In the form of an epis­tle of
666 The great wild beast
To his son 777

α
APOLOGIA

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.

For in each Man his Inmost Light is the Core of his Star. That is, Hadit; and his Work is the Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion of him­self with that Light.

It is not every Man who is called to the sub­lime Task of the A∴A∴, where­in he must mas­ter thor­ough­ly every Detail of the Great Work, so 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 Ful­fil­ment 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

β
DE ARTE KABBALISTICA

Do thou study most con­stant­ly, my Son, in the Art of the Holy Qabal­ah. Know that here­in the Rela­tions between Num­bers, though they be mighty in Pow­er and prodi­gal of Knowl­edge, are but less­er Things. For the Work is to reduce all oth­er con­cep­tions to these of Num­ber, because thus thou wilt lay bare the very Struc­ture of thy Mind, whose rule is Neces­si­ty rather than Prej­u­dice. Not until the Uni­verse is thus laid naked before thee canst thou tru­ly anat­o­mize it. The Ten­den­cies of thy Mind lie deep­er far than any Thought, for they are the Con­di­tions and the Laws of Thought; and it is these that thou must bring to Nought.

This Way is most sure; most sacred; and the Ene­mies there­of most awful, most sub­lime. It is for the Great Souls to enter on this Rigour and Aus­ter­i­ty. To them the Gods them­selves do Homage; for it is the Way of Utmost Puri­ty.

 

3

γ
DE VITA CORRIGENDA

Know, son, that the true Prin­ci­ple of Self-Con­trol is Lib­er­ty. For we are born into a World which is in Bondage to Ideals; to them we are per­force fit­ted, even as the Ene­mies to the Bed of Pro­crustes. Each of us, as he grows, learns Repres­sion of him­self and his true Will. “It is a lie, this fol­ly against self”: these Words are writ­ten in The Book of the Law. So there­fore these Pas­sions in our­selves which we under­stand to be Hin­drances are not part of our True Will, but dis­eased Appetites, man­i­fest in us through false ear­ly Train­ing. Thus the Tabus of sav­age Tribes in such mat­ter as Love con­strain that True Love which is born in us; and by this Con­straint come ills of Body and Mind. Either the Force of Repres­sion car­ries it, and cre­ates Neu­roses and Insan­i­ties; or the Revolt against that Force, break­ing forth with Vio­lence, involves Excess­es and Extrav­a­gances. All these Things are Dis­or­ders, and against Nature. Now then learn of me the tes­ti­mo­ny of His­to­ry and lit­er­a­ture as a great Scroll of Learn­ing. But the Vel­lum of the Scroll is of Man’s Skin, and its Ink of his Heart’s Blood.

 

4

δ
LEGENDA DE AMORE

The Fault, that is Fatal­i­ty, in Love, as in every oth­er Form of Will, is Impu­ri­ty. It is not the Spon­tane­ity there-of which wor­keth Woe, but some Repres­sion in the Envi­ron­ment.

In the Fable of Adam and Eve is this great Les­son taught by the Mas­ters of the Holy Qabal­ah. For Love were to them the eter­nal Eden, save for the Repres­sion sig­ni­fied by the Tree of the Knowl­edge of Good and Evil. Thus their Nature of Love was per­fect; it was their Fall from that Inno­cence which drove them from the Gar­den.

In the Love of Romeo and Juli­et was no Flaw; but fam­i­ly Feud, which import­ed noth­ing to that Love, was its Bane; and the Rash­ness and Vio­lence of their Revolt against that Repres­sion, slew them.

In the pure Out­rush of Love in Des­de­mona for Oth­el­lo was no Flaw; but his Love was marred by his con­scious­ness of his Age and his Race, of the Prej­u­dices of his Fel­lows and of his own Expe­ri­ence of Woman-frailty.

 

5

ε
GESTA DE AMORE

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

ϝ
ULTIMA THESIS DE AMORE

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

ζ
DE NATURA SUA PERCIPIENDA

Under­stand, o my Son, in thy Youth, these Words which some wise One, now name­less, spake of old; except ye become as lit­tle Chil­dren ye shall in no wise enter into the King­dom of Heav­en. This is to say that thou must first com­pre­hend thine orig­i­nal Nature in every Point, before thou wast forced to bow before the Gods of Wood and Stone that Men have made, not com­pre­hend­ing the Law of Change, and of Evo­lu­tion Through Vari­a­tion, and the inde­pen­dent Val­ue of every liv­ing Soul.

Learn this also, that even the Will to the Great Work may be mis­un­der­stood of Men; for this Work must pro­ceed nat­u­ral­ly and with­out Over­stress, as all true Works. Right also is that Word that the King­dom of Heav­en suf­fer­eth Vio­lence, and the vio­lent take it by Force. But except thou be vio­lent by Virtue of thy true Nature, how shalt thou take it? Be not as the Ass in the Lion’s Skin; but if thou be born Ass, bear patient­ly thy Bur­dens, and enjoy thy This­tles; for an Ass also, as in the Fables of Apuleius and Matthaiss, may come to Glo­ry in the Path of his own Virtue.

 

8

η
ALTERA DE VIA NATURAE

Sayest thou (methinks) that here is a great Rid­dle, since by Rea­son of much Repres­sion thou hast lost the Knowl­edge of thine orig­i­nal Nature?

My son, this is not so; for by a pecu­liar Ordi­nance of Heav­en, and a Dis­po­si­tion occult with­in his Mine, is every Man pro­tect­ed from this Loss of his own Soul, until and unless be be by Choron­zon dis­in­te­grat­ed and dis­persed beyond pow­er of Will to repair; as when the Con­flict with­in him, rend­ing and burn­ing, hath made his Mind utter­ly desert, and his Soul Mad­ness.

Give Ear, give Ear atten­tive­ly; the Will is not lost; though it be buried beneath a life-old Mid­den of Repres­sions, for it per­sis­teth vital with­in thee (is it not the true Motion of thine inmost Being?) and for all thy con­scious Striv­ing cometh forth by Night and by Stealth in Dream and Phan­ta­sy. Now is it naked and bril­liant, now clothed in rich Robes of Sym­bol and Hiero­glyph; but always trav­el­leth it with thee upon thy Path, ready to acquaint thee with thy true Nature, if thou attend unto its Word, its Ges­ture, or its Show of Imagery.

 

9

θ
QUO MODO NATURA SUA EST LEGENDA

There­fore deem not that thy light­est Fan­cy is insignif­i­cant. Thy most uncon­scious Acts are Keys to the Trea­sure-Cham­ber of thine own Palace, which is the House of the Holy Ghost. Con­sid­er well thy con­scious Thoughts and Acts, for they are under the Domin­ion of thy Will, and moved in Accord with the Oper­a­tion of thy Rea­son; this indeed is a nec­es­sary work, enabling to com­pre­hend in what man­ner thou mayst adjust thy­self to thine Envi­ron­ment. Yet is this Adap­ta­tion but Defence for the most Part, or at the best Sub­terfuge and Strat­a­gem in the Tac­tics of thy Life, with but an acci­den­tal and sub­or­di­nate Rela­tion to thy true Will, where­of by Con­scious­ness and by Rea­son thou mayst be igno­rant, unless by For­tune great and rare thou be already har­mo­nized in thy­self, the Out­er with the Inner, which Grace is not com­mon among Men, and is the Reward of pre­vi­ous Attain­ment.

Neglect not sim­ple Intro­spec­tions, there­fore; but give yet greater Heed unto those Dreams and Phan­tasies, those Ges­tures and Man­ners uncon­scious, and of undis­cov­ered Cause, which beto­ken thee.

 

10

ι
DE SOMNIIS
α  CAUSA PER ACCIDENS

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 Dys­p­nœa, 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

κ
DE SOMNIIS
β CAUSA PER NATURAM

The deep, con­sti­tu­tion­al, or pre­dis­pos­ing Cause of Dreams lieth with­in the Juris­dic­tion of the Will itself. For that Will, being alway present, albeit (it may be) latent, dis­cov­ereth him­self when no longer inhib­it­ed by that con­scious Con­trol which is deter­mined by Envi­ron­ment, and there­fore oft times con­trary to him­self. This being so, the Will declar­eth him­self, as it were in a Pageant, and showeth him­self thus appar­elled, unto the Sleep­er, for a Warn­ing or Admo­ni­tion. Every Dream, or Pageant of Fan­cy, is there­fore a Shew of Will; and Will being no more pre­vent­ed by Envi­ron­ment or by Con­scious­ness, cometh as a Con­queror. Yet even so he must come for the most Part throned upon the Char­i­ot of the excit­ing Cause of the Dream, and there­fore is his Appear­ance sym­bol­ic, like a Writ­ing in Cipher, or like a Fable, or like a Rid­dle in Pic­tures. But alway does he tri­umph and ful­fil him­self there­in, for the Dream is a nat­ur­al Com­pen­sa­tion in the inner World for any Fail­ure of Achieve­ment in the out­er.

 

12

λ
DE SOMNIIS
γ VESTIMENTA HORRORIS

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 Œdi­pus 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.

 

13

μ
DE SOMNIIS
δ SEQUENTIA

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!

 

14

ν
DE SOMNIIS
ε CLAVICULA

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.

 

15

ξ
DE VIA PER EMPYRAEUM

Con­cern­ing they Trav­el­lings in thy Body of Light, or Astral jour­neys and Visions so-called, do thou lay this Wis­dom to thy Heart, o my Son, that in this Prac­tice, whether Things Seen and Heard be Truth and Real­i­ty, or whether they be Phan­toms in the Mind, abideth this Supreme Mag­i­cal Val­ue, name­ly: Where­as the Direc­tion of such Jour­neys is con­scious­ly willed, and deter­mined by Rea­son, and also uncon­scious­ly willed, by the true Self, since with­out It no Invo­ca­tion were pos­si­ble, we have here a Coop­er­a­tion of Alliance between the Inner and the Out­er Self, and thus an Accom­plish­ment, at least par­tial, of the Great Work.

And there­fore is Con­fu­sion or Ter­ror in any such Prac­tice an Error fear­ful indeed, bring­ing about Obses­sion, which is a tem­po­rary or even it may be a per­ma­nent Divi­sion of the Per­son­al­i­ty, or Insan­i­ty, and there­fore a defeat most fatal and per­ni­cious, a Sur­ren­der of the Soul to Choron­zon.

 

16

ο
DE CULTU

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 Phœnix.

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.

 

17

π
DE CLAVICULA SOMNIORUM

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.

 

18

ϙ DE SOMNO LUCIDO

Now know this also that at the End of that secret Way lieth a Gar­den where­in is a Rest House pre­pared for thee. For to him whose phys­i­cal Needs of what­ev­er Kind are not tru­ly sat­is­fied cometh a Lunar or phys­i­cal Sleep appoint­ed to refresh and recre­ate by Cleans­ing and Repose; but on him that is bod­i­ly pure the Lord bestoweth a Solar or Lucid Sleep, where­in move Images of pure Light fash­ioned by the True Will. And this is called by the Qabal­ists the Sleep of Shiloam, and of this doeth also Por­phyry make men­tion men­tion, and Cicero, with many oth­er Wise Men of Old Time.

Com­pare, o my Son, with this Doc­trine that which was taught thee in the Sanc­tu­ary of the Gno­sis con­cern­ing the Death of the Right­eous; and learn more­over that these are but par­tic­u­lar Cas­es of an Uni­ver­sal For­mu­la.

 

19

ρ
DE VENEMIS

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 rumi­nent Exis­tence of such Per­sons as read lit­tle, are removed from worldy Strug­gle by some suf­fi­cient Prop­er­ty of small and unex­cit­ing Val­ue, sta­bly invest­ed, and by Age and Envi­ron­ment are free from Pas­sion. They live, accord­ing to their own Nature, with­out Desire, and they oppose no Resis­tance to the Oper­a­tions of Time. Such are called Hap­py, and in their Way of Veg­etable Life it is so; for they are free of any Poi­son.

 

20

σ
DE MOTU VITAE

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.

 

21

τ
DE MORBIS SANGUINIS

Now then under­stand that all Oppo­si­tion to the Way of Nature cre­ateth Vio­lence. If thine excre­to­ry Sys­tem do its Func­tion not at its fullest, there come Poi­sons in the Blood, and the Con­scious­ness is mod­i­fied by the con­flicts or Mar­riages between the ele­ments het­ero­ge­neous. Thus if the Liv­er be not effi­cient, we have Melan­choly; if the Kid­neys, Coma; if the Testes or Ovaries, loss of Per­son­al­i­ty itself. Also, an we poi­son the Blood direct­ly with Bel­ladon­na, we have Delir­i­um vehe­ment and furi­ous; with Hashish, Visions phan­tas­tic and enor­mous; with Anhi­olo­ni­um, 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.

 

22

υ
DE CURSU AMORIS

I con­tin­ue then, o my son, and reit­er­ate that this For­mu­la is gen­er­al to all Nature. And thou wilt note that by repeat­ed Mar­riage cometh Tol­er­a­tion, so the 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.

 

23

φ
DE NUPTIIS MYSTICIS

O my Son, how won­der­ful is the Wis­dom of this Law of Love! How vast are the Oceans of unchart­ed Joy that lie before the Keel of thy Ship! Yet know this, that every Oppo­si­tion is in its Nature named Sor­row, and the Joy lieth in the Destruc­tion of the Dyad. There­fore, must thou seek ever those Things which are to thee poi­so­nous, and that in the high­est Degree, and make them thine by Love. That which repels, that which dis­gusts, must thou assim­i­late in this Way of Whole­ness. Yet rest not in the Joy of the Destruc­tion of each com­plex in thy Nature, but press on to that ulti­mate Mar­riage with the Uni­verse whose Con­sum­ma­tion shall destroy thee utter­ly, leav­ing only that Noth­ing­ness which was before the Begin­ning.

So then the Life of Non-Action is not for thee; the With­draw­al from Activ­i­ty is not the Way of the Tao; but rather the Inten­si­fi­ca­tion and mak­ing uni­ver­sal every Unit of thine Ener­gy on every Plane.

 

24

χ
DE VOLUPTATE POENARUM

Go forth, o my Son, o Son of the Sun, rejoic­ing in thy Strength, as a War­rior, as a Bride­groom, to take thy Plea­sure upon the Earth, and in every Palace of the Mind, mov­ing ever from the crass to the sub­tle, from the coarse to the fine. Con­quer every Repul­sion in thy self, sub­due every Aver­sion. Assim­i­late all Poi­son, for there­in only is there Prof­it. Seek con­stant­ly there­fore to know what is painful and to cleave there­un­to, for by Pain cometh true Plea­sure. Those who avoid Pain phys­i­cal or men­tal remain lit­tle Men, and there is no Virtue in them. Yet be thou ware lest thou fall into the Heresy which maketh Pain, and Self-sac­ri­fice as it were Bribes to cor­rupt God, to secure some future Plea­sure in an imag­ined After-life. Nay, also of the oth­er Part, fear not to destroy thy Com­plex­es, think­ing dread­ful­ly there­by to lose the Pow­er of cre­at­ing Joy by their Dis­tinc­tion. Yet in each Mar­riage be thou bold to affirm the spir­i­tu­al Ardour of the Orgasm, fix­ing it in some Tal­is­man, whether it be Art, or Mag­ick, or Theur­gy.

 

25

ψ
DE VOLUNTATE ULTIMA

Say not then that this Way is con­trary to Nature, and that in Sim­plic­i­ty of Sat­is­fac­tion of thy Needs is per­fec­tion of thy Path. For to thee, who hast aspired, it is thy Nature to per­form the Great Work, and this is the final Dis­so­lu­tion of the Cos­mos. For though a Stone seem to lie still on a Moun­tain Top, and have no care, yet hath it an hid­den Nature, a Task Inef­fa­ble and Stu­pen­dous; name­ly, to force its Way to the Cen­tre of Grav­i­ty of the Uni­verse, and also to burn up its Ele­ments into the final Homo­gene­ity of Mat­ter. There­fore the Way of Qui­et is but an Illu­sion of Igno­rance. Who­ev­er thou mayst be now, thy Des­tiny is that which I have declared unto thee; and thou art most fixed in the true Way when, accept­ing this con­scious­ly as thy Will, thou gath­ereth up thy Pow­ers to move thy Self might­i­ly with­in it.

 

26

ω
DE DIFFERENTIA RERUM

But, o my Son, although thine ulti­mate Nature be Uni­ver­sal, thine imme­di­ate Nature is Par­tic­u­lar. Thy Way to the Cen­tre is not ori­ent­ed as that of any oth­er Being, and thine ele­ments are no kin, but alien, to his. For Shame! Is it not the most tran­scen­dent of all the Wis­doms of this Cos­mos, that no two Beings are alike? Lo! This is the Secret of all Beau­ty, and maketh Love not only pos­si­ble, but nec­es­sary, between every Thing and every oth­er Thing. So then, lest thou in thine Igno­rance take the false Way, and divi­gate, must thou learn thine own par­tic­u­lar and pecu­liar Nature in its Rela­tion to all oth­ers. For though it be Illu­sion, it is by the true Analy­sis of False­hoods that we are able to destroy them, just as the Physi­cian must under­stand the Dis­ease of his Patient if he is to choose the fit­ting Rem­e­dy. Now there­fore will I make yet more clear unto thee the Val­ue of thy Dreams and 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.

 

27

Αα
DE VOLUNTATE TACITA

All Dis­tur­bances, o my Son, are Vari­a­tions from Equi­lib­ri­um; and just as thy con­scious Thoughts, Words, and Acts are Effects of the Dis­place­ment of the con­scious Will, so is it in the Uncon­scious. For the most Part, there­fore, all Dreams, Phan­tasies, and Ges­tures rep­re­sent that Will sub­lim­i­nal; and if the phys­i­cal Part of that Will be unsat­is­fied, its Utter­ance will pre­dom­i­nate in all these auto­mat­ic Expres­sions. Do thou then note what Mod­i­fi­ca­tions there­of fol­low such Changes in the con­scious Foun­da­tion of that Part of thy Will as thou mayst make in thy Exper­i­ments there­with, and thus sep­a­rate, as sayeth Tris­megis­tus, the fine from the coarse, Fire from Earth, or, as we may say, assign each Effect to its true Cause. Seek then to per­fect a con­scious Sat­is­fac­tion of every Part of that Will, so that the uncon­scious Dis­tur­bances be at last brought to Silence. Then will the Residu­um be as an Elixir clar­i­fied and per­fect­ed, a true Sym­bol of that oth­er hid­den Will which is the Vec­tor of thy Mag­i­cal Self.

 

28

Αβ
DE FORMULA SUMMA

Learn more­over that thy Self includeth the whole Uni­verse of thy Knowl­edge, so that every increase upon every Plane is an Aggran­dize­ment 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!”

 

29

Αγ
DE VIA INERTIAE

Of the Way of the Tao I have already writ­ten to thee, o my Son, but I fur­ther instruct thee in this Doc­trine of doing every­thing by doing noth­ing. I will first have thee to under­stand that the Uni­verse being as above said an Expres­sion of Zero under the Fig­ure of the Dyad, its Ten­den­cy is con­tin­u­al­ly to release itself from that strain by the Mar­riage of Oppo­sites when­ev­er they are brought into Con­tact. Thus thy true Nature is a Will to Zero, or an Iner­tia, or Doing Noth­ing; and the Way of Doing Noth­ing is to oppose no Obsta­cle to the free Func­tion of that true Nature. Con­sid­er the Elec­tri­cal Charge of a Cloud, whose Will is to dis­charge itself in Earth, and so release the Strain of its Poten­tial. Do this by free con­duc­tion, there is Silence and Dark­ness; oppose it, there is Heat and Light, and the Rend­ing asun­der of that which will not per­mit free Pas­sage to the Cur­rent.

 

30

Αδ
DE VIA LIBERTATIS

Do not think then that by Non-Action thou doest fol­low the Way of the Tao, for thy Nature is Action, and by hin­der­ing the Dis­charge of thy Poten­tial thou doest per­pet­u­ate and aggra­vate the Stress. If thou ease not Nature, she will being thee to Dis-Ease. Free there­of every Func­tion of thy Body and of every oth­er Part of thee accord­ing to its true Will. This also is most nec­es­sary, that thou dis­cov­er that true Will in every Case, for thou art born into Dis-Ease; where are many false and per­vert­ed Wills, mon­strous Growths, Par­a­sites, Ver­min are they, adher­ent to thee by Vice of Hered­i­ty, or of Envi­ron­ment or of evil Train­ing. And of all these Things the sub­tlest and most ter­ri­ble, Ene­mies with­out Pity, destruc­tive to thy will, and a Men­ace and Tyran­ny even to thy elf, are the Ideals and Stan­dards of the Slave-gods, false Reli­gion, false Ethics, even false Sci­ence.

 

31

αε
DE LEGE MOTUS

Con­sid­er, o my Son, that Word in the Call or Key of the Thir­ty Æthyrs: Behold the Face of your God, the Begin­ning of com­fort, whose Eyes are the Bright­ness of the heav­ens, which pro­vid­ed you for the Gov­ern­ment of the Earth, and her Unspeak­able Vari­ety! And again: Let there be no Crea­ture upon her or with­in her the same. All here Mem­bers let them dif­fer in their Qual­i­ties, and let there be no Crea­ture equal with anoth­er. Here also is the Voice of true Sci­ence, cry­ing aloud: Vari­a­tion is the Key of Evo­lu­tion. There­un­to Art cometh the third, per­ceiv­ing Beau­ty in the Har­mo­ny of the Diverse. Know then, o my Son, that all Laws, all Sys­tems, all Cus­toms, all Ideals and Stan­dards which tend to pro­duce Uni­for­mi­ty, being in direct Oppo­si­tion to Nature’s Will to change and to devel­op through Vari­ety, are accursèd. 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.

 

32

Αϝ
DE LEGIBUS CONTRA MOTUM

Say not, in thine Haste, that such Stag­na­tions are Uni­ty even as the last Vic­to­ry of thy Will is Uni­ty. For thy Will moveth through free Func­tion, accord­ing to its par­tic­u­lar Nature, to that End of Dis­so­lu­tion of all Com­plex­i­ties, and the Ideals and Stan­dards are Attempts to halt thee on that Way. Although for thee some cer­tain Ide­al be upon thy Path; yet for thy Neigh­bour it may not be so. Set all Men a‑horseback: thou speedest the Foot-sol­dier on his Way, indeed: but what hast thou done to the Bird-Man? Thou must have sim­ple Laws and Cus­toms to express the gen­er­al Will, and so pre­vent the Tyran­ny of Vio­lence of a few; but mul­ti­ply them not! Now then here­with I will declare unto thee the Lim­its of the Civ­il Law upon the rock of the Law of Thele­ma.

 

33

Αζ
DE NECESSITATE COMMUNI

Under­stand first that the Dis­turbers of the Peace of Mankind do so by Rea­son of their Igno­rance of their own true Wills. There­fore as this Wis­dom of mine increaseth among Mankind, the false Will to Crime must become con­stant­ly more rare. Also, the Exer­cise of our Free­dom will cause Men to be born with less and ever less Afflic­tion from that Dis-Ease of Spir­it, which breedeth these false Wills. But, in the while of wait­ing for this Per­fec­tion, thou must by Law assure to every Man a Means of sat­is­fy­ing his bod­i­ly and his men­tal Needs, leav­ing him free to devel­op any Super-Struc­ture in Accor­dance with his Will, and pro­tect­ing him from any that may seek to deprive him of these ver­te­bral Rights. There shall be there­fore a Stan­dard of Sat­is­fac­tion, though it must vary in Detail with Race, Cli­mate, and oth­er such Con­di­tions. And this Stan­dard shall be based upon a large Inter­pre­ta­tion of Facts bio­log­i­cal, phys­i­o­log­i­cal, and the like.

 

34

Αη
DE LIBERTATE CORPORIS

There shall be no Prop­er­ty in Human Flesh. Every Man and every Woman hath Right Inde­feasable to give the Body for the Enjoy­ment of any oth­er. The Exer­cise of this Right shall not be pun­ished either by Law or by Cus­tom; there shall be no Penal­ty either by Loss or Cur­tail­ment of Lib­er­ty, of Rights, of Wealth, or of Social Esteem; but this Free­dom shall be respect­ed of all, see­ing that it is the Right of the Bod­i­ly Will. For this same Rea­son thou shalt cause full Restric­tion and Pun­ish­ment of any who may seek to lim­it that Free­dom for the sake of his own Prof­it, or Desire, or Ide­al. Every Man and every Woman has full right either to grant or to deny the Body, as the Will speaketh with­in. This being made Cus­tom, the Evils of Love, which are many, extend­ing to the Dis­tur­bance not only of Body but of Mind, and that in obscure Paths, shall lit­tle by lit­tle dis­ap­pear from the Face of His unspeak­able Glo­ry.

 

35

Αθ
DE LIBERTATE MENTIS

There shall be no Prop­er­ty in Human Thought. Let each think as he will con­cern­ing the Uni­verse; but let none seek to impose that Thought upon anoth­er by any Threat of Penal­ty in this World or any oth­er World. Look now, though I enkin­dle thee to Effort in thy Way, yet it is the Way of thy Will, and I say not even that thou dost well to has­ten there­in, for the whole Mat­ter lieth in thy Will, and to force thy­self against thy Nature would be an Obsta­cle to thy Pas­sage. But if I urge thee to run well this Race as an Ath­lete, it is because I have per­ceived in thy Nature that 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 Vicere­gent in the Lit­tle.

 

36

Αι
DE LIBERATATE IUVENUM

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.

 

37

Ακ
DE VI PER DISCIPLINAM COLENDA

Con­sid­er the Bond of a cold Cli­mate, how it maketh Man a Slave; he must have Shel­ter and Food with fierce Toil. Yet here­by he becometh strong against the Ele­ments, and his moral Force wax­eth, so that he is Mas­ter of such Men as live in Lands of Sun where bod­i­ly Needs are sat­is­fied with­out Strug­gle.

Con­sid­er also him that wil­leth to exceed in Speed or in Bat­tle, how he deni­eth him­self the Food he craveth, and all Plea­sures nat­ur­al to him, putting him­self under the harsh Order of a Train­er. So by this Bondage he hath, at the last, his Will.

Now then the one by nat­ur­al, and the oth­er by vol­un­tary, Restric­tion have come each to greater Lib­er­ty. This is also a gen­er­al Law of Biol­o­gy, for all Devel­op­ment is Struc­tural­iza­tion; that is, a Lim­i­ta­tion and Spe­cial­iza­tion of an orig­i­nal­ly inde­ter­mi­nate Pro­to­plasm, which lat­ter may there­fore be called free, in the Def­i­n­i­tion of a Pedant.

