Untitled. Part 02
Liber Samekh
Theurgia Goetia Summa
Congressus Cum Daemone)
Sub Figura Dccc
being the Ritual employed by the Beast 666
for the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel
during the Semester of His performance of the Operation of the Sacred Magick
of Abramelin The Mage.
Prepared An XVII Sun in Virgo at the Abbey of Thelema in Cephalaedium
by the Beast 666 in service to Frater Progradior
Official Publication of A...a...
Class D for the Grade of Adeptus Minor.
Point I
\"Evangelii Textus Redactus"
The Invocation
Magically restored, with the significance of the
Barbarous Names
Etymologically or Qabalistically determined
and paraphrased in English.
Section A.
The Oath
* Thee I invoke, the Bornless One.
* Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens.
* Thee, that didst create the Night and the Day.
* Thee, that didst create the darkness and the Light.
* Thou art Asar Un-nefer (\"Myself made Perfect"):
Whom no man hath seen at any time.
* Thou art Ia-besz (\"the Truth in Matter").
* Thou art Ia-apophrasz (\"the Truth in Motion").
* Thou hast distinguished between the Just and the Unjust.
* Thou didst make the Female and the Male.
* Thou didst produce the Seeds and the Fruit.
* Thou didst form Men to love one another, and to hate one another.
Section Aa.
* I am Ankh - F - N - Khonsu hy Prophet, unto Whom Thou didst commit Thy Mysteries,
the Ceremonies of Khem.
* Thou didst produce the moist and the dry, and that which nourisheth all
created Life.
* Hear Thou Me, for I am the Angel of Ptah - Apo - Phrasz - Ra (vide the Rubric):
this is Thy True Name, handed down to the Prophets of Khem.
Section B.
Air
Hear Me: -
Ar
\"O breathing, flowing Sun!"
ThIaf 1
\"O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun, The Beast that whirlest forth, a
thunder- bolt, begetter of Life!"
RhEibet
\"Thou that flowest! Thou that goest!"
A-ThEle-ber-set
\"Thou Satan-Sun Hadith that goest without Will!"
A
\"Thou Air! Breath! Spirit! Thou without bound or bond!"
BELAThA
"Thou Essence, Air Swift-streaming, Elasticity!"
Abeu
\"Thou Wanderer, Father of All!"
Ebeu
\"Thou Wanderer, Spirit of All!"
PhI-ThEta-soe
\"Thou Shining Force of Breath! Thou Lion-Serpent Sun! Thou Saviour,
save!"
Ib
\"Thou Ibis, secret solitary Bird, inviolate Wisdom, whose Word in
Truth, creating the World by its Magick!"
ThIAF
"O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun, The Beas that whirlest forth, a
thunder- bolt, begetter of Life!"
The conception is of Air, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Bird, "the
Holy Ghost", of a Mercurial Nature.
Hear me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me; so that every Spirit of the Firmament
and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth, on dry land and in the
water; of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of
God may be obedient unto Me.
1 The letter F is used to represent the Hebrew Vau
and the Greek Digamma; its sound lies between those of the English long
o and long oo, as in Rope and Tooth.
Section C.
Fire
I invoke Thee, the Terrible and Invisible God: Who dwellest in the Void Place
of the Spirit: -
Ar-o-go-go-ru-abrao
\"Thou spiritual Sun! Satan, Thou Eye, Thou Lust! Cry aloud! Cry
aloud! Whirl the Wheel, O my Father, O Satan, O Sun!"
Sotou
\"Thou, the Saviour!"
Mudorio
\"Silence! Give me Thy Secret!"
PhALARThAo
\"Give me suck, Thou Phallus, Thou Sun!"
Ooo
\"Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!" Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust! Satan,
thou Eye, thou Lust!
Aepe
\"Thou self-caused, self-determined, exalted, Most High!"
The Bornless One. (Vide supra).
The conception is of Fire, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Lion of
a Uranian nature.
Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the
Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land
and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and
Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.
Section D.
Water
Hear Me: -
Ru-abra-iaf 1
\"Thou the Wheel, thou the Womb, that containeth the Father IAF!"
Mriodom
\"Thou the Sea, the Abode!"
Babalon-bal-bin-abaft
\"Babalon! Thou Woman of Whoredom. Thou, Gate of the Great God ON!
Thou Lady of the Understanding of the Ways!"
Asal-on-ai
\"Hail Thou, the unstirred! Hail, sister and bride of ON, of the
God that is all and is none, by the Power of Eleven!"
APhEn-iaf
\"Thou Treasure of IAO!"
I
\"Thou Virgin twin-sexed! Thou Secret Seed! Thou inviolate Wisdom!"
PhOTETh
"Abode of the Light.................
Abrasax
\"......of the Father, the Sun, of Hadith, of the spell of the Aeon
of Horus!"
Aeoou
\"Our Lady of the Western Gate of Heaven!"
ISChUre
\"Mighty art Thou!"
Mighty and Bornless One! (Vide Supra)
The conception is of Water, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Dragon-Serpent,
of a Neptunian nature.
Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the
Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land
and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and
Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.
1 See, for the formula of IAF, or rather FIAOF, Book
4 Part III, Chapter V. The form FIAOF will be found preferable in practice.
Section E.
Earth
I invoke Thee: -
Ma
\"O Mother! O Truth!"
Barraio
\"Thou Mass!" 1
Ioel
\"Hail, Thou that art!"
KOThA
"Thou hollow one!"
AThOR-e-bal-o
\"Thou Goddess of Beauty and Love, whom Satan, beholding, desireth!"
Abraft
\"The Fathers, male-female, desire Thee!"
The conception of of Earth, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Hippopotamus
2" of a Venereal nature."
Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the
Firmament, and of the Ether: upon The Earth and under the Earth: on dry land
and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and
Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.
1"Mass", in the sense of the word which is
used by physicists. The impossibility of defining it will not deter the
intrepid initiate (in view of the fact that the fundamental conception
is beyond the normal categories of reason.)
2Sacred to AHAThOOR. The idea is that of the Female
conceived as invulnerable, reposeful, of enormous swallowing capacity
etc.
Section F.
Spirit
Hear Me:
Aft
\"Male-Female Spirits!"
Abaft
\"Male-Female Sires!"
Bas-aumgn
\"Ye that are Gods, going forth, uttering AUMGN. The Word that goeth
from (A) Free Breath. (U) through Willed Breath. (M) and stopped Breath.
(GN) to Continuous Breath. thus symbolizing the whole course of spiritual
life. A is the formless Hero; U is the six-fold solar sound of physical
life, the triangle of Soul being entwined with that of Body; M is the silence
of "death"; GN is the nasal sound of generation
King, Ruler and Helper. Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so
that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and
under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing
Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.
Section G.
Spirit
Hear Me: -
Ieou
\"Indwelling Sun of Myself"
Pur
\"Thou Fire! Thou Sixfold Star initiator compassed about with Force
and Fire!"
Iou
\"Indwelling Soul of Myself"
Pur
(Vide Supra)
IAFTh
"Sun-lion Serpent, hail! All Hail, thou Great Wild Beast, thou I
A O!\"
Iaeo
\"Breaths of my soul, breaths of mine Angel."
Ioou
\"Lust of my soul, lust of mine Angel!"
Abrasax
(Vide Supra).
Sabriam
\"Ho for the Sangraal! Ho for the Cup of Babalon! Ho for mine Angel
pouring Himself forth within my Soul!"
Oo
\"The Eye! Satan, my Lord! The Lust of the goat!"
Ff
\"Mine Angel! Mine initiator! Thou one with me - the Sixfold Star!"
Ad-on-a-i 1
\"My Lord! My secret self beyond self, Hadith, All Father! Hail,
ON, thou Sun, thou Life of Man, thou Fivefold Sword of Flame! Thou Goat
exalted upon Earth in Lust, thou Snake extended upon Earth in Life! Spirit
most holy! Seed most Wise! Innocent Babe. Inviolate Maid! Begetter of Being!
Soul of all Souls! Word of all Words, Come forth, most hidden Light!"
Ede
\"Devour thou me!"
Edu
\"Thou dost devour Me!"
Angelos Ton ThEon
\"Thou Angel of the Gods!"
Anlala
\"Arise thou in Me, free flowing, Thou who art Naught, who art Naught,
and utter thy Word!"
Lai
\"I also am Naught! I Will Thee! I behold Thee! My nothingness!"
Gaia
\"Leap up, thou Earth!" (This is also an agonising appeal to
the Earth, the Mother; for at this point of the ceremony the Adept should
be torn from his mortal attachments, and die to himself in the orgasm of
his operation.) 2
Aepe
\"Thou Exalted One! It (i.e. the spritual 'semen', the Adept's secret
ideas, drawn irresistibly from their 'Hell' 3 by the love
of his Angel) leaps up; it leaps forth! 4
Diatharna Thoron
\"Lo! the out-splashing of the seeds of Immortality"
1In Hebrew, Adni, 65. The Gnostic Initiates transliterated
it to imply their own secret formulae; we follow so excellent an example.
ON is an Arcanum of Arcana; its significance is taught, gradually, in
the O.T.O. Also AD is the paternal formula, Hadit; ON is its complement
NUIT; the final Yod signifies "mine" etymologically and essentially
the Mercurial (transmitted) hermaphroditic virginal seed - The Hermit
of the Taro - The use of the name is therefore to invoke one's own inmost
secrecy, considered as the result of the conjunction of Nuit and Hadit.
If the second A is included, its import is to affirm the operation of
the Holy Ghost and the formulation of the Babe in the Egg, which precedes
the appearance of the Hermit.
2A thorough comprehension of Psycho-analysis will contribute
notably to the proper appreciation of this Ritual.
3It is said among men that the word Hell deriveth from
the word "helan", to hele or conceal, in the tongue of the Anglo-Saxons.
That is, it is the concealed place, which since all things are in thine
own self, is the unconscious, "Liber CXI (Aleph) chap. Delta-Zeta"
4But compare the use of the same word in section C.
Section Gg.
The Attainment
*
I am He! the Bornless Spirit! having sight in the feet: Strong, and the
Immortal Fire!
*
I am He! the Truth!
*
I am He! Who hate that evil should be wrought in the World!
*
I am He, that lighteneth and thundereth!
*
I am He, from whom is the Shower of the Life of Earth!
*
I am He, whose mouth ever flameth!
*
I am He, the Begetter and Manifester unto the Light!
*
I am He, The Grace of the Worlds!
*
\"The Heart Girt with a Serpent" is my name!
Section H.
The "Charge to the Spirit"
Come thou forth, and follow me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me so that
every Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether, upon the Earth and under the
Earth: on dry Land, or in the Water: of Whirling Air or of rushing Fire, and
every Spell and scourge of God, may be obedient unto me!
Section J.
The Proclamation of the Beast 666
Iaf:sabaf 1
Such are the Words!
1See explanation in Point Ii.
Point Ii
\"Ars Congressus Cum Daemone"
Section A
Let the Adeptus Minor be standing in this circle on the square of Tiphereth,
armed with his Wand and Cup; but let him perform the Ritual throughout in his
Body of Light. He may burn the Cakes of Light, or the Incense of Abramelin;
he may be prepared by Liber CLXXV, the reading of Liber LXV, and by the practices
of Yoga. He may invoke Hadit by "... wine and strange drugs" if he
so will. 1 He prepares the circle by the usual formulae of
Banishing and Consecration, etc. He recites Section A as a rehearsal before
His Holy Guardian Angel of the attributes of that Angel. Each phrase must be
realized with full concentration of force, so as to make Samadhi as perfectly
as possible upon the truth proclaimed.
Line 1
He identifies his Angel with the Ain Soph, and the Kether ther; one formulation
of Hadit in the boundless Body of Nuith.
Line 2,3,4
He asserts that His Angel has created (for the purpose of self-realization
through projection in conditioned Form) three pairs of opposites: (a) The Fixed
and the Volatile; (b) The Unmanifested and the Manifest; and (c) the Unmoved
and the Moved. Otherwise, the Negative and the Positive in respect of Matter,
Mind and Motion.
Line 5
He acclaims his Angel as "Himself Made Perfect"; adding that this
Individuality is inscrutable in inviolable. In the Neophyte Ritual of G: D:
(As it is printed in Equinox I, II, for the old aeon) the Hierophant is the
perfected Osiris, who brings the candidate, the natural Osiris, to identity
with himself. But in the new Aeon the Hierophant is Horus (Liber Ccxx, I, 49)
therefore the Candidate will be Horus too. What then is the formula of the initiation
of Horus? It will no longer be that of the Man, through Death. It will be the
natural growth of the Child. His experiences will no more be regarded as catastrophic.
Their hieroglyph is the Fool: the innocent and impotent Harpocrates Babe becomes
the Horus Adult by obtaining the Wand. "Der reine Thor" seizes the
Sacred Lance. Bacchus becomes Pan. The Holy Guardian Angel is the Unconscious
Creature Self - the Spiritual Phallus. His knowledge and conversation contributes
occult puberty. It is therefore advisable to replace the name Asar-Un-Nefer
by that of Ra-Hoor-Khuit at the outset, and by that of one's own Holy Guardian
Angel when it has been communicated.
Line 6
He hails Him as BESZ, the Matter that destroys and devours Godhead, for the
purpose of the Incarnation of any God.
