTATE MENTIS. (On the Freedom of the Mind)
There shall be no Property in Human Thought. Let each think as he will
concerning the Universe; but let none seek to impose that Thought upon
another by any Threat of Penalty in this World or any other World. Look
now, though I enkindle thee to Effort in thy Way, yet it is the Way of
thy Will, and I say not even that thou dost well to hasten therein, for
the whole Matter lieth in thy Will, and to force thyself against thy
Nature would be an Obstacle to thy Passage. But if I urge thee to run
well this Race as an Athlete, it is because I have perceived in thy
Nature that fierce Lust and mighty Concentration in that Will, and I
write this Letter unto thee, knowing well that thou wilt rejoice
exceedingly therein, since it is an Expression of thine own Will, and
it may be a Discovery thereof, which Thing thou vehemently seekest. I
charge thee therefore that thou permit none to tyrannize any other in
Thought, or to threaten, or in any other Wise to blaspheme the great
Liberty of our Father the Sun in the Great Cosmos, or of His
Vice-Regent in the Little.
DE LIBERATATE JUVENUM. (On the Freedom of Children)
O thou that art the Child of mine own Bowels, how shall I write to thee
concerning Children? For herein is the Gordian Knot in our whole Rope
of Wisdom, and it may not be severed by Sword, no, not of a Greater
than Alexander the Two-Horned. And it is a Balance like that of the
Egg, and the Violence of a Columbus will but crack the tender Shell
which we must first of all preserve.
Now Sentinel to this Fortress standeth a certain Paradox of general
Application, and in this large Order I will declare it, so that its
particular Sense may enlighten thee hereafter. And this is the Paradox,
that there are Bonds which lead to Slavery, and Bonds which lead to
Freedom. All we are bound in many Fetters by Environment, and it is for
ourselves in great Part to determine whether they shall enslave us or
emancipate us. And I will make clear this Thesis to thee by the Way of
Illustration.
DE VI PER DISCIPLINAM COLENDA. (On Cultivating Strength Through
Discipline)
Consider the Bond of a cold Climate, how it maketh Man a Slave; he must
have Shelter and Food with fierce Toil. Yet thereby he becometh strong
against the Elements, and his moral Force waxeth, so that he is Master
of such Men as live in Lands of Sun where bodily Needs are satisfied
without Struggle.
Consider also him that willeth to exceed in Speed or in Battle, how he
denieth himself the Food he craveth, and all Pleasures natural to him,
putting himself under the harsh Order of a Trainer. So by this Bondage
he hath, at the last, his Will.
Now then the one by natural, and the other by voluntary, Restriction
have come each to greater Liberty. This is also a general Law of
Biology, for all Development is Structuralization; that is, a
Limitation and Specialization of an originally indeterminate
Protoplasm, which latter may therefore be called free, in the
Definition of a Pedant.
DE ORDINE RERUM. (On the Order of Things)
In the Body every Cell is subordinated to the general physiological
Control, and we who will that Control do not ask whether each
individual Unit of that Structure be consciously happy. But we do care
that each fulfil its Function, and the Failure of even a few Cells, or
their Revolt, may involve the Death of the whole Organism. Yet even
here the Complaint of a few, which we call Pain, is a Warning of
general Danger. Many Cells fulfil their Destiny by swift Death, and
this being their Function, they in no wise resent it. Should
Haemoglobin resist the Attack of Oxygen, the Body would perish, and the
Haemoglobin would not even save itself. How, o my Son, do thou then
consider deeply of these Things in thine Ordering of the World under
the Law of Thelema. For every Individual in the State must be perfect
in his own Function, with Contentment, respecting his own Task as
necessary and holy, not envious of another's. For so only mayst thou
build up a Free State, whose directing Will shall be singly directed to
the Welfare of all.
DE FUNDAMENTIS CIVITATIS. (On the Fundamentals of the State)
Say not, o my Son, that in this Argument I have set Limits to
individual Freedom. For each Man in this State which I purpose is
fulfilling his own true Will by his eager Acquiescence in the Order
necessary to the Welfare of all, and therefore of himself also. But see
thou well to it that thou set high the Standard of Satisfaction, and
that to everyone there be a surplus of Leisure and of Energy, so that,
his Will of Self-Preservation being fulfilled by the Performance of his
Function in the State, he may devote the remainder of his Powers to the
Satisfaction of the other Parts of his Will. And because the People are
oft times unlearned, not understanding Pleasure, let them be instructed
in the Art of Life; to prepare Food palatable and wholesome, each to
this own Taste, to make Clothes according to Fancy, with Variety of
Individuality and to practice the manifold Crafts of Love. There Things
being first secured, thou mayst afterward lead them into the Heavens of
Poesy and Tale, of Music, Painting, and Sculpture, and into the Lore of
the Mind itself, with its insatiable Joy of all knowledge. Thence let
them soar!
DE VOLUNTATE JUVENUM. (On the Will of Children)
Long, o my Son, hath been this Digression from the plain Path of my
Word concerning Children; but it was most needful that thou shouldst
understand the Limits of true Liberty. For that is not the Will of any
Man which ultimateth in his own Ruin and that of all his Fellows; and
that is not Liberty whose Exercise bringeth him to Bondage. Thou mayst
therefore assume that it is always an essential Part of the Will of any
Child to grow to Manhood or to Womanhood in Health, and his Guardians
may therefore prevent him from ignorantly acting in Opposition
thereunto, Care being always taken to remove the Cause of the Error,
namely, Ignorance, as aforesaid. Thou mayst also assume that it is Part
of the Child's Will to train every Function of the Mind; and the
Guardians may therefore combat the inertia which hinders its
Development. Yet here is much Caution necessary, and it is better to
work by exciting and satisfying any natural Curiosity than by forcing
Application to set Tasks, however obvious this Necessity may appear.
DE MODO DISPUTANDI. (On How to Teach)
Now in this Training of the Child there is one most dear Consideration,
that I shall impress upon thee as in Conformity with our holy
Experience in the Way of Truth. And it is this, that since that which
can be thought is not true, every Statement is in some Sense false.
Even on the Sea of pure Reason, we may say that every Statement is in
some Sense disputable, there fore in every Case, even the simplest, the
Child should be taught not only the Thesis, but also its opposite,
leaving the Decision to the Child's own Judgment and good Sense,
fortified by Experience. And this Practice will develop its Power of
Thought, and its Confidence in itself, and its Interest in all
Knowledge. But most of all beware against any Attempt to bias its Mind
on any point that lieth without the Square of ascertained and
undisputed Fact. Remember also, even when thou art most sure, that so
were they sure who gave instruction to the young Copernicus. Pay
Reverence also to the Unknown unto whom thou presumeth to impart the
Knowledge; for he may be one greater than thou.
DE VOLUNTATE JUVENIS COGNOSCENDA. (On Learning How to Know the Will of
a Child)
It is important that thou shouldst understand as early as may be what
is the true Will of the Child in the Matter of his Career. Be thou well
ware of all Ideals and Day-dreams; for the Child is himself, and not
thy Toy. Recall the comic Tragedy of Napoleon and the King of Rome;
build not an House for a wild Goat, nor plant a Forest for the Domain
of a Shark. But be thou vigilant for every Sign, conscious or
unconscious of the Will of the Child, giving him then all Opportunity
to pursue the Path which he thus indicates. Learn this, that he, being
young, will weary quickly of all false Ways, however pleasant they may
be to him at the Outset; but of the true Way he will not weary. This
being in this Manner discovered, thou mayst prepare it for him
perfectly; for no Man can keep open all Roads for ever. And to him
making his Choice explain how one may not travel far on any Road
without a general Knowledge of Things apparently irrelevant. And with
that he will understand, and bend him wisely to his Work.
DE AURO RUBEO. (On the Red Gold)
I would have thee to consider, o my son, that Word of Publius Vergilius
Maro, that was the greatest of all the Magicians of his time: in medio
tutissimus ibis. Which Thing has also been said by many wise Men in
other Lands; and the Holy Qabalah confirmeth the same, placing
Tiphereth, which is the Man, and the Beauty and Harmony of Things, and
Gold in the Kingdom of the Metals, and the Sun among the Planets, in
the Midst of the Tree of Life. For the Centre is the Point of Balance
of all Vectors. So then if thy wilt live wisely, learn that thou must
establish this Relation of Balance with every Thing soever, not
omitting one. For there is nothing so alien from thy Nature that it may
not be brought into harmonious Relation therewith; and thy Stature of
Manhood waxeth great even as thou comest to the Perfection of this Art.
And there is nothing so close Kin to thee it may not be hurtful to thee
if this Balance is not truly adjusted. Thou hast need of the whole
Force of the Universe to work with thy Will; but this Force must be
disposed about the Shaft of that Will so that there is no Tendency to
Hindrance or to Deflection. And in my Love of thee I will adorn this
Thesis with Example following.
DE SAPIENTIA IN RE SEXUALI. (On Wisdom in Sexual Affairs)
Consider Love. Here is a Force destructive and corrupting where by many
Men have been lost. Yet without Love Man were not Man. Therefore thine
Uncle Richard Wagner made of our Doctrine a musical Fable, wherein we
see Amfortas, who yielded himself to Seduction, wounded beyond Healing;
Klingsor, who withdraw himself from a like Danger, cast out for ever
from the Mountain of Salvation; and Parsifal, who yielded not, able to
exercise the true Power of Love, and thereby to perform the Miracle of
Redemption. Of this also have I myself written in my Poema called
Adonis. It is the same with Food and Drink, with Exercise, with
Learning itself, the Problem is ever to bring the Appetite into right
Relation with the Will. Thus thou mayst fast or feast; there is no Rule
than that of Balance. And this Doctrine is of general Acceptation among
the better Sort of Men; therefore on thee will I rather impress more
carefully the other Part of my Wisdom, namely, the Necessity of
extending constantly thy Nature to new Mates upon every Plane of Being,
so that thou mayst become the perfect Microcosm, an Image without Flaw
of all that is.
DE GRADIBUS AEQUIS SCIENTIAE. (On the Right Gain of Knowledge)
I say in sooth, my son, that this Extension of thy Nature is not in
Violation thereof; for it is the Nature of thy Nature to grow
continually. Now there is no Part of Knowledge which is foreign to
thee; yet Knowledge itself is of no avail unless it be assimilated and
co-ordinated into Understanding. Grow therefore, easily and
spontaneously, developing all Parts equally, lest thou become a
Monster. And if one Thing tempt thee overmuch, correct it by Devotion
to its Opposite until Equilibrium be re-established. But seek not to
grow by sudden Determination toward Things that be far from thee; only,
if such a Thing come into thy Thought, construct a Bridge thereunto,
and take firmly the first Step upon the Bridge. I shall explain this.
Dost thou speculate upon the Motives of the Stars, and on their
Elements, their Size and Weight? Then thou must
first gain Knowledge of Doctrine mathematical, of Laws physical and
chemical. So then first, that thou mayst understand clearly the Nature
of thine whole Work, map out thy Mind, and extend its Powers from the
essential outwards, from the near to the far, always with Firmness and
great Thoroughness, making every Link in thy Chain equal and perfect.
DE VIRTUTE AUDENDI. (On the Virtue of Daring)
Yet this I charge thee with my Might: Live Dangerously. Was not this
the Word of thine Uncle Friedrich Nietzsche? Thy meanest Foe is the
Inertia of the Mind. Men do hate most those things which touch them
closely, and they fear Light, and persecute the Torchbearers. Do thou
therefore analyse most fully all those Ideas which Men avoid; for the
Truth shall dissolve Fear. Rightly indeed Men say that the Unknown is
terrible; but wrongly do they fear lest it become the Known. Moreover,
do thou all Acts of which the common Sort beware, save where thou hast
already full knowledge, that thou mayst learn Use and Control, not
falling into Abuse and Slavery. For the Coward and the Foolhardy shall
not live out their Days. Every Thing has its right Use; and thou art
great as thou hast Use of Things. This is the Mystery of all Art
Magick, and thine Hold upon the Universe. Yet if thou must err, being
human, err by excess of courage rather than of Caution, for it is the
Foundation of the Honour of Man that he dareth greatly. What saith
Quintus Horatius Flaccus in the third Ode of his First Book? Die thou
standing!
DE ARTE MENTIS COLENDI. (On the Training of the Mind)
MATHEMATICA.
Now concerning the first Foundation of thy Mind I will say somewhat.
Thou shalt study with Diligence in the mathematics, because thereby
shall be revealed unto thee the Laws of thine own Reason and the
Limitations thereof. This Science manifesteth unto thee thy true Nature
in respect of the Machinery whereby it worketh; and showeth in pure
Nakedness, without Clothing of Personality or Desire, the Anatomy of
thy conscious Self. Furthermore, by this thou mayst understand the
Essence between the Relation of all Things, and the Nature of
Necessity, and come to the Knowledge of Form. For this Mathematics is
as it were the last Veil before the Image of Truth, so that there is no
Way better than our Holy Qabalah, which analyseth all Things soever,
and reduceth them to pure Number; and thus their Natures being no
longer coloured and confused, they may be regulated and formulated in
Simplicity by the Operation of Pure Reason, to thy great Comfort in the
Work of our Transcendental Art, whereby the Many become One.
SEQUITUR. (Continued) (2) CLASSICA. (Classics)
My son, neglect not in any wise the Study of the Writings of Antiquity,
and that in the original Language. For by this thou shalt discover the
History of the Structure of thy Mind, that is, its Nature regarded as
the last term in a Sequence of Causes and Effects. For thy Mind hath
been built up of these Elements, so that in these Books thou mayst
bring into the Light thine own subconscious Memories. And thy Memory is
as it were the Mortar in the House of thy Mind, without which is no
Cohesion or Individuality possible, so that the Lack thereof is called
Dementia. And these Books have lived long and become famous because
they are the Fruits of
ancient Trees whereof thou art directly the Heir, wherefrom (say I)
they are more truly germane to thine own Nature than Books of
Collateral Offshoots, though such were in themselves better and wiser.
Yes, o my Son, in these Writings thou mayst study to come to the true
Comprehension of thine own Nature, and that of the whole Universe, in
the Dimension of Time, even as the Mathematic declareth it in that of
Space: That is, of Extension. Moreover, by this Study shall the Child
comprehend the Foundation of Manners: the which, as sayeth one of the
Sons of Wisdom, maketh Man.
SEQUITUR. (Continued) (3) SCIENTIFICA. (Science)
Since Time and Space are the Conditions of Mind, these two Studies are
fundamental. Yet there remaineth Causality, which is the Root of the
Actions and Reactions of Nature. This also shalt thou seek ardently,
that thou mayst comprehend the Variety of the Universe, its Harmony and
its Beauty, with the Knowledge of that which compelleth it. Yet this is
not equal to the former two in Power to reveal thee to thy Self; and
its first Use is to instruct thee in the true Method of Advancement in
Knowledge, which is fundamentally, the Observation of the Like and the
Unlike. Also, it shall arouse in thee the Ecstasy of Wonder; and it
shall bring thee to a proper Understanding of Art Magick. For our
Magick is but one of the powers that lie within us undeveloped and
unanalysed; and it is by the Method of Science that it must be made
clear, and available to the Use of Man. Is not this a Gift beyond
Price, the Fruit of a Tree not only of knowledge by to Life? For there
is that in Man which is God, and there is that also which is Dust; and
by our Magick we shall make these twain one Flesh, to the Obtaining of
the Empery of the Universe.
DE MODO QUO OPERET LEX MAGICA. (How Magickal Law Works)
Give Ear attentively, o my Son, while I expound unto thee the true
Doctrine of Magick. Every force acteth, in due Proportion, on all
Things with which it is connected. Thus a burning Forest causes
chemical Change by Combustion, and giveth Heat and Motion to the Air
about it by the Operation of physical Laws, and exciteth thought and
Emotion in the Man whom it reacheth through his Organs of Perception.
Consider (even though it were by Legend) the Fall of the apple of Isaac
Newton, its Effect upon the Spiritual Destinies of Man! Consider also
that no Force cometh ever to the end of its work! The Air that is moved
by my Breath is a Disturbance or Change of Equilibrium that cannot be
fully compensated and brought to naught, though the Aeons be endless.
Who then shall deny the Possibility of Magick? Well said Frazer, the
most learned Doctor of the College of the Holy Trinity in the
University of Cambridge, that Science was but the Name of any Magick
which failed not of its intended Effect.
DE MACHINA MAGICA. (On the Mechanism of Magick)
Lo! I put forth my Will, and my Pen moveth upon the Paper, by Cause
that my will mysteriously hath Power upon the Muscle of my Arm, and
these do Work at a mechanical Advantage against the Inertia of the Pen.
I cannot break down the Wall opposite me by Cause that I cannot come
into mechanical Relation with it; or the Wall at my Side, by Cause that
I am
not strong enough to overcome its Inertia. To win that Battle I must
call Time and Pick-axe to mine aid. But how could I retard the Motion
of the Earth in Space? I am myself Party of its Momentum. Yet every
Stroke of my Pen affecteth that Motion by changing the Equilibrium
thereof. The Problem of every Act of Magick is then this: to exert a
Will sufficiently powerful to cause the required Effect, through a
Menstruum or Medium of Communication. By the common Understanding of
the Word Magick, we however exclude such Media as are generally known
and understood. Now then, o my Son, will I declare unto thee first the
Nature of the Power, and afterward that of the Medium.
DE HARMONIA ANIMAE CUM CORPORE. (On the Harmony of the Soul with the
Body)
All Things are interwoven. The most spiritual Thought in thy Soul (I
speak as a Fool) is also a most material Change in Blood or Brain.
Anger maketh the Blood acid; Hate poisoneth Mother s milk; even as I
showed formerly in reverse, how Disturbance of physical Function
altereth the States of Consciousness. Now no Man doubteth the Power of
the Will of Man, whether it be his love that begetteth Children or
causes wars wherein many Men be slain, whether it be his Eloquence that
moveth a Mob or his Vanity that destroyeth a People. Only in all such
Cases we understand how Nature worketh, through known Laws physical or
psychical. That is, there is a State of unstable Equilibrium, so that
one Machine setteth another in Motion as soon as the first Disturbance
ariseth. Therefore, it is not proper to regard all Consequence of a
Will as its Effect. Without the Revolution there could have been no
great Effect of the Will of Napoleon; and moreover his Will was broken
in the End, to the present Misfortune (as it seems to many beside
myself) of Mankind. This Magick therefore, dependeth greatly on the Art
to set many other Wills in sympathetic Motion; and the greatest Magus
may not be the most successful in a mean conception of a Limit of Time.
He may need to strike many Blows before he breaketh down his Wall, if
that be strong, while a Child may push over one that is ready to
crumble.
DE MYSTERIO PRUDENTIAE.(On the mystery of Economy)
Behold now nature, how prodigal is She of her Forces! The evident Will
of every Acorn is to become an Oak; yet nigh all fail of that Will.
Therefore one Secret of Magick is Oeconomy of thy Force; to do no Act
unless secure of its Effect. And if every Act has an Effect on every
Plane, how canst thou do this unless thou be connected with all Planes?
For this Reason must thou know thoroughly not only thy Body and thy
Mind, but thy Body of Light and all its subtler Principles soever. But
I will have thee consider most especially what powers thou hast within
thee which are certainly capable of great Effects, yet which are
constantly wasted. Think then whether, if these Powers, frustrate of
their End upon one Plane, might not be turned to high Purpose and
assured Success upon another. For an hundred Acorns, rightly set in
Conditions fit for their true Growth, will become an hundred Oaks,
while otherwise they make but one Meal for one Hog, and their subtile
Nature is wholly lost to them. Learn then, o my Son, this Mystery of
Oeconomy, and apply it faithfully and with Diligence in thy Work.
DE ARTE ALCHEMICA. (On the Alchemical Art)
Here then I must write concerning Talismans for thine Instruction. Know
first that there are certain Vehicles proper for the Incarnation of the
Will. I instance Paper, whereon by thine Art thou writest a symbolic
Representation of thy Will, so that when thou next seest it, thou are
reminded of that Will, or it may be that another, seeing it, will obey
that Will. Here then is a case of Incarnation and Assumption, which,
before it was understood, was rightly considered Gramarye or Magick.
Again, thy Will to live causeth thee to plant Corn, which in due Season
being eaten is again transmuted into Will. Thus thou mayst in many Ways
impress any particular Will upon the proper Substance, so that by due
Use thou comest at last to its Accomplishment. So general is this
Formula, in Truth, that all conscious Actions may be included within
its scope. There is also the Converse, as when external Objects create
Appetite, whose Satisfaction again reacteth upon the physical Plane.
Praise thou the wonder of the Mystery of Nature, rising and falling
with every Breath, so that there is no Part which is not mystically
Partaker of the Whole.
DE ARCANO SUBTILISSIMO. (On the Most Subtle Secret)
O my Son, there is that within thee of marvellous Puissance which is by
its own Nature the Incarnation of thy Will, most ready to receive the
Seal thereof. Therein lie hidden all Powers, all Memories, more than
thou hast ten thousand fold! Learn then to draw from that great
Treasure- House the Jewel of which thou art in any present Need. For
all things that are possible to thy Nature are already hidden within
thee; and thou hast but to name them, and to bring them back into the
Light of thy Consciousness. Then squander not this Gold of thine, but
put it to most fruitful Usury. Now then of the Art and Craft of this
most Holy Mystery I write not, for a Reason that thou already knowest.
Moreover, in this Matter, thou shalt best learn by thine own
Experience, and thine Observation in true Science shall guide thee. For
this Secret is still of Magick, and Occult, so that I know not
certainly if thy Will lieth with my Way or no.
DE MENSTRUO ARTIS. (On the Medium of the Art)
But concerning the Medium by whose sensitive Nature our Magick Force is
transmitted to the Object of our Working, doubt not. For already in
other Galaxies of Physics have we been compelled to postulate an Aethyr
wholly hypothetical in order to explain the Phenomena of Light,
Electricity, and the like; nor doeth any Man demand Demonstration of
the Existence of that Aethyr other than its Conformity with general
Law. Thou therefore, Creator and Transmitter of thine own Energy,
needest not to ask whether by this or by some other Means thou
performest thy Work. Yet I know not why this Aethyr of the
Mathematicians and the Physicians should not be one with the Astral
Light, or Plastic Medium or Aub, Aud, Aur (these three being a Trinity)
of which our own Sages have spoken. And this Meditation may bring forth
much Knowledge physical, which is good, for that which is above is like
that which is beneath, and the Study of any Law leadeth to the
Understanding of all Law. So mayst thou learn in the End that there is
no Law beyond Do what thou wilt.
DE NECESSITATE VOLUNTATIS. (On the Necessity of the Will)
And how then (sayest thou) shall I reconcile this Art Magick with that
Way of the Tao which achieveth all Things by doing nothing? But this
have I already declared to thee in Part, showing that thou canst do no
Magick save it be thy Nature to do Magick and so the true Nothing for
thee. For to do nothing signifieth to interfere with nothing so that
for a Magician to do no Magick is to commit Violence on himself. Yet
learn also that all Action is in some sense Magick, being an essential
Part of that Great Magical Work which we call Nature. Then thou hast no
free Will? Verily, thou hast said. Yet nevertheless it is thy necessary
Destiny to act with that free Will. Thou canst do nothing save in
accordance with that true Nature of thine and of all Things, and every
Phenomenon is the Resultant of the Totality of Forces; Amen. Then thou
needest take no Thought and make no Effort? Thou sayest sooth; yet, art
thou not compelled to Thought and Effort in the Way of Nature? Yea, I,
thy Father, work for thee solicitously, and also I laugh at thy
Perplexities; for so was it foreordained that I should do, by Me, from
the Beginning.
DE COMEDIA UNIVERSA, QUAE DICTUR PAN. (On the Universal Comedy which is
called Pan)
So, therefore, o my Son, count thyself happy when thou understandest
all these Things, being one of those Beings (or By-comings) whom we
call Philosophers. All is a never ending Play of Love wherein our Lady
Nuit and her Lord Hadit rejoice; and every Part of the Play is Play.
All pain is but sharp Sauce to the Dish of Pleasure; for it is the
Nature of the Universe that hath devised this everlasting Banquet of
Joy. And he that knoweth not this is necessary as an Ingredient even as
thou art; wouldst thou change all and spoil the Dish? Art thou the
Master- Cook? Yea, for thy Palate is become fine with thy great
Dalliance with the Food of Experience; therefore thou art one of them
that rejoice. Also it is thy Nature as it is mine, o my Son, to will
that all Men share our Mirth and Jollity; wherefore have I proclaimed
my Law to Man, and thou continuest in that Work of Joyaunce.
