The Book called L

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Title.

    In the first edition this Book is called L.  L is the sacred letter

in the Holy Twelve-fold Table which forms the triangle that stabilizes

the Universe. See Liber 418. L is the letter of Libra, Balance, and

`Justice' in the Taro. This title should probably be AL, ``El'', as the

`L' was heard of the Voice of Aiwaz, not seen. AL is the true name of

the Book, for these letters, and their number 31, form the Master Key to

its Mysteries.

    In order that the ethical and philosophical comment should be

`understanded of the common people', without interruption, I have

decided to transfer to an Appendix all considerations drawn from the

numerical system of cipher which is interspersed with the more

straightforward matter of this Book. In that Appendix will be found an

account of the character of this cipher, called `Qabalah', and the

mysteries thus indicated; because of the impracticability of

communicating them in verbal form, and of the necessity of proving to

the student that the Author of the Book is possessed of knowledge beyond

any yet acquired by man.

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         1.    The theogony of our Law is entirely scientific, Nuit is

         Matter, Hadit is Motion, in their full physical sense.* They

         are the Tao and Teh of Chinese Philosophy; or, to put it very

         simply, the Noun and Verb in grammar. Our central Truth --

         beyond other philosophies -- is that these two infinities

         cannot exist apart. This extensive subject must be studied in

         our other writings, notably Berashith, my own Magical

         Diaries, especially those of 1919, 1920 and 1921, and The

         Book of Wisdom or Folly. See also `The Soldier and the

         Hunchback'. Further information concerning Nuit and Hadit is

         given in the course of this Book; but I must here mention

         that the Brother mentioned in connexion with the `Wizard

         Amalantrah' etc. (Samuel bar Aiwaz) identifies them with ANU

         and ADAD the supreme Mother and Father deities of the

         Sumerians. Taken in connexion with the AIWAZ identification,

         this is very striking indeed. It is also to be considered

         that Nu is connected with North, while Had is Sad, Set,

         Satan, Sat (equals `Being' in Sanskrit), South. He is then

         the Sun, one point concentring Space, as also is any other

         star. The word ABRAHADABRA is from Abrasax, Father Sun, which

         adds to 365. For the North-South antithesis see Fabre

         d'Olivet's Hermeneutic Interpretation of the Origin of the

         Social State in Man. Note `Sax' also as a Rock, or Stone,

         whence the symbol of the Cubical Stone, the Mountain

         Abiegnus, and so forth. Nu is also reflected in Naus, Ship,

         etc., and that whole symbolism of Hollow Space which is

         familiar to all. There is also a question of identifying Nu

         with On, Noah, Oannes, Jonah, John, Dianus, Diana, and so on.

         But these identifications are all partial only, different

         facets of the Diamond Truth. We may neglect all these

         questions, and remain in the simplicity of this Her own Book.

         2.    This explains the general theme of this revelation:

         gives the Dramatis Personae, so to speak.  It is

         cosmographically, the conception of the two Ultimate Ideas;

         Space, and That which occupies Space.  It will however appear

         later that these two ideas may be resolved into one, that of

         Matter; with Space, its `Condition' or `form', included

         therein. This leaves the idea of `Motion' for Hadit, whose

         interplay with Nuit makes the Universe.  Time should perhaps

         be considered as a particular kind or dimension of Space.*

         Further, this verse is to be taken with the next. The

         `company of heaven' is the assertion of the independent

         godhead of every man and every woman!  Further, as Khabs (see

         verse 8) is `Star', there is a further meaning; this Book is

         to reveal the Secret Self of a man, i.e. to initiate him.

         3.    This thesis is fully treated in The Book of Wisdom or

         Folly. Its main statement is that each human being is an

         Element of the Cosmos, self-determined and supreme, co-equal

         with all other Gods.  From this the Law `Do what thou wilt'

         follows logically. One star influences another by attraction,

         of course; but these are incidents of self-predestined

         orbits. There is however a mystery of the planets, revolving

         about a star of whom they are parts; but I shall not discuss

         it fully in this place.  Man is the Middle Kingdom The Great

         Kingdom is Heaven, with each star as an unit; the Little

         Kingdom is the Molecule, with each Electron as an unit. (The

         Ratio of these three is regularly geometrical, each being

         10^2 times greater in size than its neighbour.) See `The Book

         of the Great Auk' for the demonstration that each `star' is

         the Centre of the Universe to itself, and that a `star'

         simple, original, absolute, can add to its omnipotence,

         omniscience and omnipresence without ceasing to be itself;

         that its one way to do this is to gain experience, and that

         therefore it enters into combinations in which its true

         Nature is for awhile disguised, even from itself.

         Analogously, an atom of carbon may pass through myriad

         Proteus-phases, appearing in Chalk, Chloroform, Sugar, Sap,

         Brain and Blood, not recognizable as `itself' the black

         amorphous solid, but recoverable as such, unchanged by its

         adventures.  This theory is the only one which explains why

         the Absolute limited itself, and why It does not recognize

         Itself during its cycle of incarnations. It disposes of

         `Evil' and the Origin of Evil; without denying Reality to

         `Evil', or insulting our daily observation and our common

         sense.  I here quote (with one or two elucidatory insertions)

         the original note originally made by Me on this subject.

