THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS
Copyright 1985
by
Ordo Templi Orientis
P.O. Box 2303
Berkeley, California
94702
PRIVATELY PUBLISHED
for
ORDO TEMPLI ORIENTIS
by
Fr. A.U.D.C.A.L.
SAN FRANCISCO
(typed by Soror Alice)
ANNUM Lxxx
SOL IN AQUARIUS
LUNA IN VIRGO
A PARAPHRASE OF THE INSCRIPTIONS UPON
THE OBVERSE OF THE STELE OF REVELLING
Above, the gemmed azure is
The naked splendour of Nuit;
She bends in ecstasy to kiss
The secret ardours of Hadit.
The winged globe, the starry blue
Are mine, o Ankh-f-n-Khonsu.
I am the Lord of Thebes, and I
The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu;
For me unveils the veiled sky,
The self-slain Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet
Thy presence, o Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
Unity uttermost showed!
I adore the might of Thy breath,
Supreme and terrible God,
Who makest the gods and death
To tremble before Thee:--
I,I adore thee!
Appear on the throne of Ra!
Open the ways of the Khu!
Lighten the ways of the Ka!
The ways of the Khabs run through
To stir me or still me!
Aum! let it kill me!
The Light is mine; its rays consume
Me: I have made a secret door
Into the House of Ra and Tum,
Of Khephra, and of Ahathoor.
I am thy Theban, o Mentu,
The prophet Ankh-f-n-Khonsu!
By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;
By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell.
Show thy star-splendour, O Nuith!
Bid me within thine House to dwell,
O winged snake of light, Hadith!
Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
(next two pages are front and back of Stele)
A PARAPHRASE OF THE HIEROGLYPHS OF THE
II LINES UPON THE REVERSE OF THE STELE
Saith of Mentu the truth-telling brother
Who was master of Thebes from his birth:
O heart of me, heart of my mother!
O heart which I had upon earth!
Stand not thou up against me a witness!
Oppose me not, judge, in my quest!
Accuse me not now of unfitness
Before the Great God, the dread Lord of the West!
For I fastened the one to the other
With a spell for their mystical girth,
The earth and the wonderful West,
When I flourished, o earth, on the breast!
The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
Saith with his voice of truth and calm:
O thou that hast a single arm!
O thou that glitterest in the moon!
I weave thee in the spinning charm;
I lure thee with the billowy tune.
The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
Hath parted from the darkling crowds,
Hath joined the dwellers of the light,
Opening Duant, the star-abodes,
Their keys receiving.
The dead man Ankh-f-n-Khonsu
Hath made his passage into night,
His pleasure on the earth to do
Among the living.
THE EQUINOX OF THE GODS.
The Official Organ of the A A
(pic of eye in triangle)
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
Love is the law, love under will.
The word of the law is
THELEMA (in Greek)
The Official Organ of the O.T.O.
Deus est Homo (lamen in middle)
Vol. III No. III
An I x Sol in Libra
SEPTEMBER MCMXXXVI E.V.
Issued by the O.T.O.
A.'. A.'. Publication in Class E.
(A.'. A.'. SIGIL)
(O.T.O. LAMEN)
(BAPHOMET'S SIGNATURE)
(FOLLOWING ARE PICTURES OF ASTROLOGICAL CHARTS)
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THE NATIVITY OF FRA. P. |THE FIRST INITIATION OF FRA. P.
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OF THE GODS | THE ANNIHILATION OF FRA. P.
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CONTENTS
Page
The Summons .............................................. I
A Summary .............................................. 3
LIBER AL vel LEGIS
Sub Figura CCXX as Delivered by XCIII==
4I8 to DCLXVI ............................................I3
GENESIS LIBRI AL ............................................39
ILLUSTRATIONS
The Stele of Revealing ........................... Frontispiece
Four Horoscopes ................................ Facing Summons
First sketch of a Qabalistic Key to Liber AL ................I38
POCKET
THE COMMENT
Facsimile of the MS. of Liber AL
THE SUMMONS.
On April 8, 9 and I0, I904, e.v. this book was dictated to
666 (Aleister Crowley) by Aiwass, a Being whose nature he does
not fully understand, but who described Himself as "the Minister
of Hoor-Paar-Kraat" (the Lord of Silence).
The contents of the book prove to strict scientific demon-
stration that He possesses knowledge and power quite beyond
anything that has been hitherto associated with human faculties.
The circumstances of the dictation are described in the
Equinox, Vol. I, No. vii: but a fuller account, with an outline
of the proof of the character of the book is now here to be
issued.
The book announces a New Law for mankind.
It replaces the moral and religious sanctions of the past,
which have everywhere broken down, by a principle valid for each
man and woman in the world, and self-evidently indefeasible.
The spiritual Revolution announced by the book has already
taken place: hardly a country where it is not openly manifest.
Ignorance of the true meaning of this new Law has led to
gross anarchy. Its conscious adoption in its proper sense is the
sole cure for the political, social and racial unrest which
have brought about the World War, the catastrophe of Europe and
America, and the threatening attitude of China, India and Islam.
Its solution of the fundamental problems of mathematics and
philosophy will establish a new epoch in history.
But it must not be supposed that so potent an instrument of
energy can be used without danger.
I summon, therefore, by the power and authority entrusted to
me, every great spirit and mind now on this planed incarnate to
take effective hold of this transcendent force, and apply it to
the advancement of the welfare of the human race.
For as the experience of these two and thirty years has
shown too terribly, the book cannot be ignored. It has leavened
Mankind unaware: and Man must make thereof the Bread of Life.
Its ferment has begun to work on the grape of thought: Man must
obtain therefrom the Wine of Ecstasy.
Come then, all ye, in the Name of the Lord of the Aeon, the
Crowned and Conquering Child, Heru-Ra-Ha: I call ye to partake
this sacrament.
Know-will-dare-and be silent!
The Priest of the Princes,
ANKH-AF-NA-KHONSU.
A SUMMARY
MARSYAS. I bear a message. Heaven hath sent
(As for The The knowledge of a new sweet way
Beast 666). Into the Secret Element.
OLYMPAS. Master, while yet the glory clings
(Any Aspirant) Declare this mystery magical!
MARSYAS. I am yet borne on these blue wings
Into the Essence of the All.
Now, now I stand on earth again,
Though, blazing through each nerve and vein,
The light yet holds its choral course,
Filling my frame with fiery force
Like God's. Now hear the Apocalypse!
New-fledged on these reluctant lips!
OLYMPAS. I tremble like an aspen, quiver
Like light upon a rainy river !
MARSYAS. Do what thou wilt ! is the sole word
Of law that my attainment heard.
Arise, and lay thine hand on God !
Arise, and set a period
Unto Restriction ! That is sin :
To hold thine holy spirit in !
O thou that chafest at thy bars,
Invoke Nuit beneath her stars
With a pure heart (Her incense burned
Of gums and woods, in gold inurned)
And let the serpent flame therein
A little, and thy soul shall win
To lie within her bosom. Lo !
Thou wouldst give all------and she cries : No !
Take all, and take me ! Gather spice
And virgins and great pearls of price !
Worship me in a single robe,
Crowned Richly ! Girdle of the globe,
I love thee. I am drunkenness
Of the inmost sense, my soul's caress
Is toward thee ! Let my priestess stand
Bare and rejoicing, softly fanned
By smooth-lipped acolytes, upon
Mine iridescent altar-stone,
And in her love-chaunt swooningly
Say evermore : To me ! To me !
I am the azure-lidded daughter
Of sunset; the all-girdling water;
The naked brilliance of the sky
In the voluptuous night am I !
With song, with jewel, with perfume,
Wake all my rose's blush and bloom !
Drink to me ! Love me ! I love thee,
My love, my lord--to me ! to me !
OLYMPAS. There is no harshness in the breath
Of this--is life surpassed, and death ?
MARSYAS. There is the Snake that gives delight
And Knowledge, stirs the heart aright
With drunkenness. Strange drugs are thine,
Hadit, and draughts of wizard wine !
These do no hurt. Thine hermits dwell
Not in the cold secretive cell,
But under purple canopies
With mighty-breasted mistresses
Magnificent as lionesses--
Tender and terrible caresses !
Fire lives, and light, in eager eyes;
And massed huge hair about them lies.
They lead their hosts to victory :
In every joy they are kings ; then see
That secret serpent coiled to spring
And win the world ! O priest and king,
Let there be feasting, foining, fighting,
A revel of lusting, singing, smiting !
