Liber 150 - De Lege Libellum

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LIBER CL
Book 150
De Lege Libellum
L-n-L-n-L-n-L-n-L
This Epistle first appeared in The Equinox III(1)(Detroit: Universal,
1919).
The quotations are from Liber Legis--The Book of the Law.--H.B.
Preface - THE LAW
I - OF LIBERTY
II - OF LOVE
III - OF LIFE
IV - OF LIGHT
Preface
THE LAW
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
IN RIGHTEOUSNESS OF HEART come hither, and listen: for it is I, TO MEGA
THERION, who gave this Law unto everyone that holdeth himself holy. It
is I, not another, that willeth your whole Freedom, and the arising
within you of full Knowledge and Power.
Behold! the Kingdom of God is within you, even as the Sun standeth
eternal in the heavens, equal at midnight and at noon. He riseth not:
he setteth not: it is but the shadow of the earth which concealeth him,
or the clouds upon her face.
Let me then declare unto you this Mystery of the Law, as it hath been
made known unto me in divers places, upon the mountains and in the
deserts, but also in great cities, which thing I speak for your comfort
and good courage. And so be it unto all of you.
Know first, that from the Law spring four Rays or Emanations: so that
if the Law be the centre of your own being, they must needs fill you
with their secret goodness. And these four are Light, Life, Love, and
Liberty.
By Light shall ye look upon yourselves, and behold All Things that are
in Truth One Thing only, whose name hath been called No Thing for a
cause which later shall be declared unto you. But the substance of
Light is Life, since without Existence and Energy it were naught. By
Life therefore are you made yourselves, eternal and incorruptible,
flaming forth as suns, self-created and self-supported, each the sole
centre of the Universe.
Now by the Light ye beheld, by Love ye feel. There is an ecstacy of
pure Knowledge, and another of pure Love. And this Love is the force
that uniteth things diverse, for the contemplation in Light of their
Oneness. Know that the Universe is not at rest, but in extreme motion
whose sum is Rest. And this understanding that Stability is Change, and
Change Stability, that Being is Becoming, and Becoming Being, is the
Key to the Golden Palace of this Law.
Lastly, by Liberty is the power to direct your course according to your
Will. For the extent of the Universe is without bounds, and ye are free
to make your pleasure as ye will, seeing that the diversity of being is
infinite also. For this also is the Joy of the Law, that no two stars
are alike, and ye must understand also that this Multiplicity is itself
Unity, and without it Unity could not be. And this is an hard saying
against Reason: ye shall comprehend, when, rising above Reason, which
is but a manipulation of the Mind, ye come to pure Knowledge by direct
perception of the Truth.
Know also that these four Emanations of the Law flame forth upon all
paths: ye shall use them not only in these Highways of the Universe
whereof I have written, but in every By-path of your daily life.
Love is the law, love under will.
I
OF LIBERTY
IT IS OF LIBERTY that I would first write unto you, for except ye be
free to act, ye cannot act. Yet all four gifts of the Law must in some
degree be exercised, seeing that these four are one. But for the
Aspirant that cometh unto the Master, the first need is freedom.
The great bond of all bonds is ignorance. How shall a man be free to
act if he know not his own purpose? You must therefore first of all
discover which star of all the stars you are, your relation to the
other stars about you, and your relation to, and identity with, the
Whole.
In our Holy Books are given sundry means of making this discovery, and
each must make it for himself, attaining absolute conviction by direct
experience, not merely reasoning and calculating what is probable. And
to each will come the knowledge of his finite will, whereby one is a
poet, one prophet, one worker in steel, another in jade. But also to
each be the knowledge of his infinite Will, his destiny to perform the
Great Work, the realization of his True Self. Of this Will let me
therefore speak clearly unto all, since it pertaineth unto all.
Understand now that in yourselves is a certain discontent. Analyse well
its nature: at the end is in every case one conclusion. The ill springs
from the belief in two things, the Self and the Not-Self, and the
conflict between them. This also is a restriction of the Will. He who
is sick is in conflict with his own body: he who is poor is at odds
with society: and so for the rest. Ultimately, therefore, the problem
is how to destroy this perception of duality, to attain to the
apprehension of unity.
Now then let us suppose that you have come to the Master, and that He
has declared to you the Way of this attainment. What hindereth you?
Alas! there is yet much Freedom afar off.
Understand clearly this: that if you are sure of your Will, and sure of
your means, then any thoughts or actions which are contrary to those
means are contrary also to that Will.
If therefore the Master should enjoin upon you a Vow of Holy Obedience,
compliance is not a surrender of the Will, but a fulfilment thereof.
For see, what hindereth you? It is either from without or from within,
or both. It may be easy for the strong-minded seeker to put his heel
upon public opinion, or to tear from his heart the objects which he
loves, in a sense: but there will always remain in himself many
discordant affections, as also the bond of habit, and these also must
he conquer.
In our holiest Book it is written: ``Thou hast no right but to do thy
will. Do that, and no other shall say nay.'' Write it also in your
heart and in your brain: for this is the key of the whole matter.
Here Nature herself be your preacher: for in every phenomenon of force
and motion doth she proclaim aloud this truth. Even in so small a
matter as driving a nail into a plank, hear this same sermon. Your nail
