THE EQUINOX Vol. I. No. IV 1st part
June 4, 1990 e.v. key entry by
Bill Heidrick, T.G. of O.T.O. --- needs further proof reading
(c) O.T.O. disk 1 of 3
O.T.O.
P.O.Box 430
Fairfax, CA 94930
USA
(415) 454-5176 ---- Messages only.
Pages in the original are marked thus at the bottom: {page number}
Comments and descriptions are also set off by curly brackets {}
Comments and notes not in the original are identified with the initials of the
source: AC note = Crowley note. WEH note = Bill Heidrick note, etc.
Descriptions of illustrations are not so identified, but are simply in curly
brackets.
(Addresses and invitations below are not current but copied from the original
text of the early part of the 20th century)
************************************************************************
THE EQUINOX
No. V
THE great pressure on our space has made it necessary to hold over much
promised matter. It is hoped to include in No. V:
VARIOUS OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS of the A.'. A.'.
THE ELEMENTAL CALLS OR KEYS, WITH THE GREAT WATCH TOWERS OF THE UNIVERSE 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 TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING.
[Continuation.
This instalment, which deals with Frater P.'s communication from the
A.'. A.'., is the most important of the Series. Fully Illustrated.
DIANA OF THE INLET. By KATHERINE S. PRITCHARD.
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.
WILLIAM NORTHAM,
" "ROBEMAKER,"
-----------------------
MR. NORTHAM begs to announce that he has been entrusted with the manufacture
of all robes and other ceremonial apparel of members of the A.'. A.'. and
its adepts and aspirants.
No. 0. PROBATIONER'S ROBE . . . . . œ5 0 0
1. " " superior quality . . 7 0 0
2. NEOPHYTE'S . . . . . . . 6 0 0
3. ZELATOR Symbol added to No. 2 . . 1 0 0
4. PRACTICUS " " 3 . . 1 0 0
5. PHILOSOPHUS " " 4 . . 1 0 0
6. DOMINUS LIMINIS " " 5 . . 1 0 0
7. ADEPTUS (without) " " 0 or 1 . . 3 0 0
8. " (Within) . . . . . . 10 0 0
9. ADEPTUS MAJOR . . . . . . 10 0 0
10. ADEPTUS EXEMPTUS . . . . . . 10 0 0
11. MAGISTER TEMPLI . . . . . . 50 0 0
The Probationer's robe is fitted for performance of all general invocations
and especially for the I. of the H. G. A.; a white and gold nemmes may be
worn. These robes may also be worn by Assistant Magi in all composite rituals
of the White.
The Neophyte's robe is fitted for all elemental operations. A black and
gold nemmes may be worn. Assistant Magi may wear these in all composite
rituals of the Black.
The Zelator's robe is fitted for all rituals involving I O, and for the
infernal rites of Luna. In the former case an Uraeus crown and purple nemmes,
in the latter a silver nemmes should be worn.
The Practicus' robe is fitted for all rituals involving I I, and for the
rites of Mercury. In the former case an Uraeus crown and green nemmes, in the
latter a nemyss of shot silk, should be worn.
The Philosophus' robe is fitted for all rituals involving O O, and for the
rites of Venus. In the former case an Uraeus crown and azure nemmes, in the
latter a green nemmes, should be worn.
The Dominus Liminis' robe is fitted for the infernal rites of Sol, which
must never be celebrated.
The Adeptus Minor's robe is fitted for the rituals of Sol. A golden nemmes
may be worn.
The Adeptus' robe is fitted for the particular workings of the Adeptus, and
for the Postulant at the First Gate of the City of the Pyramids.
The Adeptus Major's Robe is fitted for the Chief Magus in all Rituals and
Evocations of the Inferiors, for the performance of the rites of Mars, and for
the Postulant at the Second Gate of the City of the Pyramids.
The Adeptus Exemptus' robe is fitted for the Chief Magus in all Rituals and
Invocations of the Superiors, for the performance of the rites of Jupiter, and
for the Postulant at the Third Gate of the City of the Pyramids.
The Babe of the Abyss has no robe.
For the performance of the rites of Saturn, the Magician may wear a black
robe, close-cut, with narrow sleeves, trimmed with white, and the Seal and
Square of Saturn marked on breast and back. A conical black cop embroidered
with the Sigils of Saturn should be worn.
The Magister Templi Robe is fitted for the great Meditations, for the
supernal rites of Luna, and for those rites of Babylon and the Graal. But
this robe should be worn by no man, because of that which is written:
"Ecclesia abhorret a sanguine."
______________________
"Any of these robes may be worn by a person of whatever grade on"
"appropriate occasions."
"Crown 8vo, Scarlet Buckram, pp. 64."
This Edition strictly limited to 500 Copies.
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
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 of 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."
The New Thought Library
_______________
" ""Crown 8vo. Crimson cloth extra, gilt tops," 3"s." 6"p. net per volume."
The NEW THOUGHT LIBRARY has been designed to include only the best works in
this class of literature. No volume will find a place in this series unless
it has already an established position in the popular favour. The first eight
volumes are now ready.
HAVE YOU A STRONG WILL? How to Develop and Strengthen Will Power, Memory, or
any other Faculty, or Attribute of the Mind by the Easy Process of Self-
Hypnotism. By CHARLES GODFREY LELAND. Third and enlarged edition,
containing the Celebrated Correspondence between Kant and Hufeland, and an
additional Chapter on Paracelsus and his Teaching.
CONTENTS. --- Preface. Introduction. How to Awaken Attention and create
Interest as preparatory to Developing the Will. Faculties and Powers latent
in man. Mesmerism, Hypnotism and Self-Hypnotism. Pomponatius, Gassner, and
Paracelsus. Medical Cures and benefits which may be realised by Auto-
Hypnotism. Forethought and its Value. Corrupt and Pure Will. Instinct and
Suggestion. The Process of Developing Memory. The "Artes Memorandi" of Old
Time. The Action of Will and Hypnotism of the Constructive Faculties.
Fascination. The Voice. Telepathy and the Subliminal Self. The Power of the
Mind to Master Disordered Feelings as set forth by Kant. Paracelsus, his
Teaching with regard to Self-Hypnotism. Last Words.
"Why can we not will ourselves to do our very best in all matters
controllable by the individual will. Mr. Leland answers triumphantly that we
can." --- "The Literary World."
"An earnestly written work entirely free form charlatanism." --- "Birmingham"
"Post."
THE SCIENCE OF THE LARGER LIFE. A Selection from the Essays of URSULA
N. GESTERFELD.
CONTENTS. --- Preface. Part I. "How we Master our fate." --- The Inventor
and the Invention The Ascension of Ideas. Living by Insight or by Outsight.
Destiny and Fate. The Origin of Evil. What is within the "Heir"? Words as
Storage Batteries. How to Care for the Body. The Way to Happiness. You Live
in your Thought-World. The Language of Suggestion. Constructive Imagination.
The Power of Impression. How to Remove Impressions. Your Individualism.
Making Things go Right. Utilizing Energy. Master, or be Mastered. The Voice
that is heard in Loneliness. The Ingrafted Word. The Law of Liberty. Part
II. --- "The Evolution of an Invalid;" The Invalid's Alter Ego. The Evolution
of a Thief: The Honest Man. The Evolution of a Liar: The Truthful Man. The
Evolution of a Miser; The Benefactor. The Evolution of an Egotist; The Self-
Forgetful Man. The Evolution of a Drunkard; The Self-Possessed Man. The
Evolution of a Libertine; The Strong Man. The Evolution of a Flirt; The
Divine Womanly. Part III. --- "Stilling the Tempest." Live in the Eternal, not
in Time. Affirmation of Being. Affirmation for the Morning. Affirmation for
the Evening. Affirmation for Fear of Heredity. Affirmation for Fear of
Death.
EVERY MAN A KING, or Might in Mind Mastery. By ORISON SWETT MARDEN.
This very popular American handbook on the subject of the practical conduct
of life, is now offered to the British Public as a new volume of the "New
Thought Library" at the popular price of 3"s." 6"p." net.
"Strong, wise, sound, pleasant, helpful, well-written --- these are only a
few of the complimentary adjectives which can honestly be applied to this
book" --- ALICE BROWN in "Ohio State Journal."
"Admirable! It is a long time since we have read a book on the fascinating
subject of mind's influence over matter, especially in the building of
character, with as much pleasure as this has afforded. Characterized
throughout by a cheery optimism, the perusal of it is as good as any tonic,
and far better than most." --- "Pall Mall Gazette."
MENTAL MEDICINE: Some Practical Suggestions from a Spiritual Standpoint. By
OLIVER HUCKEL, S.T.D. With an Introduction by LEWELLYS F. BARKER, M.D.
SUMMARY OF CONTENTS --- The New Outlook for Health. The Unique Powers of
Mind. The Spiritual Mastery of the Body. Faith as a Vital Force. The
Healing Value of Prayer. Glimpses of the Sub-conscious Self. The Training of
the Hidden Energies. The Casting Out of Fear. The Cause and Cure of the
Worry Habit. The Gospel of Relaxation. Work as a Factor in Health.
Inspiration of the Mental Outlook. Best Books for Further Reading.
"It is a cheerful, inspiriting book, and should fulfil its object to give
mental galvanic shocks to spiritual paralytics." --- "Sunday Times."
"A serious exposition of the way a spiritual guide may helpfully minister to
the diseased." --- "Bristol Times and Mirror."
_____________________________
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.
-------------------------------------
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.
______________________
Very few copies remain
______________________
{Illustration on center top third by horizontal of the back cover:
This is an equilateral triangle circumscribed in a white ring. The
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Text to the left: "PRICE
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Text to the right: "To be had
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124 Victoria St., S. W.
and through all
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GOETIA vel Clavicula
SALOMONIS REGIS
(The Lesser Key of Solomon the King.)
The best, simplest, most intelligible and most effective treatise extant on
CEREMONIAL MAGIC
Careful and complete instruction; ample illustration; beautiful production.
This books id very much easier both to understand and to operate than the so-
called "Greater" Key of Solomon.
__________________________________________________________________________
ONLY A FEW COPIES REMAIN FOR SALE.
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. IV. Sun in Libra
SEPTEMBER MCMX
O.S.
