THE EQUINOX Vol. I. No. II 2nd part of three
October 18, 1989 e.v. key entry and March 1, 1990 e.v. first proof reading
against the 1st edition.
done by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O.
(further proof reading desirable)
Copyright (c) O.T.O.
disk 2 of 3
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O.T.O.
P.O.Box 430
Fairfax, CA 94930
USA
(415) 454-5176 ---- Messages only.
Pages in the original are marked thus at the bottom: {page number}
Comments and descriptions are also set off by curly brackets {}
Comments and notes not in the original are identified with the initials of
the source: AC note = Crowley note. WEH note = Bill Heidrick note, etc.
Descriptions of illustrations are not so identified, but are simply in
curly brackets.
(Addresses and invitations below are not current but copied from the
original text of the early part of the 20th century)
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THE WILD ASS
I
THE secret of the House of Set
Is hidden in my sevenfold veil;
For I am he that doth beget
The Rood, and bear the Holy Graal.
Yet is my manhood woman-frail,
Barren my motherhood. They now
Shall men my mystic mountain scale?
These ram's-horn thumbs jut from my brow
To push them to the miry slough
Wherein the foes of Set are caught.
Come, let us pluck the Golden Bough
From the brave Tree of life and thought!
Who heareth naught, he heedeth naught.
Come, we are safely housed and shrined
Where subtler images are wrought
Than boast the treasuries of Mind! {201}
II
The secret of the House of Set.
As a poor pilgrim clambering
Toils on the slopes, so I to get
Halidom for my lord the King.
Faintly and feebly murmuring
I uttered the mysterious runes,
And bade my body's sleekness sing
Silky, satanic, subtle tunes.
Was he not holy? Milk of moons
Were not so pallid as his cheek,
And roses of a million Junes
His mouth left livid. So I seek
In all God's seas a tiny creek
Wherein to moor my shallop. Nay!
He is a mountain, chill with bleak
Stark winds of innocence astray!
The fearful passion sweeps me away.
So with a passionate thrill of fear
I creep --- like shadows across Day!
Like Winter on the expended year! ---
From those cold feet, a frozen meer,
To those cold knees, a lost lagoon,
To that wild woodland, strangely near
To the lone tower that tops the moon! {202}
Verily and Amen! Unhewn
The great grim forest menaces.
What gardener may dare to prune
Those woods to build me palaces?
So climb, each ledge an infinite stress,
Lustful as light, as lechery loth,
From the brutality of Besz
To the plumed perjury of Thoth!
I held him holy. Holier both
Than aught the bearers of the bier,
Thoum-aesh-neith and Auramoth,
Saw in the hiding-house of fear.
The sorceries that span the sphere,
The spells that harness star and sun,
I whispered in his siren ear ---
Once, twice, and thrice for every one!
Once, twice, and thrice --- the boon's begun!
With four and five and six it stirs:
With seven the druid dance is done,
And Death drives home his silver spurs!
Then --- the last leap. What crowning curse
Can bid that cup of curses brim?
How may God's maniac ministers
Lash the last languor out of Him? {203}
I did it. How? So great and grim
The Gods are, I may never guess.
Suffice it, on his mouth I swim
A drowning dastard. The caress
Wakes the lost life. I see him dress
The godhead. Up he bounds and brays: ---
The wild ass of the wilderness,
The soul that sees, the soul that slays!
Inhabit the untrodden ways;
Set! Thou my god and I thy priest,
Thy temple hidden in the haze
Of deserts death to god or beast!
Thou who art both shalt foin and feast
With me who am both, thy hate's co-heir,
Lord of the West and of the East ---
The scorpion's hole, the lion's lair!
I kissed his mouth --- sublime despair!
Our souls were one; our bodies met ---
Yea! darkness cover everywhere
The secret of the House of Set!
ALYS CUSACK.
{204}
THE SPHINX AT GIZEH
{205}
THE SPHINX AT GIZEH
I SAW the other day the Sphinx's painted face.
She had painted her face in order to ogle Time.
And he has spared no other painted face in all the world but hers.
Delilah was younger than she, and Delilah is dust.
Time hath loved nothing but this worthless painted face.
I do not care that she is ugly, nor that she has painted her face, so
that she only lure his secret from Time.
Time dallies like a fool at her feet when he should be smiting cities.
Time never wearies of her silly smile.
There are temples all about her that he has forgotton to spoil.
I saw an old man go by and time never touched him.
Time that has carried away the seven gates of Thebes!
She has tried to bind him with ropes of eternal sand, she had hoped to
oppress him with the Pyramids.
He lies there in the sun with his foolish hair all spread about her
paws.
If she ever learns his secret we will put out his eyes, so that he shall
find no more our beautiful things --- there are lovely gates in Florence
that I fear he will carry away. {207}
We have tried to bind him with song and with old customs, but they only
held him for a little while, and he has always smitten us and mocked us.
When he is blind he shall dance to us and make sport.
Great clumsy Time shall stumble and dance, who like to kill little
children and can hurt even the daisies no longer.
Then shall our children laugh at him who slew Babylon's winged bulls and
smote great numbers of the elves and fairies, when he is shorn of his hours
and his years.
We will shut him up in the Pyramid of Cheops, in the great chamber where
the sarcophagus is. Thence we will lead him out when we give our feasts.
He shall ripen our corn for us and do menial work.
We will kiss thy painted face, O Sphinx, if thou wilt betray to us Time.
And yet I fear that in his ultimate anguish he may take hold blindly of
the world and the moon and slowly pull down upon him the House of Man.
DUNSANY.
{208}
THE PRIESTESS OF PANORMITA
HEAR me, Lord of the Stars!
For thee I have worshipped ever
With stains and sorrows and scars,
With joyful, joyful endeavour.
Hear me, O lily-white goat!
O crisp as a thicket of thorns,
With a collar of gold for Thy throat,
A scarlet bow for Thy horns!
Here, in the dusty air,
I build Thee a shrine of yew.
All green is the garland I wear,
But I feed it with blood for dew!
After the orange bars
That ribbed the green west dying
Are dead, O Lord of the Stars,
I come to Thee, come to Thee crying.
The ambrosial moon that arose
With breasts slow heaving in splendour
Drops wine from her infinite snows.
Ineffably, utterly, tender. {209}
O moon! ambrosial moon!
Arise on my desert of sorrow
That the Magical eyes of me swoon
With lust of rain to-morrow!
Ages and ages ago
I stood on the bank of a river
Holy and Holy and holy, I know,
For ever and ever and ever!
A priest in the mystical shrine,
I muttered a redeless rune,
Till the waters were redder than wine
In the blush of the harlot moon.
I and my brother priests
Worshipped a wonderful woman
With a body lithe as a beast's
Subtly, horribly human.
Deep in the pit of her eyes
I saw the image of death,
And I drew the water of sighs
From the well of her lullaby breath.
She sitteth veiled for ever
Brooding over the waste.
She hath stirred or spoken never.
She is fiercely, manly chaste!
What madness made me awake
From the silence of utmost eld
The grey cold slime of the snake
That her poisonous body held? {210}
By night I ravished a maid
From her father's camp to the cave.
I bared the beautiful blade;
I dipped her thrice i' the wave;
I slit her throat as a lamb's,
That the fount of blood leapt high
With my clamorous dithyrambs
Like a stain on the shield of the sky.
With blood and censer and song
I rent the mysterious veil:
My eyes gaze long and long
On the deep of that blissful bale.
My cold grey kisses awake
From the silence of utmost eld
The grey cold slime of the snake
That her beautiful body held.
But --- God! I was not content
With the blasphemous secret of years;
The veil is hardly rent
While the eyes rain stones for tears.
So I clung to the lips and laughed
As the storms of death abated,
The storms of the grevious graft
By the swing of her soul unsated.
Wherefore reborn as I am
By a stream profane and foul
In the reign of a Tortured Lamb,
In the realm of a sexless Owl, {211}
I am set apart from the rest
By meed of the mystic rune
That reads in peril and pest
The ambrosial moon --- the moon!
For under the tawny star
That shines in the Bull above
I can rein the riotous car
Of galloping, galloping Love;
And straight to the steady ray
Of the Lion-heart Lord I career,
Pointing my flaming way
With the spasm of night for a spear!
O moon! O secret sweet!
Chalcedony clouds of caresses
About the flame of our feet,
The night of our terrible tresses!
Is it a wonder, then,
If the people are mad with blindness,
And nothing is stranger to men
Than silence, and wisdom, and kindness?
Nay! let him fashion an arrow
Whose heart is sober and stout!
Let him pierce his God to the marrow!
Let the soul of his God flow out!
Whether a snake or a sun
In his horoscope Heaven hath cast,
It is nothing; every one
Shall win to the moon at last. {212}
The mage hath wrought by his art
A billion shapes in the sun.
Look through to the heart of his heart,
And the many are shapes of one!
An end to the art of the mage,
And the cold grey blank of the prison!
An end to the adamant age!
The ambrosial moon is arisen.
I have bought a lily-white goat
For the price of a crown of thorns,
A collar of gold for its throat,
A scarlet bow for its horns.
I have bought a lark in the lift
For the price of a butt of sherry:
With these, and God for a gift,
It needs no wine to be merry!
I have bought for a wafer of bread
A garden of poppies and clover;
For a water bitter and dead
A foam of fire flowing over.
From the Lamb and his prison fare
And the owl's blind stupor, arise!
Be ye wise, and strong, and fair,
And the nectar afloat in your eyes!
Arise, O ambrosial moon
By the strong immemorial spell,
By the subtle veridical rune
That is mighty in heaven and hell! {213}
Drip thy mystical dews
On the tongues of the tender fauns
In the shade of initiate yews
Remote from the desert dawns!
Satyrs and Fauns, I call.
Bring your beauty to man!
I am the mate for ye all'
I am the passionate Pan.
Come, O come to the dance
Leaping with wonderful whips,
Life on the stroke of a glance,
Death in the stroke of the lips!
I am hidden beyond,
Shed in a secret sinew
Smitten through by the fond
Folly of wisdom in you!
Come, while the moon (the moon!)
Sheds her ambrosial splendour,
Reels in the redeless rune
Ineffably, utterly, tender!
Hark! the appealing cry
Of deadly hurt in the hollow: ---
Hyacinth! Hyacinth! Ay!
Smitten to death by Apollo.
Swift, O maiden moon,
Send thy ray-dews after;
Turn the dolorous tune
To soft ambiguous laughter! {214}
Mourn, O Maenads, mourn!
Surely your comfort is over:
All we laugh at you lorn.
Ours are the poppies and clover!
O that mouth and eyes,
Mischevious, male, alluring!
O that twitch of the thighs
Dorian past enduring!
Where is wisdom now?
Where the sage and his doubt?
Surely the sweat of the brow
Hath driven the demon out.
Surely the scented sleep
That crowns the equal war
Is wiser than only to weep ---
To weep for evermore!
Now, at the crown of the year,
The decadent days of October,
I come to thee, God, without fear;
Pious, chaste, and sober.
I solemnly sacrifice
This first-fruit flower of wine
For a vehicle of thy vice
As I am Thine to be mine.
For five in the year gone by
I pray Thee give to me one;
A love stronger than I,
A moon to swallow the sun! {215}
May he be like a lily-white goat
Crisp as a thicket of thorns,
With a collar of gold for his throat,
A scarlet bow for his horns!
ELAINE CARR.
