Introduction
I N T R O D U C T I O N
\"The Vision and the Voice" of the Angels of the thirty Aethyrs, reprinted
from the "Equinox," Volume 1, Supplement to No. 5, but here represented
for the first time with an elaborate commentary by the Master Therion, is unique
in that it attempts to describe in a perfectly sane and scientific manner spiritual
experiences, and the investigations of the more subtle planes.
The first attempts to obtain these visions were made in 1900, in Mexico, where
Frater Perdurabo had journeyed in his efforts to obtain a perfect understanding
of the mystic traditions and methods of attainment of every race and clime.
The first two Aires were investigated on November 14 and 17, 1900. The Vision
and the Voice was mysterious and terrific in character. But what he saw
was not altogether beyond his previous experiences; what he heard was as unintelligible
to him as William Blake to a 7th Day Adventist. He was encouraged by the evident
importance of these results, but found that he was absolutely unable to proceed
with the 28th Aethyr. It became evident, some 9 years later, that what stopped
his further exploration of the Aethyrs in 1900 was simply that his Grade did
not entitle him to go further than the 29th. In fact only a Master of the Temple,
8x = 3{square x}, can penetrate beyond a certain point, and further, as sections
of the Comment point out, even a Master of the Temple cannot pierce through
the veils surrounding the outer of these Aires.
The Seer had not thought of continuing this work for nearly 9 years. It is
not at all clear how the idea came to him in 1909, during a walk through the
Desert with Frater O.V., (Victor Neuburg) a Probationer of the A{.'.} A{.'.},
but at Aumale a Hand suddenly smote its lightning into his heart, and he knew
that now, that very day, he must take up "The Vision and the Voice" from
the point where he had laid it down in 1900. Parallel to this, it is also possible
that he had in his ruck sack one of his earliest Magical Note Books, where he
had copied with infinite patience the 19 Calls or Keys obtained by Sir Edward
Kelly from certain Angels and written down by Queen Elizabeth's astrologer,
Dr. John Dee.
The facts that stamp these Keys or Calls are these. Over 100 squares filled
with letters were obtained by these two Magicians, in a manner which no one
yet has quite understood. Dee would have one or more of these tables (as a rule
49 by 49)
some full, others lettered only on alternate squares
before
him on a writing table. Kelly would sit at what they called the Holy Table,
and gaze into a "Shewstone" in which he would see an Angel, who would
point with a wand to letters on one of these charts in succession. Kelly would
report, for example, "He points to column 6, rank 31", and so on,
apparently not mentioning the letter, which Dee found and wrote down from the
"Table" before him. When the Angel had finished, the message was rewritten
backwards. It had been dictated backwards as being too dangerous to communicate
forwards
each word being in its nature so powerful that its direct communication
would have evoked forces which were not wanted at that time.
These Keys being re-written backwards, there then appeared conjurations in
a language which they called "Enochian", or "Angelic". It
is not a jargon; it has a grammar and a syntax of its own. It is far more sonorous,
stately and impressive than even Greek or Sanskrit and the English translations,
though in places difficult to understand, contain passages of a sustained sublimity
that Shakespeare, Milton and the Bible do not surpass.
"Can the Wings of the Wind understand your voices of Wonder? O Ye! The
Second of the First! whom the burning flames have framed in the depths of my
Jaws! Whom I have prepared as cups for a wedding, or as flowers in their beauty
for the chamber of Righteousness! Stronger are your feet than the barren stone!
and mightier are your voices than the manifold winds! For you are become a building
such as is not, save in the mind of the All-Powerful." (Second Key)
There are nineteen of these Keys: the first two conjuring the element called
Spirit; the next sixteen invoke the Four Elements; each sub-divided into four;
the nineteenth, by changing two names, may be used to invoke any one of what
are called the thirty "Aethyrs" or "Aires".
The genuineness of these Keys, altogether apart from any critical observation,
is guaranteed by the fact that anyone with the smallest capacity for Magick
finds that they "work". The Seer had used these Keys a great deal,
always with excellent effect. It was in Mexico that the idea occurred to him
to discover for himself what these Aethyrs really were, by invoking them in
turn by means of the nineteenth key, and, by skrying in the Spirit Vision, judge
their nature by what he saw and heard.
It was then in Aumale, that he prepared to commence once more the investigations
of these Aethyrs, and accordingly bought a number of notebooks. After dinner,
on the 23rd of November, 1909, he invoked the 28th Aethyr by means of this 19th
Key. When it was compared with those of the 29th and 30th Aethyrs,
lo and
behold, there were exhibited the same peculiarities of subject and style. This
is true also of the 27th, and so on to the 24th; yet there is a continuous advance
towards coherence both in each Aethyr itself, and as regards its neighbour.