 

38

Αλ
DE ORDINE RERUM

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 Hæmo­glo­bin resist the Attack of Oxy­gen, the Body would per­ish, and the Hæmo­glo­bin 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.

 

39

Αμ
DE FUNDAMENTIS CIVITATIS

Say not, o my Son, that in this Argu­ment I have set Lim­its to indi­vid­ual Free­dom. For each Man in this State which I pur­pose is ful­fill­ing his own true Will by his eager Acqui­es­cence in the Order nec­es­sary to the Wel­fare of all, and there­fore of him­self also. But see thou well to it that thou set high the Stan­dard of Sat­is­fac­tion, and that to every­one there be a sur­plus of Leisure and of Ener­gy, so that, his Will of Self-Preser­va­tion being ful­filled by the Per­for­mance of his Func­tion in the State, he may devote the remain­der of his Pow­ers to the Sat­is­fac­tion of the oth­er Parts of his Will. And because the Peo­ple are oft times unlearned, not under­stand­ing Plea­sure, let them be instruct­ed in the Art of Life; to pre­pare Food palat­able and whole­some, each to this own Taste, to make Clothes accord­ing to Fan­cy, with Vari­ety of Indi­vid­u­al­i­ty and to prac­tise 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!

 

40

Αν
DE VOLUNTATE IUVENUM

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.

 

41

Αξ
DE MODO DISPUTANDI

Now in this Train­ing of the Child there is one most dear Con­sid­er­a­tion, that I shall impress upon thee as in Con­for­mi­ty with our Holy ?Expe­ri­ence in the Way of Truth. And it is this, that since that which can be thought is not true, every State­ment is in some Sense false. Even on the Sea of pure Rea­son, we may say that every State­ment is in some Sense dis­putable, there fore in every Case, even the sim­plest, the Child should be taught not only the The­sis, but also its oppo­site, leav­ing the Deci­sion to the Child’s own Judg­ment and good Sense, for­ti­fied by Expe­ri­ence. And this Prac­tice will devel­op its Pow­er of Thought, and its Con­fi­dence in itself, and its Inter­est in all Knowl­edge. But most of all beware against any Attempt to bias its Mind on any point that lieth with­out the Square of ascer­tained and undis­put­ed Fact. Remem­ber also, even when thou art most sure, that so were they sure who gave instruc­tion to the young Coper­ni­cus. Pay Rev­er­ence also to the Unknown unto whom thou pre­sumeth to impart the Knowl­edge; for he may be one greater than thou.

 

42

Αο
DE VOLUNTATE IUVENIS COGNOSCENDA

It is impor­tant that thou shouldst under­stand as ear­ly as may be what is the true Will of the Child in the Mat­ter of his Career. Be thou well ware of all Ideals and Day-dreams; for the Child is him­self, and not thy Toy. Recall the com­ic Tragedy of Napoleon and the King of Rome; build not an House for a wild Goat, nor plant a For­est for the Domain of a Shark. But be thou vig­i­lant for every Sign, con­scious or uncon­scious of the Will of the Child, giv­ing him then all Oppor­tu­ni­ty to pur­sue the Path which he thus indi­cates. Learn this, that he, being young, will weary quick­ly of all false Ways, how­ev­er pleas­ant they may be to him at the Out­set; but of the true Way he will not weary. This being in this Man­ner dis­cov­ered, thou mayst pre­pare it for him per­fect­ly; for no Man can keep open all Roads for ever. And to him mak­ing his Choice explain how one may not trav­el far on any Road with­out a gen­er­al Knowl­edge of Things appar­ent­ly irrel­e­vant. And with that he will under­stand, and bend him wise­ly to his Work.

 

43

Απ
DE AURO RUBEO

I would have thee to con­sid­er, o my son, that Word of Pub­lius Vergilius Maro, that was the great­est of all the Magi­cians of his time: in medio tutis­simus ibis. Which Thing has also been said by many wise Men in oth­er Lands; and the Holy Qabal­ah con­firmeth the same, plac­ing Tipheret, which is the Man, and the Beau­ty and Har­mo­ny of Things, and Gold in the King­dom of the Met­als, and the Sun among the Plan­ets, in the Midst of the Tree of Life. For the Cen­tre is the Point of Bal­ance of all Vec­tors. So then if thy wilt live wise­ly, learn that thou must estab­lish this Rela­tion of Bal­ance with every Thing soev­er, not omit­ting one. For there is noth­ing so alien from thy Nature that it may not be brought into har­mo­nious Rela­tion there­with; and thy Stature of Man­hood wax­eth great even as thou comest to the Per­fec­tion of this Art. And there is noth­ing so close Kin to thee it may not be hurt­ful to thee if this Bal­ance is not tru­ly adjust­ed. Thou hast need of the whole Force of the Uni­verse to work with thy Will; but this Force must be dis­posed about the Shaft of that Will so that there is no Ten­den­cy to Hin­drance or to Deflec­tion. And in my Love of thee I will adorn this The­sis with Exam­ple fol­low­ing.

 

44

Αϙ

DE SAPIENTIA IN RE SEXUALI

Con­sid­er Love. Here is a Force destruc­tive and cor­rupt­ing where by many Men have been lost. Yet with­out Love Man were not Man. There­fore thine Uncle Richard Wag­n­er made of our Doc­trine a musi­cal Fable, where­in we see Amfor­t­as, who yield­ed him­self to Seduc­tion, wound­ed beyond Heal­ing; Kling­sor, who with­draw him­self from a like Dan­ger, cast out for ever from the Moun­tain of Sal­va­tion; and Par­si­fal, who yield­ed not, able to exer­cise the true Pow­er of Live, and there­by to per­form the Mir­a­cle of Redemp­tion. Of this also have I myself writ­ten in my Poe­ma called Ado­nis. It is the same with Food and Drink, with Exer­cise, with Learn­ing itself, the Prob­lem is ever to bring the Appetite into right Rela­tion with the Will. Thus thou mayst fast or feast; there is no Rule than that of Bal­ance. And this Doc­trine is of gen­er­al Accep­ta­tion among the bet­ter Sort of Men; there­fore on thee will I rather impress more care­ful­ly the oth­er Part of my Wis­dom, name­ly, the Neces­si­ty of extend­ing con­stant­ly thy Nature to new Mates upon every Plane of Being, so that thou mayst become the per­fect Micro­cosm, an Image with­out Flaw of all that is.

 

45

Αρ
DE GRADIBUS AEQUIS SCIENTIAE

I say in sooth, my son, that this Exten­sion of thy Nature is not in Vio­la­tion there­of; for it is the Nature of thy Nature to grow con­tin­u­al­ly. Now there is no Part of Knowl­edge which is for­eign to thee; yet Knowl­edge itself is of no avail unless it be assim­i­lat­ed and co-ordi­nat­ed into Under­stand­ing. Grow there­fore, eas­i­ly and spon­ta­neous­ly, devel­op­ing all Parts equal­ly, lest thou become a Mon­ster. And if one Thing tempt thee over­much, cor­rect it by Devo­tion to its Oppo­site until Equi­lib­ri­um be re-estab­lished. But seek not to grow by sud­den Deter­mi­na­tion toward Things that be far from thee; only, if such a Thing come into thy Thought, con­struct a Bridge there­un­to, and take firm­ly the first Step upon the Bridge. I shall explain this. Dost thou spec­u­late upon the Motives of the Stars, and on their Ele­ments, their Size and Weight? Then thou must first gain Knowl­edge of Doc­trine math­e­mat­i­cal, of Laws phys­i­cal and chem­i­cal. So then first, that thou mayst under­stand clear­ly the Nature of thine whole Work, map out thy Mind, and extend its Pow­ers from the essen­tial out­wards, from the near to the far, always with Firm­ness and great Thor­ough­ness, mak­ing every Link in thy Chain equal and per­fect.

 

46

Ασ
DE VIRTUTE AUDENDI

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 mayest learn Use and Con­trol, not falling into Abuse and Slav­ery. For the Cow­ard and the Fool­hardy shall not live out their Days. Every Thing has its right Use; and thou art great as thou hast Use of Things. This is the Mys­tery of all Art Mag­ick, and thine Hold upon the Uni­verse. Yet if thou must err, being human, err by excess of courage rather than of Cau­tion, for it is the Foun­da­tion of the Hon­our of Man that he dareth great­ly. What sayth Quin­tus Hor­atius Flac­cus in the third Ode of his First Book? Die thou stand­ing!

 

47

Ατ
DE ARTE MENTIS COLENDI
(1) MATHEMATICA

Now con­cern­ing the first Foun­da­tion of thy Mind I will say some­what. Thou shalt study with Dili­gence in the math­e­mat­ics, because there­by shall be revealed unto thee the Laws of thine own Rea­son and the Lim­i­ta­tions there­of. This Sci­ence man­i­festeth unto thee thy true Nature in respect of the Machin­ery where­by it wor­keth; and showeth in pure Naked­ness, with­out Cloth­ing of Per­son­al­i­ty or Desire, the Anato­my of thy con­scious Self. Fur­ther­more, by this thou mayst under­stand the Essence between the Rela­tion of all Things, and the Nature of Neces­si­ty, and come to the Knowl­edge of Form. For this Math­e­mat­ics is as it were the last Veil before the Image of Truth, so that there is no Way bet­ter than our Holy Qabal­ah, which analy­seth all Things soev­er, and reduceth them to pure Num­ber; and thus their Natures being no longer coloured and con­fused, they may be reg­u­lat­ed and for­mu­lat­ed in Sim­plic­i­ty by the Oper­a­tion of Pure Rea­son, to thy great Com­fort in the Work of our Tran­scen­den­tal Art, where­by the Many become One.

 

48

Αυ
SEQUITUR
(2) CLASSICA

My son, neglect not in any wise the Study of the Writ­ings of Antiq­ui­ty, and that in the orig­i­nal Lan­guage. For by this thou shalt dis­cov­er the His­to­ry of the Struc­ture of thy Mind, that is, its Nature regard­ed as the last term in a Sequence of Caus­es and Effects. For thy Mind hath been built up of these Ele­ments, so that in these Books thou mayst bring into the Light thine own sub­con­scious Mem­o­ries. And thy Mem­o­ry is as it were the Mor­tar in the House of thy Mind, with­out which is no Cohe­sion or Indi­vid­u­al­i­ty pos­si­ble, so that the Lack there­of is called Demen­tia. And these Books have lived long and become famous because they are the Fruits of ancient Trees where­of thou art direct­ly the Heir, where­from (say I) they are more tru­ly ger­man to thine own Nature than Books of Col­lat­er­al Off­shoots, though such were in them­selves bet­ter and wis­er. Yes, o my Son, in these Writ­ings thou mayst study to come to the true Com­pre­hen­sion of thine own Nature, and that of the whole Uni­verse, in the Dimen­sion of Time, even as the Math­e­mat­ic declar­eth it in that of Space: That is, of Exten­sion. More­over, by this Study shall the Child com­pre­hend the Foun­da­tion of Man­ners: the which, as sayeth one of the Sons of Wis­dom, maketh Man.

 

49

Αφ
SEQUITUR
(3) SCIENTIFICA

Since Time and Space are the Con­di­tions of Mind, these two Stud­ies are fun­da­men­tal. Yet there remaineth Causal­i­ty, which is the Root of the Actions and Reac­tions of Nature. This also shalt thou seek ardent­ly, that thou mayst com­pre­hend the Vari­ety of the Uni­verse, its Har­mo­ny and its Beau­ty, with the Knowl­edge of that which com­pel­leth it. Yet this is not equal to the for­mer two in Pow­er to reveal thee to thy Self; and its first Use is to instruct thee in the true Method of Advance­ment in Knowl­edge, which is fun­da­men­tal­ly, the Obser­va­tion of the Like and the Unlike. Also, it shall arouse in thee the 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.

 

50

Αχ
DE MODO QUO OPERET LEX MAGICA

Give Ear atten­tive­ly, o my Son, while I expound unto thee the true Doc­trine of Mag­ick. Every force acteth, in due Pro­por­tion, on all Things with which it is con­nect­ed. Thus a burn­ing For­est caus­es chem­i­cal Change by Com­bus­tion, and giveth Heat and Motion to the Air about it by the Oper­a­tion of phys­i­cal Laws, and exciteth thought and Emo­tion in the Man whom it rea­cheth through his Organs of Per­cep­tion. Con­sid­er (even though it were but 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 Æons 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.

 

51

Αψ
DE MACHINA MAGICA

Lo! I put forth my Will, and my Pen moveth upon the Paper, by Cause that my will mys­te­ri­ous­ly hath Pow­er upon the Mus­cle of my Arm, and these do Work at a mechan­i­cal Advan­tage against the Iner­tia of the Pen. I can­not break down the Wall oppo­site me by Cause that I can­not come into mechan­i­cal Rela­tion with it; or the Wall at my Side, by Cause that I am not strong enough to over­come its Iner­tia. To win that Bat­tle I must call Time and Pick-axe to mine aid. But how could I retard the Motion of the Earth in Space? I am myself Par­ty of its Momen­tum. Yet every Stroke of my Pen affecteth that Motion by chang­ing the Equi­lib­ri­um there­of. The Prob­lem of every Act of Mag­ick is then this: to exert a Will suf­fi­cient­ly pow­er­ful to cause the required Effect, through a Men­stru­um or Medi­um of Com­mu­ni­ca­tion. By the com­mon Under­stand­ing of the Word Mag­ick, we how­ev­er exclude such Media as are gen­er­al­ly known and under­stood. Now then, o my Son, will I declare unto thee first the Nature of the Pow­er, and after­ward that of the Medi­um.

52

Αω
DE HARMONIA ANIMAE CUM CORPORE

All Things are inter­wo­ven. The most spir­i­tu­al Thought in thy Soul (I speak as a Fool) is also a most mate­r­i­al Change in Blood or Brain. Anger maketh the Blood acid; Hate poi­soneth Moth­er’s milk; even as I showed for­mer­ly in reverse, how Dis­tur­bance of phys­i­cal Func­tion altereth the States of Con­scious­ness. Now no Man doubteth the Pow­er of the Will of Man, whether it be his love that beget­teth Chil­dren or caus­es wars where­in many Men be slain, whether it be his Elo­quence that moveth a Mob or his Van­i­ty that destroyeth a Peo­ple. Only in all such Cas­es we under­stand how Nature wor­keth, though known Laws phys­i­cal or psy­chi­cal. That is, there is a State of unsta­ble Equi­lib­ri­um, so that one Machine set­teth anoth­er in Motion as soon as the first Dis­tur­bance ariseth. There­fore, it is not prop­er to regard all Con­se­quence of a Will as its Effect. With­out the Rev­o­lu­tion there could have been no great Effect of the Will of Napoleon; and more­over his Will was bro­ken in the End, to the present Mis­for­tune (as it seemeth to many besides 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.

53

Βα
DE MYSTERIO PRUDENTIAE

Behold now nature, how prodi­gal is She of her Forces! The evi­dent Will of every Acorn is to become an Oak; yet night all fail of that Will. There­fore one Secret of Mag­ick is Œcon­o­my of thy Force; to do no Act unless secure of its Effect. And if every Act has an Effect on every Plane, how canst thou do this unless thou be con­nect­ed with all Planes? For this Rea­son must thou know thor­ough­ly not only thy Body and thy Mind, but thy Body of Light and all its sub­tler Prin­ci­ples soev­er. But I will have thee con­sid­er most espe­cial­ly what pow­ers thou hast with­in thee which are cer­tain­ly capa­ble of great Effects, yet which are con­stant­ly wast­ed. Think then whether, if these Pow­ers, frus­trate of their End upon one Plane, might not be turned to high Pur­pose and assured Suc­cess upon anoth­er. For an hun­dred Acorns, right­ly set in Con­di­tions fit for their true Growth, will become an hun­dred Oaks, while oth­er­wise they make but one Meal for one Hog, and their sub­tle Nature is whol­ly lost to them. Learn then, o my Son, this Mys­tery of Œcon­o­my, and apply it faith­ful­ly and with Dili­gence in thy Work.

54

Ββ
DE ARTE ALCHEMICA

Here then I must write con­cern­ing Tal­is­mans for thine Instruc­tion. Know first that there are cer­tain Vehi­cles prop­er for the Incar­na­tion of the Will. I instance Paper, where­on by thine Art thou writest a sym­bol­ic Rep­re­sen­ta­tion of thy Will, so that when thou next seest it, thou are remind­ed of that Will, or it may be that anoth­er, see­ing it, will obey that Will. Here then is a case of Incar­na­tion and Assump­tion, which, before it was under­stood, was right­ly con­sid­ered Gra­marye or Mag­ick. Again, thy Will to live causeth thee to plant Corn, which in due Sea­son being eat­en is again trans­mut­ed into Will. Thus thou mayst in many Ways impress any par­tic­u­lar Will upon the prop­er Sub­stance, so that by due Use thou comest at last to its Accom­plish­ment. So gen­er­al is this For­mu­la, in Truth, that all con­scious Actions may be includ­ed with­in its scope. There is also the Con­verse, as when exter­nal Objects cre­ate Appetite, whose Sat­is­fac­tion again reacteth upon the phys­i­cal Plane. Praise thou the won­der of the Mys­tery of Nature, ris­ing and falling with every Breath, so that there is no Part which is not mys­ti­cal­ly Par­tak­er of the Whole.

55

Βγ
DE ARCANO SUBTILISSIMO

O my Son, there is that with­in thee of mar­vel­lous Puis­sance which is by its own Nature the Incar­na­tion of thy Will, most ready to receive the Seal there­of. There­in lie hid­den all Pow­ers, all Mem­o­ries, more than thou hast teen thou­sand fold! Learn then to draw from that great Trea­sure-House the Jew­el of which thou art in any present Need. For all things that are pos­si­ble to thy Nature are already hid­den with­in thee; and thou hast but to name them, and to bring them back into the Light of thy Con­scious­ness. Then squan­der not this Gold of thine, but put it to most fruit­ful Usury. Now then of the Art and Craft of this most Holy Mys­tery I write not, for a Rea­son that thou already know­est. More­over, in this Mat­ter, thou shalt best learn by thine own Expe­ri­ence, and thine Obser­va­tion in true Sci­ence shall guide thee. For this Secret is still of Mag­ick, and Occult, so that I know not cer­tain­ly if thy Will lieth with my Way or no.

56

Βδ.
DE MENSTRUO ARTIS.

But con­cern­ing the Medi­um by whose sen­si­tive Nature our Mag­ick Force is trans­mit­ted to the Object of our Work­ing, doubt not. For already in oth­er Galax­ies of Physics have we been com­pelled to pos­tu­late an Æthyr 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 Æthyr 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 Æthyr 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.

 

57

Βε.
DE NECESSITATE VOLUNTATIS.

And how then (sayst 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 sayst sooth; yet, art thou not com­pelled to Thought and Effort in the Way of Nature? Yea, I, thy Father, work for thee solic­i­tous­ly, and also I laugh at thy Per­plex­i­ties; for so was it fore- ordained that I should do, by Me, from the Begin­ning.

 

58

Βϝ.
DE COMEDIA UNIVERSA, QUAE DICTUR 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.

 

59

Βζ.
DE CAECITIA HOMINUM.

Learn also of my wis­dom that this Vision of the Cos­mos where­of I have writ­ten unto thee is not giv­en unto thy Sight at all Times; for in that Vision is all Will ful­filled. Thou seest the Uni­verse as None, and as One, and as many, and the Play there­of; and there­with art thou (who art no longer thou) con­tent. For in one Phase art thou also None, in anoth­er One, and in the third an organ­ised and nec­es­sary Part of that great Struc­ture, so that there is no more con­flict at all in thy whole By-com­ing. But now will I make Light for thine Eyes in this Mat­ter as thou gropest, ask­ing: but of them that see not this, what sayst thou, o my Father? But in that Vision thou sayst not thus, my Son! Learn then of me the Secret Mys­tery of Illu­sion, and how it Wor­keth, and oth­er Holy Law that is its Nature, and of thine Action there­in; for this is an Arcanum of the Wis­dom of the Magi, and prop­er unto thee that dwellest in the Land of Under­stand­ing.

 

60

Βη.
ALLEGORIA DE CAISSA.

Con­sid­er for an Exam­ple the Game and Play of the Chess, which is a Pas­time of Man, and wor­thy to exer­cise him in Thought, yet by no means nec­es­sary to his Life, so that he sweep­eth away Board and Pieces at the least Sum­mons of that which is tru­ly dear to him. Thus unto him this Game is as it were an Illu­sion. But inso­far as he entereth into the Game he abideth by the Rules there­of, though they be arti­fi­cial and in no wise prop­er to his Nature; for in this Restric­tion is all his Plea­sure. There­fore, though he hath All-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.

 

61

Βθ.
DE VERITATE FALSORUM.

More­over this Mat­ter touch­es the Nature of Truth. For although to thee in thy True Self, absolute and with­out Con­di­tions, all this Uni­verse, which is rel­a­tive and con­di­tioned is an Illu­sion; yet to that Part of Thee by which thou per­ceivest it, the Law of its Being (or By-com­ing) is a Law of Truth. Learn then that all Rela­tions are true upon their own Plane, and that it would be a Vio­la­tion of Nature to adjust them skew­wise. Thus, albeit thou hast found thy Self, and know­est Thy Self immor­tal and immutable beyond Time and Space, free of Causal­i­ty, so thor­ough­ly that even thy Mind par­taketh con­stant­ly there­of, thou hast in no wise altered the Rela­tions of thy Body with its Syn­dromics in the World where­of it is a Part. Wouldst thou length­en the Life of thy Body? Then accom­mo­date thou the Con­di­tions of thy Body to its Envi­ron­ment by giv­ing it Light, Air, Food, and Exer­cise as its Nature requireth. So also, mutatis mutan­dis, do thou cher­ish the Health of thy Mind.

 

62

Βι.
DE RELATIONE ILLUSIONUM.

Of this will I speak fur­ther with thee, for here behold a great Rock of Igno­rance on the one Hand, and on the oth­er a Whirlpool of Error; in this Strait are many Wrecks of Mag­ick Ships. Know­est thou not that Rid­dle of old, whether it be law­ful to pay Trib­ute to Cæsar 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.

 

63

Βκ.
DE PRUDENTIA.

Con­sid­er Drunk­en­ness, how by Vari­a­tion of bod­i­ly Con­di­tions thou mayst alter its Effect upon the Mind, and the Con­trary, remem­ber­ing the Dis­ci­pline of Theophras­tus Paracel­sus, how, oppos­ing Wine to bod­i­ly Exer­cise, he obtained a cer­tain Purifi­ca­tion and Exaltation/ Yet, were he sev­en times greater, he had not done this with Oil of Vit­ri­ol. Learn then that there are cer­tain def­i­nite Chan­nels of Action and Reac­tion between Body and Mind; sound these, and trim thy Sails accord­ing­ly, not think­ing that thou art in the open Sea. And if so be that thou in thy sound­ing find­est new Chan­nels, rejoice and map them for the Prof­it of thy Fel­lows; But remem­ber always that to find a new Way up a Precipice removeth not the Precipice. For where thou, o Angel and yet Man, hast trod del­i­cate­ly albeit with­out Fear, Fools will rush in to their Destruc­tion.

 

64

ΒΛ.
DE RATIONE MAGI VITAE.

Study Log­ic, which is the Code of the Laws of Thought. Study the Method of Sci­ence, which is the Appli­ca­tion of Log­ic to the Facts of the Uni­verse. Think not that thou canst ever abro­gate these Laws, for though they be Lim­i­ta­tions, they are the rules of thy Game which thou dost play. For in thy Trances though thou becomest That which is not sub­ject to those Laws, they are still final in respect of these Things which thou hast set them to gov­ern. Nay, o my son, I like not this Word, gov­ern, for a Law is but a State­ment of the nature of the Thing to which it appli­eth. Nor noth­ing is com­pelled save only by Nature of its own true Will. So there­fore human Law is a State­ment of the Will and of the Nature of Man, or else it is a Fal­si­ty con­trary there­un­to, and becometh null and of no Effect.

 

65

Βμ.
DE CORDE CANDIDO.

Think also, o my Son, of this Image, that if two States be at Peace, a Man goeth between them with­out Let; but if there be War, all Gate­ways are forth­with closed, save only for a few, and these are watched and guard­ed, so that the Obsta­cles are many. This then is the Case of Mag­ick; for if thou have brought to Har­mo­ny all Prin­ci­ples with­in thee, thou mayst work eas­i­ly to trans­mute a Force into its sem­blable upon anoth­er Plane, which is the essen­tial Mir­a­cle of our Art; but if thou be at War with­in thy­self, how canst thou work? For our Mas­ter Her­mes Tres­megis­tus hat writ­ten at the Head of His Tablet of Emer­ald this Word: That which is above is like that which is below, and that which is below is like that which is above, for the Per­for­mance of the Mir­a­cle of the One Sub­stance. How then, if these be not alike? If the Sub­stance of Thee be Two, and not One? And here­in is the Need of the Con­fes­sion of a pure Heart, as is writ­ten in the Book of the Dead.

 

66

Βν.
DE CONFORMITATE MAGI.

See to it there­fore, o my Son, that thou in thy Work­ing dost no Vio­lence to the whole Will of the All, or to the Will com­mon to all those Beings (or By-com­ings) that are of one gen­er­al Nature with thee, or to thine own par­tic­u­lar Will. For first of all thou art nec­es­sar­i­ly moved toward the One End from thine own Sta­tion, but sec­ond­ly thou art moved toward the End prop­er to thine own Race, and Caste, and Fam­i­ly, as by Virtue of thy Birth. And these are, I may say it, Con­di­tions or lim­its, of thine own indi­vid­ual Will. Thou dost laugh? Err not, my Son! The Magus, even as the Poet is the Expres­sion of the true Will of his Fel­lows, and his Suc­cess is his Proof, as it is writ­ten in “The Book of the Law”. For his Work is to free Men from the Fet­ters of a false or a super­an­nu­at­ed Will, reveal­ing unto them, in Mea­sure attuned to their Needs, their true Natures.

 

67

Βξ.
DE POETIS.

For this Rea­son is the Poet called an Incar­na­tion of the Zeit­geist, that is, of the Spir­it or Will of his Peri­od. So every Poet is also a Prophet, because when that which he sayeth is rec­og­nized as the Expres­sion of their own Thought by Men, they trans­late this into Act, so that, in the Par­lance of the Folk vul­gar and igno­rant, “that which he fore­told is come to pass”. Now then the Poet is Inter­preter of the Hiero­glyphs of the Hid­den Will of Man in many a mat­ter, some light, some deep, as it may be giv­en unto him to do. More­over, it is not alto­geth­er in the Word of any Poem, but in the quin­tes­sen­tial Flavour of the Poet, that thou mayst seek this Prophe­cy. And this is an Art most nec­es­sary toe every States­man. Who but Shel­ley fore­told the Fall of Chris­tian­i­ty, and the Organ­i­sa­tion of Labour, and the Free­dom of Woman; who by Niet­zsche declared the Prin­ci­ple at the Root of the World-War?

