THE EQUINOX Vol. I. No. III 1st part
October 22, 1989 e.v. key entry and June 25, 1990 e.v. first proof reading
against the 1st edition done by Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O.
(further proof reading desirable)
(c) O.T.O. disk 1 of 3
This is the XYWrite word processor version. To print, use substitution tables
from printer drivers 3G10X.PRN or 3G10X-L.PRN, February 1990 e.v. revision or
later (new graphics symbols used this time). A 7-bit ASCII version is also
available.
O.T.O.
P.O.Box 430
Fairfax, CA 94930
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(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)
************************************************************************
THE EQUINOX
No. IV. will contain in its 400 pages:
VARIOUS OFFICIAL INSTRUCTION of the A.'. A.'.
THE ELEMENTAL CALLS OF KEYS, WITH THE
GREAT WATCH TOWERS OF THE UNI-
VERSE and their explanation. A complete treatise, fully
illustrated, upon the Spirits of the Elements, their names and
offices, with the method of calling them forth and controlling
them. With an account of The Heptarchical Mystery, The
Thirty Aethyrs or Aires with "The Vision and the Voice," being
the Cries of the Angels of the Aethyrs, a revelation of the highest
truths pertaining to the grade of Magister Templi, and many
other matters. Fully illustrated.
THE CONTINUATION OF THE HERB DAN-
GEROUS. Selections from H. G. Ludlow, "the Hashish-
Eater."
MR. TODD: A Morality, by the author of "Rosa Mundi."
THE DAUGHTER OF THE HORSELEECH, by
ETHEL RAMSAY.
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING.
[Continuation.
FRATER P.'S EXPERIENCES IN THE EAST. A
complete account of the various kinds of Yoga.
DIANA OF THE INLET. By KATHERINE S. PRITCHARD.
Fully Illustrated.
ACROSS THE GULF: An adept's memory of his incarnation
in Egypt under the 26th dynasty; with an account of the Passing
of the Equinox of Isis.
&c. &c. &c.
"To be obtained of the"
THE EQUINOX, 15 Tavistock Street, W.C.
"And through all Booksellers"
-----------------------
"Crown 8vo, Scarlet Buckram, pp. 64."
This Edition strictly limited to 500 Copies.
PRICE 10s
A.'. A.'.
PUBLICATION IN CLASS B.
--------
BOOK
777
THIS book contains in concise tabulated form a comparative view of all the
symbols of the great religions of the world; the perfect attributions of the
Taro, so long kept secret by the Rosicrucians, are now for the first time
published; also the complete secret magical correspondences of the G.'.
D.'. and R. R. et A. C. It forms, in short, a complete magical and
philosophical dictionary; a key to all religions and to all practical occult
working.
For the first time Western and Qabalistic symbols have been harmonized
with those of Hinduism, Buddhism, Mohammedanism, Taoism, &c. By a glance at
the Tables, anybody conversant with any one system can understand perfectly
all others.
The "Occult Review" says:
"Despite its cumbrous sub-title and high price per page, this work has only
to come under the notice o {sic} the right people to be sure of a ready sale.
In its author's words, it represents 'an attempt to systematise alike the data
of mysticism and the results of comparative religion,' and so far as any book
can succeed in such an attempt, this book does succeed; that is to say, it
condenses in some sixty pages as much information as many an intelligent
reader at the Museum has been able to collect in years. The book proper
consists of a Table of 'Correspondences,' and is, in fact, an attempt to
reduce to a common denominator the symbolism of as many religious and magical
systems as the author is acquainted with. The denominator chosen is
necessarily a large one, as the author's object is to reconcile systems which
divide all things into 3, 7, 10, 12, as the case may be. Since our expression
'common denominator' is used in a figurative and not in a strictly
mathematical sense, the task is less complex than appears at first sight, and
the 32 Paths of the Sepher Yetzirah, or Book of Formation of the Qabalah,
provide a convenient scale. These 32 Paths are attributed by the Qabalists to
the 10 Sephiroth, or Emanations of Deity, and to the 22 letters of the Hebrew
alphabet, which are again subdivided into 3 mother letters, 7 double letters,
and 12 simple letters. On this basis, that of the Qabalistic 'Tree of Life,'
as a certain arrangement of the Sephiroth and 22 remaining Paths connecting
them is termed, the author has constructed no less than 183 tables.
"The Qabalistic information is very full, and there are tables of Egyptian
and Hindu deities, as well as of colours, perfumes, plants, stones, and
animals. The information concerning the tarot and geomancy exceeds that to be
found in some treatises devoted exclusively to those subjects. The author
appears to be acquainted with Chinese, Arabic, and other classic texts. Here
your reviewer is unable to follow him, but his Hebrew does credit alike to him
and to his printer. Among several hundred words, mostly proper names, we
found and marked a few misprints, but subsequently discovered each one of them
in a printed table of errata, which we had overlooked. When one remembers the
misprints in 'Agrippa' and the fact that the ordinary Hebrew compositor and
reader is no more fitted for this task than a boy cognisant of no more than
the shapes of the Hebrew letters, one wonders how many proofs there were and
what the printer's bill was. A knowledge of the Hebrew alphabet and the
Qabalistic Tree of Life is all that is needed to lay open to the reader the
enormous mass of information contained in this book. The 'Alphabet of
Mysticism,' as the author says ___ several alphabets we should prefer to say
___ is here. Much that has been jealously and foolishly kept secret in the
past is here, but though our author has secured for his work the "imprimatur" of
some body with the mysterious title of the A.'. A.'., and though he remains
himself anonymous, he appears to be no mystery-monger. Obviously he is widely
read, but he makes no pretence that he has secrets to reveal. On the
contrary, he says, 'an indicible arcanum is an arcanum which "cannot" be
revealed.' The writer of that sentence has learned at least one fact not to
be learned from books.
"G.C.J."
RIDER'S LIBRARY OF ALCHEMICAL PHILOSOPHY
THE HERMETIC AND ALCHEMICAL WRITINGS OF AUREOLUS PHILIPPUS THEOPHRASTUS
BOMBAST OF HOHENHEIM, CALLED PARACELSUS THE GREAT, now for the first time
translated into English. Edited with a Biographical Preface, Elucidatory
notes, and a copious Hermetic Vocabulary and Index, by ARTHUR EDWARD WAITE.
In Two Volumes, Dark Red Cloth, medium 4to, gilt tops, 25s. net. Vol. I.,
394 pp.; Vol. II., 396 pp.
THE TURBA PHILOSOPHORUM, or Assembly of the Sages. An Ancient Alchemical
Treatise, with the chief Readings of the Shorter Codex, Parallels from
Greek Alchemists, and Explanations of obscure terms. Translated, with
Introduction and Notes, by A.E. WAITE. Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net.
A great symposium or debate of the Adepts assembled in convocation. The
work ranks next to Gober as a fountain-head of alchemy in Western Europe. It
reflects the earliest Byzantine, Syrian and Arabian writers. This famous work
is accorded the highest place among the works of Alchemical Philosophy which
are available for the students in the English language.
THE NEW PEARL OF GREAT PRICE. the Treatise of Bonus concerning the Treasure
of the Philosopher's Stone. Translated from the Latin. Edited by A. E.
WAITE. Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net.
One of the classics of alchemy, with a very curious account, accompanied by
emblematical figures showing the generation and birth of metals, the death of
those that are base and their resurrection in the prefect forms of gold and
silver.
A GOLDEN AND BLESSED CASKET OF NATURE'S MARVELS. BY BENEDICTUS FIGULUS. With
a Life of the Author. Edited by A. E. WAITE. Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net.
A collection of short treatises by various authors belonging to the school
of Paracelsus, dealing with the mystery of the Philosopher's Stone, the
revelation of Hermes, the great work of the Tincture, the glorious antidote of
Potable Gold. Benedictus Figulus connects by imputation with the early
Rosicrucians.
THE TRIUMPHAL CHARIOT OF ANTIMONY. BY BASIL VALENTINE. Translated from the
Latin, including the Commentary of Kerckringius, and Biographical and
Critical Introduction. Edited by A. E. WAITE. Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net.
A valuable treatise by one who is reputed a great master of alchemical art.
It connects practical chemistry with the occult theory of transmutation. The
antimonial Fire-Stone is said to cure diseases in man and to remove the
imperfection of metals.
THE ALCHEMICAL WRITINGS OF EDWARD KELLY. From the Latin Edition of 1676.
With a Biographical Introduction, an Account of Kelly's relations with Dr.
Dee, and a transcript of the "Book of St. Dunstan." Edited by A. E. WAITE.
Crown 8vo, 4s. 6d. net.
A methodised summary of the best Hermetic philosophers, including a
discourse on Terrestrial Astronomy, in which the planets are replaced by
metals, and instead of an account of stellar influences we have the laws
governing metallic conversion.
YOUR FORTUNE IN YOUR NAME, OR KABALISTIC ASTROLOGY. New edition, largely
revised. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt, 96 pp., 2s. 6d. net. By "SEPHARIAL."
A MANUAL OF CARTOMANCY, Fortune-Telling and Occult divination, including the
Oracle of Human Destiny, Cagliostro's Mystic Alphabet of the Magi, &c. &c.
Fourth edition, greatly enlarged and revised, by GRAND ORIENT. Crown 8vo,
cloth gilt, 252 pp., 2s. 6d. net.
COLLECTANEA CHEMICA. Being certain Select Treatises on Alchemy and Hermetic
medicine. By EIRENAEUS PHILALETHES, &c. Crown 8vo, 7s. 6d. net.
CONTENTS ___ The Secret of the Immortal Liquor called Alkahest ___ Aurum
Potabile ___ The Admirable Efficacy of the True Oil of Sulphur Fire ___ The
Stone of the Philosophers ___ The Bosom Book of Sir George Ripley ___ The
Preparation of the Sophic Mercury.
THE HERMETIC MUSEUM, Restored and Enlarged: most faithfully instructing all
disciples of the Sopho-Spagyric art how that greatest and truest medicine
of the Philosopher's Stone may be found and held. Now first done into
English from the Latin original published at Frankfort in the year 1678.
Containing 22 celebrated alchemical tracts. Translated from the Latin and
edited by A. E. WAITE. With numerous most interesting engravings. Fcap.
quarto, 2 vols. Very scarce, 35s.
AZOTH, or The Star in the East. A New Light of Mysticism. By ARTHUR EDWARD
WAITE. Imperial 8vo, pp. xvi + 239. Original edition in special binding.
Price 5s.
A presentation of mystic doctrine and symbolism in the light of Christian
Teaching and Hermetic philosophy; evolution in the Light of Mysticism; the way
of attainment; and the interior life from the mystic standpoint.
"Note. ___ Many old books on Astrology and Alchemical Science are also kept"
"in stock. Write for latest new and second-hand catalogues."
____________________
WILLIAM RIDER & SON, Ltd., 164 Aldersgate St., London. E.C.
The Star in the West
BY
CAPTAIN J. F. C. FULLER
" ""FOURTH LARGE EDITION NOW IN PREPARATION"
THROUGH THE EQUINOX AND ALL BOOKSELLERS
SIX SHILLINGS NET
-------------------------------------
A highly original study of morals and
religion by a new writer, who is as
entertaining as the average novelist is
dull. Nowadays human thought has
taken a brighter place in the creation:
our emotions are weary of bad baronets
and stolen wills; they are now only
excited by spiritual crises, catastrophes of
the reason, triumphs of the intelligence.
In these fields Captain Fuller is a master
dramatist.