must be hard, smooth, fine-pointed, or it will not move swiftly in the
direction willed. Imagine then a nail of tinder-wood with twenty
points--it is verily no longer a nail. Yet nigh all mankind are like
unto this. They wish a dozen different careers; and the force which
might have been sufficient to attain eminence in one is wasted on the
others: they are null.
Here then let me make oen confession, and say thus: though I pledged
myself almost in boyhood to the Great Work, though to my aid came the
most puissant forces in the whole Universe to hold me to it, though
habit itself now constraineth me in the right direction, yet I have not
fulfilled my Will: I turn aside daily from the appointed task. I waver.
I falter. I lag.
Let this then be of great comfort to you all, that if I be so
imperfect--and for very shame I have not emphasized that
imperfection--if I, the chosen one, still fail, then how easy for
yourselves to surpass me! Or, should you only equal me, then even so
how great attainment should be yours!
Be of good cheer, therefore, since both my failure and my success are
arguments of courage for yourselves.
Search yourselves cunningly, I pray you, analysing your inmost
thoughts. And first you shall discard all those gross obvious
hindrances to your Will: idleness, foolish friendships, waste
employments or enjoyments, I will not enumerate the conspirators
against the welfare of your State.
Next, find the minimum of daily time which is in good sooth necessary
to your natural life. The rest you shall devote to the True Means of
your Attainment. And even these necessary hours you shall consecrate to
the Great Work, saying consciously always while at these Tasks that you
perform them only in order to preserve your body and mind in health for
the right application to that sublime and single Object.
It shall not be very long before you come to understand that such a
life is the true Liberty. You will feel distractions from your Will as
being what they are. They will no longer appear pleasant and
attractive, but as bonds, as shames. And when you have attained this
point, know that you have passed the Middle Gate of this Path. For you
will have unified your Will.
Even thus, were a man sitting in a theatre where the play wearies him,
he would welcome every distraction, and find amusement in any accident:
but if he were intent upon the play, every such incident would annoy
him. His attitude to these is then an indication of his attitude
towards the play itself.
At first the habit of attention is hard to acquire. Persevere, and you
will have spasms of revulsion periodically. Reason itself will attack
you, saying: how can so strict a bondage be the Path of Freedom?
Persevere. You have never yet known Liberty. When the temptations are
overcome, the voice of Reason silenced, then will your soul bound
forward unhampered upon its chosen course, and for the first time will
you experience the extreme delight of being Master of Yourself, and
therefore of the Universe.
When this is fully attained, when you sit securely in the saddle, then
you may enjoy also all those distractions which first pleased you and
then angered you. Now then will do neither any more: for they are your
slaves and toys.
Until you have reached this point, you are not wholly free. You must
kill out desire, and kill out fear. The end of all is the power to live
according to your own nature, without danger that one part may develop
to the detriment of the whole, or concern lest that danger should
arise.
The sot drinks, and is drunken: the coward drinks not, and shivers: the
wise man, brave and free, drinks, and gives glory to the Most High God.
This then is the Law of Liberty: you possess all Liberty in your own
right, but you must buttress Right with Might: you must win Freedom for
yourself in many a war. Woe unto the children who sleep in the Freedom
that their forefa thers won for them!
``There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt:'' but it is only the
greatest of the race who have the strength and courage to obey it.
O man! behold thyself! With what pains wast thou fashioned! What ages
have gone to thy shaping! The history of the planet is woven into the
very substance of thy brain! Was all this for naught? Is there no
purpose in thee? Wast thou made thus that thou shouldst eat, and breed,
and die? Think it not so! Thou dost incorporate so many elements, thou
art the fruit of so many aeons of labour, thou art fashioned thus as
thou art, and not otherwise, for some colossal End.
Nerve thyself, then, to seek it and to do it. Naught can satisfy thee
but the fulfilment of thy transcendent Will, that is hidden within
thee. For this, then, up to arms! Win thine own Freedom for thyself!
Strike hard!
II
OF LOVE
IT IS WRITTEN that ``Love is the law, love under will.'' Herein is an
Arcanum concealed, for in the Greek Language Agaph, Love, is of the
same numerical value as Velhma, Will. By this we understand that the
Universal Will is of the nature of Love.
Now Love is the enkindling in ecstacy of Two that will to become One.
It is thus an Universal formula of High Magick. For see now how all
things, being in sorrow caused by dividuality, must of necessity will
Oneness as their medicine.
Here also is Nature monitor to them that seek Wisdom at her breast: for
in the uniting of elements of opposite polarities is there a glory of
heat, of light, and of electricity. Thus also in mankind do we behold
the spiritual fruit of poetry and all genius, arising from the seed of
what is but an animal gesture, in the estimation of such as are
schooled in Philosophy. And it is to be noted strongly that the most
violent and divine passions are those between peple of utterly
unharmonious natures.
But now I would have you to know that in the mind are no such
limitations in respect of species as prevent a man falling in love with
an inanimate object, or an idea. For to him that is in any wise