See thou clear­ly then that in these Men were the Keys of the Dark Gates of the Future; Should not the Kings and their Min­is­ters have tak­en heed there­to, ful­fill­ing their Word with­out Con­flict.

 

68

Βο.
DE MAGIS ORDINIS A∴ A∴ quibus caro fit ver­bum.

Now, o my Son, the Incar­na­tion of a Poet is par­tic­u­lar and not Uni­ver­sal; he sayeth indeed true Things but not the Things of All-Truth. And that these may be said it is nec­es­sary that One take human Flesh, and become a Magus in our Holy Order. He then is called the Logos, or Logos Aiones, that is to say, the Word of the Aeon or Age, because he is ver­i­ly that Word. And thus may be be known, because He hath it giv­en unto Him to pre­pare the Quin­tes­sence of the Will of God, that is, of Man, in its Full­ness and Whole­ness, com­pre­hend­ing all Planes, so that his Law is sim­ple, and rad­i­cal, pen­e­trat­ing all Space from its sin­gle Light. For though His Words be many, yet is His Word One, One and Alone; and by this Word he cre­ateth Man anew, in an essen­tial Form of Life, so that he is changed in his inmost Knowl­edge of him­self. And this Change wor­keth out­wards, lit­tle by lit­tle, unto its vis­i­ble Effect.

 

69

Βπ.
DE MAGIS TEMPORI ANTIQUI: IMPRIMIS, DE LAO-TZE.

It may be unto thy Prof­it, o my Son, if I relate unto thee the secret His­to­ry of those who have gone before me in this Grade of Magus, so far as their Mem­o­ry hath remained among Mankind. For what would it avail thee should I recount the deeds of those whom I indeed may know, but thou not? Thou know­est well how I keep me from all Taint of Fable, or any Word unproven and undemon­stra­ble. First then I speak of Lao-Tze, whose word was the Tao. Here­of have I already writ­ten much unto thee, because His Doc­trine has been lost or mis­in­ter­pret­ed, and it is most need­ful to restore it. For this Tao is the true Nature of Things, being itself a Way or Going, that is, a kinet­ic and not a sta­t­ic Con­cep­tion. Also He taught this Way of Har­mo­ny in Will, which I myself have thought to show thee in this lit­tle book. So then this Tao is Truth, and the Way of Truth, and there­fore was He Logos of His Aeon, and His true Name or Word was Tao.

 

70

Βϟ.
DE GAUTAMA.

Whom Men call Gota­ma, or Sid­dartha, or the Bud­ha, was a Magus of our Holy Order. And His Word was Anat­ta; for the Root of His whole Doc­trine was that there is no Atman, or Soul, as Men ill trans­late it, mean­ing a Sub­stance inca­pable of Change. Thus, He, like Lao-Tze, based all upon a Move­ment, instead of a fixed Point. And His Way of Truth was Analy­sis, made pos­si­ble by great Inten­tion of the Mind toward itself, and that well for­ti­fied by cer­tain tem­pered Rigour of Life. And He most thor­ough­ly explored and Mapped out the Fast­ness­es of the Mind, and gave the Keys of its Fortress­es into the Hand of Man. But of all this the Quin­tes­sence is in this one Word Anat­ta, because this is not only the foun­da­tion and the Result of his whole Doc­trine, but the Way of its Work.

 

71

Βρ.
DE SRI KRISHNA ET DE DIONYSO.

Krish­na has Names and Forms innu­mer­able, and I know not His true Human Birth, for His For­mu­la is of the Major Antiq­ui­ty. But His Word hath spread into many Lands, and we know it to- day as INRI with the secret IAO con­cealed there­in. And the Mean­ing of this Word is the Work­ing of Nature in Her Changes; that is, it is the For­mu­la of Mag­ick where­by all Things repro­duce and recre­ate them­selves. Yet this Exten­sion and Spe­cial­i­sa­tion was rather the Word of Diony­sus; for the true Word of Krish­na was AUM, import­ing rather a State­ment of the Truth of Nature than a prac­ti­cal Instruc­tion in detailed Oper­a­tions of Mag­ick. But Diony­sus, by the Word INRI, laid the Foun­da­tion of all Sci­ence, as We say Sci­ence to-day in a par­tic­u­lar Sense, that is, of caus­ing exter­nal Nature to change in Har­mo­ny with our Wills.

 

72

Βσ.
DE TAHUTI.

Tahuti, or Thot, con­firmed the Word of Diony­sus by con­tin­u­ing it; for he showed how by the Mind it was pos­si­ble to direct the Oper­a­tions of the Will. By Crit­i­cism and by record­ed Mem­o­ry Man avoideth Error. But the true Word of Tahuti was A M O U N, where­by He made Men to under­stand their secret Nature, that is, their Uni­ty with their true Selves, or, as they then phrased it, with God. And He dis­cov­ered unto them the Way of this Attain­ment, and its Rela­tion with the For­mu­la of INRI. Also by His Mys­tery of Num­ber He made plain the Path for His Suc­ces­sor to declare the Nature of the whole Uni­verse in its Form and in its Struc­ture, as it were an Analy­sis there­of, doing for Mat­ter what the Bud­dha was decreed to do for Mind.

 

73

Βτ.
DE QUODAMM MAGO AEGYPTIORUM. QUEM APPELUNT JUDAEI MOSHEH.

The Fol­low­er of Tahuti was an Egypt­ian whose Name is lost; but the Jews called Him Mosheh, or Moses, and their Fab­u­lists made Him the Leader of their Leg­endary Exo­dus. Yet they pre­served His Word, and it is IHVH, which thou must under­stand also as that Secret Word which thou hast seen and heard in Thun­ders and Light­nings in thine Ini­ti­a­tion to the Degree thou wottest of. But this Word is itself a Plan of the Fab­rick of the Uni­verse, and upon it hath been elab­o­rat­ed the Holy Qabal­ah, where­by we have Knowl­edge of the Nature of all Things soev­er upon every Plane of By-com­ing, and of their Forces and Ten­den­cies and Oper­a­tions, with the Keys to their Por­tals. Nor did He leave any Part of His Work unfin­ished, unless it be that accom­plished three hun­dred Years ago by Sir Edward Kel­ly, of whom I also come, as thou know­est.

 

74

Βυ.
DE MAGO ARABICO MOHAMMED.

Behold! In these Chap­ters have I, thy Father, restrict­ed myself, not speak­ing of any imme­di­ate Echo of a Word in the World, because, there Men being long since with­drawn into their Silence, it is their One Word, and that Alone, that resoundeth undi­min­ished through Time. How Mohammed, who fol­loweth, is dark­ened and con­fused by His Near­ness to our own Time, so that I say not save with Dif­fi­dence that His Word ALLH may mean this or that. But I am bold con­cern­ing His Doc­trine of the Uni­ty of God, for God is Man, and he said there­fore: Man is One. And His Will was to unite all Men in One rea­son­able Faith: to make pos­si­ble inter­na­tion­al Co- oper­a­tion in Sci­ence. Yet, because He arose in the Time of the great­est pos­si­ble Cor­rup­tion and Dark­ness, when every Civil­i­sa­tion and Every Reli­gion had fall­en into Ruin, by the mal­ice of the great Sor­cer­er of Nazareth, as some say, He is still hid­den in the Dust of the Simoom, and we may not per­ceive Him in His true Self of Glo­ry.

Nev­er­the­less, behold, o My Son, this Mys­tery. His true Word was La ALLH, that is to say: (there is) No God, and LA AL is that Mys­tery of Mys­ter­ies which thine own Eye pierced in thine Ini­ti­a­tion. And of that Truth have the Illu­sion and False­hood enslaved the Souls of Men, as is writ­ten in the Book of the Magus.

 

75

Βφ.
DE SE IPSO ΩΙ ΜΕΓΑΛΩΙ ΘΡΙΩΙ, ΩΙ ΛΟΓΩΙ ΑΙΩΝΟΣ CUJUS VERBUM EST ΘΕΛΜΑ.

O my son! me seemeth in cer­tain Hours that I am myself fall­en on a Time even more fear­ful and fatal than did Mahommed, peace be upon Him! But I read clear­ly the Word of the Aeon, that is A B R A H A D A B R A, where­in is the whole Mys­tery of the great Work, as thou know­est. And I have “The Book of the Law”, that was giv­en unto me by Him thou wottest of; and it is the Inter­pre­ta­tion of the Secret Will of Man on every Plane of his By-com­ing; and the Word of the Law is T H E L E M A. “Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.” Now because “Love is the law, love under will.” do I write this Epis­tle for thee, that thou mayst ful­fil this inmost Will of Mankind, mak­ing them capa­ble of Light, Live, Love and Lib­er­ty by the Accep­tance of this Law. And the Hin­drance there­un­to is but as the Shell of its Egg to an Eaglet, ad Thing for­eign to itself, a Pro­tec­tion till the Hour strike, and then — no more!

 

76

Βχ.
MANDATUM AD FILIUM SUUM.

Here I reach forth mine Hands against thee in the Sign of the Enter­er, o son of my Bow­els, for with all my Mag­i­cal Might I will that thou fight man­ful­ly and labour with Dili­gence (with Sword and Trow­el; say I) in this Work. For this is the first and last of all, that thou bid every Man do What he will, in accord with his own true Nature. There­fore also blast thou that Lie that Man is of a fall­en and evil Nature. For the Word of Sin is Restric­tion, the Doubt of his own God­head, the Sup­pres­sion of, which is the Blas­phe­my against, his own Holy Spir­it. Saith not “The Book of the Law” that “…It is a lie, this fol­ly against self. …”? There­fore to every Man, in every Cir­cum­stance, say thou: Do what thou wilt; and teach him, if he yet waver, how to dis­cov­er his true Nature, earnest­ly and with Ardour, even as I have striv­en to teach thee — yea, and more also!

 

77

Βψ.
QUARE FILIUM CREAVIT: UT FIAT LIBERTAS.

Do what thou wilt! be this our Slo­gan of Bat­tle in every Act; for every Act is Con­flict. There Vic­to­ry leapeth shin­ing before us; for who may thwart true Will, which is the Order of Nature Her­self? “…thou hast no right but to do thy will. Do that, and no oth­er shall say nay.” For if that Will be true, its Ful­fil­ment is of a Sure­ty as Day­light fol­low­ing Sun­rise. It is as cer­tain as the Oper­a­tion of any oth­er Law of Nature; it is Des­tiny. Then, if that Will be obscured, if thou turn from it to Wills dis­eased or per­verse, how canst thou hope? Fool! Even thy Turns and Twists are in the Path to thine appoint­ed End. But thou art not sprung of a Slave’s Loins; thou stand­est firm and straight; thou dost thy Will; and thou are Cho­sen, nay, for this Work wast thou begot­ten in a Mag­ick Bed, that thou shouldst make Man free.

 

78

Β.
DE SUA DEBILITATE.

Lis­ten atten­tive­ly, my Son, while I with heavy Heart make Con­fes­sion to thee of mine own Frailty. Thou know­est that I made Renun­ci­a­tion of my Wage, tak­ing this Body imme­di­ate­ly after my Death, the Death of Eliphas Levi Zahed, as Men say, that I might attain to this great Work. It is now twen­ty Years, as Men count years, that I came to my first Under­stand­ing of my true Nature, and aspired to that Work. Now then at first I made no Error. I aban­doned my cho­sen Career; I poured out my whole For­tune with­out one Thought; I gave my Life utter­ly to the Work, with­out keep­ing back the least imag­in­able Thing. So then I made swift Strides along the Path. But in the Dhyanas that were grant­ed unto me in 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.

 

79

Γα.
DE MANU QUAE MAGUM SUSTINET.

Now it may be well that such Peri­ods of Recu­per­a­tion are nec­es­sary to such souls as mine; and so no Ill. But I fell from my Will, and sought oth­er Ends in Life; and so the Hand came upon me, and tore away that which I desired, as thou know­est; also it is writ­ten in the Tem­ple of Solomon the King. Yet con­sid­er also these two Years as a nec­es­sary Prepa­ra­tion for that great­est of all Events which befell me in El-Kahi­ra, in the Land of Khem, the Choice of me as the Word of the Aeon. Now then for a while I worked with my Will, though not whol­ly; and again the Hand reached forth and smote me. This, albeit my Slack­ness was but as a Boy play­ing Tru­ant, not a revolt against my Self. Where­fore, despite all, I made much Progress in short Time.

 

80

Γβ.
DE SUO PECCATO.

Now then, well schooled, I strove no more against my Nature, and worked with all my Will. Thou know­est well how great­ly I was reward­ed. Yet in this last Ini­ti­a­tion to the Grade of Magus, where­in three-and-sev­en­ty Days, as Men count Days, is but One Day, the Ordeal grew so fierce and intol­er­a­ble that I gave back a Step. I did not utter­ly renounce the Work, but I swore not to con­tin­ue unless mine Agony were abat­ed. But after fif­teen Days, I came to myself in a cer­tain Ordeal, where­in I knew myself final­ly, that I could do no oth­er than take up that fear­ful Bur­den that had bro­ken my Spir­it. And for these fif­teen Days have I not suf­fered infi­nite Things? Was not the Tree of my Work frozen, one Branch with­ered, and on blast­ed? Look no more, o my son, upon thy Father’s Shame!

 

81

Γγ.
DE SUA VICTORIA PER NOMEN B A B A L O N.

And after? This Dawn (for I have toiled through the Night in my great Love and Care of thee) how is it with me? it is well. For I have found myself; I have found my Will; the Obsta­cles that daunt­ed me are seen to be by the Shad­ows of Shad­ows. Grace be unto Lady B A B A L O N.

Thus it is writ­ten in “The Book of the Law”: “Remem­ber all ye that exis­tence is pure joy; that all the sor­rows are but as shad­ows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.”

Learn then that it is in the con­tem­pla­tion of Divi­sion that Sor­row is, for Divi­sion is the For­mu­la of Choron­zon. It is there­fore dis­creet for thee to unite each ele­ment of Sor­row with its Oppo­site; in whose Tri­umph of Hymen is Eksta­cy, until by Appre­hen­sion of the new great Oppo­site the Idea is again seen as Sor­row. This then is the Issue from Sor­row; and thou mayst under­stand that I now also am con­fi­dent in the Neces­si­ty of this my Fall to pre­pare the for­mu­la of my Exal­ta­tion. There­fore, my Son, thus Hail Me: Bless­ing and wor­ship to the Beast, the Prophet of the Love­ly Star.

 

82

Γδ.
DE ARCANO NEFANDO.

O my Son, learn this con­cern­ing Mag­ick, that the Yang moveth, and thus giveth itself up Eter­nal­ly; but the Yin moveth not, seek­ing ever to enclose or restrict, repro­duc­ing in its own like­ness what Impres­sions soev­er it made there­on, yet with­out Sur­ren­der. Now the Tao absorbeth all with­out Repro­duc­tion; so then let the Yang turn there­to, and not unto the Yin. And that thou mayst under­stand this, I say: It is a Mys­tery of O.T.O. For the Sun ariseth not and entereth to strike upon the High Altar of the Min­ster by the Great West­ern Gates, but by the Rose Oriel doth he make Way and Progress in His Pageant. O my Son, the Doors of Sil­ver are wide open, and they tempt thee with their Beau­ty: but by the nar­row Por­tal of Pure Gold shalt thou come nobly to thy Sanc­tu­ary. Behold! Thou know­est not how per­fect is this Mag­ick; it is the dear­est-bought and holi­est of our Arcana. What then is like unto my Love toward Thee, that bestoweth upon thee this Trea­sure of my Wis­dom? My Son, neglect it not; for it is the Exor­cism of Exor­cisms, and the Enchant­ment of Enchant­ments.

 

83

Γε.
DE ARCANO, PER QUOD SPIRITUS QUIDAM IN CORPORE RECIPIATUR.

Here now is anoth­er For­mu­la of Pow­er, good to invoke any Being to man­i­fest in thy­self. First, invoke him by the Pow­er of all thy Spells and con­ju­ra­tions, with Mind con­cen­trat­ed and Will vehe­ment, toward him, as I have writ­ten in many Books. But because thou are NEMO, thou mayst safe­ly invoke him, no mat­ter of what Nature, with­in thy Cir­cle. Now then do thou con­fer on him as a Guer­don of his Obe­di­ence the Dig­ni­ty of a Soul seek­ing Incar­na­tion, and so pre­cede to con­se­crate thine Act by per­form­ing the Mass of the Holy Ghost. Then shall that Spir­it make him­self Body from those Ele­ments, and thou par­tak­ing there­of mak­est thine own Body his Machin­ery of Man­i­fes­ta­tion, and thus mayst thou work with any Spir­it soev­er; yet this shall serve thee most in com­mon Life. Also the Qual­i­ties are well defined in the Cards of the Tarot, so that thou hast a clear-cut Means of devel­op­ing thy Pow­ers accord­ing to the Needs of the Time. But learn also this, to work con­stant­ly under the Guid­ance of thine Holy Guardian Angel, so that thy Work­ings be alway in Har­mo­ny and Accord with thy true Will.

 

84

Γϝ.

Now then to thee who art long since Mas­ter of High Mag­ick, it will be easy to shew how the Mass of the Holy Ghost, sung even in Igno­rance, may work many a Won­der by Virtue of the Force gen­er­at­ed being com­pelled to man­i­fest on oth­er than its own Plane. Here then is a The­o­ry of the Mys­tery of the Aeon, that I, being the Logos appoint­ed there­un­to, did cre­ate an Image of my lit­tle Uni­verse in the Mind of the Woman of Scar­let; that is, I man­i­fest­ed my whole Mag­i­cal Self in her Mind. Thus then in Her, as in a Mir­ror, have I been able to inter­pret myself to myself. Thou also in thine own Way hast the Pow­er to cre­ate such an Image; but be thou sure and alert, test­ing con­stant­ly the Per­sons in that Image by the Holy Qabal­ah and by the true Signs of Broth­er­hood. For each Per­son there­in shall be a Part of thy­self, made indi­vid­ual and per­fect, able to instruct thee in thy Path. Yet often there shall be oth­ers, that are to aid thee in thy Work­ing, or to oppose it. And in this Mat­ter thou shalt read espe­cial­ly the Record of thy Father His Work­ings with Soror Ahi­ta (blessed be Her Name unto the Ages) and cer­tain oth­ers to Boot.

 

85

Γζ.
DE MISSA SPIRITUS SANCTI.

Now at last, o my son, may I being thee to under­stand the Truth of this For­mu­la that is hid­den in the Mass of the Holy Ghost. For Horus that is Lord of the Aeon is the Child crowned and con­quer­ing. The for­mu­la of Osiris was, as thou know­est, a Word of Death, that is, the Force lay long in Dark­ness, and by Putri­fac­tion came to Res­ur­rec­tion. But we take liv­ing Things, and pour in Life and Nature of our own Will, so that instant­ly and with­out Cor­rup­tion the Child (as it were the Word of that Will) is gen­er­at­ed; and again imme­di­ate­ly taketh up his Habi­ta­tion among us to man­i­fest in Force and Fire. This Mass of the Holy Ghost is then the true For­mu­la of the Mag­ick of the Aeon of Horus, blessed by He in His Name Ra-Hoor-Khuit! And thou shalt bless also the Name of our Father Mer­lin, Frater Supe­ri­or of the O.T.O., for that by sev­en Years of Appren­tice­ship in His School did I dis­cov­er this most excel­lent Way of Mag­ick. Be thou dili­gent, o my son, for in this won­drous Art is no more Toil, Sor­row, and Dis­ap­point­ment, as it was in the dead Aeon of the Slain Gods.

 

86

Γη.
DE FORMULA TOTA.

Here then is the Sched­ule for all the Oper­a­tions of Mag­ick. First, thou shalt dis­cov­er thy true Will, as I have already taught thee, and that Bud there­of which is the Pur­pose of this Oper­a­tion.

Next, for­mu­late this Bud-Will as a Per­son, seek­ing or con­struct­ing it, and nam­ing it accord­ing to thine Holy Qabal­ah, and its infal­li­ble Rule of Truth. Third, puri­fy and con­se­crate this Per­son, con­cen­trat­ing upon him and against all else. This Prepa­ra­tion shall con­tin­ue in all thy dai­ly Life. Mark well, make ready a new Child imme­di­ate­ly after every Birth. Fourth, make an espe­cial and direct Invo­ca­tion at thy Mass, before the Introit, for­mu­lat­ing a vis­i­ble Image of this Child, and offer­ing the Right of Incar­na­tion. Fifth, per­form the Mass, not omit­ting the Epik­le­sis, and let there be a Gold­en Wed­ding Ring at the Mar­riage of thy Lion with thine Eagle. Sixth, at the Con­sump­tion of the Eucharist accept this Child, los­ing thy Con­scious­ness in him, until he be well assim­i­lat­ed with thee. Now then do this con­tin­u­ous­ly, for by Rep­e­ti­tion cometh forth both Strength and Skill, and the Effect is cumu­la­tive, if thou allow no Time to dis­si­pate itself.

 

87

Γθ.
DE HAC FORMULA CONSIDERATIONES KABBALISTICAE.

Behold more­over, my Son, the Œcon­o­my of this Way, how it is accord­ing to the Tao, ful­fill­ing itself whol­ly with­in thine own Sphere. And it is utter­ly in Tune with thine own Will on every Plane, so that every Part of thy Nature rejoiceth with every oth­er Part, com­mu­ni­cat­ing Praise. Now then learn also how this For­mu­la is that of the Word ABRAHADABRA. First, HAD is the Tri­an­gle erect upon twin Squares. Of Hadit need I not to write, for He hath hid­den Him­self in “The Book of the Law”. This Sub­stance is the Father, the Instru­ment is the Son, and the Meta­phys­i­cal Eksta­cy is the Holy Ghost, whose Name is HRILIU. These are then the Sun, Mer­cury, and Venus, whose sacred let­ters are R (ר), B (ב), and D (ד). But the last of the Diverse Let­ters is H (ה), which in the Tarot is the Star whose Eidolon is D (ד); and here­in is that Arcanum con­cern­ing the Tao of which I have already writ­ten. Of this will I not write more plain­ly. But mark this, that our Trin­i­ty is our Path inwards in the Solar Sys­tem, and that H being of our Lady Nuith star­ry, is an Anchor to this Mag­ick which else were apt to deny our whole­ness of Rela­tion to the Out­er as to the Inner. My son, pon­der these Words, and prof­it by them; for I have wrought cun­ning­ly to con­ceal or to reveal, accord­ing to thine Intel­li­gence, o my Son!

 

88

Γι.
DE QUIBUSDAM ARTIBUS MAGICIS.

Now of those Oper­a­tions of Mag­ick by which thou seek­est to dis­play unto some oth­er Per­son the Right­eous­ness of thy Will I make haste to instruct thee. First, if thou have a rea­son­able Link with him by Word or Let­ter, it is most nat­ur­al sim­ply to cre­ate in thy­self, as I have taught, a Child or Bud-Will, and let that radi­ate from thee through the Chan­nels afore­said. But if thou have no Link, the Case is oth­er­wise and is not easy. Here thou mayst make Com­mu­ni­ca­tion through oth­ers, as it were by Relays; or thou mayst act direct­ly upon his Aura by Mag­i­cal Means, such as the Pro­jec­tion of the Scin-Lae­ca. But unless he be sen­si­tive and well-attuned, thou mayst fare but ill. Yet even in this Case thou mayst attain much Skill by Prac­tice with Intel­li­gence. In the End it is bet­ter alto­geth­er to work whol­ly with­in thine own Uni­verse, slow­ly and with firm Steps advanc­ing from the Cen­tre, and deal­ing, one by one, with those unhar­mo­nized Parts of the Not-Self which lie close to thee. This there­fore clos­eth the Cir­cle of my Speech, for now I am returned to that which I spake afore­time con­cern­ing the gen­er­al Method of love, and thy Devel­op­ment by that Way.

 

89

Γκ.
DE MAGNO OPERE.

But now give Ear most eager­ly, thou Son of my Loins, for I will now dis­course unto thee of thine Own Attain­ment, with­out which all is but Idle­ness. Know first that con­scious Thought is but phe­nom­e­nal, the Noise of thy Machine. Now Chem­istry, or Al-Chem‑y meaneth the Egypt­ian Sci­ence, and the true Mag­ick of Egypt hath this for its Foun­da­tion. We have in our House many Sub­stances which act direct­ly upon the Blood, and many Prac­tices of Virtue sim­i­lar, to sim­u­late, com­pose, puri­fy, analyse, direct, or con­cen­trate the Thought. Con­fer “CCXX”. 11, 22. But this Action is sub­tle and of man Modes, and depen­deth heav­i­ly on the Con­di­tions of the Exper­i­ment, where­of the first is thine own Will there­in. There­fore I say unto thee that this is thy Work imme­di­ate and nec­es­sary, to dis­cov­er open­ly thy Will unto thy­self, and to for­ti­fy and enkin­dle it by all One-Point­ed­ness of Thought and Action, so that thou mayst direct it inwards unto its Core, that is Thy­self in thy Name HADIT. For there­by is thy Will made white with Heat, so that no Dross may cling to it. But this Work is the Great Work, and standeth alone.

 

90

Γλ.
DE GRADIBUS AD MAGNUM OPUS.

This Great Work is the Attain­ment of the Knowl­edge and Con­ver­sa­tion of thine Holy Guardian Angel. In the Eight Aethyr is the Way there­of revealed. But I say: pre­pare thy­self most hearti­ly and well for that Bat­tle of Love by all means of Mag­ick. Make thy­self puis­sant, wise, radi­ant in every Sys­tem, and bal­ance thy­self well in thine Uni­verse. Then with a pure Will tem­pered in the thou­sand Fur­naces of thy Tri­als, burn up thy­self with­in thy Self. In the Prepa­ra­tion thou shalt have learnt how thou mayst still all Thoughts, and reach Eksta­cy of Trance in many Modes. But in these Mar­riages thy con­scious Self is Bride­groom, and the not-Self Bride, while in this Great Work thou givest up that con­scious Self as Bride to thy true Self. This Oper­a­tion is then rad­i­cal­ly alien from all oth­ers. And it is hard, because it is a total Rever­sal of the Cur­rent of the Will, and a Trans­mu­ta­tion of its For­mu­la and Nature. Here, o my son, is the One Secret of Suc­cess in this Great Work: Invoke often.