-------------------------------------
œ10 REWARD
Ten Pounds ("œ"10) will be paid by the Proprietors of THE EQUINOX
for a copy of the Journal containing the following passage, which has
been anonymously sent to this office, or for such information as may
enable them to trace the perpetrators.
(TORN EDGE)
the circumstances.
_________________
Cox, Box, Equinox,
McGregors are coming to Town;
Some in rags, and some on jags,
And the Swami upside down.
_________________
Cran, Cran, McGregor's man
Served a writ, and away he ran.
_________________
Cadbury Jones!
Stop your groans,
And open the Family Bible,
I fancy cocoa
Would tint your boko
Less than Criminal Libel.
_________________
What did Waistcott Wynn?
Anyway, he lost his shirt.
_________________
See-Saw, Bernard Shaw
Sold his beef to live upon straw.
Wasn't he a thousand miles
From sense when he went to Eustace Miles?
_________________
Jagmatite said (TORN EDGE)
The Back contains some account of a football match played on some
Saturday in January, apparently in Lancashire. The envelope was
addressed in female script, and bears postmark "Rock Ferry."
Besides the senseless vulgarity and scurrility of this disgusting
stuff, it implies the false and malicious statement that a writ has
been served upon us; and we shall proceed according to law, if we can
trace the offenders.
A
GREEN GARLAND
By
V. B. NEUBURG
Green paper cover. 1s. 6d. net
_______________
"As far as the verse is concerned there is in this volume something more
than mere promise; the performance is at times remarkable; there is beauty not
only of thought and invention ___ and the invention is of a positive kind ___
but also of expression and rhythm. There is a lilt in Mr. Neuburg's poems; he
has the impulse to sing, and makes his readers feel that impulse."
"The Morning Post", May 21, 1908.
"There is a certain given power in some of the imaginings concerning
death, as 'The Dream' and 'the Recall,' and any reader with a liking for verse
of an unconventional character will find several pieces after his taste."
"The Daily Telegraph", May 29, 1908.
"Here is a poet of promise." ___ "The Daily Chronicle", May 13, 1908.
"It is not often that energy and poetic feeling are united so happily as
in this little book." ___ "The Morning Leader", July 10, 1908.
There is promise and some fine lines in these verses."
"The Times", July 11, 1908.
___________________
" ""To be obtained of"
"THE YOUNG CAMBRIDGE PRESS,"
4 MILL STREET, BEDFORD
London: PROBSTHAIN & CO. And all Booksellers.
"This page is reserved for Official Pronouncements by the Chancellor"
" of the A".'." A".'.]
Persons wishing for information, assistance, further
interpretation, etc., are requested to communicate with
THE CHANCELLOR OF THE A.'. A.'.
c/o THE EQUINOX,
124 Victoria Street,
S.W.
Telephone 3210 VICTORIA,
or to call at that address by appointment. A representative
will be there to meet them.
----------------------
Probationers are reminded that the object of Probations
and Ordeals is one: namely, to select Adepts. But the
method appears twofold: (i) to fortify the fit; (ii) to
eliminate the unfit.
----------------------
The Chancellor of the A.'. A.'. wishes to announce that
those whom he represents are only responsible for the
Publications on which their Imprimatur is set; the rest of
THE EQUINOX is edited as literary and commercial expediency
may suggest to the person responsible.
THE EQUINOX
" "The Editor will be glad to consider"
"contributions and to return such as"
"are unacceptable if stamps are enclosed"
" for the purpose"
THE EQUINOX
THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE A.'. A.'.
THE REVIEW OF SCIENTIFIC ILLUMINISM
An. VI VOL. I. NO. III. Sun in Aries
MARCH MCMX
O.S.
"THE METHOD OF SCIENCE---THE AIM OF RELIGION"
LONDON
SIMPKIN, MARSHALL, HAMILTON, KENT & CO. LTD.
CONTENTS
PAGE
EDITORIAL 1
LIBER XIII 3
AHA! BY ALEISTER CROWLEY 9
THE HERB DANGEROUS ___ (PART III) THE POEM OF HASHISH. BY
CHARLES BAUDELAIRE (Translated by ALEISTER CROWLEY) 55
AN ORIGIN. BY VICTOR B. NEUBURG 115
THE SOUL-HUNTER 119
MADELEINE. BY ARTHUR F. GRIMBLE 129
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING (BOOK II ___ "continued") 133
THE COMING OF APOLLO. BY VICTOR B. NEUBURG 281
THE BRIGHTON MYSTERY. BY GEORGE RAFFALOVICH 287
REVIEWS 113, 285, 304
THE SHADOWY DILL-WATERS. BY A. QUILLER, JR. 327
"SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT"
LIBER DCCCCLXIII ___ THE TREASURE-HOUSE OF IMAGES
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE SLOPES OF ABIEGNUS "Facing page" 4
THE STUDENT " 10
THE COMPLETE SYMBOL OF THE ROSE AND CROSS " 210
THE ELEMENTAL TABLETS AND CHERUBIC EMBLEMS " 212
THE LID OF THE PASTOS " 218
THE CEILING OF THE VAULT¿
³
THE FLOOR OF THE VAULT ³
à " 222
THE CIRCULAR ALTAR ³
³
THE ROSE AND CROSS Ù
"SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT"
THE TRIANGLE OF THE UNIVERSE " 4
THE GREEK CROSS OF THE ZODIAC " 70
{WEH NOTE: Two different versions of this editorial exist in separate
marketings of the 1st edition. Both will be given. This first one seems to
be the earlier version.}
EDITORIAL
HAPPY is the movement that has no history! At the beginning of our second
year we have little to record but quiet steady growth, a gradual spreading of
our Tree of Knowledge, a gradual awakening of interest in all parts of the
earth, a gradual access of fellow-workers, some young and enthusiastic, others
already weary of the search for Truth in a world where so many offer the Stone
of dogma, so few the Bread of experience.
There! we had nothing to say, and we have said it very nicely.
Floreas!
* * * * *
We must apologise for the necessity of holding over our edition of Sir
Edward Kelly's account of the Forty-Eight Angelical Keys, and other important
articles. Considerations of space were imperative.
* * * * *
Mr. H. Sheidan-Bickers will lecture on behalf of THE EQUINOX during the
year. We shall be glad if our readers will arrange with him through us to
speak in their towns. Mr. Bickers makes no charge for lecturing, and THE
EQUINOX may assist if desired in meeting the necessary expenses. {1}
NOTES OF THE SEMESTER
MR. SHERIDAN-BICKERS held a large and very successful meeting at Cambridge in
November.
We beg to extend our warmest sympathies to Brother Aloysius Crowley. The
gang of soi-disant Rosicrucian swindlers whose profits have suffered through
our exposures, having failed to frighten Mr. Aleister Crowley, decided to
assassinate him. Their hired ruffians seem to have been knaves as clumsy as
themselves, and Brother Aloysius suffered in his stead, escaping death by a
miracle.
If we do not extend our sympathy to Mr. Aleister Crowley also, it is from a
conviction that he has probably deserved anything that he may get.
In order to cope with the constantly increasing budget of letters of
inquiry and sympathy from every part of the world, we have moved into new
premises at 124 Victoria Street, Westminster, to which address all
communications should be directed. Callers will always be welcome, but it is
advisable to make appointments by letter or telephone.
{2}
{WEH NOTE: Of the two different versions of this editorial found in different
copies of the 1st edition, this seems to be the later version. It is found
tipped in to some copies where the original pages 1-2 have been cut away.}
EDITORIAL
HAPPY is the movement that has no history! At the beginning of our second
year we have little to record but quiet steady growth, a gradual spreading of
our Tree of Knowledge, a gradual awakening of interest in all parts of the
earth, a gradual access of fellow-workers, some young and enthusiastic, others
already weary of the search for Truth in a world where so many offer the Stone
of dogma, so few the Bread of experience.
There! we had nothing to say, and we have said it very nicely.
Floreas!
* * * * *
We must apologise for the necessity of holding over our edition of Sir
Edward Kelly's account of the Forty-Eight Angelical Keys, and other important
articles. Considerations of space were imperative.
* * * * *
Two days after the bound advance copies of this Number were delivered by
the printer, an order was made restraining publication, continued by Mr.
JUSTICE BUCKNILL, and dissolved by the Court of Appeal. {1}
NOTES OF THE SEMESTER
MR. SHERIDAN-BICKERS held a large meeting at Cambridge in November, as
successful as one would expect from the intellectual preeminence of our great
university.
We beg to extend our warmest sympathies to Brother Aloysius Crowley. It
seems possible that some gang of swindlers, fearing exposure, and having
failed to frighten Mr. Aleister Crowley, decided to assassinate him. Their
hired ruffians seem to have been knaves as clumsy as themselves, and Brother
Aloysius suffered in his stead, escaping death by a miracle.
If we do not extend our sympathy to Mr. Aleister Crowley also, it is from a
conviction that he has probably deserved anything that he may get.
In order to cope with the constantly increasing budget of letters of
inquiry and sympathy from every part of the world, we have moved into new
premises at 124 Victoria Street, Westminster, to which address all
communications should be directed. Callers will always be welcome, but it is
advisable to make appointments by letter or telephone.
{2}
LIBER XIII
VEL
GRADUUM MONTIS ABIEGNI
A SYLLABUS OF THE STEPS UPON THE PATH
A.'. A.'. Publication in Class D.
Issued by Order:
D.D.S. 7ø = 4ø Praemonstrator
O.S.V. 6ø = 5ø Imperator
N.S.F. 5ø = 6ø Cancellarius
51. Let not the failure and the pain turn aside the worshippers. The
foundations of the pyramid were hewn in the living rock ere sunset; did the
king weep at dawn that the crown of the pyramid was yet unquarried in the
distant land?
52. There was also a humming-bird that spake unto the horned cerastes, and
prayed him for poison. And the great snake of Khem the Holy One, the royal
Uraeus serpent, answered him and said:
53. I sailed over the sky of Nu in the car called Millions-of-Years, and I
saw not any creature upon Seb that was equal to me. The venom of my fang is
the inheritance of my father, and of my father's father; and how shall I give
it unto thee? Live thou and thy children as I and my fathers have lived, even
unto an hundred millions of generations, and it may be that the mercy of the
Mighty Ones may bestow upon thy children a drop of the poison of eld.
54. Then the humming-bird was afflicted in his spirit, and he flew unto the
flowers, and it was as if naught had been spoken between them. Yet in a
little while a serpent struck him that he died.
55. But an Ibis that meditated upon the bank of Nile the beautiful god
listened and heard. And he laid aside his Ibis ways, and became as a serpent
saying Peradventure in an hundred millions of millions of generations of my
children, they shall attain to a drop of the poison of the fang of the Exalted
One.
56. And behold! ere the moon waxed thrice he became an Uraeus serpent, and
the poison of the fang was established in him and his seed even for ever and
for ever.
LIBER LXV. CAP. V
{4}
{Illustration facing page 4 partially described:
This is an ornamented diagram of the Tree of Life, from Tipheret downward.
At the bottom of the figure is a solid line, below it the words:
"PROBATIONER
Liber LXI and LXV
[In certain cases Ritual LXXVIII.]"
Above this line, to the left: "PORTA", and to the right "PORTAE".
A triple ringed circle rests on this base line, for Malkut. Arched between
the rings at the bottom "RITUAL DCLXXI." Written within the circle are the
words:
"The Four Powers
of
The Sphinx
NEOPHYTE.
Liber VII.