Line 7
He hails Him as Apophrasz, the Motion that destroys and devours Godhead, for
the purpose of the Incarnation of any God. The combined action of these two
Devils is to allow the God upon whom they prey to enter into enjoyment of existence
through the Sacrament of dividual "Life" (Bread - the flesh of BESZ)
and "Love" (Wine - the blood or venom of Aophrasz).
Line 8
He acclaims His Angel as having "eaten of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil"; otherwise, having become wise (in the Dyad, Chokmah)
to apprehend the formula of Equilibrium which is now His own, being able to
apply Himself accurately to His self-appointed environment.
Line 9
He acclaims His Angel as having laid down the Law of Love as the Magical formula
of the Universe, that He may resolve the phenomenal again into its noumenal
phase by uniting any two opposites in ecstasic passion.
Line 10
He acclaims His Angel as having appointed that this formula of Love should
effect not only the dissolution of the separateness of the Lovers into His own
impersonal Godhead, but their co-ordination in a "Child" quintessentialized
from its parents to constitute a higher order of Being than theirs, so that
each generation is an alchemical progress towards perfection in the direction
of successive complexities. As Line 9 asserts Involution, Line 10 asserts Evolution.
Line 11
He acclaims His Angel as having devised this method of self-realization; the
object of Incarnation is to obtain its reactions to its relations with other
incarnated Beings and to observe theirs with each other.
1Any such formula should be used only when the adept
has full knowledge based on experience of the management of such matters.
Section Aa.
Line 1
The Adept asserts his right to enter into conscious communication with His
Angel, on the ground that that Angel has Himself taught him the Secret Magick
by which he may make the proper link. "Mosheh" is M H, the formation
in Jechidah, Chiah, Neshamah, Ruach, - The Sephiroth from Kether to Yesod -
since 45 is Sum 1-9 while Sh, 300, is Sum 1-24, which superadds to these Nine
an extra Fifteen numbers. (See in Liber D, the meanings and correspondences
of 9, 15, 24, 45, 300, 345.) 45 is moreover A D M, Mda, man. "Mosheh"
is thus the name of man as a God-concealing form. But in the Ritual let the
Adept replace this "Mosheh" by his own motto as Adeptus Minor. For
"Ishrael" let him prefer his own Magical Race, according to the obligations
of his Oaths to Our Holy Order! (The Beast 666 Himself used "Ankh-f-n-Khonsu"
and "Khem" in this section.)
Line 2
The Adept reminds his Angel that He has created That One Substance of which
Hermes hath written in the Table of Emerald, whose virtue is to unite in itself
all opposite modes of Being, thereby to serve as a Talisman charged with the
Spiritual Energy of Existence, an Elixir or Stone composed of the physical basis
of Life. This Commemoration is placed between the two personal appeals to the
Angel, as if to claim privilege to partake of this Eucharist which createth,
sustaineth and redeemeth all things.
Line 3
He now asserts that he is himself the "Angel" or messenger of his
Angel; that is, that he is a mind and body whose office is to receive and transmit
the Word of his Angel. He hails his Angel not only as "un-nefer" the
Perfection of "Asar" himself as a man, but as Ptah-Apophrasz-Ra, the
identity (Hadit) wrapped in the Dragon (Nuit) and thereby manifested as a Sun
(Ra-Hoor-Khuit). The "Egg" (or Heart) "girt with a Serpent"
is a cognate symbol; the idea is thus expressed later in the ritual. (See Liber
LXV which expands this to the uttermost.)
Section B
The Adept passes from contemplation to action in the sections now following
B to Gg. He is to travel astrally around the circle, making the appropriate
pentagrams, sigils, and signs. His direction is widdershins. He thus makes three
curves, each covering three-fourths of the circle. He should give the sign of
the Enterer on passing the Kiblah, or Direction of Boleskine. This picks up
the force naturally radiating from that point 1 and projects
it in the direction of the path of the Magician. The sigils are those given
in the Equinox Vol. I, No. 7, Plate X outside the square; the signs those shewn
in Vol. I, No. 2, Plate "The Signs of the Grades". In these invocations
he should expand his girth and his stature to the utmost 2,
assuming the form and the consciousness of the elemental god of the quarter.
After this, he begins to vibrate the "Barbarous Names" of the Ritual.
Now let him not only fill his whole being to the uttermost with the force of
the Names; but let him formulate his Will, understood thoroughly as the dynamic
aspect of his Creative Self, in an appearance symbolically apt, I say not in
the form of a Ray of Light, of a Fiery Sword, or of aught save that bodily Vehicle
of the Holy Ghost which is sacred to Baphomet, by its virtue that concealeth
the Lion and the Serpent that His Image may appear adorably upon the Earth for
ever.
Let then the Adept extend his Will beyond the Circle in this imagined Shape
and let it radiate with the Light proper to the element invoked, and let each
Word issue along the Shaft with passionate impulse, as if its voice gave command
thereto that it should thrust itself leapingly forward. Let also each Word accumulate
authority, so that the Head of the Shaft may plunge twice as far for the Second
Word as for the First, and Four Times for the Third as the Second, and thus
to the end. Moreover, let the Adept fling forth his whole consciousness thither.
Then at the final Word, let him bring rushing back his Will within himself,
steadily streaming, and let him offer himself to its point, as Artemis to PAN,
that this perfectly pure concentration of the Element purge him thoroughly,
and possess him with its passion.
In this Sacrament being wholly at one with that Element, let the Adept utter
the Charge "Hear me, and make", etc. with strong sense that this unity
with that quarter of the Universe confers upon him the fullest freedom and privilege
appurtenant thereto.
Let the Adept take note of the wording of the Charge. The "Firmament"
is the Ruach, the "mental plane"; it is the realm of Shu, or Zeus,
where revolves the Wheel of the Gunas, the Three forms 3 of
Being. The Aethyr is the "akasha", the "Spirit", the Aethyr
or physics, which is the framework on which all forms are founded; it receives,
records and transmits all impulses without itself suffering mutation thereby.
The "Earth" is the sphere wherein the operation of these "fundamental"
and aethyric forces appears to perception. "Under the Earth" is the
world of those phenomena which inform those perceived projections, and determine
their particular character. "Dry land" is the place of dead "material
things", dry (i.e. unknowable) because unable to act on our minds. "Water"
is the vehicle whereby we feel such things; "air" their menstruum
wherein these feelings are mentally apprehended. It is called "whirling"
because of the instability of thought, and the fatuity of reason, on which we
are yet dependent for what we call "life". "Rushing Fire"
is the world in which wandering thought burns up to swift-darting Will. These
four stages explain how the non-Ego is transmuted into the Ego. A "Spell"
of God is any form of consciousness, and a "Scourge" any form of action.
The Charge, as a whole, demands for the Adept the control of every detail of
the Universe which His Angel has created as a means of manifesting Himself to
Himself. It covers command of the primary projection of the Possible in individuality,
in the antithetical artifice which is the device of Mind, and in a balanced
triplicity of modes or states of being whose combinations constitute the characteristics
of Cosmos. It includes also a standard of structure, a rigidity to make reference
possible. Upon these foundations of condition which are not things in themselves,
but the canon to which things conform, is builded the Temple of Being, whose
materials are themselves perfectly mysterious, inscrutable as the Soul, and
like the Soul imagining themselves by symbols which we may feel, perceive, and
adapt to our use without ever knowing the whole Truth about them. The Adept
sums up all these items by claiming authority over every form of expression
possible to Existence, whether it be a "spell" (idea) or a "scourge"
(act) of "God", that is, of himself. The Adept must accept every "spirit",
every "spell", every "scourge", as part of his environment,
and make them all "subject to" himself; that is, consider them as
contributory causes of himself. They have made him what he is. They correspond
exactly to his own faculties. They are all - ultimately - of equal importance.
The fact that he is what he is proves that each item is equilibrated. The impact
of each new impression affects the entire system in due measure. He must therefore
realize that every event is subject to him. It occurs because he had need of
it. Iron rusts because the molecules demand oxygen for the satisfaction of their
tendencies. They do not crave hydrogen; therefore combination with that gas
is an event which does not happen. All experiences contribute to make us complete
in ourselves. We feel ourselves subject to them so long as we fail to recognise
this; when we do, we perceive that they are subject to us. And whenever we strive
to evade an experience, whatever it may be, we thereby do wrong to ourselves.
We thwart our own tendencies. To live is to change; and to oppose change is
to revolt against the law which we have enacted to govern our lives. To resent
destiny is thus to abdicate our sovereignty, and to invoke death. Indeed, we
have decreed the doom of death for every breach of the law of Life. And every
failure to incorporate any impression starves that particular faculty which
stood in need of it.
This Section B invokes Air in the East, with a shaft of golden glory.
1This is an assumption based on Liber Legis Ii, 78
and Iii, 34.
2Having experience of success in the practices of Liber
536, Batraxo-renobookosmomaxia.
3They correspond to the Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt of
Alchemy; to Sattvas, Rajas, and Tamas in the Hindu system; and are rather
modes of action than actual qualities even when conceived as latent. They
are the apparatus of communication between the planes; as such, they are
conventions. There is no absolute validity in any means of mental apprehension;
but unless we make these spirits of the Firmament subject unto us by establishing
right relation (within the possible limits) with the Universe, we shall
fall into error when we develop our new instrument of direct understanding.
It is vital that the Adept should train his intellectual faculties to tell
him the truth, in the measure of their capacity. To despise the mind on
account of its limitations is the most disastrous blunder; it is the common
cause of the calamities which strew so many shores with the wreckage of
the Mystic Armada. Bigotry, Arrogance, Bewilderment, all forms of mental
and moral disorder, so often observed in people of great spiritual attainment,
have brought the Path itself into discredit; almost all such catastrophes
are due to trying to build the Temple of the Spirit without proper attention
to the mental laws of structure and the physical necessities of foundation.
The mind must be brought to its utmost pitch of perfection, but according
to its own internal properties; one cannot feed a microscope on mutton chops.
It must be regarded as a mechanical instrument of knowledge, independent
of the personality of its possessor. One must treat it exactly as one treats
one's electroscope or one's eyes; one influence of one's wishes. A physician
calls in a colleague to attend to his own family, knowing that personal
anxiety may derange his judgment. A microscopist who trusts his eyes when
his pet theory is at stake may falsify the facts, and find too late that
he has made a fool of himself.
In the case of initiations itself, history is scarred with the wounds inflicted
by this Dagger. It reminds us constantly of the danger of relying upon the
intellectual faculties. A judge must know the law in every point, and be
detached from personal prejudices, and incorruptible, or iniquity will triumph.
Dogma, with persecution, delusion, paralysis of progress, and many another
evil, as its satraps, has always established a tyranny when Genius has proclaimed
it. Islam making a bonfire of written Wisdom, and Haeckel forging biological
evidence; physicists ignorant of radioactivity disputing the conclusions
of geology, and theologians impatient of truth struggling against the tide
of thought; all such must perish at the hands of their own error in making
their minds, internally defective or externally deflected, the measure of
the Universe.
Section C
The adept now invokes Fire in the South; flame red are the rays that burst
from his Verendum.
Section D
He invokes Water in the West, his Wand billowing forth blue radiance.
Section E
He goes to the North to invoke Earth; flowers of green flame flash from his
weapon. As practice makes the Adept perfect in this Work, it becomes automatic
to attach all these complicated ideas and intentions to their correlated words
and acts. When this is attained he may go deeper into the formula by amplifying
its correspondences. Thus, he may invoke water in the manner of water, extending
his will with majestic and irresistible motion, mindful of its impulse gravitation,
yet with a suave and tranquil appearance of weakness. Again, he may apply the
formula of water to its peculiar purpose as it surges back into his sphere,
using it with conscious skill for the cleansing and calming of the receptive
and emotional elements in his character, and for the solution or sweeping away
of those tangled weeds of prejudice which hamper him from freedom to act as
he will. Similar applications of the remaining invocations will occur to the
Adept who is ready to use them.
Section F
The Adept now returns to the Tiphereth square of his Tau, and invokes spirit,
facing toward Boleskine, by the active Pentagrams, the sigil called the Mark
of the Beast, and the Signs of L.V.X. (See plate as before). He then vibrates
the Names extending his will in the same way as before, but vertically upward.
At the same time he expands the Source of that Will - the secret symbol of Self
- both about him and below, as if to affirm that Self, duplex as is its form,
reluctant to acquiesce in its failure to coincide with the Sphere of Nuith.
Let him now imagine, at the last Word, that the Head of his will, where his
consciousness is fixed, opens its fissure (the Brahmarandra-Cakkra, at the junction
of the cranial sutures) and exudes a drop of clear crystalline dew, and that
this pearl is his Soul, a virgin offering to his Angel, pressed forth from his
being by the intensity of this Aspiration.
Section Ff
With these words the Adept does not withdraw his will within him as in the
previous Sections. He thinks of them as a reflection of Truth on the surface
of the dew, where his Soul hides trembling. He takes them to be the first formulation
in his consciousness of the nature of His Holy Guardian Angel.
Line 1
The "Gods" include all the conscious elements of his nature.
Line 2
The "Universe" includes all possible phenomena of which he can be
aware.
Line 3
The "Winds" are his thoughts, which have prevented him from attaining
to his Angel.