advanced upon the Way of Meditation it appears that all objects save
the One Object are distasteful, even as appeared formerly in respect of
his chance wishes to the Will. So therefore all objects must be grasped
by the mind, and heated in the sevenfold furnace of Love, until with
explosion of ecstacy they unite, and disappear, for they, being
imperfect, are destroyed utterly in the creation of the Perfection of
Union, even as the persons of the Lover and the Beloved are fused into
the spiritual gold of Love, which knoweth no person, but comprehendeth
all.
Yet since each star is but one star, and the coming together of any two
is but one partial rapture, so must the aspirant to our holy Science
and Art increase constantly by this method of assimilating ideas, that
in the end, become capable of apprehending the Universe in one thought,
he may leap forth upon It with the massed violence of his Self, and
destroying both these, become that Unity whose name is No Thing. Seek
ye all therefore constantly to unite yourselves in rapture with each
and every thing that is, and that by utmost passion and lust of Union.
To this end take chiefly all such things as are naturally repulsive.
For what is pleasant is assimilated easily and without ecstacy: it is
in the transfiguration of the loathsome and abhorred into The Beloved
that the Self is shaken to the root in Love.
Thus in human love also we see that mediocrities among men mate with
null women: but History teacheth us that the supreme masters of the
world seek ever the vilest and most horrible creatures for their
concubines, overstepping even the limiting laws of sex and species in
their necessity to transcend normality. It is not enough in such
natures to excite lust or passion: the imagination itself must be
enflamed by every means.
For us, then, emancipated from all base law, what shall we do to
satisfy our Will to Unity? No less a mistress than the Universe: no
lupanar more cramped than Infinite Space: no night of rape that is not
co-eval with Eternity!
Consider that as Love is mighty to bring forth all Ecstacy, so absence
of Love is the greatest craving. Whoso is balked in Love suffereth
indeed, but he that hath not actively that passion in his heart towards
some object is weary with the ache of craving. And this state is called
mystically ``Dryness.'' For this there is, as I believe, no cure but
patient persistence in a Rule of life.
But this Dryness hath its virtue, in that thereby the soul is purged of
those things that impeach the Will: for when the drouth is altoge ther
perfect, then is it certain that by no means can the Soul be satisfied,
save by the Accomplishment of the Great Work. And this is in strong
souls a stimulus to the Will. It is the Furnace of Thirst that burneth
up all dross within us.
But to each act of Will is a particular Dryness corresponding: and as
Love increaseth within you, so doth the torment of His absence. Be this
also unto you for a consolation in the ordeal! Moreover, the more
fierce the plague of impotence, the more swiftly and suddenly is it
wont to abate.
Here is the method of Love in Meditation. Let the Aspirant first
practice and then discipline himself in the Art of fixing the attention
upon any thing whatsoever at will, without permitting the least
imaginable distraction.
Let him also practice the art of the Analysis of Ideas, and that of
refusing to allow the mind its natural reaction to them, pleasant or
unpleasant, thus fixing himself in Simplicity and Indifference. These
things being achieved in their ripe season, be it known to you that all
ideas will have become equal to your apprehension, since each is simple
and each indifferent: any one of them remaining in the mind at Will
without stirring or striving, or tending to pass on to any other. But
each idea will possess one special quality common to all: this, that no
one of any of them is The Self, inasmuch as it is perceived by The Self
as Something Opposite.
When this is thorough and profound in the impact of its realization,
then is the moment for the aspirant to direct his Will to Love upon it,
so that his whole consciousness findeth focus upon that One Idea. And
at the first it may be fixed and dead, or lightly held. This may then
pass into dryness, or into repulsion. Then at last by pure persistence
in that Act of Will to Love, shall Love himself arise, as a bird, as a
flame, as a song, and the whole Soul shall wing a fiery path of music
unto the Ultimate Heaven of Possession.
Now in this method there are many roads and ways, some simple and
direct, some hidden and mysterious, even as it is with human love
whereof no man hath made so much as the first sketches for a Map: for
Love is infinite in diversity even as are the Stars. For this cause do
I leave Love himself master in the heart of every one of you: for he
shall teach you rightly if you but serve him with diligence and
devotion even to abandonment.
Nor shall you take umbrage or surprise at the strange pranks that he
shall play: for He is a wayward boy and wanton, wise in the Wiles of
Aphrodite Our Lady His sweet Mother and all His jests and cruelties
are spices in a confection cunning as no art may match.
Rejoice therefore in all His play, not remitting in any wise your own
ardour, but glowing with the sting of His whips, and making of Laughter
itself a sacrament adjuvant to Love, even as in the Wine of Rheims is
sparkle and bite, like as they were ministers to the High Priest of its
Intoxication.
It is also fit that I write to you of the importance of Purity in Love.
Now this matter concerneth not in any wise the object or the method of
the practice: the one thing essential is that no alien element should
intrude. And this is of most particular pertinence to the aspirant in
that primary and mundane aspect of his work wherein he establisheth
himself in the method through his natural affections.
For know, that all things are masks or symbols of the One Truth, and
