The Vision & the Voice With Commentary and Other Papers - Crowley Aleister, Neuburg Victor B., Desti Mary 1999

Introduction¹

I HAD NO SPECIAL MAGICAL object in going to Algiers, which I reached on November 17 [1909 E.v.]. As my chela, I took Frater Omnia Vincam, a Neophyte of the A.’.A/. disguised as Victor Neuburg.^{1 2} We merely wanted to rough it a bit in a new and interesting corner of the planet of which we were parasites. We hastily bought a few provisions, took the tram to Arba, and after lunch started south, with no particular objective beyond filling our lungs with pure air and renewing the austere rapture of sleeping on the ground and watching the stars, serenely silent above us, till the face of Sleep, kissing our eyes, hid them from us in her heavy and holy hair. On the 21st we reached Aumale,³ after two nights in the open and one at a hovel that may have looked so tired on account of its Sisyphean struggle to pretend to be an hotel.

¹ [Adapted from The Confessions of Aleister Crowley, typescript; hereinafter cited as Confessions.]

² [Lat., “I will conquer all,” a motto of Victor Benjamin Neuburg (1883-1940), who became a Zelator 2°=9° A.’.A.'. and a vi° o.t.o. He was (with Mary Desti) subeditor of The Equinox from 1912-13. For his poetry see Neuburg, The Triumph of Pan (1910, 1989); for his biography see Jean Overton Fuller, The Magical Dilemma of Victor Neuburg (1965, 1990); see Works Cited.]

³ [Modern Sour El Ghozlane.]

I cannot imagine why or how the idea came to me. Perhaps I happened to have in my rucksack one of my earliest magical notebooks,¹ where I had copied with infinite patience the Nineteen Calls or Keys obtained by Sir Edward Kelly from certain angels and written from his dictation by Queen Elizabeth’s astrologer with whom he was working.^{1 2} The sixth book of their magical workings was translated by Casaubon, and is one of the very few genuine and interesting works on Magic of any period.³ Much of their work still defies explanation, though I and Frater Semper Paratus, an Adeptus Major of A.’.A.'., have spent much time and research upon it and cleared up many obscure points.⁴

The fact which stamps this working as sincere is this: over one hundred squares filled with letters were obtained—in a manner which no one has quite understood. Dee would have one or more of these tables (as a rule 49x49), some full, others lettered only on alternate squares, before him on a writing table. Kelly would sit at what they called the Holy Table, and gaze into a “Shew-stone” which, with some of the talismans on the table, may be seen in the British Museum. Kelly would see an angel in the Shew-stone, who would point with a rod to letters on one of these charts in succession. Kelly would report—“He points to column 6, rank 31,” and so on, apparently not mentioning the letter, which Dee found and wrote down from the “table” before him. This seems to imply that Kelly did not know what words would be formed. If he did, we must assume that he knew the position of each of the 2,401 letters in each of the tables, which

¹ [This notebook is now at the Charles Deering McCormick Library, Special Collections, Northwestern University.]

² [Elizabeth I’s astrologer John Dee (1527-1608) was a central figure in Elizabethan England; his influence reached far beyond his esoteric pursuits. See Peter J. French, John Dee (1972).]

³ [Meric Casaubon, A True and Faithful Relation of what Passed for Many Yeers between Dr. John Dee ... and some Spirits (1659), hereafter cited as Casaubon; see Works Cited.]

⁴ [James Thomas Windram (1877-1939) was also Mercurius x°, the head of the South African o.T.o. He was to have helped Crowley to complete “Liber 84 vel Chanokh” but never did so; his transcripts of Dee-Kelly material survive.]

seems a somewhat surprising accomplishment. When the angel had finished, the message was rewritten backwards. (It had been dictated backwards as being too dangerous to communicate forwards—each word being in its nature so powerful that its direct communication would have evoked forces which were not wanted at that time.)

These Keys or Calls being rewritten backwards, there appeared conjurations in a language which they called “Enochian” or Angelic. It is not a jargon; it has a grammar and syntax of its own. It is very much more sonorous, stately and impressive than even Greek or Sanskrit, and the English translation, though in places difficult to understand, contains passages of a sustained sublimity that Shakespeare, Milton and the Bible do not surpass. To condemn Kelly as a cheating charlatan—the accepted view—is simply stupid. If he invented Enochian, and composed this superb prose, he was at worst a Chatterton with fifty times that poet’s ingenuity and five hundred times his poetical genius.¹

Can the Wings of the Wind understand your voices of Wonder? O You! the second of the First! whom the burning flames have framed in the depth of my Jaws! Whom I have prepared as cups for a wedding, or as the flowers in their beauty for the chamber of Righteousness! Stronger are your feet than the barren stone; and mightier are your voices than the manifold winds! For you are become a building such as is not, save in the Mind of the All-Powerful.

—Second Key¹

I prefer to judge Kelly from this rather than from stale scandal of people to whom any Magician, as such, smelt of sulphur. If, on the other hand, Kelly did not write this, he may of course have been a common ignorant scoundrel, one of whose abnormalities was a faculty for seeing and hearing sublimities, just as a burglar or business man might be able to describe St. Paul’s Cathedral far better than the Dean. ^{1 2}

¹ [The English poet Thomas Chatterton (1752-1770) was an inspiration to the English Romantic poets who viewed him as an unjustly neglected genius; he took his life by poison at age seventeen.]

² [See “Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” Part II, The Equinox 1(8), p. 104.]

There are nineteen of these Keys: the first two conjuring the element called Spirit; the next sixteen invoke the Four Elements, each subdivided into four; the nineteenth, by changing two names, may be used to invoke any one of what are called the thirty “TEthyrs” or “Aires.” What these are is difficult to say. In one place we are told that they are “Dominion extending in ever widening circles without and beyond the Watchtowers of the Universe,” these Watchtowers composing a cube of infinite magnitude. Elsewhere, we find that the names of the angels which govern them are contained in the Watchtowers themselves; but (most disconcerting disenchantment!) they are identified with various countries of the earth, Styria, Illyria, etc., as if “aire” simply meant clime. I have always maintained the first definition. I suspected Kelly of finding Dee unsupportable at times, with his piety, pedantry, credulity, respectability, and lack of humour. I could understand that he broke out and made fun of the old man by spouting nonsense.

The genuineness of these Keys, altogether apart from any critical observation, is guaranteed by the fact that anyone with the smallest capacity for Magick finds that they work. Prove The Cenci to have been forged by Hogg, and conclude that Hogg was therefore a knave, well; but do not try to argue that Hogg, not being a poet, The Cenci must be drivel.¹ I had used these Keys a great deal, and always with excellent effect. In Mexico I thought I would discover for myself what the TEthyrs really were, by invoking them in turn by means of the nineteenth Key,^{1 2} and skrying in the Spirit vision, judge their nature by what I saw and heard. I investigated the first two Keys on November 14 and 17, 1900.³ “The Vision and the Voice” was mysterious and terrific in character. What I saw was not beyond my previous experience,

¹ [Percy Bysshe Shelley, The Cenci: A Tragedy in Five Acts (1819). Thomas Jefferson Hogg (1792-1862) was Shelley’s friend and biographer; they were sent down from Oxford for collaborating on a pseudonymous burlesque. The Cenci is not typical of Shelley’s work, but he (not Hogg) is credited with its authorship by most authorities.]

² [See page 27.]

³ [See The Temple of Solomon the King, The Equinox 1(3), p. 269.]

but what I heard was as unintelligible to me as Blake to a Baptist. I was encouraged by the evident importance of these results, but I found that I could no more force myself to go on to the twenty-eighth /Ethyr than I could have thrown myself from a cliff. I accepted the rebuff; but, while dismissing the matter from my mind, managed to preserve the record throughout my wanderings. I had not thought of continuing this work for nearly nine years; but at Aumale a hand suddenly smote its lightning into my heart, and I knew that now, that very day, I must take up The Vision and the Voice from the point where I had laid it down.

We accordingly bought a number of notebooks, and after dinner I invoked the twenty-eighth /Ethyr by means of the nineteenth Key. “The Vision and the Voice,” when we came to compare it with those of the twenty-ninth and thirtieth /Ethyrs, exhibits the same peculiarities of subject and style. This is true also of the twenty-seventh /Ethyr, and so to the twenty-fourth, yet there is a continuous advance towards coherence, both in each /Ethyr itself and as regards its neighbour. The subject shows progressive solemnity and sublimity, as well as tendency to fit in with those conceptions of the Cosmos, those mystic laws of Nature, and those ideas of transcendental Truth which had been already foreshadowed in The Book of the Law and the more exalted of my trances.

The deduction is not that my individuality was influencing the character of the Vision more and more as I got, so to speak, into my stride, for the interpretation of my Algerian Work made clear the meaning of the utterly obscure oracles obtained in Mexico. It became evident indeed that what stopped me in 1900 was simply that my Grade did not entitle me to go further than the twentyninth. I was, in fact, told that only a Master of the Temple can penetrate beyond a certain point. Of course anyone might use the Key for any TEthyr he chose, but he would either get no vision at all or expose himself to deception, and that probably of the deadly dangerous kind.

God is never so turned away from man, and never so much sendeth him new paths, as when he maketh ascent to divine speculations or works in a confused or disordered manner, and as it adds, with unhallowed lips, or unwashed feet. For

of those who are thus negligent, the progress is imperfect, the impulses are vain, and the paths are dark.

— Zoroaster¹

I solemnly warn the world that, while courage is the first virtue of the Magician, presumptuous and reckless rashness has no more connection with it than a caricature of the ex-Kaiser with Julius Caesar. It is composed partly of sham pride prompted by self-love and self-doubt; partly by the insane impulse which the extremity of fear excites. There are plenty of V.C.’s^{1 2} who won the Cross, not “for valour,” but for lack of self-control over their crisis of cowardice. Discipline automatically made running away impossible; the only way out was to rush forward and do whatever their innate instinct suggested. I know two V.C.’s myself who have no memory whatever of the act that won them the Cross.

Similar psychology often makes young Magicians forget that to dare must be backed by to will and to know, all three being ruled by to keep silence. Which last means many things, but most of all so to control oneself that every act is done noiselessly; all disturbance means clumsiness or blundering. The soldier may happen not to be hit, as he carries his wounded comrade through the barrage, but there is no luck in Magick. We work in a fluid world, where every movement is compensated at once. Light, sound, and electricity may be shut out, and so the effects of human thought, speech and action may divert or delay their action. But Magick, like gravitation, knows no obstacle. It is true that one can lift a fallen flower from the floor and keep it on a table; but the forces are at work all the time, and the action has been completely compensated by the redistribution of the stresses on every material object in the whole universe, by the shifting of the centre of gravity of the Cosmos, as my muscles sway from one state of equilibrium to another, and the flower exerts its energies from the mahogany instead of the carpet.

Presumption in Magick is, therefore, sure to be punished— swiftly and justly. The error is one of the worst because it

¹ [The Chaldcean Oracles of Zoroaster, §183, ed. Westcott. See Works Cited.]

² [Holders of the Victoria Cross, a British military decoration.]

attracts all those forces which, being themselves weak, are made malignant by pain, and find their principal solace in taking it out of anyone they feel they can bully. Worse still, the hysterical expansion of the Ego means the deepest possible treason to Truth. It invites obsession by every deceitful demon. They puff up the pride of the fool still further; they flatter every foible, exhort him to acts of the most ridiculous kind, induce him to talk the most raving rubbish, and teach him to think himself the greatest man in the world—nay, not a man, but a god. He scores every fiasco as a success, takes every trifle as a token either of his sacrosanct sovereignty, or of the malice of hell whose hounds have been mustered to martyr him. His megalomania swings from maniacal exaltation to melancholia, with delusions of persecution.

I have seen several cases of exactly this kind caused by so seemingly trivial a mistake as carelessness in consecrating the Circle for an evocation of an inferior Spirit; claiming a Grade in the Order without having made sure of having passed every test perfectly at every point; presuming to instruct a Probationer in his work before becoming a Neophyte; omitting essential points of Ritual as troublesome formalities; or even making excuses for error of the kind by which a man persuades himself that his faults are really due to the excess of his merits.

I remember one man who attributed his failure to perform asana properly to his exceptional physical energy. His body, said he, was endowed with such force that he must be meant to move it—it was all very well for ordinary men to try to sit still, but for him it was clearly an unnatural notion. Five years later, he told me he had become the strongest man on the planet, and begged me to empty my revolver at his chest if I didn’t mind the bullets rebounding and breaking my windows. I spared my windows; besides, I hate to clean my revolver. He then offered to take me downstairs and watch him shoulder a motor car and run down the road with it. I told him that I knew he could do it, and wouldn’t insult him by asking for proof. He went away, prancing and purring. Next day I had a postcard from him, and guessed from his shaky upstrokes what was the matter. It chimed in with his talk. A month passed, then I heard that he had been diagnosed as suffering from general paralysis of the insane. The man

who had been singled out from the herd for splendour of strength could not move a muscle; he rolled from side to side with regular rhythm. The man who boasted could no longer speak: he uttered a long monotonous howl, hardly varying by a note, hour after hour.

It is such cases that keep me constantly on my guard against being “too proud to fight”—or to sweep the floor, if it comes to that. My Grade as a Magus of A.'. A.’., my office as the logos of the ?Eon, the Prophet chosen to proclaim the Law which will determine the destinies of this planet for an epoch, singles me out in a sense, puts me in a class which contains only seven other names in the whole of human history.¹ No possible personal attainment could have done this. There are countless initiates, especially in Asia, who have scaled every summit in the range of Spiritual success. I should unquestionably have become insane from satisfaction at the fulfilment of my utmost aspirations having been granted to me so superlatively beyond imagination conceived, but for (as I said before) “my sense of humour and my common sense.”

I never let myself forget the rocks which have baffled me: the Coolin Crack on Beachy Head (curse it!), the direct way up the Deep Ghyll Pillar (damn it!), the East face of the Dent Blanche (blast it!). I hardly ever plume myself even on my poetry unless I am very depressed. I prefer to dwell on my ignorance of various subjects—a quite inexhaustible list; and the superficiality of my knowledge of the few of which I know what little I do. I meditate on my mistakes in dealing with mankind, my innocence of their most obvious characteristics. My simplicity is such that I often wonder if I am not half-witted—on practically every matter which men who can hardly read, and have certainly never read a book worth reading, understand with every part of their minds better than I understand with any part of mine, even in what I have studied with sweat, at the cost of eyesight, sleep and digestion.

I seem to those who know me at all a rather exceptional type of genius, with more education, intelligence, insight, experience

[See note 8 on p. 194.]

of every world but that of commerce, out of the common beyond all whooping. One of the most distinguished writers on science and mathematics¹ told me last year that I had more courage than any other man he had met. (He was himself one of seven survivors of fifty-odd men who went to Serbia to fight typhus.) He said that my mind possessed more analytical power and acumen than anyone he had ever known. (He was intimately associated with Einstein, and had spent many hours in talking over and working out his equations with him.) I could only look down and wonder if I was not wearing yellow stockings, and cross garters!

I consider myself worth a place in the Museum of at least most provincial towns as a coward. What courage I have comes partly from shame at being so timid and sensitive. There are times when I cannot force myself to face a commonplace commercial person on perfectly routine business. I have funked keeping an appointment with a girl, both when I wanted her badly and when I didn’t care the toss of a coin, either for fear that she might snub or insult me, or else that I might hurt her feelings or insult her by failure to persuade her that I was the ideal man. I have turned back from a climb that I know I could do with one hand tied behind me. I have backed away with apologetic amiability from a fat, bullying blackguard that I could have (and should have) admonished with a hook to the jaw. I have stood hungry in front of a restaurant for fear that I might somehow make the other guests laugh. In fact, I am afraid to do practically anything which is done as a matter of course by the most bashful, sensitive, obsequious slave that ever let himself be chained by a stiff collar, handcuffed by linen wrist-bands, straight-waistcot-ted by a frock coat, jailed in an office, and turned the mental treadmill adding up accounts till his worthless, worn out, wasted carcass is thrown, at the best, to rot idly in a semi-detached “villa,” or to serve the rest of its sentence in the workhouse.

Against this: I seem able to do, without a moment’s hesitation or fear, exactly those things which even the bravest and most powerful and free regard as unimaginably dreadful; things which

¹ [Crowley’s close friend and student J.W.N. Sullivan (1886-1937), a mathematician who wrote popular books on science and music.]

they do not dare to dream of doing; even if they did, would daunt them more than death. Plenty of men who smoke and chat under drum-fire turn pale when I mention casually as a commonplace and natural act something that seems to be no more remarkable than eating my dinner. When, at last, they believe, they stammer something in their incredulity, that such courage as mine is impossible. They either pretend to be shocked, or look upon me ever after as a mixture of maniac and God. I never feared to tell the truth, to face a man when there was really danger, to act on my convictions with absolute candour in every kind of circumstance, to take my life in my hand in the matter of mountains, oceans, rapids, wild beasts, or murderous men, and so on—without thinking twice about it.

It may be that I was congenitally a coward all round, and in training myself not to turn tail I paid attention only to the points which seemed to be the most serious. It should really aid diagnosis that I funk calling on a friendly publisher with a proposition which he will probably accept—to our mutual profit—but I walk straight into the lair of a creditor to tell him that I can’t pay him, or to Scotland Yard when someone warns me that a warrant has been issued for my arrest. These are both cases of talking business. The point may be either that suggested above, or else that I do not fear my foes, knowing that they are powerless to hurt me, while my heart faints to meet a friend, because love is my heel of Achilles. Terror! the thought that they may prove unkind or untrue, or that I myself may somehow fail to command their respect and affection. That is my vulnerable point, and there a barbless arrow, shot by a child in careless ardour, can pierce me to the quick.

As to my mind, the present volume¹ should offer some evidence as to how it is accustomed to deal with commonplace subjects. The sole result of its operations has been to assure me that it is totally useless for its presumptive purpose. There is evidently little danger of my feeling puffed up about it.

*

¹ [The Confessions of Aleister Crowley.]

This digression has been permissible because of its pertinence to my Algerian initiation. I may now resume the narrative. My method of obtaining “the Vision and the Voice” was as follows: I had with me a great golden topaz (set in a Calvary cross of six squares, made of wood, painted vermilion) engraved with a Greek cross of five squares charged with the Rose of forty-nine petals. I held this, as a rule, in my hand. After choosing a spot where I was not likely to be disturbed, I would take this stone and recite the Enochian Key, and, after satisfying myself that the invoked forces were actually present, made the topaz play a part not unlike that of the looking-glass in the case of Alice.¹

I had learned not to trouble myself to travel to any desired place in the astral body. I realized that Space was not a thing in itself, merely a convenient category (one of many such) by reference to which we can distinguish objects from each other. When I say I was in any TEthyr, I simply mean in the state characteristic of, and peculiar to, its nature. My senses would thus receive the subtle impressions which I had trained them to record, so becoming cognizant of the phenomena of those worlds as ordinary men are of this. I would describe what I saw and repeat what I heard, and Frater O.V. would write down my words and incidentally observe any phenomena which struck him as peculiar. (For instance: I would at times pass into a deep trance so that many minutes might elapse between two successive sentences.)

Such observations may be contemptuously dismissed as imaginary; but having already shown that all knowledge is equally an illusion, the thought is no inhibition. Yet there are different degrees of falsity, and critical methods which are valid within their capacity. Thus we trust our experience of perspective to correct the crude statement of our eyesight that the furthest house in a suburban street is smaller than the nearest. We may also verify our visions in various ways. They may also verify our visions in various ways. They must be coherent and consistent with themselves; they must not contradict the conclusions of other experiences whose warrants are identical; and before we

¹ [Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland; see Works Cited.]

admit that they possess any value, they must increase our knowledge in such ways as would convince us in ordinary life that our interlocutor was an individual other than ourselves, and his information verifiably such as we could not have gained otherwise. It may seem as if such conditions could never be fulfilled, but it is quite easy to formulate them, and such visions as these under discussion are full of internal evidence of their authenticity.

Let me give one example. The Angel of the twenty-seventh yEthyr said: “The word of the TEon is makhashanah.” I immediately discredited him; because I knew that the word of the /Eon was, on the contrary, abrahadabra. Inquiry by the Holy Qabalah then showed me that the two words had the same numerical value, 418. The apparent blunder was thus an absolute proof that the Angel was right. Had he told me that the word was abrahadabra, I should have thought nothing of it, arguing that my imagination might have put the words in his mouth.

Let me illustrate the strength of such proof by material analogy. Suppose I receive a telegram, signed Jobson (my lawyer), “Your house has been burnt down.” If I already know this from the caretaker, Jobson is merely confirming a known fact of which he and many others may be aware. The telegram might have been forged. Equally, if I have not heard from other sources, or if I have heard, on the contrary, that all is well, the telegram carries no conviction; it establishes a prima facie case for inquiry: no more. But if such inquiry confirms the telegram, it becomes probable that Jobson really dispatched it, though not with complete certainty; short of seeing him personally, the genuineness of the message is only a presumption.¹

Suppose, however, that I read “London is burnt down. Jobson.” The statement is incredible as it stands. Jobson and I, however, have a secret understanding known to nobody else that any proper name in our communications shall stand for something else, discoverable by taking a = 1, b = 2, and so on, thus giving a number whose meaning is to be found in a code, in which each item of my estate represents a number. He has never used the

¹ [See Book Four (Parts I-IV), rev. ed., appendix III.]

word “London” before. I add it up, refer to the code, and learn that London must mean my house. Now, whether I have already heard the news or no, and even if investigation proves the information to be false, I may at least feel sure that Jobson himself, and nobody else, was the author. If, in addition, it proves true, I may be sure that on this point his knowledge exceeds my own. Suppose, then, that the telegram proceeds to inform me of a number of other matters which I have no immediate means of verifying, I shall nevertheless be justified in assuming their authenticity and acting on the advice in just the measure of my confidence in Jobson’s integrity and ability.

Such is one of the simplest methods of criticizing the data afforded by visions. An isolated case need not convince one completely, and it would be ridiculous to argue from a single test, however striking, that all communications purporting to come from the same source must be genuine and authoritative. It is the cumulative effect of repeated tests over a period of years that gives confidence. Incidentally, one acquires by experience the faculty of knowing by instinct whether any given sight or sound is genuine; just as one learns to recognize the style of a writer or painter so that the most plausible imitations fail to deceive, hard as it may be to say in so many words what strikes one as suspicious.

Now, The Book of the Law guarantees itself by so closely woven a web of internal evidence of every kind, from Qabalistic and mathematical proofs, and those depending on future events and similar facts, undeniably beyond human power to predict or to produce, that it is unique. The thirty /Ethyrs being, however, only second in importance, though very far away, to that Book, the Lords of Vision were at pains to supply internal evidence, more than amply sufficient, that the revelations therein contained may be regarded as reliable. No doubt the proof appears stronger to me than to anyone else, because I alone know exactly what happened; also because many passages refer to matters personal to myself, so that only I can fully appreciate the dovetailings. Just so a man can never prove to another the greatness of Shelley as fully as he feels it himself, since his certainty partly depends on the secret and incommunicable relations of the poet with his own individual idiosyncrasies.

I admit that my visions can never mean to other men as much as they do to me. I do not regret this. All I ask is that my results should convince seekers after Truth that there is beyond doubt something worthwhile seeking, attainable by methods more or less like mine. I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics, or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.

We walked steadily to Bou-Saada, invoking the TEthyrs one by one, at convenient times and places, or when the Spirit moved me. As a rule, we did one /Ethyr every day. We reached Bou-Saada on November 30th; on December 8th we started through the desert for Biskra, which we reached on December 16th, completing the work on the 19th.¹ Our adventures will be told later on.

By the time I reached Bou-Saada and came to the twentieth yEthyr, I began to understand that these visions were, so to speak, cosmopolitan. They brought all systems of magical doctrine into harmonious relation. The symbolism of Asiatic cults; the ideas of the Qabalists, Jewish and Greek; the Arcana of the Gnostics; the Pagan Pantheon, from Mithras to Mars; the mysteries of Ancient Egypt; the initiations of Eleusis; Scandinavian Saga; Celtic and Druidical ritual; Mexican and Polynesian traditions; the Mysticism of Molinos no less than that of Islam, fell into their proper places without the slightest tendency to quarrel. The whole of the past /Eon appeared in perspective, and each element thereof surrendered its sovereignty to Horus, the Crowned and Conquering Child, the Lord of the .Eon announced in The Book of the Law.

These visions thus crystallized in dramatic form the theoretical conclusion which my studies of comparative religion had led me to adumbrate. The complexity of the whole vast subject resolved itself into shining simplicity. I saw with my own eyes, and heard with my own ears, the Truth in terms of Time. I understood directly that the formula of Osiris necessarily assumed all sorts of apparently incompatible forms as it was

¹ [Crowley later came to realize that this date was an error in the ms notebook, as the 2nd .Ethyr was completed on November 20th. Discussing the November 19 date for the 1st TEthyr, he remarks that “it must be later than Dec. 20” in note 3 to p. 251.]

applied to different conditions of race, climate and similar conditions. I saw also that Horus might reconcile all religions, it being possible now to bring all countries to agree on a few fundamental principles. Science had practically driven prejudice into the dark. Faith was little more than a shibboleth which no longer influenced opinion or action. I saw my way to combine a few simple incontrovertible scientific principles into a Law which would allow the loftiest aspirations to seek satisfaction in spiritual spheres, the religious instincts to realize their sublimity through ritual, and to assist the scientific mind to see that even the most materialistic conception of the Cosmos was ultimately mystical, that though mind might be merely a function of matter, yet that matter might equally well be represented as a manifestation of mind. The sequel will show how I fared in this ambitious adventure.

Besides this, I became subtly aware that this Work was more than the impersonal exploration which I had meant to make. I felt that a hand was holding my heart, that a breath was whispering words in a strange tongue whose accents were yet both awful in themselves and like enchantments encompassing my essence with an energy mighty to work on my will in some inscrutable way. I began to feel—well, not exactly frightened; it was the subtle trembling of a maiden before the bridegroom. My ardour increased with every vision, and every vision became intenser and more intimate. I fortified myself by magical practices. Two or three times I had found it difficult to get into the /Ethyr; there were bars which I understood as not to be passed by the profane. The progressive sublimity and solemnity made me tremble lest I should not be worthy to behold the mysteries that lay in the future.

So I consecrated myself by reciting this chapter of the Qur’an: Qul: Huw-Alldhu ahad; Allahu samad; lam yalid wa lam yillad; tv a lam yakun lahu kufuwan ahad}

a thousand and one times a day during the march, prostrating myself after each repetition. The physical effort of this exercise

¹ [Arab., “Say: He, God, is One. God is the Absolute Source. He does not beget and is not begotten. And nothing is like unto him.” Surah 112 (Ikhlas, or Sincerity).]

beneath the blazing sun as I marched, mile after mile, across the dusty, stony, glaring stretches of sterile solitude, was very severe; but the exhaustion of my body and the pain of my mutinous mind as I thrashed it into submission with the lash of the mantra, prepared me for the moment of invoking the ?Ethyr. My spiritual part had nothing to fear from the interference of my fagged-out physical frame, or the garrulence of the mind which I had flogged into dumb duty.

In the nineteenth TEthyr appeared an Angel who revealed herself as appointed to lead me personally through the initiation appointed. At the time I hardly understood this. I could not imagine that my personal progress could have any connection with what I still supposed to be purely objective phenomena; but in the eighteenth /Ethyr the Angel thereof prepared me ceremonially for the ceremony. In the seventeenth, the full magical meaning of equilibrium was made clear to me. “Motion about a point is iniquity,” “Breath is iniquity” and “Torsion is iniquity.” I understood that every disturbance (which makes manifestation possible) implies deviation from perfection. It is for this reason that my individuality (which distinguishes me from all other beings) involves the idea of injustice. Therefore, to penetrate beyond the Abyss, where iniquity cannot exist, my personal selfhood must be annihilated. The sixteenth dEthyr showed me how this might be done. My being must be dissolved in that of the infinite. This was symbolized by the destruction of the Demi-urgus, he being the creator of diversity. He being destroyed, I was shown an image of my true Self; and that Self vanishes, absorbed in a virgin. This told me that the climax of my love of the infinite was identification therewith.

In the fifteenth ?Ethyr, the vision definitely took form as a ceremony of initiation. I was examined by an assembly of adepts, and my right to the Grades of the Second Order admitted. I was then allowed to be entitled to the Grade of a Babe of the Abyss and a Master of the Temple. They continued the examination, and refused to accept me as a Magus. They then instructed me in various matters, and made me make certain preparations for the vision following.

On the afternoon of December 3rd I invoked the fourteenth TEthyr. Here was a veil so black and thick that I could not pass through. I tore off layer after layer with desperate effort, while in my ears there pealed a solemn voice. It spoke of me as dead.

And still I go on, struggling with the blackness. Now there is an earthquake. The veil is torn into thousands of pieces that go flying away in a whirling wind. And there is an all-glorious Angel before me, standing in the sign of Apophis and Typhon. On his Forehead is a star, but all about him is darkness, and the crying of beasts. And there are lamps moving in the darkness.

And the Angel says: Depart! For thou must evoke me only in the darkness. Therein will I appear, and reveal unto thee the mystery of vta.¹ For the Mystery thereof is great and terrible. And it shall not be spoken in sight of the sun.^{1 2}

I must explain that we had climbed Daleh Addin, a mountain in the desert, as enjoined by the Angel during the previous night.³ I now withdrew from the TEthyr and prepared to return to the city. Suddenly came the command to perform a magical ceremony on the summit. We accordingly took loose rocks and built a great circle, inscribed with the words of power; and in the midst we erected an altar and there I sacrificed myself. The fire of the all-seeing sun smote down upon the altar, consuming utterly every particle of my personality. I am obliged to write in hieroglyph of this matter, because it concerns things of which it is unlawful to speak openly under penalty of the most dreadful punishment; but I may say that the essence of the matter was that I had hitherto clung to certain conceptions of conduct which, while perfectly proper from the standpoint of my human nature, were impertinent to initiation.⁴ I could not cross the Abyss till I had torn them out of my heart.

To explain what I mean, take this analogy. A man has every right to please himself about his dress, his diet, his daily doings;

¹ [Given in error as vti in the first edition; vti is 25th TEthyr. vta is from Casaubon, ibid., p. 209, and agrees with the mss of John Dee.]

² [14th TEthyr, p. 138.]

³ [See the 17th TEthyr, ^<][9. Also called Daleh Uzdu and Djebel Zaab.]

⁴ [See note 2 on p. 139.]

but he cannot bring them into barracks when he has taken the King’s shilling. If he lets himself so much as think of them, he is a bad soldier. The Master of the Temple must rid himself of every trace of impurity, for above the Abyss all opposites are included in a single idea. I knew, of course, that my point-of-view was mere personal prejudice, and had trained myself to snub it by acting against the impulse; but there still were some things which I could not use in Magick, methods of working that seemed incompatible with my aspirations. At last, at this crisis, I obeyed my Angel. I made the act which I most feared and abhorred as detestable to my Holy Guardian Angel the very means of invoking Him. I made the most bestial blasphemy my holiest hymn. I forced the most infamous idea that I could imagine to interpret my most infinitely exalted intuition of Truth.¹

I remember nothing of my return to Bou-Saada. There was an animal in the wilderness, but it was not I. All things had become alike; all impressions were indistinguishable. I only remember finding myself on my bed, as if coming out of some catastrophe which had blotted out in utter blackness every trace of memory. As I came to myself, I found myself changed. I knew who I was and all the events of my life; but I no longer made myself the centre of their sphere, or their sphere the standard by which I measured the universe. It was a repetition of my experience of 1905, but far more actual. I did not merely admit that I did not exist, and that all my ideas were illusions, inane and insane. I felt these facts as facts. It was the difference between book-knowledge and experience. It seemed incredible that I should ever have fancied that I or anything else had any bearing on each other. All things were alike as shadows sweeping across the still surface of a lake—their images had no meaning for the water, no power to stir its silence.

At ten minutes to ten I returned to the TEthyr. I was instantly blotted in blackness. Mine Angel whispered the secret words whereby one partakes of the Mysteries of the Masters of the Temple. Presently my eyes beheld (what first seemed shapes of

¹ [In the commentary to Liber 418 Crowley cites the xi° o.T.o. This passage was suppressed from the abridged Confessions.]

rocks) the Masters, veiled in motionless majesty, shrouded in silence. Each one was exactly like the other. Then the Angel bade me understand whereto my aspiration led: all powers, all ecstasies, ended in this—I understood. He then told me that now my name was Nemo, seated among the other silent shapes in the City of the Pyramids under the Night of Pan; those other parts of me that I had left forever below the Abyss must serve as a vehicle for the energies which had been created by my act. My mind and body, deprived of the Ego which they had hitherto obeyed, were now free to manifest according to their nature in the world, to devote themselves to aid mankind in its evolution. In my case I was to be cast out into the Sphere of Jupiter. My mortal part was to help humanity by Jupiterian work, such as governing, teaching, creating, exhorting men to aspire to become nobler, holier, worthier, kinglier, kindlier, and more generous.

Finally, “Fifty are the gates of understanding and one hundred and six are the seasons thereof, and the name of every one of them is Death.” I took this to mean that Aleister Crowley would die at the end of this time. The event has shown that it referred to my attainment of the Grade of Magus, for this took place at the exact moment here predicted.

The thirteenth /Ethyr explains the work which a Master of the Temple must do. He is hidden under the earth, and tends his garden. These gardens are of many kinds, but in every case he treats the roots of the flowers in various ways. Each flower gives birth to a maiden, save one, of which cometh a man-child who shall be Nemo after him. Nemo must not seek to know which flower this is. He must tend his garden with absolute impartiality.

The twelfth TEthyr describes the City of the Pyramids, whose Queen is called babalon, the Scarlet Woman, in whose hand is a Cup filled with the blood of the saints. Her ecstasy is nourished by the desires which the Masters of the Temple have poured from their hearts for Her sake. In this symbolism are many mysteries concealed. One is that if a single drop of blood be withheld from Her Cup it putrefies the being below the Abyss, and vitiates the whole course of the Adept’s career.

In the eleventh ?Ethyr is shown the Fortress on the frontier of the Abyss, with its warrior wardens. I had thought that my

ordeal was over. But no! I was suddenly faced with the fact that I had to cross the Abyss consciously, understanding its nature; for when I had passed through it there was in me no power to perceive. I knew no more than this—a negative idea—that its power was to dissipate me into dead dust. Now being bidden to cross it consciously, I asked the Angel, “Is there not one appointed as a warden?” I meant my Holy Guardian Angel, for whose Knowledge and Conversation I had abandoned all. The answer: “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani.”¹ I knew that even my holiest, mine inmost self, might not protect me from the grim abominations of the Abyss.

We therefore changed our magical procedure. We went far out from the city into a hollow among the dunes. There we made a Circle to protect the scribe, and a Triangle wherein the Abyss might manifest sensibly. We killed three pigeons, one at each Angle, that their blood might be a basis whereon the forces of Evil might build themselves bodies.

The name of the Dweller in the Abyss is Choronzon, but he is not really an individual. The Abyss is empty of being; it is filled with all possible forms, each equally inane, each therefore evil in the only true sense of the word—that is, meaningless but malignant, insofar as it craves to become real. These forms swirl senselessly into haphazard heaps like dust devils, and each such chance^{1 2} aggregation asserts itself to be an individual, and shrieks, “I am I!” though aware all the time that its elements have no true bond; so that the slightest disturbance dissipates the delusion just as a horseman, meeting a dust devil, brings it in showers of sand to the earth.

Choronzon appeared in many physical forms to Omnia Vin-cam, while I abode apart in my magical robe with its hood drawn over my face. He took the form of myself, of a woman whom Neuburg loved, of a serpent with a human head, etc. He could not utter the word of the Abyss, because there is no word; its voice is the insane babble of a multitude of senseless ejacula

¹ [GrC, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” See Mark 15:34 and Psalm 22:1.]

² [The ts has “change,” a probable corruption.]

tions; yet each form spake and acted as if aping its model. His main object was to induce O.V. to leave the Circle, or to break into it; so as to obsess him, to live in his life. O.V. had many narrow escapes, and once Choronzon made a long speech at a great pace to keep O.V. so busy writing it down that he would not notice that sand was being thrown from the Triangle so as to obliterate the Circle. The torrent of obscene blasphemy was beyond his power to keep up, concentration being impossible. It became an incoherent series of cries; then suddenly, perhaps catching the idea from O.V.’s mind, the demon began to recite “Tom o’ Bedlam.”

There was now a gap in the Circle; and Choronzon, in the form of a naked savage, dashed through and attacked O.V. He flung him to the earth, and tried to tear out his throat with his froth-covered fangs. O.V. invoked the names of God, and struck at Choronzon with the Magical Dagger. The demon was cowed by this courageous conduct, and writhed back into the Triangle. O.V. then repaired the Circle; Choronzon resumed his ravings, but could not continue. He changed once more into the form of the woman whom O.V. loved, and exercised every seduction. O.V. stuck to his guns, and the dialogue took other forms. He tried to shake O.V.’s faith in himself, his respect for me, his belief in the reality of Magick, and so on. At last all the energy latent in the blood of the pigeons was exhausted by the successive phantoms, so that it was no longer able to give form to the forces evoked. The Triangle was empty.

During all this time I had astrally identified myself with Choronzon, so that I experienced each anguish, each rage, each despair, each insane outburst. My ordeal ended as the last form faded; so, knowing that all was over, I wrote the Holy Name of babalon in the sand with my Magical Ring, and arose from my trance. We lit a great fire to purify the place, and destroyed the Circle and Triangle. The work had lasted over two hours, and we were both utterly exhausted, physically and in every other way. I hardly know how we ever got back to Bou-Saada.

Not till the evening of the following day did I feel strong enough to invoke the ninth >Ethyr. A surprise was waiting for me. The nineteenth Key contains the text of the original curse on

creation. Each phrase formulates some calamity. I had always shuddered at its horror as I recited it. But now, the Abyss being crossed, and all its horror faced and mastered, the words of the Key suddenly thrilled with a meaning that I had never suspected. Each curse concealed a blessing. I understood that sorrow had no substance; that only my ignorance and lack of intelligence had made me imagine the existence of evil. As soon as I had destroyed my personality, as soon as I had expelled my Ego, the universe which to it was indeed a frightful and fatal force, fraught with every form of fear, was so only in relation to this idea “I”; so long as “I am I,” all else must seem hostile. Now that there was no longer any “I” to suffer, all these ideas which had inflicted suffering became innocent. I could praise the perfection of every part; I could wonder and worship the whole. This attainment absolutely altered my outlook. Of course, I did not at once enter into full enjoyment. The habit of misunderstanding everything had to be broken, bit by bit. I had to explore every possibility, and transmute each base metal in turn into gold. It was years before I got into the habit of falling in love at first sight with everything that came my way.

The ninth /Ethyr shows this transformation symbolically. The Universe is represented as a maiden, all innocence, adorned with all perfection.

The remaining TEthyrs partly complete the experience proper to the grade which I had attained, and partly shadow forth, in strangely obscure and formidable forms, the mysteries of the higher grades, or rather the guards to them. As I advanced, it became more and more difficult to obtain the vision. In the second /Ethyr, for example, begun on the morning of December 18th, the work had to be broken off and the invocation repeated. Yet again I found the strain unsupportable, had to break off, and go to the hot baths of Hammam Salahine; and I continued, immersed to the neck in the hot sulphur spring. The water somehow soothed my nerves, enabling me to experience the /Ethyr without physical collapse. Even so, I could not get to the end, and only did so after more than two days’ concentrated consecration of myself.

The Call or Key of the Thirty /Ethyrs

[THE 19TH KEY]

Madariatza das perifa lil,¹ cahisa micaolazoda saanire caosago od fifisa balzodizodarasa laida. Nonu^a^{1 2} gohulime: Micama adoianu mada iaoda³ beliorebe, soba ooaona cahisa luciftias peripesol, das aberaasasa nonu^afe netaaibe caosaji od tilabe adapehaheta damepelozoda, tooata nonu^afe jimicalazodoma larasada tofejilo marebe yareryo idoigo;⁴ od torezodulape yaodafe gohola, Caosaga, tabaoreda saanire, od caharisateosa yorepoila tiobela busadire, tilabe noalanu paida oresaba, od dodaremeni zodayolana. Elazodape tilaba paremeji peripesatza, od ta qurelesata booapisa. Lanibame oucaho sayomepe, od caharisateosa ajitoltorenu, mireca qo tiobela lela. Tonu paomebeda dizodalamo asa pianu, od caharisateosa aji-la-tore-torenu paracahe a sayamepe.⁵ Coredazodizoda dodapala od

¹ Or other Aire as may be willed.

² [The “c” is soft; Dee inserts an “s” above the “c” in Sloane 3191 to indicate this.]

³ [Given erroneously as “faoda” in the TS. and in “Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” Part II, The Equinox 1(8), pp. 125-127; see Works Cited. “Liber 84” and the TS have other literal errors in Enochian as well that are corrected as noted, relying on Dee. Variant punctuation and capitalization have been left unchanged. The TS gives English readings that do not appear in “Liber 84,” as noted below.]

⁴ This name may be appropriately varied with the Aire.

⁵ [In this instance “Liber 84” gives sayomepe, but sayamepe is probably an error as the Enochian texts otherwise agree.]

fifalazoda, lasa manada, od faregita bamesa omaoasa.¹ Conisabera od auauotza tonuji oresa; catabela noasami tabejesa leuitahemonuji. Vanucahi omepetilabe oresa! Bagile? Moooahe^{1 2} ol coredazodizoda. El capimao itzomatzipe, od cacocasabe gosaa. Bajilenu pii tianuta a babalanuda,³ od faoregita teloca uo uime.

Madariiatza, torezodu!!! Oadariatza orocaha aboaperi! Tabaori periazoda aretabasa! Adarepanu coresata dobitza! Yolacame periazodi arecoazodiore, od quasabe qotinuji!⁴ Ripire paaotzata sagacore! Umela od peredazodare cacareji Aoiveae coremepeta! Torezodu! Zodacare od Zodameranu, asapeta sibesi butamona das surezodasa Tia balatanu. Odo cicale Qaa, od Ozodazodama pelapeli iad(a)namad(a)!

Translation of the Call or Key of the Thirty tEthyrs

O ye Heavens which dwell in the first Aire,⁵ ye are mighty in the parts of the Earth, and execute therein⁶ the Judgment of the Highest! Unto you it is said: 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, furnishing you with the⁷ power of understanding to dispose all things according to the Foresight⁸ of Him that Sitteth on the Holy Throne,⁹ and rose up in the Begin

¹ [The ts has “omaosa.”]

² [Given in error as “Mooabe.”]

³ [The Ts has “babalaunada.” The original Enochian word is baba-lond, “harlot.”]

⁴ [The TS has the query “?” next to this word.]

⁵ Or other Aire as may be willed.

⁶ [“therein” was added by hand in typescript; this, and other variant English readings given below, were changes to the ts. in the hand of Israel Regardie, almost certainly made on Crowley’s instructions. Many changes reflect the version given in the 2nd ?Ethyr, p. 226.]

⁷ [“a” in “Liber 84.”]

⁸ [“Providence” in “Liber 84.”]

⁹ This name may be appropriately varied with the Aire.

ning, saying: The Earth, let her be governed by her parts, and let there be Division in her, that the glory of her may be always ecstasy and irritation of orgasm.¹ Her course, let it run with the Heavens; and as an handmaid let her serve them. One season, let it confound another, and let there be no creature upon or within her the same. All her members, let them differ in their qualities, and let there be no one Creature equal with another. The reasonable Creatures of the Earth, and Men, let them vex and weed out one another; and their dwelling-places, let them forget their Names. The work of man and his pomp, let them be defaced. His building, let it be a Cave for the Beast of the Field!^{1 2} Confound her understanding with darkness! For why? it repenteth me concerning the Virgin and the Man.³ One while let her be known, and another while a stranger: because she is the bed of an Harlot, and the dwelling-place of him that is fallen.

O ye Heavens, arise! The lower heavens beneath you, let them serve you! Govern those that govern! Cast down such as fall. Bring forth with those that increase, and destroy the rotten. No place let it remain in one number. Add and diminish until the stars be numbered. Arise! Move! and appear before the Covenant of His mouth, which He hath sworn unto us in His Justice. Open the Mysteries of your Creation, and make us partakers of the UNDEFILED KNOWLEDGE.

¹ [“Liber 84” has “drunken, and vexed in itself” for “ecstasy and irritation of orgasm.” The Germer ed. gave the misreading “imitation.”]

² [“Liber 84” has “buildings, let them become Caves for the beasts of the Field!”]

³ [“Liber 84” has “it repenteth me that I have made man.”]

Synopsis of the Contents of The Vision and the Voice of the Thirty Aires or/Ethyrs, and a Comment upon the Natures of the/Ethyrs

/Ethyr  Synopsis

30 Exordium of the Equinox of •prv the Gods.

29 The Disruption of the /Eon of Osiris.

28 The Vision of the Dawn of the ,._r /Eon of Horus (Atu XVII).

27 The Vision of the Initiation of

• ₇. . Hecate (Atu XIV). The Redemption of the Woman of Witchcraft by Love.

• <2) Hecate.>

26 The Slave-Gods Superseded.

DES (The Vision of Atu XX, the Stele.) The Vision of the Stele of Revealing, abolishing the /Eon of the Slave-Gods.

<Microprosopus.>

Comment

Without the cube—the material world—is the sphere-system of the spiritual world enfolding it. The Cry seems to be a sort of Exordium, an external shewing-forth of the coming of the new /Eon, the /Eon of Horus the crowned child.

The disturbance of Equilibrium caused by the Coming of the /Eon.

Now is a further and clearer shadowing-forth of the Great Mystery of the /Eon which is to be led up to by the /Ethyrs. Note however that the King of the New /Eon never appears until the very first /Ethyr.

Hecate appears—her son, the son of a virgin, a magus, is to bring the /Eon to pass. And she, the herald, her function fulfilled, withdraws within her mystic veil.

The death of the past /Eon, that of Jehovah and Jesus; ends with adumbration of the new, the vision of the Stele of Ankh-f-n-khonsu, whose discovery brought about in a human consciousness the knowledge of the Equinox of the Gods, 21.3.04.

Synopsis

Comment

The Path of teth. (Atu XL The Fire-Kerub in the Initiation.) The Vision of the Fruit of the Great Work of The Beast 666. The Lion.

Appearance of the Lion God of Horus, the child of Leo that incarnates him.

The first Angel is Isis its mother.

The Rose. (The Woman of Atu XIV, Minister of Babaion; the Water-Kerub in the Initiation.) The First Kiss of the Lady of Initiation. <Love and taro, etc., uniting—Hod and Netzach.>

The Kerubim of Earth and Air. (Minor officers in the Initiation to 8°=3°.) The Vision of the Interplay and Identity of Earth and Air. <Bull and Eagle.>

The 49-fold Table. (First appearance of the Crowned and Conquering Child to the Exempt Adept as in the Pastos.) The Vision of the Rose, the Heart of babalon and of the Birth of the Universe. <Sevenfold Table.>

Kether. (The Hierophant prepares the Candidate.) The Vision of the Ineluctable Destiny. <Macroprosopus.>

The Path of kaph (Atu X). The Hiereus prepares the Candidate. The Vision of the Wheel of Fortune. The Three

Now appears his mate, the heavenly Venus, the Scarlet Woman, who by men is thought of as Babaion as he is thought of as Chaos.

Here appear the Cherubim, the other officers of the new Temple, the earth and water assistants of the fire and air Beast and Scarlet Woman.

Here is the First Key to the formula of Horus, a sevenfold arrangement. A shadow of Horus declares his nature.

This seems to be the Vision of God face to face that is the necessary ordeal for him who would pass the Abyss, as it were. A commission to be the prophet of the /Eon arising is given to the Seer. The God is the Hierophant in the Ceremony of Magister Templi.

A guide is given to the Seer, his Holy Guardian Angel. And this is attained by a mastery of the Universe conceived as a wheel. The Hiereus in

Energies of the Universe.

<Path of n and Adonai.>

the Ceremony of Magister Templi.

4ithyr

Synopsis

Comment

19 The Path of gimel. (The ,Qp Hegemone between the Pillars.

Preliminary: The Vision of the Unguided Universe.) <Path of 0 (with 5 and 2).>

18 Tiphareth. (The King’s ,_EN Chamber. The Vision of the Holy Guardian Angel.) The Instruction concerning the Obtaining of the Vision and the Voice of the Thirty /Ethyrs. The Preparation of the Candidate.

17 The Path of lamed. (The

PAN combination gimel, lamed,

samekb.') The Vision of the Justice or Balance of the Universe.

16 Kether. (Path of pe.) The Overthrow of the Slave-Gods by The Beast 666.

15 The Vision of the Rose of 49 OXO petals, and of the Holy Twelvefold Table.

Examination of the Candidate for Magister Templi.

14 The Vision of the City of the UTA Pyramids. The Reception of the Master of the Temple.

13 The Garden of Nemo. The 7IM Work of the Magister Templi.

12 The Path of cheth. The Bearer q_E of the Sangraal. The Black Brothers.

Now cometh forth the Angel who giveth instruction, in the lowest form. The Hegemone in the Ceremony of Magister Templi which the Seer is about to undergo.

The Vault of preparation for the Ceremony of Magister Templi.

The Veil is the Crucifixion, symbol of the dead TEon. The first ordeal is undergone.

The symbol of the Balance is now given unto the Aspirant.

The sacrifice is made. The High Priestess (image of Babaion) cometh forth upon her Beast and maketh this. <(Adeptus ex. debet scribere H.v.F.A.) Cf. “No. 19.”>¹

The mystic dance by Salome. The new Temple. The signs of the grades are received and the Adeptus Exemptus rejected.

The Shrine of Darkness. Final initiation into the grade of Magister Templi.

The emergence of Nemo into the world; his work therein. This is the first mystery revealed to a Magister Templi.

The Second Mystery: the Cup-bearer of Babaion the beautiful. The Holy Grail manifested to the Magister Templi, with the first knowledge of the Black Brothers.

¹ \Lat., “The Exempt Adept ought to write H.V.F.A.” Crowley’s quotation marks suggest a bibliographic reference to Edgar Jepson, No. 19 (1910); see Works Cited.]

Table 2. The Titles of the Thirty /Ethyrs whose dominion extendeth in ever-widening circles without and beyond the Watch Towers of the Universe. (The first is Outermost.)^J

¹ [Enochian and astrological columns have been added for this edition. See “Liber 84 vel Chanokh, The Equinox 1(7), pp. 239-243.]

Table 3. The Enochian Alphabet and its Attributions.

* [See Figure 17 on p. 256. TF.thyr 4 joins Kether, Chokmah, Chesed, Tiphareth, Hod, Yesod and Malkuth. Cf. note 2 to p.210.]

f [The Veil of the Abyss separates the Supernals from the lower Sephiroth and has no true place in the Key Scale.]

f [TEthyr 5 joins Malkuth, Yesod, Tiphareth and Kether in a similar fashion to the conjunctions of the 4th TEthyr. |

§ [Crowley’s original diagram punctuates this attribution with a question mark, indicating its uncertainty. However, see 16th TEthyr, p. 126 and note 2.]

LIBER CDXVIII

The Vision and the Voice with Commentary

The Cry of the Thirtieth or Inmost Aire or /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED TEX’

I am in A vast crystal cube in the form of the Great God Harpocrates. This cube is surrounded by a sphere.^{1 2} About me are four archangels in black robes, their wings and armour lined out in white.

In the North³ is a book on whose back and front are a.m.b.z.⁴ in Enochian characters.

Within it is written:

I am, the surrounding of the four.

Lift up your heads, O Houses of Eternity: for my Father goeth forth to judge the World. One Light, let it become a thousand, and one sword ten thousand, that no man hide him from my Father’s eye in the Day of Judgment of my God. Let the Gods hide themselves: let the Angels be troubled and flee away: for the Eye of My Father is open, and the Book of the ^Tons is fallen.

¹ Qiy V.

² Cf. AL 11:7.

³ [For the symbolism of the quarters see note 1 to p. 39.]

⁴ TSl. The Forthsaying of the New /Eon. [The ms has “on whose back and front are ?.”]

Arise! Arise! Arise! Let the Light of the Sight of Time be extinguished: let the Darkness cover all things: for my Father goeth forth to seek a spouse to replace her who is fallen and defiled.

Seal the book with the seals of the Stars Concealed: for the Rivers have rushed together and the Name H'liT’ is broken in a thousand pieces (against the Cubic Stone).¹

Tremble ye, O Pillars of the Universe,^{1 2} for Eternity is in travail of a Terrible Child; she shall bring forth an universe of Darkness, whence shall leap forth a spark that shall put his father to flight.

The Obelisks are broken; the stars have rushed together: the Light hath plunged into the Abyss: the Heavens are mixed with Hell.

My Father shall not hear their Noise: His ears are closed: His eyes are covered with the clouds of Night.

The End! the End! the End! For the Eye of Siva He hath opened: the Universe is naked before Him: for the /Eon of Saturn leaneth toward the Bosom of Death.^{3 4}

4

¹ [The ms has “(against the Cubic Stone?)”]

² Cf. AL 111:71. Also LIL.

³ = 400 Death = 50

450. NT,etZ

(NT = 56.) [I.e., NT = Nu = 12 = 56.]

⁴ Represents the Formula of Drawing All to a Point; whence blooms erect a Triple Triad.

The Angel of the East¹ hath a book of red written in letters of Blue a.b.f.m.a.² in Enochian.³ The Book grows before my eyes and filleth the Whole Heaven.

Within: “It is Written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord Thy God.”⁴

I see above the Book a multitude of white-robed Ones from whom droppeth a great rain of Blood:⁵ but above them is a Golden Sun,⁶ having an eye,⁶ whence a great Light.⁶

I turned me to the South:⁷ and read therein:

Seal up the Book! Speak not that which thou seest and reveal it unto none: for the ear is not framed that shall hear it: nor the tongue that can speak it!

O Lord God, blessed, blessed, blessed be Thou for ever!

Thy Shadow is as great Light.

Thy Name is as the Breath of Love across all Worlds.

(A vast Svastika is shewn unto Book.)⁸

me behind the Angel with the

² V T 23 ~ V = The Opening of the New /Eon.

³ [The ms has “letters of Blue

⁴ [Matt. 4:7.]

⁵ Symbolism of the Cup of Babaion.

⁶ This refers to Kether. Also to Horus.

⁷ The Closing of the Old /Eon.

⁸ The Swastika has 17 squares out of 25, the Pentagram, or Human square. It is also K = Harpocrates, Bacchus Diphues, Parzival, etc., the Pure Fool, the Wanderer, who weds the King’s Daughter.

Rend your garments, O ye clouds! Uncover yourselves! for the Love of My Son!

Who are they that trouble thee?

Who are they that slew thee?

O Light! Come thou, who art joined with me to bruise the Dragon’s head.¹ We, who are wedded, and the Earth perceiveth it not!

O that Our Bed were seen of Men, that they might rejoice in My Fertility: that My Sister might partake of My Great Light.

O Light of God, when wilt thou find the heart of man—write not! I would not that men know the Sorrow of my Heart, Amen!

I turned me to the West, and the Archangel bore a flaming Book, on which was written an^{1 2} in Enochian.³ Within was drawn a fiery scorpion, yet cold withal.⁴

Until the Book of the East be opened!

Until the hour sound!

Until the Voice vibrate!

Until it pierce my Depth;

Look not on High!

Look not Beneath!

For thou wilt find a life which is as Death: or a Death which should be infinite.

For Thou art submitted to the Four: Five thou shalt find, but Seven is lone and far.⁵

O Lord God, let Thy Spirit hither unto me!

For I am lost in the night of infinite pain: no hope: no God: no resurrection: no end: I fall: I fear.

¹ Means the Stooping Dragon (see [Golden Dawn] 4°=7° ritual), but also the phrase = break the Maidenhead of Draco (Nuit).

² Vttb- means Pain: K2 = Failure. These = 51 =3x17. Note the Three Vibrations as spoiling the ideas of 17 (iao). The Doom of the Old Tion.

³ [The ms has “on which was written ^3'.”]

⁴ tt], = 1 = Fish = Jesus.

⁵ Tetragrammaton — the blind forces of the Elements — bind the Uninitiate. He may attain to the Pentagram—Jeheshua—the Man, master of those elements. But he cannot reach Seven—Babaion (see Sigil of A.'.A.'., 77 + 7x2+77=156 = Babaion). For she is “lone and far,” i.e., beyond the Abyss.

O Saviour of the World, bruise Thou my Head with Thy foot to save the world, that once again I touch Him whom I slew, that in my death I feel the radiance and the heat of the moving of Thy Robes!

Let us alone! What have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth?¹

Go! Go!

If I keep silence—Or if I speak each word is anguish without hope.

And I heard the /Ethyr cry aloud “Return! Return! Return! For the work is ended; and the Book is shut; and let the glory be to God the Blessed for ever in the ./Eons, Amen.” Thus far is the voice of tex^{1 2 3} and no more.

a tl

The Cry of the

Twenty and Ninth Aire or /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED RIP

The sky appears covered with stars of gold; the background is of green. But the impression is also of darkness.

An immense eagle-angel is before me. His wings seem to hide all the Heaven.⁴

He cried aloud saying: The Voice of the Lord upon the Waters: the Terror of God upon Mankind. The voice of the Lord maketh the Skies to tremble: the Stars are troubled: the Aires fall. The First Voice Speaketh and saith: Cursed, cursed be the Earth, for her iniquity is great. Oh Lord! Let Thy Mercy be lost in the great Deep! Open thine eyes of Flame and Light, O God, upon the

¹ [Mark 1:24.]

² [The ms has VI!".”]

³ X / Z = pOO = 220. 220 is the Number of Verses in The Book of the Law, and this book brings about the disruption described in this /Ethyr.

⁴ In the East. He thus represents the immediate future; and this is dark, bewildering, and terrifying.

wicked! Lighten thine Eyes! The Clamour of Thy Voice, let it smite down the Mountains!

Let us not see it! Cover we our eyes, lest we see the End of Man.

Close we our ears, lest we hear the cry of Woman.

Let none speak of it: let none write it: I, I am troubled, my eyes are moist with dews of terror: surely the Bitterness of Death is past.

And I turned me to the South and lo! a great lion¹ as wounded and perplexed.

He cried: I have conquered! Let the Sons of Earth keep silence; for my Name is become as That of Death!

When will men learn the Mysteries of Creation?

How much more those of the Dissolution (and the Pang of Fire)?

I turned me to the West and there was a great Bull;^{1 2} White with horns of White and Black and Gold. His mouth was scarlet and his eyes as Sapphire stones. With a great sword he shore the skies asunder, and amid the silver flashes of the steel grew lightnings and deep clouds of Indigo.

He spake: It is finished! My mother hath unveiled herself!

My sister hath violated herself! The life of things hath disclosed its Mystery.

The work of the Moon is done! Motion is ended for ever!

Clipped are the eagle’s wings: but my Shoulders have not lost their strength.

I heard a Great Voice from above crying: Thou liest! For the Volatile hath indeed fixed itself; but it hath arisen above thy sight. The World is desert: but the Abodes of the House of my Father

¹ <Q. This is the Beast 666, as yet unprepared for His Work. But already (1900 E.v.) He was dreaded by His fellow Magicians. South: proper place of 0 in his strength.

² The Bull is Osiris or Jesus; he complains of the terrible things that are happening, especially the Freedom (which he thinks shamelessness) of Woman. He does not understand the New /Eon, or that he is about to be destroyed. He is in the West, i.e., going into Oblivion. Cf. West in 30th /Ethyr.

are peopled; and His Throne is crusted over with white Brilliant Stars, a lustre of bright gems.

In the North is a Man upon a Great Horse, having a Scourge and Balances¹ in his hand (or a long spear glitters at his back or in his hand). He is clothed in black velvet and his face is stern and terrible.

He spake saying: I have judged! It is the end: the gate of the beginning. Look in the Beneath and thou shalt see a new world!

I looked and saw a great abyss and a dark funnel of whirling waters or fixed airs, wherein were cities and monsters and trees and atoms and mountains and little flames (being souls) and all the material of an universe.

And all are sucked down one by one, as necessity hath ordained. For below is a glittering jewelled globe of gold and azure, set in a World of Stars.^{1 2}

And there came a Voice from the Abyss, saying: “Thou seest the Current of Destiny! Canst thou change one atom in its path? I am Destiny. Dost thou think to control me? for who can move my course?”

And there falleth a thunderbolt therein: a catastrophe of explosion: and all is shattered. And I saw above me a Vast Arm reach down, dark and terrible, and a voice cried: I AM ETERNITY.

And a great mingled cry arose: “No! no! no! All is changed; all is confounded; naught is ordered: the white is stained with blood: the black is kissed of the Christ! Return! Return! It is a new chaos that thou findest here: chaos for thee: for us it is the skeleton of a New Truth!”

I said: Tell me this truth: for I have conjured ye by the Mighty Names of God, the which ye cannot but obey.

The voice said:

Light is consumed as a child in the Womb of its Mother to develop itself anew. But pain and sorrow infinite, and darkness are invoked. For this child riseth up within his Mother and doth

¹ The severest aspect of Justice—Libra.

² Nuit.

crucify himself within her bosom. He extendeth his arms in the arms of his Mother and the Light becometh fivefold.¹

Lux in Luce,

Christus in Cruce;

Deo Duce

Sempiterno.¹

And be the glory for ever and ever unto the Most High God, Amen!

Then I returned within my body, giving glory unto the Lord of Light and of the Darkness. In Scecula Sceculorum? Amen!

(On composing myself to sleep, I was shewn an extremely brilliant ^{1 2 * 4 5} in the Character of the Passing of the River, in an egg of white light. And I take this as the best of Omens. The letter was extremely vivid and indeed apparently physical. Almost a dhyana.}

[Mexico, D.F.]

November 17, 1900, Die [ t) ]/

¹ The lvx Cross hidden in the Swastika is probably the Arcanum here connoted. This Cross on Mars square adds to 65 = Adonai; [bbn] shone, gloried; bD’i7 [The Palace]; OH = keep silent. Swastika itself adds to 231 = 0 + 1 + 2 + ... + 21, the 21 Keys. The cubical Swastika regarded as composed of this lvx Cross and the arms has a total of 78 faces—Tarot and Mezla.

² [Lat., “Light in light, Christ in the Cross; with God the eternal leader.”] This is but the beginning of a sort of hymn. It was never written down, the Seer being unable to hear it properly. These four lines are in fact probably incorrect, and certainly incomplete. There were four more lines which he failed to hear—from fear of getting them wrong. [These highly problematical Latin phrases are deleted in the ms: “Multio laudis I Coram claudis I Milu cordis I A Deo.”]

’ [Lat., “forever and ever.”]

⁴ Daleth = the Gateway. [Crowley’s source was the Alphabet of the Passing of the River in Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, book III, chap. 30, where the daleth differs from that given above; see also Francis Barrett, The Magus, book II, chap 16. It was used in the ms, which reads “an extremely brilliant n in the Character of the Passing of the River.” The earliest source for this alphabet is Johannes Trithemius, Polygraphia; see Works Cited.]

⁵ [The day of the week was blank in the first edition, and mistakenly given as $ (Friday) in the ms. Crowley was unsure of the exact date; see note 2 to p. 45 opposite.]

A Note¹

Concerning the Thirty /Ethyrs

The Visions of the 29th and 30th TEthyrs were given to me in Mexico in August,^{1 2} 1900, and I am now (23.11.9) trying to get the rest. It is to be remarked that the last three sethyrs³ have ten angels attributed to them,⁴ and they therefore represent the ten Sephiroth. Yet these ten form but one, a Malkuth-pendant to the next three,⁵ and so on, each set being, as it were, absorbed in the higher.⁶ The last set consists, therefore, of the first three aethyrs with the remaining twenty-seven as their Malkuth. And the letters of the first three aethyrs are the key-sigils of the most exalted interpretation of the Sephiroth.

I is therefore Kether;

L, Chokmah and Binah;

A, Chesed;

n, Geburah;

R, Tiphareth;

z, Netzach;

N, Hod;

o, Yesod.

The geomantic correspondences of the Enochian alphabet form a sublime commentary.⁷

Note that the total angels of the aethyrs are 91, the numeration of Amen.

¹ This note, written before invoking the 28th Aire, represents a crude and imperfect view. It is retained so as to show how very inadequate was the Understanding of the Seer; therefore, the immense superiority of the communicating Intelligences, and Their separate individual consciousness.

² Query: November? See above.

³ [I.e., the 30th, 29th and 28th.]

⁴ See [“Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” Part I,] The Equinox 1(7), pp. 242-3.

⁵ [TEthyrs.J

⁶ [In the ms, Crowley drew two sketches illustrating aspects of this Qabalistic arrangement of the /Ethyrs; see Figures 2 and 3 on pp. 254-255. Note 1 above suggests that he rejected this arrangement, but it reappears later in the 3rd AEthyr; see p. 212.]

⁷ [See Table 2, p. 35.]

The Cry of the 28th /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED BAG ¹

There cometh an Angel into the stone with opalescent^{1 2} shining garments like a wheel³ of fire on every side of him, and in his hand is a long flail of scarlet lightning;⁴ his face is black,⁵ and his eyes white without any pupil or iris.⁶ The face is very terrible indeed to look upon. Now in front of him is a wheel,³ with many spokes, and many tyres; it is like a fence⁷ in front of him.

And he cries: O man, who art thou that wouldst penetrate the Mystery?⁸ for it is hidden unto the End of Time.⁸

And I answer him: Time⁹ is not, save in the darkness of Her womb by whom evil came.

And now the wheel breaks away, and I see him as he is. His garment is black beneath the opal² veils, but it is lined with white, and he has the shining belly of a fish, and enormous wings of black and white feathers, and innumerable little legs and claws like a centipede, and a long tail like a scorpion. The breasts⁸ are human, but they are all scored with blood; and he cries: O thou who hast broken down the veil,⁸ knowest thou not that who cometh where I am must be scarred by many sorrows?¹⁰

^{1 <}Y^>y®=n + l + n= 19. nin = Eve, to manifest, to shew forth.

² Opal - rainbow = /.

³ [Atu] XIX = The wheel of the sun, symbolic of universally radiating energy; and 19 is a glyph of the circle.

⁴ 19 = Angel L[ord of the] T[riplicity by] D[ay] of /.

⁵ 19 - FT^-! was black.

⁶ Reference to Binah.

⁷ n = Fence.

⁸ References to Binah - Eve. 19 is the Great Glyph of the Feminine.

⁹ Time = = Binah.

¹⁰ I.e. must attain to 8°=3^D.

And I answer him: Sorrow¹ is not, save in the darkness of the womb of Her by whom came evil.

I pierce the Mystery¹ of his breast,¹ and therein is a jewel. It is a sapphire as great as an ostrich egg, and thereon is graven this sigil:

But there is also much writing on the stone, very minute characters, carved. I cannot read them. He points with his flail to the sapphire, which is now outside him and bigger than himself;^{1 2} and he cries: Hail! warden of the Gates of Eternity who knowest not³ thy right hand from thy left;⁴ for in the aeon of my Father is a god with clasped hands wherein he holdeth the universe, crushing⁵ it into the dust that ye call stars.

Hail unto thee who knowest not thy right eye from thy left;⁶ for in the aeon of my Father there is but one light.

Hail unto thee who knowest not thy right nostril⁷ from thy left; for in the aeon of my Father there is neither life nor death.

Hail unto thee who knowest not thy right ear⁸ from thy left; for in the aeon of my Father there is neither sound nor silence.

¹ All are references to Binah.

² Binah absorbs all.

³ Binah destroys Knowledge.

⁴ Hands: 5. For Hand is yod, Virgo. Also the two Hands are the Twin Serpents, the Positive and Negative.

⁵ See Liber AL 111:72.

⁶ Eyes: 0 and 2). Executive currents of the logos. The mouth, usually attributed to Mercury in the usual system, cannot be used in this phrase; for the Mouth is One, not Two, being the logos itself. And the logos is essentially an Unity, although manifested through vibration. It is therefore not destroyed with the other objects of Knowledge, though its dual modes of expression, the hands, are no longer known apart.

⁷ Nostrils: <J and $.

⁸ Ears: 21 and h •

Whoso hath power to break open this sapphire stone shall find therein four elephants having tusks of mother-of-pearl, and upon whose backs are castles, those castles which ye call the watch-towers of the Universe.¹

Let me dwell in peace within the breast of the Angel that is warden of the aethyr. Let not the shame of my Mother be unveiled. Let not her be put to shame that lieth among the lilies that are beyond the stars.