 

91

Γμ.
DE FORMULA LUNAE.

Thus then con­cern­ing Oper­a­tions of the Tao with the Yang and the Yin is there enough; for thine own Art of Beau­ty shall divine for thee, and devise new Heav­ens. But in all these is the For­mu­la of the Ser­pent with the Head of the Lion, and all this Mag­ick is wrought by the Radi­ance and Cre­ative Force there­of. And this Force leapeth con­tin­u­al­ly from Plane to Plane, and breaketh forth from his Bonds, so that Con­straint is Labour. Now then learn that the Yin hath also a For­mu­la of Force. And the Nature of the Yin is to be still, and to encir­cle of lim­it, and it is as a Mir­ror, reflect­ing diverse Images with­out Change in its own Kind. So then it seeketh nev­er to over­lap the Bar­ri­ers of its Plane; for this Rea­son it is well to use it in Oper­a­tions of a very def­i­nite and restrict­ed Type. But although it be inert, yet is it most sub­ject to Change; for its Num­ber is four Score and one, which is the Moon; and these are A L O „ the Gods ele­men­tal before H descend­ing in their midst made them Cre­ative. So then thou mayst use con­stant­ly this For­mu­la to rearrange Things in their own Planes; and this is a most prag­mat­ic Con­sid­er­a­tion.

 

92

Γν.
DE AQUILAE SUMKNDA.

Take in this Work the Eagle all unde­filed and vir­ginal for thy Sacra­ment. And thy Tech­nick is the Mag­ick of Water, so that thine Act is of Nour­ish­ment, and not of Gen­er­a­tion. There­fore the Prime Use of this Art is to build up thine own Nature. But if thou hast Skill to con­trol the Mood of the Eagle, then mayst thou work many an admirable Effect upon thine Envi­ron­ment. Thou know­est how great is the Fame of Witch-Women (old and with­out Man) to cause Events, although they cre­ate noth­ing. It is this Strait­ness of the Chan­nel which giveth Force to the Stream. Beware, o my Son, lest thou cling over­much to this Mode of Mag­ick; for it is less­er than that Oth­er, and if thou neglect That Oth­er, then is thy Dan­ger fear­ful and immi­nent, for it is the Edge of the Abyss of Choron­zon, where are the lone­ly Tow­ers of the Black Broth­ers. Also the For­mu­la­tion of the Object in the Eagle is by a Species of Intox­i­ca­tion, so that His Nature is of Dream or Delir­i­um, and thus there may be Illu­sion. For this Cause I deem it not whol­ly unwise if thou use this Way of Mag­ick chiefly as a Cor­dial; that is for the For­ti­fy­ing of thine own Nature.

 

93

Γχ.
DE MEDICINIS SECUNDUM QUATTUOR ELEMENTA.

Con­cern­ing the Use of chem­i­cal Agents, and be mind­ful that thou abuse them not, learn that the Sacra­ment itself relateth to Spir­it, and the Four Ele­ments bal­anced there­un­der in its Per­fec­tion. So also thy Lion him­self hath a four­fold Men­stru­um for his Ser­pents. Now to Fire belong Cocaine, which for­ti­fi­eth the Will, loos­ing him from bod­i­ly Fatigue, Mor­phine, which puri­fi­eth the Mind, mak­ing the Thought safe, and slow, and sin­gle, Hero­in which par­taketh as it seemeth, of the Nature of these twain afore­said albeit in Degree less notable than either of them, and Alco­hol, which is Food, that is, Fuel, for the whole Man. To Water, attribute Hashish and Mescal, for they make Images, and they open the hid­den Springs of Plea­sure and of Beau­ty. Mor­phine, for its Ease, hath also part in Water. Air ruleth Eth­yl Oxide, for it is as a Sword, divid­ing asun­der ever Part of thee, mak­ing easy the Way of Analy­sis, so that thou comest to learn thy­self of what Ele­ments thou art com­pact. Last­ly, of the Nature of Earth are the direct Hyp­notics, which oper­ate by Repose, and restore thy Strength by lay­ing thee as a Child in the Arms of the Great Moth­er, I say rather of Her mate­r­i­al and phys­i­o­log­i­cal Vicegerent.

 

94

Γο.
DE VIRTUTE EXPERIMENTIAE IN HOC ARTE.

Not Sleep, not Rest, not Con­tent­ment are of the Will of the Hero, but these Things he hateth, and con­sen­teth to enjoy them only with Same of his weak Nature. But he will analyse him­self with­out Pity, and he will do all Things soev­er that may free and for­ti­fy his Mind and Will. Know that the Tech­nick of the Right Use of this Mag­ick with Poi­sons is sub­tle; and since the Nature of every Man dif­fer­eth from that of his Fel­low, there entereth Idio­syn­crasy, and thine Expe­ri­ence shall be thy Mas­ter in this Art. Heed also this Word fol­low­ing: The Right Use of these Agents is to gain a Knowl­edge pre­lim­i­nary of thine own Pow­ers, and of High States, so that thou goest not alto­geth­er blind­ly and with­out Aim in thy Quest, igno­rant of the Ways of thine own inner Being. Also, thou must work always for a def­i­nite End, nev­er for Plea­sure or for Relax­ation, except thy wilt, as a good Knight is sworn to do. And thou being Hero and Magi­cian art in Per­il of abus­ing the fiery Agents only, not those of Earth, Air or Water; because these do real­ly work with thee in Puri­ty, mak­ing thee whol­ly what thou wouldst be, an Engine inde­fati­ga­ble, a Mind clear, calm, and con­cen­trat­ed, and a Heart fierce aglow.

 

95

Γπ.
DE SACRAMENTO VERO.

But in the Sacra­ment of the Gno­sis, which is of the Spir­it, is there naught hurt­ful, for its Ele­ments are not only Food, but a true Incar­na­tion and Quin­tes­sence of Life, Love, and Lib­er­ty, and at its Man­i­fes­ta­tion thy Lion is con­se­crat­ed by pure Light of Eksta­cy. Also, as this is the strongest so also it is the most sen­si­tive of all Things soev­er, and both prop­er and ready to take Impress of Will, not as a Seal pas­sive­ly but with true Recre­ation in a Micro­cosm there­of. And this is a God alive and puis­sant to cre­ate, and He is a Word of Mag­ick where­in thou mayst read Thy­self with all thine His­to­ry and all thy Pos­si­bil­i­ty. Also as to thine Eagle, is not this cho­sen by Nature Her­self by Her Way of Attrac­tion, with­out which har­mo­ny Aes­thet­ic and Mag­net­ic thy Lion is silent, and inert, even as Achilles before his Rage in his Tent. Now also there­fore I charge thee, o my Son, to par­take con­stant­ly of this Sacra­ment for it is prop­er to all Virtue, and as thou dost learn to us it in Per­fec­tion, thou wilt sur­pass all oth­er Modes of Mag­ick. Yea, in good Sooth, no Herb or Potion is like unto this, supreme in every Case, for it is the True Stone of Philoso­phers, and the Elixir and Med­i­cine of all Things, the Uni­ver­sal Tinc­ture or Men­stru­um of thine own Will.

 

96

Γϟ.
DE DISCIPULIS REGENDIS.

I will have thee to know, more­over, my dear Son, the right Art of Con­duct with them whom I shall give thee for Ini­ti­a­tion. And the Rule there­of is one Rule; Do that thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. See thou con­stant­ly to it that this be not bro­ken; espe­cial­ly in the Sec­tion there­of (if I dare say so) which read­eth Mind thine own Busi­ness. This is of Appli­ca­tion equal­ly to all, and the most dan­ger­ous Man (or Woman, as has occurred, or I err) is the Busy-body. Oh how ashamed are we, and moved to Indig­na­tion, see­ing the Sins and Fol­lies of our Neigh­bours! Of all the Occa­sions of this Griev­ance the most com­mon is the Desire of Sex unsat­is­fied; and thou know­est already, even in thy young Expe­ri­ence, how in that Delir­i­um the Weal of the Whole Uni­verse appeareth of no Account. Do thou wean thy Babes from that Sim­plic­i­ty, and instil the Sense of true Pro­por­tion. For ver­i­ly this is a Way of Mad­ness, Love, unless it be under Will. And the Cure of this Mad­ness is not so good as its Pre­ven­tion, so that thou shouldst be before­hand with these Chil­dren, shew­ing them the right Impor­tance of Love, how it should be a sacred Rite, exalt­ed above Per­son­al­i­ty, and a Fire to enlight­en and serve Man, not to devour him.

 

97

Γρ.
DE QUIBUSDAM MORBIS DISCIPULORUM.

And thus, if any Babe of thine be ill at ease, look close­ly first whether this Love be not the Root of his Dis­tem­per. Watch also Idle­ness, for whoso pres­seth eager­ly for­ward in Will heedeth lit­tle the Affairs of this Fel­lows. O my Son, if every Man doth his own Will, there is no more to Say! But the Busy-body nor min­deth his own Busi­ness, nor leaveth oth­ers to mind theirs. Be thou instant there­fore with such an one, to cure him by enlight­en­ing his Will, and speed­ing him there­in. Remem­ber also that if one speak ill of anoth­er, the Fault is first of all in him­self, for we know naught but that which is with­in us. Did not the great Witch-Find­er end by con­fess­ing that he also was a Sor­cer­er? We become that which obses­seth us, either through extreme Hate or Extreme Love. Know­est thou not how the one is a Sym­bol of the oth­er? For this Rea­son, since Love is the For­mu­la of Life, we are under Bond to assim­i­late (in the End) that which we fear or hate. So then we shall be wise to mould all Things with­in our­selves in Quiet­ness and Mod­u­la­tion. But above all must we use all to our own End, adapt­ing with Adroit­ness even our Weak­ness to the Work.

 

98

Γσ.
DE CULPIS DOMI PETENDIS.

There­fore, watch heed­ful­ly the Fault of anoth­er, that thou mayst cor­rect it in thy­self. For if it were not in thee, thou couldst not per­ceive it or under­stand it. Lo, in thine Eksta­cy of Love, thou callest upon the Uni­verse to bear Wit­ness that to this End alone was it cre­at­ed; it is unthink­able that thou shouldst love anoth­er, and incom­pre­hen­si­ble that any Man should grieve. Yet ere the Moon change her Quar­ter, thou art free of thy Lunes, and lovest anoth­er, and it may be grievest in thy­self while he that amazed thee hath joined the Com­pa­ny of the Rejoic­ing. Watch then, and heed thy­self; and pay no Heed to thy Fel­lows, inso­far as they impede thee not. And let this be the Rule. For every Will is pure and every Orbit free; but Error bringeth Con­fu­sion. See there­fore that none leave his Path, lest he foul that of his Broth­er; and remem­ber also that with Speed cometh Ease of Con­trol. Let each Man there­fore urge briskly his Char­i­ot in a right Line toward the Cen­tre; for two Radii can­not cross. And beware most of this Love, because it lieth so close to Will that Dis-ease there­of eas­i­ly imparteth his Error to the Whole Way of the Magi­cian.

 

99

Γτ.
DE CORPORE UMBRA HOMINIS.

Con­cern­ing the Aeon, o my Son, learn that the Sun and His Vicegerent are in all Aeons, of Neces­si­ty, Father, Cen­tre, Cre­ator, each in His Sphere of Oper­a­tion. But the For­mu­la of the past Aeon was of the Dying god, and was based upon Igno­rance. For Men thought that the Sun died and was reborn alike in the Day and in the Year; and so also was the Mys­tery of Man. Now already are we well assured by Sci­ence how the Death of the Sun is in Truth but the Shift­ing of a Shad­ow; and in this Aeon (o my son, I lift up my Voice and I make Prophe­cy!) so shall it be proven as to Death. For the Body of Man is but his Shad­ow, it cometh and goeth even as the tides of Ocean; and he only is in Dark­ness who is hid­den by that Shad­ow from the Light of his true Self. Now there­fore under­stand thou the For­mu­la of Horus, the Lion God, the Child crowned and con­quer­ing that cometh forth in Force and Fire! For thy Changes are not Phas­es of thee, but of the Phan­toms which thou mis­tak­est for thy Self.

 

100

Γυ.
DE SIRENIS.

Con­cern­ing the Love of women, o my Son, it is writ­ten in “The Book of the Law” that all is Free­don, if it be cone unto our Lady Nuit. Yet also there is this Consideration,that for every Par­si­fal there is a Kundry. Thou mayst eat a thou­sand Fruits of the Gar­den; but there is one Tree whose name for thee is Poi­son. In every great Ini­ti­a­tion is an Ordeal, where­in appeareth a Siren or Vam­pire appoint­ed to destroy the Can­di­date. I have myself wit­nessed the Blast­ing of not less that ten of my own Flow­ers, that I tend­ed when I was Nemo, and that although I saw the Canker­worm, and knew it, and gave urgent Warn­ing. How then con­sid­er deeply in thy­self if I were right­ly gov­erned in this Action, accord­ing to the Tao. For we that are Magi­cians work with­out Fear or Haste, being omnipo­tent in Eter­ni­ty, and each Star must go his Way; and who am I that should save this Peo­ple? “Wilt thou smite me as thou smotest the Egypt­ian yes­ter­day?” Yes, although mine were the Might to save these Ten, I reached not forth mine Arm against Iniq­ui­ty, I spake and I was silent; and that which was appoint­ed came to pass. As it is writ­ten, the Preg­nant God­dess hath let down Her Bur­den upon the Earth.

 

101

Γφ.
DE FEMINA QUADAM.

Know­est thou for what Cause I am moved to write this unto thee, my Son only-begot­ten, Child of Mag­ick and of Mys­tery? It is that I thy Father am also in this Ordeal of Ini­ti­a­tion at this Hour. For the Sun is nigh unto the End of the Sign of the Fish­es in the Thir­teenth Year of the Aeon, and the New Cur­rent of High Mag­ick leapeth forth as a Flood from the Womb of my True Lady B A B A L O N. And a Word hath come to me by the Mouth of thee Scar­let Woman, whose Name is E V E, or A H I T H A, con­cern­ing the Tem­ple of Jupiter that is build­ed for me. And there­in is a Woman appoint­ed to a cer­tain Office. Now this Woman appeared to me in a Vision when I was in the House of the Jug­gler by the Lake among the Moun­tains, the Sun being in Can­cer in the Eleventh Year of the Aeon, even in the Week after thy Birth. And I think this Woman to be Her whom I call W E S — R U N. But even while with a pure Heart I did invoke Her, there came unto me anoth­er like unto Her, so that I am con­fused in my Mind and bewil­dered. And this oth­er Woman stir­reth my true Nature in its Depth, so that I will not call it Love. For the Voice of Love I know of old; but this oth­er Woman speaketh in a tongue where­of I have no Under­stand­ing.

 

102

Γχ.
DE SUA VIRTUTE.

What then shall I do there­in? For the Scar­let Woman adjureth me by the great Name of God ITHUPHALLOS that I deal with the Oth­er Woman as with any Woman, accord­ing to my Will. But this I fear for that she is not as any Woman, and I deem her to be the Vam­pire of this Ordeal. Now then? Shall I fear? Said I not long since, when I was called of Men Elip­haz Levi Zahed, that the Error of Oedi­pus was that he should have tamed the Sphinx, and rid­den her into Thebes? Shall I not take this Vam­pire, if she be such, and mas­ter her and turn her to the Great End? “Am I such a Man as should flee?” Is not all Fear the Word of Fail­ure? Shall I dis­trust my Des­tiny? Am I that am the Word of the Aeon of so lit­tle avail that even the whole Pow­ers of Choron­zon can dis­perse me? Nay, o my Son, there is Courage of Igno­rance and Dis­cre­tion of Knowl­edge, and by no less Virtue will I win through unto mine End. As it is writ­ten: with Courage con­quer­ing Fear will I approach thee.

 

103

Γψ.
DE ALIQUIBUS MODIS ORACULI PETENDI.

My Son, in all Judg­ment and Deci­sion is great Del­i­ca­cy, but most in these Mat­ters of the Will. For thou art Advo­cate as well as Judge, and unless thou have well orga­nized thy Mind thou art Bond­slave of Prej­u­dice. For this Cause it is adju­vant to thy Wis­dom to call Wit­ness­es that are not of thine own Nature, and to ask Ora­cles whose Inter­pre­ta­tion is bound by fixed rule. This is the Use of the Book T A R O T, of the Div­ina­tion by Earth, or by the oth­er Ele­ments, or by the Book “Yi-King”, and many anoth­er Mode of Truth. Thou knoest by thine Expe­ri­ence that these Arts deceive thee not, save inso­far as thou deceivest thy­self. So then to thee that art NEMO is no Siege Per­ilous at this Table, but to them that are yet below the Abyss is very notable Dan­ger of Error. Yet must they train them­selves con­stant­ly in these Modes, for Expe­ri­ence itself shall teach them how their Bias toward their Desires reacteth in the End against them­selves, and hin­dereth them in the Exe­cu­tion of their Wills. Nev­er­the­less, as thou well know­est, the best Mode is the Cre­ation of an Intel­li­gi­ble Image by Virtue of the Mass of the Holy Ghost, declar­ing the true Will unto thee in Terms of thy Qabal­ah!

 

104

Γ.
DE FRATRIBUS NIGRIS? FILIIS INIQUITATIS.

Of the Black Broth­ers, o my Son, will I write these Things fol­low­ing. I have told thee already con­cern­ing Change, how it is the Law, because every Change is an Act of Love under will. So then He that is Adept Exempt, whether in our Holy Order or anoth­er, may not remain in the Pil­lar of Mer­cy, because it is not bal­anced, but is unsta­ble. There­fore is the Choice giv­en unto him, whether he will destroy his Tem­ple, and give up his Life, extend­ing it to Uni­ver­sal Life, or whether he will make a Fortress about that Tem­ple, and abide there­in, in the false Sphere of Daath, which is in the Abyss. And to the Adepts of our Holy Order this Choice is ter­ri­ble; by Cause that they must aban­don even Him whose Knowl­edge and Con­ver­sa­tion they have attained. Yet, o my Son, they have much Help of our Order in this Aeon, because the gen­er­al For­mu­la is Love, so that their habit itself urges them to the Bed of our Lady BABALON. Know then the Black Broth­ers by this true Sign of their Ini­ti­a­tion of iniq­ui­ty, that that they resist Change, restrict and deny Love, fear Death. Per­cu­tiantur.

 

105

Δα.
DE VIRTUTE CHIRURGICA.

Know that the Cult of the Slave-Gods is a Device of those Black Broth­ers. All that stag­nateth is there­of, and thence cometh not Sta­bil­i­ty, but Putre­fac­tion. Endure not thou the sta­t­ic Stan­dards either in Thought or in Action Resist not even the Change that is the Rot­ten­ness of Choron­zon, but rather speed it, so that the ele­ments may com­bine by Love under Will. Since the Black Broth­ers and their Cults set them­selves against Change, do thou break them asun­der. Yea, though of bad come worse, con­tin­ue in that Way; for it is as if thou didst open an Abscess, the first Effect being noi­some exceed­ing­ly, but the last Clean­ness. Heed not then, whoso cri­eth Anar­chy, and Immoral­i­ty, and Heresy against thee, and feareth to destroy Abuse lest worse Things come of it. For the Will of the Uni­verse in its Whole­ness is to Truth, and thou dost well to purge it from its Con­stive­ness. For it is writ­ten that there is no bond that can unite the Divid­ed by Love, so that only those Com­plex­es which are in Truth Sim­plic­i­ties, being built Cell by Cell unto an Uni­ty by Virtue of Love under Will, are wor­thy to endure in their Pro­gres­sion.

 

106

Δβ.
DE OPERIBUS STELLAE MICROCOSMI. QUORUM SUNT QUATTOUR MINORES.

I have already writ­ten unto thee, my Son, of the Para­dox of Lib­er­ty, how the Free­dom of thy Will depen­deth upon the Bend­ing of all thy forces to that one End. But now also learn how great is the Œcon­o­my 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 the Yang and the Yin, and maketh One the Human with the Divine, as in the Attain­ment of the Mas­ter of the Tem­ple. Yet this Work hath his Per­ver­sion, which is of Death. Thus then for thee four Works, they per­tain all to the Nat­ur­al For­mu­la of the Cross and Rose.

 

107

Δγ.
DE OPERIBUS STELLAE MICROCOSMI. QUORUM SUNT QUATTUOR MAJORES.

O my Son, behold now the Virtue and Mys­tery of the Sil­ver Star! For of these four Works not one lead­eth to the Crown, because Tetra­gram­ma­ton hath his Root only in Chokmah. So there­fore the For­mu­la of the Rosy Cross availeth no more in the High­est. Now then in the Pen­ta­gram are two Lines that invoke Spir­it, though they lead not there­un­to, and they are the Works of He with He, and of Yod with Vau. Of thee twain the for­mer is a Work Mag­i­cal of the Nature of Music, and it draweth down the Fire of the HIGHER by Seduc­tion or Bewitch­ment. And the lat­ter is a Work oppo­site there­un­to, whose Effect forum­lateth itself by direct Cre­ation in the Sphere of its Pur­pose and Intent. But there remain yet two of the Eight Works, name­ly, the straight Aspi­ra­tion of the Chi­ah or Cre­ator in thee to the Crown, and the Sur­ren­der of the Nephesh or Ani­mal soul to the Pos­ses­sion there­of; and these be the twin prin­ci­pal For­mu­lae of the Final Attain­ment, being Arche­types of the Paths of Mag­ick (the one) and Mys­ti­cism (the oth­er) unto the End. From each of these Eight Works is derived a sep­a­rate Mode of prac­ti­cal Use, each after his Kind; and it should be well for thine Instruc­tion if thou study upon these my Words, and found upon them a Sys­tem. O my son, for­get not there­in the Arcanum of their Bal­ance and Pro­por­tion; fort here­in lieth the Mys­tery of their Holi­ness.

 

108

Δδ.
DE STELLA MACROCOSMI.

Thus far then con­cern­ing the Pen­ta­gram, how it is of the Cross, and its Virtue of the High­est; but the Hexa­gram is for the most Part a Detail of the For­mu­la of the Rose and Cross. Already have I shewed unto thee how the Most Holy Trin­i­ty is the Yang; but the Spir­it, and the Water (or Flu­id) and the Blood, that bear Wit­ness in the Infe­ri­or, are of the Yin. Thus the Oper­a­tion of the Hexa­gram lieth whol­ly with­in the Order of our Plane, unit­ing indeed any soul with its Image, but not tran­scen­den­tal­ly, for its Effect is Cos­mos, the Vau that springeth from the Union of the Yod and the He. Thus is it but a Glyph of that first For­mu­la, not of the oth­ers. But of all these Things shalt thou thy­self make Study with ardent Affec­tion; for there­in lie many Mys­ter­ies of prac­ti­cal Wis­dom in our Mag­ick Art. And this is the Won­der and Beau­ty of this Work, that for every Man is his own Palace. Yea, this is Life, that the Secrets of our Order are not fixed and dead, as are the For­mu­lae of the Out­er. Know that in the many thou­sand Times that I have per­formed the Rit­u­al of the Pen­ta­gram or the Invo­ca­tion of the Heart girt with a Ser­pent, or the Mass of the Phoenix, or of the Holy Ghost, there has not been one Time where­in I did not win new Light, or Knowl­edge or Pow­er or Virtue, save through mine own Weak­ness or Error.

 

109

Δε.
DE SUA FEMINA OLIM, ET DE ECSTASIA PRAETER OMNIA.

My Son, I am enflamed with Love. I burn up eager­ly in the Pas­sion that thus might­i­ly con­sumeth me. Yet in myself I know not at all That which con­straineth me, and enkindleth my Soul in Eksta­cy. There is Silence in my Soul, and the Fear round about me, as I were Syrinx in the Night of the For­est. This is a great Mys­tery that I endure, a Mys­tery too great for the mor­tal Part of me. For but now, when I cried out upon the Name Olun, which is the secret Name of my Lady that hath come to me — most strange­ly! — then I was rapt away alto­geth­er sub­tly yet fierce­ly into a Trance that hath trans­formed me with Attain­ment, yet with­out Trace in Mind. O my son! there is the Trans­fig­u­ra­tion of Glo­ry, and there is the Jew­el in the Lotus-flower; yea, also is many oth­er where­of I am Par­tak­er. But this last Pas­sion, that my Lady Olun hath brought unto me upon this last Day of the Win­ter of the thir­teenth Year of the Aeon, even as I wrote these Words unto thee, is a Mys­tery of Mys­ter­ies beyond all these. Oh my son, thou know­est well the Per­ils and the Prof­it of our Path; con­tin­ue thou there­in. Olun! Μαπιε BABALON! Adsum.

110

Δϝ.
DE NOMINE OLUN.

Four Sea­sons, or it may be night five, ago, I thy Father was in the City called New-Orleans, and being in Tra­vail of Spir­it I did invoke the God that giveth Wis­dom, bear­ing the Word of the All-Father by his Caduceus. Then, sud­den­ly, as I began (as it were a Gust of Fire whirled forth against that Idea) cam the Wit of mine utter Iden­ti­ty, so that I ceased cry­ing Mer­curius Sum. Also instant­ly I knew in myself that there was a Mys­tery hid­den, and trans­lat­ing into the Greek Tongue, exclaimed ΈΠΜΣ Έ;ΙΜΙ, whose Numer­a­tion did I make in my Mind forth­with, and it is Four Hun­dred and Eigh­teen, like unto the Word of the Aeon. So by this I knew that my Work was well wrought in Truth. Thus then also was it with this my Lady; for after many Ques­tions I obtained from the wiz­ard Amalantrah that Name Olun, that is One Hun­dred and Fifty and Six even as that of our Lady BABALON; and then, being inspired, I wrote down Her Earth-name in Greek, ΜΑΡΙΕ, which is also that this Name (as I have learned) is in the Phoeni­cian Tongue, wholen; which by Inter­pre­ta­tion is That which is Infi­nite, and Space; so that all is con­so­nant with NUITH Our Lady of the Stars. Thus, o my Son, is the Word of Truth echoed through­out all Worlds; and thus have the Wise mighty Assur­ance in their Way. See, o my Son, that thou work not with­out this Guard inflex­i­ble, lest thou err in thy Per­cep­tions.