         May 14, 1919, 6.30 p.m.  All elements must at one time have

         been separate -- that would be the case with great heat. Now

         when atoms get to the sun, when we get to the sun, we get

         that immense, extreme heat, and all the elements are

         themselves again. Imagine that each atom of each element

         possesses the memory of all his adventures in combination. By

         the way, that atom, fortified with that memory, would not be

         the same atom; yet it is, because it has gained nothing from

         anywhere except this memory. Therefore, by the lapse of time

         and by virtue of memory, a thing (although originally an

         Infinite Perfection) could become something more than itself;

         and thus a real development is possible. One can then see a

         reason for any element deciding to go through this series of

         incarnations (God, that was a magnificent conception!)

         because so, and only so, can he go; and he suffers the lapse

         of memory of His own Reality of Perfection which he has

         during these incarnations, because he knows he will come

         through unchanged.  Therefore you have an infinite number of

         gods, individual and equal though diverse, each one supreme

         and utterly indestructible. This is also the only explanation

         of how a being could create a world in which war, evil, etc.

         exist. Evil is only an appearance because, like `good', it

         cannot affect the substance itself, but only multiply its

         combinations. This is something the same as mystic monism,

         but the objection to that theory is that God has to create

         things which are all parts of himself, so that their

         interplay is false. If we presuppose many elements, their

         interplay is natural. It is no objection to this theory to

         ask who made the elements -- the elements are at least there;

         and God, when you look for him, is not there. Theism is

         obscurum per obscurus. A male star is built from the

         circumference inwards. This is what is meant when we say that

         woman has no soul. It explains fully the difference between

         the sexes.

         4.    This is a great and holy mystery. Although each star

         has its own number, each number is equal and supreme. Every

         man and every woman is not only a part of God, but the

         Ultimate God. `The Centre is everywhere and the circumference

         nowhere'. The old definition of God takes new meaning for us.

         Each one of us is the One God. This can only be understood by

         the initiate; one must acquire certain high states of

         consciousness to appreciate it.  I have tried to put it

         simply in the note to the last verse. I may add that in the

         Trance called by me the `Star-Sponge' -- see note to v. 59 --

         this apprehension of the Universe is seen as an astral

         Vision. It began as `Nothingness with Sparkles' in 1916 E.V.

         by Lake Pasquaney in New Hampshire, U.S.A. and developed into

         fullness on various subsequent occasions. Each `Star' is

         connected directly with every other star, and the Space being

         Without Limit (Ain Soph) the Body of Nuith, and one star is

         as much the Centre as any other. Each man instinctively feels

         that he is the Centre of the Cosmos, and philosophers have

         jeered at his presumption. But it was he that was precisely

         right. The yokel is no more `petty' than the King, nor the

         earth than the Sun. Each simple elemental Self is supreme,

         Very God of Very God. Ay, in this Book is Truth almost

         insufferably splendid, for Man has veiled himself too long

         from his own glory: he fears the abyss, the ageless Absolute.

         But Truth shall make him free!

         5.    Here Nuit appeals, simply and directly, recognizing the

         separate function of each Star of her Body. Though all is

         One, each part of that One has its own special work, each

         Star its particular Orbit.  In addressing me as warrior lork

         of Thebes, it appears as if She perceived a certain

         continuity or identity of myself with Ankh-f-n-khonsu, Stele

         is the Link with Antiquity of this Revelation. See the

         equinox I(7), pp. 363-400a, for the account of this event.

         The unveiling is the Proclamation of the Truth previously

         explained, that the Body of Nuith occupies Infinite Space, so

         that every Star thereof is Whole in itself, an independent

         and absolute Unit. They differ as Carbon and Calcium differ,

         but each is a simple `immortal' Substance, or at least a form

         of some simpler Substance. Each soul is thus absolute, and

         `good' or `evil' are merely terms descriptive of relations

         between destructible combinations. Thus Quinine is `good' for

         a malarial patient, but `evil' for the germ of the disease.

         Heat is `bad' for ice-cream and `good' for coffee. The

         indivisible essence of things, their `souls', are indifferent

         to all conditions soever, for none can in any way affect

         them.

         7.    Aiwass is the name given by Ouarda the Seer as that of

         the Intelligence Communicating. See note to Title.

         Hoor-paar-Kraat or Harpocrates, the `Babe in the Egg of

         Blue', is not merely the God of Silence in a conventional

         sense. He represents the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian

         Angel. The connexion is with the symbolism of the Dwarf in

         Mythology. He contains everything in Himself, but is

         unmanifested. See II:8.  He is the First Letter of the

         Alphabet, Aleph, whose number is One, and his card in the

         Tarot is The Fool, numbered Zero. Aleph is attributed to the

         `Element' (in the old classification of things) of Air.   Now

         as `One or Aleph he represents the Male Principle, the First

         Cause, and the free breath of Life, the sound of the vowel A

         being made with the open throat and mouth.  As Zero he

         represents the femal Principle, the fertile Mother. (An old

         name for the card is Mat, from the Italian `Matto', fool, but

         earlier also from Maut, the Egyptian Vulture-

         Mother-Goddess). Fertile, for the `Egg of Blue' is the

         Uterus, and in the Macrocosm the Body of Nuith, and it

         contains the Unborn Babe, helpless yet protected and

         nourished against the crocodiles and tigers shown on the

         card, just as the womb is sealed during gestation. He sits on

         a lotus, the yoni, which floats on the `Nile', the amniotic

         fluid. In his absolute innocence and ignorance he is `The

         Fool'; he is the `Saviour', being the Son who shall trample

         on the crocodiles and tigers, and avenge his father Osiris.