The Building of the
Magic Pentacle."
Extending vertically from the circle of Malkut is the path of Taw, with
these words: "Control of the Astral Plane". This path connects to the circle
representing Yesod.
Extending at an angle from the circle of Malkut to the left is the path of
Shin, with these words: "Meditation Practice Equivalent to Ritual CXX". This
path connects to the circle representing Hod.
Extending at an angle from the circle of Malkut to the right is the path of
Qof, with these words: "Methods of Divination". This path connects to the
circle representing Netzach.
The ringed circle representing Yesod has "RITUAL CXX" arched between its
rings at the bottom and the following words written inside:
"Posture
Hatha Yoga
Control of Breathing.
ZELATOR
Liber CCXX
The Forging of the
Magic Sword."
Extending upward from the circle of Yesod is the path of Samekh,
interrupted by the crossing path of Peh. These words are on it: "Rising on
the Planes". This path is also interrupted by the center of a crescent before
continuing on to the circle representing Tipheret.
Extending at an angle from the circle of Yesod to the left is the path of
Resh, with these words: "Meditation Practice equivalent to Ritual DCLXXI".
This path connects to the circle representing Hod.
Extending at an angle from the circle of Yesod to the right is the path of
Tzaddi (as Crowley considered at this time), with these words: "Meditation
Practice on Expansion of Consciousness". This path connects to the circle
representing Netzach.
The ringed circle representing Hod has "NO RITUAL" arched between its rings
at the bottom and the following words written inside:
"The Qabalah
Liber DCCLXXVII
Gana Yoga
Control of Speech
PRACTICUS.
Liber XXVII
The Casting of the
Magic Cup"
Extending horizontally to the right from the circle of Hod is the path of
Peh, with these words: "Ritual & Meditation Practice to Destroy Thoughts".
This path connects to the circle representing Netzach.
Extending at an angle from the circle of Hod to the right is the path of
Ayin, with these words: "Talismans Evocations". This path is interrupted by
the left horn of a crescent moon and then continues on to the circle
representing Tipheret.
Extending vertically upward from the circle of Hod is part of the path of
Mem, with these words: "Leads to Grade of (underline bifurcates path
lengthwise) Adeptus Major". The path breaks at top without closure.
The ringed circle representing Netzach has "NO RITUAL" arched between its
rings at the bottom and the following words written inside:
"Devotion to the
Order
Bhakti Yoga
Control of Action
PHILOSOPHUS.
Liber DCCCXIII
The Cutting of the
Magic Wand"
Extending at an angle from the circle of Netzach to the left is the path of
Nun, with these words: "Mahasatipatthana Etc" This path is interrupted by the
right horn of a crescent moon and then continues on to the circle representing
Tipheret.
Extending vertically upward from the circle of Netzach is part of the path
of Koph, with these words: "Leads to Grade of (underline bifurcates path
lengthwise) Adeptus Exemptus". The path breaks at top without closure.
A solid line is drawn behind the paths, from the upper arc of the circle of
Hod to that of the circle of Netzach. Above it are the words "PORTA COLLEGII
ad S.S."
A crescent moon depends from the circle representing Tipheret, body
centered on the intersection of the "PROTA COL..." and the path of Samekh,
horns touching the outer limit of the circle of Tipheret at the terminus of
the horizontal diameter of that circle. Within the crescent are the words:
"Control of Thought. Raja Yoga Harmonizing of the Knowledge
& Powers already acquired. Liber Mysteriorum
The Light- DOMINVS LIMINIS Lamp
-ing of the magic"
The ringed circle representing Tipheret has "RITUAL VIII" arched between
the rings at the bottom. Inside is circumscribed an upright pentagram with
the following in the averse pentagon formed by its lines: "ADEPTVS MINOR".
Between the points, inside the circle are these words, clockwise from the top
right: "Ritual", "Revealed", "in Vision", "of Eighth", "Aethyr".
Finally, there is a half-glory radiant about the upper half of the circle
representing Tipheret. This is composed of 26 spikes, black with a hollow
flame like a tear-drop extending into each. The bulbs of the flame-drops
define an arch. The bottom of the arch is defined by an arc concentric with
the Tipheret circle, and the edges curve up to meet the edges of the half-
glory. The following words are inside this arch: "The Knowledge &
Conversation of the HOLY GUARDIAN ANGEL".}
LIBER XIII
VEL
GRADUUM MONTIS ABIEGNI
A SYLLABUS OF THE STEPS UPON THE PATH
" ""Quote LXV. Cap. V. vv. 52-56"1
1. "The Probationer." His duties are laid down in Paper A, Class D. Being
"without," they are vague and general. He receives Liber LXI. and LXV.
[Certain Probationers are admitted after six months or more to Ritual
XXVIII.]
At the end of the Probation he passes Ritual DCLXXI., which constitutes him
a Neophyte.
2. "The Neophyte." His duties are laid down in Paper B, Class D. He
receives Liber VII.
Examination in Liber O, Caps I.-IV., Theoretical and Practical.
Examination in the Four Powers of the Sphinx. Practical.
Four tests are set.
Further, he builds up the magic Pentacle.
Finally he passes Ritual CXX., which constitutes him a Zelator. {5}
3. "The Zelator." His duties are laid down in Paper C, Class D. He receives
Liber CCXX., XXVII., and DCCCXIII.
Examinations in Posture and Control of Breath (see EQUINOX No. I).
Practical.
Further, he is given two meditation-practices corresponding to the two
rituals DCLXXI. and CXX.
(Examination is only in the knowledge of, and some little practical
acquaintance with, these meditations. The complete results, if attained,
would confer a much higher grade.)
Further, he forges the magic Sword.
No ritual admits to the grade of Practicus, which is conferred by authority
when the task of the Zelator is accomplished.
4. "The Practicus." His duties are laid down in Paper D, Class D.
Instruction and Examination in the Qabalah and Liber DCCLXXVII.
Instruction in Philosophical Meditation (Ghana-Yoga).2
Examination in some one mode of divination: "e.g.", Geomancy, Astrology, the
Tarot. Theoretical. He is given a meditation-practice on Expansion of
Consciousness.
He is given a meditation-practice in the destruction of thoughts.
Instruction and Examination in Control of Speech. Practical.
Further, he casts the magic Cup.
No ritual admits to the grade of Philosophus, which is {6} conferred by
authority when the Task of the Practicus is accomplished.
5. "The Philosophus." His duties are laid down in Paper E, Class D.
He practises Devotion to the Order.
1 WEH NOTE --- This line seems a printer's error, the quotation
was made on page 4.
2 All these instructions will be issued openly in THE EQUINOX in
due course, where this has not already been done.
Instruction and Examination in Methods of Meditation by Devotion (Bhakti-
Yoga).
Instruction and Examination in Construction and Consecration of Talismans,
and in Evocation.
Theoretical and Practical.
Examination in Rising on the Planes (Liber O, Caps. V., VI.). Practical.
He is given a meditation-practice on the Senses, and the Sheaths of the
Self, and the Practice called Mahasatipatthana.
(See The Sword of Song, "Science and Buddhism."
Instruction and Examination in Control of Action.
Further, he cuts the Magic Wand.
Finally, the Title of Dominus Liminis is conferred upon him.
He is given meditation-practices on the Control of Thought, and is
instructed in Raja-Yoga.
He receives Liber Mysteriorum and obtains a perfect understanding of the
Formulae of Initiation.
He meditates upon the diverse knowledge and power that he has acquired, and
harmonises it perfectly.
Further, he lights the Magic Lamp.
At last, Ritual VIII. admits him to the grade of Adeptus Minor.
"The Adeptus Minor." His duty is laid down in Paper F, Class D. {7}
It is to follow out the instruction given in the Vision of the Eighth
AEthyr for the attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy
Guardian Angel.
[NOTE. This is in truth the sole task; the others are useful only as
adjuvants to and preparations for the One Work.
Moreover, once this task has been accomplished, there is no more need of
human help or instruction; for by this alone may the highest attainment be
reached.
All these grades are indeed but convenient landmarks, not necessarily
significant. A person who had attained them all might be immeasurably the
inferior of one who had attained none of them; it is Spiritual Experience
alone that counts in the Result; the rest is but Method.
Yet it is important to possess knowledge and power, provided that it be
devoted wholly to that One Work.]
{8}
AHA!
AHA! THE SEVENFOLD MYSTERY OF THE INEFFABLE LOVE;
THE COMING OF THE LORD IN THE AIR AS KING AND JUDGE
OF THIS CORRUPTED WORLD;
WHEREIN
UNDER THE FORM OF A DISCOURSE BETWEEN MARSYAS AN ADEPT
AND OLYMPAS HIS PUPIL THE WHOLE SECRET OF THE WAY OF
INITIATION IS LAID OPEN FROM THE BEGINNING TO THE END;
FOR THE INSTRUCTION OF THE LITTLE CHILDREN OF THE LIGHT.
WRITTEN IN TREMBLING AND HUMILITY FOR THE BRETHREN
OF THE A.'. A.'. BY THEIR VERY DUTIFUL SERVANT, AN
ASPIRANT TO THEIR SUBLIME ORDER,
ALEISTER CROWLEY
{Illustration facing page 10 partly described:
This is a collotype in bright crimson. It is a photo of Crowley in black
robe, only visible from diaphragm up. His elbows rest on a table before him,
and his hands form the sign of the "horns of Horus" against his face on a
level with his eyes. His hood is turned back and pulled on as a hat, showing
the eye in the triangle and forming a rough triangle in cloth about that
device. He wears a serpent ring on the third finger of his right hand. On
the table to the left, in the corner of the photo, is a large and circular
honey topaz set in a vermilion cross (colors from other sources). A ribbon is
attached to the cross. To the right is a standing book, evidently Crowley's
magical diary. This book is bound in what looks like red Moroccan leather,
chased in gold and embossed (conjectured from surviving diaries of Crowley's)
The spine of the book has "PERDURABOMAGISTER" vertically on it. The "P" has
Alpha and Omega to either side, and the last "R" has "2" to the left and "4"
to the right. The cover board is engraved with a large pentagram in a circle.
The pentagram is interlaced as envoking earth would form, and there is a left
eye of Horus in the center.}
THE ARGUMENTATION
A LITTLE before Dawn, the pupil comes to greet his Master, and begs
instruction.
Inspired by his Angel, he demands the Doctrine of being rapt away into the
Knowledge and Conversation of Him.
The Master discloses the doctrine of Passive Attention or Waiting.
This seeming hard to the Pupil, it is explained further, and the Method of
Resignation, Constancy, and Patience inculcated. The Paradox of Equilibrium.
The necessity of giving oneself wholly up the the new element. Egoism
rebuked.
The Master, to illustrate this Destruction of the Ego, describes the
Visions of Dhyana.
He further describes the defence of the Soul against assailing Thoughts,
and shows that the duality of Consciousness is a blasphemy against the Unity
of God; so that even the thought called God is a denial of God-as-He-is-in-
Himself.
The pupil sees nothing but a blank midnight in this Emptying of the Soul.
He is shown that this is the necessary condition of Illumination. Distinction
is further made between these three Dhyanas, and those early visions in which
things appear as objective. With these three Dhyanas, moreover, are Four
other of the Four Elements: and many more.
Above these is the Veil of Paroketh. Its guardians.
The Rosy Cross lies beyond this veil, and therewith the vision called
Vishvarupadarshana. Moreover, there is the Knowledge and Conversation of the
Holy Guardian Angel.