111

Δζ
DE VIRIS MAGNANIMIS
AMORE PRAECLARISSIMIS

Know that in the Mind of Man is much Wis­dom that is hid­den, being the Trea­sure of his Sire that he inheriteth. Thus, night all of his moral Nature is unknown to him until his Puber­ty; that is, this Nature per­taineth not unto the Record­ing and Judg­ing Appa­ra­tus of his Brain until it is put there­in by the Stir­ring of that deep­er Nature with­in him. Thou wilt mark also that great Men are com­mon­ly great Lovers; and this is in Part also because (con­scious­ly or not) they are ware of that Secret fol­low­ing, that every Act of Love com­mu­ni­cateth some­what of the Wis­dom stored with­in him to his per­cip­i­ent Mind. Yet must such Act be done right­ly, accord­ing to Art; and unless such Act is of Prof­it alike to Mind and Body, it is an Error. This then is true Doc­trine; which if it be under­stand­ed aright of thee, shall make 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.

 

112

Δη
DE CASTITATE

My son, be fer­vent! Be firm! Be sta­ble! Be quick to make Impu­ri­ty, how one Course of Ideas seeketh to infringe upon anoth­er, to quell the Virtue there­of. Gold is pure, but to drink molten Gold were Impu­ri­ty to thy Body, and its Destruc­tion. Law is a Code of the Cus­toms of a Peo­ple; if it intrude there­on to alter them, it is an Impu­ri­ty of Oppres­sion. So also Diet is to be in Accord with Diges­tion; Ethics were an Impu­ri­ty there­in. Love is an Expres­sion of the Will of the Body, yea, and more also, of That which cre­at­ed the Body; and its Oper­a­tion is com­mon­ly between One and One, so that the Inter­fer­ence of a Third Per­son is Impu­ri­ty, and not to be endured. Nay, even the thought of Third Per­son hath but ordi­nary not Part in Love; so that, as thou seest con­stant­ly in thy Life, Love being strong, taketh no heed of oth­ers, and some after Inter­fer­ence bringeth Mis­for­tune. Now then shell we there­fore cast out Love, or accept Impu­ri­ty there­in? God for­bid. And for this Cause see thou well to it that in thy King­dom there be no Inter­fer­ence there with, nor Hin­drance from any. For it is per­fect in itself.

 

113

Δθ
DE CEREMONIO EQUINOCTI

My Son, our Father in Heav­en hath passed into the Sign of the Ram. I have per­formed the Rite of Union with Him accord­ing to the ancient Man­ner, and I know the Word that shall rule the Semes­ter. Also it is giv­en unto my Spir­it to write unto thee con­cern­ing the Virtue of this Rite, and many anoth­er of Antiq­ui­ty. And it is this, that our Fore­fa­thers made of these Cer­e­monies an Epit­o­me Mnemon­ic, where­in cer­tain Truths, or true Rela­tions, should be com­mu­ni­cat­ed in a mag­i­cal Man­ner. Now there­fore by the Prac­tice of these mayst thou awak­en thy Wis­dom, that it may man­i­fest in thy con­scious Mind. And this Way is of Use even when the Cer­e­monies, as those of the Chris­tians, are cor­rupt and deformed; but in such a Case thou shalt seek out the true ancient Sig­nif­i­cance there­of. For there is that with­in thee which remem­bereth Truth, and is ready to com­mu­ni­cate the same unto thee when thou hast Wit to evoke it from the Adi­tum and Sanc­tu­ary of thy Being. And this is to be done by this Rep­e­ti­tion of the For­mu­la of that Truth. Note thou fur­ther that this which I tell thee is the Defence of For­mal­ism; and indeed thou must work upon a cer­tain Skele­ton, but clothe it with live Flesh.

 

114

Δι
DE LUCE STELLARUM

It was that most Holy Prophet, thine Uncle, called upon Earth William O’Neill, or Blake, who wrote for our Under­stand­ing these Eleven Sacred Words:

If the Sun and Moon should doubt
They’d imme­di­ate­ly go out.

O my Son, our Work is to shine by Fore and Virtue of our own Natures with­out Con­scious­ness or con­sid­er­a­tion. Now, notwith­stand­ing that our Radi­ance is con­stant and undimmed, it may be that Clouds gath­er­ing about us con­ceal our Glo­ry from the Vision of oth­er Stars. These Clouds are our Thoughts; not those true Thoughts which are but con­scious Expres­sions of our Will, such as man­i­fest in our Poesy, or our Music, or oth­er Flower-Ray of our Life quin­tes­sen­tial. Nay, the Cloud-Thought is born of Divi­sion and of Doubt; for all Thoughts, except they be cre­ative ema­na­tions, are Wit­ness­es to Con­flict with­in us. Our set­tled Rela­tions with the Uni­verse do not dis­turb our Minds, as, by Exam­ple, our auto­mat­ic Func­tions, which speak to us only in the Sign of Dis­tress. Thus all Con­sid­er­a­tion is Demon­stra­tion of Doubt; Doubt pos­tu­lateth Dual­i­ty, which is the Root of Choron­zon.

 

115

Δκ
DE CANTU

So then, o my Son, there is my Wis­dom, that the Voice of the Soul in its true Nature Eter­nal and Unchange­able, com­pre­hend­ing all Change, is Silence; and the Voice of the Soul, dynam­ic, in the Way of its Will, is song. Nor is there any Form of utter­ance that is not, as song is, the Music prop­er to that Motion, accord­ing to the Law. Thus, as thy Cousin Arthur Machen hath rejoiced to make plain unto Men in his Book called Hiero­glyph­ics, the first Qual­i­ty of Art is its Ecsta­sy. So, night to all Men at one Time or oth­er, cometh Joy of Cre­ation, with the Belief that their Utter­ance is holy and beau­ti­ful, glo­ri­ous with Ban­ners. This would indeed be the Case, an we could dis­cern their Thought from their Words; but because they have no tech­ni­cal Skill to express them­selves, the do not enable oth­ers to repro­duce or recre­ate the orig­i­nal Pas­sion which inspired them, or even any Mem­o­ry there­of. Under­stand then what is the Agony of the Great Soul who hath every Key of Par­adise at his Gir­dle, when he would open the Gate of Holi­ness, or of Beau­ty, or any Virtue soev­er, to the Men of his Age!

 

116

Δλ
DE STULTITIA HUMANA

Know that a Mind can only appre­hend those Things with which it is already famil­iar, at least in Part. More­over, it will ever inter­pret accord­ing to the Dis­tor­tion of its own Lens­es. Thus, in a great War, all Speech soev­er may be under­stood as if it were of Ref­er­ence there­un­to; also, a Guilty Per­son, or a Melan­cholic may see in every Stranger an Offi­cer of Jus­tice, or one of them that are band­ed togeth­er (him seemeth) 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 Every­man unto whom is giv­en a Word.

 

117

Δμ
DE SUO PROELIO

Now there­fore thou seest how Men take the Son of Sci­ence, and burn him for a Sor­cer­er or a Heretic; the Poet and cast him out as Repro­bate; the Painter, as deform­ing Nature, the Musi­cian, as deny­ing Har­mo­ny; and so for every New Word. How much more, then, if the Word be of Uni­ver­sal Import, a Word of Rev­o­lu­tion and of Rev­e­la­tion in the Deep of the Soul? A new Star; that is for the Astronomers, and maybe set­teth them by the Ears. But a new Sun! That were for all Men; and a Seed of Tumult and Upheaval in every Land. con­sid­er in thy­self, there­fore, what is the Might of the Adepts, the Ener­gy of the Sanc­tu­ary, that can endow one Man with the Word of an Æon, 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.

 

118

Δν
DE NECESSITATE VERBI CLAMANDI

He that striv­eth against his own Nature is a Fool, and wot­teth not his Will, dark­en­ing Coun­sel in him­self, and deny­ing his own God, and giv­ing Place to Choron­zon. So then his Work becometh Hotch­pot, and he is shat­tered and dis­persed in the Abyss. Nor is it bet­ter for him if he do this for the sup­posed Good of anoth­er, and for that oth­er is it Evil also in the End of the Mat­ter. For to man­i­fest thine own Divi­sion to anoth­er, and to deceive him, is but to con­firm him in blind­ness, or Illu­sion, and to hin­der or to deflect him in his Way. Now to do thine own Will is to leave him free to do his own Will, but to mask thy Will is to fal­si­fy one of the Bea­cons by which he may steer his Ship. My son, all divi­sion of Soul, that beget­teth Neu­ro­sis and Insan­i­ty, cometh from wrong Adjust­ment to Real­i­ty, and to Fear there­of. Wilt thou then hide Truth from thy Broth­er, lest he suf­fer? Thou dost not well, but con­firmest him in Iniq­ui­ty, and in Illu­sion, and in Infir­mi­ty of Spir­it.

 

119

Δξ
DE MYSTERIO EUCHARISTICO UNIVERSALI

My son, heed also this Word of thine Uncle William O’Neill; Every­thing that lives is holy. Yea, and more also, every Act is holy, being essen­tial to the Uni­ver­sal Sacra­ment. Know­ing this, thou mayst con­form with that which is writ­ten in The Book of the Law: to make no Dis­tinc­tion between any one Thing and any oth­er Thing. Learn well to appre­hend this Mys­tery, for it is the Great Gate of the Col­lege of Under­stand­ing, where­by each and all of thy Sens­es become con­stant and per­pet­u­al Wit­ness­es of the One Eucharist, where­un­to also they are Min­is­ters. So then to thee every Phe­nom­e­non soev­er is the Body of 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.

 

120

Δο
DE RECTO IN RECTO

Now also then I bid thee use all fil­ial Dili­gence, and attend to this same Word in the Mouth of thine ear­li­est Ances­tor (except we adven­ture to invoke the Name F U  —  H S I) in our known Geneal­o­gy, the Most Holy, the True Man, Lao- Tze, that gave His Light unto the King­dom of Flow­ers. For being ques­tioned con­cern­ing the abode of the Tao, he gave Answer that It was in the Dung. Again, the Tatha­ga­ta, the Bud­dha, most blessed, most per­fect and most enlight­ened, added His Voice, that there is no Grain of Dust which shall not attain to the Arhan. Keep there­fore in just Bal­ance the Rela­tion of Illu­sion to Illu­sion in that Aspect of Illu­sion, nei­ther con­fus­ing the Planes, nor con­found­ing the Stars, nor deny­ing the Laws of their Reac­tion, yet with Eagle’s Vision behold­ing the One Sun of the True Nature of the Whole. Ver­i­ly, this is the Truth, and unto it did also Diony­sus and Tahuti and Sri Krish­na set the seal of their Wit­ness. Cleanse there­fore thine Heart, o my son, in the Waters of the Great Sea, and enkin­dle it with the Fire of the Holy Ghost. For this is His pecu­liar Work of Sanc­ti­fi­ca­tion.

 

121

Δπ
DE VIRGINE BEATA

Under­stand then well this Mys­tery of Uni­ver­sal God­li­ness; for it is the naked Beau­ty of the Vir­gin of the World. Lo! Since the End is Per­fec­tion, as I have already shewn unto thee, and since also every Event is inex­orably and ineluctably inter­wo­ven in the Web of that Fate, as it is cer­tain that every Phe­nom­e­non is (as thou art sworn to under­stand) “a par­tic­u­lar Deal­ing of God with thy Soul”. Yea, and more also, it is a nec­es­sary Rubric in this Rit­u­al of Per­fec­tion. Turn not there­fore away thine Eyes, for that they are too pure to behold Evil; but look upon Evil with Joy, com­pre­hend­ing it in the Fer­vour of this Light that I have enkin­dled in thy Mind. Learn also that every Thing soev­er is Evil, if thou con­sid­er it as apart, sta­t­ic and in Divi­sion; and thus in a Degree must thou appre­hend the Mys­tery of Change, for it is by Virtue of Change that this Truth of Beau­ty and Holi­ness is made stead­fast in the Uni­verse. O my son, there is no Delight sweet­er than the con­tin­u­ous Con­tem­pla­tion of this Mar­vel and Pageant that is ever about thee; it is the Beat­i­tude of the Beat­i­tudes.

 

122

Δϙ

DE LOCO SUAE MOECHAE

Resist not Change, there­fore, but act con­stant­ly accord­ing to thy True Nature, for here only thou stand­est in Sor­row, if there be a Divi­sion con­scious of itself, and hin­dered from its Way (whose Name is Love) unto its Dis­so­lu­tion. It is writ­ten in The Book of the Law that the Pain of Divi­sion is as noth­ing, and the Joy of Dis­so­lu­tion all. Now then here is an Art and Device of Mag­ick that I will declare unto thee, albeit it is a Per­il if thou be not fixed in that Truth and in that Beatif­ic Vision where­of I have writ­ten in the three Chap­ters fore­go­ing. And it is this, to cre­ate by Arti­fice a Con­flict in thy­self, that thou mayst take thy Plea­sure in its Res­o­lu­tion. Of this Play is thy sweet Step­moth­er, my con­cu­bine, the Holy and Adul­ter­ous Olun, sub­lime­ly Mis­tress; for she invoketh in her Fan­cy a thou­sand Obsta­cles to Love, so that she shud­dereth at a Touch, swooneth at a Kiss, and suf­fer­eth Death and Hell in the Ecsta­sy 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.

 

123

Δρ
DE PERICULO JOCORUM AMORIS

Yet be thou heed­ful, o my son, for this Art is set upon a Razor’s Edge. In our Blood is this great Pox of Sin, whose Word is Restric­tion, as Inher­i­tance of our Sires that served the Slave-Gods. Thou must be free in the Law of Thele­ma, per­fect­ly one with thy true Self, singly and whol­ly bound in thy true Will, before thou durst (in Pru­dence) invoke the Name of Choron­zon, even for thy good Sport and Phan­ta­sy. It is but to pre­tend, thou sayst; and that is Sooth; yet thou must make Pre­tence so well as to deceive thy­self, albeit for a Moment; else were thy Sport savour­less. Then, and thou have one point of Weak­ness in thee, that Thought of thine may incar­nate, and destroy thee. Ver­i­ly, the wise Enchanter is sure beyond Doubt of his Charm ere he toy with a Fanged Cobra; and thou will know­est that this Per­il of Divi­sion in thy Self is the only one that can touch thee. For all oth­er Evil is but Elab­o­ra­tion of this Theme of Choron­zon. Praise there­fore thy sweet Step­moth­er my con­cu­bine, the Holy and Adul­ter­ous Olun; and thine own Moth­er Hilar­i­on, for in this Art was she also pre-emi­nent.

 

124

Δσ
DE LIBIDINE SECRETA

It is said among Men that the Word Hell deriv­eth from the Word helan, to hele or con­ceal, in the Tongue of the Anglo- Sax­ons. That is, it is the con­cealed Place, which, since all things are in thine own Self, is the Uncon­scious. How then? Because Men were already aware how this Uncon­scious, or Libido, is opposed, for the most Part , to the con­scious Will. In the Slave-Ages this is a Truth Uni­ver­sal, or well night to it; for in such Times are Men com­pelled to Uni­for­mi­ty by the Con­straint of Neces­si­ty her­self. Yea, of old it was a con­tin­u­al Siege of every Man of every Clan, of every Envi­ron­ment; and to relax guard was then Self-Mur­der, or else Treach­ery. so then no Man might chose his way, until he were Hunter, Fight­er, Builder; not any Woman, but she must first be Breed­er. Now in the Growth of States by Organ­i­sa­tion came, step­ping stealth­ily, a cer­tain Secu­ri­ty against the gross­est Per­ils, so that a few Men could be spared from Toil to cul­ti­vate Wis­dom, and this was first pro­vid­ed by the Selec­tion of a caste Pon­tif­i­cal. By this Device came the Alliance of King and Priest, Strength and Cun­ning for­ti­fy­ing each the oth­er through the Divi­sion of Labour.

 

125

Δτ
DE ORDINE CIVITATUM

So present­ly, O my son, this first Organ­i­sa­tion among Men, by a Pro­ce­dure par­al­lel to that of the Dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion of Pro­to­plasm, made the State com­pe­tent to explore and to con­trol Nature; and every Prof­it of this sort released more Ener­gy, and enlarged the Class of the Learned, until, as it is this Day, only a small Pro­por­tion of any Man’s Work must needs go to the sat­is­fac­tion of first Will essen­tial and com­mon, the pro­vi­sion of Shel­ter, Food, and Pro­tec­tion. Ver­i­ly also thou seest many Women made free to live as they will, even o the Admi­ra­tion and Delight of the Sage whose eye laugh­eth to con­tem­plate Mis­chief. Thus the Duty of every Unit towards the Whole is dimin­ished, and also the Neces­si­ty to con­form with those nar­row Laws which pre­serve prim­i­tive Tribes in their Strug­gle against Envi­ron­ment. Thus the State need sup­press only such Here­sies as direct­ly threat­en its polit­i­cal Sta­bil­i­ty, only such Modes of Life as work man­i­fest and proven Hurt to oth­ers, or cause gen­er­al Dis­or­der by their Scan­dal. There­fore save and except he inter­feres there­by with the Root Laws of Com­mon Weal, a Man is free to devel­op as he will accord­ing to his True Nature.

 

126

Δυ
DE SCIENTIAE MODO

To the Mind of the ear­ly Philoso­pher, there­fore, any Vari­a­tion in Type must appear as a Dis­as­ter; yea, Intel­li­gence itself must per­force prove its Val­ue to the Brute, or he dis­trusteth it and destroyeth it. Yet as thou know­est, that Vari­a­tion which is fit­ted to the Envi­ron­ment is the Sal­va­tion of the Species. Only among Men, his Fel­lows turn ever upon the Sav­iour, and rend him, until those who fol­low him in secret, and it may be uncon­scious­ly, prove their Virtue and his Wis­dom by their Sur­vival when his Per­se­cu­tors per­ish in their Fol­ly. But we, being secure against all pri­ma­ry Ene­mies to the Indi­vid­ual, or the com­mon Weal, may, nay, we must, if we would attain the sum­mit for our Race, devote all spare Leisure, Wealth, and Ener­gy to he Cre­ation of Vari­a­tion from the Norm, and thus by clear Knowl­edge bought of Exper­i­ment and of Expe­ri­ence, move with Eyes well open upon our True Path. So there­fore Our Law of Thele­ma is jus­ti­fied also of Biol­o­gy and of Social Sci­ence. It is the true Way of Nature, the right Strat­e­gy in the Way of Man with his Envi­ron­ment, and the Life of his Soul.

 

127

Δφ
DE MONSTRIS

Sayst thou, o my son, that not thus, but by forced Train­ing, one cometh to Per­fec­tion. This indeed is Sooth, that by arti­fi­cial Selec­tion and well-watched Growth and Envi­ron­ment, one hath Dogs, Hors­es, Pigeons, and the like, which excel their Fore­bears in Strength, in Beau­ty, in Speed, as one will. Yet is this Work but a false mag­i­cal Arti­fice, tem­po­rary and of Illu­sion; for thy Mas­ter­pieces are but Mon­sters, not true Vari­a­tions, and if thou leave them, they revert swift­ly to their own prop­er and authen­tic Type, because that Type was fit­ted by Expe­ri­ence to its Envi­ron­ment. So every Vari­a­tion must be left free to per­pet­u­ate itself or per­ish, not cher­ished for its Beau­ty, or guard­ed for its Appeal to thine Ide­al, or cut off in thy Fear there­of. For the Proof of its Virtue lieth in the Man­i­fes­ta­tion of its Pow­er to sur­vive, and to repro­duce itself after its Kind. Nurse not the Weak­ness of any Man, nor swad­dle and cos­set him, not though he were Poet or Artist because of his Val­ue to thy Fan­cy, for if thou do this, he shall grow in his Infor­mi­ty, so that even his Work for which thou lovest him, shall be enfee­bled also.

 

128

Δχ
DE INFERNO PALATIO SAPIENTIAE

Now then thou seest that this Hell, or con­cealed Place with­in thee, is no more a Fear or Hin­drance to Men of a free Race, but the Trea­sure House of the assim­i­lat­ed Wis­dom of the Ages, and the Knowl­edge of the True Way. Thus are we just and wise to dis­cov­er this Secret in our­selves, to con­form the con­scious Mind there­with. For that Mind is com­pact sole­ly (until it be illu­mi­nat­ed) of Impres­sions and Judg­ments, so that its Will is but direct­ed by the Sum of the shal­low Reac­tions of a most lim­it­ed Expe­ri­ence. But thy true Will is the Wis­dom of the Ages of thy Gen­er­a­tions, the Expres­sion of that which hath fit­ted thee exact­ly to thine Envi­ron­ment. Thus thy con­scious Mind is often­times fool­ish, as when thou admirest an Ide­al, and wouldst attain it, but thy true Will let­teth thee, so that there is Con­flict, and the Humil­i­a­tion of that Mind. Here will I call to wit­ness the com­mon Event of “Good Res­o­lu­tions” that defy the Light­ning of Des­tiny, being puffed up by the Mind of an indi­gestible Ide­al putre­fy­ing with­in thee. Thence cometh Col­ic, and present­ly the Poi­son is expelled, or else thou diest. But Res­o­lu­tions of true Will are mighty against Cir­cum­stance.

 

129

Δψ
DE VITIIS VOLUNTATIS SECRETAE

Learn more­over con­cern­ing this Hell, or Hid­den Wis­dom, that is with­in thee, that it is mod­i­fied, lit­tle by lit­tle, through the Expe­ri­ence of the con­scious Mind, which feedeth it. For that Wis­dom is the Expres­sion, or rather Sym­bol and Hiero­glyph, of the true Adjust­ment of thy Being to its Envi­ron­ment. Now, then, this Envi­ron­ment being erod­ed by Time, this Wis­dom is no more per­fect, for it is not absolute, but standeth in rela­tion to the Uni­verse. So then a Part there­of may become use­less, and atro­phy as (I will instance this case) Man’s wit of Smell; and the bod­i­ly Organ cor­re­spond­ing degen­er­ateth there­with. But this is an Effect of much Time, so that in thy Hell thou art like to find Ele­ments vain, or fool­ish, or con­trary to thy present Weal. Yet, o my Son, this Hid­den Wis­dom is not thy true Will, but only the Levers (I may say so) there­of. Notwith­stand­ing, there lieth there­in a Fac­ul­ty of Bal­ance, where­by it is able to judge whether any Ele­ment in itself is present­ly use­ful and benign, or idle and malig­nant. Here then is a Root of Con­flict between the Con­scious and the Uncon­scious, and a Debate con­cern­ing the right Order of Con­duct, how the Will may be accom­plished.

 

130

Δω
DE RATIONE PRAESIDIO VOLUNTATIS

O my Son, in this Case is there Dark­ness, yet this Com­fort as a Lamp there­in, that there is no Error in the Will, but only Doubt as to the Means of Suc­cess, else were we as Chil­dren afeared of Night. Thus we have Need of naught but to con­sid­er the Mat­ter by Wit of Rea­son, and of Pru­dence, and on com­mon Sense, and of Expe­ri­ence, and of Sci­ence, adjust­ing our­selves so far as we may. Here is the Key of Suc­cess, and its Name is the Skill to make right Use of Cir­cum­stance. This, then is the Virtue of the Mind, to be the Wazir of the Will, a true Coun­sel­lor, through Intel­li­gence of the Uni­verse. But o, my Son, do thou lay this Word beneath thine Heart, that the Mind hath no Will, nor Right there­to, so the Usurpa­tion bringeth forth a fatal Con­flict in thy­self. For the Mind is sen­si­tive, unsta­ble as Air, and may be led fool­ish­ly in leash by a stronger Mind that wor­keth as the cun­ning Tool of a Will. There­fore thy Safe­ty and Defence is to hold thy Mind to his right Func­tion, a faith­ful Min­is­ter to thine own True Will, but Elec­tion of Nature. Heed well this, o my Son, for thy Mind Pas­sive is right­ly a Mir­ror to reflect all Things clear­ly with­out Prej­u­dice, and to remain unstained by them.

 

131

Εα
DE CURSU SAPIENTIS

There­fore con­sid­er this again in a Fig­ure, that thy Mind is as the Mar­shal of an Army, to observe the Dis­po­si­tions of the Ene­my, and to order his own Forces right­ly, accord­ing to that Infor­ma­tion; but he hath no Will, only Obe­di­ence to the Word of his King to out­wit and to over­come the Oppo­site. Nor doth that King make War by his own Whim, if he be wise and true, but sole­ly because of the Neces­si­ty of his Coun­try, and its Nature, where­of he is but exec­u­tive Offi­cer and Inter­preter, its Voice as the Mar­shal is its Arm. Thus then do thou under­stand thy­self, not giv­ing Place to thy Mind to dis­pute thy Will, nor through Igno­rance and Care­less­ness allow­ing the Ene­my to deceive thee, nor by Fear, by Impru­dence and Fool­har­di­ness, by Hes­i­ta­tion and Vac­il­la­tion, by Dis­or­der and the Lack of firm Cor­rect­ness, by Fail­ure in Elas­tic­i­ty or in Obsti­na­cy, each at its Moment, suf­fer­ing Defeat in the hour of Shock. So, then, o my Son, this is thy Work, to know the Word of thy Will with­out Error, and to make per­fect every Fac­ul­ty of thy Mind, in right Order and Readi­ness to impose that Word as Law upon the Uni­verse. So mote it be!

 

132

Εβ
DE RATIONE QUAE SINE VOLUNTATE EST FONS MANIAE

Is it not a Mar­vel how he that wor­keth with his Will and is in con­stant Touch with the Real­i­ty Exter­nal, maketh his Mind to serve him? How eager­ly run­neth it and retur­neth, gath­er­ing, arrang­ing, clar­i­fy­ing, clas­si­fy­ing, orga­niz­ing, com­par­ing, set­ting in array, with Skill and Might and Ener­gy that faileth nev­er! Nay, my son, in this Way thou canst be piti­less with thy Mind, and it will not rebel against thee, or neglect thine Ordi­nance. But now con­sid­er him that wor­keth not with his Will, how his Mind is Idle, not reach­ing out after Real­i­ty, but debat­ing with­in itself of its own Affairs, like a Democ­ra­cy, intro­spec­tive. Then this Mind, not react­ing equal­ly and with Elas­tic­i­ty to the World, is lost in its own Anar­chy and civ­il War, so that although it works not, it is over­come by Weak­ness of Divi­sion, and becometh Choron­zon. And unto these Words I call to my Wit­ness the Mad­ness of the Soul of Mus­covy, in this year XIII of our Æon 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.