Line 4
His Angel has made "Voice", the magical weapon which produces "Words",
and these words have been the wisdom by which He hath created all things. The
"Voice" is necessary as the link between the Adept and his Angel.
The Angel is "King", the One who "can", the "source
of authority and the fount of honour"; also the King (or King's Son) who
delivers the Enchanted Princess, and makes her his Queen. He is "Ruler",
the "unconscious Will"; to be thwarted no more by the ignorant and
capricious false will of the conscious man. And He is "Helper", the
author of the infallible impulse that sends the Soul sweeping along the skies
on its proper path with such impetus that the attraction of alien orbs is no
longer sufficient to swerve it. The "Hear me" clause is now uttered
by the normal human consciousness, withdrawn to the physical body; the Adept
must deliberately abandon his attainment, because it is not yet his whole being
which burns up before the Beloved.
Section G
The Adept, though withdrawn, shall have maintained the Extension of his Symbol.
He now repeats the signs as before, save that he makes the Passive Invoking
Pentagram of Spirit. He concentrates his consciousness within his Twin-Symbol
of Self, and endeavours to send it to sleep. But if the operation be performed
properly, his Angel shall have accepted the offering of Dew, and seized with
fervour upon the extended symbol of Will towards Himself. This then shall He
shake vehemently with vibrations of love reverberating with the Words of the
Section. Even in the physical ears of the adept there shall resound an echo
ther, yet he shall not be able to describe it. It shall seem both louder
than thunder, and softer than the whisper of the night-wind. It shall at once
be inarticulate, and mean more than he hath ever heard.
Now let him strive with all the strength of his Soul to withstand the Will
of his Angel, concealing himself in the closest cell of the citadel of consciousness.
Let him consecrate himself to resist the assault of the Voice and the Vibration
until his consciousness faint away into Nothing. For if there abide unabsorbed
even one single atom of the false Ego, that atom should stain the virginity
of the True Self and profane the Oath; then that atom should be so inflamed
by the approach of the Angel that is should overwhelm the rest of the mind,
tyrannize over it, and become an insane despot to the total ruin of the realm.
But, all being dead to sense, who then is able to strive against the Angel?
He shall intensify the stress of His Spirit so that His loyal legions of Lion-Serpents
leap from the ambush, awakening the adept to witness their Will and sweep him
with them in their enthusiasm, so that he consciously partakes this purpose,
and sees in its simplicity the solution of all his perplexities. Thus then shall
the Adept be aware that he is being swept away through the column of his Will
Symbol. and that His Angel is indeed himself, with intimacy so intense as to
become identity, and that not in a single Ego, but in every unconscious element
that shares in that manifold uprush.
This rapture is accompanied by a tempest of brilliant light, almost always,
and also in many cases by an outburst of sound, stupendous and sublime in all
cases, though its character may vary within wide limits. 1
The spate of stars shoots from the head of the Will-Symbol, and is scattered
over the sky in glittering galaxies. This dispersion destroys the concentration
of the adept, whose mind cannot master such multiplicity of majesty; as a rule,
he simply sinks stunned into normality, to recall nothing of his experience
but a vague though vivid impression of complete release and ineffable rapture.
Repetition fortifies him to realise the nature of his attainment; and his Angel,
the link once made, frequents him, and trains him subtly to be sensitive to
his Holy presence, and persuasion. But it may occur, especially after repeated
success, that the Adept is not flung back into his mortality by the explosion
of the Star-spate, but identified with one particular "Lion-Serpent",
continuing conscious ther until it finds its proper place in Space, when
its secret self flowers forth as a truth, which the Adept may then take back
to earth with him.
This is but a side issue. The main purpose of the Ritual is to establish the
relation of the subconscious self with the Angel in such a way that the Adept
is aware that his Angel is the Unity which expresses the sum of the Elements
of that Self, that his normal consciousness contains alien enemies introduced
by the accidents of environment, and that his Knowledge and Conversation of
His Holy Guardian Angel destroys all doubts and delusions, confers all blessings,
teaches all truth, and contains all delights. But it is important that the Adept
should not rest in mere inexpressible realization of his rapture, but rouse
himself to make the relation submit to analysis, to render it in rational terms,
and thereby enlighten his mind and heart in a sense as superior to fanatical
enthusiasm as Beethoven's music is to West African war-drums.
1These phenomena are not wholly subjective; they may
be perceived, though often under other forms, by even the ordinary man.
Section Gg
The adept should have realised that his Act of Union with the angel implies
1 the death of his old mind save in so far as his unconscious
elements preserve its memory when they absorb it, and 2 the
death of his unconscious elements themselves. But their death is rather a going
forth to renew their life through love. He then, by conscious comprehension
of them separately and together, becomes the "Angel" of his Angel,
as Hermes is the Word of Zeus, whose own voice is Thunder. Thus in this section
the adept utters articulately so far as words may, what his Angel is to Himself.
He says this, with his Scin-Laeca wholly withdrawn into his physical body, constraining
His Angel to indwell his heart.
Line 1
"I am He" asserts the destruction of the sense of separateness between
self and Self. It affirms existence, but of the third person only. "The
Bornless Spirit" is free of all space, "having sight in the feet",
that they may choose their own path. "Strong" is G B R, The Magician
escorted by the Sun and the Moon (See Liber D and Liber 777). The "Immortal
Fire" is the creative Self; impersonal energy cannot perish, no matter
what forms it assumes. Combustion is Love.
Line 2
"Truth" is the necessary relation of any two things; therefore, although
it implies duality, it enables us to conceive of two things as being one thing
such that it demands to be defined by complementals. Thus, an hyperbola is a
simple idea, but its construction exacts two curves.
Line 3
The Angel, as the adept knows him, is a being Tiphereth, which obscures Kether.
The Adept is not officially aware of the higher Sephiroth. He cannot perceive,
like the Ipsissimus, that all things soever are equally illusion and equally
Absolute. He is in Tiphereth, whose office is Redemption, and he deplores the
events which have caused the apparent Sorrow from which he has just escaped.
He is also aware, even in the height of his ecstasy, of the limits and defects
of his Attainment.
Line 4
This refers to the phenomena which accompany his Attainment.
Line 5
This means the recognition of the Angel as the True Self of his subconscious
self, the hidden Life of his physical life.
Line 6
The Adept realises every breath, every word of his Angel as charged with creative
fire. Tiphereth is the Sun, and the Angel is the spiritual Sun of the Soul of
the Adept.
Line 7
Here is summed the entire process of bringing the conditioned Universe to knowledge
of itself through the formula of generation 1; a soul implants
itself in sense-hoodwinked body and reason-fettered mind, makes them aware of
their Inmate, and thus to partake of its own consciousness of the Light.
Line 8
"Grace" has here its proper sense of "Pleasantness". The
existence of the Angel is the justification of the device of creation. 2
Line 9
This line must be studied in the light of Liber LXV (Equinox XI. p. 65).
1That is, Yod He realizing Themselves Will and Understanding
in the twins Vau He, Mind and body.
2But see also the general solution of the Riddle of
Existence in The Book of the Law and its Comment - Part IV of Book 4.
Section H.
This recapitulation demands the going forth together of the Adept and his Angel
"to do their pleasure on the Earth among the living."
Section J.
The Beast 666 having devised the present method of using this Ritual, having
proved it by his own practice to be of infallible puissance when properly performed,
and now having written it down for the world, it shall be an ornament for the
Adept who adopts it to cry Hail to His name at the end of his work. This shall
moreover encourage him in Magick, to recall that indeed there was One who attained
by its use to the Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel, the
which forsook him no more, but made Him a Magus, the Word of the Aeon of Horus!
For know this, that the Name IAF in its most secret and mighty sense declareth
the Formula of the Magick of the BEAST whereby he wrought many wonders. And
because he doth will that the whole world shall attain to this Art, He now hideth
it herein so that the worthy may win to His Wisdom.
Let I and F face all 1; yet ward their A from attack. The
Hermit to himself, the fool to foes, The Hierophant to friends, Nine by nature,
Naught by attainment, Five by function. In speech swift, subtle and secret;
in thought creative, unbiassed, unbounded; in act gentle, patient and persistent.
Hermes to hear, Dionysus to touch, Pan to behold.
A Virgin, A Babe, and a Beast!
A Liar, an Idiot, and a Master of Men!
A kiss, a guffaw, and a bellow; he that hath ears to hear, let him hear!
Take ten that be one, and one that is one in three, to conceal them in six!
Thy wand to all Cups, and thy Disk to all Swords, but betray not thine Egg!
Moreover also is IAF verily 666 by virtue of Number; and this is a Mystery
of Mysteries; Who knoweth it, he is adept of adepts, and Mighty among Magicians!
Now this word SABAF, being by number Three score and Ten 2,
is a name of Ayin, the Eye, and the Devil our Lord, and the Goat of Mendes.
He is the Lord of the Sabbath of the Adepts, and is Satan, therefore also the
Sun, whose number of Magick is 666, the seal of His servant the Beast.
But again SA is 61, AIN, the Naught of Nuith; BA means go, for Hadit; and F
is their Son the Sun who is Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
So then let the Adept set his sigil upon all the words he hath writ in the
Book of the Works of his Will.
And let him then end all, saying, Such are the Words! 3 For
by this he maketh proclamation before all them that be about his Circle that
these Words are true and puissant, binding what he would bind, and loosing what
he would loose.
Let the Adept perform this Ritual aright, perfect in every part ther, once
daily for one moon, then twice, at dawn and dusk, for two moons, next, thrice,
noon added, for three moons, afterwards, midnight making up his course, for
four moons four times every day. Then let the Eleventh Moon be consecrated wholly
to this Work; let him be instant in continual ardour, dismissing all but his
sheer needs to eat and sleep. 4 For know that the true Formula
5 whose virtue sufficed the Beast in this Attainment, was
thus:
Invoke Often6
So may all men come at last to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian
Angel: thus sayeth the Beast, and prayeth His own Angel that this book be as
a burning Lamp, and as a living Spring, for Light and Life to them that read
therein.
666
1If we adopt the new orthography VIAOV (Book 4 Part
III Chap. V.) we must read "The Sun-6-the Son" etc. for "all";
and elaborate this interpretation here given in other ways, accordingly.
Thus O (of F) will not be "The Fifteen by function" instead
of "Five" etc., and "in act free, firm, aspiring, ecstatic",
rather than "gentle" etc. as in the present text.
2There is an alternative spelling TzBA-F Where the
Root, (ABz) "an Host", has the value of 93. The Practicus should
revive this Ritual throughout in the Light of his personal researches
in the Qabalah, and thus make it his own peculiar property. The spelling
here suggested implies that he who utters the Word affirms his allegiance
to the symbols 93 and 61 that he is a warrior in the army of Will and
of the Sun. 93 is also the number of AIWAZ and 6 of The Beast.
3The consonants of LOGOS, "Word", add (Hebrew
values: sGL) to 93. And EPH, "Words", (whence "Epic")
has also that value: Eide Ta Eph might be the phrase here intended: its
number is 418. This would then assert the accomplishment of the Great
Work; this is the natural conclusion of the Ritual. Cf. Ccxx. Iii. 75.
4These needs are modified during the process of Initiation
both as to quantity and quality. One should not become anxious about one's
physical or mental health on a priori grounds, but pay attention only
to indubitable symptoms of distress should such arise.
5The Oracles of Zoroaster utter this:
"And when, by often invoking, all the phantasms are vanished, thou
shalt see that Holy and Formless Fire, that Fire which darts and flashes
through all the Depths of the Universe; hear thou the Voice of the Fire!
"A similar Fire flashingly extending through the rushings of Air,
or a Fire formless whence cometh the Image of a voice, or even a flashing
Light abounding, revolving, whirling forth, crying aloud. Also there is
the vision of the fire-flashing Courser of Light, or also a Child, borne
aloft on the shoulders of the Celestial Steed, fiery, or clothed with
gold, or naked, or shooting with the bow shafts or light, and standing
on the shoulders of the horse, then if thy meditation prolongeth itself,
thou shalt unite all these symbols into the form of a Lion."
This passage - combined with several others - is paraphased in poetry
by Aleister Crowley in his "Tannhauser".
"And when, invoking often, thou shalt see
That formless Fire; when all the earth is shaken,
The Stars abide not, and the moon is gone,
All Time crushed back into Eternity,
The Universe by earthquake overtaken; Light is not, and the thunders roll,
The World is done:
When in the darkness Chaos rolls again
In the excited brain:
Then, O then call not to thy view that visible
Image of Nature; fatal is her name!
It fitteth not thy Body to behold
That living light of Hell,
The unluminous, dead flame,
Until that body from the crucible
Hath passed, pure gold!
For, from the confines of material space,
The twilight-moving place,
The gates of matter, and the dark threshold,
Before the faces of the Things that dwell
In the Abodes of Night,
Spring into sight
Demons, dog-faced, that show no mortal sign
Of Truth, but desecrate the Light Divine,
Seducing from the sacred mysteries.
But, after all these Folk of Fear are driven
Before the avenging levin
That rives the opening skies,
Behold that formless and that Holy Flame
That hath no name;
The Fire that darts and flashes, writhes and creeps
Snake-wise in royal robe
Wound round that vanished glory of the globe,
Unto that sky beyond the starry deeps,
Beyond the Toils of Time, - then formulate
In thine own mind, luminous, concentrate,
The Lion of the Light, a child that stands
On the vast shoulders of the Steed of God:
Or winged, or shooting flying shafts, or shod
With the flame-sandals.