O man, that must ever be opening, when wilt thou learn to seal up the mysteries of the creation? to fold thyself over thyself as a rose in the embrace of night? But thou must play the wanton to the sun, and the wind must tear thy petals from thee, and the bee must rob thee of thy honey, and thou must fall into the dusk of things. Amen and Amen.

Verily the light is hidden, therefore he who hideth himself is like unto the light; but thou openest thyself; thou art like unto the darkness that bindeth the belly of the great goddess.^{1 2}

OLAHO VIRUDEN MAHORELA ZODIREDA! ON PIREDA EXENTASER; ARBA PIRE GAH GAHA GAHAL GAHALANA VO ABRA NA GAHA VELUCORSAPAX.³

And the voice of the seon cried: Return, return, return! the time sickeneth, and the space gapeth, and the voice of him that is, was and shall be crowned rattles in the throat of the mighty dragon of eld.⁴ Thou canst not pass by me, except thou have the mystery of the word of the abyss.

¹ The Elements are hidden in Binah.

² In the light of the cry of loe, this passage seems to mean precisely the opposite of its apparent meaning. The whole cry, from “Let me dwell...” is an Invocation of Binah. It is a foreshadowing of the Mysteries of the Crossing of the Abyss.

³ The translation of this is in my private copy (white and gold binding). Possibly also in the Cefalu set which was copied from that. [This translation is probably not extant. This passage does not appear to be Enochian, but does include a few Enochian words, and is probably a hybrid of Enochian and the “Lunar Language,” as occurs in “Liber 729, The Amalantrah Working.” See Works Cited.]

⁴ Binah or Nuit = Draco, the Dragon.

Now the angel putteth back the sapphire stone into his breast; and I spake unto him and said, I will fight with thee and overcome thee, except thou expound unto me the word of the abyss.

Now he makes as if to fight with me. (It is very horrible, all the tentacles moving and the flail flashing, and the fierce eyeless face, strained and swollen.) And with the Magic sword I pierce through his armour to his breast. He fell back, saying: Each of these my scars was thus made, for I am the warden of the asthyr. And he would have said more; but I cut him short, saying: expound the word of the Abyss. And he said:¹ Discipline is sorrowful and ploughing is laborious and age is weariness.

Thou shalt be vexed by dispersion.^{1 2}

But now, if the sun arise,³ fold thou thine arms;³ then shall God smite thee into a pillar of salt.⁴

Look not so deeply into words and letters; for this Mystery hath been hidden by the Alchemists. Compose the sevenfold into a fourfold regimen;⁵ and when thou hast understood thou mayest make symbols;⁶ but by playing child’s games with symbols thou shalt never understand.⁷ Thou hast the signs; thou hast the words; but there are many things that are not in my power, who am but the warden of the 28 th /Ethyr.

Now my name thou shalt obtain in this wise. Of the three angels of the /Ethyr,⁸ thou shalt write the names from right to left and from left to right and from right to left, and these are the holy letters:

The first 1, the fifth 2, the sixth 3, the eleventh 4, the seventh 5, the twelfth 6, the seventeenth 7.

¹ See the 14th and 13th /Ethyrs.

² See the 10th /Ethyr. These statements are prophetic.

³ Tiphareth; and the sign of Osiris risen in 5°-6°.

⁴ Prophetic of the 8°=3° attainment; the pillar is phallic, and salt is 0, of Binah the Great Sea. Cf. “Liber LXV” V:5, 23, 25. [See also Gen. 19:26.]

⁵ The completed system which is made by the 7°=4°.

⁶ The 8°=3° may devise a new Qabalah.

⁷ One cannot become an 8°=3° by intellectual manipulations.

⁸ [These are labnixp, focisni and oxlopar; see “Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” Part I, The Equinox 1(7), p. 242.]

Thus hast thou my name¹ who am above these three, but the angels of the 30th TEthyr are indeed four, and they have none above them; wherefore dispersion and disorder.^{1 2}

Now cometh from every side at once a voice, terribly great, crying: Close the veil; the great blasphemy hath been uttered; the face of my Mother³ is scarred by the nails of the devil. Shut the book, destroy the breaker of the seal!

And I answered: Had he not been destroyed he had not come hither, for I am not save in the darkness in the womb of Her⁴ by whom came evil into the world.

And this darkness swallows everything up,⁵ and the angel is gone from the stone;⁶ and there is no light therein, save only the light of the Rose and of the Cross.⁷

Aumale [Sour El Ghozlane], Algeria.

November 23, 1909, between 8 and 9 p.m.

P X I N B A L <--

FOCI S N I -->

R A P O L X O <--

¹ This would appear to be:

= lixipsp = ® /v / si I ft = nonoorD = 553 = bna ]'3n = Draco Magnus, the

Mighty Dragon. This is the symbol of Nuit or Binah. The whole symbolism of this Angel is therefore exactly confirmed through a Qabalistic Equation of which the Seer had no idea at the time.

N.B. He is above the dispersion and disorder, just as Binah is above the Abyss of Choronzon.

[Crowley derived lixipsp by counting along the first row from right to left and the next two from left to right. However, the instructions in the ZEthyr suggest reading the last row from right to left, which would give lixipsl = ®/V/ftI®= nonootn = 552.]

² The four elements unharmonized break up into Choronzon.

³ Further reference to Binah.

⁴ Binah.

⁵ Typical gesture of Binah.

⁶ The general attribution of this ZEthyr is to Atu XVII.

⁷ Binah being gone, the Seer descends to his normal place in Tiph-areth.

TO

The Cry of the 27TH ZEthyr, WHICH IS CALLED ZAA¹

There is an angel with rainbow wings, and his dress is green^{1 2} with silver, a green veil³ over silver⁴ armour. Flames of many-coloured fire dart from him in all directions. It is a woman of some thirty years old, and she has the moon for a crest, and the moon is blazoned on her heart, and her sandals are curved silver, like the moon.

And she cries: Lonely am I and cold in the wilderness of the stars.⁵ For I am the queen of all them that dwell in Heaven,⁶ and the queen of all them that are pure upon earth, and the queen of all the sorcerers of hell.⁷

I am the daughter of Nuit, the lady of the stars. And I am the Bride of them that are vowed unto loneliness.⁸ And I am the mother of the Dog Cerberus.⁹ One person am I, and three gods.¹⁰

¹ 61 V V = 522 [i.e., 5th sign, 2nd sign, 2nd sign] = Oil = 21. A mystery of Atu XVIII, “The Moon,” X , in which $ is exalted.

² Possibly the traditional green of the huntress.

³ The Colour of 1).

⁴ The Green of $ is perhaps the natural veil of Luna, her external show.

⁵ For D is virgin, and the path of 1 crosses the wilderness of the Abyss.

⁶ <Artemis.>

⁷ Diana Trivia is thus described. She is the High Priestess, and the Lady of Heaven. She is the Virgin Goddess of Pure Love; and she is Hecate, the waning Moon, presiding over Witchcraft. (See Macbeth, etc.)

⁸ Tff - IX = “The Hermit” (opposite X in Zodiac).

⁹ The Jackals of Atu XVIII.

¹⁰ J = 3 = 3. Cerberus has three heads.

And thou who hast blasphemed me shalt suffer knowing me. For I am cold as thou art cold, and burn with thy fire.¹ Oh, when shall the war of the Aires and the elements be accomplished?^{1 2}

Radiant are these falchions of my brothers, invisibly about me, but the might of the aethyrs beneath my feet beareth me down. And they avail not to sever the Kamailos.³ There is one in green armour, with green eyes, whose sword is of vegetable fire.⁴ That shall avail me. My son is he,⁵—and how shall I bear him that have not known man?

All this time intolerable rays are shooting forth to beat me back or destroy me; but I am encased in an egg of blue-violet, and my form is the form of a man with the head of a golden hawk.⁶ While I have been observing this, the goddess has kept up a continuous wail, like the baying of a thousand hounds;⁷ and now her voice is deep and guttural and hoarse, and she breathes very rapidly words that I cannot hear. I can hear some of them now:

UNTU LA LA ULULA UMUNA TOFA LAMA LE LI NA AHR IMA TAHARA ELULA ETFOMA UNUNA ARPETI ULU ULU ULU MARABAN ULULU MAHATA ULU ULU LAMASTANA.⁸

And then her voice rises to a shriek, and there is a cauldron⁹ boiling in front of her; and the flames under the cauldron are like

¹ For 2) is the Sensorium; she reflects man’s spiritual state in terms of sensuous experience.

² I.e., the coefficients of the Circle and the Square be commensurable. “When” means “Through what mode of resolution?”—“On what plane?”

³ Kapj]Xos - a camel, i.e., 2 gimel. KafiatXos’, a rope. And gimel is likened to a rope, a threefold (3 = 3) cord linking Kether and Tiphareth. < Anchor-rope. >

⁴ The Angel of 1 - $ who is green, and 1 “avails” J, crossing it on the Tree by joining Chokmah and Binah. That is, the Love of these Supernals balances the Isolation of the Virgin Moon.

⁵ D in 20° X at nativity of 666.

⁶ I.e., I assume the God-form of Horus, Sol in the Womb of the Night

sky blue of Binah, who is the Mother of all the Stars and thus is

potent against Hecate.

⁷ [from page opposite.] The hounds that follow Hecate. The jackals of Atu XVIII. '

Ode to Hecate

O triple form of darkness! Sombre splendour!

Thou moon unseen of men! Thou huntress dread! Thou crowned demon of the crownless dead!

O breasts of blood, too bitter and too tender!

Unseen of gentle spring, Let me the offering Bring to thy shrine's sepulchral glittering!

I slay the swart beast! I bestow the bloom Sown in the dusk, and gathered in the gloom Under the waning moon, At midnight hardly lightening the East;

And the black lamb from the black ewe’s dead womb

1 bring, and stir the slow infernal tune Fit for thy chosen priest.

Here where the band of Ocean breaks the road Black-trodden, deeply-stooping, to the abyss, I shall salute thee with the nameless kiss

Pronounced toward the uttermost abode

Of thy supreme desire. I shall illume the fire Whence thy wild stryges shall obey the lyre, When thy Lemurs shall gather and spring round, Girdling me in the sad funereal ground

With faces turned back,

My face averted! I shall consummate

The awful act of worship, O renowned

Fear upon earth, and fear in hell, and black Fear in the sky beyond Fate!

I hear the whining of thy wolves! I hear The howling of the hounds about thy form, Who comest in the terror of thy storm, And night falls faster ere thine eyes appear Glittering through the mist.

Of face of woman unkissed

Save by the dead whose love is taken ere they wist!

Thee, thee I call! O dire one! O divine!

I, the sole mortal, seek thy deadly shrine,

Pour the dark stream of blood, A sleepy and reluctant river Even as thou drawest, with thine eyes on mine, To me across the sense-bewildering flood That holds my soul for ever! Crowley, Orpheus

⁸ The Lunar Language. Translation: “Ye hounds! Ho! Ho! Tally-ho! scent the poison of the path—Here! There! Bark! Sweep round! There goes the quarry down the glade of mossy rock. The foremost has caught him! Tally ho! Tally ho! Tally ho! Pull him down! Tally-ho, boys! Wind the mort! Tally ho! Tally ho! The hunt is ended!” ulu = “Hail” plus “come” = very nearly “Ahoy!”

⁹ The Witches’ Cauldron.

unto zinc flames,¹ and in the cauldron is the Rose, the Rose of 49 petals,^{1 2} seething in it. Over the cauldron she has arched her rainbow wings; and her face is bent over the cauldron, and she is blowing opalescent silvery rings on to the Rose; and each ring as it touches the water bursts into flame, and the Rose takes new colours.³

And now she lifts her head, and raises her hands to heaven, and cries: O Mother,⁴ wilt thou never have compassion on the children of earth? Was it not enough that the Rose should be red with the blood of thine heart,⁵ and that its petals should be by 7 and by 7?

She is weeping, weeping.⁶ And the tears grow and fill the whole stone with moons.⁷ I can see nothing and hear nothing for the tears, though she keeps on praying. “Take of these pearls,⁸ treasure them in thine heart. Is not the Kingdom of the Abyss accurst?” She points downward to the cauldron; and now in it there is the head of a most cruel dragon,⁹ black and corrupted. I watch, and watch; and nothing happens.

¹ Ultra-violet of X.

² $ in X.

³ All this paragraph refers to Atu XIV, Sagittarius; for she is now in her huntress form. Hence the alchemical and rainbow symbolism.

⁴ She appeals to Binah, the highest form of Luna.

⁵ This is the use to which babalon puts the Blood of the Masters of the Temple (see 12th TEthyr) to vivify the Rose of Universal Creation, i.e., the Attainment of the Master of the Temple fills the World with Life and Beauty. Hecate does not understand this, or else she regards it as hostile to her own Formula.

⁶ V of X.

⁷ She can produce nothing but images of herself.

⁸ Pearls—the Masters of the Temple secreted by Binah round the specks of dust which They have become.

⁹ A veil or mask of Khephra (in [Atu] XVIII). [The ms appears to give “awful dragon” rather than “cruel dragon.”]

And now the dragon rises out of the cauldron, very long and slim (like Japanese Dragons, but infinitely more terrible), and he blots out the whole sphere of the stone.¹

Then suddenly all is gone, and there is nothing in the stone save brilliant white light and flecks like sparks of golden fire; and there is a ringing, as if bells were being used for anvils. And there is a perfume which I cannot describe; it is like nothing that one can describe, but the suggestion is like lignum aloes.^{1 2} And now all these things are there at once in the same place and time.³

Now a veil of olive and silver⁴ is drawn over the stone, only I hear the voice of the angel⁵ receding, very sweet and faint and sorrowful, saying: Far off and lonely in the secret stone is the unknown, and interpenetrated is the knowledge with the will and the understanding. I am alone. I am lost, because I am all and in all; and my veil is woven of the green earth and the web of stars. I love; and I am denied, for I have denied myself. Give me those hands, put them against my heart. Is it not cold? Sink, sink, the abyss of time remains. It is not possible that one should come to zaa. Give me thy face. Let me kiss it with my cold kisses. Ah! Ah! Ah! Fall back from me. The word, the word of the aeon is

¹ All Hecate can see of the Great Work of 8°=3° is the Black Brotherhood; i.e., the failure of that Work.

² Sagittarius (Atu XIV) again. The phenomena are the experiences of the attained Master of the Temple.

³ The attainment has destroyed the conditions of physical manifestation.

⁴ Olive—Water in Malkuth (Queen Scale) (also Water in Emperor Scale). Silver is Luna in Queen Scale.

⁵ Hecate now aspires to Binah, accepts the Formula of Love (“kisses”), surrenders her nature (“Fall back,” etc.), and so finds the Word.

makhashanah.¹ And these words shalt thou say backwards:² ARARNAY OBOLO MAHARNA TUTULU NOM LAHARA EN NEDIEZO LO SAD FONUSA SOBANA ARANA BINUF LA LA LA arpazna uohulu when thou wilt call my burden unto appear

njHIOKOKD = 418. A word of 8 letters is necessary to perform the Great Work on one whose Formula is 3; 8°=3°. The Seer “knew” that this Word was not the correct Word, which is Abrahadabra = 418. But on writing it down in Hebrew, as above, he saw that it was the correct Word after all. Observe that this proves the Angel to have been an Intelligence not that of the Seer’s conscious mind. Had he given the Word which the Seer knew, it might have been derived from his subconscious Self. Furthermore, this Word contains more than the mere 418, because of its 8 letters suiting the special Formula required by this particular Angel; whereas the other Word is a general Formula, being of 11 letters, all Magick being referred to 11. So far as abrahadabra is specialized, it refers to the Work of 5°=6°, there being 5 alephs and 6 other letters. In the Latin script also, Makhashanah does have 11 letters.

Again, the operation of the Cauldron (above) is described by the five consonants of this Word. 0 = V (Water). D = Wheel (Rose). E7 =

A (Fire). 2 = TIL, <Dragon>. H = Binah.

[The ms accents the word thus: “Makhashanah.”]

[The 1952 first edition, Gerald J. Yorke’s transcription of a ms note

from The Equinox 1(5), and the ts, give different versions of the phrase divisions of the translation. All appear to be corrupted; the

probable divisions (based on the ms) are given here:]

UOHULU ARPAZNA BINUF LA LA LA ARANA SOBANA FONUSA SAD NEDIEZO LO LAHARA EN NOM TUTULU MAHARNA OBOLO ARARNAY

Hither, o Holy one, whose burden pulls at thy spine Ho! Ho! Ho! The two-headed God (Janus) ploughs thy back, sows habitations upon thy back, thou many-phallused queen of princely loves which are all sodomies so that the holy ones laugh and shake with laughter while the lords of mischief spend upon thee (this word cannot be translated; see ’Liber VII’) down bounces from thy back the merry mad fcetus-faces, an emission gather ye sun-roses, sun-roses gather ye from the split backside of the Virgin (Earth).

ance, for I who am the Virgin goddess am the pregnant goddess, and I have cast down my burden even unto the borders of the universe.¹ They that blaspheme me are stoned, and my veil^{1 2} is fallen about me even unto the end of time.²

Now there arises a great raging of thousands and thousands of mighty warriors flashing through the aethyr so thickly that nothing is to be seen but their swords, which are like blue-gray plumes. And the noise is confused, thousands of battle-cries harmonizing to a roar, like the roar of a monstrous river in flood. And all the stone is dull, dull gray. The life is gone from it.³

There is no more to see.

Sidi-AIssa, Algeria.

November 24, 1909. 8-9 p.m.

¹ The Word of the Master has gone forth into every part of the world. Therefore it is always possible to call Him forth to one’s assistance by the proper use of the above Formula.

² Symbols of Binah.

³ Many of these Visions end in some way unconnected with the substance of the Aithyr. One must not look for coherence in such places. They are merely episodes on the return journey, useful to break the shock. Analogy: one might see a cab accident while returning to one’s house from the theatre. This spectacle need have no connection with either the play or one’s home life.

3TI

The Cry of the 26th /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED DES¹

There is a very bright pentagram: and now the stone is gone, and the whole heaven is black, and the blackness is the blackness of a mighty angel.^{1 2} And though he is black (his face and his wings and his robe and his armour are all black), yet is he so bright that I cannot look upon him. And he cries: O ye spears and vials of poison and sharp swords and whirling thunderbolts that are about the corners of the earth,³ girded with wrath and justice, know ye that His name is Righteousness in Beauty?⁴ Burnt out are your eyes, for that ye have seen me in my majesty. And broken are the drum-heads of your ears,⁵ because

¹ [311 = ] ®f|F H = [©]'! = 31 + 10 + 7 = 48 = 3510 = Kokab, the sphere of $. [For this reading, 3 = ® = © = <2<D =Atus XI and XX = (11 + 20) = 31.] This /Ethyr describes the supercession of the TEon of Jehovah and Jesus. The Stele of Revealing, which led to The Book of the Law, whose key number is 31. 3 = D = ® = 31. T = ' = Tty = Nuit and the Point, Hadit. [1] = I = I = the Twins, Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-Paar-Kraat combined in Heru-Ra-Ha, the Lord of the Aion. Also fly and I are the Houses of the logos. Thus the name of the TEthyr actually means: The Sacred Secret Key-letter of The Book of the Law of Thelema, appearing through the Operation of Mercury as well as giving a complete symbolical description of the Stele itself.

The Arcanum is of Atu XX = □ = ® = “The Last Judgment” or “The Angel.” The old form of XX shows the Resurrection Formula of the Old Aion; the new form shews the Stele of Revealing—718.

² The Pentagram indicates that the subject of the Vision is to be the Destiny of Man. The blackness, which is bright, is Solar. The context shows that Binah is not here implied.

³ All symbols of division and destruction; also, extending only to the Blind Four Elements.

⁴ Righteousness = Jupiter-Jehovah. Beauty = Osiris-Jesus. These are the qualities they claimed; their failure is that they never even had the idea of the Supernals beyond the Abyss.

⁵ Hearing pertains to Spirit, as sight to fire. These gods have deprived man of his two highest faculties.

my name is as two mountains of fornication, the breasts of a strange woman; and my Father is not in them.

Lo! the pools of fire and torment mingled with sulphur!¹ Many are their colours, and their colour is as molten gold, when all is said. Is not He one, one and alone, in whom the brightness of your countenance is as 1,728 petals of fire?^{1 2}

Also he spake the curse,³ folding his wings across and crying: Is not the son the enemy of his father? And hath not the daughter stolen the warmth of the bed of her mother?⁴ Therefore is the great curse irrevocable. Therefore there is neither wisdom nor understanding nor knowledge in this house, that hangeth upon the edge of hell.⁵ Thou art not 4 but 2, O thou blasphemy spoken against 1!⁶

Therefore whoso worshippeth thee is accursed. He shall be brayed in a mortar and the powder thereof cast to the winds, that the birds of the air may eat thereof and die; and he shall be dissolved in strong acid and the elixir poured into the sea, that the fishes of the sea may breathe thereof and die. And he shall be mingled with dung and spread upon the earth, so that the herbs of the earth may feed thereof and die; and he shall be burnt utterly with fire, and the ashes thereof shall calcine the children of flame, that even in hell may be found an overflowing lamentation.

And now on the breast of the Angel is a golden egg between the blackness of the wings, and that egg⁷ grows and grows all over the aethyr. And it breaks, and within there is a golden eagle.

¹ See the 10th Key.

² 12³. The Zodiac brought down to the material plane.

³ [A note by Crowley of uncertain provenance (alluding to the ix° and xi° of o.T.o.) reads: “That is, the restriction of Love to the two “normal” Formula; of H and ' and FI and 1 is barren and evil.”]

⁴ The (Edipus complex. Christianity.

⁵ The Cult of Jehovah cannot even reach to Daath.

⁶ I.e., Jehovah is not even the true Chesed, but the evil Dyad (as opposed to the true Dyad of Chokmah, which interprets Kether in terms of Vibration, the logos).

⁷ The promise of breaking the tyranny of Jehovah, who was the evil 2] in the /Eon of the True 2] Isis, by the Solar (golden) Jesus. He appears as an eagle, the bird of Jupiter. So that despite the glittering hope, it was only the old /Eon all over again.

And he cries: Woe! woe! woe! Yea, woe unto the world! For there is no sin, and there is no salvation.¹ My plumes are like waves of gold upon the sea. My eyes are brighter than the sun. My tongue is swifter than the lightning.

Yet am I hemmed in by the armies of night, singing, singing praises unto Him that is smitten by the thunderbolt of the abyss. Is not the sky clear behind the sun? These clouds that burn thee up, these rays that scorch the brains of men with blindness; these are heralds before my face of the dissolution and the night.

Ye are all blinded by my glory; and though ye treasure in your heart the sacred word that is the last lever of the key to the little door beyond the abyss, yet ye gloss and comment thereupon; for the light itself is but illusion. Truth itself is but illusion. Yea, these be the great illusions beyond life and space and time.

Let thy lips blister with my words! Are they not meteors in thy brain? Back, back from the face of the accursed one, who am I; back into the night of my father, into the silence; for all that ye deem right is left, forward is backward, upward is downward.^{1 2}

I am the great god adored of the holy ones. Yet am I the accursed one, child of the elements and not their father.³

O my mother! wilt thou not have pity upon me? Wilt thou not shield me? For I am naked, I am manifest, I am profane. O my father! wilt not thou withdraw me? I am extended, I am double, I am profane.

Woe, woe unto me! These are they that hear not prayer. It is I that have heard all prayer alway, and there is none to answer me. Woe unto me! Woe unto me! Accursed am I unto the seons!

¹ He knows this truth, which destroys the whole idea of his formula. Nobody will bother about him, if they are not sinners, and need no saviour.

² Observe the loud words, the confusion of the thought, throughout this excited passage.

³ He knows that he is not an image of the Simple, Sublime Self, but an ill-concocted mess of Blind Forces.

All this time this brilliant eagle-headed god has been attacked, seemingly, by invisible people,¹ for he is wounded now and again, here and there; little streams of fresh blood come out over the feathers of his breast. And the smoke of the blood is gradually filling the yEthyr with a crimson veil. There is a scroll over the top, saying: Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine-,^{1 2} and there is another scroll below it in a language of which I do not know the sounds. The meaning is, Not as they have understood.³

The blood is thicker and darker now, and it is becoming clotted and black, so that everything is blotted out; because it coagulates, coagulates. And then at the top there steals a dawn of pure night-blue,⁴—Oh, the stars, the stars in it deeply set!—and drives the blood down; so that all round the top of the oval gradually dawns the figure of our Lady Nuit, and beneath her is the flaming winged disk, and below the altar of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, even as it is upon the Stele of Revealing.⁵ But below is the supine figure of Seb,⁶ into whom is concentrated all that clotted blood.⁷

And there comes a voice: It is the dawn of the aeon. The aeons of cursing are passed away. Force and fire, strength and sight, these are for the servants of the Star and the Snake.⁸

¹ Jesus has been destroyed by myriads of minute facts; the observations of Nature which have broken down the theories on which his existence depended. His blood is spilt, and veils Truth; whereas the Blood of the Master of the Temple is gathered in the Cup of baba-lon, and floods the world with Life and Beauty. (See 27th Aire, footnote 5, page 54.)

² [Lat., “The Church shrinks from blood.”] The Christian, incapable of the formula of the Master of the Temple, abhors the shedding of blood. He fears to lose his vile life.

³ I.e., the meaning of the Latin is that given above, not the traditional ecclesiastical interpretation. Cf., also, AL 1:45-48.

⁴ Not only symbolic, but actually visible even to the physical eyes, when Nuit is manifested. Also when Ra-Hoor-Khuit is invoked, or Aiwass.

⁵ See the various special accounts of the Stele. The New Atu XX—718.

⁶ [Geb.]

⁷ Earth has absorbed all the ruin wrought by Jesus, to rebuild life through putrefaction, by her regular formula—as opposed to the Higher Magick.

⁸ [Liber AL 11:21.]

And now I seem to be lying in the desert, exhausted.¹

The Desert, near Sidi-AIssa.

November 25, 1909. 1:10-2 p.m.

The Cry of the 25TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED VTI^{1 2}

There is nothing in the stone but the pale gold of the Rosy Cross.

Now there comes an Angel with bright wings, that is the Angel of the 25th Aire. And all the aire is a dark olive about him, like an alexandrite³ stone. He bears a pitcher⁴ or amphora.⁵ And now there comes another Angel upon a white horse,⁶ and yet again another Angel upon a black bull.⁷ And now there comes a lion⁸ and swallows the two latter angels up. The first angel goes to the

¹ This vision, being so close to the physical plane, required no intermediate stations on the way back. The exhaustion was due to the same cause. Communion with high spiritual forces renews the vitality of the Seer.

² [A/l =] vti = 'S fl / = Caput Draconis, the head of the LionSerpent, the Beast, 666. His father is , Set or Pan; his mother, the Woman clothed with the Sun, as in Atu XIV. See 27th TEthyr. [See also Rev. 12:1.] He is the burden of the Moon, sanctified by 418. Atu XI (a partial form) with Atu XX (XI + XX = XXXI) gives the Key of the New /Eon. [In the ms and first edition, the 25th and 14th /Ethyrs were named vti and uti (the same name, as u or v = Enoch. A); this is corrected here. The original note to the 14th /Ethyr read “uti = X> fl / = DJD = 133 = nbon □’ = The Salt Sea, i.e., Binah.” See note 3 to p. 137.]

³ The stone of Gemini, the twins, composing Heru-Ra-Ha, his Lord. Also the house of $; that is, his form is Oracular.

⁴ This angel is an avatar of babalon.

⁵ Ap.(j>op9 = 719. This Angel is a veil for 156, the Woman who closes the mouth of the lion in the old Atu XI, and is the Scarlet Woman who rides upon him in the new form.

⁶ The Sorrow of Death.

⁷ This represents Jehovah and Jesus. The pain of Toil. (Sin is Restriction.)

⁸ Symbol of The Beast 666.

lion and closes his mouth.¹ And behind them are arrayed a great company of Angels with silver spears, like a forest. And the Angel says: Blow, all ye trumpets, for I will loose my hands from the mouth of the lion, and his roaring shall enkindle the worlds.^{1 2}

Then the trumpets blow, and the wind rises and whistles terribly. It is a blue wind with silver specks; and it blows through the whole /Ethyr. But through it one perceives the lion, which has become as a raging flame.³

And he roareth in an unknown tongue. But this is the interpretation thereof: Let the stars be burnt up in the fire of my nostrils!⁴ Let all the gods and the archangels and the angels and the spirits that are on the earth, and above the earth, and below the earth, that are in all the heavens and in all the hells, let them be as motes dancing in the beam of mine eye!⁵

I am he that swalloweth up death⁶ and victory.⁷ I have slain the crowned goat,⁸ and drunk up the great sea.⁹ Like the ash of dried leaves the worlds are blown before me. Thou hast passed by me, and thou hast not known me. Woe unto thee, that I have not devoured thee altogether!

On my head is the crown, 419 rays^{10 11} far-darting. And my body is the body of the Snake,¹¹ and my soul is the soul of the Crowned Child.¹² Though an Angel in white robes leadeth me,¹³ who shall ride upon me but the Woman of Abominations?¹⁴ Who

¹ See Atu XI. Babaion and the Beast conjoined.

² babalon prepared 666 (in a certain very secret manner) to utter the word GeXrnia.

³ I.e., 666 is now inspired.

⁴ Nostrils = $ and $. Energy and passion, also Breath of the Word.

⁵ Eye = Creative Light, i.e., of the Word.

⁶ Scorpio. [Cf. Isaiah 25:8.]

⁷ Netzach.

⁸ Capricornus.

⁹ Hod (the mercurial water): in all the Sephiroth below Tiphareth, out of balance, and the paths leading from them.

¹⁰ Leo = <0 = CD = D'CD = 419. CD = & . CD = snake by meaning. St = Horus.

¹¹ The magical image of the 1st Decan of Leo, rising at the birth of 666, is a lion-headed serpent.

¹² Horus, the Lord of 666.

¹³ The Avatar of Binah, in the opening of this /Ethyr.

¹⁴ babalon. See Atu XI.

is the Beast?¹ Am not I one more than he?¹ In his hand is a sword that is a book.² In his hand is a spear that is a cup of fornication.³ Upon his mouth is set the great and terrible seal.⁴ And he hath the secret of V.⁵ His ten horns spring from five points,⁶ and his eight heads⁷ are as the charioteer of the West.⁸ Thus doth the fire of the sun temper the spear of Mars,⁹ and thus shall he be worshipped, as the warrior lord of the sun.¹⁰ Yet in him is the woman that devoureth with her water all the fire of God.¹¹

Alas! my lord, thou art joined with him that knoweth not these things.¹²

When shall the day come that men shall flock to this my gate, and fall into my furious throat, a whirlpool of fire? This is hell unquenchable, and all they shall be utterly consumed therein. Therefore is that asbestos unconsumable made pure.¹³

¹ 419-418 = 1. Or 667-666 - 1. 667 ='H KOKKINH rtNH, the Scarlet Woman.

² Liber AL, his weapon.

³ This allusion must remain secret.

⁴ This seal is that of babalon, the Seal of the A.'. A.’.. See The Book of Lies, Cap. 49. [See Figure 12, p. 252.]

⁵ His motto as a Master of the Temple is this: V.V.V.V.V. (Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici) [Lat., “By the force of Truth I have conquered the Universe while living”].

⁶ V.V.V.V.V. has 10 horns that spring from 5 points.

⁷ See The Book of Lies, Cap. 49. But there is one Eighth Head too sacredly terrible to mention.

⁸ Refers to Atu VII = n = “The Chariot” = 8, the Bearer of the San-graal.

⁹ The Mystery 5°=6° and 6°=5°; Heru-Ra-Ha is the Martial aspect of Sol.

¹⁰ See Liber AL 111:74.

¹¹ Again a secret allusion.

¹² The Seer was not yet a full initiate, and was hampered by A.C.

¹³ This paragraph prophesies the purging of the worldly Fire in the AZon of Horus. “Hell” is the pure Inmost Self of Man, that suffereth not extinction, but consumeth all the experiences of Life, coming thereby to know its own Perfection.

Each of my teeth¹ is a letter of the reverberating name. My tongue is a pillar of fire,^{1 2 3} and from the glands of my mouth arise four pillars of water? taotzem^{4 5 6} is the name by which I am blasphemed. My name thou shalt not know, lest thou pronounce it and pass by.

And now the Angel comes forward again and closes his mouth.

All this time heavy blows have been raining upon me from invisible angels, so that I am weighed down as with a burden greater than the world? I am altogether crushed. Great millstones are hurled out of heaven upon me? I am trying to crawl to the lion? and the ground is covered with sharp knives. I cut myself at every inch?

And the voice comes: Why art thou there who art here?⁷ Hast thou not the sign of the number,^{8 9} and the seal of the name? and the ring of the eye?^{10 11} Thou wilt not.¹¹

And I answered and said: I am a creature of earth, and ye would have me swim.

¹ 32 teeth; hence the Name is rnil’iIR (32), Macroprosopus interfused with Microprosopus.

² The tongue is the instrument of the logos and so a Phallic or creative organ. Chokmah, the logos, is the Root of Fire, and the Masculine Energy.

³ These are the “Four Rivers of Eden.” It is the fourfold understanding of the logos. These reflect Him so perfectly that they reproduce His Form.

⁴ = 600. A “great number” of Sol, normally 6. 600 = Ko<jp.o$.

The blasphemy is in taking the material for the Spiritual Sun. cD’SUBD = 22O.>

⁵ “The Sin of the whole world.” See “The Mediterranean Manifesto.” [In Crowley, The Heart of the Master; see Works Cited.]

⁶ Prophetic of the pains, the initiation to 9°=2°, undergone by 666 in order to become himself.

⁷ I.e., “Why art Thou not consciously identical with 666?”

⁸ The Qabalistic Proofs (of the truth of Aiwass) given by the virtues of 93.

⁹ 666.

¹⁰ The ring of V.V.V.V.V., mentioned in “[Liber] LXV” [V:] 16.

¹¹ My resistance to the Great Work.

And the voice said: Thy fear is known; thine ignorance is known; thy weakness is known; but thou art nothing in this matter. Shall the grain which is cast into the earth by the hand of the sower debate within itself, saying, am I oats or barley? Bond-slave of the curse, we give nothing, we take all. Be thou content. That which thou art, thou art. Be content.¹

And now the lion passeth over through the /Ethyr with the crowned beast upon his back, and the tail of the lion goes on instead of stopping, and on each hair of the tail is something or other—sometimes a little house, sometimes a planet, at other times a town. Then there is a great plain with soldiers fighting upon it, and an enormously high mountain carved into a thousand temples, and more houses and fields and trees, and great cities with wonderful buildings in them, statues and columns and public buildings generally. This goes on and on and on and on and on and on and on—all on the hairs of this lion’s tail.^{1 2}

And then there is the tuft of his tail, which is like a comet, but the head is a new universe, and each hair streaming away from it is a Milky Way.

And then there is a pale stern figure, enormous, enormous, bigger than all that universe is, in silver armour, with a sword and a pair of balances.³ That is only vague. All has gone into stonegray, blank.

There is nothing.

A/n-El-Hadjel.

November 25, 1909. 8:40-9:40 p.m.

(There were two voices in all this Cry, one behind the other—or, one was the speech, and the other the meaning. And the voice that was the speech was simply a roaring, one tremendous noise, like a mixture of thunder and water-falls and wild beasts and

¹ The Angel promises the Seer that he shall be 666 in all Truth, and counsels him to await His Hour in perfect confidence.

² Prophetic of the results of the Great Work delivered by 666.

³ This refers to the /Eon which is to follow this of Horus. See Liber AL 111:34. Its Lord is “the double-wanded one” Thmaist—Justice.

bands and artillery. And yet it was articulate, though I cannot tell you what a single word was. But the meaning of the voice— the second voice—was quite silent, and put the ideas directly into the brain of the Seer, as if by touch. It is not certain whether the mill-stones and the sword-strokes that rained upon him were not these very sounds and ideas.)

The Cry of the 24TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED NIA¹

An angel comes forward into the stone like a warrior clad in chain-armour. Upon his head are plumes of gray,^{1 2} spread out like the fan of a peacock.³ About his feet a great army of scorpions and dogs, lions, elephants, and many other wild beasts. He stretches forth his arms to heaven and cries; In the crackling of the lightning, in the rolling of the thunder, in the clashing of the swords and the hurling of the arrows:⁴ be thy name exalted!

Streams of fire come out of the heavens, a pale brilliant blue,⁵ like plumes. And they gather themselves and settle upon his lips.

¹ nia = 1H, / V = 116. She is Atu XIV—“The Woman clothed with the Sun” (see 27th Aire), between IH,, Love as the instrument of change by Putrefaction, and V, the heavenly Isis. But cf. also AL 111:72—Coph Nia. This completes the Mystery of Atu XI by the Vision of 156, also in a partial form. The Beast and the Scarlet Woman are attributed to SI and Water TV They are the two-in-one Chief Officers of the Temple of the New /Eon of Heru-Ra-Ha. (Note the Eagle Kerub in the 23rd Aire is Aquarius Scorpio is the Woman-Serpent. This is important, for the old attribution is of the Eagle to TfU -)

² The ajna-cakra—Chokmah.

³ Sacred to Juno.

⁴ Arrows of / the rainbow which follows this storm.

⁵ Blue of Sagittarius (Atu XIV).

His lips are redder than roses, and the blue plumes gather themselves into a blue rose,¹ and from beneath the petals of the rose come brightly coloured humming-birds,^{1 2} and dew falls from the rose—honey-coloured dew.³ I stand in the shower of it.

And a voice proceeds from the rose: Come away! Our chariot is drawn by doves.⁴ Of mother-of-pearl and ivory is our chariot,⁵ and the reins thereof are the heart-strings of men. Every moment that we fly shall cover an seon. And every place on which we rest shall be a young universe rejoicing in its strength; the meadows thereof shall be covered with flowers. There shall we rest but a night, and in the morning we shall flee away, comforted.

Now, to myself, I have imagined the chariot of which the voice spake, and I looked to see who was with me in the chariot. It was an Angel of golden hair and golden skin, whose eyes were bluer than the sea, whose mouth was redder than the fire, whose breath was ambrosial air. Finer than a spider’s web were her robes. And they were of the seven colours.⁶

All this I saw; and then the hidden voice went on low and sweet: Come away! The price of the journey is little, though its name be death. Thou shalt die to all that thou fearest and hopest and hatest and lovest and thinkest and art. Yea! thou shalt die, even as thou must die. For all that thou hast, thou hast not; all that thou art, thou art not!⁷

¹ Woman in /.

² Sacred to Venus.

³ Distilled from Cauldron in Atu XIV. The Elixir. In this Aire is a Mystery of the IX° of o.T.o.

⁴ Sacred to $. This Woman combines 2| (Juno) and 2; but she is more than all this, the Quintessence of Scorpio, the Lady of the Cup.

⁵ Chariot = Atu VII = ®, cardinal sign of V. Mother of Pearl is sacred to V; cups symbolize Pleasure, especially sexual pleasure. Ivory comes from the tusks of the Elephant; teeth pertain to 0, the Fire of the Spirit. Ivory is thus a symbol of the hard gleaming militant delight of sexual energy, which bears Love in her Chariot through Heaven.

⁶ All typical of 2 •

⁷ Prophetic of the 8°=3^D Initiation. Love is the motive power which makes the Adeptus Exemptus take the plunge into the Abyss.

NENNI OFEKUFA ANANAEL LAIADA I MAELPEREJI NO-NUKA AFAFA ADAREPEHETA PEREGI ALADI NIISA NIISA LAPE OL ZODIR IDOIAN.¹

And I said: odo Ki kale qaa.^{1 2} Why art thou hidden from me, whom I hear?

And the voice answered and said unto me: Hearing is of the spirit alone.³ Thou art a partaker of the five-fold mystery.⁴ Thou must roll up the ten divine ones like a scroll, and fashion therefrom a star.⁵ Yet must thou blot out the star in the heart of Hadit.⁶

For the blood of my heart is like a warm bath of myrrh and ambergris; bathe thyself therein. The blood of my heart is all gathered upon my lips if I kiss thee, burns in my fingertips if I caress thee, burns in my womb when thou art caught up into my bed. Mighty are the stars; mighty is the sun; mighty is the moon; mighty is the voice of the ever-living one, and the echoes of his whisper are the thunders of the dissolution of the worlds. But my silence is mightier than they. Close up the worlds like unto a weary house; close up the book of the recorder, and let the veil swallow up the shrine, for I am arisen, O my fair one, and there is no more need of all these things.

¹ <Enochian.> [A possible translation: “Become ... the Secret Wisdom and the Secret Truth, and of the Fire of Life you are empty, ineffable with the gathering fire. Come away! Come away! For I am the AllPowerful.” Ofekufa is not attested Enochian, hence the lacuna. In his 1972 edition of The Vision and the Voice, Israel Regardie gave a very free translation by Donald Laycock, who later listed his interpretations as definitions in his otherwise generally reliable Complete Enochian Dictionary; see Works Cited.]

² [Enochian: “Open the Mysteries of your Creation.” See Call or Key of the Thirty yTthyrs.]

³ The traditional attribution.

⁴ I.e., of the Pentagram.

⁵ The Ten Sephiroth form the Flaming Sword. The idea is to make a perfect Man (the Pentagram) by folding up his 10 consecutive qualities into a single symmetrical symbol.

⁶ This star must itself be blotted out in the Point-of-View, the Quintessence of Individuality.

If once I put thee apart from me, it was the joy of play. Is not the ebb and flowing of the tide a music of the sea? Come, let us mount unto Nuit our mother and be lost! Let being be emptied in the infinite abyss! For by me only shalt thou mount; thou hast none other wings than mine.¹

All this while the Rose has been shooting out blue flames, coruscating like snakes through the whole Aire. And the snakes have taken shapes of sentences. One of them is: Sub umbra alarum tuarum Adonai quies et felicitas.^{1 2} And another: Summum bonum, ver a sapientia, magnanima vita, sub noctis nocte sunt.^{3 4} And another is: Vera medicina est vinum mortis.'³ And another is: Lib-ertas evangelii per jugum legis ob gloriam dei intactam ad vacuum nequaquam tendit.⁵ And another is: Sub aqua lex terrarum.⁶ And another is: Mens edax rerum, cor umbra rerum; intelligentia via

¹ The totality of experiences has amounted to Perfection. There is then no more need of a manifested Universe. See AL 1:29 for the Object of Division.

² [Lat., “Under the shadow of thy wings, Adonai, are peace and happiness.” The phrase “sub umbra alarum tuarum Jehova” (Lat., “under the shadow of thy wings, Jehovah”) occurs in the Fama Fra-ternitatis; cf. also “Liber 671”; see Works Cited.]

Refers to 5°=6° initiation.

³ [Lat., “The highest good, the true wisdom, the magnanimous life, are under the night of night.”]

Refers to the Night of Pan (see later Aires) and so to 8°=3° which with 5°=6° make the two initiated steps.

⁴ [Lat., “The true medicine is the wine of death.”]

Cf. the general doctrine about Death. AL 11:72-74, et al.

⁵ [Lat., “The freedom of the gospel through the yoke of the law for the untouched glory of God by no means extends to the void.” Nequaquam vacuum is usually translated “nowhere a void.”]

Combines the four sentences (in this order — 5? 61 1TV) on the circular altar in the vault of Christian Rosenkreutz. The meaning is: Liberty, Law, Light, fill the universe.

⁶ [Lat., “Under the water is the law of the world.”]

<©.> S.A.L.T. [For this and the following formulas see Figure 14, p. 253.]

summa.¹ And another is: Summa via lucis: per Hephcestum undas regas.^{1 2} And another is: Vir introit tumulum regis, invenit oleum lucis.³

And all round the whole of these things are the letters taro; but the light is so dreadful that I cannot read the words. I am going to try again. All these serpents are collected together very thickly at the edges of the wheel, because there are an innumerable number of sentences. One is: tres annos regimen oraculi.⁴ And another is: terribilis ardet rex ]T’^l7£.⁵ And another is: Ter amb (amp?) (can’t see it) rosam oleo (?).⁶ And another is: Tribus

¹ [Lat., “The mind is the destroyer of things, the heart is the shadow of things; understanding is the highest way.”]

<^.> m.e.r.c.u.r.i.u.s. Meaning: the mind destroys the external (by abstracting its reality: see any good Yoga treatise). The heart is their shadow (i.e., Reality only appears as impressions). Binah (8°=3°) is the Highest Way.

² [Lat., “The highest way of light: through Hephsestus you shall rule the waters.”]

<-£.> s.u.L.Ph.u.R. An alchemical injunction; a reference to AL 11:57.

³ [Lat., “The man enters the tomb of the king, he discovers the oil of light.”]

v.i.t.r.i.o.l. Reference to ix° o.t.o.

⁴ [Lat., “Three years is the regimen of the oracle.”]

Refers to time required to assimilate the Initiation of 8°=3°. For three years is 156 weeks; and 156 = babalon.

⁵ [Lat./Heb., “terrible burns the king elion [most high],” or “the terrible king elion burns with love.”]

<EXlov Av [GrL, possibly “On of the Sun”].> Elyon: the exalted one. ]Tbl). [pbi?,] 156, a name of babalon (see “[Liber 73,] The Urn”), with the Phallic yod in the midst. [Soror (Olun) was Marie Lavroff Rohling, a candidate for the office of Scarlet Woman in spring 1918 E.v., eventually considered a “doubtful case.” See Liber CXI vel Aleph and “Liber 729,” The Amalantrah Working.”]

⁶ [Lat., “Three times ... the rose with oil.”]

Meaning: the Rose must be thrice anointed (?) with oil. (That is, with The Oil.)

annulis regna olisbon.¹ And the marvel is that with those four letters you can get a complete set of rules for doing everything, both for white magic and black.^{1 2}

And now I see the heart of the rose again. I see the face of him that is the heart of the rose, and in the glory of that face I am ended. My eyes are fixed upon his eyes; my being is sucked up through my eyes into those eyes. And I see through those eyes, and lo! the universe, like whirling sparks of gold, blown like a tempest. I seem to swell out again into him. My consciousness fills the whole dEthyr. I hear the cry nia, ringing again and again from within me. It sounds like infinite music, and behind the sound is the meaning of the TEthyr. Again there are no words.

All this time the whirling sparks of gold go on, and they are like blue sky, with a lot of rather thin white clouds in it, outside. And now I see mountains round, far blue mountains, purple mountains. And in the midst is a little green dell of moss, which is all sparkling with dew that drips from the rose. And I am lying on that moss with my face upwards, drinking, drinking, drinking, drinking, drinking of the dew.

I cannot describe to you the joy and the exhaustion of everything that was, and the energy of everything that is, for it is only a corpse that is lying on the moss. I am the soul of the Aithyr.³

Now it reverberates like the swords of archangels, clashing upon the armour of the damned; and there seem to be the black

¹ [Lat., “Rule the olisbos with three rings.” Olisbos means “a leather dildo.”]

Refers to the Tree of Life: to be ruled by the three reciprocating Paths, 1, CD, B; that is, by the supernal Love, by the Formula of BabaIon and the Beast conjoined, and by that Formula at which is hinted in Liber AL. [Cf. the wand of the Hierophant in Atu V in Liber 78, The Book of Thoth, and the Sigil or Triple Cross of the Grand Hierophants in “Liber 5 vel Reguli”; see Book 4 (Parts I-IV), rev. ed., App. 6.]

² All t.a.r.o. [i.e., the four Latin phrases. For the use of t.a.r.o. as a formula on the Tree of Life see Figure 14, p. 253.]

³ This passage describes an Initiation, the first of this series. It is the exhaustion of the lower Self of the Seer in his first union with

BABALON.

smiths of heaven beating the steel of the worlds upon the anvils of hell, to make a roof to the TEthyr.¹

For if the great work were accomplished and all the /Ethyrs were caught up into one, then would the vision fail; then would the voice be still.

Now all is gone from the stone.

Ain-El-Hadjel.

November 26, 1909. 2-3:25 p.m.

The Cry of the 23RD /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED TOR^{1 2}

In the brightness of the stone are three lights, brighter than all, which revolve ceaselessly.³ And now there is a spider’s web of silver⁴ covering the whole of the stone. Behind the spider’s web is a star of twelve rays;⁵ and behind that again, a black bull, furiously pawing up the ground. The flames from his mouth increase and whirl, and he cries: Behold the mystery of toil, O thou who art taken in the toils of mystery.⁶ For I who trample

¹ This roof seems to be the path of 2 (Mars, blacksmith’s steel, etc., the first ring that binds the ’oAzo)8o$'). The Union with his Mate first occurs in Yesod, of which 3 may be called the roof. Later we shall find the other marriages of 3 and 7.

² tor = BflX.

³ The three gunas: sattva, rajas, tamas. This is an Introit to the /Ethyr. As we proceed, we find more and more obstacles to entering.

⁴ More introit; veils to the true Vision.

⁵ Tamas, Kerub of Earth. He and the Eagle of Air make up the 4 Officers of the New Temple.

⁶ A warning to the Seer not to allow himself to ignore or despise the plain facts of life. Mysteries—nay, even The Mysteries Themselves!—are apt to seduce the Aspirant. He becomes exalte (as the cold rational French, observing these errors, call him) instead of exalted.

the earth thereby make whirlpools in the air; be comforted, therefore, for though I be black, in the roof of my mouth is the sign of the Beetle.¹ Bent are the backs of my brethren, yet shall they gore the lion with their horns. Have I not the wings of the eagle, and the face of the man?

And now he is turned into one of those winged Assyrian bullmen.

And he sayeth: The spade of the husbandman is the sceptre of the king.^{1 2} All the heavens beneath me, they serve me. They are my fields and my gardens and my orchards and my pastures.

Glory be unto thee, who didst set thy feet in the North;³ whose forehead is pierced with the sharp points of the diamonds in thy crown;⁴ whose heart is pierced with the spear of thine own fecundity.⁵

Thou art an egg of blackness, and a worm of poison. But thou hast formulated thy father, and made fertile thy mother.⁶

Thou art the basilisk whose gaze turns men to stone, and the cockatrice at the breast of an harlot that giveth death for milk. Thou art the asp that has stolen into the cradle of the babe. Glory unto thee, who art twined about the world as the vine that clingeth to the bare body of a bacchanal.⁷

¹ The tradition of the Bull Apis. The Beetle is the Midnight Sun, the hidden hope of Earth.

² The King rules by virtue of the labour of his people. Even V Earth is necessary as the support of Heaven. Nuit is upheld by Shu, who stands on Seb [GebJ. Neglect to understand this causes many “pure Mystics” to fail lamentably. They “go off their base” in the significant slang of common-sense folk.

³ The Bull is stationed in the North.

⁴ The Bull is sacred to Osiris. This refers to the Crown of Thorns.

⁵ Again a reference to the Formula of Osiris. The Spear (Sacred Lance, Phallus) pierces the heart of the Dying God.

⁶ [See “The Invocation of Horus” in The Temple of Solomon the King, The Equinox 1(7), p. 378, and in Book 4, Part IV, chap. 6. See also Book 4, Part III, chap. 3.]

⁷ These two paragraphs declare the identity of the Bull with his Zodiacal opposite, Scorpio.

Also, though I be planted so firmly upon the earth, yet is my blood wine and my breath fire of madness. With these wings, though they be but little, I lift myself above the crown of the yod,¹ and being without fins I yet swim in the inviolate fountain.^{1 2}

I disport myself in the ruins of Eden, even as Leviathan in the false sea,³ being whole as the rose at the crown of the cross.⁴ Come ye unto me, my children, and be glad. At the end of labour is the power of labour.⁵ And in my stability is concentrated eternal change.⁶

For the whirlings of the universe are but the course of the blood in my heart. And the unspeakable variety thereof is but my divers hairs, and plumes, and gems in my tall crown. The change which ye lament is the life of my rejoicing, and the sorrow that blackeneth your hearts is the myriad deaths by which I am renewed. And the instability which maketh ye to fear, is the little waverings of balance by which I am assured.⁷

And now the veil of silver tissue-stuff closes over him, and above that, a purple veil, and above that, a golden veil, so that now the whole stone is like a thick mat of woven gold wires; and there come forth, one from each side of the stone, two women, and grasp each other by both hands, and kiss, and melt into one another; and melt away.⁸ And now the veils open again, the gold

¹ The Crown of yod (as a path on the Tree) is Chesed. It leads thither from Tiphareth. The path of the Bull leads from Chokmah down to Chesed.

² Refers to the Symbol of the Woman and the Bull. See 16th Aire.

³ See Knorr von Rosenroth on the Qliphoth. [Cf. The Kabbalah Unveiled, trans. Mathers, pp. 50-53; see Works Cited.]

⁴ “The Rose of Earth” surmounts the Cross of Fire in the symbol $.

⁵ Toil creates kinetic energy.

⁶ See 11th Aire.

⁷ All this paragraph explains this doctrine of Stability = Change. (Yesod, Support of the Tree, is also A and 2).)

⁸ These are intended to show symbolically that the Bull is the same as the Eagle.

parts, and the purple parts, and the silver parts, and there is a crowned eagle, also like the Assyrian eagles.

And he cries: All my strength and stability are turned to the use of flight.¹ For though my wings are of fine gold, yet my heart is the heart of a scorpion.^{1 2}

Glory unto thee, who being born in a stable didst make thee mirth of the filth thereof, who didst suck in iniquity from the breast of thy mother the harlot; who didst flood with iniquity the bodies of thy concubines.

Thou didst lie in the filth of the streets with the dogs; thou wast tumbled and shameless and wanton in a place where four roads meet. There wast thou defiled, and there wast thou slain, and there wast thou left to rot. The charred stake was thrust through thy bowels, and thy parts were cut off and thrust into thy mouth for derision.³

All my unity is dissolved; I live in the tips of my feathers.⁴ That which I think to be myself is but infinite number.⁵ Glory unto the Rose and the Cross, for the Cross is extended unto the uttermost end beyond space and time and being and knowledge and delight! Glory unto the Rose that is the minute point of its centre! Even as we say; glory unto the Rose that is Nuit the circumference of all, and glory unto the Cross that is the heart of the Rose!⁶

Therefore do I cry aloud, and my scream is the treble as the bellowing of the bull is the bass.⁷ Peace in the highest and peace in the lowest and peace in the midst thereof! Peace in the eight quarters, peace in the ten points of the Pentagram! Peace in the twelve

¹ This transformation into Air shows the identity (in ultimate philosophy) of the two forces of change which constitute the Lesser Mysteries of the Sword and the Disk.

² Refers to the Scorpion in the Symbol of the Bull of Mithras.

³ These two paragraphs refer to the Formula of the Dying God, its perversion and profanation at the hands of those who abused it.

⁴ Air has a peripheral consciousness.

⁵ The True Unity does not exist in any particular number, but in tS° as a whole.

⁶ The Rose and Cross are not merely symbols of definite types of energy, female and male. They are extended in the correlative symbols of Infinity: Nuit and Hadit.

⁷ Air and Earth are harmonious vibrations, complementary.

rays of the seal of Solomon, and peace in the four and thirty whirlings of the hammer of Thor!¹ Behold! I blaze upon thee. (The eagle is gone; it is only a flaming Rosy Cross of white brilliance.) I catch thee up into rapture, falutli, falutli!²

O it dies, it dies.

Bou-Saada.

November 28, 1909. 9:30-10:15 a.m.

• ¹ The vibrations of Tetragrammaton, Jeheshua, the Hexagram, and the Swastika are duplicated, being complete in each of the two Series, Air and Earth, the lower forms of Masculine and Feminine.

• ² See “Liber VII” V:30 [where it is given as “Falutli”]. It is the cry of the consummated rapture of the Dissolution of any symbol by virtue of Love.

fal is aleph (afl [bSK], thick darkness; pla [Kba], the Hidden Wonder, a title of Kether). The whole symbolism of aleph, 111, must be studied thoroughly. It is especially the equations: One = Zero; and Three = One. Aleph is lacchus, Lord of Ecstasy; Harpocrates, Lord of Silence; Zeus Arrhenothelus; Bacchus Diphues; Baphomet, etc. Lord of the Two-in-One Love: Parsifal, the Pure Fool, the Wandering Spirit of God, who impregnates the King’s Daughter.

UT is the title of the Holy Guardian Angel in the Upanisads, q.v. (Cf. also the poem of “ut” in The Winged Beetle.)

[In the Chandogya-Upanisad (in the Sama-Veda) the syllable Aunt is called the udgitha; its first letter ut is attributed to prana and the center of the Sun. Crowley quotes the following passage from the Chandogya-Upanisad in the Bartzabel Working ms notebook (Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin): “Now that gold-bright person who is seen within the sun, with golden beard and golden hair, golden altogether to the very tips of his nails, whose eyes are like blue lotuses—His Name is Ut, for he has risen above all evil. He also who knows this, rises above all evil.” See also The Book of Lies, chap. 23.]

li is the Hebrew for “to me.”

See AL 1:51, 53, 61, 62, 63, 65. (l is Atu VIII = b = the Satisfied Woman; I is ’, Atu IX, “The Hermit.”) See AL 11:24—The Hidden Virtue which satisfies Her. <i>A ALTAI = 1271 = 2542 f 2. 2542 =

OeXrjpa spelt in full. [See also note 2 on page 236.]

• ³ [The MS has a line of Enochian letters and astrological symbols in Crowley’s hand which, if a cipher, has no obvious solution:

The Cry of the 22ND /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED LIN¹

There comes first into the stone the mysterious table of forty-nine squares.^{1 2} It is surrounded by an innumerable company of angels; these angels are of all kinds,—some brilliant and flashing as gods, down to elemental creatures. The light comes and goes on the tablet; and now it is steady, and I perceive that each letter of the tablet is composed of forty-nine other letters, in a language which looks like that of Honorius;³ but when I would read, the letter that I look at becomes indistinct at once.

And now there comes an Angel, to hide the tablet with his mighty wing. This Angel has all the colours mingled in his dress; his head is proud and beautiful; his headdress is of silver and red and blue and gold and black, like cascades of water, and in his left hand he has a pan-pipe of the seven holy metals, upon which he plays.⁴ I cannot tell you how wonderful the music is, but it is so wonderful that one only lives in one’s ears; one cannot see anything any more.

¹ lin = ® / HL. ]0n is Chassan, ruler of Air; also, Strength. 118 = 2 x 59. 59 = Brethren (referred especially to Lilith and Samael). lin declares therefore the Twins concealed in Heru-Ra-Ha. 118 is also “to change, pass, renew” and “to ferment,” indicating the Formula of Horus; His first Formula is that of babalon, for He is as yet within her Womb. But see note on 10th Aire, regarding paraoan.

² See [“Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” Part I, in] The Equinox 1(7), page[s] 231 [and 233], This table contains the names of the Angels of the Seven Planetary Spheres [see Figure 1, p. 79]: Shabathiel, Tzedeqiel, Madimiel, Shemeshiel, Nogahiel, Kokabiel, and Levaniel. This sevenfold arrangement is of the Sigil of A.’. A.’., Babalon. See The Book of Lies, Cap. 49 [and Figure 12, p. 252]. And she is the Mother of Heru-Ra-Ha.

³ [Given in Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, bk. Ill, ch. 29, and in Francis Barrett, The Magus, bk. II, ch. 16; see Works Cited and Figure 2, p. 79; it is also called the Theban alphabet.]

⁴ This “Angel” is in fact pan. See the 9th Aire, “unto All hath she borne” Him.

Figure i. The Holy Sevenfold Table.

m iiTmvcm

A. ~B CDE F <1 H I K L M

X772T WTHpi-b,

N O P a R 8 T V X T Z

Figure z. The Alphabet of Honorius.

Now he stops playing and moves with his finger in the air. His finger leaves a trail of fire of every colour, so that the whole Aire is become like a web of mingled lights. But through it all drops dew.¹

(I can’t describe these things at all. Dew doesn’t represent what I mean in the least. For instance, these drops of dew are enormous globes, shining like the full moon, only perfectly transparent, as well as perfectly luminous.)

And now he shows the tablet again, and he says: As there are 49 letters in the tablet, so are there 49 kinds of cosmos in every thought of God. And there are 49 interpretations of every cosmos, and each interpretation is manifested in 49 ways. Thus also are

¹ This “dew” is the Supernal Lion-Serpent in his Menstruum of liquid Pearl.

the calls 49,¹ but to each call there are 49 visions. And each vision is composed of 49 elements, except in the 10th TEthyr, that is accursed, and that hath 42.^{1 2}

All this while the dewdrops have turned into cascades of gold finer than the eyelashes of a little child.³ And though the extent of the /Ethyr is so enormous, one perceives each hair separately, as well as the whole thing at once.⁴ And now there is a mighty concourse of angels rushing toward me from every side, and they melt upon the surface of the egg in which I am standing in the form of the god Kneph,⁵ so that the surface of the egg is all one dazzling blaze of liquid light.

Now I move up against the tablet,—I cannot tell you with what rapture. And all the names of God, that are not known even to the angels,⁶ clothe me about.

All the seven senses are transmuted into one sense, and that sense is dissolved in itself....⁷ (Here occurs samadhi.)⁸ ... Let me speak, O God; let me declare it ... all.⁹ It is useless; my heart

¹ 42 is the number of the Demiurge (see Genesis I), of the Assessors of the Dead (see any book on Egyptian religion), of the Sterile Mother KOK, of Terror and Destruction (nnb3), of loss (’bn), of the verb “to cease” (bin), and of nbn, the Earth of Malkuth. It is connected with the 10th TEthyr. See [“Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” Part I, in] The Equinox 1(7), pp. 229-243, for the whole symbolism.

² See [“Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” Part II, in] The Equinox 1(8), pp. 99128.

³ The Solar Child develops from the “Dew.”

⁴ These violations of Normal Logic are stigmatic of most of the higher types of Spiritual Experience. There must be no muddle; that is the usual mistake made by most Mystics. Confused thought is the evil and averse image of the One Clear Light.

⁵ The winged Egg, the omniform Zero (0°) from which all positive manifestation comes.

⁶ This experience is perfectly clear and definite, to the peculiar type of higher consciousness which is aware of it.

⁷ These are those of the Table itself, read across or down, instead of diagonally, as is done to obtain the names given in note 2 on p. 78. See also “Liber 84,” [Part I, The Equinox 1(7),] page 231.

⁸ [The MS has “Here / occurs.”]

⁹ [The MS has “... all /.”]

faints, my breath stops. There is no link between me and P....¹ I withdraw myself. I see the table again.

(He was behind the table for a very long time.^{1 2} O.V.)

And all the table burns with intolerable light; there has been no such light in any of the yEthyrs until now. And now the table draws me back into itself; I am no more.

My arms were out in the form of a cross, and that Cross was extended, blazing with light into infinity. I myself am the minutest point in it. This is the birth of form.³

I am encircled by an immense sphere of many-coloured bands; it seems it is the sphere of the Sephiroth projected in the three dimensions. This is the birth of death.⁴

Now in the centre within me is a glowing sun. That is the birth of hell.⁵

Now all that is swept away, washed away by the table. It is the virtue of the table to sweep everything away. It is the letter I in this TEthyr that gives this vision, and L is its purity, and N is its energy.⁶ Now everything is confused, for I invoked the Mind, that is disruption.⁷ Every Adept who beholds this vision is corrupted

¹ Perdurabo, the Motto (in the Outer Order) of the Seer. Even that high and holy part of him was, in this samadhi, left far below the True Consciousness with the material and intellectual basis of him. [The ms has “the Ruach,” changed to “Perdurabo.”]

² I.e., the Seer was in samadhi; the Table had been a Veil of the Infinite.

³ Form is the conception of the Self in extension.

⁴ Death is the conception of the Self extended, not into the positive balanced cross, but into the negative circle (or sphere) Nuit.

⁵ For Hell, see Liber Aleph. Hell is the Secret Centre of the Self. One perceives one’s Star as one’s True Self.

⁶ T = /. The Rainbow is connected with the Sevenfold projection. < = D decreasing in ®. Luna, when active, always purifies. It is the passive Moon that may be “evil”; i.e., when she reflects not the Sun, her Lord, but divers spectres of the Night. > = <5 in TTL •, the type of energy which informs Vision. £ in V would cause Action.

⁷ The Seer had begun to analyze the conceptions presented to him by the Vision. Instantly the internal coherence of its Unity was destroyed. The next two phrases show that this is a difficulty peculiar to this Vision.

by mind. Yet it is by virtue of mind that he endures it, and passes on, if so be that he pass on. Yet there is nothing higher than this, for it is perfectly balanced in itself. I cannot read a word of the holy Table, for the letters of the Table are all wrong. They are only the shadows of shadows. And whoso beholdeth this Table with this rapture, is light. The true word for light hath seven letters. They are the same as ararita, transmuted.¹

There is a voice in this TEthyr, but it cannot be spoken. The only way one can represent it is as a ceaseless thundering of the word Amen. It is not a repetition of Amen, because there is no time. It is one Amen continuous.^{1 2}

Shall mine eye fade before thy glory? I am the eye. That is why the eye is seventy.³ You can never understand why, except in this vision.⁴

And now the table recedes from me. Far, far it goes, streaming with light. And there are two black angels bending over me, covering me with their wings, shutting me up into the darkness; and I am lying in the Pastos of our Father Christian Rosenkreutz, beneath the Table in the Vault of seven sides. And I hear these words:

The voice of the Crowned Child, the Speech of the Babe that is hidden in the egg of blue.⁵ (Before me is the flaming Rosy Cross.) I have opened mine eye, and the universe is dissolved before me, for force is mine upper eye-lid and matter is my lower eye-lid.⁶ I gaze into the seven spaces, and there is naught.⁷

¹ “IR'RI ns, the essence of the yod girt by Suns tending inwardly upon it. "IR'RI = 412 = FI'O - □ - 5. For ultimately Kether and Sol are not Light. Light is a duplex vibration, energized by Them and is, therefore, of their Messenger, Mercury.

² aumgn. (See explanation in Book 4, Part III.)

³ = an Eye = U = 70.

⁴ The general idea is perhaps this: 70 = 7IDH Hush! and b'b, Night, and 710 The Secret. The glory is so great that it cannot be manifested by any positive means.

⁵ Heru-Ra-Ha.

⁶ These ideas are complementary; when they combine they produce positive manifestation, which covers up the Glance of the Eye of Siva, which annihilates all external existence.

⁷ The Seven spaces are the “Palaces” which contain the Sephiroth.

The rest of it comes without words; and then again:

I have gone forth to war, and I have slain him that sat upon the sea, crowned with the winds.¹ I put forth my power and he was broken. I withdrew my power and he was ground into fine dust.^{1 2}

Rejoice with me, O ye Sons of the Morning; stand with me upon the Throne of Lotus;³ gather yourselves up unto me, and we shall play together in the fields of light. I have passed into the Kingdom of the West after my Father.⁴

Behold! where are now the darkness and the terror and the lamentation? For ye are born into the new /Don; ye shall not suffer death.⁵ Bind up your girdles of gold! Wreathe yourselves with garlands of my unfading flowers! In the nights we will dance together, and in the morning we will go forth to war; for, as my Father liveth that was dead, so do I live and shall never die.⁶

And now the table comes rushing back. It covers the whole stone, but this time it pushes me before it, and a terrible voice cries: Begone! Thou hast profaned the mystery; thou hast eaten of

¹ This is the foe of Horus, the Dweller of Nile. The winds which crown him are not the pure powers of Air of Libra, but the cloudy (mixed) forces of Aquarius, opposite in the Zodiac to Leo, the sign of Horus.

² The Energy of Horus destroys indeed, but must be withdrawn to complete the work, for His rays, if left in their object, would keep it vitalized. The coherence of the broken matter must be withdrawn.

³ Harpocrates stands or sits upon the Lotus, his fortress against the malice of the Water-demon.

⁴ Osiris has been chased into Amennti by Horus, who follows him thither, that his reign may be established even in the realms of “Death.” In the New /Eon, Death is become Life Triumphant, not through Resurrection, but in its own Essence.

⁵ See last note. The Thelemite does not “suffer death.” He is eternal and perceives Himself the Universe, by virtue of the categories of Life and Death, which are not real, but subjective conditions of his perception, like Time and Space. They are forms of his artistic presentation.