(216)
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
THE KING
BOOK II
The Scaffolding of the Temple
of
SOLOMON THE KING
and
The ten mighty Supports which
are set between the
Pillars of Death
and Life.
That which is below is like
that which is above, and
that which is above is like
that which is below, for the
performance of the miracles
of the ONE SUBSTANCE.
"Hermes."
{Illustration on this page. In the background is an inverted solid black
pentagram. Superimposed on the black pentagram is an upright white
pentagram, so arranged as to obscure all but the points of the black
pentagram which emerge behind the inner angles of the white. These two
pentagrams form a perfectly symmetrical ten-pointed star or decagram with
alternating white and black points. In the center of the white pentagram,
a symbol of alchemical salt is located, more for it's shape of a black ring
with single horizontal bar than for its alchemical significance. This
barred ring is centered within but not touching the inner angles of the
white pentagram. In the lower space defined by the barred ring is a solid
black upright Sans-serif letter "T". In the upper space of the barred ring
is a white inverted Sans-serif letter "T" defined by a thin black line.}
THE PILLAR OF CLOUD
OBSESSED by the chimera of his mind, lost in the labyrinth of his
imagination, man wanders on through the shadowy dreamland he himself has
begotten, slothfully accepting or eagerly rejecting, but ever seeking some
unobtainable freedom, some power which will release him from those shackles
he has in his studied folly and capricious ignorance welded to his
thoughts.
Nothing contents him, nothing satisfies him; if he is not weeping he is
laughing, if he is not laughing he is weeping; he grumbles and applauds,
despises and reveres, insults and beslavers, loves and hates, fingers
everything in turn, and when he has nothing further to soil and to thumb-
mark sits down and cries for the moon, or else like the dog in the fable
seeing his own image in the river of his dreams, loses all he has in the
vain attempt to grasp more.
Slave to his own tyranny, shrieking under his own lash, the higher he
builds the gloomy walls of his prison the louder he howls "Liberty":
freedom is what he craves, yearns, and strives for --- freedom to leap into
some miasmal bog and wallow. If he is a ploughman he wants more fields to
till; if a physician, more bodies to cure; if a priest, more souls to save;
if a soldier, more countries to conquer; if a lawyer, more wretches to
hang. If he obtains "more," he grumbles {223} because it is "too much"; if
he does not obtain it he continues to grunt and to growl, and the more he
growls and grunts the more slavish he becomes, yet the freer he considers
himself.
Once born he is carefully swaddled in the rags of Custom, rocked in the
cradle of Caste, and nursed on the soured milk of Creed. And as with the
individual so with the nation, the one or the many, it is taught to work
its way into one narrow groove, and like the water in a drain or a gutter
to flow for a time unobtrusively between dignified cobbles and over
respectable cement, and then to vanish as genteelly as possible
underground.
Sometimes there is a stoppage; too much filth has accumulated, and it
refuses all conventional methods of being removed. Then comes a flood ---
a revolution --- for a time there is a nasty mess, but soon the filth is
washed away, and once again the drainage flows humbly down its customary
gutter in the same old unobtrusive manner, between the same old cobbles,
and over the same old cement until in time fresh filth silts up and there
is more trouble and annoyance. "So runs my dream," and civilized man
dreaming from his drain naturally pictures God as a kind of Omnipotent
Sewer-Husher who everlastingly ought to trudge about with scoop, ladle, and
rake, and keep gutters clean and drains in an inoffensive condition. So it
happens that when gutters get blocked up and drains stink, the Free-thinker
laughs and says: "You barmy fool, 'there is no sich a person'"; and when
they don't, the Believer cries: "My poor benighted brother, 'He is like a
refiner's fire and like Fuller's sope.'"
Compared to the civilised man, the water which flows {224} down the
drain, the savage is like a mountain torrent cutting its own course amongst
the hills and rushing on wildly yet wisely to the sea. No doubt, from the
point of view of a sanitary engineer, the drain is more useful, more
rational, altogether more proper than the wayward stream. But it is the
rigid utilitarianism of this bread-and-water morality, this one-shirt-a-
week thrift, this skimmed-milk philosophy this cake-on-Sunday religion, and
all the other halfpenny economies of a gluttonous mediocrity, that must be
trampled under foot as if they were the very cockroaches of hell, before
Freedom of even a protoplasmic kind can be brought to life. Better be a
savage, a one-legged hottentot, better be anything than a civilized eunuch,
a crape-capped "widder" in Upper Tooting lamenting her "demised husband"
whilst she counts the halfpence he has left behind him in his trouser
pockets. If there is going to be a flood, let it be grand, typhoonic,
torrential; do not let others pass by us and say: "Really, my dear, what an
insalubrious odour!"
The savage babe being born is taught the myths of his tribe, that
uncorrupted are beautiful enough; the civilised child the myths of his
nation, that corrupted are merely bestial, and are as rigid as the former
are elastic. The savage youth passes through one great ordeal --- the
struggle with Nature: the civilised through another --- the struggle with
Reason. The one is taught the hero tales of his forefathers, the other the
platitudes of the schools, which luckily are always a few decades behind
the ideas current at his birth.
Few of us remember anything that happened during the first two years of
our existence, and very little during the next two; thus it comes about
that from two to four years of our {225} life are blank. Perhaps during
these years of nothingness we see things as they are; however, civilisation
touches us on the lips and we speak and forget all about them. Directly we
commence to chatter, our preparation to take life seriously begins. Books
are given us, and the great wide road of wonderment becomes narrowed to a
straitened right-of-way down which it is a privilege and honour to pass.
If we are wild, it is naughty; if wanton --- immoral; in innocence we lisp
the ten commandments on our mothers' knees, only to break them when we
really know what they mean. Then comes manhood and its responsibility,
marriage with its one pleasure and its forty thousand plagues, as Heine
says.
Our birth is a matter of law or chance --- equivalent symbols for the
Unknown; once born, environment, circumstance, position, convention,
education, all in their turn come forward to claim us and smother us in
their bestial kisses. Yet like the streams and the gutters, the drains and
the rivers, we all flow, roar, or trickle onwards to the same unknown sea
from which we came. Sometimes Evolution flouts Ethics and we have floods,
earthquakes, and the spouting of volcanoes; sometimes Ethics flouts
Evolution and we are turned into artificial ponds and ornamental
Serpentines; yet upon other times it hastens our course and gives us good
Doulton-ware to flow through; all of us, nevertheless, whether we be
teardrop or Dead Sea, sooner or later get back to the ever-rolling ocean;
and there shall we once again be wooed by the bright beams of the Sun, that
relentless God who in his fierce embrace ever and again draws us up like
some earthly concubine to his heavenly couch, only once more to be divorced
by the malicious {226} winds and to weep through the storms of air. So the
wheel of Time runs on through birth, death, and rebirth; and as we realise
this we sink down in despair; and through our tears more clouds arise still
further to obscure our path.
What is the use then of doing anything if we are but as drops of water
which are splashed between the wanton hands of the Sun, the Wind, and the
Ocean? --- indeed the ways of God are inscrutable and past finding out.
Thus the Unobtainable tempts us, and the little segments of God that we see
become to us the fiercest and most terrible of the Dog-faced Demons which
seduce us from the path. He is always at our elbow, whispering, tempting,
jeering, advising and helping us; He it is that casts despair upon us when
we have done nothing wrong, and elation when we have done nothing right; He
it is who is ever rising before us like a mist to obscure our path or to
magnify our goal; yet nevertheless He is not only the cloud but that
ultimate fire --- if we could only understand Him as He IS; Ah! my
brothers, this is THE GREAT WORK.
Why does he do this and that, if he can do that and this? asks the
Doubter. Because He chooses to, answers the Believer. But the man after
God's own Heart thinks and reasons nothing, he feels there is neither doing
nor choosing, and, dimly though it be, he sees that both of these foolish
men, who think themselves so wise, possess but various little segments of
one great circle, and that each imagines his segment a perfect
circumference in itself. Presently the Mystic himself discovers that his
circle which contained all their segments is but a segment of some greater
circle, and that eventually he is living in a great cloud-land formed of
myriads {227} and myriads of little spheres, which he feels are in Reality
one Great Ocean if he could only make them unite.
Each stage above him is his Ultimate goal for the time being.
Possessing one little sphere, his one and only object is to unite it to
another, or another to it; not two others, not to the whole, but only to
that "One Other." For the time being (let it appear as if it were for all
time to the initiate), that "One Other" is God and Very God --- the Omega of
his quest, and that "all others" are Devils that would tempt and seduce him.
Thus it happens that until you become God, God Himself is in Reality The
Tempter, Satan, and the Prince of Darkness, who, assuming the glittering
robes of Time and Space, whispers in our ears: "Millions and millions and
millions of eternities are as nothingness to me; then how canst thou, thou
little mote dancing in the beam of mine eye, hope to span me?" Thus God at
the outset comes to us and like the old witch in "Cinderella" strews
innumerable lentils before us to count --- but begin! and soon you will
find that you have left the kitchen of the world behind you and have
entered the enchanted Palace "Beyond."
It is all very difficult and complex at first; it is rather like a man
who, setting out by a strange road to visit the capital of his country,
comes to a great mountain and gazes up its all but endless slopes.
"It is too high for me to climb," the little man will say; "it is indeed
very beautiful; but I will go back and find some other road."
"I am sure it would be too long a journey," says a second; "I could not
afford it; I too will return."
"There are no guides here," says a third; "how foolish for me to attempt
so high a peak." {228}
"I am not strong enough," says a fourth. "I have no chart." ... "My
business won't let me." ... "My wife is against it."
Thus God enters the heart of man in a thousand forms and tempts man as
he tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden, and Abraham in the land of Moriah.
But the strong man replenishing his wallet, and filling his flask, girds
a goat-skin about him, and taking his staff sets forth on his Great travel
to the Summit of the Mountain of God; and curious to relate, and terrible
to tell, the whole length of that wizard way Satan follows behind him in
the form of a sleuth-hound ever tempting him from the right path.
Now he is overcome by a great loneliness, he is cold, he is hungry, he
thirsts; the skyline he had thought the summit is but a ridge, and from it
he sees ridge upon ridge in endless succession above him. On he toils, at
length it is the summit --- no! but another ridge and a myriad more. A
thousand fiends enter him, a thousand little sleuth-hounds that would tear
him back --- comfort, home, children, wife; then he says to himself: What a
fool am I!
At this stage many turn back and crawling into the valley of illusions
reason how much more comfortable and interesting it is to read of mountain
ascents than to accomplish them. These ones talk loudly and beat the drums
of their valour in the ears of all men.
At the next stage few return, most perish on the way back; for the
higher you climb that great mountain the more difficult it becomes to
return.
Plod on, and when your legs tremble and give way under you, crawl on,
crawl on if on all fours, and clench your teeth {229} and say "I WILL"; but
on! and on! and on! And behind you tireless strides along that old grey
hound ever breathing forth temptations upon you; filled with crafts, and
subtleties, and guiles, ever eager to lead you astray, ever ready to guide
you back. And presently so great grows the loneliness of the Mountain that
his very companionship becomes as a temptation to you, you feel a
friendliness in resisting him, a burning hope that he will continue to
tempt you, that his temptations and his mocking words are better than no
words at all. This only happens far far up the mountain slope, some say
not so far from the summit; but take heed! for at this stage there is a
great precipice, and those who look round for the hound may perchance
stumble and fall --- and the foot of that precipice is the valley from
which they came.