nature serveth alway to point out the higher perfection under the veil
of the lower perfection. So then all the Art and Craft of human love
shall serve you as an hieroglyphic: for it is written that That which
is above is like that which is below: and That which is below is like
that which is above.
Therefore also doth it behoove you to take well heed lest in any manner
you fail in this business of purity. For though each act is to be
complete on its own plane, and no influence of any other plane is to be
brought in for interference or admixture, for that such is all
impurity, yet each act should in itself be so complete and perfect that
it is a mirror of the perfection of every other plane, and thereby
becometh partaker of the pure Light of the highest. Also, since all
acts are to be acts of Will in Freedom on every plane, all planes are
in reality but one: and thus the lowest expression of any function of
that Will is to be at the same time an expression of the highest Will,
or only true Will, which is that already implied in the acceptance of
the Law.
Be it also well understood of you that it is not necessary or right to
shut off natural activity of any kind, as certain false folk, eunuchs
of the spirit, most foully teach, to the destruction of many. For in
every thing soever inhereth its own perfection prper to it, and to
neglect the full operation and function of any one part bringeth
distortion and degeneration to the whole. Act therefore in all ways,
but transforming the effect of all these ways to the One Way of the
Will. And this is possible, because all ways are in actual Truth One
Way, the Universe being itself One and One Only, and its appearance as
Multiplicity that cardinal illusion which it is the very object of Love
to dissipate.
In the achievement of Love are two principles, that of mastering and
that of yielding. But the nature of these is hard to explain, for they
are subtle, and are best taught by Love Himself in the course of the
operations. But it is to be said generally that the choice of one
formula or the other is automatic, being the work of that inmost Will
which is alive within you. Seek not then to determine consciously this
decision, for herein true instinct is not liable to err.
But now I end, without further words: for in our Holy Books are written
many details of the actual practices of Love. And those are the best
and truest which are most subtly written in symbol and image,
especially in Tragedy and Comedy, for the whole nature of these things
is in this kind, Life itself being but the fruit of the flower of Love.
It is then of Life that I must needs now write to you, seeing that by
every act of Will in Love you are creating it, a quintessence more
mysterious and joyous than you deem, for this which men call life is
but a shadow of that true Life, your birthright, and the gift of the
Law of Thelema.
III
OF LIFE
SYSTOLE AND DIASTOLE: these are the phases of all component things. Of
such also is the life of man. Its curve arises from the latency of the
fertilized ovum, say you, to a zenith whence it declines to the nullity
of death? Rightly considered, this is not wholly truth. The life of man
is but one segment of a serpentine curve which reaches out to infinity,
and its zeros but mark the changes from the plus to minus, and minus to
plus, coefficients of its equation. It is for this cause, among many
others, that wise men in old time chose the Serpent as the Hieroglyph
of Life.
Life then is indestructible as all else is. All destruction and
construction are changes in the nature of Love, as I have written to
you in the former chapter proximate. Yet even as the blood in one
pulse-throb of the wrist is not the same blood as that in the next, so
individuality is in part destroyed as each life passeth; nay, even with
each thought.
What then maketh man, if he dieth and is reborn a changeling with each
breath? This: the consciousness of continuity given by memory, the
conception of his Self as something whose existence, far from being
threatened by these changes, is in verity assured by them. Let then the
aspirant to the sacred Wisdom consider his Self no more as one segment
of the Serpent, but as the whole. Let him extend his consciousness to
regard both birth and death as incidents trivial as systole and
diastole of the heart itself, and necessary as they to its function.
To fix the mind in this apprehension of Life, two modes are preferred,
as preliminary to the greater realizations to be discussed in their
prper order, experiences which transcend even those attainments of
Liberty and Love of which I have hitherto written, and this of Life
which I now inscribe in this my little book which I am making for you
so that you may come unto the Great Fulfilment.
The first mode is the acquisition of the Magical Memory so-called, and
the means is described with accuracy and clearness in certain of our
Holy Books. But for nearly all men this is found to be a practice of
exceeding difficulty. Let then the aspirant follow the impulse of his
own Will in the decision to choose this or no.
The second mode is easy, agreeable, not tedious, and in the end as
certain as the other. But as the way of error in the former lieth in
Discouragement, so in the latter are you to be ware of False Paths. I
may say indeed generally of all Works, that there are two dangers, the
obstacle of Failure, and the snare of Success.
Now this second mode is to dissociate the beings which make up your
life. Firstly, because it is easiest, you should segregate that Form
which is called the Body of Light (and also by many other names) and
set yourself to travel in this Form, making systematic exploration of
those worlds which are to other material things what your own Body of
Light is to your own material form.
Now it will occur to you in these travels that you come to many Gates
which you are not able to pass. This is because your Body of Light is