⁶ Osiris, tricked into the belief in death, had to overcome it by Magick, the Formula i.a.o.

the shew-bread; thou hast spilt the consecrated wine!¹ Begone! For the Voice is accomplished. Begone! For that which was open is shut. And thou shalt not avail to open it, saving by virtue of him whose name is one, whose spirit is one, whose individuum is one, and whose permutation is one;^{1 2} whose light is one, whose life is one, whose love is one. For though thou art joined to the inmost mystery of the heaven, thou must accomplish the sevenfold task of the earth, even as thou sawest the Angels from the greatest unto the least. And of all this shalt thou take back with thee but a little part, for the sense shall be darkened, and the shrine re-veiled. Yet know this for thy reproof, and for the stirring up of discontent in them whose swords are of lath,³ that in every word of this vision is concealed the key of many mysteries, even of being, and of knowledge, and of bliss;⁴ of will, of courage, of wisdom, and of silence,⁵ and of that which, being all these, is greater than all these. Begone! For the night of life is fallen upon thee. And the veil of light hideth that which is.

¹ The Seer has erred, it seems, by translating the Doctrine into intelligible symbols. For this is likely to cause a new “Fall” into the barren kingdom of Ratiocination. [For the “shew-bread” see Matt. 12:3-4; Mark 2:25-26; Luke 6:3^.]

² ararita—a name of God, which is a Notariqon of the sentence: “One is His beginning; One is his Individuality; His Permutation is One.” The use of this Name and Formula is to equate and identify every idea with its opposite; thus being released from the obsession of thinking any one of them as “true” (and therefore binding); one can withdraw oneself from the whole sphere of the Ruach. See “Liber 813, vel Ararita.” Contrast each verse of Cap. I with the corresponding verse of Cap. II for the first of these methods. Thus in Cap. Ill (still verse by verse correspondence) the Quintessence of the ideas is extracted; and in Cap. IV they are withdrawn each one into the one beyond it. In Cap. V they have disappeared into the Method itself. In Cap. VI they reappear in the Form appointed by the Will of the Adept. Lastly, in Cap. VII they are dissolved, one into the next until all finally disappear in the Fire Qadosh, the Quintessence of Reality.

³ Those whose analytical methods are incapable of destroying Illusion. This insistence on the Virtue of the Vision is intended to encourage them to make greater efforts.

⁴ Sat-cit-ananda.

⁵ The Sphinx.

With that, I suddenly see the world as it is, and I am very sorrowful.¹

Bou-Saada.

November 28, 1909. 4-6 p.m.

(Note.—You do not come back in any way dazed; it is like going from one room into another. Regained normal consciousness completely and immediately.)^{1 2}

nn.

The Cry of the 2ist/Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED ASP^{3 * * *}

A MIGHTY WIND ROLLS THROUGH ALL THE /EtHYR; there is a sense of absolute emptiness; no colour, no form, no substance. Only now and then there seem as it were, the shadows of great angels, swept along. No sound; there is something very remorseless about the wind, passionless, that is very terrible. In a way, it is nerve-shaking. It seems as if something kept on trying to open behind the wind, and just as it is about to open, the effort is exhausted. The wind is not cold or hot; there is no sense of any kind connected with it. One does not even feel it, for one is standing in front of it.

¹ [The MS has the deleted passage “There must be some reason, ( I ), why you can’t [skry?] these. Oh, yes! He says so: the sense is darkness.”]

² [The ms has the note: “Composing myself to sleep in the evening (after this AZthyr) I was shown a great and fortified city-temple upon a mountain. Rather like a mixture of Abu-Jimmel and Lhasa.” Abu-Jimmel may refer to the Jaina temple on Mt. Abu in NW India.]

³ [In what follows, Crowley gives flj⁷, the sign for E (1), instead of K,

the sign for s (1). asp would properly be WH fl = 1TCD = 22.]

asp = V Tiy = 1'CD = 25 = Tin’ = Jehevid, God of Geburah of Briah = Rl’H = The Beast. The Aire shows the supplanting of that by

this. Taurus is Osiris. Virgo the Virgin (the lonely one). These are the

Dying God symbols, which Leo—the Lion, Atu XI, The Beast— replaces.

Now, the thing opens behind, just for a second, and I catch a glimpse of an avenue of pillars, and at the end a throne, supported by sphinxes. All this is black marble.¹

Now I seem to have gone through the wind, and to be standing before the throne; but he that sitteth thereon is invisible. Yet it is from him that all this desolation proceeds.^{1 2}

He is trying to make me understand by putting tastes in my mouth, very rapidly one after the other. Salt, honey, sugar, assa-foetida, bitumen, honey again, some taste that I don’t know at all; garlic, something very bitter like nux vomica, another taste, still more bitter; lemon, cloves, rose-leaves, honey again; the juice of some plant, like a dandelion, I think; honey again, salt, a taste something like phosphorus, honey, laurel, a very unpleasant taste which I don’t know, coffee, then a burning taste, then a sour taste that I don’t know. All these tastes issue from his eyes; he signals them.³

I can see his eyes now. They are very round, with perfectly black pupils, perfectly white iris, and the cornea pale blue. The sense of desolation is so acute that I keep on trying to get away from the vision.⁴

I told him that I could not understand his taste-language, so instead he set up a humming very much like a big electric plant with dynamos going.

Now the atmosphere is deep night-blue; and by the power of that atmosphere, the pillars kindle to a dull glowing crimson, and the throne is a dull, ruddy gold.⁵ And now, through the humming,

¹ This setting symbolizes the Way of Time in the Temple of Inscrutable Destiny.

² This Deity is Necessity or Fate. This whole Aire is of a metaphysic

more difficult to understand than any of the earlier. The student must have finally shut out of his mind not only the crude ideas of

Good and Evil, but the most fundamental logical conceptions, such

as that of being obliged to think of a state of mind, or an individual, as being true to itself. This God is at the same time an Abomination and a supreme Overlord. One may indeed say that the student ought to be in a state not far from samadhi before meditating the meaning of the Aire.

come very clear, bell-like notes, and farther still a muttering, like that of a gathering storm.

[from page opposite.]

Salt.........Water or Earth, probably.........M

Honey........Bees: feminine symbol. Binah, probably . . E

(This E is not a real vowel. It enables consonants to join with the minimum of disturbance. This is exactly the role of the feminine passive element.)

Sugar........VenusD

Assafoetida.....Saturn—Capricornus = I? d

Bitumen.......Fiery—water = ] []] N

Honey E

Unknown......Possibly Ketherst

Garlic........Saturnian element of Venus L

Nux vomica.....Tonic. Geburah.

Still more bitter

Lemon........Mercury

Cloves........Venus—earthy. Taurus.......uor v

Rose Leaves.....Venus. Mercury I

Honey E

Dandelion......Solar. Tipharetho

Honey............................... E

Salt................................M

Phosphorus.....Sol. Leo or Geburah............

Honey...............................

Laurel........Apollo...................

Very unpleasant (?) . The insipidness of Mercury........

Coffee........Stimulant—wakeful. Erectile........

Th E R

I

O

Burning.......Scorpio...................n

Sour.........End of oxidation—acid—Sagittarius . . . . s

Translation: “The Earth is sick of love; with disease and death is she sick........the natural lust, fierce as it is, is not enough; virgins,

boys, women (make man) sick, weak of semen, and sick. The earth shall be cured of her sickness by true Art-of-Sun, and thine own pleasure(s), oh Thou..., shall abolish the world’s woe, and bring on the Age of Righteousness.”

⁴ Black, white, and pale blue; there is no warmth in Destiny. It is intolerable to see the mere mechanism of life.

⁵ Now comes the warm Night-Blue of Nuit and of Ra-Hoor-Khuit. The pillars assume the crimson of Binah, and the throne, the gold of Tiphareth. Thus it is as if Ra-Hoor-Khuit were alive in the midst of the Womb of His Mother.

And now I hear the meaning of the muttering: I am he who was before the beginning, and in my desolation I cried aloud, saying, let me behold my countenance in the concave of the abyss.¹ And I beheld, and lo! in the darkness of the abyss my countenance was black, and empty, and distorted,^{1 2} that was (once) invisible and pure.

Then I closed mine eye, that I might not behold it, and for this was it fixed. Now it is written that one glance of mine eye shall destroy it.³ And mine eye I dare not open, because of the foulness of the vision. Therefore do I gaze with these two eyes throughout the aeon.⁴ Is there not one of all my adepts that shall come unto me, and cut off mine eyelids, that I may behold and destroy?⁵

Now I take a dagger, and, searching out his third eye, seek to cut off the eye-lids, but they are of adamant. And the edge of the dagger⁶ is turned.

And tears⁷ drop from his eyes, and there is a mournful voice: So it hath been ever: so must it ever be! Though thou hast the strength of five bulls, thou shalt not avail in this.⁸

¹ Cf. the account of the beginning in the Upanisads.

² See Eliphas Levi’s drawing of the Two Countenances. [Cf. Transcendental Magic, trans. Waite, facing p. 1; see Works Cited.]

³ The Saivaite Dogma.

⁴ Cf. the Qabalah. The Most Holy Ancient One has One Eye; Micro-prosopus two.

⁵ Siva again. For the eyelids, see above, the 22nd Aire, the Speech of the Babe Horus.

⁶ This minor elemental weapon is evidently useless against fundamental ideas like force and matter, of which it is itself but a trivial complex.

' Binah, mother of Sorrow, the tears from the Great Sea, Her symbol. The first issue of Understanding is the Trance of Sorrow.

⁸ The Bull = V = 1 = v. The Motto of the Seer as in the Grade of Binah 8°=3°, is V.V.V.V.V., the five Bulls. He had already chosen this motto, though he had refused to accept the Grade when offered to him three years before by the Chiefs. We now approach those /Eth-yrs in which his full Initiation to that Grade was accomplished.

And I said to him: Who shall avail? And he answered me: I know not.¹ But the dagger of penance^{1 2} thou shalt temper seven times, afflicting the seven courses of thy soul. And thou shalt sharpen its edge seven times by the seven ordeals.

(One keeps on looking round to try to find something else because of the terror of it. But nothing changes³ at all. Nothing but the empty throne, and the eyes, and the avenue of pillars!)

And I said to him: O thou that art the first countenance before time;⁴ thou of whom it is written that “He, God, is one; He is the eternal one, without equal, son or companion. Nothing shall stand before His face”;⁵ all we have heard of thine infinite glory and holiness, of thy beauty and majesty, and behold! there is nothing but this abomination of desolation.⁶

He speaks; I cannot hear a word; something about The Book of the Law. The answer is written in The Book of the Law, or something of that sort.⁷

This is a long speech; all that I can hear is: From me pour down the fires of life and increase continually upon the earth. From me flow down the rivers of water and oil and wine. From me cometh forth the wind that beareth the seed of trees and flowers and fruits and all herbs upon its bosom. From me cometh forth the earth in her unspeakable variety. Yea! all cometh from me, naught cometh to me. Therefore am I lonely and horrible

¹ “I” = = 61; “know” = no = = 31; “not” = ]’R = 61. Also, “I

know not”—I know that which is Not. Such are the roots of the Equation of Ambiguity, used often by Higher Intelligences (especially in The Book of the Law, q.v.) to prove their identity as Individuals separate from the Seer, and superior to him.

² This rebukes the Seer for having tried to use the Elemental Dagger. Perhaps the four sevens in the injunction refer to Netzach, Victory. For Netzach = 7; and 28 = E( 1 -7) as well as 4 x 7. 28 is a “perfect” number; its factors add up to itself.

³ That is the extreme horror: for Change is Life, the issue of Love.

⁴ ]'DDR "['“IR The Great Countenance (which beheld not Countenance).

⁵ The Chapter of the Unity, in the Qur’an. [See note 5 to p. 176.]

⁶ [Liber AL 111:19; also Dan. 11:31, 12:11; Matt. 24:15; Mark 13:14.]

⁷ This may refer to the Formula 0 = 2.

upon this unprofitable throne. Only those who accept nothing from me can bring anything to me.

(He goes on speaking again: I cannot hear a word. I may have got about a twentieth of what he said.) And I say to him: It was written that his name is Silence, but thou speakest continually.

And he answers: Nay, the muttering that thou hearest is not my voice. It is the voice of the ape.¹

(When I say that he answers, it means that it is the same voice. The being on the throne has not uttered a word.) I say: O thou ape that speakest for Him whose name is Silence, how shall I know that thou speakest truly His thought? And the muttering continues: Nor speaketh He nor thinketh, so that which I say is true, because I lie in speaking His thoughts.^{1 2}

He goes on, nothing stops him; and the muttering comes so fast that I cannot hear him at all.

Now the muttering has ceased, or is overwhelmed by the bells, and the bells in their turn are overwhelmed by the whirring, and now the whirring is overwhelmed by the silence. And the blue light is gone, and the throne and the pillars are returned to blackness, and the eyes of him that sitteth upon the throne are no more visible.

I seek to go up close to the throne, and I am pushed back, because I cannot give the sign. I have given all the signs I know

¹ Kether, of course, does not speak. His Nature is made apparent by Thoth, the logos, the Creative Word. But this Word must evidently be false, since He is Silence. Thoth, however, is himself accompanied by the Cynocephalos, the dog-headed Ape, who imitates and caricatures all His actions, and misinterprets His speech.

² The idea is that Truth may be stated by denying a falsehood. This lands us in the quagmires of “Zigzagginess,” the paradox of Epa-minides [the Cretan—“all Cretans are liars”], et hoc genus omne [Lat., “and everything of this kind”]. One great point of the Initiated Doctrine is that the Ruach (the Mechanism of Thought) is in its essential nature self-contradictory. From now on, the Angels of the TEthyrs begin to speak in the language of Neschamah; they use the logic which pertains above the Abyss. The student will, accordingly, find statements which must be reversed and reversed again and again; both are true and false at once; neither is true or false—and so on.

and am entitled to,¹ and I have tried to give the sign that I know and am not entitled to,^{1 2} but have not the necessary appurtenance; and even if I had, it would be useless; for there are two more signs necessary.³

I find that I was wrong in suggesting⁴ that a Master of the Temple had a right to enter the temple of a Magus or an Ipsissimus. On the contrary, the rule that holds below, holds also above. The higher you go, the greater is the distance from one grade to another.⁵

I am being slowly pushed backwards down the avenue, out into the wind. And this time I am caught up by the wind and whirled away down it like a dead leaf.

And a great Angel sweeps through the wind, and catches hold of me, and bears me up against it; and he sets me down on the hither side of the wind, and he whispers in my ear: Go thou forth into the world, O thrice and four times blessed who hast gazed upon the horror of the loneliness of The First.⁶ No man shall look upon his face and live.⁷ And thou hast seen his eyes, and understood his heart, for the voice of the ape is the pulse of his heart and the labouring of his breast. Go, therefore, and rejoice, for thou art the prophet of the /Eon arising, wherein He is not.⁸ Give thou praise unto thy lady Nuit, and unto her lord Hadit, that are for thee and thy bride, and the winners of the ordeal X.⁹

¹ The signs of the Grades up to 7°=4°.

² The sign of 8°=3°.

³ The signs of 9°=2° and 10°=l°; necessary because this Vision pertains to Kether.

⁴ See “[Liber 95,] The Wake World,” in Konx Om Pax.

⁵ See “One Star in Sight.”

⁶ Observe the point-of-view, so totally opposite to any ever previously set forth, about the psychology of Kether.

⁷ [Exod. 33:20.] '

⁸ In the Ontology of the New Aion, whose prime theorem is 0 = 2, Kether exists only as the Child of any Marriage of one particular Hadit with one particular aspect of Nuit. There are thus as many Kethers as there are positive possibilities. More, Kether is not in any case a sole Unity, for each Marriage produces a Twin, H + ' = H + 1. There is a positive “Third Being,” a Kether; and there is an Ecstasy, or dissolution into Nothing, by the same Event. One is the Magical, the other the Mystical, Result of an Act of Love under Will.

⁹ See Liber AL 111:22.

And with that we are come to the wall of the /Ethyr, and there is a little narrow gate, and he pushes me through it, and I am suddenly in the desert.

The Desert, near Bou-Saada.¹ November 29, 1909. i.-jo-2.-yo p.m.

The Cry of the 20TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED KHR^{1 2}

The dew that was upon the face of the stone is gone, and it is become like a pool of clear golden water. And now the light is come into the Rosy Cross. Yet all that I see is the night, with the stars therein, as they appear through a telescope.³ And there cometh a peacock⁴ into the stone, filling the whole Aire. It is like the vision called the Universal Peacock, or, rather, like a representation of that vision. And now there are countless clouds of white angels⁵ filling the Aire as the peacock dissolves.

¹ This night 1 took the shew-stone to my breast to sleep, and immediately a dhyana arose of the sun, seen more clearly afterwards as the Star. Exceeding was its brilliance.

² [In what follows, Crowley gives II, the sign for s (”l), instead of X, the sign for r (6). khr would properly be A A X = tORp = 401.]

khr = AA K = ORT = 308 (N.B. By Temurah, [khr =] R.H.K. = Ra-Hoor-Khuit). 308 - 28 x 11. 28 = HD = ® 2[ (Jupiter is exalted in Cancer) means Power. And 28 is the “mystic number” of Netzach, Victory, the Sephira that hangs from the Sphere of Jupiter, by the path of Jupiter, Atu X, “The Wheel of Fortune.” This Atu is the main subject of the Vision in this /Ethyr.

In this /Ethyr the Solar Body (Ruach—the human consciousness) of the Seer was prepared for the Great Initiation which follows, as in the 27th Aire his Lunar Body (Nephesch—automatic consciousness) was purified.

³ These preliminary visions are veils.

⁴ The bird sacred to Juno, the feminine counterpart of Jupiter, whose Energy is about to appear.

⁵ The Chasmalim, “the brilliant ones,” are the Choir of Angels which pertain to Jupiter.

Now behind the angels are archangels with trumpets. These cause all things to appear at once, so that there is a tremendous confusion of images. And now I perceive that all these things are but veils of the wheel, for they all gather themselves¹ into a wheel^{1 2} that spins with incredible velocity. It hath many colours, but all thrilled with white light, so that they are transparent and luminous. This one wheel is forty-nine wheels, set at different angles, so that they compose a sphere; each wheel has forty-nine spokes, and has forty-nine³ concentric tyres at equal distances from the centre. And wherever the rays from any two wheels meet, there is a blinding flash of glory. It must be understood that though so much detail is visible in the wheel, yet at the same time the impression is of a single, simple object.

It seems that this wheel is being spun by a hand.⁴ Though the wheel fills the whole Aire, yet the hand is much bigger than the wheel. And though this vision is so great and splendid, yet there is no seriousness with it, or solemnity. It seems that the hand is spinning the wheel merely for pleasure, it would be better to say amusement.

¹ This unification is necessary to all true comprehension.

² The Wheel of Fortune (so called); Atu X is the Wheel of the saritsara whose spokes are the three gunas, the three fundamental Modes of Energy, sattva, rajas, and tamas. See also The Book of Lies, Cap. 78.

³ The symbolism of the Table (see 22nd Aire) still retains its prominence. 7 is the number of the Inferiors, of the Feminine Perfection. 3x49 = 147 = mrr + H’ilR + KbjK + = the Four Names of

God used in the Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram. Thus there is here the symbolism of the Fourfold Regimen (Tetragrammaton) implied in 3 x 7 x 7.

⁴ Hand = ’ = Tl" = 20 = □ = 2|.. But also the first is itself D. There is, however, an esoteric doctrine in this phrase. ' is the Spermatozoon, the source of all Spiritual Energy, the Minute Point, Hadit, the foundation of the Alphabet (Hebrew). But also 2=^2 = 100 = 10 x 10 = ’ x ’; and □ and 2 are the initials of and </>aXAo$ whose union releases ’. Thus the Universe is shown as being set in motion by Love under Will. See The Book of Lies, Cap. 43.

A voice comes: For he is a jocund and a ruddy god, and his laughter is the vibration of all that exists, and the earthquakes of the soul.

Figure 3. Agnus Dei.

One is conscious of the whirring of the wheel thrilling one, like an electric discharge passing through one.

Now I see the figures on the wheel, which have been interpreted as the sworded Sphinx, Hermanubis and Typhon.¹ And that is wrong. The rim of the wheel is a vivid emerald snake; in the centre of the wheel is a scarlet heart; and, impossible to explain as it is, the scarlet of the heart and the green of the snake are yet more vivid than the blinding white brilliance of the wheel.^{1 2} The figures on the wheel are darker than the wheel itself; in fact, they are stains upon the purity of the wheel, and for that reason, and because of the whirling of the wheel, I cannot see them. But at the top seems to be the Lamb and Flag, such as one sees on some Christian medals, and one of the lower things is a wolf, and the other a raven.

The Lamb and Flag symbol is much brighter than the other two. It keeps on growing brighter, until now it is brighter than the wheel itself, and occupies more space than it did.

It speaks: I am the greatest of the deceivers, for my purity and innocence shall seduce the pure and innocent, who but for me should come to the centre of the wheel.³ The wolf betrayeth only the greedy and the treacherous; the raven betrayeth only the

¹ See the usual drawing of Atu X by minor initiates.

² The symbolism here assumes the form of “Liber LXV.” It is simpler and therefore more difficult than the sevenfold. The counter charges become more frequent; the Seer is being led up to the state in which opposites are not only equal, but identical.

³ All unbalanced symbols are necessarily evil. They distract the attention from the true object of Vision, and so destroy Concentration.

melancholy and the dishonest.¹ But I am he of whom it is written: He shall deceive the very elect.^{1 2}

For in the beginning the Father of all called forth lying spirits that they might sift the creatures of the earth in three sieves, according to the three impure souls. And he chose the wolf for the lust of the flesh, and the raven for the lust of the mind; but me did he choose above all to simulate the pure prompting of the soul.³ Them that are fallen a prey to the wolf and the raven I have not scathed; but them that have rejected me, I have given over to the wrath of the raven and the wolf.⁴ And the jaws of the one have torn them, and the beak of the other has devoured the corpse. Therefore is my flag white, because I have left nothing upon the earth alive. I have feasted myself on the blood of the saints, but I am not suspected of men to be their enemy, for my fleece is white and warm, and my teeth are not the teeth of one that teareth flesh; and mine eyes are mild, and they know me not the chief of the lying spirits that the Father of all sent forth from before his face in the beginning.⁵

¹ Note that no hostile force is hurtful. The enemy is always oneself.

² [Matt. 24:24, paraphrase.]

³ The attacks are against Nephesch, Ruach, and Neschamah respectively.

⁴ When the aspiration (Neschamah), the natural protection against all lower forces, is sullied, befooled, or weakened, the wretch becomes an easy prey to grosser forms of temptation. We see in fact only too often that a man of the utmost probity and intellectual integrity, who errs in some strictly spiritual matter, loses every trace of rationality and throws off all moral restraint, becoming the helpless victim of ludicrous and hideous temptations which had never threatened him before in his whole life. His nature is so radically corrupted that his friends believe him to have become insane. But his fall is quite logical, as a tumbling steeple may crush the perfectly sound structures beneath it.

⁵ It is the superficial appeal of the idea of “Jesus” to the sentimental type of aspiration (the vilest parody of Neschamah is this pollution by the least virile elements of Nephesch) that has made possible the corruption implied in the doctrines of Sin and Vicarious Atonement. From this error have sprung the putrefaction of the reasoning faculties, and the suppression of all clear thinking, and the abominations of greed, persecution and the rest.

(His attribution is salt; the wolf mercury, and the raven sulphur.)¹

Now the lamb grows small again, there is again nothing but the wheel, and the hand that whirleth it.

And I said: “By the word of power, double in the voice of the Master; by the word that is seven, and one in seven; and by the great and terrible word 210,^{1 2} I beseech thee, O my Lord, to grant me the vision of thy glory.” And all the rays of the wheel stream out at me, and I am blasted and blinded with the light. I am caught up into the wheel. I am one with the wheel. I am greater than the wheel.^{3 4} In the midst of a myriad lightnings I stand, and I behold his face. (I am thrown violently back on to the earth every second, so that I cannot quite concentrate.)

All one gets is a liquid flame of pale gold. But its radiant force keeps hurling me back.

And I say: By the word and the will, by the penance and the prayer, let me behold thy face. (I cannot explain this, there is confusion of personalities.) I who speak to you, see what I tell you; but I, who see him, cannot communicate it to me, who speak to 4 you.

If one could gaze upon the sun at noon, that might be like the substance of him. But the light is without heat. It is the vision of Ut⁵ in the Upanisads. And from this vision have come all the legends

¹ 0 for Neschamah; for Ruach; £ for Nephesch.

² N.o.x. = yj?] = 210. ® represents the reduction of the Dyad to Unity by Love under Will, and thence to 0 by dissolution in Nuit. It is here used by the Seer to destroy all positive symbols, for the true Wheel (apart from ornaments) is the circle, Nuit Herself.

³ Note the above-the-Abyss consciousness. Cf. “I who am all, and made it all, abide its separate Lord.” (Bhagavad-gita.) [Sir Edwin Arnold, The Song Celestial, chap. 10, final verse; see Works Cited.]

⁴ This personality-paradox is characteristic of visions of similar exaltation. It constitutes an essential difficulty of expression, superadded to that natural to the description of things seen and heard, which are yet not subject to the ordinary Laws of perception.

⁵ See previous note on Falutli. [Note 2, page 77.]

of Bacchus and Krsna and Adonis.¹ For the impression is of a youth dancing and making music. But you must understand that he is not doing that, for he is still.² Even the hand that turns the wheel is not his hand, but only a hand energized by him.

And now it is the dance of Siva. I lie beneath his feet, his saint, his victim.³ My form is the form of the God Ptah,⁴ in my essence, but the form of the god Seb⁵ in my form.⁶ And this is the reason of existence, that in this dance which is delight, there must needs be both the god and the adept. Also the earth herself is a saint; and the sun and the moon dance upon her, torturing her with delight.

This vision is not perfect. I am only in the outer court of the vision, because I have undertaken it in the service of the Holy One, and must retain sense and speech.⁷ No recorded vision is perfect, of high visions, for the seer must keep either his physical organs or his memory in working order. And neither is capable. There is no bridge. One can only be conscious of one thing at a time, and as the consciousness moves nearer to the vision, it loses control of the physical and mental. Even so, the body and the

• ¹ These are Solar, not Jupiterian deities. The Jupiter of the Wheel is that Invisible Energy, whom one can only divine from his Hand, his means of Expression. He is Amoun, the Concealed One, whose plumes are Truth, and whose Phallus is the Middle Pillar, the sivalinga. We find accordingly that these Solar Deities, who spring from the manifested Jupiter (as it at first sight appears) are soon recognized in their deeper nature.

• ² Change = Stability. 2°=9°. See the 11th /Ethyr. Again this series of paradoxes (implied in the equations 0°=0°, l°=10^D, etc.) is of the essence of the Aire.

• ³ See any true Image of Siva, who dances upon the yogin, whom he has destroyed in the Union of Love.

• ⁴ Ptah, the still and silent Creative Energy.

• ⁵ [^Geb’l    /   .

• ⁶ That is, the form of the Seer is now the Earth itself, the Malkuth at the other end of the scale from, yet identical with, His Kether.

• ⁷ See note 4 on p. 96. Any vision as exalted as this must obviously be indicible. The plastic form of the expression, the definite character of the shapes, colours, and numbers employed, is far better mnemoni-cally than the vaguely beatific outbursts customary in the records usually offered by Mystics.

mind must be very perfect before anything can be done, or the energy of the vision may send the body into spasms and the mind into insanity. This is why the first visions give ananda, which is a shock. When the adept is attuned to samadhi, there is but cloudless peace.¹

This vision is particularly difficult to get into, because he is I.^{1 2} And therefore the human ego is being constantly excited, so that one comes back so often. An acentric meditation practice like mahasatipatthana ought to be done before invocations of the Holy Guardian Angel, so that the ego may be very ready to yield itself utterly to the Beloved.

And now the breeze is blowing about us, like the sighs of love unsatisfied—or satisfied. His lips move.³ I cannot say the words at first.

And afterwords: “Shalt thou not bring the children of men to the sight of my glory?⁴ ’Only thy silence and thy speech that worship me avail.’ ’For as I am the last, so am I the next, and as the next shalt thou reveal me to the multitude.’⁵ Fear not for aught; turn not aside for aught, eremite of Nuit, apostle of Hadit, warrior of Ra Hoor Khu! The leaven taketh, and the bread shall be sweet;

¹ The psychology of the previous note explained at length.

² In previous visions the Angel of the Ethyr has always been peculiar to his Aire. Even in zaa [27th ./Ethyr], where the Angel is Luna, and the Vision represents the lustration of the Lunar Body (the Automatic Consciousness) of the Seer, he was not so wholly involved. For his normal consciousness was above that which the .Ethyr affected.

³ It seems that the Seer recognized, in this Ethyr, the Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel.

⁴ In the Crossing of the Abyss by the Seer (The Temple of Solomon the King, The Equinox 1(8), pp. 9-13), during his Burma-China journey, he accomplished the Meditation called sammasati. He became aware of his True Will, of the purpose for which he had undertaken Incarnation. And this was expressed thus: to aid Mankind to take the Next Step. And at the time he understood this as meaning: to lead them to aspire to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

⁵ “Liber LXV” describes this attainment in the fullest detail. The first quotation is from “Liber VII” VI:35. The second is from “Liber LXV” 111:62. (The persons are transposed—“I” to “Thou,” etc.)

the ferment worketh, and the wine shall be sweet. My sacraments are vigorous food and divine madness. Come unto me, O ye children of men; come unto me, in whom I am, in whom ye are, were ye only alive with the life that abideth in Light.”

All this time I have been fading away. I sink. The veil of night comes down a dull blue-gray with one pentagram¹ in the midst of it, watery and dull. And I am to abide there for a while before I come back to the earth.^{* 1 2} (But shut me the window up, hide me from the sun. Oh, shut the window!)³

Now, the pentagram is faded; black crosses fill the TEthyr gradually growing and interlacing, until there is a network.

It is all dark now. I am lying exhausted,⁴ with the sharp edge of the shew-stone cutting into my forehead.

Bou-Saada.

November 30, 1909. 9:15-10:50 a.m.

¹ [The ms has “Besides the ■& = $ Symbolism:

Figure 4. The Pentagram ofVVVV.V.

Via  3

Vita  4

Veritas  7

Victoria  8

Virtus  6

28

and 28 = 1 + 2 + 4 + 7 + 14, the perfect Number after 6, and it is 0 +

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7, Sum of 1st 8 numbers = n = 418.” [Via, Vita, Veritas, Victoria, Virtus = Lat., “way, life, truth, victory, virtue.”]

² The splendour of the Vision would have made too rapid a return a shock intolerable to human weakness.

³ It was done.—O.V

⁴ The Seer had not previously experienced so intense a Communion and had contributed his physical energy to maintain it. This was, of course, an error.

The Cry of the 19TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED POP ¹

At first there is a black web over the face of the stone. A ray of light pierces it from behind and above. Then cometh a black cross,^{1 2} reaching across the whole stone; then a golden cross, not so large. And there is a writing in an arch that spans the cross, in an alphabet in which the letters are all formed of little daggers,³ cross-hilted, differently arranged. And the writing is: Worship in the body the things of the body; worship in the mind the things of the mind; worship in the spirit the things of the spirit.⁴

¹ [TLL-TL =] pop = 61 <1 61 = Cjbo = 48. This Aire introduces the Hegemone, or leader of the Candidate through the Ceremony of Initiation. She is the Holy Guardian Angel, in the form of Isis-Urania, the Instructress. TL is ® in his Northern declination, the form of Horus in his strength of Summer. He appears in his dual form, as it were the pillars between which the Hegemone, who bears a mitreheaded wand, symbolical of the Balances, is seated. (See the Neophyte Ceremony—The Equinox 1(2), pp. 244-261.) She is the Reconciler between all opposites. (See “The Ceremony of the Equinox”—given in The Equinox 1(7), pp. 372-5 [and Book 4 (Parts I-IV), rev. ed., App. 8].) Her function is to equilibrate all symbols in the sphere of the Candidate; this is the one supremely important formula of Instruction. This TEthyr contains accordingly the knowledge (somewhat fragmentary at first sight) necessary to the Aspirant to the Grade of Magister Templi. 48 is b'17, a woman; also strength, an army, n the Bearer of the Graal; ’ the seed of life; b the Balances; i.e., she bears the Seed of Life in the Holy Cup in balance. 48 is CI7 Ham; see the sudden Revelation at the end of the Vision.

² The Hegemone wears a Black Cross. See also 16th Aire, last paragraph.

³ The idea is that every idea, however apparently atomic, is to be analyzed.

⁴ Worship all things; for all things are alike necessary to the Being of the All. But keep separate the planes. Failure to do this is the most frequent cause of error.

Figure 5. The Alphabet of Daggers.

(This holy alphabet must be written by sinners, that is, by those who are impure.)¹

“Impure” means those whose every thought is followed by another thought, or who confuse the higher with the lower, the substance with the shadow. Every /Ethyr is truth, though it be but a shadow, for the shadow of a man is not the shadow of an ape.^{1 2}

(Note.—All this has come to me without voice, without vision, without thought.)

(The shew-stone is pressed upon my forehead and causes intense pain; as I go on from /Ethyr to /Ethyr, it seems more difficult to open the /Ethyr.)

The golden cross has become a little narrow door, and an old man like “The Hermit” ³ of the Taro has opened it and come out. I ask him for admission: and he shakes his head kindly, and says: It is not given to flesh and blood to unveil the mysteries of the /Ethyr, for therein are the chariots of fire,⁴ and the tumult of the horsemen; whoso entereth here may never look on life again with equal eyes. I insist.

The little gate is guarded by a great green dragon. And now the whole wall is suddenly fallen away; there is a blaze of the chariots and the horsemen; a furious battle is raging. One hears nothing but the clash of steel and the neighing of the chargers and the shrieks of the wounded. A thousand fall at every encounter and are trampled under foot. Yet the /Ethyr is always full; there are infinite reserves.

No; that is all wrong, for this is not a battle between two forces, but a melee in which each warrior fights for himself against all the others. I cannot see one who has even one ally. And

¹ For purity means full simplification—and the keeping of each idea in its own true perfection, separate from all others.

² Worship each thing in itself for its own sake, not inventing ideas.

³ See note 1 on p. 100. This is the Sphere of Kokab (5). Hence the Man of Atu IX.

⁴ “The Chariot” (Atu VII) of the Bearer of the Sangraal. (See note 1 on p. 100.) n depends from Binah, the sphere of the Hegemone.

the least fortunate, who fall soonest, are those in the chariots. For as soon as they are engaged in fighting, their own charioteers stab them in the back.¹

And in the midst of the battlefield there is a great tree, like a chinar-tree.^{1 2} Yet it bears fruits. And now all the warriors are dead, and they are the ripe fruits that are fallen—the ground is covered with them.

There is a laugh in my right ear: “This is the tree of life.”³

And now there is a mighty god, Sebek,⁴ with the head of a crocodile. His head is gray, like river mud, and his jaws fill the whole Aire. And he crunches up the whole tree and the ground and everything.

Now then at last cometh forth the Angel of the /Ethyr, who is like the Angel of the fourteenth key of Rota,⁵ with beautiful blue wings, blue robes, the sun in her girdle like a brooch, and the two crescents of the moon shapen into sandals for her feet. Her hair is of flowing gold, each sparkle as a star. In her hands are the torch of Penelope and the cup of Circe.⁶

¹ This seems to be a Vision of the Ideas which the Alphabet of Daggers is to analyze. The confusion suggests the influence of Cho-ronzon. It is a warning of what the Aspirant must expect if he once lose his grip on Binah.

² One of the noblest trees of Hindustan.

³ The Tree of Life bears fruit of innumerable ideas. They are all selfdestroying and valueless unless organized by Understanding.

⁴ The Saturnian Destroyer—as opposed to Siva. Time swallows up all ideas, all experiences, Life itself. That is a statement of the condition which the Exempt Adept aspires to transcend by becoming a Magister Templi.

⁵ She is the Angel of Binah, though in this form. For Atu XIV is Sagittarius, the house of the Huntress.

⁶ She keeps Love alight by patient Fidelity—the Holy Guardian Angel awaits eternally the address of Her Charge. And she is also the ArchHarlot, always ready to seduce and to intoxicate him who lusts after Her.

She comes and kisses me on the mouth,¹ and says: Blessed art thou who hast beheld Sebek my Lord in his glory. Many are the champions of life, but all are unhorsed by the lance of death. Many are the children of the light, but their eyes shall all be put out by the Mother Darkness. Many are the servants of love, but love (that is not quenched by aught but love) shall be put out, as the child taketh the wick of a taper between his thumb and finger, by the god that sitteth alone.^{1 2}

And on her mouth, like a chrysanthemum of radiant light, is a kiss, and on it is the monogram i.h.s.³ The letters i.h.s. mean In Homini Salus and Instar Hominis Summits, and Imago Homi-nis deuS.⁴ And there are many, many other meanings, but they all imply this one thing; that nothing is of any importance but man; there is no hope or help but in man.⁵

And she says: Sweet are my kisses, O wayfarer that wanderest from star to star. Sweet are my kisses, O householder that weariest within four walls. Thou art pent within thy brain, and my shaft pierceth it, and thou art free. Thine imagination eateth up the universe as the dragon that eateth up the moon. And in my shaft is it concentrated and bound up. See how all around thee gather my warriors, strong knights in goodly armour ready for war. Look upon my crown; it is above the stars. Behold the glow and the blush thereof! Upon thy cheek is the breeze that stirs those plumes of truth. For though I am the Angel of the fourteenth key,

¹ Relations with the Seer have been established long ago.

² The Destruction of the Universe by the Devourer of all Things is the necessary beginning of the Initiation to the Grade of Magister Templi.

³ OH' = 75 = Lucifer, bb’il, and Nuit = 0’13. But this spelling is doubtful. DiT gives AV®, The Spirit of the Highest formulated by the Union of Male and Female, and 315 = 5 x 61 [sic; 315 = 5 x 63]. 61 = ]'K, Naught, and 'OK, “I”; so that 315 is the Pentagram, the Perfect Man, interfused with the Unity of the Ego and with the Nothing of Nuit.

⁴ [Lat., “In Man is Health” and “The Highest is the Likeness of Man,” and “God is the Image of Man.”]

⁵ Man is the Candidate; he partakes of the Truth of all the Gods initiating.

I am also the Angel of the eighth key.¹ And from the love of these two have I come, who am the warden of Pope^{1 2} and the servant of them that dwell therein. Though all crowns fall, mine shall not fall; for my plumes reach up unto the Knees of Him that sitteth upon the holy throne, and liveth and reigneth for ever and ever as the balance of righteousness and truth. I am the Angel of the moon. I am the veiled one that sitteth between the pillars veiled with a shining veil, and on my lap is the open Book of the mysteries of the ineffable light.³1 am the aspiration unto the higher; I am the love of the unknown. I am the blind ache within the heart of man. I am the minister of the sacrament of pain. I swing the censer of worship, and I sprinkle the waters of purification. I am the daughter of the house of the invisible. I am the Priestess of the Silver Star.⁴

And she catches me up to her as a mother catches her babe, and holds me up in her left arm, and sets my lips to her breast.⁵ And upon her breast is written: Rosa Mundi est Lilium Coeli.⁶

And I look down upon the open Book of the mysteries, and it is open at the page on which is the Holy Table with the twelve squares in the midst. It radiates a blaze of light, too dazzling to make out the characters, and a voice says: Non hcec piscis omnium.⁷

¹ [Atu VIII, “Adjustment.”] See note 1 on p. 100.

² [I.e., this yEthyr, pop, transliterated using the g.d. method.]

³ See note 1 on p. 100. She is Isis-Urania, in Atu II. As Atu XIV she leads directly upwards to Tiphareth (1); as Atu VII directly upwards to Binah (H), and as Atu II, directly upwards to Kether (the top point of ’).

⁴ The Full Title of Atu II. Note “Silver Star” as title of the Third Order. Hence she must appear as Hegemone to lead the Candidate to the first grade of that Order—Magister Templi.

⁵ The Babe of the Abyss is taken to its Mother’s breast. (There is a reference here to the technique of the grade.)

⁶ [Lat., “The Rose of the World is the Lily of Heaven.”]

I.e., Malkuth is Binah.

⁷ [Lat., “This [woman] is not the fish of all men.”]

Pisces = fish. ] means fish, p refers to sign Pisces. The versicle means: She is not attained by all men.

(To interpret that, we must think of 7/00$-, which does not conceal lesous Christos Theou¹ Uios^{1 2} Soter³ as traditionally asserted, but is a mystery of the letter nun and the letter qoph, as may be seen by adding it up.⁴

'IxOvs' is only connected with Christianity because it was a hieroglyph of syphilis, which the Romans supposed to have been brought from Syria; and it seems to have been confounded with leprosy, which also they thought was caused by fish-eating.

One important meaning of ’IxOv^. it is formed of the initials of five Egyptian deities and also of five Greek deities: in both cases a magic formula of tremendous power is concealed.)⁵

As to the Holy Table itself, I cannot see it for the blaze of light; but I am given to understand that it appears in another /Ethyr, of which it forms practically the whole content. And I am bidden to study the Holy Table very intently so as to be able to concentrate on it when it appears.

I have grown greater, so that I am as great as the Angel. And we are standing, as if crucified, face to face, our hands and lips and breasts and knees and feet together, and her eyes pierce into my eyes like whirling shafts of steel, so that I fall backwards headlong through the jEthyr⁶—and there is a sudden and tremendous

¹ [The first edition gave “T/?eon”; this reading is from the ts.]

² [The MS gives this in Greek, wo$-.]

³ [GrC, “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.”]

⁴ 7/00$* = 1219 - FPiZWa "W, the Former (rock-maker) of that

which was in the Beginning. It refers to 2 and p: to 2 because the

Fish is “life in the Water,” i.e., the Primal Water of Thales: to p because Atu XVIII shews that Life appearing in the Waters of Midnight (Khephra in the Pool of Great Dark Sea). This is the Glyph of Birth natural to Binah. There is presumably a further mystery— numerical—still not found.

⁵ [from page opposite.]

Egyptian:

Isis—The Mother—Binah

Cneph—The Winged Egg—Binah

Thoth—The Moon God (measurer of time)

Uramoth—The Water Goddess (The Great Sea)

Sebek—The Devourer (Time)

Greek:

I.

Ch.

Themis—the satisfied

woman—KQ'K

Uranus—Heaven, sphere above the Abyss

Selene—The Moon

All these deities represent divers forms and functions of the Idea of Binah. How to combine them in order to obtain Magical Formulas must be studied in the light of Book 4, Part III.

[The ms has the following incomplete draft sketches of various arrangements:]

Isis Chnouf Thoth Un-nefer Sekhet

$ Ease or Natural

21 Energy or Will [Khnem]

$ Thought

0 Purity

<S1 Unite all [in proportion?]

lacchus Chronos Themis Uranus (?) Serapis (?)]

Sekhet

Figure 6. Egyptian Deities and the Icthus Formula.

2[ [or 4] Isis, W Chnouf, 2) Thoth, II Unnefer, 5 Sekhet.

⁶ The Seer cannot make Union with his Guide. She is the feminine form of his Holy Guardian Angel; but the impulse to unite is only valid when it comes from above. In the 20th Aire this was the case; and so the Marriage was accomplished.

shout, absolutely stunning, cold and brutal: Osiris was a black god!¹ And the >Ethyr claps its hands, greater than the peal of a thousand mighty thunders.

I am back.

Bou-Saada.

November 30, 1909. 10-11:45 ^P-^M-

The Cry of the i8th /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED ZEN^{1 2}

A Voice comes before any vision: Accursed are they who enter herein if they have nails, for they shall be pierced

¹ This, to the Seer at that time, was a Revelation of the most appalling terror. The doctrine of the Third Order had not been promulgated. He expected to unite with the Great Mother in a Mode similar to that experienced in attaining to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel. But the attainment of the Grade of Magister Templi involves the Annihilation of the aspirant. “Osiris was a black god”; i.e., of the nature of Binah—black. The love of Binah is that of the Queen Scorpion, who devours her mate. This revelation, therefore, was much as if a romantic lover of the Richard Feverel type were suddenly made fully aware that the Maiden of his Dreams intended to conclude their First Night of Love by a Breakfast, of which he was to form the staple dish! The Doctrine implied is that one must not be the child, but the Mother. [Cf. George Meredith, The Ordeal of Richard Feverel; see Works Cited.]

² ZEN = £1 fit = B’2 = 69. 69 = 013K, a manger, stable, enclosure. This Aire describes the Place of the Preliminary Ceremony of the Initiation of the Master of the Temple. The Candidate is fortified for the Ordeal by Intimate Communion with his Holy Guardian Angel, who comes upon him unaware, and prepares him interiorly below any normal sphere of consciousness.

therewith; or if they have thorns, for they shall be crowned withal; or if they have whips, for with whips they shall be scourged: or if they bear wine, for their wine shall be turned to bitterness; or if they have a spear, for with a spear shall they be pierced unto the heart. And the nails are desires, of which there are three; the desire of light, the desire of life, the desire of love.¹

(And the thorns are thoughts, and the whips are regrets, and the wine is ease, or perhaps unsteadiness, especially in ecstasy,^{1 2} and the spear is attachment.)

And now there dawns the scene of the Crucifixion; but the Crucified One is an enormous bat, and for the two thieves are two little children. It is night, and the night is full of hideous things and howlings.³

And an angel cometh forth, and saith: Be wary, for if thou change so much as the style of a letter,⁴ the holy word is blasphemed.⁵ But enter into the mountain of the Caverns, for that this (how much more then that Calvary which mocks it, as his ape mocks Thoth?) is but the empty shell of the mystery of zen. Verily, I say unto thee, many are the adepts that have looked upon the back parts of my father, and cried, “our eyes fail before the glory of thy countenance.”⁶

And with that he gives the sign of the rending of the veil,⁷ and tears down the vision. And behold! whirling columns of fiery

¹ The Exempt Adept must be freed from all attachment.

² [“or perhaps unsteadiness, especially in ecstasy” added in editing.]

³ The Aspirant is reminded by this Vision of the Horror, which is always ready to take the place of a True Magical Operation. Corruptio optimi pessima [Lai., “The corruption of the best is the worst”].

⁴ [Compare Liber AL 1:36; 11:54; see also Rev. 22:18-19.]

⁵ This warning is given directly.

⁶ It is repeated in detail. [See Exod. 33:22-23.]

⁷ [See Book 4 (Parts I-IV), rev. ed., Figure 33g.]

light, seventy-two.¹ Upon them is supported a mountain of pure crystal. The mountain is a cone, the angle of the apex being sixty degrees.^{1 2} And within the crystal is a pyramid of ruby,³ like unto the Great Pyramid of Gizeh.

I am entered in by the little door thereof, and I am come into the chamber of the king, which is fashioned like unto the vault of the adepts, or rather it is fitting to say that the vault of the adepts is a vile imitation of it. For there are four sides to the chamber, which with the roof and the floor and the chamber itself makes seven.⁴ So also is the pastos seven,⁵ for that which is within is like unto that which is without. And there is no furniture, and there are no symbols.

Light streams from every side upon the pastos. This light is that blue of Horus which we know, but being refined it is brilliance. For the light of Horus only appears blue because of the imperfection of our eyes.⁶ But though the light pours from the pastos, yet the pastos remains perfectly dark, so that it is invisible.

¹ The number of the letters of Shemhamphorash, the “Divided Name,” i.e., Tetragrammaton in detail. Also, 72 = □!?, the “Secret Nature” of Atziluth, the Archetypal World of Pure Reality.

² The Cone is a figure of lacchus, Lord of the Highest Ecstasy. It is the Phallus. Its mathematical implications are many and important. In particular, its relations with the Great Pyramid of Cheops yield remarkable correspondences.

³ nupapi? = 831 = </>aXXo$. 831 = 3 x 277, a prime pertaining to □ann, a Magician; to HJDb bpD, the White (lunar) Wand; to KIT], That Terrible One Herself, and to the Ark.

⁴ Similarly, the Hexagram is attributed to the Seven Planets; for the Centre contains 0.

⁵ Compare this whole geometrical symbolism with that given in the Ritual of Adeptus Minor [in the g.d.].

⁶ Compare, in external nature, the appearance of the blue sky.

It hath no form: only, at a certain point in the chamber, the light is beaten back.¹

I lie prostrate upon the ground before this mystery. Its splendour is impossible to describe. I can only say that its splendour is so great that my heart stops with the terror and the wonder and the rapture of it.^{1 2} I am almost mad. A million insane images chase each other through my brain....³ A voice comes: (it is my own voice—I did not know it). “When thou shalt know me, O thou

¹ This very strange phenomenon is perhaps quite inadequately described. It is a general condition of most Spiritual Experience that the familiar laws of Nature do not obtain in their accustomed forms. It is only when Experience enables one to observe them with detachment that they are seen to be as uniform, simple and exact as those of normal physics.

² Compare with this unlighted, light-radiating Pastos, the Boundless Cube in the Vision of Pure Love—see “The Urn” [“Liber 73”]:

“In the morning I woke early, before 7, in an absolutely renewed physical condition. I had the clean fresh feeling of healthy boyhood, and was alert and active as a kitten—post talem mortem'. [Lat., “after such a death.”] Mentally, I woke into Pure Love. This was symbolized as a cube* of blue-white light like a diamond of the best quality. It was lucid, translucent, self-luminous, and yet not radiating forth. I suppose because there was nothing Else in the Cosmos.”

This withdrawal from sense of the Pastos, which is the Inmost and most sacred Self of the Aspirant, is his surrender of “all that he has and all that he is” on entering the Abyss.

* [Note.] I say “a cube”; yet its most salient property was that it was without boundaries. Experience of similar trances is necessary for the understanding of this statement, which is a perfectly proper expression of a perfectly observed fact, despite its intellectual self-contradiction.

³ There is a fleeting Image of the Horror of the Abyss, as a mountaineer, leaping a Bergschrund [Ger., “crevasse”], obtains a momentary glimpse of the Terrors beneath his airy Path. Cf. 10th Aire for these images of madness.

empty God, my little flame shall utterly expire in thy great n.o.x.”¹ There is no answer....^{1 2} (20 minutes. O.V.) ....

And now, after so long a while, the Angel³ lifts me, and takes me from the room,⁴ and sets me in a little chamber⁵ where is another Angel like a fair youth in shining garments, who makes me partake of the sacraments; bread, that is labour; and fire, that is wit; and a rose, that is sin; and wine, that is death.⁶ And all about us is a great company of angels in many-coloured robes, rose and spring-green, and sky-blue, and pale gold, and silver, and lilac, solemnly chanting without words. It is music wonderful beyond all that can be thought.

¹ This quotation is from “Liber VH” 1:40. (This Book describes in detail the whole Attainment of the Grade of Magister Templi.) It had been given to the Seer, years previously; but he had not understood it, even with his Neschamah, as a coherent entity. Nor does he even yet (An. xxi, O in ®) understand it with his Ruach. Incidentally the full meaning of this Book 418, as a connected account of his Initiation, is only now becoming clear to him in the process of writing this Commentary upon it. For N.o.x., see note above, 20th Aire. Observe that although the Exempt Adept, or the Babe of the Abyss, is completely baffled by the circumstances, and in no wise understands the situation, his Chiah, the Magician in him, acts with sublime confidence and correctness.

² The quotation, accepting annihilation, instantly destroys the myriad

of insane images which hastened to occupy the vacuum created by the leap of the Exempt Adept into the Abyss. Had he faltered, he would have become—against his will—a “Black Brother.” But this being involuntary, he would not have attempted to maintain his

coherence, as the Black Brothers do. He would, therefore, have been

destroyed at once; that is, to outward appearances, he would have become a demented babbler. Spiritists present this phenomenon, on a much lower plane, and in a diluted form; though with them, as with

the average Theosophist, there is usually a certain degree of obsession by pet phantoms—a “Chinese Guide,” or “Koot Hoomi,” or what not—to lend a species of semi-organized structure to the legions of disconnected ideas that throng their disintegrated gray matter.

• ³ [from page opposite.]

(No Angel has been mentioned. The Seer was lost to being.) In this preliminary—and so to say, symbolic—crossing of the Abyss, His Holy Guardian Angel comes to the rescue of the Aspirant. Contrast the unspeakable Terror of the actual Crossing, when that Angel Himself abandons the Seer (see 11th Aire, the last paragraph). Exactly how the Angel dealt with the Seer in this 20 minutes of earthly time is impossible to say; for he has no memory soever—nor had he even at the time—of what took place. We may, however, deduce from that fact that the Communion took place in a sphere beyond even Neschamah. It may well have been a Quintessence of Union sufficiently intimate to have identified the Seer with his Angel so perfectly as to have given him the right to make the passage fully, in every sense; and to have ensured his safety on the way. For the Angel cometh forth from above the Abyss, and dwelleth of right in the Bosom of the Great Mother. But the Angel deals not with the little pile of dust in the City of the Pyramids (see 14th /tthyr), but with the Star that is cast forth to give light to the Earth.

• ⁴ This pyramid, where is the Pastos, is the Chamber of Annihilation. The Pastos contains the Essence of the Aspirant, and is in a Chamber containing the Essence of the Universe. This is all ready to be burnt up in the Energy of Aspiration to the Creative Annihilation, the Ruby Pyramid or Phallus. Finally, this Pyramid is within a Cone, a figure combining the straight line and the circle (Rose and Cross in their purest form) representing the new Universe into which the old is to be transmuted. It is established, like all types of Universe, upon the Four Elements (divided into 72) which are the conditions of manifested Existence. (The elements are not only “material”; they include categories like “Time,” “Space,” and “Causality.”)

• ⁵ This is the Birth-Chamber, where the Magister Templi awakes from the Oblivion of the Abyss.

• ⁶ These sacraments furnish him with the material for his new Life. Bread (V) is labour, the nourishment of his being. Fire is the perception of clear understanding (Neschamah). The Rose (A) is Sin, the restriction which prevents him from being dissolved in pure light (Kether), for his Oath as a Master of the Temple is to deny himself the enjoyment of that privilege, for the sake of the Love that he bears to Mankind; wherefore is that Sin fragrant with the scent of Love. Finally, Wine (V) is Death, the Ecstasy of transmuting all things into Joy by the Sacrament of Creative Love.

And now we go out of the chamber;¹ on the right is a pylon, and the right figure is Isis, and the left figure Nephthys, and they are folding their wings over, and supporting Ra.^{1 2}

I wanted to go back to the King’s Chamber.³ The Angel pushed me away, saying: “Thou shalt see these visions from afar off, but thou shalt not partake of them save in the manner prescribed. For if thou change so much as the style of a letter, the holy word is blasphemed.”⁴

And this is the manner prescribed:⁵

¹ [The ms has the deleted passage (following “chamber;”) “she at whose door there are three statues.”]

² Isis, Nature, and Nephthys, Perfection, preside over the Arising of the New Star. The Magister Templi is a little pyramid of dust in the City of the Pyramids (see 14th Aire) awaiting the Fire that shall burn him up to a white Ash (see 6th Aire). But the original combination of samkharas (tendencies—the elements of the Character of the Man) is void of the Ego. Ahamkara (the ego-making faculty) has been assimilated. The samkharas are, however, still linked by the karma of the Adept; for they had to be most strongly knit by him that he might be able to concentrate their whole Energies upon the Great Work of abandoning in a single gesture “all that he has, and all that he is.” They accordingly hold together: his Will has been accomplished, and he is free from them; but they depend upon the Elements which composed that true Will, which, since he has succeeded, can only be the Sublime Passion for Mankind to help it to “conquer Space, and lastly climb I The walls of Time, I And by the golden path the great have trod / Reach up to God.” [Crowley, “Astrology,” from Songs of the Spirit (1898), in Collected Works, vol. I, p. 54.] A phenomenon of this nature thus appears “as a morning star, or as an evening star, to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death.” [An apparent paraphrase of the 14th /Ethyr, p. 142.] This is then the man himself, save that his separate individuality is no longer present; it is replaced by this single passion to rescue Mankind.

³ The Seer’s first impulse was to proceed with the Work on which he had been engaged when the Dissolution of his Being took place.

⁴ As stated in a previous Aire, these higher visions are not to be obtained by the methods applicable to less exalted spheres. [See the 20th /Ethyr, p. 97.]

⁵ [This passage is in A.^-. A.^-. Class D.]

Let there be a room furnished as for the ritual of passing through the Tuat.¹ And let the aspirant be clad in the robes of, and let him bear the insignia of, his grade. And at the least he shall be a neophyte.^{1 2}

Three days and three nights shall he have been in the tomb, vigilant and fasting, for he shall sleep no longer than three hours at any one time, and he shall drink pure water, and eat little sweet cakes consecrated unto the moon, and fruits, and the eggs of the duck, or of the goose, or of the plover. And he shall be shut in, so that no man may break in upon his meditation. But in the last twelve hours he shall neither eat nor sleep.

Then shall he break his fast, eating rich food, and drinking sweet wines, and wines that foam;³ and he shall banish the elements and the planets and the signs and the sephiroth;⁴ and then shall he take the holy table that he hath made for his altar; and he shall take the call of the /Ethyr of which he will partake, which he hath written in the angelic character, or in the character of the holy alphabet that is revealed in Pope,⁵ upon a fair sheet of virgin vellum; and therewith shall he conjure the /Ethyr, chanting the

¹ See The Book of the Dead, as adopted for modern use by the Authorities of the G.D.

² He must be a Neophyte to have access to “[Liber 120,] The Ritual of Passing through the Tuat.”

³ See Liber AL 1:51. The general idea is to create true appetite in a body purified by fasting and a mind clarified by meditation, so as to make certain of being perfectly intoxicated. It should be needless to say that this state of mind, like all others, should be absolutely willed, criticized, and controlled.

⁴ The /Ethyrs pertain to an Order of Nature, sui generis. Though they possess many correspondences with the 32 Paths of Wisdom, all of these must be impartially banished; otherwise the Vacuum would be disturbed by an unequilibrated symbol sympathetic with the Aire to be invoked, which would flood the circle, and prevent the /Ethyr arising in its perfect plenitude.

⁵ [The Alphabet of Daggers; see the 19th /Ethyr, pop.]

call. And in the lamp that is hung above the altar shall he burn the call that he hath written.¹

Then shall he kneel^{1 2} before the holy table, and it shall be given him to partake of the mystery of the /Ethyr.

And concerning the ink with which he shall write; for the first ?Ethyr let it be gold, for the second scarlet, for the third violet, for the fourth emerald, for the fifth silver, for the sixth sapphire, for the seventh orange, for the eighth indigo, for the ninth gray, for the tenth black, for the eleventh maroon, for the twelfth russet, for the thirteenth green-gray, for the fourteenth amber, for the fifteenth olive, for the sixteenth pale blue, for the seventeenth crimson, for the eighteenth bright yellow, for the nineteenth crimson adorned with silver, for the twentieth mauve, for the twenty-first pale green, for the twenty-second rose-madder, for the twenty-third violet cobalt, for the twenty-fourth beetle-brown, bluebrown colour, for the twenty-fifth a cold dark gray, for the twenty-sixth white flecked with red, blue, and yellow; the edges of the letters shall be green, for the twenty-seventh angry clouds of ruddy brown, for the twenty-eighth indigo, for the twenty-ninth bluish-green, for the thirtieth mixed colours.³

This shall be the form to be used by him who would partake of the mystery of any TEthyr. And let him not change so much as the style of a letter, lest the holy word be blasphemed.

And let him beware, after he hath been permitted to partake of this mystery, that he await the completion of the 91st hour of his retirement, before he open the door of the place of his retirement; lest he contaminate his glory with uncleanness, and lest they that behold him be smitten by his glory unto death.⁴

For this is a holy mystery, and he that did first attain to reveal the alphabet thereof,⁵ perceived not one ten-thousandth part of the fringe that is upon its vesture.

¹ This injunction has several obvious Magical advantages. The symbolic gesture is to consume the matter of the Operation in the Spirit thereof.

² This is by no means a gesture of supplication, the vile attitude of the

unmanly devotees of the Slave-Gods. It has a specific and positive

practical purpose, which should be easy for the Neophyte to divine if

his Zelator have well and wisely so instructed him.

Come away! for the clouds are gathered together, and the Aire heaveth like the womb of a woman in travail. Come away! lest he loose the lightnings from his hand, and unleash his hounds of thunder. Come away! For the voice of the TEthyr is accomplished. Come away! For the seal of His loving-kindness is made sure. And let there be praise and blessing unspeakable unto him that sitteth upon the Holy Throne, for he casteth down mercies as a

³ [from page opposite.}

1. Gold for Horus.

3. Violet for $ House of Juggler.

5. Silver for Star of A.'.A/.

<arrow>.

7. Orange for (?).

9. Grey for Binah, fertilized.

11. Maroon for Yesod, the threshold.

13. Green-gray for Garden of Nemo.

15. Olive for Salome, V of Malkuth.

17. Crimson for X.

19. Crimson-silver for Binah and 2).

21. Pale green for (?).

23. Violet Cobalt for ~ Eagle.

25. Cold dark gray for .

27'. Angry clouds, red brown for smoke of cauldron.

29. Blue green for HL Change.

30. Miscellaneous colours for original confusion of dying /Eon.

⁴ This injunction is to be taken very seriously. I have known uninitiates made ill by the shock of seeing Adepts of too high “residual charge”; worse, thrown off their moral balance.

⁵ Presumably Sir Edward Kelly. There is certainly no hint of the sublimity and profundity of such visions as the present series in the Working of that Adept.

2. Scarlet for Babaion.

4. Emerald for $ Love of Virgin.

6. Sapphire for Chokmah.

8. Indigo for (?).

10. Black for the Abyss.

12. Russet for Congealed Blood in the Cup.

14. Amber for Atu VII.

16. Pale Blue for (?)

18. Bright yellow for Holy Guardian Angel and Hegemone.

20. Mauve for Atu X.

22. Rose madder for Rose of 49.

24. Beetle Brown for TtL Love.

26. White flecked with red, blue and yellow (edges green) for Osiris.

28. Indigo for Night sky of Binah.

spendthrift that scattereth gold. And he hath shut up judgment and hidden it away as a miser that hoardeth coins of little worth.¹ All this while the Angel hath been pushing me backwards, and now he is turned into a golden cross with a rose at its heart, and that is the red cross wherein is set the golden shewstone.

Bou-Saada.

December i, 1909. 2:30-4:10 p.m.

The Cry of the 17TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED TAN ^{1 2}

Into the stone there first cometh the head of a dragon, and then the Angel Madimi.³ She is not the mere elemental that one would suppose from the account of Casaubon.⁴ I enquire why her form is different.

She says: Since all things are God, in all things thou seest just so much of God as thy capacity affordeth thee.⁵ But behold! Thou

¹ This peroration suggests that Early Working by its style. It has little definite thought contained in it; the sublimity of the language ill conceals its vagueness. Nevertheless, it is a fitting conclusion to the Mystery of this Aire. The Ritual, and this lyrical outburst, were doubtless necessary to let the Seer down gently from the colossal exaltation of the Central Event of the /Ethyr.

² TAN=Q^<tj’TIb=r]=59. This number is a prime, representing yoni demanding “justice.” This Aire instructs the candidate in the Formula of Justice, of Equilibrium.

³ See Casaubon’s edition of the Sixth Book of Dr. Dee’s “Conversations with some Spirits.” [Meric Causabon, A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Veers Between Dr. John Dee ... and Some Spirits (1659); see Works Cited.)

⁴ [Ibid., p. 1.)

⁵ A profound truth of universal application. The master-key to any man’s character is his Appreciation of the Universe. To one, pan means Terror and Madness; to another, the all-god.

must pierce deeply into this /Ethyr before true images appear.¹ For tan is that which transformeth judgment into justice.^{1 2} bal is the sword, and tan the balances.³

A pair of balances appears in the stone, and on the bar of the balance is written: Motion about a point is iniquity.⁴

And behind the balances is a plume, luminous, azure.⁵ And somehow connected with the plume, but I cannot divine how, are these words: Breath is iniquity.⁶ (That is, any wind must stir the feather of truth.)

And behind the plume is a shining filament of quartz, suspended vertically from the abyss to the abyss.⁷ And in the midst is a winged disk⁸ of some extremely delicate, translucent substance, on which is written in the “dagger” alphabet: Torsion is iniquity.⁹ (This means, that the Rashith Ha-Gilgalim is the first appearance of evil.)¹⁰

And now an Angel appears, like as he were carven in black diamonds. And he cries: Woe unto the Second, whom all nations

¹ This is more and more the case as we progress.

² Judgment—the unmitigated feminine, the Severity of Sterility. Justice—She is satisfied by the Sword (Phallus) and Balances (Testes) as shewn in Atu VIII. The symbolism of the letter lamed must be very thoroughly studied. It represents the Flux of the Universe in Extension. Contrast this positive Equilibrium with the Negative, aleph. The two together form bK (the title of The Book of the Law) which expresses the Universe in its phases, 0 and 2.

³ The Enochian word for Justice used at the end of the Call of the 30 TEthyrs is balatanu (the 2nd A and the u merely support their consonants L and n). bal is the Hebrew for Lord, i.e., the phallus. See previous note. [See p. 29.]

⁴ It disturbs the simplicity, introducing a new dimension.

⁵ The Blue Feather is Maat, the Goddess of Truth.

⁶ Breath implies duality, vibration; it thus disturbs peace and silence.

⁷ The middle pillar of the Tree of Life. Quartz, perhaps as auriferous.

⁸ The Winged Disk = Hadit, i.e., any point which one chooses to consider as being the Centre from which to contemplate the Universe.

⁹ To twist one’s point of view is to obtain a false idea.

¹⁰ The “Beginning of Whirling Motions” introduces duality.

of men call the First.¹ Woe unto the First, whom all grades of Adepts call the First.^{1 2} Woe unto me, for I, even as they, have worshipped him. But she in whose paps are the galaxies,³ and he that never shall be known,⁴ in them is no motion. For the infinite Without filleth all and moveth not,⁵ and the infinite Within goeth indeed;⁶ but it is no odds, else were the space-marks confounded.⁷ And now the Angel is but a shining speck of blackness in the midst of a tremendous sphere of liquid and vibrating light, at first gold, then becoming green, and lastly pure blue.⁸ And I see that the green of Libra is made up of the yellow of air and the blue of water, swords and cups, judgment and mercy.⁹ And this word tan meaneth mercy.¹⁰ And the feather of Maat is blue because

¹ The dentiurgos, Microprosopus, the Black Reflected Countenance, The Creator. He must be distinguished from the logos. The difference is that the Demiurge creates on his own account; he is not, like the logos, the transmitter of the Energy of Kether, and its formulation in a Word.

² Macroprosopus himself. For in the ontology of the New /Eon, he is no longer the Unique and Supreme Point-of-View, to which every Ego is subsidiary, and must conform.

³ Nuit (See “Liber LXV” V:65).

⁴ Hadit (See Liber AL 11:4).

⁵ Space cannot move, being an idea invented to explain motion.

⁶ See Liber AL 11:7.

⁷ I.e., it does not matter what mode we choose to represent these ideas; for if it did, we should be unable to measure phenomena at all. [See Liber AL 1:52.]

⁸ The outburst of Light is realized as Love ($ = green). The green light that comes through thin lamina of gold. And this is absorbed in the true blue of Nuit—its goal.

⁹ Severity and Mercy (Geburah and Chesed) are joined by the Reciprocating path of Leo. This is Atu XI, counterchanged with Atu VIII, £1. Thus Leo, the Strength of the Sun, Life itself, is one with Libra, Justice; for the letter b signifies the Universe in extension.

¹⁰ tan is given above as meaning the Balances. Thus, as shewn in the previous note, the truth of Justice is Mercy. Hence, to aim at Mercy (which is an idea without measure, and therefore incommensurable with Truth) is to invoke Injustice. The injunction is: Be strictly just, and you will find that you have accomplished the true Work of Love.

the truth of justice is mercy.¹ And a voice cometh, as it were the music of the ripples of the surface of the sphere: Truth is delight.^{1 2} (This means that the Truth of the universe is delight.)

Another voice cometh; it is the voice of a mighty Angel, all in silver; the scales of his armour and the plumes of his wings are like mother-of-pearl in a framework of silver.³ And he sayeth: Justice is the equity that ye have made for yourselves between truth and falsehood. But in Truth there is nothing of this, for there is only Truth. Your falsehood is but a little falser than your truth.⁴ Yet by your truth shall ye come to Truth. Your truth is your troth with Adonai the Beloved one.⁵ And the Chymical Marriage of the Alchemists beginneth with a Weighing, and he that is not found wanting hath within him one spark of fire, so dense and so intense that it cannot be moved, though all the winds of heaven should clamour against it, and all the waters of the abyss surge against it, and all the multitude of the earths heap themselves upon it to smother it. Nay, it shall not be moved.⁶

¹ See previous note. The blue is again that of Nuit. Justice is only complete when the disturbance of positive existence is annulled by Absorption into the Body of Our Lady of the Stars. [See “Liber 813” VII:7.]

² See Liber AL 11:9. “Remember all ye that existence is pure joy”; et al.