"THE METHOD OF SCIENCE---THE AIM OF RELIGION"
CONTENTS
PAGE
EDITORIAL 1
LIBER III 9
LIBER A 15
i.NST N.ATTURAE R.EGINA I.SIS. By OMNIA VINCAM 21
REVIEWS 36
AT BORDJ-AN-NUS. By HILDA NORFOLK 37
Alpha Iota Nu Omicron Zeta Iota Zeta Iota Delta Omicron Zeta . By ALEISTER CROWLEY
39
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON THE KING. IV 41
PAN TO ARTEMIS. By ALEISTER CROWLEY 197
THE INTERPRETER. By PERDURABO 199
THE DAUGHTER OF THE HORSELEECH. By ETHEL RAMSAY 201
THE DREAMER 208
MR. TODD. A MORALITY. By THE AUTHOR OF "ROSA MUNDI" 209
THE GNOME. By VICTOR B. NEUBURG 237
REVIEW 240
THE HERB DANGEROUS. PART IV: THE HASHEESH EATER 241
THE AGNOSTIC 247
THE MANTRA-YOGI 275
THE VIOLINIST. By FRANCIS BENDICK 277
XIV
EHE! By GEORGE RAFFALOVICH 281
HALF-HOURS WITH FAMOUS MAHATMAS. No. I. By SAM HARDY 284
THE THIEF-TAKER. By ALEISTER CROWLEY 291
REVIEW 292
THE EYES OF ST. LJUBOV. By J. F. C. FULLER AND GEORGE RAFFALOVICH 293
MIDSUMMER EVE. By ETHEL ARCHER 310
THE POETICAL MEMORY 311
ADELA 314
THE THREE WORMS. By EDWARD STORER 317
THE FELON FLOWER. By ETHEL ARCHER 325
THE BIG STICK 327
GLAZIERS' HOUSES 346
IN THE TEMPLE. By VICTOR B. NEUBURG 352
"SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT"
THE HIGH HISTORY OF SIR PALAMEDES THE SARACEN KNIGHT
AND OF HIS FOLLOWING THE QUESTING BEAST
ILLUSTRATIONS
ARATRUM SECURUM "Facing page" 11
THE YOGI " 90
THE TATWAS " 108
ADONAI HA ARETZ " 114
THE INTERPRETER " 199
"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.'. views without satisfaction
the practice of Probationers working together. A Probationer
should work with his Neophyte, or alone. Breach of this rule
may prove a bar to advancement.
EDITORIAL
WE shall be glad if all subscribers to, and readers of, THE EQUINOX will make
themselves personally known to the staff at the offices at 124, Victoria
Street.
Various meetings are held, lecture given, and experiments carried out, from
time to time, which cannot be advertized effectively in a paper appearing at
intervals of six months, and those wishing to attend must therefore be
privately notified of the dates as they are fixed.
* * * * *
It should, moreover, be remembered, that although knowledge can be imparted
through books, skill cannot be attained except by practice; and in most cases
it is better that practice should be carried out under instruction.
* * * * *
Further, research work continually proceeds, and cannot be published,
perhaps, for years, when it has been collated and criticised. To be "au"
"courant" the seeker should be on the spot.
* * * * *
After the 21st of October 1910 the price of No. 1 of THE EQUINOX, of which
only a few copies remain, will be increased to ten shillings. {1}
The subscription for 1911 will be raised from ten to twelve shillings.
* * * * *
A library for the use of subscribers is in progress of formation at 124,
Victoria Street. The Editor will be glad to receive any books on mysticism,
magic, Egyptology, philosophy, and similar subjects. Old books out of print
are especially welcome.
* * * * *
Another feather in the cap of H. R. B. That incomparable dodderer, Franz
Hartmann, has published a portrait of Cagliostro which she had given him.
(She had it taken when she "was" Cagliostro, you understand.)
This sounds all very reasonable and likely; but the difficulty is that the
portrait is not of Cagliostro at all, but of Stanislas Augustus, the last King
of Poland.
So this is not a common simple miracle, you see; but a very wonderful
miracle. However, I'm not going to be done; so I've bought a shilling
photograph of Queen Victoria and intend to publish it next March as
ME When I Was CLEOPATRA.
* * * * *
As if this was not enough, we find The Annals of Psychical Research
publishing in all good faith as a serious account "The Apparition of Mrs. Veal
to Mrs. Bargrave," which was written by Daniel Defoe as a puff of some ass's
Meditations on Death!
* * * * * {2}
We do not blame the Editors of these papers for nodding; but we do think
they owe us some poetry as good as Homer's or some erotic adventures to match
Jove's.
* * * * *
I had almost forgotten dear old Mathers.
Yet it was only last December that a colleague of mine was told by some
greasy old harridan, in her best nominal 7ø = 4ø voice (she has paid
hundreds of pounds for that nominal 7ø = 4ø, and never got initiated into
any mysteries but those of Over-eating) that Imperrita (?Imperator) was coming
over from Paris to "crush" Perdurabo; and Perdurabo has "fled" before his "face."
Anyhow, I sneaked back from Algeria, trembling all over, and began to enjoy
the comedy of a lawyer pretending that he could not serve a writ on a man with
an address in the telephone directory, who was spending hundreds of pounds on
letting the whole world know where to find him. It was perhaps unkind of me
not to warn Mr. Cran that he was putting his foot in it.
But if I had said a word, the case would have been thrown up; and then
where would our advertisement have been?
So, even now, I restrict my remarks; there may be some more fun coming.
* * * * *
But at least there's a prophet loose! some anonymous person wrote
Cran, Cran, McGregor's man
Served a writ, and away he ran {3}
before a writ was served! Though he might have guessed that it would be. But
he couldn't possibly have known that the action would be dropped, as it has
been.
And Mathers has run away too --- without paying our costs.
* * * * *
A word as to the sanctity of obligations seems necessary here. Some of my
brother Masons (for example) have heard imperfectly and judged hastily. But
if we apply our tools to our morals with patience and skill, we shall cure any
defects in the building. let me explain the situation carefully and clearly.
(1) Mathers and Dr. Wynn Westcott were the apparent heads of the Order
calling itself Rosicrucian.
(2) This Order seriously claimed direct descent, and transmitted Authority,
from the original Fratres R.C.
(3) It was founded on secret documents in he custody of Dr. Wynn Westcott,
on whose honour and integrity we relied.
(4) Mathers and Westcott claimed to be working under one or more secret
chiefs of the grade of 8ø = 3ø.
(5) It was then to those chiefs that I and other members of the Order were
pledged.
(6) When the "rebellion" took place in 1900, I thought Mathers a wolf, and
Westcott a sheep; but, recognizing Truth in the knowledge issued by
the Order, maintained my allegiance to the Secret Chiefs 8ø = 3ø.
(7) In 1904 I was ordered directly and definitely by a person who proved
himself to be the messenger of a {4} Secret Chief 8ø = 3ø to
publish the knowledge and rituals of the Order ("a") in order to destroy
the value of that knowledge, so that the new knowledge to be revealed
by himself might have room to grow ("b") in order to stop the frauds of
Mathers, which were a disgrace to arcane science.
The secrecy of his rituals, and of the MSS. in the custody of Dr.
Wynn Westcott, was essential to the carrying on of these frauds.
(8) I was unable to comply with these orders until I had found a person
competent to edit the enormous mass of papers. I showed my hand to
some extent, however, in various references to the Order in my books.
And now the task is accomplished.
(9) My defence against the accusation of having revealed secrets entrusted
to me is then threefold.
("a") Secrets cannot be revealed,. or even communicated from one
person to another.
("b") One is not bound by an oath taken to any person who is a
swindler trading upon the sanctity of one's oath to carry on his
frauds. Especially is this the case when the person responsible for
administering the oath assures you that it is "in no way contrary to
your civil, moral, and religious obligations."
("c") I was not, in any case, bound to Mathers, but to the Secret
Chiefs, by whose direct orders I caused the rituals to be published.
I wish expressly to dissociate from my strictures on {5} Mathers Brother Wynn
Westcott his colleague; for I have heard and believe nothing which would lead
me to doubt his uprightness and integrity. But I warn him in public, as I
have (vainly) warned him in private, that by retaining the cipher MSS. of the
Order, and preserving silence on the subject, he makes himself an accomplice
in, or at least an accessory to, the frauds of his colleague. And I ask him
in public, as I have (vainly) asked him in private, to deposit the MSS. with
the Trustees of the British Museum with an account of how they came into his
possession; or, if they are no longer in his possession, to state publicly how
he first obtained them, and why, and to whom, he parted with them.
I ask him in the name of faith between man and man; in the name of those
unfortunates, who, for no worse fault than their aspiration to the Hidden
Wisdom, have been and still are being befooled and betrayed and robbed by his
colleague under the aegis of the respectability of his own name; and in the
Name of Him, who, planning the Universe, employed the Plumb-line, the Level,
and the Square.
* * * * *
Sweets to the sweet --- and her is a press cutting for a Press Cutting
Agency.
On 22nd March I felt the ache for fame and telephoned to Messrs. Romeike an
Curtice of Ludgate Circus. An obsequious person appeared, louted him low, and
took my guinea for 125 cuttings. [I hear you ask, "How can they do it?"]
For a fortnight Messrs. Romeike and Curtice were the most diligent of
created beings. I got cuttings from obscure papers in Yorkshire and Ireland
and other places that one has {6} never heard of. But then it dropped off to
zero. I had received about 30 cuttings altogether. Then other people began
to send me cuttings in a friendly way, and Messrs. Romeike and Curtice
maintained a silence and immobility which would have done credit to a first-
rate Mahatma.
They missed, for example, little things like an editorial par. in "John
Bull," a full page in "The Sketch," the "Daily News," a page and a quarter in
"The Nation," half a column in the "Daily Mail." ...
[I hear you ask, "How can they make such oversights? Perhaps the Post
office is to blame."]
Well, if the Post Office is to blame, I can't answer your other question,
"How can they do it?" and if it is by "oversight" or "clerical error" or
"absence of mind," I am in a similar position. And it is a curious
coincidence that exactly the same thing happened to me 12 years ago. {7}
LIBER III
VEL JVGORVM
A.'. A.'. Publication in Class D.
Imprimatur:
D.D.S. 7ø = 4ø Praemonstrator
O.S.V. 6ø = 5ø Imperator
N.S.F. 5ø = 6ø Cancellarius
{Illustration facing page 11.
"ARATRUM SECURUM"
"(Fra ---- after one week avoiding the first person. His fidelity is good;
his vigilance bad. Not nearly good enough to pass).
This is composed of two photos of the forearms of a man. The upper shows
the undersides, right over left with many radial cuts visible on the left
under wrist area. The second shows the backs of the forearms, right above
left, the elbows and a bit of the upper arms with some rolled up sleeves.
There are many scratches visible in the second photo.
LIBER III
vel JVGORVM.
0
0. Behold the Yoke upon the neck of the Oxen! Is it not thereby that the
Field shall be ploughed? The Yoke is heavy, but joineth together them that
are separate --- Glory to Nuit and to Hadit, and to Him that hath given us the
Symbol of the Rosy Cross!
Glory unto the Lord of the Word Abrahadabra, and Glory unto Him that hath
given us the Symbol of the Ankh, and of the Cross within the Circle!
1. Three are the Beasts wherewith thou must plough the Field; the Unicorn,
the Horse, and the Ox. And these shalt thou yoke in a triple yoke that is
governed by One Whip.
2. Now these Beasts run wildly upon the earth and are not easily obedient
to the Man.
3. Nothing shall be said here of Cerberus, the great Beast of Hell that is
every one of these and all of these, even as Athanasius hath foreshadowed.