The infinite number and variety of these Visions.
The impossibility of revealing all these truths to the outer and
uninitiated world.
The Vision of the Universal Peacock ___ Atmadarshana. The confusion of the
Mind, and the Perception of its self-contradiction.
The Second Veil ___ the Veil of the Abyss.
The fatuity of Speech. {11}
A discussion as to the means by which the vision arises in the pure Soul is
useless; suffice it that in the impure Soul no Vision will arise. The
practical course is therefore to cleanse the Soul.
The four powers of the Sphinx; even adepts hardly attain to one of them!
The final Destruction of the Ego.
The Master confesses that he has lured the disciple by the promise of Joy,
as the only thing comprehensible by him, although pain and joy are transcended
even in early visions.
Ananda (bliss) ___ and its opposite ___ mark the first steps of the path.
Ultimately all things are transcended; and even so, this attainment of Peace
is but as a scaffolding to the Palace of the King.
The sheaths of the soul. The abandonment of all is necessary; the adept
recalls his own tortures, as all that he loved was torn away.
The Ordeal of the Veil of the Abyss; the Unbinding of the Fabric of Mind,
and its ruin.
The distinction between philosophical credence and interior certitude.
Sammasati ___ the trance wherein the adept perceives his causal connection
with the Universe; past, present, and future.
Mastering the Reason, he becomes as a little child, and invokes his Holy
Guardian Angel, the Augoeides.
Atmadarshana arising is destroyed by the Opening of the Eye of Shiva; the
annihilation of the Universe,. The adept is destroyed, and there arises the
Master of the Temple.
The pupil, struck with awe, proclaims his devotion to the Master; whereat
the latter bids him rather unite himself with the Augoeides.
Yet, following the great annihilation, the adept reappears as an Angel to
instruct men in this doctrine.
The Majesty of the Master described.
The pupil, wonder-struck, swears to attain, and asks for further
instruction.
The Master describes the Eight Limbs of Yoga.
The pupil lamenting the difficulty of attainment, the Master shows forth
the sweetness of the hermit's life.
One doubt remains: will not the world be able instantly to recognise the
Saint? The Master replies that only imperfect Saints reveal themselves as
such. Of these are {12} the cranks and charlatans, and those that fear and
deny Life. But let us fix our thoughts on Love, and not on the failings of
others!
The Master invokes the Augoeides; the pupil through sympathy is almost rapt
away.
The Augoeides hath given the Master a message; namely, to manifest the New
Way of the Equinox of Horus, as revealed in Liber Legis.
He does so, and reconciles it with the Old Way by inviting the Test of
Experiment. They would go therefore to the Desert or the Mountains ___ nay!
here and now shall it be accomplished.
Peace to all beings!
{13}
AHA!
OLYMPAS. Master, ere the ruby Dawn
Gild the dew of leaf and lawn,
Bidding the petals to unclose
Of heaven's imperishable Rose,
Brave heralds, banners flung afar
Of the lone and secret star,
I come to greet thee. Here I bow
To earth this consecrated brow!
As a lover woos the Moon
Aching in a silver swoon,
I reach my lips towards thy shoon,
Mendicant of the mystic boon!
MARSYAS. What wilt thou?
OLYMPAS. Let mine Angel say!
"Utterly to be rapt away!"
MARSYAS. How, whence, and whither?
OLYMPAS. By my kiss
From that abode to this ___ to this!"
My wings?
MARSYAS. Thou hast no wings. But see
An eagle sweeping from the Byss
Where God stands. Let him ravish thee,
And bear thee to a boundless bliss! {15}
OLYMPAS. How should I call him? How beseech?
MARSYAS. Silence is lovelier than Speech.
Only on a windless tree
Falls the dew, Felicity!
One ripple on the water mars
The magic mirror of the Stars.
OLYMPAS. My soul bends to the athletic stress
Of God's immortal loveliness.
Tell me, what wit avails the clod
To know the nearness of its God?
MARSYAS. First, let the soul be poised, and fledge
Truth's feather on mind's razor-edge.
Next, let no memory, feeling, hope
Stain all its starless horoscope.
Last, let it be content, twice void;
Not to be suffered or enjoyed;
Motionless, blind and deaf and dumb ---
So may it to its kingdom come!
OLYMPAS. Dear master, can this be? The wine
Embittered with dark discipline?
For the soul loves her mate, the sense.
MARSYAS. This bed is sterile. Thou must fence
Thy soul from all her foes, the creatures
That by their soft and siren natures
Lure thee to shipwreck!
OLYMPAS. Thou hast said:
"God is in all."
MARSYAS. In sooth.
OLYMPAS. Why dread
The Godhood? {16}
MARSYAS. Only as the thought
Is God, adore it. But the soul creates
Misshapen fiends, incestuous mates.
Slay these: they are false shadows of
The never-waning moon of love.
OLYMPAS. What thought is worthy?
MARSYAS. Truly none
Save one, in that it is but one.
Keep the mind constant; thou shalt see
Ineffable felicity.
Increase the will, and thou shalt find
It hath the strength to be resigned.
Resign the will; and from the string
Will's arrow shall have taken wing,
And from the desolate abode
Found the immaculate heart of God!
OLYMPAS. The word is hard!
MARSYAS. All things excite
Their equal and their opposite.
Be great, and thou shalt be ___ how small!
Be naught, and thou shalt be the All!
Eat not; all meat shall fill thy mouth:
Drink, and thy soul shall die of drouth!
Fill thyself; and that thou seekest
Is diluted to its weakest.
Empty thyself; the ghosts of night
Flee before the living Light.
Who clutches straws is drowned; but he
That hath the secret of the sea,
Lives with the whole lust of his limbs, {17}
Takes hold of water's self, and swims.
See, the ungainly albatross
Stumbles awkwardly across
Earth ___ one wing-beat, and he flies
Most graceful gallant in the skies!
So do thou leave thy thoughts, intent
On thy new noble element!
Throw the earth shackles off, and cling
To what imperishable thing
Arises from the Married death
Of thine own self in that whereon
Thou art fixed.
OLYMPAS. Then all life's loyal breath
Is a waste wind. All joy forgone,
I must strive ever?
MARSYAS. Cease to strive!
Destroy this partial I, this moan
Of an hurt beast! Sores keep alive
By scratching. Health is peace. Unknown
And unexpressed because at ease
Are the Most High Congruities.
OLYMPAS. Then death is thine "attainment"? I
Can do no better than to die!
MARSYAS. Indeed, that "I" that is not God
Is but a lion in the road!
Knowest thou not (even now!) how first
The fetters of Restriction burst?
In the rapture of the heart
Self hath neither lot nor part. {18}
MARSYAS. Tell me, dear master, how the bud
First breaks to brilliance of bloom:
What ecstasy of brain and blood
Shatters the seal upon the tomb
Of him whose gain was the world's loss
Our father Christian Rosycross!
MARSYAS. First, one is like a gnarled old oak
On a waste heath. Shrill shrieks the wind.
Night smothers earth. Storm swirls to choke
The throat of silence! Hard behind
Gathers a blacker cloud than all.
But look! but look! it thrones a ball
Of blistering fire. It breaks. The lash
Of lightning snakes him forth. One crash
Splits the old tree. One rending roar! ---
And night is darker than before.
OLYMPAS. Nay, master, master! Terror hath
So fierce an hold upon the path?
Life must lie crushed, a charred black swath,
In that red harvest's aftermath!
MARSYAS. Life lives. Storm passes. Clouds dislimn.
The night is clear. And now to him
Who hath endured is given the boon
Of an immeasurable moon.
The air about the adept congeals
To crystal; in his heart he feels
One needle pang; then breaks that splendour
Infinitely pure and tender ...
___ And the ice drags him down! {19}
OLYMPAS. But may
Our trembling frame, our clumsy clay,
Endure such anguish?
MARSYAS. In the worm
Lurks an unconquerable germ
Identical. A sparrow's fall
Were the Destruction of the All!
More; know that this surpasses skill
To express its ecstasy. The thrill
Burns in the memory like the glory
Of some far beaconed promontory
Where no light shines but on the comb
Of breakers, flickerings of the foam!
OLYMPAS. The path ends here?
MARSYAS. Ingenuous one!
The path ___ the true path ___ scarce begun.
When does the night end?
OLYMPAS. When the sun,
Crouching below the horizon,
Flings up his head, tosses his mane,
Ready to leap.
MARSYAS. Even so. Again
The adept secures his subtle fence
Against the hostile shafts of sense,
Pins for a second his mind; as you
May have seen some huge wrestler do.
With all his gathered weight heaped, hurled,
Resistless as the whirling world,
He holds his foeman to the floor
For one great moment and no more. {20}
So ___ then the sun-blaze! All the night
Bursts to a vivid orb of light.
There is no shadow; nothing is,
But the intensity of bliss.
Being is blasted. That exists.
OLYMPAS. Ah!
MARSYAS. But the mind, that mothers mists,
Abides not there. The adept must fall
Exhausted.
OLYMPAS. There's an end of all?
MARSYAS. But not an end of this! Above
All life as is the pulse of love,
So this transcends all love.
OLYMPAS. Ah me!
Who may attain?
MARSYAS. Rare souls.
OLYMPAS. I see
Imaged a shadow of this light.
MARSYAS. Such is its sacramental might
That to recall it radiates
Its symbol. The priest elevates
The Host, and instant blessing stirs
The hushed awaiting worshippers.
OLYMPAS. Then how secure the soul's defence?
How baffle the besieger, Sense?
MARSYAS. See the beleagured city, hurt
By hideous engines, sore begirt
And gripped by lines of death, well scored
With shell, nigh open to the sword!
Now comes the leader; courage, run {21}
Contagious through the garrison!
Repair the trenches! Man the wall!
Restore the ruined arsenal!
Serve the great guns! The assailants blench;
They are driven from the foremost trench.
The deadliest batteries belch their hell
No more. So day by day fought well,
We silence gun by gun. At last
The fiercest of the fray is past;
The circling hills are ours. The attack
Is over, save for the rare crack,
Long dropping shots from hidden forts; ---
___ So is it with our thoughts!
OLYMPAS. The hostile thoughts, the evil things!
They hover on majestic wings,
Like vultures waiting for a man
To drop from the slave-caravan!
MARSYAS. All thoughts are evil. Thought is two:
The seer and the seen. Eschew
That supreme blasphemy, my son,
Remembering that God is One.
OLYMPAS. God is a thought!
MARSYAS. The "thought" of God
Is but a shattered emerod:
A plague, an idol, a delusion,
Blasphemy, schism, and confusion!
OLYMPAS. Banish my one high thought? The night
Indeed were starless.
MARSYAS. Very right!
But that impalpable inane {22}
Is the condition of success;
Even as earth lies black to gain
Spring's green and autumn's fruitfulness.
OLYMPAS. I dread this midnight of the soul.
MARSYAS. Welcome the herald!
OLYMPAS. How control
The horror of the mind? The insane
Dead melancholy?
MARSYAS. Trick is vain.
Sheer manhood must support the strife,
And the trained Will, the Root of Life,
Bear the adept triumphant.
OLYMPAS. Else?
MARSYAS. The reason, like a chime of bells
Ripped by the lightning, cracks.
OLYMPAS. And these
Are the first sights the magus sees?
MARSYAS. The first true sights. Bright images
Throng the clear mind at first, a crowd
Of Gods, lights, armies, landscapes; loud
Reverberations of the Light.