From here all is darkness, and there are no roads to guide the pilgrim,
and the sleuth-hound can no more be seen because of the shadows of the
night which obscure all things. And how can one write further about these
matters? for those who have been so far and have returned, on account of
the darkness saw nothing, therefore they have held their tongues. But
there is an old parable which relates how the hound that had tempted man
the whole length of his perilous journey, devoured him on the summit of
that Mystic Mountain; and how that Ancient DOG was indeed GOD Himself.
{230}
THE ACOLYTE
BEFORE we enter upon the events of the Great Journey of Frater P., during
which for six years he voyaged over the face of the globe in quest of the
mystic knowledge of all nations, it will be necessary here to recount,
briefly though it may be, the circumstances which let up to his entering
into communication with the Order of A.'. A.'.
Born of an ancient family, but a few days after the fifty-sixth Equinox
before the Equinox of the Gods, he was reared and educated in the faith of
Christ as taught by one of the strictest sects of the many factions of the
Christian Church, and scarcely had he learnt to lisp the simplest syllables
of childhood than his martyrdom began.
From infancy he struggled through the chill darkness of his surroundings
into boyhood, and as he grew and throve, so did the iniquity of that
unnatural treatment which with lavish and cruel hand was squandered on him.
Then youth came, and with it God's name had grown to be a curse, and the
form of Jesus stood forth in the gloom of Golgotha, a chill and hideous
horror which vampire-like had sucked dry the joy of his boyhood; when
suddenly one summer night he broke away from the ghouls that had tormented
him, casting aside the sordid conventions of life, defying the laws of his
{231} land, doubting the decaying religion of his childhood, he snapped,
like rotten twigs, the worm-eaten conventionalities of the effete and
hypocritical civilisation in which he had been nurtured, and sought refuge
for a space in the wild and beautiful country which lies tangled like a
head of tumbled hair to the north and north-west of England. Here he
learnt from the whispering winds and the dreamy stars that life was not
altogether a curse, and that every night dies in the arms of dawn.
His freedom, however, was of but short duration; yet, though he was
dragged back to the prison from which he had escaped, he had learnt his own
strength, a new life had flowed like a great sea dancing with foam upon
him, and had intoxicated him with the red wine of Freedom and Revolt ---
his gauntlet of youth had been cast down, henceforth he would battle for
his manhood, ay! and for the manhood of the World!
Then the trumpet-blast resounded; the battle had indeed begun!
Struggling to his feet, he tore from him the shroud of a corrupted faith as
if it had been the rotten cerement of a mummy. With quivering lip, and
voice choked with indignation at the injustice of the world, he cursed the
name of Christ and strode on to seek the gate of Hell and let loose the
fiends of the pit, so that mankind might yet learn that compassion was not
dead.
Nevertheless, the madness passes, like a dark cloud before the breath of
awakening dawn; conscious of his own rightness, of the manhood which was
his, of his own strength, and the righteousness of his purpose, and filled
with the overflowing ambitions of youth, we find him unconsciously sheathe
{232} his blood-red sword, and blow flame and smoke from the tripod of
life, casting before the veiled and awful image of the Unknown the arrows
of his reason, and diligently seeking both omen and sign in the dusty
volumes of the past, and in the ancient wisdom of long-forgotten days.
Deeply read in poetry, philosophy and science, gifted beyond the common
lot, and already a poet of brilliant promise; he suddenly hurries from out
the darkness like a wild prophetic star, and overturning the desks and the
stools of the schoolmen, and casting their pedagogic papilla from his lips,
escapes from the stuffy cloisters of mildewed learning, and the colleges of
dialectic dogmatics, and seeks, what as yet he cannot find in the freedom
which in his youthful ardour appears to him to live but a furlong or two
beyond the spires and gables of that city of hidebound pedants which had
been his school, his home, and his prison.
Then came the great awakening. Curious to say, it was towards the hour
of midnight on the last day of the year when the old slinks away from the
new, that he happened to be riding alone, wrapped in the dark cloak of
unutterable thoughts. A distant bell chimed the last quarter of the dying
year, and the snow which lay fine and crisp on the roadway was being caught
up here and there by the puffs of sharp frosty wind that came snake-like
through the hedges and the trees, whirling it on spectre-like in the chill
and silver moonlight. But dark were his thoughts, for the world had failed
him. Freedom had he sought, but not the freedom that he had gained. Blood
seemed to ooze from his eyelids and trickle down, drop by drop, upon the
white snow, writing on its pure surface the name of Christ. Great bats
flitted by {233} him, and vultures whose bald heads were clotted with
rotten blood. "Ah! the world, the world ... the failure of the world."
And then an amber light surged round him, the fearful tapestry of torturing
thought was rent asunder, the voices of many angels sang to him. "Master!
Master!" he cried, "I have found Thee ... O silver Christ. ..."
Then all was Nothingness ... nothing ... nothing ... nothing; and madly
his horse carried him into the night.
Thus he set out on his mystic quest towards that goal which he had seen,
and which seemed so near; and yet, as we shall learn, proved to be so far
away.
In the first volume of the diaries, we find him deep in the study of the
Alchemistic philosophers. Poring over Paracelsus, Benedictus Figulus,
Eugenius and Eirenaeus Philalethes, he sought the Alchemical Azoth, the
Catholicon, the Sperm of the World, that Universal Medicine in which is
contained all other medicines and the first principle of all substances.
In agony and joy he sought to fix the volatile, and transmute the formless
human race into the dual child of the mystic Cross of Light, that is to
say, to solve the problem of the Perfect Man. Fludd, Bonaventura, Lully,
Valentinus, Flamel, Geber, Plotinus, Ammonius, Iamblichus and Dionysius
were all devoured with the avidity and greed which youth alone possesses;
there was no halting here ---
"'Now, master, take a little rest!' --- not he!
(Caution redoubled,
Step two abreast, the way winds narrowly!)
Not a wit troubled
Back to his studies, fresher than at first,
Fierce as a dragon
He (soul-hydroptic with a sacred thirst)
Sucked at the flagon."
{234}
Plunging into the "tenebrae" of transcendental physics, he sought the
great fulfilment, and unknowingly in the exuberance of his enthusiasm left
the broad road of the valley and struck out on the mountain-track towards
that ultimate summit which gleams with the stone of the Wise, and whose
secret lies in the opening of the "Closed Eye" --- the consuming of the
Darkness.
He who dismisses Paracelsus with a twopenny clyster, or Raymond Lully
with a sixpenny reprint, is not a fool, no, no, nothing so exalted; but
merely a rabbit-brained louse, who, flattering himself that he is crawling
in the grey beard of Haeckel and the scanty locks of Spencer, sucks
pseudoscientific blood from the advertisement leaflets of our monthly
magazines, and declares all outside the rational muckheap of a "Pediculus" to
be both ridiculous and impossible.
The Alchemist well knew the difference between the kitchen stove and the
Heraclitean furnace; and between the water in his hip-bath and "the water
which wetteth not the hands." True, much "twaddle" was written concerning
balsams, and elixirs, and bloods, which, however, to the merest tyro in
alchemy can be sorted from the earnest works as easily as a "Bart's"
student can sort hair-restoring pamphlets and blackhead eradicators from
lectures and essays by Lister and Mller.
Thus frenziedly, at the age of twenty-two, P. set out on the Quest of
the Philosopher's Stone.
Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultam Lapidem Veram
Medicinam; this is indeed the true medicine of souls; and so P. sought the
universal solvent VITRIOLUM, and equated the seven letters in VITRIOL,
SULPHUR, {235} and MERCURY with the alchemical powers of the seven planets;
precipitating the SALT from the four elements --- Subtilis, Aqua, Lux,
Terra; and mingling Flatus, Ignis, Aqua, and Terra, smote them with the
cross of Hidden Mystery, and cried: "Fiat Lux!"
Youth strides on with hasty step, and by summer of this year --- 1898
--- we find P. deep in consultation with the mystics, and drinking from the
white chalice of mystery with St. John, Boehme, Tauler, Eckart, Molinos,
Levi, and Blake:
"Rintrah roars and shakes his fires in the burden'd
air,
Hungry clouds swag on the deep."
Insatiable, he still pressed on, hungering for the knowledge of things
outside; and in his struggle for the million he misses the unit, and heaps
up chaos in the outer darkness of Illusion. From the cloudless skies of
Mysticism he rushes down into the infernal darkness on winged thoughts:
"The fiery limbs, the flaming hair, shot like the sinking sun into the
western sea," and we find him now in the Goetic kingdoms of sorcery,
witchcraft, and infernal necromancy. The bats flit by us as we listen to
his frenzied cries for light and knowledge: "The Spiritual Guide," and "The
Cherubic Wanderer" are set aside for "The Arbatel" and "The Seven
Mysterious Orisons." A hurried turning of many pages, the burning of many
candles, and then --- the Key of Solomon for a time is put away, with the
Grimoires and the rituals, the talismans, and the Virgin parchments; the
ancient books of the Qabalah lie open before him; a flash of brilliant
fire, like a silver fish leaping from out the black waters of the sea into
{236} the starlight, bewilders him and is gone; for he has opened "The Book
of Concealed Mystery" and has read:
"Before there was equilibrium countenance beheld not countenance."
The words: "Yehi Aour" trembled on his lips; the very chaos of his being
seemed of a sudden to shake itself into form --- vast and terrible; but the
time had not been fulfilled, and the breath of the creation of a new world
caught them up from his half-opened mouth and carried them back into the
darkness whence they had all but been vibrated.1
From midsummer until the commencement of the autumn the diaries are
silent except for one entry, "met a certain Mr. B --- an alchemist of
note"2 which though of no particular importance in itself, was destined to
lead to another meeting which changed the whole course of P.'s progress,
and accelerated his step towards that Temple, the black earth from the
foundations of which he had been, until the present, casting up in chaotic
heaps around him.
Knorr von Rosenroth's immense storehouse of Qabalistic learning seems to
have kept P. fully employed until the autumnal equinox, when B ---, the
1 At this time P. was leading a hermit's life on a Swiss glacier
with one whom, though he knew it not at the time, was destined
ever and anon to bring him wisdom from the Great White
Brotherhood. This one we shall meet again under the initials
D.A.
2 Afterwards known as Frater C.S.
alchemist of note, introduced him to a Mr. C --- (afterwards, as we shall
see, Frater V.'. N.'. of the Order of the Golden Dawn). This meeting
proved all-important, as will be set forth in the following chapter.
Through C ---, P. had for the time being laid aside von Rosenroth, and was
now deep in "The Book of the {237} Sacred Magic of Abra-Melin the Mage." A
time of transition was at hand, a spiritual renaissance was about to take
place, so little wonder is it that we find P. much like St. Augustine
lamenting his outward search, and crying with him: "I, Lord, went wandering
like a strayed sheep, seeking Thee with anxious Reasoning without, whilst
Thou wast within me. I wearied myself much in looking for Thee without,
and yet Thou hast Thy habitation within me, if only I desire Thee and pant
after Thee. I went round the Streets and Squares of the City of this World
seeking Thee; and I found Thee not, because in vain I sought without for
Him who was within myself."
{238}
THE NEOPHYTE
IT was on November 18, 1898, that through the introduction of Fra. V.N.,
and under his guidance P. entered the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn,
and became a Neophyte in the Grade of 0 = 0 in the Outer.