The subject shows solemnity and sublimity, as well as the tendency to fit in
with those conceptions of the Cosmos, those mystic Laws of Nature, and those
ideas of transcendental Truth which had already been foreshadowed in The
Book of the Law (Vernal Equinox, 1904), and the more exalted of the trances
which the Seer had experienced prior to this date.
The Method of obtaining "The Vision and the Voice" was as follows.
The Seer had with him a great golden topaz (set in a Calvary Cross of six squares,
made of wood, and painted vermillion) which was engraved with a Greek Cross
of five squares charged with the Rose of 49 petals. He held this, as a rule,
in his hand. After choosing a spot where he was not likely to be disturbed he
would take this stone and recite the Enochian Call, and after satisfying himself
that the forces invoked were actually present, made the topaz play a part not
unlike that of the looking glass in the case of Alice. (He had long learned
not to trouble himself to travel to any particular place in his Body of Light.
He realized that Space was not a thing in itself, but merely a convenient category
[one of many such] by reference to which we can distinguish objects from each
other.) He would then describe what he saw and repeat what he heard, and Frater
O.V., the Scribe, would write down his words, and incidentally observe any phenomena
which struck him as peculiar. (For instance, He would at times pass into a deep
trance so that many minutes might pass between two successive sentences, as
the text to the later Aethyrs shows.)
They walked steadily through the Desert, invoking the Aethyrs, one by one,
at convenient times and places, or when the Spirit moved them. As a rule, one
Aethyr was obtained every day. Bou-Sada was reached on November 30th; on December
8th they started again through the desert for Biskra which they reached on December
16th, completing the work on the 19th. By the time Bou-Sada was reached, and
they had arrived at the 20th Aethyr, the Seer began to understand that these
visions were, so to speak, cosmopolitan. They brought all systems of Magical
doctrine into harmonious relation. The symbolism of Asiatic cults; the ideas
of the Qabalah, both Jewish and Greek; the Arcana of the Gnostics; the Pagan
Pantheon, from Mithras to Mars; the Mysteries of Ancient Khem; the Rites of
Eleusis; the Scandinavian Sagas; Celtic and Druidical ritual; Mexican and Polynesian
traditions; the Mysticism of Molinos no less than that of Islam,
all these
fell into their proper places without the slightest tendency to quarrel. The
whole of the past Aeon, in short, appeared in detailed perspective, and each
element therefore surrendered its sovereignty to Horus, the Crowned and Conquering
Child, the Lord of the Aeon announced in "The Book of the Law"
\"The Vision and the Voice" of the Angels of the thirty Aethyrs, reprinted
from the "Equinox," Volume 1, Supplement to No. 5, but here represented
for the first time with an elaborate commentary by the Master Therion, is unique
in that it attempts to describe in a perfectly sane and scientific manner spiritual
experiences, and the investigations of the more subtle planes.
The first attempts to obtain these visions were made in 1900, in Mexico, where
Frater Perdurabo had journeyed in his efforts to obtain a perfect understanding
of the mystic traditions and methods of attainment of every race and clime.
The first two Aires were investigated on November 14 and 17, 1900. The Vision
and the Voice was mysterious and terrific in character. But what he saw
was not altogether beyond his previous experiences; what he heard was as unintelligible
to him as William Blake to a 7th Day Adventist. He was encouraged by the evident
importance of these results, but found that he was absolutely unable to proceed
with the 28th Aethyr. It became evident, some 9 years later, that what stopped
his further exploration of the Aethyrs in 1900 was simply that his Grade did
not entitle him to go further than the 29th. In fact only a Master of the Temple,
8x = 3{square x}, can penetrate beyond a certain point, and further, as sections
of the Comment point out, even a Master of the Temple cannot pierce through
the veils surrounding the outer of these Aires.
The Seer had not thought of continuing this work for nearly 9 years. It is
not at all clear how the idea came to him in 1909, during a walk through the
Desert with Frater O.V., (Victor Neuburg) a Probationer of the A{.'.} A{.'.},
but at Aumale a Hand suddenly smote its lightning into his heart, and he knew
that now, that very day, he must take up "The Vision and the Voice" from
the point where he had laid it down in 1900. Parallel to this, it is also possible
that he had in his ruck sack one of his earliest Magical Note Books, where he
had copied with infinite patience the 19 Calls or Keys obtained by Sir Edward
Kelly from certain Angels and written down by Queen Elizabeth's astrologer,
Dr. John Dee.
The facts that stamp these Keys or Calls are these. Over 100 squares filled
with letters were obtained by these two Magicians, in a manner which no one
yet has quite understood. Dee would have one or more of these tables (as a rule
49 by 49)
some full, others lettered only on alternate squares
before
him on a writing table. Kelly would sit at what they called the Holy Table,
and gaze into a "Shewstone" in which he would see an Angel, who would
point with a wand to letters on one of these charts in succession. Kelly would
report, for example, "He points to column 6, rank 31", and so on,
apparently not mentioning the letter, which Dee found and wrote down from the
"Table" before him. When the Angel had finished, the message was rewritten
backwards. It had been dictated backwards as being too dangerous to communicate
forwards
each word being in its nature so powerful that its direct communication
would have evoked forces which were not wanted at that time.