But these are dreams, things in the mind,
Reveries, idols. Thou shalt find
No rest therein. The former three
(Lightning, moon, sun) are royally
Liminal to the Hall of Truth.
Also there be with them, in sooth,
Their brethren. There's the vision called
The Lion of the Light, a brand
Of ruby flame and emerald {23}
Waved by the Hermeneutic Hand.
There is the Chalice, whence the flood
Of God's beatitude of blood
Flames. O to sing those starry tunes!
O colder than a million moons!
O vestal waters! Wine of love
Wan as the lyric soul thereof!
There is the Wind, a whirling sword,
The savage rapture of the air
Tossed beyond space and time. My Lord,
My Lord, even now I see Thee there
In infinite motion! And beyond
There is the Disk, the wheel of things;
Like a black boundless diamond
Whirring with millions of wings!
OLYMPAS. Master!
MARSYAS. Know also that above
These portents hangs no veil of love;
But, guarded by unsleeping eyes
Of twice seven score severities,
The Veil that only rips apart
When the spear strikes to Jesus' heart!
A mighty Guard of Fire are they
With sabres turning every way!
Their eyes are millstones greater than
The earth; their mouths run seas of blood.
Woe be to that accursŠd man
Of whom they are the iniquities!
Swept in their wrath's avenging flood
To black immitigable seas! {24}
Woe to the seeker who shall fail
To rend that vexful virgin Veil!
Fashion thyself by austere craft
Into a single azure shaft
Loosed from the string of Will; behold
The Rainbow! Thou art shot, pure flame,
Past the reverberated Name
Into the Hall of Death. Therein
The Rosy Cross is subtly seen.
OLYMPAS. Is that a vision, then?
MARSYAS. It is.
OLYMPAS. Tell me thereof!
MARSYAS. O not of this!
Of all the flowers in God's field
We name not this. Our lips are sealed
In that the Universal Key
Lieth within its mystery.
But know thou this. These visions give
A hint both faint and fugitive
Yet haunting, that behind them lurks
Some Worker, greater than his works.
Yea, it is given to him who girds
His loins up, is not fooled by words,
Who takes life lightly in his hand
To throw away at Will's command,
To know that View beyond the Veil.
O petty purities and pale,
These visions I have spoken of! {25}
The infinite Lord of Light and Love
Breaks on the soul like dawn. See! See!
Great God of Might and Majesty!
Beyond sense, beyond sight, a brilliance
Burning from His glowing glance!
Formless, all the worlds of flame
Atoms of that fiery frame!
The adept caught up and broken;
Slain, before His Name be spoken!
In that fire the soul burns up.
One drop from that celestial cup
Is an abyss, an infinite sea
That sucks up immortality!
O but the Self is manifest
Through all that blaze! Memory stumbles
Like a blind man for all the rest.
Speech, like a crag of limestone, crumbles,
While this one soul of thought is sure
Through all confusion to endure,
Infinite Truth in one small span:
This that is God is Man.
OLYMPAS. Master! I tremble and rejoice.
MARSYAS. Before His own authentic voice
Doubt flees. The chattering choughs of talk
Scatter like sparrows from a hawk.
OLYMPAS. Thenceforth the adept is certain of
The mystic mountain? Light and Love
Are Life therein, and they are his?
MARSYAS. Even so. And One supreme there is
Whom I have known, being He. Withdrawn {26}
Within the curtains of the dawn
Dwells that concealed. Behold! he is
A blush, a breeze, a song, a kiss,
A rosy flame like Love, his eyes
Blue, the quintessence of all skies,
His hair a foam of gossamer
Pale gold as jasmine, lovelier
Than all the wheat of Paradise.
O the dim water-wells his eyes!
There is such depth of Love in them
That the adept is rapt away,
Dies on that mouth, a gleaming gem
Of dew caught in the boughs of Day!
OLYMPAS. The hearing of it is so sweet
I swoon to silence at thy feet.
MARSYAS. Rise! Let me tell thee, knowing HIm,
The Path grows never wholly dim.
Lose Him, and thou indeed wert lost!
But He will not lose thee!
OLYMPAS. Exhaust
The Word!
MARSYAS. Had I a million songs,
And every song a million words,
And every word a million meanings,
I could not count the choral throngs
Of Beauty's beatific birds,
Or gather up the paltry gleanings
Of this great harvest of delight!
Hast thou not heard the word aright?
That world is truly infinite. {27}
Even as a cube is to a square
Is that to this.
OLYMPAS. Royal and rare!
Infinite light of burning wheels!
MARSYAS. Ay! The imagination reels.
Thou must attain before thou know,
And when thou knowest ___ Mighty woe
That silence grips the willing lips!
OLYMPAS. Ever was speech the thought's eclipse.
MARSYAS. Ay, not to veil the truth to him
Who sought it, groping in the dim
Halls of illusion, said the sages
In all the realms, in all the ages,
"Keep silence." By a word should come
Your sight, and we who see are dumb!
We have sought a thousand times to teach
Our knowledge; we are mocked by speech.
So lewdly mocked, that all this word
Seems dead, a cloudy crystal blurred,
Though it cling closer to life's heart
Than the best rhapsodies of art!
OLYMPAS. Yet speak!
MARSYAS. Ah, could I tell thee of
These infinite things of Light and Love!
There is the Peacock; in his fan
Innumerable plumes of Pan!
Oh! every plume hath countless eyes;
___ Crown of created mysteries! ---
Each holds a Peacock like the First.
OLYMPAS. How can this be? {28}
MARSYAS. The mind's accurst.
It cannot be. It is. Behold,
Battalion on battalion rolled!
There is war in Heaven! The soul sings still,
Struck by the plectron of the Will;
But the mind's dumb; its only cry
The shriek of its last agony!
OLYMPAS. Surely it struggles.
MARSYAS. Bitterly!
And, mark! it must be strong to die!
The weak and partial reason dips
One edge, another springs, as when
A melting iceberg reels and tips
Under the sun. Be mighty then,
A lord of Thought, beyond wit and wonder
Balanced ___ then push the whole mind under,
Sunk beyond chance of floating, blent
Rightly with its own element,
Not lifting jagged peaks and bare
To the unsympathetic air!
This is the second veil; and hence
As first we slew the things of sense
Upon the altar of their God,
So must the Second Period
Slay the ideas, to attain
To that which is, beyond the brain.
OLYMPAS. To that which is? ___ not thought? not sense?
MARSYAS. Knowledge is but experience
Made conscious of itself. The bee, {29}
Past master of geometry,
Hath not one word of all of it;
For wisdom is not mother-wit!
So the adept is called insane
For his frank failure to explain.
Language creates false thoughts; the true
Breed language slowly. Following
Experience of a thing we knew
Arose the need to name the thing.
So, ancients likened a man's mind
To the untamed evasive wind.
Some fool thinks names are things; and boasts
Aloud of spirits and of ghosts.
Religion follows on a pun!
And we, who know that Holy One
Of whom I told thee, seek in vain
Figure or word to make it plain.
OLYMPAS. Despair of man!
MARSYAS. Man is the seed
Of the unimaginable flower.
By singleness of thought and deed
It may bloom now ___ this actual hour!
OLYMPAS. The soul made safe, is vision sure
To rise therein?
MARSYAS. Though calm and pure
It seem, maybe some thought hath crept
Into his mind to baulk the adept.
The expectation of success
Suffices to destroy the stress
Of the one thought. But then, what odds? {30}
"Man's vision goes, dissolves in God's;"
Or, "by God's grace the Light is given
To the elected heir of heaven."
These are but idle theses, dry
Dugs of the cow Theology.
Business is business. The one fact
That we know is: the gods exact
A stainless mirror. Cleanse thy soul!
Perfect the will's austere control!
For the rest, wait! The sky once clear,
Dawn needs no prompting to appear!
OLYMPAS. Enough! it shall be done.
MARSYAS. Beware!
Easily trips the big word "dare."
Each man's an OEdipus, that thinks
He hath the four powers of the Sphinx,
Will, Courage, Knowledge, Silence. Son,
Even the adepts scarce win to one!
Thy Thoughts ___ they fall like rotten fruits.
But to destroy the power that makes
These thoughts ___ thy Self? A man it takes
To tear his soul up by the roots!
This is the mandrake fable, boy!
OLYMPAS. You told me that the Path was joy.
MARSYAS. A lie to lure thee!
OLYMPAS. Master!
MARSYAS. Pain
And joy are twin toys of the brain.
Even early visions pass beyond!
OLYMPAS. Not all the crabbed runes I have conned {31}
Told me so plain a truth. I see,
Inscrutable Simplicity!
Crushed like a blind-worm by the heel
Of all I am, perceive, and feel,
My truth was but the partial pang
That chanced to strike me as I sang.
MARSYAS. In the beginning, violence
Marks the extinction of the sense.
Anguish and rapture rack the soul.
These are disruptions of control.
Self-poised, a brooding hawk, there hangs
In the still air the adept. The bull
On the firm earth goes not so smooth!
So the first fine ecstatic pangs
Pass; balance comes.
OLYMPAS. How wonderful
Are these tall avenues of truth!
MARSYAS. So the first flash of light and terror
Is seen as shadow, known as error.
Next, light comes as light; as it grows
The sense of peace still steadier glows;
And the fierce lust, that linked the soul
To its God, attains a chaste control.
Intimate, an atomic bliss,
Is the last phrasing of that kiss.
Not ecstasy, but peace, pure peace!
Invisible the dew sublimes
From the great mother, subtly climbs
And loves the leaves! Yea, in the end, {32}
Vision all vision must transcend.
These glories are mere scaffolding
To the Closed Palace of the King.
OLYMPAS. Yet, saidst thou, ere the new flower shoots
The soul is torn up by the roots.
MARSYAS. Now come we to the intimate things
Known to how few! Man's being clings
First to the outer. Free from these
The inner sheathings, and he sees
Those sheathings as external. Strip
One after one each lovely lip
From the full rose-but! Ever new
Leaps the next petal to the view.
What binds them by Desire? Disease
Most dire of direful Destiny's!
OLYMPAS. I have abandoned all to tread
The brilliant pathway overhead!
MARSYAS. Easy to say. To abandon all,
All must be first loved and possessed.
Nor thou nor I have burst the thrall.
All ___ as I offered half in jest,
Sceptic ___ was torn away from me.
Not without pain! THEY slew my child,
Dragged my wife down to infamy
Loathlier than death, drove to the wild
My tortured body, stripped me of
Wealth, health, youth, beauty, ardour, love.
Thou has abandoned all? Then try
A speck of dust within the eye!
OLYMPAS. But that is different! {33}
MARSYAS. Life is one.
Magic is life. The physical
(Men name it) is a house of call
For the adept, heir of the sun!
Bombard the house! it groans and gapes.
The adept runs forth, and so escapes
That ruin!
OLYMPAS. Smoothly parallel
The ruin of the mind as well?
MARSYAS. Ay! Hear the Ordeal of the Veil,
The Second Veil! ... O spare me this
Magical memory! I pale
To show the Veil of the Abyss.
Nay, let confession be complete!
OLYMPAS. Master, I bend me at thy feet ---
Why do they sweat with blood and dew?
MARSYAS. Blind horror catches at my breath.
The path of the abyss runs through
Things darker, dismaller than death!
Courage and will! What boots their force?
The mind rears like a frightened horse.
There is no memory possible
Of that unfathomable hell.
Even the shadows that arise
Are things to dreadful to recount!
There's no such doom in Destiny's
Harvest of horror. The white fount
Of speech is stifled at its source.