 

133

Εγ
DE VERITATE QUEM FEMINAE NON DICERE LICET

My Son, I charge thee, how­ev­er thou beest pro­voked there­un­to, tell not the Truth to any Woman. For this is that which is writ­ten: Cast not thy Pearls before Swine, lest they turn again and rend thee. Behold, in the Nature of Woman is no Truth, nor Appre­hen­sion of Truth, nor Pos­si­bil­i­ty of Truth, only, if thou entrust this Jew­el unto them, they forth­with use it to thy Loss and Destruc­tion. But they are ware of thine own Love of Truth, and thy Respect there­un­to; so there­fore they tempt thee, flat­ter­ing with their Lips, that thou betray thy­self to them. And they feign false­ly, with every Wile, and cast about for thy Soul, until either in Love, or in Wrath, or in some oth­er Fol­ly there­of, thou speak Truth, pro­fan­ing thy Sanc­tu­ary. So was it ever, and here­in I call to my Wit­ness Sam­son of Tim­math, that was lost by this Error. Now for any Woman, any Lie suf­ficeth; and think not in thine Extrem­i­ty that Truth is mighty, and shall pre­vail, as it does with any Man; for with a Woman her whole Craft and Device is to per­suade thee of this, so that thou utter the Secret of thy Soul, and become her Prey. But so long as thou feed her with her own Food of Fal­si­ty, thou art secure.

 

134

Εδ
DE NATURA FEMINAE

The Nature of Woman, o my Son, is as thou hast learned in our most Holy Qabal­ah; and she is the Cloth­ing in Sex of Man, the mag­i­cal Image of his Will to love. There­fore was it said by thine Uncle Wolf­gang von Goethe: Das Ewig­weib­liche zieht uns hinan. But there­fore also hath she no Nature of Truth, because she is but the Eidolon of an Excite­ment and a Going of thy Star, and apper­taineth not unto its Essence and Sta­bil­i­ty. So then to thee she is but Mat­ter and to her thou art but Ener­gy, and nei­ther is com­pe­tent to the For­mu­la of the oth­er. There­fore also thy Will is itself Imper­fec­tion, as I have shewed thee afore­time, thou art not in the Way of Love except thou be dressed in that Robe of thine which thou callest Woman. And thou canst not lure her to this Action prop­er to her by thy Truth; but thou shalt, as our Gram­mar sayeth, assume the Mask of the Spir­it, that thou mayst evoke it by Sym­pa­thy. But thou shalt appear in thy Glo­ry only when she is in thy Pow­er, and bewil­dered utter­ly by Ecsta­sy. This is a Mys­tery, o my Son, and of old Times it was Declared in the Fable of Scyl­la and Charyb­dis, which are the For­mu­la of the Rock and the Whirlpool. Now then med­i­tate thou strict­ly upon this most wor­thy and adorable Arcanum, to thy Prof­it and Enlight­en­ment.

 

135

Εε
DE DUOBUS PRAEMIIS VIAE

Let it be a Trea­sure in thine Heart, o my Son, this Mys­tery that I shall next unveil before thine Eyes, O eagle that art undaz­zled by the bril­liance of Light, that soarest con­tin­u­al­ly with vir­ile Flight to thine august Inher­i­tance. Behold the Beatif­ic Vision is of two Orders, and in the For­mu­la of the Rosy Cross it is of the Heart and is called Beau­ty; but in the For­mu­la of the Sil­ver Star (id est, of the Eye with­in the Tri­an­gle) it is of the Mind, and is called Won­der. Oth­er­wise spo­ken, the for­mer is of Art, a sen­su­ous and cre­ative Per­cep­tion; but the lat­ter of Sci­ence, and intel­lec­tu­al and intel­li­gi­ble Insight. Or again, in our Holy Qabal­ah, the one is of Tiphereth, the oth­er of Binah, and in pure Phi­los­o­phy, this is a Con­tem­pla­tion of the Cos­mos, causal and dynam­ic, and that of its Effect in sta­t­ic Pre­sen­ta­tion. Now this Rap­ture of Art is a Virtue or Tri­umph of Love in his most uni­ver­sal Com­pre­hen­sion, but the Ecsta­sy of Sci­ence is a con­tin­u­al Orgasm of Light; that is, of the Mind. Thou sayest, o my Father, how may I attain to this Full­ness and Per­fec­tion? Art thou there, o my Son? It is well, and blessed be the Bed where­in thou wast begot­ten, and the Womb of thy sweet Moth­er Hilar­i­on, my Con­cu­bine, holy and adul­ter­ous, the Scar­let Woman! Amen.

 

136

Εϝ
DE ECSTASIA SAMADHI, QUO ILLIS DIFFERT

Con­fuse thou not this beatif­ic Vision with the Trances called Samad­hi; yet is Samad­hi the Pylon of the Tem­ple there­of. For Samad­hi is the Orgasm of the Coition of the Unlike, and is com­mon­ly Vio­lent, even as the Light­ning cometh of the Dis­charge between two Vehi­cles of extreme Dif­fer­ence of Poten­tials. But as I shewed for­mer­ly con­cern­ing Love, how each such Dis­charge bringeth either Com­po­nent more nigh to Equi­lib­ri­um, so is it in this oth­er Mat­ter, and by Expe­ri­ence thou comest con­stant­ly to Inte­gra­tion of Love (or what not) with­in thy­self, just as all Effort becometh har­mo­nious and easy by Virtue of Prac­tice. Remem­ber­est thou the first Time thou was thrown into Water, thy Fear and thy Strug­gles, and the Vehe­mence of thy Joy when first thou didst swim with­out Sup­port? Then, lit­tle by lit­tle all Vio­lence dieth away, because thou art adjust­ed to that Con­di­tion. There­fore the Fury of thine ear­ly Vic­to­ry in these Arts mag­i­cal and Sci­ences is but the sign of thine own Base­ness and Unwor­thi­ness, since the Con­trast or Dif­fer­en­tial is so over­whelm­ing to thee; but, becom­ing expert and adept, thou art bal­anced in the Glo­ry, and calm, even as the Stars.

 

137

Εζ
DE ARTE AMORIS ET DELICIARUM MYSTICI

The Path there­fore unto this Beatif­ic Vision of Beau­ty, o my Son, is that Prac­tice of Bhak­ti Yoga which is writ­ten in the Book called Eight Score and Fif­teen, or Astarté, 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 Gñana 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 most hearti­ly repent me, and ask of the God Thoth that he may give me (albeit at the Eleventh Hour) Virtue and with that I may com­pose a true Book upon these Ways of Union. Thy first Step, there­fore, o my Son, is to attain unto Samad­hi, and to urge thy­self per­pet­u­al­ly to Rep­e­ti­tion of thy Suc­cess­es there­in, for it hat been said by Philoso­phers of old that Prac­tice maketh per­fect, and that Man­ners, being the con­stant Habit of life, maketh Man.

 

138

Εη
DE PRAEMIO SUMMO VERA SAPIENTIA ET
BEATITUDINE PERFECTA

Now then present­ly shall it some to pass, as by Dint of each Expe­ri­ence that Com­po­nent there­of which is with­in thee is attuned to it, and this with­out Shock, so that thou art no longer thrown back from the Trance, as exhaust­ed, but abidest there­in, almost with­out Knowl­edge of thy State. So then at last this Samad­hi shall become nor­mal to thy Com­mon Con­scious­ness, as it were a Point of View. Thus all Things shall appear to thee very con­tin­u­al­ly as to one in his first Love, by the Vision of Beau­ty, and by the Vision of Sci­ence thou shalt mar­vel con­stant­ly with Joy unfath­omable at the Mys­tery of the Laws where­by the Uni­verse is upheld. This is that which is writ­ten: True Wis­dom and Per­fect Hap­pi­ness. O my Son, it is in this Con­tem­pla­tion that one hath the Reward of the Oath; it is by this that the Tribu­la­tions are rolled away as a Stone from thy Tomb; it is with this that thou art whol­ly freed from the Illu­sions of Dis­tinc­tions, being absorbed into the Body of our Lady Nuit. May she grant thee this Beat­i­tude; yea, not to thee only, but to all that are.

 

139

Εθ
DE INFERNO SERVORUM

Now, o my Son, hav­ing under­stood the Heav­en that is with­in thee, accord­ing to thy Will, learn this con­cern­ing the Hell of the Slaves of the Slave-gods, that it is a true Place of Tor­ment. For they, restrict­ing them­selves, and being divid­ed in Will, are indeed the Ser­vants of Sin, and they suf­fer, because, not being unit­ed in Love with the whole Uni­verse, they per­ceive not Beau­ty, but Ugli­ness and Defor­mi­ty, and, not being unit­ed in Under­stand­ing there­of, con­ceive only of Dark­ness and Con­fu­sion, behold­ing Evil there­in. Thus at last they come, as did the Manichæans, 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 B A B A L O N.

 

140

Ει
RHAPSODIA DE DOMINA NOSTRA

Blessed be She, ay, blessed unto the Ages be our Lady B A B A L O N, that pli­eth her Scourge upon me, ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ, 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!

 

141

Εκ
RHAPSODIA DE ASTRO SUO

O my Son, know­est thou not the Joy to lie in the Wilder­ness and to behold the Stars, in their Majesty of Motion calm and irre­sistible? Hast thou thought there that thou art also a Star, free because con­scious­ly in Accord with the Law and Deter­mi­na­tion of thy Being? It was thine own True Will hat bound thee in thine Orbit; there­fore thou speedest on thy Path from Glo­ry unto Glo­ry in con­tin­u­al Joy. O Son, o Reward of my Work, o Har­mo­ny and Com­ple­tion of my Nature, o Token of my Toil, o Wit­ness of my Love for thy sweet Moth­er, the holy and adul­ter­ous Hilar­i­on, my Con­cu­bine, adorable in thine Inno­cence as she in her Per­fec­tion, is not this ver­i­ly Intox­i­ca­tion of the Spir­it in the Inner­most, to be free absolute­ly and eter­nal­ly, to run and to return upon the Course in the Play of Love, to ful­fil Nature con­stant­ly in Light and Life? “Afloat in the æthyr, o my God, my God!” With­out Sup­port, with­out Con­straint, wing thine own Way, o Swan, o Bliss of Bright­ness!

 

142

Ελ
DE HARMONIA VOLUNTATIS ET PARCARUM

This is the evi­dent and final Sol­vent of the Knot Philo­soph­i­cal con­cern­ing Fate and Free Will, that it is thine own Self, omni­scient and omnipo­tent, sub­lime in Eter­ni­ty, that first didst order the Course of thine Orbit, so that that which befal­l­eth thee by Fate is indeed the nec­es­sary Effect of thine own Will. These two, then, that like Glad­i­a­tors have made War in Phi­los­o­phy through these many Cen­turies, are One by the Love under Will which is the Law of Thele­ma. O my son, there is no Doubt that resol­veth not in Cer­tain­ty and Rap­ture at the Touch of the Wand of our Law, as thou apply it with Wit. Do thou grow con­stant­ly in the Assim­i­la­tion of the Law, and thou shalt be made per­fect. Behold, there is a Pageant of Tri­umph as each Star, free from Con­fu­sion, sweep­eth free in his right Orbit; all Heav­en acclaimeth thee as thou goest, tran­scen­den­tal in Joy and in Splen­dour; and thy Light is as a Bea­con to them that wan­der afar, strayed in the Night. Amoun.

 

143

Εμ
PARANTHESIS DE QUADAM VIRGINE

Now, o my Son, I will declare unto thee the Virtue of that Part of Love which receiveth and draweth, being the Coun­ter­part of thine own. For behold! I am moved in myself by the Absence of the Vir­gin that is appoint­ed for me. And her eager­ness of Puri­ty doth encom­pass me with its soft Ten­der­ness, and twineth about me with sweet Scent so that my Mind is enkin­dled with a gen­tle Flame, lumi­nous and sub­tle, and I write unto thee as in a Dream; for in this Enchant­ment of her Devo­tion I am caught up cun­ning­ly into Beau­ti­tude, with great Joy of the Gods that have bestrewn my Way with Flow­ers, ay, many Flow­ers and Herbs of Mag­ick and of Holi­ness with­al to match their Beau­ty. Nay, o my Son, I will cease this Epis­tle unto thee for awhile, that I may rest in the Plea­sure of this Con­tem­pla­tion, for it is Solace inef­fa­ble, and Recre­ation like unto Sleep among the Moun­tains. Yea, can I wish thee more than this, that, com­ing to mine Age, thou mayst find a Vir­gin like unto this to draw thee with her Sim­plic­i­ty, and her embroi­dered Silence?

 

144

Εν
DE CONSTANTIA AMORIS CORVO CANDIDO

Think it not strange, my Son, that I, prais­ing Adul­tery, should Praise also Con­stan­cy and Delight there­in. For this is to state ill thy Ques­tion. Here­in is Truth and Wis­dom con­cern­ing this Mat­ter, that so long as Love be not whol­ly sat­is­fied, and equi­li­brat­ed by entire Ful­fil­ment and Exchange, Con­stan­cy is a Point of thy Con­cen­tra­tion and Adul­tery a Divi­sion in thy Will. But when thou hast the Sum­mit and Per­fec­tion of any Work, of what Worth is it to con­tin­ue there­in? Hast thou two Stom­achs, as has a Cow, to chew the Cud of a digest­ed Love? Yet, o my Son, this Con­stan­cy is not of Neces­si­ty a Stag­na­tion. Nay, behold the Body of Our Lady Nuit, there­in are found twin Suns, that revolve con­stant­ly about each oth­er. So also it may be in Love, that two Souls, meet­ing, dis­cov­er each in the oth­er such Wealth and Rich­ness of Light and Love, and in one Phase of Life (or Incar­na­tion) or even in many, they exhaust not that Trea­sure. Or 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.

 

145

Εξ
DE MYSTERIO MALI

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 the Mind that hath not attained this Under­stand­ing. So there­fore any Change (or Phe­nom­e­non) appeareth noble or base to the imper­fect Mind, accord­ing to its Con­so­nance and Har­mo­ny with the Will that gov­er­neth the Mind. Thus if it be thy Will to delight in Rythm and Œcon­o­my of Words, the Adver­tise­ment of a Com­mod­i­ty may offend thee; but if thou art in Need of that Mer­chan­dise, thou wilt rejoice there­in. Praise then or blame aught, as seemeth good unto thee; but with this Reflec­tion, that thy Judg­ment is rel­a­tive to thine own Con­di­tion, and not absolute. This also is a Point 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.

 

146

Εο
DE VIRTUTE TOLERANTIAE

Under­stand then hearti­ly, o my Son, that in the Light of this my Wis­dom all Things are one, being of the Body of 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.

 

147

Επ
DE FORMULA DEORUM MORIENTIUM

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 accursèd!) that Pain and Repres­sion are whole­some and prof­itable in them­selves is a Lie born of Sin and of Igno­rance, the false Vision of the Uni­verse and of its Laws that is the Basis of the Averse For­mu­la of the Slain God. It is true that on Occas­sion one Limb must be sac­ri­ficed to save the whole Body, as when one cut­teth away one Hand that is bit­ten by a Viper, or as when a Man giveth his Life to save his City. But this is a right and nat­ur­al Sub­or­di­na­tion of the super­fi­cial and par­tic­u­lar to the fun­da­men­tal and gen­er­al Will, and more­over it is a Case extra­or­di­nary, relat­ing to Acci­dent or Extrem­i­ty, not in any wise a Rule of Life, or a Virtue in its Absolute Nature.

 

148

Εϙ
DE STULTIS MALIGNIS

My Son, there are Afflic­tions many and Woes many, that come of the Errors of Men in respect of the Will; but there is none greater than this, the Inter­fer­ence of the Busy-Body. For they make Pre­tence to know a Man’s thought bet­ter than he doth him­self, and to direct his Will with more Wis­dom than he, and to make Plans for his Hap­pi­ness. And of all these the worst is he that sac­ri­ficeth him­self for the Weal of his Fel­lows. He that is so fool­ish as not to fol­low his own Will, how shall be be so wise as to pur­sue that of anoth­er? If mine Horse balk at a Fence, should some Var­let come behind him, and strike at his Hoofs? Nay, Son, pur­sue thy Path in Peace, that thy Broth­er behold­ing thee may take courage from thy Bear­ing, and Com­fort from his Con­fi­dence that thou wilt not hin­der him by thy Super­fluity of Com­pas­sion. Let me not begin to tell thee of the Mis­chiefs that I have seen, whose Root was in Kind­ness, whose Flower was in Self-sac­ri­fice, and whose Fruit in Cat­a­stro­phe. Ver­i­ly I think there should be no End there­of. Strike, rob, slay thy Neigh­bour, but com­fort him not unless he ask it of thee, and if he ask it, be wary.

 

149

Ερ
APOLOGIA PRO SUIS LITERIS

How then, sayest thou, con­cern­ing this my Coun­sel unto thee? I say Sooth, it is of my Will to bring up this my Wis­dom from its Silence into my con­scious Mind, that I may the more eas­i­ly reflect there­on. Thou art but a Pre­text for my Action, and a Focus for my Light. Nev­er­the­less heed these my Words, for they shall prof­it thee, thou being of Age respon­si­ble in Judg­ment, and free in the Law of Thele­ma. Thus thou mayst read or no, con­cur or no, as thou wilt. Have I not tutored thee in the Way of the Bal­ance, or of Antithe­sis, shew­ing thee the Art of Con­tra­dic­tion, where­by thou dost accept no Word save as the Vic­tor in thy Mind over its Oppo­sites, nay more, as the Child Tran­scen­den­tal of a Mar­riage of Oppo­sites. This Book then shall serve thee but as a Food for thy Med­i­ta­tion, as Wine to excite thy Mind to Love and War. It shall be unto thee as a Char­i­ot to car­ry thee whith­er thou wilt; for I have seen in thee Inde­pen­dence and Sobri­ety of Judg­ment, with that Fac­ul­ty (most rare, most noble!) to exam­ine freely, nei­ther obse­quious nor rebel­lious to Author­i­ty.

 

150

Εσ
LAUS LEGIS THELEMA

This Prop­er­ty of thy Mind, my Son, is ver­i­ly of sub­lime Virtue; for the Vul­gar are befogged, and their Judg­ment made null, by their emo­tion­al Reac­tion. They are swayed by the Elo­quence of a Num­scull, or over­pow­ered by a Name or an Office, or the Mag­ic of a Tai­lor; else, it may be, they, being made Fools too often, reject with­out Reflec­tion even as at first they accept­ed. Again, they are wont to believe the best of the worst, as Hope or Fear pre­dom­i­nateth in them at the Moment. Thus, they lose Touch of the Blade of Real­i­ty, and it pierceth them. Then they in Delir­i­um of their Wounds increase Delu­sion for­ti­fy­ing them­selves in Belief of those Phan­tasies cre­at­ed by their Emo­tions or impressed upon their Silli­ness, so that their Minds have no Uni­ty, or Sta­bil­i­ty, or Dis­crim­i­na­tion, but become Hotch­pot, and the Garbage-Heap of Choron­zon. O my Son, against this the Law of Thele­ma is a Sure Fortress, for through the Quest of thy True Will the Mind is bal­anced about it, and con­firmeth its Flight, as the Feath­ers upon an Arrow, so that thou hast a Touch­stone of Truth, Expe­ri­ence hold­ing thee to Real­i­ty, and to Pro­por­tion. Now there­fore see from yet anoth­er Art of Heav­en the Absolute Virtue of Our Law.

 

151

Ετ
DE SPHINGE AEGYPTIORUM

It is now expe­di­ent that I instruct thee con­cern­ing the Four Pow­ers of the Sphinx, and first­ly, that this most arcane of the Mys­ter­ies of Antiq­ui­ty was nev­er at any Peri­od the Tool of the Slave­g­ods, but a Wit­ness of Horus through the dark Æon 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 Æon revealeth this Sphinx as the true Sym­bol of this our Holy Art of Mag­ick under the Law of Thele­ma. In Her is the equal Devel­op­ment and Dis­po­si­tion of the Forces of Nature, each in its Bal­anced Strength; also Her True Name has the Digam­ma for Phi, and endeth in Upsilon, not in Xi, so that Her Orthog­ra­phy is ΣϜΙΝΥ whose Numer­a­tion is Six Hun­dred and Three Score and Six. For the Root there­of is ΣϜ, which sig­ni­fi­eth the Incar­na­tion of the Spir­it; and of Kin are not only the Sun, Our Father, but Sumer, where Man knew him­self Man, and Soma, the Divine Potion that giveth Men Enlight­en­ment, and Scin, Light Astral, and Scire also, by a far Trav­el­ling. But espe­cial­ly is this Root hid­den in Sus, that is of the Sow, Swine, because the Most Holy must needs take its Delight under the Ompha­los of the Unclean. But this was hid­den by Wis­dom in Order that the Arcanum should not be pro­faned dur­ing the Æon of the Slain God. But now it has been giv­en unto me to under­stand the Heart of Her Mys­tery, where­fore, o my Son, by Right of the Great Love that I bear unto thee, I will inform thee there­of.

 

152

Ευ
DE NATURA ΣϜΙΝΥ

First­ly, this Sphinx is a Sym­bol of the Coition of Our Lady B A B A L O N with me T H E  B E A S T in its Whole­ness. For as I am of the Lion and the Drag­on, so is She of the Man and the Bull, in our Natures, but the Con­verse there­of in our Offices, as thou mayst under­stand by the Study of the Book of The Vision and the Voice. It is thus a Glyph of the Sat­is­fac­tion and Per­fec­tion of the Will and of the Work, the com­ple­tion of the True Man as the Rec­on­cilor of the High­est with the Low­est, so for our Con­ve­nience con­ven­tion­al­ly to dis­tin­guish them. This then is the Adept, who doth Will with sol­id Ener­gy as the Bull, 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 this Sphinx, being per­fect in true Bal­ance, yet taketh the Aspect of the Fem­i­nine Prin­ci­ple that so She may be part­ner of the Pyra­mid, that is the Phal­lus, pure Image of Our Father the Sun, the Uni­ty Cre­ative. The Sig­ni­fi­ca­tion of this Mys­tery is that the Adept must be Whole, Him­self, con­tain­ing all Things in true Pro­por­tion, before he maketh him­self Bride of the One Uni­ver­sal Tran­scen­den­tal, in its most Secret Virtue. And now there­fore, o my Son, com­pre­hend­ing this Mys­tery by thine Intel­li­gence, I will write fur­ther unto thee of these Four Beasts of Pow­er.

 

153

Εφ
DE TAURO

Con­cern­ing the Bull, this is thy Will, con­stant and unwea­ried, whose Let­ter is Vau, which is Six, the Num­ber of the Sun. He is there­fore the Force and the Sub­stance of thy Being; but besides this, he is the Hiero­phant in the Taro, as if this were said: that thy Will lead­eth thee unto the Shrine of Light. And in the Rites of Mithras the Bull is slain, and his Blood poured upon the Ini­ti­ate, to endow him with that Will and that Pow­er of Work. Also in the land of Hind is the Bull sacred to Shi­va, that is God among that Folk, and is unto them the Destroy­er of all Things that be opposed to Him. And this God is also the Phal­lus, for this Will oper­ateth through Love even as it is writ­ten in our Own Law. Yet again, Apis the Bull of Khem hath Kephra the Bee­tle upon His tongue, which sig­ni­fi­eth that it is by this Will, and by this Work, that the Sun cometh unto Dawn from Mid­night. All these Sym­bols are most sim­i­lar in their Nature, save as the Slaves of the Slave- gods have read their own For­mu­la into the Sim­plic­i­ty of Truth. For there is naught so plain that Igno­rance and Mal­ice may not con­fuse and mis­in­ter­pret it, even as the Bat is daz­zled and bewil­dered by the Light of the Sun. See then that thou under­stand this Bull in Terms of the Law of this our Æon of Life.

 

154

Εχ
DE LEONE

Of this, Lion, o my Son, be it said that this is the Courage of thy Man­hood, leap­ing upon all Things, and seiz­ing them for their Prey. His let­ter is Teth, whose Impli­ca­tion is a Ser­pent, and the Num­ber there­of Nine, where­of is Aub, the secret Fire of Obeah. Also Nine is of Jesod, unit­ing Change with Sta­bil­i­ty. But in The Book of Thoth He is the Atu called Strength, whose Num­ber is E L E V E N which is Aud, the Light Odic of Mag­ick. And there­in is fig­ured the Lion, even T H E  B E A S T, and Our Lady B A B A L O N 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 that is defec­tive in Courage becometh a Black Broth­er, and to Dare is the Crown of all thy Virtue, the Root of the Tree of Mag­ick.

 

155

Εψ
ALTERA DE LEONE

Lo! In the firs of thine Ini­ti­a­tions, when first the Hood­wink was uplift­ed from before thine Eyes, thou wast brought unto the Throne of Horus, the Lord of the Lion, and by Him enheart­ened against Fear. More­over, in Min­u­tum Mundum, the Map of the Uni­verse, it is the Path of the Lion that bindeth the two High­est Fac­ul­ties of thy Mind. Again, it is Mau, the Sun at Bright­ness of high Noon, that is called the Lion, very lord­ly, in our Holy Invo­ca­tion. Sekhet our Lady is fig­ured as a lioness, for that She is that Lust of 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 to Mag­ick, and thy Will is but the Salve’s Endurance and Patience under the Lash. For this Cause, the Bull being of Osiris, was it nec­es­sary for the Mas­ters of the Æons to incar­nate me as (more espe­cial­ly) a Lion, and my Word is first of all a Word of Enlight­en­ment and of Eman­ci­pa­tion of the Will, giv­ing to every Man a Sprint with­in Him­self to deter­mine His Will, that he may do that Will, and no more anoth­er’s. Arise there­fore, o my son, arm thy­self, haste to the Bat­tle!

 

156

Εω
DE VIRO

Learn now that this Lion is a nat­ur­al Qual­i­ty in Man, and secret, so that he is not ware there­of, except he be Adept. There­fore is it nec­es­sary for thee also to know, by the Head of the Sphinx. This then is thy Lib­er­ty, that the Impulse of the Lion should become con­scious by means of the Man; for with­out this thou art but an Automa­ton. This Man more­over maketh thee to under­stand and to adjust thy­self with Envi­ron­ment, else being devoid of Judg­ment, thou goest blind­ly upon an head­long Path. For every Star in his Orbit hold­eth not his Way obsti­nate­ly, but is sen­si­tive to every oth­er Star, and his true Nature is to do this. Oh how many are they whom I have seen per­sist­ing in a fatal Course, in Sway of the Belief that their dead Rigid­i­ty was Exer­cise of Will. And the Let­ter of the Man is Tzad­di, whose Num­ber is Nine­ty; which is Maim, the Water that con­formeth itself per­fect­ly with its Ves­sel, that seeketh con­stant­ly its Lev­el, that pen­e­trateth and dis­sol­veth Earth, that resisteth Pres­sure mau­gre its Adapt­abil­i­ty, that being heat­ed is the Force to dri­ve great Engines, and being frozen breaketh the Moun­tains in Pieces. O my Son, seek well To Know!