³ This Silver is the Queen Scale of Luna, the reflection in positive material Nature of the personified idea of Nuit. The Angel appears in the path of gimel uniting Tiphareth with Kether. He is Atu II. See infra.

⁴ Human justice is a compromise intended to meet an admittedly false situation. Cf. Lao-tzu: Benevolence and righteousness only appear when all naturalness is gone. [See Tao Te Ching, ch. 38.]

⁵ Hence the Justice of making the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel the Next Step. The original Evil is the separation from Him; so the only approximation to Truth is one’s Oath to Him.

⁶ This spark is Hadit (hence the reference to Liber AL, Cap. II): he cannot be moved because he is already in motion at the limit of velocity.

And this is the fire of which it is written: “Hear thou the voice of fire!” And the voice of fire is the second chapter of The Book of the Law,¹ that is revealed unto him that is a score and half a score and three that are scores, and six, by Aiwass, that is his guardian, the mighty Angel that extendeth from the first unto the last, and maketh known the mysteries that are beyond. And the method and the form of invocation whereby a man shall attain to the knowledge and conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel shall be given unto thee in the proper place,^{1 2} and seeing that the word is deadlier than lightning, do thou meditate straitly thereupon, solitary, in a place where is no living thing visible, but only the light of the sun. And thy head shall be bare.³ Thus mayest thou become fitted to receive this, the holiest of the Mysteries. And it is the holiest of the Mysteries because it is the Next Step. And those Mysteries which lie beyond, though they be holier, are not holy unto thee, but only remote.⁴

Now the Angel is spread completely over the globe, a dewy film of silver upon that luminous blue.

¹ The Oracle of Zoroaster says: “And when, after all the phantoms are vanished shall appear that holy and formless Fire, that Fire which darts and flashes throughout the depths of the Universe—hear thou the Voice of Fire!” And this is the utterance of Hadit, the deepest expression of one’s inmost Point-of-View. [The Chaldcean Oracles of Zoroaster, §199, ed. Westcott, paraphrase.]

² See 8th Aire.

³ This I performed in a sort of cave upon the ridge of a great mountain in the Desert near Bou-Saada at 12-3 P.M. on December 2, 1909.

⁴ The sense of this passage seems to be, that the holiness of a thing implies its personal relation with one, just as one cannot blaspheme an unknown god, because one does not know what to say to annoy him. And this explains the perfect inefficiency of those who try to insult the saints; the most violent attacks are very often merely clumsy compliments.

And a great voice cries: Behold the Queen of Heaven, how she hath woven her robes from the loom of justice.¹ For as that straight path of the Arrow cleaving the Rainbow became righteousness in her that sitteth in the hall of double truth,^{1 2} so at last is she exalted unto the throne of the High Priestess, the Priestess of the Silver Star, wherein also is thine Angel made manifest.³ And this is the mystery of the camel that is ten days in the desert, and is not athirst, because he hath within him that water which is the dew distilled from the night of Nuit.⁴ Triple is the cord of silver, that it may not be loosed; and three score and half a score and three is the number of the name of my name,⁵ for that the ineffable wisdom, that also is of the sphere of the stars, informeth me.⁶ Thus am I crowned with the triangle that is about the eye, and therefore is my number three.⁷ And in me there is no imperfection,

¹ This Blue and Silver of Luna, the “Queen of Heaven” (in King and Queen scales), are said to be derived from the Justice in her True Nature. This Justice refers to her point on the Tree; the troth with Adonai.

² The Arrow = / = Blue. Its ruler = 2[ = Blue (Queen Scale) = Righteousness. The Plumes of Maat are blue.

³ Here we are asked to note a certain correspondence of ascending vibration. 0 = /, b = £L, 2 - D. ATS are the consonants of logos. We shall see later an important doctrine drawn from this special association of these three letters [see p. 186]. The Holy Guardian Angel appears as 2 because of its position on the Tree.

⁴ 2 means Camel. The ten days are the 7 x 10 years of normal life. Man can go through that desert, nourished by the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

⁵ 73 = bO3, a camel. Triple, for 3 = 3. The cord of Silver; the Lunar Path descending from Kether. <73 = bo3 = 3 = 3 = 2(1-2) = noon = 73.>

⁶ Wisdom = nn^n = 73. Mazloth, the sphere of the Stars, pertains to Chokmah.

⁷ The Eye—13 = 70. 3 + 70 = 73. 73 is here explained as the Eye in the Triangle. So Aiwaz is the Eye in the Star of Hermes, the Messenger, whose formula is418 = n = 8.

because through me descendeth the influence of taro.¹ And that is also the number of Aiwass the mighty Angel, the Minister of Silence.

And even as the shew-stone burneth thy forehead with its intolerable flame, so he who hath known me, though but from afar, is marked out and chosen from among men, and he shall never turn back or turn aside, for he hath made the link that is not to be broken, nay, not by the malice of the Four Great Princes of the evil of the world, nor by Choronzon, that mighty Devil, nor by the wrath of God, nor by the affliction and feebleness of the soul.

Yet with this assurance be not thou content; for though thou hast the wings of the Eagle, they are vain, except they be joined to the shoulders of the Bull. Now, therefore, I send forth a shaft of my light, even as a ladder let down from the heaven upon the earth, and by this black cross of Themis that I hold before thine eyes, do I swear unto thee that the path shall be open henceforth for evermore.

There is a clash of a myriad silver cymbals, and silence. And then three times a note is struck upon a bell, which sounds like my holy Tibetan bell, that is made of electrum magicum.^{1 2}

I am happily returned unto the earth.

Bou-Saada.

December 2, 1909. 12:15-2 a.m.

¹ taro has 78 symbols; and 78 = sbro, Mezla, the Influence that descends from the Most Holy Ancient One, Kether, and therefore referred to J. The equation 78 = Aiwass; at this time, the Seer thought that Aiwass was spelt OKI’S = 78, whereas, as he found later, fl’X? [Aiwaz] = 93, and Atfacrs - 418. But 78 is actually the number of Aiwass in another way.

² Electrum magicum is an alloy of the Seven Sacred Metals, each being added at a moment chosen for its astrological advantages.

The Cry of the i6th /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED LEA¹

There are faint and flickering images in a misty landscape, all very transient. But the general impression is of moonrise at midnight, and a crowned virgin riding upon a bull.^{1 2}

And they come up into the surface of the stone. And she is singing a chant of praise: Glory unto him that hath taken upon himself the image of toil. For by his labour is my labour accomplished. For I, being a woman, lust ever to mate myself with some beast. And this is the salvation of the world, that always I am deceived by some god, and that my child is the guardian of the labyrinth that hath two-and-seventy paths.³

Now she is gone.

And now there are Angels, walking up and down in the stone. They are the Angels of the Holy Sevenfold Table. It seems that they are waiting for the Angel of the /Ethyr to come forth.

Now at last he appears in the gloom. He is a mighty King,⁴ with crown and orb and sceptre, and his robes are of purple and gold. And he casts down the orb and sceptre to the earth, and he tears off his crown, and throws it on the ground, and tramples it. And he tears out his hair, that is of ruddy gold tinged with silver,

¹ lea = ® Iff V. The Waning Moon, the Virgin, and the Bull; exactly as in the second sentence!! m = 24.

² See previous note.

³ The reference is to Pasiphae and the Minotaur. All mythologies contain this Mystery of the Woman and the Beast as the Heart of the Cult. Notably certain tribes in the Terai, at this day, send their women annually into the jungle; and any half-monkeys that result are worshipped in their temples. Atu XI exhibits this Mystery; and it is the subject of constant reference in the higher Aires.

⁴ This is the Jehovah-god of the /Eon of Osiris, on whose existence as an offended and vengeful deity the whole theory of Atonement depends. cConventional Jehovah.>

and he plucks at his beard, and cries with a terrible voice: Woe unto me that am cast down from my place by the might of the new 2^on. For the ten palaces are broken, and the ten kings are carried away into bondage, and they are set to fight as the gladiators in the circus of him that hath laid his hand upon eleven.¹ For the ancient tower is shattered by the Lord of the Flame and the Lightning. And they that walk upon their hands shall build the holy place.^{1 2} Blessed are they who have turned the Eye of Hoor unto the zenith, for they shall be filled with the vigour of the goat.³

All that was ordered and stable is shaken. The ?Eon of Wonders is come. Like locusts shall they gather themselves together, the servants of the Star and of the Snake,⁴ and they shall eat up everything that is upon the earth. For why? Because the Lord of Righteousness delighteth in them.

The prophets shall prophesy monstrous things, and the wizards shall perform monstrous things. The sorceress shall be desired of all men, and the enchanter shall rule the earth.

Blessing unto the name of the Beast, for he hath let loose a mighty flood of fire from his manhood, and from his womanhood hath he let loose a mighty flood of water. Every thought of his mind is as a tempest that uprooteth the great trees of the earth, and shaketh the mountains thereof. And the throne of his spirit is

¹ For 10 is the stable number of the established system, which regards 11, the number of Magick (by the equation 0 = 2=11, 11 being the active form of 2) as “Evil.” Hence the Beast took 11 as his formula and thereby destroyed the 10.

² See Atu XVI. The figures cast out of the Tower are in the form of the letter P; they “walk upon their hands.” They pertain to % —Set or Had; i.e., the Holy Place is to be built from within, from the “core of every star”, not from above, as in the shattered tower of Theism.

³ is the Goat. The Eye of Hoor turned to the Zenith refers to a Mystery of Magick, practical and puissant, which the student must be left to solve for himself.

⁴ See Liber AL 11:21.

a mighty throne of madness and desolation,¹ so that they that look upon it shall cry: Behold the abomination!^{1 2}

Of a single ruby shall that throne be built, and it shall be set upon an high mountain,³ and men shall see it afar off.⁴ Then will I gather together my chariots and my horsemen and my ships of war. By sea and land shall my armies and my navies encompass it, and I will encamp round about it, and besiege it, and by the flame thereof shall I be utterly devoured. Many lying spirits have I sent into the world that my /Eon might be established, and they shall all be overthrown.

Great is the Beast that cometh forth like a lion, the servant of the Star and of the Snake. He is the Eternal one; He is the Almighty one. Blessed are they upon whom he shall look with favour, for nothing shall stand before his face.⁵ Accursed are they upon whom he shall look with derision, for nothing shall stand before his face.

And every mystery that hath not been revealed from the foundation of the world he shall reveal unto his chosen. And they shall have power over every spirit of the Ether; and of the earth and under the earth; on dry land and in the water; of whirling air and of rushing fire. And they shall have power over all the inhabitants of the earth, and every scourge of God shall be subdued beneath their feet.⁶ The angels shall come unto them and walk with them, and the great gods of heaven shall be their guests.

But I must sit apart, with dust upon my head, discrowned and desolate. I must lurk in forbidden corners of the earth. I must plot secretly in the by-ways of great cities, in the fog, and in marshes of the rivers of pestilence. And all my cunning shall not serve me.

¹ See “Liber VII” 111:20. He has manifested the insanity of the Ruach; that is His “throne”; i.e., the basis of his philosophical position.

² See “Liber VII” 111:21.

³ See “Liber VII” 111:22,23.

⁴ <<t>aXXo?.>

⁵ Adaptations of the Qur’an are to be found in this passage.

⁶ [A paraphrase of the “Bornless Ritual.” Cf. The Goetia, ed. Crowley, and Book Four, Parts I-IV, Apps. IV and VIII; see Works Cited.]

And all my undertakings shall be brought to naught. And the ministers of the Beast shall catch me and tear out my tongue with pincers of red-hot iron, and they shall brand my forehead with the word of derision, and they shall shave my head, and pluck out my beard, and make a show of me.

And the spirit of prophecy shall come upon me despite me ever and anon, as even now upon my heart and upon my throat; and upon my tongue seared with strong acid are the words: Vim patior) For so must I give glory to him that hath supplanted me, that hath cast me down into the dust. I have hated him, and with hate my bones are rotten. I would have spat upon him, and my spittle hath befouled my beard. I have taken up the sword against him, and I am fallen upon it, and mine entrails are about my feet.

Who shall strive with his might? Hath he not the sword and the spear of the Warrior Lord of the Sun? Who shall contend with him? Who shall lift himself up against him? For the latchet of his sandal is more than the helmet of the Most High. Who shall reach up to him in supplication, save those that he shall set upon his shoulders? Would God that my tongue were torn out by the roots, and my throat cut across, and my heart torn out and given to the vultures, before I say this that I must say: Blessing and Worship to the Prophet of the Lovely Star!^{1 2}

And now he is fallen quite to the ground, in a heap, and dust is upon his head; and the throne upon which he sat is shattered into many pieces.

And dimly dawning in this unutterable gloom, far, far above, is the face that is the face of a man and of a woman, and upon the brow is a circle, and upon the breast is a circle, and in the palm of the right hand is a circle.³ Gigantic is his stature, and he hath the

¹ [Lat.,] “I suffer violence.” [Cf. Matt. 11:12, and Eliphas Levi, Transcendental Magic, trans. Waite, p. 324.]

² See Liber AL 11:79.

³ “Circle”—a blind for “the Mark of the Beast” — ®—which at that time it was necessary to keep secret. <Qr)ptov, the Xoyo$ of the 7Eon.> [Crowley’s unpublished correspondence shows that he originally used ©, but later changed it to <§)>.]

Urseus crown, and the leopard’s skin, and the flaming orange apron of a god. And invisibly about him is Nuit, and in his heart is Hadit, and between his feet is the great god Ra-Hoor-Khuit. And in his right hand is a flaming wand, and in his left a book.¹ Yet is he silent; and that which is understood between him and me shall not be revealed in this place. And the mystery shall be revealed to whosoever shall say, with ecstasy of worship in his heart, with a clear mind, and a passionate body: It is the voice of a god, and not of a man.^{1 2}

And now all that glory hath withdrawn itself; and the old King lies prostrate, abject.

And the virgin that rode upon the bull cometh forth, led by all those Angels of the Holy Sevenfold Table, and they are dancing round her with garlands and sheaves of flowers, loose robes and hair dancing in the wind. And she smiles upon me with infinite brilliance, so that the whole /Ethyr flushes warm, and she³ says with a subtle sub-meaning, pointing downwards: By this, that.⁴

And I took her hand and kissed it, and I say to her: Am I not nearly purged of the iniquity of my forefathers?⁵

With that she bends down, and kisses me on the mouth, and says: “Yet a little, and on thy left arm shalt thou carry a manchild,⁶ and give him to drink of the milk of thy breasts. But I go dancing.”⁷

¹ This is a Vision of the Angel of the Beast Himself, as identified with the Stele of Revealing. This book in the Hand of Aiwass is The Book of the Law.

² The recognition of the authorship of Liber AL as praeterhuman, with ecstatic joy, etc., is the Key to the Portal of the New /Eon.

³ This is babalon, the true mistress of The Beast; of Her all his mistresses on lower planes are but avatars.

⁴ This phrase need not be analyzed; it is the promise to give Herself to The Beast.

⁵ The Seer was even at this time still struggling in himself with the complexes due to his heredity and early training.

⁶ <[Frater] O.I.V.V.I.O. [Charles Stansfeld Jones.]>

⁷ This means that the Seer will soon be “Isis Rejoicing”; i.e., a Master of the Temple.

And I wave my hand, and the /Ethyr is empty and dark, and I bow myself before it in the sign that I, and only I, may know. And I sink through waves of blackness, poised on an eagle, down, down, down.

And I give the sign that only I may know.

And now there is nothing in the stone but the black cross of Themis,¹ and on it these words: Memento: Sequor.^{1 2} (These words probably mean that the Equinox of Horus is to be followed by that of Themis.)

Bou-Saada.

December 2, 1909. 4:yo-6:oy p.m.

z>rz>

The Cry of the 15TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED OXO³

There appears immediately in the ALthyr a tremendous column of scarlet fire, whirling forth, rebounding, crying aloud.⁴ And about it are four columns of green and blue and gold and silver, each inscribed with writings in the character of the dagger. And the column of fire is dancing among the pillars. Now it seems that the fire is but the skirt of the dancer, and the dancer is a mighty god. The vision is overpowering.

¹ See the Neophyte Ritual of the g.d., [The Temple of Solomon the King,] The Equinox 1(2), and Liber AL 111:34.

² [Lat., “Remember: I follow.”]

³ oxo = The Rose of Earth in the Place of Judgment; this is

the Scene of the Aire, bnb = 460 = niil’b Dip, “Holy unto the Lord,” and refers to the Consecration (after Examination) of the Exempt Adept. It is his final preparation for undergoing in consciousness the Full Ceremony of Passing to the Grade of Magister Templi.

⁴ [See The Chaldcean Oracles of Zoroaster, §198, ed. Westcott.]

As the dancer whirls, she chants in a strange, slow voice, quickening as she goes: Lo! I gather up every spirit that is pure, and weave him into my vesture of flame. I lick up the lives of men, and their souls sparkle from mine eyes. I am the mighty sorceress, the lust of the spirit. And by my dancing I gather for my mother Nuit the heads of all them that are baptised in the waters of life. I am the lust of the spirit that eateth up the soul of man. I have prepared a feast for the adepts, and they that partake thereof shall see God.¹

Now it is clear what she has woven in her dance; it is the Crimson Rose of 49 Petals, and the Pillars are the Cross with which it is conjoined. And between the pillars shoot out rays of pure green fire; and now all the pillars are golden. She ceases to dance, and dwindles, gathering herself into the centre of the Rose.

Now it is seen that the Rose is a vast ampitheatre, with seven tiers, each tier divided into seven partitions. And they that sit in the Amphitheatre are the seven grades of the Order of the Rosy Cross. This Amphitheatre is built of rose-coloured marble, and of its size I can say only that the sun might be used as a ball to be thrown by the players in the arena. But in the arena there is a little altar of emerald,^{1 2} and its top has the heads of the Four Beasts, in turquoise and rock-crystal.³ And the floor of the arena is ridged like a grating of lapis lazuli.⁴ And it is full of pure quicksilver.⁵

¹ This is a form of babalon. There is a reference to the story of Salome in the Lesser Mysteries of the Dagger and Disk, in the cult of “the God John.” “John” is “on”—Oannes, Nu, Noah, Jonah, etc., the Sun entering the watery sign of Cancer (the sign of the Whale, Ark, etc.) at the Summer Solstice. [The ms notes “Nuit = Babalon. Herodas and Salome legend is this.”]

² The colour of $, Love. This is the basis of the Act of Worship.

³ Sacred to the Sphere of the Stars, and to Malkuth, the Sphere of Earth, respectively.

⁴ The Body of Nuit, the star-strewn Blue.

⁵ The Universal Mercury, instrument of the Constant Change and Flux which constitutes Life.

Above the altar is a veiled Figure, whose name is Pan. Those in the outer tier adore him as a Man; and in the next tier they adore him as a Goat; and in the next tier they adore him as a Ram; and in the next tier they adore him as a Crab; and in the next tier they adore him as an Ibis; and in the next tier they adore him as a Golden Hawk; and in the next tier they adore him not.¹

And now the light streameth out from the altar, splashed out by the feet of him that is above it. It is the Holy Twelvefold Table of OIT.^{1 2}

The voice of him that is above the altar is silence, but the echo thereof cometh back from the walls of the circus, and is speech. And this is the speech: Three and four are the days of a quarter of the moon, and on the seventh day is the sabbath, but thrice four is the Sabbath of the Adepts whereof the form is revealed in the /Ethyr ZID; that is the eighth of the Aires.³ And the mysteries of the Table shall not be wholly revealed, nor shall they be revealed herein. But thou shall gather of the sweat of thy brow a pool of clear water wherein this shall be revealed. And of the oil that thou burnest in the midnight shall be gathered together thirteen rivers

¹ That is, in the lowest grade of the Second Order 5°=6°, “God” is worshipped under the form of a Man (Tiphareth). In 6°=5°, he seems a Goat (Mendes Khem). In 7°=4“, a Ram (Amoun). In 8°=3°, a Crab (connected with the Star-Sponge Vision). In 9°=2°, an Ibis (Thoth). In 10°=l° a Golden Hawk (Ra-Hoor-Khuit). Above this (Kether), He is the Negative only. <Man = Tiphareth. Goat = Geburah. Ram = Chesed (Amoun). Crab = Binah (V and Hermit Crab). Ibis = Chok-mah (?). Hawk = Kether.>

² [See “Liber 84,” The Equinox 1(7), plate I.] This Table reads:

Figure 7. The Holy Twelvefold Table.

³ The Seven are the Inferiors, unless the reference be to babalon, as in the table of 49 squares. Twelve refers to Hua (RIH = 12) and the Zodiac. The interweaving of Multiplication is to the juxtaposition of Addition as is Chemical Combination to Mechanical Mixture.

of blessing; and of the oil and the water I will prepare a wine to intoxicate the young men and the maidens.¹

And now the Table is become the universe; every star is a letter of the Book of Enoch. And the Book of Enoch is drawn therefrom by an inscrutable Mystery, that is known only to the Angels and the Holy Sevenfold Table.^{1 2} While I have been gazing upon this table, an Adept has come forth, one from each tier, except the inmost Tier.

And the first³ drove a dagger into my heart, and tasted⁴ the blood, and said: KaOapo?, KaOapos, KaOapos, KaOapds, KaOapos, KaOapo?.⁵

And the second⁶ Adept has been testing the muscles of my right arm and shoulder, and he says: fortis, fortis, fortis, fortis, fortis.⁷

And the third⁸ Adept examines the skin and tastes the sweat of my left arm, and says:

TAN, TAN, TAN, TAN.⁹

And the fourth^{10 11} Adept examines my neck, and seems to approve, though he says nothing;¹¹ and he hath opened the right half of my brain, and he makes some examination, and says: “Samajh, samajh, samajh.”¹²

¹ Cf. the Zohar for 13 rivers of Holy Oil that flow down the Beard of Macroprosopus. (These are the first 13 letters.) [See Knorr von Rosenroth, The Kabbalah Unveiled, trans. Mathers, chap. 23.]

² See 22nd Aire for a fuller indication of this Mystery, and infra.

³ 5°=6°.

⁴ [The ms has “tested”; this passage has both usages.]

⁵ This Adept guards Tiphareth, and tests the Heart (which pertains thereto) for its purity (icadapds’ = pure) six times; 6 being the number of Tiphareth.

⁶ 6°=5°.

⁷ Similarly, the right arm (of Geburah) five times. Fortis means strong.

8 7°-4°

⁹ Similarly, the left arm (of Chesed) four times, for the Virtue of Chesed, Mercy. (See 17th Aire.)

¹⁰ 8°=3°.

¹¹ The neck is of Daath which is not a Sephira, and so has no number or corresponding symbol.

¹² This part of the brain is of Binah (3). “Samajh” [Skt., samdjna] means understanding. That is, he admitted the right of the Seer to the grade of Magister Templi.

And the fifth Adept examines the left half of my brain, and then holds up his hand in protest, and says “plA...”¹ (I cannot get the sentence, but the meaning is: In the thick darkness the seed awaiteth spring.)^{1 2}

And now am I again rapt in contemplation of that universe of letters which are stars.

The words orlo, ilro, tule are three most secret names of God. They are Magick names, each having an interpretation of the same kind as the interpretation of I.N.R.I., and the name oit, rlu, lrl, ooe are other names of God, that contain magical formula;, the first to invoke fire; the second, water; the third, air; and the fourth, earth.³

And if the Table be read diagonally, every letter, and every combination of letters, is the name of a devil. And from these are drawn the formulae of evil magick.⁴ But the holy letter I above the triad lll dominateth the Table, and preserveth the peace of the universe.⁵

And in the seven talismans about the central Table are contained the Mysteries of drawing forth the letters. And the letters of the circumference declare the glory of Nuit, that beginneth from Aries.⁶

All this while the Adepts have been chanting as it were an oratorio for seven instruments. And this oratorio hath one dominant

¹ The Seer was not worthy of the Grade of Magus. Note that each Adept uses a different language, [pla, tfbs, is the Hidden Wonder, a title of Kether. See “Commentary to Liber LXV,” The Equinox IV(1), p. 160, where Crowley defines it as “the instantaneous destruction of the ego in samadhi.” The word “pele” appears on the ring given to John Dee by the angel Michael in Sloane 3188.]

² <Seer has right to 8°=3°; but though the seed of 9°=2^D is in him, he is not ready.>

³ All these practical Mysteries must be worked out by the student himself. Any formula given by the Annotator would probably be “dead” in the hands of another man.

⁴ See previous note.

⁵ The easiest explanation of this is to suppose that the letters are not attributed as usual (i.e., I to Z, L to ®), but taken for their English shape: I the Middle Pillar, L the Square—but this is far from satisfactory.

⁶ Note that the corner letters in this Table are all B = W.

theme of rapture. Yet it applieth to every detail of the universe as well as to the whole. And herein is Choronzon brought utterly to ruin, that all his work is against his will, not only in the whole, but in every part thereof, even as a fly that walketh upon a berylstone.

And the tablet blazeth ever brighter till it filleth the whole Aire. And behold! there is one God therein, and the letters of the stars in his crown, Orion, and the Pleiades, and Aldebaran, and¹ Alpha Centauri, and Cor Leonis, and Cor Scorpionis, and Spica, and the pole-star, and Hercules, and Regulus, and Aquila, and the Ram’s Eye.^{1 2}

And upon a map of the stars shalt thou draw the sigil of that name; and because also some of the letters are alike, thou shalt know that the stars also have tribes and nations.³ The letter of a star is but the totem thereof. And the letter representeth not the whole nature of the star, but each star must be known by itself in the wisdom of him that hath the Cynocephalus in leash.⁴

And this pertaineth unto the grade of a Magus,—and that is beyond thine. (All this is communicated not by voice, or by writing; and there is no form in the stone, but only the brilliance of the Table. And now I am withdrawn from all that, but the Rosy Cross of 49 petals is set upright upon the summit of a pyramid, and all is dark, because of the exceeding light behind.)

And there cometh a voice: The fly cried unto the ox, “Beware! Strengthen thyself. Set thy feet firmly upon the earth, for it is my purpose to alight between thy shoulders, and I would not harm thee.” So also are they who wish well unto the Masters of the Pyramid.

¹ [The MS has the deleted passage “other stars I cannot read beginning with A.”]

² <Plutarch, De Iside et Osiride 21, 22, 38, 61, and Diodorus Siculus i. 27.4, say Isis was in Sirius, Horus in Orion, Typhon in the Great Bear. Hence “omne malum a septentrionfis] pendentur" [Lat., “all evil is dependent on the Great Bear”].>

³ I.e., there are different systems of physical motion for certain groups.

⁴ I.e., Thoth. The attribution of the fixed stars to the Enochian Alphabet has not been worked out. It pertains to the Grade of Magus, and would have no interest or meaning for those of lower grades.

And the bee said unto the flower: “Give me of thine honey,” and the flower gave richly thereof; but the bee, though he wit it not, carried the seed of the flower into many fields of sun. So also are they that take unto themselves the Masters of the Pyramid for servants.

Now the exceeding light that was behind the Pyramid, and the Rosy Cross that is set thereon, hath fulfilled the whole Aire. The black Pyramid is like the back of a black diamond. Also the Rosy Cross is loosened, and the petals of the Rose are the mingled hues of sunset and of dawn; and the Cross is the Golden light of noon, and in the heart of the Rose there is the secret light that men call midnight.

And a voice: “Glory to God and thanksgiving to God, and there is no God but God. And He is exalted; He is great; and in the Sevenfold Table is His Name writ openly, and in the Twelvefold Table is His Name concealed.”

And the Pyramid casts a shadow of itself into the sky, and the shadow spreads over the whole stone. And an angel clad in blue and scarlet, with golden wings and plumes of purple fire, comes forth and scatters disks of green and gold, filling all the Aire. And they become swiftly-whirling wheels, singing together.

And the voice of the angel cries: Gather up thy garments about thee,¹ O thou that hast entered the circle of the Sabbath; for in thy grave-clothes shouldest thou behold the resurrection.

The flesh hangeth upon thee like his rags upon a beggar that is a pilgrim to the shrine of the Exalted One. Nevertheless, bear them bravely, and rejoice in the beauty thereof, for the company of the pilgrims is a glad company, and they have no care, and with song and dance and wine and fair women do they make merry. And every hostel is their palace, and every maid their queen.

Gather up thy garments about thee, I say, for the voice of the TEthyr, that is the voice of the /Eon, is ended, and thou art

¹ Since the examination in the amphitheatre I have been a naked spirit without garments or anything; by garments he means the body.

absorbed into the lesser night, and caught in the web of the light of thy mother in the word arbadaharba,

And now the five and the six are divorced,^{1 2} and I am come again within my body.

Bou-Saada.

December 3, 1909. 9:15 to 11:10 a.m.

The Cry of the 14TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED VTA³

There come into the stone a white goat, a green dragon, and a tawny bull.⁴ But they pass away immediately. There is a veil of such darkness before the .ZEthyr that it seems impossible to pierce it. But there is a voice saying: Behold, the Great One of the Night of Time⁵ stirreth, and with his tail he churneth up the slime, and of the foam thereof shall he make stars. And in the

¹ abrahadabra spelt backwards, to reverse its formula, that of uniting the five with the six. See the next paragraph.

² Because of saying abrahadabra, 418, backwards.

³ [Given in error as vti in Neuburg’s holograph ms and all editions; UTI is the name of the 25th /Ethyr. As the reading vta is in the notebook Crowley used in the working, as well as “Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” Casaubon, p. 209, and the Dee-Kelly mss, the error must have originated with Neuburg, vta = = ^31 = 79.

Crowley’s original note on this AEthyr (as vti) was moved to note 2 on p. 62. Two instances of “vti” in the text have been corrected.]

⁴ The Bull was probably seen in mistake for a Stag. Then v = i? = the Goat. T = S3 = the Dragon. I = /, the Stag.

⁵ This is Saturn. He is conceived as a Dragon, Theli. He is referred to Binah.

battle of the Python¹ and the Sphinx shall the glory be to the Sphinx, but the victory to the Python.

Now the veil of darkness is formed of a very great number of exceedingly fine black veils, and one tears them off one at a time. And the voice says, There is no light or knowledge or beauty or stability^{1 2} in the Kingdom of the Grave, whither thou goest. And the worm is crowned. All that thou wast hath he eaten up, and all that thou art is his pasture until to-morrow. And all that thou shalt be is nothing. Thou who wouldst enter the domain of the Great One of the Night of Time, this burden must thou take up. Deepen not a superficies.³

But I go on tearing down the veil that I may behold the vision of vta, and hear the voice thererof. And there is a voice: He hath drawn the black bean. And another voice answers it: Not otherwise could he plant the Rose. And the first voice: He hath drunk of the waters of death. The answer: Not otherwise could he water the Rose. And the first voice: He hath burnt himself at the Fires of life. And the answer: Not otherwise could he sun the Rose. And the first voice is so faint that I cannot hear it. But the answer is: Not otherwise could he pluck the Rose.⁴

And still I go on, struggling with the blackness. Now there is an earthquake. The veil is torn into thousands of pieces that go flying away in a whirling wind. And there is an all-glorious Angel before me, standing in the sign of Apophis and Typhon.⁵ On his Forehead is a star, but all about him is darkness, and the crying of beasts. And there are lamps moving in the darkness.

¹ The Sphinx is of the Four Elements, referred to the path of fl = .

The Python is the Great Snake that surrounds and devours the Universe. This is his victory; glory is a function of the manifested existence of the Sphinx.

² On the Middle Pillar: Kether, Daath, Tiphareth, Yesod. Thus the spine of Existence itself is destroyed in this Initiation.

³ An Injunction of Zoroaster. It is useless to seek the Soul of Things beneath their surface; For their surface is their Soul! [The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster, §152, ed. Westcott, paraphrase.]

⁴ To accomplish the Great Work in Tiphareth one must be an initiate of Binah, its Mother.

⁵ He is about to destroy.

And the Angel says: Depart! For thou must invoke me only in the darkness. Therein will I appear, and reveal unto thee the Mystery of vta. For the Mystery thereof is great and terrible. And it shall not be spoken in sight of the sun.

Therefore I withdraw myself. (Thus far the vision upon Da’leh Addin,¹ a mountain in the desert near Bou-Saada.)^{1 2}

December 3. 2:50-3:15 p.m.

The Angel re-appears.

The blackness gathers about, so thick, so clinging, so penetrating, so oppressive, that all the other darkness that I have ever conceived would be like bright light beside it.³

His voice comes in a whisper: O thou that art master of the fifty gates of Understanding, is not my mother a black woman? O thou that art master of⁴ the Pentagram, is not the egg of spirit a black egg?⁵ Here abideth terror, and the blind ache of the Soul, and lo! even I, who am the sole light, a spark shut up, stand in the sign of Apophis and Typhon.

I am the snake that devoureth the spirit of man with the lust of light. I am the sightless storm in the night that wrappeth the world about with desolation. Chaos is my name, and thick darkness. Know thou that the darkness of the earth is ruddy, and the darkness of the air is grey, but the darkness of the soul is utter blackness.

¹ [The ms originally gave the place as Djebel Zaab, and the date and time at the end of the Tithyr, with the place given as Daleh Uzdu.J

² There was also an instruction to build a Temple of stones, with Altar and Circle. There was a public Sacrifice offered to the God Pan, by the Rite of xi° o.T.o. See [The Temple of Solomon the King,] The Equinox 1(10), pp. 114-115. < [Variant:] This was followed immediately by the building of the Temple, and the Great Sacrifice in the sight of the Sun. See [ibid.].> [See Introduction, pp. 21-22 infra.]

³ This is the absolute negation of Light, which is Binah. For She absorbs it perfectly.

⁴ [The ms has the deleted phrase “the topmost point of.”]

⁵ Akdsa, the tattva (element) of Spirit, is a black egg, symbolically. It is the darkness in which all things are conceived.

The egg of the spirit is a basilisk egg, and the gates of the understanding are fifty, that is the sign of the Scorpion.¹ The pillars about the neophyte are crowned with flame, and the vault of the Adepts is lighted by the Rose. And in the abyss is the eye of the hawk.^{1 2} But upon the great sea shall the Master of the Temple find neither star nor moon.

And I was about to answer him: “The light is within me.” But before I could frame the words, he answered me with the great word³ that is the Key of the Abyss.⁴ And he said: Thou hast entered the night; dost thou yet lust for day? Sorrow is my name, and affliction. I am girt about with tribulation. Here still hangs the Crucified One, and here the Mother weeps over the children that she hath not borne. Sterility is my name, and desolation. Intolerable is thine ache, and incurable thy wound. I said, Let the darkness cover me; and behold, I am compassed about with the blackness that hath no name. O thou, who hast cast down the light into the earth, so must thou do for ever. And the light of the sun shall not shine upon thee, and the moon shall not lend thee of her lustre, and the stars shall be hidden, because thou art passed beyond these things, beyond the need of these things, beyond the desire of these things.

What I thought were shapes of rocks, rather felt than seen, now appear to be veiled Masters, sitting absolutely still and silent. Nor can any one be distinguished from the others.

And the Angel sayeth: Behold where thine Angel hath led thee! Thou didst ask fame, power and pleasure, health and wealth and love, and strength, and length of days. Thou didst hold life with eight tentacles, like an octopus. Thou didst seek the four powers and the seven delights and the twelve emancipations and the two and twenty Privileges and the nine and forty Manifestations, and lo! thou art become as one of These. Bowed are their backs,

¹ The fifty gates of Binah have been variously explained. They do not appear to be of any great importance; it is only their number which is significant. The reference is to 3 = 50 = TTL, Atu XIII, “Death.”

² Reference to previous ceremonies of Initiation.

³ <taro? No. I think N.o.x.>

⁴ n.o.x. = 0 = 210.

whereon resteth the universe. Veiled are their faces, that have beheld the glory Ineffable.

These adepts seem like Pyramids—their hoods and robes are like Pyramids.

And the Angel sayeth: Verily is the Pyramid a Temple of Initiation. Verily also is it a tomb.¹ Thinkest thou that there is life within the Masters of the Temple, that sit hooded, encamped upon the Sea? Verily, there is no life in them.

Their sandals were the pure light, and they have taken them from their feet and cast them down through the abyss, for this /Ethyr is holy ground.

Herein no forms appear, and the vision of God face to face, that is transmuted in the Athanor called dissolution, or hammered into one in the forge of meditation, is in this place but a blasphemy and a mockery.

And the Beatific Vision is no more, and the glory of the Most High is no more. There is no more knowledge. There is no more bliss. There is no more power. There is no more beauty. For this is the Palace of Understanding: for thou art one with the Primeval things.

Drink in the myrrh of my speech, that is bruised with the gall of the roc, and dissolved in the ink of the cuttle-fish, and perfumed with the deadly nightshade.

This is thy wine, who wast drunk upon the wine of lacchus. And for bread shalt thou eat salt, O thou on the corn of Ceres that didst wax fat! For as pure being is pure nothing, so is pure wisdom pure ----,^{1 2} and so is pure understanding silence, and

stillness, and darkness. The eye is called seventy, and the triple aleph whereby thou perceivest it, divideth into the number of the terrible word that is the Key of the Abyss.³

¹ It is also a Phallus, which dies itself to communicate Life to others.

² I suppose that only a Magus could have heard this word. < [P.S.] It is Becoming, or Chance.> It seems to be “Inertia” or some equivalent. It is the reverse of the three Binah qualities, to balance them: Speech, and Motion, and Light.

³ 70 + 333 = .210. The process of reducing the Dyad to Zero, which at once becomes again the Dyad, is recurrent; the Cycle of Existence and non-Existence.

I am Hermes, that am sent from the Father to expound all things discreetly in these the last words that thou shalt hear before thou take thy seat among these, whose eyes are sealed up, and whose ears are stopped, and whose mouths are clenched, who are folded in upon themselves, the liquor of whose bodies is dried up, so that nothing remains but a little pyramid of dust.

And that bright light of comfort, and that piercing sword of truth, and all that power and beauty that they have made of themselves, is cast from them, as it is written, “I saw Satan like lightning fall from Heaven.”¹ And as a flaming sword is it dropt through the abyss, where the four beasts keep watch and ward. And it appeareth in the heaven of Jupiter^{1 2} as a morning star, or as an evening star.³ And the light thereof shineth even unto the earth, and bringeth hope and help to them that dwell in the darkness of thought, and drink of the poison of life. Fifty are the gates⁴ of understanding, and one hundred and six⁵ are the seasons thereof. And the name of every season⁶ is Death.

During all this speech, the figure of the Angel has dwindled and flickered, and now it is gone out.

And I come back in the body, rushing like a flame in a great wind. And the shew-stone has become warm, and in it is its own light.

Bou-Saada.

December 3, 1909. 9:50-11:15 p.m.⁷

¹ [Luke 10:18.]

² <Different Masters of the Temple may be cast out into different spheres, I think. E.g., [Frater] O.I.V.V.I.O. [Charles Stansfeld Jones] in Sph[ere] X [Malkuth].>

³ The samkharas [S£t]—the constituent elements—of the man that has become a Master of the Temple, are reconstituted below the Abyss so that they can function as an Exempt Adept. But their permanent function is in that grade to which their “centre of gravity” (so to speak) tends.

⁴ 50 = m, = 1.

⁵ pi = 106.

⁶ These “seasons” (in the case of the Seer) proved to be lunar months.

⁷ [The ms has an astrological chart for 11:20 p.m. Part IV of Book 4, gave a slightly different chart, for 11:15. See Figure 30, p. 299.]

The Cry of the 13TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED ZIM¹

Into the Stone there cometh an image of shining waters, glistening in the sun. Unfathomable is their beauty, for they are limpid, and the floor is of gold. Yet the sense thereof is of fruitlessness.

And an Angel cometh forth, of pure pale gold, walking upon the water. Above his head is a rainbow, and the water foams beneath his feet. And he saith: Before his face am I come that hath the thirty-three thunders of increase in his hand. From the golden water shalt thou gather corn.^{1 2}

All the Aire behind him is gold, but it opens as it were a veil. There are two terrible black giants, wrestling in mortal hatred. And there is a little bird upon a bush, and the bird flaps its wings. Thereat the strength of the giants snaps, and they fall in heaps to the earth, as though all their bones were suddenly broken.³

And now waves of light roll through the /Ethyr, as if they were playing. Therefore suddenly I am in a garden, upon a terrace of a great castle, that is upon a rocky mountain.⁴ In the garden are fountains and many flowers. There are girls also in the garden, tall, slim, delicate and pale.⁵ And now I see that the flowers are the girls, for they change from one to another; so varied, and lucent, and harmonious is all this garden, that it seems like a great opal.

¹ zim = Si / ~. See, in the Aire, the Solar symbolism of the opening, the Transmutation ideas of the middle, and the Saturnian ending.

² This pure pale gold is the symbol of the dawning Life, arisen after passing through the Night of the 14th Aire.

³ This is a parable of the Illusion of Matter, whose vast horror is destroyed by the moving of the wings of Initiation.

⁴ There is here a memory-picture of the Alhambra, or something like it.

⁵ [The ms omits “tall, slim, delicate and pale” and reads “rather like Burne-Jones girls.”]

A voice comes: This water which thou seest is¹ called the water of death.^{1 2} But nemo hath filled therefrom our springs.

And I said: Who is nemo?

And the voice answered: A dolphin’s tooth, and a ram’s horns, and the hand of a man that is hanged, and the phallus of a goat.^{3 4} (By this I understand that nun is explained by shin, and he by resh, and mem by yod, and ayin by tau? nemo is therefore called 165 = 11 x 15; and is in himself 910 = 91 Amen x 10; and 13 x 70 = The One Eye, Achad Ayin.)⁵

And now there cometh an Angel into the garden, but he hath not any of the attributes of the former Angels, for he is like a young man, dressed in white linen robes.

And he saith: No man hath beheld the face of my Father. Therefore he that hath beheld it is called nemo. And know thou that every man that is called nemo hath a garden that he ten-deth.⁶ And every garden that is and flourisheth hath been prepared from the desert by nemo, watered with the waters that were called death.

And I say unto him: To what end is the garden prepared?

And he saith: First for the beauty and delight thereof; and next because it is written, “And Tetragrammaton Elohim planted a garden eastward in Eden.”⁷ And lastly, because though every flower bringeth forth a maiden, yet is there one flower that shall bring forth a man-child. And his name shall be called nemo,

¹ [The ms has “was.”]

² The Great Sea of Binah—darkness.

³ N = 2, the fish (dolphin); E = T, the ram; M = Atu XII = “The Hanged Man”; o = , the Goat. [This note relies on Crowley’s old

attributions for and H; see his later attributions in The Book of Thoth (1944), pp. 38-40: Atu IV = K = T and Atu XVII = H = —.]

⁴ 910 = D’EH = Beginning. These attributions explain the nature of nemo, the Master of the Temple.

⁵ [A ms note clarifies this Hebrew letter-substitution. “X7QH2 = 165 = 11 x 15. FI'CTI = 910 - 13 x 70 = the Eye [i? = 70] that is One [inK

. =13].”]   .....

⁶ Every Magister Templi has a Work to do for the world. <This [garden] is the world; also, the world of disciples; also, perhaps, the world of one’s mistresses.>

⁷ [Gen. 2:8.]

when he beholdeth the face of my Father. And he that tendeth the garden seeketh not to single out the flower that shall be nemo. He doeth naught but tend the garden.

And I said: Pleasant indeed is the garden,¹ and light is the toil of tending it, and great is the reward.

And he said: Bethink thee that nemo hath beheld the face of my Father. In Him is only Peace.

And I said: Are all gardens like unto this garden?

And he waved his hand, and in the Aire across the valley appeared an island of coral, rosy, with green palms and fruittrees, in the midst of the bluest of the seas.^{1 2}

And he waved his hand again, and there appeared a valley shut in by mighty snow mountains, and in it were pleasant streams of water, rushing through, and broad rivers, and lakes covered with lilies.³

And he waved his hand again, and there was a vision, as it were of an oasis in the desert.⁴

And again he waved his hand, and there was a dim country with grey rocks, and heather, and gorse, and bracken.⁵

And he waved his hand yet again, and there was⁶ a park, and a small house therein, surrounded by yews.⁷ This time the house opens, and I see in it an old man, sitting by the table. He is blind. Yet he writeth in a great book, constantly. I see what he is writing: “The words of the Book are as the leaves of the flowers in the garden. Many indeed of these my songs shall go forth as maidens, but there is one among them, which one I know not, that shall be a man-child, whose name shall be nemo, when he hath beheld the face of the Father, and become blind.”

¹ All this is to instruct the Magister Templi in his duties.

² The South Seas. <Pacific.>

³ Kashmir.

⁴ The Sahara.

⁵ The Highlands of Scotland.

⁶ [The ms has “is.”]

⁷ A certain Secret House of the Great White Brotherhood. Yews, and certain other trees, as Persian Nuts, are used to indicate to passing Initiates that they have there a resting-place.

(All this vision is most extraordinarily pleasant and peaceful, entirely without strength or ecstasy, or any positive quality, but equally free from the opposites of any of those qualities.) And the young man seems to read my thought, which is, that I should love to stay in this garden and do nothing for ever; for he sayeth to me: Come with me, and behold how nemo tendeth his garden.¹

So we enter the earth, and there is a veiled figure, in absolute darkness. Yet it is perfectly possible to see in it, so that the minutest details do not escape us. And upon the root of one flower he pours acid so that that root writhes as if in torture. And another he cuts, and the shriek is like the shriek of a mandrake, torn up by the roots. And another he chars with fire, and yet another he anoints with oil.

And I said: Heavy is the labour, but great indeed is the reward.

And the young man answered me: He shall not see the reward: he tendeth the garden.^{1 2}

And I said: What shall come unto him?

And he said: This thou canst not know, nor is it revealed by the letters that are the totems of the stars, but only by the stars.

And he says to me, quite disconnectedly: The man of earth is the adherent. The lover giveth his life unto the work among men. The hermit goeth solitary, and giveth only of his light unto men.³

And I ask him: Why does he tell me that?

And he says: I tell thee not. Thou tellest thyself, for thou hast pondered thereupon for many days, and hast not found light. And now that thou art called nemo, the answer to every riddle that thou hast not found shall spring up in thy mind, unsought. Who can tell upon what day a flower shall bloom?⁴

And thou shalt give thy wisdom unto the world, and that shall be thy garden. And concerning time and death, thou hast naught to do with these things. For though a precious stone be hidden in the sand of the desert, it shall not heed for the wind of the desert,

¹ Now follow further instructions to the Master of the Temple, how he is to do His work.

² Otherwise: “Art for Art’s sake.”

³ See Liber AL 1:40. These are the three true grades of the Great Order.

⁴ This certainly happened.

although it be but sand. For the worker of works hath worked thereupon; and because it is clear, it is invisible; and because it is hard, it moveth not.

All these words are heard by everyone that is called nemo. And with that doth he apply himself to understanding. And he must understand the virtue of the waters of death, and he must understand the virtue of the sun and the wind, and of the worm that turneth the earth, and of the stars that roof in the garden. And he must understand the separate nature and property of every flower, or how shall he tend his garden?

And I said to him: Concerning the Vision and the Voice, I would know if these things be of the essence of the /Ethyr, or of the essence of the seer.¹

And he answers: It is of the essence of him that is called nemo, combined with the essence of the /Ethyr, for from the 1st /Ethyr to the 15th /Ethyr, there is no vision and no voice, save for him that is called nemo. And he that seeketh the vision and the voice therein is led away by dog-faced demons that show no sign of truth, seducing from the Sacred Mysteries, unless his name be NEMO.

And hadst thou not been fitted, thou too hadst been led away, for before the gate of the 15th /Ethyr, is this written: He shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie.^{1 2} And again it is written: The Lord hardened Pharaoh’s heart.³ And again it is written that God tempteth man.⁴ But thou hadst the word and the sign, and thou hadst authority from thy superior,⁵ and licence.⁶ And thou hast done well in that thou didst not dare, and in that thou dost dare.⁷ For daring is not presumption.

¹ The Seer inquires into the Objectivity of the Vision. These doubts arose in his mind because of the memory-pictures in the earlier paragraphs.

² [II Thes. 2:11, paraphrase.]

³ [Exod. 10:27, 11:10.]

⁴ [Gen. 22:1; cf. James 1:13.]

⁵ <D.D.S.>

⁶ Conferred December 1906 E.v.

⁷ O.M. refused for three years to take the grade of 8°=3° after it was offered him. He thought it almost presumption, taking it now.

And he said moreover: Thou dost well to keep silence, for I perceive how many questions arise in thy mind; yet already thou knowest that the answering, as the asking, must be vain. For nemo hath all in himself. He hath come where there is no light or knowledge, only when he needeth them no more.

And then we bow silently, giving a certain sign, called the Sign of Isis Rejoicing.¹ And then he remaineth to ward the Tthyr, while I return unto the bank of sand that is the bed of the river near the desert.

The River-bed near Bou-Saada.

December 4, 1909. 2:10-3:45 p.m.

The Cry of the izth /Ethyr,

WHICH IS CALLED LOE^{1 2}

There appear in the stone two pillars of flame, and in the midst is a chariot of white fire.

This seems to be the chariot of the Seventh Key of the Tarot. But it is drawn by four sphinxes, diverse, like the four sphinxes upon the door of the vault of the adepts, counterchanged in their component parts.

The chariot itself is the lunar crescent, waning. The canopy is supported by eight pillars of amber. These pillars are upright, and yet the canopy which they support is the whole vault of the night.

The charioteer is a man in golden armour, studded with sapphires, but over his shoulders is a white robe, and over that a red robe. Upon his golden helmet he beareth for his crest a crab. His hands are clasped upon a cup,³ from which radiates a ruddy glow,

¹ Giving suck to Babe held in left arm [Mater Triumphans]. [See Book

4 (Parts I-IV), rev. ed., Figure 33p.]

² loe = ® £L 1g⁷. These are all aspects of babalon.

³ The true Sangraal, of which the Christian legend is a perversion.

constantly increasing, so that everything is blotted out by its glory, and the whole Aire is filled with it.

And there is a marvelous perfume in the Aire, like unto the perfume of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, but sublimated, as if the quintessence of that perfume alone were burnt. For it hath the richness and voluptuousness and humanity of blood, and the strength and freshness of meal, and the sweetness of honey, and the purity of olive-oil, and the holiness of that oil which is made of myrrh, and cinnamon, and galangal.¹

The charioteer speaks in a low, solemn voice, awe-inspiring, like a very large and very distant bell: Let him look upon the cup whose blood is mingled therein, for the wine of the cup is the blood of the saints. Glory unto the Scarlet Woman, Babylon the Mother of Abominations, that rideth upon the Beast,^{1 2} for she hath spilt their blood in every corner of the earth, and lo! she hath mingled it in the cup of her whoredom.

With the breath of her kisses hath she fermented it, and it hath become the wine of the Sacrament, the wine of the Sabbath; and in the Holy Assembly hath she poured it out for her worshippers, and they have become drunken thereon, so that face to face have they beheld my Father. Thus are they made worthy to become partakers of the Mystery of this holy vessel, for the blood is the life. So sitteth she from age to age, and the righteous are never weary of her kisses, and by her murders and fornications she seduceth the world. Therein is manifested the glory of my Father, who is truth.

(This wine is such that its virtue radiateth through the cup, and I reel under the intoxication of it. And every thought is destroyed by it. It abideth alone, and its name is Compassion. I understand by “Compassion,” the sacrament of suffering, partaken of by the true worshippers of the Highest. And it is an ecstasy in which there is no trace of pain. Its passivity (= passion) is like the giving-up of the self to the beloved.)

¹ See Liber AL 111:23-25. The recipe for the oil is given in The Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage. [See Works Cited, under Abraham.]

² As in Atu XI. [See Rev. 17:3-6.]

The voice continues: This is the Mystery of Babylon, the Mother of abominations, and this is the mystery of her adulteries, for she hath yielded up herself to everything that liveth, and hath become a partaker in its mystery. And because she hath made herself the servant of each, therefore is she become the mistress of all. Not as yet canst thou comprehend her glory.

Beautiful art thou, O Babylon, and desirable, for thou hast given thyself to everything that liveth, and thy weakness hath subdued their strength.¹ For in that union thou didst understand. Therefore art thou called Understanding, O Babylon, Lady of the Night!

This is that which is written, “O my God, in one last rapture let me attain to the union with the many.”^{1 2} For she is Love, and her love is one, and she hath divided the one love into infinite loves, and each love is one, and equal with The One, and therefore is she passed “from the assembly and the law and the enlightenment unto the anarchy of solitude and darkness. For ever thus must she veil the brilliance of Her Self.”³

O Babylon, Babylon, thou mighty Mother, that ridest upon the crowned beast, let me be drunken upon the wine of thy fornications; let thy kisses wanton me unto death, that even I, thy cupbearer, may understand.

Now, through the ruddy glow of the cup, I may perceive far above, and infinitely great, the vision of Babylon.⁴ And the Beast whereon she rideth is the Lord of the City of the Pyramids, that I beheld in the fourteenth /Ethyr.

Now that is gone in the glow of the cup, and the Angel saith: Not as yet mayest thou understand the mystery of the Beast, for it pertaineth not unto the mystery of this Aire, and few that are new-born unto Understanding are capable thereof.⁵

¹ Cf. the Tao Te Ching; also The Book of Lies, Cap. 4.

² See “Liber VII” VII:41.

³ See “Liber VII” VIL43-44.

⁴ [In Yorke’s transcription of Crowley’s ms notes to his copy of “Liber 500,” the numeration of the Greek BaflvXov is 555.]

⁵ It is given in “The Urn” [“Liber 73”]; see also the 6th Aire, wherein the Seer, becoming a Magus, is himself identified with The Beast, 666.

The cup glows ever brighter and fierier. All my sense is unsteady, being smitten with ecstasy.

And the Angel sayeth: Blessed are the saints, that their blood is mingled in the cup, and can never be separate any more. For Babylon the Beautiful, the Mother of abominations, hath sworn by her holy kteis,¹ whereof every point is a pang, that she will not rest from her adulteries until the blood of everything that liveth is gathered therein, and the wine thereof laid up and matured and consecrated, and worthy to gladden the heart of my Father. For my Father is weary with the stress of eld, and cometh not to her bed. Yet shall this perfect wine be the quintessence, and the elixir, and by the draught thereof shall he renew his youth; and so shall it be eternally, as age by age the worlds do dissolve and change, and the universe unfoldeth itself as a Rose, and shutteth itself up as the Cross that is bent into the cube.

And this is the comedy of Pan, that is played at night in the thick forest. And this is the mystery of Dionysus Zagreus, that is celebrated upon the holy mountain of Kithairon. And this is the secret of the brothers of the Rosy Cross; and this is the heart of the ritual that is accomplished in the Vault of the Adepts that is hidden in the Mountain of the Caverns, even the Holy Mountain Abiegnus.^{1 2}

And this is the meaning of the Supper of the Passover,³ the spilling of the blood of the Lamb being a ritual of the Dark Brothers, for they have sealed up the Pylon with blood, lest the Angel of Death should enter therein. Thus do they shut themselves off from the company of the saints. Thus do they keep themselves from compassion and from understanding. Accursed are they, for they shut up their blood in their heart.⁴

¹ [Grk., lit. “comb,” meaning “vulva.” Neuburg transliterated it cteis, given here in Crowley’s preferred transliteration kteis.]

² All these Mysteries are taught in the o.'.T.'.o.'..

³ [Cf. Exod. 12.]

⁴ Here is the first account of the Black Brothers of the Left Hand Path. Each Exempt Adept must choose between the Crossing of the Abyss to become a Master of the Temple, and the building of a False Tower of Egoism therein.

They keep themselves from the kisses of my Mother Babylon, and in their lonely fortresses they pray to the false moon. And they bind themselves together with an oath, and with a great curse. And of their malice they conspire together, and they have power, and mastery, and in their cauldrons do they brew the harsh wine of delusion, mingled with the poison of their selfishness.

Thus they make war upon the Holy One, sending forth their delusion upon men, and upon everything that liveth. So that their false compassion is called compassion, and their false understanding is called understanding, for this is their most potent spell.

Yet of their own poison do they perish, and in their lonely fortresses shall they be eaten up by Time that hath cheated them to serve him, and by the mighty devil Choronzon, their master, whose name is the Second Death,¹ for the blood that they have sprinkled on their Pylon, that is a bar against the Angel Death, is the key by which he entereth in.^{1 2}

The Angel sayeth: And this is the word of double power in the voice of the Master, wherein the Five interpenetrateth the Six.³ This is its secret interpretation that may not be understood, save only of them that understand. And for this is it the Key of the Pylon of Power, because there is no power that may endure, save only the power that descendeth in this my chariot from Babylon, the city of the Fifty Gates, the Gate of the God On {}.⁴

¹ Note that the Death or Love of the Saints is really increased Life. The formula of 156 is constant copulation or samadhi on Everything.

² I think the trouble with these people was, that they wanted to substitute the blood of someone else for their own blood, because they wanted to keep their personalities.

³ ABRAHADABRA.

⁴ = gate; 5k = God; = on (P—70 + 3 —50 = 120). Note that

Her name does not appear properly spelt until the 10th Aire is done. <Note that Seer had no idea how to spell the Name, till he was told by the Angel.> [The ms has ]U, not which was given in

square editorial brackets in the first edition.]

Moreover is On the Key of the Vault that is 120. So also do the Majesty and the Beauty derive from the Supernal Wisdom.¹

But this is a mystery utterly beyond thine understanding. For Wisdom is the Man, and Understanding the Woman, and not until thou hast perfectly understood canst thou begin to be wise. But I reveal unto thee a mystery of the /Ethyrs, that not only are they bound up with the Sephiroth, but also with the Paths. Now, the plane of the /Ethyrs interpenetrateth and surroundeth the universe wherein the Sephiroth are established, and therefore is the order of the TEthyrs not the order of the Tree of Life. And only in a few places do they coincide. But the knowledge of the TEthyrs is deeper than the knowledge of the Sephiroth, for that in the yEth-yrs is the knowledge of the yEons, and of &eXiyp.a. And to each shall it be given according to his capacity. (He has been saying certain secret things to the unconscious mind of the seer, of a personal nature.)

Now a voice comes from without: And lo! I saw you to the end.

And a great bell begins to toll. And there come six little children out of the floor of the chariot, and in their hands is a veil so fine and transparent that it is hardly visible. Yet, when they put it over the Cup, the Angel bowing his head reverently, the light of the Cup goes out entirely. And as the light of the Cup vanishes, it is like a swift sunset in the whole Aire, for it was from the light of that Cup alone that it was lighted.

And now the light is all gone out of the stone, and I am very cold.

Bou-Saada.

December 4-5, 1909. 11:30 v.m.-i:zo a.m.

¹ [The ms has a note that bR 3R2 = 156 = 12 x 13, the Unity of Kether IFIK Rin, for he is manifested in Her, blessed be She. Also 156 is the number of letters in a Watchtower.”]

TRC9

The Cry of the iith /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED IKH¹

There appears in the stone immediately the Kamea^{1 2} of the Moon. And it is rolled up; and behind it there appeareth a great Host of Angels. Their backs are turned towards me, but I can see how tremendous are their arms, which are swords and spears. They have wings upon their helmets and their heels; they are clad in complete armour, and the least of their swords is like the breaking forth of a tremendous storm of lightning. The least of their spears is like a great water-spout. On their shields are the eyes of Tetragrammaton, winged with flame,—white, red, black, yellow and blue. On their flanks are vast squadrons of elephants, and behind them is their meteor-artillery. They that sit upon the elephants are armed with the thunderbolt of Zeus.

Now in all that host there is no motion. Yet they are not resting upon their arms, but tense and vigilant. And between them and me is the God Shu, whom before I did not see, because his force filleth the whole AEthyr.³ And indeed he is not visible in his form. Nor does he come to the seer through any of the senses; he is understood, rather than expressed.

¹ ikh = ZAA = DDK = 361, the Supernal Triad, the Hexagon, and Malkuth, the arrangement of the Tree of Life. Also 361 Adonai haAretz. For it is the Formulation of the Sephiroth which is a barrier of organic structure against the confusion of Matter.

² Kamea—“Magic Square,” containing the Letters corresponding to the numbers (in this case from 1 to 81) so arranged that each line, vertical or horizontal, shall add to the same total.

³ Shu is in Yesod, as the supporter of the Tree of Life, and he is Zeus, the Lord of Air. But also Zeus is the Orderer of all Things.

I perceive that all this army is defended by fortresses, nine mighty towers¹ of iron upon the frontier of the /Ethyr. Each tower is filled with warriors in silver armour.^{1 2} It is impossible to describe the feeling of tension; they are like oarsmen waiting for the gun.

I perceive that an Angel is standing on either side of me; nay, I am in the midst of a company of armed angels, and their captain is standing in front of me. He too is clad in silver armour; and about him, closely wrapped to his body, is a whirling wind,³ so swift that any blow struck against him would be broken.

And he speaketh unto me these words:

Behold, a mighty guard against the terror of things, the fastness of the Most High, the legions of eternal vigilance; these are they that keep watch and ward day and night throughout the aeons. Set in them is all the force of the Mighty One, yet there stir-reth not one plume of the wings of their helmets.

Behold, the foundation of the Holy City, the towers and the bastions thereof! Behold the armies of light that are set against the outermost Abyss, against the horror of emptiness, and the malice of Choronzon. Behold how worshipful is the wisdom of the Master, that he hath set his stability in the all-wandering Air and in the changeful Moon.⁴ In the purple flashes of lightning hath He written the word Eternity, and in the wings of the swallow hath He appointed rest.

By three and by three and by three hath He made firm the foundation against the earthquake that is three. For in the number nine is the changefulness of the numbers brought to naught. For with whatsoever number thou wilt cover it, it appeareth unchanged.⁵

¹ Yesod = 9.

² Silver for the moon of Yesod.

³ Yesod is Air.

⁴ Both A and are in Yesod, Stability.

⁵ E.g., 9 x 7 = 63 and 6 + 3 = 9. 9 x 127 = 1143. 1 + 1 + 4 + 3 = 9.

These things are spoken unto him that understandeth, that is a breastplate unto the elephants, or a corselet unto the angels, or a scale upon the towers of iron; yet is this mighty host set only for a defence, and whoso passeth beyond their lines hath no help in them.

Yet must he that understandeth go forth unto the outermost Abyss, and there must he speak with him that is set above the fourfold terror, the Princes of Evil, even with Choronzon, the mighty devil that inhabiteth the outermost Abyss. And none may speak with him, or understand him, but the servants of Babylon, that understand, and they that are without understanding, his servants.

Behold! it entereth not into the heart, nor into the mind of man to conceive this matter; for the sickness of the body is death, and the sickness of the heart is despair, and the sickness of the mind is madness. But in the outermost Abyss is sickness of the aspiration, and sickness of the will, and sickness of the essence of all, and there is neither word nor thought wherein the image of its image is reflected.

And whoso passeth into the outermost Abyss, except he be of them that understand, holdeth out his hands, and boweth his neck, unto the chains of Choronzon. And as a devil he walketh about the earth, immortal, and he blasteth the flowers of the earth, and he corrupteth the fresh air, and he maketh poisonous the water; and the fire that is the friend of man, and the pledge of his aspiration, seeing that it mounteth ever upward as a pyramid, and seeing that man stole it in a hollow tube from Heaven, even that fire he turneth unto ruin, and madness, and fever, and destruction. And thou, that art an heap of dry dust in the city of the pyramids, must understand these things.

And now a thing happens, which is unfortunately sheer nonsense; for the /Ethyr that is the foundation of the universe was attacked by the Outermost Abyss, and the only way that I can express it is by saying that the universe was shaken. But the universe was not shaken. And that is the exact truth; so that the rational mind which is interpreting these spiritual things is offended; but, being trained to obey, it setteth down that which it

doth not understand. For the rational mind indeed reasoneth, but never attaineth unto Understanding; but the Seer is of them that understand.

And the Angel saith:

Behold, He hath established His mercy and His might, and unto His might is added victory, and unto His mercy is added splendour.¹ And all these things hath He ordered in beauty, and He hath set them firmly upon the Eternal Rock, and therefrom He hath suspended His kingdom as one pearl^{1 2} that is set in a jewel of threescore pearls and twelve.³ And He hath garnished it with the Four Holy Living Creatures for Guardians, and He hath graven therein the seal of righteousness,⁴ and He hath burnished it with the fire of His Angel, and the blush of His loveliness informeth it, and with delight and with wit hath He made it merry at the heart, and the core thereof is the Secret of His being, and therein is His name Generation. And this His stability hath the number 80, for that the price thereof is War.⁵

Beware, therefore, O thou who art appointed to understand the secret of the Outermost Abyss, for in every Abyss⁶ thou must assume the mask and form of the Angel thereof. Hadst thou a name, thou wert irrevocably lost. Search, therefore, if there be yet one drop of blood that is not gathered into the cup of Babylon the Beautiful, for in that little pile of dust, if there could be one drop of blood, it should be utterly corrupt; it should breed scorpions and vipers, and the cat of slime.⁷

¹ “For they cross with the currents reflected.”

² Malkuth.

³ The 72 pearls of the Quinaries of the Zodiac. They appear in the XXIst Atu. See “Liber 231,” v. 21.

⁴ The Full Title of Yesod is Tzediq Yesod Olahm [DblP 110’ p'714], “The Righteous is the Foundation of the World.” [Cf. Prov. 10:25.]

⁵ 710', Yesod = 80, the number of B, the letter of Mars.

⁶ [The ms has “yEthyr.”]

⁷ This is the danger which threatens all aspirants to the Grade of Magister Templi. Woe to those who accept it lightly, or without the fullest preparation.

And I said unto the Angel:

Is there not one appointed as a warden?

And he said:

Eloi, Eloi, lama sabacthani.¹

Such an ecstasy of anguish racks me that I cannot give it voice, yet I know it is but as the anguish of Gethsemane. And that is the last word of the ?Ethyr. The outposts are passed, and before the seer extends the outermost Abyss.

I am returned.

Bou-Saada.

December 5, 1909. 10:10-11:35 ^P-^M-

¹ [Aramaic, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Cf. Mark 15:34.]

In nomine BABALON Amen.

Restriction unto Choronzon.¹

The Tenth /Ethyr^{1 2} is called ZAX³

This /Ethyr being accursed, and the seer forewarned, he taketh these precautions for the scribe.

¹ Choronzon is described by Sir Edward Kelly as “that mighty devil,” as the first and deadliest of all the Powers of Evil. [Cf. Casaubon, p. 92.] Rightly so, for although he is not a Person, he is the metaphysical contrary of the whole Process of Magick. [This introductory portion of the 10th /Ethyr was torn out of the MS, and is now lost.]

² The three Governors of this /Ethyr, Lexarph, Comanon, and Tabi-tom, are drawn from the “Little Black Tablet” of Spirit, which united the Four Watchtowers of the Elements. (See [“Liber 84 vel Chanokh, Part I,] The Equinox 1(7), Plate III facing page 234.) The one extra letter, L, is the eighth of the Reversed Letters which appear in the Watchtowers, two in each. The letters of this Black Tablet are used in combination with the pairs of letters beneath the bars of the Calvary Crosses in the Watchtowers to form triliteral names which designate malignant forces. These letters are thus impurities introduced into the perfection of the Elemental Schema. (That they should be attributed to the Element of Spirit, which harmonizes and sanctifies the Four, is a sublime Mystery. The Arcanum is declared— as far as may be—in this Book 418 itself.) The other 7 letters form the Name paraoan, which is the central Governor of the 22nd Aire; but here is a correspondence with I, the central letter of LIN; this Aire discloses the glory of the Table 7x7, which is pure Spirit, the Rose which is the Heart of babalon.

³ zax = 81 Vv. z is the Sun in His southern declination; i.e., at His weakest effect on our hemisphere. Follows the Bull, the type of the “Dying Gods,” and the element of Earth. This letter x occurs only in this, the 15th and the 30th Aires. In the 15th, V is the prima materia, which is treated by being placed between the Pillars of Judgment. In the 30th, it represents the reduction to mere matter of the false structure of the /Eon of the False Formula. Here X is the basis, without constructive possibilities, of the Universe; thus the whole formula represents the weakening of the Energy of the Sun, and the falling into incoherent elements of all that is organized.

First let the scribe be seated in the centre of the circle in the desert sand, and let the circle be fortified by the Holy Names of God—Tetragrammaton and Shaddai El Chai and Ararita.

And let the Demon be invoked within a triangle, wherein is inscribed the name of Choronzon, and about it let him write ANAPHAXETON — ANAPHANETON — PRIMEUMATON, and in the angles mi-ca-el:¹ and at each angle the Seer shall slay a pigeon,^{1 2} and having done this, let him retire to a secret place, where is neither sight nor hearing, and sit within his black robe, secretly invoking the TEthyr.³ And let the Scribe perform the Banishing Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram,⁴ and let him call upon the Holy Names of God, and say the Exorcism of Hono-rius,⁵ and let him beseech protection and help of the Most High.