itself as yet not strong enough, or subtle enough, or pure enough: and
you must then learn to dissociate the elements of that Body by a
process similar to the first, your consciousness remaining in the
higher and leaving the lower. In this practice do you continue, bending
your Will like a great Bow to drive the Arrow of your consciousness
through heavens ever higher and holier. But the continuance in this Way
is itself of vital value: for it shall be that presently habit herself
shall persuade you that the body which is born and dieth within so
little a space as one cycle of Neptune in the Zodiac is no essential of
your Self, that the Life of which you are become partaker, while itself
subject to the Law of action and reaction, ebb and flow, systole and
diastole, is yet insensible to the afflictions of that life which you
formerly held to be your sole bond with Existence.
And here must you resolve your Self to make the mightiest endeavours:
for so flowered are the meadows of this Eden, and so sweet the fruit of
its orchards, that you will love to linger among them, and to take
delight in sloth and dalliance therein. Therefore I write to you with
energy that you should not do thus to the hindrance of your true
progress, because all these enjoyments are dependent upon duality, so
that their true name is Sorrow of Illusion, like that of the normal
life of man, which you have set out to transcend.
Be it according to your Will, but learn this, that (as it is written)
they only are happy who have desired the unattainable. It is then best,
ultimately, if it be your Will to find alway your chiefest pleasure in
Love, that is, in Conquest, and in Death, that is, in Surrender, as I
have written to you already. Thus then you shall delight in these
delights aforesaid, but only as toys, holding your manhood firm and
keen to pierce to deeper and holier ecstacies without arrest of Will.
Furthermore, I would have you to know that in this practice, pursued
with ardour unquenchable, is this especial grace, that you will come as
it were by fortune into states which transcend the practice itself,
being of the nature of those Works of Pure Light of which I will to
write to you in the chapter following after this. For there be certain
Gates which no being who is still conscious of dividuality, that is, of
the Self and not-Self as opposites, may pass through: and in the
storming of those Gates by fiery assault of lust celestial, your flame
will burn vehemently against your gross Self, though it be already
divine beyond your present imagining, and devour it in a mystical
death, so that in the Passing of the Gate all is dissolved in formless
Light of Unity.
Now then, returning from these states of being, and in the return also
there is a Mystery of Joy, you will be weaned from the Milk of Darkness
of the Moon, and made partaker of the Sacrament of Wine that is the
blood of the Sun. Yet at the first there may be shock and conflict, for
the old thought persists by force of its habit: it is for you to create
by repeated act the true right habit of this consciousness of the Life
which abideth in Light. And this is easy, if your will be strong: for
the true Life is so much more vivid and quintessential than the false
that (as I rudely estimate) one hour of the former makes an impression
on the memory equal to one year of the latter. One single experience,
in duration it may be but a few seconds of terrestrial time, is
sufficient to destroy the belief in the reality of our vain life on
earth: but this wears gradually away if the consciousness, through
shock or fear, adhere not to it, and the Will strive not continually to
repetition of that bliss, more beautiful and terrible than death, which
it hath won by virtue of Love.
There be moreover many other modes of attaining the apprehension of
true Life, and these two following are of much value in breaking up the
ice of your mortal error in the vision of your being. And of these the
first is the constant contemplation of the Identity of Love and Death,
and the understanding of the dissolution of the body as an Act of Love
done upon the Body of the Universe, as also it is written at length in
our Holy Books. And with this goeth, as it were sister with twin
brother, the practice of mortal love as a sacrament symbolical of that
great Death: as it is written ``Kill thyself'': and again ``Die
daily.''
And the second of these lesser modes is the practice of the mental
apprehension and analysis of ideas, mainly as I have already taught
you, but with especial emphasis in choice of things naturally
repulsive, in particular, death itself, and its phenomena ancillary.
Thus the Buddha bade his disciples to meditate upon Ten Impurities,
that is, upon ten cases of death of decomposition, so that the
Aspirant, identifying himself with his own corpse in all these imagined
forms, might lose the natural horror, loathing, fear or disgust which
he might have had for them. Know this, that every idea of every sort
becomes unreal, phantastic, and most manifest illusion, if it be
subjected to persistent investigation, with concentration. And this is
particularly easy to attain in the case of all bodily impressions,
because all material things, and especially those of which we are first
conscious, namely, our own bodies, are the grossest and most unnatural
of all falsities. For there is in us all, latent, that Light wherein no
error may endure, and It already teaches our instinct to reject first
of all those veils which are most closely wrapt about It. Thus also in
meditation it is (for many men) most profitable to concentrate the Will
to Love upon the sacred centres of nervous force: for they, like all
things, are apt images or true reflexions of their semblables in finer
spheres: so that, their gross natures being dissipated by the
dissolving acid of the Meditation, their finer souls appear (so to
speak) naked, and display their force and glory in the consciousness of
the aspirant.