Then, lift up thine hands!
Centre thee in thine heart one scarlet thought
Limpid with brilliance of the Light above!
Drawn into naught
All life, death, hatred, love:
All self concentred in the sole desire -
Hear thou the Voice of Fire!"
6See Equinox I, Viii, 22.
Point Iii
\"Scholion on Sections G
*
to separate them so completely that his soul is stripped of its sheaths;
*
to arouse in him an enthusiasm so intense as to intoxicate and anaesthetize
him, that he may not feel and resent the agony of this spiritual vivisection,
just as bashful lovers get drunk on the wedding night, in order to brazen
out the intensity of shame which so mysteriously coexists with their desire;
*
to concentrate the necessary spiritual forces from every element, and fling
them simultaneously into the aspiration towards the Holy Guardian Angel;
and
*
to attract the Angel by the vibration of the magical voice which invokes
Him.
The method of the Ritual is thus manifold.
There is firstly an analysis of the Adept, which enables him to calculate his
course of action. He can decide what must be banished, what purified, what concentrated.
He can then concentrate his will upon its one essential element, over-coming
its resistance - which is automatic, like a physiological reflex - by destroying
inhibitions through his ego-overwhelming enthusiasm. 1 The
other half of the work needs no such complex effort; for his Angel is simple
and unperplexed, ready at all times to respond to rightly ordered approach.
It is impossible to overcome one's inhibitions by conscious effort; their existence
justifies them. God is on their side, as on that of the victim in Browning's
Instans Tyrannus. A man cannot compel himself to love, however much he may want
to, on various rational grounds. But on the other hand, when the true impulse
comes, it overwhelms all its critics; they are powerless either to make or break
a genius; it can only testify to the fact that it has met its master.
But the results of the Ritual are too various to permit of rigid description.
One may say that, presuming the union to be perfect, the Adept need not retain
any memory soever of what has occurred. He may be merely aware of a gap in his
conscious life, and judge of its contents by observing that his nature has been
subtly transfigured. Such an experience might indeed be the proof of perfection.
If the Adept is to be any wise conscious of his Angel it must be that some
part of his mind is prepared to realise the rapture, and to express it to itself
in one way or another. This involves the perfection of that part, its freedom
from prejudice and the limitations of rationality so-called. For instance: one
could not receive the illumination as to the nature of life which the doctrine
of evolution should shed, if one is passionately persuaded that humanity is
essentially not animal, or convinced that causality is repugnant to reason.
The Adept must be ready for the utter destruction of his point of view on any
subject, and even that of his innate conception of the forms and laws of thought.
2 Thus he may find that his Angel consider his "business"
or his "love" to be absurd trifles; also that human ideas of "time"
are invalid, and human "laws" of logic applicable only to the relations
between illusions.
Now the Angel will make contact with the Adept at any point that is sensitive
to His influence. Such a point will naturally be one that is salient in the
Adept's character, and also one that is, in the proper sense of the word, pure.
3
Thus an artist, attuned to appreciate plastic beauty is likely to receive a
visual impression of his Angel in a physical form which is sublimely quintessential
of his ideal. A musician may be rapt away by majestic melodies such as he never
hoped to hear. A philosopher may attain apprehension of tremendous truths, the
solution of problems that had baffled him all his life.
Conformably with this doctrine, we read of illuminations experienced by simple-minded
men, such as a workman who "saw God" and likened Him to "a quantity
of little pears". Again, we know that ecstasy, impinging upon unbalanced
minds, inflames the idolised idea, and produces fanatical faith fierce even
to frenzy, with intolerance and insanely disordered energy which is yet so powerful
as to effect the destinies of empires.
But the phenomena of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel
are a side issue; the essence of the Union is the intimacy. Their intimacy (or
rather identity) is independent of all partial forms of expression; at its best
it is therefore as inarticulate as Love.
The intensity of the consummation will more probably compel a sob or a cry,
some natural physical gesture of animal sympathy with the spiritual spasm. This
is to be criticised as incomplete self-control. Silence is nobler.
In any case the Adept must be in communion with his Angel, so that his Soul
is suffused with sublimity, whether intelligible or not in terms of intellect.
It is evident that the stress of such spiritual possession must tend to overwhelm
the soul, especially at first. It actually suffers from the excess of its ecstasy,
just as extreme love produces vertigo. The soul sinks and swoons. Such weakness
is fatal alike to its enjoyment and its apprehension. "Be strong! then
canst thou bear more rapture!" sayeth The Book of the Law. 4
The Adept must therefore play the man, arousing himself to harden his soul.
To this end, I, the Beast, have made trial and proof of divers devices. Of
these the most potent is to set the body to strive with the soul. Let the muscles
take grip on themselves as if one were wrestling. Let the jaw and mouth, in
particular, be tightened to the utmost. Breathe deeply, slowly, yet strongly.
Keep mastery over the mind by muttering forcibly and audibly. But lest such
muttering tend to disturb communion with the Angel, speak only His Name. Until
the Adept have heard that Name, therefore, he may not abide in the perfect possession
of his Beloved. His most important task is thus to open his ears to the voice
of his Angel, that he may know him, how he is called. For hearken! this Name,
understood rightly and fully, declareth the nature of the Angel in every point,
wherefore also that Name is the formula of the perfection to which the Adept
must aspire, and also of the power of Magick by virtue wher he must work.
He then that is as yet ignorant of that Name, let him repeat a word worthy
of this particular Ritual. Such are Abrahadabra, the Word of the Aeon, which
signifieth "The Great Work accomplished"; and Aumgn interpreted in
Part III of Book 4 5; and the name of The Beast, for that
His number showeth forth this Union with the Angel, and His Work is no other
than to make all men partakers of this Mystery of the Mysteries of Magick.
So then saying this word or that, let the Adept wrestle with his Angel and
withstand Him, that he may constrain Him to consent to continue in communion
until the consciousness becomes capable of clear comprehension, and of accurate
transmission 6 of the transcendent Truth of the Beloved to
the heart that holds him.
The firm repetition of one of these Words ought to enable the Adept to maintain
the state of Union for several minutes, even at first.
In any case he must rekindle his ardour, esteeming his success rather as an
encouragement to more ardent aspiration than as a triumph. He should increase
his efforts.
Let him beware of the "lust of result", of expecting too much, of
losing courage if his first success is followed by a series of failures.
For success makes success seem so incredible that one is apt to create an inhibition
fatal to subsequent attempts. One fears to fail; the fear intrudes upon the
concentration and so fulfils its own prophecy. We know how too much pleasure
in a love affair makes one afraid to disgrace oneself on the next few occasions;
indeed, until familiarity has accustomed one to the idea that one's lover has
never supposed one to be more than human. Confidence returns gradually. Inarticulate
ecstasy is replaced by a more sober enjoyment of the elements of the fascination.
Just so one's first dazzled delight in a new landscape turns, as one continues
to gaze, to the appreciation of exquisite details of the view. At first they
were blurred by the blinding rush of general beauty; they emerge one by one
as the shock subsides, and passionate rapture yields to intelligent interest.
In the same way the Adept almost always begins by torrential lyrics painting
out mystical extravagances about "ineffable love", "unimaginable
bliss", "inexpressible infinities of illimitable utterness".
7 He usually loses his sense of proportion, of humour, of
reality, and of sound judgment. His ego is often inflated to the bursting point,
till he would be abjectly ridiculous if he were not so pitifully dangerous to
himself and others. He also tends to take his new-found "truths of illumination"
for the entire body of truth, and insists that they must be as valid an vital
for all men as they happen to be for himself.
It is wise to keep silence about those things "unlawful to utter"
which one may have heard "in the seventh heaven". This may not apply
to the sixth.
The Adept must keep himself in hand, however tempted to make a new heaven and
a new earth in the next few days by trumpeting his triumphs. He must give time
a chance to redress his balance, sore shaken by the impact of the Infinite.
As he becomes adjusted to intercourse with his Angel, he will find his passionate
ecstasy develop a quality of peace and intelligibility which adds power, while
it informs and fortifies his mental and moral qualities instead of obscuring
and upsetting them. He will by now have become able to converse with his Angel,
impossible as it once seemed; for he now knows that the storm of sound which
he supposed to be the Voice was only the clamour of his own confusions. The
"infinity" nonsense was born of his own inability to think clearly
beyond his limits, just as a Bushman, confronted by numbers above five, can
only call them "many".
The truth told by the Angel, immensely as it extends the horizon of the Adept,
is perfectly definite and precise. It does not deal in ambiguities and abstractions.
It possesses form, and confesses law, in exactly the same way and degree as
any other body of truth. It is to the truth of the material and intellectual
spheres of man very much what the Mathematics of Philosophy with its "infinite
series" and "Cantorian continuity" is to schoolboy arithmetic.
Each implies the other, though by that one may explore the essential nature
of existence, and by this a pawnbroker's profits.
This then is the true aim of the Adept in this whole operation, to assimilate
himself to his Angel by continual conscious communion. For his Angel is an intelligible
image of his own true Will, to do which is the whole of the law of his Being.
Also the Angel appeareth in Tiphereth, which is the heart of the Ruach, and
thus the Centre of Gravity of the Mind. It is also directly inspired from Kether,
the ultimate Self, through the Path of the High Priestess, or initiated intuition.
Hence the Angel is in truth the Logos or articulate expression of the whole
Being of the Adept, so that as he increases in the perfect understanding of
His name, he approaches the solution of the ultimate problem, Who he himself
truly is.
Unto this final statement the Adept may trust his Angel to lead him; for the
Tiphereth-consciousness alone is connected by paths with the various parts of
his mind. 8 None therefore save He hath the knowledge requisite
for calculating the combinations of conduct which will organise and equilibrate
for forces of the Adept, against the moment when it becomes necessary to confront
the Abyss. The Adept must control a compact and coherent mass if he is to make
sure of hurling it from him with a clean-cut gesture.
I, The Beast 666, lift up my voice and swear that I myself have been brought
hither by mine Angel. After that I had attained unto the Knowledge and Conversation
of Him by virtue of mine ardour towards Him, and of this Ritual that I bestow
upon men my fellows, and most of His great Love that He beareth to me, yea,
verily, He led me to the Abyss; He bade me fling away all that I had and all
that I was; and He forsook me in that Hour. But when I came beyond the Abyss,
to be reborn within the womb of BABALON, then came he unto me abiding in my
virgin heart, its Lord and Lover!
Also He made me a Magus, speaking through His Law, the Word of the new Aeon,
the Aeon of the Crowned and Conquering Child. 9 Thus he fulfilled
my will to bring full freedom to the race of Men.
Yea, he wrought also in me a Work of wonder beyond this, but in this matter
I am sworn to hold my peace.
1A high degree of initiation is required. This means
that the process of analysis must have been carried out very thoroughly.
The Adept must have become aware of his deepest impulses, and understood
their true significance. The "resistance" here mentioned is
automatic; it increases indefinitely against direct pressure. It is useless
to try to force oneself in these matters; the uninitiated Aspirant, however
eager he may be, is sure to fail. One must know how to deal with each
internal idea as it arises.
2Of course, even false tenets and modes of the mind
are in one sense true. It is only their appearance which alters. Copernicus
did not destroy the facts of nature, or change the instruments of observation.
He merely effected a radical simplification of science. Error is really
a "fool's knot". Moreover, the very tendency responsible for
the entanglement is one of the necessary elements of the situation. Nothing
is "wrong" in the end; and one cannot reach the "right"
point of view without the aid of one's particular "wrong" point.
If we reject or alter the negative of a photograph we shall not get a
perfect positive.
3This means, free from ideas, however excellent in
themselves, which are foreign to it. For instance, literary interest has
no proper place in a picture.
4Liber Al vel Legis, Ii, 61-68, where the details of
the proper technique are discussed.
5The essence of this matter is that the word AUM, which
expresses the course of Breath (spiritual life) from free utterance through
controlled concentration to Silence, is transmuted by the creation of
the compound letter MGN to replace M: that is, Silence is realized as
passing into continuous ecstatic vibration, of the nature of "Love"
under "Will" as shewn by Mgn = 40 + 3 + 50 = 93 Agaph, ThELHMA
etc., and the whole word has the value of 100, Perfection Perfected, the
Unity in completion, and equivalent to KR the conjunction of the essential
male and female principles.
6The "normal" intellect is incapable of these
functions; a superior faculty must have been developed. As Zoroaster says:
"Extend the void mind of thy soul to that Intelligible that thou
mayst learn the Intelligible, because it subsisteth beyond Mind. Thou
wilt not understand It as when understanding some common thing."
7This corresponds to the emotional and metaphysical
fog which is characteristic of the emergence of thought from homogeneity.
The clear and concise differentiation of ideas marks the adult mind.
8See the maps "Minutum Mundum" in the Equinox
I, 1, 2, & 3 and the general relations detailed in Liber 777, of which
the most important columns are reprinted in Appendix V.
9For the account of these matters see The Equinox,
Vol. I, "The Temple of Solomon the King", Liber 418, Liber Aleph,
"John St. John", "The Urn", and Book 4, Part IV.