It may be of some interest to the reader, and also it may in some ways
help to elucidate the present chapter, if a short account of the origin of
this order is first entered upon. But it will be understood that the
following historical sketch, as well as the accounts we are about to give
of the rituals themselves, are very much abbreviated and summarised, when
we state that, the actual MSS. in our possession relating to the G.'.
D.'. occupy some twelve hundred pages and contain over a quarter of a
million words.
The official account of the G.'. D.'. (probably fiction) known as
"The Historical Lecture," written and first delivered by Fra. Q.S.N., runs
as follows:
"The order of the G.'. D.'. in the Outer is an Hermetic Society which
teaches Occult Science or the Magic of Hermes. About 1850 several French
and English chiefs died and Temple work was interrupted. Such chiefs were
Eliphas Levi, Ragon, Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie, and Fred Hockley. These had
received their power from even greater predecessors, {239} who are traced
to the Fratres Rosa ("sic") Crucis of Germany. Valentine Andrea ("opera" A.D.
1614) has given an esoteric account of the S.R., probably he also edited
the 'Fama Fraternitatis,'1 or 'History of the Society,' which must have
been derived from the old records of C. R.'s2 pupils. ...
"The first order is a group of four grades: the second order is a group
of three grades of adeptship.
"Highest of all are those great rulers who severally sustain and govern
the Third Order, which includes Three Magic Titles of honour and supremacy;
in case of a vacancy the most advanced 7 = 43 obtains by decree the
well-earned reward. The grades of the first order are of Hebrew design; of
the Second, Christian.
"The Rituals and Secrets are received from the Greatly Honoured Chiefs.
..."
The account given in the first paragraph may or may not be correct; and
the following "History Lection" written by a brother of the Order of the
A.'. A.'. throws considerable light on the origin of the above Society;
and what is of still more interest to us mentions P. and his final rupture
with the Order of the Golden Dawn. It runs as follows:
"Some years ago a number of cipher MSS. were discovered and deciphered
by certain students. They attracted much attention, as they purported to
derive from the Rosicrucians. You will readily understand that the
genuineness of the claim matters no whit, such literature being judged by
itself, not by its reputed sources. {240}
"Among the MSS. was one which gave the address of a certain person in
Germany, who is known to us as S.D.A. Those who discovered the ciphers
wrote to S.D.A., and in accordance with instructions received, an Order was
founded which worked in a semi-secret manner.
"After some time S.D.A. died: further requests for help were met with a
prompt refusal from the colleagues of S.D.A. It was written by one of them
that S.D.A.'s scheme had always been regarded with disapproval. But since
the absolute rule of the adepts is never to interfere with the judgment of
1 "See" "The Real History of the Rosicrucians," by A. E. Waite.
2 Viz., Christian Rosencreutz.
3 "Vide" Diagram of the paths and Grades.
any other person whomsoever --- how much more, then, one of themselves, and
that one most highly revered! --- they had refrained from active
opposition. The adept who wrote this added that the Order had already
quite enough knowledge to enable it or its members to formulate a magical
link with the adepts.
"Shortly after this, one called S.R.M.D. announced that he had
formulated such a link, and that himself with two others was to govern the
Order. New and revised rituals were issued, and fresh knowledge poured out
in streams.
"We must pass over the unhappy juggleries which characterised the next
period. It has throughout proved impossible to elucidate the complex
facts.
"We content ourselves, then, with observing that the death of one of his
two colleagues, and the weakness of the other, secured to S.R.M.D. the sole
authority. The rituals were elaborated, though scholarly enough, into
verbose and pretentious nonsense: the knowledge proved worthless, even
where it was correct: for it is in vain that pearls, be they never so clear
and precious, are given to the swine.
"The ordeals were turned into contempt, it being impossible {241} for
any one to fail therein. Unsuitable candidates were admitted for no better
reason than that of their worldly possessions.
"In short, the Order failed to initiate.
"Scandal arose, and with it schism.
"In 1900 one P., a brother, instituted a rigorous test of S.R.M.D. on
the one side and the Order on the other. ..."
Here we must leave the "Lection," returning to it in its proper place,
and after explaining "the Diagram of the Paths and the Grades," enter upon
the Ritual of the 0=0 Grade of Neophyte.
It will be at once apparent to the reader that the Diagram of the Paths
is simply the ordinary Sephirotic Tree of Life, combined with the Tarot
trumps, the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet, the thirty-two paths
of the Sepher Yetzirah, the signs of the Zodiac, and the signs of the
planets and the elements.
The following account of it is taken from S.A.'s copy No. 2 of the
"Ritual of the 24th, 25th, and 26th Paths leading from the First Order of
the G.'. D.'. in the outer to the 5=6, Associate Adept speaking:
"Before you upon the Altar is the diagram of the Sephiroth and Paths
with which you are already well acquainted, having marked thereon the grade
of the order corresponding to each Sephira, and the Tarot Trumps
appropriated to each Path.
"You will further note that the First Order includes: Malkuth, answering
to Neophyte and Zelator, and the element of earth. Yesod to Theoricus and
air. Hod to Practicus and water. And Netzach to Philosophus and fire.
"Of these the last Three Grades alone communicate with the Second Order,
though cut off from it by a veil which may {242}
{Illustration goes here. This is a Tree of life with the sephiroth as
circles, containing the information noted below on this approximation. The
paths are straight lines, with the following data by number:
0. Air. HB:Aleph . Fool. 11th.
1. Mercury. HB:Bet . Magician. 12th.
2. Moon. HB:Gemel . High Priestess. 13th.
3. Venus. HB:Dalet . Empress. 14th.
4. Aries. HB:Heh . Emperor. 15th.
5. Taurus. HB:Vau . Hierophant. 16th.
6. Gemini. HB:Zain . Lovers. 17th.
7. Cancer. HB:Chet . Chariot. 18th.
11. Leo. HB:Tet . Strength. 19th.
9. Virgo. HB:Yod . Hermit. 20th.
10. Jupiter. HB:Koph . Wheel of Fortune. 21st.
8. Libra. HB:Lamed . Justice. 22nd.
12. Water. HB:Mem . Hanged Man. 23rd.
13. Scorpio. HB:Nun . Death. 24th.
14. Sagittarius. HB:Samekh . Temperance. 25th.
15. Capricorn. HB:Ayin . The Devil. 26th.
16. Mars. HB:Peh . The Tower. 27th.
17. Aquarius. HB:Tzaddi . The Star. 28th.
18. Pisces. HB:Qof . The Moon. 29th.
19. Sun. HB:Resh . The Sun. 30th.
20. Dee. HB:Shin . The Angel. 31st.
21. Saturn. HB:Taw . The Universe. 32nd.
The two veils are represented in the drawing by heavy horizontal lines, and
here by shaded lines, with the text included in the approximation below.
10=1
Kether
.Ipsissimus
12th . .11th
. . .
8=3 . . 9=2
Binah . 14th Chokmah
Magister................................Magus
Templi . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
18th . . . .
. . . . 16th
. . . . .
. . . . .
. . . . .
. The Veil of the Abyss . .
6=57=4
Geburah Babe of the Abyss Chesed
Adeptus.........................19th...Adeptus
Major . . . . .Exemptus
. . 17th . 15th . .
. . . 13th. . .
23rd 22nd. 5=6.. 20th 21st
. Tipheret .
. .Adeptus. .
. 26th. Minor .24th .
. .The Veil . Paroketh . .
3=84=7
Hod.Lord of the Paths.in the Portal- Netzach -of the Vault of-
Practicus......................27th....Philosophus -the Adepts
Water . . . .Dee
. . 25th . .
31st .30th . 28th. .29th
. . 2=9 . .
. .Yesod. .
. Theoricius .
. .Air .
. 32nd .
. . .
1=10
Malkuth
Zelator
Spirit
0=0 Neophyte
DIAGRAM 2. THE PATHS AND GRADES.} {243}
only be drawn aside by invitation from the Second Order for the Philosophus
who has passed the five examinations symbolic of the five elements and the
five Paths leading from the First Order thereto, and who has been duly
approved of by the Higher Powers.
"The Three grades of the Second Order are entitled: Adeptus Minor, or
Lesser Adept, 5=6 answering to Tiphereth, the Reconciler, in the
midst of the Sephirotic Tree. Adeptus Major, or Greater Adept, 6=5
answering to Geburah. And Adeptus Exemptus, or Exempt Adept, 7=4
answering to Chesed."
THE RITUALS OF THE ORDER OF THE
GOLDEN DAWN
RITUAL OF THE 0=0 GRADE OF NEOPHYTE
As the Ritual of the Grade of Neophyte is, with perhaps the exception of
the Ritual of the Grade of Adeptus Minor, the most important of all the
Rituals of the G.'. D.'., it will be necessary here to enter upon it
fully, so that the reader may in some sort initiate himself.
But the pathway must be pointed out, and that clearly, so that the
pilgrim does not take at the very commencement of his mystic journey a
wrong turning, one of those many turnings which at the very start lead so
many into the drear and dismal lands of fear and doubt.
The following description of the Temple and Officers in the 0=0
Grade is taken from one of the official books of the G.'. D.'. called
Z.1, and is as follows: {244}
THE TEMPLE
"The Temple as arranged in the 0=0 Grade of Neophyte in the order
of the G.'. D.'. in the Outer is placed looking towards the HB:Heh HB:Yod or
HB:Heh HB:Vau HB:Heh HB:Yod (J.H.V.H.) in Malkuth of Assiah. That is, that as HB:Yod
and HB:Heh answer unto the Sephiroth Chokmah and Binah in the Tree,4 unto
Aba and Aima,5 through whose knowledge that of Kether may be obtained; even
so, the sacred rites of the Temple may gradually, and as it were in spite
of themselves, raise the Neophyte unto the knowledge of his Higher Self.6
"Like the other Sephiroth Malkuth hath also its subsidiary Sephiroth and
paths.7 Of these ten Sephiroth the Temple as arranged in the 0=0 of
Neophyte includeth only the four lower Sephiroth in the Tree of life, viz.:
Malkuth, Jesod, Hod, and Netzach, and the outer side of Paroketh,8 which
latter formeth the East of the Temple."
The plan of the Temple as arranged in this grade is shown on the
adjoining diagram; therein it will be seen that it contains two pillars or
obelisks. These two pillars, which are respectively in Netzach and Hod,
need careful explanation.
They represent Mercy and Severity, the former being white and in
Netzach, the latter black and in Hod. Their bases are cubical and black to
represent the Earth Element in Malkuth; the columns are respectively white
and black to manifest eternal Balance of the Scales of Justice. {245}
4 HB:Yod Stands for Chokmah, and HB:Heh for Binah, HB:Vau for the rest
except Malkuth which is the final h.
5 Father and (Glorified) Mother.
6 The Theosophical term "Higher Self," is usually termed in the
G.'. D.'. "Genius." Abramelin calls it "Holy Guardian Angel,"
" "vide" Preface.
7 The Sephirotic Scheme, it will be remembered, is divided into
four worlds: Atziloth; Briah; Yetzirah and Assiah. Each world
contains ten Sephiroth, and each of these Sephira again ten,
making the total number four hundred.
8 "Paroketh" is the Veil which separates Hod and Netzach from
Tiphereth; and as we shall see later on, in the Portal Ritual,
the First Order from the Second Order.
{Illustration on page 245 approximated below:
_____________________________________________________________________
THE VEIL OF THE SANCTUARY
Point of Rending
____________________________________________________________________
..
. .
. .
. The Veil of Nephthys The Veil of Isis .