Yea, verily, let your Will to Love burn eagerly toward this creation in
yourselves of the true Life that rolls its waves across the shoreless
sea of Time! Live not your petty lives in fear of the hours! The Moon
and Sun and Stars by which ye measure Time are themselves but servants
of that Life which pulses in you, joyous drum-beat as you march
triumphant through the Avenue of the Ages. Then, when each birth and
death of yours are recognized in this perception as mere milestones on
your ever-living Road, what of the foolish incidents of your mean
lives? Are they not grains of sand blown by the desert wind, or pebbles
that you spurn with your winged feet, or grassy hollows were you press
the yielding and elastic turf and moss with lyrical dances? To him who
lives in Life naught matters: his is eternal motion, energy, delight of
never-failing Change: unwearied, you pass on from aeon to aeon, from
star to star, the Universe your playground, its infinite variety of
sport ever old and ever new. All those ideas which bred sorrow and fear
are known in their truth, and thus become the seed of joy: for you are
certain beyond all proof that you can never die; that, though you
change, change is part of your own nature: the Great Enemy is become
the Great Ally.
And now, rooted in this perfection, your Self become the very Tree of
Life, you have a fulcrum for your lever: you are ready to understand
that this pulsation of Unity is itself Duality, and therefore, in the
highest and most sacred sense, still Sorrow and Illusion; which having
comprehended, aspire yet again, even unto the Fourth of the Gifts of
the Law, unto the End of the Path, even unto Light.
IV
OF LIGHT
I PRAY YOU, be patient with me in that which I shall write concerning
Light: for here is a difficulty, ever increasing, in the use of words.
Moreover, I am myself carried away constantly and overwhelmed by the
sublimity of this matter, so that plain speech may whirl into lyric,
when I would plod peaceably with didactic, expression. My best hope is
that you may understand by virtue of the sympathy of your intuition,
even as two lovers may converse in language as unintelligible to others
as it seemeth silly, wanton, and dull, or as in that other intoxication
given by Ether the partakers commune with infinite wit, or wisdom, as
the mood taketh them, by means of a word or a gesture, being initiated
to apprehension by the subtlety of the drug. So may I that am inflamed
with love of this Light, and drunken on the wine Ethereal of this
Light, communicate not so much with your reason and intelligence, but
with that principle hidden in yourself which is ready to partake with
me. Even so may man and woman become mad with love, no word being
spoken between them, because of the induction (as it were) of their
souls. And your understanding will depend upon your ripeness for
perception of my Truth. Moreover, if so be that Light in you be ready
to break forth, then Light will interpret to you these dark words in
the language of Light, even as a string inanimate, duly adjusted, will
vibrate to its peculiar tone, struck on another cord. Read, therefore,
not only with the eye and brain, but with the rhythm of the Life which
you have attained by your Will to Love quickened to dancing measure by
these words, which are the movements of the wand of my Will to Love,
and so to enkindle your Life to Light.
In this mood did I interrupt myself in the writing of this my little
book, and for two days and nights sleeplessly have I made
consideration, wrestling vehemently with my spirit, lest by haste or
carelessness I might fail toward you.
In exercise of Will and of Love are implied motion and change, but in
Life is gained an Unity which moveth and changeth only in pulse or in
phase, and is even as music. Yet in the attainment of this Life you
will already have experienced that the Quintessence thereof is pure
Light, an ecstacy formless, and without bound or mark. In this Light
naught exists, for It is homogeneous: and therefore have men called it
Silence, and Darkness, and Nothing. But in this, as in all other effort
to name it, is the root of every falsity and misapprehension, since all
words imply some duality. Therefore, though I call it Light, it is not
Light, nor absence of Light. Many also have sought to describe it by
contradictions, since through transcendent negation of all speech it
may by some natures be attained. Also by images and symbols have men
striven to express it: but always in vain. Yet those that were ready to
apprehend the nature of this Light have understood by sympathy: and so
shall it be with you who read this little book, loving it. However, be
it known unto you that the best of all instruction on this matter, and
the Word best suited to the Aeon of Horus, is written in The Book of
the Law. Yet also the Book Ararita is right worthy in the Work of the
Light, as Trigrammaton in that of Will, Cordis Cincti Serpente in the
Way of Love, and Liberi in that of Life. All these Books also concern
all these Four Gifts, for in the end you will see that every one is
inseparable from every other.
I wish to write to you with regard to the number 93, the number of
Velhma. For it is not only the number of its interpretation Agaph, but
also that of a Word unknown to you unless you be Neophyte of our Holy
Order of the A...A... which word representeth in itself the arising of
the Speech from the Silence, and the return thereunto in the End. Now
this number 93 is thrice 31, which is in Hebrew LA, that is to say NOT,
and so it denieth extension in the three dimensions of Space. Also I
would have you to meditate most closely upon the name NU that is 56,
which we are told to divide, add, multiply, and understand. By division
cometh forth 0.12, as if it were written Nuith! Hadith! Ra-
Hoor-Khuith! before the Dyad. By addition ariseth Eleven, the number of
True Magick: and by multiplication Three Hundred, the Number of the