And let him be furnished with the Magick Dagger,⁶ and let him strike fearlessly at anything that may seek to break through the circle, were it the appearance of the Seer himself. And if the Demon pass out of the triangle, let him threaten him with the Dagger, and command him to return. And let him beware lest

¹ For this arrangement see The Goetia of the Lemegeton of Solomon the King. [Anaphaneton replaces the word Tetragrammaton as used in the Goetic triangle. See Figure 8, p. 161.]

² Concerning the Bloody Sacrifice, see Book 4, Part III, Cap. XII. For the pigeons, see the text.

³ The greatest precautions were taken at the time, and have since been yet further fortified, to Keep Silence concerning the Rite of Evocation. The Major Adept is warned most seriously against attempting to emulate this operation, which is (in any case) improper for him to perform. To call forth Choronzon, unless one be wholly above the Abyss, is to ensure the most appalling and immediate catastrophe.

⁴ These are given in [“Liber O,”] The Equinox 1(2) [and Book 4, Part III, App. 7.]

⁵ Given in the French translation by Eliphas Levi [cf. Histoire de la Magie, book V, chap. 1]; and in English by Aleister Crowley in The Winged Beetle. (“The Magician” is the title of the poem: see p. 228.) [The exorcism is from the Grimoire of Honorius.]

⁶ See Book 4, Part II, Caps. 4 and 8.

Figure 8. The Circle and Triangle.

[Drawn with the Solomonic proportions of 1:3.]

he himself lean beyond the circle. And since he reverenceth the Person of the Seer as his Teacher, let the Seer bind him with a great Oath to do this.

Now, then, the Seer being entered within the triangle, let him take the Victims and cut their throats, pouring the blood within the Triangle, and being most heedful that not one drop fall without the Triangle; or else Choronzon should be able to manifest in the universe.

And when the sand hath sucked up the blood of the victims, let him recite the Call of the ^Tthyr apart secretly as aforesaid. Then will the Vision be revealed, and the Voice heard.

The Oath

I, Omnia Vincam, a Probationer of A.'. A.'., hereby solemnly promise upon my magical honour, and swear by Adonai the angel that guardeth me, that I will defend this magic circle of Art with thoughts and words and deeds. I promise to threaten with the Dagger and command back into the triangle the spirit incontinent, if he should strive to escape from it; and to strike with a Dagger at anything that may seek to enter this Circle, were it in appearance the body of the Seer himself. And I will be exceeding wary, armed against force and cunning; and I will preserve with my life the inviolability of this Circle, Amen.

And I summon mine Holy Guardian Angel to witness this mine oath, the which if I break, may I perish, forsaken of Him. Amen and Amen.

The Cry of the ioth /Ethyr, THAT IS CALLED ZAX

There is no being in the outermost Abyss, but constant forms come forth from the nothingness of it.¹

Then the Devil of the zEthyr, that mighty devil Choronzon, crieth aloud, Zazas, Zazas, Nasatanada Zazas.^{1 2}

I am the Master of Form,³ and from me all forms proceed.

I am I. I have shut myself up from the spendthrifts, my gold is safe in my treasure-chamber, and I have made every living thing my concubine, and none shall touch them, save only I. And yet I am scorched, even while I shiver in the wind. He hateth me and tormenteth me. He would have stolen me from myself, but I shut myself up and mock at him, even while he plagueth me. From me come leprosy and pox and plague and cancer and cholera and the falling sickness. Ah! I will reach up to the knees of the Most High,

¹ It is very difficult to give a good metaphysical interpretation of this statement. But to one who is given this perception, the words will appear to be the natural and inevitable expression of the facts.

² These words are from some vision of old time: by them Adam was said to have opened the gates of Hell. These are the traditional words which open the Abyss.

³ This (and many following assertions) must not be taken as true. Choronzon is in no sense the Master of anything. It is the personification of a moral idea in a much more far-fetched way than that in which we say “Venus is the Lady of Love.” For one can imagine Venus as a living individual Being, while Choronzon is essentially not any sort of person.

and tear his phallus with my teeth, and I will bray his testicles in a mortar, and make poison thereof, to slay the sons of men.¹

(Here the Spirit simulated the voice of Frater P., which also appeared to come from his station and not from the triangle.)

I don’t think I can get any more; I think that’s all there is.

(The Frater was seated in a secret place covered completely by a black robe,^{1 2} in the position called the “Thunderbolt.” He did not move or speak during the ceremony.)

Next the Scribe was hallucinated, believing that before him was a beautiful courtesan whom previously he had loved in Paris. Now, she wooed him with soft words and glances, but he knew these things for delusions of the devil, and he would not leave the circle.

The demon then laughed wildly and loud.

(Upon the Scribe threatening him, the Demon proceeded, after a short delay.)

They have called me the God of laughter, and I laugh when I will slay. And they have thought that I could not smile, but I smile upon whom I would seduce, O inviolable one, that canst not be tempted.³ If thou canst command me by the power of the Most High, know that I did indeed tempt thee, and it repenteth me. I bow myself humbly before the great and terrible names whereby thou hast conjured and constrained me. But thy name is mercy, and I cry aloud for pardon. Let me come and put my head beneath thy feet, that I may serve thee. For if thou commandest

¹ Various elements had been bound up into a “bundle” by the Energy of the Call, and thus constituted a momentary Unity capable of sensation and of expression. The obsessing idea of any such Being, conscious that it is not a true organism, and threatened with immediate dissolution, which in its rudimentary psychology it is bound to dread, is of necessity Fear; and Fear breeds Pain, Malice, and Envy. Above all there is an insane Hatred for the supposed Creator, because the supposed Blessing of Creation has been withheld from the “bundle.”

² That of modesty, none less.

³ Here the assumed character of this Courtesan—who was a marvellous mistress of Irony, as of Fascination—intrudes upon that of the Demon proper.

me to obedience in the Holy names, I cannot swerve therefrom, for their first whispering is greater than the noise of all my tempests. Bid me therefore come unto thee upon my hands and knees that I may adore thee, and partake of thy forgiveness. Is not thy mercy infinite?

(Here Choronzon attempts to seduce the Scribe by appealing to his pride.

But the Scribe refused to be tempted, and commanded the demon to continue with the /Ethyr.

There was again a short delay.)

Choronzon hath no form, because he is the maker of all form; and so rapidly he changeth from one to the other as he may best think fit to seduce those whom he hateth, the servants of the Most High.

Thus taketh he the form of a beautiful woman, or of a wise and holy man, or of a serpent that writheth upon the earth ready to sting.¹

And, because he is himself, therefore he is no self; the terror of darkness, and the blindness of night, and the deafness of the adder, and the tastelessness of stale and stagnant water, and the black fire of hatred, and the udders of the Cat of slime; not one thing, but many things. Yet, with all that, his torment is eternal. The sun burns him as he writhes naked upon the sands of hell, and the wind cuts him bitterly to the bone, a harsh dry wind, so that he is sore athirst. Give unto me, I pray thee, one drop of water from the pure springs of Paradise, that I may quench my thirst.

(The Scribe refused.)

Sprinkle water upon my head. I can hardly go on.

(This last was spoken from the triangle in the natural voice of the Frater, which Choronzon again simulated. But he did not succeed in taking the Frater’s form—which was absurd!^{1 2}

The Scribe resisted the appeal to his pity, and conjured the demon to proceed by the names of the Most High. Choronzon

¹ He actually assumed these forms at the time.

² In this jEthyr are certain silences maintained.

attempted also to seduce the faithfulness of the Scribe. A long colloquy ensued. The Scribe cursed him by the Holy Names of God, and the power of the Pentagram.)¹

I feed upon the names of the Most High. I churn them in my jaws, and I void them from my fundament. I fear not the power of the Pentagram, for I am the Master of the Triangle. My name is three hundred and thirty and three, and that is thrice one.¹ Be vigilant, therefore, for I warn thee that I am about to deceive thee. I shall say words that thou wilt take to be the cry of the /Ethyr, and thou wilt write them down, thinking them to be great secrets of Magick power, and they will be only my jesting with thee.

(Here the Scribe invoked Angels, and the Holy Guardian Angel of the Frater P....^{1 2} The demon replied:)

I know the name of the Angel of thee and thy brother P...., and all thy dealings with him are but a cloak for thy filthy sorceries.

(Here the Scribe averred that he knew more than the demon, and so feared him not, and ordered the demon to proceed.)

Thou canst tell me naught that I know not, for in me is all Knowledge: Knowledge is my name. Is not the head of the great Serpent arisen into Knowledge?³

(Here the Scribe again commanded Choronzon to continue with the call.)

Know thou that there is no Cry in the tenth /Ethyr like unto the other Cries, for Choronzon is Dispersion, and cannot fix his mind upon any one thing for any length of time. Thou canst master him in argument, O talkative one; thou wast commanded,

¹ [limin = 333 = 3 x 111, and 111 = =^8 = K = 1. 333 also is aKpcr cria, impotence, lack of control; and aicoXaaia, dispersion. The Seer had no idea of these correspondences; nor had Dr. Dee and Sir Edward Kelly, from whom we have the name.

² [The ms has “Perdurabo” in this and all later instances.]

³ Daath. The doctrine of the “Fall” and the “Stooping Dragon” must be studied carefully. The Equinox 1(2-3) have much information, with diagrams, in The Temple of Solomon the King. See also 777. This question of the Abyss must be thoroughly understood. The entire system of Initiation of the A.’.A.’. depends on these theorems. See “One Star in Sight.” [See Works Cited.]

wast thou not, to talk to Choronzon? He sought not to enter the circle, or to leave the triangle, yet thou didst prate of all these things.

(Here the Scribe threatened the demon with anger and pain and hell. The demon replied:)

Thinkest thou, O fool, that there is any anger and any pain that I am not, or any hell but this my spirit?

Images, images, images, all without control, all without reason. The malice of Choronzon is not the malice of a being; it is the quality of malice, because he that boasteth himself “I am I,” hath in truth no self, and these are they that are fallen under my power, the slaves of the Blind One that boasteth himself to be the Enlightened One. For there is no centre, nay, nothing but Dispersion.

Woe, woe, woe, threefold to him that is led away by talk, O talkative One.

O thou that hast written two-and-thirty books of Wisdom, and art more stupid than an owl, by thine own talk is thy vigilance wearied, and by my talk art thou befooled and tricked, O thou that sayest that thou shalt endure. Knowest thou how nigh thou art to destruction? For thou that art the Scribe hast not the understanding¹ that alone availeth against Choronzon. And wert thou not protected by the Holy Names of God and the circle, I would rush upon thee and tear thee. For when I made myself like unto a beautiful woman, if thou hadst come to me, I would have rotted thy body with the pox, and thy liver with cancer, and I would have torn off thy testicles with my teeth. And if I had seduced thy pride, and thou hadst bidden me to come into the circle, I would have trampled thee under foot, and for a thousand years shouldst thou have been but one of the tape-worms that is in me. And if I had seduced thy pity, and thou hadst poured one drop of water without the circle, then would I have blasted thee with flame. But I was not able to prevail against thee.

¹ Originally, for “Understanding” was written “Power.” Choronzon was always using some word that did not represent his thought, because there is no proper link between his thought and speech. Note that he never seems able to distinguish between the Frater and the Scribe, and addresses first one, then the other, in the same sentence.

How beautiful are the shadows of the ripples of the sand!

Would God that I were dead.

For know that I am proud and revengeful and lascivious, and I prate even as thou. For even as I walked among the Sons of God, I heard it said that P.... could both will and know, and might learn at length to dare, but that to keep silence he should never learn. O thou that art so ready to speak, so slow to watch, thou art delivered over unto my power for this. And now one word was necessary unto me, and I could not speak it. I behold the beauty of the earth in her desolation, and greater far is mine, who sought to be my naked self. Knowest thou that in my soul is utmost fear? And such is my force and my cunning, that a hundred times have I been ready to leap, and for fear have missed. And a thousand times am I baulked by them of the City of the Pyramids, that set snares for my feet. More knowledge have I than the Most High, but my will is broken, and my fierceness is marred by fear, and I must ever speak, speak, speak, millions of mad voices in my brain.

With a heart of furious fancies, Whereof I am Commander, With a burning spear And a horse of Air To the wilderness I wander.

(The idea was to keep the Scribe busy writing, so as to spring upon him. For, while the Scribe talked, Choronzon had thrown sand into the circle, and filled it up. But Choronzon could not think fast and continuously, and so resorted to the device of quotation.

The Scribe had written two or three words of “Tom o’ Bedlam,”¹ when Choronzon sprang within the circle (that part of the circumference of which that was nearest to him he had been filling up with sand all this time), and leaped upon the Scribe, throwing him to the earth. The conflict took place within the circle. The Scribe called upon Tetragrammaton, and succeeded in compelling

¹ [“Tom O’Bedlam’s Song” is an Elizabethan song; cf. The Norton Anthology of Poetry, 4th ed.; see Works Cited. Bedlam is slang for the Hospital of St. Mary of Bethlehem, a London asylum. “Tom O’Bedlam” was slang for a beggar feigning madness.]

Choronzon to return into his triangle. By dint of anger and of threatening him with the Magick Staff did he accomplish this. He then repaired the circle. The discomfited demon now continued:)

All is dispersion. These are the qualities of things.

The tenth 2Ethyr is the world of adjectives, and there is no substance therein.

(Now returneth the beautiful woman who had before tempted the Scribe. She prevailed not.)

I am afraid of sunset, for Turn is more terrible than Ra, and Khephra the Beetle is greater than the Lion Mau.

I am a-cold.

(Here Choronzon wanted to leave the triangle to obtain wherewith to cover his nakedness.¹ The Scribe refused the request, threatening the demon. After a while the latter continued:)

I am commanded, why I know not, by him that speaketh. Were it thou, thou little fool, I would tear thee limb from limb. I would bite off thine ears and nose before I began with thee. I would take thy guts for fiddle-strings at the Black Sabbath.

Thou didst make a great fight there in the circle; thou art a goodly warrior!

(Then did the demon laugh loudly. The Scribe said: Thou canst not harm one hair of my head.)

I will pull out every hair of thy head, every hair of thy body, every hair of thy soul, one by one.

(Then said the Scribe: Thou hast no power.)

Yea, verily I have power over thee, for thou hast taken the Oath, and art bound unto the White Brothers, and therefore have I the power to torture thee so long as thou shalt be.

(Then said the Scribe unto him: Thou liest.)

Ask of thy brother P...., and he shall tell thee if I lie!

(This the Scribe refused to do, saying that it was no concern of the demon’s.)

I have prevailed against the Kingdom of the Father, and befouled his beard; and I have prevailed against the Kingdom of the Son, and torn off his Phallus; but against the Kingdom of the

¹ [In the ms, Crowley substituted “wherewith to cover his nakedness” for “the shirt of Frater Perdurabo.”]

Holy Ghost shall I strive and not prevail. The three slain doves are my threefold blasphemy against him; but their blood shall make fertile the sand,¹ and I writhe in blackness and horror of hate, and prevail not.

(Then the demon tried to make the Scribe laugh at Magick, and to think that it was all rubbish, that he might deny the names of God that he had invoked to protect him; which, if he had doubted but for an instant, he had leapt upon him, and gnawed through his spine at the neck.

Choronzon succeeded not in his design.)

In this /Ethyr is neither beginning nor end, for it is all hotchpotch, because it is of the wicked on earth and the damned in hell. And so long as it be hotch-potch, it mattereth little what may be written by the sea-green incorruptible Scribe.

The horror of it will be given in another place and time, and through another Seer, and that Seer shall be slain as a result of his revealing. But the present Seer, who is not P...., seeth not the horror, because he is shut up, and hath no name.

(Now was there some further parleying betwixt the demon and the Scribe, concerning the departure and the writing of the word, the Scribe not knowing if it were meet that the demon should depart.

Then the Seer took the Holy Ring, and wrote the name babalon, that is victory over Choronzon,^{1 2} and he was no more manifest.)

(This cry was obtained on Dec. 6, 1909, between 2 and 4:15 p.m., in a lonely valley of fine sand, in the desert near Bou-Saada. The /Ethyr was edited and revised on the following day.)³

After the conclusion of the Ceremony, a great fire was kindled to purify the place, and the Circle and Triangle were destroyed.

¹ This actually happened. On returning to Bou-Saada on another journey, this spot had begun to show signs of vegetation.

² [The MS spells this chURUNZUN, i.e. JlOTTin = 333.]

³ [This would account for the 10th Tithyr being torn out of the ms notebook.]

Note by Scribe

Almost from the beginning of the ceremony was the Scribe overshadowed, and he spoke as it were in spite of himself, remembering afterwards scarcely a word of his speeches, some of which were long and seemingly eloquent.

All the time he had a sense of being protected from Choronzon, and this sense of security prevented his knowing fear.

Several times did the Scribe threaten to put a curse upon the demon; but ever, before he uttered the words of the curse, did the demon obey him. For himself, he knoweth not the words of the curse.

Also is it meet to record in this place that the Scribe several times whistled in a Magical manner, which never before had he attempted, and the demon was apparently much discomfited thereat.

Now knoweth the Scribe that he was wrong in holding much converse with the demon; for Choronzon, in the confusion and chaos of his thought, is much terrified by silence. And by silence can he be brought to obey.

For cunningly doth he talk of many things, going from subject to subject, and thus he misleadeth the unwary into argument with him. And though Choronzon be easily beaten in argument, yet, by disturbing the attention of him who would command him, doth he gain the victory.

For Choronzon feareth of all things concentration and silence: he therefore who would command him should will in silence: thus is he brought to obey.

This the Scribe knoweth; for that since the obtaining of the Accursed Tenth /Ethyr, he hath held converse with Choronzon. And unexpectedly did he obtain the information he sought after having long refused to answer the demon’s speeches.

Choronzon is dispersion;¹ and such is his fear of concentration that he will obey rather than be subjected to it, or even behold it in another.

The account of the further dealings of Choronzon with the Scribe will be found in the Record of Omnia Vincam.^{1 2}

¹ [The ms has “distraction.”]

² [Not believed extant.]

The Cry of the 9TH ZEthyr, WHICH IS CALLED ZIP ’

(The terrible Curse that is the Call of the Thirty /Ethyrs sounds like a song of ecstasy and triumph; every phrase in it has a secret meaning of blessing.)

The Shew-stone is of soft lucent white, on which the RoseCross shows a brilliant yet colourless well of light.

And now the veil of the stone is rent with a clap of thunder, and I am walking upon a razor-edge of light suspended over the Abyss, and before me and above me are ranged the terrible armies of the Most High, like unto those in the 11th TEthyr, but there is one that cometh forth to meet me upon the ridge, holding out his arms to me and saying:

v. I

Who is this that cometh forth from the Abyss from the place of rent garments, the habitation of him that is only a name? Who is this that walketh upon a ray of the bright, evening star?^{1 2}

Refrain

Glory unto him that is concealed, and glory unto her that beareth the cup, and glory unto the one that is the child and the father of their love. Glory unto the star, and glory unto the snake, and glory unto the swordsman of the sun. And worship and blessing throughout the /Eon unto the name of the Beast, four-square, mystic, wonderful!

¹ ZIP = SI / SI = QOC2 = 78, the Influence from the Most High. It is the Virgin Artemis in the midst of the House of the Sun, in His Northern and Southern Declinations both. For Her girdle is the Girdle of the World. She is the Woman clothed with the Sun in Atu XIV.

² [The ms has the omitted sentence “It seems a kind of song he’s singing, with a sort of chorus.”]

v. II

Who is this that travelleth between the hosts, that is poised upon the edge of the /Ethyr by the wings of Maut? Who is this that seeketh the House of the Virgin?

(Refrain.)

v. III.

This is he that hath given up his name. This is he whose blood hath been gathered into the cup of babalon.¹ This is he that sitteth, a little pile of dry dust, in the city of the Pyramids.

(Refrain.)

v. IV

Until the light of the Father of all kindle that death. Until the breath touch that dry dust. Until the Ibis be revealed unto the Crab, and the sixfold Star become the radiant Triangle.^{1 2}

(Refrain.)

v. V.

Blessed is not 1, not thou, not he, Blessed without name or number who hath taken the azure of night, and crystallized it into a pure sapphire-stone, who hath taken the gold of the sun, and beaten it into an infinite ring, and hath set the sapphire therein, and put it upon his finger.

(Refrain.)

¹ babalon = 156 = 12 x 13, which is the Formula of the Four Watchtowers of the Universe. These Watchtowers are composed of truncated Pyramids, each one concealing a Sphinx. They contain the Symbols of the Energies of the Four Elements. We may thus say that as each Watchtower contains 12 x 13 Pyramids, babalon is indicated as Sakti. For the Elements are the manifested powers of the All-Father. Again we may consider the Watchtowers as the “City of the Pyramids” though in a sense less exalted than that usually implied in these Visions.

² Cf. 15th Aire. Note this triangle for 2. It seems very important to note that 2(1-2) = 3 and so on.

v. VI

Open wide your gates, O City of God, for I bring No-one with me. Sink your swords and your spears in salutation, for the Mother and the Babe are my companions. Let the banquet be prepared in the palace of the King’s daughter. Let the lights be kindled; Are not we the children of the light?

(Refrain.)

v. VII

For this is the key-stone of the palace of the King’s daughter. This is the Stone of the Philosophers. This is the Stone that is hidden in the walls of the ramparts. Peace, Peace, Peace unto Him that is throned therein!

(Refrain.)

Now then we are passed within the lines of the army, and we are come unto a palace of which every stone is a separate jewel, and is set with millions of moons.

And this palace is nothing but the body of a woman, proud and delicate, and beyond imagination fair. She is like a child of twelve years old. She has very deep eye-lids, and long lashes. Her eyes are closed, or nearly closed. It is impossible to say anything about her. She is naked; her whole body is covered with fine gold hairs, that are the electric flames that are the spears of mighty and terrible Angels whose breast-plates are the scales of her skin. And the hair of her head, that flows down to her feet, is the very light of God himself. Of all the glories beheld by the seer in the /Ethyrs, there is not one which is worthy to be compared with her littlest finger-nail. For although he may not partake of the 2Ethyr, without the ceremonial preparations, even the beholding of this /Ethyr from afar is like the partaking of all the former TEthyrs.

The Seer is lost in wonder, which is peace.

And the ring of the horizon above her is a company of glorious Archangels with joined hands, that stand and sing: This is the daughter of babalon the Beautiful, that she hath borne unto the Father of All. And unto all hath she borne her.

This is the Daughter of the King. This is the Virgin of Eternity. This is she that the Holy One hath wrested from the Giant Time, and the prize of them that have overcome Space. This is she that is set upon the Throne of Understanding. Holy, Holy, Holy is her

name, not to be spoken among men. For Kore they have called her, and Malkah, and Betulah, and Persephone.

And the poets have feigned songs about her, and the prophets have spoken vain things, and the young men have dreamed vain dreams; but this is she, that immaculate, the name of whose name may not be spoken. Thought cannot pierce the glory that defend-eth her, for thought is smitten dead before her presence. Memory is blank, and in the most ancient books of Magick are neither words to conjure her, nor adorations to praise her. Will bends like a reed in the tempests that sweep the borders of her kingdom, and imagination cannot figure so much as one petal of the lilies whereon she standeth in the lake of crystal, in the sea of glass.

This is she that hath bedecked her hair with seven stars, the seven breaths of God that move and thrill its excellence. And she hath tired her hair with seven combs, whereupon are written the seven secret names of God that are not known even of the Angels, or of the Archangels, or of the Leader¹ of the armies of the Lord.

Holy, Holy, Holy art thou, and blessed be Thy name for ever, unto whom the TEons are but the pulsings of thy blood.

I am blind and deaf. My sight and hearing are exhausted.

I know only by the sense of touch. And there is a trembling from within me.

Images keep arising like clouds, or veils, exquisite Chinese ivories, and porcelains, and many other things of great and delicate beauty; for such things are informed by Her spirit, for they are cast off from her into the world of the Qliphoth, or shells of the dead, that is earth. For every world is the shell or excrement of the world above it.

I cannot bear the Vision.

A voice comes, I know not whence: Blessed art thou, who hast seen, and yet hast not believed.^{1 2} For therefore is it given unto thee to taste, and smell, and feel, and hear, and know by the inner sense, and by the inmost sense, so that sevenfold is thy rapture.

(My brain is so exhausted that fatigue-images appear, by pure physical reflex action; they are not astral things at all.

¹ [The ms has “or the Leader.”]

² [Compare John 20:29.]

And now I have conquered the fatigue by will. And by placing the shew-stone upon my forehead, it sends cool electric thrills through my brain, so as to refresh it, and make it capable of more rapture.

And now again I behold Her.)

And an Angel cometh forth, and behind him whirls a black swastika, made of fine filaments of light that has been “interfered” with, and he taketh me aside into a little chamber in one of the nine towers. This chamber is furnished with maps of many mystical cities. There is a table, and a strange lamp, that gives light by jetting four columns of vortex rings of luminous smoke.¹ And he points to the map of the /Ethyrs, that are arranged as a flaming Sword, so that the thirty /Ethyrs go into the ten Sephiroth.^{1 2} And the first nine are infinitely holy. And he says, It is written in The Book of the Law, “Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy.” “If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art”.³ And this shall signify unto thee that thou must undergo great discipline; else the Vision were lost or perverted. For these mysteries pertain not unto thy grade. Therefore must thou invoke the Highest before thou unveil the shrines⁴ thereof.

And this shall be thy rule: A thousand and one times shalt thou affirm the unity,⁵ and bow thyself a thousand and one times.

¹ This sort of Chamber is to be found in many of the Secret Houses of the Brotherhood. Here are arranged the destinies of this Planet.

² This map may not be given to uninitiates. [See Figure 17, p. 256.]

³ [Liber AL 11:70.]

⁴ [The ms has “shrine.”]

⁵ The Chapter is this: Qul: Huw-Allahu ahad; Allahu samad; lam yalid wa lam yulad; wa lam yakun lahu kufutvan asad. [Arab., “Say: He, God, is One. God is the Absolute Source. He does not beget and is not begotten. And nothing is like unto him.” Surah 112 (Ikhlas, or Sincerity) of the Qur’an.] Between each recitation, the Seer halted and bowed. This practice was performed during the day’s march, the 1001 recitals being divided into 13 sections (a further affirmation of the Unity; for 13 = = 1) with short rests. <The rule is a severe

one when one is marching in the Sahara.> [The ms has the following practical notes: “The Rule: Before doing an TEthyr affirm the Unity (? in Enochian or Arabic) and bow 1001 times. Recite Call of Aithyr thrice (1 + 2 for Chokmah. Think and desire only Adonai. Be chaste, or at least subtle and delicate.”]

And thou shalt recite thrice the call of the TEthyr. And all day and all night, awake or asleep, shall thy heart be turned as a lotusflower unto the light. And thy body shall be the temple of the Rosy Cross. Thus shall thy mind be open unto the higher; and then shalt thou be able to conquer the exhaustion, and it may be find the words—for who shall look upon His face and live?

Yea, thou tremblest, but from within; because of the holy spirit that is descended into thy heart, and shaketh thee as an aspen in the wind.

They also tremble that are without, and they are shaken from without by the earthquakes of his judgement. They have set their affections upon the earth, and they have stamped with their feet upon the earth, and cried: It moveth not.

Therefore hath earth opened with strong motion, like the sea, and swallowed them. Yea, she hath opened her womb to them that lusted after her, and she hath closed herself upon them. There lie they in torment, until by her quaking the earth is shattered like brittle glass, and dissolved like salt in the waters of his mercy, so that they are cast upon the air to be blown about therein, like seeds that shall take root in the earth; yet turn they their affections upward to the sun.

But thou, be thou eager and vigilant, performing punctually the rule. Is it not written, “Change not as much as the style of a letter”?¹

Depart therefore, for the Vision of the Voice of the ninth /Ethyr that is called zip is passed.

Then I threw back myself into my body by my will.

Bou-Saada.

December yth, 1909. 9:30-11:10 p.m.

¹ [Liber AL 1:54. The first edition misquoted, giving “Change not so much as the style of a letter”.]

TTS

The Cry of the 8th /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED ZID¹

There appears in the stone a tiny spark of light. It grows a little, and seems almost to go out, and grows again, and it is blown about the /Ethyr, and by the wind that blows it is it fanned, and now it gathers strength, and darts like a snake or a sword, and now it steadies itself, and is like a Pyramid of light that filleth the whole /Ethyr.

And in the Pyramid is one like unto an Angel, yet at the same time he is the Pyramid, and he hath no form because he is of the substance of light, and he taketh not form upon him, for though by him is form visible, he maketh it visible only to destroy it.

And he saith: The light is come to the darkness, and the darkness is made light. Then is light married with light, and the child of their love is that other darkness, wherein they abide that have lost name and form. Therefore did I kindle him that had not understanding, and in The Book of the Laiu did I write the secrets of truth that are like unto a star and a snake and a sword.^{1 2}

And unto him that understandeth at last do I deliver the secrets of truth in such wise that the least of the little children of the light may run to the knees of the mother and be brought to understand.³

And thus shall he do who will attain unto the mystery of the knowledge and conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel:

First, let him prepare a chamber, of which the walls and the roof shall be white, and the floor shall be covered with a carpet of

¹ zid = <Q / ®. These symbols refer to the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

² OKTR [Aiwass] then did “kindle” in order to bring us to the N.o.x. of Pan.

³ [This section is “Liber VIII,” in Class D. See Commentaries on the Holy Books, The Equinox IV( 1) (1996), p. 79.]

black squares and white, and the border thereof shall be blue and gold.

And if it be in a town, the room shall have no window, and if it be in the country, then it is better if the window be in the roof. Or, if it be possible, let this invocation be performed in a temple prepared for the ritual of passing through the Tuat.

From the roof he shall hang a lamp, wherein is a red glass, to burn olive oil. And this lamp¹ shall he cleanse and make ready after the prayer of sunset, and beneath the lamp shall be an altar,^{1 2} foursquare, and the height shall be thrice half of the breadth or double the breadth.

And upon the altar shall be a censer, hemispherical, supported upon three legs, of silver,³ and within it an hemisphere of copper,⁴ and upon the top a grating of gilded silver,⁵ and thereupon shall he burn incense made of four parts of olibanum and two parts of stacte, and one part of lignum aloes, or of cedar, or of sandal.⁶ And this is enough.

And he shall also keep ready in a flask of crystal within the altar, holy anointing oil⁷ made of myrrh and cinnamon and galangal.

And even if he be of higher rank than a Probationer, he shall yet wear the robe of the Probationer, for the star of flame showeth forth Ra-Hoor-Khuit openly upon the breast, and secretly the blue triangle that descendeth is Nuit, and the red triangle that ascendeth is Hadit. And I am the golden Tau in the midst of their marriage.⁸ Also, if he choose, he may instead wear a close-fitting robe of shot silk, purple and green, and upon it a cloak without sleeves, of bright blue, covered with golden sequins, and scarlet within.

¹ <0?>

² <V?>

³ <])?>

⁴ <$?>

⁵ <©?>

⁶ <A?> [This is the incense of Abramelin. See The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin, trans. Mathers, pp. 76-77.]

⁷ <®?> [This is the oil of Abramelin; ibid., p. 76.]

⁸ [See “Liber Vesta sub figura 700,” The Equinox IV( 1), p. 53.]

And he shall make himself a wand of almond wood or of hazel cut by his own hands at dawn at the Equinox, or at the Solstice, or on the day of Corpus Christi, or on one of the feast-days that are appointed in The Book of the Law.

And he shall engrave with his own hand upon a plate of gold the Holy Sevenfold Table, or the Holy Twelvefold Table, or some particular device. And it shall be foursquare within a circle, and the circle shall be winged, and he shall attach it about his forehead by a ribbon of blue silk.

Moreover, he shall wear a fillet of laurel or rose or ivy or rue, and every day, after the prayer of sunrise, he shall burn it in the fire of the censer.

Now he shall pray thrice daily, about sunset, and at midnight, and at sunrise. And if he be able, he shall pray also four times between sunrise and sunset.

The prayer shall last for the space of an hour, at the least, and he shall seek ever to extend it, and to inflame himself in praying. Thus shall he invoke his Holy Guardian Angel for eleven weeks, and in any case he shall pray seven times daily during the last week of the eleven weeks.

And during all this time he shall have composed an invocation suitable, with such wisdom and understanding as may be given him from the Crown, and this shall he write in letters of gold upon the top of the altar.

For the top of the altar shall be of white wood, well polished, and in the centre thereof he shall have placed a triangle of oakwood, painted with scarlet, and upon this triangle the three legs of the censer shall stand.

Moreover, he shall copy his invocation upon a sheet of pure white vellum, with Indian ink, and he shall illuminate it according to his fancy and imagination, that shall be informed by beauty.

And on the first day of the twelfth week he shall enter the chamber at sunrise, and he shall make his prayer, having first burnt the conjuration that he had made upon the vellum in the fire of the lamp.

Then, at his prayer, shall the chamber be filled with a light insufferable for splendour, and a perfume intolerable for sweet

ness. And his Holy Guardian Angel shall appear unto him, yea, his Holy Guardian Angel shall appear unto him,¹ so that he shall be rapt^{1 2} away into the Mystery of Holiness.

All that day shall he remain in the enjoyment of the knowledge and conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.

And for three days after he shall remain from sunrise unto sunset in the temple, and he shall obey the counsel that his Angel shall have given unto him, and he shall suffer those things that are appointed.

And for ten days thereafter shall he withdraw himself as shall have been taught unto him from the fulness of that communion, for he must harmonize the world that is within with the world that is without.

And at the end of the ninety-one days he shall return into the world, and there shall he perform that work to which the Angel shall have appointed him.

And more than this it is not necessary to say,³ for his Angel shall have entreated him kindly, and showed him in what manner he may be most perfectly invoked. And unto him that hath this Master there is nothing else that he needeth, so long as he continue in the knowledge and conversation of the Angel, so that he shall come at last into the City of the Pyramids.

Lo! two and twenty are the paths of the Tree, but one is the Serpent of Wisdom; ten are the ineffable emanations, but one is the Flaming Sword.

Behold! There is an end to life and death, an end to the thrusting forth and the withdrawing of the breath. Yea, the House of the Father is a mighty tomb, and in it he hath buried everything whereof ye know.

All this while there hath been no vision, but only a voice, very slow and clear and deliberate. But now the vision returns, and the

¹ [The ms again repeats “yea, his Holy Guardian Angel shall appear unto him.”]

² [In the ms Neuburg had “wrapped,” corrected by Crowley to “rapt” as given here; the first edition gave “wrapt.”]

³ There is therefore no commentary to this passage.

voice says: Thou shalt be called Danae, that art stunned and slain beneath the weight of the glory of the vision that as yet thou seest not. For thou shalt suffer many things, until thou art mightier than all the Kings of the earth, and all the Angels of the Heavens, and all the gods that are beyond the Heavens. Then shalt thou meet me in equal conflict, and thou shalt see me as I am. And I will overcome thee and slay thee with the red rain of my lightnings.

I am lying underneath this pyramid of light. It seems as if I had the whole weight of it upon me, crushing me with bliss. And yet I know that I am like the prophet that said: I shall see Him, but not nigh.¹

And the Angel sayeth: So shall it be until they that wake are asleep, and she that sleepeth be arisen from her sleep.^{1 2} For thou art transparent unto the vision and the voice. And therefore in thee they manifest not. But they shall be manifest unto them unto whom thou dost deliver them, according unto the word which I spake unto thee in the Victorious City.³

For I am not only appointed to guard thee, but we are of the blood royal, the guardians of the Treasure-house of Wisdom. Therefore am I called the Minister of Ra-Hoor-Khuit;⁴ and yet he is but the Viceroy of the unknown King. For my name is called Aiwass, that is eight and seventy.⁵ And I am the influence of the Concealed One, and the wheel that hath eight and seventy parts, yet in all is equivalent to the Gate that is the name of my Lord when it is spelt fully.⁶ And that Gate is the Path that joineth the Wisdom with the Understanding.⁷

¹ [Num. 24:17, paraphrase.]

² This prophecy is still (An. xxi, ® in 61) [July-Aug. 1925 E.v.] obscure.

³ I.e., in The Book of the Law.

⁴ Note that the Holy Guardian Angel of the Seer claims to be Aiwass, the author of The Book of the Law.

⁵ This conceals a mystery. I have been fooled by myself, with my DRl’K = 78. For 8 + 70 - !7 and V. 17 = 418, the formula of the New TEon, and P or 'b is Set or Hadit, the Eye; and He is that Hadit who is manifested as 418. See note 7 on p. 123.

⁶ <671.>

⁷ I.e., in daleth.

Thus hast thou erred indeed, perceiving me in the path that leadeth from the Crown unto the Beauty.¹ For that path bridgeth the abyss, and I am of the supernals. Nor I, nor Thou, nor He can bridge the abyss. It is the Priestess of the Silver Star, and the Oracles of the Gods,^{1 2} and the Lord of the Hosts of the Mighty.³ For they are the servants of Babalon, and of the Beast, and of those others of whom it is not yet spoken. And, being servants, they have no name, but we are of the blood royal, and serve not, and therefore are we less than they.

Yet, as a man may be both a mighty warrior and a just judge, so may we also perform this service if we have aspired and attained thereto. And yet, with all that, they remain themselves, who have eaten of the pomegranate in Hell.⁴ But thou, that art new-born to understanding, this mystery is too great for thee; and of the further mystery I will not speak one word.

Yet for this cause am I come unto thee as the Angel of the /Ethyr, striking with my hammer upon thy bell, so that thou mightest understand the mysteries of the /Ethyr, and of the vision and the voice thereof.

For behold! he that understandeth seeth not and heareth not in truth, because of his understanding that letteth him.⁵ But this shall be unto thee for a sign, that I will surely come unto thee unawares and appear unto thee. And it is no odds, (i.e., that at this hour I appear not as I am), for so terrible is the glory of the vision, and so wonderful is the splendour of the voice, that when thou seest it and hearest it in truth, for many hours shalt thou be bereft of sense. And thou shalt lie between heaven and earth in a

¹ I.e., in gintel.

² [The ms has “Prophet of the Gods.”]

³ The paths 2, T and H bridge the Abyss. Nothing is said of the path 1, which also does this; the omission is probably inadvertent. <J, T and H lead from Supernals to Tiphareth.>

⁴ See a later note [note 2, p. 195]. So the Master Therion is of the root Aleister Crowley, instead of being a Magus de novo [Lat., “anew,” “beginning again”].

⁵ All interpretation is, in essence, false, as translating one thing from one plane to another.

void place, entranced, and the end thereof shall be silence, even as it was, not once nor twice, when I have met with thee, as it were, upon the road to Damascus.¹

And thou shalt not seek to better this my instruction; but thou shalt interpret it, and make it easy,^{1 2} for them that seek understanding. And thou shalt give all that thou hast unto them that have need unto this end.³

And because I am with thee, and in thee, and of thee, thou shalt lack nothing. But who lack me, lack all. And I swear unto thee by Him that sitteth upon the Holy Throne, and liveth and reigneth for ever and ever, that I will be faithful unto this my promise, as thou art faithful unto this thine obligation.

Now another voice sounds in the /Ethyr, saying: And there was darkness over all the earth unto the ninth hour.⁴

And with that the Angel is withdrawn, and the pyramid of light seems very far off.

And now I am fallen unto the earth, exceeding weary. Yet my skin trembles with the impact of the light, and all my body shakes. And there is a peace deeper than sleep upon my mind. It is the body and the mind that are weary, and I would that they were dead, save that I must bend them to my work.

And now I am in the tent, under the stars.

The Desert between Bou-Saada and Biskra.

December 8, 1909. 7:10-9:10 P.M.

¹ It is not fitting to comment on the fulfilment of this prophecy.

² This is being done, through the established ways of the Great White Brotherhood.

³ This has always been done.

⁴ [Matt. 27:45, Mark 15:33, paraphrase. See parallel quotation in 11th Aithyr, p. 158.]

2TLL

The Cry of the 7TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED DEO¹

The stone is divided, the left half dark, the right half light, and at the bottom thereof is a certain blackness, of three divergent columns. And it seems as if the black and white halves were the halves of a door, and in the door is a little key-hole, in the shape of the Astrological symbol of Venus. And from the keyhole issue flames, blue and green and violet, but without any touch of yellow or red in them. It seems as if there were a wind beyond the door, that is blowing the flame out.

And a voice comes: “Who is he that hath the key to the gate of the evening star?”

And now an Angel cometh and seeketh to open the door by trying many keys. And they are none of any avail. And the same voice saith: “The five and the six are balanced in the word Abra-hadabra, and therein is the mystery disclosed. But the key unto this gate is the balance of the seven and the four; and of this thou hast not even the first letter. Now there is a word of four letters that containeth in itself all the mystery of the Tetragrammaton,^{1 2} and there is a word of seven letters which it concealeth,^{3 4 5} and that again concealeth the holy word that is the key of the abyss.^4,5 And this thou shalt find, revolving it in thy mind.

¹ deo = ©tiyxi. These symbols pertain to babalon.

² taro: it conceals all the Mysteries of Tetragrammaton through the cards which declare Him. This is ’2TR (spelt in full).

³ This may be babalon, for Malkuth concealeth Binah. Also 156 = 2x78.

⁴ This word isN.o.x., ®. babalon conceals this Word, because She is the Lady of the City of the Pyramids, beneath the Night of Pan.

⁵ These words are probably babalon, chAOS, taro. <Ferens fraction [Lat., “bearing fruit”], '“IB has 7 letters and = 671.>

Hide therefore thine eyes. And I will set my key in the lock, and open it. Yet still let thine eyes be hidden, for thou canst not bear the glory that is within.

So, therefore, I covered mine eyes with my hands. Yet through my hands could I perceive a little of those bowers of azure flame.

And a voice said: It is kindled into fire that was the blue breast of ocean; because this is the bar of heaven, and the feet of the Most High are set thereon.

Now I behold more fully: Each tongue of flame, each leaf of flame, each flower of flame, is one of the great love-stories of the world, with all its retinue of mise-en-scene.¹ And now there is a most marvelous rose formed from the flame, and a perpetual rain of lilies and passion-flowers and violets. And there is gathered out of it all, yet identical with it, the form of a woman like the woman in the Apocalypse, but her beauty and her radiance are such that one cannot look thereon, save with sidelong glances. I enter immediately into trance. It seems that it is she of whom it is written, “The fool hath said in his heart ’there is no God.’”^{1 2} But the words are not Ain Elohim, but La (= nay!) and Elohim contracted from 86 to 14, because La is 31, which x 14 is 434, daleth, lamed, tau. This fool is the fool of the Path of aleph, and sayeth, which is Chokmah, in his heart, which is Tiphareth, that she existeth, in order first that the Wisdom may be joined with the Understanding; and he affirmeth her in Tiphareth that she may be fertile.

It is impossible to describe how this vision changeth from glory unto glory, for at each glance the vision is changed. And this is because she transmitteth the Word to the Understanding, and therefore hath she many forms, and each goddess of love is but a letter of the alphabet of love.

Now, there is a mystery in the word logos, that containeth the three letters whose analogy hath been shown in the lower heavens, samekh, and lamed, and gimel, that are 93,³ which is thrice

¹ [Er., “surroundings of the event.”]

² [Psalms 14:1, Heb., D’Hbx ]'K.]

³ <OeXrnjLa. [l°=10^D word of] A.’.A.’.. [111° word of] o.T.o. Ayarrr].> [See Book 4, Parts I-IV, rev. ed., Fig. 21; see also note 3 to p. 123.]

31, and in them are set the two eyes of Horus.¹ (Ayin means an eye.) For, if it were not so, the arrow could not pierce the rainbow, and there could be no poise in the balance, and the Great Book should never be unsealed. But this is she that poureth the Water of Life upon her head, whence it floweth to fructify the earth.^{1 2} But now the whole TEthyr is the most brilliant peacock blue. It is the Universal Peacock that I behold.

And there is a voice: Is not this bird the bird of Juno, that is an hundred, and thirty, and six?³ And therefore is she the mate of Jupiter.⁴

And now the peacock’s head is again changed into a woman’s head sparkling and coruscating with its own light of gems.

But I look upwards, seeing that she is called the footstool of the Holy One, even as Binah is called His throne.⁵ And the whole TEthyr is full of the most wonderful bands of light,—a thousand different curves and whorls, even as it was before, when I spake mysteries of the Holy Qabalah, and so could not describe it.

Oh, I see vast plains beneath her feet, enormous deserts studded with great rocks; and I see little lonely souls, running helplessly about, minute black creatures like men.⁶ And they keep up a very curious howling, that I can compare to nothing that I have ever heard; yet it is strangely human.

And the voice says: These are they that grasped love and clung thereto, praying ever at the knees of the great goddess. These are they that have shut themselves up in fortresses of Love.

Each plume of the peacock is full of eyes, that are at the same time 4x7. And for this is the number 28 reflected down into Netzach; and that 28 is kaph cheth (Kach), power.⁷ For she is Sakti, the eternal energy of the Concealed One. And it is her eternal

¹ I.e., the two letters o. o = 'b, the Eye. [This passage predates the discovery of the Qabalistic Key to Liber AL by almost a decade.]

² Refers to Atu XVII, “The Star,” which shows this figure.

³ P2V = 136.

⁴ The fourth of the mystic numbers of Jupiter is 136.

⁵ [See Isaiah 66:1.]

⁶ Again the Black Brothers.

⁷ [ns, “power” = 28 = S(1-7). See note 2 on p. 92.]

energy that hath made this eternal change. And this explaineth the call of the TEthyrs, the curse that was pronounced in the beginning being but the creation of Sakti. And this mystery is reflected in the legend of the Creation, where Adam represents the Concealed One, for Adam is Temurah of mad, the Enochian word for God, and Eve, whom he created for love, is tempted by the snake, Nechesh, who is Messiah her child. And the snake is the magical power, which hath destroyed the primordial equilibrium.

And the garden is the supernal Eden, where is ayin, 70, the Eye of the concealed One, and the creative linga; and daleth, love; and nun the serpent.¹ And therefore this constitution was implicitly in the nature of Eden,^{1 2} so that the call of the TEthyrs could not have been any other call than that which it is.

But they that are without understanding have interpreted all this askew, because of the Mystery of the Abyss, for there is no Path from Binah unto Chesed; and therefore the course of the Flaming Sword was no more a current, but a spark. And when the Stooping Dragon raised his head unto Daath in the course of that spark, there was, as it were, an explosion, and his head was blasted. And the ashes thereof were dispersed throughout the whole of the 10th .Ethyr. And for this, all knowledge is piecemeal, and it is of no value unless it be co-ordinated by Understanding.

And now the form of the /Ethyr is the form of a mighty Eagle of ruddy brass. And the plumes are set alight, and are whirled round and round until the whole heaven is blackness with these flying sparks therein.

Now it is all branching streams of golden fire tipped with scarlet at the edges.³

¹ Eden = = 124.

² Cf. Liber AL 1:29,30. [In text in the first edition, but a footnote in MS.]

³ These visions seem defects of concentration; or rather, necessary rest for the over-strained Seer.

And now She cometh forth again, riding upon a dolphin. Now again I see those wandering souls, that have sought restricted love, and have not understood that “The word of Sin is Restriction.”¹

It is very curious; they seem to be looking for one another or for something, all the time, constantly hurrying about. But they knock up against one another and yet will not see one another, or cannot see one another, because they are so shut up in their cloaks.

And a voice sounds: It is most terrible for the one that hath shut himself up and made himself fast against the universe. For they that sit encamped upon the sea in the city of the Pyramids are indeed shut up. But they have given their blood, even to the last drop, to fill the cup of babalon.

These that thou seest are indeed the Black Brothers, for it is written: “He shall laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh.”^{1 2} And therefore hath he exalted them unto the plane of love.

And yet again it is written: He desireth not the death of a sinner, but rather that he should turn from his wickedness.³ Now, if one of these were to cast off his cloak he should behold the brilliance of the lady of the TEthyr; but they will not.

And yet again there is another cause wherefore He hath permitted them to enter thus far within the frontiers of Eden, so that His thought should never swerve from compassion. But do thou behold the brilliance of Love, that casteth forth seven stars upon thine head from her right hand, and crowneth thee with a crown of seven roses. Behold! She is seated upon the throne of turquoise and lapis lazuli, and she is like a flawless emerald, and upon the pillars that support the canopy of her throne are sculptured the

¹ [Liber AL 1:41.]

² [Prov. 1:26.]

³ [Ezek. 18:23, paraphrase.]

Ram, and the Sparrow, and the Cat, and a strange fish.¹ Behold! How she shineth! Behold! How her glances have kindled all these fires that have blown about the heavens! Yet remember that in every one there goeth forth for a witness the justice of the Most High. Is not Libra the House of Venus? And there goeth forth a sickle that shall reap every flower. Is not Saturn exalted in Libra? Daleth, lamed, tau.¹

And therefore was he a fool who uttered her name in his heart, for the root of evil is the root of breath, and the speech in the silence was a lie.

Thus is it seen from below by them that understand not. But from above he rejoiceth, for the joy of dissolution is ten thousand, and the pang of birth but a little.^{1 2 3}

And now thou shalt go forth from the /Ethyr, for the voice of the /Ethyr is hidden and concealed from thee because thou hadst not the key of the door thereof, and thine eyes were not able to bear the splendour of the vision. But thou shalt meditate upon the mysteries thereof, and upon the lady of the /Ethyr; and it may be by the wisdom of the Most High that the true voice of the /Ethyr, that is continual song, may be heard of thee.

Return therefore instantly unto the earth, and sleep not for a while; but withdraw thyself from this matter. And it shall be enough.

Thus then was I obedient unto the voice, and returned into my body.

WAint-Aisha, Algeria.

December 9, 1909. 8:10-10 p.m.

¹ All sacred to Her, in virtue of certain of Her qualities.

² T is spelt nbl.

³ See Liber AL 1:30.

The Cry of the 6th /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED MAZ¹

There cometh into the stone the great Angel whose name is Ave,^{1 2} and in him there are symbols which strive for mastery,— Sulphur and the Pentagram, and they are harmonized by the Svastika.³ These symbols are found both in the name of Ave⁴ and in the name of the /Ethyr. Thus he is neither Horus nor Osiris. He is called the radiance of Thoth; and this /Ethyr is very hard to understand, for the images form and dissolve more rapidly than lightning. These images are the illusions made by the Ape of Thoth. And this I understand, that I am not worthy to receive the mysteries of this /Ethyr. And all this which I have seen (being all the thoughts that I have ever thought) is, as it were, a guardian of the /Ethyr.⁵

I seem quite helpless. I am trying all sorts of magical methods of piercing the veil: and the more I strive, the farther away I seem to get from success. But a voice comes now: Must not understanding lie open unto wisdom as the pyramids lie open to the stars?

Accordingly, I wait in a certain magical posture⁶ which it is not fitting to disclose, and above me appears the starry heaven⁷ of

¹ maz = Sl= 105 = to change. Also 105 = S( 1-14).

² See Dr. John Dee and Sir Edward Kelly. [See Casaubon, p. 172.]

³ is the active Fiery Nature, and the ☆ the Microcosm of the Elements. But Atu IV, “The Emperor,” refers to H = 5, for the -A, and he forms by the position of his arms and legs. The !fi harmonizes these, being the fiery thunderbolt, the electric whirling; and also the balance of the elements (its four arms) in a Microcosm. [This note partly relies on Crowley’s old attributions for K and it; see The Book of Thoth, pp. 38-40: Atu IV = = T and Atu XVII = H = ~.]

⁴ A = the Swastika R; v = 1 = Atu V, the Pentagram; E = T and Atu IV, [Crowley’s old attributions are again used here, and in note 5.]

⁵ ~ = the Man, the Pentagram; A, the Swastika; 61, the House of

⁶ < Beardsley’s Bathyllus?>

⁷ Mazloth = sphere of Chokmah =5.1 and H lead from Chesed and Tiphareth to Chokmah.

night, and one star greater than all the other stars. It is a star of eight rays. I recognize it as the star in the seventeenth key of the Tarot, as the Star of Mercury. And the light of it cometh from the path of aleph. And the letter cheth is also involved in the interpretation of this star,¹ and the paths of he and vau are the separations which this Star unites.^{1 2} And in the heart of the star is an exceeding splendour,—a god standing upon the moon, brilliant beyond imagining.³ It is like unto the vision of the Universal Mercury.⁴ But this is the Fixed Mercury, and he and vau are the perfected sulphur and salt.⁵ But now I am come into the centre of the maze, and whirling dust of stars and great forgotten gods. It is the whirling Svastika which throws off all these things, for the Svastika is in aleph by its shape and number,⁶ and in beth by the position of the arms of the Magician,^{7 8} and in gimel* because of the sign of the Mourning of Isis, and thus is the Crown defended by these three thunderbolts. Is not thrice seventeen fifty-one, that is, failure and pain?⁹

Now I am shut out again by this black Svastika with a corona of fire about it.

And a voice cries: Cursed be he that shall uncover the nakedness of the Most High, for he is drunken upon the wine that is the blood of the adepts. And babalon hath lulled him to sleep upon her breast, and she hath fled away, and left him naked, and she

^{1 <}^'"^> “

² Atu XVII has the letter H in the new Thelemic attribution. “The Star” is ? (Chokmah), for He is the Light of Binah, the naked Woman of the Atu. (Her arms make the Swastika; it is the sign of the Mourning of Isis.) K is the Path through which the light of Kether comes to Chokmah. n is said in the Zohar to interpret H; and n is the Path which conveys the Cup of Binah to the Inferiors. unites H and 1, for they are and 0 (v = 1, the Kerub of V).

³ Tahuti is sometimes so shewn.

⁴ [For “The Vision of the Universal Mercury” see Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn, rev. ed., p. 476; The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, vol. II, p. 61.]

⁵ <1 is O because of V and Apis.>

⁶ 9i has 17 squares. 17 = i.a.o., the Triune Kether.

⁷ In Atu I.

⁸ For 3 is D, Isis.

⁹ <K3 and 'K.>

hath called her children together, saying: Come up with me, and let us make a mock of the nakedness of the Most High.¹

And the first of the adepts covered His shame with a cloth, walking backwards; and was white. And the second of the adepts covered His shame with a cloth, walking sideways; and was yellow. And the third of the adepts made a mock of His nakedness, walking forwards; and was black. And these are three great schools of the Magi, who are also the three Magi that journeyed unto Bethlehem; and because thou hast not wisdom, thou shalt not know which school prevaileth, or if the three schools be not one.^{1 2} For the Black Brothers lift not up their heads thus far into the Holy Chokmah, for they were all drowned in the great flood, which is Binah, before the true vine could be planted upon the holy hill of Zion.

Now again I stand in the centre, and all things whirl by with incessant fury. And the thought of the god entereth my mind, and I cry aloud: Behold, the volatile is become fixed; and in the heart of eternal motion is eternal rest. So is the Peace beneath the sea that rageth with her storms; so is the changeful moon, the dead planet that revolveth no more. So the far-seeing, the far-darting hawk³ is poised passionless in the blue; so also the ibis that is long of limb meditateth solitary in the sign of Sulphur.⁴ Behold, I stand ever before the Eternal One in the sign of the Enterer.⁵ And by virtue of my speech is he wrapped about in silence, and he is wrapped in mystery by me, who am the Unveiler of the Mysteries. And although I be truth, yet do they call me rightly the God of Lies, for speech is two-fold, and truth is one.⁶ Yet I stand at the

¹ <The Noah legend. nil = 64. DH = 48.>

² <They are. Grjptou 9°=2°.> This doctrine of the Three Schools is of extreme interest. Roughly, it may be said that the White is the Pure Mystic, whose attitude to God is one of reverence. The Yellow School conceals the Mysteries indeed, but examines them as it goes. The Black School is that of pure Scepticism. [See Crowley, Magick without Tears, letters 6-8, “The Three Schools of Magick.”]

³ Hawk-like symbol ?. [Drawing by Crowley.]

⁴ [See note 3 on p. 191.]

⁵ Or of Horus; or, of Projection of Energy.

⁶ See “Liber [I vel] Magi.”

centre of the spider’s web, whereof the golden filaments reach to infinity.¹

But thou that art with me in the spirit-vision art not with me by right of Attainment, and thou canst not stay in this place to behold how I run and return, and who are the flies that are caught in my web. For I am the inmost guardian that is immediately before the shrine.

None shall pass by me except he slay me,^{1 2} and this is his curse, that, having slain me, he must take my office and become the maker of Illusions, the great deceiver, the setter of snares;³ he who baffleth even them that have understanding. For I stand on every path, and turn them aside from the truth by my words, and by my magick arts.

And this is the horror⁴ that was shown by the lake that was nigh unto the City of the Seven Hills,⁵ and this is the Mystery of the great prophets that have come unto mankind, Moses, and Buddha, and Lao Tan,⁶ and Krsna, and Jesus,⁷ and Osiris, and Mohammed; for all these attained unto the grade of Magus, and therefore were they bound with the curse of Thoth.⁸ But, being guardians of the truth, they have taught nothing but falsehood, except unto such as understood; for the truth may not pass the Gate of the Abyss.⁹

¹ I.e., he is also Solar. For the identification of Sol with Mercury (in some aspects) see “The Paris Working.” [See especially p. 360.]

² <The Frog operation in An. XII [1916 E.v.]?> [For the record of this see “Liber 73, The Urn”; for the text of the ritual see “Liber 70.”]

³ See “Liber [I vel] Magi.”

⁴ See “The King of the Wood,” a story by Aleister Crowley of a Priest of Nemi. [See Golden Twigs in Works Cited.]

⁵ The Lake of Nemi. See J.G. Frazer, The Golden Bough.

⁶ [Lao-tzu.]

⁷ This name is cunningly slipped in by the Art of the God, for “Jesus” is but the figurehead used by the priests for their “Great Sorcery.”

⁸ [Cf. Liber CXI vel Aleph, chaps. 68-75 and 120, and Liber 333, chap. 7, which give Lao-tzu, Gautama Buddha (Siddhartha), Krsna, Dionysus, Tahuti, Moses and Mohammed. Liber 333 identifies To Meya Orjpiov (Aleister Crowley) as the seventh Magus.]

⁹ See again “Liber Magi” for this disheartening doctrine.

But the reflection of the truth hath been shown in the lower Sephiroth. And its balance is in Beauty, and therefore have they who sought only beauty come nearest to the truth. For the beauty receiveth directly three rays from the supernals, and the others no more than one.¹ So, therefore, they that have sought after majesty and power and victory and learning and happiness and gold, have been discomfited. And these sayings are the lights of wisdom that thou mayst know thy Master, for he is a Magus. And because thou didst eat of the Pomegranate in hell, for half the year art thou concealed, and half the year revealed.^{1 2}

Now I perceive the Temple that is the heart of this ^Ethyr;³ it is an Urn suspended in the air, without support, above the centre of a well. And the well hath eight pillars, and a canopy above it, and without there is a circle of marble paving-stones, and without them a great outer circle of pillars. And beyond there is the forest of the stars. But the Urn is the wonderful thing in all this; it is made of fixed Mercury; and within it are the ashes of the Book Tarot,⁴ which hath been utterly consumed.⁵

And this is that mystery which is spoken of in the Acts of the Apostles; that Jupiter and Mercury (Kether and Chokmah) visited (that is, inspired), Ephesus, the City of Diana,⁶ Binah—was not Diana a black stone?—and they burnt their books of magick.

¹ See the Tree of Life.

² It has been curiously true, that the Seer since this time has usually been concealed in a Great Magical Retirement for about half of every year. This doctrine of the eating of the Pomegranate refers to the fact that he refused to adopt one of the routine methods of success in Magick. He, being the Beast 666, felt that he must keep his hold on Tiphareth by maintaining the Formula of the Rosy Cross.

³ This is like the Temple of Vesta at Rome in some curious way.

⁴ This perhaps is also the karnta of the new Magus. Somewhere it says that a white ash is prepared from the dust of nemo by Hermes the Invisible. [“Liber 156,” v. 16.] For Urn see Azbogah 5 = ID = a pot, 24. But it may be 86 = 01D, q.v. [The MS adds “(or taro).”]

⁵ The Master of the Temple who is chosen to proceed to the Grade of Magus has his little Pyramid of Dust consumed to ashes, and these are preserved in this Urn.

⁶ Vesta = ty. [Acts 14:12; 19:19.]

Now it seems that the centre of infinite space is that Urn, and Hadit is the fire that hath burnt up the book Tarot. For in the book Tarot was preserved all of the wisdom (for the Tarot was called the Book of Thoth), of the TEon that is passed. And in the Book of Enoch was first given the wisdom of the New TEon. And it was hidden for three hundred years, because it was wrested untimely from the Tree of Life by the hand of a desperate magician.¹ For it was the Master^{1 2} of that Magician who overthrew the power of the Christian church; but the pupil rebelled against the master, for he foresaw that the New (i.e., the Protestant) would be worse than the Old. But he understood not the purpose of his Master, and that was, to prepare the way for the overthrowing of the ;Eon.³

There is a writing upon the Urn of which I can but read the (two) words: Stabat Crux juxta Lucent. Stabat Lux juxta Crucem.⁴

And there is writing in Greek above that. The word “nox” written in Greek, and a circle with a cross in the centre of it, a St. Andrew’s cross.⁵

Then above that is a sigil( ?), hidden by a hand.⁶

And a voice proceedeth from the Urn: From the ashes of the Tarot who shall make the phoenix-wand? Not even he who by his understanding hath made the lotus-wand to grow in the Great Sea. Get thee back, for thou art not an Atheist, and though thou have violated thy mother, thou hast not slain thy father.⁷ Get thee back from the Urn; thy ashes are not hidden here.⁸

¹ Sir Edward Kelly. The reference is to the famous passage which Dee maintained to be given by demons; it taught that there was no sin, etc., etc. [See Casaubon, April 18, 1587; pp. 9-13 of page series 2.]

² Martin Luther.

³ Martin Luther’s magical act of cohabitation with a nun was the Key to this doctrine.

⁴ [Lat., “The Cross shall stand near the Light. The Light shall stand near the Cross.”]

⁵ ® = C\)OX = n.o.x.

⁶ All this required a Magus to see properly.

⁷ This again means that the Magus 9°=2^D must burn up all his karma.

⁸ This fact is now maintained openly. As to atheists, see “Liber LXV” V:34-40. Also 5th Aire; the Magister Templi is already being subtly prepared to attain to be a Magus.

Then again arose the God Thoth, in the sign of the Enterer, and he drove the seer from before his face. And he fell through the starry night unto the little village in the desert.

Ben-S’Rour, Algeria.

December io, 1909. 7:40-9:40 p.m.

The Cry of the 5TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED LIT¹

There is a shining pylon, above which is set the sigil of the eye, within the shining triangle. Light streams through the pylon from before the face of Isis-Hathor, for she weareth the lunar crown of cows’ horns, with the disk in the centre; at her breast she beareth the child Horus.^{1 2}

And there is a voice: thou knowest not how the Seven was united with the Four; much less then canst thou understand the marriage of the Eight and the Three. Yet there is a word wherein these are made one,³ and therein is contained the Mystery that thou seekest, concerning the rending asunder of the veil of my Mother.

Now there is an avenue of pylons (not one alone), steep after steep, carved from the solid rock of the mountain; and that rock is a substance harder than diamond, and brighter than light, and heavier than lead. In each pylon is seated a god. There seems an endless series of these pylons. And all the gods of all the nations of the earth are shown, for there are many avenues, all leading to the top of the mountain.

¹ lit = ® / “. Luna is the Mother of the Beginning: Caput Draconis, the Angel of the TEthyr; / is the Arrow of the main Vision. [K. or L has the double attributions £> and D, being 2) in ® (increasing).]

² Compare certain mysteries in Liber AL with the above.

³ baphometr, in which three vowels are equilibrated with eight [sic] consonants. He is also babalon after a certain Mystery, and Zeus Arrhenothelus. Hence the allusion at the end of this sentence.

Now I come to the top of the mountain, and the last pylon opens into a circular hall, with other pylons leading out of it, each of which is the last pylon of a great avenue; there seem to be nine such pylons. And in the centre is a shrine, a circular table, supported by marble figures of men and women, alternate white and black; they face inwards, and their buttocks are almost worn away by the kisses of those who have come to worship that supreme God, who is the single end of all those diverse religions. But the shrine itself is higher than a man may reach.

But the Angel that was with me lifted me, and I saw that the edge of the altar, as I must call it, was surrounded by holy men. Each has in his right hand a weapon—one a sword, one a spear, one a thunderbolt, and so on, but each with his left hand gives the sign of silence. I wish to see what is within their ring. One of them bends forward so that I may whisper the pass-word. The Angel prompts me to whisper: “There is no god.” So they let me pass, and though there was indeed nothing visible therein, yet there was a very strange atmosphere, which I could not understand.

Suspended in the air there is a silver star, and on the forehead of each of the guardians there is a silver star.¹ It is a pentagram,— because, says the Angel, three and five are eight; three and eight are eleven. (There is another numerical reason that I cannot hear.)

And as I entered their ring, they bade me stand in their circle, and a weapon was given unto me. And the pass-word that I had given seems to have been whispered round from one to the other, for each one nods gravely as if in solemn acquiescence, until the last one whispers the same words in my ears. But they have a different sense. I had taken them to be a denial of the existence of God, but the man who says them to me evidently means nothing of the sort: What he does mean I cannot tell at all. He slightly emphasized the word “there.”^{1 2}

¹ The Star of the A.'. A.'..

² Possibly the meaning is: in the Shrine seek not for God, for He is Everywhere. But in such a place as this all possible meanings are equally true.

And now all is suddenly blotted out,¹ and instead appears the Angel of the /Ethyr. He is all in black, burnished black scales, just edged with gold. He has vast wings, with terrible claws on the ends, and he has a fierce face, like a dragon’s, and dreadful eyes that pierce one through and through.

And he says: O thou that art so dull of understanding, when wilt thou begin to annihilate thyself in the mysteries of the /Ethyrs? For all that thou thinkest is but thy thought; and as there is no god in the ultimate shrine, so there is no I in thine own Cosmos.

They that have said this are of them that understood. And all men have misinterpreted it, even as thou didst misinterpret it. He says some more: I cannot catch it properly, but it seems to be to the effect that the true God is equally in all the shrines, and the true I in all the parts of the body and the soul. He speaks with such a terrible roaring that it is impossible to hear the words: one catches a phrase here and there, or a glimpse of the idea. With every word he belches forth smoke, so that the whole /Ethyr becomes full of it.

And now I hear the Angel: Every particle of matter that forms the smoke of my breath is a religion that hath flourished among the inhabitants of the worlds. Thus are they all whirled forth in my breath.

Now he is giving a demonstration of this Operation.^{1 2} And he says: Know thou that all the religions of all the worlds end herein, but they are only the smoke of my breath, and I am only the head of the Great Dragon that eateth up the Universe; without whom the Fifth /Ethyr would be perfect, even as the first. Yet unless he pass by me, can no man come unto the perfections.

And the rule is ended that hath bound thee, and this shall be thy rule: that thou shalt purify thyself, and anoint thyself with

¹ This reception among the Atheists is a necessary prelude to the Vision of the /Ethyr itself.

² [The MS has “Now he is making examples of this accomplishment.]

perfume; and thou shalt be in the sunlight, the day being free from clouds. And thou shalt make the Call of the /Ethyr in silence.

Now, then, behold how the head of the dragon is but the tail of the /Ethyr! Many are they that have fought their way from mansion to mansion of the Everlasting House, and beholding me at last have returned, declaring, “Fearful is the aspect of the Mighty and Terrible One.” Happy are they that have known me for whom I am. And glory unto him that hath made a gallery of my throat for his arrow of truth, and the moon for his purity.¹

The moon waneth. The moon waneth. The moon waneth. For in that arrow is the Light of Truth that overmastereth the light of the sun, whereby she shines. The arrow is fledged with the plumes^{1 2} of Maat, that are the plumes of Amoun, and the shaft is the phallus of Amoun, the Concealed One. And the barb³ thereof is the star that thou sawest in the place where was No God.

And of them that guarded the star, there was not found one worthy to wield the Arrow.⁴ And of them that worshipped there was not found one worthy to behold the Arrow. Yet the star that thou sawest was but the barb of the Arrow, and thou hadst not the wit to grasp the shaft, or the purity to divine the plumes. Now therefore is he blessed that is born under the sign of the Arrow,⁵ and blessed is he that hath the sigil of the head of the crowned lion and the body of the Snake and the Arrow therewith.⁶

¹ D, / and Q in the name of the /Ethyr.