Theurgia Goetia Summa
Congressus Cum Daemone)
Sub Figura Dccc
being the Ritual employed by the Beast 666
for the Attainment of the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel
during the Semester of His performance of the Operation of the Sacred Magick
of Abramelin The Mage.
Prepared An XVII Sun in Virgo at the Abbey of Thelema in Cephalaedium
by the Beast 666 in service to Frater Progradior
Official Publication of A...a...
Class D for the Grade of Adeptus Minor.
Point I
\"Evangelii Textus Redactus"
The Invocation
Magically restored, with the significance of the
Barbarous Names
Etymologically or Qabalistically determined
and paraphrased in English.
Section A.
The Oath
* Thee I invoke, the Bornless One.
* Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens.
* Thee, that didst create the Night and the Day.
* Thee, that didst create the darkness and the Light.
* Thou art Asar Un-nefer (\"Myself made Perfect"):
Whom no man hath seen at any time.
* Thou art Ia-besz (\"the Truth in Matter").
* Thou art Ia-apophrasz (\"the Truth in Motion").
* Thou hast distinguished between the Just and the Unjust.
* Thou didst make the Female and the Male.
* Thou didst produce the Seeds and the Fruit.
* Thou didst form Men to love one another, and to hate one another.
Section Aa.
* I am Ankh - F - N - Khonsu hy Prophet, unto Whom Thou didst commit Thy Mysteries,
the Ceremonies of Khem.
* Thou didst produce the moist and the dry, and that which nourisheth all
created Life.
* Hear Thou Me, for I am the Angel of Ptah - Apo - Phrasz - Ra (vide the Rubric):
this is Thy True Name, handed down to the Prophets of Khem.
Section B.
Air
Hear Me: -
Ar
\"O breathing, flowing Sun!"
ThIaf 1
\"O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun, The Beast that whirlest forth, a
thunder- bolt, begetter of Life!"
RhEibet
\"Thou that flowest! Thou that goest!"
A-ThEle-ber-set
\"Thou Satan-Sun Hadith that goest without Will!"
A
\"Thou Air! Breath! Spirit! Thou without bound or bond!"
BELAThA
"Thou Essence, Air Swift-streaming, Elasticity!"
Abeu
\"Thou Wanderer, Father of All!"
Ebeu
\"Thou Wanderer, Spirit of All!"
PhI-ThEta-soe
\"Thou Shining Force of Breath! Thou Lion-Serpent Sun! Thou Saviour,
save!"
Ib
\"Thou Ibis, secret solitary Bird, inviolate Wisdom, whose Word in
Truth, creating the World by its Magick!"
ThIAF
"O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun, The Beas that whirlest forth, a
thunder- bolt, begetter of Life!"
The conception is of Air, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Bird, "the
Holy Ghost", of a Mercurial Nature.
Hear me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me; so that every Spirit of the Firmament
and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth, on dry land and in the
water; of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of
God may be obedient unto Me.
1 The letter F is used to represent the Hebrew Vau
and the Greek Digamma; its sound lies between those of the English long
o and long oo, as in Rope and Tooth.
Section C.
Fire
I invoke Thee, the Terrible and Invisible God: Who dwellest in the Void Place
of the Spirit: -
Ar-o-go-go-ru-abrao
\"Thou spiritual Sun! Satan, Thou Eye, Thou Lust! Cry aloud! Cry
aloud! Whirl the Wheel, O my Father, O Satan, O Sun!"
Sotou
\"Thou, the Saviour!"
Mudorio
\"Silence! Give me Thy Secret!"
PhALARThAo
\"Give me suck, Thou Phallus, Thou Sun!"
Ooo
\"Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!" Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust! Satan,
thou Eye, thou Lust!
Aepe
\"Thou self-caused, self-determined, exalted, Most High!"
The Bornless One. (Vide supra).
The conception is of Fire, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Lion of
a Uranian nature.
Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the
Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land
and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and
Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.
Section D.
Water
Hear Me: -
Ru-abra-iaf 1
\"Thou the Wheel, thou the Womb, that containeth the Father IAF!"
Mriodom
\"Thou the Sea, the Abode!"
Babalon-bal-bin-abaft
\"Babalon! Thou Woman of Whoredom. Thou, Gate of the Great God ON!
Thou Lady of the Understanding of the Ways!"
Asal-on-ai
\"Hail Thou, the unstirred! Hail, sister and bride of ON, of the
God that is all and is none, by the Power of Eleven!"
APhEn-iaf
\"Thou Treasure of IAO!"
I
\"Thou Virgin twin-sexed! Thou Secret Seed! Thou inviolate Wisdom!"
PhOTETh
"Abode of the Light.................
Abrasax
\"......of the Father, the Sun, of Hadith, of the spell of the Aeon
of Horus!"
Aeoou
\"Our Lady of the Western Gate of Heaven!"
ISChUre
\"Mighty art Thou!"
Mighty and Bornless One! (Vide Supra)
The conception is of Water, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Dragon-Serpent,
of a Neptunian nature.
Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the
Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land
and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and
Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.
1 See, for the formula of IAF, or rather FIAOF, Book
4 Part III, Chapter V. The form FIAOF will be found preferable in practice.
Section E.
Earth
I invoke Thee: -
Ma
\"O Mother! O Truth!"
Barraio
\"Thou Mass!" 1
Ioel
\"Hail, Thou that art!"
KOThA
"Thou hollow one!"
AThOR-e-bal-o
\"Thou Goddess of Beauty and Love, whom Satan, beholding, desireth!"
Abraft
\"The Fathers, male-female, desire Thee!"
The conception of of Earth, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Hippopotamus
2" of a Venereal nature."
Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the
Firmament, and of the Ether: upon The Earth and under the Earth: on dry land
and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and
Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.
1"Mass", in the sense of the word which is
used by physicists. The impossibility of defining it will not deter the
intrepid initiate (in view of the fact that the fundamental conception
is beyond the normal categories of reason.)
2Sacred to AHAThOOR. The idea is that of the Female
conceived as invulnerable, reposeful, of enormous swallowing capacity
etc.
Section F.
Spirit
Hear Me:
Aft
\"Male-Female Spirits!"
Abaft
\"Male-Female Sires!"
Bas-aumgn
\"Ye that are Gods, going forth, uttering AUMGN. The Word that goeth
from (A) Free Breath. (U) through Willed Breath. (M) and stopped Breath.
(GN) to Continuous Breath. thus symbolizing the whole course of spiritual
life. A is the formless Hero; U is the six-fold solar sound of physical
life, the triangle of Soul being entwined with that of Body; M is the silence
of "death"; GN is the nasal sound of generation
King, Ruler and Helper. Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so
that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and
under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing
Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.
Section G.
Spirit
Hear Me: -
Ieou
\"Indwelling Sun of Myself"
Pur
\"Thou Fire! Thou Sixfold Star initiator compassed about with Force
and Fire!"
Iou
\"Indwelling Soul of Myself"
Pur
(Vide Supra)
IAFTh
"Sun-lion Serpent, hail! All Hail, thou Great Wild Beast, thou I
A O!\"
Iaeo
\"Breaths of my soul, breaths of mine Angel."
Ioou
\"Lust of my soul, lust of mine Angel!"
Abrasax
(Vide Supra).
Sabriam
\"Ho for the Sangraal! Ho for the Cup of Babalon! Ho for mine Angel
pouring Himself forth within my Soul!"
Oo
\"The Eye! Satan, my Lord! The Lust of the goat!"
Ff
\"Mine Angel! Mine initiator! Thou one with me - the Sixfold Star!"
Ad-on-a-i 1
\"My Lord! My secret self beyond self, Hadith, All Father! Hail,
ON, thou Sun, thou Life of Man, thou Fivefold Sword of Flame! Thou Goat
exalted upon Earth in Lust, thou Snake extended upon Earth in Life! Spirit
most holy! Seed most Wise! Innocent Babe. Inviolate Maid! Begetter of Being!
Soul of all Souls! Word of all Words, Come forth, most hidden Light!"
Ede
\"Devour thou me!"
Edu
\"Thou dost devour Me!"
Angelos Ton ThEon
\"Thou Angel of the Gods!"
Anlala
\"Arise thou in Me, free flowing, Thou who art Naught, who art Naught,
and utter thy Word!"
Lai
\"I also am Naught! I Will Thee! I behold Thee! My nothingness!"
Gaia
\"Leap up, thou Earth!" (This is also an agonising appeal to
the Earth, the Mother; for at this point of the ceremony the Adept should
be torn from his mortal attachments, and die to himself in the orgasm of
his operation.) 2
Aepe
\"Thou Exalted One! It (i.e. the spritual 'semen', the Adept's secret
ideas, drawn irresistibly from their 'Hell' 3 by the love
of his Angel) leaps up; it leaps forth! 4
Diatharna Thoron
\"Lo! the out-splashing of the seeds of Immortality"
1In Hebrew, Adni, 65. The Gnostic Initiates transliterated
it to imply their own secret formulae; we follow so excellent an example.
ON is an Arcanum of Arcana; its significance is taught, gradually, in
the O.T.O. Also AD is the paternal formula, Hadit; ON is its complement
NUIT; the final Yod signifies "mine" etymologically and essentially
the Mercurial (transmitted) hermaphroditic virginal seed - The Hermit
of the Taro - The use of the name is therefore to invoke one's own inmost
secrecy, considered as the result of the conjunction of Nuit and Hadit.
If the second A is included, its import is to affirm the operation of
the Holy Ghost and the formulation of the Babe in the Egg, which precedes
the appearance of the Hermit.
2A thorough comprehension of Psycho-analysis will contribute
notably to the proper appreciation of this Ritual.
3It is said among men that the word Hell deriveth from
the word "helan", to hele or conceal, in the tongue of the Anglo-Saxons.
That is, it is the concealed place, which since all things are in thine
own self, is the unconscious, "Liber CXI (Aleph) chap. Delta-Zeta"
4But compare the use of the same word in section C.
Section Gg.
The Attainment
*
I am He! the Bornless Spirit! having sight in the feet: Strong, and the
Immortal Fire!
*
I am He! the Truth!
*
I am He! Who hate that evil should be wrought in the World!
*
I am He, that lighteneth and thundereth!
*
I am He, from whom is the Shower of the Life of Earth!
*
I am He, whose mouth ever flameth!
*
I am He, the Begetter and Manifester unto the Light!
*
I am He, The Grace of the Worlds!
*
\"The Heart Girt with a Serpent" is my name!
Section H.
The "Charge to the Spirit"
Come thou forth, and follow me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me so that
every Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether, upon the Earth and under the
Earth: on dry Land, or in the Water: of Whirling Air or of rushing Fire, and
every Spell and scourge of God, may be obedient unto me!
Section J.
The Proclamation of the Beast 666
Iaf:sabaf 1
Such are the Words!
1See explanation in Point Ii.
Point Ii
\"Ars Congressus Cum Daemone"
Section A
Let the Adeptus Minor be standing in this circle on the square of Tiphereth,
armed with his Wand and Cup; but let him perform the Ritual throughout in his
Body of Light. He may burn the Cakes of Light, or the Incense of Abramelin;
he may be prepared by Liber CLXXV, the reading of Liber LXV, and by the practices
of Yoga. He may invoke Hadit by "... wine and strange drugs" if he
so will. 1 He prepares the circle by the usual formulae of
Banishing and Consecration, etc. He recites Section A as a rehearsal before
His Holy Guardian Angel of the attributes of that Angel. Each phrase must be
realized with full concentration of force, so as to make Samadhi as perfectly
as possible upon the truth proclaimed.
Line 1
He identifies his Angel with the Ain Soph, and the Kether ther; one formulation
of Hadit in the boundless Body of Nuith.
Line 2,3,4
He asserts that His Angel has created (for the purpose of self-realization
through projection in conditioned Form) three pairs of opposites: (a) The Fixed
and the Volatile; (b) The Unmanifested and the Manifest; and (c) the Unmoved
and the Moved. Otherwise, the Negative and the Positive in respect of Matter,
Mind and Motion.
Line 5
He acclaims his Angel as "Himself Made Perfect"; adding that this
Individuality is inscrutable in inviolable. In the Neophyte Ritual of G: D:
(As it is printed in Equinox I, II, for the old aeon) the Hierophant is the
perfected Osiris, who brings the candidate, the natural Osiris, to identity
with himself. But in the new Aeon the Hierophant is Horus (Liber Ccxx, I, 49)
therefore the Candidate will be Horus too. What then is the formula of the initiation
of Horus? It will no longer be that of the Man, through Death. It will be the
natural growth of the Child. His experiences will no more be regarded as catastrophic.
Their hieroglyph is the Fool: the innocent and impotent Harpocrates Babe becomes
the Horus Adult by obtaining the Wand. "Der reine Thor" seizes the
Sacred Lance. Bacchus becomes Pan. The Holy Guardian Angel is the Unconscious
Creature Self - the Spiritual Phallus. His knowledge and conversation contributes
occult puberty. It is therefore advisable to replace the name Asar-Un-Nefer
by that of Ra-Hoor-Khuit at the outset, and by that of one's own Holy Guardian
Angel when it has been communicated.
Line 6
He hails Him as BESZ, the Matter that destroys and devours Godhead, for the
purpose of the Incarnation of any God.