         Thus we see him as the `Great Fool' of Celtic legend, the

         `Pure Fool' of Act I of Parsifal, and, generally speaking,

         the insane person whose words have always been taken for

         oracles.  But to be `Saviour' he must be born and grow to

         manhood; thus Parsifal acquires the Sacred Lance, emblem of

         virility. He usually wears the `Coat of many colours' like

         Joseph the `dreamer'; so he is also now the Green Man of

         spring festivals. But his `folly' is now not innocence but

         inspiration of wine; he drinks from the Graal, offered to him

         by the Priestess.  So we see him fully armed as Bacchus

         Diphues, male and female in one, bearing the Thyrsus-rod, and

         a cluster of grapes or a wineskin, while a tiger leaps up by

         his side. This form is suggested in the Taro card, where `The

         fool' is shown with a long wand and carrying a sack; his coat

         is motley. Tigers and Crocodiles follow him, thus linking

         this image with that of Harpocrates.  Almost identical

         symbols are those of the secret God of the Templars, the

         bi-sexual Baphomet, and of Zeus Arrhenothelus, equally

         bi-sexual, the Father-Mother of All in One Person. (He is

         shown in this full form in the Tarot Trump XV, `the Devil'.)

         Now Zeus being lord of Air, we are reminded that Aleph is the

         letter of Air.  As Air we find the `Wandering Fool' pure

         wanton Breath, yet creative. Wind was supposed of old to

         impregnate the Vulture, which therefore was chosen to

         symbolize the Mother-Goddess.  He is the Wandering Knight or

         Prince of Fairy Tales who marries the King's Daughter. This

         legend is derived from certain customs among exogamic tribes,

         for which see The Golden Bough.  Thus one Europa, Semele and

         others claimed that Zeus -- Air* -- had enjoyed them in the

         form of a beast, bird, or what not; while later Mary

         attributed her condition to the agency of a Spirit --

         Spiritus, breath, or air -- in the shape of a dove.  But the

         `Small Person' of Hindu mysticism, the Dwarf insane yet

         crafty of many legends in many lands, is also this same `Holy

         Ghost', or Silent Self of a man, or his Holy Guardian Angel.

         He is almost the `Unconscious' of Freud, unknown,

         unaccountable, the silent Spirit, blowing `whither it

         listeth, but thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither

         it goeth'. It commands with absolute authority when it

         appears at all, despite conscious reason and judgment.

         Aiwass is then, as this verse 7 states, the `minister' of

         this Hoor-paar-Kraat, that is of the Saviour of the World in

         the larger sense, and of mine own `Silent Self' in the

         lesser. A `minister' is one who performs a service, in this

         case evidently that of revealing; He was the intelligible

         medium between the Babe God -- the New Aeon about to be born

         -- and myself. This Book of the Law is the Voice of his

         Mother, His Father, and Himself. But on His appearing, He

         assumes the active form twin to Harpocrates, that of

         Ra-Hoor-Khuit. The Concealed Child becomes the Conquering

         Child, the armed Horus avenging his father Osiris. So also

         our own Silent Self, helpless and witless, hidden within us,

         will spring forth, if we have craft to loose him to the

         Light, spring lustily forward with his cry of Battle, the

         Word of our True Wills.  This is the Task of the Adept, to

         have the Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian

         Angel, to become aware of his nature and his purpose,

         fulfilling them.  Why is Aiwass thus spelt, when Aiwaz is the

         natural transliteration of [...]? Perhaps because he was not

         content with identifying Himself with Thelema, Agape, etc. by

         the number 93, but wished to express his nature by six

         letters (Six being the number of the Sun, the God-Man, etc.)

         whose value in Greek should be A=1, I=10, F=6, A=1, S=200,

         S=200: total 418, the number of Abrahadabra, the Magical

         Formula of the new Aeon! Note that I and V are the letters of

         the Father and the Son, also of the Virgin and the Bull, (See

         Liber 418) protected on either side by the letter of AIR, and

         followed by the letter of Fire twice over.

         8.    We are not to regard ourselves as base beings, without

         whose sphere is Light or `God'. Our minds and bodies are

         veils of the Light within. The uninitiate is a `Dark Star',

         and the Great Work for him is to make his veils transparent

         by `purifying' them. This `purification' is really

         `simplification'; it is not that the veil is dirty, but that

         the complexity of its folds makes it opaque. The Great Work

         therefore consists principally in the solution of complexes.

         Everything in itself is perfect, but when things are muddled,

         they become `evil'. (This will be understood better in the

         Light of `The Hermit of Esopus Island', q.v.) The Doctrine is

         evidently of supreme importance, from its position as the

         first `revelation' of Aiwass. This `star' or `Inmost Light'

         is the original, individual, eternal essence. The Khu is the

         magical garment which it weaves for itself, a `form' for its

         Being Beyond Form, by use of which it can gain experience

         through self-consciousness, as explained in the note to

         verses 2 and 3. This Khu is the first veil, far subtler than

         mind or body, and truer; for its symbolic shape depends on

         the nature of its Star.  Why are we told that the Khabs is in

         the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs? Did we then suppose the

         converse? I think that we are warned against the idea of a

         Pleroma, a flame of which we are Sparks, and to which we

         return when we `attain'. That would indeed be to make the

         whole curse of separate existence ridiculous, a senseless and

         inexcusable folly. It would throw us back on the dilemma of

         Manichaeism. The idea of incarnations `perfecting' a thing

         originally perfect by definition is imbecile. The only sane

         solution is as given previously, to suppose that the Perfect

         enjoys experience of (apparent) Imperfection. (There are

         deeper resolutions of this problem appropriate to the highest

         grades of initiation; but the above should suffice the

         average intelligence.)

         9.    We are to pay attention to this Inmost Light; then

         comes the answering Light of Infinite Space. Note that the

         Light of Space is what men call Darkness; its nature is

         utterly incomprehensible to our uninitiated minds. It is the

         `veils' mentioned previously in this comment that obstruct

         the relation between Nuit and Hadit.  We are not to worship

         the Khu, to fall in love with our Magical Image. To do this

         -- we have all done it -- is to forget our Truth. If we adore

         Form, it becomes opaque to Being, and may soon prove false to

         itself. The Khu in each of us includes the Cosmos as he knows

         it. To me, even another Khabs is only part of my Khu. Our own

         Khabs is our one sole Truth.