Work ; be the bed of work ! Hold ! Hold !
The stars' kiss is as molten gold.
Harden ! Hold thyself up ! now die--
Ah ! Ah ! Exceed ! Exceed !
OLYMPAS. And I ?
MARSYAS. My stature shall surpass the stars :
He hath said it ! Men shall worship me
In hidden woods, on barren scaurs,
Henceforth to all eternity.
OLYMPAS. Hail ! I adore thee ! Let us feast.
MARSYAS. I am the consecrated Beast.
I build the Abominable House.
The Scarlet Woman is my Spouse---
OLYMPAS. What is this word ?
MARSYAS. Thou canst not know
Till thou hast passed the Fourth Ordeal.
OLYMPAS. I worship thee. The moon-rays flow
Masterfully rich and real
From thy red mouth, and burst, young suns
Chanting before the Holy Ones
Thine Eight Mysterious Orisons !
MARSYAS. The last spell ! The availing word !
The two completed by the third !
The Lord of War, of Vengeance
That slayeth with a single glance !
This light is in me of my Lord.
His Name is this far-whirling sword.
I push His order. Keen and swift
My Hawk's eye flames ; these arms uplift
The Banner of Silence and of Strength---
Hail ! Hail ! thou are here, my Lord, at length !
Lo, the Hawk-Headed Lord am I :
My nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.
Hail ! ye twin warriors that guard
The pillars of the world ! Your time
Is nigh at hand. The snake that marred
Heaven with his inexhaustible slime
Is slain ; I bear the Wand of power,
The Wand that waxes and that wanes ;
I crush the Universe this hour
In my left hand ; and naught remains !
Ho ! for the splendour in my name
Hidden and glorious, a flame
Secretly shooting from the sun.
Aum ! Ha !--my destiny is done.
The Word is spoken and concealed.
OLYMPAS. I am stunned. What wonder was revealed ?
MARSYAS. The rite is secret.
OLYMPAS. Profits it ?
MARSYAS. Only to wisdom and to wit.
OLYMPAS. The other did no less.
MARSYAS. Then prove
Both by the master-key of Love.
The lock turns stiffly ? Shalt thou shirk
To use the sacred oil of work ?
Not from the valley shalt thou wrest
The eggs that line the eagle's nest !
Climb, with thy life at stake, the ice,
The sheer wall of the precipice !
Master the cornice, gain the breach,
And learn what next the ridge can teach !
Yet--not the ridge itself may speak
The secret of the final peak.
OLYMPAS. All ridges join at last.
MARSYAS. Admitted,
O thou astute and subtle-witted !
Yet one--loose, jagged, clad in mist !
Another--firm, smooth, loved and kissed
By the soft sun ! Our order hath
This secret of the solar path,
Even as our Lord the Beast hath won
The mystic Number of the Sun.
OLYMPAS. These secrets are too high for me.
MARSYAS. Nay, little brother ! Come and see !
Neither by faith nor fear not awe
Approach the doctrine of the Law !
Truth, Courage, Love, shall win the bout,
And those three others be cast out.
OLYMPAS. Lead me, Master, by the hand d
Gently to this gracious land !
Let me drink the doctrine in,
An all-healing medicine !
Let me rise, correct and firm,
Steady striding to the term,
Master of my fate, to rise
To imperial destinies ;
With the sun's ensanguine dart
Spear-bright in my blazing heart,
And my being's basil-plant
Bright and hard as adamant !
MARSYAS. Yonder, faintly luminous,
The yellow desert waits for us.
Lithe and eager, hand in hand,
We travel to the lonely land.
There, beneath the stars, the smoke
Of our incense shall invoke
The Queen of Space ; and subtly She
Shall bend from Her Infinity
Like a lambent flame of blue,
Touching us, and piercing through
All the sense-webs that we are
As the aethyr penetrates a star !
Her hands caressing the black earth,
Her sweet lithe body arched for love,
Her feet a Zephyr to the flowers,
She calls my name--she gives the sign
That she is mine, supremely mine,
And clinging to the infinite girth
My soul gets perfect joy thereof
Beyond the abysses and the hours ;
So that--I kiss her lovely brows ;
She bathes my body in perfume
Of sweat....O thou my secret spouse,
Continuous One of Heaven ! illume
My soul with this arcane delight,
Voluptuous Daughter of the Night !
Eat me up wholly with the glance
Of thy luxurious brilliance !
OLYMPAS. The desert calls.
MARSYAS. Then let us go !
Or seek the sacramental snow,
Where like an high-priest I may stand
With acolytes on every hand,
The lesser peaks--my will withdrawn
To invoke the dayspring from the dawn,
Changing that rosy smoke of light
To a pure crystalline white ;
Though the mist of mind, as draws
A dancer round her limbs the gauze,
Clothe Light, and show the virgin Sun
A lemon-pale medallion !
Thence leap we leashless to the goal,
Stainless star-rapture of the soul.
So the altar-fires fade
As the Godhead is displayed.
Nay, we stir not. Everywhere
Is our temple right appointed.
All the earth is faery fair
For us. Am I not anointed ?
The Sigil burns upon the brow
At the adjuration--here and now.
OLYMPAS. The air is laden with perfumes.
MARSYAS. Behold ! it beams--it burns--it blooms.
. . . . .
OLYMPAS. Master, how subtly hast thou drawn
The daylight from the Golden Dawn,
Bidden the Cavernous Mount unfold
Its Ruby Rose, its Cross of Gold ;
Until I saw, flashed from afar,
The Hawk's Eye in the Silver Star !
MARSYAS. Peace to all beings. Peace to thee,
Co-heir of mine eternity !
Peace to the greatest and the least,
To nebula and nenuphar !
Light in abundance be increased
On them that dream that shadows are !
OLYMPAS. Blessing and worship to The Beast,
The prophet of the lovely Star !
LIBER
AL VEL
LEGIS
SUB FIGURA
C C X X
AS DELIVERED BY
XCIII == 418
TO
DCLXVI
A' A' sigil
Liber 220: THE BOOK OF THE LAW
1. Had! The manifestation of Nuit.
2. The unveiling of the company of heaven.
3. Every man and every woman is a star.
4. Every number is infinite; there is no
difference.
5. Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my
unveiling before the Children of men!
6. Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my
heart & my tongue!
7. Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the min-
ister of Hoor-paar-kraat.
8. The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in
the Khabs.
9. Worship then the Khabs, and behold my
light shed over you!
10. Let my servants be few & secret: they
shall rule the many & the known.
11. These are fools that men adore; both
their Gods & their men are fools.
12. Come forth, o children, under the stars,
& take your fill of love!
13. I am above you and in you. My ecstasy
is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.
14. Above, the gemmed azure is
The naked splendour of Nuit;
She bends in ecstasy to kiss
The secret ardours of Hadit.
The winged globe, the starry blue,
Are mine, O Ankh-af-na-khonsu!
15. Now ye shall know that the chosen priest
& apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest
the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet
Woman is all power given. They shall gather
my children into their fold: they shall bring
the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.
16. For he is ever a sun, and she a moon.
But to him is the winged secret flame, and to her
the stooping starlight.
17. But ye are not so chosen.
18. Burn upon their brows, o splendrous
serpent!
19. O azure-lidded woman, bend upon them!
20. The key of the rituals is in the secret
word which I have given unto him.
21. With the God & the Adorer I am nothing:
they do not see me. They are as upon the
earth; I am Heaven, and there is no other God
than me, and my lord Hadit.
22. Now, therefore, I am known to ye by
my name Nuit, and to him by a secret name
which I will give him when at last he knoweth
me. Since I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite
Stars thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing!
Let there be no difference made among you
between any one thing & any other thing; for
thereby there cometh hurt.
23. But whoso availeth in this, let him be
the chief of all!
24. I am Nuit, and my word is six and fifty.
25. Divide, add, multiply, and understand.
26. Then saith the prophet and slave of the
beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall
be the sign? So she answered him, bending
down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all
penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black
earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her
soft feet not hurting the little flowers: Thou
knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy,
the consciousness of the continuity of exist-
ence, the omnipresence of my body.
27. Then the priest answered & said unto
the Queen of Space, kissing her lovely brows,
and the dew of her light bathing his whole
body in a sweet-smelling perfume of sweat: O
Nuit, continuous one of Heaven, let it be ever
thus; that men speak not of Thee as One but
as None; and let them speak not of thee at
all, since thou art continuous!
28. None, breathed the light, faint & faery,
of the stars, and two.