For this matter1 is not of Tiphereth without, but Tiphereth within. {11}
I
0. The Unicorn is speech. Man, rule thy Speech! How else shalt thou
master the Son, and answer the Magician at the Right Hand Gateway of the
Crown?
1. Here are practices. Each may last for a week or more.
alpha . Avoid using some common word, such as "and" or "the" or "but"; use a
paraphrase.
beta . Avoid using some letter of the alphabet, such as "t", or "s". or
"m"; use a paraphrase.
xi . Avoid using the pronouns and adjectives of the first person; use a
paraphrase.
Of thine own ingenium devise others.
2. On each occasion that thou art betrayed into saying that thou art sworn
to avoid, cut thyself sharply upon the wrist or forearm with a razor; even as
thou shouldst beat a disobedient dog. Feareth not the Unicorn the claws and
teeth of the Lion?
3. Thine arm then serveth thee both for a warning and for a record. Thou
shalt write down thy daily progress in these practices, until thou art
perfectly vigilant at all times over the least word that slippeth from thy
tongue.
Thus bind thyself, and thou shalt be for ever free. {12}
II
0. The Horse is Action. Man, rule thou thine Action. How else shalt thou
master the Father, and answer the Fool at the Left Hand Gateway of the Crown?
1. Here are practices. Each may last for a week, or more.
alpha . Avoiding lifting the left arm above the waist.
beta . Avoid crossing the legs.
Of thine own ingenium devise others.
2. On each occasion that thou art betrayed into doing that thou art sworn
to avoid, cut thyself sharply upon the wrist or forearm with a razor; even as
1 ("I.e." the matter of Cereberus).
thou shouldst beat a disobedient dog. Feareth not the Horse the teeth of the
Camel?
3. Thine arm then serveth thee both for a warning and for a record. Thou
shalt write down thy daily progress in these practices, until thou art
perfectly vigilant at all times over the least action that slippeth from the
least of thy fingers.
Thus bind thyself, and thou shalt be for ever free.
III
0. The Ox is Thought. Man, rule thou thy Thought! How else shalt thou
master the Holy Spirit, and answer the High Priestess in the Middle Gateway of
the Crown?
1. Here are practices. Each may last for a week or more.
alpha . Avoid thinking of a definite subject and all things connected with
it, and let that subject be one which commonly occupies much of thy thought,
being frequently stimulated by sense-perceptions or the conversation of
others. {13}
beta . By some device, such as the changing of thy ring from one finger to
another, create in thyself two personalities, the thoughts of one being within
entirely different limits from that of the other, the common ground being the
necessities of life.2
Of thine own Ingenium devise others.
2. On each occasion that thou art betrayed into thinking that thou art
sworn to avoid, cut thyself sharply upon the wrist or forearm with a razor;
even as thou shouldst beat a disobedient dog. Feareth not the Ox the Goad of
the Ploughman?
3. Thine arm then serveth thee both for a warning and for a record. Thou
shalt write down thy daily progress in these practices, until thou art
perfectly vigilant at all times over the least thought that ariseth in thy
brain.
Thus bind thyself, and thou shalt be for ever free.
{14}
2 For instance, let A be a man of strong passions, skilled in the
Holy Qabalah, a vegetarian, and a keen "reactionary" politician.
Let B be a bloodless and ascetic thinker, occupied with business
and family cares, an eater of meat, and a keen progressive
politician. Let no thought proper to "A" arise when the ring is
on the "B" finger, and vice versa.
LIBER A
VEL ARMORVM
SVB FIGVRA
CCCCXII
A.'. A.'. Publication in Class D.
Imprimatur:
D.D.S. 7ø = 4ø Praemonstrator
O.S.V. 6ø = 5ø Imperator
N.S.F. 5ø = 6ø Cancellarius
LIBER A
VEL ARMORVM
SVB FIGVRA
CCCCXII
" ... the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and the work of the
sword; these he shall learn and teach." "Liber L", I, 37.
"The Pentacle."
Take pure wax, or a plate of gold, silver-gilt or Electrum Magicum. The
diameter shall be eight inches, and the thickness half an inch.
Let the Neophyte by his understanding and ingenium devise a symbol to
represent the Universe.
Let his Zelator approve thereof.
Let the Neophyte engrave the same upon the plate with his own hand and
weapon.
Let it when finished be consecrated as he hath skill to perform, and kept
wrapped in silk of emerald green.
"The Dagger."
Let the Zelator take a piece of pure steel, and beat it, grind it, sharpen
it, and polish it, according to the art of the swordsmith.
Let him further take a piece of oak wood, and carve a hilt. The length
shall be eight inches. {17}
Let him by his understanding and ingenium devise a Word to represent the
Universe.
Let his Practicus approve thereof.
Let the Zelator engrave the same upon his dagger with his own hand and
instruments.
Let him further gild the wood of the hilt.
Let it when finished be consecrated as he hath skill to perform, and kept
wrapped in silk of golden yellow.
"The Cup."
Let the Practicus take a piece of Silver and fashion therefrom a cup. The
height shall be 8 inches, and the diameter 3 inches.
Let him by his understanding and ingenium devise a Number to represent the
Universe.
Let his Philosophus approve thereof.
Let the Practicus engrave the same upon his cup with his own hand and
instrument.
Let it when finished be consecrated as he hath skill to perform, and kept
wrapped in silk of azure blue.
"The Baculum."
Let the Philosophus take a rod of copper, of length eight inches and
diameter half an inch.
Let him fashion about the top a triple flame of gold.
Let him by his understanding and ingenium devise a Deed to represent the
Universe.
Let his Dominus Liminis approve thereof.
Let the Philosophus perform the same in such a way that the Baculum may be
partaker therein. {18}
Let it when finished be consecrated as he hath skill to perform, and kept
wrapped in silk of fiery scarlet.
"The Lamp."
Let the Dominus Liminis take pure lead, tin, and quicksilver, with
platinum, and, if need be, glass.
let him by his understanding and ingenium devise a Magick Lamp that shall
burn without wick or oil, being fed by the Aethyr.
This shall he accomplish secretly and apart, without asking the advice or
approval of his Adeptus Minor.
Let the Dominus Liminis keep it when consecrated in the secret chamber of
Art.
This then is that which is written: "Bring furnished with complete armour
and armed, he is similar to the goddess."
And again, "I am armed, I am armed."
{19}
I.NSIT N.ATURAE R.EGINA I.SIS
" (Obtained in invocation, June 9-10, 1910 O.S.)
ALL the hot summer I lay in the darkness,
Calling on the winds to pass by me and slay me,
Slay me with light in the heat of the summer;
But the winds had no answer for one who was fallen
Asleep by the wayside, with no lyre to charm them,
No voice of the lyre, and no song to charm them.
Late as I lay there asleep by the wayside,
I heard a voice call to me, low in the silence,
There in the darkness the summer called to me:
"thou who art hidden in the green silence,
Let a time of quietness come now upon thee.
Lay thine head on the earth and slumber on her bosom:
Time and the gods shall pass darkling before thee."
There in the silence I lay, and I heeded
The slow voice that called me, the grave hand that beckoned,
That beckoned me on through the hall of the silence.
There in the silence there was a green goddess,
Folden her wings, and her hands dumbly folden,
Laying in her lay, as though asleep in the darkness.
Then did I hail her: "O mother, my mother,
Syren of the silence, dumb voice of the darkness, {21}
How shall I have speech of Thee, who know not Thy speaking?
How shall I behold Thee, who art hidden in the darkness?
Lo! I bend mine eyes before Thee, and no sign dost Thou vouchsafe me;
I whisper love-words before Thee, and I know not if Thou hear me,
Thou who art the darling of the Night and of the Silence;
Yellow art Thou as the sunlight through the corn-fields,
Bright as the sun-dawn on the snow-clad mountains,
Slow as the voice of the great green gliding River.
Calmly in Thy silence am I come to rest me,
Now from the world the light hath slowly faded;
I have left the groves of Pan that I might gaze upon Thee,
Gaze upon the Virgin that before Time was begotten,
Mother of Chronos, and the old gods before him,
Child of the womb of the Silence, whose father
Is the unknown breath of the most secret Goddess,
Whose name whoso hath heard is smitten to madness.
"Now do I come before Thee in Thy temple,
With offerings from the oak-woods and the breath of the water
That girds the earth with a girdle of green starlight;
And all the austerity of the brooding summer,
And all the wonder of the starlit spaces
That stare down awesomely upon the lonely marshes,
And the bogs with sucking lips, and the pools that charm the wanderer
Till he forgets the world, and rushes to sleep upon them." {22}
And still there was silence, and the voice of the world swept by me,
Making in mine ears the noise of tumbling waters;
But two voices I heard, and they spake one to the other:
"Who stands with downcast eyes in the temple of our Lady?"
And the answer: "A wanderer from the world who hath sought the halls of
silence;
Yet knoweth he not the Bride of the Darkness,
Her of the sable wings, and eyes of terrible blindness
That see through the worlds and find nothing and nothing,
Who would smite the worlds to peace, save that so she would perish,
And cannot, for that she is a goddess silent and immortal,
Utterly immortal in the gods' eternal darkness."
And the first voice cried: "Oh, that we might perish,
And become as pearls of blackness on the breast of the silence,
Lending the waste places of the world our darkness,
That the vision might burst in the brain of the seer,
And we be formed anew, and reborn in the light world."
But the other voice was silent, and the noise of waters swept me
Back into the world, and I lay asleep on a hill-side.
Bearing for evermore the heart of a goddess,
And the brain of a man, and the wings of the morning
Clipped by the shears of the silence; so must I wander lonely,
Nor know of the light till I enter into the darkness.
OMNIA VINCAM. {23}
HOW TO KEEP FIT, By C.T.SCHOFIELD, M.D. W. Rider and Sons. 1"s." net.
There is a deal of sound sense in this little manual. The author
castigates faddists, though to my mind not severely enough. However, I
suppose that in this mealy-mouthed age the truth is not printable.
It is a little amusing, though, to see how he tries to make his commonsense
fit into Christianity.
It is the Puritan theory that theological sin, which means everything you
like, is bad for you, that is responsible, according to statistics, for
79.403% of all the misery in England.
I suppose the bulk of the rest is due to having to review the outfall of
the R.P.A. A.C.
THE LITERARY GUIDE. March-September, 1910.
We regret that the R.P.A. disliked our reviews of their sewerage. The said
reviews were, however, written by one of the most prominent members of their
own body. Rather like Epaminondas and the Cretans!
Anyhow, the "Guide" has wittily retorted on us that our reviews are
"valueless." What a sparkler! What a crusher! A.C.
BHAKTI-YOGA. (Udvodhan Series.) By SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. 12 Gopal Chandra
Neogi's Lane, Baghbazar, Calcutta. 8 annas.