         10.    The nature of magical power is quite incomprehensible

         to the vulgar. The prophet Ezekiel besieging a tile in order

         to destroy Jerusalem, and the adventure of Hosea with Gomer,

         seem as absurd to the `practical' man as do the researches of

         any other scientific man until the Sunday Newspapers have

         furnished him with a plausible explanation which explains

         nothing. (Book 4, Part III, must be read in this connexion.)

         `My servants'; not those of the Lord of the Aeon. `The Law is

         for all'; there can be no secrecy about that. The verse

         refers to specially chosen `servants'; perhaps those who,

         worshipping the Khabs, have beheld Her light shed over them.

         Such persons indeed consummate the marriage of Nuit and Hadit

         in themselves; in that case they are aware of certain Ways to

         Power.  There is also a mystical sense in this verse. We are

         to organize our minds thoroughly, appointing few and secret

         chiefs, serving Nuit, to discipline the varied departments of

         the conscious thought.

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         12.    The whole doctrine of `love' is discussed in the Book

         Aleph (Wisdom or Folly) and should be studied therein. But

         note further how this Verse agrees with the comment above,

         how every Star is to come forth from its veils, that it may

         revel with the whole World of Stars. This is again also a

         call to unite or `love', thus formulating the Equation

         1(;mi1)=0*, which is the general magical formula in our

         Cosmos. `Come forth' -- from what are you hiding? `under the

         stars', that is, openly. Also, let love be `under' or `unto'

         the Body of Nuith. But above all, be open! What is this

         shame? Is Love Hideous, that men should cover him with lies?

         Is Love so sacred that others must not intrude? Nay, `under

         the stars', at night, what eye but theirs may see? Or, if one

         see, should not your worship wake the cloisters of his soul

         to echo sanctity for that so lovely a deed and gracious you

         have done?

         31.    All this talk about `suffering humanity' is

         principally drivel based on the error of transferring one's

         own psychology to one's neighbour. The Golden Rule is silly.

         If Lord Alfred Douglas (for example) did to others what he

         would like them to do to him, many would resent his action.

         The development of the Adept is by Expansion -- out to Nuit

         -- in all directions equally. The small man has little

         experience, little capacity for either pain or pleasure. The

         bourgeois is a clod, I know better (at least) than to suppose

         that to torture him is either beneficial or amusing to

         myself.  This thesis concerning compassion is of the most

         palmary importance in the ethics of Thelema. It is necessary

         that we stop, once for all, this ignorant meddling with other

         people's business. Each individual must be left free to

         follow his own path! America is peculiarly insane on these

         points. Her people are desperately anxious to make the

         Cingalese wear furs, and the Tibetans vote, and the whole

         world chew gum, utterly dense to the fact that most other

         nations, especially the French and British, regard `American

         institutions' as the lowest savagery, and forgetful or

         ignorant of the circumstance that the original brand of

         American freedom -- which really was Freedom -- contained the

         precept to leave other people severely alone, and thus

         assured the possibility of expansion on his own lines to

         every man.

         32.    It is proper to obey The Beast, because His Law is

         pure Freedom, and He will give NO command which is other than

         a Right Interpretation of this Freedom. But it is necessary

         for the development of Freedom itself to have an

         organization; and every organization must have a

         highly-centralized control. This is especially necessary in

         time of war, as even the so-called `democratic' nations have

         been taught by Experience, since they would not learn from

         Germany. Now this age is pre-eminently a `time of war', most

         of all now, when it is our Work to overthrow the slave-gods.

         The injunction `seek me only' is emphasized with an oath, and

         a special promise is made in connection with it. By seeking

         lesser ideals one makes distinctions, thereby affirming

         implicitly the very duality from which one is seeking to

         escape. Note also that `me' may imply the Greek MH, `not'.

         The word `only' might be taken as `[...]' with the number of

         156, that of the Secret Name BABALON of Nuith. There are

         presumably further hidden meanings in the key-word `all'.

         33.    Law, in the common sense of the word, should be a

         formulation of the customs of a people, as Euclid's

         propositions are the formulation of geometrical facts. But

         modern knavery conceived the idea of artificial law, as if

         one should try to square the circle by tyranny. Legislators

         try to force the people to change their customs, so that the

         `business men' whose greed they art bribed to serve may

         increase their profits. `Law' in Greek, is NOMOC, from NEM,

         and means strictly `anything assigned, that which one has in

         use or possession'; hence `custom, usage', and also `a

         musical strain'. The literal equivalence of NEM and the Latin

         NEMO is suggestive. In Hebrew, `Law' is ThORA and equivalent

         to words meaning `The Gate of the Kingdom' and `The Book of

         Wisdom'.

         34.    The Ordeals are at present carried out unknown to the

         Candidate by the secret Magick Power of The Beast. Those who

         are accepted by Him for initiation testify that these Ordeals

         are frequently independent of His conscious care. They are

         not, like the traditional ordeals, formal, or identical for

         all; the Candidate finds himself in circumstances which

         afford a real test of conduct, and compel him to discover his

         own nature, to become aware of himself by bringing his secret

         motives to the surface.  Some of the Rituals have been made

         accessible, that is, the Magical Formulae have been

         published. See The Rites of Eleusis, `Energized Enthusiasm',

         Book4, Part III, etc.  Note the reference to `not' and `all'.

         Also the word `known' contains the root GN, `to beget' and

         `to know'; while `concealed' indicates the other half of the

         Human Mystery.