29. For I am divided for love's sake, for the
chance of union.
30. This is the creation of the world, that
the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy
of dissolution all.
31. For these fools of men and their woes
care not thou at all! They feel little; what
is, is balanced by weak joys; but ye are my
chosen ones.
32. Obey my prophet! follow out the ordeals
of my knowledge! seek me only! Then the
joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain.
This is so: I swear it by the vault of my body;
by my sacred heart and tongue; by all I can
give, by all I desire of ye all.
33. Then the priest fell into a deep trance
or swoon, & said unto the Queen of Heaven;
Write unto us the ordeals; write unto us the
rituals; write unto us the law!
34. But she said: the ordeals I write not:
the rituals shall be half known and half con-
cealed: the Law is for all.
35. This that thou writest is the threefold
book of Law.
36. My scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu, the priest
of the princes, shall not in one letter change
this book; but lest there be folly, he shall com-
ment thereupon by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-
Khu-it.
37. Also the mantras and spells; the obeah
and the wanga; the work of the wand and the
work of the sword; these he shall learn and
teach.
38. He must teach; but he may make severe
the ordeals.
39. The word of the Law is >THELEMA.<
40. Who calls us Thelemites will do no
wrong, if he look but close into the word. For
there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit,
and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do
what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man!
refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if
thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can
unite the divided but love: all else is a curse.
Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell.
42. Let it be that state of manyhood bound
and loathing. So with thy all; thou hast no
right but to do thy will.
43. Do that, and no other shall say nay.
44. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose,
delivered from the lust of result, is every way
perfect.
45. The Perfect and the Perfect are one Per-
fect and not two; nay, are none!
46. Nothing is a secret key of this law. Sixty-
one the Jews call it; I call it eight, eighty, four
hundred & eighteen.
47. But they have the half: unite by thine
art so that all disappear.
48. My prophet is a fool with his one, one,
one; are not they the Ox, and none by the
Book?
49. Abrogate are all rituals, all ordeals, all
words and signs. Ra-Hoor-Khuit hath taken
his seat in the East at the Equinox of the Gods;
and let Asar be with Isa, who also are one.
But they are not of me. Let Asar be the
adorant, Isa the sufferer; Hoor in his secret
name and splendour is the Lord initiating.
50. There is a word to say about the Hiero-
phantic task. Behold! there are three ordeals
in one, and it may be given in three ways. The
gross must pass through fire; let the fine be
tried in intellect, and the lofty chosen ones
in the highest. Thus ye have star & star, sys-
tem & system; let not one know well the other!
51. There are four gates to one palace; the
floor of that palace is of silver and gold; lapis
lazuli & jasper are there; and all rare scents;
jasmine & rose, and the emblems of death.
Let him enter in turn or at once the four gates;
let him stand on the floor of the palace. Will
he not sink? Amn. Ho! warrior, if thy ser-
vant sink? But there are means and means.
Be goodly therefore: dress ye all in fine ap-
parel; eat rich foods and drink sweet wines
and wines that foam! Also, take your fill and
will of love as ye will, when, where and with
whom ye will! But always unto me.
52. If this be not aright; if ye confound the
space-marks, saying: They are one; or saying,
They are many; if the ritual be not ever unto
me: then expect the direful judgments of Ra
Hoor Khuit!
53. This shall regenerate the world, the little
world my sister, my heart & my tongue, unto
whom I send this kiss. Also, o scribe and
prophet, though thou be of the princes, it shall
not assuage thee nor absolve thee. But ecstasy
be thine and joy of earth: ever To me! To me!
54. Change not as much as the style of a
letter; for behold! thou, o prophet, shalt not
behold all these mysteries hidden therein.
55. The child of thy bowels, he shall behold
them.
56. Expect him not from the East, nor from
the West; for from no expected house cometh
that child. Aum! All words are sacred and
all prophets true; save only that they under-
stand a little; solve the first half of the equa-
tion, leave the second unattacked. But thou
hast all in the clear light, and some, though
not all, in the dark.
57. Invoke me under my stars! Love is the
law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake
love; for there are love and love. There is
the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye
well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing
the law of the fortress, and the great mystery
of the House of God.
All these old letters of my Book are aright;
but TS is not the Star. This also is secret: my
prophet shall reveal it to the wise.
58. I give unimaginable joys on earth: cer-
tainty, not faith, while in life, upon death;
peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I de-
mand aught in sacrifice.
59. My incense is of resinous woods & gums;
and there is no blood therein: because of my
hair the trees of Eternity.
60. My number is 11, as all their numbers
who are of us. The Five Pointed Star, with a
Circle in the Middle, & the circle is Red. My
colour is black to the blind, but the blue &
gold are seen of the seeing. Also I have a
secret glory for them that love me.
61. But to love me is better than all things:
if under the night-stars in the desert thou pres-
ently burnest mine incense before me, invoking
me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame
therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my
bosom. For one kiss wilt thou then be willing
to give all; but whoso gives one particle of dust
shall lose all in that hour. Ye shall gather
goods and store of women and spices; ye shall
wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations
of the earth in spendour & pride; but always
in the love of me, and so shall ye come to my
joy. I charge you earnestly to come before
me in a single robe, and covered with a rich
headdress. I love you! I yearn to you! Pale
or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am all
pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the
innermost sense, desire you. Put on the wings,
and arouse the coiled splendour within you:
come unto me!
62. At all my meetings with you shall
the priestess say -- and her eyes shall burn with
desire as she stands bare and rejoicing in my
secret temple -- To me! To me! calling forth
the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant.
63. Sing the rapturous love-song unto me!
Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels!
Drink to me, for I love you! I love you!
64. I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset;
I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous
night-sky.
65. To me! To me!
66. The Manifestation of Nuit is at an end.
***
1. Nu! the hiding of Hadit.
2. Come! all ye, and learn the secret that
hath not yet been revealed. I, Hadit, am the
complement of Nu, my bride. I am not ex-
tended, and Khabs is the name of my House.
3. In the sphere I am everywhere the cen-
tre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere
found.
4. Yet she shall be known & I never.
5. Behold! the rituals of the old time are
black. Let the evil ones be cast away; let the
good ones be purged by the prophet! Then
shall this Knowledge go aright.
6. I am the flame that burns in every heart
of man, and in the core of every star. I am
Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is the
knowledge of me the knowledge of death.
7. I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I
am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the
circle. "Come unto me" is a foolish word: for
it is I that go.
8. Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have
worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper.
9. Remember all ye that existence is pure
joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows;
they pass & are done; but there is that which
remains.
10. O prophet! thou hast ill will to learn
this writing.
11. I see thee hate the hand & the pen; but
I am stronger.
12. Because of me in Thee which thou knew-
est not.
13. for why? Because thou wast the know-
er, and me.
14. Now let there be a veiling of this shrine:
now let the light devour men and eat them up
with blindness!
15. For I am perfect, being Not; and my
number is nine by the fools; but with the just
I am eight, and one in eight: Which is vital,
for I am none indeed. The Empress and the
King are not of me; for there is a further secret.
16. I am The Empress & the Hierophant.
Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven.
17. Hear me, ye people of sighing!
The sorrows of pain and regret
Are left to the dead and the dying,
The folk that not know me as yet.
18. These are dead, these fellows; they feel
not. We are not for the poor and sad: the lords
of the earth are our kinsfolk.
19. Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the
highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chos-
en: who sorroweth is not of us.
20. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter
and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.
21. We have nothing with the outcast and
the unfit: let them die in their misery. For
they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings:
stamp down the wretched & the weak: this
is the law of the strong: this is our law and
the joy of the world. Think not, o king, upon
that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shalt
not die, but live. Now let it be understood: If
the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain
in pure ecstasy for ever. Nuit! Hadit! Ra-
Hoor-Khuit! The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light;
these are for the servants of the Star & the
Snake.
22. I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge
& Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts
of men with drunkenness. To worship me take
wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my
prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not
harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against
self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be
strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense
and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny
thee for this.
23. I am alone: there is no God where I am.
24. Behold! these be grave mysteries; for
there are also of my friends who be hermits.
Now think not to find them in the forest or on
the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed
by magnificent beasts of women with large
limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and
masses of flaming hair about them; there shall
ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at
victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall
be in them a joy a million times greater than
this. Beware lest any force another, King
against King! Love one another with burning
hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce
lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath.
25. Ye are against the people, O my chosen!
26. I am the secret Serpent coiled about to
spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up
my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop
down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then
is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth
are one.