If Swami Vivekƒnanda was not a great Yogi he was at least a very great
expounder of Yoga doctrines. It is impossible here to convey to the reader a
just estimate of the extreme value of this book. But we can say that this is
the best work on the Bhakti-Yoga yet written. Union through devotion is
Bhakti-Yoga, and union with Isvara or the Higher Self is the highest form this
union can take --- "man will be seen no more as man, but only as God; the
animal will be seen no more as an animal, but as God; even the tiger will no
more be seen a tiger, but as a manifestation of God" ... "love knows no
bargaining ... love knows no reward ... love knows no fear ... love knows no
rival ..." for "there are no men in this world but that One Man, and that is
He, the Beloved."
In this excellent series can also be obtained Raja Yoga, one rupee; Karma
Yoga, twelve annas; and Jnana Yoga, one rupee, which is worth knowing
considering that the English edition of this last-mentioned work is priced at
eleven shillings. J. F. C. F.
[Yet we find Vivekƒnanda, at the end of his life, complaining, in a private
letter to a friend, that his reputation for holiness prevented him from going
"on the bust." Poor silly devil! --- ED.] {24}
MY LADY OF THE BREECHES
A HISTORY --- WITH A VENGEANCE
BY
GEORGE RAFFALOVICH
MY LADY OF THE BREECHES
0
THE FOOL
"WOULD you marry me, then?" the widow said.
"Yes, of course!" the man replied.
"You are a greater fool than I took you for."
"What do you mean?" he queried, vexed and puzzled. "Am I to take it that
you had the intention --- that you were prepared ...?"
"Go on."
"I don't know."
"I will be," she said, repressing a merry chuckle, "quite outspoken. I was
prepared to ... do nothing. Had you formulated some reasonable request ...
well, it might have ended otherwise. But marriage! Whom do you take me for?"
And the lady --- she was dark-haired --- whistled to her favourite monkey,
a reddish animal, who bounded on her lap.
Lionel Tabard left them both, in their inspiring contrast; never unfrowning
his well-shaped but delusive brow.
A few days later, he attempted to kiss the whimsical widow, who then horse-
whipped him, meaning to teach him --- not manners, but a-propos. Then she
laughed. But he proved unintelligent, and never repeated his insult. Hence a
nasty nickname from her lips. {27}
I
THE JUGGLER
"AND he well deserves it!"
"oh! it must have been ripping. I do wish I had been there; ... the horse-
whip, and the monkey. He is such a silly fellow, poor 'cheval hongre!"
"Ah, yes! the new nickname."
"Don't you think that it fits him?"
"Oh, yes."
The silent man of the party moved uneasily in his armchair. He was slow of
cogitation.
"Like the waistcoat of the late Nessus fitted Hercules, eh, what?" he
suggested.
"A fool!"
"Hercules?"
"No, Lionel ... and, er ... yes, Hercules also. Tabard reminds me of that
Bible chap."
"Potiphar's Joseph!" the silent man exclaimed triumphantly.
"Wrong again, Bernard. I meant Mary's Joseph."
The silent man threw his cigar over the fender.
II
LA PAPESSE
LIONEL TABARD had been horse-whipped by a woman; he had received --- to taken
--- no compensation. This I attribute to his mother. One reads many tales,
the paper thereof being {28} damnably wasted; in most of these, mothers are
all author-made angels --- sweet, loving, kind, forbearing, forgiving
creatures, who feel the responsibility they undertook when they called upon a
part of the spiritual world to come down among us. Of course, such mothers
are the ideal mothers of a perfect human race, and the authors may consider
themselves justified. Nevertheless, let us be true in this one history, and
acknowledge the fact that some mothers are a thoroughly bad lot. They are
mostly to be found among the well-to-do people, I suppose --- and I do not
wonder. When I see a mother smiling upon her grown-up son, I feel very sad.
I remember my own parent ...
There! I called this a history --- with a vengeance. You have it. Now
for a lesson in psychology.
Lionel's mother was queen and "regente" of bad parents. She was cleaver,
but void of reasoning powers; inclined to religious mania, her immediate
neighbourhood was crowded with foul larvae. In a legal and womanly manner she
had despatched her first husband to the night of a Sanatorium and thence to an
early grave. She had suffered badly at the hands of her second. This we may
take a being the coarsest form of that automatic justice, which is dealt only
to the coarsest natures. It had not, however, extirpated an iota of her fund
of self-esteem and lust for authority. To the latter, Lionel had often fallen
a victim. he was born bright and happy; the Houses had done well by him. His
mother gradually turned him into a self-concentrated, self-conscious,
frightened and deceitful youth. She had mentally emasculated him; and, in his
fits of understanding, he cursed her with no mean-spirited lips. He never
forgave her the death of his {29} father, her lying, under-handed ways,
especially her brutality. his was a noble hatred, utter, blood-thirsty,
virulent, eternal.
After years of melancholy and the physical consequences thereof, Lionel
Tabard found himself free from his tyrannical parent. He soon forgot her,
and, as the Divine Blinkings passed by, his recollection became less and less
distinct. he only remembered two facts. She had once, during his sleep,
broken a bone of his nose with a poker, because he snored; and, at another
time, she had broken in two a valuable riding-crop on his shoulder.
Her death pleased him. But his constitution was much weakened by boyish
exertions and the physical feeling of emptiness and marrowlessness, the
consequences of his shyness and lack of sportsmanship.
The first use he had to make of his freedom and of his fortune was to book
a cabin on the first liner bound for New Zealand, where he was let to expect a
total recovery.
III
THE EMPRESS
LIONEL lived on a large estate, rode, hunted, played games, was made love to;
discovered the joys of Nature, the pleasures kept in reserve for man by Isis,
and the superiority of the numbers two and three over the unity. He found, to
his surprise, that women could take interest in him. His shyness was
apparent, but tempted them. In this eyes they met an eager hungry expression,
a longing infinite for all things human, which tickled their desires. He
seemed to be ever staring at an invisible goal. The goal was the Tree of the
{30} full knowledge. Lionel felt within himself a tenacious longing, a
perpetual desire. His lack of physical courage as counterbalanced by his
intellectual daring; he meant to collar the Angel, and to re-enter the
Paradise of that first victim of womanhood, Adam of the bent shoulders, Adam
of the foolish resignation to the self-preserving decree of the frightened
divinities.
His errors of tactics were caused by the fact that he hoped to test the
apple without the help of Woman. Often enough, Lionel Tabard unwittingly
repelled the advances of many a feminine would-be initiator.
VI1
THE LOVER
BUT he was not prompted by the wisdom of a Master; merely by cowardice and
self-consciousness. He could not command love and desires; the angels of love
and desires therefore digged a deep trap before his feet...
Tabard was sitting in the verandah. The men had gone to bed, the women
also. He lighted his pipe, the use of which a life in open air had permitted
his lungs to tolerate. He was thinking, pondering, meditating upon the most
important matter in life, the personal one. He looked at his hands, white,
well shaped, well kept, but the left retaining a stiffer and curved
appearance. Lionel felt ashamed of himself. He took his watch in his hand
and looked at the time of night. {31} Twenty-one minutes past one o'clock ---
the day war marching towards its first duality. The door opened behind him,
and the creaking wood caused him to jump up. The daughter of his host stood
in her night-garments, a poem in pale green and white.
She said nothing; and he imitated the wisdom of her silence. His heart
began a wild, unhealthy fandango; his temples ached; his legs shook under him.
He felt himself paling; strange impulses prompted him to a return to ancestral
savagery. Alas, he sadly lacked experience.
However, the woman had burned her vessels, and meant to help him.
"Lionel," she said, "I have come."
"I see," he managed to answer hoarsely, but the words in his throat seemed
to feel like two huge hard lumps.
"Kiss me!"
Instinctively he stepped towards her and opened his arms. She fell heavily
within their embrace. She hugged herself close against his breast and nestled
on him, her eyes half-closed, her tongue and teeth searching blindly and
savagely for his lips.
Contrary to his expectations, and more according to some of his past
sensations and fears, Lionel Tabard felt more uneasiness than joy, more pain
than pleasure. He congratulated himself upon the fact that the cool night had
caused him to dress warmly, and that he had not trusted his body to the
protection of the garment to which he owed his surname. As it was, the fierce
Maenad was overcome by her passion ere she could have made him take a share in
it.
Nevertheless, Woman often wins through sheer obstinacy, {32} and Lionel
allowed himself to be conquered. Gradually, as the relations between them
grew with the force of habit, his disgust increased, while his condescension
plunged him deeper into the pit. He longed to tear himself away, and
gradually discovered that she had become a necessity to him. He lost pleasure
in himself and found none in her; finally he played an old trick and caused a
telegram to be sent, calling him away. He swore to return speedily --- which
he didn't.
He sailed back to Europe, found himself in London, where his first
experience caused him to waver between eagerness and self-consciousness. At
that time, he met with the adventure which I related. A young widow horse-
whipped him. Lionel was still very far from his salvation.
1 For reasons which are obvious to anyone who has mixed the Gluten
of the White Eagle with the Red Powder, or accomplished the Third
Projection, the order of the Tarot trumps cannot any longer be
preserved. Nor will their number exceed seven.
IX
THE HERMIT
HE went to seek it in the wilderness. A cottage green as a lizard, surrounded
by flowers and trees, well furnished, well kept by a couple of servants, male
and female, such was the chosen retreat. It proved very comfortable --- and
lonely.
He pursued his education, often troubled by horrid visions, when he saw
himself the centre of a stage where men and women crowded above, around, and
beneath him. They reminded him of the terrible prediction of the French poet,
who showed the two sexes dying away, irrevocably parted,
La femme ayant Gomorrhe et l'homme ayant Sodome.2
All the Messalines and Circes of an impure sex were {33} balancing before
him their tempting, repulsive, holy and foul, loose or firm, twin breasts.
Himself, cloven-hoffed and curl-horned, had to flagellate his own flesh with
iron chains, which failed to overcome the moral urtication, as had the
repeated physical purgings of his early years. narcissus, in a corner, pale
and smiling, urged him to renewed efforts; Spirits, both incubi and succubae,
thrusting themselves upon him, ate him away...
But all these dreams gradually faded out. Lionel had become a translucid
set of bones, with two big eyes heavily crowned. The time of his knowledge
had come.
XV
THE DEVIL
I TRUST I said nothing that could lead the reader into the belief that the
cottage was a lonely spot. Men and women lived in its almost immediate
neighbourhood. Among others, Sir Anthony Lawthon and his daughters. I
propose that we concern ourselves solely with the eldest of these, Mary
Lawthon.
I hardly know how to describe her. She was a woman of six and twenty, most
easy to understand, very simple and very complex, simple in her complexity,
complex in her simplicity. To men she seemed a man, strong, healthy, a rough-
rider, a ski-runner, a champion in many sports, who smoked her pipe and
emptied her glass passing well. To women she seemed a woman, whose hands were
ever ready for a soft caress, whose lips were full and red, whose skin was
velvet.
As a whole, she was very manly in her life, speech and {34} habit. She
dressed often as a man; and, one day, riding by Lionel's cottage, she noticed
the thin-armed youth whose eyes were big and haloed.