Know, the sane spirit keeps its course
By this, that everything it thinks
Hath causal or contingent links. {34}
Destroy them, and destroy the mind!
O bestial, bottomless, and blind
Black pit of all insanity!
The adept must make his way to thee!
This is the end of all our pain,
The dissolution of the brain!
For lo! in this no mortar sticks;
Down come the house ___ a hail of bricks!
The sense of all I hear is drowned;
Tap, tap, isolated sound,
Patters, clatters, batters, chatters,
Tap, tap, tap, and nothing matters!
Senseless hallucinations roll
Across the curtain of the soul.
Each ripple on the river seems
The madness of a maniac's dreams!
So in the self no memory-chain
Or causal wisp to bind the straws!
The Self disrupted! Blank, insane,
Both of existence and of laws,
The Ego and the Universe
Fall to one black chaotic curse.
OLYMPAS. So ends philosophy's inquiry:
"Summa scientia nihil scire."
MARSYAS. Ay, but that reasoned thesis lacks
The impact of reality.
This vision is a battle axe
Splitting the skull. O pardon me!
But my soul faints, my stomach sinks.
Let me pass on!
OLYMPAS. My being drinks {35}
The nectar-poison of the Sphinx.
This is a bitter medicine!
MARSYAS. Black snare that I was taken in!
How one may pass I hardly know.
Maybe time never blots the track.
Black, black, intolerably black!
Go, spectre of the ages, go!
Suffice it that I passed beyond.
I found the secret of the bond
Of thought to thought through countless years
Through many lives, in many spheres,
Brought to a point the dark design
Of this existence that is mine.
I knew my secret. "All I was"
I brought into the burning-glass,
And all its focussed light and heat
Charred "all I am." The rune's complete
When "all I shall be" flashes by
Like a shadow on the sky.
Then I dropped my reasoning.
Vacant and accursed thing!
By my Will I swept away
The web of metaphysic, smiled
At the blind labyrinth, where the grey
Old snake of madness wove his wild
Curse! As I trod the trackless way
Through sunless gorges of Cathay,
I became a little child.
By nameless rivers, swirling through {36}
Chasms, a fantastic blue,
Month by month, on barren hills,
In burning heat, in bitter chills,
Tropic forest, Tartar snow,
Smaragdine archipelago,
See me ___ led by some wise hand
That I did not understand.
Morn and noon and eve and night
I, the forlorn eremite,
Called on Him with mild devotion,
As the dew-drop woos the ocean.
In my wanderings I came
To an ancient park aflame
With fairies' feet. Still wrapped in love
I was caught up, beyond, above
The tides of being. The great sight
Of the intolerable light
Of the whole universe that wove
The labyrinth of life and love
Blazed in me. Then some giant will,
Mine or another's thrust a thrill
Through the great vision. All the light
Went out in an immortal night,
The world annihilated by
The opening of the Master's Eye.
How can I tell it?
OLYMPAS. Master, master!
A sense of some divine disaster
Abases me. {37}
MARSYAS. Indeed, the shrine
Is desolate of the divine!
But all the illusion gone, behold
The one that is!
OLYMPAS. Royally rolled,
I hear strange music in the air!
MARSYAS. It is the angelic choir, aware
Of the great Ordeal dared and done
By one more Brother of the Sun!
OLYMPAS. Master, the shriek of a great bird
Blends with the torrent of the thunder.
MARSYAS. It is the echo of the word
That tore the universe asunder.
OLYMPAS. Master, thy stature spans the sky.
MARSYAS. Verily; but it is not I.
The adept dissolves ___ pale phantom form
Blown from the black mouth of the storm.
It is another that arises!
OLYMPAS. Yet in thee, through thee!
MARSYAS. I am not.
OLYMPAS. For me thou art.
MARSYAS. So that suffices
To seal thy will? To cast thy lot
Into the lap of God? Then, well!
OLYMPAS. Ay, there is no more potent spell.
Through life, through death, by land and sea
Most surely will I follow thee.
MARSYAS. Follow thyself, not me. Thou hast
An Holy Guardian Angel, bound
to lead thee from thy bitter waste {38}
To the inscrutable profound
That is His covenanted ground.
OLYMPAS. Thou who hast known these master-keys
Of all creation's mysteries,
Tell me, what followed the great gust
Of God that blew his world to dust?
MARSYAS. I, even I the man, became
As a great sword of flashing flame.
My life, informed with holiness,
Conscious of its own loveliness,
Like a well that overflows
At the limit of the snows,
Sent its crystal stream to gladden
The hearts of me, their lives to madden
With the intoxicating bliss
(Wine mixed with myrrh and ambergris!)
Of this bitter-sweet perfume,
This gorse's blaze of prickly bloom
That is the Wisdom of the Way.
Then springs the statue from the clay,
And all God's doubted fatherhood
Is seen to be supremely good.
Live within the sane sweet sun!
Leave the shadow-world alone!
OLYMPAS. There is a crown for every one;
For every one there is a throne!
MARSYAS. That crown is Silence. Sealed and sure!
That throne is Knowledge perfect pure.
Below that throne adoring stand {39}
Virtues in a blissful band;
Mercy, majesty and power,
Beauty and harmony and strength,
Triumph and splendour, starry shower
Of flames that flake their lily length,
A necklet of pure light, far-flung
Down to the Base, from which is hung
A pearl, the Universe, whose sight
Is one globed jewel of delight.
Fallen no more! A bowered bride
Blushing to be satisfied!
OLYMPAS. All this, of once the Eye unclose?
MARSYAS. The golden cross, the ruby rose
Are gone, when flaming from afar
The Hawk's eye blinds the Silver Star.
O brothers of the Star, caressed
By its cool flames from brow to breast,
Is there some rapture yet to excite
This prone and pallid neophyte?
OLYMPAS. O but there is no need of this!
I burn toward the abyss of Bliss.
I call the Four Powers of the Name;
Earth, wind and cloud, sea, smoke and flame
To witness: by this triune Star
I swear to break the twi-forked bar.
But how to attain? Flexes and leans
The strongest will that lacks the means.
MARSYAS. There are seven keys to the great gate,
Being eight in one and one in eight. {40}
First, let the body of thee be still,
Bound by the cerements of will,
Corpse-rigid; thus thou mayst abort
The fidget-babes that tense the thought.
Next, let the breath-rhythm be low,
Easy, regular, and slow;
So that thy being be in tune
With the great sea's Pacific swoon.
Third, let thy life be pure and calm
Swayed softly as a windless palm.
Fourth, let the will-to-live be bound
To the one love of the Profound.
Fifth, let the thought, divinely free
From sense, observe its entity.
Watch every thought that springs; enhance
Hour after hour thy vigilance!
Intense and keen, turned inward, miss
No atom of analysis!
Sixth, on one thought securely pinned
Still every whisper of the wind!
So like a flame straight and unstirred
Burn up thy being in one word!
Next, still that ecstasy, prolong
Thy meditation steep and strong,
Slaying even God, should He distract
Thy attention from the chosen act!
Last, all these things in one o'erpowered,
Time that the midnight blossom flowered!
The oneness is. Yet even in this,
My son, thou shalt not do amiss {41}
If thou restrain the expression, shoot
Thy glance to rapture's darkling root,
Discarding name, form, sight, and stress
Even of this high consciousness;
Pierce to the heart! I leave thee here:
Thou art the Master. I revere
Thy radiance that rolls afar,
O Brother of the Silver Star!
OLYMPAS. Ah, but no ease may lap my limbs.
Giants and sorcerers oppose;
Ogres and dragons are my foes!
Leviathan against me swims,
And lions roar, and Boreas blows!
No Zephyrs woo, no happy hymns
Paean the Pilgrim of the Rose!
MARSYAS. I teach the royal road of light.
Be thou, devoutly eremite,
Free of thy fate. Choose tenderly
A place for thine Academy.
Let there be an holy wood
Of embowered solitude
By the still, the rainless river,
Underneath the tangled roots
Of majestic trees that quiver
In the quiet airs; where shoots
Of the kindly grass are green
Moss and ferns asleep between,
Lilies in the water lapped,
Sunbeams in the branches trapped
___ Windless and eternal even!
Silenced all the birds of heaven {42}
By the low insistent call
Of the constant waterfall.
There, to such a setting be
Its carven gem of deity,
A central flawless fire, enthralled
Like Truth within an emerald!
Thou shalt have a birchen bark
On the river in the dark;
And at the midnight thou shalt go
to the mid-stream's smoothest flow,
And strike upon a golden bell
The spirit's call; then say the spell:
"Angel, mine angel, draw thee nigh!"
Making the Sign of Magistry
With wand of lapis lazuli.
Then, it may be, through the blind dumb
Night thou shalt see thine angel come,
Hear the faint whisper of his wings,
Behold the starry breast begemmed
With the twelve stones of the twelve kings!
His forehead shall be diademed
With the faint light of stars, wherein
The Eye gleams dominant and keen.
Thereat thou swoonest; and thy love
Shall catch the subtle voice thereof.
He shall inform his happy lover:
My foolish prating shall be over!
OLYMPAS. O now I burn with holy haste.
This doctrine hath so sweet a taste
That all the other wine is sour.
MARSYAS. Son, there's a bee for every flower. {43}
Lie open, a chameleon cup,
And let Him suck thine honey up!
OLYMPAS. There is one doubt. When souls attain
Such an unimagined gain
Shall not others mark them, wise
Beyond mere mortal destinies?
MARSYAS. Such are not the perfect saints.
While the imagination faints
Before their truth, they veil it close
As amid the utmost snows
The tallest peaks most straitly hide
With clouds their holy heads. Divide
The planes! Be ever as you can
A simple honest gentleman!
Body and manners be at ease,
Not bloat with blazoned sanctities!
Who fights as fights the soldier-saint?
And see the artist-adept paint!
Weak are those souls that fear the stress
Of earth upon their holiness!
They fast, they eat fantastic food,
They prate of beans and brotherhood,
Wear sandals, and long hair, and spats,
And think that makes them Arahats!
How shall man still his spirit-storm?
Rational Dress and Food Reform!
OLYMPAS. I know such saints.
MARSYAS. An easy vice:
So wondrous well they advertise!
O their mean souls are satisfied {44}
With wind of spiritual pride.
They're all negation. "Do not eat;
What poison to the soul is meat!
Drink not; smoke not; deny the will!
Wine and tobacco make us ill."
Magic is life; the Will to Live
Is one supreme Affirmative.
These things that flinch from Life are worth
No more to Heaven than to Earth.
Affirm the everlasting Yes!
OLYMPAS. Those saints at least score one success:
Perfection of their priggishness!
MARSYAS. Enough. The soul is subtlier fed
With meditation's wine and bread.
Forget their failings and our own;
Fix all our thoughts on Love alone!
Ah, boy, all crowns and thrones above
Is the sanctity of love.
In His warm and secret shrine
Is a cup of perfect wine,
Whereof one drop is medicine
Against all ills that hurt the soul.
A flaming daughter of the Jinn
Brought to me once a wingŠd scroll,
Wherein I read the spell that brings
The knowledge of that King of Kings.
Angel, I invoke thee now!
Bend on me the starry brow!
Spread the eagle wings above {45}
The pavilion of our love! ....
Rise from your starry sapphire seats!
See, where through the quickening skies
The oriflamme of beauty beats
Heralding loyal legionaries,
Whose flame of golden javelins
Fences those peerless paladins.
There are the burning lamps of them,
Splendid star-clusters to begem
The trailing torrents of those blue
Bright wings that bear mine angel through!