27. There is great danger in me; for who
doth not understand these runes shall make a
great miss. He shall fall down into the pit
called Because, and there he shall perish with
the dogs of Reason.
28. Now a curse upon Because and his kin!
29. May Because be accursed for ever!
30. If Will stops and cries Why, invoking
Because, then Will stops & does nought.
31. If Power asks why, then is Power weak-
ness.
32. Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor
infinite & unknown; & all their words are
skew-wise.
33. Enough of Because! Be he damned
for a dog!
34. But ye, o my people, rise up & awake!
35. Let the rituals be rightly performed with
joy & beauty!
36. There are rituals of the elements and
feasts of the times.
37. A feast for the first night of the Prophet
and his Bride!
38. A feasy for the three days of the writing
of the Book of the Law.
39. A feast for Tahuti and the child of the
Prophet--secret, O Prophet!
40. A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a
feast for the Equinox of the Gods.
41. A feast for fire and a feast for water;
a feast for life and a greater feast for death!
42. A feast every day in your hearts in the
joy of my rapture!
43. A feast every night unto Nu, and the
pleasure of uttermost delight!
44. Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread
hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eter-
nal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu.
45. There is death for the dogs.
46. Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear
in thine heart?
47. Where I am these are not.
48. Pity not the fallen! I never knew them.
I am not for them. I console not: I hate the
consoled & the consoler.
49. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of
the slaves that perish. Be they damned &
dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a fifth
who is invisible, & therein am I as a babe
in an egg.)
50. Blue am I and gold in the light of my
bride: but the red gleam is in my eyes; & my
spangles are purple & green.
51. Purple beyond purple: it is the light
higher than eyesight.
52. There is a veil: that veil is black. It is
the veil of the modest woman; it is the veil of
sorrow, & the pall of death: this is none of me.
Tear down that lying spectre of the centuries:
veil not your vices in virtuous words: these
vices are my service; ye do well, & I will re-
ward you here and hereafter.
53. Fear not, o prophet, when these words
are said, thou shalt not be sorry. Thou art
emphatically my chosen; and blessed are the
eyes that thoushalt look upon with gladness.
But I will hide thee in a mask of sorrow: they
that see thee shall fear thou art fallen: but I
lift thee up.
54. Nor shall they who cry aloud their folly
that thou meanest nought avail; thou shall re-
veal it: thou availest: they are the slaves of
because: They are not of me. The stops as
thou wilt; the letters? change them not in style
or value!
55. Thou shalt obtain the order & value of
the English Alphabet; thou shalt find new sym-
bols to attribute them unto.
56. Begone! ye mockers; even though ye
laugh in my honour ye shall laugh not long:
then when ye are sad know that I have for-
saken you.
57. He that is righteous shall be righteous
still; he that is filthy shall be filthy still.
58. Yea! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not
other. Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for
ever: the slaves shall serve. There is none that shall be
cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there
are masked ones my servants: it may be that yonder beggar
is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will: there
is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.
59. Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a King
concealed! Say you so? Fool! If he be a King, thou canst
not hurt him.
60. Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master!
61. There is a light before thine eyes, o prophet, a light
undesired, most desirable.
62. I am uplifted in thine heart; and the kisses of the stars
rain hard upon thy body.
63. Thou art exhaust in the voluptuous fullness of the
inspiration; the expiration is sweeter than death, more
rapid and laughterful than a caress of Hell's own worm.
64. Oh! thou art overcome: we are upon thee; our delight is all
over thee: hail! hail: prophet of Nu! prophet of Had!
prophet of Ra-Hoor-Khu! Now rejoice! now come in our
splendour & rapture! Come in our passionate peace, & write
sweet words for the Kings.
65. I am the Master: thou art the Holy Chosen One.
66. Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in
working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy
death shall be lovely: whososeeth it shall be glad. Thy
death shall be the seal of the promise of our age long
love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we
are none.
67. Hold! Hold! Bear up in thy rapture; fall not in swoon of
the excellent kisses!
68. Harder! Hold up thyself! Lift thine head! breathe not so
deep-- die!
69. Ah! Ah! What do I feel? Is the word exhausted?
70. There is help & hope in other spells. Wisdom says: be
strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal;
refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and
ninety rules of art: if thou love exceed by delicacy; and
if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein!
71. But exceed! exceed!
72. Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine -- and
doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous! -- death is the
crown of all.
73. Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for death. Death is
forbidden, o man, unto thee.
74. The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its
glory. He that lives long & desires death much is ever the
King among the Kings.
75. Aye! listen to the numbers & the words:
76. 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A L.
What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt
thou know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall
expound it. But remember, o chose none, to be me; to follow
the love of Nu in the star-lit heaven; to look forth upon
men, to tell them this glad word.
77. O be thou proud and mighty among men!
78. Lift up thyself! for there is none like unto thee among men
or among Gods! Lift up thyself, o my prophet, thy stature
shall surpass the stars. They shall worship thy name,
foursquare, mystic, wonderful, the number of the man; and
the name of thy house 418.
79. The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to
the prophet of the lovely Star!
***
1. Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut.
2. There is division hither homeward; there is a word not
known. Spelling is defunct; all is not aught. Beware! Hold!
Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
3. Now let it be first understood that I am a god of War and of
Vengeance. I shall deal hardly with them.
4. Choose ye an island!
5. Fortify it!
6. Dung it about with enginery of war!
7. I will give you a war-engine.
8. With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall stand
before you.
9. Lurk! Withdraw! Upon them! this is the Law of the Battle of
Conquest: thus shall my worship be about my secret house.
10. Get the stele of revealing itself; set it in thy secret
temple -- and that temple is already aright disposed -- & it
shall be your Kiblah for ever. It shall not fade, but
miraculous colour shall come back to it day after day. Close
it in locked glass for a proof to the world.
11. This shall be your only proof. I forbid argument. Conquer!
That is enough. I will make easy to you the abstruction from
the ill-ordered house in the Victorious City. Thou shalt
thyself convey it with worship, o prophet, though thou
likest it not. Thou shalt have danger & trouble. Ra-Hoor-
Khu is with thee. Worship me with fire & blood; worship me
with swords & with spears. Let the woman be girt with a
sword before me: let blood flow to my name. Trample down the
Heathen; be upon them, o warrior, I will give you of their
flesh to eat!
12. Sacrifice cattle, little and big: after a child.
13. But not now.
14. Ye shall see that hour, o blessed Beast, and thou the
Scarlet Concubine of his desire!
15. Ye shall be sad thereof.
16. Deem not too eagerly to catch the promises; fear not to
undergo the curses. Ye, even ye, know not this meaning all.
17. Fear not at all; fear neither men nor Fates, nor gods, nor
anything. Money fear not, nor laughter of the folk folly,
nor any other power in heaven or upon the earth or under the
earth. Nu is your refuge as Hadit your light; and I am the
strength, force, vigour, of your arms.
18. Mercy let be off; damn them who pity! Kill and torture;
spare not; be upon them!
19. That stele they shall call the Abomination of Desolation;
count well its name, & it shall be to you as 718.
20. Why? Because of the fall of Because, that he is not there
again.
21. Set up my image in the East: thou shalt buy thee an image
which I will show thee, especial, not unlike the one thou
knowest. And it shall be suddenly easy for thee to do this.
22. The other images group around me to support me: let all be
worshipped, for they shall cluster to exalt me. I am the
visible object of worship; the others are secret; for the
Beast & his Bride are they: and for the winners of the
Ordeal x. What is this? Thou shalt know.
23. For perfume mix meal & honey & thick leavings of red wine:
then oil of Abramelin and olive oil, and afterward soften &
smooth down with rich fresh blood.
24. The best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood
of a child, or dropping from the host of heaven: then of
enemies; then of the priest or of the worshippers: last of
some beast, no matter what.
25. This burn: of this make cakes & eat unto me. This hath also
another use; let it be laid before me, and kept thick with
perfumes of your orison: it shall become full of beetles as
it were and creeping things sacred unto me.
26. These slay, naming your enemies; & they shall fall before
you.
27. Also these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the
eating thereof.
28. Also ye shall be strong in war.
29. Moreover, be they long kept, it is better; for they swell
with my force. All before me.
30. My altar is of open brass work: burn thereon in silver or
gold!
31. There cometh a rich man from the West who shall pour his
gold upon thee.