Their eyes met; she smiled, he trembled. Both were pleased. The next day
rose and brought them again together. A formal introduction followed. Mary
the male conquered Lionel the female. Thereafter, the "cheval hongre" lost
his nickname. Nor did he give any widow the chance of horse-whipping him
again.
XVIII
THE MOON
THEY were very happy; he learnt the joy of health and the ineffable
delectation of surrender; she the thrilling pain-pleasure of possession.
Here, she, being the heroine of our tale, passes out of it.
They are very happy. Man and woman. The complete being. May their love
last longer than the bee's!
2 Alfred de Vigny: "ColŠre de Samson."
GEORGE RAFFALOVICH
{35}
CAPTAIN MARGARET. By JOHN MASEFIELD.
I bought this book thinking to find a jolly pirate yarn. Instead, in a
style recalling now Bart Kennedy now Hall Caine, the meanderings and
maunderings of a crew of ill-assorted sexual degenerates.
And I wasted sevenpence on this nauseous nastiness!
THE PORCH. Vol I, No. 1. THE OVERSOUL. By RALPH WALDO EMERSON.
"The Porch" promises to be a delightful addition to our periodical
literature. Its first number gives in clear type on a nice page the
magnificent essay which we all know so well, yet of which we never tire.
The one objection to Emerson is that he thinks all men know this Oversoul.
They don't. It's a few holy illuminated men of God, and I hope that this
includes John M. Watkins. A.C.
Vol. I, No. 2. June, 1910. A TRUE CHRISTIAN. By JACOB BOEHME.
A most exquisite treatise on the life of the soul.
Boehme is a passive mystic, or quietist, of the very first water; he really
perceives the underlying realities of Christianity, a religion which is so
hidden by mounds of dirt and rubbish that it needs a very great mystic to get
to the bottom of things without becoming defiled.
I hope Mr. Watkins is a true Christian. V. B. N.
THE PORCH. Vol. I, No. 3. ON THE GOOD, OR THE ONE. By PLOTINUS.
We took up this book with avidity, thinking from the title that it was
about Mr. Watkins. But no; at least not under that name.
Plotinus' method of mystic exercise is practically that of Liber XVI
(A.'. A.'. publication in Class D), but it takes a deal of research to
discover this in his dull pages. He drones on in such an exalted kind of way,
don'tcherknow!
There is hardly a mystic living who wouldn't be a better man for reading
Gal's Gossip now and then. I wish I had a copy here!
DORIS LESLIE ("BABY").
THINGS A FREEMASON SHOULD KNOW. By F. J. W. CROWE.
It is a pity that the title of this excellent manual should suggest the
sexual sliminess of Sylvanus Stall, D.D., for it is a most admirable
compliation, a capital handbook and "vade-mecum" which no Mason should be
without. It is intensely interesting and beautifully illustrated with
portraits of Masonic worthies past and present --- there are no future
celebrities; why the omission? --- historic regalia and charitable
institutions. H. K. T.
{36}
AT BORDJ-AN-NUS
EL ARABI! El Arabi! Burn in thy brilliance, mine own!
O Beautiful! O Barbarous! Seductive as a serpent is
That poises head and hood, and makes his body tremble to the drone
Of tom-tom and of cymbal wooed by love's assassin sorceries!
El Arabi! El Arabi!
The moon is down; we are alone;
May not our mouths meet, madden, mix, melt in the starlight of a kiss?
El Arabi!
There by the palms, the desert's edge, I drew thee to my heart and held
Thy shy slim beauty for a splendid second; and fell moaning back,
Smitten by Love's forked flashing rod --- as if the uprooted mandrake yelled!
As if I had seen God, and died! I thirst! I writhe upon the rack!
El Arabi! El Arabi!
It is not love! I am compelled
By some fierce fate, a vulture poised, heaven's single ominous speck of black.
El Arabi! {37}
There in the lonely bordj across the dreadful lines of sleeping men,
Swart sons of the Sahara, thou didst writhe slim, sinuous and swift,
Warning me with a viper's hiss --- and was not death upon us then,
No bastard of thy maiden kiss? God's grace, the all-surpassing gift!
El Arabi! El Arabi!
Yea, death is man's Elixir when
Life's pale wine foams and splashes over his imagination's rim!
El Arabi!
El Arabi! El Arabi! witch-amber and obsidian
Thine eyes are, to ensorcell me, and leonine thy male caress.
Will not God grant us Paradise to end the music Earth began?
We play with loaded dice! He cannot choose but raise right hand to bless.
El Arabi! El Arabi!
Great is the love of God and man
While I am trembling in thine arms, wild wanderer of the wilderness!
El Arabi!
HILDA NORFOLK.
{38}
Lambda Iota Nu Omicron Sigma Iota Sigma Iota Delta Omicron Sigma
Lo! I lament. Fallen is the sixfold Star:
Slain is Asar.
O twinned with me in the womb of Night!
O son of my bowels to the Lord of Light!
O man of mine that hast covered me
From the shame of my virginity!
Where art thou? Is it not Apep thy brother,
The snake in my womb that am thy mother,
That hath slain thee by violence girt with guile,
And scattered thy limbs on the Nile?
Lo! I lament. I have forged a whirling Star:
I seek Asar.
O Nepti, sister! Arise in the dusk
From thy chamber of mystery and musk!
Come with me, though weary the way,
To bring back his life to the rended clay!
See! are not these the hands that wove
Delight, and these the arms that strove
With me? And these the feet, the thighs
That were lovely in mine eyes?
Lo! IO lament. I gather in my car
Thine head, Asar. {39}
And this --- is this not the trunk he rended?
But --- oh! oh! oh! --- the task transcended,
Where is the holy idol that stood
For the god of thy queen's beatitude?
Here is the tent --- but where is the pole?
Here is the body --- but where is the soul?
Nepti, sister, the work is undone
For lack of the needed One!
Lo! I lament. There is no god so far
As mine Asar!
There is no hope, none, in the corpse, in the tomb.
But these --- what are these that war in my womb?
There is vengeance and triumph at last of Maat
In Ra-Hoor-Khut and in Hoor-pa-Kraat!
Twins they shall rise; being twins they are one,
The Lord of the Sword and the Son of the Sun!
Silence, coeval colleague of the Voice,
The plumes of Amoun --- rejoice!
Lo! I rejoice. I heal the sanguine scar
Of slain Asar.
I was the Past, Nature the Mother.
He was the Present, Man my brother.
Look to the Future, the Child --- oh paean
The Child that is crowned in the Lion-Aeon!
The sea-dawns surge an billow and break
Beneath the scourge of the Star and the Snake.
To my lord I have borne in my womb deep-vaulted
This babe for ever exalted!
ALEISTER CROWLEY
{40}
THE TEMPLE OF SOLOMON
THE KING
IV.
THE HERMIT
WITH the seventh stage in the Mystical Progress of Frater P. we arrive at a
sudden and definite turning-poinjt.
During the last two years he had grown strong in the Magic of the West.
After having studied a host of mystical systems he had entered the Order of
the Golden Dawn, and it had been a nursery to him. In it he had learnt to
play with the elements and the elemental forces; but now having arrived at
years of adolescence, he put away childish things, and stepped out into the
world to teach himself what no school could teach him, --- the Arcanum that
pupil and master are one!
He had become a 6ø = 5ø, and it now rested with him, and him alone, to
climb yet another ridge of the Great Mountain and become a 7ø = 4ø, an
Exempt Adept in the Second Order, Master over the Ruach and King over the
Seven Worlds.
By destroying those who had usurped control of the Order of the Golden
Dawn, he not only broke a link with the darkening past, but forged so might an
one with the gleaming future, that soon he was destined to weld it to the all
encircling chain of the Great Brotherhood.
The Golden Dawn was now but a deserted derelict, mastless, rudderless, with
a name of opprobrium painted across its battered stern. P. however did not
abandon it to to cast himself helpless into the boiling waters of discontent,
but instead, he leapt on board that storm-devouring Argosy of Adepts which was
destined to bear him far beyond the crimsoning rays of {43} this dying dawn to
the mystic land where stood the Great Tree upon the topmost branches of which
hung the Golden Fleece.
Long was he destined to travel, past Lemnos and Samothrace, and through
Colchis and the city of AEea. There, as a second Jason, in the Temple of
Hecate, in the grove of Diana, under the cold rays of the Moon, was he to seal
that fearful pact, that pledge of fidelity to Medea, Mistress of Enchantments.
There was he to tame the two Bulls, whose feet were of brass, whose horns were
as crescent moons in the night, and whose nostrils belched forth mingling
columns of flame and of smoke. There was he to harness them to that plough
which is made of one great adamantine stone; and with it was he determined to
plough the two acres of ground which had never before been tilled by the hand
of man, and sow the white dragons' teeth, and slay the armed multitude, that
black army of unbalanced forces which obscures the light of the sun. And
then, finally, was he destined to slay with the Sword of Flaming Light that
ever watchful Serpent which writhes in silent Wisdom about the trunk of that
Tree upon which the Christ hangs crucified.
All these great deeds did he do, as we shall see. he tamed the bulls with
ease, --- the White and the Black. He ploughed the double field, --- the East
and the West. He sowed the dragons' teeth, --- the Armies of Doubt; and among
them did he cast he stone of Zoroaster given to him by Medea, Queen of
Enchantments, so that immediately they turned their weapons one against the
other, and perished. And then lastly, on the mystic cup of Iacchus he lulled
to sleep the Dragon of the illusions of life, and taking down the Golden
Fleece accomplished the Great Work. Then once again did he set {44} sail, and
sped past Circe, through Scylla and Carybdis; beyond the singing sisters of
Sicily, back to the fair plains of Thessaly and the wooded slopes of Olympus.
And one day shall it come to pass that he will return to that far distant land
where hung that Fleece of Gold, the Fleece he brought to the Children of Men
so that they might weave from it a little garment of comfort; and there on
that Self-same Tree shall he hand himself, and others shall crucify him; so
that in that Winter which draweth nigh, he who is to come may find yet another
garment to cover the hideous nakedness of man, the Robe that hath no Seam.
And those who shall receive, though they cast lots for it, yet shall they not
rend it, for it is woven from the top throughout.
For unto you is paradise opened, the tree of life is planted, the time to
come is prepared, plenteousness is made ready, a city is bilded, the rest is
allowed, yea, perfect goodness and wisdom. The root of evil is sealed up from
you, weakness and the moth is hid from you, and corruption is fled unto hell
to be forgotten: sorrows are passed, and in the end is shewed the treasure of
immortality.1
Yea! the Treasure of Immortality. In his own words let us now describe
this sudden change.
IN NOMINE DEI
HB:Nun-final HB:Mem HB:Aleph
Insit Naturae Regina Isis.