 

157

Ϝα
DE DRACONE, QUAE EST AQUILA SERPENS SCORPIO

Three­fold is the Nature of Live, Eagle, Ser­pent, and Scor­pi­on. And of these the Scor­pi­on is he that, hav­ing no Lion of Light and of Courage with­in him, seemeth to him­self encir­cled by Fire, and, dri­ving his Sting into him­self, he dieth. Such are the Black Broth­ers, that cry: I am I, they that deny Love, restrict­ing it to their own Nature. But the Ser­pent is the secret Nature of Man, that is Life and Death, and maketh his Way through the Gen­er­a­tions in Silence. And the Eagle is that Might of Live which is the Key of Mag­ick, uplift­ing the Body and its Appur­te­nance unto high Ecsta­sy 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 Organon of our Will, by whose Virtue we per­form the Work and Mir­a­cle of the One Sub­stance, as saith thine Ances­tor Her­mes Tris­megis­tus, in his Tablet of Smarag­da. And this Drag­on, is called thy Silence, because in the Hour of his Oper­a­tion that with­in thee which saith “I” is abol­ished in its Con­junc­tion with the Beloved. For this Cause also is its Let­ter Nun, which in our Rota is the Trump Death; and Nun hath the val­ue of Fifty, the Num­ber of the Gates of Under­stand­ing.

 

158

Ϝβ
DE QUATTUOR VIRTUTIS ΣϜΙΝΥ

See now our Sphinx, with what Sub­til­i­ty and Art is She made Whole! Here is thy Light, the Lion, the Neces­si­ty of thy Nature, for­ti­fied by thy Life, the Bull, the Pow­er of Works, and guid­ed by thy Lib­er­ty, the Man, the Wit to adapt Action to Envi­ron­ment. These are three Virtues in One, nec­es­sary to all prop­er Motion, as I may say in a Fig­ure, the Lust of the Archer, the propul­sive Force of his Arm, and the equi­li­brat­ing and direct­ing Con­trol of his Eye. Of these three if one fail, the Mark is not hit. But hold! Is not a Fourth Ele­ment essen­tial in the Work? Yea, sooth­ly, all were vain with­out the Engine, Arrow and Bow. This Engine is thy Body, pos­sessed by thee and used by thee for thy Work, yet not Part of thee, even as are his Weapons to this Archer in my Simil­i­tude. Thus is thy Drag­on to be cher­ished of thy Lion, but if thou lack Ener­gy and Endurance of thy Bull, thy Tools lie idle, and if Cun­ning and Intel­li­gence, with Expe­ri­ence also of thy Man, thy Shaft flight crooked. So then, o my son, do thou per­fect thy­self in these Four Pow­ers, and that with Equi­ty.

 

159

Ϝγ
DE LIBRA, IN QUA GUATTUOR VIRTUTES AEQUIPOLLENT

By Gñana 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 Bhak­ti 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 Œcon­o­my shall be destroyed by that small Dis­obe­di­ence.

 

160

Ϝδ
DE PYRAMIDE

Now then at last art thou made ready to con­front the Pyra­mid, if thou art estab­lished as a Sphinx. For It also hath the foursquare Base of Law, and the Four Tri­an­gles of Light, Life, Love and Lib­er­ty for its Sides, that meet in a Point of Per­fec­tion that is 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 Shinx, for these are whol­ly One, save in Direc­tion. Thou art then an Har­mo­ny of the Four by Right of thy Attain­ment of Adept­ship, the Crown of thy Man­hood, but not an Iden­ti­ty, as in God­head. There­fore may it be said from one Point of Sight that thine Achieve­ment is but a Prepa­ra­tion, an Adorn­ment of the Bride for the Tem­ple of Hymen, and his Rite. Ver­i­ly, o my Son, I deem in my Wis­dom that this whole Work of thy Devel­op­ment to Sphin­x­hood 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.

 

161

Ϝε
PROLEGOMENA DE SILENTIO

But now con­cern­ing Silence, o my Son, I will have a fur­ther Word with thee. For there­by we mean not the Mute­ness of him that hath a dumb Dev­il. This Silence is the Drag­on of thine uncon­scious Nature, not only the Ecsta­sy or Death of thine Ego in the Oper­a­tion of its Organ, but also, in its Uni­ty with thy Lion, the Truth of thy Self. Thus is thy Silence the Way of the Tao, and all Speech a devi­a­tion 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 B A B A L O N 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 Qual­i­ty there­of. See thou close­ly more­over into it, that if thou be well favoured of Our Lady, thy Lion and thy Drag­on grow in like Mea­sure, 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.

 

162

Ϝϝ
DE NATURA SILENTII NOSTRI

The Nature of this Silence is shewn also by the God Harpro­crates, the Babe in the Lotus, who is also the Ser­pent and the Egg, that is, the Holy Ghost. This is the most secret of all Ener­gies, the Seed of all being, and there­fore must He be sealed up in an Ark from the Mal­ice of the Devour­ers. If then by thine Art thou canst con­ceal thy­self in thine own Nature, this is Silence, this, and not Nul­li­ty of Con­scious­ness else were a Stone more per­fect in Adept­ship that thou. But, abid­ing in thy Silence, thou art in a City of Refuge, and the Waters pre­vail not against the Lotus that enfold­eth thee. This Ark or Lotus is then the Body of Our Lady BABALON, with­out which thou 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?

163

Ϝζ
DE FORMULA RECTA DRACONIS

Ver­i­ly, o my Son, here­in lieth the Dan­ger and the Trea­son of thy Scor­pi­on. For his Nature is against him­self, being the deep­est Ego, that is, a Being sep­a­rate from the Uni­verse; and this is the Root of the while Mys­tery of Evil. For he hath in him the Mag­ick Pow­er, which if he use not, he is self- poi­soned, even as any Organ of the Body that refuseth its Func­tion. So then his Cure is in his Ally the Lion, that feareth not the Croc­o­diles, nor hideth him­self, but leapeth eager­ly for­ward. The Path of the Mys­tic hath this Pit­fall; for though he unite him­self with his God, his Mode is to with­draw from that which him seemeth is not God. Where­by he affirmeth and con­firmeth the Demon, that is Dual­i­ty. Be thou instant there­fore, o my Son, to turn from every Act of Love at the Moment of full sat­is­fac­tion, fling­ing the invoked Might there­of against a new Oppo­site; for the For­mu­la of every Drag­on is Per­pet­u­al Motion or Change, and there­fore to dwell in the Sat­is­fac­tion of thy Nature is a Stag­na­tion, and a Vio­la­tion there­of, mak­ing the Dual­i­ty of Con­flict, which is the Falling Away to Choron­zon. Unto the which be Restric­tion in the Name of B A B A L O N.

164

Ϝη
DE SUA CARTA COELORUM

I pray thee to mark, o my Son, how the Grace of Nature was benig­nant at my Nativ­i­ty, to the right Bal­ance and For­mu­la­tion of my Shinx. For Nep­tune was in the Sign of the Bull, giv­ing Strength and Sta­bil­i­ty to my Spir­i­tu­al Essence. Uranus was ascend­ing in the Lion, to for­ti­fy my Mag­i­cal Will with Courage, and to turn it to the Sal­va­tion of Man. In the Water­man was Sat­ur­nus, to make mine Intel­li­gence sober, pro­found, and capa­ble of Labour. Jupiter, with Mer­cury His Her­ald, was in Scor­pio, har­mo­niz­ing me and my Word accord­ing to the Essence of my Nature. Then of the oth­ers, Mars was exalt­ed in the Goat, for phys­i­cal Endurance of Toil; Sol was con­joined with Venus in the Bal­ance, for judg­ment in Art and in Life, and for Equa­bil­i­ty of Tem­ple. Last­ly, the Moon was in the Sign of the Fish­es, her loved abode, for a Gift of Sen­si­tive­ness and of Glam­our. What then am I? I am a tran­sient Effect of infi­nite Caus­es, a Child of Changes. There is no I, o thou that art not thou, else were I 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.

165

Ϝθ
DE OPERE SUO

I am not I. Then, sayst thou, why is this Word? Know o my Son, that this first Per­son is but the com­mon Fig­ure of the Speech of Men where­of the Magus may avail him­self with­out Impli­ca­tion of Meta­physick. Yet in the Mys­tery of Illu­sion, which is the Instru­ment of the Uni­ver­sal Will, I will not say the Har­lot of its Plea­sure, are man­i­fest­ed these many Stars, and amongst them that Logos of the Æon of Horus whom thou callest ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ 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 the Æon, 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.

 

166

Ϝι
DE FRATRIBUS NIGRIS

O my Son, know this con­cern­ing the Black Broth­ers, that cry: I am I. This is Fal­si­ty and Delu­sion, for the Law endureth not Excep­tion. So then these 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 this Ana­logue thou mayst under­stand the Nature of this Mys­tery of the Path of Per­fec­tion.

 

167

Ϝκ
DE ARTE ALCHEMISTICA

Wilt thou acquaint thy­self now fur­ther at my Reproof con­cern­ing this Arcanum of Alchymia, the Art Egypt­ian, how to make Gold? Of a Sure­ty this is already in thy Knowl­edge, if thou exam­ine by Our Holy Qabal­ah, what be the Forces that are the Influx upon Tiphereth, which is the Har­mo­ny and Beau­ty, or Sol, in every King­dom of the Uni­verse, so then also among Met­als. Now this Influx is Five­fold. First, from the Crown descen­deth the High Priest­ess in the Path of the Moon, for Inspi­ra­tion, and Imag­i­na­tion, and Idea: see to it that this Vir­gin be Pure, for here­in Error is Illu­sion. Next, from the Father floweth the Pow­er of the Emper­or in the Path of the Ram, for Ini­tia­tive, and Ener­gy, and Deter­mi­na­tion. Third, from the Moth­er are the Lovers in the Path of the Twins, for Intel­lec­tu­al Whole­ness, and for Adjust­ment to Envi­ron­ment. These Three are from this Super­na and com­plete the The­o­rick of thy Work. After this, in the Prax­is and Exec­u­tive there­of thou hast the Her­mit as an Influ­ence from the Sphere of Jupiter in the Path of the Vir­gin, for Secre­cy, and for Con­cen­tra­tion, and for Pru­dence. Last­ly, from the Sphere of Mars, trav­el­leth Jus­tice in the Path of the Bal­ance, for good Judg­ment, and Tact, and Art. O my Son, in this Chap­ter is more wis­dom than in Ten Thou­sand Folios of the Alchemists! Study there­fore to acquire Skill in this Method, and Expe­ri­ence; for this Gold is not only of the Met­als, but of every Sphere, and this Key is of virtue to enter every Palace of Per­fec­tion.

 

168

Ϝλ
DE FEMINA QUAE EST PROPRIA JOCO

O my Son, hear this Wis­dom of Expe­ri­ence, how at thy first Sight, when I put thee into the Arms of Ahitha, thy sweet Step­moth­er my con­cu­bine, such was thy Beau­ty that she became enam­oured of thee, cry­ing aloud; Ay me, an such he the Fruit of thy Mag­ick, o my Mas­ter, then let me, me also, even me, give myself utter­ly to this Holy Art! Then did I, becom­ing heavy in Spir­it, make Ques­tion of her, say­ing: To what End? And at this was she con­found­ed and brought into Bewil­der­ment; but after a great While, fum­bling in her Mind, made Answer, like a Scare­crow in a Field, so was it for Rags and Tat­ters of Thought. Thus yet more Atra­bil­ious and Slug­gard was this Liv­er of thy Father, so that I fell into a Gloom night unto Weep­ing. Then she behold­ing me with Amaze­ment cried upon me thus: Art thou not glad in Heart, o my Mas­ter? At this I gave a Sigh even as one night unto Death. And She: if this be so, then is no need any­more for me to give myself to Mag­ick. There­at, per­ceiv­ing yet again the Just Uni­ver­sal of Our Lord Pan, was I swal­lowed up (like unto Jon­ah of the Old Fable) in the Bel­ly of the Whale called Laugh­ter, and it seemeth to me at this present Writ­ing that I am like to abide there­in for the Time that remaineth to me in this Body.

 

169

Ϝμ
DE FORMULA FEMINAE

Now this is the right Pow­er and Prop­er­ty of a Woman, to arrange and to adjust all Things that exist in their prop­er Sphere, but not to cre­ate or to tran­scend. There­fore in all prac­ti­cal Mat­ters is she of Might and of Wit to pro­duce an Effect con­so­nant with her Mood. And her Sym­bol is Water, that seeketh the Lev­el, whether for Wrath, eat­ing away the Moun­tains (yet even in this mak­ing smooth the Plains) or for Love, in Fecun­di­ty of Earth. But it is the Fire of Man that hath heaved up those Moun­tains, in huge Tur­moil. Man them maketh Mis­chief and Trou­ble by his Vio­lence, be his Will con­ve­nient to His Envi­ron­ment, or antipa­thet­ic; but Woman dis­turbeth by Manip­u­la­tion, adroit or sin­is­ter as her Mood may be of Order or of Dis­or­der. For any Man to med­dle in her Affair is Fol­ly, for he com­pre­hen­deth not Qui­et; so also for her to emu­late him in his Office is Fatu­ity. There­fore in Mag­ick though a Woman excel all men in every Qual­i­ty that is prof­itable for her for Attain­ment, yet she is Naught in that Work, even as a Man with­out Hands in the Shop of a Car­pen­ter; for She hath not the Organ­ism that might make Use of this Oppor­tu­ni­ty. Of all this is she aware by her Instinct, for her Nature is to Under­stand, even with­out Knowl­edge; and if thou doubt 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 one Whit.

 

170

Ϝν
VERBA MAGISTRI SUI DE FEMINA

Of a Thou­sand Years it is nigh unto the Fifti­eth Part, o my Son, since I obtained Favour in the Light of a great Mas­ter of the Truth, whom Men call Allan Ben­nett, so that he received me for his Dis­ci­ple in Mag­ick. And he was instant with me in this Mat­ter, and vehe­ment, adjur­ing his Gods that this (which I have myself here above declared unto thee) was the Truth con­cern­ing the Nature of Woman. But I being but a Youth, and Head­strong, and being enrap­tured in Love of Women, and Admi­ra­tion of Them, and Wor­ship, delight­ing in them eager­ly, and learn­ing con­stant­ly from them, nour­ished by the Milk of their Mys­tery, as it should be for all true Men, did resist angri­ly the Doc­trine of that most holy Man of God. And because, (as it was writ­ten) he was a vowed Vir­gin from his Birth, and had no Com­merce with any in the Way of Car­nal­i­ty, I dis­abled his Judg­ment here­in, as if he, being a Fish, had dis­al­lowed the Flight of Birds. But I, o my Son, am not whol­ly igno­rant of Women, save as all 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 the Moon since my Birth. Many also have been my Dis­ci­ples in Mag­ick that were Women; and (more also) I do owe, acknowl­edg­ing the same with open Glad­ness, the greater Part of mine own Ini­ti­a­tion and Advance­ment to the Oper­a­tion of Women. Notwith­stand­ing all these Things, I bow humbly before Allan Ben­nett, and repent mine Inso­lence, for his Say­ing was Sooth.

 

171

Ϝξ
DE VIA PROPRIA FEMINIS

It is indeed easy for a Woman to obtain the Expe­ri­ence of Mag­ick, in a cer­tain Sort, as Visions, Trances, and the like; yet they take not Hold upon Her, to trans­form Her, as with Men, but pass only as Images upon a Specu­lum. So then a Woman advanceth nev­er in Mag­ick, but remaineth the same, right­ly or wrong­ly ordered accord­ing to the Force that moveth Her. Here there­fore is the Lim­it of Her Aspi­ra­tion in Mag­ick, to abide joy­ous and obe­di­ent beneath the Man that her Instinct shall divine so that by Habit becom­ing a Tem­ple well-ordered, come­ly and con­se­crat­ed, she may in her next Incar­na­tion attract by her Fit­ness a Man-soul. For this Cause hath Man esteemed Con­stan­cy and Patience as Qual­i­ties pre­em­i­nent in Good women, because by these she gaineth her Going toward Our God­li­ness. Her Ordeal there­fore is prin­ci­pal­ly to resist Moods, which make Dis­or­der, that is of Choron­zon. Unto the which be Restric­tion in the Name of B A B A L O N. 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.

 

172

Ϝο
DE HAC RE ALTERA INTELLIGENDA

Mark then, o my Son, how in the Ancient Books of Mag­ick it is Man that sel­l­eth his Soul unto the Dev­il, but Woman that maketh Pact with him. For she hath con­stant­ly the Wit and Pow­er to arrange Things at his Bid­ding, and she payeth this Price of his Alliance. But a Man hath one Jew­el, and, bar­ter­ing this, he becometh the Mock­ery of Satanas. Let then this tutor thee in thine own Art of Mag­ick, that thou employ Women in all Prac­ti­cal Mat­ters, to order them with Cun­ning, but Men in thy Need of Trans­fig­u­ra­tion or Trans­mu­ta­tion. In a Trope, let the Woman direct the Chess-Play of Life, but the Man alter the Rules, if he so will. Lo! in ill Play is Mis­chief and Dis­or­der, but in a New Law is Earth­quake, and Destruc­tion of the Root of Things. There­fore is Fear of any Man that is in Com­merce with his Genius, for none knoweth if his Law shall amend the Game or do it Hurt; and of this the Proof is in Expe­ri­ence, won after the Vic­to­ry of his Will, when there is no Way of Return; as saith the Poet, Ves­ti­gia Nul­la Retror­sum. Nor do thou fear to cre­ate: for, even as I have writ­ten in The Book of Lies (false­ly so-called), thou canst cre­ate noth­ing that is not God. But beware of false Cre­ations wrought by Women in whom is no Func­tion there­of; for they are Phan­toms, poi­so­nous Vapours, bred of the Moon in her Witch­craft of Blood.

 

173

Ϝπ
DE CLAVIBUS MORTIS ET DIABOLI ARCANIS TAROT FRATERNITATIS R∴C∴

It shall prof­it thee much, o my Son, or I err, that I instruct thee in the Mys­ter­ies of the Paths of Nun and of Ayin, that in our rota are fig­ured in the Atu called Death, and that called the Dev­il. Of these Nun joineth the Sun with Venus, and is referred to Scor­pio in the Zodi­ac. This Path is per­ilous, for it seeketh the Lev­el, and may abase thee, except thou take Head unto the Going. Of its three Modes, the Scor­pio destroyeth him­self, as if it were a Type of ani­mal Plea­sure. Next, the Ser­pent is prop­er to Works of Change, or Mag­ick; yet is he poi­so­nous also unless thou hast Wit to enchant him. Last­ly the Eagle is sub­tlest in this Sort, so that this Path is prop­er to a Tran­scen­den­tal Labour. Yet all these are in the Way of Death, so that thy Wand is dis­solved 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.

 

174

Ϝϙ
SEQUITUR DE HIS VIIS

Now the Path of Ayin is a Link between Mer­cury and the Sun, and in the Zodi­ac importeth the Goat. This Goat is called also Strength, and standeth in the Merid­i­an at the Sun­rise of Spring; and it is His Nature to leap upon the Moun­tains. So there­fore he is a Sym­bol of true Mag­ick, and his Name is Baphomet, where­fore did I design him as an Atu of Thoth, the Fif­teenth, and put his Image in the Front of my Book, The Rit­u­al of High Mag­ick, which was the sec­ond Part of my The­sis for the Grade of Major Adept, when I was clothed about with the Body called Alphonse Louis Con­stant. Now the Goat fli­eth not as doth the Eagle; but con­sid­er this also that it is the true Nature of Man to dwell upon the Earth, so that his Flights are oft but Phan­ta­sy; yea, the Eagle also is bound to his Eyrie, nor feedeth upon Air. There­fore this goat, mak­ing each leap with Fer­vour, yet all Times secure in his own Ele­ment, is a true Hiero­glyph of the Magi­cian. Mark also, this Path sheweth One con­tin­u­ous in Exal­ta­tion upon a Throne, and so is it the For­mu­la of the Man, as the oth­er was of the Woman.

 

175

Ϝρ
DE OCULO 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 this mat­ter in the Laws of the Changes of Nature. For Things Unlike do in their Mar­riage pro­duce a Child which is rel­a­tive­ly Sta­ble, and resisteth Change; but Things like increase mutu­al­ly the Poten­tial of their par­tic­u­lar Natures. How­beit, each Path hath his own Use; and thou, being instruct­ed in all Ways, choose thine with Dis­cre­tion.

 

176

Ϝσ
DE SUA INITIATIONE

My son, my Delight, Hon­ey of the Comb of my Life, I will say also this con­cern­ing the Odds of the For­mulæ of Male and Female, that mine Ini­ti­a­tion was ordered as fol­loweth. First, unto the Mid­dle of the Way, the Attain­ment of the Knowl­edge and Con­ver­sa­tion of the Holy Guardian Angel, were these Men appoint­ed to mine Aid, Jerome Politt of Kendal, Cecil Jones of Bas­ingstoke, Allan Ben­nett of the Bor­der, and Oscar Exken­stein of the Moun­tain with no Woman. But after that Attain­ment hath Word come to me only through Women, Ouar­da the Seer, and Virakam, and in mine Ini­ti­a­tion in to the Degree of Magus, the Cat ‘ILARIWN thy Moth­er, Helen the Play Actress the Ser­pent, with Myr­i­amme the Drunk­ard, and Rita the Har­lot to bear Dag­ger and Poi­son; then these oth­ers Alice the Singing Woman for an Owl; then Cather­ine the Dog of Anu­bis, and Ahitha the Camel that renewed the Work of Virakam, with Ollun the Drag­on and—but here I do restrict myself in Speech, for the End is wrapped about with a Veil, as the Face of a Vir­gin. But do thou med­i­tate strict­ly upon these Things, dis­tin­guish­ing the right Prop­er­ty, Order, and Use of the Oth­er and the oth­er in the Rel­a­tive, even as thou mak­est them All-One, that is None, in the Absolute.

 

177

Ϝτ
DE HERBO SANCTISSIMO ARABICO

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 Thor”, and so refer­reth to him that walketh in the Way of the Tao. Also, he is Har­pocrates, the Child Horus, walk­ing, (as saith David, the Badavi that became King in his Psalms) upon the Lion and the Drag­on; that is, he is in Uni­ty with his own secret Nature, as I have shewn thee in my Word con­cern­ing the Sphinx. O my Son, yester Eve came the Spir­it upon me that I also should eat the Grass of the Arabs, and by Virtue of the Bewitch­ment there­of 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 Æon, and in Ten Lives I could not declare it.

 

178

Ϝυ
DE QUIBUSDAM MYSTERIIS, QUAE VIDI

Yet even as a Man may set up a Memo­r­i­al or Sym­bol to import Ten Thou­sand Times Ten Thou­sand, so may I strive to inform thine Under­stand­ing by Hiero­glyph. And here shall thine own Expe­ri­ence serve us, because a Token of Remem­brance suf­ficeth him that is famil­iar with a Mat­ter, which to him that knoweth it not should not be made man­i­fest, no, not in a Year of Instruc­tion. Here first then is one amid the uncount­ed Won­ders of that Vision; upon a field black­er and rich­er than Vel­vet was the Sun of all Being, alone. Then about Him were lit­tle Cross­es, Greek, over-run­ning the Heav­en. These changed from Form to Form geo­met­ri­cal, Mar­vel devour­ing Mar­vel, a Thou­sand Times a Thou­sand in their Course and Sequence, until by their Move­ment was the Uni­verse churned into the Quin­tes­sence of Light. More­over at anoth­er Time did I behold All Things as Bub­bles, iri­des­cent and lumi­nous, self-shin­ing in every Colour, Myr­i­ad pur­su­ing Myrad until by their per­pet­u­al Beau­ty they exhaust­ed the Virtue of my Mind to receive them, and whelmed it, so that I was fain to with­draw myself from the Bur­den of that Bril­liance. Yet, o my Son, the Sun of all this amoun­teth not to the Worth of one Dawn-Glim­mer of Our True Vision of Holi­ness.

 

179

Ϝφ
DE QUORUM MODO MEDITATIONIS

Now for the Chief of that which was grant­ed unto me, it was the Appre­hen­sion of those willed Changes or Trans­mu­ta­tions of the Mind which lead into Truth, being as Lad­ders unto Heav­en, or so I called them at that Time, seek­ing for a Phrase to admon­ish the Scribe that attend­ed on my Words, to grave a Balus­tre upon the Stele of of my Work­ing. But I make Effort in vain, o my Son, to record this mat­ter in Detail; for it is the qual­i­ty of the Grass to quick­en the Oper­a­tion of Thought it may be Thou­sand­fold, and more­over to fig­ure each Step in Images com­plex and over­pow­er­ing in Beau­ty, so that one hath no Time where­in to con­ceive, much less to utter, any Word for a Name or any of them. Also, such was the mul­ti­plic­i­ty of these Lad­ders, and their Equiv­a­lence, that the Mem­o­ry hold­eth no more any one of them, but only a cer­tain Com­pre­hen­sion of the Method, word­less by Rea­son of its 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 hat thou mayst know how every Road endeth in Mon­sal­vat, and the Tem­ple of the San­graal.

 

180

Ϝχ
SEQUITUR DE HAC RE

I believe gen­er­al­ly, on Ground both of The­o­ry and Expe­ri­ence, so lit­tle as I have, that a Man must first be ini­ti­ate, and estab­lished in Our Law, before he may use this Method. For in it is an Impli­ca­tion of our Secret Enlight­en­ment, con­cern­ing the Uni­verse, how its Nature is utter­ly Per­fec­tion. Now every Thought is a Sep­a­ra­tion, and the Med­i­cine of that is to mar­ry Each One with its Con­tra­dic­tion, as I have shewed for­mer­ly in many Writ­ings. And thou shalt clap the one to the oth­er with Vehe­mence of Spir­it, swift­ly as Light itself, that the Ecsta­sy be spon­ta­neous. So there­fore it is Expe­di­ent that thou have trav­elled already in this Path of Antithe­sis, know­ing per­fect­ly the Answer to every Griph or Prob­lem, and thy Mind ready there­with. For by the Prop­er­ty of this Grass all pas­seth with Speed incal­cu­la­ble of Wit, and an Hes­i­ta­tion 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.