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________
Imperator Cancellar- Hierophant Past Premonstra-
Nephthys ius Thoth Osiris Hierophant tor Isis
Aroueris
___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ ___________ٳ
| / | \ |
HB:Mem HB:Ayin HB:Samekh HB:Nun HB:Koph
| / | \ |
__ | / | \ | __
S . . / | \ . . D
t .The Place. Thmaist .The Place. a
o& .of the feet. _________ .of the feet. &d
lC of NEPHTHYS ------ Hegemon ------ of ISIS Co
iu . Scale of . _________ . Scale of . eu
sp . Bilanx. . Harpocrates .Bilanx. . nc
t . . \HB:Resh | HB:Tzaddi / . .
sh
e \ \ . | . / / eo
s \ . Place of. / rs
__ \ .Evil Triad . / __ٳ
Apophrasz
\ .Satan Typh-. /
HB:Shin .on Besz . HB:Qof
\ . HB:Taw . /
_
\ Double_Altar /
. | .
\ .\ /. /
. \ / .
x
. / \ .
. /Hiereus.
Horus
Kerux Anubis of E + W
__________________________________&__________________________________
Sentinel
DIAGRAM 3.
Arrangement of the Temple in the
0 = 0 Ritual.}
Upon them should be represented in counterchanged colours any appropriate
Egyptian design emblematic of the soul. The scarlet tetrahedronal capitals
represent the fire of Test and Trial, and between the Balance is the porch
way of the Immeasurable Region.
The twin lights which flare on the summits are the "Declarers of Eternal
Truth."
The pillars are really obelisks with tetrahedronal capitals slightly
flattened at the apices so as to bear each a lamp.
At the Eastern part of Malkuth, at its junction-point with the path of
HB:Taw , is placed the altar in the form of a double cube. Its colour is
black to represent to the Neophyte the colour of Malkuth; but to the adept
there lies hidden in the blackness the four colours of the Earth, in their
appropriate positions on the sides. The base only is wholly black; whilst
the summit will be of a brilliant whiteness although invisible to the
material eye.
"The symbols upon the altar represent the forces and manifestations of
Divine Light concentrated in the white triangle of the Three Supernals.
Wherefore upon this sacred and sublime symbol is the obligation of the
Neophyte taken as calling therein to witness the operations of the Divine
Light. The red cross of Tiphereth representing 5=6 is placed above
the white triangle; not as dominating it, but as bringing it down and
manifesting it unto the Outer Order: as though the Crucified One having
raised the symbol of Self-Sacrifice had thus touched and brought into
action in matter the Divine triad of Light.
{Illustration at this point. An approximation follows:
/\
/ \
/ \
/ \
/ /\ \
/ / \ \
/ / \ \
/ / \ \
/ / \ \
/ /__________\ \
/____________________\
DIAGRAM 4.
The Altar Symbol in
the 0=0 Ritual. }
"Around the cross are the symbols of the four letters of Tetragrammaton,
the HB:Shin of Jeheshua being only implied and not "expressed" in the Outer.
And these are placed according to the winds."
The door should be situated behind and to the West of the Throne of the
Hiereus; it is called "The Gate of the Declarers of Judgment," and its
symbolic form is that of a straight and narrow doorway between two mighty
pylons.
THE THREE CHIEFS
At the East of the Temple before Paroketh sit the three Chiefs who
govern and rule all things and are the viceroys in the Temple of the Second
Order beyond. They are the reflections therein of the 7=4, 6=5,
and 5=6 Grades, and are neither comprehended in, nor understood by,
the Outer Order. They represent, as it were, "Veiled Divinities," and their
seats are before the veil (Paroketh) which is divided into two parts at the
point of the rending, as though it answered unto the veils of Isis and
Nephthys impenetrable save to the initiate. {246}
Now the Imperator governeth, because in Netzach --- which is the highest
grade of the First Order --- is the fire reflected from Geburah.
The Praemonstrator is second, because in Hod is the water reflected from
Chesed.
The Cancellarius is third, because in Yesod is the air reflected from
Tiphereth.
But in each Temple these three chiefs are coeternal and coequal, thus
figuring the Triad in Unity, yet are their functions different:
The Imperator to command
The Praemonstrator to instruct.
The Cancellarius to record.
"Even as the Flaming Fire doth overcome, and the still Waters reflect
all images, and the all-wandering Air receiveth sound."
The synthesis of the Three Chiefs may be said to be in the form of Thoth
who cometh from behind the veil.
Yet also the Imperator may be referred unto the Goddess Nephthys from
his relationship unto Geburah. The Praemonstrator unto Isis from Chesed.
And the Cancellarius unto Thoth in his position as recorder.
OF THE STATIONS OF THE INVISIBLES. THE GODS OF
THE ELEMENTS
Their stations are at the four cardinal points of the Hall without, as
invisible guardians of the limits of the temple: and they are placed
according to the winds, viz.: behind the stations of the Hierophant,
Dadouchos, Hiereus and Stolistes.
Between them are placed the stations of the four vicegerents of the
Elements; and they are situated at the four corners of the Temple, at the
places marked by the four rivers of Eden in the Warrant,9 which later
represents the Temple itself; of which the guardians are the Kerubim, and
the vicegerents in the palaces of the rulers Ameshet at the N.E.,
Thoumathph at the S.E., Ahephi or Ahapshi at the S.W., Kabetznuph at the
N.W.
OF THE PLACE OF THE EVIL TRIAD
This is the place of Yesod, it is termed the Place of the Evil One, of
the Slayer of Osiris. He is the Tempter, Accuser and Punisher of the
Brethren. Wherefore is he frequently represented in Egypt with the head of
a Water-Dragon, the body of a Lion or Leopard, and hindquarters of a Water-
Horse. He is the administrator of the Evil Triad, whereof the members are:
Apophrasz. The Stooping Dragon.
Satan-Typhon. The Slayer of Osiris.
Besz. The brutal power of demoniac force. {247}
9 A document which by some of the members of the G.'. D.'. was
considered to be forged. It purported to be signed by S.D.A. and
others, and authorised the founding of the Temple. "Vide" chapter
called "The Magician."
{WEH NOTE EXTENSION: This document is reproduced as plate IV in
Ellic Howe's book: "The Magicians of the Golden Dawn", Routledge &
Kegan Paul, London, 1972. There is a left-right inversion of the
Kerubim on the borders of the document, possibly due to a mistake
by the original artist. This inversion was perpetuated
throughout the Golden Dawn system, in the present ritual, in
design of Tarot cards and generally.}
OF THE PLACE OF HARPOCRATES
The next invisible station is in the path of HB:Samekh between the place of
Thmaist and that of the Evil Triad: and it is the place of the Lotus-
throned Lord of Silence, even that Great God Harpocrates, the younger
brother of Horus.
OF ISIS AND NEPHTHYS
The stations are the places of the Pillars in Netzach and Hod
respectively; wherefore these great goddesses are not otherwise shown in
this grade, save in connection with the Praemonstrator and Imperator.
OF AROUERIST
His secret place is the last of the invisible stations and he standeth
with the Hierophant as though representing him unto the Outer Order. For
while the Hierophant is 5=6, yet he is only shown as a Lord of the
Paths in the Portal of the Vault. So that when he moveth from his place on
the throne of the East, the seat of Aeshuri, he is no longer Osiris but
Arouerist. And the invisible station of Arouerist may therefore be said to
be that of the immediate past Hierophant.
THE OFFICERS AND THE STATIONS OF THE OFFICERS.
"The Hierophant." The place of the Hierophant is in the East of the
Temple on the Outer side of Paroketh to rule the temple under the
presidency of the Chiefs. He fills the place of the Lord of the Path,
acting as inductor into the sacred mysteries. His symbols and insignia
are:
The throne of the East in the path of HB:Samekh without the Veil. The
mantle of bright flame-red; the Crown-headed sceptre; the Banner of the
East; the Great Lamen.
"Expounder of the Sacred Mysteries" is the name of the Hierophant: and
he is Aeshuri-st, "The Osiris in the Nether World."
{Illustration: "DIAGRAM 5. The Banner of the East10"
This is a banner; top is aprox. 2/3 length of sides. Sides converge
slightly as they approach the bottom. Bottom is a downward pointing wedge,
with sides about 10 inclined from the horizontal. In the center of the
banner is a calvary cross. Superimposed on the central junction of the
calvary cross is a hexagram composed of two hollow triangles of contrasting
colors (independent sources give blue and red). The bands that form each
triangle interlace with those of the alternate triangle. The interlace is
in such wise as to leave a long uncovered section to counter-clockwise of
each point and a shorter uncovered section to clockwise of each point. The
top point of the hexagram exactly touches the top edge of the calvary
cross, the other points being arrayed by nature of the center of the
hexagram being concentric with the intersection of the arms of the cross.
The note in the text indicates a defect in the illustration, that it should
contain a white Tau in its center.}
{Illustration: "DIAGRAM 6. The Lamen of the Hierophant."
This is a circular device. Cross-hatching suggests that the different
parts have all of them different colors. Inside the circular shape is a
space, then a narrow concentric ring. Within this ring is a calvary cross
10 The Banner of the East should contain a white Tau in its
centre.
with a circular auriole ring concentric with the intersection of the limbs
of the cross and intercepting the arms in such a fashion as to suggest that
it would meet the centers of the upper and lateral arm ends if the
interception was visible instead of beneath the arms.}
{248}
"The Hiereus." The station of the Hiereus is at the extreme West of the
Temple at the lowest point of Malkuth, and in the black portion thereof,
representing a terrible and avenging God at the confines of Matter at the
borders of the Qliphoth. He is throned upon Matter and robed in Darkness;
and about his feet are the thunder and the lightning, which two forces are
symbolised by the impact of the paths of HB:Shin and HB:Qof (Fire, Pisces),
terminating respectively in the russet and olive quarters of Malkuth.
There, therefore, is he placed as a mighty and avenging guardian unto the
Sacred Mysteries. His symbols and insignia are:
The throne of the West at the limits of Malkuth; the robe of Darkness;
the sword; the Banner of the West; the Lamen.
"Avenger of the Gods," is the name of the Hiereus, and he is "Horus in
the City of Blindness" and of ignorance unto the Higher.
{Illustration: "DIAGRAM 7. The Banner of the West."
This is a black banner; top is aprox. 7/8ths length of sides. Sides
are parallel. Bottom is a downward pointing wedge, with sides about 10
inclined from the horizontal. In the center of the banner is a calvary
cross superimposed upon a very slightly larger calvary cross of a different
color. There is an equilateral triangle composed of white bands enclosing
the cross. This upward-pointing triangle nearly touches the top and lower
limit of the sides of the banner.}
{Illustration: "DIAGRAM 8. The Lamen of the Hiereus."
This is a circular ring of white enclosing a black field with an
circumscribed equilateral triangle pointing upward. The Triangle is
composed of white bands, and the black field is re-entrant in its center.}
{Illustration: "DIAGRAM 9. The Lamen of the Hegemon."