_____
At the End of the Century:
At the End of the Year:
At the Hour of Midnight:
Did I complete and bring to perfection the Work of
L.I.L.2
{45}
In Mexico: even as I did receive it from him who is reincarnated in me: and
this work is to the best of my knowledge a synthesis of what the Gods have
given unto me, as far as is possible without violating my obligations unto the
Chiefs of the R. R. et A. C. Now did I deem it well that I should rest awhile
before resuming my labours in the Great Work, seeing that he, who sleepeth
never, shall fall by the wayside, and also remembering the twofold sign: the
Power of Horus: and the Power of Hoor-pa-Kraat.3
Now, the year being yet young, One D. A. came unto me, and spake.
1 ii Esdras, viii, 52-54.
2 Lamp of Invisible Light. L.I.L. The title of the first AEthyr
derived from the initial letters of the Three Mighty Names of
God. In all there are thirty of these AEthyrs, "whose dominion
extendedth in ever widening circles without and beyond the Watch
Towers of the Universe." In one sense rightly enough did P.
bring to completion the work L.I.L. at the end of the year 1900;
but, in another, it took him nine long years of toil before he
perfected it, for it was not until the last days of the year 1909
that the work of the Thirty AEthyrs was indeed brought to an end.
In 1900 verily was the work conceived, but not until the year
1909 was it brought forth a light unto the darkness, a little
spark cast into the Well of Time. (P. merely means that at this
time he established a secret Order of this name.)
3 The Signs are of Projection and Withdrawal of Force; necessary
complements.
And he spake not any more (as had been his wont) in guise of a skeptic and
indifferent man: but indeed with the very voice and power of a Great Guru, or
of one definitely sent from such a Brother of the Great White Lodge.
Yea! though he spake unto me words all of disapproval, did I give thanks
and grace to God that he had deemed my folly worthy to attract his wisdom.
And, after days, did my Guru not leave me in my state of humiliation, and,
as I may say, despair: but spake words of comfort saying: "Is it not written
that if thine Eye be single thy whole body shall be full of Light?" Adding:
"In thee is no power of mental concentration and control of thought: and
without this thou mayst achieve nothing."
Under his direction, therefore, I began to apply myself unto the practice
of Raja-yoga, at the same time avoiding all, even the smallest, consideration
of things occult, as also he bade me.
Thus, at the beginning, I did meditate twice daily, three mediations
morning and evening, upon such simple objects as --- a white triangle; a red
cross; Isis; the simple Tatwas; a wand; and the like. I remained after some
three weeks for 59 1/2 minutes at one time, wherein my thought wandered 25
times. Now I began also to consider more complex things: my little Rose
Cross;4 the {46} complex Tatwas; the Golden Dan Symbol, and so on. also I
began the exercise of the pendulum and other simple regular motions.
Wherefore to-day of Venus, the 22nd of February 1901, I being in the City of
Guadalajara, in the Hotel Cosmopolita, I do begin to set down all that I
accomplish in this work:
And may the Peace of God, which passeth all understanding, keep my heart
and mind through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let my mind be open unto
the Higher:
Let my heart be the Centre
of Light:
Let my body be the
Temple
of the
ROSY CROSS.
Ex Deo Nascimur
In Jesu Morimur
Per Spiritum Sanctum Reviviscimus.
We must now digress in order to five some account of the Eastern theories
of the Universe and the mind. Their study will clarify our view of Frater P's
progress.
The reader is advised to study Chapter VII of Captain J. F. C. Fuller's
"Star in the West" in connection with this exposition.
{47}
4 Lost under dramatic circumstances at Frater P. A.'s house in
1909.
THE AGNOSTIC POSITION
DIRECT experience is the key to Yoga; direct experience of that Soul (Atman)
or Essence (Purusha) which acting upon Energy (Prƒna), and Substance (Akƒsa)
differentiates a plant from a stone, an animal from a plant, a man from an
animal, a man from a man, and man from God, yet which ultimately is the
underlying Equilibrium of all things; for as the Bhaga-vad-GŒta says:
"Equilibrium is called Yoga."
Chemically the various groups in the organic and inorganic worlds are
similar in structure and composition. One piece of limestone is very much
like another, and so also are the actual bodies of any two man, but not so
their minds. There-fore, should we wish to discover and understand that Power
which differentiates, and yet ultimately balances all appearances, which are
derived by the apparently unconscious object and received by the apparently
conscious subject, we must look for it in the workings of man's brain.5 {48}
This is but a theory, but a theory worth working upon until a better be
derived from truer facts. Adopting it, the transfigured-realist gazes at it
with wonder and then casts Theory overboard, and loads his ship with Law;
postulates that every cause has its effect; and,. when his ship begins to
sink, refuses to jettison his wretched cargo, or even to man the pumps of
Doubt, because the final result is declared by his philosophy to be
unknowable.
If any one cause be unknowable, be it first or last, then all causes are
unknowable. The will to create is denied, the will to annihilate is denied,
and finally the will to act is denied. Propositions perhaps true to the
Master, but certainly not so to the disciple. Because Titian was a great
artist and Rodin is a great sculptor, that is no reason why we should abolish
art schools and set an embargo on clay.
If the will to act is but a mirage of the mind, then equally so is the will
to differentiate or select. If this be true, and the chain of Cause and
Effect is eternal, how is it then that Cause A produces effect B, and Cause B
effect C, and Cause A + B + C effect X. Where originates this power of
production? It is said there is no change, the medium remaining alike
throughout. Burt we say there is a change --- a change of form,6 and not only
a change, but a distinct birth and a distinct death of form. What creates
5 Verworn in his "General Physiology" says: "It was found that the
sole reality that we are able to discover in the world is mind.
The idea of the physical world is only a product of the mind. ...
But this idea is not the whole of mind, for we have many mental
constituents, such as the simple sensations of pain and of
pleasure, that are not ideas of bodies ... every process of
knowledge, including scientific knowledge, is merely a psychical
event. ... This fact cannot be banished by the well-known method
of the ostrich" (pp. 39, 40).
"The real mystery of mysteries is the mind of man. Why, with a
pen or brush, one man sits down and makes a masterpiece, and yet
another, with the self-same instruments and opportunities, turns
out a daub or botch,is twenty times more curious than all the
musings of the mystics, works of the Rosicrucians, or the
mechanical contrivances which seem to-day so fine, and which our
children will disdain as clumsy" (R. B. Cumminghame Graham in
his preface to "The Canon").
6 Form here is synonymous with the Hindu Mƒyƒ, it is also the
chief power of the Buddhist devil, Mara, and even of that mighty
devil, Choronzon.
this form? Sense perception. what will destroy this form, and reveal to us
that which lies behind it? {49} Presumably cessation of sense perception.
How can we prove our theory? By cutting away every perception, every thought-
form as it is born, until nothing thinkable is left, not even the thought of
the unknowable.
The man of science will often say "I do not know, I really do not know
where these bricks came form, or how they were made, or who made them; but
here they are; let us build a house and live in it." Now this indeed is a
very sensible view to take, and the result is we have some very fine houses
built by these excellent bricklayers; but strange to say, this is the
fatalist's point of view, and a fatalistic science is indeed a cruel kind of
oxymoron. As a matter of fact he is nothing of the kind; for, when he has
exhausted his supply of bricks, he starts to look about for others, and when
others cannot be found, he takes one of the old ones and picking it to pieces
tries to discover of what it is made so that he may make more.
What is small-pox? Really, my friend, I do not know where it came from, or
what it is, or how it originated; when a man catches it he either dies or
recovers, please go away and don't ask me ridiculous questions! Now this
indeed would not be considered a very sensible view to adopt. And why?
Simply because small-pox no longer happens to be believed in as a malignant
devil, but is, at least partially, known an understood. Similarly, when we
have gained as much knowledge of the First Cause as we have of small-pox, we
shall no longer "believe" in a Benevolent God or otherwise, but shall, at least
partially, know and understand Him as He is or is-not. "I can't learn this!"
is the groan of a schoolboy and not the exclamation of a sage. No doctor who
is worth his salt will say: "I can't tackle this disease"; he says: "I "will"
tackle {50} this disease." So also with the Unknowable, God, "… priori," First
Cause, etc., etc., this metaphysical sickness can be cured. Not certainly in
the same manner as small-pox can be; for physicians have a scientific language
wherein to express their ideas and thoughts, whilst a mystic too often has
not; but by a series of exercises, or a system of symbolic teaching, which
will gradually lead the sufferer from the material to the spiritual, and not
leave him gazing and wondering at it, as he would at a star in the night.
A fourth dimensional being, outside a few mathematical symbols, would be
unable to explain to a third dimensional being a fourth dimensional world,
simply because he would be addressing him in a fourth dimensional language.
Likewise, in a less degree, would a doctor be unable to explain the theory of
inoculation to a savage, but it is quite conceivable that he might be able to
teach him how to vaccinate himself or another; which would be after all the
chief point gained.
Similarly the Yogi says: I have arrived at a state of Superconsciousness
(Samƒdhi) and you, my friend, are not only blind, deaf and dumb, and a savage,
but the son of a pig into the bargain. You are totally immersed in Darkness
(Tamas); a child of ignorance (Avidyƒ), and the offspring of illusion (Mƒyƒ);
as mad, insane and idiotic as those unfortunates you lock up in your asylums
to convince you, as one of you yourselves has very justly remarked, that you
are not all raving mad. For you consider not only one thing, which you insult
by calling God, but all things, to be real; and anything which has the
slightest odour of reality about it you pronounce an illusion. But, as my
brother the Magician has told you, "he {51} who denies anything asserts
something," now let me disclose to you this "Something," so hat you may find
behind the pairs of opposites what this something is in itself and not in its
appearance.
It has been pointed out in a past chapter how that in the West symbol has
been added to symbol, and how that in the East symbol has been subtracted from
symbol. How in the West the Magician has said: "As all came from God so must
all proceed to God," the motion being a forward one, and acceleration of the
one already existing. Now let us analyze what is meant by the worlds of the
yogi when he says: "As all came from god so must all return to God," the
motion being, as it will be at once seen, a backward one, a slowing down of
the one which already exists, until finally is reached that goal from which we
originally set out by a cessation of thinking, a weakening of the vibrations
of illusion until they cease to exist in Equilibrium.7 {52}
7 "The forces of the universe are only known to us, in reality,
but disturbances of equilibrium. The state of equilibrium
constitutes the limit beyond which we can no longer follow them"
(Gustave le Bon, "The Evolution of Matter," p. 94).
THE VEDANTA
BEFORE we enter upon the theory and practice of Yoga, it is essential that the
reader should possess some slight knowledge of the Vedƒnta philosophy; and
though the following in no way pretends to be an exhaustive account of the
same, yet it is hoped that it will prove a sufficient guide to lead the seeker
from the Western realms of Magic and action to the Eastern lands of Yoga and
renunciation.