32. From gold forge steel!
33. Be ready to fly or to smite!
34. But your holy place shall be untouched throughout the
centuries: though with fire and sword it be burnt down &
shattered, yet an invisible house there standeth, and shall
stand until the fall of the Great Equinox; when Hrumachis
shall arise and the double-wanded one assume my throne and
place. Another prophet shall arise, and bring fresh fever
from the skies; another woman shall awakethe lust & worship
of the Snake; another soul of God and beast shall mingle in
the globed priest; another sacrifice shall stain the tomb;
another king shall reign; and blessing no longer be poured
To the Hawk-headed mystical Lord!
35. The half of the word of Heru-ra-ha, called Hoor-pa-kraat and
Ra-Hoor-Khut.
36. Then said the prophet unto the God:
37. I adore thee in the song --
I am the Lord of Thebes, and I
The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu;
For me unveils the veiled sky,
The self-slain Ankh-af-na-khonsu
Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet
Thy presence, O Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
Unity uttermost showed!
I adore the might of Thy breath,
Supreme and terrible God,
Who makest the gods and death
To tremble before Thee: --
I, I adore thee!
Appear on the throne of Ra!
Open the ways of the Khu!
Lighten the ways of the Ka!
The ways of the Khabs run through
To stir me or still me!
Aum! let it fill me!
38. So that thy light is in me; & its red flame is as a sword in
my hand to push thy order. There is a secret door that I
shall make to establish thy way in all the quarters, (these
are the adorations, as thou hast written), as it is said:
The light is mine; its rays consume
Me: I have made a secret door
Into the House of Ra and Tum,
Of Khephra and of Ahathoor.
I am thy Theban, O Mentu,
The prophet Ankh-af-na-khonsu!
By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;
By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell.
Show thy star-splendour, O Nuit!
Bid me within thine House to dwell,
O winged snake of light, Hadit!
Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
39. All this and a book to say how thou didst come hither and a
reproduction of this ink and paper for ever -- for in it is
the word secret & not only in the English -- and thy comment
upon this the Book of the Law shall be printed beautifully
in red ink and black upon beautiful paper made by hand; and
to each man and woman that thou meetest, were it but to dine
or to drink at them, it is the Law to give. Then they shall
chance to abide in this bliss or no; it is no odds. Do this
quickly!
40. But the work of the comment? That is easy; and Hadit burning
in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen.
41. Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well
and with business way.
42. The ordeals thou shalt oversee thyself, save only the blind
ones. Refuse none, but thou shalt know & destroy the
traitors. I am Ra-Hoor-Khuit; and I am powerful to protect
my servant. Success is thy proof: argue not; convert not;
talk not over much! Them that seek to entrap thee, to
overthrow thee, them attack without pity or quarter; &
destroy them utterly. Swift as a trodden serpent turn and
strike! Be thou yet deadlier than he! Drag down their souls
to awful torment: laugh at their fear: spit upon them!
43. Let the Scarlet Woman beware! If pity and compassion and
tenderness visit her heart; if she leave my work to toy with
old sweetnesses; then shall my vengeance be known. I will
slay me her child: I will alienate her heart: I will cast
her out from men: as a shrinking and despised harlot shall
she crawl through dusk wet streets, and die cold and an-
hungered.
44. But let her raise herself in pride! Let her follow me in my
way! Let her work the work of wickedness! Let her kill her
heart! Let her be loud and adulterous! Let her be covered
with jewels, and rich garments, and let her be shameless
before all men!
45. Then will I lift her to pinnacles of power: then will I
breed from her a child mightier than all the kings of the
earth. I will fill her with joy: with my force shall she see
& strike at the worship of Nu: she shall achieve Hadit.
46. I am the warrior Lord of the Forties: the Eighties cower
before me, & are abased. I will bring you to victory & joy:
I will be at your arms in battle & ye shall delight to slay.
Success is your proof; courage is your armour; go on, go on,
in my strength; & ye shall turn not back for any!
47. This book shall be translated into all tongues: but always
with the original in the writing of the Beast; for in the
chance shape of the letters and their position to one
another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine.
Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I
say not, who shall discover the Key of it all. Then this
line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure
is a key also. And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that
strangely. Let him not seek after this; for thereby alone
can he fall from it.
48. Now this mystery of the letters is done, and I want to go on
to the holier place.
49. I am in a secret fourfold word, the blasphemy against all
gods of men.
50. Curse them! Curse them! Curse them!
51. With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs
upon the cross.
52. I flap my wings in the face of Mohammed & blind him.
53. With my claws I tear out the flesh of the Indian and the
Buddhist, Mongol and Din.
54. Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous creeds.
55. Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: for her sake let all
chaste women be utterly despised among you!
56. Also for beauty's sake and love's!
57. Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare not
fight, but play; all fools despise!
58. But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye are
brothers!
59. As brothers fight ye!
60. There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
61. There is an end of the word of the God enthroned in Ra's
seat, lightening the girders of the soul.
62. To Me do ye reverence! to me come ye through tribulation of
ordeal, which is bliss.
63. The fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its comment; & he
understandeth it not.
64. Let him come through the first ordeal, & it will be to him
as silver.
65. Through the second, gold.
66. Through the third, stones of precious water.
67. Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire.
68. Yet to all it shall seem beautiful. Its enemies who say not
so, are mere liars.
69. There is success.
70. I am the Hawk-Headed Lord of Silence & of Strength; my
nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.
71. Hail! ye twin warriors about the pillars of the world! for
your time is nigh at hand.
72. I am the Lord of the Double Wand of Power; the wand of the
Force of Coph Nia-- but my left hand is empty, for I have
crushed an Universe; & nought remains.
73. Paste the sheets from right to left and from top to bottom:
then behold!
74. There is a splendour in my name hidden and glorious, as the
sun of midnight is ever the son.
75. The ending of the words is the Word Abrahadabra.
The Book of the Law is Written
and Concealed.
Aum. Ha.
THE COMMENT.
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The study of this Book is forbidden. It is wise to destroy this
copy after the first reading.
Whosoever disregards this does so at his own risk and peril.
These are most dire.
Those who discuss the contents of this Book are to be shunned by
all, as centres of pestilence.
All questions of the Law are to be decided only by appeal to my
writings, each for himself.
There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
Love is the law, love under will.
The priest of the princes,
ANKH-F-N-KHONSU
GENESIS LIBRI AL
CHAPTER I.*1*
The Boyhood of Aleister Crowley.
At 36 Clarendon Square, Leamington, Warwickshire, England, at
I0.50 p.m. on the twelfth day of October, in the Eighteen Hundred
and Seventy-Fifth Year of the vulgar era, was born the person
whose history is to be recounted.
His father was named Edward Crowley; his mother, Emily Bertha,
her maiden name being Bishop. Edward Crowley was an Exclusive
Plymouth Brother, the most considered leader in that sect. This
branch of the family of Crowley has been settled in England since
Tudor times, but is Celtic in origin, Crowley being a clan in
Kerry and other counties in the South-West of Ireland, of the
same stock as the Breton `de Querouaille' or `de Kerval' which
gave a Duchess of Portsmouth to England. It is supposed that the
English branch---the direct ancestry of Edward Alexander
Crowley---came to England with the Duke of Richmond, and took
root at Bosworth.
In I88Ihe went to live at The Grange, Redhill, Surrey. In I884
the boy, who had till then been educated by governesses and
tutors, was sent to a school at St. Leonards, kept by some
extreme Evangelicals named Habershon. A year later he was
transferred to a school at Cambridge kept by a Plymouth Brother
of the name of Champney. (The dates in this paragraph are
possibly inaccurate. Documentary evidence is at the present
moment unavailable. Ed.)
On March 5, I887, Edward Crowley died. Two years later the boy
was removed from the school. Those two years were years of
unheard-of torture. He has written details in the Preface to
"The World's Tragedy." This torture seriously undermined his
health. For two years he travelled, mostly in Wales and
Scotland, with tutors. In I890 he went for a short time to a
school at Streatham, kept by a man named Yarrow, his mother
having moved there in order to be near her brother, an extremely
narrow Evangelical named Tom Bond Bishop. This prepared him for
Malvern, which he entered at the summer term of I89I. He only
remained there a year, as his health was still very delicate. In
the autumn he entered for a term at Tonbridge, but fell seriously
ill, and had to be removed. The year I893 was spent with tutors,
principally in Wales, the north of Scotland, and Eastbourne. In
I895 he completed his studies in chemistry at King's College,
London, and in October of that year entered Trinity College,
Cambridge.