This is a circular ring of black enclosing a white field within which
floats a solid black calvary cross.}
"The Hegemon." The place of the Hegemon is between the two pillars, whose
bases are in Netzach and Hod at the intersection of the paths of HB:Peh and
HB:Samekh in the symbolic gateway of Occult Science: as it were at the beam of
the Balance at the equilibrium of the Scales of Justice, at the point of
the intersection of the lowest reciprocal path with that of HB:Samekh , which
latter forms a part of the Middle Column, being there placed as the
guardian of the threshold of Entrance, and the preparer of the ways for the
Enterer thereby. Therefore the Reconciler between the Light and the
Darkness, and the Mediator between the stations of the Hierophant and the
Hiereus. His symbols and insignia are:
The robe of pure Whiteness; the Mitre-headed sceptre; the Lamen. {249}
"Before the face of the Gods in the place of the Threshold" is the name
of the Hegemon; and she is the Goddess
Thmais11
Thmaist of dual form as
11 More fiery. S.R.M.D. says Thmais contains the letters of
HB:Shin HB:Taw HB:Mem HB:Aleph and probably is the origin of the Greek
Theta epsilon mu iota sigma , the Justice-Goddess.
Thmait.12
"The Kerux." --- The Kerux is the principal form of Anubis. The sentinel
being the subsidiary form. The Kerux is the Anubis of the East, whilst the
Sentinel is the Anubis of the West.
The Kerux is the herald, the guardian and watcher "within" the Temple; as
the sentinel is the watcher without. And therefore is his charge the
proper disposition of the furniture of the Temple. His peculiar insignia
of office are the red lamp and the wand.13
"Watcher of the Gods" is his name, and he is Anubis the herald before
them.
"The Stolistes." --- The station of the Stolistes is in the midst of the
Northern part of the Hall; without, and to the North-West of the Black
Pillar. He has the care of robes and insignia of the Temple. His peculiar
ensign is the Cup.
"The Goddess at the Scale of the Balance at the Black Pillar" is the
name of the Stolistes; and she is Auramooth, or the Light shining through
the waters upon the Earth.
{Illustration: "DIAGRAM 10. The Cup of the Stolistes."
This is a abstract of three black lineal figures superimposed on a
slightly modified tree of life. Each Sephiroth is represented by a white
ring circumscribing a white disk, and no paths are drawn. The Sephira are
slightly displaced to conform to the needs of the lineal figures: Kether
is free-floating above a crescent which touches Chokmah and Binah from
below. A ring grazes the bottom of the crescent and carries Chesed,
Geburah, Netzach, Hod and Yesod on its band. Tipheret is free-floating
within the center of the ring. An equilateral triangle made of black bands
touches Yesod and the ring with its apex and includes Malkut in the center
of its base. The whole is suggestive of a horned cup superimposed on the
Tree of Life.}
"The Dadouchos." --- The station of the Dadouchos is towards the midst of
the Southern part of the Hall, and to the South-West of the White Pillar.
He has the charge of the lights, the fire, and the incense of the Temple.
His ensign is the Svastika.14
"Goddess of the Scale of the Balance at the White Pillar" is the name of
the Dadouchos, and she is Thoum-aesh-neith, or Perfection through Fire
manifesting upon the Earth.
THE GRADE OF NEOPHYTE
"THE OPENING"
The Officers and members being assembled the Kerux proceeds to the right
of the Hierophant and facing West raises his wand, as a symbol of the ray
of Divine Light from the white Triangle of the Three Supernals, and cries:
"HEKAS, HEKAS, ESTE, BEBELOI!"15 {250}
in order to warn the evil and uninitiated to retire so that the Triangle
may be formulated upon the Altar.
The Hierophant then calls upon all present to assist him in opening the
Hall of the Neophytes, and bids the Kerux see that the Hall is properly
guarded.
12 More fluidic.
13 Or Caduceus. "See" Diagram 24.
14 Or Fylfat. "See" Diagram 14.
15 The same as "Eskato Bebeloi" used in the Eleusinian Mysteries.
The Fratres and Sorores of the Order then give the sign of the Neophyte,
after which the Hiereus explains that the names of the three chief officers
commence with "the letter of breath" H. But that in the name Osiris, the H
is silent, and concealed, as it were shrouded in O. In the name Horus it
is manifested and violently aspirated; while in the name Themis it is
partly one and partly the other.
The Hiereus having explained the meaning of the letter H, then
recapitulates the stations and duties of the officers, thus occultly
affirming the establishment of the temple so that the Divine Light may
shine into the Darkness.
In explaining his own station the Hierophant says:
"My place is on the throne of the East, which symbolises the rise of the
Sun of Life and Light. My duty is to rule and govern this hall in
accordance with the laws of the Order. The red colour of my robe
symbolises Light: my insignia are the sceptre and the Banner of the East,
which signify Power and Light, Mercy and Wisdom: and my office is that of
the Expounder of the Mysteries."
Then follows the purification of the Hall and the members by water and
by fire, after which the Hierophant orders the Mystic Circumambulation to
take place in the Path of Light.
The procession of officers and members is then formed in the North, in
readiness for the mystic Circumambulation in the Path of Light. It is
formed in the North beginning from the station of the Stolistes, the symbol
of the waters of creation attracting the Divine Spirit, and therefore
alluding to the creation of the world. Whilst the "Reverse
Circumambulation" has its rise from the station of the Dadouchos, symbolic
of the ending and judging of the world by fire.
But also the Circumambulation commences with the Paths HB:Shin and HB:Resh ,
as though bringing into action the solar fire; whilst the reverse commences
by those of HB:Qof and HB:Tzaddi as though bringing the watery reflux into
action.
This is the Order of the Circumambulation; first cometh Anubis, the
watcher of the Gods; next Themis, the Goddess of the Hall of Truth; then
Horus; then the remaining members in order of precedence; and lastly, the
Goddesses of the Scales of the Balance, as though a vast wheel were
revolving, as it is said:
"One wheel upon the Earth beside the Kerub." And also note the Rashish
ha-Gilgalim.16
Of this wheel the ascending side commenceth from below the pillar of
Nephthys, and the descending side from below the pillar of Isis, but in the
"Reverse Circumambulation" {251} this is contrary. And the nave or axis of
the wheel will be about the invisible station of Harpocrates; as though
that God stood there with the sign of Silence, and affirmed the concealment
of that central atom of the wheel which alone revolveth not.
The object of the Mystic Circumambulation is to attract and make
connection between the Divine Light above and the Temple, and therefore the
Hierophant quitteth his throne to take part therein, but remaineth there to
attract by his sceptre the Light from beyond the Veils.
Each member in passing the Throne of the East gives the sign of the
enterer, projecting forwards the light which cometh from the sceptre of the
Hierophant.
"But Horus passes only once, for he is the son of Osiris, and inheriteth
the Light, as it were by birthright from him; wherefore he goeth at once
unto the station of the Hiereus to fix the light there. The Hegemon, the
Goddess of Truth, passeth twice because her rule is of the Balance of the
two Scales, and she retireth to her station there to complete the reflux of
the Middle Pillar. But Anubis of the East and the others circumambulate
16 The beginning of Whirling Motions, Primum Moble.
thrice as affirming the completion of the reflexion of the perfecting of
the white Triangle on the Altar."17
The circumambulation being completed, the members and remaining officers
remain standing whilst the Hierophant repeats the Adoration:
"HOLY ART THOU, LORD OF THE UNIVERSE!
HOLY ART THOU, WHOM NATURE HATH NOT FORMED!
HOLY ART THOU, THE VAST AND THE MIGHTY ONE!
LORD OF THE LIGHT AND OF THE DARKNESS!"
(At each of these sentences all bow and give the sign, the officers raising
their banners, sceptres, sword and wand on high, and then sink them in
salutation.)
The "Hierophant" then orders the Kerux to declare the Hall of the
Neophytes opened by him, which he does in the following words:
"In the name of the Lord of the Universe, I declare that the Sun hath
arisen, and that the Light shineth in Darkness."
After which the three chief officers repeat the mystic words:
"KHABS AM PEKHT!"
"KNOX OM PAX!"
"LIGHT IN EXTENSION!"
"THE OPENING" is then at an end, and the next ceremony is: "THE"
"ADMISSION."18
The Candidate is in waiting without the Portal, under the care of the
sentinel, the "Watcher Without," that is, under the care of the form of
Anubis of the West. {252}
The Hierophant informs the members assembled that he holds a
dispensation from the greatly honoured chiefs of the Second Order, for the
purpose of commencing the process of the initiation which shall ultimately
lead the Candidate to the knowledge of his Higher Self. But he is first
admitted to the Grade of Neophyte which hath no number, concealing the
commencement of All-Things under the simulacrum of No-Thing.
The Hegemon, the representative of the Gods of Truth and Justice, is
consequently sent to superintend the preparation, thus symbolizing that it
is the Presider of Equilibrium who is to administrate the process of
initiation by the commencement of the Equilibration of the forces in the
Candidate himself, by the symbols of Rectitude and Self-control. But it is
the sentinel who actually prepares the Candidate; whose body is now
surrounded by a triple cord to show the restriction of the powers of
Nature; and it is triple to show the white Triangle of the Three Supernals.
His eyes are also bandaged, symbolising that the Light of the natural world
is but as darkness compared with the radiance of the Light Divine.
The Ritual then continues:
"Hedemon:" "Child of Earth! arise, and enter into the Path of Darkness!"
The "Hierophant" then gives his permission, ordering the Stolistes and
Dadouchos to assist the Kerux in the reception; but the Kerux bars the way
saying:
"Child of Earth! unpurified and unconsecrated! Thou canst not enter our
Sacred Hall."
Whereupon the Stolistes purifies the Candidate by Water, and the
Dadouchos consecrates him by Fire.
Then the "Hierophant" speaks: he does so not as to an assembly of mortals,
but as a God before the assembly of the Gods. "And let his voice be so
directed that it shall roll through the Universe to the confines of Space,
and let the Candidate represent unto him a world which he is beginning to
17 Z. 1.
18 The following explanatory remarks on the Admission and Ceremony
of the Neophyte are taken from the MS. called Z. 3.
lead unto the knowledge of its governing angel. As it is written: 'The
lightning lighteneth out of the East and flameth even unto the West, even
so shall be the coming of the Son of Man!'"
The Candidate during the ceremony is addressed as "child of Earth" as
representing the earthly and material nature of the natural man: he who
cometh forward from the darkness of Malkuth to strive to regain knowledge
of the Light. Therefore it is that the path of the initiate is called the
Path of Darkness; for it is but darkness and foolishness to the natural
man.
The "Hierophant" giving his permission to the Kerux to admit the
Candidate, seals the Candidate with a motto as a new name. This motto is
not a name given to the outer man's body, but an occult signifier of the
aspiration of his soul.
"In affirmation of this motto, now doth Osiris send forward the
Goddesses of the Scales of the Balance to baptize the aspirant with water
and with fire. Even as it is written: 'Except a man be born of water and
of the spirit: in no wise shall he enter unto the Kingdom of Heaven. {253}
The "Kerux," however, at once bars the way, as the Candidate is still
unpurified. Thereupon the Goddesses of the Scales purify and consecrate
him. This is the first consecration. "But even as there be four pillars
at the extremities of a sphere when the ten Sephiroth are projected
therein; so also are there four separate consecrations of the Candidate."
The reception and consecration takes place in the black portion of
Malkuth; when it is finished the Candidate is conducted to the foot of the
altar, the citrine portion of Malkuth, and the part receiving the impact of
the Middle Pillar.
The "Hierophant" then says to the Candidate: "Child of Earth! wherefore
hast thou come to request admission to this Order?"
The "Hegemon" answers for the Candidate: "My soul is wandering in the
Darkness seeking for the light of Occult Knowledge, and I believe that in
this Order the Knowledge of that Light may be obtained."