Line 7
He hails Him as Apophrasz, the Motion that destroys and devours Godhead, for
the purpose of the Incarnation of any God. The combined action of these two
Devils is to allow the God upon whom they prey to enter into enjoyment of existence
through the Sacrament of dividual "Life" (Bread - the flesh of BESZ)
and "Love" (Wine - the blood or venom of Aophrasz).
Line 8
He acclaims His Angel as having "eaten of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge
of Good and Evil"; otherwise, having become wise (in the Dyad, Chokmah)
to apprehend the formula of Equilibrium which is now His own, being able to
apply Himself accurately to His self-appointed environment.
Line 9
He acclaims His Angel as having laid down the Law of Love as the Magical formula
of the Universe, that He may resolve the phenomenal again into its noumenal
phase by uniting any two opposites in ecstasic passion.
Line 10
He acclaims His Angel as having appointed that this formula of Love should
effect not only the dissolution of the separateness of the Lovers into His own
impersonal Godhead, but their co-ordination in a "Child" quintessentialized
from its parents to constitute a higher order of Being than theirs, so that
each generation is an alchemical progress towards perfection in the direction
of successive complexities. As Line 9 asserts Involution, Line 10 asserts Evolution.
Line 11
He acclaims His Angel as having devised this method of self-realization; the
object of Incarnation is to obtain its reactions to its relations with other
incarnated Beings and to observe theirs with each other.
1Any such formula should be used only when the adept
has full knowledge based on experience of the management of such matters.
Section Aa.
Line 1
The Adept asserts his right to enter into conscious communication with His
Angel, on the ground that that Angel has Himself taught him the Secret Magick
by which he may make the proper link. "Mosheh" is M H, the formation
in Jechidah, Chiah, Neshamah, Ruach, - The Sephiroth from Kether to Yesod -
since 45 is Sum 1-9 while Sh, 300, is Sum 1-24, which superadds to these Nine
an extra Fifteen numbers. (See in Liber D, the meanings and correspondences
of 9, 15, 24, 45, 300, 345.) 45 is moreover A D M, Mda, man. "Mosheh"
is thus the name of man as a God-concealing form. But in the Ritual let the
Adept replace this "Mosheh" by his own motto as Adeptus Minor. For
"Ishrael" let him prefer his own Magical Race, according to the obligations
of his Oaths to Our Holy Order! (The Beast 666 Himself used "Ankh-f-n-Khonsu"
and "Khem" in this section.)
Line 2
The Adept reminds his Angel that He has created That One Substance of which
Hermes hath written in the Table of Emerald, whose virtue is to unite in itself
all opposite modes of Being, thereby to serve as a Talisman charged with the
Spiritual Energy of Existence, an Elixir or Stone composed of the physical basis
of Life. This Commemoration is placed between the two personal appeals to the
Angel, as if to claim privilege to partake of this Eucharist which createth,
sustaineth and redeemeth all things.
Line 3
He now asserts that he is himself the "Angel" or messenger of his
Angel; that is, that he is a mind and body whose office is to receive and transmit
the Word of his Angel. He hails his Angel not only as "un-nefer" the
Perfection of "Asar" himself as a man, but as Ptah-Apophrasz-Ra, the
identity (Hadit) wrapped in the Dragon (Nuit) and thereby manifested as a Sun
(Ra-Hoor-Khuit). The "Egg" (or Heart) "girt with a Serpent"
is a cognate symbol; the idea is thus expressed later in the ritual. (See Liber
LXV which expands this to the uttermost.)
Section B
The Adept passes from contemplation to action in the sections now following
B to Gg. He is to travel astrally around the circle, making the appropriate
pentagrams, sigils, and signs. His direction is widdershins. He thus makes three
curves, each covering three-fourths of the circle. He should give the sign of
the Enterer on passing the Kiblah, or Direction of Boleskine. This picks up
the force naturally radiating from that point 1 and projects
it in the direction of the path of the Magician. The sigils are those given
in the Equinox Vol. I, No. 7, Plate X outside the square; the signs those shewn
in Vol. I, No. 2, Plate "The Signs of the Grades". In these invocations
he should expand his girth and his stature to the utmost 2,
assuming the form and the consciousness of the elemental god of the quarter.
After this, he begins to vibrate the "Barbarous Names" of the Ritual.
Now let him not only fill his whole being to the uttermost with the force of
the Names; but let him formulate his Will, understood thoroughly as the dynamic
aspect of his Creative Self, in an appearance symbolically apt, I say not in
the form of a Ray of Light, of a Fiery Sword, or of aught save that bodily Vehicle
of the Holy Ghost which is sacred to Baphomet, by its virtue that concealeth
the Lion and the Serpent that His Image may appear adorably upon the Earth for
ever.
Let then the Adept extend his Will beyond the Circle in this imagined Shape
and let it radiate with the Light proper to the element invoked, and let each
Word issue along the Shaft with passionate impulse, as if its voice gave command
thereto that it should thrust itself leapingly forward. Let also each Word accumulate
authority, so that the Head of the Shaft may plunge twice as far for the Second
Word as for the First, and Four Times for the Third as the Second, and thus
to the end. Moreover, let the Adept fling forth his whole consciousness thither.
Then at the final Word, let him bring rushing back his Will within himself,
steadily streaming, and let him offer himself to its point, as Artemis to PAN,
that this perfectly pure concentration of the Element purge him thoroughly,
and possess him with its passion.
In this Sacrament being wholly at one with that Element, let the Adept utter
the Charge "Hear me, and make", etc. with strong sense that this unity
with that quarter of the Universe confers upon him the fullest freedom and privilege
appurtenant thereto.
Let the Adept take note of the wording of the Charge. The "Firmament"
is the Ruach, the "mental plane"; it is the realm of Shu, or Zeus,
where revolves the Wheel of the Gunas, the Three forms 3 of
Being. The Aethyr is the "akasha", the "Spirit", the Aethyr
or physics, which is the framework on which all forms are founded; it receives,
records and transmits all impulses without itself suffering mutation thereby.
The "Earth" is the sphere wherein the operation of these "fundamental"
and aethyric forces appears to perception. "Under the Earth" is the
world of those phenomena which inform those perceived projections, and determine
their particular character. "Dry land" is the place of dead "material
things", dry (i.e. unknowable) because unable to act on our minds. "Water"
is the vehicle whereby we feel such things; "air" their menstruum
wherein these feelings are mentally apprehended. It is called "whirling"
because of the instability of thought, and the fatuity of reason, on which we
are yet dependent for what we call "life". "Rushing Fire"
is the world in which wandering thought burns up to swift-darting Will. These
four stages explain how the non-Ego is transmuted into the Ego. A "Spell"
of God is any form of consciousness, and a "Scourge" any form of action.
The Charge, as a whole, demands for the Adept the control of every detail of
the Universe which His Angel has created as a means of manifesting Himself to
Himself. It covers command of the primary projection of the Possible in individuality,
in the antithetical artifice which is the device of Mind, and in a balanced
triplicity of modes or states of being whose combinations constitute the characteristics
of Cosmos. It includes also a standard of structure, a rigidity to make reference
possible. Upon these foundations of condition which are not things in themselves,
but the canon to which things conform, is builded the Temple of Being, whose
materials are themselves perfectly mysterious, inscrutable as the Soul, and
like the Soul imagining themselves by symbols which we may feel, perceive, and
adapt to our use without ever knowing the whole Truth about them. The Adept
sums up all these items by claiming authority over every form of expression
possible to Existence, whether it be a "spell" (idea) or a "scourge"
(act) of "God", that is, of himself. The Adept must accept every "spirit",
every "spell", every "scourge", as part of his environment,
and make them all "subject to" himself; that is, consider them as
contributory causes of himself. They have made him what he is. They correspond
exactly to his own faculties. They are all - ultimately - of equal importance.
The fact that he is what he is proves that each item is equilibrated. The impact
of each new impression affects the entire system in due measure. He must therefore
realize that every event is subject to him. It occurs because he had need of
it. Iron rusts because the molecules demand oxygen for the satisfaction of their
tendencies. They do not crave hydrogen; therefore combination with that gas
is an event which does not happen. All experiences contribute to make us complete
in ourselves. We feel ourselves subject to them so long as we fail to recognise
this; when we do, we perceive that they are subject to us. And whenever we strive
to evade an experience, whatever it may be, we thereby do wrong to ourselves.
We thwart our own tendencies. To live is to change; and to oppose change is
to revolt against the law which we have enacted to govern our lives. To resent
destiny is thus to abdicate our sovereignty, and to invoke death. Indeed, we
have decreed the doom of death for every breach of the law of Life. And every
failure to incorporate any impression starves that particular faculty which
stood in need of it.
This Section B invokes Air in the East, with a shaft of golden glory.
1This is an assumption based on Liber Legis Ii, 78
and Iii, 34.
2Having experience of success in the practices of Liber
536, Batraxo-renobookosmomaxia.
3They correspond to the Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt of
Alchemy; to Sattvas, Rajas, and Tamas in the Hindu system; and are rather
modes of action than actual qualities even when conceived as latent. They
are the apparatus of communication between the planes; as such, they are
conventions. There is no absolute validity in any means of mental apprehension;
but unless we make these spirits of the Firmament subject unto us by establishing
right relation (within the possible limits) with the Universe, we shall
fall into error when we develop our new instrument of direct understanding.
It is vital that the Adept should train his intellectual faculties to tell
him the truth, in the measure of their capacity. To despise the mind on
account of its limitations is the most disastrous blunder; it is the common
cause of the calamities which strew so many shores with the wreckage of
the Mystic Armada. Bigotry, Arrogance, Bewilderment, all forms of mental
and moral disorder, so often observed in people of great spiritual attainment,
have brought the Path itself into discredit; almost all such catastrophes
are due to trying to build the Temple of the Spirit without proper attention
to the mental laws of structure and the physical necessities of foundation.
The mind must be brought to its utmost pitch of perfection, but according
to its own internal properties; one cannot feed a microscope on mutton chops.
It must be regarded as a mechanical instrument of knowledge, independent
of the personality of its possessor. One must treat it exactly as one treats
one's electroscope or one's eyes; one influence of one's wishes. A physician
calls in a colleague to attend to his own family, knowing that personal
anxiety may derange his judgment. A microscopist who trusts his eyes when
his pet theory is at stake may falsify the facts, and find too late that
he has made a fool of himself.
In the case of initiations itself, history is scarred with the wounds inflicted
by this Dagger. It reminds us constantly of the danger of relying upon the
intellectual faculties. A judge must know the law in every point, and be
detached from personal prejudices, and incorruptible, or iniquity will triumph.
Dogma, with persecution, delusion, paralysis of progress, and many another
evil, as its satraps, has always established a tyranny when Genius has proclaimed
it. Islam making a bonfire of written Wisdom, and Haeckel forging biological
evidence; physicists ignorant of radioactivity disputing the conclusions
of geology, and theologians impatient of truth struggling against the tide
of thought; all such must perish at the hands of their own error in making
their minds, internally defective or externally deflected, the measure of
the Universe.
Section C
The adept now invokes Fire in the South; flame red are the rays that burst
from his Verendum.
Section D
He invokes Water in the West, his Wand billowing forth blue radiance.
Section E
He goes to the North to invoke Earth; flowers of green flame flash from his
weapon. As practice makes the Adept perfect in this Work, it becomes automatic
to attach all these complicated ideas and intentions to their correlated words
and acts. When this is attained he may go deeper into the formula by amplifying
its correspondences. Thus, he may invoke water in the manner of water, extending
his will with majestic and irresistible motion, mindful of its impulse gravitation,
yet with a suave and tranquil appearance of weakness. Again, he may apply the
formula of water to its peculiar purpose as it surges back into his sphere,
using it with conscious skill for the cleansing and calming of the receptive
and emotional elements in his character, and for the solution or sweeping away
of those tangled weeds of prejudice which hamper him from freedom to act as
he will. Similar applications of the remaining invocations will occur to the
Adept who is ready to use them.
Section F
The Adept now returns to the Tiphereth square of his Tau, and invokes spirit,
facing toward Boleskine, by the active Pentagrams, the sigil called the Mark
of the Beast, and the Signs of L.V.X. (See plate as before). He then vibrates
the Names extending his will in the same way as before, but vertically upward.
At the same time he expands the Source of that Will - the secret symbol of Self
- both about him and below, as if to affirm that Self, duplex as is its form,
reluctant to acquiesce in its failure to coincide with the Sphere of Nuith.
Let him now imagine, at the last Word, that the Head of his will, where his
consciousness is fixed, opens its fissure (the Brahmarandra-Cakkra, at the junction
of the cranial sutures) and exudes a drop of clear crystalline dew, and that
this pearl is his Soul, a virgin offering to his Angel, pressed forth from his
being by the intensity of this Aspiration.
Section Ff
With these words the Adept does not withdraw his will within him as in the
previous Sections. He thinks of them as a reflection of Truth on the surface
of the dew, where his Soul hides trembling. He takes them to be the first formulation
in his consciousness of the nature of His Holy Guardian Angel.
Line 1
The "Gods" include all the conscious elements of his nature.
Line 2
The "Universe" includes all possible phenomena of which he can be
aware.
Line 3
The "Winds" are his thoughts, which have prevented him from attaining
to his Angel.