With this ends the first period of his life. It is only
necessary to state briefly that his brain developed early. At
four years old he could read the Bible aloud, showing a marked
predilection for the lists of long names, the only part of the
Bible which has not been tampered with by theologians.*1* He
could also play chess well enough to beat the average amateur,
and though constantly playing never lost a game till I895.*2* He
was taught by a tailor who had been summoned to make clothes for
his father, and was treated as a guest on account of his being a
fellow "Plymouth Brother". He beat his teacher uniformly after
the first game. He must have been six or seven years old at this
time.
He began to write poetry in I886, if not earlier. Vide
"Oracles".
After the death of his father, who was a man of strong common
sense, and never allowed his religion to interfere with natural
affection, he was in the hands of people of an entirely contrary
disposition. His mental attitude was soon concentrated in hatred
of the religion which they taught, and his will concentrated in
revolt against its oppressions. His main method of relief was
mountaineering, which left him alone with nature, away from the
tyrants.
The years from March, I887, until entering Trinity College,
Cambridge, in October, I895, represented a continual struggle
towards freedom. At Cambridge he felt himself to be his own
master, refused to attend Chapel, Lectures or Hall, and was
wisely left alone to work out his won salvation by his tutor, the
late Dr. A. W. Verrall.
It must be stated that he possessed natural intellectual ability
to an altogether extraordinary degree. He had the faculty of
memory, especially verbal memory, in astonishing perfection.
As a boy he could find almost any verse in the Bible after a few
minutes search. In I900 he was tested in the works of
Shakespeare, Shelley, Swinburne (Ist series of Poems and
Ballads), Browning and The Moonstone. He was able to place
exactly any phrase from any of these books, and in nearly every
case to continue with the passage.
He showed remarkable facility in acquiring the elements of Latin,
Greek, French, Mathematics and Science. He learnt "little
Roscoe" almost by heart, on his won initiative. When in the
Lower Fifth at Malvern, he came out sixth in the school in the
annual Shakespeare examination, though he had given only two days
to preparing for it. Once, when the Mathematical Master, wishing
to devote the hour to cramming advanced pupils, told th class to
work out a set of examples of Quadratic Equations, he retorted by
asking at the end of forty minutes what he should do next, and
handed up the whole series of 63 equations, correct.
He passed all his examinations both at school and university
with honours, though refusing uniformly to work for them.
On the other hand, he could not be persuaded or constrained to
apply himself to any subject which did not appeal to him. He
showed intense repugnance to history, geography, and botany,
among others. He could never learn to write Greek and Latin
verses, this probably because the rules of scansion seemed
arbitrary and formal.
Again, it was impossible to him to take interest in anything from
the moment that he had grasped the principles of "how it was, or
might be done." This trait prevented him from putting the
finishing touches to anything he attempted.
For instance, he refused to present himself for the second part
of his final examination for his B.A. degree, simply because
he knew himself thoroughly master of the subject!*1*
This characteristic extended to his physical pleasures. He was
abjectly incompetent at easy practice climbing on boulders,
because he knew he could do them. It seemed incredible to the
other men that this lazy duffer should be the most daring and
dexterous cragsman of his generation, as he proved himself
whenever he tackled a precipice which had baffled every other
climber in the world.*2* Similarly, once he had worked out theo-
retically a method of climbing a mountain, he was quite content
to tell the secret to others, and let them appropriate the glory.
(The first ascent of the Dent du Geant from the Montanvers is a
case in point.) It mattered everything to him that something
should be done, nothing that he should be the one to do it.
This almost inhuman unselfishness was not incompatible with
consuming and insatiable personal ambition. The key to the
puzzle is probably this ; he wanted to be something that nobody
else had ever been, or could be. He lost interest in chess as
soon as he had proved to himself (at the age of 22) that he was a
master of the game, having beaten some of the strongest amateurs
in England, and even one or two professional "masters." He
turned from poetry to painting, more or less, when he had made it
quite certain that he was the greatest poet of his time. Even in
Magick, having become The Word of the Aeon, and thus taken his
place with the other Seven Magi known to history, out of reach of
all possible competition, he began to neglect the subject. He is
only able to devote himself to it as he does because he has
eliminated all personal ideas from his Work ; it has become as
automatic as respiration.
We must also put on record his extraordinary powers in certain
unusual spheres. He can remember the minutest details of a rock-
climb, after years of absence. He can retrace his steps over any
path once traversed, in the wildest weathee or the blackest
night. He can divine the one possible passagr through the most
complex and dangerous ice-fall. (E.g. the Vuibez seraes in I897,
the Mer de Glace, right centre, in I899.)
He possesses a "sense of direction" independent of any known
physical methods of taking one's bearings ; and this is as effec-
tive in strange cities as on mountains or deserts. He can smell
the presence of water, of snow, and other supposedly scentless
substances. His endurance is exceptional. He has been known to
write for 67 consecutive hours : his "Tannhauser" was thus
written in I900. He has walked over I00 miles in 2 I/2 days, in
the desert : as in the winter of I9I0. He has frequently made
expeditions lasting over 36 hours, on mountains, in the most
adverse connditions. He holds the World's record for the great-
est number of days spent on a glacier--65 days on the Baltoro in
I902; also that for the greatest pace uphill over I6,000
feet--4,000 feet in I hour 23 minutes on Iztaccihuatl in I900;
that for the highest peak (first ascent by a solitary
climber)--the Nevado de Toluca in I90I; and numerous others.*1*
Yet he is utterly fagged-out by the mere idea of a walk of a few
hundred yards, if it does not interest him, and excite his
imagination, to take it ; and it is only with the greatest effort
that he can summon the energy to write a few lines if, instead of
his wanting to do them, he merely knows that they must be done.
This account has been deemed necessary to explain how it is that
a man of such unimaginable commanding qualities as to have made
him world-famous in so many diverse spheres of action, should
have been so grotesquely unable to make use of his faculties, or
even of his achievements, in any of the ordinary channels of
human activity; to consolidate his personal pre-eminence, or even
to secure his position from a social or economic standpoint.
CHAPTER II.
Adolescence : Beginnings of Magick.
The Birth of
FRATER PERDURABO.
0 =0 to 4 =7
Having won freedom, he had the sense not to waste any time in
enjoying it. He had been deprived of all English literature but
the Bible during the whole of his youth, and he spent his three
years at Cambridge in repairing the defect. He was also working
for the Diplomatic Service, the late Lord Salisbury and the late
Lord Ritchie having taken an interest in his career, and given
him nominations. In October, I897, he was suddenly recalled to
his understanding of the evils of the alleged 'existing
religion,' and experienced a trance, in which he perceived the
utter folly of all human ambition. The fame of an ambassador
rarely outlives a century. That of a poet is almost as
ephemeral. The earth must one day perish. He must build in some
material more lasting. This conception drove him to the study of
Alchemy and Magick. He wrote to the author of "The Book of Black
Magic and of Pacts," a pompous American named Arthur Waite,
notorious for the affectations and obscurities of his style, and
the mealy-mouthed muddle of his mysticism. This nebulous
impresario, presentin an asthmatic Isis in the Opera "Bull-
Frogs," had hinted in his preface that he knew certain occult
sanctuaries wherein Truth and Wisdom were jealously guarded by a
body of Initiates, to be despensed to the postulant who proved
himself worthy to partake of their privileges. Mr. Waite
recommended him to read a book called "The Cloud on the
Sanctuary."
His taste for mountaineering had become a powerful passion, and
he was climbing in Cumberland when he met Oscar Eckenstein,
perhaps the greatest of all the mountaineers of his period, with
whom he was destined to climb thenceforward until I902.
In the summer a party was fromed to camp on the Schonbuhl Glacier
at the foot of the Dent Blanche, with a view to an expedition ot
the Himalayas later on. During his weeks on the Glacier, where
the bad weather was continous, he studied assiduously the
translation by S. L. Mathers of three books which form part of
von Rosenroth's "Kabbalah Unveiled." On one of his decents to
Zermatt, he met a distinguished chemist, Julian L. Bater, who had
studied Alchemy. He hunted this clue through the valley, and
made Baker promise to meet him in London at the end of the sea-
son, and introduce him to others who were interested in Occult
science. This happened in September ; through Baker, he met
another chemist named George Cecil Jones, who introduced him to
the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. He made rapid progress in
this Order, and in the spring of I900 was its chief in England.
The details of this period must be studied in "The Temple of
Solomon the King," where a full account of the Order is given.