Whereupon the "Hierophant" asks the Candidate whether he is willing "in
the presence of this assembly to take a great and solemn obligation to keep
inviolate the secrets and mysteries of our Order?"
To which the Candidate himself replies: "I am."
The Hierophant now advances between the Pillars as if thus asserting
that the Judgment is concluded: "And he advanceth by the invisible station
of Harpocrates unto that of the Evil Triad; so that as Arouerist19 he
standeth upon the Opposer." He thus cometh to the East of the Altar,
interposing between the place of the Evil Triad and that of the Candidate.
At the same time the Hiereus advanceth on the Candidate's left, and the
Hegemon standeth at his right, as formulating about him the symbol of the
Triad, before he be permitted to place his right hand in the centre of the
White Triangle of the Three Supernals on the Altar. And he first kneeleth
in adoration of that symbol, as if the natural man abnegated his will
before that of the Divine consciousness.
The "Hierophant" now orders the Candidate to kneel (in the midst of the
triad Arouerist, Horus and Themis), to place his left hand in that of the
initiator, and his right hand upon the white triangle as symbolising his
active aspiration towards his Higher Soul. The Candidate then bows his
head, and the Hierophant gives one knock with his sceptre; affirming that
the symbol of submission into the Higher is now complete.
Only at that moment doth the colossal image of Thoth20 Metatron cease
from the sign of the enterer: and giveth instead the sign of the silence:
permitting the first real descent of the Genius of the Candidate, who
descendeth into the invisible station of Harpocrates as witness unto the
obligation.
19 He is Osiris when throned; when he moves he assumes the form of
Arouerist.
20 Thoth is one of the Invisible officers.
All then rise and the Candidate repeats the Obligation after the
Hierophant. In it {254} he pledges himself to keep secret the Order, its
name, and the names of the members, as well as the proceedings which take
place at its meetings. To maintain kindly and benevolent relation with all
the Fratres and Sorores of the Order. To prosecute with zeal and study the
occult sciences, &c. &c. He then swears to observe the above under the
awful penalty of submitting "myself to a deadly and hostile current of will
set in motion by the chiefs of the Order, by which I should fall slain or
paralyzed without visible weapon, as if blasted by the lightning flash!21
(Hiereus here suddenly applies sword.) So help me THE LORD OF THE UNIVERSE
and my own Higher Soul."
As the Candidate affirmeth his own penalty should he prove a traitor to
the Order, the evil triad riseth up in menace, and the avenger of the Gods,
Horus, layeth the blade of his sword on the point of the Dath junction
("i.e.", of the brain with the spine) thus affirming the power of Life and
Death over the natural body: and the Form of the Higher Self advanceth and
layeth its hand on the Candidate's head for the first time, at the words:
"So help me the Lord of the Universe and my own Higher Soul." And this is
the first assertion of the connecting-link between them. Then after this
connection is established doth the Hierophant in the following words raise
the Candidate to his feet:
"Rise, newly obligated Neophyte in the 0=0 Grade of the Order of
the G.'. D.'. in the Outer. Place the Candidate in the Northern part of
the Hall, the place of the greatest symbolic Darkness."
The Candidate is then placed in the North, the place of the greatest
symbolic Darkness, the invisible station of Taaur the Bull of Earth. But
therein dwelleth Ahapshi the rescuer of Matter, Osiris in the Sign of the
Spring. That as the earth emergeth from the Darkness and the Barrenness of
Winter, so the Candidate may thus affirm the commencement of his
emancipation from the darkness of ignorance.
The Hierophant and Hiereus return to their thrones, therefore it is not
Arouerist but Osiris himself that addresseth the Candidate in the words:
"The voice of my Higher Soul said unto me: let me enter the path of
Darkness, peradventure thus shall I obtain the Light; I am the only Being
in the abyss of Darkness: from the Darkness came I forth ere my birth, from
the silence of a primal sleep! And the Voice of Ages answered unto my
soul: I am he who formulates in Darkness, but the Darkness comprehendeth it
not."
And this is to confirm the link established between the Neschamah and
the Genius by communicating the conception thereof unto the Ruach. Thus,
therefore, Osiris speaketh in the Character of the Higher Soul, the
symbolic form of which is now standing between the pillars before him.
The Second Circumambulation then takes place in the Path of Darkness,
the symbolic {255} Light of Occult Science leading the way. This light of
the Kerux is to show that the Higher soul is not the only Divine Light, but
rather a spark from the Infinite Flame.
After the Kerux comes the Hegemon, the translator of the Higher Self,
leading the Candidate, then the Stolistes and Dadouchos. Once they pass
round the temple in solemn procession: it is the foundation in Darkness of
the Binah angle of the whole Triangle of the Ineffable Light. The
Hierophant knocks once as then pass him, and the Hiereus does likewise, as
the affirmations of Mercy and Vengeance respectively. A second time they
pass the Hierophant affirming the commencement of the formulation of the
angle of Chokmah.
The "Kerux" then bars the Candidate's passage to the West, saying:
"Child of Earth! unpurified and unconsecrated! Thou canst not enter the
Path of the West!"
21 A later edition of the Ritual, issued subsequent to the Horos
scandals, reads "an awful and avenging punitive current," &c.
Thus indicating that the natural man cannot even obtain the
understanding of the "Son" of Osiris, except by purification and equilibrium.
The Candidate is then purified with water and consecrated by fire; after
which he is allowed to approach the Place of the Twilight of the Gods. And
now only is the hoodwink slipped up for a moment to obtain a glimpse of the
Beyond.
The "Hiereus" then challenges as follows:
"Thou canst not pass by me, saith the Guardian of the West, unless thou
canst tell me my Name."
In this challenge is signified the knowledge of the Formula; and that
without the formula of Horus being formulated in the Candidate, that of
Osiris cannot be grasped.
To the Candidate this appears as the anger of God; for he cannot as yet
comprehend that before Mildness can be exercised rightly the Forces both of
Severity and Mercy must be known and wielded.
Therefore the "Hegemon" answers for him:
"Darkness is thy Name! Thou art the Great One of the Path of the
Shades."
The Hegemon then suddenly lifts the veil, and the Candidate sees before
him standing on the steps of the throne the Hiereus with sword pointed to
his Breast.
Slowly sinking the blade the "Hiereus" says:
"Child of Earth, fear is failure: be thou therefore without fear! for in
the heart of the coward Virtue abideth not! Thou hast known me, so pass
thou on!"
The Candidate is then re-veiled.
Then the "Kerux" again bars his way, saying:
"Child of Earth! unpurified and unconsecrated! Thou canst not enter the
Path of the East."
This Barring of the Path is an extension of the meaning of the previous
one, and the commencement of the formulation of the Angle of Kether.
Once again is the Candidate purified with water and consecrated by fire;
and the {256} hoodwink is slipped up to give a glimpse of the Light as
dimly seen through Darkness yet heralding a Glory which is in the Beyond.
The "Hierophant," then slowly lowering his sceptre, says:
"Child of Earth! remember that Unbalanced Force is evil. Unbalanced
Mercy is but weakness: Unbalanced Severity is but oppression. Thou hast
known me; pass thou on unto the Cubical Altar of the Universe."
Thus formulating the Force of the Hidden Central Pillar. The Hierophant
then leaveth his throne and passeth between the pillars, halting at either
the station of Harpocrates, the place of the Evil Triad, or at the East of
the Altar. The Hiereus standeth on the left of the Candidate, and the
Hegemon on his right. Thus again completing the formulation of the Triad
of the Three Supernals.
The Hierophant and Hiereus may hold their banners; anyhow it is done
astrally; and the Higher Self of the Candidate will be formulated once more
in the Invisible station of Harpocrates.
The "Hierophant" than says:
"Let the Candidate kneel, while I invoke the LORD OF THE UNIVERSE!"
After the prayer has been solemnly repeated,the "Hierophant" says: "Let
the Candidate rise,"22 and then:
"Child of Earth! long hast thou dwelt in Darkness! Quit the Night, and
seek the day."
Then only at the words: "Let the Candidate rise" is the hoodwink
definitely removed. The Hierophant, Hiereus, and Hegemon join their
sceptres and sword above the Candidate's head, thus formulating the
Supernal Triad, and assert that they receive him into the Order of the
Golden Dawn, in the words:
"Frater X Y Z, we receive thee into the Order of the Golden Dawn!"
22 Meaning also: "Let the Light arise in the Candidate."
They then recite the mystic words, "KHABS AM PEKHT," as sealing the
current of the Flaming Light.
But the Higher Soul remaineth in the Invisible Station of Harpocrates,
and to the Spirit Vision, at this point, there should be a gleaming white
Triangle formulated above the forehead of the Candidate and touching it,
the symbol of the white Triangle of the Three Supernals.
The "Hierophant" now calleth forward the Kerux, and turning towards the
Candidate says to him:
"In all your wanderings through darkness, the lamp of the Kerux went
before you though you saw it not! It is the symbol of the Hidden Light of
Occult Science."
It here representeth to him a vague formulation of his ideal, which he
can neither grasp not analyse. Yet this Light is not the symbol of his own
Higher Self, but rather a ray from the Gods to lead him there. {257}
The "Hierophant" then continues:
"Let the Candidate be conducted to the East of the Altar. Honoured
Hiereus, I delegate to you the duty of entrusting the Candidate with the
secret signs, grip, grand word and present pass-word of the 0 = 0
Grade of the Order of the Golden Dawn in the Outer, of placing him between
the mystic pillars, and of superintending his fourth and final
consecration."
The East of the Altar is the place of the Evil Triad, and he is brought
there as though affirming that he will trample upon and cast out his evil
persona, which will then become a support unto him, but it must first be
cast down unto its right place.
The Hiereus now confers the secret signs, &c., and during this part of
the ceremony the position of the three chief officers is as follows: The
Hierophant on the throne of the East; the Hiereus at the East of the Black
Pillar; and the Hegemon at the East of the White Pillar. The three again
formulating the Triad and strengthening it.
Thus the Higher Soul will be formulated between the Pillars in the place
of Equilibrium; the Candidate at the place of the Evil Triad. The Hiereus
now advanceth between the Pillars unto the invisible station of
Harpocrates.
The signs having been explained, the Hiereus draweth the Candidate
forward between the pillars, and for the second time in the ceremony the
Higher Soul standeth near and ready to touch him. Then the Hiereus
returneth to the East of the Black Pillar so that the three chief officers
may draw down upon him the forces of the Supernal Triad.
The Candidate now therefore is standing between the pillars bound with
the rope, like the mummied form of Osiris between Isis and Nephthys. And
in this position doth the fourth and final consecration by the Goddesses of
the Balances take place; the Aspirant for the first time standing between
the pillars, at the point wherein are localized the equilibrated forces of
the Balances, and meanwhile the Kerux goeth to the North in readiness for
the Circumambulation, so as to link the latter with the final consecration
of the Candidate.
The "Stolistes" then says: "Frater X Y Z, I finally consecrate thee by
water."
And the "Dadouchos:" "Frater X Y Z, I finally consecrate thee by fire."
And the effect of this is to seal finally into the Sphere of Sensation
of the Candidate the Pillars in Balanced Formulation. For in the natural
man the symbols are unbalanced in strength, some being weaker and some
stronger, and the effect of the ceremony is to strengthen the weak and
purify the strong, thus gradually commencing to equilibrate them, at the
same time making a link between them and their corresponding forces in the
Macrocosm.