O Thou art like an Hawk of Gold,
Miraculously manifold,
For all the sky's aflame to be
A mirror magical of Thee!
The stars seem comets, rushing down
To gem thy robes, bedew thy crown.
Like the moon-plumes of a strange bird
By a great wind sublimely stirred,
Thou drawest the light of all the skies
Into thy wake. The heaven dies
In bubbling froth of light, that foams
About thine ardour. All the domes
Of all the heavens close above thee
As thou art known of me who love thee.
Excellent kiss, thou fastenest on
This soul of mine, that it is gone,
Gone from all life, and rapt away
Into the infinite starry spray
Of thine own AEon ... Alas for me! {46}
I faint. Thy mystic majesty
Absorbs this spark.
OLYMPAS. All hail! all hail!
White splendour through the viewless veil!
I am drawn with thee to rapture.
OLYMPAS. Stay!
I bear a message. Heaven hath sent
The knowledge of a new sweet way
Into the Secret Element.
OLYMPAS. Master, while yet the glory clings
Declare this mystery magical!
MARSYAS. I am yet borne on those blue wings
Into the Essence of the All.
Now, now I stand on earth again,
Though, blazing through each nerve and vein,
The light yet holds its choral course,
Filling my frame with fiery force
Like God's. Now hear the Apocalypse
New-fledged on these reluctant lips!
OLYMPAS. I tremble like an aspen, quiver
Like light upon a rainy river!
MARSYAS. Do what thou wilt! is the sole word
Of law that my attainment heard.
Arise, and lay thine hand on God!
Arise, and set a period
Unto Restriction! That is sin:
To hold thine holy spirit in!
O thou that chafest at thy bars,
Invoke Nuit beneath her stars
With a pure heart (Her incense burned {47}
Of gums and woods, in gold inurned),
And let the serpent flame therein
A little, and thy soul shall win
To lie within her bosom. Lo!
Thou wouldst give all ___ and she cries: No!
Take all, and take me! Gather spice
And virgins and great pearls of price!
Worship me in a single robe,
Crowned richly! Girdle of the globe,
I love thee! Pale and purple, veiled,
Voluptuous, swan silver-sailed,
I love thee. I am drunkness
Of the inmost sense; my soul's caress
Is toward thee! Let my priestess stand
Bare and rejoicing, softly fanned
By smooth-lipped acolytes, upon
Mine iridescent altar-stone,
And in her love-chaunt swooningly
Say evermore: To me! To me!
I am the azure-lidded daughter
Of sunset; the all-girdling water;
The naked brilliance of the sky
In the voluptuous night am I!
With song, with jewel, with perfume,
Wake all my rose's blush and bloom!
Drink to me! Love me! I love thee,
My love, my lord ___ to me! to me!
OLYMPAS. There is no harshness in the breath
Of this ___ is life surpassed, and death?
MARSYAS. There is the Snake that gives delight {48}
And Knowledge, stirs the heart aright
With drunkenness. Strange drugs are thine,
Hadit, and draughts of wizard wine!
These do no hurt. Thine hermits dwell
Not in the cold secretive cell,
But under purple canopies
With mighty-breasted mistresses
Magnificent as lionesses ___
Tender and terrible caresses!
Fire lives, and light, in eager eyes;
And massed huge hair about them lies.
They lead their hosts to victory:
In every joy they are kings; then see
That secret serpent coiled to spring
And win the world! O priest and king,
Let there be feasting, foining, fighting,
A revel of lusting, singing, smiting!
Work; be the bed of work! Hold! Hold!
the stars' kiss is as molten gold.
Harden! Hold thyself up! now die ---
Ah! Ah! Exceed! Exceed!
OLYMPAS. And I?
MARSYAS. My stature shall surpass the stars:
He hath said it! Men shall worship me
In hidden woods, on barren scaurs,
Henceforth to all eternity.
OLYMPAS. Hail! I adore thee! Let us feast.
MARSYAS. I am the consecrated Beast.
I build the Abominable House.
The Scarlet Woman is my Spouse ___ {49}
OLYMPAS. What is this word?
MARSYAS. Thou canst not know
Till thou hast passed the Fourth Ordeal.
OLYMPAS. I worship thee. The moon-rays flow
Masterfully rich and real
From thy red mouth, and burst, young suns
Chanting before the Holy Ones
Thine Eight Mysterious Orisons!
MARSYAS. The last spell! The availing word!
The two completed by the third!
The Lord of War, of Vengeance
That slayeth with a single glance!
This light is in me of my Lord.
His Name is this far-whirling sword.
I push His order. Keen and swift
My Hawk's eye flames; these arms uplift
The Banner of Silence and of Strength ___
Hail! Hail! thou art here, my Lord, at length!
Lo, the Hawk-Headed Lord am I:
My nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.
Hail! ye twin warriors that guard
The pillars of the world! Your time
Is nigh at hand. The snake that marred
Heaven with his inexhaustible slime
Is slain; I bear the Wand of Power,
The Wand that waxes and that wanes;
I crush the Universe this hour
In my left hand; and naught remains!
Ho! for the splendour in my name
Hidden and glorious, a flame {50}
Secretly shooting from the sun.
Aum! Ha! ___ my destiny is done.
The Word is spoken and concealed.
OLYMPAS. I am stunned. What wonder was revealed?
MARSYAS. The rite is secret.
OLYMPAS. Profits it?
MARSYAS. Only to wisdom and to wit.
OLYMPAS. The other did no less.
MARSYAS. Then prove
Both by the master-key of Love.
The lock turns stiffly? Shalt thou shirk
To use the sacred oil of work?
Not from the valley shalt thou test
The eggs that line the eagle's nest!
Climb, with thy life at stake, the ice,
The sheer wall of the precipice!
Master the cornice, gain the breach,
And learn what next the ridge can teach!
Yet ___ not the ridge itself may speak
The secret of the final peak.
OLYMPAS. All ridges join at last.
MARSYAS. Admitted,
O thou astute and subtle-witted!
Yet one ___ loose, jaggŠd, clad in mist!
Another ___ firm, smooth, loved and kissed
By the soft sun! Our order hath
This secret of the solar path,
Even as our Lord the Beast hath won
The mystic Number of the Sun.
OLYMPAS. These secrets are too high for me. {51}
MARSYAS. Nay, little brother! Come and see!
Neither by faith nor fear nor awe
Approach the doctrine of the Law!
Truth, Courage, Love, shall win the bout,
And those three others be cast out.
OLYMPAS. Lead me, Master, by the hand
Gently to this gracious land!
Let me drink the doctrine in,
An all-healing medicine!
Let me rise, correct and firm,
Steady striding to the term,
Master of my fate, to rise
To imperial destinies;
With the sun's ensanguine dart
Spear-bright in my blazing heart,
And my being's basil-plant
Bright and hard as adamant!
MARSYAS. Yonder, faintly luminous,
The yellow desert waits for us.
Lithe and eager, hand in hand,
We travel to the lonely land.
There, beneath the stars, the smoke
Of our incense shall invoke
The Queen of Space; and subtly She
Shall bend from Her infinity
Like a lambent flame of blue,
Touching us, and piercing through
All the sense-webs that we are
As the aethyr penetrates a star!
Her hands caressing the black earth, {52}
Her sweet lithe body arched for love,
Her feet a Zephyr to the flowers,
She calls my name ___ she gives the sign
That she is mine, supremely mine,
And clinging to the infinite girth
My soul gets perfect joy thereof
Beyond the abysses and the hours;
So that ___ I kiss her lovely brows;
She bathes my body in perfume
Of sweat .... O thou my secret spouse,
Continuous One of Heaven! illume
My soul with this arcane delight,
Volumptuous Daughter of the Night!
Eat me up wholly with the glance
Of thy luxurious brilliance!
OLYMPAS. The desert calls.
MARSYAS. Then let us go!
Or seek the sacramental snow,
Where like a high-priest I may stand
With acolytes on every hand,
The lesser peaks ___ my will withdrawn
To invoke the dayspring from the dawn,
Changing that rosy smoke of light
To a pure crystalline white;
Though the mist of mind, as draws
A dancer round her limbs the gauze,
Clothe Light, and show the virgin Sun
A lemon-pale medallion!
Thence leap we leashless to the goal,
Stainless star-rapture of the soul. {53}
So the altar-fires fade
As the Godhead is displayed.
Nay, we stir not. Everywhere
Is our temple right appointed.
All the earth is faery fair
For us. Am I not anointed?
The Sigil burns upon the brow
At the adjuration ___ here and now.
OLYMPAS. The air is laden with perfumes.
MARSYAS. Behold! It beams ___ it burns ___ it blooms.
* * * * *
OLYMPAS. Master, how subtly hast thou drawn
The daylight from the Golden Dawn,
Bidden the Cavernous Mount unfold
Its Ruby Rose, its Cross of Gold;
Until I saw, flashed from afar,
The Hawk's eye in the Silver Star!
MARSYAS. Peace to all beings. Peace to thee,
Co-heir of mine eternity!
Peace to the greatest and the least,
To nebula and nenuphar!
Light in abundance be increased
On them that dream that shadows are!
OLYMPAS. Blessing and worship to The Beast,
The prophet of the lovely Star!
{54}
THE HERB DANGEROUS
PART III
THE POEM OF HASHISH
THE POEM OF HASHISH
CHAPTER I
THE LONGING FOR INFINITY
THOSE who know how to observe themselves, and who preserve the memory of their
impressions, those who, like Hoffmann, have known how to construct their
spiritual barometer, have sometimes had to note in the observatory of their
mind fine seasons, happy days, delicious minutes. There are days when man
awakes with a young and vigorous genius. Though his eyelids be scarcely
released from the slumber which sealed them, the exterior world shows itself
to him with a powerful relief, a clearness of contour, and a richness of
colour which are admirable. The moral world opens out its vast perspective,
full of new clarities.
A man gratified by this happiness, unfortunately rare and transient, feels
himself at once more an artist and more a just man; to say all in a word, a
nobler being. But the most singular thing in this exceptional condition of
the spirit and of the senses ___ which I may without exaggeration call
heavenly, if I compare it with the heavy shadows of common and daily existence
___ is that it has not been created by any visible or easily definable cause.
It is the result of a good hygiene and of a wise regimen? Such is the first
explanation which {57} suggests itself; but we are obliged to recognise that
often this marvel, this prodigy, so to say, produces itself as if it were the
effect of a superior and invisible power, of a power exterior to man, after a
period of the abuse of his physical faculties. Shall we say that it is the
reward of assiduous prayer and spiritual ardour? It is certain that a
constant elevation of the desire, a tension of the spiritual forces in a
heavenly direction, would be the most proper regimen for creating this moral
health, so brilliant and so glorious. But what absurd law causes it to
manifest itself (as it sometimes does) after shameful orgies of the
imagination; after a sophistical abuse of reason, which is, to its straight
forward and rational use, that which the tricks of dislocation which some
acrobats have taught themselves to perform are to sane gymnastics? For this
reason I prefer to consider this abnormal condition of the spirit as a true
"grace;" as a magic mirror wherein man is invited to see himself at his best;
that is to say, as that which he should be, and might be; a kind of angelic
excitement; a rehabilitation of the most flattering type. A certain
Spiritualist School, largely represented in England and America, even
considers supernatural phenomena, such as the apparition of phantoms, ghosts,
&c., as manifestations of the Divine Will, ever anxious to awaken in the
spirit of man the memory of invisible truths.