         37.    Each star is unique, and each orbit apart; indeed,

         that is the corner-stone of my teaching, to have no standard

         goals or standard ways, no orthodoxies and no codes. The

         stars are not herded and penned and shorn and made into

         mutton like so many voters! I decline to be bellwether, who

         am born a Lion! I will not be collie, who am quicker to bite

         than to bark. I refuse the office of shepherd, who bear not a

         crook but a club.  Wise in your generation, ye sheep, art ye

         to scamper away bleating when your ears catch my roar on the

         wind! Are ye not tended and fed and protected -- until word

         come from the stockyard?  The lion's life for me! Let me live

         free, and die fighting!  Now one more point about the obeah

         and the wanga, the deed and the word of Magick.  Magick is

         the art of causing change in existing phenomena. This

         definition includes raising the dead, bewitching cattle,

         making rain, acquiring goods, fascinating judges, and all the

         rest of the programme. Good: but it also includes every act

         soever? Yes; I meant it to do so. It is not possible to utter

         word or do deed without producing the exact effect proper and

         necessary thereto. Thus Magick is the Art of Life itself.

         Magick is the management of all we say and do, so that the

         effect is to change that part of our environment which

         dissatisfies us, until it does so no longer. We `remould it

         nearer to the heart's desire.'  Magick ceremonies proper are

         merely organized and concentrated attempts to impose our Will

         on certain parts of the Cosmos. They are only particular

         cases of the general law.  But all we say and do, however

         casually, adds up to more, far more, than our most strenuous

         Operations. `Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take

         care of themselves.' Your daily drippings fill a bigger

         bucket than your geysers of magical effort. The `ninety and

         nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold' have no

         organized will at all; and their character, built of their

         words and deeds, is only a garbage-heap.  Remember, also,

         that, unless you know what your true will is, you may be

         devoting the most laudable energies to destroying yourself.

         Remember that every word and deed is a witness to thought,

         that therefore your mind must be perfectly organized, its

         sole duty to interpret circumstances in terms of the Will so

         that speech and action may be rightly directed to express the

         Will appropriately to the occasion. Remember that every word

         and deed which is not a definite expression of your Will

         counts against it, indifference worse than hostility. Your

         enemy is at least interested in you: you may make him your

         friend as you never can do with a neutral. Remember that

         Magick is the Art of Life, therefore of causing change in

         accordance with Will; therefore its law is `love under will'

         , and its every movement is an act of love.  Remember that

         every act of `love under will' is lawful as such; but that

         when any act is not directed unto Nuith, who is here the

         inevitable result of the whole Work, that act is waste, and

         breeds conflict within you, so that `the kingdom of God which

         is within you' is torn by civil war.  To the beginner I would

         offer this programme.

                 1.Furnish your mind as completely as possible with

                   the knowledge of how to inspect and to control it.

                 2.Train your body to obey your mind, and not to

                   distract its attention.

                 3.Control your mind to devote itself wholly to

                   discover your true Will.

                 4.Explore the course of that Will till you reach its

                   source, your Silent Self.

                 5.Unite the conscious will with the true Will, and

                   the conscious Ego with the Silent Self. You must be

                   utterly ruthless in discarding any atom of

                   consciousness which is hostile or neutral.

                 6.Let this work freely from within, but heed not your

                   environment, lest you make difference between one

                   thing and another. Whatever it be, it is to be made

                   one with you by Love.

         41.    The first paragraph is a general statement or

         definition of Sin or Error. Any thing soever that binds the

         will, hinders it, or diverts it, is Sin. That is, Sin is the

         appearance of the Dyad. Sin is impurity.*  The remainder of

         the paragraph takes a particular case as an example. There

         shall be no property in human flesh. The sex- instinct is one

         of the most deeply-seated expressions of the will; and it

         must not be restricted, either negatively by preventing its

         free function, or positively by insisting on its false

         function.  What is more brutal than to stunt natural growth

         or to deform it?  What is more absurd than to seek to

         interpret this holy instinct as a gross animal act, to

         separate it from the spiritual enthusiasm without which it is

         so stupid as not even to be satisfactory to the persons

         concerned?  The sexual act is a sacrament of Will. To profane

         it is the great offence. All true expression of it is lawful;

         all suppression or distortion is contrary to the Law of

         Liberty. To use legal or financial constraint to compel

         either abstention or submission, is entirely horrible,

         unnatural and absurd. Physical constraint, up to a certain

         point, is not so seriously wrong; for it has its roots in the

         original sex-conflict which we see in animals, and has often

         the effect of exciting Love in his highest and noblest shape.

         Some of the most passionate and permanent attachments have

         begun with rape. Rome was actually founded thereon.

         Similarly, murder of a faithless partner is ethically

         excusable, in a certain sense; for there may be some stars

         whose Nature is extreme violence. The collision of galaxies

         is a magnificent spectacle, after all. But there is nothing

         inspiring in a visit to one's lawyer. Of course this is

         merely my personal view; a star who happened to be a lawyer

         might see things otherwise! Yet Nature's unspeakable variety,

         though it admits cruelty and selfishness, offers us not

         example of the puritan and the prig!  However, to the mind of

         Law there is an Order of Going; and a machine is more

         beautiful, save to the Small Boy, when it works than when it

         smashes. Now the Machine of Matter-Motion is an explosive

         machine, with pyrotechnic effects; but these are only

         incidentals.  Laws against adultery are based upon the idea

         that woman is a chattel, so that to make love to a married

         woman is to deprive the husband of her services. It is the

         frankest and most crass statement of a slave-situation. To

         us, every woman is a star. She has therefore an absolute

         right to travel in her own orbit. There is no reason why she

         should not be the ideal hausfrau, if that chance to be her

         will. But society has no right to insist upon that standard.