In the Order he met one, Allan Bennett, Frater Iehi Aour. Jones
and Bennett were both Adepts of high standing. The latter came
to live with him in his flat, and together they carried out many
operations of ceremonial magick. Allan Bennett was constant
illhealth, and went to Ceylon at the end of I899. It was on his
entry into this Order that the subject of this history took the
motto of "Perdurabo"--'I will endure to the end.'
In July, I900, he went to Mexico, and devoted his whole time to
the continued practice of Magick, in which he obtained
extraordinary success. (See Equinox Vol. I, No. III for a
condensed account of some of these. It may be here stated
summarily that he invoked certain Gods, Goddesses, and Spirits to
visible appearance, learnt how to heal physical and moral
diseases, how to make himself invisible, how to obtain
communications from spiritual sources, how to control other
minds, etc., etc.) And then....
CHAPTER III.
Beginnings of Mysticism.
The Birth of
FRATER OU MH.
7=4
Oscar Eckenstein, on his arrival in Mexico, where he was to climb
mountains with the subject of our essay, found him in a rather
despondent mood. He had attained the most satisfactory results.
He was able to communicate with thed divine forces, and
operations such as those of invisibility and evocation had been
mastered. Yet with all this there was a certain dissatisfaction.
Success had not given him all that he had hoped for. He placed
the situration before his companion, rather to clear his own mind
than hoping for any help, for he supposed him to be entirely
ignorant of all these subjects, which he habitually treated with
dislike and contempt. Judge of his surprise, then, when he found
in this unpromising quarter a messenger form the Great White
Brotherhood ! His companion told him to abandon all magick.
"The Task," said Eckenstein, "involves the control of the mind.
Yours is a wandering mind." The proposition was indignantly
denied.
"Test it," said the Master. A short experiment was conclusive.
It was impossible for the boy to keep his mind fixed upon a
single object for even a few seconds at a time. The mind,
thougfh perfectly stable in motion, was unable to rest, just as a
gyroscope falls when the flywheel slows down. An entirely new
course of experiments was consequently undertaken. Half-an-hour
every morning and half-an-hour every evening were devoted to
attempts to control the mind, by the simple process of imagining
a familiar object, and endeavouring to keep concentrated upon
it.*1*
He soon became sufficiently expert in this initial practice to
proceed to concentration on regularly moving objects such as a
pendulum, and, ultimately, on living objects. A further series
of experiments dealt with the other senses. He tried to imagine
and retain the taste of chocolate or of quinine, the smell of
various familiar perfumes, the sound of bells, waterfalls, and so
on, or the feeling excited by such objects as velvet, silk, fur,
sand and steel.
In the spring of I90I, he left Mexico, went to San Francisco,
Honolulu, Japan, China and Ceylon, always continuing these
experiments. His Master had not told him to what they would
ultimately lead. In Ceylon he found Frater I.A. (Allan Bennett),
with whom he went to Kandy, where they took a bungalow named
Marlboroigh, overlooking the lake.
I.A. had himself been developing on similar lines under P.
Ramanathan, the Solicitor-General of Ceylon, known to occultists
under the name of Shri Parananda.*2* I.A. told him that in order
to concentrate he must first see that no interruptions reached
him from the body, and counselled the adoption of Asana, a
settled position in which all bodily movement was to be
suppressed. Further, he was to practice Pranayama, or control of
the breathing, which has a similar effect in reducing to the
lowest possible point the internal movements of the body.*1*
During the months of this stay at Kandy, he practised these,
obtained success in Asana, the intense pain of the practices
being overcome, and changed into an indescribable sense of
physical well-being and comfort.
While in Pranayama he passed through the first stage, which is
marked by profuse perspiration of a peculiar kind ; the second,
which is accompanied by rigidity of the body ; and the third, in
which the body unconsciously hops about the floor, without in any
way disturbing the Asana.
During the latter part of August and the whole of September, his
practices became continous by day and night, in order to create a
rhythm in the mind similar to that which Pranayama produces in
the body. He adopted a Mantra, or sacred sentence, by the
constant repetition of which it became automatic in his brain, so
that it would continue through sleep, and he would wake up
actually repeating the words. Sleep itself, too, was broken up
into short periods of very light sleep of a peculiar kind, in
which consciousness is hardly lost, althougfh the body obtains
perdect rest. These practices continued into October, at the
beginning of which he reached the state of Dhyana, a tremendous
spiritual experience, in which the subject and object of
meditation unite with excessive violence in blinding brilliance
and music of a kind to which earthly harmony affords no
parallel.*1*
The result of this however was to cause so intense a satisfaction
with his progress, that he gave up work. He then visited
Anuradhapura and others of the buried cities of Ceylon. In
November he went to India, and in January visited I.A. at Akyab
in Burma,where that Adept was living in a monastery, with the
intention of preparing himself to take the Yellow Robe of the
Buddhist Sangha. The whole of the summer of I902 was spent in an
expedition to Chogo Ri (K2) in the Himalayas.*2* During the
whole of this period he did very little occult work.
November, I902, him in Paris, where he stayed off and on till the
spring of I903, when he returned to his house in Scotland.
We must now go backwards in time, to take up a thread which had
run through his whole work, so umportant as to demand a chapter
to itself:--
CHAPTER IV.
The Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage.
The Birth of
FRATER----------*1* 5=6 A. A.
In the autumn of I898 George Cecil Jones had directed the
attention of Frater Perdurabo to a book entitled "The Book of the
Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage." The essence of this book is
as follows :
The aspirant must have a house secure from observation and
interference. In this house there must be an oratory with a
window to the East, and a door to the North opening upon a
terrace, at the end of which must be a lodge. He must have a
Robe, Crown, Wand, Altar, Incense, Anointing Oil, and a Silver
Lamen. The terrace and lodge must be strewn with fine sand. He
withdraws himself gradually from human intercourse to devote
himself more and more to prayer for the space of four months. He
must then occupy two months in almost continuous prayer, speaking
as little as possible to anybody. At the end of this period he
invokes a being described as the Holy Guardian Angle, who appears
to him (or to a child employed by him), and who will write in dew
upon the Lamen, which is placed upon the Altar. The Oratory is
filled d with Divine Perfume not of the aspirant's kindling.
After a period of communion with the Angel, he summons the Four
Great Princes of the Daemonic World, and forces them to swear
obedience.
On the following day he calls forward and subdues the Eight Sub-
Princes ; and the day after that, the many Spirits serving these.
These inferior Daemons, of whom four act as familiar spirits,
then operate a collection of talismans for various purposes.
Such is a brief account of the Operation described in the book.
This Operation strongly appealed to our student. He immediately
set about to procure a suitable house, and to prepare everything
that might be necessary for the operation. All was ready for the
beginning in Easter of I900, and it must be said that the
preliminary work alone is so tremendous that a long story might
be written of the events of these I8 months of preparation. The
Operation itself was however never begun. A fortnight or so
before the time appointed, he received an urgent appeal from his
Master to save him and the Order from destruction. He gave up
his own prospects of personal advancement without hesitation, and
hastened to Paris.*1*
That the Master proved to be no Master, and the Order no Order,
but the incarnation of Disorder, had no effect upon the good
Karma created by this renunciation of a project on which he had
set his heart for so long.
In Mexico, he kept vigil during several nights in the Temple of
the Order of the Lamp of the Invisible Light, an Order whose High
Priest is pledged to maintain a Secret and Eternal Lamp. In this
shrine he received some shadowing forth of the Vision of the Holy
Guardian Angel, and that of the Four Great Princes : here also
he renewed the Oath of the Operation.
(The whole of his magical career is best interpreted as the
performance of this Operation. One must not suppose that
Initiation is a formality, observing the "unities," like being
made a Mason. All life pertains to the process, and it pervades
the whole personality ; the official recognition of attainment is
merely a token of what had taken place.)
On his return to Scotland in I903, he found ample evidence of the
presence of the forces of the Operation, but by now, having
conceived that Work in a subtler manner and having prepared to
carry it out in the Temple of his own body, having seen Magick,
in short, more of less in the manner in which it is seen in Parts
II and III of the Book 4, he was able to dispense with the
exterior physical appurtenances of this Operation.
We must now pass over a few years, and deal with the completion
of this Operation, although it is in a sense irrelevant to the
purpose of this book.
During the winter of I905-6, he was traveling across China. He
had come to the point of conquering his mind. That mind had
broken up. He saw that the human mind is by its very nature
evanescent, because of the fact that nature is not unity but
duality. Truth is relative. All things end in mystery. In such
sentences have the philosophers of the past formulated this
proposition, as announcing the intellectual bankruptcy which he,
with greater frankness, describes as insanity.