DE CAECITIA HOMINUM. (On the Blindness of Men)
Learn also of my wisdom that this Vision of the Cosmos whereof I have
written unto thee is not given unto thy Sight at all Times; for in that
Vision is all Will fulfilled. Thou seest the Universe as None, and as
One, and as many, and the Play thereof; and therewith art thou (who art
no longer thou) content. For in one Phase art thou also None, in
another One, and in the third an organised and necessary Part of that
great Structure, so that there is no more conflict at all in thy whole
By-coming. But now will I make Light for thine Eyes in this Matter as
thou gropest, asking: but of them that see not this, what sayst thou, o
my Father? But in that Vision thou sayst not thus, my Son! Learn then
of me the Secret Mystery of Illusion, and how it Worketh, and other
Holy Law that is its Nature, and of thine Action therein; for this is
an Arcanum of the Wisdom of the Magi, and proper unto thee that
dwellest in the Land of Understanding.
ALLEGORIA DE CAISSA. (An Allegory on Chess)
Consider for an Example the Game and Play of the Chess, which is a
Pastime of Man, and worthy to exercise him in Thought, yet by no means
necessary to his Life, so that he sweepeth away Board and Pieces at the
least Summons of that which is truly dear to him. Thus unto him this
Game is as it were an Illusion. But insofar as he entereth into the
Game he abideth by the Rules thereof, though they be artificial and in
no wise proper to his Nature; for in this Restriction is all this
Pleasure. Therefore, though he hath All-Power to move the Pieces at his
own Will, he doth it not, enduring Loss, Indignity, and Defeat rather
than destroy that Artifice of Illusion. Think then that thou hast
thyself created this Shadow-world the Universe, and that it pleasureth
thee to watch or to actuate its Play according to the Law that thou
hast made, which yet bindeth thee not save only by Virtue of thine own
Will to do thine own Pleasure therein.
DE VERITATE FALSI. (On the Truth of Falsehood)
Moreover this Matter touches the Nature of Truth. For although to thee
in thy True Self, absolute and without Conditions, all this Universe,
which is relative and conditioned is an Illusion; yet to that Part of
Thee by which thou perceivest it, the Law of its Being (or By- coming)
is a Law of Truth. Learn then that all Relations are true upon their
own Plane, and that it would be a Violation of Nature to adjust them
skew-wise. Thus, albeit thou hast found thy Self, and knowest Thy Self
immortal and immutable beyond Time and Space, free of Causality, so
thoroughly that even thy Mind partaketh constantly thereof, thou hast
in no wise altered the Relations of thy Body with its Syndromics in the
World whereof it is a Part. Wouldst thou leng then the Life of thy Body?
Then accommodate thou the Conditions of thy Body to its Environment by
giving it Light, Air, Food, and Exercise as its Nature requireth. So
also, mutatis mutandis, do thou cherish the Health of thy Mind.
DE RELATIONE ILLUSIONUM. (On the Relations of Illusion)
Of this will I speak further with thee, for here behold a great Rock of
Ignorance on the one Hand, and on the other a Whirlpool of Error; in
this Strait are many Wrecks of Magick Ships. Knowest thou not that
Riddle of old, whether it be lawful to pay Tri bute to Caesar or no?
Give therefore to the Body the Things of the Body, and to the Mind the
Things of the Mind. Yet because of the interior Harmony of all Things
that proceedeth from their Original One Nature, there is Action and
Reaction of the one upon the other, as I have already set forth in this
mine Epistle. But Law is universal, and between these two Kinds of
Illusion there is an ordered Proportion, and it is proper to thy
Science to delimit and describe this Law of Interaction, for to deny it
wholly (as to extend it to Infinity) is Folly, born of Ignorance,
Idleness, and Incapacity to observe Fact.
DE PRUDENTIA. (On Prudence)
Consider Drunkenness, how by Variation of bodily Conditions thou mayst
alter its Effect upon the Mind, and the Contrary, remembering the
Discipline of Theophrastus Paracelsus, how,
opposing Wine to bodily Exercise, he obtained a certain Purification
and Exaltation. Yet, were he seven times greater, he had not done this
with Oil of Vitriol. Learn then that there are certain definite
Channels of Action and Reaction between Body and Mind; sound these, and
trim thy Sails accordingly, not thinking that thou art in the open Sea.
And if so be that thou in thy sounding findest new Channels, rejoice
and map them for the Profit of thy Fellows; But remember always that to
find a new Way up a Precipice removeth not the Precipice. For where
thou, o Angel and yet Man, hast trod delicately albeit without Fear,
Fools will rush in to their Destruction.
DE RATIONE MAGI VITAE.
(On the Rationality of the Life of the Magician)
Study Logic, which is the Code of the Laws of Thought. Study the Method
of Science, which is the Application of Logic to the Facts of the
Universe. Think not that thou canst ever abrogate these Laws, for
though they be Limitations, they are the rules of thy Game which thou
dost play. For in thy Trances though thou becomest That which is not
subject to those Laws, they are still final in respect of these Things
which thou hast set them to govern. Nay, o my son, I like not this
Word, govern, for a Law is but a Statement of the nature of the Thing
to which it applieth. Nor nothing is compelled save only by Nature of
its own true Will. So therefore human Law is a Statement of the Will
and of the Nature of Man, or else it is a Falsity contrary thereunto,
and becometh null and of none Effect.
DE CORDE CANDIDO. (On the Pure Heart)
Think also, o my Son, of this Image, that if two States be at Peace, a
Man goeth between them without Let; but if there be War, all Gateways
are forthwith closed, save only for a few, and these are watched and
guarded, so that the Obstacles are many. This then is the Case of
Magick; for if thou have brought to Harmony all Principles within thee,
thou mayst work easily to transmute a Force into its semblable upon
another Plane, which is the essential Miracle of our Art; but if thou
be at War within thyself, how canst thou work? For our Master Hermes
Trismegistus hath written at the Head of His Tablet of Emerald this
Word: That which is above is like that which is below, and that which
is below is like that which is above, for the Performance of the
Miracle of the One Substance. How then, if these be not alike? If the
Substance of Thee be Two, and not One? And herein is the Need of the
Confession of a pure Heart, as is written in the Book of the Dead.
DE CONFORMITATE MAGI. (On the Conformity of the Magician)
See to it therefore, o my Son, that thou in thy Working dost no
Violence to the whole Will of the All, or to the Will common to all
those Beings (or By-comings) that are of one general Nature with thee,
or to thine own particular Will. For first of all thou art necessarily
moved toward the One End from thine own Station, but secondly thou art
moved toward the End proper to thine own Race, and Caste, and Family,
as by Virtue of thy Birth. And these are, I may say it, Conditions or
limits, of thine own individual Will. Thou dost laugh? Err not, my Son!
The
Magus, even as the Poet is the Expression of the true Will of his
Fellows, and his Success is his Proof, as it is written in The Book of
the Law. For his Work is to free Men from the Fetters of a false or a
superannuated Will, revealing unto them, in Measure attuned to their
Needs, their true Natures.
DE POETIS. (On the Poets)
For this Reason is the Poet called an Incarnation of the Zeitgeist,
that is, of the Spirit or Will of his Period. So every Poet is also a
Prophet, because when that which he sayeth is recognized as the
Expression of their own Thought by Men, they translate this into Act,
so that, in the Parlance of he Folk vulgar and ignorant, "that which he
foretold is come to pass". Now then the Poet is Interpreter of the
Hieroglyphs of the Hidden Will of Man in many a matter, some light,
some deep, as it may be given unto him to do. Moreover, it is not
altogether in the Word of any Poem, but in the quintessential Flavour
of the Poet, that thou mayst seek this Prophecy. And this is an Art
most necessary to every Statesman. Who but Shelley foretold the Fall of
Christianity, and the Organisation of Labour, and the Freedom of Woman;
who by Nietzsche declared the Principle at the Root of the World-War?
See thou clearly then that in these Men were the Keys of the Dark Gates
of the Future; Should not the Kings and their Ministers have taken heed
thereto, fulfilling their Word without Conflict.
DE MAGIS ORDINIS A.. A.. QUIBUS CARO FIT VERBUM. (On the Magi of the
A.. A.. in whom the Word takes Flesh)
Now, o my Son, the Incarnation of a Poet is particular and not
Universal; he sayeth indeed true Things but not the Things of
All-Truth. And that these may be said it is necessary that One take
human Flesh, and become a Magus in our Holy Order. He then is called
the Logos, or Logos Aionos, that is to say, he Word of the Aeon or Age,
because he is verily that Word. And thus may He be known, because He
hath it given unto Him to prepare the Quintessence of the Will of God,
that is, of Man, in its Fullness and Wholeness, comprehending all
Planes, so that his Law is simple, and radical, penetrating all Space
from its single Light. For though His Words be many, yet is His Word
One, One and Alone; and by this Word he createth Man anew, in an
essential Form of Life, so that he is changed in his inmost Knowledge
of himself. And this Change worketh outwards, little by little, unto
its visible Effect.
DE MAGIS TEMPORI ANTIQUI: IMPRIMIS, DE LAO-TZE. (On the Magi of Old,
First, Lao-Tze)
It may be unto thy Profit, o my Son, if I relate unto thee the secret
History of those who have gone before me in this Grade of Magus, so far
as their Memory hath remained among Mankind. For what would it avail
thee should I recount the deeds of those whom I indeed may know, but
thou not? Thou knowest well how I keep me from all Taint of Fable, or
any Word unproven and undemonstrable. First then I speak of Lao-Tze,
whose word was the TAO. Hereof have I already written much unto thee,
because His Doctrine has been lost or misinterpreted, and it is most
needful to restore it. For this Tao is the true Nature of Things, being
itself a Way or Going, that
is, a kinetic and not a static Conception. Also He taught this Way of
Harmony in Will, which I myself have thought to show thee in this
little book. So then this Tao is Truth, and the Way of Truth, and
therefore was He Logos of His Aeon, and His true Name or Word was
TAO.
DE GAUTAMA. (On Gautama)
Whom Men call Gautama, or Siddartha, or the Buddha, was a Magus of our
Holy Order. And His Word was ANATTA; for the Root of His whole Doctrine
was that there is no Atman, or Soul, as Men ill translate it, meaning a
Substance incapable of Change. Thus, He, like Lao-Tze, based all upon a
Movement, instead of a fixed Point. And His Way of Truth was Analysis,
made possible by great Intention of the Mind toward itself, and that
well fortified by certain tempered Rigour of Life. And He most
thoroughly explored and Mapped out the Fastnesses of the Mind, and gave
the Keys of its Fortresses into the Hand of Man. But of all this the
Quintessence is in this one Word ANATTA, because this is not only the
foundation and the Result of his whole Doctrine, but the Way of its
Work.
DE SRI KRISHNA ET DE DIONYSO. (On Sri Krishna and Dionysus)
Krishna has Names and Forms innumerable, and I know not His true Human
Birth, for His Formula is of the Major Antiquity. But His Word hath
spread into many Lands, and we know it to-day as INRI with the secret
IAO concealed therein. And the Meaning of this Word is the Working of
Nature in Her Changes; that is, it is the Formula of Magick whereby all
Things reproduce and recreate themselves. Yet this Extension and
Specialisation was rather the Word of Dionysus; for the true Word of
Krishna was AUM, importing rather a Statement of the Truth of Nature
than a practical Instruction in detailed Operations of Magick. But
Dionysus, by the Word INRI, laid the Foundation of all Science, as We
say Science to-day in a particular Sense, that is, of causing external
Nature to change in Harmony with our Wills.
DE TAHUTI. (On Tahuti)
Tahuti, or Thoth, confirmed the Word of Dionysus by continuing it; for
he showed how by the Mind it was possible to direct the Operations of
the Will. By Criticism and by recorded Memory Man avoideth Error. But
the true Word of Tahuti was AMOUN, whereby He made Men to understand
their secret Nature, that is, their Unity with their true Selves, or,
as they then phrased it, with God. And He discovered unto them the Way
of this Attainment, and its Relation with the Formula of INRI. Also by
His Mystery of Number He made plain the Path for His Successor to
declare the Nature of the whole Universe in its Form and in its
Structure, as it were an Analysis thereof, doing for Matter what the
Buddha was decreed to do for Mind.
DE QUODAM MAGO AEGYPTIORUM, QUEM APPELUNT JUDAEI MOSHEH. (On that
Egyptian Magus whom the Jews called Mosheh)
The Follower of Tahuti was an Egyptian whose Name is lost; but the Jews
called Him Mosheh, or Moses, and their Fabulists made Him the Leader of
their Legendary Exodus. Yet they preserved His Word, and it is IHVH,
which thou must understand also as that Secret Word which thou hast
seen and heard in Thunders and Lightnings in thine Initiation to the
Degree thou wottest of. But this Word is itself a Plan of the Fabrick
of the Universe, and upon it hath been elaborated the Holy Qabalah,
whereby we have Knowledge of the Nature of all Things soever upon every
Plane of By-coming, and of their Forces and Tendencies and Operations,
with the Keys to their Portals. Nor did He leave any Part of His Work
unfinished, unless it be that accomplished three hundred Years ago by
Sir Edward Kelly, of whom I also come, as thou knowest.
DE MAGO ARABICO MOHAMMED. (On the Arabian Magus Mohammed)
Behold! In these Chapters have I, thy Father, restricted myself, not
speaking of any immediate Echo of a Word in the World, because, there
Men being long since withdrawn into their Silence, it is their One
Word, and that Alone, that resoundeth undiminished through Time. How
Mohammed, who followeth, is darkened and confused by His Nearness to
our own Time, so that I say not save with Diffidence that His Word ALLH
may mean this or that. But I am bold concerning His Doctrine of the
Unity of God, for God is Man, and he said therefore: Man is One. And
His Will was to unite all Men in One reasonable Faith: to make possible
international Co- operation in Science. Yet, because He arose in the
Time of the greatest possible Corruption and Darkness, when every
Civilization and Every Religion had fallen into Ruin, by the malice of
the great Sorcerer of Nazareth, as some say, He is still hidden in the
Dust of the Simoom, and we may not perceive Him in His true Self of
Glory.
Nevertheless, behold, o My Son, this Mystery. His true Word was LA
ALLH, that is to say: (there is) No God, and LA AL is that Mystery of
Mysteries which thine own Eye pierced in thine Initiation. And of that
Truth have the Illusion and Falsehood enslaved the Souls of Men, as is
written in the Book of the Magus.
DE SE IPSO
    
CUJUS VERBUM EST

(On the Great Beast Himself, the Logos of the Aeon, whose word is
Thelema)
O my son! me seemeth in certain Hours that I am myself fallen on a Time
even more fearful and fatal than did Mohammed, peace be upon Him! But I
read clearly the Word of the Aeon, that is ABRAHADABRA, wherein is the
whole Mystery of the great Work, as thou knowest. And I
have The Book of the Law, that was given unto me by Him thou wottest
of; and it is the Interpretation of the Secret Will of Man on every
Plane of his By-coming; and the Word of the Law is THELEMA. 'Do what
thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law." Now because "Love is the law,
love under will." do I write this Epistle for thee, that thou mayst
fulfil this inmost Will of Mankind, making them capable of Light, Live,
Love and Liberty by the Acceptance of this Law. And the Hindrance
thereunto is but as the Shell of its Egg to an Eaglet, a Thing foreign
to itself, a Protection till the Hour strike, and then --- no more!
MANDATUM AD FILIUM SUUM. (A Command to His Son)
Here I reach forth mine Hands against thee in the Sign of the Enterer,
o son of my Bowels, for with all my Magical Might I will that thou
fight manfully and labour with Diligence (with Sword and Trowel; say I)
in this Work. For this is the first and last of all, that thou bid
every Man do What he will, in accord with his own true Nature.
Therefore also blast thou that Lie that Man is of a fallen and evil
Nature. For the Word of Sin is Restriction, the Doubt of his own
Godhead, the Suppression of, which is the Blasphemy against, his own
Holy Spirit. Saith not "The Book of the Law" that "...It is a lie, this
folly against self. ..."? Therefore to every Man, in every
Circumstance, say thou: Do what thou wilt; and teach him, if he yet
waver, how to discover his true Nature, earnestly and with Ardour, even
as I have striven to each thee --- yea, and more also!
QUARE FILIUM CREAVIT: UT FIAT LIBERTAS. (Wherefore he Begat his Son: So
That There Be Freedom)
Do what thou wilt! be this our Slogan of Battle in every Act; for every
Act is Conflict. There Victory leapeth shining before us; for who may
thwart true Will, which is the Order of Nature Herself? "...thou hast
no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no other shall say nay." For
if that Will be true, its Fulfilment is of a Surety as Daylight
following Sunrise. It is as certain as the Operation of any other Law
of Nature; it is Destiny. Then, if that Will be obscured, if thou turn
from it to Wills diseased or perverse, how canst thou hope? Fool! Even
thy Turns and Twists are in the Path to thine appointed End. But thou
art not sprung of a Slave's Loins; thou standest firm and straight;
thou dost thy Will; and thou are Chosen, nay, for this Work wast thou
begotten in a Magick Bed, that thou shouldst make Man free.
DE SUA DEBILITATE. (On His Frailty)
Listen attentively, my Son, while I with heavy Heart make Confession to
thee of mine own Frailty. Thou knowest that I made Renunciation of my
Wage, taking this Body immediately after my Death, the Death of Eliphas
Levi Zahed, as Men say, that I might attain to this great Work. It is
now twenty Years, as Men count years, that I came to my first
Understanding of my true Nature, and aspired to that Work. Now then at
first I made no Error. I abandoned my chosen Career; I poured out my
whole Fortune without one Thought; I gave my Life utterly to the Work,
without keeping back the least imaginable Thing. So then I made swift
Strides along the Path.
But in the Dhyanas that were granted unto me in Kandy, in the Island of
Lanka, I used up my whole Charge of Magical Energy; and for two Years I
fell away from the Work.
DE MANU QUAE MAGUM SUSTINET. (On the Hand that Upholds the Magus)
Now it may be well that such Periods of Recuperation are necessary to
such souls as mine; and so no Ill. But I fell from my Will, and sought
other Ends in Life; and so the Hand came upon me, and tore away that
which I desired, as thou knowest; also it is written in the Temple of
Solomon the King. Yet consider also these two Years as a necessary
Preparation for that greatest of all Events which befell me in
El-Kahira, in the Land of Khem, the Choice of me as the Word of the
Aeon. Now then for a while I worked with my Will, though not wholly;
and again the Hand reached forth and smote me. This, albeit my
Slackness was but as a Boy playing Truant, not a revolt against my
Self. Wherefore, despite all, I made much Progress in short Time.
DE SUO PECCATO. (On His Sin)
Now then, well schooled, I strove no more against my Nature, and worked
with all my Will. Thou knowest well how greatly I was rewarded. Yet in
this last Initiation to the Grade of Magus, wherein three-and-seventy
Days, as Men count Days, is but One Day, the Ordeal grew so fierce and
intolerable that I gave back a Step. I did not utterly renounce the
Work, but I swore not to continue unless mine Agony were abated. But
after fifteen Days, I came to myself in a certain Ordeal, wherein I
knew myself finally, that I could do no other than take up that fearful
Burden that had broken my Spirit. And for these fifteen Days have I not
suffered infinite Things? Was not the Tree of my Work frozen, one
Branch withered, and on blasted? Look no more, o my son, upon thy
Father's Shame!
DE SUA VICTORIA PER NOMEN BABALON. (On His Victory Through the Name
Babalon)
And after? This Dawn (for I have toiled through the Night in my great
Love and Care of thee) how is it with me? it is well. For I have found
myself; I have found my Will; the Obstacles that daunted me are seen to
be by the Shadows of Shadows. Grace be unto Lady BABALON.
Thus it is written in "The Book of the Law": "Remember all ye that
existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they
pass & are done; but there is that which remains." Learn then that it
is in the contemplation of Division that Sorrow is, for Division is the
Formula of Choronzon. It is herefore discreet for thee to unite each
element of Sorrow with its Opposite; in whose Triumph of Hymen is
Ecstacy, until by Apprehension of the new great Opposite the Idea is
again seen as Sorrow. This then is the Issue from Sorrow; and thou
mayst understand that I now also am confident in the Necessity of this
my Fall to prepare the formula of my Exaltation. Therefore, my Son,
thus Hail Me: Blessing and worship to the Beast, the Prophet of the
Lovely Star.
DE ARCANO NEFANDO. (On the Forbidden Secret)
O my Son, learn this concerning Magick, that the Yang moveth, and thus
giveth itself up Eternally; but the Yin moveth not, seeking ever to
enclose or restrict, reproducing in its own likeness what Impressions
soever it made thereon, yet without Surrender. Now the Tao absorbeth
all without Reproduction; so then let the Yang turn thereto, and not
unto he Yin. And that thou mayst understand this, I say: It is a
Mystery of O.T.O. For the Sun ariseth not and entereth to strike upon
the High Altar of the Minister by the Great Western Gates, but by the
Rose Oriel doth he make Way and Progress in His Pageant. O my Son, the
Doors of Silver are wide open, and hey tempt thee with their Beauty:
but by the narrow Portal of Pure Gold shalt thou come nobly to thy
Sanctuary. Behold! Thou knowest not how perfect is this Magick; it is
the dearest- bought and holiest of our Arcana. What then is like unto
my Love toward Thee, that bestoweth upon thee this Treasure of my
Wisdom? My Son, neglect it not; for it is the Exorcism of Exorcisms,
and the Enchantment of Enchantments.
DE ARCANO, PER QUOD SPIRITUS QUIDAM IN CORPORE RECIPIATUR.
(On the Secret through which any Spirit is Received in the Body)
Here now is another Formula of Power, good to invoke any Being to
manifest in thyself. First, invoke him by the Power of all thy Spells
and conjurations, with Mind concentrated and Will vehement, toward him,
as I have written in many Books. But because thou are NEMO, thou mayst
safely invoke him, no matter of what Nature, within thy Circle. Now
then do thou confer on him as a Guerdon of his Obedience the Dignity of
a Soul seeking Incarnation, and so precede to consecrate thine Act by
performing the Mass of the Holy Ghost. Then shall that Spirit make
himself Body from those Elements, and thou partaking thereof makest
thine own Body his Machinery of Manifestation, and thus mayst thou work
with any Spirit soever; yet this shall serve thee most in common Life.
Also he Qualities are well defined in the Cards of the Tarot, so hat
thou hast a clear-cut Means of developing thy Powers according to the
Needs of the Time. But learn also this, to work constantly under the
Guidance of thine Holy Guardian Angel, so that thy Workings be alway in
Harmony and Accord with thy true Will.
DE CLAVE KABBALISTICA HUJUS ARTIS. (On the Qabalistic Key of this Art)
Now then to thee who art long since Master of High Magick, it will be
easy to shew how the Mass of the Holy Ghost, sung even in Ignorance,
may work many a Wonder by Virtue of the Force generated being compelled
to manifest on other than its own Plane. Here then is a Theory of the
Mystery of the Aeon, that I, being the Logos appointed thereunto, did
create an Image of my little Universe in the Mind of the Woman of
Scarlet; that is, I manifested my whole Magical Self in her Mind. Thus
then in Her, as in a Mirror, have I been able to interpret myself to
myself. Thou also in thine own Way hast he Power to create such an
Image; but be thou sure and alert, testing constantly the Persons in
that Image by the Holy Qabalah and by the true Signs of
Brotherhood. For each Person herein shall be a Part of thyself, made
individual and perfect, able to instruct thee in thy Path. Yet often
there shall be others, that are to aid thee in thy Working, or to
oppose it. And in this Matter thou shalt read especially the Record of
thy Father His Workings with Soror Ahita (blessed be Her Name unto the
Ages) and certain others to Boot.
DE MISSA SPIRITUS SANCTI. (On the Mass of the Holy Ghost)
Now at last, o my son, may I being thee to understand the Truth of this
Formula that is hidden in the Mass of the Holy Ghost. For Horus that is
Lord of the Aeon is the Child crowned and conquering. The formula of
Osiris was, as thou knowest, a Word of Death, that is, the Force lay
long in Darkness, and by Putrefaction came to Resurrection. But we take
living Things, and pour in Life and Nature of our own Will, so that
instantly and without Corruption the Child (as it were the Word of that
Will) is generated; and again immediately taketh up his Habitation
among us to manifest in Force and Fire. This Mass of the Holy Ghost is
then the true Formula of the Magick of the Aeon of Horus, blessed by He
in His Name Ra-Hoor-Khuit! And thou shalt bless also the Name of our
Father Merlin, Frater Superior of the O.T.O., for that by seven Years
of Apprenticeship in His School did I discover his most excellent Way
of Magick. Be thou diligent, o my son, for in this wondrous Art is no
more Toil, Sorrow, and Disappointment, as it was in the dead Aeon of
the Slain Gods.
DE FORMULA TOTA. (On the Complete Formula)
Here then is the Schedule for all the Operations of Magick. First, thou
shalt discover thy true Will, as I have already aught thee, and that
Bud thereof which is the Purpose of this Operation.