To begin with, the root-thought of all philosophy and religion, both
Eastern and Western, is that the universe is only an appearance, and not a
reality, or, as Deussen has it:
The entire external universe, with its infinite ramifications in space and
time, as also the involved and intricate sum of our inner perceptions, is all
merely the form under which the essential reality presents itself to a
consciousness such as ours, but is not the form in which it may subsist
outside of our consciousness and independent of it; that, in other words, the
sum total of external and internal experience always an only tells us how
things are constituted for us, and for our intellectual capacities, not how
they are in themselves and apart from intelligences such as ours.8
Here is the whole of the World's philosophy in a hundred words; the undying
question which has perplexed the mind of man from the dim twilight of the
Vedas to the sweltering noon-tide of present-day Scepticism, what is the "Ding
an sich"; what is the alpha upsilon tau omicron chi alpha theta alpha upsilon tau omicron ;
what is the Atman?
That the thing which we perceive and experience is not {53} the "thing in
itself" is very certain, for it is only what "WE see." Yet nevertheless we
renounce this as being absurd, or not renouncing it, at least do not live up
to our assertion; for, we name that which is a reality to a child, and a
deceit or illusion to a man, an apparition or a shadow. Thus, little by
little, we beget a new reality upon the old reality, a new falsehood upon the
old falsehood, namely, that the thing we see is "an illusion" and is not "a
reality," seldom considering that the true difference between the one and the
other is but the difference of name. Then after a little do we begin to
believe in "the illusion" as firmly and concretely as we once believed in "the
reality," seldom considering that all belief is illusionary, and that
knowledge is only true as long as it remains unknown.9
Now Knowledge is identification, not with the inner or outer of a thing,
but with that which cannot be explained by either, and which is the essence of
the thing in itself,10 and which the Upanishads name the Atman.
Identification with this Atman (Emerson's "Oversoul") is therefore the end of
Religion and Philosophy alike.
8 Deussen, "The Philosophy of the Upanishads," p. 40. See also
Berkeley's "Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous."
9 Once the unknown becomes known it becomes untrue, it loses its
Virginity, that mysterious power of attraction the Unknown always
possesses; it no longer represents our ideal, though it may form
an excellent foundation for the next ideal; and so on until
Knowledge and Nescience are out-stepped. General and popular
Knowledge is like a common prostitute, the toy of any man. To
maintain this purity, this virginity, are the mysteries kept
secret from the multitude.
10 And yet again this is a sheer deceit, as every conceit must be.
"Verily he who has seen, heard, comprehended and known the Atman, by him is
this entire universe known."11 Because there is but one Atman and not many
Atmans. {54}
The first veil against which we must warn the aspirant is the entanglement
of language, of words and of names. The merest tyro will answer, "of course
you need not explain to me that, if I call a thing 'A' or 'B,' it makes no
difference to that thing in itself." And yet not only the tyro, but many of
the astutest philosophers have fallen into this snare, and not only once but
an hundred times; the reason being that they have not remained silent12 about
that which can only be "known" and not "believed in," and that which can never
be names without begetting a duality (an untruth), and consequently a whole
world of illusions. It is the crucifixion of every world-be Saviour, this
teaching of a truth under the symbol of a lie, this would-be explanation to
the multitude of the unexplainable, this passing off on the "canaille" the
strumpet of language (the Consciously Known) in the place of the Virgin of the
World (the Consciously Unknown).13
No philosophy has ever grasped this terrible limitation so firmly as the
Vedƒnta. "All experimental knowledge, the four Vedas and the whole series of
empirical science, as they are enumerated in Chƒndogya, 7. 1. 2-3, are 'nƒma
eva,' 'mere name.'"14 As the Rig Veda says, "they call him Indra, Mitra,
Varuna, Agni, and he is heavenly nobly-winged Garutmƒn. To what is one, sages
give many a title: they call it Agni, Tama, Mƒtirisvan."15 {55}
Thus we find that "duality" in the East is synonymous with "a mere matter
of words,"16 and further, that, when anything is (or can be) describe by a
word or a name, the knowledge concerning it is Avidyƒ "ignorance."
No sooner are the eyes of a man opened17 than he sees "good and evil," and
becomes a prey to the illusions he has set out to conquer. He gets something
apart from himself, and whether it be Religion, Science, or Philosophy it
matters not; for in the vacuum which he thereby creates, between him and it,
burns the fever that he will never subdue until he has annihilated both.18
God, Immortality, Freedom, are appearances and not realities, they are Mƒyƒ
and not Atman; Space, Time and Causality19 are appearances and not realities,
11 Brihadƒranjaka Upanishad, 2. 4. 5b.
12 The highest men are calm, silent and unknown. They are the men
who really know the power of thought; they are sure that, even if
they go into a cave and close the door and simply think five true
thoughts and then pass away, these five thoughts of theirs will
live through eternity. (Vivekƒnanda, "Karma Yoga," Udbodhan
edition, pp. 164, 165.)
13 Or the Unconsciously Known.
14 Deussen, "ibid.", p. 76.
15 "Rigveda" (Griffiths), i. 164. 46. "You may call the Creator of
all things by different names: Liber, Hercules, Mercury, are but
different names of the same divine being" (Seneca, iv, 7. 8).
16 "Chƒndogya Upanishad," 6. 1. 3. Also of "form."
17 That is to say, when he gains knowledge.
18 This is the meaning of "Nequaquam Vacuum."
19 Modern Materialism receives many a rude blow at the hands of
Gustave le Bon. This great Frenchman writes: "These fundamental
dogmas, the bases of modern science, the researches detailed in
this work tend to destroy. If the principle of the conservation
of energy --- which, but the by, is simply a bold generalization
of experiments made in very simple cases --- likewise succumbs to
the blows which are already attacking it, the conclusion must be
arrived at that nothing in the world is eternal." ("The
Evolution of Matter," p. 18.) In other words, all is full of
birth, growth, and decay, that is Mƒyƒ. Form to the Materialist,
Name to the Idealist, and Nothing to him who has risen above
both.
they also are Mƒyƒ and not Atman. All that is not Atman is Mƒyƒ, and Mƒyƒ is
ignorance, and ignorance is sin.
Now the philosophical fall of the Atman produces the Macrocosm and the
Microcosm, God and not-God --- the Universe, or the power which asserts a
separateness, an individuality, {56} a self-consciousness --- I am! This is
explained in Brihadƒranyaka, 1. 4. 1. as follows:
"In the beginning the Atman alone in the form of a man20 was this universe.
He gazed around; he saw nothing there but himself. Thereupon he cried out at
the beginning: 'It is I.' Thence originated the name I. Therefore to-day,
when anyone is summoned, he answers first 'It is I'; and then only he names
the other name which he bears."21
This Consciousness of "I" is the second veil which man meets on his upward
journey, and, unless he avoid it and escape from its hidden meshes, which are
a thousandfold more dangerous than the entanglements of the veil of words, he
will never arrive at that higher consciousness, that superconsciousness
(Samƒdhi), which will consume him back into the Atman from which he came.
As the fall of the Atman arises from the cry "It is I," so does the fall of
the Self-consciousness of the universe-man arise through that Self-
consciousness crying "I am it," thereby identifying the shadow with the
substance; from this fall arises the first veil we had occasion to mention,
the veil of duality, of words, of belief.
This duality we find even in the texts of the oldest Upanishads, such as in
Brihadƒranjaka, 3. 4. 1. "It is thy soul, {57} which is within all." And
also again in the same Upanishad (I. 4. 10.), "He who worships another
divinity (than the Atman), and says 'it is one and I am another' is not wise,
but he is like a house-dog of the gods." And house-dogs shall we remain so
long as we cling to a belief in a knowing subject and an known object, or in
the worship of anything, even of the Atman itself, as long as it remains apart
from ourselves. Such a delemma as this does not take long to induce one of
those periods of "spiritual dryness," one of those "dark nights of the soul"
so familiar to all mystics and even to mere students of mysticism. And such a
night seems to have closed around Yƒj¤avalkhya when he exclaimed:
After death there is no consciousness. For where there is as it were a
duality, there one sees the other, smells, hears, addresses, comprehends, and
knows the other; but when everything has become to him his own self, how
should he smell, see, hear, address, understand, or know anyone at all? How
should he know him, through whom he knows all this, how should he know the
knower?22
Thus does the Supreme Atman become unknowable, on account of the individual
Atman23 remaining unknown; and further, will remain unknowable as long as
consciousness of a separate Supremacy exists in the heart of the individual.
20 "There are two persons of the Deity, one in heaven, and one
which descended upon earth in the form of man ("i.e.", Adam
Qadmon), and the Holly One, praised be It! unites them (in the
union of Samƒdhi, that is, of "Sam" (Greek sigma upsilon nu , "together"
"with"), and "Adhi," Hebrew "Adonai, the Lord"). There are three
Lights in the Upper Holy Divine united in One, and this is the
foundation of the doctrine of Every-Thing, this is the beginning
of the Faith, and Every-Thing is concentrated therein" ("Zohar
III," beginning of paragraph. "She'meneeh," fol. 36a.
21 It is fully realized that outside the vastness of the symbol
this "Fall of God" is as impertinent as it is unthinkable.
22 Brihadƒranjaka Upanishad, 2. 4. 12.
23 The illusion of thinking ourselves similar to the Unity and yet
separated from It.
Directly the seeker realizes this, a new reality is born, and the clouds of
night roll back and melt away before the light of a breaking dawn, brilliant
beyond all that have preceded it. Destroy this consciousness, and the
Unknowable may become the Known, or at least the Unknown, in the sense of the
undiscovered. Thus we find the old Vedantist presupposing an Atman and a
sigma upsilon mu beta omicron lambda omicron nu of it, so that he might better transmute
{58} the unknown individual soul into the known, and the unknowable Supreme
Soul into the unknown, and the, from the knowable through the known to the
knower, get back to the Atman and Equilibrium --- Zero.
All knowledge he asserts to be Mƒyƒ, and only by paradoxes is the Truth
revealed.
Only he who knows it not knows it,
Who knows it, he knows it not;
Unknown is it by the wise,
But by the ignorant known.24
These dark nights of Scepticism descent upon all systems just as they
descend upon all individuals, at no stated times, but as a reaction after much
hard work; and usually they are forerunners of a new and higher realization of
another unknown land to explore. Thus again and again do we find them rising
and dissolving like some strange mist over the realms of the Vedƒnta. To
disperse them we must consume them in that same fire which has consumed all we
held dear; we must turn our engines of war about and destroy our sick and
wounded, so that those who are strong and whole may press on the faster to
victory.
As early as the days of the Rig Veda, before the beginning was, there was
"neither not-being nor yet being." This thought again and again rumbles
through the realms of philosophy, souring the milk of man's understanding with
its bitter scepticism.
Not-being was this in the beginning,
From it being arose.
Self-fashioned indeed out of itself ...