Passing from this, he became as a little child, and on reaching
the Unity behind the mind, found the purpose of his life
formulated in these words, The Obtaining of the Knowledge and
Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel.
He then found himself, having destroyed all other Karma,
perfectly free to pursue this one work. He then accomplished the
six months of Invocation, as prescribed in the Book of the Sacred
Magic, and was rewarded in October, I906, by complete success.*1*
He then proceeded to the evocation and conquest of the Four Great
Princes and their Inferiors, a work whose results must be studied
in the light of his subsequent career.
We have now finished all that is necessary to say concerning him,
for the account of some of his further Attainment is given fully
in Liber CDXVIII, "The Vision and the Voice," also in Equinox
Vol. I No. X "The Temple of Solomon the King," where the
unexpected result of the Communion of the Holy Guardian Angel is
shown in a symbolism which can hardly be understood without
reference to the events of I904, which are now wholly pertinent
to this Essay.
CHAPTER V.
The Results of Recession.
The wisest of the Popes, on being shown some miracles, refused to
be impressed, remarking that he did not believe in them, he had
seen too many. The result of the Meditation practices and their
results, following those of Magick, was to give our student a
conception of the Universe which was purely mental. Everything
was a phenomenon in mind. He did not as yet see that this
conception is self-destructive ; but it made him skeptical, and
indifferent to whatever happened. You cannot really be impressed
by anything which you know to be nothing more than one of your
own thoughts. Any occurrence can be interpreted as a thought, or
as a relation between two thoughts. In practice this leads to
profound indifferentism, miracles having become commonplace. But
what would be the amazement of the priest who, placing the Host
upon his tongue, found his mouth full of bleeding flesh ! At the
period of writing, it is evident for what purpose our student was
led into this state. I t was not to the Magician, not to the
mystic, it was to a militant member of the Rationalist Press
Association that the great Revelation was to be made. It was
necessary to prove to him that there was in actual truth a
Sanctuary, that there was in sober earnest a body of Adepts. It
matters nothing whether these Adepts are incarnated or
discarnated, human or divine. The only point at issue is that
there should be conscious Beings in possession of the deepest
secrets of Nature, pledged to the uplifting of humanity, filled
with Truth, Wisdom and Understanding. It is practical to prove
the existence of individuals whose knowledge and power, although
not complete--for the nature of Knowledge and Power is such that
they can never be complete, since the ideas themselves contain
imperfections--are yet enormously greater than aught known to the
rest of humanity.
It was of such a body that our student had heard in the "Cloud
upon the Sanctuary" ; admission to its adyta had been the guiding
hope of his life. His early attainments had tended rather to
shake his belief in the existence of such an organization. He
had not yet reckoned up the events of his life ; he had not yet
divined the direction and the set purpose informing their
apparently vagrant course. It might have been by chance that
whenever he had been confronted with any difficulty the right
person had instantly come forward to solve it, whether in the
valleys of Switzerland, the mountains of Mexico, or the jungles
of the East.
At this period of his life he would have scouted the idea as
fantastic. He had yet to learn that the story of Balaam and his
prophetic ass might be literally true. For the great Message
that came to him came, not through the mouth of any person with
any pretensions to any knowledge of this or any other sort, but
through an empty-headed woman of society. The plain facts of
this revelation must be succinctly stated in a new chapter.
CHAPTER VI.
The Great Revelation.
The Arising of
THE BEAST 666.
9=2
It has been judged best to reprint as it stands the account of
these matters originally compiled for "The Temple of Solomon the
King." (Equinox Vol. I, No. VII, pp 357-386.)*1*
THE PRIEST
In opening this the most important section of Frater P.'s career,
we may be met by the unthinking with the criticism that since it
deals rather with his relation to others than with his personal
attainment, it has no place in this volume.*2*
Such criticism is indeed shallow. True, the incidents which we
are about to record took place on planes material or contiguous
thereto ; true, so obscure is the light by which we walk that
much must be left in doubt ; true, we have not as yet the supreme
mystical attainment to record ; but on the other hand it is our
view that the Seal set upon Attainment may be itself fittingly
recorded in the story of that Attainment, and that no step in
progress is more important than that when it is said to the
aspirant: "Now that you are able to walk alone, let it be your
first care to use that strength to help others!" And so this
great event which we are about to describe, an event which will
lead, as time will show, to the establishment of a New Heaven and
New Earth for all men, wore the simplest and humblest guise. So
often the gods come clad as peasants or as children ; nay, I have
listened to their voices in stones and trees.
However, we must not forget that there are persons so sensitive
and so credulous that they are convinced by anything, I suppose
that there are nearly as many beds in the world as there are men
; yet for the Evangelical every bed conceals its Jesuit.
We get "Milton composing baby rhymes" and "Locke reasoning in
gibberish," divine revelations which would shock the intelligence
of a sheep or a Saxon ; and we find these upheld and defended
with skill and courage.
Therefore, since we are to announce the divine revelation made to
Fra. P., it is of the last importance that we should study his
mind as is was at the time of the Unveiling. If we find it to be
the mind of a neurotic, of a mystic, of a person predisposed, we
shall slight the revelation ; if it be that of a sane man of the
world, we shall attach more importance to it.
If some dingy Alchemist emerges from his laboratory, and
proclaims to all Tooting that he has made gold, men doubt ; but
the conversion to spiritualism of Professor Lombroso made a great
deal of impression on those who did not understand that his
criminology was but the heaped delusion of a diseased brain.
So we shall find that the A.A. subtly prepared Fra. P. by over
two years' training in rationalism and indifferentism for Their
message. And we shall find that so well did They do Their work
that he refused the message for five years more, in spite of many
strange proofs of its truth. We shall find even that Fra. P. had
to be stripped naked of himself before he could effectively
deliver the message.
The battle was between all that mighty will of his and the Voice
of a Brother who spoke once, and entered again into His silence ;
and it was not Fra. P. who had the victory.
We left Fra. P. in the autumn of I90I having made considerable
progress in Yoga. We noted that in I902 he did little or nothing
either in Magic or Mysticism. The interpretation of the occult
phenomena which he had observed occupied him exclusively, and his
mind was more and more attracted to materialism.
What are phenomena ? he asked. Of noumena I know and can know
nothing. All I know is, as far as I know, a mere modification of
the mind, a phase of consciousness. And thought is a secretion
of the brain. Consciousness is a function of the brain.
If this thought was contradicted by the obvious, "And what is the
brain ? A phenomenon in mind !", it weighed less with him. It
seemed to his mind as yet unbalanced (for all men are unbalanced
until they have crossed the Abyss), that it was more important to
insist on matter than on mind. Idealism wrought such misery, was
the father of all illusion, never led to research. And yet, what
odds ? Every act or thought is determined by an infinity of
causes, is the resultant of an infinity of forces. He analysed
God, saw that every man had made God in his own image, saw the
savage and cannibal Jews devoted to a savage and cannibal God,
who commanded the rape of virgins and the murder of little
children. He saw the timid inhabitants of India, races
continually the prey of every robber tribe, inventing the
effeminate Vishnu; while, under the same name, their conquerors
worshiped a warrior, the conqueror of Demon Swans. He saw the
flower of earth throughout all time, the gracious Greeks, what
gracious gods they had invented. He saw Rome, in its strength
devoted to Mars, Jupiter and Hercules, in its decay turning to
emasculate Attis, slain Adonis, murdered Osiris, crucified
Christ. He could even trace in his own life every aspiration,
every devotion, as a reflection of his physical and intellectual
needs. He saw, too, the folly of all this supernaturalism. He
heard the Boers and the British pray to the same Protestant God,
and it occurred to him that the early success of the former might
be due rather to superior valour than to superior praying power,
and their eventual defeat to the circumstance that they could
only bring 60,000 men against a quarter of a million. He saw,
too, the face of humanity mired in its own blood that dripped
from the leeches of religion fastened to its temples.
In all this he saw man as the only thing worth holding to ; the
one thing that needed to be "saved," but also the one thing that
could save it.
All that he had attained, then, he abandoned. The intuitions of
the Qabalah were cast behind him with a smile at his youthful
folly ; magic, if true, led nowhere ; Yoga had become psychology.
For the solution of his original problems of the universe he
looked to metaphysics ; he devoted his intellect to the cult of
absolute reason. He took up once more with Kant, Hume, Spencer,
Huxley, Tyndall, Maudsley, Mansel, Fitche, Schelling, Hegel | | |