Next, formulate this Bud-Will as a Person, seeking or constructing it,
and naming it according to thine Holy Qabalah, and its infallible Rule
of Truth.
Third, purify and consecrate this Person, concentrating upon him and
against all else. This Preparation shall continue in all thy daily
Life. Mark well, make ready a new Child immediately after every Birth.
Fourth, make an especial and direct Invocation at thy Mass, before the
Introit, formulating a visible Image of this Child, and offering the
Right of Incarnation.
Fifth, perform the Mass, not omitting the Epiklesis, and let there be a
Golden Wedding Ring at the Marriage of thy Lion with thine Eagle.
Sixth, at the Consumption of the Eucharist accept this Child, losing
thy Consciousness in him, until he be well assimilated with thee.
Now then do this continuously, for by Repetition cometh forth both
Strength and Skill, and the Effect is cumulative, if thou allow no Time
to dissipate itself.
DE HAC FORMULA CONSIDERATIONES KABBALISTICAE. (Qabalistic
Considerations on this Formula)
Behold moreover, my Son, the Oeconomy of this Way, how it is according
to the Tao, fulfilling itself wholly within thine own Sphere. And it is
utterly in Tune with thine own Will on every Plane, so that every Part
of thy Nature rejoiceth with every other Part, communicating Praise.
Now then learn also how this Formula is that of the Word ABRAHADABRA.
First, HAD is the Triangle erect upon twin Squares. Of Hadit need I not
o write, for He hath hidden Himself in "The Book of the Law". This
Substance is the Father, the Instrument is the Son, and he Metaphysical
Ekstacy is the Holy Ghost, whose Name is HRILIU. These are then the
Sun, Mercury, and Venus, whose sacred letters are R, B, and D. But the
last of the Diverse Letters is H , which in the Tarot is the Star whose
Eidolon is D; and herein is that Arcanum concerning the Tao of which I
have already written. Of this will I not write more plainly. But mark
this, that our Trinity is our Path inwards in the Solar System, and
that H being of our Lady Nuit starry, is an Anchor to this Magick which
else were apt to deny our wholeness of Relation to the Outer as to the
Inner. My son, ponder these Words, and profit by them; for I have
wrought cunningly to conceal or to reveal, according to thine
Intelligence, o my Son!
DE QUIBUSDAM ARTIBUS MAGICIS. (On Certain Arts Magick)
Now of those Operations of Magick by which thou seekest to display unto
some other Person the Righteousness of thy Will I make haste to
instruct thee. First, if thou have a reasonable Link with him by Word
or Letter, it is most natural simply to create in thyself, as I have
taught, a Child or Bud-Will, and let that radiate from thee through the
Channels aforesaid. But if thou have no Link, the Case is otherwise and
is not easy. Here thou mayst make Communication through others, as it
were by Relays; or thou mayst act directly upon his Aura by Magical
Means, such as the Projection of the Scin-Laeca. But unless he be
sensitive and well-attuned, thou mayst fare but ill. Yet even in this
Case thou mayst attain much Skill by Practice with Intelligence. In the
End it is better altogether to work wholly within thine own Universe,
slowly and with firm Steps advancing from the Centre, and dealing, one
by one, with those unharmonized Parts of the Not-Self which lie close
to thee. This therefore closeth the Circle of my Speech, for now I am
returned to that which I spake aforetime concerning the general Method
of love, and thy Development by that Way.
DE MAGNO OPERE. (On the Great Work)
But now give Ear most eagerly, thou Son of my Loins, for I will now
discourse unto thee of thine Own Attainment, without which all is but
Idleness. Know first that conscious Thought is but phenomenal, the
Noise of thy Machine. Now Chemistry, or Al-Chem-y meaneth the Egyptian
Science, and the true Magick of Egypt hath this for its Foundation. We
have in our House many Substances which act directly upon the Blood,
and many Practices of Virtue similar, to simulate, compose, purify,
analyse, direct, or concentrate the Thought. Confer "CCXX". 11,
22. But this Action is subtle and of many Modes, and dependeth heavily
on the Conditions of the Experiment, whereof the first is thine own
Will therein. Therefore I say unto thee that his is thy
Work immediate and necessary, to discover openly thy Will unto thyself,
and to fortify and enkindle it by all One-Pointedness of Thought and
Action, so that thou mayst direct it inwards unto its Core, that is
Thyself in thy Name HADIT. For thereby is thy Will made white with
Heat, so that no Dross may cling to it. But this Work is the Great
Work, and standeth alone.
DE GRADIBUS AD MAGNUM OPUS. (On the Steps to the Great Work)
This Great Work is the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of
thine Holy Guardian Angel. In the Eight Aethyr is the Way thereof
revealed. But I say: prepare thyself most heartily and well for that
Battle of Love by all means of Magick. Make thyself puissant, wise,
radiant in every System, and balance thyself well in thine Universe.
Then with a pure Will tempered in the thousand Furnaces of thy Trials,
burn up thyself within thy Self. In the Preparation thou shalt have
learnt how thou mayst still all Thoughts, and reach Ekstacy of Trance
in many Modes. But in these Marriages thy conscious Self is Bridegroom,
and the not-Self Bride, while in this Great Work thou givest up that
conscious Self as Bride to thy true Self. This Operation is then
radically alien from all others. And it is hard, because it is a total
Reversal of the Current of the Will, and a Transmutation of its Formula
and Nature. Here, o my son, is the One Secret of Success in this Great
Work: Invoke often.
DE FORMULA LUNAE. (On the Formula of the Moon)
Thus then concerning Operations of the Tao with the Yang and the Yin is
there enough; for thine own Art of Beauty shall divine for thee, and
devise new Heavens. But in all these is the Formula of the Serpent with
the Head of the Lion, and all his Magick is wrought by the Radiance and
Creative Force thereof. And this Force leapeth continually from Plane
to Plane, and breaketh forth from his Bonds, so that Constraint is
Labour. Now then learn that the Yin hath also a Formula of Force. And
the Nature of the Yin is to be still, and to encircle of limit, and it
is as a Mirror, reflecting diverse Images without Change in its own
Kind. So then it seeketh never to overlap the Barriers of its Plane;
for this Reason it is well to use it in Operations of a very definite
and restricted Type. But although it be inert, yet is it most subject
to Change; for its Number is four Score and one, which is the Moon; and
these are ALIM, the Gods elemental before H descending in their midst
made them Creative. So then thou mayst use constantly this Formula to
rearrange Things in their own Planes; and this is a most pragmatick
Consideration.
DE AQUILAE SUMENDA. (On the Taking of the Eagle)
Take in this Work the Eagle all undefiled and virginal for thy
Sacrament. And thy Technick is the Magick of Water, so that thine Act
is of Nourishment, and not of Generation. Therefore the Prime Use of
this Art is to build up thine own Nature. But if thou hast Skill to
control the Mood of the Eagle, then mayst thou work many an admirable
Effect upon thine Environment. Thou knowest how great is the Fame of
Witch-Women (old and without Man) to cause Events, although hey create
nothing. It is this Straitness of the Channel which giveth Force to the
Stream. Beware, o my Son, lest thou cling overmuch to this Mode of
Magick; for it is lesser than that
Other, and if thou neglect That Other, then is thy Danger fearful and
imminent, for it is the Edge of the Abyss of Choronzon, where are the
lonely Towers of the Black Brothers. Also the Formulation of the Object
in the Eagle is by a Species of Intoxication, so that His Nature is of
Dream or Delirium, and thus there may be Illusion. For this Cause I
deem it not wholly unwise if thou use this Way of Magick chiefly as a
Cordial; that is for the Fortifying of thine own Nature.
DE MEDICINIS SECUNDUM QUATTUOR ELEMENTA. (On the Chemical Agents
According to the Four Elements)
Concerning the Use of chemical Agents, and be mindful that thou abuse
them not, learn that the Sacrament itself relateth to Spirit, and the
Four Elements balanced thereunder in its Perfection. So also thy Lion
himself hath a fourfold Menstruum for his Serpents. Now to Fire belong
Cocaine, which fortifieth the Will, loosing him from bodily Fatigue,
Morphine, which purifieth the Mind, making the Thought safe, and slow,
and single, Heroin which partaketh as it seemeth, of he Nature of these
twain aforesaid albeit in Degree less notable than either of them, and
Alcohol, which is Food, that is, Fuel, for the whole Man. To Water,
attri bute Hashish and Mescal, for they make Images, and they open the
hidden Springs of Pleasure and of Beauty. Morphine, for its Ease, hath
also part in Water. Air ruleth Ethyl Oxide, for it is as a Sword,
dividing asunder ever Part of thee, making easy the Way of Analysis, so
that thou comest to learn thyself of what Elements thou art compact.
Lastly, of the Nature of Earth are the direct Hypnotics, which operate
by Repose, and restore thy Strength by laying thee as a Child in the
Arms of the Great Mother I say rather of Her material and
physiological Vicegerent.
DE VIRTUTE EXPERIMENTIAE IN HOC ARTE. (On the Virtue of Experience in
this Art)
Not Sleep, not Rest, not Contentment are of the Will of the Hero, but
these Things he hateth, and consenteth to enjoy them only with Same of
his weak Nature. But he will analyse himself without Pity, and he will
do all Things soever that may free and fortify his Mind and Will. Know
that the Technick of the Right Use of this Magick with Poisons is
subtle; and since the Nature of every Man differeth from that of his
Fellow, there entereth Idiosyncrasy, and thine Experience shall be thy
Master in this Art. Heed also this Word following: The Right Use of
these Agents is to gain a Knowledge preliminary of thine own Powers,
and of High States, so that thou goest not altogether blindly and
without Aim in thy Quest, ignorant of the Ways of thine own inner
Being. Also, thou must work always for a definite End, never for
Pleasure or for Relaxation, except thy wilt, as a good Knight is sworn
to do. And thou being Hero and Magician art in Peril of abusing the
fiery Agents only, not those of Earth, Air or Water; because these do
really work with thee in Purity, making thee wholly what thou wouldst
be, an Engine indefatigable, a Mind clear, calm, and concentrated, and
a Heart fierce aglow.
DE SACRAMENTO VERO. (On the True Sacrament)
But in the Sacrament of the Gnosis, which is of the Spirit, is there
naught hurtful, for its Elements are not only Food, but a true
Incarnation and Quintessence of Life, Love, and Liberty,
and at its Manifestation thy Lion is consecrated by pure Light of
Ecstasy. Also, as this is the strongest so also it is the most
sensitive of all Things soever, and both proper and ready to take
Impress of Will, not as a Seal passively but with true Recreation in a
Microcosm thereof. And this is a God alive and puissant to create, and
He is a Word of Magick wherein thou mayst read Thyself with all thine
History and all thy Possibility. Also as to thine Eagle, is not this
chosen by Nature Herself by Her Way of Attraction, without which
harmony Aesthetic and Magnetic thy Lion is silent, and inert, even as
Achilles before his Rage in his Tent. Now also herefore I charge thee,
o my Son, to partake constantly of his Sacrament for it is proper to
all Virtue, and as thou dost learn to us it in Perfection, thou wilt
surpass all other Modes of Magick. Yea, in good Sooth, no Herb or
Potion is like unto this, supreme in every Case, for it is the True
Stone of Philosophers, and the Elixir and Medicine of all Things, the
Universal Tincture or Menstruum of thine own Will.
DE DISCIPULIS REGENDIS. (On Directing Disciples)
I will have thee to know, moreover, my dear Son, the right Art of
Conduct with them whom I shall give thee for Initiation. And the Rule
thereof is one Rule; Do that thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
See thou constantly to it that this be not broken; especially in the
Section thereof (if I dare say so) which readeth Mind Thine Own
Business. This is of Application equally to all, and the most dangerous
Man (or Woman, as has occurred, or I err) is the Busy- body. Oh how
ashamed are we, and moved to Indignation, seeing the Sins and Follies
of our Neighbours! Of all the Occasions of this Grievance the most
common is the Desire of Sex unsatisfied; and thou knowest already, even
in thy young Experience, how in that Delirium the Weal of the Whole
Universe appeareth of no Account. Do thou wean thy Babes from that
Simplicity, and instill the Sense of true Proportion. For verily this
is a Way of Madness, Love, unless it be under Will. And the Cure of his
Madness is not so good as its Prevention, so that thou shouldst be
beforeh and with these Children, shewing them the right Importance of
Love, how it should be a sacred Rite, exalted above Personality, and a
Fire to enlighten and serve Man, not to devour him.
DE QUIBUSDAM MORBIS DISCIPULORUM. (On Certain Diseases of Disciples)
And thus, if any Babe of thine be ill at ease, look closely first
whether this Love be not the Root of his Distemper. Watch also
Idleness, for whoso presseth eagerly forward in Will heedeth little the
Affairs of this Fellows. O my Son, if every Man doth his own Will,
there is no more to Say! But the Busy-body nor mindeth his own
Business, nor leaveth others to mind theirs. Be thou instant therefore
with such an one, to cure him by enlightening his Will, and speeding
him therein. Remember also that if one speak ill of another, the Fault
is first of all in himself, for we know naught but that which is within
us. Did not the great Witch-Finder end by confessing that he also was a
Sorcerer? We become that which obsesseth us, either through extreme
Hate or Extreme Love. Knowest thou not how the one is a Symbol of the
other? For this Reason, since Love is the Formula of Life, we are under
Bond to assimilate (in the End) that which we fear or hate. So then we
shall be wise to mould all Things within ourselves in Quietness and
Modulation. But above all must we use all to our own End, adapting with
Adroitness even our Weakness to the Work.
DE CULPIS DOMI PETENDIS. (On Watching for Faults in the House)
Therefore, watch heedfully the Fault of another, that thou mayst
correct it in thyself. For if it were not in thee, thou couldst not
perceive it or understand it. Lo, in thine Ecstacy of Love, thou
callest upon the Universe to bear Witness that to this End alone was it
created; it is unthinkable that thou shouldst love another, and
incomprehensible that any Man should grieve. Yet ere the Moon change
her Quarter, thou art free of thy Lunes, and lovest another, and it may
be grievest in thyself while he that amazed thee hath joined the
Company of the Rejoicing. Watch then, and heed thyself; and pay no Heed
to thy Fellows, insofar as they impede thee not. And let this be the
Rule. For every Will is pure and every Orbit free; but Error bringeth
Confusion. See therefore that none leave his Path, lest he foul that of
his Brother; and remember also that with Speed cometh Ease of Control.
Let each Man therefore urge briskly his Chariot in a right Line toward
the Centre; for two Radii cannot cross. And beware most of this Love,
because it lieth so close to Will that Dis-ease thereof easily
imparteth his Error to the Whole Way of the Magician.
DE CORPORE UMBRA HOMINIS. (On the Body, that is the Shadow of Man)
Concerning the Aeon, o my Son, learn that the Sun and His Vicegerent
are in all Aeons, of Necessity, Father, Centre, Creator, each in His
Sphere of Operation. But the Formula of the past Aeon was of the Dying
god, and was based upon Ignorance. For Men thought that the Sun died
and was reborn alike in the Day and in the Year; and so also was the
Mystery of Man. Now already are we well assured by Science how the
Death of the Sun is in Truth but the Shifting of a Shadow; and in this
Aeon (o my son, I lift up my Voice and I make Prophecy!) so shall it be
proven as to Death. For the Body of Man is but his Shadow, it cometh
and goeth even as the tides of Ocean; and he only is in Darkness who is
hidden by that Shadow from the Light of his true Self. Now therefore
understand thou the Formula of Horus, the Lion God, the Child crowned
and conquering that cometh forth in Force and Fire! For thy Changes are
not Phases of thee, but of the Phantoms which thou mistakest for thy
Self.
DE SIRENIS. (On Sirens)
Concerning the Love of women, o my Son, it is written in "The Book of
the Law" that all is Freedom, if it be done unto our Lady Nuit. Yet
also there is this Consideration, that for every Parsifal there is a
Kundry. Thou mayst eat a thousand Fruits of the Garden; but there is
one Tree whose name for thee is Poison. In every great Initiation is an
Ordeal, wherein appeareth a Siren or Vampire appointed to destroy the
Candidate. I have myself witnessed the Blasting of not less than ten of
my own Flowers, that I tended when I was Nemo, and that although I saw
the Cankerworm, and knew it, and gave urgent Warning. How then consider
deeply in thyself if I were rightly governed in this Action, according
to the Tao. For we that are Magicians work without Fear or Haste, being
omnipotent in Eternity, and each Star must go his Way; and who
am I that should save this People? "Wilt thou smite me as thou smotest
the Egyptian yesterday?" Yes, although mine were he Might to save these
Ten, I reached not forth mine Arm against Iniquity, I spake and I was
silent; and that which was appointed came to pass. As it is written,
the Pregnant Goddess hath let down Her Burden upon the Earth.
DE FEMINA QUADAM. (On a Certain Woman)
Knowest thou for what Cause I am moved to write this unto thee, my Son
only-begotten, Child of Magick and of Mystery? It is that I thy Father
am also in this Ordeal of Initiation at this Hour. For the Sun is nigh
unto the End of the Sign of the Fishes in the Thirteenth Year of the
Aeon, and the New Current of High Magick leapeth forth as a Flood from
the Womb of my True Lady BABALON. And a Word hath come to me by he
Mouth of the Scarlet Woman, whose Name is EVE, or AHITHA, concerning
the Temple of JUPPITER that is builded for me. And therein is a Woman
appointed to a certain Office. Now this Woman appeared to me in a
Vision when I was in the House of the Juggler by the Lake among the
Mountains, the Sun being in Cancer in the Eleventh Year of the Aeon,
even in the Week after thy Birth. And I think this Woman to be Her whom
I call WESRUN. But even while with a pure Heart I did invoke Her, there
came unto me another like unto Her, so that I am confused in my Mind
and bewildered. And this other Woman stirreth my true Nature in its
Depth, so that I will not call it Love. For the Voice of Love I know of
old; but this other Woman speaketh in a tongue whereof I have no
Understanding.
DE SUA VIRTUTE. (On Her Virtue)
What then shall I do therein? For the Scarlet Woman adjureth me by the
great Name of God ITHUPHALLOS that I deal with the Other Woman as with
any Woman, according to my Will. But this I fear for that she is not as
any Woman, and I deem her to be the Vampire of this Ordeal. Now then?
Shall I fear? Said I not long since, when I was called of Men Eliphaz
Levi Zahed, that the Error of Oedipus was that he should have tamed the
Sphinx, and ridden her into Thebes? Shall I not take this Vampire, if
she be such, and master her and turn her o the Great End? "Am I such a
Man as should flee?" Is not all Fear the Word of Failure? Shall I
distrust my Destiny? Am I that am the Word of the Aeon of so little
avail that even he whole Powers of Choronzon can disperse me? Nay, o my
Son, here is Courage of Ignorance and Discretion of Knowledge, and by
no less Virtue will I win through unto mine End. As it is written: with
Courage conquering Fear will I approach thee.
DE ALIQUIBUS MODIS ORACULI PETENDI. (On Seeking for Certain Types of
Oracle)
My Son, in all Judgment and Decision is great Delicacy, but most in
these Matters of the Will. For thou art Advocate as well as Judge, and
unless thou have well organized thy Mind thou art Bondslave of
Prejudice. For this Cause it is adjuvant to thy Wisdom to call
Witnesses that are not of thine own Nature, and to ask Oracles whose
Interpretation is bound by fixed rule. This is the Use of the Book
TAROT, of the Divination by Earth, or by the other Elements, or by the
Book "Yi-King", and many another Mode of Truth. Thou knowest by thine
Experience that these Arts
deceive thee not, save insofar as thou deceivest thyself. So then to
thee that art NEMO is no Siege Perilous at this Table, but to them that
are yet below he Abyss is very notable Danger of Error. Yet must they
train themselves constantly in these Modes, for Experience itself shall
teach them how their Bias toward their Desires reacteth in the End
against themselves, and hindereth them in he Execution of their Wills.
Nevertheless, as thou well knowest, the best Mode is the Creation of an
Intelligible Image by Virtue of the Mass of the Holy Ghost, declaring
the rue Will unto thee in Terms of thy Qabalah!
DE FRATRIBUS NIGRIS FILIIS INIQUITATIS. (On the Black Brothers, Sons of
Iniquity)
Of the Black Brothers, o my Son, will I write these Things following. I
have told thee already concerning Change, how it is the Law, because
every Change is an Act of Love under will. So then He that is Adept
Exempt, whether in our Holy Order or another, may not remain in the
Pillar of Mercy, because it is not balanced, but is unstable. Therefore
is the Choice given unto him, whether he will destroy his Temple, and
give up his Life, extending it to Universal Life, or whether he will
make a Fortress about that Temple, and abide therein, in the false
Sphere of Daath, which is in the Abyss. And to the Adepts of our Holy
Order this Choice is terrible; by Cause that they must abandon even Him
whose Knowledge and Conversation they have attained. Yet, o my Son,
they have much Help of our Order in this Aeon, because the general
Formula is Love, so that their habit itself urges them to the Bed of
our Lady BABALON. Know then the Black Brothers by this true Sign of
their Initiation of iniquity, that that they resist Change, restrict
and deny Love, fear Death. Percutiantur.
DE VIRTUTE CHIRURGICA. (On the Virtue of Surgery)
Know that the Cult of the Slave-Gods is a Device of those Black
Brothers. All that stagnateth is thereof, and thence cometh not
Stability, but Putrefaction. Endure not thou the static Standards
either in Thought or in Action Resist not even the Change that is the
Rottenness of Choronzon, but rather speed it, so that the elements may
combine by Love under Will. Since the Black Brothers and their Cults
set themselves against Change, do thou break them asunder. Yea, though
of bad come worse, continue in that Way; for it is as if thou didst
open an Abscess, the first Effect being noisome exceedingly, but the
last Cleanness. Heed not then, whoso crieth Anarchy, and Immorality,
and Heresy against thee, and feareth to destroy Abuse lest worse Things
come of it. For the Will of the Universe in its Wholeness is to Truth,
and thou dost well to purge it from its Costiveness. For it is written
that there is no bond that can unite the Divided by Love, so that only
those Complexes which are in Truth Simplicities, being built Cell by
Cell unto an Unity by Virtue of Love under Will, are worthy to endure
in their Progression.
DE OPERIBUS STELLAE MICROCOSMI. QUORUM SUNT QUATTOUR MINORES.
(On the Four Lesser Operations of the Microcosmic Star)
I have already written unto thee, my Son, of the Paradox of Liberty,
how the Freedom of thy Will dependeth upon the Bending of all thy
forces to that one End. But now also learn how great is the Economy of
our Magick, and this will I declare unto thee in a Figure of the Holy
Qabalah, to wit, the Formula of the Tetragrammaton. Firstly, the
Operation of Yod and He is not Vau only, but with Vau appeareth also a
new He, as a By-Product, and She is mysterious, being at once the
Flower of the three others, and their Poison. Now by the Operation of
Vau upon that He is no new Creation, but the Daughter is set upon the
Throne of Her Mother and by this is rekindled the Fire of Yod, which,
consuming that Virgin, doth not add a Fifth Person, but balanceth and
perfecteth all. For this Shin, that is the Holy Spirit, pervadeth
these, and is immanent. Thus in three Operations is the Pentagram
formulated. But in the Figure of that Star these Operations are not
indicated, for the five Lines of Force connect not according to any of
them; but five new Operations are made possible; and these are the
Works proper to the perfected man. First, the Work which lieth level,
the Vau with the He, is of he Yang and the Yin, and maketh One the
Human with the Divine, as in the Attainment of the Master of the
Temple. Yet this Work hath his Perversion, which is of Death. Thus then
for thee four Works, they pertain all to the Natural Formula of the
Cross and Rose.
DE OPERIBUS STELLAE MICROCOSMI. QUORUM SUNT QUATTUOR MAJORES.
(On the Four Major Operations of the Microcosmic Star)
O my Son, behold now the Virtue and Mystery of the Silver Star! For of
these four Works not one leadeth to the Crown, because Tetragrammaton
hath his Root only in Chokmah. So herefore the Formula of the Rosy
Cross availeth no more in he Highest. Now then in the Pentagram are two
Lines that invoke Spirit, though they lead not thereunto, and they are
he Works of He with He, and of Yod with Vau. Of thee twain he former is
a Work Magical of the Nature of Music, and it draweth down the Fire of
the HIGHER by Seduction or Bewitchment. And the latter is a Work
opposite thereunto, whose Effect formulateth itself by direct Creation
in the Sphere of its Purpose and Intent. But there remain yet two of
the Eight Works, namely, the straight Aspiration of the Chiah or
Creator in thee to the Crown, and the Surrender of the Nephesch or
Animal soul to the Possession thereof; and these be he twin principal
Formulae of the Final Attainment, being Archetypes of the Paths of
Magick (the one) and Mysticism (the other) unto the End. From each of
these Eight Works is derived a separate Mode of practical Use, each
after his Kind; and it should be well for thine Instruction if thou
study upon these my Words, and found upon them a System. O my son,
forget not therein the Arcanum of their Balance and Proportion; for
herein lieth the Mystery of their Holiness.