These Keys being re-written backwards, there then appeared conjurations in
a language which they called "Enochian", or "Angelic". It
is not a jargon; it has a grammar and a syntax of its own. It is far more sonorous,
stately and impressive than even Greek or Sanskrit and the English translations,
though in places difficult to understand, contain passages of a sustained sublimity
that Shakespeare, Milton and the Bible do not surpass.
"Can the Wings of the Wind understand your voices of Wonder? O Ye! The
Second of the First! whom the burning flames have framed in the depths of my
Jaws! Whom I have prepared as cups for a wedding, or as flowers in their beauty
for the chamber of Righteousness! Stronger are your feet than the barren stone!
and mightier are your voices than the manifold winds! For you are become a building
such as is not, save in the mind of the All-Powerful." (Second Key)
There are nineteen of these Keys: the first two conjuring the element called
Spirit; the next sixteen invoke the Four Elements; each sub-divided into four;
the nineteenth, by changing two names, may be used to invoke any one of what
are called the thirty "Aethyrs" or "Aires".
The genuineness of these Keys, altogether apart from any critical observation,
is guaranteed by the fact that anyone with the smallest capacity for Magick
finds that they "work". The Seer had used these Keys a great deal,
always with excellent effect. It was in Mexico that the idea occurred to him
to discover for himself what these Aethyrs really were, by invoking them in
turn by means of the nineteenth key, and, by skrying in the Spirit Vision, judge
their nature by what he saw and heard.
It was then in Aumale, that he prepared to commence once more the investigations
of these Aethyrs, and accordingly bought a number of notebooks. After dinner,
on the 23rd of November, 1909, he invoked the 28th Aethyr by means of this 19th
Key. When it was compared with those of the 29th and 30th Aethyrs,
lo and
behold, there were exhibited the same peculiarities of subject and style. This
is true also of the 27th, and so on to the 24th; yet there is a continuous advance
towards coherence both in each Aethyr itself, and as regards its neighbour.
The subject shows solemnity and sublimity, as well as the tendency to fit in
with those conceptions of the Cosmos, those mystic Laws of Nature, and those
ideas of transcendental Truth which had already been foreshadowed in The
Book of the Law (Vernal Equinox, 1904), and the more exalted of the trances
which the Seer had experienced prior to this date.
The Method of obtaining "The Vision and the Voice" was as follows.
The Seer had with him a great golden topaz (set in a Calvary Cross of six squares,
made of wood, and painted vermillion) which was engraved with a Greek Cross
of five squares charged with the Rose of 49 petals. He held this, as a rule,
in his hand. After choosing a spot where he was not likely to be disturbed he
would take this stone and recite the Enochian Call, and after satisfying himself
that the forces invoked were actually present, made the topaz play a part not
unlike that of the looking glass in the case of Alice. (He had long learned
not to trouble himself to travel to any particular place in his Body of Light.
He realized that Space was not a thing in itself, but merely a convenient category
[one of many such] by reference to which we can distinguish objects from each
other.) He would then describe what he saw and repeat what he heard, and Frater
O.V., the Scribe, would write down his words, and incidentally observe any phenomena
which struck him as peculiar. (For instance, He would at times pass into a deep
trance so that many minutes might pass between two successive sentences, as
the text to the later Aethyrs shows.)
They walked steadily through the Desert, invoking the Aethyrs, one by one,
at convenient times and places, or when the Spirit moved them. As a rule, one
Aethyr was obtained every day. Bou-Sada was reached on November 30th; on December
8th they started again through the desert for Biskra which they reached on December
16th, completing the work on the 19th. By the time Bou-Sada was reached, and
they had arrived at the 20th Aethyr, the Seer began to understand that these
visions were, so to speak, cosmopolitan. They brought all systems of Magical
doctrine into harmonious relation. The symbolism of Asiatic cults; the ideas
of the Qabalah, both Jewish and Greek; the Arcana of the Gnostics; the Pagan
Pantheon, from Mithras to Mars; the Mysteries of Ancient Khem; the Rites of
Eleusis; the Scandinavian Sagas; Celtic and Druidical ritual; Mexican and Polynesian
traditions; the Mysticism of Molinos no less than that of Islam,
all these
fell into their proper places without the slightest tendency to quarrel. The
whole of the past Aeon, in short, appeared in detailed perspective, and each
element therefore surrendered its sovereignty to Horus, the Crowned and Conquering
Child, the Lord of the Aeon announced in "The Book of the Law"