The "Hierophant" then says:
"Honoured Hegemon, the final consecration of the Candidate having been
performed, I command you to remove the rope from his wast, the last
remaining symbol of Darkness; and to invest him with the distinguishing
badge of the grade." {258}
The "Hegemon," executing the Hierophant's order, says:
"By command of the Very Honoured Hierophant, I invest you with the
distinguishing badge of the grade. It symbolizes Light dawning in
Darkness."
The four pillars being thus established, now only is the Candidate
invested with the badge of the White Triangle of the Three Supernals
formulating in Darkness; and now only is the Higher soul able to formulate
a link with him if the human will of the natural man be in reality
consenting thereto. For the free will of the Candidate as a natural man is
never obsessed, either by the Higher Soul, or by the ceremony. But the
Will consenting, the whole of the ceremony is directed to the strengthening
of its action.
And as this badge is place upon him, it is as though the two Great
Goddesses, Isis and Nephthys, in the places of the columns, stretched forth
their wings over the form of Osiris to restore him again unto life.
The Mystic Circumambulation then followeth in the Path of Light to
represent the rising of the Light in the Candidate through the operation of
self-sacrifice; as he passeth the Throne of the East, the red Cavalry Cross
is astrally formulated above the astral White Triangle of the Three upon
his forehead; so that so long as he belongeth unto the Order he may have
that potent and sublime symbol as a link with his Higher Self, and as an
aid in his search for the Forces of the Light Divine for ever, if he only
"will it."
But the Higher Soul or Genius returneth unto the Invisible Station of
Harpocrates, into the Place of the hidden centre, yet retaining the link
formulated with the Candidate.
The address of the "Hierophant" then follows:
"Frater X Y Z, I must congratulate you on your having passed with so
much fortitude through your ceremony of the admission to the 0 = 0
Grade of the Order of the Golden Dawn in the Outer. I will now direct your
attention to a brief explanation of the principal symbols of your grade."
When these have been explained the Kerux, as the Watcher Anubis,
announceth in the following words that the Candidate has been admitted as
an initiate Neophyte:
"In the name of the LORD OF THE UNIVERSE and by command of the
V.H.Hierophant, hear you all that I proclaim that A: B: who hereafter will
be known unto you by the motto X Y Z, has been admitted in due form to the
0 = 0 Grade of Neophyte of the Order of the Golden Dawn in the
Outer."
The "Hiereus" then addresseth the Neophyte and congratulates him upon
being admitted a member of the Order, "whose professed object and end is
the practical study of Occult Science." After which the "Hierophant" stateth
clearly the Principia which the Neophyte must now commence to study.
This being at an end the "Kerux" conducteth the Neophyte to his table and
giveth {259} him a solution telling him to pour a few drops on the plate
before him. As he does so the solution changes to a blood colour, and the
"Kerux" says:
"As this pure, colourless, and limpid fluid is changed into the
semblance of blood, so mayest thou change and perish, if thou betrayest
thine oath of secrecy of this Order, by word or deed!"
The "Hierophant" then says:
"Resume your seat in the N.W., and remember that your admission to this
order give you no right to initiate any other person without dispensation
from the greatly honoured chiefs of the Second Order."
Thus ends the Admission, after which the Closing takes place.
"THE CLOSING"
The Closing Ceremony is opened by the cry:
"HEKAS, HEKAS, ESTE, BEBELOI!"
and the greater part of its symbolism is explained in the Opening. The
reverse circumambulation is intended to formulate the withdrawal of the
Light of the Supernal Triad from the Altar. The Adoration then takes
place, after which followeth the mystical repast, or communion in the body
of Osiris. Its mystic name is "The Formula of the Justified One."23
The "Hierophant" saying:
"Nothing now remains but to partake in Silence the Mystic repast
composed of the {260} symbols of the Four elements, and to remember our
pledge of secrecy." (The Kerux proceeds to the Altar and ignites the
spirit placed at the southern angle of the Cross. The "Hierophant," quitting
his throne, goes to the West of the Altar, and facing East, salutes and
continues:)
"I invite you to inhale with me the perfume of this rose as a symbol of
Air (smelling rose): To feel with me the warmth of this sacred Fire
(spreading hands over it): To eat with me this Bread and Salt as types of
earth (eats): and finally to drink with me this Wine, the consecrated
emblem of elemental Water (drinks from cup).
The Hierophant then goes to the East of the Altar and faces West. The
Hiereus comes to the West of the Altar, and salutes the Hierophant,
receiving the elements from him. All then partake in order of rank:
Hegemon from Hiereus, Stolistes from Hegemon, Dadouchos from Stolistes,
Senior Members from Dadouchos, and the Kerux from the Candidate.
But the "Kerux" says: "It is finished," inverting the cup, to show that
the symbols of Self-sacrifice and Regeneration are accomplished. And this
proclamation is confirmed by the "Hierophant," and the three chief officers
give the three strokes emblematic of the Mystic Triad, and in the three
different languages repeat the three mystic words:
"KHABS AM PEKHT!"
"KONX OM PAX!"
"LIGHT IN EXTENSION!"
The "Hierophant" then finally closes the ceremony by saying:
23 The "Formula of Osiris" is given in Z. 1, and is as follows:
"For Osiris Onnophris hath said:
He who is found perfect before the Gods hath said:
These are the elements of my body, perfected through suffering,
glorified through trial.
For the secret of the Dying Rose is as the repressed sign of my
suffering.
And the flame-red fire as the energy of my undaunted will.
And the cup of wine is the outpouring of the Blood of my heart
sacrificed unto regeneration and the Newer Life.
And the Bread and the Salt are as the Foundations of my Body.
Which I destroy in order that they may be renewed.
For I am Osiris Triumphant, even Osiris Onnophris the Justified.
I am he who is clothed with the Body of Flesh:
Yet in whom is the Spirit of the Mighty Gods.
I am the Lord of Life triumphant over Death.
He who partaketh with me shall rise with me.
I am the manifester in Matter of those whose abode is in the
Invisible.
I am purified; I stand upon the Universe:
I am the Reconciler with the Eternal Gods:
I am the Perfecter of Matter:
And without me the Universe is not!"
"May what we have this day partaken of, sustain us in our search for the
Quintessence; the Stone of the Philosophers; the True Wisdom and Perfect
Happiness, and the Summum Bonum."
All then disrobe and disperse.
Undoubtedly the passing through the Ritual of the Neophyte had an
important influence on P.'s mind, and on his Spiritual Progress; for
shortly after its celebration, we find him experiencing some very
extraordinary visions, which we shall enter upon in due course. Suffice it
to say that by December he had passed the easy examination necessary before
he could present himself as a candidate for the 1 = 10 grade of
Zelator. {261}
RITUAL OF THE 1 = 10 GRADE OF ZELATOR1
The opening in this ritual is very similar to that in the last; the
chief exception being that this grade is more particularly attributed to
the element of "earth".
The Temple having been declared open, the "Hierophant" says:
"Except Adonai build the House their labour is but lost that build it.
Except Adonai Keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain! Frater
Neophyte, by what aid do you seek admission to the 1 =10 Grade of
Zelator of the G.'. D.'.?"
{Illustration on page 262 approximated below:
1 The following five Rituals are considerably abridged; chiefly to
economise space and so allow the rituals of the Neophyte and
Adeptus Minor to be dealt with more fully. They are of little
magical interest, value or importance.
_____________________________________________________________________
. __ . . __ . . __ .
.. __ .. .. __ .. .. __ ..
.. .. .. .. .. ..
.. 31st .. .. 32nd .. .. 29th ..
__ __ __ __ __ __
__ __ __ __ __ __
HB:Shin HB:Taw HB:Qof
__________________
____ Hierophant ____
\ / __________________ \ /
\ / ________________ \ /
Red |\/\/|Lamp
/\
//\\
//\\
//\\
____ // \\ ____
Banner of the West // \\ Banner of the East
/============\
________________
__________________ () __________________
Hiereus X Hegemon
__________________ ()---() __________________
\
\
()---()
\
()
\
()---()
______________ \ ______________
--- /\ . /\ . () . /\ .
Spirit [||] . / \ . | . / \ .
---Lamp . / \ . () . / \ .
. / \ . . / \ .
[Salt] ./________\. Lights ./________\.
Salt . . Unshaded . .
______________ ______________
__________________ __________________ __________________
Stolistes Kerux Dadouchos
__________________ __________________ __________________
_____________________________________________________________________
DIAGRAM 11.
Arrangement of the Temple in the
1 = 10 Ritual (first part).}
The "Hegemon," answering for him, says: "By the guidance of Adonai; by the
possession of the requisite knowledge; by the dispensation you hold; by the
secret signs and token of the 0 = 0 Grade, and by this symbol of the
Hermetic Cross."
The Neophyte is then conducted to the West, and being placed between the
mystic pillars, pledges himself to secrecy.
The "Hierophant," congratulating him, finally says: "Let the Neophyte
enter the path of Evil." Then the following takes place.
"Hiereus:" Whence comest thou?
"Kerux" (for Neophyte): I am come from between the pillars and seek the
hidden knowledge in the Name of Adonai.
"Hiereus:" And the Angel Samael (Angel of Evil) answered an said: I am
the Prince of Darkness and of Night. The wicked and rebellious man gazeth
upon the face of Nature and he findeth therein naught but terror and
obscurity; unto him it is but the Darkness of the Darkness; and he is but
as a drunken man groping in the dark. Return, for thou canst not pass by.
"Hierophant:" Let the Neophyte enter the path of Good.
"Hegemon:" Whence comest thou?
"Kerux" (for Neophute): I am come from between the pillars and seek for
the hidden Light of Occult Knowledge. {262}
"Hegemon:" And the great Angel Metatron (Angel of Good) answered and said:
I am the Angel of the Presence Divine. The Wise man gazeth upon the
Material Universe and he beholdeth therein the luminous Image of the
Creator. Not as yet canst thou bear the dazzling radiance of that Light!
Return, for thou canst not pass by!
"Hierophant:" Let the Neophyte now advance by the Straight and Narrow way
which inclineth neither to the right hand nor to the left.
"Hiereus and Hegemon:" Whence comest thou?
"Kerux" (for Neophyte): I am come from between the pillars and seek for
the hidden Light of Occult Science.
"Hierophant:" But the great Angel Sandalphon answered and said: "I am the
Reconciler for the Earth and the Soul of the Celestial therein. Equally is
form invisible in total Darkness and in Blinding Light. ..."
The Hiereus and Hegemon return to their seats, whilst the Hierophant and
Neophyte remain, both facing the Altar. Here the "Hierophant" confers on the
Neophyte the Secrets and Mysteries of the grade; and explains to him the
Symbolism of the Temple as follows:
"The three portals facing from the East are the gates of the paths which
alone conduct to the Inner. ..."
"The letters shin, tau, and qoph, make by metathesis HB:Taw HB:Shin HB:Qof
(Qesheth), which signifies a bow, the rainbow of promise stretched over our
earth. This picture of the Flaming Sword of the Kerubim is a
representation of the guardians of the gate of Eden; just as the Hiereus
and the Hegemon symbolise the two paths of the Tree of Knowledge of Good
and Evil."
"You will observe that in this grade the red cross is placed within the
white Triangle upon the altar, and this placed, it is identical with the
Banner of the West."
"The triangle refers to the three above-mentioned paths connecting
Malkuth with the above Sephiroth, while the cross is the hidden wisdom of
the Divine nature which can be obtained by their aid. The two construed
mean: LIFE IN LIGHT."
{Illustration, approximated below:
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