The being and the beyond {59}
Expressible and inexpressible,
Founded and foundationless,
Consciousness and unconsciousness,
Reality and unreality.25
All these are vain attempts to obscure the devotee's mind into believing in
that Origin he could in no way understand, by piling up symbols of extravagant
vastness. all, as with the Qabalists, was based on Zero, all, same one thing,
and this one thing saved the mind of man from the fearful palsy of doubt which
had shaken to ruin his brave certainties, his audacious hopes and his
invincible resolutions. Man, slowly through all his doubts, began to realize
that if indeed all were Mƒyƒ, a matter of words, he at least existed. "I am,"
he cried, no longer, "I am it."26
And with the Isƒ Upanishad he whispered:
Into dense darkness he enters
Who has conceived becoming to be naught,
Into yet denser he
Who has conceived becoming to be aught.
24 Kena Upanishad, 11.
25 TaittirŒya Brƒhmana, 2. 7.
26 "I.e.", "Existence is" HB:Heh HB:Yod HB:Heh HB:Aleph HB:Resh HB:Shin HB:Aleph
HB:Heh HB:Yod HB:Heh HB:Aleph .
Abandoning this limbo of Causality, just as the Buddhist did at a later
date, he tackled the practical problem "What am I? To hell with God!"
The self is the basis for the validity of proof, and therefore is
constituted also before the validity of proof. And because it is thus formed
it is impossible to call it in question. For we many call a thing in question
which comes up to us from without, but not our own essential being. For if a
man calls it in question yet is it his own essential being.
An integral part is here revealed in each of us which is a reality, perhaps
the only reality it is given us to know, and {60} one we possess irrespective
our our not being able to understand it. We have a soul, a veritable living
Atman, irrespective of all codes, sciences, theories, sects and laws. What
then is this Atman, and how can we understand it, that is to say, see it
solely, or identify all with it?
The necessity of doing this is pointed out in Chƒndogya, 8. 1. 6.
He who departs from this world without having known the soul or those true
desires, his part in all worlds is a life of constraint; but he who departs
from this world after having known the soul and those true desires, his part
in all worlds is a life of freedom.
In the Brihadƒranjaka,27 king Janaka asks Yƒj¤avalkhya, "what serves man
for light?" That sage answers:
The sun serves him for light. When however the sun has set? --- the moon.
And when he also has set? --- fire. And when this also is extinguished? ---
the voice. And when this also is silenced? Then is he himself his own
light.28
This passage occurs again and again in the same form, and in paraphrase, as
we read through the Upanishads. In Kƒthaka 5. 15 we find:
There no sun shines, no moon, nor glimmering star,
Nor yonder lightning, the fire of earth is quenched; {61}
From him,29 who alone shines, all else borrows its
brightness.
The whole world bursts into splendour at his shining.
And again in Maitrƒyana, 6. 24.
When the darkness is pierced through, then is reached that which is not
affected by darkness; and he who has thus pierced through that which is so
affected, he has beheld like a glittering circle of sparks Brahman bright as
the sun, endowed with all might, beyond the reach of darkness, that shines in
yonder sun as in the moon, the fire and the lightning.
27 Brihadƒranyaka Upanishad, 4. 3-4.
28 These refer to the mystic lights in man. Compare this with the
Diagram 2 "The Paths and Grades" in "The Neophyte." After the
Atman in the aspirant has been awakened by the trumpet of Israfel
(The Angel) he proceeds by the path of HB:Shin . The next path the
Aspirant must travel is that of HB:Resh --- the Sun; the next that
of HB:Qof --- the Moon; the next that of HB:Tzaddi --- the Star. This
path brings him to the Fire of Netzach. When this fire is
extinguished comes the Voice or Lightning, after which the Light
which guides the aspirant is Himself, his Holy Guardian Angel,
the Atman --- Adonai.
29 The Atman.
Thus the Atman little by little came to be known and no longer believed in;
yet at first it appears that those who realized it kept their methods to
themselves, and simply explained to their followers its greatness and
splendour by parable and fable, such as we find in Brihadƒranyaka, 2. 1. 19.
That is his real form, in which he is exalted above desire, and is free
from evil and fear. For just as one who dallies with a beloved wife has no
consciousness of outer or inner, so the spirit also dallying with the self,
whose essence is knowledge, has no consciousness of inner or outer. That is
his real form, wherein desire is quenched, and he is himself his own desire,
separate from desire and from distress. Then the father is no longer father,
the mother no longer mother, the worlds no longer worlds, the gods no longer
gods, the Vedas no longer Vedas. ... This is his supreme goal.
As theory alone cannot for ever satisfy man's mind in the solution of the
life-riddle, so also when once the seeker has become the seer, when once
actual living men have attained and become Adepts, their methods of attainment
cannot for long remain entirely hidden.30 And either from their teachings
directly, or from those of their disciples, we find in India {62} sprouting up
from the roots of the older Upanishads two great systems of practical
philosophy:
1. The attainment by Sannyƒsa.
2. The attainment by Yoga.
The first seeks, by artificial means, to suppress desire. The second by
scientific experiments to annihilate the consciousness of plurality.
In the natural course of events the Sannyƒsa precedes the Yoga, for it
consists in casting off from oneself home, possessions, family and all that
engenders and stimulates desire; whilst the Yoga consists in withdrawing the
organs of sense from the objects of sense, and by concentrating them on the
Inner Self, Higher Self, Augoeides, Atman, or Adonai, shake itself free from
the illusions of Mƒyƒ --- the world of plurality, and secure union with this
Inner Self or Atman. {63}
30 As the light of a lamp brought into a dark room is reflected by
all surfaces around it, so is the illumination of the Adept
reflected even by his unilluminated followers.
ATTAINMENT BY YOGA.
ACCORDING to the Shiva Sanhita there are two doctrines found in the Vedas: the
doctrines of "Karma Kƒnda" (sacrificial works, etc.) and of "Jana Kƒndra"
(science and knowledge). "Karma Kƒndra" is twofold --- good and evil, and
according to how we live "there are many enjoyments in heaven," and "in hell
there are many sufferings." Having once realized the truth of "Karma Kƒndra"
the Yogi renounces the works of virtue and vice, and engages in "Jnana Kƒndra"
--- knowledge.
In the Shiva Sanhita we read:31
In the proper season, various creatures are born to enjoy the consequences
of their karma.32 As though mistake mother-of-pearl is taken for silver, so
through the error of one's own karma man mistakes Brahma for the universe.
Being too much and deeply engaged in the manifested world, the delusion
arises about that which is manifested --- the subject. There is no other
cause (of this delusion). Verily, verily, I tell you the truth.
If the practiser of Yoga wishes to cross the ocean of the world, he should
renounce all the fruits of his works, having preformed all the duties of his
ƒshrama.33
"Jana Kƒnda" is the application of science to "Karma Kƒnda," the works of
good and evil, that is to say of Duality. {64} Little by little it eats away
the former, as strong acid would eat away a piece of steel, and ultimately
when the last atom has been destroyed it ceases to exist as a science, or as a
method, and becomes the Aim, "i.e.", Knowledge. This is most beautifully
described in the above-mentioned work as follows:
34. That Intelligence which incites the functions into the paths of virtue
and vice "am I." All this universe, moveable and immovable, is from me; all
things are seen through me; all are absorbed into me;34 because there exists
nothing but spirit, and "I am that spirit." There exists nothing else.
35. As in innumerable cups full of water, many reflections of the sun are
seen, but the substance is the same; similarly individuals, like cups, are
innumerable, but the vivifying spirit like the sun is one.
49. All this universe, moveable or immoveable, has come out of
Intelligence. Renouncing everything else, take shelter of it.
50. As space pervades a jar both in and out, similarly within and beyond
this ever-changing universe there exists one universal Spirit.
58. Since from knowledge of that Cause of the universe, ignorance is
destroyed, therefore the Spirit is Knowledge; and this Knowledge is
everlasting.
59. That Spirit from which this manifold universe existing in time takes
its origin is one, and unthinkable.
31 Shiva Sanhita, ii, 43, 45, 51.
32 Work and the effects of work.; The so-called law of Cause and
Effect in the moral and physical worlds.
33 The four ƒshramas are (1) To live as a Brahmachƒrin --- to spend
a portion of one's life with a Brahman teacher. (2) To live as a
Grihastha --- to rear a family and carry out the obligatory
sacrifices. (3) To live as a Vƒnaprastha --- to withdraw into
solitude and meditate. (4) To live as a Sannyƒsin --- to await
the spirit's release into the Supreme Spirit.
34 At the time of the Pralaya.
62. Having renounced all false desires and chains, the Sannyƒsi and Yogi
see certainly in their own spirit the universal Spirit.
63. Having seen the Spirit that brings forth happiness in their own spirit,
they forget this universe, and enjoy the ineffable bliss of Samƒdhi.35
As in the West there are various systems of Magic, so in the East are there
various systems of yoga, each of which purports to lead the aspirant from the
realm of Mƒyƒ to that of Truth in Samƒdhi. The most important of these are:
1. Gana Yoga. Union by Knowledge.
2. Raha Yoga. Union by Will
3. Bhakta Yoga. Union by Love. {65}
4. Hatha Yoga. Union by Courage.
5. Mantra Yoga. Union though Speech.
6. Karma Yoga. Union though Work.36
The two chief of these six methods according to the Bhagavad-GŒta are: Yoga
by Sƒ¤khya (Raja Yoga), and Yoga by Action (Karma Yoga). But the difference
between these two is to be found in their form rather than in their substance;
for, as Krishna himself says:
Renunciation (Raja Yoga) and Yoga by action (Karma Yoga) both lead to the
highest bliss; of the two, Yoga by action is verily better than renunciation
by action ... Children, not Sages, speak of the Sƒ¤khya and the Yoga as
different; he who is duly established in one obtaineth the fruits of both.
That place which is gained by the Sƒ¤khyas is reached by the Yogis also. He
seeth, who seeth that the Sƒ¤khya and the Yoga are one.37
Or, in other words, he who understand the equilibrium of action and
renunciation (of addition and subtraction) is as he who perceives that in
truth the circle is the line, the end the beginning.
To show how extraordinarily closely allied are the methods of Yoga to those
of Magic, we will quote the following three verses from the Bhagavid-GŒta,
which, with advantage, the reader may compare with the citations already made
from the works of Abramelin and Eliphas Levi.
When the mind, bewildered by the Scriptures (Shruti), shall stand
immovable, fixed in contemplation (Samƒdhi), then shalt thou attain to Yoga.38
Whatsoever thou doest, whatsoever thou eatest, whatsoever thou offerest,
{66} whatsoever thou givest, whatsoever thou dost of austerity, O Kaunteya, do
thou that as an offering unto Me.
On Me fix thy mind; be devoted to Me; sacrifice to Me; prostrate thyself
before Me; harmonized thus in the SELF (Atman), thou shalt come unto Me,
having Me as thy supreme goal.39
These last two verses are taken from "The Yoga of the Kingly Science and
the Kingly Secret"; and if put into slightly different language might easily
be mistaken for a passage out of "the Book of the Sacred Magic."
Not so, however, the first, which is taken from "The Yoga by the Sƒ¤khya,"
and which is reminiscent of the Quietism of Molinos and Madam de Guyon rather
than of the operations of a ceremonial magician. And it was just this Quietism
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