         It was, for practical reasons, almost necessary to set up

         such taboos in small communities, savage tribes, where the

         wife was nothing but a general servant, where the safety of

         the people depended upon a high birth-rate. But to-day woman

         is economically independent, becomes more so every year. The

         result is that she instantly asserts her right to have as

         many or as few men or babies as she wants or can get; and she

         defies the world to interfere with her. More power to her --

         elbow!  The War has seen this emancipation flower in four

         years. Primitive people, the Australian troops for example,

         are saying that they will not marry English girls, because

         English girls like a dozen men a week. Well, who wants them

         to marry? Russia has already formally abrogated marriage.

         Germany and France have tried to `save their faces' in a

         thoroughly Chinese manner, by `marrying' pregnant spinsters

         to dead soldiers!  England has been too deeply hypocritical,

         of course, to do more than `hush things up'; and is

         pretending `business as usual', though every pulpit is aquake

         with the clamour of bat-eyed bishops, squeaking of the awful

         immorality of everybody but themselves and their choristers.

         Englishwomen over 30 have the vote; when the young 'uns get

         it, good-bye to the old marriage system.  America has made

         marriage a farce by the multiplication and confusion of the

         Divorce Laws. A friend of mine who had divorced her husband

         was actually, three years later, sued by him for divorce!!!

         But America never waits for laws; her people go ahead. The

         emancipated, self-supporting American woman already acts

         exactly like the `bachelor-boy'. Sometimes she loses her

         head, and stumbles into marriage, and stubs her toe. She will

         soon get tired of the folly. She will perceive how imbecile

         it is to hamstring herself in order to please her parents, or

         to legitimatize her children, or to silence her neighbours.

         She will take the men she wants as simply as she buys a

         newspaper; and if she doesn't like the Editorials, or the

         Comic Supplement, it's only two cents gone, and she can get

         another.  Blind asses! who pretend that women are naturally

         chaste! The Easterns know better; all the restrictions of the

         harem, of public opinion, and so on, are based upon the

         recognition of the fact that woman is only chaste when there

         is nobody around. She will snatch the babe from its cradle,

         or drag the dog from its kennel, to prove the old saying:

         Natura abhorret a vacuo;. For she is the Image of the Soul of

         Nature, the Great Mother, the Great Whore.  It is to be well

         noted that the Great Women of History have exercised

         unbounded freedom in Love. Sappho, Semiramis, Messalina,

         Cleopatra, Ta Chhi, Pasiphae, Clytaemnaestra, Helen of Troy,

         and in more recent times Joan of Arc (by Shakespeare's

         account), Catherine II of Russia, Queen Elizabeth of England,

         George Sand. Against these we can put only Emily Bronte;um,

         whose sex-suppression was due to her environment, and so

         burst out in the incredible violence of her art, and the

         regular religious mystics, Saint Catherine, Saint Teresa, and

         so on, the facts of whose sex-life have been carefully

         camouflaged in the interests of the slave-gods. But, even on

         that showing, the sex- life was intense, for the writings of

         such women are overloaded with sexual expression passionate

         and perverted, even to morbidity and to actual hallucination.

         Sex is the main expression of the Nature of a person; great

         Natures are sexually strong; and the health of any person

         will depend upon the freedom of that function.  (See Liber

         CI, `de Lege Libellum', Cap. IV, in The Equinox III (1).)

         42.    `Manyhood bound and loathing.' An organized state is a

         free association for the common weal. My personal will to

         cross the Atlantic, for example, is made effective by

         co-operation with others on agreed terms. But the forced

         association of slaves is another thing.  A man who is not

         doing his will is like a man with cancer, an independent

         growth in him, yet one from which he cannot get free. The

         idea of self-sacrifice is a moral cancer in exactly this

         sense.   Similarly, one may say that not to do one's will is

         evidence of mental or moral insanity. When `duty points one

         way, and inclination the other', it is proof that you are not

         one, but two. You have not centralized your control. This

         dichotomy is the beginning of conflict, which may result in a

         Jekyll-Hyde effect. Stevenson suggests that man may be

         discovered to be a `mere polity' of many individuals. The

         sages knew it long since. But the name of this polity is

         Choronzon, mob rule, unless every individual is absolutely

         disciplined to serve his own, and the common, purpose without

         friction.  It is of course better to expel or destroy an

         irreconcilable. `If thine eye offend thee, cut it out.' The

         error in the interpretation of this doctrine has been that it

         has not been taken as it stands. It has been read: If thine

         eye offend some artificial standard of right, cut it out. The

         curse of society has been Procrustean morality, the ethics of

         the herd-men. One would have thought that a mere glance at

         Nature would have sufficed to disclose Her scheme of

         Individuality made possible by Order.

         220A1-3.ASC

         43.    The general meaning of this verse is that so great is

         the power of asserting one's right that it will not long be

         disputed. For by doing so one appeals to the Law. In practice

         it is found that people who are ready to fight for their

         rights are respected, and let alone. The slave-spirit invites

         oppression.

         44.    This verse is best interpreted by defining `pure will'

         as the true expression of the Nature, the proper or inherent

         motion of the matter, concerned. It is unnatural to aim at

         any goal. The student is referred to Liber LXV, Cap. II, v.

         24, and to the Tao Teh King. This becomes particularly

         important in high grades. One is not to do Yoga, etc., in

         order to get Samadhi, like a schoolboy or a shopkeeper; but

         for its own sake, like an artist.  `Unassuaged' means `its

         edge taken off by' or `dulled by'. The pure student does not

         think of the result of the examination.