Line 4
His Angel has made "Voice", the magical weapon which produces "Words",
and these words have been the wisdom by which He hath created all things. The
"Voice" is necessary as the link between the Adept and his Angel.
The Angel is "King", the One who "can", the "source
of authority and the fount of honour"; also the King (or King's Son) who
delivers the Enchanted Princess, and makes her his Queen. He is "Ruler",
the "unconscious Will"; to be thwarted no more by the ignorant and
capricious false will of the conscious man. And He is "Helper", the
author of the infallible impulse that sends the Soul sweeping along the skies
on its proper path with such impetus that the attraction of alien orbs is no
longer sufficient to swerve it. The "Hear me" clause is now uttered
by the normal human consciousness, withdrawn to the physical body; the Adept
must deliberately abandon his attainment, because it is not yet his whole being
which burns up before the Beloved.
Section G
The Adept, though withdrawn, shall have maintained the Extension of his Symbol.
He now repeats the signs as before, save that he makes the Passive Invoking
Pentagram of Spirit. He concentrates his consciousness within his Twin-Symbol
of Self, and endeavours to send it to sleep. But if the operation be performed
properly, his Angel shall have accepted the offering of Dew, and seized with
fervour upon the extended symbol of Will towards Himself. This then shall He
shake vehemently with vibrations of love reverberating with the Words of the
Section. Even in the physical ears of the adept there shall resound an echo
ther, yet he shall not be able to describe it. It shall seem both louder
than thunder, and softer than the whisper of the night-wind. It shall at once
be inarticulate, and mean more than he hath ever heard.
Now let him strive with all the strength of his Soul to withstand the Will
of his Angel, concealing himself in the closest cell of the citadel of consciousness.
Let him consecrate himself to resist the assault of the Voice and the Vibration
until his consciousness faint away into Nothing. For if there abide unabsorbed
even one single atom of the false Ego, that atom should stain the virginity
of the True Self and profane the Oath; then that atom should be so inflamed
by the approach of the Angel that is should overwhelm the rest of the mind,
tyrannize over it, and become an insane despot to the total ruin of the realm.
But, all being dead to sense, who then is able to strive against the Angel?
He shall intensify the stress of His Spirit so that His loyal legions of Lion-Serpents
leap from the ambush, awakening the adept to witness their Will and sweep him
with them in their enthusiasm, so that he consciously partakes this purpose,
and sees in its simplicity the solution of all his perplexities. Thus then shall
the Adept be aware that he is being swept away through the column of his Will
Symbol. and that His Angel is indeed himself, with intimacy so intense as to
become identity, and that not in a single Ego, but in every unconscious element
that shares in that manifold uprush.
This rapture is accompanied by a tempest of brilliant light, almost always,
and also in many cases by an outburst of sound, stupendous and sublime in all
cases, though its character may vary within wide limits. 1
The spate of stars shoots from the head of the Will-Symbol, and is scattered
over the sky in glittering galaxies. This dispersion destroys the concentration
of the adept, whose mind cannot master such multiplicity of majesty; as a rule,
he simply sinks stunned into normality, to recall nothing of his experience
but a vague though vivid impression of complete release and ineffable rapture.
Repetition fortifies him to realise the nature of his attainment; and his Angel,
the link once made, frequents him, and trains him subtly to be sensitive to
his Holy presence, and persuasion. But it may occur, especially after repeated
success, that the Adept is not flung back into his mortality by the explosion
of the Star-spate, but identified with one particular "Lion-Serpent",
continuing conscious ther until it finds its proper place in Space, when
its secret self flowers forth as a truth, which the Adept may then take back
to earth with him.
This is but a side issue. The main purpose of the Ritual is to establish the
relation of the subconscious self with the Angel in such a way that the Adept
is aware that his Angel is the Unity which expresses the sum of the Elements
of that Self, that his normal consciousness contains alien enemies introduced
by the accidents of environment, and that his Knowledge and Conversation of
His Holy Guardian Angel destroys all doubts and delusions, confers all blessings,
teaches all truth, and contains all delights. But it is important that the Adept
should not rest in mere inexpressible realization of his rapture, but rouse
himself to make the relation submit to analysis, to render it in rational terms,
and thereby enlighten his mind and heart in a sense as superior to fanatical
enthusiasm as Beethoven's music is to West African war-drums.
1These phenomena are not wholly subjective; they may
be perceived, though often under other forms, by even the ordinary man.
Section Gg
The adept should have realised that his Act of Union with the angel implies
1 the death of his old mind save in so far as his unconscious
elements preserve its memory when they absorb it, and 2 the
death of his unconscious elements themselves. But their death is rather a going
forth to renew their life through love. He then, by conscious comprehension
of them separately and together, becomes the "Angel" of his Angel,
as Hermes is the Word of Zeus, whose own voice is Thunder. Thus in this section
the adept utters articulately so far as words may, what his Angel is to Himself.
He says this, with his Scin-Laeca wholly withdrawn into his physical body, constraining
His Angel to indwell his heart.
Line 1
"I am He" asserts the destruction of the sense of separateness between
self and Self. It affirms existence, but of the third person only. "The
Bornless Spirit" is free of all space, "having sight in the feet",
that they may choose their own path. "Strong" is G B R, The Magician
escorted by the Sun and the Moon (See Liber D and Liber 777). The "Immortal
Fire" is the creative Self; impersonal energy cannot perish, no matter
what forms it assumes. Combustion is Love.
Line 2
"Truth" is the necessary relation of any two things; therefore, although
it implies duality, it enables us to conceive of two things as being one thing
such that it demands to be defined by complementals. Thus, an hyperbola is a
simple idea, but its construction exacts two curves.
Line 3
The Angel, as the adept knows him, is a being Tiphereth, which obscures Kether.
The Adept is not officially aware of the higher Sephiroth. He cannot perceive,
like the Ipsissimus, that all things soever are equally illusion and equally
Absolute. He is in Tiphereth, whose office is Redemption, and he deplores the
events which have caused the apparent Sorrow from which he has just escaped.
He is also aware, even in the height of his ecstasy, of the limits and defects
of his Attainment.
Line 4
This refers to the phenomena which accompany his Attainment.
Line 5
This means the recognition of the Angel as the True Self of his subconscious
self, the hidden Life of his physical life.
Line 6
The Adept realises every breath, every word of his Angel as charged with creative
fire. Tiphereth is the Sun, and the Angel is the spiritual Sun of the Soul of
the Adept.
Line 7
Here is summed the entire process of bringing the conditioned Universe to knowledge
of itself through the formula of generation 1; a soul implants
itself in sense-hoodwinked body and reason-fettered mind, makes them aware of
their Inmate, and thus to partake of its own consciousness of the Light.
Line 8
"Grace" has here its proper sense of "Pleasantness". The
existence of the Angel is the justification of the device of creation. 2
Line 9
This line must be studied in the light of Liber LXV (Equinox XI. p. 65).
1That is, Yod He realizing Themselves Will and Understanding
in the twins Vau He, Mind and body.
2But see also the general solution of the Riddle of
Existence in The Book of the Law and its Comment - Part IV of Book 4.
Section H.
This recapitulation demands the going forth together of the Adept and his Angel
"to do their pleasure on the Earth among the living."
Section J.
The Beast 666 having devised the present method of using this Ritual, having
proved it by his own practice to be of infallible puissance when properly performed,
and now having written it down for the world, it shall be an ornament for the
Adept who adopts it to cry Hail to His name at the end of his work. This shall
moreover encourage him in Magick, to recall that indeed there was One who attained
by its use to the Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel, the
which forsook him no more, but made Him a Magus, the Word of the Aeon of Horus!
For know this, that the Name IAF in its most secret and mighty sense declareth
the Formula of the Magick of the BEAST whereby he wrought many wonders. And
because he doth will that the whole world shall attain to this Art, He now hideth
it herein so that the worthy may win to His Wisdom.
Let I and F face all 1; yet ward their A from attack. The
Hermit to himself, the fool to foes, The Hierophant to friends, Nine by nature,
Naught by attainment, Five by function. In speech swift, subtle and secret;
in thought creative, unbiassed, unbounded; in act gentle, patient and persistent.
Hermes to hear, Dionysus to touch, Pan to behold.
A Virgin, A Babe, and a Beast!
A Liar, an Idiot, and a Master of Men!
A kiss, a guffaw, and a bellow; he that hath ears to hear, let him hear!
Take ten that be one, and one that is one in three, to conceal them in six!
Thy wand to all Cups, and thy Disk to all Swords, but betray not thine Egg!
Moreover also is IAF verily 666 by virtue of Number; and this is a Mystery
of Mysteries; Who knoweth it, he is adept of adepts, and Mighty among Magicians!
Now this word SABAF, being by number Three score and Ten 2,
is a name of Ayin, the Eye, and the Devil our Lord, and the Goat of Mendes.
He is the Lord of the Sabbath of the Adepts, and is Satan, therefore also the
Sun, whose number of Magick is 666, the seal of His servant the Beast.
But again SA is 61, AIN, the Naught of Nuith; BA means go, for Hadit; and F
is their Son the Sun who is Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
So then let the Adept set his sigil upon all the words he hath writ in the
Book of the Works of his Will.
And let him then end all, saying, Such are the Words! 3 For
by this he maketh proclamation before all them that be about his Circle that
these Words are true and puissant, binding what he would bind, and loosing what
he would loose.
Let the Adept perform this Ritual aright, perfect in every part ther, once
daily for one moon, then twice, at dawn and dusk, for two moons, next, thrice,
noon added, for three moons, afterwards, midnight making up his course, for
four moons four times every day. Then let the Eleventh Moon be consecrated wholly
to this Work; let him be instant in continual ardour, dismissing all but his
sheer needs to eat and sleep. 4 For know that the true Formula
5 whose virtue sufficed the Beast in this Attainment, was
thus:
Invoke Often6
So may all men come at last to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian
Angel: thus sayeth the Beast, and prayeth His own Angel that this book be as
a burning Lamp, and as a living Spring, for Light and Life to them that read
therein.
666
1If we adopt the new orthography VIAOV (Book 4 Part
III Chap. V.) we must read "The Sun-6-the Son" etc. for "all";
and elaborate this interpretation here given in other ways, accordingly.
Thus O (of F) will not be "The Fifteen by function" instead
of "Five" etc., and "in act free, firm, aspiring, ecstatic",
rather than "gentle" etc. as in the present text.
2There is an alternative spelling TzBA-F Where the
Root, (ABz) "an Host", has the value of 93. The Practicus should
revive this Ritual throughout in the Light of his personal researches
in the Qabalah, and thus make it his own peculiar property. The spelling
here suggested implies that he who utters the Word affirms his allegiance
to the symbols 93 and 61 that he is a warrior in the army of Will and
of the Sun. 93 is also the number of AIWAZ and 6 of The Beast.
3The consonants of LOGOS, "Word", add (Hebrew
values: sGL) to 93. And EPH, "Words", (whence "Epic")
has also that value: Eide Ta Eph might be the phrase here intended: its
number is 418. This would then assert the accomplishment of the Great
Work; this is the natural conclusion of the Ritual. Cf. Ccxx. Iii. 75.
4These needs are modified during the process of Initiation
both as to quantity and quality. One should not become anxious about one's
physical or mental health on a priori grounds, but pay attention only
to indubitable symptoms of distress should such arise.
5The Oracles of Zoroaster utter this:
"And when, by often invoking, all the phantasms are vanished, thou
shalt see that Holy and Formless Fire, that Fire which darts and flashes
through all the Depths of the Universe; hear thou the Voice of the Fire!
"A similar Fire flashingly extending through the rushings of Air,
or a Fire formless whence cometh the Image of a voice, or even a flashing
Light abounding, revolving, whirling forth, crying aloud. Also there is
the vision of the fire-flashing Courser of Light, or also a Child, borne
aloft on the shoulders of the Celestial Steed, fiery, or clothed with
gold, or naked, or shooting with the bow shafts or light, and standing
on the shoulders of the horse, then if thy meditation prolongeth itself,
thou shalt unite all these symbols into the form of a Lion."
This passage - combined with several others - is paraphased in poetry
by Aleister Crowley in his "Tannhauser".
"And when, invoking often, thou shalt see
That formless Fire; when all the earth is shaken,
The Stars abide not, and the moon is gone,
All Time crushed back into Eternity,
The Universe by earthquake overtaken; Light is not, and the thunders roll,
The World is done:
When in the darkness Chaos rolls again
In the excited brain:
Then, O then call not to thy view that visible
Image of Nature; fatal is her name!
It fitteth not thy Body to behold
That living light of Hell,
The unluminous, dead flame,
Until that body from the crucible
Hath passed, pure gold!
For, from the confines of material space,
The twilight-moving place,
The gates of matter, and the dark threshold,
Before the faces of the Things that dwell
In the Abodes of Night,
Spring into sight
Demons, dog-faced, that show no mortal sign
Of Truth, but desecrate the Light Divine,
Seducing from the sacred mysteries.
But, after all these Folk of Fear are driven
Before the avenging levin
That rives the opening skies,
Behold that formless and that Holy Flame
That hath no name;
The Fire that darts and flashes, writhes and creeps
Snake-wise in royal robe
Wound round that vanished glory of the globe,
Unto that sky beyond the starry deeps,
Beyond the Toils of Time, - then formulate
In thine own mind, luminous, concentrate,
The Lion of the Light, a child that stands
On the vast shoulders of the Steed of God:
Or winged, or shooting flying shafts, or shod
With the flame-sandals.