DE STELLA MACROCOSMI. (On the Macrocosmic Star)
Thus far then concerning the Pentagram, how it is of the Cross, and its
Virtue of the Highest; but the Hexagram is for he most Part a Detail of
the Formula of the Rose and Cross. Already have I shewed unto thee how
the Most Holy Trinity is the Yang; but the Spirit, and the Water (or
Fluid) and the Blood, that bear Witness in the Inferior, are of the
Yin. Thus the Operation of the Hexagram lieth wholly within the Order
of our Plane, uniting indeed any soul with its Image, but not
transcendentally, for its Effect is Cosmos, the Vau that springeth from
the Union of the Yod and the He. Thus is it but a Glyph of that first
Formula, not of the others. But of all these Things shalt thou thyself
make Study with ardent Affection; for therein lie many Mysteries of
practical Wisdom in our Magick Art. And this is the Wonder and Beauty
of this Work, that for every Man is his own Palace. Yea, this is Life,
that the Secrets of our Order are not fixed and dead, as are the
Formulae of the Outer. Know that in the many thousand Times that I have
performed the Ritual of the Pentagram or the Invocation of the Heart
girt with a Serpent, or the Mass of he Phoenix, or of the Holy Ghost,
there has not been one Time wherein I did not win new Light, or
Knowledge or Power or Virtue, save through mine own Weakness or Error.
DE SUA FEMINA OLUN, ET DE ECSTASIA PRAETER OMNIA. (On His Woman Olun
and on the Ecstasy that Surpasses All)
My Son, I am enflamed with Love. I burn up eagerly in the Passion that
thus mightily consumeth me. Yet in myself I know not at all That which
constraineth me, and enkindleth my Soul in Ecstacy. There is Silence in
my Soul, and the Fear round about me, as I were Syrinx in the Night of
the Forest. This is a great Mystery that I endure, a Mystery too great
for the mortal Part of me. For but now, when I cried out upon the Name
Olun, which is the secret Name of my Lady that hath come o me --- most
strangely! --- then I was rapt away altogether subtly yet fiercely into
a Trance that hath transformed me with Attainment, yet without Trace in
Mind. O my son! there is the Transfiguration of Glory, and there is the
Jewel in the Lotus-flower; yea, also is many other whereof I am
Partaker. But this last Passion, that my Lady Olun hath brought unto me
upon this last Day of the Winter of the thirteenth Year of the Aeon,
even as I wrote these Words unto thee, is a Mystery of Mysteries beyond
all these. Oh my son, thou knowest well the Perils and the Profit of
our Path; continue thou therein. Olun! MAPIE! BABALON! Adsum.
DE NOMINE OLUN. (On the Name Olun)
Four Seasons, or it may be night five, ago, I thy Father was in the
City called New Orleans, and being in Travail of Spirit I did invoke
the God that giveth Wisdom, bearing the Word of the All- Father by his
Caduceus. Then, suddenly, as I began (as it were a Gust of Fire whirled
forth against that Idea) came the Wit of mine utter Identity, so that I
ceased crying Mercurius Sum. Also instantly I knew in myself that here
was a Mystery hidden, and translating into the Greek Tongue, exclaimed
'EPMHE EIMI', whose Numeration did I make in my Mind forthwith, and it
is Four Hundred and Eighteen, like unto the Word of the Aeon. So by
this I knew that my Work was well wrought in Truth. Thus hen also was
it with this my Lady; for after many Questions I obtained from the
wizard Amalantrah that Name Olun, that is One Hundred and Fifty and Six
even as that of our Lady BABALON; and then, being inspired, I wrote
down Her Earth-name in Greek, MAPIE, which is also that this Name (as I
have learned) is in the Phoenician Tongue, wh6lon; which by
Interpretation is That which is Infinite, and Space; so that all is
consonant with Nuit Our Lady of the Stars. Thus, o my Son, is the Word
of Truth echoed throughout all Worlds; and thus have the Wise mighty
Assurance in their Way. See, o my Son, that thou work not without this
Guard inflexible, lest thou err in thy Perceptions.
DE VIRIS MAGNANIMIS, AMORE PRAECLARISSIMIS. (On Great Men, Famous in
Love)
Know that in the Mind of Man is much Wisdom that is hidden, being the
Treasure of his Sire that he inheriteth. Thus, nigh all of his moral
Nature is unknown to him until his Puberty; that is, this Nature
pertaineth not unto the Recording and Judging Apparatus of his Brain
until it is put herein by the Stirring of that deeper Nature within
him. Thou wilt mark also that great Men are commonly great Lovers; and
this is in Part also because (consciously or not) they are ware of that
Secret following, that every Act of Love communicateth somewhat of the
Wisdom stored within him to his percipient Mind. Yet must such Act be
done rightly, according o Art; and unless such Act is of Profit alike
to Mind and Body, it is an Error. This then is true Doctrine; which if
it be understanded aright of thee, shall make diamond-clear thy Path in
Love, which (to them that know not this) is so obscure and perilous
that I believe there is not one Man in Ten Thousand that cometh not to
Misadventure therein.
DE CASTITATE. (On Chastity)
My son, be fervent! Be firm! Be stable! Be quick to make Impurity, how
one Course of Ideas seeketh to infringe upon another, to quell the
Virtue thereof. Gold is pure, but to drink molten Gold were Impurity to
thy Body, and its Destruction. Law is a Code of the Customs of a
People; if it intrude thereon to alter them, it is an Impurity of
Oppression. So also Diet is to be in Accord with Digestion; Ethics were
an Impurity therein. Love is an Expression of the Will of the Body,
yea, and more also, of That which created he Body; and its Operation is
commonly between One and One, so that the Interference of a Third
Person is Impurity, and not to be endured. Nay, even the thought of
Third Person hath but ordinary not Part in Love; so that, as thou seest
constantly in thy Life, Love being strong, taketh no heed of others,
and some after Interference bringeth Misfortune. Now then shall we
therefore cast out Love, or accept Impurity herein? God forbid. And for
this Cause see thou well to it that in thy Kingdom there be no
Interference there with, nor Hindrance from any. For it is perfect in
itself.
DE CEREMONIO EQUINOXI. (On the Ceremony of the Equinox)
My Son, our Father in Heaven hath passed into the Sign of he Ram. I
have performed the Rite of Union with Him according to the ancient
Manner, and I know the Word that shall rule the Semester. Also it is
given unto my Spirit to write unto thee concerning the Virtue of this
Rite, and many another of Antiquity. And it is this, that our
Forefa thers made of these Ceremonies an Epitome Mnemonic, wherein
certain Truths, or true Relations, should be communicated in a magical
Manner. Now therefore by the Practice of these mayst thou awaken thy
Wisdom, that it may manifest in thy conscious Mind. And this Way is of
Use even when the Ceremonies, as those of he Christians, are corrupt
and deformed; but in such a Case thou shalt seek out the true ancient
Significance thereof. For there is that within thee which remembereth
Truth, and is ready to communicate the same unto thee when thou hast
Wit to evoke it from the Adytum and Sanctuary of thy Being. And this is
to be done by this Repetition of the Formula of that Truth.
Note thou further that this which I tell thee is the Defence of
Formalism; and indeed thou must work upon a certain Skeleton, but
clo the it with live Flesh.
DE LUCE STELLARUM. (On the Light of the Stars)
It was that most Holy Prophet, thine Uncle, called upon Earth William
O'Neill, or Blake, who wrote for our Understanding these Eleven Sacred
Words! ---
If the Sun and Moon should doubt They'd immediately go out.
O my Son, our Work is to shine by Fore and Virtue of our own Natures
without Consciousness or consideration. Now, notwithstanding that our
Radiance is constant and undimmed, it may be that Clouds gathering
about us conceal our Glory from he Vision of other Stars. These Clouds
are our Thoughts; not those true Thoughts which are but conscious
Expressions of our Will, such as manifest in our Poesy, or our Music,
or other Flower-Ray of our Life quintessential. Nay, the Cloud-Thought
is born of Division and of Doubt; for all Thoughts, except they be
creative emanations, are Witnesses to Conflict within us. Our settled
Relations with the Universe do not disturb our Minds, as, by Example,
our automatic Functions, which speak to us only in the Sign of
Distress. Thus all consideration is Demonstration of Doubt, and Doubt
of Duality, which is the Root of Choronzon.
DE CANTU. (On Song)
So then, o my Son, there is my Wisdom, that the Voice of he Soul in its
true Nature Eternal and Unchangeable, comprehending all Change, is
Silence; and the Voice of the Soul, dynamic, in the Way of its Will, is
song. Nor is there any Form of utterance that is not, as song is, the
Music proper to that Motion, according to the Law. Thus, as thy Cousin
Arthur Machen hath rejoiced to make plain unto Men in his Book called
"Hieroglyphics", the first Quality of Art is its Ecstacy. So, night to
all Men at one Time or other, cometh Joy of Creation, with the Belief
that their Utterance is holy and beautiful, glorious with Banners. This
would indeed be he Case, an we could discern their Thought from their
Words; but because they have no technical Skill to express themselves,
they do not enable others to reproduce or recreate the original Passion
which inspired them, or even any Memory hereof. Understand then what is
the Agony of the Great Soul who hath every Key of Paradise at his
Girdle, when he would open the Gate of Holiness, or of Beauty, or any
Virtue soever, o the Men of his Age!
DE STULTITIA HUMANA. (On Human Stupidity)
Know that a Mind can only apprehend those Things with which it is
already familiar, at least in Part. Moreover, it will ever interpret
according to the Distortion of its own Lenses. Thus, in a great War,
all Speech soever may be understood as if it were of Reference
thereunto; also, a Guilty Person, or a Melancholic may see in every
Stranger an Officer of Justice, or one of them that are banded together
to persecute him, as the Case may be. But consider moreover that the
Mysterious is always the Terrible, for Vulgar Minds. How then when a
New Word is spoken? Either it is not heard, or it is misunderstood; and
it evoketh Fear and Hate as a Reaction against Fear. Then Men take him
and set him at naught, and spit upon him and scourge him, and lead him
away to crucify him; and the third Day he riseth from among the Dead,
and ascendeth into Heaven, and sitteth at the right Hand of God, and
cometh to judge the Quick and the Dead. This, o my son, is the History
of Every Man unto whom is given a Word.
DE SUO PROELIO. (On His Struggle)
Now therefore thou seest how Men take the Son of Science, and burn him
for a Sorcerer or a Heretic; the Poet and cast him out as Reprobate;
the Painter, as deforming Nature, the Musician, as denying Harmony; and
so for every New Word. How much more, then, if the Word be of Universal
Import, a Word of Revolution and of Revelation in the Deep of the Soul?
A new Star; that is for the Astronomers, and maybe setteth them by he
Ears. But a new Sun! That were for all Men; and a Seed of Tumult and
Upheaval in every Land. consider in thyself, herefore, what is the
Might of the Adepts, the Energy of the Sanctuary, that can endow one
Man with the Word of an Aeon, and bring him to the End in Victory, with
his Chariot wreathed in Flowers, and his Head bound round with a Fillet
of Blood- honoured Laurel! My Son, thou are entered into the Battle;
and the Men of our Race and our Clan return not save in Glory.
DE NECESSITATE VERBI CLAMANDI. (On the Need for Declaring the Word)
He that striveth against his own Nature is witless, and wotteth not his
Will, darkening Counsel in himself, and denying his own God, and giving
Place to Choronzon. So then his Work becometh Hotchpot, and he is
shattered and dispersed in the Abyss. Nor is it better for him if he do
this for the supposed Good of another, and for that other is it Evil
also in the End of the Matter. For to manifest thine own Division to
another, and to deceive him, is but to confirm him in blindness, or
Illusion, and to hinder or to deflect him in his Way. Now to do thine
own Will is to leave him free to do his own Will, but to mask thy Will
is to falsify one of the Beacons by which he may steer his Ship. My
son, all division of Soul, that begetteth Neurosis and Insanity, cometh
from wrong Adjustment to Reality, and to Fear thereof. Wilt thou then
hide Truth from thy Brother, lest he suffer? Thou dost not well, but
confirmest him in Iniquity, and in Illusion, and in Infirmity of
Spirit.
DE MYSTERIO EUCHARISTICO UNIVERSALI. (On the Mystery of the Universal
Sacrament)
My son, heed also this Word of thine Uncle William O'Neill; Everything
that lives is holy. Yea, and more also, every Act is holy, being
essential to the Universal Sacrament. Knowing his, thou mayst conform
with that which is written in "The Book of the Law": to make no
Distinction between any one Thing and any other Thing. Learn well to
apprehend this Mystery, for it is the Great Gate of the College of
Understanding, whereby each and all of thy Senses become constant and
perpetual Witnesses of the One Eucharist, whereunto also they are
Ministers. So then to thee
every Phenomenon soever is the Body of Nuit in her Passion; for it is
an Event; that is, the Marriage of some one Point of view with some One
Possibility. And this State of Mind is notably an Appurtenance of thy
Grade of Master of the Temple, and the Unveiling of the Arcanum of
Sorrow, which is thy Work, as it is written in Liber Magi. Moreover,
this State, assimilated in the very Marrow of thy Mind, is the first
Stop toward the comprehension of the Arcanum of Change, which is the
Root of the Work of a Magus of Our Holy Order. O my Son, bind this
within thine Heart, for its Name is the Beatific Vision.
DE RECTO IN RECTO. (On the Rightness of Things)
Now also then I bid thee use all filial Diligence, and attend to this
same Word in the Mouth of thine earliest Ancestor (except we adventure
to invoke the Name FU---HSI) in our known Genealogy, the Most Holy, the
True Man, Lao-Tze, that gave His Light unto the Kingdom of Flowers. For
being questioned concerning the abode of the Tao, he gave Answer that
It was in the Dung. Again, the Tathagata, the Buddha, most blessed,
most perfect and most enlightened, added His Voice, that there is no
Grain of Dust which shall not attain to the Arhan. Keep therefore in
just Balance the Relation of Illusion to Illusion in that Aspect of
Illusion, neither confusing the Planes, nor confounding the Stars, nor
denying the Laws of their Reaction, yet with Eagle's Vision beholding
the One Sun of the True Nature of the Whole. Verily, his is the Truth,
and unto it did also Dionysus and Tahuti and Sri Krishna set the seal
of their Witness. Cleanse herefore thine Heart, o my son, in the Waters
of the Great Sea, and enkindle it with the Fire of the Holy Ghost. For
his is His peculiar Work of Sanctification.
DE VIRGINE BEATA. (On the Blessed Virgin)
Understand then well this Mystery of Universal Godliness; for it is the
naked Beauty of the Virgin of the World. Lo! Since the End is
Perfection, as I have already shewn unto thee, and since also every
Event is inexorably and ineluctably interwoven in the Web of that Fate,
as it is certain that every Phenomenon is (as thou art sworn to
understand) "a particular Dealing of God with thy Soul". Yea, and more
also, it is a necessary Rubric in this Ritual of Perfection. Turn not
therefore away thine Eyes, for that they are too pure to behold Evil;
but look upon Evil with Joy, comprehending it in the Fervour of this
Light that I have enkindled in thy Mind. Learn also that every Thing
soever is Evil, if thou consider it as apart, static and in Division;
and thus in a Degree must thou apprehend the Mystery of Change, for it
is by Virtue of Change that this Truth of Beauty and Holiness is made
steadfast in the Universe. O my son, there is no Delight sweeter than
the continuous Contemplation of this Marvel and Pageant that is ever
about thee; it is the Beatitude of the Beatitudes.
DE JOCO SUAE MOECHAE. (On the Sport of His Mistress)
Resist not Change, therefore, but act constantly according o thy True
Nature, for here only thou standest in Sorrow, if here be a Division
conscious of itself, and hindered from its Way (whose Name is Love)
unto its Dissolution. It is written in "The Book of the Law" that the
Pain of Division is as nothing, and the Joy of Dissolution all. Now
then here is an Art and Device of
Magick that I will declare unto thee, albeit it is a Peril if thou be
not fixed in that Truth and in that Beatific Vision whereof I have
written in the three Chapters foregoing. And it is this, to create by
Artifice a Conflict in thyself, that thou mayst take thy Pleasure in
its Resolution. Of this Play is thy sweet Stepmo ther, my concubine, the
Holy and Adulterous Olun, sublimely Mistress; for she invoketh in her
Fancy a thousand Obstacles to Love, so hat she shuddereth at a Touch,
swooneth at a Kiss, and suffereth Death and Hell in the Ekstacy of her
Body. And this is her Art, and it is of Nuit Our Lady, for it is the
Drama of Commemoration of the whole mystery of By-coming.
DE PERICULO JOCORUM AMORIS. (On a Danger in the Sports of Love)
Yet be thou heedful, o my son, for this Art is set upon a Razor's Edge.
In our Blood is this great Pox of Sin, whose Word is Restriction, as
Inheritance of our Sires that served he Slave-Gods. Thou must be free
in the Law of Thelema, perfectly one with thy true Self, singly and
wholly bound in thy true Will, before thou durst (in Prudence) invoke
the Name of Choronzon, even for thy good Sport and Phantasy. It is but
to pretend, thou sayst; and that is Sooth; yet thou must make Pretence
so well as to deceive thyself, albeit for a Moment; else were thy Sport
savourless. Then, and thou have one point of Weakness in thee, that
Thought of thine may incarnate, and destroy thee. Verily, the wise
Enchanter is sure beyond Doubt of his Charm ere he toy with a Fanged
Cobra; and thou will knowest that this Peril of Division in thy Self is
the only one that can touch thee. For all other Evil is but Elaboration
of this Theme of Choronzon. Praise therefore thy sweet Stepmo ther my
concubine, the Holy and Adulterous Olun; and thine own Mother Hilarion,
for in this Art was she also pre-eminent.
DE LIBIDINE SECRETA. (On the Unconscious, or Libido)
It is said among Men that the Word Hell deriveth from the Word helan,
to hele or conceal, in the Tongue of the Anglo- Saxons. That is, it is
the concealed Place, which, since all things are in thine own Self, is
the Unconscious. How then? Because Men were already aware how this
Unconscious, or Libido, is opposed, for the most Part , to the
conscious Will. In the Slave-Ages this is a Truth Universal, or well
nigh to it; for in such Times are Men compelled to Uniformity by the
Constraint of Necessity herself. Yea, of old it was a continual Siege
of every Man of every Clan, of every Environment; and to relax guard
was then Self-murder, or also Treachery. So then no Man might chose his
way, until he were Hunter, Fighter, Builder; not any Woman, but she
must first be Breeder. Now in the Growth of States by Organization
came, stepping stealthily, a certain Security against the grossest
Perils, so that a few Men could be spared from Toil to cultivate
Wisdom, and this was first provided by the Selection of a caste
Pontifical. By this Device came the Alliance of King and Priest,
Strength and Cunning fortifying each the other through the Division of
Labour.
DE ORDINE CIVITATUM. (On the Organization of Communities)
So presently, O my son, this first Organization among Men, by a
Procedure parallel to that of the Differentiation of Protoplasm, made
the State competent to explore and to control Nature; and every Profit
of this sort released more energy, and enlarged the class of the
Learned, until, as it is this day, only a small proportion of any man's
work must needs go o the satisfaction of first will essential and
common, the provision of shelter, food, and protection. Verily, also
thou seest many women made free to live as they will, even o the
admiration and delight of the Sage whose eye laugheth to contemplate
mischief. Thus the duty of every Unit towards the whole is diminished,
and also the necessity to conform with hose narrow laws which preserve
primitive tribes in their struggle against environment. Thus the State
need suppress only such heresies as directly threaten its political
stability, only such modes of life as work manifest and proven hurt to
others, or cause general disorder by their scandal. Therefore save and
except he interferes thereby with the root laws of common weal, a man
is free to develop as he will according to his true nature.
DE SCIENTIAE MODO. (On the Method of Science)
To the Mind of the Philosopher, therefore, in the Youth of an Age, any
variation in type must appear as a Disaster; yea, intelligence itself
must perforce prove its value to the Brute in Terms of its Brutishness
or he distrusteth it and destroyeth it. Yet as thou knowest, that
variation which is fitted to the environment is the Salvation of the
Species. Only among Men, his Fellows turn ever upon the Saviour, and
rend him, until those who follow him in secret, and it may be
unconsciously, prove their Virtue and his Wisdom by their survival when
his Persecutors perish in their Folly. But we, being secure against all
primary enemies to the individual, or the common Weal, may, nay, we
must, if we would attain the Summit for our race, devote all spare
Leisure, Wealth, and Energy to he creation of variation from the Norm,
and thus by clear Knowledge bought of Experiment and of Experience,
move with eyes well open upon our True Path. So therefore Our Law of
Thelema is justified also of Biology and of Social Science. It is the
true Way of Nature, the Right Strategy in the War of man with his
Environment, it is the life of his Soul.
DE MONSTRIS. (On Monsters)
Sayst thou, o my son, that not thus, but by forced Training, one cometh
to Perfection. This indeed is sooth, that by artificial Selection and
well-watched Growth and Environment, one hath dogs, horses, pigeons,
and the like, which excel their forebears in strength, in Beauty, in
Speed, as one will. Yet is this Work but a false Magical Artifice,
temporary and of Illusion; for thy Masterpieces are but Monsters, not
True Variations, and if thou leave them, they revert swiftly to their
own proper and au thentic Type, because that type was fitted by
Experience to its Environment. So every Variation must be left free to
perpetuate itself of perish, not cherished for its Beauty, or guarded
for its Appeal to thine Ideal, or cut off in thy Fear thereof. For the
Proof of its Virtue lieth in the Manifestation of its Power to survive,
and to reproduce itself after its Kind. Nurse not the Weakness of any
Man, nor swaddle and cosset him, not though he were poet or
artist because of his Value to thy Fancy, for if thou do this, he shall
grow in his Infirmity, so that even his Work for which thou lovest him,
shall be enfeebled also.
DE INFERNO PALATIO SAPIENTIAE. (On the Hidden Place of Wisdom)
Now then thou seest that this Hell, or Concealed Place within thee, is
no more a Fear or Hindrance to men of a Free Race, but the
Treasure-House of the Assimilated Wisdom of the Ages, and the Knowledge
of the True Way. Thus are we Just and Wise to discover this Secret in
ourselves, to conform the conscious Mind therewith. For that Mind is
compact solely (until it be illuminated) of Impressions and Judgments,
so that its Will is but directed by the Sum of the shallow Reactions of
a most limited Experience. But thy True Will is the Wisdom of the Ages
of thy Generations, the Expression of hat which hath fitted thee
exactly to thine Environment. Thus thy conscious Mind is oftentimes
foolish, as when thou admirest an Ideal, and wouldst attain it, but thy
true Will letteth thee, so that there is Conflict, and the Humiliation
of that Mind. Here will I call to Witness the common event of "Good
Resolutions" that defy the lightning of destiny, being puffed up by the
mind of an indigestible ideal putrefying within thee. Thence cometh
Colic, and presently the Poison is expelled, or else thou diest. But
Resolutions of True Will are mighty against Circumstance.
DE VITIIS VOLUNTATIS SECRETAE. (On the Defects of the Hidden Will)
Learn moreover concerning this Hell, or Hidden Wisdom, that is within
thee, that it is modified, little by little, through the Experience of
the Conscious Mind, which feedeth it. For that Wisdom is the
Expression, or rather Symbol and Hieroglyph, of the true Adjustment of
thy Being to its Environment. Now, then, this environment being eroded
by Time, this Wisdom is no more perfect, for it is not absolute, but
standeth in Relation to the Universe. So then a Part thereof may become
useless, and atrophy as (I will instance his case) Man's Wit of Smell;
and the bodily Organ corresponding degenera theth therewith. But this is
an Effect of much Time, so that in thy Hell thou art like to find
elements vain, or foolish, or contrary to thy present Weal. Yet, o my
Son, this hidden wisdom is not thy True Will, but only the Levers (I
may say so) thereof. Notwithstanding, here lieth therein a Faculty of
Balance, whereby it is able to judge whether any Element in itself is
presently useful and benign, or idle and malignant. Here then is a Root
of Conflict between the Conscious and the Unconscious, and a Debate
concerning the Right Order of Conduct, how the Will may be
accomplished.