 

181

Ϝψ
SEQUITUR DE HAC RE

Thou know­est right well, o my Son, how a Thought is imper­fect in two Dimen­sions, being sep­a­rate from its Con­tra­dic­tion, but also con­strained in its Scope, because by that Con­tra­dic­tion we do not (com­mon­ly) com­plete the Uni­verse, save only that of its Dis­course. Thus if we con­trast health with Sick­ness, we include in their Sphere of Union no more than one Qual­i­ty that may be pred­i­cat­ed of all Things. Fur­ther­more, it is for the most Part not easy to find or to for­mu­late the true Con­tra­dic­tion of any Thought as a pos­i­tive Idea, but only as a For­mal Nega­tion in vague Terms, so that the ready Answer is but the Antithe­sis. Thus to “White” one put­teth not the Phrase “all that which is not White”, for this is void, form­less; it is 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.

 

182

Ϝω
CONCLUSIO DE HOC MODO SANCTITATIS

Lean now that Impres­sion of Sense have Oppo­sites read­i­ly con­ceived, as long to short, or light to dark; and so with Emo­tions and Per­cep­tions, as Love to Hate, or false to true; but the more vio­lent is the Antag­o­nism, the more is it bound in Illu­sion, deter­mined by Rela­tion. Thus the Word “Long” hath no Mean­ing save it be referred to a Stan­dard; but Love is not thus obscure, because Hate is its Twin, par­tak­ing boun­ti­ful­ly of a Com­mon Nature there­with. Now, hear this; it was giv­en unto me in my Visions of the Æthyrs, 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.

 

183

Ζα
DE VIA SOLA SOLIS

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 this) so that he apply them con­scious­ly to the Work, when all being in Truth, that is, in the nec­es­sary Rela­tions that rule our Illu­sion, he cometh in Course to Appre­hen­sion.

 

184

Ζβ
DE PRUDENTIA ORDINIS A∴A∴

Here then o my Son, that shall be might­i­er than all the Kings of the Earth, as it is prophesied,—an thou be He!—because thou shalt estab­lish the Law which I have giv­en, even the Law of Thele­ma, here in this which I have writ­ten is a Point of Judg­ment in they Work to bring into the Light of Ini­ti­a­tion such as come unto thee, affirm­ing their Will to this Attain­ment. For every One hath his own Path and his own Law, and there is no Art in Mag­ick but to seek out that Path and that Law, that he may pur­sue the one by the right Used of the Oth­er. It shall be that one cometh unto thee, desir­ing Amen-Ra (I speak in a Fig­ure or Exem­plar) anoth­er Asi, a third Hoor-Pa-Kraat; or again, one seeketh Instruc­tion in Obeah, and his Fel­low in Wan­ga; and of all these not one in Ten Thou­sand shall be aware of his true Way. For albeit our last step is one for all, yet his next stem is par­tic­u­lar to each. 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.

 

185

Ζγ
ALTERA DE SUA VIA

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 Gen­er­al­i­sa­tion and Con­for­mi­ty, for this is the very Idle­ness, and breedeth Ideals and Stan­dards that are Death.

 

186

Ζδ
DE PRUDENTIA ARTIS DOCENDI

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 Æon 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 this Sin is an obsta­cle and a Fet­ter and an Hood­wink on every one of them, for it is Restric­tion, whether he set out by the Med­i­ta­tions of the Dham­ma, or by Our Qabal­ah, or by Vision or Theur­gy, or how else soev­er.

 

187

Ζε
DE MENTE INIMICA ANIMO

How shall a Man attain to the Trance where All is One, if he yet debate with­in his Mind con­cern­ing Virtue as a Thing Absolute? Thus, o my Son, there be those that are fud­dled with Doubt whether Meat is to be eat­en (I choose this as a Ref­er­ence with Habit is prop­er to the Lion, as Grass to the Horse, so that his right Prob­lem is sole­ly thus, what is fit­ting to his own Nature. Or again, I sup­pose that he is in Vision, and an Angel, vis­it­ing him, imparteth a Truth con­trary to his Prej­u­dice, as it fell out in mine own Case, when I inhab­it­ed the Body of Sir Edward Kel­ly, or so do I in Part remem­ber, as it seemeth dim­ly. This nev­er­the­less is sure (or the learned Casaubon, pub­lish­ing the Record of that Word with the Magi­cian Dee, sayeth false­ly) that an Angel did declare unto Kel­ly the very Axioma­ta of our Law of Thele­ma, in good Mea­sure, and plain­ly; but Dee, afflict­ed by the Fix­i­ty of his Tenets that were of the Slave-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.

 

188

Zϝ
DE ILLUMINATUM OPERIBUS DIVERSIS

Do thou under­stand how few be they whose Work in this their present Lives is our Way of Ini­ti­a­tion. Yet it is writ­ten in The Book of the Law that the Law is for all, so that thou shalt in no wise err if thou estab­lish it as the for­mu­la of the Æon, 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 to arise Con­fu­sion, one usurp­ing the appoint­ed office of anoth­er. For the Abbot, although he be not enlight­ened whol­ly, is yet Abbot; and the Place of the Cook, were he Saint, Arhan, and Parama­ham­sa in one Per­son, is in his Kitchen. Con­found not thou in any wise there­fore the Degree 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.

 

189

Ζζ
DE EADEM RE ALTERA VERBA

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 ion 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.

 

190

Ζη
DE PACE PERFECTA LUCE

How shall the mea­sure our Stat­ue and our Suc­cess by that Can­non of Rela­tion and Illu­sion, and their igno­rance of our Nature? Time is but Sequence, and a moment of Light out­weigheth an Age of Dark­ness. What is Hap­pi­ness but the Issue of the Har­mo­ny of our Con­scious­ness with our Truth, and the Con­for­mi­ty of Will with Action? To the Ini­ti­ate is Cer­tain­ty of his Ful­fil­ment, which to the Pro­fane is but the Effect of Haz­ard, and he feareth to lose what he loveth, or thin­keth he loveth. But we, lov­ing only in Light, suf­fer not by Fear or by Bereave­ment, because to us every Event is Wel­come, being right, nec­es­sary and prop­er to our par­tic­u­lar Path. The Knowl­edge of this one Mat­ter is the End of Dread and of Regret; make it the Gov­er­nor of thy Mind, to rule its Pace, lest it has­ten or lag by Stress of thine Envi­ron­ment. How this Attain­ment is pos­si­ble for all Mankind, since it asketh but Res­o­lu­tion of Com­plex­i­ties that already exist; so that this true Wis­dom and Hap­pi­ness cometh by the Accep­tance of our Law, and its Use is the Key to all locked Doors of the Mind, and the Rec­on­cile­ment of every Con­tention. O my Son, in the Pro­mul­ga­tion of the Law lieth the Reward of our Chief Work, the mak­ing whole of Mankind from the Con­science of Sin which divideth him, and afflicteth his Spir­it.

 

191

Ζθ
DE PACE PERFECTA

O my Son, is it not a mar­vel, this Light where­of we are the Quin­tes­sence and the Seed? By it are we made Whole, dis­solved in the Body and in the Soul of Our Lady 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?

 

192

Ζι
DE MORTE

Thou hast made Ques­tion of me con­cern­ing Death, and this is my Opin­ion, of which I say not: this is the Truth. First in the Tem­ple called Man is the God, his Soul, or Star, indi­vid­ual and eter­nal, but also inher­ent in the Body of Our Lady Nuit. Now this Soul, as an Offi­cer in the High Mass of the Cos­mos, taketh on the Ves­ture of his Office, that is, inhab­iteth a Taber­na­cle of Illu­sion, a Body and Mind. And this Taber­na­cle is Sub­ject to the Law of Change, for it is com­plex, and dif­fuse react­ing to every Stim­u­lus or Impres­sion. If then the mind be attached con­stant­ly to the Body, Death hath no Pow­er to decom­pose it whol­ly, but a decay­ing Shell of the dead Man, his Mind hold­ing togeth­er for a lit­tle his Body of Light, haunteth the Earth, seek­ing a new Taber­na­cle (in its Error that feareth Change) in some oth­er Body. These Shells are bro­ken away utter­ly from the Star that did enlight­en them, and they are Vam­pires, obsess­ing them that adven­ture them­selves into the Astral World with­out Mag­i­cal Pro­tec­tion, or invoke them, as do the Spiri­tists. For by Death is Man released only from the Gross Body, at the first, and is com­plete oth­er­wise upon the Astral Plane, as he was in his Life. But this Whole­ness suf­fer­eth Stress, and its Gird­ers are loos­ened, the weak­er first and after that the stronger.

 

193

Ζκ
DE ADEPTIS R. C. ESCHATOLOGIA

Con­sid­er now in this Light what shall come to the Adept, to him that hath aspired con­stant­ly and firm­ly to his Star, attun­ing the Mind unto the Musick of its Will. In him, if his Mind be knit per­fect­ly togeth­er is itself, and con­joined with the Star, is so strong a Con­fec­tion that it breaketh away eas­i­ly not only from the Gross Body, but the fine. It is this Fine Body which bindeth it to the Astral, as did the Gross to the Mate­r­i­al World so then it accom­plisheth will­ing­ly the Sacra­ment of a sec­ond Death and leaveth the Body of Light. But the Mind, cleaveth close­ly, by Right of its Har­mo­ny, and Might of its Love, to its Star, resisteth the Min­is­ters of Dis­rup­tion, for a Sea­son, accord­ing to its Strength. Now, if this Star be of those that are bound by the Great Oath, incar­nat­ing with­out Remis­sion because of Delight in the Cos­mic Sacra­ment, it seeketh a new Vehi­cle in the appoint­ed Way, and indwelleth the Fœtus 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, is the Way of Asar in Amen­nti, accord­ing to mine Opin­ion, of which I say not: This is the Truth.

 

194

Ζλ
DE NUPTIIS SUMMIS

Now then to this Doc­trine, o my Son, add thou that which thou hast learned in The Book of the Law, that Death is the Dis­so­lu­tion in the Kiss of Our Lady 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 Live, it is the Sum­mit of our Holy Art to present the whole Being of our Star to Our Lady in the Nup­tial of our Bod­i­ly Death. We are then to make our whole Engine the true and real Appur­te­nance of our Force, with­out Leak, or Fric­tion, or any oth­er Waste or Hin­drance to its Action. Thou know­est well how an Horse, or even a Machine pro­pelled by a Man’s feet, becometh as it were as Exten­sion of the Rid­er, though his Skill and Cus­tom. Thus let thy Star have prof­it of thy Vehi­cle, assim­i­lat­ing it, and sus­tain­ing it, so that it be healed of its Sep­a­ra­tion, and this even in Life, but most espe­cial­ly in Death. Also thou ought­est to increase thy Vehi­cle in Mass by true Growth in Bal­ance, that thou be a Bride­groom come­ly and well favoured, a Man of might, and a War­rior wor­thy of the Bed of so divine a Dis­so­lu­tion.

 

195

Ζμ
DE ARTE VOLUPTATE DILEMMA QUAEDAM

There is a named 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 so forth, so that in Mine Age I am become ver­i­ly a Slave to mine own Genius; and my Law is that unless I sleep or cre­ate, my Soul is sick, and fain to claim the Reward and the Recre­ation of my Death. But (I hear thee say it) this is not the Case of All, or even of many, Men; but their Act of Will is sat­is­fied eas­i­ly at its first Guer­don. Should not then their Wis­dom be to resist them­selves for a Space, as Water heaped up by a Dam gath­ereth Force, and Hunger feedeth upon Absti­nence? Also, there is that which I have writ­ten in a for­mer Chap­ter of the right Use of Dis­ci­pline; and third­ly, this free Flow­ing is with­out Sub­til­i­ty of Art, as it were an Har­lot that pluck­eth Men by the Sleeve.

 

196

Ζν
DE HOC MODO DISSOLUTIO

Here there­fore will I write down the Answer to this Indict­ment of our Wis­dom; that every Act of Will is to be made in its Per­fec­tion, which State is to be attained accord­ing to these Con­di­tions: firs, those of its own Law; sec­ond, those of its Envi­ron­ment. Judge thine own Case indi­vid­u­al­ly, each as it plead­eth; for there is no Can­non or Code, since every Star hath its own Law diverse from every oth­er. Now there is the Restraint of Con­flict which is Impo­tence and Dis­rup­tion; the the Restraint of Dis­ci­pline is a For­ti­fi­ca­tion of the Will by Repose and by Prepa­ra­tion, as a Con­queror resteth his Armies, and feedeth them, and looketh to their Fur­ni­ture and to their Spir­it, before he joineth the Bat­tle. Also, there is the Restraint of Art, which includeth that oth­er of Dis­ci­pline, and its Nature is to adorn the Will and to admire its Strength and its Beau­ty, and to enjoy its Vic­to­ry by Antic­i­pa­tion in full Con­fi­dence, not fear­ful of Time that rob­beth them that are igno­rant con­cern­ing him, how he is but Mirage and Illu­sion, inca­pable to besiege the Fortress of the Soul. Work thou thy Will, know­ing (as I said afore­time by the Mouth of Eliphas Levi Zahed), 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.

 

197

Ζξ
DE COMEDIA QUAE PAN DICTUR

Sub­tler than the Ser­pent of Her­mes, o my Son, is this Way of Restraint of Art, and thou shalt meet there­in with the God Pan, and have him to thy Play­mate. So shalt thou devise Com­e­dy and Tragedy, as it were Set­tings for the Jew­el of thy Will, to enhance the Beau­ty there­of, and to refine thy Plea­sures. This is that which is writ­ten in The Book of the Law: “Wis­dom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not ani­mal; refine thy rap­ture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and nine­ty rules of art: if thou love, exceed by del­i­ca­cy; and if thou do aught joy­ous, let there be sub­tle­ty there­in! But exceed! exceed!” Thus thou mayst even toy with thy tamed Dev­il of Sin, and use the Pain there­of to sharp­en the taste of thy Meat, being Adult, and thy Tongue keen to the Olive, and cloyed by the Sweet, while a Child is oppo­site to this in his Pref­er­ence; or as a skilled Match of Love abound­eth in Pinch­ings, Slap­pings, Bit­ings and the like, to inten­si­fy the Bout and to pro­long it. But this is Risk and Per­il, unless thou be whol­ly Mas­ter, One in thy Will; for there is Poi­son in these dead Snakes, to destroy thee if thou lend them of thy Life by so lit­tle as one Doubt of thy­self, as a Seed of Divi­sion.

 

198

Ζο
DE LUDO AMORIS

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 the Robe of Illu­sion many-coloured, and evadeth Him in Sport, yea, and divorceth Him from the Embrace, weav­ing new Mod­esties and allure­ments in Her Dance. Now, o my Son, the full Com­pre­hen­sion of this Arcanum is the Fruit of Con­tem­pla­tion, if this be pre­pared by the Expe­ri­ence of this Art in thine own Case. But to them that under­stand not, and have Grief and Sep­a­ra­tion, being deceived by this Play so that they deem it the Divi­sion of Hate, She can but speak in Sim­plic­i­ty by that Word writ­ten in The Book of the Law: “To me!” For until thou love, the Play of Love is but Empti­ness; and its cru­el­ty is Cru­el­ty indeed, except thou know it to be but a Sauce to wet Appetite, and to give Empha­sis of Con­trast, as a Painter dim­meth the Light by Cun­ning of his Shad­ows. But all this Delight that thou mayst have of the Uni­verse both in its Veils and in its Naked­ness is a Reward of thine Attain­ment of Truth, and fol­loweth after it. Nor canst thou com­pre­hend this Doc­trine by Mind, for the Divi­sion in thee cri­eth aloud in its Agony, deny­ing it, unless thou be whol­ly Ini­ti­ate.

 

199

Ζπ
DE GAUDIO STUPRI

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 that thou hast in thy True Self, the Star among the Stars of Her Body. The Adept of our Art is not com­pas­sion­ate con­cern­ing Sin, in his own Vehi­cle or anoth­er’s, unless the Heal­ing there­of were prop­er to his Will, for he is aware of the whole Truth of the Mat­ter. So goeth he upon his Way, and tight­eneth not a Rein upon the Hors­es of the Uni­verse, but is con­tent, behold­ing the Speed of their Course. Ver­i­ly, o my Son, it is well writ­ten in The Book of the Magus that it is the Curse of my Grade that I must needs preach my Law unto Men. For I am afflict­ed in my Taber­na­cle on this Count, but in my Self, I rejoice, and join in the Laugh­ter of Her Love.

 

200

Ζϙ
DE CAECITIA PHILOSOPHORUM ANTIQUORUM

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 Astarté, 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 there­fore of thee Philoso­phers lay in their false Assump­tion that Bliss, Knowl­edge and Being (the Qual­i­ties of their Change­less Uni­ty) could be States. O my Son, how piti­ful is their Beg­gary, these Pau­pers of Sense and of Expe­ri­ence and of Obser­va­tion! The Empti­ness of their Bel­lies was it that bred Phan­toms of Ide­al, so that they sought Joy by a crude Denial of what Truth (or rather, Fact) they had per­ceived con­cern­ing the Uni­verse, so that they set up an Idol of Death for their God, in very Rage of Hatred against the Sum of their own Selves.

 

201

Ζρ
DE HERESIA MANICHAEA

These Philoso­phers, or shall I not say Mis­oso­phers and Pseu­do-Sophists, have been hard put to it to explain the Mys­tery of the Exis­tence of their Evil. They have cried, froth­ing with Words, the Evil is Illu­sion. But if so, that Illu­sion is Evil, whence came it, and to what End? If their Dev­il cre­at­ed it, who cre­at­ed that Dev­il? All their con­tention resol­veth to this Dilem­ma of Change in a Change­less, Fal­si­ty in a True, Hate in a Lov­ing, Weak­ness in an Almighty, Dual­i­ty in a Sim­ple, Being as they define their God. Nor do they see that they restrict their God (whom yet they would have to be All) by admit­ting Oppo­sites to this Nature, ever when they sum these Oppo­sites as Illu­sion, since Illu­sion is the Denial of His Truth. But the Indi­ans, see­ing this, seek Escape by deny­ing all Dual­i­ty soev­er to their God, or True State, I speak of Parabrah­man 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.

 

202

Ζσ
DE VERITATE RERUM MENSURANDA

So do thou appre­hend this Wis­dom, o my Son, lay­ing it to thine Heart, as a Mis­tress, and hid­ing it in the Trea­sury of thy Mind as a Jew­el of Enlight­en­ment. Con­sid­er a Dream, how it is unre­al in Respect of thine Expe­ri­ence of the Objects of thy Wak­ing Sense, but real also, both as it did in Fact impress thy Mind, and as it did express some Hunger of thy Secret Nature, as I have already shewed in this Let­ter. Con­sid­er the Play of the Chess, how its Law hath made for itself a Lan­guage and a Lit­er­a­ture, yet it is but an arbi­trary inven­tion; with­out imping­ing (save as it oper­ateth though Plea­sure and Inter­est upon Minds) on any oth­er Sphere soev­er of the Uni­verse. Equal­ly, Things called (vul­gar­ly) Real and Mate­r­i­al exist in the Uni­verse of our Con­scious­ness only by the Appre­hen­sion of their Images in Mind through Sense; as, how is Colour Real or Mate­r­i­al to a blind man; or a Law math­e­mat­i­cal true to him that is imbe­cile or dement­ed. All Things there­fore, even if unre­al and irra­tional, nay, incon­ceiv­able and impos­si­ble (such as Iota in the The­o­rem of De Moivre), 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 direct 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.

 

203

Ζτ
DE APHORISMO UBI DICO: OMNIA SUNT

My son, long did I await thee, yearn­ing, and with Price and Great Glad­ness did I bid thee Wel­come to my City of the Pyra­mids, under the Night of Pan. Now then in my dear Love of thee will I reveal this Secret of Wis­dom which I wrote occult­ly in my last Chap­ter, in these Words: All Things Exist. Con­sid­ered by right Under­stand­ing, this is to deny that there is any­thing imag­in­able or unimag­in­able which doth not exist. That is, the Body of Our Lady 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 this Work of a Magus which I cam to accom­plish, rob­ing myself in Flesh of man, as was my Nature and the Will of my Nature, the Name of my Star that flameth in the Body of Nuit our Lady.

 

204

Ζυ
DE RATIONE HUIUS EPISTOLAE SCRIBENDAE

Behold, I draw unto the End of this Dis­course of Wis­dom, as a Ship that hath adven­tured upon Ocean, from whose mast the Watch­er espi­eth in the Dim­ness of the Hori­zon a Point of Snow, being the Peak of a great Moun­tain that is Guardian of the Har­bour, the Term of that Voy­age. So now do I com­mit thee whol­ly unto thy­self, for I exist not in thine Uni­verse, save in my Rela­tion with thee, where­fore this Part of me is in Truth thou rather than I. Yet do thou trea­sure this Let­ter, for it is mine espe­cial Gift, and hath Radi­ance of the Light of my Wis­dom, and flameth, being the Blood of my Love of thee and of Mankind. Also, it is the Word of my Will, the Char­ter of the Lib­er­ty of my Soul, and thine, and that of every Man, and every Woman; for we are Stars, O my Son, for many Days was I silent, until thou wast fear­ful lest thou hadst, by Igno­rance or by Inad­ver­tance, enkin­dled the Fire of my Wrath. But I spake not, because I knew in my Wis­dom that thou must pass a cer­tain Ordeal of thine Ini­ti­a­tion by thine own Virtue. For this Cause I held aloof; but in my Love I made a Begin­ning of this Let­ter, behold­ing thy tri­umph before­hand; and with Pre­science, divin­ing thy next Need, that is to say, this Book of the Words of my Wis­dom.

 

205

Ζφ
DE NATURA HUIUS EPISTOLAE

O my Son, in this Let­ter have I writ­ten the Name of my own Nature, its Law, its Qual­i­ty, its Will and its Appur­te­nance or Orna­ment. For it is the Child of my Love toward thee, and the Expres­sion through mine Art of my Will so far as that regardeth thee. Now every Child is made of the Essence of his Father, so that every Cre­ation is a Like­ness or Image of the Cre­ator, but mod­i­fied by the Moth­er, that is to say, the Mate­r­i­al where­on he beget­teth it. So then this Let­ter is a Pro­jec­tion of mine own Star in a Mir­ror, to wit, mine Idea in thy Regard; and it shall be unto thee as a clear Vision of thy Father, and of the Word of the Æon that he hath uttered unto Man. But also, because this Word is the For­mu­la of the Æon, 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.

 

206

Ζχ
DE MODO QUO HANC EPISTOLAM SCRIPSI

There is not one Word in this Let­ter that is not writ with mine own Hand and Style, slow­ly and heed­ful­ly (as is con­trary with my cus­tom) being the Fruit of the Tree of my Medi­a­tion, well-ripened by the Sun of mine Illu­mi­na­tion. With much Toil have I done this, being often­times seat­ed with­out Motion save of the Hands, while Earth rolled from Twi­light unto Twi­light, so that my Body became cold and rigid, even as is a Corpse. Also, in the Inter­vals of this Scrip­ture, have I been giv­en to Con­tem­pla­tion and to Works of High Mag­ick, notably the Mass of the Holy Ghost, in the Con­cen­tra­tion of my Will to impart this Wis­dom unto thee, and to reveal the Mys­ter­ies of Truth. Now of all these this is the Root, that Truth is not fixed with the Rigour of Death, but vital with Lust of Change, and enflamed with the Love of its oppo­site. Thus even False­hood is not alien to Truth, for the Per­fec­tion of Nature com­pre­hen­deth all. But all these Things are writ­ten in The Book of the Law, after which do I limp painful­ly, afar off, upon the poor Crutch of mine Under­stand­ing of its Word; yea, I am well assured that in that Book are writ all Things soev­er; but we, being most­ly with­out Wit are not able to dis­tin­guish them. For the Stature of Aiwass is beyond our Mea­sure, see­ing that he was able to com­pre­hend the whole Mys­tery of Nuit and of Hadit, and yet to declare Their Mes­sage in the Lan­guage of Men.

 

207

Ζψ
DE SAPIENTIA ET STULTITIA

O my Son, in this the Colophon of my Epis­tle will I recall the Title and Super­scrip­tion there­of; that is, The Book of Wis­dom or Fol­ly. I pro­claim Bless­ing and Wor­ship to Nuit Our Lady and Her Lord Hadit, for the Mir­a­cle of the Anato­my of the Child Ra-Hoor-Khuit, as it is shewn in the Design Min­u­tum Mundum, the Tree of Life. For though Wis­dom be the Sec­ond Ema­na­tion of his Essence, there is a Path to sep­a­rate and to join them, the Ref­er­ence there­of being Aleph, that is One indeed, but also an Hun­dred and Eleven in his full Orthog­ra­phy; to sig­ni­fy the Most Holy Trin­i­ty, and by Metathe­sis it is Thick Dark­ness, and Sud­den Death. This is also the Num­ber of A U M, which is A M O U N, and the Root-Sound of O M N E, or, in Greek, P A N, and it is a Num­ber of the Sun. Yet is the Atu of Thoth that cor­re­spon­deth there­un­to marked with Z E R O, and its Name is M A T, where­of I have spo­ken for­mer­ly, and its Image is the Fool. O my Son, gath­er thou all these Limbs togeth­er in One Body, and breathe upon it with thy Spir­it, that it may live; then do thou embrace it with Lust of they Man­hood, and go in unto it, and know it; so shall ye be One Flesh. Now at last in the Rein­force­ment and Ecsta­sy of this Con­sum­ma­tion thou shalt with by what Inspi­ra­tion thou didst choose thy Name in the Gno­sis, I mean P A R Z I V A L, “der reine Thor”, the True Knight that won King­ship in Mon­sal­vat, and made whole the Wound of Amfor­t­as, and ordered Kundry to right Ser­vice, and regained the Lance, and revived the Mir­a­cle of the San­graal; yea, also upon him­self did he accom­plish his Work in the End: “Höch­sten Heiles Wun­der! Erlö­sung dem Erlös­er!” 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 Æon. This Way is the Path of the Pure Fool.

 

208

Ζω
DE ORACULO SUMMO

And who is this Pure Fool? Lo, in the Sagas of old Time, Leg­end of Scald, of Brad, of Druid, cometh he not in Green Like Spring? O thou Great Fool, thou Water that art Air, in whom all Com­plex is resolved! Yes, Thou in ragged Rai­ment, with the Staff of Pri­a­pus and the Wine­skin! thou stand­est up on the Croc­o­dile like Hoor-pa-Kraat; and the Great Cat leapeth upon thee! Yea, and more also, I have known Thee who Thou art, Bac­chus Diphues, none and two, in thy Name I A O! Now at the End of all do I come to the Being of Thee, beyond By-com­ing, and I cry aloud My Word, as it was giv­en unto Man by thine Uncle Alcofribas Nasi­er, the Ora­cle of the Bot­tle of B A C B U C, and this Word is T R I N C.

But in the antient right Spelling this is T R I N U 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
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