Holy Spirit or Fire, the letter Shin, wherein all things are consumed
utterly. With these considerations, and a full understanding of the
mysteries of the Numbers 666 and 418, you will be armed mightily in
this Way of far flight. But you should also consider all numbers in
their scales. For there is no means of resolution better than this of
pure mathematics, since already therein are gross ideas made fine, and
all is ordered and ready for the Alchemy of the Great Work.
I have already written to you of how, in the Will of Love, Light
ariseth as the secret part of Life. And in the first, the little,
Loves, the attained Life is still personal: later, it becometh
impersonal and universal. Now then is Will arrived, may I say so, at
its magnetic pole, whence the lines of force point alike every way and
no way: and Love also is no more a work, but a state. These qualities
are become part of the Universal Life, which proceedeth infinitely with
the enjoyment of the Will, and of Love as inherent therein. These
things therefore, in their perfection, have lost their names, and their
natures. Yet these were the Substance of Life, its Father and Mother
and without their operation and impact Life itself will gradually cease
its pulsations. But since the infinite energy of the whole Universe is
therein, what then is possible but that it return to its own First
Intention, dissolving itself little by little into that Light which is
its most secret and most subtle Nature?
For this Universe is in Truth Zero, being an equation whereof Zero is
the sum. Whereof this is the proof, that if not, it would be
unbalanced, and something would have come from Nothing, which is
absurd. This Light or Nothing is then the Resultant or Totality thereof
in pure Perfection; and all other states, positive or negative, are
imperfect, since they omit their opposites.
Yet, I would have you consider that this equality or identity of
equation between all things and No thing is most absolute, so that you
will remain no more in the one than you did in the other. And you will
understand this greatest Mystery very easily in the light of those
other experiences which you will have enjoyed, wherein motion and rest,
change and stability, and many other subtle opposites, have been
redeemed to identity by the force of your holy meditation.
The greatest gift of the Law, then, cometh forth by the most perfect
practice of the Three Lesser Gifts. And so thoroughly must you travail
in this Work that you are able to pass from one side of the equation to
the other at will: nay, to comprehend the whole at once, and for ever.
This then your time-and-space-bound soul shall travel according to its
nature in its orbit, revealing the Law to them that walk in chains, for
that this is your particular function.
Now here is the Mystery of the Origin of Evil. Firstly, by Evil we mean
that which is in opposition to our own wills: it is therefore a
relative, and not an absolute, term. For everything which is the
greatest evil of some one is the greatest good of some other, just as
the hardness of the wood which wearieth the axeman is the safety of him
that ventureth himself upon the sea in a ship built of that wood. And
this is a truth easy to apprehend, being superficial, and intelligible
to the common mind.
All evil is thus relative, or apparent, or illusory: but, returning to
philosophy, I will repeat that its root is always in duality. Therefore
the escape from this apparent evil is to seek the Unity, which you
shall do as I have already shewn you. But I will now make mention of
that which is written concerning this in The Book of the Law.
The first step being Will, Evil appears as by this definition, ``all
that hinders the execution of the Will.'' Therefore is it written:
``The word of Sin is Restriction.'' It should also be noted that in The
Book of the Thirty Aethyrs {Book 418} Evil appears as Choronzon whose
number is 333, which in Greek importeth Impotence and Idleness: and the
nature of Choronzon is Dispersion and Incoherence.
Then in the Way of Love Evil appears as ``all that which tends to
prevent the Union of any two things.'' Thus The Book of the Law sayeth,
under the figure of the Voice of Nuit: ``take your fill and will of
love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto
me.'' For every act of Love must be ``under will,'' that is, in
accordance with the True Will, which is not to rest content with things
partial and transitory, but to proceed firmly to the End. So also, in
The Book of the Thirty Aethyrs, the Black Brothers are those who shut
themselves up, unwilling to destroy themselves by Love.
Thirdly, in the Way of Life Evil appears under a subtler form as ``all
that which is not impersonal and universal.'' Here The Book of the Law,
by the Voice of Hadit, informeth us: ``In the sphere I am everywhere
the centre''. And again: ``I am Life and the giver of Life'' {....} ``
`Come unto me' is a foolish word: for it is I that go.'' ``For I am
perfect, being Not''. For this Life is in every place and time at once,
so that in It these limitations no longer exist. And you will have seen
this for yourself, that in every act of Love time and space disappear
with the creation of the Life by its virtue, as also doth personality
itself. For the third time, then, in even subtler sense, ``The word of
Sin is Restriction.''
Lastly, in the Way of Light this same versicle is the key to the
conception of Evil. But here Restriction is in the failure to solve the
Great Equation, and, later, to prefer one expression or phase of the
Universe to the other. Against this we are warned in The Book of the
Law by the Word of Nuit, saying: ``None'' {....} ``and two. For I am
divided for love's sake, for the chance of union'', and therefore, ``If
this be not aright: if ye confound the space marks, saying: They are
one: or saying, They are many;'' {....} ``then expect the direful
judgments'' {....}
Now therefore by the favour of Thoth am I come to the end of this my