DE RATIONE PRAESIDIO VOLUNTATIS. ( On Reason, the Minister of the Will)
O my Son, in this Case is there Darkness, yet this Comfort as a Lamp
therein, that there is no Error in the Will, but only Doubt as to the
Means of Success, else were we as Children afeared of Night. Thus we
have need of naught but to consider the Matter by Wit of Reason, and of
Prudence, and of Common Sense, and of Experience, and of Science,
adjusting ourselves so far
as we may. Here is the Key of Success, and its Name is the Skill to
make right Use of Circumstance. This, then is the Virtue of the Mind,
to be the Wazir of the will, a true Counsellor, through Intelligence of
the Universe. But o, my Son, do thou lay this Word beneath thine Heart,
that the Mind hath no Will, nor Right thereto, so the Usurpation
bringeth forth a fatal Conflict in thyself. For the Mind is sensitive,
unstable as Air, and may be led foolishly in Leash by a stronger Mind
that worketh as the cunning Tool of a will. Therefore thy Safety and
Defence is to hold thy mind to his right Function, a faithful Minister
to thine own True Will, that is King of that Star whose name is Thy
Self, by Election of Nature. Heed well this, o my Son, for thy Mind
Passive is rightly a Mirror to reflect all Things clearly without
Prejudice, and to remain unstained by them.
DE CURSU SAPIENTIS. (On the Way of Wisdom)
Therefore consider this again in a Figure, that thy Mind is as the
Marshal of an Army, to observe the Dispositions of the Enemy, and to
order his own Forces rightly, according to that Information; but he
hath no Will, only Obedience to the Word of his King to outwit and to
overcome the Opposite. Nor doth that king make War by his own Whim, if
he be wise and true, but solely because of the Necessity of his
Country, and its Nature, whereof he is but Executive Officer and
Interpreter, its Voice as the Marshal is its Arm. Thus then do thou
understand thyself, not giving Place to thy Mind to dispute thy Will,
nor through Ignorance and Carelessness allowing the Enemy to deceive
thee, nor by Fear, by Imprudence and Foolhardiness, by Hesitation and
Vacillation, by Disorder and the lack of Firm Correctness, by Failure
in Elasticity or in Obstinacy, each at its Moment, suffering defeat in
the Hour of Shock. So, then, o my Son, this is thy Work, to know the
Word of thy Will without Error, and to make perfect every Faculty of
thy Mind, in right order and Readiness to impose that Word as Law upon
the Universe. So mote it be!
DE RATIONE QUAE SINE VOLUNTATE EST FONS MANIAE. (On Reason, Source of
Madness When Not under Will)
Is it not a Marvel how he that worketh with his Will and is in constant
Touch with the Reality external, maketh his mind to serve him? How
eagerly runneth it and returneth, gathering, arranging, clarifying,
classifying, organizing, comparing, setting in array, with Skill and
Might and Energy that faileth never! Nay, my son, in this Way thou
canst be pitiless with thy Mind, and it will not rebel against thee, or
neglect thine Ordinance. But now consider him that worketh not with his
Will, how his Mind is idle, not reaching out after Reality, but
debating within itself of its own Affairs, like a Democracy,
introspective. Then this Mind, not reacting equably and with Elasticity
to the World, is lost in its own Anarchy and Civil War, so that
although it work not, it is overcome by Weakness of Division, and
becometh Choronzon. And unto these words I call to my witness the
madness of the soul of Muscovy, in this year XIII, of our Aeon that is
ended. Therefore behold how this our Law of Thelema, Do what thou wilt,
is the first foundation of Health, whether in the Body or in the Mind,
either of a simple, or a complex Organism.
DE VERITATE QUEM FEMINAE NON DICERE LICET. (On Truth, Which May Not Be
Told to a Woman)
My Son, I charge thee, however thou beest provoked hereunto, tell not
the Truth to any Woman. For this is that which is written: Cast not thy
Pearls before Swine, lest they turn again and rend thee. Behold, in the
Nature of Woman is no Truth, nor Apprehension of Truth, nor Possibility
of Truth, only, if thou entrust this Jewel unto them, they forthwith
use it to thy Loss and Destruction. But they are ware of thine own Love
of Truth, and thy Respect thereunto, so therefore they tempt thee,
flattering with their Lips, that thou betray thyself to them. And they
feign falsely, with every Wile, and cast about for thy soul, until
either in Love or in Wrath or in some other folly thereof, thou speak
truth, profaning thy Sanctuary. So was it ever, and herein I call to my
witness Samson of Timnath, that was lost by this Error. Now for any
woman, any lie sufficeth; and think not in thine extremity that Truth
is mighty, and shall prevail, as it does with any Man, for with a Woman
her whole Craft and Device is to persuade thee of this, so that thou
utter the Secret of thy Soul, and become her Prey. But so long as thou
feed her with her own Food of Falsity, thou art secure.
DE NATURA FEMINAE. (On the Nature of Woman)
The nature of woman, o my Son, is as thou hast learned in Our most Holy
Qabalah; and she is the Clothing in Sex of Man, the magical image of
his will to love. Therefore was it said by thine Uncle Wolfgang von
Goethe: Das Ewigweibliche zieht uns hinan. But therefore also hath she
no Nature of Truth, because she is but the Eidolon of an Excitement and
a going of thy star, and appertaineth not unto its Essence and
Stability. So then to thee she is but Matter and to her thou art but
Energy, and neither is competent to the Formula of the other. Therefore
also as thy Will is itself Imperfection, as I have shewed thee
aforetime, thou art not in the Way of Love except thou be dressed in
that Robe of thine which thou callest woman. And thou canst not lure
her to this Action proper to her by thy Truth; but thou shalt, as our
Grammar sayeth, assume the Mask of the Spirit, that thou mayst evoke it
by Sympathy. But thou shalt appear in thy glory only when she is in thy
power, and bewildered utterly by ecstasy. This is a mystery, o my Son,
and of old Time it was declared in the Fable of Scylla and Charybdis,
which are the Formula of the Rock and the Whirlpool. Now then meditate
thou strictly upon his most worthy and adorable Arcanum, to thy Profit
and Enlightenment.
DE DUOBUS PRAEMIIS VIAE. (On the Two Rewards of the Path)
Let it be a Treasure in thine Heart, o my Son, this Mystery that I
shall next unveil before thine Eyes, O Eagle that art undazzled by the
Brilliance of Light, that soarest continually with virile flight to
thine august inheritance. Behold the Beatific Vision is of two Orders,
and in the Formula of the Rosy Cross it is of the Heart and is called
Beauty; but in the Formula of the Silver Star (id est, of the Eye
within the Triangle) it is of the Mind, and is called Wonder. Otherwise
spoken, the former is of Art, a sensuous and creative Perception; but
the latter of Science, and intellectual and intelligible Insight. Or
again, in our Holy Qabalah, the one is of Tiphereth, the other of
Binah, and in pure Philosophy, this is a Contemplation of the Cosmos,
causal and dynamic, and
that of its effect in Static Presentation. Now this Rapture of Art is a
Virtue or Triumph of Love in his most universal Comprehension, but the
Ecstasy of Science is a continual Orgasm of Light; that is, of the
mind. Thou sayest: o my Father, how may I attain to this Fulness and
Perfection? Art thou there, o my Son? It is well, and blessed be the
Bed wherein thou was begotten, and the womb of thy sweet Mother
Hilarion my concubine, holy and adulterous, the Scarlet Woman! Amen!
DE ECSTASIA SAMADHI, QUO ILLIS DIFFERIT. (On the Ecstasy of Samadhi,
and How it Differs from Others)
Confuse thou not this Beatific Vision with the Trances called Samadhi;
yet is Samadhi the Pylon of the Temple hereof. For Samadhi is the
Orgasm of the Coition of the Unlike, and is commonly violent, even as
the Lightning cometh of the discharge between two Vehicles of extreme
difference of Potential. But, as I shewed formerly concerning Love, how
each such Discharge bringeth either Component more nigh to Equilibrium,
so is it in this other Matter, and by Experience thou comest constantly
to Integration of Love (or what not) within thyself, just as all Effort
becometh harmonious and easy by Virtue of Practice. Rememberest thou
the first time thou was thrown into Water, thy Fear and thy Struggles,
and the Vehemence of thy Joy when first thou didst swim without
Support? Then, little by little all Violence dieth away, because thou
art adjusted to that Condition. Therefore the Fury of thine early
Victory in these Arts Magical and Sciences is but the sign of thine own
Baseness and Unworthiness, since the Contrast or Differential is so
overwhelming to thee; but, becoming expert and Adept, thou art balanced
in the Glory, and calm, even as the Stars.
DE ARTE AMORIS ET DELICIARUM MYSTICI. (On the Art of Love and the
Pleasures of the Mystic)
The Path therefore unto this Beatific Vision of beauty, o my Son, is
that practice of Bhakti Yoga which is written in he book called Eight
Score and Fifteen, or Astarte, by this mine Hand when I was in Gaul the
beloved, at Montigny that is hard by the Forest of the Blue Fountain,
with Agatha my Concubine, the very soul of Love and of Musick, that had
ventured herself from beneath the Cross Austral that she might seek me,
to inspire and comfort me, and this was my Reward from the Masters, and
consolation in the years of my sorrow. But the Way that leadeth to the
other Form of this Vision of Beatitude, to with, science is Gana Yoga
or Raja Yoga, of which I have written only here and there, as one who
should throw great Stones upon the Earth in Disorder, by Default of
building them nobly into a Pyramid. And of this do I heartily repent
me, and ask of the God Thoth that he may give me (albeit at the
Eleventh Hour) Virtue and Wit that I may compose a True Book upon these
ways of Union. Thy first Step, therefore, o my Son, is to attain unto
Samadhi, and to urge thyself perpetually to Repetition of thy Success
therein, for it that been said by Philosophers of old that Practice
maketh perfect, and that Manners, being the constant Habit of Life,
maketh Man.
DE PRAEMIO SUMMO, VERA SAPIENTIA ET BEATITUDINE PERFECTA.
(On the Highest Reward, True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness)
Now then presently shall it some to pass, as by Dint of each Experience
that Component thereof which is within thee is attuned to it, a slight
Effort shall suffice to unite thee therewith, and this without Shock,
so that thou art no longer thrown back from the Trance, as exhausted,
but abidest therein, almost without Knowledge of thy State. So then at
last this Samadhi shall become normal to thy common Consciousness, as
it were a Point of View. Thus all Things shall appear to thee very
continually as to one in his first Love, by the Vision of Beauty, and
by the Vision of Science thou shalt marvel constantly with Joy
unfathomable at the Mystery of the Laws whereby the Universe is upheld.
This is that which is written: True Wisdom and Perfect Happiness. O my
Son, it is in this Contemplation that on hath the reward of the Path;
it is by this that the Tribulations are rolled away as a Stone from thy
Tomb; it is with this that thou art wholly freed from the Illusions of
Distinction, being absorbed into the Body of our Lady Nuit. May She
grant thee this Beatitude; yea, not to thee only, but to all that are.
DE INFERNO SERVORUM. (On the Hell of the Slaves)
Now, o my Son, having understood the Heaven that is within thee,
according to thy Will, learn this concerning the Hell of the Slaves of
the Slave-Gods, that it is a true place of Torment. For they,
restricting themselves, and being divided in Will, are indeed the
Servants of Sin, and they suffer, because, not being united in Love
with the whole Universe, they perceive not Beauty, but Ugliness and
Deformity, and, not being united in Understanding thereof, conceive
only of Darkness and Confusion, beholding Evil therein. Thus at last
they come, as did the Manichaeans, to find, to their Terror, a Division
even in the one, not that Division which we know for the Craft of Love,
but a Division of Hate. And this, multiplying itself, Conflict upon
Conflict, endeth in Hotchpot, and in the Impotence and Envy of
Choronzon, and in the Abominations of the Abyss. And of such the Lords
are the Black Brothers, who seek by their Sorceries to confirm
themselves in Division. Yet in this even is no true Evil, for Love
conquereth all, and their Corruption and Disintegration is also the
Victory of BABALON.
RHAPSODIA DE DOMINA NOSTRA. (A Rhapsody to Our Lady)
Blessed be She, ay, blessed unto the Ages be our Lady BABALON, that
plieth her scourge upon me, , to compel me to Creation
and to Destruction, which are One, in Birth and in Death, being Love!
Blessed be She, uniting the Egg with the Serpent, and restoring Man
unto his Mother the Earth! Blessed be She, that offereth Beauty and
Ecstasy in the Orgasm of every Change, and that exciteth thy Wonder and
thy Worship by the Contemplation of Her Mind many-wiled! Blessed be
She, that hath filled her Cup with every Drop of my Blood, so that my
Life is lost wholly in the Wine of her Rapture! Behold, how She is
drunken thereon, and staggereth about the heavens, wallowing in Joy,
crying aloud the Song of uttermost Love! Is not She thy true Mother
among the Stars, o my Son, and hast Thou not embraced Her in the
Madness of Incest and Adultery? Yea, blessed be She, blessed be Her
Name, and the Name of her Name, unto the Ages!
RHAPSODIA DE ASTRO SUO (A Rhapsody to His Star)
O my Son, knowest thou not the Joy to lie in the Wilderness and to
behold the Stars, in their Majesty of Motion calm and irresistible?
Hast thou thought there that thou art also as star, free because
consciously in Accord with the Law and Determination of thy Being? It
was thine own True Will that bound thee in thine Orbit; therefore thou
speedest on thy Path from Glory unto Glory in continual Joy. O Son, o
Reward of my Work, o Harmony and Completion of my Nature, o Token of my
Toil, o Witness of my Love for thy sweet Mother the holy and
adulterous Hilarion, my Concubine, adorable in thine Innocence as she
in her Perfection, is not this verily Intoxication of the Spirit in the
Innermost, to be free absolutely and eternally, to run and to return
upon the Course in the Play of Love, to fulfil Nature constantly in
Light and Life? "Afloat in the Air, O my God, O my God!" Without
Support, without Constraint, wing thine own Way, o Swan, o Bliss of
Brightness!
DE HARMONIA VOLUNTATIS CUM DESTINIA. (On the Harmony of Will and Fate)
This is the evident and final Solvent of the Knot Philosophical
concerning Fate and Freewill, that it is thine own Self, omniscient and
omnipotent, sublime in eternity, that first didst order the Course of
thine own Orbit, so that the which befalleth thee by Fate is indeed the
necessary Effect of thine own Will. These two, then, that like
Gladiators have made War in Philosophy through these many Centuries,
are One by the Love under Will which is the Law of Thelema. O my son,
there is no Doubt that resolveth not in certainty and rapture at the
touch of the Wand of our Law, an thou apply it with Wit. Do thou grow
constantly in the Assimilation of the Law, and thou shalt be made
perfect. Behold, there is a Pageant of Triumph as each star, free from
Confusion, sweepeth free in his right Orbit; all Heaven acclaimeth thee
as thou goest, transcendental in Joy and in Splendour; and thy Light is
as a Beacon to them that wander afar, strayed in the Night. Amoun.
PARANTHESIS DE QUADAM VIRGINE. (A Parenthesis on a Certain Virgin)
Now, o my Son, I will declare unto thee the Virtue of that Part of Love
which receiveth and draweth, being the Counterpart of thine own. For
behold! I am moved in myself by the Absence of the Virgin that is
appointed for me. And her Eagerness of Purity doth encompass me with
its soft Tenderness, and twineth about me with sweet Scent so that my
Mind is enkindled with a gentle Flame, luminous and subtle, and I write
unto thee as in a Dream; for in this Enchantment of her Devotion I am
caught up cunningly into Beatitude, with great Joy of the Gods that
have bestrewn my way with Flowers, ay, many Flowers and Herbs of Magick
and of Holiness withal to match their Beauty. Nay, o my son, I will
cease from this mine Epistle unto thee for awhile, that I may rest in
the Pleasure of this Contemplation, for it is Solace ineffable, and
Recreation like unto Sleep among the Mountains. Yea, can I wish thee
more than this, that, coming to mine Age, thou mayst find a Virgin like
unto this to draw thee with her Simplicity, and her embroidered
Silence?
DE CONSTANTIA AMORIS, CORVO CANDIDO. (On Constancy in Love, To a White
Raven)
Think it not strange, my Son, that I, praising Adultery, should praise
also Constancy and Delight therein. For this is to state ill thy
Question. Herein is Truth and Wisdom concerning this matter, that so
long as Love be not wholly satisfied, and equilibrated by entire
Fulfilment and Exchange, Constancy is a Point of thy Concentration and
Adultery a Division in thy Will. But when thou hast attained the Summit
and Perfection in any Work, of what Worth is it to continue herein?
Hast thou two Stomachs, as has a Cow, to chew the Cud of a digested
Love? Yet, o my Son, this Constancy is not of Necessity a Stagnation.
Nay, behold the body of Our Lady Nuit, therein are found certain twin
Suns, that revolve constantly about each other. So also it may be in
Love, that two Souls, meeting, discover each in the other such Wealth
and Richness of Light and Love, and in One Phase of Life (or
Incarnation) or even in many, they exhaust not that Treasure. Nor will
I say that such are not in their Degree and Quality thrice fortunate.
But to persist in Dullness, in Satiety, and in mutual Irritation and
Abhorrence, is contrary to the way of nature. So therefore there is no
Rule in any such Case, but the Law shall give Light to every one that
hath it in his Heart, and by that Wisdom let him govern himself.
DE MYSTERIO MALI. (On the Mystery of Evil)
Moreover, say not thou in thy Syllogism that, since every Change
soever, be it the Creation of a Symphony, or a Poem, or the
Putrefaction of a Carcass, is an Act of Love, and since we are to make
no Difference between any Thing and any other Thing, therefore all
Changes are equal in Respect of our Praise. For though this be a right
Conclusion in the term of thy comprehension as a Master of the Temple,
yet it is false in the Eyes of him that hath not attained this
Understanding. So therefore any Change (or Phenomenon) appeareth noble
or base to the imperfect Mind, according to its Consonance and Harmony
with the Will that governeth the Mind. Thus if it be thy will to
delight in Rhythm and Economy of words, the Advertisement of a
Commodity may offend thee; but if thou art in need of that Merchandise,
thou wilt rejoice therein. Praise then or blame aught, as seemeth good
unto thee; but with this Reflexion, that thy Judgment is relative to
thine own Condition, and not absolute. This also is a Point of
Tolerance, whereby thy shalt avoid indeed those Things that are hateful
or noxious to thee, unless thou canst (in Our Mode) win them by Love,
by withdrawing thine Attention from them; but thou shalt not destroy
them, for that they are without Doubt the Desire of another.
DE VIRTUTE TOLERANTIA. (On the Virtue of Tolerance)
Understand then heartily, o my Son, that in the Light of this my Wisdom
all Things are one, being of the body or our Lady Nuit, proper,
necessary and perfect. There is then none superfluous or harmful, and
there is none honourable or dishonourable more than another. Lo! In
thine own body, the vile Intestine is of more Worth to thee than the
noble Hand or the proud Eye, for thou canst lose these and live, but
not that. Esteem therefore a Thing in Relation to thine own Will,
preferring the Ear if thou love Musick, and the Palate if thou love
Wine, but the essential Organs of Life above these. Have Respect also
to the Will of thy Fellow, not hindering him in his
Way save as he may overly jostle thee in thine. For by the Practice of
this Tolerance thou shalt come sooner to the Understanding of this
Equality of all Things in Our Lady Nuit, and so the high Attainment of
Universal Love. Yet in thy partial and particular Action, as thou art a
Creature of Illusion, do thou maintain the right Relation of one Thing
to another; fighting if thou be a Soldier, or building if thou be a
Mason. For if thou hold not fast this Discipline and Proportion, which
alloweth its true Will to every Part of thy Being, the Error of one
shall draw all after it into Ruin and Dispersion.
DE FORMULA DEORUM MORIENTIUM. (On the Formula of the Dying Gods)
Alas, my son! this hath been fatal constantly to many a Man of noble
Aspiration, that these Words were hidden from his Understanding. For
there is a Balance in all Things and the Body hath Charter to fulfil
his Nature, even as the Mind hath. So to repress one Function is to
destroy that Proportion which is wholesome, and wherein indeed all
Health and Sanity have Consistency. Verily, it is the Art of Life to
develop each Organ of Body and Mind, or, as I may say, each Weapon of
the Will to its perfection, neither distorting any Use, nor suffering
the Will of one Part to tyrannize over that of another. And this
Doctrine (be it accursed!) that Pain and Repression are wholesome and
profitable in themselves is a lie born of Sin and of Ignorance, the
false Vision of the Universe and of its Laws that is the Basis of the
Averse Formula of the Slain God. It is true that on Occasion one Limb
must be sacrificed to save the whole Body, as when one cutteth away one
Hand that is bitten by a Viper, or as when a Man giveth his Life to
save his City. But this is a right and natural Subordination of the
superficial and particular to the fundamental and general Will, and
moreover it is a Case extraordinary, relating to Accident or Extremity,
not in any Wise a Rule of Life, or a Virtue in its Absolute Nature.
DE STULTIS MALIGNIS. (On Malign Fools)
My Son, there are Afflictions many and Woes many, that come of the
Errors of Men in Respect of the Will; but there is none greater than
this, the Interference of the Busy-Body. For they make Pretence to know
a man's Thought better than he doth himself, and to direct his Will
with more Wisdom than he, and to make Plans for his Happiness. And of
all these the worst is he that sacrificeth himself for the Weal of his
Fellows. He that is so foolish as not to follow his own Will, how shall
he be so wise as to pursue that of another? If mine Horse balk at a
Fence, should some Varlet come behind him, and strike at his Hoofs?
Nay, Son, pursue thy Path in Peace, that thy Brother beholding thee may
take Courage from thy Bearing, and Comfort from his Confidence that
thou wilt not hinder him by thy Superfluity of Compassion. Let me not
begin to tell thee of the Mischiefs that I have seen, whose Root was in
Kindness, whose Flower was in Self-Sacrifice, and whose Fruit in
Catastrophe. Verily, I think there should be no End thereof. Strike,
rob, slay thy Neighbour, but comfort him not unless he ask it of thee,
and if he ask it, be wary.
APOLOGIA PRO SUIS LITERIS. (An Apology for His Writings)
How then, sayest thou, concerning this my Counsel unto thee? I say
Sooth, it is of my Will to bring up this my Wisdom from its Silence
into my conscious Mind, that I may the more easily reflect thereon.
Thou art but a Pretext for my Action, and a Focus for my Light.
Nevertheless heed these my Words, for they shall profit thee, thou
being of Age responsible in Judgment, and free in the law of Thelema.
Thus thou mayst read or no, concur or no, as thou wilt. Have I not
tutored thee in the Way of the Balance, or of Antithesis, shewing thee
the Art of Contradiction, whereby thou dost accept no Word save as the
Victor in thy Mind over its Opposite, nay more, as the Child
Transcendental of a Marriage of Opposites? This book then shall serve
thee but as a Food for thy Meditation, as a Wine to excite thy Mind to
Love and War. It shall be unto thee as a Chariot to carry thee whither
thou wilt; for I have seen in thee Independence and Sobriety of
Judgment, with that Faculty (most rare, most noble) to examine freely,
neither obsequious nor rebellious to Authority.
LAUS LEGIS THELEMA. (In Praise of the Law of Thelema)
This Property of thy Mind, my Son, is verily of sublime Virtue; for the
Vulgar are befogged, and their Judgment made null, by their emotional
Reaction. They are swayed by the Eloquence of a Numscull, or
overpowered by a Name or an Office, or the Magic of a Tailor; else, it
may be, they, being made Fools too often, reject without Reflection
even as at first they accepted. Again, they are wont to believe the
best of the worst, as Hope or Fear predominateth in them at the Moment.
Thus, they lose Touch of the Blade of Reality, and it pierceth them.
Then they in Delirium of their Wounds increase Delusion fortifying
themselves in Belief of those Phantasies created by their Emotions or
impressed upon their Silliness, so that their Minds have no Unity, or
Stability, or Discrimination, but become Hotchpot, and the ordure of
Choronzon. O my Son, against this the Law of Thelema is a Sure
Fortress, for through the Quest of thy True Will the Mind is balanced
about it, and confirmeth its Flight, as the Feathers upon an Arrow, so
that thou hast a Touchstone of Truth, Experience holding thee to
Reality, and to Proportion. Now therefore see from yet another Airt of
Heaven the Absolute Virtue of Our Law.