² <b, “Justice.”>

³ < K, the -&.>

⁴ < Sir E. Kelly. Or Sir Stansfeld Jones?>

⁵ Query: refers to Sir Edward Kelly, the true Adeptus Major who founded this whole Work of the Watchtowers and the /Ethyrs.

[In the ms, a note at the end of this /Ethyr has “The formula? of the /Eon of Horus were first revealed to Edward Kelly, who may be regarded as Isaiah, while El[iphas] Levi is John [the] Baptist.” This is followed by a variant of the Holy Sevenfold Table giving only the name of the Saturnian angel stimcul, reading diagonally from top left to bottom right; see Figure 9 above.]

⁶ This seems to refer partly to the Seer himself, but partly to Caglios-tro, who was one of the incarnations of Him who is now the Seer. [Earlier variant:] cCagliostro may also be 666, whose “child” is the Sagittarian 777 [Charles Stansfeld Jones].>

Figure 9. The Arrow.

Yet do thou distinguish between the upward and the downward Arrows, for the upward arrow is straitened in its flight, and it is shot by a firm hand, for Yesod is Yod Tetragrammaton,¹ and

¹ See the Zohar. Yesod is the Phallus of the Most High. [See Knorr von Rosenroth, The Kabbalah Unveiled, trans. Mathers, p. 337.]

yod is a hand, but the downward arrow is shot by the topmost point of the yod; and that yod is “The Hermit,”¹ and it is the minute point that is not extended, that is nigh unto the heart of Hadit.^{1 2}

And now it is commanded thee that thou withdraw thyself from the Vision, and on the morrow, at the appointed hour, shall it be given thee further, as thou goest upon thy way, meditating this mystery. And thou shalt summon the Scribe, and that which shall be written, shall be written.

Therefore I withdraw myself, as I am commanded.

The Desert between Ben-S’Rour ant/ToLGA.

December 12, 1909. 7-8:12 p.m.

Now then art thou approached unto an august Arcanum; verily thou art come unto the ancient Marvel, the winged light, the Fountains of Fire, the Mystery of the Wedge. But it is not I that can reveal it, for I have never been permitted to behold it, who am but the watcher upon the threshold of the /Ethyr.³ My message is spoken, and my mission is accomplished. And I withdraw myself, covering my face with my wings, before the presence of the Angel of the Tithyr.

So the Angel departed with bowed head, folding his wings across.

And there is a little child in a mist of blue light; he hath golden hair, a mass of curls, and deep blue eyes. Yea, he is all golden, with a living, vivid gold. And in each hand he hath a snake; in the right hand a red, in the left hand a blue. And he hath red sandals, but no other garment.⁴

And he sayeth: Is not life a long initiation unto sorrow? And is not Isis the Lady of Sorrow? And she is my mother. Nature is her name, and she hath a twin sister Nephthys, whose name is Perfec

¹ Yod = 1^.

² See Liber AL 11:6, etc. The whole passage is a Mystery of the path of /.

³ He is spoken of in the earlier part as if he were himself the Angel of the Aire; this is the error of the Seer.

⁴ <I.e., he is a God.>

tion. And Isis must be known of all, but of how few is Nephthys known! Because she is dark, therefore is she feared.

But thou who hast adored her without fear, who hast made thy life an initiation into her Mystery, thou that hast neither mother nor father, nor sister nor brother, nor wife nor child, who hast made thyself lonely as the hermit crab that is in the waters of the Great Sea, behold! when the sistrons are shaken, and the trumpets blare forth the glory of Isis, at the end thereof there is silence, and thou shalt commune with Nephthys.

And having known these, there are the wings of Maut the Vulture.¹ Thou mayest draw to an head the bow of thy magical will; thou mayest loose the shaft and pierce her to the heart. I am Eros.^{1 2} Take then the bow and the quiver from my shoulders and slay me; for unless thou slay me, thou shalt not unveil the Mystery of the /Ethyr.

Therefore I did as he commanded; in the quiver were two arrows, one white, one black. I cannot force myself to fit an arrow to the bow.

And there came a voice: It must needs be.

And I said: No man can do this thing.

And the voice answered, as it were an echo: Nemo hoc facere potest.³

Then came understanding to me, and I took forth the Arrows. The white arrow had no barb, but the black arrow was barbed like a forest of fish-hooks; it was bound round with brass, and it had been dipped in deadly poison. Then I fitted the white arrow to the string, and I shot it against the heart of Eros, and though I shot with all my force, it fell harmlessly from his side. But at that moment the black arrow was thrust through mine own heart. I am filled with fearful agony.

And the child smiles, and says: Although thy shaft hath pierced me not, although the envenomed barb hath struck thee

¹ The Mother-Goddess behind even such lofty ideas as Isis and Nephthys.

² This is then the Child of Atu VI, pertaining to H . H is opposite to / in the Zodiac; their symbols are therefore complementary.

³ [Lai., “No man can do this thing.”]

through, yet I am slain, and thou livest and triumphest, for I am thou and thou art I.

With that he disappears, and the /Ethyr splits with a roar as of ten thousand thunders. And behold, The Arrow! The plumes of Maat are its crown, set about the disk. It is the Ateph crown of Thoth, and there is the shaft of burning light, and beneath there is a silver wedge.

I shudder and tremble at the vision, for all about it are whorls and torrents of tempestuous fire. The stars of heaven are caught in the ashes of the flame. And they are all dark. That which was a blazing sun is like a speck of ash. And in the midst the Arrow burns!

I see that the crown of the Arrow is the Father of all Light, and the shaft of the Arrow is the Father of all Life, and the barb of the Arrow is the Father of all Love. For that silver wedge is like a lotus flower, and the Eye within the Ateph Crown crieth: I watch. And the Shaft crieth: I work. And the Barb crieth: I wait. And the Voice of the /Ethyr echoeth: It beams. It burns. It blooms.¹

And now there cometh a strange thought; this Arrow is the source of all motion; it is infinite motion, yet it moveth not, so that there is no motion. And therefore there is no matter. This Arrow is the glance of the Eye of Siva. But because it moveth not, the universe is not destroyed. The universe is put forth and swallowed up in the quivering of the plumes of Maat, that are the plumes of the Arrow: but those plumes quiver not.^{1 2}

And a voice comes: That which is above is not like that which is below.

And another voice answers it: That which is below is not like that which is above.

And a third voice answers these two: What is above and what is below? For there is the division that divideth not, and the multiplication that multiplied! not. And the One is the Many.³ Behold, this Mystery is beyond understanding, for the winged

¹ These are the Words of a certain Grade of A.^-. A.^-..

² Cf. 11th Aire.

³ An essential Mystery of Thelema. Let it be studied well!

globe is the crown, and the shaft is the wisdom, and the barb is the understanding. And the Arrow is one, and thou art lost in the Mystery, who art but as a babe that is carried in the womb of its mother, that art not yet ready for the light.

And the vision overcometh me. My sense is stunned; my sight is blasted; my hearing is dulled.

And a voice cometh: Thou didst seek the remedy of sorrow; therefore all sorrow is thy portion. This is that which is written: “God hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all.”¹ For as thy blood is mingled in the cup of babalon, so is thine heart the universal heart. Yet is it bound about with the Green Serpent, the Serpent of Delight.^{1 2}

It is shown me that this heart is the heart that rejoiceth, and the serpent is the serpent of Death³ for herein all the symbols are interchangeable, for each one containeth in itself³ its own opposite. And this is the great Mystery of the Supernals that are beyond the Abyss. For below the Abyss, contradiction is division; but above the Abyss, contradiction is Unity. And there could be nothing true except by virtue of the contradiction that is contained in itself.

Thou canst not believe how marvellous is this vision of the Arrow. And it could never be shut out, except the Lords of Vision troubled the waters of the pool, the mind of the Seer. But they send forth a wind that is a cloud of Angels, and they beat the water with their feet, and little waves splash up—they are memories. For the seer hath no head; it is expanded into the universe, a vast and silent sea, crowned with the stars of night.⁴ Yet in the very midst thereof is the arrow.⁵ Little images of things that were, are the foam upon the waves. And there is a contest between the

¹ [Isaiah 53:6, paraphrase.]

² Cf. “Liber LXV.”

³ This is the most important of all the doctrines that concern the Supernals, for the Student of the Mysteries. For it explains the necessity of his arming himself with a new kind of Logic.

⁴ His Kether is dissolved in Ain Soph.

⁵ The Arrow persists, for it is the direction of Energy, the Will that createth all Becoming.

Vision and the memories. I prayed unto the Lords of Vision, saying: O my Lords, take not away this wonder from my sight.

And they said: It must needs be. Rejoice therefore if thou hast been permitted to behold, even for a moment, this Arrow, the austere, the august. But the vision is accomplished, and we have sent forth a great wind against thee. For thou canst not penetrate by force, who hast refused it; nor by authority, for thou hast trampled it under foot. Thou art bereft of all but understanding, O thou that art no more than a little pile of dust!

And the images rise up against me and constrain me, so that the /Ethyr is shut against me. Only the things of the mind and of the body are open unto me. The shew-stone is dull, for that which I see therein is but a memory.

Tolga, Algeria December 15, 1909. 8:15-10:10 p.m.

XUT

The Cry of the 4TH /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED PAZ’

The Stone is translucent and luminous, and no images enter therein.

A voice says: Behold the brilliance of the Lord, whose feet are set upon him that pardoneth transgression. Behold the six-fold Star that flameth in the Vault, the seal of the marriage of the great White King and his black slave.^{1 2}

So I looked into the Stone, and beheld the six-fold Star: the whole /Ethyr is as tawny clouds, like the flame of a furnace. And

¹ paz = SIS? SI. This S? = 1 = Atu V, “The Hierophant.” He is Microprosopus, the Demiurge, appearing in the House of the Sun. Cf. 9th Aire, where His Bride is similarly placed.

² This is a common Alchemical symbolism; it occurs also in Tibetan mythology. The meaning is always the same; that here stated.

there is a mighty host of Angels, blue and golden, that throng it, and they cry: Holy, Holy, Holy art thou, that art not shaken in the earthquakes, and in the thunders! The end of things is come upon us; the day of be-with-us¹ is at hand! For he hath created the universe, and overthrown it, that he might take his pleasure thereupon.

And now, in the midst of the ?Ethyr, I beheld that god. He hath a thousand arms, and in each hand is a weapon of terrible strength. His face is more terrible than the storm, and from his eyes flash lightnings of intolerable brilliance. From his mouth run seas of blood. Upon his head is a crown of every deadly thing. Upon his forehead is the upright tau, and on either side of it are signs of blasphemy. And about him clingeth a young girl, like unto the king’s daughter that appeareth in the ninth /Ethyr. But she is become rosy by reason of his force, and her purity hath tinged his black with blue.

They are clasped in a furious embrace, so that she is torn asunder by the terror of the god; yet so tightly clingeth she about him, that he is strangled. She hath forced back his head, and his throat is livid with the pressure of her fingers. Their joint cry is an intolerable anguish, yet it is the cry of their rapture, so that every pain, and every curse, and every bereavement, and every death of everything in the whole universe, is but one little gust of wind in that tempest-scream of ecstasy.^{1 2}

The voice thereof is not articulate. It is in vain to seek comparison. It is absolutely continuous, without breaks or beats. If there seem to be vibration therein, it is because of the imperfection of the ears of the seer.

And there cometh an interior voice, which sayeth to the seer that he hath trained his eyes well and can see much; and he hath trained his ears a little, and can hear a little; but his other senses

¹ [Capitalized as “Be-with-us” in ms; see also “Liber 156,” v. 12, and “Liber 370,” v. 6, where it is given as “Be-with-Us”.]

² This all refers to “love under will,” the Law by which the Universe proceeds.

hath he trained scarcely at all, and therefore the TEthyrs are almost silent to him on those planes. By the senses are meant the spiritual correlations of the senses, not the physical senses. But this matters little, because the Seer, so far as he is a seer, is the expression of the spirit of humanity.¹ What is true of him is true of humanity, so that even if he had been able to receive the full TEthyrs, he could not have communicated them.

And an Angel speaks: Behold, this vision is utterly beyond thine understanding. Yet shalt thou endeavour to unite thyself with the dreadful marriage-bed.

So I am torn asunder, nerve from nerve and vein from vein, and more intimately—cell from cell, molecule from molecule, and atom from atom, and at the same time all crushed together. Write down that the tearing asunder is a crushing together.^{1 2} All the double phenomena are only two ways of looking at a single phenomenon; and the single phenomenon is Peace. There is no sense in my words or in my thoughts. “Faces half-formed arose.” This is the meaning of that passage; they are attempts to interpret Chaos, but Chaos is Peace. Cosmos is the War of the Rose and the Cross.³ That was “a half-formed face” that I said then. All images are useless.

Blackness, blackness intolerable, before the beginning of the light. This is the first verse of Genesis. Holy art thou, Chaos, Chaos, Eternity, all contradictions in terms!

Oh, blue! blue! blue! whose reflection in the Abyss is called the Great One of the Night of Time; between ye vibrateth the Lord of the Forces of Matter.

¹ He is 666, the Angel of Tiphareth, the Middle Kingdom of the Sephir-oth, Mankind.

² Again the Logic of the Supernals.

³ It is “love under will” which unites them.

O Nox, Nox, qui celas infamiam infandi nefandi, Deo solo sit laus qui dedit signum non scribendum. Laus virgini cuius stuprum tradit salutem.¹

O Night, that givest suck from thy paps to sorcery, and theft, and rape, and gluttony, and murder, and tyranny, and to the nameless Horror, cover us, cover us, cover us from the Rod of Destiny; for Cosmos must come, and the balance be set up where there was no need of balance, because there was no injustice, but only truth. But when the balances are equal, scale matched with scale, then will Chaos^{1 2} return.

Yea, as in a looking-glass, so in thy mind, that is backed with the false metal of lying, is every symbol read averse. Lo! everything wherein thou hast trusted must confound thee, and that thou didst flee from was thy saviour. So therefore didst thou shriek in the Black Sabbath when thou didst kiss the hairy buttocks of the goat, when the gnarled god tore thee asunder, when the icy cataract of death swept thee away.³

Shriek, therefore, shriek aloud; mingle the roar of the gored lion and the moan of the torn bull, and the cry of the man that is torn by the claws of the Eagle, and the scream of the Eagle that is strangled by the hands of the Man. Mingle all these in the deathshriek of the Sphinx, for the blind man hath profaned her mystery. Who is this, (Edipus, Tiresias, Erinyes? Who is this, that is blind and a seer, a fool above wisdom? Whom do the hounds of

¹ [Lat., “O Night, Night, who hidest the infamy of the unutterable [and] abominable, praise be to God alone who gave the sign that must not be written. Praise to the virgin whose violation yieldeth health.”]

² Chaos is the Great Father, in one particular aspect.

³ See “Liber 370” and elsewhere.

heaven follow, and the crocodiles of hell await?¹ Aleph, vau, yod, ayin, resh, tau, is his name.²

Beneath his feet is the kingdom, and upon his head the crown. He is spirit and matter; he is peace and power; in him is Chaos and Night and Pan, and upon babalon his concubine, that hath made him drunk upon the blood of the saints that she hath gathered in her golden cup, hath he begotten the virgin that now he doth deflower. And this is that which is written: Malkuth shall be uplifted and set upon the throne of Binah.³ And this is the stone of the philosophers that is set as a seal upon the tomb of Tetra-grammaton, and the elixir of life that is distilled from the blood of the saints, and the red powder that is the grinding-up of the bones of Choronzon.

Terrible and wonderful is the Mystery thereof, O thou Titan that hast climbed into the bed of Juno! Surely thou art bound unto, and broken upon, the wheel;⁴ yet hast thou uncovered the nakedness of the Holy One, and the Queen of Heaven is in travail of child, and his name shall be called Vir, and Vis, and Virus, and Virtus, and Viridis,⁵ in one name that is all these, and above all these.⁶

Desolate, desolate is the /Ethyr, for thou must return unto the habitations of the Owl and the Bat, unto the Scorpions of the sand, and the blanched eyeless beetles that have neither wing nor

• ¹ Refers to Atu 0.

• ² This path joins the Sephiroth 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 10.

It adds to 687 = 3 x 229. 229 is a possible spelling

of Aiwass (in Hebrew) in full.    P

V*

Tn

• ³ This Mystery of the Daughter H awakening the Eld of the All-Father and thus perpetuating Tetragrammaton is of great importance.

• ⁴ Refers to Ixion, who embraced Juno in the form of a cloud.

• ⁵ [Lat., vir—“man”; vis—“power”; virus—“poison”; virtus— “manliness ”; viridis—“green. ” ]

• ⁶ Vi Veri Universum Vivus Vici, the motto of the Seer as Magister Templi. [Lat., “By the force of Truth 1 have conquered the Universe while living.”]

horn. Return, blot out the vision, wipe from thy mind the memory thereof; stifle the fire with green wood; consume the Sacrament; cover the Altar; veil the Shrine; shut up the Temple and spread booths in the market place; until the appointed time come when the Holy One shall declare unto thee the Mystery of the Third /Ethyr.

Yet be thou wake and ware, for the great Angel Hua is about thee, and overshadoweth thee, and at any moment he may come upon thee unawares. The voice of paz is ended.

Biskra, Algeria.

December 16, 1909. 9-10:30 a.m.

The Cry of the 3RD /Ethyr,¹ WHICH IS CALLED ZOM^{1 2}

There is an angry light in the stone; now it is become clear.

In the centre is that minute point of light which is the true Sun, and in the circumference is the Emerald Snake. And joining them

¹ The last Three /Ethyrs are so transcendentally sublime that comment is only too likely to mar the effect upon the reader. They must be read as masterpieces of Art, and their full magical import apprehended as such. This remark indeed applies to the whole series, though not so formidably. The proper way is to study the Book in detail, so as to assimilate perfectly its intellectual content, and then to read it (so to say) ceremonially.

² [Crowley misnamed this /Ethyr zon, commenting that “zon = 67 Xi ITL.. The Sun, the Balance, and the Snake. See text of Aire.” It is mistakenly given as zon in the MS and all editions. It is given as zom in both parts of “Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” Casaubon, p. 209, and the Dee-Kelly mss. The immediate source of the error was the notebook used in the workings (now at Northwestern University Library), which gives ■PL3'. This error also appears in J.EC. Fuller’s transcription of Allan Bennett’s Golden Dawn notebooks (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas at Austin), the originals of which were probably Crowley’s immediate source in preparing his notebook, zom = 61 Tl ~ = 44.]

are the rays which are the plumes of Maat, and because the distance is infinite, therefore are they parallel from the circumference, although they diverge from the centre.

In all this is no voice and no motion.

And yet it seems that the great Snake feedeth upon the plumes of Truth as upon itself, so that it contracteth.¹ But ever so little as it contracteth, without it gloweth the golden rim, which is that minute point in the centre.

And all this is the sigil of the TEthyr, gold and azure and green. Yet also these are the Severities.

It is only in the first three TLthyrs that we find the pure essence, for all the other >Ethyrs are but as Malkuth to complete these three triads, as hath before been said.^{1 2} And this being the second reflection, therefore is it the palace of two hundred and eighty judgments.³

For all these paths⁴ are in the course of the Flaming Sword from the side of Severity. And the other two paths are zain, which is a sword; and shin, which is a tooth. These are then the five severities which are 280.

All this is communicated to the Seer interiorly.

“And the eye of His benignancy is closed. Let it not be opened upon the ?Ethyr, lest the severities be mitigated, and the house fall.”⁵ Shall not the house fall, and the Dragon sink? Verily all things have been swallowed up in destruction; and Chaos hath opened his jaws and crushed the Universe as a Bacchanal crusheth a grape between her teeth. Shall not destruction swallow up destruction, and annihilation confound annihilation? Twenty and

¹ Cf. the doctrine of the Snake Ananta.

² [I.e., /Ethyrs 1-3. See p. 45, and Figure 15, p. 254.]

³ The letters of Judgment, those which have a final form, D, 0, 2, 2, U, all add to 280. [See Knorr von Rosenroth, The Kabbalah Unveiled, trans. Mathers, p. 103.]

⁴ “I, b and 3 (®, £1 and fib), the Sun, the Balance or plumes of Maat, and the Snake. Added they make 280.

⁵ Note this. If the Seer had seen this vision truly, he should have become a Magus right then. The vision following was really a Guard to the /Ethyr.

two are the mansions¹ of the House of my Father, but there cometh an ox^{1 2} that shall set his forehead against the House, and it shall fall. For all these things are the toys of the Magician³ and the Maker of Illusions, that barreth the Understanding from the Crown.

O thou that hast beheld the City of the Pyramids, how shouldst thou behold the House of the Juggler?⁴ For he is wisdom, and by wisdom hath he made the Worlds, and from that wisdom issue judgements 70 by 4, that are the 4 eyes of the doubleheaded one; that are the 4 devils, Satan, Lucifer, Leviathan, Belial, that are the great princes of the evil of the world.⁵

And Satan is worshipped by men under the name of Jesus; and Lucifer is worshipped by men under the name of Brahma; and Leviathan is worshipped by men under the name of Allah; and Belial is worshipped by men under the name of Buddha.

(This is the meaning of the passage in Liber Legis, Chap. III.)⁶

Moreover, there is Mary, a blasphemy against babalon, for she hath shut herself up;⁷ and therefore is she the Queen of all those wicked devils that walk upon the earth, those that thou sawest even as little black specks that stained the Heaven of Urania. And all these are the excrement of Choronzon.

And for this is babalon under the power of the Magician, that she hath submitted herself unto the work; and she guardeth the Abyss.⁸ And in her is a perfect purity⁹ of that which is above; yet she is sent as the Redeemer to them that are below. For there is no other way into the Supernal Mystery but through her, and the Beast on which she rideth; and the Magician is set beyond her to

¹ Beth, an house.

² The letter aleph.

³ The path of 5, □, which joins and separates Kether and Binah.

⁴ Atu I.

⁵ See The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.

⁶ <My own silly note?>

⁷ She seeks to resist Change, which is Life; she refuses the Formula, “love under will.” <Yet Mapie = 156.>

⁸ She is Binah, ruled by the path of □.

⁹ [The ms has “the perfect purity.”]

deceive the brothers of blackness, lest they should make unto themselves a crown;¹ for if there were two crowns, then should Ygdrasil, that ancient tree, be cast out into the Abyss, uprooted and cast down into the Outermost Abyss, and the Arcanum which is in the Adytum should be profaned; and the Ark should be touched, and the Lodge spied upon by them that are not masters, and the bread of the Sacrament should be the dung of Choronzon; and the wine of the Sacrament should be the water of Choronzon; and the incense should be dispersion; and the fire upon the Altar should be hate. But lift up thyself; stand, play the man, for behold! there shall be revealed unto thee the Great Terror, the thing of awe that hath no name.

And this is the mystery that I declare unto thee: that from the Crown itself spring the three great delusions; aleph is madness, and beth is falsehood, and gimel is glamour.^{1 2} And these three be greater than all, for they are beyond the words that I speak unto thee; how much more therefore are they beyond the words that thou transmittest unto men.

Behold! the Veil of the /Ethyr sundereth, and is torn, like a sail by the breath of the tempest, and thou shalt see him as from afar

¹ I.e., to construct a true Tree, of which Daath should be the summit. This is in fact the great error of the rationalists—both in Science, like Buchner, and in religion, like Buddha. Knowledge is not, and cannot be, the crown of Consciousness, if only because the Logic beyond the Abyss convicts it of essential self-contradiction. Daath, as seen by the Magister Templi, is so far from being the opposite of Ignorance that it is actually a demonstration that the Intellect is incapable of Truth. [The German physician and philosopher Ludwig Buchner (1824-1899) rejected religion and free will, espousing a materialism that denied any distinction between mind and matter.]

² Aleph is incapacity to apprehend—the absence of any steady Truth (8 = A, the volatile). Beth is the assertion of false relations, even in the illusion of the Dyad (□ = ?). And gimel is the clouding of aspiration by the marsh miasma of desire (2 = 2)). Such are the evil and averse counterparts of the three highest faculties of the Soul: aleph, the inspiration of the Soul in ecstasy; beth, the virtue of Truthfulness without care of other issues; and gimel, the direct link of the Human with the Divine Consciousness.

off.¹ This is that which is written, “Confound her understanding with darkness,”^{1 2} for thou canst not speak this thing.¹

It is the figure of “The Magus” of the Taro;³ in his right arm the torch of the flames blazing upwards; in his left the cup of poison, a cataract into Hell. And upon his head the evil talisman, blasphemy and blasphemy and blasphemy, in the form of a circle. That is the greatest blasphemy of all.⁴ On his feet hath he the scythes and swords and sickles; daggers; knives; every sharp thing,⁵—a millionfold, and all in one. And before him is the Table that is a Table of wickedness, the 42-fold Table. This Table is connected with the 42 Assessors of the Dead,⁶ for they are the Accusers, whom the soul must baffle; and with the 42-fold name of God, for this is the Mystery of Iniquity, that there was ever a beginning at all.⁷ And this Magus casteth forth, by the might of

¹ The Seer was being warned all the time that he was seeing only a Guard.

² [From the Call or Key of the 30 TEthyrs. See p. 27.]

³ Atu I. This is Mayan, the Great Magician, he who has created the Dyad (□ = 2) and thus made possible the conception of Opposition, and hence of “Evil.” He is to be distinguished from Chokmah, the creative Mercury who transmits the Essence of Kether as a logos, that Kether may become intelligible to Himself through Binah. This lower Mercury asserts the Dyad as Reality, and denies alike Kether and the Ain. Hence its issue is in Materialism.

⁴ I.e., that the circle should be thus profaned. The evil circle is of three concentric rings. The Circle demands the Square (or Cross) to fulfill it.

⁵ Curiously, for his retirement in New Hampshire (An. xn [1916 e.v.]) the Seer bought an axe, a knife, and a saw for his magical weapons. He had completely forgotten this passage. P.S. (® in SI, D in ®, An. XII. [July 29, 1916 E.v.]) I have just realized (after some days woodcarving) that the use of a knife is to fashion shapeless things into Beauty. This is then the task of a Magus. In my then Grade, I could not see this. Now, O Lord, let me behold the true Vision of the Magus as He is. [See “Liber 73, The Urn.”]

⁶ [See The Egyptian Book of the Dead. See also The Tibetan Book of the Dead, which also gives a central place to the number 42.]

⁷ 42 = 2 x 21. 21 = H’HK, the God-name of Kether; thus 42 asserts the Dyad as against the Monad, and denies Love. 42 = KOK, the Mother unfertilized, the Virgin-on-principle—the feminine equivalent of the Black Brothers.

his four weapons, veil after veil; a thousand shining colours, ripping and tearing the /Ethyr, so that it is like jagged saws, or like broken teeth in the face of a young girl, or like disruption, or madness. There is a horrible grinding sound, maddening. This is the mill in which the Universal Substance, which is ether, was ground down into matter.

The Seer prayeth that a cloud may come between him and the sun, so that he may shut out the terror of the vision. And he is afire; he is terribly athirst; and no help can come to him, for the shew-stone blazeth ever with the fury and the torment and the blackness, and the stench of human flesh. The bowels of little children are torn out and thrust into his mouth, and poison is dropped into his eyes. And Lilith,¹ a black monkey crawling with filth, running with open sores, an eye torn out, eaten of worms, her teeth rotten, her nose eaten away, her mouth a putrid mass of green slime, her dugs dropping and cancerous, clings to him, kisses him.^{1 2}

¹ n’b’¹? = 480 = FI’P = Malkuth, of the 42-fold name in Yetzirah. Also 480 = min, Daath, in the Plural. Lilith is etymologically “The Woman of Night,” but is diversely described by different authorities. To one she is “from the head to the navel a woman; from the navel to the feet of her, a man.” To another, “a lovely shape that con-cealeth a black monkey, even as a figure that draweth with her hands small images of men down into hell” (“Liber Ararita” 11:10). She is also the “first wife of Adam,” i.e., the succubus who visits in their sleep those boys and men who have not previously purified themselves by Right Coitus. The whole world of demons was in fact created (according to the Rabbinical tradition) by the nocturnal pollutions of Adam. This is a true parable. For every sexual act produces its natural effect on all planes. All forms of spiritual experience may be obtained in this manner, according to the Magical Knowledge and Skill of the Operator. And there is always a Child begotten on some plane or other, as the conditions of the experiment decide.

² <Doris Gomez, who came just before Jeanne Foster. It’s a perfect description of her moral nature. Add Laura Brown for the sake of completeness. [P.S.] What about Alostrael ? >

[Jeanne Foster was Soror Hilarion, the “Cat-Officer” in “Liber 73, The Urn.” Soror Alostrael was Leah Hirsig, the “Ape of Thoth.” See Confessions, passim. Both were important Scarlet Women.]

(Kill me! kill me!)¹

There is a mocking voice: Thou art become immortal. Thou wouldst look upon the face of the Magician and thou hast not beheld him because of his Magick veils.

(Don’t torture me!)

Thus are all they fallen into the power of Lilith, who have dared to look upon his face.

The shew-stone is all black and corrupt. O filth! filth! filth!

And this is her great blasphemy: that she hath taken the name of the First TEthyr,^{1 2} and bound it on her brow, and added thereunto the shameless yod and the tau for the sign of the Cross.

She it is that squatteth upon the Crucifix, for the nastiness of her pleasure. So that they that worship Christ suck up her filth upon their tongues, and therefore their breaths stink.³

I was saved from that Horror by a black shining Triangle, with apex upwards,⁴ that came upon the face of the sun.

And now the shew-stone is all clear and beautiful again.

The pure pale gold of a fair maiden’s hair, and the green of her girdle, and the deep soft blue of her eyes.

Note.—In this the gold is Kether, the blue is Chokmah, the green is Binah.

Thus she appeareth in the TEthyr, adorned with flowers and gems. It seems that she hath incarnated herself upon earth, and that she will appear manifest in a certain office⁵ in the Temple.

¹ The Seer was physically overwhelmed by the horror of this experience. It may seem surprising that such phenomena should occur above the Abyss. But this Lilith is a positive form created by the Magus; whereas Choronzon is the breaking-up of all coherence. Here also is a Mystery of Mysteries, that Lilith is truly babalon, as imagined by this energy of Mayan.

² LIL.

³ For the Christian, obsessed by Mayan, sees Love in this obscene form. It is all a matter of the point-of-view.

⁴ This is the Sigil of Binah in one of Her forms. It instantly destroys the illusion of Lilith, who now appears in her true shape in an avatar; a corporeal imagine of babalon, recalling the maiden of the 9th /Ethyr.

⁵ [The MS adds “and function.”]

I have seen some picture like her face;¹ I cannot think what picture. It is a piquant face, with smiling eyes and lips; the ears are small and pink, the complexion is fair, but not transparent; not as fair as one would expect from the hair and eyes. It is rather an impudent face, rather small, very pretty; the nose very slightly less than straight, well-proportioned, rather large nostrils. Full of vitality, the whole thing. Not very tall, rather slim and graceful; a good dancer.

There is another girl behind her, with sparkling eyes, mischievous, a smile showing beautiful white teeth; an ideal Spanish girl, but fair.^{1 2} Very vivacious. Only her head is visible, and now it is veiled by a black sun, casting forth dull rays of black and gold.

Then the disk of the sun is a pair of balances, held steady; and twined about the central pole of the balance is the little green poisonous snake,³ with a long forked tongue rapidly darting.⁴

And the Angel that hath spoken with me before, saith to me: The eye of His benignancy is opened; therefore veileth he thine eyes from the vision. Manfully hast thou endured; yet, hadst thou been man, thou hadst not endured; and hadst thou been wholly that which thou art, thou shouldst have been caught up into the full vision that is unspeakable for Horror. And thou shouldst have beheld the face of the Magician that thou hast not been able to behold,—of him from whom issue forth the severities that are upon Malkuth, and his name is Misericordia Dei.⁵

And because he is the dyad, thou mayest yet understand⁶ in two ways. Of the first way, the Mercy of God is that Mercy which

¹ cHilarion? [Jeanne Robert Foster.]>

² <Helen Westley? or Myriam Deroxe?>

³ <Alice Ethel Coomaraswamy? She has XI rising and ® in 1TU and she is mad about green.> [Mrs. Coomaraswamy was Ratan Devi, the “Monkey-Officer” in “Liber 73, The Urn.”]

⁴ It would be improper in this place to comment upon these prophecies. The student may seek enlightenment in “The Urn.”

⁵ [Lat., “the Mercy of God.”]

⁶ [The MS has “understand it in two ways.”]

Jehovah showed to the Amalekites;¹ and the second way is utterly beyond thine understanding,^{1 2} for it is the upright, and thou knowest nothing but the averse,—until Wisdom shall inform thine Understanding, and upon the base of the Ultimate triangle arise the smooth point.³

Veil therefore thine eyes, for that thou canst not master the /Ethyr, unless thy Mystery match Its Mystery. Seal up thy mouth also, for thou canst not master the voice of the ./Ethyr, save only by Silence.

And thou shalt give the sign of the Mother, for babalon is thy fortress against the iniquity of the Abyss, of the iniquity of that which bindeth her unto the Crown,⁴ and barreth her from the Crown; for not until thou art made one with chaos⁵ canst thou begin that last, that most terrible projection, the three-fold Regimen which alone constitutes the Great Work.

For Choronzon is as it were the shell or excrement of these three paths, and therefore is his head raised unto Daath, and therefore have the Black Brotherhood declared him to be the child of Wisdom and Understanding, who is but the bastard of the Svastika. And this is that which is written in the Holy Qabalah, concerning the Whirlpool and Leviathan, and the Great Stone.⁶

Thus long have I talked with thee in bidding thee depart, that the memory of the /Ethyr might be dulled; for hadst thou come back suddenly into thy mortal frame, thou hadst fallen into madness or death. For the vision is not such that any may endure it.

¹ [I Sam. 15.]

² An. xil. <Q in 61 .> [July 29, 1916 E.v.] Now I understand. It’s the Fashioning I missed. All my life I have been cutting to destroy. Now I’ll cut to create. [See “Liber 73, The Urn.”]

³ All this passage is typical of the Supernal Logic.

⁴ The path of beth.

⁵ The Mystery of chaos is beyond the comprehension of any but Masters of the Temple. One can only hint that this is at once the Formula of the Feminine Trinity, and of the All-Father.

⁶ The student is advised to study these matters in the original documents. [See the Zohar. Cf. Knorr von Rosenroth, The Kabbalah Unveiled, trans. Mathers, chap. 31.]

But now thy sense is dull, and the shew-stone but a stone. Therefore awake, and give secretly and apart the sign of the Mother, and call four times upon the name of chaos,¹ that is the four-fold word that is equal to her seven-fold word. And then shalt thou purify thyself, and return into the World.

So I did that which was commanded me, and returned.

Biskra.

December 17, 1909. 9:30-11:30 a.m.

The Cry of the 2nd /Ethyr, WHICH IS CALLED ARN^{1 2}

In the first place, there is again the woman riding on the bull, which is the reflection of babalon, that rideth on The Beast. And also there is an Assyrian legend of a woman with a fish, and also there is a legend of Eve and the Serpent, for Cain³ was the child of Eve and the Serpent, and not of Eve and Adam; and therefore when he had slain his brother, who was the first murderer, having sacrificed living things to his demon, had Cain the mark upon his brow, which is the mark of the Beast spoken of in the Apocalypse,⁴ and is the sign of initiation.⁵

¹ <D1X?r> = 156.>

² ARN = S? X 'TIL - See the allusions to Bull, Fish and Serpent in the first paragraph. But Ip] = 156 = babalon, also here mentioned; and the whole /Ethyr is devoted to her.

³ <See Achad’s essay on ]’p.> [Probably “Liber QNA,” which Crowley returned to Frater Achad (Charles Stansfeld Jones) for “possible revision re: Canaan.” Cf. Frater Achad, Liber 31 and Other Related Essays, p. 53; see Works Cited. “Liber qna” was never revised, and despite Jones’ claim, was never accepted into the A.'.A.’. canon.]

⁴ <(§)>.>

⁵ This is the “Third Eye,” the “Eye of Siva,” the Pineal Gland, supposed by some anatomists to be a rudimentary eye.

The shedding of blood is necessary, for God did not hear the children of Eve until blood was shed.¹ And that is external religion; but Cain spake not with God, nor had the mark of initiation upon his brow, so that he was shunned of all men, until he had shed blood. And this blood was the blood of his brother. This is a mystery of the sixth key of the Taro, which ought not to be called “The Lovers,” but “The Brothers.”^{1 2}

In the middle of the card stands Cain; in his right hand is the Hammer of Thor with which he hath slain his brother, and it is all wet with his blood. And his left hand he holdeth open as a sign of innocence. And on his right hand is his mother Eve, around whom the serpent is entwined with his hood spread behind her head; and on his left hand is a figure somewhat like the Hindu Kali, but much more seductive. Yet I know it to be Lilith. And above him is the Great Sigil of the Arrow, downward, but it is struck through the heart of the child. This Child also is Abel.³ And the meaning of this part of the card is obscure, but that is the correct drawing of the Taro card; and that is the correct magical

¹ The “Bloody Sacrifice” is commonly regarded as “Black Magic.” But this depends upon the Formula used by the Magician. All taking of life could be reprehensible, even though necessary, were it not for the Formula of Evolution. One should assume into one’s own Being, ceremonially, the whole karma of the creature slain; thus building it up into a higher organic structure, and thus helping it to fulfil its True Will of Aspiration to a higher Form of Life. This is, of course, a gross and material method of working; but it is the only method available in such cases. The animal is in any case doomed to death, and the most fortunate, the most directly profitable to it, is this immediate translation of its prana (in an actual ceremony), or the basis of its prana (in simple consumption at the table), into a living organism of superior type. It is important not to allow this prana to escape.

² There is another, even more important, attribution of this card. The Bowman is the Father (’ of H1H') and the Man, the Son (1). The Women are Isis and Nephthys (H and H final), and the whole symbolizes a Formula of the Highest Magick, too obscure and too elaborate to treat of in this elementary comment.

³ This Child is really Seth, Set, Sol, Hadit. Abel’s Blood was the Seed of this Seth. Remember that Abel = Baal.

fable from which the Hebrew scribes, who were not complete Initiates, stole their legend of the Fall and the subsequent events. They joined different fables together to try and make a connected story, and they sophisticated them to suit their social and political conditions.

All this while no image hath come into the Stone, and no voice hath been heard.

I cannot get any idea of the source of what I have been saying. All I can say is, that there is a sort of dew, like mist, upon the Stone, and yet it has become hot to the touch.¹

All I get is that the Apocalypse was a recension of a dozen or so totally disconnected allegories, that were pieced together, and ruthlessly planed down to make them into a connected account; and that recension was re-written and edited in the interests of Christianity, because people were complaining that Christianity could show no true spiritual knowledge, or any food for the best minds: nothing but miracles, which only deceived the most ignorant, and Theology, which only suited pedants.

So a man got hold of this recension, and turned it Christian, and imitated the style of John.^{1 2} And this explains why the end of the world does not happen every few years, as advertised.³

There is nothing whatever in the Stone but a White Rose. And a voice comes: there shall be no more red roses, for she hath crushed all the blood of all things into her cup.

¹ “Miracles” of this order constantly occur in the course of Operations of Magick. They are by-products.

² There is no question in my mind that this explanation is correct, from the point of view of profane scholarship. “Angels” who offer absurd theories about material affairs are false elementals who amuse themselves at the expense of the naivete of the would-be Magician.

³ In any case, forecasts of the future cannot be made from Qabalistic data, which have nothing to do with terrestrial measures of time; e.g., to say that King Brahmadatta reigned 120,000 years in Benares only means that he reigned in a manner congruous with the ideas symbolized by 120, and on a very grand scale, as indicated by the multiplication by 1000.

It seemed at one time as if the rose was in the breast of a beautiful woman,¹ high-bosomed, tall, stately, yet who danced like a snake. But there was no subsistence in this vision.^{* 2}

And now I see the white Rose,³ as if it were in the beak of a swan, in the picture by Michael Angelo in Venice. And that legend too is the legend of babalon.

But all this is before the veil of the /Ethyr. Now will I go and make certain preparations,^{4 5 6 7} and I will return and repeat the call of the ./Ethyr yet again.

Biskra.

December 18, 1909. 9:20-10:05 a.m.

¹ <Myriam Deroxe?>

² The allusion may be to one of those who occupied for a time the post of “Scarlet Woman.” See Book 4, Part IV, for a list of these women. [Crowley refers to his “New Commentary” to Liber AL, as this citation predates his decision to drop it from Book 4, Part IV. He later omitted this list from his abridged commentary:

“1. Rose Edith Crowley nee Kelly, my wife. Put me in touch with Aiwass; see The Equinox 1(7), The Temple of Solomon the King [or Book 4, Part IV]. Failed as elsewhere is on record.

2. A doubtful case. Mary d’Este Sturges nee Dempsey. Put me in touch with Ab-ul-Diz; hence helped with Book 4. Failed from personal jealousies.

3. Jeanne Robert Foster nee Olliver. Bore the “child” to whom [Liber AL] refers later. Failed from respectability.

4. Roddie Minor. Brought me in touch with Amalantrah. Failed from indifference to the Work.

5. A doubtful case, Marie Rohling nee Lavroff. Helped to inspire Liber CXI. Failed from indecision.

6. A doubtful case, Bertha Almira Prykryl nee Bruce. Delayed assumption of duties, hence made way for No. 7.

7. Leah Hirsig. Assisted me in actual initiation; still at my side, An. xvii, ® in /. (P.S.: And An. xix, ® in ^cf.)”

There were other Scarlet Women after 1923 E.v.]

³ < Leila Waddell ?>

⁴ In fact, the Seer was the prey of an intolerable uneasiness akin to fear. He was intuitively aware of the terrific nature of the /Ethyr, and felt oppressed by the responsibility of seeing and hearing accurately in a matter of such dread importance. He felt, even before penetrating the Aire, that he was already near the limit of his powers.

It is not a question of being unable to get into the /Ethyr, and trying to struggle through; but one is not anywhere near it.¹

A voice comes: When thy dust shall strew the earth whereon She walketh, then mayest thou bear the impress of Her foot. And thou thinkest to behold Her face!

The Stone is become of the most brilliant whiteness, and yet, in that whiteness, all the other colours are implicit.^{* 2} The colour of anything is but its dullness, its obstructiveness. So is it with these visions. All that they are is falsity. Every idea merely marks where the mind of the Seer was too stupid to receive the light, and therefore reflected it. Therefore, as the pure light is colourless, so is the pure soul black.³

And this is the Mystery of the incest of chaos with his daughter.⁴

There is nothing whatever visible.

But I asked of an Angel that is at my side if the ceremony hath been duly performed. And he says: Yes, the /Ethyr is present. It is thou that canst not perceive it, even as I cannot perceive it,

’ It was not that the Call of the /Ethyr had been ill performed, or that its Virtue and Efficacy were impaired. (See [last] paragraph [above].) It was that the Seer being attached to his human instrument, that instrument automatically strove with all its might to escape the Impact of so tremendous and so dire an Energy, which would infallibly be transmitted (to a certain small extent) through the Seer to it. In the same way, in a much lesser matter, there is a limit to the degree of pain [a person] can inflict on himself, as experiments with the Boulometer (the instrument invented by the Seer to measure this Virtue) have shewn.

² This means more than the obvious “The colours of the spectrum compose pure White Light.” The Seer could see these colours directly, at the same time as the White. Another case of hyperabyssic Logic.

³ This doctrine is most profound and important. It throws light upon the Mystery of Evil, and upon the nature of may a in general.

⁴ Chaos is here the yod of Tetragrammaton, his daughter the final he. This passage is to be studied closely in connection with previous passages and notes with regard to the Formula of HIH’; indeed, one should perform samyama upon the whole matter.

because it is so entirely beyond thy conception that there is nothing in thy mind on to which it can cast a symbol, even as the emptiness of space is not heated by the fire of the sun. And so pure is the light that it preventeth the formation of images, and therefore have men called it darkness. For with any lesser light, the mind responds, and makes for itself divers palaces.¹ It is that which is written: “In my Father’s house there are many mansions”;^{1 2} and if the house be destroyed, how much more the mansions that are therein! For this is the victory of babalon over the Magician that ensorcelled³ her. For as the Mother she is 3 by 52, and as the harlot she is 6 by 26; but she is also 12 by 13, and that is the pure unity.⁴ Moreover she is 4 by 39, that is, victory over the power of the 4, and in 2 by 78 hath she destroyed the great Sorcerer.⁵ Thus is she the synthesis of 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, which being added are

¹ Note well this thesis. Anything which is not Pure Nothing is ipso facto unbalanced, and therefore imperfect—indeed, illusory.

² [John 14:2, paraphrase.]

³ The path of beth. Contrast this Way of Illusion forcibly with the obsession of Microprosopus by Daath. (There are also the difficulties of the Son with the Glamour of the path of gimel; and of the Father with the path of aleph. See 3rd Aire, concerning the Three Ways of Delusion that guard the Crown.)

⁴ 52 = RO'R, the fertile Mother: 3 = Binah. 26 = mil"; also "D5 = Kabad, the husband of the impure Lilith, and 1 + 6 + 9+10, the Sephiroth of the Middle Pillar, the Phallus. 6 = 1 + 2 + 3, the Mystic Number of Binah; also 0 who shines on all alike; R3J, to collect; □1, a bear (Venus in Furs); and KH a window, the illicit way of ingress to a house. 12 = K1H, the title of Kether, the Unity; 13 = “HIK = Unity. [Venus in Furs is a novel by Sacher-Masoch; see Works Cited.]

⁵ 39 = inB TO', “Tetragrammaton is One,” although He is composed of 4 letters; hence the triumph over the power of 4, limitation. But this explanation is not as clear, satisfactory and convincing, with that singular feeling of ecstatic Illumination which one rightly demands of a Qabalistic demonstration. There should be some further Gematria of 39, not yet discovered. 2 is beth, Atu I, Mayan the Great Sorcerer. 78 = Mezla, ttbro, the Influence from Kether, and the number of the Tarot Cards. I.e., she destroys him by his own energies.

10, therefore could she set her daughter upon her own throne, and defile her own bed with her virginity.¹

And I ask the Angel if there is any way by which I can make myself worthy to behold the Mysteries of this /Ethyr.

And he saith: It is not in my knowledge. Yet do thou make once more in silence the Call of the /Ethyr, and wait patiently upon the favour of the Angel, for He is a mighty Angel, and never yet have I heard the whisper of his wing.

This is the translation of the Call of the /Ethyr.^{1 2}

O ye heavens which dwell in the first Aire, and are mighty in the parts of the earth, and execute therein the judgment of the highest, to you it is said: 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, furnishing you with a power of understanding, that ye might dispose all things according to the foresight of Him that sitteth on the Holy Throne, and rose up in the beginning, saying, The earth, let her be governed by her parts (this is the prostitution of babalon to Pan), and let there be division in her (the formation of the Many from the One), that her glory may

¹ Because she includes her daughter (10) in her own formula, she can use her for Her own purposes.

² This reversal of the evident exoteric meaning of the Call is stupendous. This Book 418 is full of similar interpretations “by the rule of Contraries.” But this rule must be applied with skill and discretion, if error is to be avoided. It is a lamentable fact that a worthy Zelator of A.^-. A.’., one Frater Achad, having been taught (patiently enough) by the Seer to use this formula, was lured by his vanity to suppose that he had discovered it himself, and proceeded to apply it indiscriminately. He tried to stand the Serpent of Wisdom on its head, and argued that as he was a l°=10^D of the Order, he must equally be a 10°=l^D! As The Book of Lies [chap. 63] says, “I wrenched dog backwards to find God; now God barks!” He would have been better advised to reverse his adored one and taken a dose of eno! [Charles Stansfeld Jones’ motto Achad is Hebrew for “one,” and Eno is an English laxative.]

be always ecstasy and irritation of orgasm. Her course let it round with the heavens (that is, let her way be always harmonious with heaven), and as an handmaid let her serve them (that is, the Virgin of Eternity climbing into the bed of chaos). One season let it confound another (that is, let there be unwearying variety of predicates),¹ and let there be no creature upon or within her the same (that is, let there be an unwearying variety of subjects).^{1 2} All her members let them differ in their qualities, and let there be no one creature³ equal with another (for if there were any duplication or omission, there would be no perfection in the whole). The reasonable creatures of the earth and men, let them vex and weed out one another (this is, the destruction of reason by internecine conflicts in the course of redemption). And their dwelling places, let them forget their names. (This is, the arising of Nemo.) The work of man and his pomp, let them be defaced. (That is, in the Great Work man must lose his personality.) His building, let it be a cave for the Beast of the Field. (“His building” means the Vault of the Adepts, and the “Cave” is the Cave of the Mountain of Abiegnus, and the “Beast” is he upon whom babalon rideth, and the “Field” is the supernal Eden.) Confound her understanding with darkness. (This sentence is explained by what has been said concerning Binah.) For why, it rejoiceth me concerning the Virgin and the Man.⁴ (Kelly did not understand this Call at all, and he would not believe this sentence was written so, for it seemed to contradict the rest of the Call, so he altered it.) One while let her be known and another while a stranger, (that is, the Mystery of the Holy One being at the same time identical with

¹ The Infinity of Nuit.

² The Infinity of Hadit.

³ I.e., an “Event,” the fundamental Unit of Manifested Existence.

⁴ In Kelly’s original: “It repenteth Me that I have made Man.” Kelly was in constant trouble with his education as an orthodox Christian; also Dee forced him to reject the True Messengers, whose discourse implied antinomian Pantheism. [See the Call or Key of the Thirty yEthyrs, p. 29 above, note 3, and Casaubon, p. 206; see also Gen. 6:7.]

everything and apart¹ from it), because she is the bed of an harlot, and the dwelling of him that is fallen. (That is that Mystery which was revealed in the last ./Ethyr; the universe being, as it were, a garden wherein the Holy Ones may take their pleasure.) O ye heavens, arise; the lower heavens beneath you, let them serve you. (This is a command for the whole of things to join in universal rapture.) Govern those that govern; cast down such as fall; bring forth those that increase; and destroy the rotten. (This means that everything shall take its own pleasure in its own way.)^{1 2} No place let it remain in one number. (“No place” is the infinite Ain.... “Let remain in one number”; that is, let it be concentrated in Kether.) Add and diminish until the stars be numbered. (It is a mystery of the logos being formulated by the Qabalah, because the stars are all letters of the Holy Alphabet, as it was said in a former ./Ethyr.)³ Arise! Move! and Appear! before the covenant of his mouth which he hath shewn unto us in his Justice. (“The Covenant” is the letter aleph; “His mouth,” pe; “His Justice,” lamed; and these add up again to aleph, so that it is in the letter aleph, which is zero, thus symbolizing the circles of the /Ethyrs, that he calleth them forth. But men thought that aleph was the initial of arr, cursing, when it was really the initial of AChD, unity, and ahbh, love. So that it was the most horrible and wicked blasphemy of the blackest of all the black brothers to begin Berashith with a beth, with the letter of the Magician. Yet, by this simple device, hath he created the whole illusion of sorrow.)⁴ Open the mysteries of your creation, and make us partakers of the undefiled

¹ [The ms has “and yet absolutely apart.”]

² One general application of the Law of Thelema. It is a stupid error to try to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear; it hurts both parties to the transaction. The basic blunder is to set up an arbitrary ideal standard of “what ought to be.” The “Evil Beings,” on all planes, have a proper and a useful function. A strong and healthy man cannot be made by putting him in irons and protecting him artificially from all the “dangers” of life.

³ [See the 15th ./Ethyr, p. 135, and the 13th /Ethyr, p. 146.]

⁴ The passage is a criticism of an obscure doctrine of the Qabalah. There is however a real mystery behind the rhetoric.

knowledge. (The word here “iadnamad” is not the ordinary word for knowledge. It is a word of eight letters, which is the

secret name of God, summarized in the letter cheth-, for which see the /Ethyr which correspondeth to that letter, the twelfth /Ethyr.)¹

Now from time to time I have looked into the Stone, but never is there any image therein, or any hint thereof; but now there are three arrows, arranged thus:

This is the letter aleph in the Alphabet of Arrows.^{1 2}

¹ All these passages in brackets [parentheses] are the currente lingua [Lat., “with the tongue running”] explanations of the Seer (to himself) as each new phrase of the Text was delivered by the Angel. To understand how startling it all was to him, one must remember that he had been using this Call in its own obvious sense, for many weeks, and always with the utmost force and solemnity. His only warning had been the intuitive feeling that the Call was really a Rejoicing at the Opening of the 9th Aire. And he had thought this merely subjective, due to the Relief of having passed through the Abyss. [See also note 1 on p. 56.]

² [See Figure 11, p. 230.] This alphabet corresponds to the Enochian, whose letters are in many cases similar by shape. But these characters represent the direction of Will-energy in divers spheres, rather than the nature of any Energy.

There is an apparent (rough general) rule that the Arrows represent by direction the Eight Trigrams of Fu-hsi. Thus:

Figure io. The Alphabet of Arrows and the Trigrams.

The bow is usually arranged so that the whole letter may resemble the corresponding figure in Enochian.

Figure ii. The Alphabet of Arrows.

(I want to say that while I was doing the translation of the Call of the TEthyrs, the soles of my feet were burning, as if I were on red hot steel.)¹

And now the fire has spread all over me, and parches me, and tortures me. And my sweat is bitter like poison. And all my blood is acrid in my veins, like gleet. I seem to be all festering, rotting; and the worms eating me while I am yet alive.

A voice, neither in myself nor out of myself, is saying: Remember Prometheus; remember Ixion.^{1 2}

I am tearing³ at nothing. I will not heed. For even this dust⁴ must be consumed with fire.

And now, although there is no image, at last there is a sense of obstacle, as if one were at length drawing near to the frontier of the /Ethyr.

But I am dying.

I can neither strive nor wait. There is agony in my ears, and in my throat, and mine eyes have been so long blind that I cannot remember that there ever was such a thing as sight.⁵

¹ This was certainly due to no ordinary cause. The Seer was lying on the roof of the Hotel Royal at Biskra, in the shade of the Minaret. It was a cool bright morning.

² Prometheus stole the Fire of Jupiter. Ixion attempted the virtue of Juno. [Or Hera, in the Greek myth.] The Seer, in trying to penetrate this most holy Aire, was similarly presumptuous.

³ He was using the Sign of the Rending of the Veil (see “Liber O,” The Equinox 1(2) [and Book 4, Part III, App. 7]) against the obscurity of the Aire.

⁴ I.e., the Magister Templi. See 6th Aire, et al., supra. Only a Magus can truly pierce the Veil of babalon. It is written (of Isis) “No man (i.e., nemo, the Magister Templi) hath lifted My Veil.” But to lift it and look upon Her is one thing; to possess Her another! [Cf. the inscription on the statue of Athena or Isis at Sai's in Plutarch: “I am all that has been, and is, and shall be, and my robe no mortal has yet uncovered.” De Iside et Osiride, 354, trans. Babbitt.]

⁵ The physical exhaustion of the Seer was complete. He realized that further effort was impossible; and—more also!—that had he suddenly succeeded, while in this state, the fury of the impact of the Energy of the Aire would have been instantly destructive of his physical form.

And it cometh to me that I should go away, and await the coming of the veil of the ./Ethyr; not here. I think I will go to the Hot Springs.¹

So I put away the Stone upon my breast.

Biskra

10:15-11:52 a.m.

Flashes of lightning are playing in the Stone, at the top; and at the bottom of the Stone there is a black pyramid,^{1 2} and at the top thereof is a vesica piscis.³ The vesica piscis is of colourless brilliance.

The two curves of Pisces are thus:

They are the same curves as the curves \ f of vesica piscis, but turned round.⁴  1f

And a voice comes: How can that which II

is buried in the pyramids⁵ behold that J\

which descendeth unto its apex?⁶S

¹ Hammam Salahine: Sulphurous waters, admirably apt to the idea of babalon, whom the Seer intuitively understood to be the Soul of this Second Aire.

² Black, for Binah. The Pyramid for the Phallus, for She is also androgyne. Or, as an unit of Her City, beneath the Night 0 of Pan. See the 14th Aire.

³ The most perfect and mysterious of the symbols of the Feminine Principle. Its mathematical correspondences are of the greatest importance. See [William Stirling,] The Canon, and several other treatises on Qabalistic Geometry.

⁴ This is a last desperate attempt of the Ruach of the Seer to escape the Terror of the Presence of babalon.

⁵ I.e., the Magister Templi.

⁶ This apparently simple phrase conceals an allusion of the most sublime and terrific import. See Liber AL 1:14, 16 and 19. Also The Book of Lies, Caps. 4 and 15. Mohammed said: “Cursed be he that maketh himself Earth, and Woman Heaven!” For he understood this Formula as of enormous Magical Power, and wished to keep it from the profane, who might abuse it, or injure themselves by ignorant or imprudent application.

Again it comes to me, without voice: Therefore is motherhood the symbol of the Masters. For first must they give up their virginity to be destroyed, and the seed must lie hidden in them while the nine moons wax and wane, and they must surround it with the Universal Fluid. And they must feed it with blood for fire. Then is the child a living thing. And afterwards is much suffering and much joy, and after that are they torn asunder, and this is all their thank, that they give it to suck.¹

All this while the vision in the Shew-Stone stays as it was, save that the lightning grows more vehement and clear; and behind the vesica piscis is a black cross^{1 2} extending to the top and to the edges of the Stone. And now blackness spreads, and swallows up the images.

Now there is naught but the vast black triangle having the apex downwards,³ and in the centre of the black triangle is the face of Typhon, the Lord of the Tempest, and he crieth aloud: Despair! Despair! For thou mayest deceive the Virgin, and thou mayest cajole the Mother; but what wilt thou say unto the ancient Whore that is throned in Eternity? For if she will not, there is neither force nor cunning, nor any wit, that may prevail upon her.

Thou canst not woo her with love,⁴ for she is love. And she hath all, and hath no need of thee.

And thou canst not woo her with gold,⁵ for all the kings and captains of the earth, and all the gods of heaven, have showered their gold upon her. Thus hath she all, and hath no need of thee.

¹ See The Book of Lies, Cap. 3.

² This seems to refer to Thmaist, whose /Eon will succeed that of Horus. She is Atu VIII, referring to Libra, the House of Venus. In Her also, then, is babalon the Ageless Virgin-Harlot, our Mother as our Concubine.

³ Cf. 3rd Aire, the vision of Lilith. This triangle seems to symbolize Limitation or Restriction; or so the sequel implies.

⁴ The path of 1, daleth. babalon is thus shewn as more than merely Binah.

⁵ Tiphareth is below Her.

And thou canst not woo her with knowledge, for knowledge is the thing that she hath spurned.¹ She hath it all, and hath no need of thee.

And thou canst not woo her with wit,^{1 2} for her Lord is Wit. She hath it all, and hath no need of thee. Despair! Despair!

Nor canst thou cling to her knees and ask for pity; nor canst thou cling to her heart and ask for love; nor canst thou put thine arms about her neck, and ask for understanding; for thou hast had all these,³ and they avail thee not. Despair! Despair!

Then I took the Flaming Sword,⁴ and I let it loose against Typhon, so that his head was cloven asunder, and the black triangle dissolved in lightnings.⁵

But as he parted his voice broke out again: Nor canst thou win her with the Sword, for her eyes are fixed upon the eyes of Him in whose hand is the hilt of the Sword.⁶ Despair! Despair!

And the echo of that cry was this word, which is identical, although it be diverse: Nor canst thou win her by the Serpent,⁷ for it was the Serpent that seduced her first. Despair! Despair!

(Yet he cried thus as he fled:)

¹ Daath, the outcast into the Abyss, beneath Her.

² Chokmah, the Highest Wisdom.

³ As shewn in a previous note, the Magister Templi, though He can lift Her Veil, and behold Her with Understanding, is unable to meet Her as an equal, and possess Her. [See note 4 to p. 231.]

⁴ This has its hilt in Kether, and its point in Malkuth. The Seer uses the entire Hierarchy of Existence against the destroyer of Osiris.

⁵ His energy is transmuted into the primeval Manifestation of the Divine Will.

⁶ I.e., She is wholly set upon Kether. Only when Her Lover is wholly in His loftiest Selfhood can He possess Her.

⁷ The Serpent of Wisdom, the 22 Paths which join the 10 Sephiroth. It is thus the complement of the Flaming Sword. The Legend of Heva and Nachash is drawn from the mystical Doctrine here in question. This Serpent is the totality of Magical Manifestation, the Beauty of the 22 Palaces (Atu) of Wisdom. She is at once the Mother and the Sister of Her adulterous Lord, Mayan, the logos who created the Universe of Illusion.

I am Leviathan, the great Lost Serpent of the Sea. I writhe eternally in torment, and I lash the ocean with my tail into a whirlpool of foam that is venomous and bitter, and I have no purpose. I go no whither. I can neither live nor die. I can but rave and rave in my death agony. I am the Crocodile¹ that eateth up the children of men. And through the malice of babalon I hunger, hunger, hunger.

All this while the Stone is more inert than ever yet; a thousand times more lifeless than when it is not invoked. Now, when it kindles, it only kindles into its physical beauty. And now upon the face of it is a great black Rose, each of whose petals, though it be featureless, is yet a devil-face. And all the stalks are the black snakes of hell. It is alive, this Rose; a single thought informs it. It comes to clutch, to murder. Yet, because a single thought alone informs it, I have hope therein.

I think this Rose has a hundred and fifty-six petals, and though it be black, it has the luminous blush.^{1 2}

There it is, in the midst of the Stone, and I cannot see anyone who wears it.

Aha! Aha! Aha! Shut out the sight!³

Holy, Holy, Holy art thou!

Light, Life and Love are like three glow-worms at thy feet: the whole universe of stars, the dewdrops on the grass whereon thou walkest!

I am quite blind.⁴

Thou art Nuit! Strain, strain, strain my whole soul!⁵

¹ Generally speaking, the monsters which inhabit Water symbolize Evil—in all senses, from the grossest to the most exalted. They represent the falling into Passivity; whereas the Activity of Energy is the Idea of Joy.

² This Black Rose is then the Veil of babalon Herself. It is the repulsiveness which is one half of Fascination.

³ Thus—suddenly—babalon breaks through to Her lover.

⁴ This is meant in its normal physical sense. The Seer supposed at the time that he had actually lost his sight.

⁵ Against the appalling conviction that he had been stricken blind for his presumption in daring to aspire to babalon in so intimate a sense, he gathered himself together in a furious assault upon Her.

A ka dua

Tuf ur biu Bi a’a chefu Dudu ner af an nuteru.¹

Falutli! Falutli!^{1 2}

I cling unto the burning /Ethyr like Lucifer that fell through the Abyss, and by the fury of his flight kindled the air.

And I am Belial, for having seen the Rose upon thy breast, I have denied God.

And I am Satan! I am Satan! I am cast out upon a burning crag! And the sea boils about the desolation thereof. And already the vultures gather, and feast upon my flesh.

Yea! Before thee all the most holy is profane, O thou desolator of shrines! O thou falsifier of the oracles of truth! Ever as I went, hath it been thus. The truth of the profane was the falsehood of the Neophyte, and the truth of the Neophyte was the falsehood of the Zelator! Again and again the fortress must be battered down! Again and again the pylon must be overthrown! Again and again must the gods be desecrated!

And now I lie supine before thee, in terror and abasement. O Purity! O Truth! What shall I say? My tongue cleaveth to my jaws, O thou Medusa that hast turned me into stone! Yet is that stone the stone of the philosophers. Yet is that tongue Hadit.

¹ [Egyptian.] From the Stele of Revealing.

“Unity uttermost showed!

I adore the might of Thy breath,

Supreme and terrible God,

Who makest the gods and death

To tremble before Thee: —

I, I adore thee!” [See also The Holy Books of Thelema (The Equinox 111(9)), Appendix A.]

² The Outburst of the Orgasm (See note 2 on 23rd Aire, page 77.) It continues unabated throughout the whole of the Vision. The Seer was all this time seated in the Water of the Hot Spring, struggling with the pressure upon his body, and roaring aloud in the intensity of his agony of ecstasy; this helped him to endure physically the continuous spasm of Joy. <See “Liber VII” [V:30, where it is given as “Falutli!”].>

Aha! Aha!¹

Yea! Let me take the form of Hadit^{1 2} before thee, and sing:

A ka dua Tuf ur bin Bi a’a chefu Dudu ner af an nuteru.

Nuit! Nuit! How art thou manifested in this place! This is a Mystery ineffable. And it is mine, and I can never reveal it either to God or to man. It is for thee and me!

Aha! Aha!

A ka dua Tuf ur biu Bi a’a chefu Dudu ner af an nuteru.

... My spirit is no more; my soul is no more. My life leaps out into annihilation!

A ka dua Tuf ur biu Bi a’a chefu Dudu ner af an nuteru.

It is the cry of my body! Save me! I have come too close, I have come too close to that which may not be endured. It must awake, the body; it must assert itself.

It must shut out the /Ethyr, or else it is dead.

Every pulse aches, and beats furiously. Every nerve stings like a serpent. And my skin is icy cold.³

Neither God nor man can penetrate the Mystery of the /Ethyr.

¹ aha = KilK = 7. It is therefore a God-name of Venus. Interpreted by Yetziratic attribution, it is “The Crossing of our Lady (H = the Supernal Mother) in the Air (K).” It is also the Pentagram between two Swastikas. The symbolism of this Word, simple as it is, is far too extensive to discuss adequately in a note. It must be studied intimately and at length by the Postulant.

² Hadit is a mathematical expression rather than a God. By His form is meant the Winged Globe, which is used in the Stele of Revealing to represent Him.

³ This was in a Pool almost inconveniently hot to the normal sense.

(Here the Seer mutters unintelligibly.)

And even that which understandeth cannot hear its voice. For to the profane the voice of the Neophyte is called silence, and to the Neophyte the voice of the Zelator is called silence. And so ever is it.

Sight is fire, and is the first angle of the Tablet;¹ spirit is hearing, and is the centre thereof; thou, therefore, who art all spirit and fire, and hast no duller elements in thy star; thou art come to sight at the end of thy will. And if thou wilt hear the voice of the /Ethyr,^{1 2} do thou invoke it in the night, having no other light but the light of the half moon. Then mayest thou hear the voice, though it may be that thou understand it not. Yet shall it be a potent spell, whereby thou mayest lay bare the womb of thine understanding to the violence of chaos.

Now, therefore, for the last time, let the veil of the /Ethyr be torn.

Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha! Aha!

A ka dua

Tuf ur biu Bi a’a chefu Dudu net af an nuteru.³

This /Ethyr must be left unfinished then until the half moon.

Hammam Salahine.

December 18, 3:10-4:35 p.m.

¹ I.e., of the Four Watchtowers of the Universe ([“Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” Part I, in] The Equinox 1(7)). For the attributions of the Senses to the Elements, see 777. The growing intelligibility of the words indicates the exhaustion of the Rapture of the Seer, the gradual withdrawal of the Immanence of babalon.

² Hitherto, the intellectual content of the Aire has been marked by the Moral (or rather Spiritual) Ravishment of the Seer by babalon.

³ At this point the Seer sank back exhausted; the Scribe, fearing that He might be drowned, assisted Him to come out of the Pool.

An 61vah nu arena 61vah. Diraeseu adika va paretanu poliax poliax in vah rah ahum siibre fifal. Lerthexanax. Mama ra-la hum fifala maha.¹

All this is the melody of a flute, very faint and clear. And there is a sort of sub-tinkle of a bell.

And there is a string instrument, somewhat like a zither. And there is a human voice.

And a voice comes: this is the Song of the Sphinx, which she singeth ever in the ears of men.

And it is the song of the syrens.^{1 2} And whoever heareth it is lost.³

¹ This began instantly on the resumption of the Vision, without any explanation. We must assume that the Angel of the Aire, or one of His ministers, undertook the task of preparing the Seer for the “voice of the /Ethyr” in this manner.

It is the language of the Sappho-Calypso angel, commonly called Bathyllic. Its translation is: —

“Now it glides in to the heaven-home, glides. Seducingly the men-tula of the begotten one of the Holy Head (or Skull) takes hold of the soft tissues, subtly plying its shuttle. Light follows the explosion. The soft tissues, cleaving to the shuttle, pump out every drop of water from the well.”

[Crowley added diacriticals and accents in his copy of The Equinox 1(5); these are given in the text.]