class: and do you arm yourselves accordingly with the Four Weapons: the
Wand for Liberty, the Cup for Love, the Sword for Life, the Disk for
Light: and with these work all wonders by the Art of High Magick under
the Law of the New Aeon, whose Word is Thelema.

see also :::

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now begins generated list of local instances, definitions, quotes, instances in chapters, wordnet info if available and instances among weblinks

OBJECT INSTANCES [0] - TOPICS - AUTHORS - BOOKS - CHAPTERS - CLASSES - SEE ALSO - SIMILAR TITLES

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AUTH

BOOKS

IN CHAPTERS TITLE

IN CHAPTERS CLASSNAME

IN CHAPTERS TEXT

PRIMARY CLASS

and_do_you_arm_yourselves_accordingly_with_the_Four_Weapons:_the

SIMILAR TITLES

Liber 150 - De Lege Libellum

DEFINITIONS

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IN CHAPTERS [2/2]

2 Occultism

APPENDIX I - Curriculum of A. A., #Liber ABA, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Liber CL. (150) [E] - A Sandal, De Lege Libellum ::: A further explanation of the Book of the Law, with special reference to the Powers and Privileges conferred by its acceptance. Equinox III, part 1, p. 99.
Liber CLVI. (156) [A] - Liber Cheth, vel Vallum Abiegni. ::: A perfect account of the task of the Exempt Adept considered under the symbols of a particular plane, not the intellectual. Equinox VI, p. 23.

Liber, #Liber Null, #Peter J Carroll, #Occultism
@Liber CL. (150) [E] - A Sandal, De Lege Libellum ::: A further explanation of the Book of the Law, with special reference to the Powers and Privileges conferred by its acceptance. Equinox III, part 1, p. 99.
Liber CLVI. (156) [A] - Liber Cheth, vel Vallum Abiegni. ::: A perfect account of the task of the Exempt Adept considered under the symbols of a particular plane, not the intellectual. Equinox VI, p. 23.

WORDNET

IN WEBGEN [10000/0]

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