DE SPHINGE AEGYPTIORUM. (On the Sphinx of the Egyptians)
It is now expedient that I instruct thee concerning the Four Powers of
the Sphinx, the Strangler, and firstly, that this most arcane of the
Mysteries of Antiquity was never at any Period the Tool of the
slave-gods, but a Witness of Horus through the dark Aeon of Osiris to
His Light and Truth, His Force and Fire. Thou canst by no means
interpret the Sphinx in Terms of the Formula of the Slain God. This did
I comprehend even when as Eliphas Levi Zahed I walked up and down the
Earth, seeking a Reconciliation of these Antagonisms, which was a Task
impossible, for in that Plane they have Antipathy. (Even so may no Man
form a Square Magical of Four Units.) But the Light of the New Aeon
revealeth this Sphinx as the true Symbol of this our Holy Art of Magick
under the Law of Thelema. In Her is the equal Development and
Disposition of the Forces of Nature, each in its Balanced Strength;
also Her True Name is Soul of NU, having the Digamma for Phi, and
endeth in Upsilon, not in Xi, so that Her Orthography is
whose Numeration is Six Hundred and Three Score and Six. But therein is
my Riddle of Riddles. For the Root thereof is SF, which signifieth the
Incarnation of the Spirit; and of Kin are not only the Sun, Our Father,
but Sumer, where Man knew himself Man, and Soma, the Divine Potion that
giveth Men Enlightenment, and Scin, Light Astral, and Scire also, by a
far Travelling. But especially is this Root hidden in Sus, hat is of
the Sow, Swine, because the Most Holy must needs take its Delight under
the Omphalos of the Unclean. But this was hidden by Wisdom in Order
that the Arcanum should not be profaned during the Aeon of the Slain
God. But now it hath been given unto me to understand the Heart of Her
Mystery, wherefore, o my Son, by Right of the Great Love that I bear
unto thee, I will inform thee thereof.
DE NATURA . (Of the Nature of the Sphinx)
Firstly, this Sphinx is a Symbol of the Coition of Our Lady BABALON
with me THE BEAST in its Wholeness. For as I am of the Lion and the
Dragon, so is She of the Man and the Bull, in our Natures, but the
Converse thereof in our Offices, as thou mayst understand by the Study
of the Book of The Vision and The Voice. It is thus a Glyph of the
Satisfaction and Perfection of the Will and of the Work, the completion
of the True Man as the Reconciler of the Highest with the Lowest, so
for our Convenience conventionally to distinguish them. This then is
the Adept, who doth Will with solid Energy as the Bull, doth Dare with
fierce Courage as the Lion, doth Know with swift Intelligence as the
Man, and doth keep Silence with soaring Subtlety as the Eagle or
Dragon. Moreover, this Sphinx is an Eidolon of the Law, for the Bull is
Life, the Lion is Light, the Man is Liberty, the Serpent Love. Now then
his Sphinx, being perfect in true Balance, yet taketh the Aspect of the
Feminine Principle that so She may be partner of the Pyramid, that is
the Phallus, pure Image of Our Father the Sun, the Unity Creative. The
Signification of this Mystery is that the Adept must be Whole, Himself,
containing all Things in true Proportion, before he maketh himself
Bride of the One Universal Transcendental, in its most Secret Virtue.
And now herefore, o my Son, comprehending this Mystery by thine
Intelligence, I will write further unto thee of these Four Beasts or
Powers.
DE TAURO. (On the Bull)
Concerning the Bull, this is thy Will, constant and unwearied, whose
Letter is Vau, which is Six, the Number of he Sun. He is therefore the
Force and the Substance of thy Being; but besides this, he is the
Hierophant in the Taro, as if this were said: that thy Will leadeth
thee unto the Shrine of Light. And in the Rites of Mithras the Bull is
slain, and his Blood poured upon the Initiate, to endow him with that
Will and that Power of Work. Also in the land of Hind is the Bull
sacred to Shiva, that is God among that Folk, and is unto them the
Destroyer of all Things that be opposed to Him. And his God is also the
Phallus, for this Will operateth through Love even as it is written in
our Own Law. Yet again, Apis the Bull of Khem hath Khephra the Beetle
upon His tongue, which signifieth that it is by this Will, and by this
Work, that the Sun cometh unto Dawn from Midnight. All these Symbols
are most similar in their Nature, save as the Slaves of the Slave- gods
have read their own Formula into the Simplicity of Truth. For there is
Naught so plain that Ignorance and Malice may not confuse and
misinterpret it, even as the Bat is dazzled and bewildered by the Light
of the Sun. See then that thou understand this Bull in Terms of the Law
of this our Aeon of Life.
DE LEONE. (On the Lion)
Of this, Lion, o my Son, be it said that this is the Courage of thy
Manhood, leaping upon all Things, and seizing them for thy Prey. His
letter is Teth, whose Implication is a Serpent, and the Number thereof
Nine, whereof is Aub, the secret Fire of Obeah. Also Nine is of Jesod,
uniting Change with Stability. But in the "Book of Thoth" He is the Atu
called Strength, or more truly, Lust, whose Number is ELEVEN which is
Aud, the Light Odic of Magick. And therein is figured the Lion, even
THE BEAST, and Our Lady BABALON astride of Him, that with her Thighs
She may strangle Him. Here I would have thee to mark well how these our
Symbols are cognate, and flow forth the one into the other, because
each Soul partaketh in proper Measure of the Mystery of Holiness, and
is kin with his Fellow. But now let me show how this Lion of Courage is
more especially the Light in thee, as Leo is the House of the Sun that
is the Father of Light. And it is thus: that thy Light, conscious of
itself, is the Source and Instigator of thy Will, enforcing it to
spring forth and conquer. Therefore also is his Nature strong with
hardihood and Lust of Battle, else shouldst thou fear that which is
unlike thee, and avoid it, so that thy Separateness should increase
upon thee. For this Cause he hat is defective in Courage becometh a
Black Brother, and to Dare is the Crown of all thy Virtue, the Root of
the Tree of Magick.
ALTERA DE LEONE. (Further on the Lion)
Lo! In the first of thine Initiations, when first the Hoodwink was
uplifted from before thine Eyes, thou wast brought unto the Throne of
Horus, the Lord of the Lion, and by Him enheartened against Fear.
Moreover, in Minutum Mundum, the Map of the Universe, it is the Path of
the Lion that bindeth he two Highest Faculties of thy Mind. Again, it
is Mau, the Sun at Brightness of high Noon, that is called the Lion,
very lordly, in our Holy Invocation. Sekhet our Lady is figured as a
lioness, for that She is that Lust of Nuit toward Hadit which is the
Fierceness of the Night of the Stars, and their Necessity; whence also
is She true Symbol of thine own Hunger of Attainment, the Passion of
thy Light to dare all for its Fulfilling. It is then the Possession of
this Quality which determineth thy Manhood; for without it thou art not
impelled o Magick, and thy Will is but the Slave's Endurance and
Patience under the Lash. For this Cause, the Bull being of Osiris, was
it necessary for the Masters of the Aeons to incarnate me as more
especially a lion, and my Word is first of all a Word of Enlightenment
and of Emancipation of the Will, shewing to every Man a Spring within
Himself to determine His Will, that he may do that Will, and no more
another's. Arise therefore, o my son, arm thyself, haste to the Battle!
DE VIRO. (On the Man)
Learn now that this Lion is a natural Quality in Man, and secret, so
that he is not ware thereof, except he be Adept. Therefore is it
necessary for thee also to know, by the Head of thy Sphinx. This then
is thy Liberty, that the Impulse of the Lion should become conscious by
means of the Man; for without this thou art but an Automaton. This Man
moreover maketh thee to understand and to adjust thyself with
Environment, else being devoid of Judgment, thou goest blindly upon an
headlong Path. For every Star in his Orbit holdeth not his Way
obstinately, but is sensitive to every other Star, and his true Nature
is to do this. Oh how many are they whom I have seen
persisting in a fatal Course, in Sway of the Belief that their dead
Rigidity was Exercise of Will. And the Letter of the Man is Tzaddi,
whose Number is Ninety; which is Maim, the Water that conformeth itself
perfectly with its Vessel, that seeketh constantly its Level, that
penetrateth and dissolveth Earth, that resisteth Pressure maugre its
Adaptability, that being heated is the Force to drive great Engines,
and being frozen breaketh the Mountains in Pieces. O my Son, seek well
to know!
DE DRACONE, QUAE EST AQUILA, SERPENS, SCORPION. (On the Dragon, which
is Eagle, Serpent and Scorpion)
Threefold is the Nature of Life, Eagle, Serpent, and Scorpion. And of
these the Scorpion is the that, having no Lion of Light and of Courage
within him, seemeth to himself encircled by Fire, and, driving his
Sting into himself, he dieth. Such are the Black Brothers, that cry: I
am I; they that deny Love, restricting it to their own Nature. But the
Serpent is the secret Nature of Man, that is Life and Death, and maketh
his Way through the Generations in Silence. And the Eagle is that Might
of Love which is the Key of Magick, uplifting the Body and its
Appurtenance unto high Ecstacy upon his Wings. It is by Virtue thereof
that the Sphinx beholdeth the Sun unwinking, and confronteth the
Pyramid without Shame. Our Dragon, therefore, combining the Natures of
the Eagle and the Serpent, is our Love, the Organ of our Will, by whose
Virtue we perform the Work and Miracle of the One Substance, as saith
thine Ancestor Hermes Trismegistus, in his Tablet of Smaragda. And this
Dragon, is called thy Silence, because in he Hour of his Operation that
within thee which saith "I" is abolished in its Conjunction with the
Beloved. For this Cause also is its Letter Nun, which in our Rota is
the Trump Death; and Nun hath the value of Fifty, the Number of the
Gates of Understanding.
DE QUATTUOR VIRTUTIS
(On the Four Virtues of the Sphinx)
See now our Sphinx, with what Subtility and Art is She made Whole! Here
is thy Light, the Lion, the Necessity of thy Nature, fortified by thy
Life, the Bull, the Power of Work, and guided by thy Liberty, the Man,
the Wit to adapt Action to Environment. These are three Virtues in One,
necessary to all proper Motion, as I may say in a Figure, the Lust of
the Archer, the propulsive Force of his Arm, and the equilibrating and
directing Control of his Eye. Of these three if one fail, the Mark is
not hit. But hold! Is not a Fourth Element essential in the Work? Yea,
soothly, all were vain without the Engine, Arrow and Bow. This Engine
is thy Body, possessed by thee and used by thee for thy Work, yet not
Part of thee, even so as are his Weapons to this Archer in my
Similitude. Thus is thy Dragon to be cherished of thy Lion, but if thou
lack Energy and Endurance of thy Bull, thy Tools lie idle, and if
Cunning and Intelligence, with Experience also of thy Man, thy Shaft
flieth crooked. So then, o my son, do thou perfect thyself in these
Four Powers, and that with Equity.
DE LIBRA, IN QUA QUATTUOR VIRTUTES AEQUIPOLLENT. (On the Balance in
which the Four Virtues Gather Power)
By Gnana Yoga cometh thy Man to Knowledge; by Karma Yoga thy Bull to
Will; by Raja Yoga is thy Lion brought to his Light; and to make
perfect thy Dragon, thou hast Bhakta Yoga for the Eagle therein, and
Hatha Yoga for the Serpent. Yet mark thou well how all these interfuse,
so that thou mayst accomplish no one of the Works separately. As to
make Gold thou must have Gold (it is the Word of the Alchemists), so to
become the Sphinx thou must first be a Sphinx. For naught may grow save
to the Norm of its own Nature, and in the Law of its own Law, or it is
but Artifice, and endureth not. So therefore is it Folly, and a Rape
wrought upon Truth to aim at aught but the Fulfilment of thine own True
Nature. Order then thy Workings in Accord with thy Knowledge of that
Norm as best thou mayst, not heeding the Importunity of them that prate
of the Ideal. For this Rule, this Uniformity, is proper only to a
Prison, and a Man liveth by Elasticity, nor endureth Rigor save in
Death. But whoso groweth bodily by a Law foreign to his own Nature, he
hath a Cancer, and his whole Oeconomy shall be destroyed by that small
Disobedience.
DE PYRAMIDE. (On the Pyramid)
Now then at last art thou made ready to confront the Pyramid, when thou
art established as a Sphinx. For it also hath the four square Base of
Law, and the Four Triangles of Light, Life, Love and Liberty for its
Sides, that meet in a Point of Perfection that is Hadit, poised to the
Kiss of Nuit. But in this Pyramid there is no Difference of Form
between the Sides, as it is in thy Sphinx, for these are wholly One,
save in Direction. Thou art then an Harmony of the Four by Right of thy
Attainment of Adeptship, the Crown of thy Manhood, but not an Identity,
as in Godhead. Therefore may it be said from one Point of Sight that
thine Achievement is but a Preparation, an Adornment of the Bride for
the Temple of Hymen, and his Rite. Verily, o my Son, I deem in my
Wisdom that this whole Work of thy Development to Sphinx-hood cometh
before the Work of Theurgy, for the Lord descendeth not upon a Temple
ill-conceived, and builded wry, nor abideth in a Shrine unworthy.
Accomplish then this Task in Patience, with Assiduity, not hasting
furiously after Godliness. For this is most sure, that to the Beauty of
a Maiden answereth the Lust of her Lord, spontaneous and without Effort
or Appeal of her Contriving.
PROLEGOMENA DE SILENTIO. (Concerning Silence)
But now concerning Silence, o my Son, I will have a further Word with
thee. For thereby we mean not the Muteness of him that hath a Dumb
Devil. This Silence is the Dragon of thine unconscious Nature, not only
the Ecstacy or Death of thine Ego in the Operation of its Organ, but
also, in its Unity with thy Lion, the Truth of thy Self. Thus is thy
Silence the Way of he Tao, and all Speech a deviation therefrom. This
Lion and Dragon are therefore of thy Self, and the Man and the Bull the
Feminine Counterparts thereof, being the Grace of Our Lady BABALON that
She bestoweth upon thee in thine Adultery with Her. They are then as a
Vesture of Honour,
and a Reward, that are won by the Intensity of thy Light and of thy
Love. So properly we esteem Men by the Measure of their Intelligence
and their Strength, since they are equal in their essential Godhead, so
far as concerneth the Quiddity thereof. See thou closely moreover unto
it, that if thou be well favoured of Our Lady, thy Lion and thy Dragon
grow in like Measure, for the Excess of the Feminine is Dead Weight.
The Intellectual without Virility is a Dreamer of Follies, and the
laborious Giant without Courage is a Slave.
DE NATURA SILENTII NOSTRI. (On the Nature of Our Silence)
The Nature of this Silence is shewn also by the God Harpocrates, the
Babe in the Lotus, who is also the Serpent and the Egg, that is, the
Holy Ghost. This is the most secret of all Energies, the Seed of all
being, and therefore must He be sealed up in an Ark from the Malice of
the Devourers. If then by thine Art thou canst conceal thyself in thine
own Nature, this is Silence, this, and not Nullity of Consciousness,
else were a Stone more perfect in Adeptship that thou. But, abiding in
thy Silence, thou art in a City of Refuge, and the Waters prevail not
against the Lotus that enfoldeth thee. This Ark or Lotus is then the
Body of Our Lady BABALON, without which thou wert the Prey of Nile and
of the Crocodiles that are therein. Now, o my Son, mark thou well this
that I will write for thine Advertisement and Behoof, that this
Silence, though it be Perfection of Delight, is but the Gestation of
thy Lion, and in thy Season thou must dare, and come forth to the
Battle. Else, were not this Practice of Silence akin to the Formula of
Separateness of the black Brothers?
DE FORMULA RECTA DRACONIS. (On the Correct Formula of the Dragon)
Verily, o my Son, herein lieth the Danger and the Treason of thy
Scorpion. For his Nature is against himself, being the deepest Ego,
that is, a Being separate from the Universe; and his is the Root of the
while Mystery of Evil. For he hath in him the Magick Power, which if he
use not, he is self- poisoned, even as any Organ of the Body that
refuseth its Function. So then his Cure is in his Ally the Lion, that
feareth not the Crocodiles, nor hideth himself, but leapeth eagerly
forward. The Path of the Mystic hath this Pitfall; for though he unite
himself with his God, his Mode is to withdraw from that which him
seemeth is not God. Whereby he affirmeth and confirmeth the Demon, that
is Duality. Be thou instant therefore, o my Son, to turn from every Act
of Love at the Moment of full satisfaction, flinging the invoked Might
thereof against a new Opposite; for the Formula of every Dragon is
Perpetual Motion or Change, and therefore to dwell in the Satisfaction
of thy Nature is a Stagnation, and a Violation thereof, making the
Duality of Conflict, which is he Falling Away to Choronzon.
DE SUA CARTA COELORUM. (On His Horoscope)
I pray thee to mark, o my Son, how the Grace of Nature was benignant at
my Nativity, to the right Balance and Formulation of my Sphinx. For
Neptune was in the Sign of the Bull, giving Strength and Stability to
my Spiritual Essence. Uranus was ascending in the Lion, to fortify my
Magical Will with Courage, and to turn it to the Salvation of Man. In
the Waterman was
Saturnus, to make mine Intelligence sober, profound, and capable of
Labour. Jupiter, with Mercury His Herald, was in Scorpio, harmonizing
me and my Word according o the Essence of my Nature. Then of the
others, Mars was exalted in the Goat, for physical Endurance of Toil;
Sol was conjoined with Venus in the Balance, for judgment in Art and in
Life, and for Equability of Temple. Lastly, the Moon was in the Sign of
the Fishes, her loved abode, for a Gift of Sensitiveness and of
Glamour. What then am I? I am a transient Effect of infinite Causes, a
Child of Changes. There is no I, o thou that art not thou, else were I
segregated, a Stagnation, a Thing of Hate and of Fear. But ever-moving,
ever-changing, there is a Star in the Body of Our Lady Nuit, whose Word
is None and Two.
DE OPERE SUO. (On His Work)
I am not I. Then, sayst thou, why is this Word? Know o my Son, that
this first Person is but the common Figure of the Speech of Men whereof
the Magus may avail himself without Implication of Metaphysick. Yet in
the Mystery of Illusion, which is the Instrument of the Universal Will,
I will not say the Harlot of its Pleasure, are manifested these many
Stars, and amongst them that Logos of the Aeon of Horus whom thou
callest  and thy Father. And this is by-come through
Virtue of the Intensity of the Will to Change, through many a
Serpent-Phase of Life and Death, until in the Play of the Game its
Manifestation is the Utterance of this Word of he Aeon, this Law of
Thelema, that shall be for a Season the Formula of the Magick of the
Earth. Who then should inquire of the further Destiny of that Star, or
of another? It is the Play of the Game, and the Operation of its
Function shall suffice it. Rid thyself therefore of this Thought of "I"
apart from all, but, attaining to Consciousness of All by Our True Way,
contemplate the Play of Illusion by thine Instrument of Mind and Sense,
leaving it without Care to continue in its own Path of Change.
DE FRATRIBUS NIGRIS. (On the Black Brothers)
O my Son, know this concerning the Black Brothers, that cry: I am I.
This is Falsity and Delusion, for the Law endureth not Exception. So
then these Brethren are not apart, as they vainly think being wrought
by Error; but are peculiar Combinations of Nature in Her Variety.
Rejoice then even in the Contemplation of these, for they are proper to
Perfection, and Adornments of Beauty, like a Mole upon the Cheek of a
Woman. Shall I then say that were it of thine own Nature, even thine,
to compose so sinister a Complex, thou shouldst not strive therewith,
destroying it by Love, but continue in that Way? I deny not this
hastily, nor affirm; nay, shall I even utter a Hint of that which I may
foresee? For it is in mine own Nature to think that in this Matter the
Sum of Wisdom is Silence. But this I say, and that boldly, that thou
shalt not look upon this Horror with Fear, or with Hate, but accept all
this as thou dost all else, as a Phenomenon of Change, that is, of
Love. For in a swift Stream thou mayst behold a Twig held steady for a
while by the Play of the Water, and by his Analogue thou mayst
understand the Nature of this Mystery of the Path of Perfection.
DE ARTE ALCHEMISTICA. (On the Alchemical Art)
Wilt thou acquaint thyself now further at my Reproof concerning this
Arcanum of Alchymia, the Art Egyptian, how to make Gold? Of a Surety
this is already in thy Knowledge, if thou examine by Our Holy Qabalah,
what be the Forces that are the Influx upon Tiphereth, which is the
Harmony and Beauty, or Sol, in every Kingdom of the Universe, so then
also among Metals. Now this Influx is Fivefold. First, from the Crown
descendeth the High Priestess in the Path of the Moon, for Inspiration,
and Imagination, and Idea: see to it that this Virgin be Pure, for
herein Error is Illusion. Next, from the Father floweth the Power of
the Emperor in the Path of the Ram, for Initiative, and Energy, and
Determination. Third, from the Mother are the Lovers in the Path of the
Twins, for Intellectual Wholeness, and for Adjustment to Environment.
These Three are from this Supernals and complete the Theorick of thy
Work. After this, in the Praxis and Executive thereof thou hast the
Hermit as an Influence from the Sphere of Jupiter in the Path of the
Virgin, for Secrecy, and for Concentration, and for Prudence. Lastly,
from the Sphere of Mars, travelleth Justice in the Path of the Balance,
for good Judgment, and Tact, and Art. O my Son, in this Chapter is more
wisdom than in Ten Thousand Folios of the Alchemists! Study therefore
to acquire Skill in this Method, and Experience; for this Gold is not
only of the Metals, but of every Sphere, and this Key is of virtue to
enter every Palace of Perfection.
DE FEMINA: QUAE EST PROPRIA JOCO. (On Woman, who is fit for a Jest)
O my Son, hear this Wisdom of Experience, how at thy first Sight, when
I put thee into the Arms of Ahitha, thy sweet Stepmo ther my concubine,
such was thy Beauty that she became enamoured of thee, crying aloud; Ay
me, an such be the Fruit of thy Magick, o my Master, then let me, me
also, even me, give myself utterly to this Holy Art! Then did I,
becoming heavy in Spirit, make Question of her, saying: To what End?
And at this was she confounded and brought into Bewilderment; but after
a great While, fumbling in her Mind, made Answer, like a Scarecrow in a
Field, so was it for Rags and Tatters of Thought. Thus yet more
Atrabilious and Sluggard was this Liver of thy Father, so that I fell
into a Gloom night unto Weeping. Then she beholding me with Amazement
cried upon me thus: Art thou not glad in Heart, o my Master? At this I
gave a Sigh even as one nigh unto Death. And She: if this be so, then
is no need anymore for me to give myself to Magick. Thereat, perceiving
yet again the Jest Universal of Our Lord Pan, was I swallowed up (like
unto Jonah of the Old Fable) in the Belly of the Whale called Laughter,
and it seemeth to me at this present Writing that I am like to abide
therein for he Time that remaineth to me in this Body.
DE FORMULA FEMINAE. (On the Formula of Woman)
Now this is the right Power and Property of a Woman, to arrange and to
adjust all Things that exist in their proper Sphere, but not to create
or to transcend. Therefore in all practical Matters is she of Might and
of Wit to produce an Effect consonant with her Mood. And her Symbol is
Water, that seeketh the Level, whether for Wrath, eating away the
Mountains (yet even in this making smooth the Plains) or for Love, in
Fecundity of Earth. But it is the Fire of Man that hath
heaved up those Mountains, in huge Turmoil. Man then maketh Mischief
and Trouble by his Violence, be his Will convenient to His Environment,
or antipa thetic; but Woman disturbeth by Manipulation, adroit or
sinister as her Mood may be of Order or of Disorder. For any Man to
meddle in her Affair is Folly, for he comprehendeth not Quiet; so also
for her to emulate him in his Office is Fatuity. Therefore in Magick
though a Woman excel all men in every Quality that is profitable for
her for Attainment, yet she is Naught in that Work, even as a Man
without Hands in the Shop of a Carpenter; for She hath not the Organism
that might make Use of this Opportunity. Of all this is she aware by
her Instinct, for her Nature is to Understand, even without Knowledge;
and if thou doubt herein the Wisdom of thy Sire, do thou seek out a
Woman (but with Precaution) and affirm these my Words. So shall she wax
woundily wrath, and look grisly upon thee, proclaiming in a shrill
Voice her manifold Excellences, which she hath, and concern the Matter
not a Whit.
VERBA MAGISTRI SUI DE FEMINA. (His Master's Words on Woman)
Of a Thousand Years it is nigh unto the Fiftieth Part, o my Son, since
I obtained Favour in the Light of a great Master of he Truth, whom Men
call Allan Bennett, so that he received me for his Discipulus in
Magick. And he was instant with me in his Matter, and vehement,
adjuring his Gods that this (which I have myself here above declared
unto thee) was the Truth concerning the Nature of Woman. But I being
but a Youth, and Headstrong, and being enraptured in Love of Women, and
Admiration of Them, and Worship, delighting in them eagerly, and
learning constantly from them, nourished by the Milk of their Mystery,
as it should be for all true Men, did resist angrily the Doctrine of
that most holy Man of God. And because, (as it was written) he was a
vowed Virgin from his Birth, and had no Commerce with any in the Way of
Carnality, I disabled his Judgment herein, as if he, being a Fish, had
disallowed the Flight of Birds. But I, o my Son, am not wholly ignorant
of Women, save as all Men must be in the Limitation of their Nature,
for the Number of my Concubines is not notably or shamefully exceeded
by that of the Phases of he Moon since my Birth. Many also have been my
Disciples in Magick that were Women; and (more also) I do owe,
acknowledging the same with open Gladness, the greater Part of mine own
Initiation and Advancement to the Operation of Women. Notwithstanding
all these Things, I bow humbly before Allan Bennett, and repent mine
Insolence, for his Saying was Sooth.