Besides this charming and singular state, where all the forces are
balanced; where the imagination, though enormously powerful, does not drag
after it into perilous adventures the moral sense; when an exquisite
sensibility is no longer tortured by sick nerves, those councillors-in-
ordinary of crime or despair: this marvellous {58} State, I say, has no
prodromal symptoms. It is as unexpected as a ghost. It is a species of
obsession, but of intermittent obsession; from which we should be able to
draw, if we were but wise, the certainty of a nobler existence, and the hope
of attaining to it by the daily exercise of our will. This sharpness of
thought, this enthusiasm of the senses and of the spirit, must in every age
have appeared to man as the chiefest of blessings; and for this reason,
considering nothing but the immediate pleasure he has, without worrying
himself as to whether he were violating the laws of his constitution, he has
sought, in physical science, in pharmacy, in the grossest liquors, in the
subtlest perfumes, in every climate and in every age, the means of fleeing,
were it but for some hours only, his habitaculum of mire, and, as the author
of "Lazare" says, "to carry Paradise at the first assault." Alas! the vices
of man, full of horror as one must suppose them, contain the proof, even
though it were nothing but their infinite expansion, of his hunger for the
Infinite; only, it is a taste which often loses its way. One might take a
proverbial metaphor, "All roads lead to Rome," and apply it to the moral
world: all roads lead to reward or punishment; two forms of eternity. The
mind of man is glutted with passion: he has, if I may use another familiar
phrase, passion to burn. But this unhappy soul, whose natural depravity is
equal to its sudden aptitude, paradoxical enough, for charity and the most
arduous virtues, is full of paradoxes which allow him to turn to other
purposes the overflow of this overmastering passion. He never imagines that
he is selling himself wholesale: he forgets, in his infatuation, that he is
matched against a player more cunning and more strong than {59} he; and that
the Spirit of Evil, though one give him but a hair, will not delay to carry
off the whole head. This visible lord of visible nature ___ I speak of man
___ has, then, wished to create Paradise by chemistry, by fermented drinks;
like a maniac who should replace solid furniture and real gardens by
decorations painted on canvas and mounted on frames. It is in this
degradation of the sense of the Infinite that lies, according to me, the
reason of all guilty excesses; from the solitary and concentrated drunkenness
of the man of letters, who, obliged to seek in opium and anodyne for a
physical suffering, and having thus discovered a well of morbid pleasure, has
made of it, little by little, his sole diet, and as it were the sum of his
spiritual life; down to the most disgusting sot of the suburbs, who, his head
full of flame and of glory, rolls ridiculously in the muck of the roads.
Among the drugs most efficient in creating what I call the artificial
ideal, leaving on one side liquors, which rapidly exite gross frenzy and lay
flat all spiritual force, and the perfumes, whose excessive use, while
rendering more subtle man's imagination, wear out gradually his physical
forces; the two most energetic substances, the most convenient and the most
handy, are hashish and opium. The analysis of the mysterious effect and the
diseased pleasures which these drugs beget, of the inevitable chastisement
which results from their prolonged use, and finally the immorality necessarily
employed in this pursuit of a false ideal, consititutes the subject of this
study.
The subject of opium has been treated already, and in a manner at once so
startling, so scientific, and so poetic that I shall not dare to add a word to
it. I will therefore content {60} myself in another study, with giving an
analysis of this incomparable book, which has never been fully translated into
French. The author, and illustrious man of a powerful and exquisite
imagination, to-day retired and silent, has dared with tragic candour to write
down the delights and the tortures which he once found in opium, and the most
dramatic portion of his book is that where he speaks of the superhuman efforts
of will which he found it necessary to bring into action in order to escape
from the damnation which he had imprudently incurred. To-day I shall only
speak of hashish, and I shall speak of it after numerous investigations and
minute information; extracts from notes or confidences of intelligent men who
had long been addicted to it; only, I shall combine these varied documents
into a sort of monograph, choosing a particular soul, and one easy to explain
and to define, as a type suitable to experiences of this nature. {61}
CHAPTER II
WHAT IS HASHISH?
THE stories of Marco Polo, which have been so unjustly laughed at, as in the
case of some other old travellers, have been verified by men of science, and
deserve or belief. I shall not repeat his story of how, after having
intoxicated them with hashish (whence the word "Assassin") the old Man of the
Mountains shut up in a garden filled with delights those of his youngest
disciples to whom he wished to give an idea of Paradise as an earnest of the
reward, so to speak, of a passive and unreflecting obedience. The reader may
consult, concerning the secret Society of Hashishins, the work of Von Hammer-
Purgstall, and the note of M. Sylvestre de Sacy contained in vol. 16 of
"M‚mories de l'Acad‚mie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres"; and, with regard
to the etymology of the word "assassin," his letter to the editor of the
"Moniteur" in No. 359 of the year 1809. Herodotus tells us that the Syrians
used to gather grains of hemp and throw red-hot stones upon them; so that it
was like a vapour-bath, more perfumed than that of any Grecian stove; and the
pleasure of it was so acute that it drew cries of joy from them.
Hashish, in effect, comes to us from the East. The exciting properties of
hemp were well known in ancient Egypt, and the use of it is very widely spread
under different names in {62} India, Algeria, and Arabia Felix; but we have
around us, under our eyes, curious examples of the intoxication caused by
vegetable emanations. Without speaking of the children who, having played and
rolled themselves in heaps of cut lucern, often experience singular attacks of
vertigo, it is well known that during the hemp harvest both male and female
workers undergo similar effects. One would say that from the harvest rises a
miasma which troubles their brains despitefully. The head of the reaper is
full of whirlwinds, sometimes laden with reveries; at certain moments the
limbs grow weak and refuse their office. We have heard tell of crises of
somnambulism as being frequent among the Russian peasants, whose cause, they
say, must be attributed to the use of hemp-seed oil in the preparation of
food. Who does not know the extravagant behaviour of hens which have eaten
grains of hemp-seed, and the wild enthusiasm of the horses which the peasants,
at weddings and on the feasts of their patron saints, prepare for a
steeplechase by a ration of hemp-seed, sometimes sprinkled with wine?
Nevertheless, French hemp is unsuitable for preparing hashish, or at least, as
repeated experiments have shown, unfitted to give a drug which is equal in
power to hashish. Hashish, or Indian hemp ("Cannabis indica"), is a plant of
the family of "Urticacea," resembling in every respect the hemp of our
latitudes, except that it does not attain the same height. It possesses very
extraordinary intoxicating properties, which for some years past have
attracted in France the attention of men of science and of the world. It is
more or less highly esteemed according to its different sources: that of
Bengal is the most prized by Europeans; that, however, of Egypt, of
Constantinople, of Persia, and {63} of Algeria enjoys the same properties, but
in an inferior degree.
Hashish (or grass; that is to say, "the" grass "par excellence," as if the
Arabs had wished to define in a single word the "grass" source of all material
pleasures) has different names, according to its composition and the method of
preparation which it has undergone in the country where it has been gathered:
In India, "bhang;" in Africa, "teriaki;" in Algeria and in Arabia Felix, "madjound,"
"&c." It makes considerable difference at what season of the year it is
gathered. It possesses its greatest energy when it is in flower. The
flowering tops are in consequence the only parts employed in the different
preparations of which we are about to speak. The "extrait gras" of hashish, as
the Arabs prepare it, is obtained by boiling the tops of the fresh plant in
butter, with a little water. It is strained, after complete evaporation of
all humidity, and one thus obtains a preparation which has the appearance of a
pomade, in colour greenish yellow, and which possesses a disagreeable odour of
hashish and of rancid butter. Under this form it is employed in small pills
of two to four grammes in weight, but on account of its objectionable smell,
which increases with age, the Arabs conceal the "extrait gras" in sweetmeats.
The most commonly employed of these sweetmeats, "dawamesk," is a mixture of
"extrait gras," sugar, and various other aromatic substances, such as vanilla,
cinnamon, pistachio, almond, musk. Sometimes one even adds a little
cantharides, with an object which has nothing in common with the ordinary
results of hashish. Under this new form hashish has no disagreeable
qualities, and one can take it in a {64} dose of fifteen, twenty, and thirty
grammes, either enveloped in a leaf of "pain … chanter" or in a cup of coffee.
The experiments made by Messrs. Smith, Gastinel, and Decourtive were
directed towards the discovery of the active principles of hashish. Despite
their efforts, its chemical combination is still little known, but one usually
attributes its properties to a resinous matter which is found there in the
proportion of about 10 per cent. To obtain this resin the dried plant is
reduced to a course powder, which is then washed several times with alcohol;
this is afterwards partially distilled and evaporated until it reaches the
consistency of an extract; this extract is treated with water, which dissolves
the gummy foreign matter, and the resin then remains in a pure condition.
This product is soft, of a dark green colour, and possesses to a high
degree the characteristic smell of hashish. Five, ten, fifteen centigrammes
are sufficient to produce surprising results. But the haschischine, which may
be administered under the form of chocolate pastilles or small pills mixed
with ginger, has, like the "dawamesk" and the "extrait gras," effects more or less
vigorous, and of an extremely varied nature, according to the individual
temperament and nervous susceptibility of the hashish-eater; and, more than
that, the result varies in the same individual. Sometimes he will experience
an immoderate and irresistible gaiety, sometimes a sense of well-being and of
abundance of life, sometimes a slumber doubtful and thronged with dreams.
There are, however, some phenomena which occur regularly enough; above all, in
the case of persons of a regular temperament and education; there is a kind of
unity in its variety which {65} will allow me to edit, without too much
trouble, this monograph on hashish-drunkenness of which I spoke before.
At Constantinople, in Algeria, and even in France, some people smoke
hashish mixed with tobacco, but then the phenomena in question only occur
under a form much moderated, and, so to say, lazy. I have heard it said that
recently, by means of distillation, an essential oil has been drawn from
hashish which appears to possess a power much more active than all the
preparations hitherto known, but it has not been sufficiently studied for me
to speak with certainty of its results. Is it not superfluous to add that
tea, coffee, and alcoholic drinks are powerful adjuvants which accelerate more
or less the outbreak of this mysterious intoxication?
{66}
CHAPTER III
THE PLAYGROUND OF THE SERAPHIM
WHAT does one experience? What does one see? Marvellous things, is it not
so? Wonderful sights? Is it very beautiful? and very terrible? and very
dangerous? Such are the usual questions which, with a curiosity mingled with
fear, those ignorant of hashish address to its adepts. It is, as it were, the
childish impatience to know, resembling that of those people who have never
quitted their firesides when they meet a man who returns from distant and
unknown countries. They imagine hashish-drunkenness to themselves as a
prodigious country, a vast theatre of sleight-of-hand and of juggling, where
all is miraculous, all unforeseen. ___ That is a prejudice, a complete
mistake. And since for the ordinary run of readers and of questioners the
word "hashish" connotes the idea of a strange and topsy-turvy world, the
expectation of prodigious dreams (it would be better to say hallucinations,
which are, by the way, less frequent than people suppose), I will at once
remark upon the important difference which separates the effects of hashish
from the phenomena of dream. In dream, that adventurous voyage which we
undertake every night, there is something positively miraculous. It is a
miracle whose punctual occurrence has blunted its mystery. The dreams of man
are of two classes. Some, full of his ordinary {67} life, of his
preoccupations, of his desires, of his vices, combine themselves in a manner
more or less bizarre with the objects which he has met in his day's work,
which have carelessly fixed themselves upon the vas | | |