² [I.e., the song opening this section, and not that following, which does not appear in ms and was taken (without the translation, which is original to Liber 418) from “Liber Stellas Rubeae sub figura 66,” v. 14, where its unnumbered parts are referred to as “the infernal adorations of Oai.” A note in the ms (see note 1 on p. 242 below) gives a different point of insertion; apparently some or all of the discussion following refers back to it. The text given here has been conformed to “Liber LXVI,” and only differed in a few details of punctuation and capitalization.]

³ The Magical Fascination of the whole /Ethyr is something quite apart from, and beyond, almost anything else in the experience of the Seer. The effect upon Him, 31 Equinoxes later [1925 e.v.], of writing these notes, is quite extraordinary. The memory of it diminishes the value of the rest of His life, with few excepted incidents, almost to nothing.

I

Mu pa telai, Tu wa melai a, a, a Tu fu tulu! Tu fu tulu Pa, Sa, Ga.

n

Qwi Mu telai Ya Pa melai; u, u, u. ’Se gu melai; Pe fu telai, Fu tu lu.

in

O chi balae Wa pa malae:— Ut! Ut! Ut!

Ge; fu latrai, Le fu malai Kut! Hut! Nut.

IV

Al Oal Rel moai Ti—Ti—Ti! Wa la pelai Tu fu latai Wi, Ni, Bi.

Translation of Song

i

Silence! the moon ceaseth (her motion), That also was sweet

In the air, in the air, in the air!

Who Will shall attain!

Who Will shall attain

By the Moon, and by Myself, and by the Angel of the Lord!

II

Now Silence ceaseth

And the moon waxeth sweet;

(It is the hour of) Initiation, Initiation, Initiation.

The kiss of Isis is honeyed;

My own Will is ended, For Will hath attained.

in

Behold the lion-child swimmeth (in the heaven)

And the moon reeleth: —

(It is) Thou! (It is) Thou! (It is) Thou!

Triumph; the Will stealeth away (like a thief), The Strong Will that staggered

Before Ra Hoor Khuit!—Hadit!—Nuit!

IV

To the God Oai ¹

Be praise

In the end and the beginning!

And may none fall

Who Will attain

The Sword, the Balances, the Crown!

And that which thou hearest is but the dropping of the dew from my limbs, for I dance in the night, naked upon the grass, in shadowy places, by running streams.

Many are they who have loved the nymphs of the woods, and of the wells, and of the fountains, and of the hills. And of these some were nympholept. For it was not a nymph, but I myself that walked upon the earth taking my pleasure. So also there were many images of Pan, and men adored them, and as a beautiful god he made their olives bear double and their vines increase; but some were slain by the god, for it was I that had woven the garlands about him.^{1 2}

¹ The reversal of the formula of i.a.o. (see Book 4, Part III) implies, roughly, the general Mystical, as opposed to the general Magical, Process.

² From this it would appear that babalon (who is speaking through one of Her ministers) is the Feminine (or Androgyne) equivalent—not merely complement—of Pan. This is shewn in many of Her images.

Now cometh a song.¹

So sweet is this song that no one could resist it. For in it is all the passionate ache of the moonlight, and the great hunger of the sea, and the terror of desolate places,—all things that lure men to the unattainable.

Omari tessala rnarax, tessala dodi phornepax. amri radara poliax armana piliu.

amri radara piliu son’;

mari narya barbiton

madara anaphax sarpedon

andala hriliu.^{1 2}

Translation³

I am the harlot that shaketh Death.

This shaking giveth the Peace of Satiate Lust.

Immortality jetteth from my skull,

And music from my vulva.

Immortality jetteth from my vulva also,

For my Whoredom is a sweet scent like a seven-stringed instrument,

Played unto God the Invisible, the all-ruler, That goeth along giving the shrill scream of orgasm.

Every man⁴ that hath seen me forgetteth me never, and I appear oftentimes in the coals of the fire, and upon the smooth

¹ [The ms has here “Song in Book LXVI,” i.e., the song from “Liber Stellas Rubeae sub figura LXVI” inserted on p. 240 above.]

² <1 find An. xil, O in Iff [Aug.-Sept., 1916 e.v.], “Sarpedon,” a headland sacred to Apollo and Artemis. “Dodi” connected with TI, q.v., and Dodah, Dido, etc.> [Sarpedon is also a mythical warrior hero, the son of Zeus and the ruler of the Lycians in the Trojan War. Barbiton is a Greek word for a multi-stringed instrument. For other instances of this language see “Liber VII” IV:51, Liber 333, chap. 24, and “Liber XV.” Victor B. Neuburg would later use this song as the opening epigram for his book of poetry The Triumph of Pan (1910, 1989); see Works Cited.]

³ [The translation does not appear in the ms.]

⁴ [The ms has “Ja! Every man ...”]

white skin of woman, and in the constancy of the waterfall, and in the emptiness of deserts and marshes, and upon great cliffs that look seaward; and in many strange places, where men seek me not. And many thousand times he beholdeth me not. And at the last I smite myself into him as a vision smiteth into a stone, and whom I call must follow.

Now I perceive myself standing in a Druid circle, in an immense open plain.

A whole series of beautiful visions of deserts and sunsets and islands in the sea, green beyond imagination.... But there is no subsistence in them.¹

A voice goes on: this is the holiness of fruitless love and aimless toil. For in doing the thing for the things’s sake is concentration, and this is the holiness of them that suit not the means to the end. For therein is faith and sympathy and a knowledge of the true Magick.^{1 2}

Oh my beloved, that fliest in the air like a dove, beware of the falcon! oh my beloved, that springest upon the earth like a gazelle, beware of the lion!

There are hundreds of visions, trampling over one another. In each one the Angel of the /Ethyr is mysteriously hidden.

Now I will describe the Angel of the /Ethyr until the voice begins again.

¹ These visions are semi-distractions, due to the Seer’s human weakness, which could not endure the Rapture of the Voice. “Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy.” Liber AL 11:70. During the Great Revelation of the Cairo Working the Seer had been similarly ravished, and fainted under the excess of Enthusiasm.

² Liber AL 1:44. “For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.” This doctrine is fundamental to all working soever. Its neglect vitiates (by a paradox curious enough) all fruitfulness in any Operation. One may indeed distinguish Work worthy of being performed from menial toil (such as that of statesmen, financiers, and sewer-rats) by this criterion. (Faith, spelt empirically <t>ai6—a practice not to be commended or even defended, it being of the nature of paranomasia—is equivalent to 70D, Kosher—lawful.)

He is like one’s idea of Sappho and Calypso, and all seductive and deadly things;¹ heavy eye-lids, long lashes, a face like ivory, wonderful barbaric jewellery, intensely red lips, a very small mouth, tiny ears, a Grecian face. Over the shoulders is a black robe with a green collar; the robe is spangled with golden stars; the tunic is a pure soft blue.

Now the whole TEthyr is swallowed up in a forest of unquenchable fire, and fearlessly through it all a snow-white eagle flies. And the eagle cries: the house also of death.^{1 2} Come away! The volume of the book is open, the Angel waiteth without, for the summer is at hand. Come away! For the TEon is measured, and thy span allotted. Come away! For the mighty sounds have entered into every angle.³ And they have awakened the Angels of the TEthyrs that slept these three hundred years.⁴

For in the Holy letter shin, that is the Resurrection in the Book of Thoth, that is the Holy Spirit in the Trinity, that is three hundred in the tale of the years,⁵ hath the tomb been opened, so that this great wisdom might be revealed.

¹ babalon, “in whom is all power given” [Liber AL 1:15, paraphrase], is the te, Sakti, it. She is seductive and deadly, being the Disturber of the Total Equilibrium of the Absolute Zero, which, considered as a positive Idea, is Existence in perfect Peace, an immutable Essence. But He cannot truly exist without Her; and through Her therefore comes Change, which is Love and Death.

² See the 11th Call, which invokes V of V, the Princess of the Lotus of the Floods. (The reading is a variant of that given in the official A.^-.A.’, ritual.) [Cf. “Liber 84 vel Chanokh,” 5th Call or Key.] The Eagle is snow-white for Her purity; and He is the White Eagle of the Alchemists.

³ See the Keys, especially the 5th and 6th, where the angles (of the Watchtowers) are specifically mentioned.

⁴ I.e., since the Working of Dr. John Dee and Sir Edward Kelly.

⁵ For G? = 300; also (0 = Atu XX, “The Last Judgment” [“The ?Eon”] (or Resurrection, as implied in the usual form of the Atu). 0 = ® = Spirit in the regular attribution (the triple Tongue of Fire; see the Acts of the Apostles [Acts 2:1-4]); 300 = □TlbK nil = Ruach Elohim, the Spirit of the Gods.

Come away! For the Second Triad is completed, and there remaineth only the Lord of the /Eon, the Avenger, the Child both Crowned and Conquering, the Lord of the Sword and the Sun, the Babe in the Lotus, pure from his birth, the Child of suffering, the Father of justice, unto whom be the glory throughout all the /Eon!¹

Come away! For that which was to be accomplished is accomplished, seeing that thou hadst faith unto the end of all.

In the letter n the Voice of the /Ethyr is ended.^{1 2}

Biskra, Algeria.

December 20, 1909. 8:35-9:35 p.m.

£T£

The Cry of the ist^thyr, WHICH IS CALLED LIL³

First, let praise and worship and honour and glory and great thank⁴ be given unto the Holy One, who hath permitted us to come thus far, who hath revealed unto us the ineffable myster

¹ The Seer had absolutely forgotten this prophecy, and was amazed at the final identification of the Child in lil with Hoor, the Lord of the /Eon. <Q[uer]y this note. Perhaps 1st /Ethyr was done on Dec. 19th as stated. [See note 3 to p. 251.] >

² This implies that the Voice of the .Ethyr ends never! For n is the vibration which continues through the nostrils. See Book 4, Part III on the word aumgn, whereby the Seer rebuked and perfected the num of the rishis. N = TTL, the letter of Sexual Immortality, the Formula of Perfection through Putrefaction.

³ lil=®/®=76 = JTZJn = Secret, a refuge; nn’3, rest, peace; and "Dtf, a Servant (in the noble sense). In Hebrew lil would be 70, the Eye of Horus, V. But see a previous note on the Twelvefold Table, 15th Ethyr, where these letters rule the Universe (scil., that of the present Eon). [See note 5 to p. 134.]

⁴ [This was “thanks” in the MS; “thank” is an archaic usage.]

ies, that they might be disclosed before men. And we humbly beseech His infinite goodness that he will be pleased to manifest unto us even the Mystery of the First TEthyr.¹

(Here followeth the Call of the TEthyr.)

The veil of the TEthyr is like the veil of night, dark azure, full of countless stars. And because the veil is infinite, at first one seeth not the winged globe of the sun that burneth in the centre thereof. Profound peace filleth me,— beyond ecstasy, beyond thought, beyond being itself, iaida. (This word means “I am,” but in a sense entirely beyond being.)

(Note.—In Hebrew letters it adds to 26. In Hebrew letters the name of the /Ethyr is 70, ayin; but by turning the Yetziratic attributions of the letters into Hebrew, it gives 66,^{1 2} and 66 is the sum of the numbers from 0 to 11.)

Yes; there is peace. There is no tendency of any sort, much less any observation or feeling or impression. There is only a faint consciousness, like the scent of jasmine.

The body of the Seer is rested in a waking sleep that is deeper than sleep, and his mind is still; he seems like a well in the desert, shaded by windless palms.

¹ The Seer was only too well aware that, considering the dire straits to which He was put to obtain the Second Aire, He was surely incapable of penetrating the First. In fact, only a full Magus could pierce the Second properly, and for the First none but an Ipsissimus would be competent. This apprehension was in fact justified. Only now and then was He able to live at the level of LIL; much of The Vision and the Voice here printed is but a pale reflection in Ruach (and even that at the cost of infinite effort) of the Word of the Angel of the ?Ethyr. These “Ersatz-Words” are indicated in the present edition by [braces, i.e., { }.]

² I.e., by taking L as Luna, [lil = ®/ ® = 2)><"3) = 202 = 66.] In the note in the title, we have taken it as ®, experience having shewn that this mode is more accurate. L is 2) in her decrease, and ® her house. But the Enochian alphabet is referred to the Zodiac and the Elements, only indirectly to the Planets, and it is imprudent to make any exception.

And it is night; and because the night is the whole night of space, and not the partial night of earth, there is no thought of dawn. For the light of the Sun maketh illusion, blinding man’s eyes to the glory of the stars. And unless he be in the shadow of the earth, he cannot see the stars. So, also, unless he be hidden from the light of life, he cannot behold Nuit. Here, then, do I abide in unalterable midnight, utterly at peace.

I have forgotten where I am, and who I am. I am hanging in nothing.

Now the veil opens of itself. (To Scribe. Come nearer; I don’t want to have to speak so loudly.)

It is a little child covered with lilies and roses. He is supported by countless myriads of Archangels. The Archangels are all the same colourless brilliance, and every one of them is blind. Below the Archangels again are many, many other legions, and so on far below, so far that the eye cannot pierce. And on his forehead, and on his heart, and in his hand, is the secret sigil of the Beast.¹ And of all this the glory is so great that all the spiritual senses fail, and their reflections in the body fail.

It is very strange. In my heart is rapture, holy and ineffable, absolutely beyond emotion; beyond even that bliss called ananda, infinitely calm and pure. Yet at the gates of mine eyes stand tears, like warriors upon the watch, that lean on their spears, listening.^{1 2}

The great and terrible Angel keeps on looking at me, as if to bar me from the vision. There is another blinding my mind. There is another forcing my head down in sleep.

(It’s very difficult to talk at all, because an impression takes such an immense time to travel from the will to the muscles. Naturally, I’ve no idea of time.)

¹ ©.

² There are long intervals between many of these paragraphs, the Seer having been lost to Being. The reader will note that “The Great and Terrible Angel” has not been mentioned, but comes in suddenly. This was because the Seer’s speech was inaudible, or never occurred. This Angel was the “Higher Genius” of the Seer.

I have gone up again to the child, led by two Angels, abasing my head.

This child seems to be the child that one attempted to describe in “The Garden of Janus.”¹

Every volition is inhibited. I have tried to say a lot, but it has always got lost on the way.

Holy art thou, O more beautiful than all the stars of the Night!

There has never been such peace, such silence. But these are positive things. Singing praises of things eternal amid the flames of first glory, and every note of every song is a fresh flower in the garland of peace.

This child danceth not, but it is because he is the soul of the two dances,—the right hand and the left hand, and in him they are one dance, the dance without motion.

There is dew on all the fire. Every drop is the quintessence of the ecstasy of stars.

Yet a third time am I led to him, prostrating myself seven times at every step. There is a perfume in the air, reflected down even to the body of the seer. That perfume thrills his body with an ecstasy that is like love, like sleep.

And this is the song:

I am the child of all who am the father of all, for from me come forth all things, that I might be. I am the fountain in the snows, and I am the eternal sea. I am the lover, and I am the beloved, and I am the first-fruits of their love. I am the first faint shuddering of the light, and I am the loom wherein night weaveth her impenetrable veil.

I am the captain of the hosts of eternity; of the swordsmen and the spearmen and the bowmen and the charioteers. I have led the armies of the east against the armies of the west, and the armies of the west against the armies of the east. For I am Peace.

My groves of olive were planted by an harlot, and my horses were bred by a thief. I have trained my vines upon the spears of

¹ See The Winged Beetle and The Equinox 1(2).

the Most High, and with my laughter have I slain a thousand men.

With the wine in my cup have I mixed the lightnings, and I have carved my bread with a sharp sword.

With my folly have I undone the wisdom of the Magus, even as with my judgments I have overwhelmed the universe. I have eaten the pomegranate in the House of Wrath, and I have crushed out the blood of my mother between mill-stones to make bread.

There is nothing that I have not trampled beneath my feet. There is nothing that I have not set a garland on my brow. I have wound all things about my waist as a girdle. I have hidden all things in the cave of my heart. I have slain all things because I am Innocence. I have lain with all things because I am Untouched Virginity. I have given birth to all things because I am Death.

Stainless are my lips, for they are redder than the purple of the vine, and of the blood wherewith I am intoxicated. Stainless is my forehead, for it is whiter than the wind and the dew that cooleth it.

I am light, and I am night, and I am that which is beyond them.

I am speech, and I am silence, and I am that which is beyond them.

I am life, and I am death, and I am that which is beyond them.

I am war, and I am peace, and I am that which is beyond them.

I am weakness and I am strength, and I am that which is beyond them.

{Yet by none of these can man reach up to me. Yet by each of them must man reach up to me.}

{Thou shalt laugh at the folly of the fool. Thou shalt learn the wisdom of the wise. And thou shalt be initiate in holy things. And thou shalt be learned in the things of love. And thou shalt be mighty in the things of war. And thou shalt be adept in things occult. And thou shalt interpret the oracles. And thou shalt drive all these before thee in thy car, and though by none of these canst thou reach up to me, yet by each of these must thou attain to me. And thou must have the strength of the lion, and the secrecy of the hermit. And thou must turn the wheel of life. And thou must

hold the balances of Truth. Thou must pass through the great Waters, a Redeemer. Thou must have the tail of the scorpion, and the poisoned arrows of the Archer, and the dreadful horns of the Goat. And so shalt thou break down the fortress that guardeth the Palace of the King my son. And thou must work by the light of the Star and of the Moon and of the Sun, and by the dreadful light of judgment that is the birth of the Holy Spirit within thee. When these shall have destroyed the universe, then mayest thou enter the palace of the Queen my daughter.¹}

{Blessed, blessed, blessed; yea, blessed; thrice and four times blessed is he that hath attained to look upon thy face. For I will hurl thee forth from my presence as a whirling thunderbolt to guard the ways, and whom thou smitest shall be smitten indeed. And whom thou lovest shall be loved indeed. And whether by smiting or by love thou workest, each one shall see my face, a glimmer through a thousand veils. And they shall rise up from love’s sleep or death’s, and gird themselves with a girdle of snakeskin for wisdom, and they shall wear the white tunic of purity, and the apron of flaming orange for will, and over their shoulders shall they cast the panther’s skin of courage. And they shall wear the nemyss of secrecy and the Ateph crown of truth. And on their feet shall they put sandals made of the skin of beasts, that they may trample upon all they were, yet also that its toughness shall support them, and protect their feet, as they pass upon the mystical way that lieth through the pylons. And upon their breasts shall be the Rose and Cross of light and life, and in their hands the hermit’s staff and lamp. Thus shall they set out upon the neverending journey, each step of which is an unutterable reward.}^{1 2}

Holy, Holy, Holy, Holy; yea, thrice and four times holy art thou, because thou hast attained to look upon my face; not by my favour only, not by thy magick only, may this be won. Yet it is

¹ This passage is quite spurious, a vague and false reflection of the true Voice, which was a lyrical sequence of the Atu of Thoth.

² This passage is not wholly wrong; it is the poor expression which is to be deplored.

written: “Unto the persevering mortal the blessed Immortals are swift.”¹

Mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty; yea, thrice and four times mighty art thou. He that riseth up against thee shall be thrown down, though thou raise not so much as thy little finger against him. And he that speaketh evil against thee shall be put to shame, though thy lips utter not the littlest syllable against him. And he that thinketh evil concerning thee shall be confounded in his thought, although in thy mind arise not the least thought of him.^{1 2 3} And they shall be brought unto subjection unto thee, and serve thee, though thou wiliest it not. And it shall be unto them a grace and a sacrament, and ye shall all sit down together at the supernal banquet, and ye shall feast upon the honey of the gods, and be drunk upon the dew of immortality —for i am horus, the CROWNED AND CONQUERING CHILD, WHOM THOU KNEW-EST NOT!

Pass thou on, therefore, O thou Prophet of the Gods, unto the Cubical Altar of the Universe; there shalt thou receive every tribe and kingdom and nation into the mighty Order that reacheth from the frontier fortresses that guard the Uttermost Abyss unto My Throne.

This is the formula of the Aion, and with that the voice of lil, that is the Lamp of the Invisible Light, is ended. Amen.

Biskra, Algeria.

December 19, 1909/ 1:30-3:30 p.m.

¹ [The Chaldcean Oracles of Zoroaster, §158, ed. Westcott.]

² This prophecy has been proved true in many cases, often in the most strange and unexpected ways.

³ <This date is evidently a clerical or printer’s error. It must be later than Dec. 20. P.S. Qy? See [note 1 on] p. 245.> [The actual diary Crowley kept during this working clearly shows that he did in fact obtain the 1st /Ethyr on this date. This was after he had begun the 2nd /Ethyr, which was left uncompleted. The 2nd /Ethyr was completed after the 1st was received. See Appendix I, note 2 to p. 420.]

Figure 12, The Sigil or Seal of the A:. A.'..

Figure 13. The Sigillum Dei /Emeth.

Figure 14. The Tree of Life, with A:.A:. Grades, Formula, and the Hebrew, Yetziratic and Tarot Attributions of the Paths.

Figure 15. The Sephiroth Explained by the 30 /F.thyrs.

28th /Ethyr

29th ?Ethyr

30th /Ethyr [All ^thyrs include three sephiroth except the 30th , which includes the final Malkuth of the series for a total of four.]

Figure i6. SEthyrs 30-25 on the Tree of Life.

Figure 17. The Thirty /Ethyrs on the Tree of Life.

A/. A.’.

Publication in Class C

V. Praemonstrator

V.V. Imperator

S.U.A. Cancellarius

The Bartzabel Working

1910 E.V.

Introduction¹

In the spring [of 1910 e.v.], on May 9th, an evocation of Bartzabel, the spirit of Mars, was made, so successfully as to demand description. My assistants were Commander Marston, r.n., one of the highest officials of the Admiralty, and Leila Waddell, an Australian violinist whom I had just met, and who appealed to my imagination.^{1 2}

¹ [Adapted from Confessions, typescript; see abridged ed., p. 629.]

² [G. M. Marston (Frater All For Knowledge) was a Probationer 0°=0° of A.'. A.'.. Crowley dedicated the poem “Ave Adonai” in The Winged Beetle (1910) to him. Leila Waddell (1880-1932), Soror ’Aya6a (Grk., agatha, “good, brave, virtuous”), was an A.'.A.’, member who attained to Philosophus 4°=7^D, and ix° o.T.o., becoming its Grand Secretary General; see the editorial introduction to Book 4 (Parts IIV), rev. ed. (1994, 1997). In a ms note to “The Rites of Eleusis,” The Equinox 1(6) (1911), Crowley wrote: “Marston and I started with the evocation of Bartzabel, suggested by talk while I was staying with him at his house, Rempstone, Dorset. The idea of general ’rites’ developed during this summer from the casual rituals adopted during the Anhalonium [mescaline] experiment. When L[eila] W[addell] and I played and read poetry against each other before the Lord, we got such wonderful spiritual results that we tried to reduce all to a rule.”]

In the Triangle was Frater Omnia Vincam,¹ to serve as a material basis through which the spirit might manifest. Here was a startling innovation in tradition.^{1 2} I wrote, moreover, a ritual on entirely new principles. I retained the Qabalistic names and formulae, but wrote most of the invocation in poetry. The idea was to work up the magical enthusiasm through the exhilaration induced by music.

I obtained a great deal of valuable knowledge from the spirit, but the most interesting item was this: Marston, remembering his official duty, asked: “Will nation rise up against nation?”, followed by more detailed inquiries on receiving an affirmative answer. We thus learnt that within five years from that date there would be two wars; the storm centre of the first would be Turkey, and that of the second would be Germany, and the result would be the destruction of these two nations. I only remembered this after reaching New York at the end of 1914. Luckily I had the ritual with question and answer written down at the time, and an account of these predictions, precisely fulfilled, appeared in the New York World.”³

¹ [Victor Benjamin Neuburg, a Neophyte l°=10° of A.’. A.'.; see note 2 to p. 5.]

² [A related technique was used for the 10th /Ethyr of Liber 418.]

³ [See the series of articles by Harry Kemp in The World Magazine, “Weird Rites of Devil Worshippers Revealed by an Eye Witness,” August 2, 1914, p. 9, and “Strange Folk in London’s Bohemia,” August 16, 1914, p. 8. For Kemp and Crowley see William Brevda, Harry Kemp: The Last Bohemian (1986); see Works Cited.]

LIBER CCCXXV

The Bartzabel Working

An Evocation of Bartzabel the Spirit of Mars

THE FORMULA OF THE MAGICK OF LIGHT, let them be puissant in the EVOCATION of the SPIRIT

bsasiD

Prologue

The Ceremony consists of Five Parts:

• 1. The Banishings and Consecrations.

• 2. The Special Preparation of the Material Basis.

• 3. The Particular Invocations of the Forces of Mars.

• 4. The Dealings with Bartzabel, that mighty Spirit.

• 5. The Closing.

Gloria Deo Altissimo Ra Hoor Khuit in nomine Abrahadabra et in hoc signo -         i

¹ [Lal., “glory to the most highest god Ra Hoor Khuit in the name Abrahadabra and in this sign of the pentagram.”]

The Circle has an inscribed Pentagon, and a Tau within that. Without are 5 pentagrams with 5 ruby lamps. There is an Altar with the Square of Mars and the Seal of Mars.¹ The triangle has the names Primeumaton, Anaphaxeton, Anapheneton, and Mi-ca-el within.^{1 2} Also the Sigil of Bartzabel, and his name.³ About the Circle is the name □Tl’7N.⁴

The Chief Magus [C.M.] wears the robe of a Major Adept, and the Urseus crown and nemmes.⁵ He bears the Lamen of the Hiereus⁶ and the 1st Talisman of Mars.⁷ He bears as weapons the Spear and Sword, also the Bell.

The Assistant Magus [2M.] wears the Robe of a Probationer and a nemmes of white and gold.⁸ He attends to the suffumigations of Art. He bears the 3rd Talisman of Mars, and the consecrated Torch.

¹ [The ms has a drawing of the top of the Altar with the Square or Kamea of Mars thereon, showing the disposition of the magical weapons. See Figure 24, p. 265.]

² [Adapted from The Goetia of the Lemegeton of Solomon the King (2nd ed., p. 71) but with “Anapheneton” for “Tetragrammaton,” as was done in Liber 418. See Figure 8 on p. 161.]

³ [The Sigil of Bartzabel is painted on the cover of the MS, and is sketched by Crowley on the representation of the Lamen of Mars in his MS diagram of the Altar. This Sigil is drawn from the square of Mars given in Agrippa, Three Books of Occult Philosophy, book II, chap. 22, and Francis Barrett, The Magus, part II, chap. 28. Crowley uses a different square of Mars on the Altar-top described below. This square would generate a different Sigil of Bartzabel from the traditional one used by Crowley. As he had the traditional square of Mars in his reference works, this is probably an intentional change.]

⁴ [See Figure 18 opposite for an artist’s reconstruction.]

⁵ [The ms has “the Urasus crown or violet nemmes.” The robe of an Adeptus Major 6°=5^D is scarlet, with the Rose Cross on the breast. An example—Crowley’s own 6°=5° robe—is still extant.]

⁶ [The lamen given in Figure 20 is from The Temple of Solomon the King, in The Equinox 1(2), p. 249.]

⁷ [This and the other talismans are from the (greater) Key of Solomon the King, Figs. 25, 27 and 29, pp. 70-71; see Works Cited.]

⁸ [For the Robe of a Probationer, see The Equinox IV( 1), p. 53.]

Figure i 8. The Circle and Triangle of Art (reconstruction).

The Sigil of Bartzabel appears within the Triangle. The proportions of the Circle to the Triangle are Solomonic (3:1).

Figure 20. The Lamen of the Material Basis.

Figure 22. The 3rd Talisman of Mars.

Figure 19. The Lamen of the Chief Magus.

Figure 21. The 1st Talisman of Mars.

Figure 23. The Sth Talisman of Mars.

The Magus Adjuvant [3M.] is robed as her¹ brother, but wears the 5th Talisman of Mars. She attends to the Lustrations of Art. She bears the Book and Pen.

¹ [To give an accurate sense of narrative, references to Leila Waddell as Magus Adjuvant (3M.) have been made feminine, and references to Victor Neuburg as the Material Basis have been made masculine.]

Figure 24. The Altar of the Bartzabel Working.

Top view, showing a Kamea of Mars and the disposition of the magical weapons. On the altar are:

G. The Censer.

Upon the Altar is the Image of Ra Hoor Khuit, Isis in the East his Mother, Khem in the West facing him. In the South is the Censer; in the North the Cup.

The Material Basis [M.B.] is masked, and robed in red.

On the Altar are also the rope, the burin, the oil, and the Lamen of Mars¹ for the Material Basis.

The Lamps are all alight.

¹ [The ms diagram has the Sigil of Bartzabel on this Lamen, which C.M. later gives to the Material Basis.]

Part I

The Banishings and Consecrations

C.M. At altar, kneeling in humility.

2M. with sword of C.M.

3M. in other chamber with M.B.

2M. performs Banishing Rituals of and X^X around whole room,¹ and replaces Sword on Altar.

3M. washes M.B. with pure water, saying:

Asperge eum Domine hyssopo et mundabitur; lavabis eum et super nivem dealbabitur.^{1 2 3}

She masks him with the mask and robe of Mars, saying:

[3M.] By the figurative mystery of these holy vestures of concealment, doth the Lord cloak thee in the Shroud of Mystery in the strength of the Most High ancor AMACOR AMIDES THEODONIAS ANITOR that our desired end may be effected through thy strength, Adonai, unto whom be the Glory in Scecula sceculorunv¹ AMEN.⁴

She leads him to his place in the Triangle.

The Chief Magus now rises from his knees, and takes the Spear from the Altar.

3M. goes to station.

¹ [For the Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram see “Liber O sub figura VI”; see Works Cited.]

² [Lat., “Purge him with hyssop, O Lord, and he shall be clean. Thou shalt wash him, and he shall be whiter than snow.” Adapted from Psalm 51:7. See The Goetia, rev. ed., p. 80.]

³ [Lat., “unto the ages.”]

⁴ [Ibid.]

C.M. Hail unto Thee, Ra Hoor Khuit, who art the Lord of the ?Eon!

Be this consecrated Spear A thing of cheer, a thing of fear! Cheer to me who wield it!— My heart, its vigour shield it! Fear to them who face it— Their force, let fear disgrace it! Be a ray from the Most High, A glance of His unsleeping eye! Arm me, arm me, in the fray That shall be fought this dreadful day!

He hands Spear to 2nd Magus to hold. The Chief Magus takes the Sword.

C.M. Hail unto Thee, Ra Hoor Khuit, who art the Lord of the yEon!

Be this consecrated Sword Not abhorred before the Lord! A guard of Steel, a tongue of flame Writing in adamant His Name! Puissant against the Hosts of Evil! A mighty fence against the Devil! A snake of lightning to destroy Them that work Mischief and Annoy! Arm me, arm me, in the fray That shall be fought this dreadful day!

He hands Sword to 3rd Magus to hold.

The Chief Magus raises his hands above the Altar.

C.M. Hail unto Thee, Ra Hoor Khuit, who art the Lord of the >Eon!

Be this consecrated Altar A sign of sure stability! Will and Courage never falter, Thought dissolve in Deity! Let thy smile divinely curving, Isis, bless our dark device!

Holy Hawk, our deed unswerving Be thy favoured sacrifice!

Holy Khem, our vigour nerving, We have paid the priestly price. Hail, Ra Hoor, thy ray forth-rolling Consecrate the instruments, Thine Almighty power controlling To the Event the day’s events! Arm me, arm me, in the fray That shall be fought this dreadful day!

C.M. takes Spear from 2nd M. and gives him the Censer and Torch; Sword from 3rd M. and gives her the Cup, Book and Pen.

Part II

The Special Preparation of the Material Basis

C.M. goes to apex of triangle. The others support him at the base. He takes the cord from the altar.

C.M. Frater [Omnia Vincam]! As thou art blindfolded save for that light and sight which I can give thee, so do I now bind thee, so that thou mayst be for a space subject to my will and mine alone.

Ties hands and feet. Takes Spear from altar.

And since thou art without the circle in the place of the triangle, with this Spear do I invoke upon thee the protection of Ra Hoor Khuit, so that no force either of Heaven or of Earth, or from under the earth, may act upon thee, save only that force that I shall invoke within thee.

Bahlasti! Ompehda!¹

So then, I being armed and exalted in the Power of the Most High, place upon thy head this drop of

¹ [See Liber AL 111:54.]

consecrated oil, so that the ray of Godhead may illumine thee.

And I place this holy kiss upon thy neck, so that thy mind may be favourable unto us, open to our words, sensible of the power of our conjurations.

And with this burin do I draw from thy breast five drops of blood, so that thy body may be the Temple of Mars.

Wherefore also I command thee to repeat after me:

I submit myself to thee and to this operation; I invoke the Powers of Mars to manifest within me.

Done.¹ C.M. places about his neck the Lamen of Mars. Magi return to circle, face east.

C.M. Now, Brethren, since we are about to engage in a Work of so great danger, it is fitting that we make unto ourselves a fortress of defense in the name of the Most High, Elohim. Soror Adjuvant Magus, I command thee to purify the place with water.

3rd M. sprinkles thrice around circle, walking widdershins.

C.M. Thus, therefore, first the Priest who governeth the works of Fire, must sprinkle with the waters of the loud-resounding sea.^{1 2} Frater Assistant Magus, I command thee to consecrate the place with Fire.

2nd M. censes the circle thrice around, walking widdershins.

C.M. So when all the phantoms are vanished, and through the Universe darts and flashes that holy and formless Fire— Hear Thou the Voice of Fire!³

C.M. takes Sword.

¹ [“Done” not in ms.]

² [The Chaldcean Oracles of Zoroaster, §193, ed. Westcott, paraphrase; see Works Cited.]

³ [Ibid., §199.]

The Lord is my fortress and my deliverer; my God in whom I will trust.¹

I will walk upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the scorpion will I tread under my feet.^{1 2}

Because he hath set his Love upon me, therefore will I deliver him; I will set him on high, because he hath known My Name.³

C.M. circumambulates thrice widdershins with sword.

Hail unto Thee, Ra Hoor Khuit, who art the Lord of the /Eon!

Be this consecrated Tower

A place of power this fearful hour!

May the Names of God that gird us

Be our sign that he hath heard us!

By the five unsleeping Stars

Ward us from the wrath of Mars!

By the rood of God erect

Be He perfect to protect!

Arm me, arm me, in the fray

That shall be fought this dreadful day!

He now conjures the Dog of Evil.⁴

Arise, Dog of Evil, that I may instruct thee in thy present duties.

In the name of Horus, I say unto thee, Arise.

Thou art imprisoned.

Confess thou that it is so.

I have done this in the name and in the might of Horus. Except thou set thy face in my defense, thou art blind, and dumb, and paralyzed: but thou shalt hear

¹ [Psalm 91:2, paraphrase.]

² [Psalm 91:13, paraphrase. This verse is inscribed around the fifth pentacle of Mars in the Key of Solomon; see Figure 23, p. 264.]

³ [Psalm 91:14.]

⁴ [The ms notes “Dog of Evil (from other book).” This does not appear in the ms.]

the curses of thy Creator, and thou shalt feel the torments of my avenging wrath.

Therefore be thou obedient unto me, as a guard against them that hate me.

Let thy jaws be terrible as the storm-parted sky.

Let thy face be as a whirlwind of wrath and fury against the enemy.

Arise, I say, and aid and guard me in this Work of Art. O thou! whose head is of coal-black fire!

Thou, whose eyes are as columns of smoke and flame!

Thou, from whose nostrils goeth forth the breath of destruction!

Thou whose body is of iron and brass, bound with exceeding strength: girt with the power of awful blind avenging force—under my control, and mine alone!

Thou, whose claws are as shafts of whirling steel to rip the very bowels of my adversaries.

Thee, thee, I summon to mine aid!

In the name of Horus: rise: move: appear:

And aid and guard me in this Work of Art!

Rise, Dog of Evil, to guard the Abyss of Height!

Rise, I say, to guard the Four Quarters: the Abyss of the North; the Abyss of the South; the Abyss of the East; the Abyss of the West.

Rise, I say, to guard the Abyss of the Great Deep. Horus it is that hath given this commandment. Be thou terrible against all them that hate me! Be thou mighty to defend me from the Evil Ones! At the confines of Matter: at the Threshold of the Invisible: be thou my Watcher and my Guardian! Before the face of the Dwellers of the Abodes of Night!

As a flaming sword turning every way to keep the gates of my Universe: let thy teeth flash forth!

Nothing shall stop thee while thou settest thyself in my defense.

In the name of Horus: Rise, Move, and Appear: Be thou obedient unto me: for I am the Master of the Forces of Matter: the Servant of the Same thy God is my Name: true Worshipper of the Highest.

Much incense is now burnt, and there is a pause.

Part III

The Particular Invocations of the Forces of Mars

c.m. i mi.

He first performs the Invoking Ritual of Mars.

The Adepts stand at the points of the _1_.

C.M. Even as of old there came three Magi from the ends of the earth to adore the Fivefold Star, so come we, O Lord, armed for the holy work of an Evocation of Bartzabel the spirit of Mars, that is obedient unto the Intelligence Graphiel, chosen from the Seraphim who follow Kamael the Great Archangel that serveth God under his name of Elohim Gibor, a spark from Thine intolerable light, Ra Hoor Khuit!

Therefore hear Thou the Oath of the Obligation that we assume before Thee.

The Chief Magus points the Sword downward upon the apex of the Triangle of R.H.K. and the other Magi place their hands upon the hilt.

We, Perdurabo,¹ a Neophyte of the A.'. A.^-., All for Knowledge, a Probationer of A.^-. A.'., and Ayaf)a, a Probationer of A.’. A.^-., swear unto Thee, O Lord

¹ [Perdurabo was Crowley’s motto in the Outer College of A.'. A. .. Although robed as a 6°=5^D, “that grade of the Order—Adeptus Major—which specializes in Mars” (Moonchild, p. 168), the C.M. declares himself as a Neophyte of the Outer College. The ritual later advises that the C.M. adopt the “attitude of Khem” (Puer, the 6°=5° sign) should the spirit prove recalcitrant.]

God, by Thine own almighty power, by Thy force and fire, by Thy glittering Hawk’s eye and Thy mighty-sweeping wings: that we all here in this place and now at this time do utterly devote ourselves, mind, body, and estate, at all times and in all places soever to the establishment of Thy holy Kingdom. And if we fail herein, may we be burnt and consumed

by the Red Eye of Mars!

Magi return to stations.

And this our purpose is fivefold:

Firstly, that the Kingdom of Ra Hoor Khuit may be established in the TEon.

Secondly, that we may succeed in that particular design of which it is not lawful to speak, even before Thee.

Thirdly, that we may have power to help the weak. Fourthly, that we may be filled with the Courage and

Energy of Mars for the Prosecution of the Great Work.

And, lastly, that we may obtain the service of Bartzabel that he may be obedient unto us thy servants, that between him and us there may be peace, and that he may always be ready to come whensoever he is invoked and called forth.

Now because in such a work it is not possible for us to do anything at all of ourselves, we have humble recourse unto Thine Almighty power, beseeching upon our knees Thy favour and Thine aid.

The Magi kneel at three sides of altar, all clasping spear in the proper manner}

I adore thee in the song:^{1 2}

I am the Lord of Thebes, and I

The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu;

¹ [See Figure 25, taken from ms. The Equinox version mistakenly gave “spears.”]

² [This line and the poetic passage following are from Liber AL 111:37.]

Figure 25. The Three Magi at the Altar.

For me unveils the veiled sky, The self-slain Ankh-af-na-khonsu

Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet Thy presence, O Ra Hoor Khuit!

Unity uttermost showed!

I adore the might of Thy breath, Supreme and terrible God

Who makest the Gods and death

To tremble before Thee:—

I, I adore thee!

Appear on the throne of Ra!

Open the ways of the Khu!

Lighten the ways of the Ka!

The ways of the Khabs run through To stir me or still me!

Aum! let it fill me!

All say, repeatedly:

A ka dua

Tuf ur biu

Bi a’a chefu

Dudu ner af an nuterul

When the Chief Magus is satisfied with the Descent of the God, let all rise and let C.M. say:

So that Thy light is in me; & its red flame is as a sword in my hand to push thy order. There is a secret door that I shall make to establish thy way in all the quarters {...} as it is said:¹

The light is mine; its rays consume

Me: I have made a secret door

Into the House of Ra and Turn, Of Khephra and of Ahathoor.

I am thy Theban, O Mentu,

The prophet Ankh-af-na-khonsu!

By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;

By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell.

Show thy star-splendour, O Nuit!

Bid me within thine House to dwell, O winged snake of light, Hadit! Abide with me, Ra Hoor Khuit!

Magus faces and others support him.

Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail! Hail!

Send forth a spark of thine illimitable light and force, we beseech Thee, that it may appear in the Heaven of Mars as the God Elohim Gibor.

O winged glory of gold! O plumes of justice and stern brows of majesty! O warrior armed with spear and shield! O virgin strength and splendour as of spring! That ridest in thy Chariot of Iron above the Storm upon the Sea! Who shootest forth the Arrows of the Moon! Who wieldest the Four Magick Weapons! Who art the Master of the Pentagram, and of the blazing fury of the Sun!

Come unto me, thou great God Elohim Gibor, and send thine Angel Kamael, even Kamael the mighty, the Leader of thine Armies the fiery Serpents, the Seraphim, that he may answer my behests.

¹ [This and the poetic passage following are from Liber AL 111:38.]

O purple flame that is like unto the whirling wheel of Life! O strong shoulders and virginal breasts and dancing limbs!

Kamael! Kamael! Kamael! Kamael!

I see thee before me, O thou great Archangel! Art thou not the Leader of the armies of the Lord? Of the fiery snakes upon whose heads are triple crowns of spiritual light, and whose tongues are triply forked with judgment? Whose bodies are like the Sun in his strength, whose scales are of the adamant of Vulcan, who are slim and splendid and virginal as they rush flaming over the lashed sea?

Come unto me, Kamael, thou archangel almighty, and send to me Graphiel that great intelligence of thine, that he may answer my behest.

O moon, that sailest on the shoulders of the Sun! Whose warrior body is like white-hot steel! Whose virgin limbs and golden wings move like ripe corn at the caress of the thunderstorm!

O thou that wieldest the Sword and Balances of Power! Graphiel! Graphiel! Graphiel! Graphiel! Graphiel!

Graphiel!

Come unto me, thou bright intelligence of Mars, and answer my behest. In the name of Kamael thy Lord I say: Compel the spirit Bartzabel that is under thy dominion to manifest within this triangle of Art, within the Ruach of the material basis that is consecrated to this work, within this pure and beautiful human form that is prepared for his habitation.

And now I see thee, O thou dull deceitful head, that I shall fill with wit and truth; thou proud heart that I shall humble and make pure; thou cold body that I shall fashion into a living flame of amethyst. Thou sexless being of whom I shall make the perfect child of Hermes and Aphrodite that is God; thou dull ox

that I shall turn into the Bull of Earth; thou house of idleness wherein I shall set up the Throne of Justice. Bartzabel! Bartzabel! Bartzabel! Bartzabel! Bartzabel!

Bartzabel!

Come forth, and manifest beyond the bars!

Forth from the palace of seraphic stars

Come O thou Bartzabel the sprite of Mars!

Come: I unbind thee from the chains of Hell, Come: I unloose thee in the invisible To be my slave, thou spirit Bartzabel!

By the spear, the sword, the spell, Come unto me, Bartzabel!

By the word that openeth Hell

Come unto me, Bartzabel!

By the power o’ th’ panther’s pell

Come unto me, Bartzabel!

By the circling citadel

Come unto me, Bartzabel!

By this mind of miracle

Come unto me, Bartzabel!

By Ra Hoor Khuit, by Elohim Gibor, By Kamael and the Seraphim; by Hoor, Khem, and Mentu, and all the Gods of War, Ares and Mars and Hachiman and Thor, And by thy master, Graphiel, Come unto me, Bartzabel!

And if he come not, let the Chief Magus and his assistants humble themselves mightily, and repeat these holy invocations, even unto thrice.

And if still he be obdurate and disobedient unto the Words of Power, the Chief Magus shall assume the dignity of Khem, and conjure him and curse him as his own ingenium shall direct. Yet, if the rites have been duly performed, he will assuredly have manifested before this.

And these will probably be the tokens of the manifestation-.

A ruddy light¹ will play about the form of the Material Basis; or even a dark lustre beetle-brown or black. And the Face thereof will be suffused with blood, and the Heart beat violently, and its words will be swift and thick and violent. The voice thereof must be entirely changed; it may grow deep and hoarse, or at least strained and jerky. And it may be that it will suffer the torment of burning.

On the appearance of the Spirit much incense is thrown upon the Censer.

Part IV

The Dealings with Bartzahel, that Mighty Spirit

The Charge

C.M. Hail, Bartzabel, and welcome, o thou mighty spirit of Madim!

Welcome unto us art thou who comest in the name of Graphiel and of Kamael and of Elohim Gibor and of Ra Hoor Khuit the Lord of the /Eon.

I charge thee to answer and obey.

• 1. How shall the Kingdom of the /Eon be established?

• 2. Will success attend that particular design of which it is not lawful to speak?

• 3. We shall obtain power to aid the weak; in what manner? Give us a sign.

• 4. Give us a sign of the Courage and Energy of Mars that floweth and shall ever flow through us by virtue of this ceremony.

¹ [The ms has the deleted addition “or it may be a deep blue light.”]

• 5. Lastly, O thou Spirit Bartzabel, lay thine hands upon this sword, whose point I then place upon thine head, and swear faith and obedience unto me by Ra Hoor Khuit, the Lord of the TEon, saying after me:

I, Bartzabel, the Spirit of Mars, do swear by the glory of Him that is Lord of the TEon, and by the Might of Elohim Gibor, and by the Fear of Kamael and the Hosts of Fiery Serpents, and by Graphiel whose hand is heavy upon me—before which names I tremble every day—that I will punctually fulfil this present charge, not perverting the sense thereof, but obedient to the inmost thought of the Chief Magus; that I will be ever the willing servant of thee and thy companions, a spirit of Truth in Force and Fire; that in departing I will do no hurt to any person or thing, and in particular that the Material Basis shall not suffer through this ceremony, but shall be purified and fortified thereby; that I will be at peace with thee and seek never to injure thee, but to defend thee against all thine enemies, and to work eternally for thy welfare; finally, that I will be ready to come unto thee to serve thee whensoever I am invoked and called forth, whether by a word, or a will, or by this great and potent conjuration of Magick Art. amen.

The Record of the Working¹

[In response to the first question, “Hotv shall the Kingdom of the AL on be established?”]

B. I may not speak this thing save thou give sign of 3rd Vault. I’ll tell thee the sign that was given thee secretly in the 3rd Vault.

C.M. What hast thou to do with the 3rd Vault?

¹ [This heading is supplied for this publication, and the record of the working itself is interpolated into the ritual as performed.]

[The question was not recorded at the time, but a later

probably the second question “Will success attend that particular design of which it is not lawful to speak?”]

¹ [I.e., “Scarlet Woman,” a possible reference to a self-induced abortion by Crowley’s wife in 1904 E.v.; see Confessions, abridged ed., p. 414. See also the summary on p. 285 below.]

² [Pursuant to the ritual instructions for dealing with recalcitrant spirits, C.M. probably gave the Sign of Khem, etc.]

C.M. Who is the child?

B. Ask again.

C.M. (Repeats question.)

B. He shall be the child of 2) and Saturn. He shall bear on on his forehead sevenfold of midnight. He shall be slain as was spoken in that place which was known only to thee and one other.

C.M. Vivit?¹

B. Vivit.^{1 2}

C.M. Quo?³

B. He dwells in that place—I have no words.

C.M. Speak in figures, etc. Qabalah, etc.

B. He shall be sought near a stream of water running between two mountains. The child is yet unborn. He shall be the child of those who have sought love in the valley of the 'A's, sojourned in a cave, and been on summit of Abiegnus.

C.M. Then this sacrifice is to come?

B. Yes.

C.M. What is his number?

B. 43.

C.M. Thou best.

B. 77-91.

C.M. And the great number?

B. Won’t tell.

C.M. (Commands him to speak.)

B. May not speak.

C.M. (Threatens.)

B. Ask me not that.

¹ [Lat., “he lives?”]

² [Lat., “he lives.”]

³ [Lat., “in which place?”]

C.M. (Repeats.)

B. 8.

C.M. And when shall the sacrifice be accomplished? Thou didst lie saying soon.

B. It shall be thrice accomplished.

C.M. When will the second time be?

B. 2nd year, 3rd month, 22nd day, 9th hour.

C.M. And the third sacrifice?

B. 130th year, 6th 2), 2nd day, 4th hour, 8th hour, and 12th hour—these things will be fulfilled.¹ Let me go.

C.M. threatens and cautions B. to speak truth.

C.M. Will the particular design succeed, etc.?

B. Yes.

C.M. How knowest thou that our thoughts coincide?

B. By the symbols I see.

C.M. What are they?

B. Rose and Cross (Row).

C.M. Give me the particular symbols.

B. Silver snake, waning moon and 12 triumphant and three submerged in sea of matter. 7 ^<s on the horizon for a sign.

C.M. Will the heart perish?

B. Yes.

C.M. And by that which is sworn to destroy it?

B. Yes—that and something else.

C.M. What else?

B. A black curse.

Third Question. Re: helping the weak.

[ “ We shall obtain power to aid the weak; in what manner? Give us a sign. ”]

¹ [November 11, 2040 E.v.J

B. Thou shalt take those who are fitted—and they shall aid the weak.

C.M. What sign shall be given unto us?

B. A sword and a ring. Ring = silver snake with ruby eyes around an opal.

C.M. Thou liest regarding snake because silver snake is subject of my thoughts. Regarding sign of sword, explain.

B. A sword of destruction and sacrifice.

C.M. How does that aid the weak?

B. By slaying them.

C.M. When shall sign of sword be given?

B. 17 days, 303 days, and then 560th day from now.

C.M. When shall sign of ring be given?

B. After 3 2) s.

Fourth Question. [“Give us a sign of the Courage and Energy of Mars that floiveth and shall ever flow through us by virtue of this ceremony. ”]

B. A black JL inverted (head down). May I depart?

C.M. Nay.

A.F.K.¹ Shall nations of Earth rise up against one another?

B. When?

A.F.K. Soon.

B. Yes.

C.M. When?

B. Within 5 years. Turkey or Germany.

¹ [Frater All For Knowledge—Commander Marston.]

The Benediction

[C.M.] Let Ra Hoor Khuit bless thee!

Let His light shine perpetually in thy darkness!

Let His force eternally brace up thy weakness!

Let His blessing be upon thee for ever and for ever!

Yea, verily and Amen, let His blessing be upon thee for ever and ever!

The License to Depart

Now, O thou Spirit Bartzabel, since thou didst come at my behest and swear faith and fealty unto me by the Lord of the /Eon, I license thee to depart in peace with the blessing of the Lord until such time as I have need of thee.

Part V

The Closing

Let the Chief Magus perform the Banishing Ritual of Mars, give great Thanks unto the Lord of the /Eon, and perform the Lesser Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram.

Summary

by Frater Perdurabo

1. [deleted line] ... Bartzabel, not having learnt that One is better than Two.

2. The “slain child.”

There are three. One—date read from my aura by Bartzabel—past. The 3rd Lotus of the 7th Star, Child of 2) and b seems to refer to a matter known only to myself and one other.¹

But is that place the place of the C[ity] of the P[yramid]s? That too is only known to me and one other and suits description.^{1 2}

The numbers 44-77-91-8 are obscure. Time 2 years 3 months 22 days 9 hours from now, i.e., about end July 1912.

The third sacrifice is distant, and matters nothing to us now.

The “particular design” may be identical with this 2nd sacrifice; for the 7 stars are on (or near) the horizon in that secret place.

The black curse—

The Sign of the Sword—17 days, i.e., May 25, and dates in 1911.

The Sign of the Ring—before 3 weeks, i.e., Sunday, May 29.

¹ [See note 1 to page 280.]

² [Crowley probably alludes to his Magister Templi initiation of 1909 E.v., recorded in Liber 418. The “one other” would then be Victor B. Neuburg.]

A/. A.'.

Publication in Class C

V. Prsemonstrator

V.V. Imperator

S.U.A. Cancellarius

The Ab-ul-Diz Working

1911 E.V.

Introduction¹

I | 1 he autumn [of 1911 E.v.] had a new experience in store

I for me. The current of my life was once more to be sud-JL denly turned; and as usual, this critical change came about as the result of a series of casual chances. I was caught in a web, some of whose strands had been woven as early as 1902. That fertile passage through Paris on my return from Chogo Ri, which had already born so much fruit in my life, had still some seed— which now came to harvest.

I have mentioned^{1 2} Nina Olivier, whom I loved so well and sang so passionately. In my sunlight she had blossomed into La Dame de Montparno, the Queen of the Quarter. But I have not mentioned an obscure prig whom I will call Monet-Knott,³ whom I had met through my fiancee, the “Star” to Nina’s “Garter.” This brainless and conceited youth had become accompanist to the greatest dancer of her generation. Let me call her Lavinia King.⁴ She, first and never equalled, had understood and demonstrated the Art of dancing as a complete language of the affections of the mind

¹ [Adapted from Crowley’s account of this working in his Confessions, typescript; see also the abridged ed., chap. 70.]

² [Elsewhere in his Confessions.]

³ [Hener Skene, who appears as Monet-Knott in Moonchild (1929).]

⁴ [Isadora Duncan, who appears as Lavinia King, ibid.]

and heart. Knott and Nina [...] had contracted a liaison. I met Knott for the second time [and] I saw a fair amount of him in the next few weeks; so that, running across him in London on October 11th, he took me after supper to the Savoy to meet Miss King.¹

A boisterous party was in progress. The dancer’s lifelong friend, whom I will call by the name she afterwards adopted, Soror Virakam, was celebrating her birthday. This lady, a magnificent specimen of mingled Irish and Italian blood, possessed a most powerful personality and a terrific magnetism which instantly attracted my own. I forgot everything. I sat on the floor like a Chinese God, exchanging electricity with her.

After some weeks’ preliminary skirmishing, we joined battle along the whole front; that is to say, I crossed to Paris, where she had a flat, and carried her off to Switzerland to spend the winter skating. Arrived at Interlaken, we found that Miirren was not open, so we went on to St. Moritz, breaking the journey at Zurich. This town is so hideous and depressing that we felt that our only chance of living through the night was to get superbly drunk, which we did...

(Let me emphasize that this wild adventure had not the remotest connection with Magick. Virakam was utterly ignorant of the subject. She had hardly so much as a smattering of Christian Science. She had never attended a seance, or played Planchette.)

...Lassati sed non satiati¹ by midnight. I expected to sleep, but was aroused by Virakam being apparently seized with a violent attack of hysteria, in which she poured forth a frantic torrent of senseless hallucination. I was irritated and tried to calm her. But she insisted that her experience was real; that she bore an important message to me from some invisible individual. Such nonsense increased my irritation. But—after about an hour of it—my jaw fell with astonishment. I became suddenly aware of a coherence in her ravings, and further that they were couched in my own language of symbols. My attention being thus awakened, I listened to what she was saying. A few minutes convinced me that she was ^{1 2}

¹ This incident and its sequel are described in The Net, Chapter One. [This is Crowley’s Moonchild (Liber 81) (1929); see Works Cited.]

² [Lat., “Faint, but not fulfilled.’]

actually in communication with some Intelligence who had a message for me.

Let me briefly explain the grounds for this belief. I have already set forth, in connection with the Cairo Working, some of the safeguards which I habitually employ. Virakam’s vision contained elements perfectly familiar to me. This was clear proof that the man in her vision, whom she called Ab-ul-Diz, was acquainted with my system of hieroglyphics, literal and numerical, and also with some incidents in my magical career. Virakam herself certainly knew nothing of any of these. Ab-ul-Diz told us to call him a week later, when he would give further information. We arrived at St. Moritz and engaged a suite in the Palace Hotel.

My first surprise was to find that I had brought with me exactly those Magical Weapons which were suitable for the work proposed, and no others. But a yet more startling circumstance was to come. For the purposes of the Cairo Working, Ouarda and I had brought two abbai; one, scarlet, for me; one, blue, for her. I had brought mine to St. Moritz; the other was of course in the possession of Ouarda. Imagine my amazement when Virakam produced from her trunk a blue abbai so like Ouarda’s that the only differences were minute details of the gold embroidery! The suggestion was that the Secret Chiefs, having chosen Ouarda as Their messenger, could not use anyone else until she had become irrevocably disqualified by insanity. Not till now could her place be taken by another; and that Virakam should possess a duplicate of her Magical Robe seemed a strong argument that she had been consecrated by Them to take the place of her unhappy predecessor.

She was very unsatisfactory as a clairvoyant; she resented these precautions. She was a quick-tempered and impulsive woman, always eager to act with reckless enthusiasm. My cold scepticism no doubt prevented her from doing her best. Ab-ul-Diz himself constantly demanded that I should show “faith” and warned me that I was wrecking my chances by my attitude. I prevailed upon him, however, to give adequate proof of his existence and his claim to speak with authority. The main purport of his message was to instruct me to write a book on my system of Mysticism and Magick, to be called Book Four, and told me that by means of this book, I should prevail against public neglect. I saw no objection to writing such a book; on quite rational grounds, it

was a proper course of action. I therefore agreed to do so. But Abul-Diz was determined to dictate the conditions in which the book should be written; and this was a difficult matter. He wanted us to travel to an appropriate place. On this point I was not wholly satisfied with the result of my cross-examination. I know now that I was much to blame throughout. I was not honest either with him, myself, or Virakam. I allowed material considerations to influence me, and I clung—oh triple fool!—to my sentimental obligations towards Laylah.¹

We finally decided to do what he asked, though part of my objection was founded on his refusal to give us absolutely definite instructions. However, we crossed the Passes in a sleigh to Chia-venna, whence we took the train to Milan. In this city we had a final conversation with Ab-ul-Diz. I had exhausted his patience, as he mine, and he told us that he would not visit us any more. He gave us his final instructions. We were to go to Rome and beyond Rome, though he refused to name the exact spot. We were to take a villa and there write Book Four.^{1 2} I asked him how we might recognize the right villa. I forget what answer he gave through her, but for the first time he flashed a message directly into my own consciousness. “You will recognize it beyond the possibility of doubt or error,” he told me. With this, a picture came into my mind of a hillside on which were a house and garden marked by two tall Persian Nuts.

¹ [See Liber 418, note 7, p. 145 infra. Laylah was Leila Waddell, Soror Agatha of the A .'.A/..]

² [The Ab-ul-Diz Working’s relationship to the writing of Book 4 is discussed in the editor’s introduction to Book 4 (Parts I-IV), rev. ed. (1994, 1997). Crowley gives a sort of spiritual commentary on the importance of Book 4 and the meaning of its titles in his commentary to the A.'.A.^-. Word of the Equinox for the spring of 1923 E.v.:

“444 (q.v. ’Liber D’), the power of Jupiter fully extended. This number with the letters TMD (Hebrew values) were given by Ab-ul-Diz (the Adept who communicated with 666 through Soror Virakam, An. vn, O in /, Nov. 1911, at Zurich, St. Moritz and Milano) as the expansion of the Hebrew letters X3X, the secret name of Book 4. It therefore signifies the active energy of Ra Hoor Khuit in its most Jupiterian or authoritative form.”]

The next day we went on to Rome. Owing to my own Ananias-like attempt to “keep back part of the price,”¹ my relations with Virakam had become strained. We reached Naples after two or three quarrelsome days in Rome and began house-hunting. I imagined that we should find dozens of suitable places to choose from, but we spent day after day scouring the city and suburbs in an automobile, without finding a single place to let that corresponded in the smallest degree with our ideas.

Virakam’s brat—a most god-forsaken lout—was to join us for the Christmas holidays, and on the day he was due to arrive we motored out as a forlorn hope to Posilippo before meeting him at the station at four o’clock or thereabouts. But the previous night Virakam had a dream in which she saw the desired villa with absolute clearness. (I had been careful to say nothing to her about the Persian Nuts, so as to have a weapon against her in case she insisted that such and such a place was the one intended.)

After a fruitless search we turned our automobile towards Naples, along the crest of Posilippo. At one point there is a small side lane scarcely negotiable by motor, and indeed hardly perceptible, as it branches from the main road so as to form an acuteangled “Y” with the foot towards Naples. But Virakam sprang excitedly to her feet, and told the chauffeur to drive down it. I was astonished, she being hysterically anxious to meet the train, and our time being already almost too short. But she swore passionately that the villa was down that lane. The road became constantly rougher and narrower. After some time, it came out on the open slope; a low stone parapet on the left protecting it. Again she sprang to her feet. “There,” she cried, pointing with her finger, “is the villa I saw in my dream!” I looked. No villa was visible. I said so. She had to agree; yet stuck to her point that she saw it. I subsequently returned to that spot and found that a short section of wall, perhaps fifteen feet of narrow edge of masonry, is just perceptible through a gap in the vegetation.

We drove on; we came to a tiny piazza, on one side of which was a church. “That is the square and the church,” she exclaimed, “that I saw in my dream!”

[Acts 5:2.]

We drove on. The lane became narrower, rougher, and steeper. Little more than a hundred yards ahead it was completely “up,” blocked with heaps of broken stone. The chauffeur protested that he would be able neither to turn the car nor to back it up to the square. Virakam, in a violent rage, insisted on proceeding. I shrugged my shoulders. I had got accustomed to these typhoons.

We drove on a few yards. Then the chauffeur made up his mind to revolt and stopped the car. On the left was a wide open gate through which we could see a gang of workmen engaged in pretending to repair a ramshackle villa. Virakam called the foreman and asked in broken Italian if the place was to let. He told her no; it was under repair. With crazy confidence she dragged him within and forced him to show her over the house. I sat in resigned disgust, not deigning to follow. Then my eyes suddenly saw down the garden, two trees close together. I stooped. Their tops appeared. They were Persian Nuts! The stupid coincidence angered me, and yet some irresistible instinct compelled me to take out my notebook and pencil and jot down the name written over the gate—Villa Caldarazzo. Idly, I added up the letters 6 + 10 + 30 + 30 + 1 and 20 + 1 + 30 + 4 + 1 + 200 + 1 + 7 + 7 + 70. Their sum struck me like a bullet in my brain. It was 418, the number of the Magical Formula of the TEon, a numerical hieroglyph of the Great Work. Ab-ul-Diz had made no mistake. My recognition of the right place was not to depend on a mere matter of trees, which might be found almost anywhere. Recognition beyond all possibility of doubt was what he promised. He had been as good as his word.

I was entirely overwhelmed. I jumped out of the car and ran up to the house. I found Virakam in the main room. The instant I entered I understood that it was entirely suited for a temple. The walls were decorated with crude frescoes which somehow suggested the exact atmosphere proper to the Work. The very shape of the room seemed somehow significant. Further, it seemed as if it were filled with a peculiar emanation. This impression must not be dismissed as sheer fancy. Few men but are sufficiently sensitive to distinguish the spiritual aura of certain buildings. It is impossible not to feel reverence in certain cathedrals and temples. The most ordinary dwelling-houses often possess an atmosphere of

Liber 60 A- The Ab-ul-Diz Working * Introduction 295 their own; some depress, some cheer; some disgust, others strike chill to the heart.

Virakam of course was entirely certain that this was the villa for us. Against this was the positive statement of the people in charge that it was not to be let. We refused to accept this assertion. We took the name and address of the owner, dug him out, and found him willing to give us immediate possession at a small rent. We went in on the following day, and settled down almost at once to consecrate the Temple and begin the book.

The idea was as follows. I was to dictate, Virakam to transcribe, and if at any point there appeared the slightest obscurity— obscurity from the point of view of the entirely ignorant and not particularly intelligent reader; in a word, the average lower-class man in the street—I was to recast my thoughts in plainer language. By this means we hoped to write a book well within the compass of the understanding of even the simplest-minded seeker after spiritual enlightenment.

The programme was cut short. The secret contest between the Will of Virakam and my own broke into open hostility. A serious quarrel led to her dashing off to Paris. She repented almost before she arrived, and telegraphed me to rejoin her, which I did, and we went together to London. There, however, an intrigue resulted in her hastily marrying a Turkish adventurer who proceeded to beat her, and, a little later, to desert her.¹ Her hysteria became chronic and uncontrollable; she took to furious bouts of drinking which culminated in delirium tremens.

The partial failure of our partnership was to some extent, without doubt, my own fault. I was not wholehearted, and I refused to live by faith rather than by sight. I cannot reproach myself for this; for that, I have no excuse. I may nevertheless express a doubt as to whether full success was in any case possible. Her own masterless passions could hardly have allowed her to pass unscathed through the ordeals which are always imposed upon those who undertake tasks of this importance.

¹ [This was Veli Bey, who appears in Moonchild (1929) as Abdul Bey.]

LIBER LX

The Ah-ul-Diz Working

Prologue¹

An Account of a Communication made to Frater Perdurabo in 1904 <A’X^{1 2} through the seer Ouarda is to be found in The Equinox 1(7).³

This Ouarda, disobedient unto her high calling, suffered in detail those things prophesied of her, and the final catastrophe, or an equivalent even more terrible, occurred on the 27th of September, 1911 4>X.

At least this catastrophe (dementia in its most hopeless form) precluded the possibility of her ever serving Fra. P. as a messenger from the Great White Brotherhood whom he serves.

Of the occurrence of this catastrophe Fra. P. was ignorant until the 19th (I think, it may have been later, it was not earlier) of October.

Late in the evening of the 11th October, within a few minutes of midnight, he was taken by the well-known raconteur Mr.

¹ [Part-titles have been supplied for this publication.]

² [I.e., year of the pseudo-Christ, a usage of Crowley’s before he adopted the masonic usage era vulgari for “in the common era.”]

³ [This is the account of the Cairo Working and the reception of Liber AL vel Legis, The Book of the Law, later republished in The Equinox of the Gods (Book 4, Part IV). Ouarda was Rose Edith Crowley.]

Hener Skene, to the Savoy Hotel in London, and there introduced to a Mrs. Mary d’Este Sturges.¹

The astrological figure for this hour is subjoined. .

Figure 26. The Ab-ul-Diz Working.

This astounding figure is unintelligible without a reference to certain previous figures.

At Fra. P.’s birth Luna, Caput, and Neptune were culminating, Saturn in the 8th the only figure above the horizon.

At Fra. P.’s first initiation (November 18, 1898 T~X about 6 p.m.) the same three were again alone in the heaven.

At the Equinox of the Gods this again took place.

At Fra. P.’s reception into the grade of Magister Templi this configuration was again seen. Mars was (I think) just risen.

These figures are all subjoined here, and must astonish the astrological student.^{1 2}

¹ [Mary Desti (1871-1931), the dancer Isadora Duncan’s best friend and the second Scarlet Woman; see list in note 2 to p. 223. See Confessions, abr. ed., pp. 676-681, and Book 4 (Parts I-IV), rev. ed., pp. xlix-xviii. See also Moonchild, where Duncan is Lavinia King, Desti is Lisa la Giuffria, and the pianist Hener Skene is Monet-Knott. |

² Evidently the elevation of fi in the 10th House caused the violence of the final catastrophe. Note, too, [51] rising, and [® ] in the same degree of [XI] as at his birth.

Figure 27. The Nativity of Aleister Crowley.

Figure 28. The Neophyte Initiation of Perdurabo.

Figure 29. The Equinox of the Gods.

Figure 30. The Magister Templi Initiation.

Of this heavenly disposition Fra. P. was of course ignorant at the time; but he was in [no] wise ignorant of the profound and occult emotion caused by the meeting, an emotion which was not peculiar to himself alone.

On the 13th he took tea with the lady, and returning after dinner, did not leave the suite until he had expressed (however unworthily) the nature of his feelings. On the 14th he dined with her, and after partaking subsequently of chocolate and rolls, left for the North of England.

He returned to the Savoy Hotel on the 29th, somewhat disturbed in his mind by the silence with which his letters to her had been treated, but, meeting her, forgave her, and passed several hours in her company, the parting being dictated by her being obliged to take the 11 o’clock train to Paris on the morning of the 30th.

He rejoined her at lunchtime on the 14th of November at her flat in Paris, took her to Montparnasse on the night of the 18th, and left Paris with her for Switzerland on the evening of the 19th.

The night of the 21st was spent at the National Hotel, Zurich.

At about midnight she was in a state of excitement, exhaustion, and hysteria so fierce and terrible as to be almost alarming to Fra. P. I must mention that he had hitherto regarded her only as a voluptuous and passionate woman of the world, or perhaps in part as a fellow-artist; no thought of her use in his occult work had ever crossed his mind.

However, the state described, one little removed from that of an amorous but infuriated lioness, suddenly and without warning gave place to a profound calm hardly distinguishable from prophetic trance, and she began to describe what she was “seeing.”