DE VIA PROPRIA FEMINIS. (On the Proper Conduct of Woman)
It is indeed easy for a Woman to obtain the Experience of Magick, in a
certain Sort, as Visions, Trances, and the like; yet they take not Hold
upon Her, to transform Her, as with Men, but pass only as Images upon a
Speculum. So then a Woman advanceth never in Magick, but remaineth the
same, rightly or wrongly ordered according to the Force that moveth
Her. Here therefore is the Limit of Her Aspiration in Magick, to abide
joyous and obedient beneath the Man that her Instinct shall divine so
that by Habit becoming a Temple well-ordered, comely and consecrated,
she may in her next Incarnation attract by her Fitness a Man-soul. For
this Cause hath Man esteemed Constancy and Patience as Qualities
preeminent in Good women, because by these she gaineth her Going toward
Our Godliness. Her Ordeal therefore is principally to resist Moods,
which make Disorder, that is of Choronzon. Also, let her be content in
this Way, for verily she hath a noble and an excellent Portion in Our
Holy Banquet, and escapeth many a Peril that is proper to us others.
Only, be she in Awe and Wariness, for in her is no Principle of
Resistance to Choronzon, so that if she become disordered in her Moods,
as by Lust, or by Drunkenness, or by Idleness, she hath no Standard
whereunto she may rally her Forces. In this see thou her Need of a
well-guarded Life, and of a True Man for her God.
DE HAC RE ALTERA INTELLIGENDA. (Further Concerning This)
Mark then, o my Son, how in the Antient Books of Magick it is Man that
selleth his Soul unto the Devil, but Woman that maketh Pact with him.
For she hath constantly the Wit and Power to arrange Things at his
Bidding, and she payeth this Price of his Alliance. But a Man hath one
Jewel, and, bartering this, he becometh the Mockery of Satanas. Let
then his tutor thee in thine own Art of Magick, that thou employ Women
in all Practical Matters, to order them with Cunning, but Men in thy
Need of Transfiguration or Transmutation. In a Trope, let the Woman
direct the Chess-Play of Life, but the Man alter the Rules, if he so
will. Lo! in ill Play is Mischief and Disorder, but in a New Law is
Earthquake, and Destruction of the Root of Things. Therefore is Fear of
any Man that is in Commerce with his Genius, for none knoweth if his
Law shall amend the Game or do it Hurt; and of this the Proof is in
Experience, won after the Victory of his Will, when there is no Way of
Return; as saith the Poet, Vestigia Nulla Retrorsum. Nor do thou fear
to create: for, even as I have written in The Book of Lies (falsely
so-called), thou canst create nothing that is not God. But beware of
false Creations wrought by Women in whom is no Function thereof; for
they are Phantoms, poisonous Vapours, bred of the Moon in her
Witchcraft of Blood.
DE CLAVIBUS MORTIS ET DIABOLI, ARCANIS TOU TAROT FRATERNITATIS R. C.
(On the Keys of Death and the Devil, Arcana of the Tarot of the R. C.
Brotherhood)
It shall profit thee much, o my Son, or I err, that I instruct thee in
the Mysteries of the Paths of Nun and of Ayin, that in our Rota are
figured in the Atu called Death, and that called the Devil. Of these
Nun joineth the Sun with Venus, and is referred to Scorpio in the
Zodiac. This Path is perilous, for it seeketh the Level, and may abase
thee, except thou take Heed unto the Going. Of its three Modes, the
Scorpio destroyeth himself, as if it were a Type of animal Pleasure.
Next, the Serpent is proper to Works of Change, or Magick; yet is he
poisonous also unless thou hast Wit to enchant him. Lastly the Eagle is
subtlest in this Sort, so that this Path is proper to a Transcendental
Labour. Yet all these are in the Way of Death, so that thy Wand is
dissolved and corroded in the Waters of the Cup, and must be renewed by
Virtue of thy Nature in its Course. For Fire is extinguished by Water;
but upon Earth it burneth freely, and is inflamed by the Wind.
Understand also that which is written concerning the Vesica, that it is
the Mother giving Ease, Sleep, and Death, which Consolations are
eschewed by the True Man or Hero.
SEQUITUR DE HIS VIIS. (Further on these Paths)
Now the Path of Ayin is a Link between Mercury and the Sun, and in the
Zodiac importeth the Goat. This Goat is called also Strength, and
standeth in the Meridian at the Sunrise of Spring;
and it is His Nature to leap upon the Mountains. So therefore he is a
Symbol of true Magick, and his Name is Baphomet, wherefore did I design
him as an Atu of Thoth, the Fifteenth, and put his Image in the Front
of my Book, the "Ritual of High Magick", which was the second Part of
my Thesis for the Grade of Major Adept, when I was clothed about with
he Body called Alphonse Louis Constant. Now the Goat flieth not as doth
the Eagle; but consider this also that it is the rue Nature of Man to
dwell upon the Earth, so that his Flights are oft but Phantasy; yea,
the Eagle also is bound to his Eyrie, nor feedeth upon Air. Therefore
this goat, making each Leap with Fervour, yet all Times secure in his
own Element, is a true Hieroglyph of the Magician. Mark also, his Path
sheweth One continuous in Exaltation upon a Throne, and so is it the
Formula of the Man, as the other was of the Woman.
DE OCULO HOOR. (On the Eye of Hoor)
I say furthermore that this Path is of the Circle, and of the Eye of
Horus that sleepeth not, but is vigilant. The Circle is all-perfect,
equal every Way, but the Vesica hath bitter Need, and seeketh thy
Medicine, that is of right compounded for High Purpose, to ease her
Infirmity. Thus is thy Will frustrated, and thy Mind distracted, and
thy Work lamed, if it be not brought to Naught. Also thy Puissance in
thine Art is minished, by a full Moiety, as I do esteem it. But the Eye
of Horus hath no Need, and is free in his Will, not seeking a Level, or
requiring a Medicine, and is fit and worthy to be the Companion and the
Ally of thee in thy Work, as a Friend to thee, not Mistress and not
Slave, that seek ever with Slyness and Deceit to encompass their own
Ends. There is moreover a Reason in Physics for my Word; study thou his
matter in the Laws of the Changes of Nature. For Things Unlike do in
their Marriage produce a Child which is relatively Stable, and
resisteth Change; but Things like increase mutually the Potential of
their particular Natures. Howbeit, each Path hath his own Use; and
thou, being instructed in all Ways, choose thine with Discretion.
DE SUA INITIATIONE. (On His Initiation)
My son, my Delight, Honey of the Comb of my Life, I will say also this
concerning the Odds of the Formulae of Male and Female, that mine
Initiation was ordered as followeth. First, unto the Middle of the Way,
the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian
Angel, were these Men appointed to mine Aid, Jerome Politt of Kendal,
Cecil Jones of Basingstoke, Allan Bennett of the Border, and Oscar
Eckenstein of the Mountain with no Woman. But after that Attainment
hath Word come to me only through Women, Ouarda the Seer, and Virakam,
and in mine Initiation into the Degree of Magus, the Cat ' thy
Mother Helen the Play Actress the Serpent, with Myriamne the Drunkard,
and Rita the Harlot to bear Dagger and Poison; then these others Alice
the Singing Woman for an Owl; then Catherine the Dog of Anubis, and
Ahitha the Camel that renewed the Work of Virakam, with Olun the Dragon
and --- but here I do restrict myself in Speech, for the End is wrapped
about with a Veil, as the Face of a Virgin. But do thou meditate
strictly upon these Things, distinguishing the right Property, Order,
and Use of the one and the other in the Relative, even as thou makest
them All- One, that is None, in the Absolute.
DE HERBO SANCTISSIMO ARABICO. (On the Most Holy Grass of the Arabs)
Recall, o my Son, the Fable of the Hebrews, which they brought from the
City Babylon, how Nebuchadnezzar the Great King, being afflicted in his
Spirit, did depart from among Men for Seven Years' Space, eating Grass
as doth an Ox. Now this Ox is the Letter Aleph, and is that Atu of
Thoth whose Number is Zero, and whose name is Maat, Truth, or Maut, the
Vulture, the All- Mother being an Image of Our Lady Nuit, but also it
is called the Fool, who is Parsifal, 'der reine Tor', and so referreth
to him that walketh in the Way of the Tao. Also, he is Harpocrates, the
Child Horus, walking, (as saith Daood, the Badawi that became King in
his Psalms) upon the Lion and the Dragon; that is, he is in Unity with
his own Secret Nature, as I have shewn thee in my Word concerning the
Sphinx. O my Son, yester Eve came the Spirit upon me that I also should
eat the Grass of the Arabs, and by Virtue of the Bewitchment thereof
behold that which might be appointed for the Enlightenment of mine
Eyes. Now then of this may I not speak, seeing that it involveth the
Mystery of the Transcending of Time, so that in One Hour of our
terrestrial Measure did I gather the Harvest of an Aeon, and in Ten
Lives I could not declare it.
DE QUIBUSDAM MYSTERIIS, QUAE VIDI. (On Certain Mysteries I Have Seen)
Yet even as a Man may set up a Memorial or Symbol to import Ten
Thousand Times Ten Thousand, so may I strive to inform thine
Understanding by Hieroglyph. And here shall thine own Experience serve
us, because a Token of Remembrance sufficeth him that is familiar with
a Matter, which to him that knoweth it not should not be made manifest,
no, not in a Year of Instruction. Here first then is one amid the
uncounted Wonders of that Vision; upon a field blacker and richer than
Velvet was the Sun of all Being, alone. Then about Him were little
Crosses, Greek, over-running the Heaven. These changed from Form to
Form geometrical, Marvel devouring Marvel, a Thousand Times a Thousand
in their Course and Sequence, until by their Movement was the Universe
churned into the Quintessence of Light. Moreover at another Time did I
behold All Things as Bullae, iridescent and luminous, self-shining in
every Colour, Myriad pursuing Myriad until by their perpetual Beauty
they exhausted the Virtue of my Mind to receive them, and whelmed it,
so that I was fain to withdraw myself from the Burden of that
Brilliance. Yet, o my Son, the Sun of all this amounteth not to the
Worth of one Dawn-Glimmer of Our True Vision of Holiness.
DE QUORUM MODO MEDITATIONES. (On a Certain Method of Meditation)
Now for the Chief of that which was granted unto me, it was he
Apprehension of those willed Changes or Transmutations of he Mind which
lead into Truth, being as Ladders unto Heaven, or so I called them at
that Time, seeking for a Phrase to admonish the Scribe that attended on
my Words, to grave a Balustre upon the Stele of my Working. But I make
Effort in vain, o my Son, to record this matter in Detail; for it is
the quality of the Grass to quicken the Operation of Thought it may be
Thousandfold, and moreover to figure each Step in Images complex and
overpowering in Beauty, so that one hath no Time wherein to conceive,
much less to utter, any Word for a Name or any of them. Also, such was
the multiplicity of these Ladders, and their Equivalence, that the
Memory holdeth no more any one of them, but only a certain
Comprehension of the Method, wordless by Reason of its Subtility. Now
therefore must I make by my Will a Concentration mighty and terrible of
my Thought, that I may bring forth this Mystery in Expression. For this
Method is of Virtue and Profit, by it mayst thou come easily and with
Delight to the Perfection of Truth, it is no Odds from what Thought
thou makest the first Leap in thy Meditation, so that thou mayst know
how every Road endeth in Monsalvat, and the Temple of the Sangraal.
SEQUITUR DE HAC RE. (Further on This)
I believe generally, on Ground both of Theory and Experience, so little
as I have, that a Man must first be initiate, and established in Our
Law, before he may use this Method. For in it is an Implication of our
Secret Enlightenment, concerning the Universe, how its Nature is
utterly Perfection. Now every Thought is a Separation, and the Medicine
of that is to marry Each One with its Contradiction, as I have shewed
formerly in many Writings. And thou shalt clap the one to the other
with Vehemence of Spirit, swiftly as Light itself, that the Ecstasy be
spontaneous. So therefore it is Expedient that thou have travelled
already in this Path of Antithesis, knowing perfectly the Answer to
every Glyph or Problem, and thy Mind ready therewith. For by the
Property of this Grass all passeth with Speed incalculable of Wit, and
an Hesitation should confound thee, breaking down thy ladder, and
throwing back thy Mind to receive Impression from Environment, as at
thy first beginning. Verily; the nature of this Method is Solution, and
the Destruction of every Complexity by Explosion of Ecstasy, as every
Element thereof is fulfilled by its Correlative, and is annihilated
(since it loseth separate Existence) in the Orgasm that is consummated
within the Bed of thy Mind.
SEQUITUR DE HAC RE. (Further on This)
Thou knowest right well, o my Son, how a Thought is imperfect in two
Dimensions, being separate from its Contradiction, but also constrained
in its Scope, because by hat Contradiction we do not (commonly)
complete the Universe, save only that of its Discourse. Thus if we
contrast Health with Sickness, we include in their Sphere of Union no
more than one Quality that may be predicated of all Things.
Furthermore, it is for the most Part not easy to find or to formulate
the true Contradiction of any Thought as a positive Idea, but only as a
Formal Negation in vague Terms, so that the ready Answer is but the
Antithesis. Thus to "White" one putteth not the Phrase "all that which
is not white", for this is void, formless, neither clear, simple, nor
positive in conception; but one answereth "Black", for this hath an
Image of his Significance. So the Cohesion of Antitheticals destroyeth
them only in Part, and one becometh instantly conscious of the Residue
that is unsatisfied or unbalanced, whose Eidolon leapeth in thy Mind
with Splendour and Joy unspeakable. Let not this deceive thee, for its
Existence proveth its Imperfection, and thou must call forth its Mate,
and destroy them by Love, as with the former. This Method is continuous
and proceedeth ever from the Gross to the Fine, and from the Particular
to the General, dissolving all Things into the One Substance of Light.
CONCLUSIO DE HAC MODO SANCTITATIS. (Conclusion on this Method of
Holiness)
Learn now that Impression of Sense have Opposites readily conceived, as
long to short, or light to dark; and so with Emotions and Perceptions,
as Love to Hate, or false to true; but the more violent is the
Antagonism, the more is it bound in Illusion, determined by Relation.
Thus the Word "Long" hath no Meaning save it be referred to a Standard;
but Love is not thus obscure, because Hate is its Twin, partaking
bountifully of a Common Nature therewith. Now, hear this; it was given
unto me in my Visions of the Aethyrs, when I was in the Wilderness of
Sahara, by Tolga, that above the Abyss, contradiction is Unity, and
that Nothing could be true save by Virtue of the Contradiction that is
contained in itself. Behold, therefore, in this method thou shalt come
presently to Ideas of this Order, that include in themselves their own
Contradiction, and have no Antithesis. Here then is thy Lever of
Antinomy broken in thine Hand; yet, being in true Balance, thou mayst
soar, passionate and eager, from Heaven to Heaven, by the Expansion of
thine Idea, and its Exaltation, of Concentration as thou understandest
by thy Studies in the Book of the Law, the Word thereof concerning Our
Lady Nuit and Hadit that is the Core of every Star. And this last Going
upon thy Ladder is easy, if thou be truly Initiate, for the Momentum of
thy Force in Transcendental Antithesis serveth to propel thee, and the
Emancipation from the Fetters of Thought that thou hast won in that
Praxis of Art maketh the Whirlpool and Gravitation of Truth of
Competence to Draw thee unto itself.
DE VIA SOLA SOLIS. (On the Way of the Sun)
This is the Profit of mine Intoxication of this Holy Herb, the Grass of
the Arab, that it has shewed me this Mystery (with many others) not as
a new Light, for I had that aforetime, but by its swift Synthesis and
Manifestation of a Long Sequence of Events in a Moment, I had Wit to
analyse this Method, and to discover its Essential Law, which before
had escaped the Focus of the Lens of mine Understanding. Yea, o my Son,
there is no true Path of Light, save that which I have formerly made
plain; yet in every Path is Profit, if thou be cunning to perceive it
and to clasp it. For we win Truth oftentimes by Reflection or by the
Composition and Selection of an Artist in his Presentation thereof,
when else we were blind thereunto; lacking his Mode of Light. Yet were
that Art of none avail unless we had already the Root of that Truth in
our Nature, and a Bud ready to flower at the Summoning of that Sun. In
Witness, nor a Boy nor a Stone hath Knowledge of the Sections of a
Cone, and their Properties; but thou mayst teach these to the Boy by
right Presentation, because he hath in his Nature those laws of Mind
that are consonant with our Art Mathematical, and hath Need only of the
Fledging (I may say his) so that he apply them consciously to the Work,
when all being in Truth, that is, in the necessary Relations that rule
our Illusion, he cometh in Course to Apprehension.
DE PRUDENTIA ORDINIS AA (On the Prudence of the AA)
Here then, O my Son, that shall be mightier than all the Kings of the
Earth, as it is prophesied, --
-an thou be He! - because thou shalt establish the Law which I have
given, even the Law of Thelema, here in this which I have written is a
Point of Judgment in they Work to bring into the Light of Initiation
such as come unto thee, affirming their Will to his Attainment. For
every One hath his own Path and his own Law, and there is no Art in
Magick but to seek out that Path and that Law, that he may pursue the
one by the right Use of the Other. It shall be that one cometh unto
thee, desiring Amen-Ra (I speak in a Figure or Exemplar) another Asi, a
third Hoor-Pa- Kraat; or again, one seeketh Instruction in Obeah, and
his Fellow in Wanga; and of all these not one in Ten Thousand shall be
aware of his true Way. For albeit our last step is one for all, yet his
Next Stem is particular to each. Therefore is the Preparation of a
Student that seeketh Our Holy Order of A.. A.. most general,
informing his Mind of all known Methods, so that his Will may select
among these by Instinct; then after, as a Probationer, he practiseth
those which he hath preferred, and by the Examination of his Record
after the Period appointed thou mayst have Wisdom concerning him, to
confirm him in those Ways which are shewed thereby to be germane to his
True Nature.
ALTERA DE SUA VIA. (Further on this Path)
Thus I was brought unto the Knowledge of myself in a certain secret
Grace, and as a Poet, by Jerome Politt of Kendal; Oscar Eckenstein of
the Mountain discovered Manhood in me, teaching me to endure Hardship,
and to dare many Shapes of Death; also he nurtured me in Concentration,
the Art of the Mystics, but without Lumber of Theology. Allan Bennett
bestowed upon me the right Art of Magic, and Our Holy Qabalah, with a
great Treasure of Learning in many Matters, but especially concerning
Egypt, and Asia, the Mysteries of their Arcane Wisdom. But of Cecil
Jones had I the Great Gift of the Holy Magick of Abramelin, and he
inducted me into that Order which we name not, because of the Silliness
of the Profane that pretend thereto, and he brought me to the Knowledge
and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel; also, he was the Herald of
the Masters of the Temple when They bade me welcome to their Order,
appointing a Siege for me in the City of the Pyramids, under the Night
of Pan; but for three Years I was not willing to avail myself thereof.
Now mark well this, o my Son, that this Path was peculiar to the law of
my Star, and none other should follow me herein, or seek to follow me,
for he hath his own proper Orbit. O my Son, err not by Generalization
and Conformity, for this is the Very Idleness, and breedeth Ideals and
Standards that are Death.
DE PRUDENTIA ARTIS DOCENDI. (On Prudence in the Art of Teaching)
Nevertheless, this one Affliction shall touch nigh all that come to
thee, and that is this great Pox of Sin, that is our Bane inherited of
the Aeon of Slain Gods. Look the first of all, when any Postulant
boweth before thee, whether there be not Conflict and Restriction in
his Mind, and in his Will. If he deem Good and Evil to be absolute,
instead of as relative to the Health of this Body, or the Weal of the
Society of which he is a Member, or what not, as it may be, instruct
him. Or, if he will say that he will sacrifice all for Initiation,
correct him, as it is written: "but whoso gives one Particle of Dust
shall lose all in that Hour." For it is Conflict if he weigh one Thing
with another; and Renunciation, being sorrowful, is not worthy of
Acceptance. But he must with Joy unite all he is and hath, heaping the
Whole into one Billow of Love, under Will. Yea, o my son, until thou
hast brought the Postulant into our Freedom from Sin, and the Sense and
Conviction thereof, he is not ready for the Path of our Magick and
Illumination; because every Way soever is a Going, and his Sin is an
obstacle and a Fetter and an Hoodwink on every one of them, for it is
Restriction, whether he set out by the Meditations of the Dhamma, or by
Our Qabalah, or by Vision or Theurgy, or how else soever.
DE MENTE INIMICA ANIMO. (On the Mind, Enemy of the Soul)
How shall a Man attain to the Trance where All is One, if he yet debate
within his Mind concerning Virtue as a Thing Absolute? Thus, o my Son,
there be those that are fuddled with Doubt whether Meat is to be eaten
(I choose this as a Reference), which Habit is proper to the Lion, as
Grass to the Horse, so that his right Problem is solely thus, what is
fitting to his own Nature. Or again, I suppose that he is in Vision,
and an Angel, visiting him, imparteth a Truth contrary to his
Prejudice, as it fell out in mine own Case, when I inhabited the Body
of Sir Edward Kelly, or so do I in Part remember, as it seemeth dimly.
This nevertheless is sure (or the learned Casaubon, publishing the
Record of that Word with the Magician Dee, sayeth falsely) that an
Angel did declare unto Kelly the very Axiomata of our Law of Thelema,
in good Measure, and plainly; but Dee, afflicted by the Fixity of his
Tenets that were of the Salve-Gods, was wroth, and by his Authority
prevailed upon the other, who was indeed not wholly perfected as an
Instrument, or the World ready for that Sowing. Consider also how in
this very Life I was the Enemy of mine own Law, and wrote down the Book
of the Law contrary to my conscious Will by the Virtue of Obedience as
a Scribe, and strove constantly to escape mine own Work, and the
Utterance of my Word, until by Initiation I was made All-One.
DE ILLUMINATUM OPERIBUS DIVERSIS. (On Different Works of the
Illuminators)
Do thou understand how few be they whose Work in this their present
Lives is our Way of Initiation. Yet it is written in "The Book of the
Law" that the Law is for all, so that thou shalt in no wise err if thou
establish it as the formula of he Aeon, universal among Men. Also, ever
for them that are fitted to advance in our Light, there is Order and
Diversity in Function, as regardeth their Work in our Sublime
Brotherhood. Thus, it might well be that, in a Profess-House of the
Temple, or College of the Holy Ghost, each Knight or Brother might
severally attain Experience of every Trance, unto the Perfection of all
Illumination; yet by this there ought not Confusion to be confected,
one usurping the appointed Office of another. For the Abbot, although
he be not enlightened wholly, is yet Abbot; and the Place of the Cook,
were he Saint, Arhan, and Paramahamsa in one Person, is in his Kitchen.
Confound not thou in any wise therefore the Degree of Attainment of any
Man with his right Function in our Holy Order; for although by
initiation cometh the Light, and the Right, and the Might to accomplish
all Works soever, yet these are inoperative save as they are able to
use a Machine which is of the same Order of Things as the Effect
required. As the best Swordsman hath Need of a Sword, so hath
every magician of a Body and Mind capable to the Work that he willeth;
and he can do nothing, save it be proper to his Nature.
DE EADEM RE ALTERA VERBA. (Further Words on This)
By this Understanding be they rebuked that make a Reproach to our Art,
saying in their Insolence that if we have all Power, why are we betimes
in Stress of Poverty, and in Contempt of men, and in Pain of Disease,
and so forth, mocking us, and holding our Magick for Delusion. But they
behold not our Light, how it guideth us in our Path unto a Goal that is
not in their Comprehension, so that we crave not that which seemeth to
them the Sole Food and Comfort of Life. Also, this which we attain,
though it be the Essence of Omniscience and Omnipotence, informeth and
moveth the Material World (so to call it) only according to the Nature
of that which is therein. For the Light of the Sun (by His very
Wholeness itself) sheweth a Rose Red, but a Leaf Green; and His Heat
gathereth the Clouds, and disperseth them also. So I then, though I
were perfect in Magick, might not work in Metals as a Smith, or become
rich by Commerce as a Merchant; for I have not in my Nature the Engines
proper to these Capacities, and therefore it is not of my will to seek
to exercise them. Here then is my Case, that I can not because I will
not, and it were Conflict, should I turn thither. But let every man
become perfect in his own Work, not heeding the Rebuke of another, that
some Way not his own is more Noble, or Profitable, but being constant
in mindfulness concerning his Business.