         49.    This verse declares that the old formula of Magick --

         the Osiris-Adonis -Jesus-Marsyas-Dionysus-Attis-Et cetera

         formula of the Dying God -- is no longer efficacious. It

         rested on the ignorant belief that the Sun died every day,

         and every year, and that its resurrection was a miracle.  The

         Formula of the New Aeon recognizes Horus, the Child crowned

         and conquering, as God, the Sun; and about our System is the

         Ocean of Space. This formula is then to be based upon these

         facts. Our `Evil', `Error', `Darkness', `Illusion', whatever

         one chooses to call it, is simply a phenomenon of accidental

         and temporary separateness. If you are `walking in darkness',

         do not try to make the sun rise by self-sacrifice, but wait

         in confidence for the dawn, and enjoy the pleasures of the

         night meanwhile.  The general illusion is to the Equinox

         Ritual of the G.D. where the officer of the previous six

         months, representing Horus, took the place of the retiring

         Hierophant, who had represented Osiris.  Isa is the Legendary

         `Jesus', for which Canidian concoction the prescription is to

         be found in my book bearing that Title, Liber DCCCLXXXVIII.

         51.    The first section of this verse is connected with the

         second only by the word `therefore'. It appears to describe

         an initiation, or perhaps The initiation, in general terms. I

         would suggest that the palace is the `Holy House' or Universe

         of the Initiate of the New Law. The four gates are perhaps

         Light, Life, Love, Liberty -- see `De Lege Libellum'. Lapis

         Lazuli is a symbol of Nuit, Jasper of Hadit. The rare scents

         are possibly various ecstasies or Samadhis. Jasmine and Rose

         are Hieroglyphs of the two main Sacraments, while the emblems

         of death may refer to certain secrets of a well known

         exoteric school of initiation whose members, with the rarest

         exceptions, do not know what it is all about.  The question

         then arises as to whether the initiate is able to stand

         firmly in this Place of Exaltation. It seems to me as if this

         refers to the ascetic life, commonly considered as an

         essential condition of participation in these mysteries. The

         answer is that `there are means and means', implying that no

         one rule is essential. This is in harmony with our general

         interpretation of the Law; it has as many rules as there are

         individuals.  This word `therefore' is easy to understand. We

         are to enjoy life thoroughly in an absolutely normal way,

         exactly as all the free and great have always done. The only

         point to remember is that one is a `Member of the Body of

         God', a Star in the Body of Nuith. This being sure, we are

         urged to the fullest expansion of our several Natures, with

         special attention to those pleasures which not only express

         the soul, but aid it to reach the higher developments of that

         expression.  The act of Love is to the bourgeois (as the

         `Christian' is called now-a-days) a gross animal gesture

         which shames his boasted humanity. The appetite drags him at

         its hoofs; it tires him, disgusts him, diseases him, makes

         him ridiculous even in his own eyes. It is the source of

         nearly all his neuroses.  Against this monster he has devised

         two protections. Firstly, he pretends that it is a Fairy

         Prince disguised, and hangs it with the rags and tinsel of

         romance, sentiment, and religion. He calls it Love, denies

         its strength and truth, and worships this wax figure of him

         with all sorts of amiable lyrics and leers.  Secondly, he is

         so certain, despite all his theatrical-wardrobe-work, that it

         is a devouring monster, that he resents with insane ferocity

         the existence of people who laugh at his fears, and tell him

         that the monster he fears is in reality not a fire-breathing

         worm, but a spirited horse, well trained to the task of the

         bridle. They tell him not to be a gibbering coward, but to

         learn to ride. Knowing well how abject he is, the kindly

         manhood of the advice is, to him, the bitterest insult he can

         imagine, and he calls on the mob to stone the blasphemer. He

         is therefore particularly anxious to keep intact the bogey he

         so dreads; the demonstration that Love is a general passion,

         pure in itself, and the redeemer of all them that put their

         trust in Him, is to tear open the raw ulcer of his soul.  We

         of Thelema are not the slaves of Love. `Love under will' is

         the Law. We refuse to regard love as shameful and degrading,

         as a peril to body and soul. We refuse to accept it as the

         surrender of the divine to the animal; to us it is the means

         by which the animal may be made the Winged Sphinx which shall

         bear man aloft to the House of the Gods.  We are then

         particularly careful to deny that the object of love is the

         gross physiological object which happens to be Nature's

         excuse for it. Generation is a sacrament of the physical

         Rite, by which we create ourselves anew in our own image,

         weave in a new flesh-tapestry the Romance of our own Soul's

         History. But also Love is a sacrament of trans-substantiation

         whereby we initiate our own souls; it is the Wine of

         Intoxication as well as the Bread of Nourishment. `Nor is he

         for priest designed Who partakes only in one kind.'  We

         therefore heartily cherish those forms of Love in which no

         question of generation arises; ;we use the stimulating

         effects of physical enthusiasm to inspire us morally and

         spiritually. Experience teaches that passions thus employed

         do serve to refine and to exalt the whole being of man or

         woman. Nuith indicates the sole condition: `But always unto

         me.' The epicure is not a monster of gluttony, nor the

         amateur of Beethoven a `degenerate' from the `normal' man

         whose only music is the tom-tom. So also the poisons which

         shook the bourgeois are not indulgences, but purifications;