Then, lift up thine hands!
Centre thee in thine heart one scarlet thought
Limpid with brilliance of the Light above!
Drawn into naught
All life, death, hatred, love:
All self concentred in the sole desire -
Hear thou the Voice of Fire!"
6See Equinox I, Viii, 22.
Point Iii
\"Scholion on Sections G
*
to separate them so completely that his soul is stripped of its sheaths;
*
to arouse in him an enthusiasm so intense as to intoxicate and anaesthetize
him, that he may not feel and resent the agony of this spiritual vivisection,
just as bashful lovers get drunk on the wedding night, in order to brazen
out the intensity of shame which so mysteriously coexists with their desire;
*
to concentrate the necessary spiritual forces from every element, and fling
them simultaneously into the aspiration towards the Holy Guardian Angel;
and
*
to attract the Angel by the vibration of the magical voice which invokes
Him.
The method of the Ritual is thus manifold.
There is firstly an analysis of the Adept, which enables him to calculate his
course of action. He can decide what must be banished, what purified, what concentrated.
He can then concentrate his will upon its one essential element, over-coming
its resistance - which is automatic, like a physiological reflex - by destroying
inhibitions through his ego-overwhelming enthusiasm. 1 The
other half of the work needs no such complex effort; for his Angel is simple
and unperplexed, ready at all times to respond to rightly ordered approach.
It is impossible to overcome one's inhibitions by conscious effort; their existence
justifies them. God is on their side, as on that of the victim in Browning's
Instans Tyrannus. A man cannot compel himself to love, however much he may want
to, on various rational grounds. But on the other hand, when the true impulse
comes, it overwhelms all its critics; they are powerless either to make or break
a genius; it can only testify to the fact that it has met its master.
But the results of the Ritual are too various to permit of rigid description.
One may say that, presuming the union to be perfect, the Adept need not retain
any memory soever of what has occurred. He may be merely aware of a gap in his
conscious life, and judge of its contents by observing that his nature has been
subtly transfigured. Such an experience might indeed be the proof of perfection.
If the Adept is to be any wise conscious of his Angel it must be that some
part of his mind is prepared to realise the rapture, and to express it to itself
in one way or another. This involves the perfection of that part, its freedom
from prejudice and the limitations of rationality so-called. For instance: one
could not receive the illumination as to the nature of life which the doctrine
of evolution should shed, if one is passionately persuaded that humanity is
essentially not animal, or convinced that causality is repugnant to reason.
The Adept must be ready for the utter destruction of his point of view on any
subject, and even that of his innate conception of the forms and laws of thought.
2 Thus he may find that his Angel consider his "business"
or his "love" to be absurd trifles; also that human ideas of "time"
are invalid, and human "laws" of logic applicable only to the relations
between illusions.
Now the Angel will make contact with the Adept at any point that is sensitive
to His influence. Such a point will naturally be one that is salient in the
Adept's character, and also one that is, in the proper sense of the word, pure.
3
Thus an artist, attuned to appreciate plastic beauty is likely to receive a
visual impression of his Angel in a physical form which is sublimely quintessential
of his ideal. A musician may be rapt away by majestic melodies such as he never
hoped to hear. A philosopher may attain apprehension of tremendous truths, the
solution of problems that had baffled him all his life.
Conformably with this doctrine, we read of illuminations experienced by simple-minded
men, such as a workman who "saw God" and likened Him to "a quantity
of little pears". Again, we know that ecstasy, impinging upon unbalanced
minds, inflames the idolised idea, and produces fanatical faith fierce even
to frenzy, with intolerance and insanely disordered energy which is yet so powerful
as to effect the destinies of empires.
But the phenomena of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel
are a side issue; the essence of the Union is the intimacy. Their intimacy (or
rather identity) is independent of all partial forms of expression; at its best
it is therefore as inarticulate as Love.
The intensity of the consummation will more probably compel a sob or a cry,
some natural physical gesture of animal sympathy with the spiritual spasm. This
is to be criticised as incomplete self-control. Silence is nobler.
In any case the Adept must be in communion with his Angel, so that his Soul
is suffused with sublimity, whether intelligible or not in terms of intellect.
It is evident that the stress of such spiritual possession must tend to overwhelm
the soul, especially at first. It actually suffers from the excess of its ecstasy,
just as extreme love produces vertigo. The soul sinks and swoons. Such weakness
is fatal alike to its enjoyment and its apprehension. "Be strong! then
canst thou bear more rapture!" sayeth The Book of the Law. 4
The Adept must therefore play the man, arousing himself to harden his soul.
To this end, I, the Beast, have made trial and proof of divers devices. Of
these the most potent is to set the body to strive with the soul. Let the muscles
take grip on themselves as if one were wrestling. Let the jaw and mouth, in
particular, be tightened to the utmost. Breathe deeply, slowly, yet strongly.
Keep mastery over the mind by muttering forcibly and audibly. But lest such
muttering tend to disturb communion with the Angel, speak only His Name. Until
the Adept have heard that Name, therefore, he may not abide in the perfect possession
of his Beloved. His most important task is thus to open his ears to the voice
of his Angel, that he may know him, how he is called. For hearken! this Name,
understood rightly and fully, declareth the nature of the Angel in every point,
wherefore also that Name is the formula of the perfection to which the Adept
must aspire, and also of the power of Magick by virtue wher he must work.
He then that is as yet ignorant of that Name, let him repeat a word worthy
of this particular Ritual. Such are Abrahadabra, the Word of the Aeon, which
signifieth "The Great Work accomplished"; and Aumgn interpreted in
Part III of Book 4 5; and the name of The Beast, for that
His number showeth forth this Union with the Angel, and His Work is no other
than to make all men partakers of this Mystery of the Mysteries of Magick.
So then saying this word or that, let the Adept wrestle with his Angel and
withstand Him, that he may constrain Him to consent to continue in communion
until the consciousness becomes capable of clear comprehension, and of accurate
transmission 6 of the transcendent Truth of the Beloved to
the heart that holds him.
The firm repetition of one of these Words ought to enable the Adept to maintain
the state of Union for several minutes, even at first.
In any case he must rekindle his ardour, esteeming his success rather as an
encouragement to more ardent aspiration than as a triumph. He should increase
his efforts.
Let him beware of the "lust of result", of expecting too much, of
losing courage if his first success is followed by a series of failures.
For success makes success seem so incredible that one is apt to create an inhibition
fatal to subsequent attempts. One fears to fail; the fear intrudes upon the
concentration and so fulfils its own prophecy. We know how too much pleasure
in a love affair makes one afraid to disgrace oneself on the next few occasions;
indeed, until familiarity has accustomed one to the idea that one's lover has
never supposed one to be more than human. Confidence returns gradually. Inarticulate
ecstasy is replaced by a more sober enjoyment of the elements of the fascination.
Just so one's first dazzled delight in a new landscape turns, as one continues
to gaze, to the appreciation of exquisite details of the view. At first they
were blurred by the blinding rush of general beauty; they emerge one by one
as the shock subsides, and passionate rapture yields to intelligent interest.
In the same way the Adept almost always begins by torrential lyrics painting
out mystical extravagances about "ineffable love", "unimaginable
bliss", "inexpressible infinities of illimitable utterness".
7 He usually loses his sense of proportion, of humour, of
reality, and of sound judgment. His ego is often inflated to the bursting point,
till he would be abjectly ridiculous if he were not so pitifully dangerous to
himself and others. He also tends to take his new-found "truths of illumination"
for the entire body of truth, and insists that they must be as valid an vital
for all men as they happen to be for himself.
It is wise to keep silence about those things "unlawful to utter"
which one may have heard "in the seventh heaven". This may not apply
to the sixth.
The Adept must keep himself in hand, however tempted to make a new heaven and
a new earth in the next few days by trumpeting his triumphs. He must give time
a chance to redress his balance, sore shaken by the impact of the Infinite.
As he becomes adjusted to intercourse with his Angel, he will find his passionate
ecstasy develop a quality of peace and intelligibility which adds power, while
it informs and fortifies his mental and moral qualities instead of obscuring
and upsetting them. He will by now have become able to converse with his Angel,
impossible as it once seemed; for he now knows that the storm of sound which
he supposed to be the Voice was only the clamour of his own confusions. The
"infinity" nonsense was born of his own inability to think clearly
beyond his limits, just as a Bushman, confronted by numbers above five, can
only call them "many".
The truth told by the Angel, immensely as it extends the horizon of the Adept,
is perfectly definite and precise. It does not deal in ambiguities and abstractions.
It possesses form, and confesses law, in exactly the same way and degree as
any other body of truth. It is to the truth of the material and intellectual
spheres of man very much what the Mathematics of Philosophy with its "infinite
series" and "Cantorian continuity" is to schoolboy arithmetic.
Each implies the other, though by that one may explore the essential nature
of existence, and by this a pawnbroker's profits.
This then is the true aim of the Adept in this whole operation, to assimilate
himself to his Angel by continual conscious communion. For his Angel is an intelligible
image of his own true Will, to do which is the whole of the law of his Being.
Also the Angel appeareth in Tiphereth, which is the heart of the Ruach, and
thus the Centre of Gravity of the Mind. It is also directly inspired from Kether,
the ultimate Self, through the Path of the High Priestess, or initiated intuition.
Hence the Angel is in truth the Logos or articulate expression of the whole
Being of the Adept, so that as he increases in the perfect understanding of
His name, he approaches the solution of the ultimate problem, Who he himself
truly is.
Unto this final statement the Adept may trust his Angel to lead him; for the
Tiphereth-consciousness alone is connected by paths with the various parts of
his mind. 8 None therefore save He hath the knowledge requisite
for calculating the combinations of conduct which will organise and equilibrate
for forces of the Adept, against the moment when it becomes necessary to confront
the Abyss. The Adept must control a compact and coherent mass if he is to make
sure of hurling it from him with a clean-cut gesture.
I, The Beast 666, lift up my voice and swear that I myself have been brought
hither by mine Angel. After that I had attained unto the Knowledge and Conversation
of Him by virtue of mine ardour towards Him, and of this Ritual that I bestow
upon men my fellows, and most of His great Love that He beareth to me, yea,
verily, He led me to the Abyss; He bade me fling away all that I had and all
that I was; and He forsook me in that Hour. But when I came beyond the Abyss,
to be reborn within the womb of BABALON, then came he unto me abiding in my
virgin heart, its Lord and Lover!
Also He made me a Magus, speaking through His Law, the Word of the new Aeon,
the Aeon of the Crowned and Conquering Child. 9 Thus he fulfilled
my will to bring full freedom to the race of Men.
Yea, he wrought also in me a Work of wonder beyond this, but in this matter
I am sworn to hold my peace.
1A high degree of initiation is required. This means
that the process of analysis must have been carried out very thoroughly.
The Adept must have become aware of his deepest impulses, and understood
their true significance. The "resistance" here mentioned is
automatic; it increases indefinitely against direct pressure. It is useless
to try to force oneself in these matters; the uninitiated Aspirant, however
eager he may be, is sure to fail. One must know how to deal with each
internal idea as it arises.
2Of course, even false tenets and modes of the mind
are in one sense true. It is only their appearance which alters. Copernicus
did not destroy the facts of nature, or change the instruments of observation.
He merely effected a radical simplification of science. Error is really
a "fool's knot". Moreover, the very tendency responsible for
the entanglement is one of the necessary elements of the situation. Nothing
is "wrong" in the end; and one cannot reach the "right"
point of view without the aid of one's particular "wrong" point.
If we reject or alter the negative of a photograph we shall not get a
perfect positive.
3This means, free from ideas, however excellent in
themselves, which are foreign to it. For instance, literary interest has
no proper place in a picture.
4Liber Al vel Legis, Ii, 61-68, where the details of
the proper technique are discussed.
5The essence of this matter is that the word AUM, which
expresses the course of Breath (spiritual life) from free utterance through
controlled concentration to Silence, is transmuted by the creation of
the compound letter MGN to replace M: that is, Silence is realized as
passing into continuous ecstatic vibration, of the nature of "Love"
under "Will" as shewn by Mgn = 40 + 3 + 50 = 93 Agaph, ThELHMA
etc., and the whole word has the value of 100, Perfection Perfected, the
Unity in completion, and equivalent to KR the conjunction of the essential
male and female principles.
6The "normal" intellect is incapable of these
functions; a superior faculty must have been developed. As Zoroaster says:
"Extend the void mind of thy soul to that Intelligible that thou
mayst learn the Intelligible, because it subsisteth beyond Mind. Thou
wilt not understand It as when understanding some common thing."
7This corresponds to the emotional and metaphysical
fog which is characteristic of the emergence of thought from homogeneity.
The clear and concise differentiation of ideas marks the adult mind.
8See the maps "Minutum Mundum" in the Equinox
I, 1, 2, & 3 and the general relations detailed in Liber 777, of which
the most important columns are reprinted in Appendix V.
9For the account of these matters see The Equinox,
Vol. I, "The Temple of Solomon the King", Liber 418, Liber Aleph,
"John St. John", "The Urn", and Book 4, Part IV.