Fra. P.’s old sceptical attitude had in no wise been weakened by the lapse of years; he attached no importance to, or interest (save artistic interest) in, what he regarded as a morbid phenomenon due to over-excitement of Bacchus and Eros, and he cannot particularize the order of the events now to be related, although he wrote them down an hour later when they assumed an occult importance.

The lady had I think on the previous day (the 20th) “seen” in a dream the “head of the 5 White Brothers” who told her that “it was all right.”

This person now again appeared to her. He was an old man with a long white beard; in his hand he held a wand, and on his

breast was a large “claw” (?). On his finger was a ring; under a transparent “glass” top it had a white feather or “bird.” Subsequently she described this as the feather of a “bird of Paradise,” or something similar.

His first counsel to the seer was “to make herself perfectly passive” in order that he might communicate freely.

He then said that the 5 White Brethren were “turning red” and “here is a book to be given to Fra. P.¹ The name of the book is Aba, and its number IV.” It was the correspondence of name and number that made Fra. P. think there might be something in the communication.^{1 2}

In the room seen was also a black-headed “Turk” or “Egyptian” wearing a tarbush and a red sash; his name is “Jezel”³ (?) and he has one hand covered with crocodile skin. He is hunting this book; but (said the Ancient) Fra. P. will get it.

There was a lot, too, about the Book VII; curious in view of the fact that the words (“[Liber] VII” V:46) “only by passive love shall he avail” had sprung up in P.’s mind when she mentioned the old man’s first command.

P. then began to “challenge” the old man.

The seer was not seeing clearly, and was terribly afraid of the whole business.

He gave his name as (?) Ab-ul-Diz.

P. asked “What about 78?” and he replied that he was 78.⁴

¹ She did not know Fra. P. as such. This is not a “test.”

² ABA = X3X = 4.

³ Jezel = b’T' = 57; Veli = ’b'Xl = 57. This suggests a possible identity between the Turk in the vision and the actual Turk who ultimately spoilt the work, Veli Bey; but I do not like the spelling, and Soror Virakam, on meeting Veli Bey’s father, Elias Pasha, recognized him immediately as Jezel. [The following year Mary Desti left Crowley to marry a Turk named Veli Bey. His father was Ilias Pasha, who had been personal physician to Abdul-Hamid II, the last sultan of Turkey. They appear in Crowley’s Moonchild as Abdul Bey and Akbar Pasha.]

⁴ 78 is OKl'K [Aiwass]. At this perod A.C. did not know the spelling which gives the number 93.

P. asked “What is 65?”¹ He said that P. was 65 and his age 1400.^{1 2}

At some point or other he gave this symbol: IV 1400 78 1. Water spring proceeding hence.

I gave the P[ass] Wford] of the Equinox (K\papora]) at which he frowned.

P. considered, and considers, these attempts at identification as entirely unsatisfactory.

He promised to come and “make all clear” after 7 days at 11 p.m., P. being told to invoke “as before.”³ It is curious that this new revelation should have come at the moment when Liber Legis was ready to be published;⁴ and the proofs of the Horus invocation arrived on the very morning of the day when the invocation is to be made. P. will test this as follows: he will begin invoking by the “Bornless One” and if the seer gets nothing from this, and then does get something from “Horus,” then—good.

At St. Moritz P. had the following documents:⁵

• 1. GeXqpa.

• 2. Early book of invocation, etc., containing the “Bornless One.”

• 3. Book of Dee’s conjurations, etc.

• 4. mss of A.'.A/. rituals and some minor mss.

• 5. The “Sepher Sephiroth.”

• 6. The Canon and first draft of lexicon.

¹ 65 is ’HX.

² In the “[Liber 500,] Sepher Sephiroth,” unpacked at St. Moritz, 1400 is given as nN = Chaos (!) the Unknown God of Chokmah in Lib[er] 418, and as nbn the Three Heads!

³ Q[uer]y. “Bornless One” or “[Invocation of] Horus.”

⁴ In The Equin[ox] 1(7).

⁵ [0eXr)pa is the first edition of The Holy Books of Thelema. The “Bornless One” is “The Preliminary Invocation of the Goetia,” given in Book 4 (Parts I-IV), rev. ed., appendix 8, and in the Goetia. Dee’s conjurations are published in Part II of “Liber 84 vel Chanokh.” “Sepher Sephiroth” is “Liber 500,” the Qabalistic dictionary. The Canon is William Stirling’s work on Greek Qabalah; the lexicon is an early form of “Liber 1264, The Greek Qabalah.” That part of the The Temple of Solomon the King in The Equinox 1(7) is the account of the Cairo Working, republished in Book 4 as Chapter 6 of Part IV. It includes “The Invocation of Horus” and “The Book of Results.”]

• 7. [Vol. I] No. 6 of The Equinox.

• 8. Proofs of The Temple of Solomon for [The Equinox Vol.

• I] No. 7, including the Invocation of Horus used in 1904 <A-X.

• 9. “The Invocation of Horus” and the “Book of Results.”¹

Fra. P. told his mistress as much as possible during the week, in order to avoid questions as to what she could or could not have known. If the Brethren wish to communicate, they must make the proof certain beyond controversy.

In the salon of their suite at St. Moritz is a very large and tall mirror, just as there was in their flat at Cairo where the previous revelation took place.

They arrived at St. Moritz on Wednesday, Nov. 22; on the next day the Seer found that she had unreasonably brought a perfectly useless article from Paris. It was a robe—an abbai of blue and gold, precisely similar to that one bought for “Nuit” in the old rituals, save that there is a little red embroidery added.

Fra. P. has here with him these magical implements:

• 1. The Wand of Ebony crowned with the Star Sapphire and the golden snakes.

• 2. The Robe of a Neophyte.

• 3. The shew-stone of graven topaz, a rosy cross upon a chain of gold and pearls.

• 4. The Bell of electrum magi cum.¹

• 5. The Ring of....................that is hidden under N.o.x.

The Seer will dress as indicated in L[iber] Legis 1:61, Fra. P. as is his custom. Incense of Abramelin will be burnt. The room will be ordered in balanced disposition with the Mirror as “East.”

The ritual of Hoor will be altered to suit the magical costume and arms of P.

The invocation will begin at 10:45 P.M.

This has been written up to date by Fra. P. with his own hand on the evening (6:30-8:00 p.m.) of November 28, 1911 &-X. An. vti O in 5° /. ^{1 2}

¹ This only discovered on search. Why P. should have brought it is beyond conjecture, as it could have no possible use to him. Very curious.

² [See note 2 to p. 124.]

Figure 31. The Temple of the Ab-ul-Diz Working.

• A. Tall mirror.

• B. Five chairs for the 5 Brethren.

• C. Octagonal table, tiles (5x5) + (4 x (’/z + S + Vz)) = 41 squares in all.

• D. Large inlaid table.

• E. Chair for Fra. P.

• F. Screen.

• G. Curtained window.

• H. Door to small balcony.

J. Door to hotel blocked by the couch (K).

• L. Furniture stored away here.

• M. Door to Seer’s bedroom.

• N. Seer on floor facing mirror.

On (C.) are P.’s weapons and books of invocation; incense and burner. On (D.) are (P.) a clock, symbol of Time, (Q.) electric lamp, symbol of space, (R.) writing materials; and (S.) the five books of OeArjpa. [The 1909 first edition included only five Holy Books.]

A long narrow room, an attic.

• Figure 32. The Astral Setting of the Ab-ul-Diz Working.

Description of the room given by the Seer this evening Nov. 28:

• A. Position of Seer in Bed upon the Earth at Zurich.

• B. Raised platform within room. Here stood “adept” most of the time.

• C. Door leading to (?)

• D. Steps descending into room (?) B [13] of these.

• E. Large mantel set obliquely; it had big iron “doors.”

• F. Table, plain deal, much worn, very solid.

• G. Place on table where the book IV was placed.

H. |...] of “Turk.”

J. Big double doors leading to abode of many demons.

K. Against the wall is a blackboard, on which the adept wrote the symbol given below. [The art for this symbol is not in ts.]

Part I¹

[Tuesday, November 28.]

The Record Continued.

10:38.

Entered, robed, kindled incense.

10:40 P.M.

L.B.R.^{1 2}

10:43.

Began the invocations: “Thee I invoke, the Bornless One. ”

10:56.

Have finished the “Bornless One, ” done with great vigour and good success on simple exoteric lines.

11:00.

P. Cujus nomen est Nemo, Frater A:. A:., adest.³

Seer spoke at same moment.

Seer says the white man is here, and wants to know what I want.

P. Nothing: did I call him, or he me?

S. He called you........but there is 77!” ⁴

¹ [The dialogue between P. and the Seer and Ab-ul-Diz is given in roman type. Parenthetical remarks giving comments, descriptions of action, and explanatory notes are taken as Crowley’s, and given in italics. These sometimes occur in Desti’s dialogue, as Crowley was at times viewing the working astrally while keeping the record.]

² Lesser Banishing Ritual.

³ [Lai., “[He] whose name is Nemo [lit. ’no man’], Brother of A.'.A.^-., is present.”]

⁴ February 8, 1912. 77 = [...] !!! [The date suggests this note is a postscript; the lacuna was probably HKb’xb, a reference to Leila Waddell.]

P. Why did you call me?

A. To give you this book.

P. How will it be given?

A. By the Seer (who complains she has no book).

P. Do you claim to be a Brother of A.’. A.’.?

A. He has A.’. A.^-, in black letters on his breast; but they are always running into a 7.

P. What does A.’. A.^-, mean?

A. It means all.

P. Give a symbol, or further meaning.

A. (S.) A triangle with something—with horns—in it. Also a key.

P. What kind of key?

A. Ordinary wards, but A and spirals (?) for ring.

A. The Key of 31.¹ (He is showing numbers very fast.)

P. Ask him to be slower and simpler.

S. Three long fs.

A. I hold the blue.

ii:io.

P. Give further signs of your identity. E.g., Are you Sapiens Dominabitur Astris?^{1 2}

A. (S.) I see nothing but a skull.³

P. Is Deo Duce [Comite] Ferro⁴ one of you?

A. ----

P. Repeats.

A. No. No: no longer.

¹ [Charles Stansfeld Jones would later discover 31 (al, la, etc.) to be the Qabalistic Key to Liber AL.]

² [Anna Sprengel, the semimythical German adept who authorized the British Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn.]

³ Very good. S.D.A. is dead.

⁴ [A motto of the Golden Dawn cofounder Samuel Liddell MacGregor Mathers (1854-1918), an opponent of the work of the A.^-. A.^-..]

P. Do you know this word: makhashanah?¹

S. He writes it in gold, and after it he puts a black cross.

P. (Spoken.) A Maltese

S. complains of somebody beside her, breathing on her.

P. Ask who breathes. (I can see small elementals dodging about.)

S. The black man; he has now a white turban.

P. Ask A. to send him away, unless he serves some purpose.

S. banishes by 541 (a number given her against fear).

A. Let P. finish the word bal.

P. Balata?^{1 2} Is that right?

A. No. There’s a sword after it.

P. My Enochian is rusty—pardon. Balatohe?³

A. That is right.

P. Finish the word bab.

11:21.

A.. HTE.

P. Try again.

A. (x ’Zz) H T ’Zz.

P. I want an intelligible significant word.

S. ito but that isn’t what he said. He sticks to his H T E or something.

A. Try Brethren.

P. Exactly what I’m doing. Can not he give something that only I know, or something that not even I know, but can make out once he gives me the clue?

A. Shews a black T-square and draws 3 lines through the long part, across so as to divide it into 4 parts. (S. rather

¹ [See Liber 418, 27th /Ethyr, p. 56 above. The Ts had the corrupted reading “makashanah.”]

² [Enochian bait, “justice.”]

³ [Enochian baltoh, “righteousness.” The ts had the corrupt reading “balatobe.”]

distressed.) 1st (top) space marked 4, 2nd 8, 3rd 12, 4th 0 (Zero) and that one P. must find out which it is.

Through the T-square he draws a x cross, so that if there were 2 T-squares it would make a square. His hand points to the free end, toward the North.

Ask me about 9.¹

P. Consider yourself asked.

A. 9 is the number of a page in a book.

P. What book?

A. A book of voyages.^{1 2}

P. We have none in stock. What book?

A. A book of fools.

P. What book of fools?

A......

P. What is on this page 9?

S. Is there a book of saints? He shewed me the book (?) Book of Job.³ (This from the first, but it was written in a language unknown to S.)

P. Let A. give S. a mystic name for P. to call her by.

11:40.

A. -----

S. I won’t tell you.

P. Please tell me.

S. He says the name should be that of the 7th virgin, and I won’t be a virgin.

¹ 9 becomes intelligible now An. xiv, O in / [Dec. 1918 E.V.] 9°=2° is the Grade of a Magus. This Grade refers to Change—a “book of voyages.” Also—“a book of fools”—The Book of Wisdom or Folly. [Liber CXI vel Aleph; see Works Cited.]

² Page 9 of the typescript of Liber Aleph contains these words: “[The Will] but alway 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.” [Ibid., chap. 8.]

³ Job [3VK] = 19.

P. What is that name? (/ am having to repeat things a lot, and to wait.) What is that name? What is that name? What is that name?

S. 2 or 3 times he shewed me a V.I.-------

P. Is it Seer’s fault or P.’s that these communications are so

futile? Or his own?

A. If you can translate 9 you will not find it futile.

P. Well, how can I identify this book?

A. ------

P. Is there a copy in my possession now and here?

A. No.

P. Where can I find it?

A. London.

P. Probably. In my office?

S. Are there black bookshelves in your office?

P. Dark brown.

S. No, black!

P. I don’t think so.

S. The book is marked with a crown, and under xxi.

P. Further details, please.

P. goes to examine his private book of invocation which has a crown. On p. 9 is an invocation of the

A. Seph. Am.¹

S. He shows another book with a blazing sun, and covers in gold.

A. The Book IV. Your instruction to the Brothers.

P. Then I’m not to publish it?

A. Gives silence sign.

¹ [This reference is unclear and probably corrupt in the TS; this ms notebook is not believed to be extant.]

P. I understand by that that I am not to publish it.

A. Never. Never never never never. But you are to find it.

S. He shews gold ring with a /o\ woven in it.

P. Any letters?

S. I don’t believe he’s said what he came to say at all.

P. Let him dictate slowly and clearly his message. I will go and look for this Book IV if I have.......sufficient.

u=55-

[P.] ...........Does he wish to go on with this very unsatisfac

tory conversation?

A. Go to London, find Book IV, and return it to the Brothers.

P. Where is Book IV?

A. In London.

P. Where in London?

A. (S.) Is there any place in London “Sign of the New Moon”?—you know.

P. Probably dozens.

A. Ask Henderson’s.

P. What will the contents of Book IV enable me to do?

A. To finish the work begun.............To point out a voyage.

S. Is Henderson on Regent Street?

P. I think so.

S. Sees envelope with a Star and New Moon addressed to them.

P. What do you know of TEquo Animo?¹

S. He crosses his arms and bows his head, squatting.

P. Can j£quo Animo find the Book IV for us?

A. Yes (but he puts a big 1 after it).

¹ [The motto of the the Golden Dawn member Charles Rosher, a friend of Crowley’s.]

P. Has he any further to say? I will write to TEquo Animo.

S. Write T H ⁷/s z I G (He has just written this).

A. When you get Book IV you’ll know what the white feather means. Obey and return Book IV to the Brothers.

444.

P. At what address?

A. Where I sent a package of rituals—small books.

P. When did I send such a package?

A. 1894 (!!!)

P. Is Non Omnis Moriar¹ one of you?

A. (S. don’t believe him.)

P. That date!?

A.......a brown paper package of small books.

P. 396 Camden Rd.?^{1 2}

A. No.

P. 87 rue Mozart?³

A. No.

S. Some number with a 7 in it.

A. Your number (o Seer!) is 7; but it’s a bad number, so don’t mark it down.

S. Try 1904 for the date.

P. D.D.S.?⁴

A. Yes.

P. Mistley?--------Manningtree?⁵

12:15.

A. Doesn’t sound quite right.

¹ [A motto of the Golden Dawn cofounder William Wynn Westcott (1848-1925).]

² [The address of Westcott’s London home.|

³ [A Paris address of Mathers.]

⁴ [The initials of a motto of George Cecil Jones, a senior Golden Dawn member who served as Prasmonstrator of the A.'. A.’..]

⁵ [Mistley and Manningtree are neighboring towns between Ipswich and Colchester in Essex.]

P. Can’t you tell me the place?

A. —S. Pamberton?¹ Someone who does clerical work for you will know address. (? Maza?) The book is to be changed and then sent out again. It has been corrupted, and must be restored to its pristine glory. He will give you (P.) some letters:

AHL K or L Y Z 72

12 3 4 5 6 87

Then a long line of zeros under a line.

5. complains of fatigue, etc.

P. Ask for another appointment.

S. The 4th December, at between 7 and 9 p. M.

P. Good-bye!

A. 7777! Good-bye.

Part II

[Monday] December 4th.

9:00 P.M.

[P.] Adsum!¹

S. drunk. Seer sees 444. I’d better go to London at once and find the Book IV.

P. What about my........?

A. You did receive something in the 7th month ? 97 and you’ve got to pay.

P. Have I not paid?

A. No. But you shall pay, and there will be such joy in the doing. ^{1 2}

¹ [A probable reference to George Cecil Jones, as Pamber is a parish four miles north of Basingstoke, where he is known to have lived.]

² [Lat., “I am present.”]

S. ?------------?

A. What have you done with 24 and the sign of the cross and the crown? Write as fast as you can; the 4th, 5th number, then the 3rd, then the 1st and 0 is greater than all; for 0 [...] the Circle and the Crown. (They’re all sitting round the long table. Something in the middle— a book open—they are divided in opinion about something.)

P. How shall I get this Book IV?

A. Waiting in London.

P. I don’t want the rational answer I want the absurd.

A. 1429.

P. Enlarge on this.

A. 10----It’s all about water. (I.e., Book IV is.)

P. Tell me more.

A. You disdained the ship I offered you. The ship was No. 1. 4. with the head of a negro, golden beak, breast white.

In his, A.’s, hand a wand (?) with golden spearhead. The feather was from a white dove in front of ship. Now P. steps in, dressed in white.

[A.] 29—read 29!—and 39! Don’t waste time!

9:15.

I think S. should be excited [...] by.

[A.] Read 69---

10:30.

S. sees the crocodile hand. A. is now in black—the room by the incense. His name is 1 am.

P. What is my name?

A. KAM.

P. What is S.’s name?

A........7 Heb[rew] Characters ...V.....out of 3 letters of

P.’s.

P. Out of which name?

A. Mystic Name.

P. Which?

A. Seventh (?) 731

A. 5. sees Starry Heaven.

P. Your name?

A. VIRAKAM.¹

S. Do you want to know about the Sword?

P. Yes.

S. It’s lying sheathed on table.

P. Well?

S. — The Brothers are turning red on the 9th. — White ball rolling on table from side to side—never falls. [...] They’re placing academic robes on P.^{1 2} and a chain with a cross.³ They vote, 9 votes cast, 2 not cast—these two in same robes as P. (There are now 11 brethren.)

P. What do they vote about?

S. Can’t find out----------I wish you’d let me go.----

Bishop brought in to decide.----Let me go—I can’t

understand it all.

P. You have my sympathy.

S. The white man says I must obey all.

P. Who is all?

S. Almighty.

P. Who is that?

S. The Knower of All.

¹ P.S. December 10th [1911 E.v.]. virakam [□“□“")'!] = 278 (Cherubim [D'DI"ID]). [Lat.] vir = man or strength, kam = Work (or for [Sfct] kama, lust). 278 -s- 2 = 139 (Hiddekel [bpirt]).

² S. says P. had a double Janus face when robe was put on.

³ [P.S.]. This seems to refer to my o.T.o. [x°] initiation, where a chain with a cross was given me, also robes of an Academia Masonica. [See Figure 36, p. 342.] Note 9° = 2° symbolism here. There are two other Magi besides P. (666) on the earth.

P. Who is that?

S. It’s just a sun blaze.—Old man going to door, where is One Eye.

P. Yes?

S. He knocks with a sword. Opens it. Steps, up. Up he goes. People on steps not very visible—Afraid I’m useless—so much I’m missing.

A. If you blind your eyes you will see; if you obey you will know.

S. We (A. and S.) have come out where there’s nothing. I’m not afraid. Take me home—I want to be near you (P.). (S. nearly crying.)

P. You are near me, sweet.

S. They put black robe on me too, one like you have. Oh I’m afraid, I’m afraid. (Trembling all over and gasping.)—Only one star!—Oh if I only knew what it was!—Under the feet of A. is skull and crossbones.

P. Good.

S. The crossbones form support of chair. Nobody in chair now.—Somebody sitting crosslegged in it. Bell on table.—My old man only does what they tell him—just waits—has ring on arm—There’s terrible enemy rising up for P.

P. Who?

S. Tall, smooth-faced, long face, hair brushed back, age 30—40, 33 no! 34.

P. Name?

S. N.G.—N.G.B. Bingham. Something ending in ham.

P. Birmingham?

S. Yes, it could be that. But you’ll show him the white feather of the dove—a quill—dip in ink.—Everybody’s in black, heads covered, only eyes showing. They’re all signing something in a book. 1st signs X.—2nd signs R.

P. When next seance?

S. He signs X.

P. Meaning?

S. I won’t do it any more. Yes: I’ll just obey. (Sobs.)

P. When?

S. 10th December at 9 p.m.

P. Say Vale, Frater.¹

S. says it. A. goes off with a casket. S. comes back. (No; she do[es]n’t.) Under casket lock is Latin written Dix i m or n (very fine, just engraved in steel). O. X.— figures like little men.

P. Why not come back?

S. I want to know what’s in casket.—They gave me a ring with cross. (They gave me a white sack before.)

P. Come back; you’ve tried.

S. I see lilies.

S. is convinced of the reality this time, much more than previous time.

Part III

[Sunday] December io.

8:40 P.M.

I have arranged the room ceremonially as before;

but will recite the Invocation of Hoor as in Egypt, beginning at 8:50.

9:iy.

Did this. Near beginning Stone of Wand flew out, and was lost.

9:18.

P. Nemo adest.^{1 2}

¹ [Lat., “Goodbye, brother.”]

² [Lat., “Nemo [lit. ’no man’] is present.”]

9:19.

S.’s body is being turned round to face P. (this astrally). S. is going to high door (of a temple) always toward left. Two high carved figures at door, one each side. Inside is nothing but a great Vault, bottomless; but now a white figure is sitting in middle on a raised thing.

P. Where’s your old man?

S. I don’t know.

This figure holds up its left hand; thumb standing out very straight, on it he balances a chain. He has black rod and points to lines of his own hand. A blue glass covers his [fpalm]. There are lines through glass—6 lines, and at each point are different figures, e.g., a man on horseback, a vfery] blfack] bird.

P. Ask him “Where is old man?”

S. Beside me.

P. What is his real message?

S. keeps on being turned to left.

P. (Repeats.)

P. Does he want you to go to left?

S. Something’s wrong: I don’t know what. I don’t see him. Thinks she’s been really pushed.

S. (Repeats above.) I’m in desert. Can’t you clear it up?

P. Aiwass! Aiwass! Aiwass! Aiwass! Aiwass! Aiwass!-------

Long pause-------

9:3 ²

S. repeats: Something wrong, etc. Long pause— S. repeats again.

P. Ab-ul-Diz! Ab-ul-Diz! Ab-ul-Diz! Ab-ul-Diz! Ab-ul-Diz! Ab-ul-Diz! Ab-ul-Diz!

S. Big black door.

P. Go through it.

S. Closed.

P. Break it open!

S. All black—a cloth now. Hooded man in "j^- guards door.

P. Push him away. Give some sign.

S. I should have something on my head.

P. Put on that white bandage (astral).

S. I can see nothing. I can do nothing. If only old man were here!

P. Why isn’t he?

S. Is this right hour?

P. Yes. Perhaps you’ve done something wrong!

S. Now I see first room filled with figures in black robes and folded arms, faces hooded.

P. Is old man there?

S. Sure, if I could only get to him.

P. Call his name.

S. They’re not near me as usual.

P. Ask why.

S. -----I think my friend is here now.-----So indistinct.

.....Something wrong with me.

P. Ask forgiveness; ask what you’re to do to get right.

S. I’m to obey.

P. In what have you disobeyed?

S. Faith.

P. Faith in what?

S. Faith in all. I haven’t taken the 20 steps. (I can’t do it: I’m ready to die: I can’t hear or understand. I want to go away.)

P. Is there anything you can do to put it right?

S. I can do nothing, dear.

P. Is that what they tell you?

S. To wait.

P. Anything else?

S. “Your (i.e., S.’s) part is to serve.”

P. Serve whom?

S. The purpose.

P. Whose purpose?

S. P.’s.

P. What is my purpose?

S. To bring the Light.

P. Amen. What can you do to aid that?

S. Obey.

P. But I do not wish to command.

S. The way shall be made clear. We shall be taken by the hand and guided and can make no mistakes. P.’s cloak shall cover you. (I.e., S. is to do something that’s meant for P. to do.)

9'-5 8.

P. Shall we R. to S or'? (Go to France or Italy?)

S. ’. (I saw candlestick with 3 candles.) (Italy.)

P. Shall we be 412, 73, or 434? (I.e., 2, 3, or 4?)

S. 73.

P. A. how many R.’s of E.? (After [how many] Revolutions of Earth?)

S. 7 (and a 7 and then it passed away). Now I see a 9.

P. Is 200-200 right? (Raymond Radclyffe.)¹

S. (2021 see.) Yes. But there’s a good deal of doubt about it. Finally yes.

¹ [Raymond Radclyffe was an English journalist, to whom Crowley dedicated a poem in The Winged Beetle (1910).]

P. This is very important: please make sure.

S. Y-E-S.

P. Will he swear that by the Body of Nuit?

S. He doesn’t want to.

P. Is that because it seems to be a material affair?

S. Yes.

P. Then will he swear it by the head of Ra-Hoor-Khuit?

S. Yes.

P. Is the doubt really in his mind, or in yours or mine?

S. Not in his.

P. Is it in yours?

S. Yes. You can be assured.

P. That’s very nice of him. Shall we do a m.r. and p.

mmm? (Magical Retirement and practice High Magic?)

S. Yes.

P. By M? (The Sea.)

S. I see a T.

P. In 246? Or near it? (Rome.)

S. 247.

P. (aside) 50 + 1 + 80 + 30 + 5 + 60 = 216 (Naples).¹

20 + 1 + 80 + 200 + 10 = 311 (Capri).

P. 216 or 311?

S. 311.

P. Then not 247? (Oh, I see! “246 and beyond.”)

S. 4 is very important.

P. Will he make another appfointmenjt?

S. They have something to tell you; they’re all in white now.

¹ [In light of the miscalculation (Naples adds to 226, not 216), it is interesting to note that Ab-ul-Diz did not affirm “216” for Naples, their eventual destination.]  -

P. Please tell.

S. Something about “Sepher Sephiroth.”¹

P. What?

S. I saw 2 white Is—11 then a quite separate 7. Try every 7th number.

P. Beginning from which?

S. From 11.

P. I will. I want you to strengthen the bond between you and these people.

S. How? By promising obedience? By taking oath?

P. Would that help?

S. They show me A with spot in centre.

P. Is it a spot? Look again.

S. A crown.

P. Look again.

S. It’s red.

P. See thing in centre clearly.

S. A cross.

P. Look once more. You said a spot?

S. —Arose? — An eye!

P. Good; very good! When shall we see them again?

S. The 11th. (No; it can’t be. I don’t want to see them again

till I see them more clearly.)

P. Obey!

S. I swear it. Old Man will come alone tomorrow at 7.

P. Can’t he make it a more convenient hour, such as 10?

S. Yes, 10.

P. Does he want me to invoke as tonight?

S. Be better prepared. Use the holy rite.

P. Which holy rite?

S. You use that for initiation.

¹ [“Liber 500”; see Works Cited.]

P. You mean the opening?¹

S. Yes.

P. Very good. Vale, Prater. What shall I do to Seer? Shall she be 391 (normal) or under C2HgO or 31? (Dr[ops] 4.)^{1 2}

S. 6280. (Meaning C2H^O.)

P. After the due performance of the Rites of Venus?

S. Ay, verily!

P. Vale, Prater!

After ceremony P. went out: S. saw him with 4 eyes and a balance in his mouth. In hand something— right foot raised. From eyes shoot 4 figures.

Part IV

[Monday] December nth. 9:30.

Seer being excited by a half bottle of Pommery 1904, and by Eros, opened T[emple] of “[Liber] 671.” Toward end S. cried “The Beast!” amid her groans.

It is now 9:49.

9:50.

S. The Beast has come in here. He opens his mouths. Many characters come therefrom—J or I and then Uranus. He says, “You shall go on till the end.”

P. Describe the Beast.

S. Great God!-------He’s tremendous. Like an oxen (!!!)

and between his two horns lies another curled horn. (Groans.) It comes down over his face. The half of his right foot is white. —It’s an arrow, and below the arrow is letter V. I only want The Truth, The Truth, The Truth.

¹ [“Liber 671 vel Pyramidos.”]

² [Ethanol is CH3CH2OH. Anhalonium lewinii is a now-obsolete taxonomic name for the peyote cactus (Lophophora williantsii) whose principal psychoactive alkaloid is mescaline. Crowley pioneered its use in Europe and the United States.The initials al = 31.]

P. What is his name?

S. I think it’s Uranus— (?) Eros maybe. (S. becomes quite unintelligible.) He has a gilded hoof. (Old man and all brethren in white are here.) They’ve all their hands on same bar in shape of U. Their hands are mailed.

9'5 ⁸

S. You may ask what you like tonight.— 47 or 477.

P. What is your real name?

S. Ura, and then flashing in a flame I see Surt (Ora)¹ — I always see Crown and Cross.

io:oo.

[S.] (S. again inaudible.) I am to serve and he is a master who can command, o.h.o.^{1 2}

P. Meaning?

S. Initiation.

P. Who’s he?

S. You (P.) must make the test.

P. Test of whom?

S. Of the one to be—Absolutely!

P. Does 1 follow H¹ ? (Will there be a son?)

S. No.

P. Does n follow? (Or a daughter?)

S. No.

P. Will IT get A of A? ([Will P. get] love of this life, i.e., L[eila] W[addell]?)

S. It comes. It’s poised.

P. Will N. (= Crowley) do what he proposed?

S. He has.

P. Not yet, surely!

S. He has. The deed is father to the thought.

¹ Note. Ura [K"ll] = 207 = Aur [~I1K] = Light. Surt = Sorath [miO] = the Spirit of the Sun = 666.

² [P.S.] o.H.o. is the Title of the Brother who initiated me to o.T.o.

P. What will happen to R.? (........)

S. He will act rightfully as in the past.

P. Then he is only a fool?

S. He counts for his weight only.

P. Tell me about this Book IV or Aba.

S. It’s the most important. You’ll find it unexpectedly.

P. When.......

S. Wait! Be patient! Work! Deny nothing! The simplest things mean most. You’re on the way. The Book IV means freedom to all. It’s the Light.

P. When shall I next meet a Brother in the flesh?

S. When you know him! He’s waiting for you. Know him by crossed hands. He too has a ring.¹ Wait! Wait! Wait! We are with you. Your work is not yet done. Out of your life shall come many. There are three bars to cross^{1 2} ..............Sacrifice ? France—I can’t make it out. By the blood of CEdipus! (?) (5. unintelligible.) On thy feet shall hooves be added for speed. Because of the Great Way to go. Scorn not the means. Ask what you will. But remember they are all there.

P. I.l.n.i.t.b.p.e.? (Is last night’s instruction to be punctually executed ?)

S. Yes: but move. Ask again. There are great events happening and you are too doubtful; have confidence.

P. M.w.a.t.i.o.l.n.? (May we alter the instruction of last night?)

S. No......29. You are the test. Obey. She serves.

P. When shall we speak again with him?

S. Tonight if you will you can know all. Only ask clearly. All are here; the 11, the 5 and the 6.

P. What is the meaning of “106 seasons”?

S. Equals 6—7 or 671.

¹ [P.S.] This again is true of the o.H.o. both as to the Sign and the Ring. [This refers to Crowley’s x° o.T.o. initiation; see p. 352, note 2.]

² [P.S.] S[eer] left me in Naples (1), London (2). 3—?

P. Yes: but what period of the time of earth?

S. The tenth.

P. 10th what?

S. £on. (I see 3 x s and x y.)

P. Is P. the I [ogos] of the A[eon]?

S. He’s the D. of the A! I see Retirement written.

P. What does D. stand for?

S. 0417. He shall be the 4th of the 11.

P. Am I right in my guess? (D. for Darmion.)^]

S. No. Wait. Wait. Wait. You will have proof.

P. What does D. stand for?

S. For 4 in 11.

P. Isn’t it a word?

S. Yes.

P. What word?

S. The sign.

P. What sign?

S. (^). That’s all. I’m tired.^{1 2}

P. When are we to see them again?

S. Oh God! I hope never! I’m dead. I’m dead.—I won’t tell you. I won’t. I’m tired. I won’t be here on the 13th. I’m going away. I won’t (ad liber). (Screams and groans and sighs.) The chain’s woven all but the last 3 links.

P. At what hour on the 13th?

S. 9.

P. Then Vale, Frater. s.v.a.t. Hadit.³

¹ [This word is probably corrupted in TS; possibly “daemon,” i.e., “genius,” was intended.]

² [P.S.]. Note this sign @ recurring in Soror Ahitha’s vision (“Liber XCVII”). [See Works Cited; see also “Liber 729.”]

³ [Lat., Heb., “goodbye brother. Under the shadow of the wings of Tet-ragrammaton.” s.u.a.t. = sub umbra alarum Tetragrammaton."]

10:26.

Previous to the Orgie and Incantations, S. was lying drunk on the sofa; the 11 came to her and gave her mystic gifts, one knowledge, another power, another wisdom, etc., and said it was all for the Cause. They sealed the gifts basiculo ad cunnum.¹ The last one said, “I’ll bring you the seed from which fruit shall come. ”

Part V

[Wednesday] December 13th.

No ceremony.

9:06 p.m. (This is actual 8:59 circa.)

Ready.

9:07 P.M.

[P.] Nemo adest.

9:10.

Seer ready.

P. Is Ab-ul-Diz there?

S. Has been here for some time.

P. Will he answer questions?

S. Yes.

P. C.A.c.? (Can Anna come? )^{1 2}

S. C.A.?

P. n.n.e.? {Can Preston come? )³

S. Yes: always and O.F. Faith {3 times).

P. n.a.e. (Can Anna come? )

S. No. (Tonight there’ll be trouble. I feel it.)

¹ [Lat., “with a kiss to the cunt.”]

² [Anna was the Desti family’s French maid.]

³ [Preston Sturges (1898-1959) was 13 at the time of the working. He became a great comedy playwright, screenwriter and film director.]

P. Why?

S. Lack of faith. If you’d only believe and go straight, etc.

P. Who is doubting?

S. You. (P.)

P. Not at all.

S. Yes.

P. You, o Seer, have doubted.

S. (General assertion of faith.) Prove me.

P. I tried you.

S. 3—2.

P. I tested your faith several times.

S. The answer is x.x.x.i.a.a. and you never tried the supreme test.

P. W.K.g.u.h.p.? (Will Kundry¹ g[ive] up her p[earls]?)

S. No; not yet.

P. What will happen in that case?

S. What happened to you before.

P. Ah God!—Is it too late?

S. No. Not too late, but too little faith.

P. Take these in your hand. (P. gave S. the [pearls].)

S. Why?—They’ve disappeared, there’s nothing left; they

no longer exist.........Never mind: I’m at home with

them (i.e., the Brothers); how well they know!-------

Begin his name with last letter; write it otherwise and add 22. Begin with----zidluba add 22. Oh, mother!

(A noise.)

P. What have you done?

S. I’ve thrown away the p[earls]. I was quite right. He tells me so. If you can’t give me spiritual gifts and things of value I don’t need any. I don’t need pearls; I need light.

¹ [Kundry was a nickname of Desti, given to her by Cosima Wagner at Bayreuth. She is the redeemed woman in Wagner’s Parsifal.]

P. What shall be done with the pearls?

S. Nothing; they’re of no value. Understand; for God’s sake understand. You must ask such questions differently.

P. S.t.p.b.s.t.V.? (Shall the pearls be sent to V.V.V.V.V.? J¹

S. Wait; and know. You were answered this question before.

P. B.n.? T.s.u.s. (But now? They stir up strife.)

S. Yes; are you (P.) ready to serve?

P. Have I not served?

S. Not completely.

P. What remains for me to give up?

S. The Unknowable. There are seven stars. (7 “x”s.) 5 you have past; 2 are ready. 1 you hold now in the form of a cross. Now ask what you will. All help is ready. Are you ready to serve? Ask what proof you will.

P. Yes. M.w.t.A.w.u.? (May we take Anna with us?)

S. A man on a journey.

P. Yes or no?

S. Yes.

P. M.w.t.P.a.w.? (May we take Preston as well?)

S. Yes.

P. But you said otherwise before. Why this change?

S. Lack of faith.

P. We swear to obey whatever you order in this matter. A.w.t.b.t.o.f.? (Are we to be three or four?)

S. To go?

P. Yes. T. or E?

S. Ask in another way.

P. The Moon or the Empress?

S. Ask it differently.

P. —The shape or the numeration? ([...] of [...])

S. The Enumeration.

¹ [The initials of Crowley’s 8°=3° motto.]

P. Why have you altered your mind? I.i.f.k.f.K.? (Is it from kindness for Kundry?)

S. No.—My God, they seem to say lack of faith, lack of faith,

lack of faith! I think there’s a journey all prepared, etc.

P. M.K.d.a.s.w.? (May Kundry do as she will?)

S. Yes.

P. Then it’s of no importance?

S. Yes. (I.e., it is of importance.)

P. And success depends on the wisdom of Kundry?

S. On love!—On love! They’ve come to help and not to hinder. They show always the sign 11.—There’s no fear about me!

P. N.w.w.a.m.? (Need we worry about money?)

S. Have faith! Have faith! Have faith! Read the sign of the Moon! (I.e., as long as we love we needn’t worry.)

9:4^. D X. $

They have me seated on centre of table.

P. S.I.s.t.[...]a.u.f.o.? (Shall I send the [...] away until further orders?)

S. Wait! (Why?)

P. S.I.h.t.i.a.c.p.? (Should I hide them in a consecrated place?)

S. W.t.c.? (With the c [...]?)

S. Yes: That will do.

P. W.K.s.t.a.o.? (Will Kundry serve truly and obey?)

S. Yes.

P. Raise your hand and swear it.

S. I swear to serve truly and to obey.

P. Will you allow anything to interfere?

S. Nothing.

P. It is recorded.—S.w.t.P.i.t.s.o.t.B.? (Shall we take Preston

into the secrets of the Brotherhood?)

S. No.

P. Very good.

S. Have you complied with all regulations?

P. No.

S. Why not?

P. Kundry is too proud to be a mere Probationer.

S. (All is expected of you.) It’s not necessary. X! X! X! = 30.

P. Then why complain of my not keeping regulations?

S. To test you.

P. (Yes; I had admitted Kundry to all knowledge necessary, and will admit her further as may seem useful.) I ask you W.i.h.r.g.? (What is her real grade?)

S. 4° = 7°.

P. Will it please you if I admit her formally to that grade?

S. Yes.

P. Give me a sign of authorization.

S. V.

P. One V?

S. Either 5 or 6.

P. Give the sign of V.V.V.V.V.

S. Looks like God or All.

P. I want a symbol.

S. The Eye!—What’s L.V. (the L. reversed)?

P. I.C.t.p.f.o.m.r.? (Is Capri the place for our magical retirement?)

S. I see after it 42.

P. That means no?

S. I see v.i. (I. illuminated.) v.i.x. or v.i.z.

P. No?

S. No; not no.

P. Then it means yes?

S. I’m afraid it does mean no. (I’m in a scale being weighed against nothing. This because P. said the question was a trifle. To serve is my motto.)

P. I.n.C.,w.? {If not Capri, where?)

S. You were answered that two years ago; but now they can tell you for certain; it has p.a.x. after it, or 1600.¹

P. Do you wish Ab-ul-Diz to be your teacher or master?

S. Oh yes! He is my master.

P. Will you write his name: is his handwriting on the form of the Probationer?^{1 2}

S. l.R.l.s. (?) (S. signs this form.)

P. Concerning your motto, is it to be in English, or if not, in what language?

S. I.V.A.H.O.

[P.J What does it mean?

[S.] My motto is simply “I serve.”

P. In English or Latin, etc?

S. It doesn’t matter: it means the same thing. Virakam is the name.

P. Virakam means “I serve”?

S. I don’t know.

P. Ask them what Virakam means.

S. I serve the Light. I tend the Light. Only believe. I do believe. I here sign my name as faithful to this revelation and obedient to it. (Sig. Mary d’Este Sturges Virakam.)

P. When will Ab-ul-Diz next speak with us?

S. On the 5th, in the morning; you will know why.—

(I think, on awakening.)

P. The 5th day from now?

S. I don’t know.

P. Ask.

S. The 19th.³

¹ "iwC = 1600! [I.e., Rome, spelt with Hebrew and Greek letters.]

² [In “Liber 185”; see The Equinox IV(1).]

³ [P.S.] On the 19th at 6:01 a.m. D sl $ exactly as at this hour!!!

P. Right.

S. But it will be different. All so beautiful, and you will know why. No need of champagne! They make a peculiar little sign on going. (I couldn’t quite catch this sign. Something between Q.X. and H.P.K.)¹

P. —Valete, Fratres!^{1 2} Arise!

S. They give a number as they go away—400. A terrible bad number, but it was meant for me!

10:20 P.M.

Part VI

[Tuesday] December 19th. [Milan.]

10:00 p.m. The old man says he’s been waiting since 7 a.m.

P. May I ask as before?

S. Begin with zero.

P. I always do and end with it.

S. There is no end.

P. There doesn’t seem to be even much middle.

S. There are two columns upright.

P. I know their names.

S. k.a.m. o

P. I have begun with zero, indeed, now may I go on?

S. Yes, after A. All is ready; are you ready?

P. Yes. W.i.K.t.d.a.P.? (What is Kfundry] to do about Preston?)

S. The question was answered yesterday. Wait, and see further.

P. C.m.? (Concerning money?)

S. 29.

¹ [The Qabalistic Cross (cf. Lesser Banishing Ritual of the Pentagram) and the Sign of Silence or Harpocrates; see “Liber O sub figura 6.”]

² [Lat., “Goodbye, brothers!”]

P. Explain this further.

S. It explains itself.

P. Yes, to me, but not to Virakam.

S. She must believe you.

P. I refuse to ask her to do so, as contrary to my system of scepticism.

S. You’re wasting time; she is ready. Why do you doubt?— Out of 96.

P. Wisdom. (?) Because S. varies.

S. Not really. Have faith.

P. Then will S. make a definite plan and act on it at once?

S. No. It’s being made. We are making it.

P. Then what is it?

S. Wait. Why can’t you see clearly? Remember 444.

P. But this matter must be settled within 12 hours.

S. It’s been settled, absolutely.

P. Then what is it?

S. Understand-------Can’t you remember?

P. No.

S. All or nothing. 1000 (? 1500). No doubt.

P. W.V.a.a.o.? (Will Virakam act at once?)

S. Yes.

P. Swear it.

S. We swear by 3.

P. Will V. understand this on reading record?

S. Virakam is white “(2)”

P. Yes; but will she understand?

S. Read the meaning of white. Her colour is blue.

P. N.w.a.t.V.? (Now what about the Villa?)

S. What you will. Patience; there is danger of health.

P. H.o.f.? (Here or further?)

S. No. (Insists on this.) You asked wrongly.

P. H/>(Here?)

S. Where?

P. R.^Rome?)

S. No.

P. N.? (Naples?)

S. Yes. (You only muddle yourself.)¹

P. W? (When?)

S. Why?—The chain is broken.

P. Is V. to work herself, or only to help P.?

S. Ask so that I can’t tell. I see a pale green light—green and yellow. Virakam is to work, to serve. Her path shall be made plain—across waters. Hold her hand. Something’s meant by that; you’ll know what, x.x.x. They offer you a red hood of some kind. The old man has a gavel in his hand, c o r i n e or g. Picture of a fish, round whose tail is a wreath.

P. Ask for his blessing.

S. He will give you some advice.

P. Ready.

S. Tomorrow you will find what you seek; you will know, for he will be with you and give you the sign. Don’t hesitate and don’t worry, bring forth the fruits. The way is paved, and the stairs slanted. Don’t be afraid. Make the sign in answer. Till tomorrow.

P. Good-bye!

S. There is no good-bye. There’s work to be done; I’m always ready. Don’t struggle. Accept and believe Ab-ul-Diz. (He holds his finger to one eye, which means, Close your eyes and see.)

¹ [In his Confessions, abridged ed., p. 678, Crowley wrote that “We were to go to Rome and beyond Rome, though he refused to name the exact spot.” The record appears to have specified Naples, where they soon took a villa to write Book 4.]

P. Yes.

S. Yes.

P. When see you again?

S. Tomorrow.

P. Evening? At what time?

S. 7 to 9—10!

P. All right. Wake up!¹

10:47

¹ [There is no indication that this appointment was kept. Crowley’s Confessions gives details of two messages that are not otherwise recorded; either the conclusion of “The Ab-ul-Diz Working” is lost, or these were given directly to Crowley and were not documented in the record. He wrote that “for the first time he flashed a message directly into my own consciousness. ’You will recognize it beyond the possibility of doubt or error,’ he told me. With this, a picture came into my mind of a hillside on which were a house and garden marked by two tall Persian nuts.” Confessions, abridged ed., p. 678. He also mentions a “last instruction” in the Ab-ul-Diz Working in his account of a related series of visions from 1918 E.v., “Liber 729, The Amalantrah Working”: “To my surprised annoyance, the Camel [Roddie Minor] suddenly began to have visions. I shut off my hearing in the way I have learnt to do; but after some five minutes’ babbling she pierced my defenses by some remark concerning an egg under a palm tree. This aroused me instantly, for the last instruction given to myself and Soror Virakam [in “The Abul-Diz Working”] was to go to the desert and look for just that thing. I saw then a kind of continuity between those visions and these. It was as if the intelligence communicating were taking up the story at the point at which it had been dropped. Of course, it might have been a mere coincidence. But that point could be easily settled by cross-examination. I began to ask questions. The Camel said that someone, whom she called ’the Wizard,’ wished to communicate with me. I am not a spiritualist who accepts any message as of divine origin. I insist on knowing with whom I am talking, and on his showing such qualities of mind that the communication will benefit me.” Confessions, abridged ed., p. 832. For “Liber 729” see Works Cited.]

Fragment¹

[Villa Caldarazzo, Naples, n.d.] Nearly midnight.

At this moment we stopped dictating, and began to converse. Then Fra. P. said: “Oh, if I could only dictate a book like the Tao Te Ching I”^{1 2} Then he closed his eyes as if meditating. Just before I had noticed a change in his face, most extraordinary, as if he were no longer the same person; in fact in the ten minutes we were talking he seemed to be any number of different people. I especially noticed the pupils of his eyes were so enlarged that the entire eye seemed black. (I tremble so and have such a quaking feeling inside, simply in thinking of last night, that I can’t form letters.) Then quite slowly the entire room filled with a thick yellow light (deep golden, but not brilliant. I mean not dazzling, but soft). Fra. P. looked like a person I had never seen but seemed to know quite well—his face, clothes and all were of the same yellow. I was so disturbed that I looked up to the ceiling to see what caused the light, but could only see the candles. Then the chair on which he sat seemed to rise; it was like a throne, and he seemed to be either dead or sleeping, but it was certainly no longer Fra. P. This frightened me, and I tried to understand by looking round the room; when I looked back the chair was raised, and he was still the same. I realized I was alone; and thinking he was dead or gone—or some other terrible thing—I lost consciousness.

¹ [This fragment by Soror Virakam survives as a postscript to “An Interlude” in Book 4, Part II (1913); it is appended as being related to this working.]

² [Crowley would later produce a translation of Lao-tzu’s classic; cf. Liber 157, Tao Te Ching; see Works Cited.]

Figure 33. Aleister Crowley in his A:.A:. Robe with the Shew-Stone used in Liber 418.

Figure 34. Mary Desti, Soror Virakam (in later life in her New York studio).

Figure 35. Victor B. Neuburg— Frater Omnia Vincam, Frater Lampada Tradam.

Figure 36. Aleister Crowley as Baphomet, with the Robe, Crown, Cross and Chain of a Supreme and Holy King X° O.T.O.

ufu') lz: p LUTETIANUM J—L,

THE PARIS WORKING

THE BOOK

OF THE

HIGH MAGICKART

THAT WAS WORKED BY

FRATER O.S.V. 6°=5^D

AND

FRATER L.T. 2°=9°

A.-. A.-.

Publication in Class A B

V. Praemonstrator

V.V. Imperator

S.U.A. Cancellarius

LIBER CDXV Opus Lutetianum Grimorium Sanctissimum The Holy Hymns to the Great Gods of Heaven

Sstefueti bp (fitter:

YMENAIOS B XI⁰ FRATER SUPERIOR O.T.O.

The Paris Working

1914 E.V.

Introduction¹

During the autumn [of 1913 e.v.] and until the solstice I went on with my regular work as usual, but with a subconscious awareness that my future lay in other fields; something was sure to happen to change the whole current of my life. Subtly enough, this change came about by diverting me from the public action to which I had so long been bound by the sheer necessity of producing The Equinox on definite dates. I began to pay more attention to my own personal progress.

It must here be explained that my innate diffidence forbade me to aspire to the Grade of Magus in any full sense. Such beings appear only in every two thousand years or so. I knew too well my own limitations. It is true that I had been used as a Magus in the Cairo Working; that is, I had been chosen to utter the Word of a New yEon. But I did not regard this as being my Word. I felt myself ridiculously unworthy of the position assigned to me in The Book of the Law itself. When therefore I proposed to devote myself to my own initiation, I meant no more than this: that I would try to perfect myself in the understanding and powers proper to a Master of the Temple.

¹ [This introduction has been adapted from the typescript of Crowley’s Confessions-, see also the abridged ed., pp. 719-723.]

At the end of 1913, I found myself in Paris with a Zelator of the Order, Frater L.T.¹ I had been working on the theory of the magical method of the o.T.o., and we decided to test my conclusions by a series of invocations.^{1 2}

We began work on the first day of the year, and continued without interruption for six weeks. We invoked the gods Mercury and Jupiter, and obtained many astonishing results of many kinds, ranging from spiritual illumination to physical phenomena. As an example of actual intellectual illumination, [see] the very impressive identification of the Christ of the Gospels with Mercury.³ This came as a complete surprise, we having till then considered him as an entirely Solar symbol connected especially with Dionysus, Mithras and Osiris.

Our occasional failures produced results as striking and instructive as our successes. For instance, having made an error in invoking Mercury, and thus having created a current of force contrary to his nature, we observed that events of a Mercurial character, no matter how normal, failed to occur. For one thing, all communications with the outer world were completely cut off for some time. It had been arranged that I should receive a daily report from London from my secretary. None arrived for five days; and that although nothing had gone wrong in London. No explanation was ever forthcoming. This is one of the many incidents tending to similar conclusions, all explicable only on the theory that the natural energy which is normally present, and is necessary to the occurrence of certain types of event, had somehow been inhibited.

¹ [For Victor Neuburg see note 2 to p. 5. By 1913 he had advanced to Zelator 2°=9° and had changed his motto from Omnia Vincam to Lampada Tradam (Lat., “I pass on the torch”).]

² [Crowley explains his magical methodology as follows: “I may say that the secret of the o.T.o. [...] has proved to all intents and purposes the simplification and concentration of the whole of my magical knowledge. All my old methods have been unified in this new method. It does not exactly replace them, but it interprets them. It has also enabled me to construct a uniform type of engine for accomplishing anything that I will.” Confessions, abridged ed., p. 708.]

³ [See infra, pp. 359-360.]

The Jupiterian phenomena were especially remarkable. We performed in all sixteen operations to invoke this force. It seemed at first as if our work actually increased the normal inertia. Jupiterian phenomena which we had every right to expect simply failed to happen. Even in the matter of banqueting, which we were supposed to do lavishly in his honour, the opposition became overwhelming. Hungry as we might be, we seemed unable to force ourselves to eat even a light meal. Quite suddenly the invisible barrier broke down, and Jupiterian phenomena of the most unexpected kind simply rained on us. To mention one incident only: a Brother who had always been desperately poor suddenly came into a fortune, and insisted on contributing £500 to the use of the Order.

I must mention one incident of the Paris Working as being of general interest, outside technical Magick. During the operation I had a bad attack of influenza, which settled down to very severe bronchitis. I was visited one evening by an old friend of mine and her young man, who very kindly and sensibly suggested that I should find relief if I smoked a few pipes of opium.¹ They accordingly brought the apparatus from their apartment and we began.^{1 2 3} My bronchitis vanished; I went off to sleep, my guests retiring without waking me. In my sleep I dreamt; and when I woke the dream remained absolutely perfect in my consciousness, down to the minutest details. It was a story, a subtle exposure of English stupidity, set in a frame of the craziest and most fantastically gorgeous workmanship. Ill as I was, I jumped out of bed and wrote down the story offhand. I called it The Strate-gem? No doubt it was inspired by Jupiter, for it was the first short story that I had ever written that was accepted at once.

¹ [Jane Cheron and Walter Duranty; see p. 353, note 1, and p. 365, note l.J

² Opium, by the way, is sacred to Jupiter, and to Chesed, Mercy, as being sovereign against pain, and also as enabling the soul to free itself from its gross integument and realize its majesty.

³ [First published as “The Stratagem” in The English Review for June 1914, and later reprinted in The Stratagem and Other Stories (1929). See Works Cited.]

More: I was told—nothing in my life ever made me prouder— that Joseph Conrad said it was the best short story he had read in ten years.

We ourselves became identified with Jupiter, but in different aspects. Frater L.T. was, for some months following, the personification of generosity, though himself with the most meagre resources. All sorts of strangers planted themselves on him and he entertained them. In my own case, I became that type of Jupiter which we connect with the idea of prosperity, authority, and amativeness. I received numerous occult dignities; I seemed to have plenty of money without quite knowing how it happened; and I found myself exercising an almost uncanny attraction upon every woman that came into my circle of acquaintance.

To me, however, as a student of nature, the one important result of this work was the proof of the efficacy of the magical method employed. Henceforth, I made it my principal study, kept a detailed record of my researches, and began to discover the rational explanation of its operation and the conditions of success.

More important yet, in the deepest sense, was a feature of the result which I failed to observe at the time, and even for some years after. In veiled language are hints, unmistakable as soon as detected, that I was destined to attain the Grade of Magus, and that I was even then, by means of the Working itself, being prepared for the Initiation thereto. The actual ceremony (using the word in its widest and deepest sense) extended over some years, and is in fact the sole key to the events of that period.¹

¹ [See “Liber 73, The Urn,” in The Equinox IV(3), for an account of Crowley’s Magus initiation during his American period.)

LIBER CDXV

The Paris Working

9°=2° A:. A:.

The Book of the High Magick Art that was Worked by

Frater O.S.V. 6°=5° and Frater L.T. 2°=9°.

(January—February 1914 E.v.)¹

t | 1 his is the preliminary account of this Operation of I Magick Art.

JL Sol in Libra, An. ix,^{1 2} Fra. O.S.V.^{3 4} accomplished the task laid upon him by the Great White Brotherhood by issuing No. 10 of [Volume I of] The Equinox. Thereby he being brought to the end of his resources, he bethought himself to pray unto the Great Gods of Heaven that they should bestow favour upon him—for, even as did Job, he cursed not God at all—that he might make a new sacrifice unto the Magnum Opus?

¹ This is Document C in the account of the progress of NEMO to TO MEEA OHPION. [Only this, and a portion of “Liber 73, The Urn” (document “F”), are identified as such in this alphabetical series.]

² [Sept.-Oct. 1913 E.v.]

³ [“Ol Sonuf Vaoresaji” (Enochian, “I reign over you,” the opening words of the 1st Call or Key) was Crowley’s motto as an Adeptus Major 6°=5° and Imperator of the A.'. A...]

⁴ [Lat., “Great Work.”]

Now there appeared Fra. Lampada Tradam,¹ having passed through the Ordeal of a Neophyte to undertake the task of a Zelator, as by his Oath bound.

Also for months eighteen had Fra. O.S.V. been initiated by Fra. M. into the Greater Mysteries, and been by him inducted into the Throne of the Order of the Temple.^{1 2}

Moreover, it is fitting to reconstitute this Order in its splendour for, at the entry of Sol into Aries, An. x,³ is the 600th anniversary of the Martyrdom of J. B. M.⁴ Also, a casual invocation of Pan by these Brethren had produced a great marvel.

All things therefore tending thereto, let us take up the Work with piety and zeal, and in holy charity and great chastity of body and soul. Amen.

Written at 4:30 of the afternoon on the last day of the vulgar year 1913.

Thus therefore to the Glory of the Ineffable One of the Dove and of the Serpent, did these two Brethren begin their Working— First. From 4:55 to 5:35 did I confess myself, even I, Frater O.S.V. 6°=5°, receiving the Sacrament from a certain priest A. B.⁵ and thereby being much comforted did I set myself to the painting of the prime pantacle of this book.⁶

¹ [Victor Benjamin Neuburg. See note 2 to p. 5, and note 1 to p. 348.]

² [M. is Merlin Peregrinus, Theodor Reuss (1855-1923), the second

Outer Head of the Order (o.H.o. or Frater Superior) of Ordo Templi Orientis (o.T.o.). Crowley was initiated to the Sovereign Sanctuary of the ix° o.T.o. and enthroned as the Supreme and Holy King x° of its British section in a ceremony in Berlin in the summer of 1912 E.v.]

³ [March 21, 1914 E.v.]

⁴ [Jacobus Burgundus Molensis or Jacques de Molay, the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was burnt at the stake by the Inquisition at Paris on March 18, 1314 E.v. Cf. Malcolm Barber, The Trial of the Templars, p. 241; see Works Cited.]

⁵ [Everard Feilding (1867-1936), barrister and secretary for the Society for Psychical Research in London. A Probationer in the A.'. A.'., he appears as “Wake Morningside” in Crowley’s Moonchild.]

⁶ [The typescripts note “In original only.” The holograph notebook for this working is not believed to be extant.]

Therein busied, came inspiration unto me from the Most High, and this is the consideration: that though Pan be the Master of the Work, yet is the Work naught without Wisdom divine, and that Hermes is rightly the God of this particular Operation of Magick Art. Therefore, say I, let Hermes first be invoked, and that by the Rite and by this incantation which I made with my friend the Art-Bachelor W. D.¹

Jungitur en vati vates; rex inclyte pafiSov

Hermes tu venias, verba nefanda ferens.^{1 2}

Opus I

The First Working

[Wednesday, Dec. 31, 1913 e.v.]

At 11:40 [p.m.] therefore did I duly open the Temple, invoking also Thoth by the Egyptian formulae.³ And upon the stroke of midnight did the first words and acts of the Accendat⁴ strike on the akasa. Then immediately did Mercury manifest in His first form, as it is written in “Liber Ararita” 1:8:

Thou hast appeared to me as a young boy mischievous and lovely, with Thy winged globe and its serpents set upon a staff.⁵

¹ [The English journalist Walter Duranty (1884-1957) was educated at Emmanuel College, Cambridge. He was a correspondent for the Neiv York Times from 1913-41 (Moscow correspondent 1921-34), and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1932. He helped Crowley compose “The Holy Hymns to the Great Gods of Heaven” on p. 405. He was one of Crowley’s lovers, and he eventually married their mutual friend Jane Cheron. They appear in Crowley’s Moonchild (1929); Cheron is “Zizi,” and Duranty is “her English journalist.”]

² [Lat., “Behold! The Priest is joined to the Priest: illustrious King of the Staff mayest thou come, Hermes, bearing unutterable words!” See p. 407. In this Working the “Holy Hymns” are referred to as Versicles, except that of Juppiter which is cited as the Haud seats.]

³ [“Liber Israfel sub figura 64.” See Works Cited.]

⁴ [Lat., “let it be lighted,” referring to the invocation “Accendat in nobis Dominus ignem” from “The Ceremony of the Thurible” in “Grimorium Sanctissimum,” p. 402.]

⁵ [See “Liber 813,” Works Cited.]

Astrally the Temple was full of thousands of flashing caducei of gold and yellow, the serpents alive and moving, Hermes bearing them. But so young and so mischievous was He that the sacrifice was impossible. This also we learnt, that at the Accendat the ceremony is to be forgotten altogether, and to be resumed with equal suddenness at the first word of the mantra or Versicle. And the excellence of this control is the agent evoking.

Then closed the Temple at 1:40 a.m. die Jovis thinking to renew the Rite in the evening, in the hope of obtaining Hermes in His next phase.

And Blessing and Worship to the Holy One, the Lord of the Serpent and the Dove! Amen.

Opus II

The Second Working

[Thursday, Jan. i-Friday, Jan. 2, 1914 E.v.]

This next invocation of Mercury was done with a new-made Image of the God in the East,¹ a terminal Phallic figure in yellow wax, very beautiful, made that day by Fra. O.S.V. He also used these invocations “At the Limits of the Night”^{1 2} and this “O Light in Light,”³ before the “Majesty of Godhead.”⁴

The Temple was opened at 11:20 p.m. on the first day of the vulgar year. The Versicle began at 11:40 and ended at 11:55 circa. Immediately Fra. L.T. completely lost control and although a man of some education, degraded himself and dispersed the holy invoked prana by defacing this volume with the meaningless scrawls opposite,⁵ declaring them to be the inspiration of Thoth, which were unworthy even of His ape. In this way a great part of the virtue of the Rite was lost.

¹ [See “Grimorium Sanctissimum,” p. 399 ff.]

² [From g.d. manuscript z3; a poetic version appears in “The Rite of Mercury” in “Liber 850, The Rites of Eleusis”; see Works Cited.]

³ [An invocation of Hermes from Crowley, Orpheus (1905); see his Collected Works, vol. Ill, p. 199.]

⁴ [An invocation from “Liber Israfel sub figura 64.”]

⁵ [Omitted in the tss.]

Some results were however obtained, and these were recorded in the esoteric account of this Working.

The Temple was closed at about 2 o’clock of the forenoon of Friday.

The Esoteric Record [Opus II]

[Thursday, Jan. i-Friday, Jan. 2.]

Q. [O.S.V.] Are we working right?

A. [L.T.] No.

Q. What’s wrong?

A. The time, and, to a less extent, the place.

Q. What is the right time?

A. Three hours before dawn.

Q. Does this apply to Mercury alone, or to all the gods?

A. To Mercury alone.

Q. Are we to invoke Mercury again?

A. Yes.

Q. Tomorrow?

A. No.

Q. When, then?

A. On the day of the full moon.

Q. What god shall we invoke tomorrow?

A. Thoth.

Q. But Thoth is Mercury?

A. You will get another aspect.

Q. Shall we not use the same versicle?

A. It does not matter.

Q. Shall I make statues of all the gods?

A. No.

Q. Shall I make tablets of all the gods?

A. Yes.

Q. Plain tablets, with the versicles?

A. No.

Q. What tablets?

A. Tablets with the names only.

Q. In what order shall we invoke the gods?

A. The proper order is—Venus, Mercury, Jupiter, Luna, Sol.

Q. Will he help in geomancy?

A. Yes.¹

Q. And also in the conduct of affairs?

A. In some, not in all.

Q. In business?

A. In some businesses.

Q. What?

A. Books, money, love.

Q. How can we invoke Mercury better?

A. Use a golden pentagram, placing the same in a prominent position; drink yellow wine and eat fish before the ceremony. Let the clock be removed.

Q. Can you suggest any improvements in the ceremonies, especially that of Jupiter?

A. Scarlet and silver should be worn, and the crown O.S.V L.T. is to wear the scarlet robe, violets are to be strewn and trodden with bare feet.

Q. Give a distinct proof of your presence, appreciable by the

intelligence of O.S.V.

A. Let the wand or one become nine, this is the SIGN OF PRIAPUS, BUT AFTERWARDS NOTHING.

O.S.V. I understand and agree the proof.

[P.S.] He did. P.

L.T. Shall I let him take full possession now?

O.S.V. Yes.

L.T. I am going-----------------------Yes. What do you

want to know now? There are other things I can tell you, or else ask me questions.

O.S.V. Tell.

L.T. You will receive good news in respect of money on the eleventh of January, in the forenoon. Fra. L.T. will be concerned with it; it will be quite unexpected. Money will be given by someone to whom L.T. introduced O.S.V. A change in O.S.V.’s affairs in February.

O.S.V. (I am going to ask a very important question; concentrate hard.) N.C.G.M.H.D. (This question enquires as to when the speaker shall attain the grade of Magus.)

L.T. L.P. L. is 50; and P. is 6.¹

O.S.V. 56 what?

L.T. I don’t know--------Wait.--------Hours? I am not

quite sure, but it is connected with time.

L.T. The ceremonies should be done every other night.

The Fratres then changed functions.

O.S.V. The God has appeared to me in His character as a messenger, but as a robust adult, rather than as a slim youth. He has the winged helmet and sandals, and bears a Caduceus of gold. (Frater L.T. confirms this description in every respect.)

O.S.V. Hear the words which I bear through the ambient air. The Father of All hath girt Himself with a manycoloured robe; the Father of All hath spilt His seed on galaxy and globe. The formation of Nebulae is like the bursting of the seed pods of flowers. (These are not his

¹ P.S. Time from Dec. 3, 1909 to Oct. 12, 1915 is 6 years less 50 days.... [Crowley refers to two principal dates of his 8°=3° and 9°=2° initiations, respectively.]

¹ [P.S.] O.S.V. has now forgotten what it was.

² Memo; obtain a copy and confirm this. [For “The Vision of the Universal Mercury” see Israel Regardie, The Golden Dawn, rev. ed., p. 476, and The Complete Golden Dawn System of Magic, vol. II, p. 61.]

³ [P.S.] This occurred.

L.T. Satisfactory?

O.S.V. I haven’t got that-----------I want to lie here, and see

Mercury. It seems that Hermes is my particular deity at present. The golden sparks, of which the Universe is composed, are shot with silver lightnings. In his next aspect he should reveal to us a great deal of the inner meaning of this particular Rite.

In the beginning was the Word, the logos, who is Mercury, and is therefore to be identified with Christ. Both are messengers; their birth-mysteries are similar; the pranks of their childhood are similar. In “The Vision of the Universal Mercury,”¹ Hermes is seen descending upon the sea, which refers to Maria.^{1 2} The Crucifixion represents the Caduceus; the two thieves, the two serpents; the cliff in “The Vision of the Universal Mercury” is Golgotha; Maria is simply Maia with the Solar R in her womb.

The controversy about Christ between the Synoptics and John was really a contention between the priests of Bacchus, Sol and Osiris; also, perhaps, of Adonis and Attis on the one hand, and those of Hermes on the other, at that period when initiates all over the world found it necessary, owing to the growth of the Roman Empire, and the opening up of means of communication, to replace conflicting Polytheisms by a synthetic Faith. (This is absolutely new to me, this conception of Christ as Mercury.)³ Some difficulty about the---------.⁴

To continue the identification, compare Christ’s descent into Hell with the function of Hermes as guide of the Dead. Also Hermes leading up Eurydice, and Christ raising up Jairus’ daughter. Christ is said to have risen on the third day, because it takes three

¹ [See “The Vision of the Universal Mercury” in Regardie, ibid.]

² [Crowley quotes this passage in his discussion of Atu I, “The Magus,” in The Book of Thoth (1944), appendix, p. 128. He adds in a note that “the path of beth on the Tree of Life shows him descending from Kether, the Crown, upon Binah, the Great Sea.”]

³ [Crowley quoted this passage in his Confessions (abridged ed., p. 720), noting that “This came as a complete surprise, we having till then considered him as an entirely solar symbol connected especially with Dionysus, Mithras and Osiris.” He again quotes this passage, and further elaborates this theory, in Liber 888, Jesus: The Gospel according to St. Bernard Shaw. See Works Cited.]

⁴ [P.S.] This sentence now quite unintelligible.

days for the Planet Mercury to become visible after separating from the orb of the Sun. (It may be noted here that Mercury and Venus are the planets between us and the Sun, as if the Mother and the Son were mediators between us and the Father.)

Note Christ as the Healer, and also his own expression: “The Son of Man cometh as a thief in the night”;¹ and also this scripture: “For as the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.”^{1 2}