DE PACE PERFECTA LUCE. (On the Perfect Peace with Light)
How shall the measure our Statue and our Success by that Canon of
Relation and Illusion, and their ignorance of our Nature? Time is but
Sequence, and a moment of Light outweigheth an Age of Darkness. What is
Happiness but the Issue of the Harmony of our Consciousness with our
Truth, and the Conformity of Will with Action? To the Initiate is
Certainty of his Fulfilment, which to the Profane is but the Effect of
Hazard, and he feareth to lose what he loveth, or thinketh he loveth.
But we, loving only in Light, suffer not by Fear or by Bereavement,
because to us every Event is Welcome, being right, necessary and proper
to our particular Path. The Knowledge of this one Matter is the End of
Dread and of Regret; make thou it the Governor of thy Mind, to rule its
Pace, lest it hasten or lag by Stress of thine Environment. How this
Attainment is possible for all Mankind, since it asketh but Resolution
of Complexities that already exist; so that this true Wisdom and
Happiness cometh by the Acceptance of our Law, and its Use is the Key
to all locked Doors of the Mind, and the Reconcilement of every
Contention. O my Son, in the Promulgation of the Law lieth the Reward
of our Chief Work, the making whole of Mankind from the Conscience of
Sin which divideth him, and afflicteth his Spirit.
DE PACE PERFECTA. (On Perfect Peace)
O my Son, is it not a marvel, this Light whereof we are the
Quintessence and the Seed? By it are we made Whole, dissolved in the
Body and in the Soul of Our Lady Nuit even as Her Lord Hadit, so that
the Gnostic Sacrament of the Cosmos is perpetually Elevated before us.
We behold all that is and comprehend its Mystery, and its Order in this
High Mass eternally celebrated
among us, acknowledging the Perfection of the Rite, neither confusing
the Parts thereof, nor discriminating in Worship between them. So unto
us is every Phenomenon a Shew of Godliness, proceeding continually in a
Pageant that returneth unto itself, identical in the Phase of Naught as
of Many, but whirling in the Orgia of Ineffable Holiness as it were a
Dance that weaveth Figures of Beauty in Variety inexhaustible. Shall
the Initiate bestir him, to better so prime a Perfection? Nay, this
Will that was his is accomplished; he hath attained the Summit; so
without Hope or Fear he abideth, and leaveth his Vehicle of Illusion
and Magical Engine, that is, as Man say, his Body and Mind, to work out
their Ritual of Change without his interference. O my son, ask not to
what End! As it is written in the Book of the Heart Girt with the
Serpent, concerning the Boy and the Swan: is there not joy ineffable in
this aimless Winging?
DE MORTE. (On Death)
Thou hast made Question of me concerning Death, and this is my Opinion,
of which I say not: This is the Truth. First in the Temple called Man
is the God, his Soul, or Star, individual and eternal, but also
inherent in the Body of Our Lady Nuit. Now this Soul, as an Officer in
the High Mass of he Cosmos, taketh on the Vesture of his Office, that
is, inhabiteth a Tabernacle of Illusion, a Body and Mind. And this
Tabernacle is Subject to the Law of Change, for it is complex, and
diffuse reacting to every Stimulus or Impression. If then the mind be
attached constantly to the Body, Death hath no Power to decompose it
wholly, but a decaying Shell of he dead Man, his Mind holding together
for a little his Body of Light, haunteth the Earth, seeking a new
Tabernacle (in its Error that feareth Change) in some other Body. These
Shells are broken away utterly from the Star that did enlighten them,
and they are Vampires, obsessing them that adventure themselves into
the Astral World without Magical Protection, or invoke them, as do the
Spiritists. For by Death is Man released only from the Gross Body, at
the first, and is complete otherwise upon the Astral Plane, as he was
in his Life. But this Wholeness suffereth Stress, and its Girders are
loosened, the weaker first and after that the stronger.
DE ADEPTIS R. C. ESCATOLOGIA. (On the Eschatology of the R. C. Adepts)
Consider now in this Light what shall come to the Adept, to him that
hath aspired constantly and firmly to his Star, attuning the Mind unto
the Musick of its Will. In him, if his Mind be knit perfectly together
in itself, and conjoined with the Star, is so strong a Confection that
it breaketh away easily not only from the Gross Body, but the fine. It
is this Fine Body which bindeth it to the Astral, as did the Gross to
the Material World so then it accomplisheth willingly the Sacrament of
a second Death and leaveth the Body of Light. But the Mind, cleaveth
closely, by Right of its Harmony, and Might of its Love, to its Star,
resisteth the Ministers of Disruption, for a Season, according to its
Strength. Now, if this Star be of those that are bound by the Great
Oath, incarnating without Remission because of Delight in the Cosmic
Sacrament, it seeketh a new Vehicle in the appointed Way, and
indwelleth the Foetus of a Child, and quickeneth it. And if at this
Time the mind of its Former Tabernacle yet cling to it, then is there
Continuity of Character, and it may be Memory between the two Vehicles.
This is, briefly and without Elaboration, the Way of Asar in Amenti,
according to mine Opinion, of which I say not: This is the Truth.
DE NUPTIIS SUMMIS. (On the Supreme Marriage)
Now then to this Doctrine, o my Son, add thou that which thou hast
learned in the Book of the Law, that Death is the Dissolution in the
Kiss of Our Lady Nuit. This is a true Consonance as of Bass with
Treble; for here is the Impulse that setteth us to Magick, the Pain of
the Conscious Mind. Having then Wit to find the Cause of this Pain in
the Sense of Separation, and its Cessation by the Union of Love, it is
the Summit of our Holy Art to present the whole Being of our Star to
Our Lady in the Nuptial of our Bodily Death. We are then to make our
whole Engine the true and real Appurtenance of our Force, without Leak,
or Friction, or any other Waste or Hindrance to its Action. Thou
knowest well how an Horse, or even a Machine propelled by a Man's feet,
becometh as it were as Extension of the Rider, though his Skill and
Custom. Thus let thy Star have profit of thy Vehicle, assimilating it,
and sustaining it, so that it be healed of its Separation, and this
even in Life, but most especially in Death. Also thou oughtest to
increase thy Vehicle in Mass by true Growth in Balance, that thou be a
Bridegroom comely and well- favoured, a Man of Might, and a Warrior
worthy of the Bed of so divine a Dissolution.
DE ARTE VOLUPTATE DILEMMA QUAEDAM. (On a Certain Problem in the Art of
Pleasure)
There is a certain Objection, o my Son, to our Thesis concerning Will
that it should flow freely in its Way; vide licet, that for such as I
am it is well, because I am endowed by Nature with a Lust insatiable in
every Kind, so that the Universe itself seemeth incapable to appease
it. For I have poured myself out unceasingly, in Bodily Passion, and in
Battles with Men, and with Wild Beasts, and with Mountains and Deserts,
and in Poetry and other Writings of the Musick of mine Imagination, and
in Books of our own Mysteries, and in Works Magical, and in Arts
Plastic, and so forth, so that in mine Age I am become verily a Slave
to mine own Genius; and my Law is that unless I sleep or create, my
Soul is sick, and fain to claim the Reward and the Recreation of my
Death. But (I hear thee say it) this is not the Case of All, or even of
many Men; but their Ort of Will is satisfied easily at its first
Guerdon. Should not then their Wisdom be to resist themselves for a
Space, as Water heaped up by a Dam gathereth Force, and Hunger feedeth
upon Abstinence? Also, there is that which I have written in a former
Chapter of the right Use of Discipline; and thirdly, this Free Flowing
is without Subtility of Art, as it were an Harlot that plucketh Men by
the Sleeve.
DE HOC MODO DISSOLUTIO. (On Unraveling of this Knot)
Here therefore will I write down the Answer to this Indictment of our
Wisdom; that every Act of Will is to be made in its Perfection, which
State is to be attained according to these Conditions: first, those of
its own Law; second, those of its Environment. Judge thine own Case
individually, each as it pleadeth; for there is no Canon or Code, since
every Star hath its own Law diverse from every other. Now there is the
Restraint of Conflict which is Impotence and Disruption; but the
Restraint of Discipline is a Fortification of the Will by Repose and by
Preparation, as a Conqueror resteth his Armies, and feedeth them, and
looketh to their Furniture and to their Spirit, before he joineth the
Battle. Also, there is the Restraint of Art, which
includeth that other of Discipline, and its Nature is to adorn the Will
and to admire its Strength and its Beauty, and to enjoy its Victory by
Anticipation in full Confidence, not fearful of Time that robbeth them
that are ignorant concerning him, how he is but Mirage and Illusion,
incapable to besiege the Fortress of the Soul. Work thou thy Will (as I
said aforetime by the Mouth of Eliphas Levi Zahed,) knowing thyself
Omnipotent, and thine Habitation Eternity. O my Son, attend well this
Word, for it is an Heirloom, and a Ring of Ruby and Emerald in thine
Inheritance.
DE COMEDIA, QUAE DICTUR. (On the Comedy which is Called Pan)
Subtler than the Serpent of Hermes, o my Son, is this Way of Restraint
of Art, and thou shalt meet therein with the God Pan, and have him to
thy Playmate. So shalt thou devise Comedy and Tragedy, as it were
Settings for the Jewel of thy Will, to enhance the Beauty thereof, and
to refine thy Pleasures. This is that which is written in "The Book of
the Law": "... Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy.
Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight
and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou
do aught joyous, let there be subtlety herein! But exceed! exceed!"
Thus thou mayst even toy with thy tamed Devil of Sin, and use the Pain
thereof to sharpen the taste of thy Meat, being Adult, and thy Tongue
keen to the Olive, and cloyed by the Sweet, while a Child is opposite
to his in his Preference; or as a skilled Match of Love aboundeth in
Pinchings, Slappings, Bitings and the like, to intensify the Bout and
to prolong it. But this is Risk and Peril unless thou be wholly Master,
one in thy Will; for there is Poison in these dead Snakes, to destroy
thee if thou lend them of thy Life by so little as one Doubt of
thyself, as a Seed of Division.
DE LUDO AMORIS. (On the Game of Love)
In this Mystery of the Restraint of Art is also the Secret of Illusion.
Why, sayest thou, hath not Our Lady Nuit her Will of Her Lord Hadit,
and He of Her, and so all ended? But this is the Play of Her Love, that
She veileth Her Beauty in he Robe of Illusion many-coloured, and
evadeth Him in Sport, yea, and divorceth Him from the Embrace, weaving
new Modesties and allurements in Her Dance. Now, o my Son, the full
Comprehension of this Arcanum is the Fruit of Contemplation, if this be
prepared by the Experience of this Art in thine own Case. But to them
that understand not, and have Grief of Separation, being deceived by
this Play so that they deem it the Division of Hate, She can but speak
in Simplicity by that Word written in the Book of the Law: "To me!" For
until thou love, the Play of Love is but Emptiness; and its cruelty is
Cruelty indeed, except thou know it to be but a Sauce to whet Appetite,
and to give Emphasis of Contrast, as a Painter limneth the Light by
Cunning of his Shadows. But all this Delight that thou mayst have of
the Universe both in its Veils and in its Nakedness is a Reward of
thine Attainment of Truth, and followeth after it. Nor canst thou
comprehend this Doctrine by Mind, for the Division in thee crieth aloud
in its Agony, denying it, unless thou be wholly Initiate.
DE GAUDIO STUPRI. (On the Pleasures of Debauchery)
O my Son, this Sin itself that is our Disease is but Misunderstanding
of the Art of Love of Our Lady Nuit. Yea, verily, it is all a Trick of
Her Wit, and a Device of Her Delight, that Sin should appear, and also
(mark thou well!) the Misapprehension of its Nature. Therefore the Pain
of any Sinner in his Division and His Separation is to Her a little
Spasm of Pleasure. But as for him, let him apprehend this Doctrine, and
dissolve himself in Her Love. Thou then, being Initiate and Illuminated
in this Truth, mayst accept thine own Sorrow, or rather that of thy
Vehicle, as Lackey to the Joy hat thou hast in thy True Self, the Star
among the Stars of Her Body. The Adept of our Art is not compassionate
concerning Sin, in his own Vehicle or another's, unless the Healing
thereof were proper to his Will, for he is aware of the whole Truth of
the Matter. So goeth he upon his Way, and tighteneth not a Rein upon
the Horses of the Universe, but is content, beholding the Speed of
their Course. Verily, o my Son, it is well written in the Book of the
Magus that it is the Curse of my Grade that I must needs preach my Law
unto Men. For I am afflicted in my Tabernacle on this Count, but in my
Self, I rejoice, and join in the Laughter of Her love.
DE CAECITIA PHILOSOPHORUM ANTIQUORUM. (On the Blindness of the Ancient
Philosophers)
Behold, how comfortable is this my Wisdom, wherein I have resolved
every Conflict soever that is or that can be, even in all dimensions,
that Antagonism of Things no less than their Limitations. I have said:
Evil be thou my Good; for it is the Magical Mirror of Our Astarte, and
the Caduceus of our Hermes. Now this was the Error of Elder
Philosophers, that perceiving Changeful Duality as the Cause of Sorrow,
they sought the Reconcilement in Unity and in Stability. But I shew
thee the Universe as the Body of Our Lady Nuit, who is None and Two,
with Hadit Her Lord as the Alternator of those Phases. This Universe is
then a perpetual By- coming, the Vessel of every Permutation of
Infinity, wherein every Phenomenon is a Sacrament, Change being the act
of Love, and Duality the Condition prodromal to that Act even as an Axe
must be taken back from a Cedar that it may deliver its Stroke. The
Error herefore of thee Philosophers lay in their false Assumption that
Bliss, Knowledge and Being (the Qualities of their Changeless Unity)
could be States. O my Son, how pitiful is their Beggary, these Paupers
of Sense and of Experience and of Observation! The Emptiness of their
Bellies was it that bred Phantoms of Ideal, so that they sought Joy by
a crude Denial of what Truth (or rather, Fact) they had perceived
concerning the Universe, so that they set up an Idol of Death for their
God, in very Rage of Hatred against the Sum of their own Selves.
DE HERESIA MANICHAEA. (On the Manichean Heresy)
These Philosophers, or shall I not say Misosophers and Pseudo-Sophists,
have been hard put to it to explain the Mystery of the Existence of
their Evil. They have cried, frothing with Words, that Evil is
Illusion. But if so, that Illusion is Evil, whence came it, and to what
End? If their Devil created it, who created that Devil? All their
contention resolveth to this Dilemma of Change in a Changeless, Falsity
in a True, Hate in a Loving, Weakness in an Almighty, Duality
in a Simple, Being as they define their God. Nor do they see that they
restrict their God (whom yet they would have to be All) by admitting
Opposites to this Nature, ever when they sum these Opposites as
Illusion, since Illusion is the Denial of His Truth. But the Indians,
seeing this, seek Escape by denying all Duality soever to their God, or
True State, I speak of Parabrahaman and of Nibbana, thus in any Reality
of Thought rather denying Him or It than destroying Illusion. But in
our Light we have no Need of any Denial, and accept All, yea Illusion
itself, discriminating only in our Minds between Phenomena by
Comparison with some convenient Standard, for the Purpose of
maintaining the Order of our Conceptions in Respect of the Relation of
any Being with its Environment.
DE VERITATE RERUM. (On the Truth of Things)
So do thou apprehend this Wisdom, o my Son, laying it to thine Heart,
as a Mistress, and hiding it in the Treasury of thy Mind as a Jewel of
Enlightenment. Consider a Dream, how it is unreal in Respect of thine
Experience of the Objects of thy Waking Sense, but real also, both as
it did in Fact impress thy Mind, and as it did express some Hunger of
thy Secret Nature, as I have already shewed in this Letter. Consider
the Play of the Chess, how its Law hath made for itself a Language and
a Literature, yet it is but an arbitrary invention; without impinging
(save as it operateth though Pleasure and interest upon Minds) on any
other Sphere soever of the Universe. Equally, Things called (vulgarly)
Real and Material exist in the Universe of our Consciousness only by he
Apprehension of their Images in mind through Sense; as, how is Colour
Real or Material to a blind may or a Law mathematical true to a man
that is imbecile or demented? All things therefore exist in one form or
another; but the Reality of any, though in itself absolute, is in
regard of its Relation with any other thing dependent upon the
Intercourse and Language between them, conscious or unconscious.
Consider Azote, that hath nigh Four Parts in Five of the Air, how it is
not real to the Perception of any human Sense, but yet most real to our
Lungs, diluting the Oxygen, by whose Love we were else violently
combust. This is the Measure of Reality.
DE APHORISMO UBI DICO: OMNIA SUNT. (On My Aphorism: All Are)
My son, long did I await thee, yearning, and with Price and Great
Gladness did I bid thee Welcome to my City of the Pyramids, under the
Night of Pan. Now then in my dear Love of thee will I reveal this
Secret of Wisdom which I wrote occultly in my last Chapter, in these
Words: All Things Exist. Considered by right Understanding, this is to
deny that there is anything imaginable or unimaginable which doth not
exist. That is, the Body of Our Lady Nuit hath no Limit, and there is
no void that She filleth not with the Variety and Beauty of Her Stars
in Her Space. Nor is there any one Law of her Nature, but in Her are
all Laws, so that each Thing or each Truth that thou perceiveth is as
it were one Gesture of Her Dance. Shut up the Book of thy Questions, o
my Son, concerning nature, Her Way, Her Origin, or Her Purpose, except
in those Matters which concern thee and thine own Orbit, o thou Star,
begotten of my Loins in my Lust of Hilarion, the Golden Rose, mystic
and Joyous, the Lily of a Thousand Petals and One Petal, subtle and
perverse, that thou mightest fulfil his Work of a Magus which I cam to
accomplish,
robing myself in Flesh of man, as was my Nature and the Will of my
Nature, the Name of my Star that flameth in the Body of Nuit our
Lady.
DE RATIONE HUJUS EPISTOLAE SCRIBENDAE. (On the Reason for Writing this
Letter)
Behold, I draw unto the End of this Discourse of Wisdom, as a Ship that
hath adventured upon Ocean, from whose mast the Watcher espieth in the
Dimness of the Horizon a Point of Snow, being the Peak of a great
Mountain that is Guardian of the Harbour, the Term of that Voyage. So
now do I commit thee wholly unto thyself, for I exist not in thine
Universe, save in my Relation with thee, wherefore this Part of me is
in Truth thou rather than I. Yet do thou treasure this Letter, for it
is mine especial Gift, and hath Radiance of the Light of my Wisdom, and
flameth, being the Blood of my Love of thee and of Mankind. Also, it is
the Word of my Will, the Charter of the Liberty of my Soul, and thine,
and that of every Man, and every Woman; for we are Stars, O my Son, for
many Days was I silent, until thou wast fearful lest thou hadst, by
Ignorance or by Inadvertence, enkindled the Fire of my Wrath. But I
spake not, because I knew in my Wisdom that thou must pass a certain
Ordeal of thine Initiation by thine own Virtue. For this Cause I held
aloof; but in my Love I made a Beginning of this Letter, beholding thy
triumph beforehand; and with Prescience, divining thy next Need, that
is to say, this Book of the Words of my Wisdom.
DE NATURA HUJUS EPISTOLAE. (On the Nature of this Letter)
O my Son, in this Letter have I written the Name of my own Nature, its
Law, its Quality, its Will and its Appurtenance or Ornament. For it is
the Child of my Love toward thee, and the Expression through mine Art
of my Will so far as that regardeth thee. Now every Child is made of
the Essence of his Father, so that every Creation is a Likeness or
image of the Creator, but modified by the Mother that is to say, the
Material whereon he begetteth it. So then this Letter is a Projection
of mine own Star in a Mirror, to wit, mine Idea in thy Regard; and it
shall be unto thee as a clear Vision of thy Father, and of the Word of
the Aeon that he hath uttered unto Man. But also, because this Word is
the Formula of the Aeon, that is the Law of its Changes or Phenomena,
the Equation that expresseth its Energy and its Motion, it shall serve
every Man in his Measure as a Text-Book or Comment upon the Theorick
and Praxis of Magick. By it may he discover his true Nature, and its
Will, and apply his Force and his Intelligence to the Right Fulfilment
thereof. It shall be a beacon to enlighten him, to comfort him, and to
direct him; and it shall be a Witness and Memorial of my Word and of my
Work, as of mine Attainment unto Wisdom.
DE MODO QUO HAEC EPISTOLAM SCRIPSI. (How I wrote this Letter)
There is not one Word in this Letter that is not writ with mine own
Hand and Style, slowly and heedfully (as is contrary with my custom)
being the Fruit of the Tree of my Mediation, well- ripened by the Sun
of mine Illumination. With much Toil have I done this, being oftentimes
seated without Motion save of the Hands, while Earth rolled from
Twilight unto Twilight, so that
my Body became cold and rigid, even as is a Corpse. Also, in the
Intervals of this Scripture, have I been given to Contemplation and to
Works of High Magick, notably the Mass of he Holy Ghost, in the
Concentration of my Will to impart this Wisdom unto thee, and to reveal
the Mysteries of Truth. Now of all these this is the Root, that Truth
is not fixed with the Rigour of Death, but vital with Lust of Change,
and enflamed with the Love of its opposite. Thus even Falsehood is not
alien to Truth, for the Perfection of Nature comprehendeth all. But all
these Things are written in the Book of the Law, after which do I limp
painfully; afar off, upon the poor Crutch of mine Understanding of its
Word; yea, I am well assured that in that Book are writ all Things
soever; but we, being mostly without Wit are not able to distinguish
hem. For the Stature of Aiwass is beyond our Measure, seeing hat he was
able to comprehend the whole Mystery of Nuit and of Hadit, and yet to
declare Their Message in the Language of Man.
DE SAPIENTIA ET STULTITIA. (On Wisdom and Folly)
O my Son, in this the Colophon of my Epistle will I recall he Title and
Superscription thereof; that is, the Book of Wisdom or Folly. I
proclaim Blessing and Worship to Nuit Our Lady and Her Lord Hadit, for
the Miracle of the Anatomy of he Child Ra-Hoor-Khuit, as it is shewn in
the Design Minutum Mundum, the Tree of Life. For though Wisdom be the
Second Emanation of his Essence, there is a Path to separate and to
join them, the Reference thereof being Aleph, that is One indeed, but
also an Hundred and Eleven in his full Orthography; to signify the Most
Holy Trinity, and by Metathesis it is Thick Darkness, and Sudden Death.
This is also the Number of AUM, which is AMOUN, and the Root-Sound of
OMNE, or, in Greek, PAN, and it is a Number of the Sun. Yet is the Atu
of Thoth that correspondeth thereunto marked with ZERO, and its Name is
MAT, whereof I have spoken formerly, and its Image is the Fool. O my
Son, gather thou all these Limbs together in One Body, and brea the upon
it with thy Spirit, that it may live; then do thou embrace it with Lust
of they Manhood, and go in unto it, and know it; so shall ye be One
Flesh. Now at last in the Reinforcement and Ecstasy of this
Consummation thou shalt with by what Inspiration thou didst choose thy
Name in the Gnosis, I mean PARZIVAL, "der reine Thor", the True Knight
that won Kingship in Monsalvat, and made whole the Wound of Amfortas,
and ordered Kundry to right Service, and regained the Lance, and
revived the Miracle of he Sangraal; yea also upon himself did he
accomplish his Work in the End: "Hochsten Heiles Wunder! Erlosung dem
Erloser !" This is the last Word of the Song that thine Uncle Richard
Wagner made for Worship of this Mystery. Understand thou this, o my
son, as I take leave of thee in this Epistle, that the Summit of Wisdom
is the opening of the Way that leadeth unto the Crown and Essence of
all, to the Soul of the Child Horus, the Lord of the Aeon. This Way is
the Path of the Pure Fool. Amoun.
DE ORACULO SUMMO (On the Last Oracle)
And who is this Pure Fool? Lo, in the Sagas of Old Time, Legend of
Scald, of Brad, of Druid, cometh He not in Green Like Spring? O thou
Great Fool, thou Water that art Air, in whom all Complex is resolved!
Yes, thou in ragged Raiment, with the Staff of Priapus and the
Wineskin! thou standest up on the Crocodile, like Hoor-pa-Kraat; and
the Great Cat leapeth upon thee! Yea, and more also I have known Thee
who Thou art, Bacchus Diphues, none and two, in thy Name IAO ! Now at
the End of all do I come to the Being of Thee, beyond By-coming, and I
cry aloud my Word, as it was given unto Man by thine Uncle Alcofribas
Masior, the Oracle of the Bottle of
BACBUC, and this Word is TRINC.
But in the antient right Spelling this is TRINU whereof the Number is
the Number of the Name of Me thy Father! To wit, Six Hundred and Three
Score and Six.
Love is the law, love under will.
666
AN XIV
Sol in Aries
Luna in Aries

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