         the brute whose furtive lust demands that he be drunk and in

         darkness that he may surrender to his shame, and that he lie

         about it with idiot mumblings ever after, is hardly the best

         judge even of Phryne. How much less should he venture to

         criticize such men and women whose imaginations are so free

         from grossness that the element of attraction which serves to

         electrify their magnetic coil is independent of physical

         form? To us the essence of Love is that it is a sacrament

         unto Nuith, a gate of grace and a road of righteousness to

         Her High Palace, the abode of peerless purity whose lamps are

         the Stars. `As ye will.' It should be abundantly clear from

         the foregoing remarks that each individual has an absolute

         and indefeasible right to use his sexual vehicle in

         accordance with its own proper character, and that he is

         responsible only to himself. But he should not injure himself

         and his right aforesaid; acts invasive of another

         individual's equal rights are implicitly self-aggressions. A

         thief can hardly complain on theoretical grounds if he is

         himself robbed. Such acts as rape, and the assault or

         seduction of infants, may therefore be justly regarded as

         offences against the Law of Liberty, and repressed in the

         interests of that Law. It is also excluded from `as ye will'

         to compromise the liberty of another person indirectly, as by

         taking advantage of the ignorance or good faith of another

         person to expose that person to the constraint of sickness,

         poverty, social detriment, or childbearing, unless with the

         well-informed and uninfluenced free will of that person.  One

         must moreover avoid doing another injury by deforming his

         nature; ;for instance, to flog children at or near puberty

         may distort the sensitive nascent sexual character, and

         impress it with the stamp of masochism. Again, homosexual

         practices between boys may in certain cases actually rob them

         of their virility, psychically or even physically.  Trying to

         frighten adolescents about sex by the bogeys of Hell,

         Disease, and Insanity, may warp the moral nature permanently,

         and produce hypochondria or other mental maladies, with

         perversions of the enervated and thwarted instinct.

         Repression of the natural satisfaction may result in addition

         to secret and dangerous vices which destroy their victim

         because they are artificial and unnatural aberrations. Such

         moral cripples resemble those manufactured by beggars by

         compressing one part of the body so that it is compensated by

         a monstrous exaggeration in another part.  But on the other

         hand we have no right to interfere with any type of

         manifestation of the sexual impulse on a priori grounds. We

         must recognize that the Lesbian leanings of idle and

         voluptuous women whose refinement finds the grossness of the

         average male repugnant, are as inexpungably entrenched in

         Righteousness as the parallel pleasures of the English

         Aristocracy and Clergy whose aesthetics find women

         disgusting, and whose self-respect demands that love should

         transcend animal impulse, excite intellectual intimacy, and

         inspire spirituality by directing it towards an object whose

         attainment cannot inflict the degradation of domesticity, and

         the bestiality of gestation. Every one should discover, by

         experience of every kind, the extent and intention of his own

         sexual Universe. He must be taught that all roads are equally

         royal, and that the only question for him is `Which road is

         mine?' All details are equally likely to be of the essence of

         his personal plan, all equally `right' in themselves, his own

         choice of the one as correct as, and independent of, his

         neighbour's preference for the other.  He must not be ashamed

         or afraid of being homosexual if he happens to be so at

         heart; he must not attempt to violate his own true nature

         because public opinion, or mediaeval morality, or religious

         prejudice would wish he were otherwise. The oyster stays shut

         in his shell for all Darwin may say about his `low stage of

         evolution', or Puritans about his priapistic character, or

         idealists about his unfitness for civic government.  The

         advocates of homosexuality - primus inter pares, John

         Addington Symonds! -- hammer away like Hercules at the

         spiritual, social, moral, and intellectual advantages of

         cultivating the caresses of a comrade who combines Apollo

         with Achilles and Antinous at the expense of escaping from a

         Chimaera with Circe's head, Cleopatra's body, and Cressida's

         character.  Why can't they let one alone? I agree to agree; I

         only stipulate to be allowed to be inconsistent. I will

         confess their creed, so long as I may play the part of Peter

         until the cock crow thrice. They urge more strenuously still

         the claims of homosexuality to heal the hurts and horrors of

         humanity, almost the `complete cohort'. On this point I

         concur that they argue indiscutably, with sober sense to

         support and stress of suffering to spur them. They prove with

         Euler's exactness and Hinton's passion that heterosexuality

         entrains an infinity of ills; jealousies, abortions,

         diseases, infanticides, frauds, intrigues, quarrels, poverty,

         prostitution, persecution, idleness, self-indulgence, social

         stress, over-population, sex-antagonism. They show with

         Poincare's precision that Jesus and Paul struck at the heart

         of hell when they proclaimed marriage a scourge, and offered

         the testimony of John and Timothy to support the plea of

         Plato on behalf of paederastic passion. Out of the Court

         there slunk Mark Antony, his toga to his face, one of the

         legion of lost souls that woman had withered; behind him

         groped blind Samson, disinherited Adam, feeling his way along

         the table where they had piled countless papyri writ with

         woes of kings and sages woman-wrecked, and many a map of

         towns and temples torn and trampled beneath the feet of Love,

         their ashes smouldering still, and smoky with song to witness

         how Astarte's breath had kindled and consumed them.

         Extinguished empires owned that their doom was the device of

         Venus, her vengeance on virility.  By Paul sat Buddha

         smiling, Ananda's arm about his neck, while Mohammed paced

         the floor impatiently between two warrior comrades, his belt

         bearing an iron key, a whip and a sword, wherewith to limit

         women's liberty, their love their life, lest to his loss they

         lure him. The Beast is there also, aloof, attentive. He will

         not weigh the evidence in the balances of any particular kind

         of advantage. He will not admit any standard as adequate to

         assess the absolute. To him, the pettiest personal whimsy

         outweighs all wisdom, all philosophy, all private profit and

         all public prudence. The sexual obol of the meanest is

         stamped with the signature of his own sovereign soul, lawful

         and current coin no less than the gold talent of his

         neighbour. The derelict moon has the same right to drift

         round Earth as Regulus to blaze in the heart of the Lion.

         Collision is the only crime in the cosmos.  The Beast refuses

         therefore to assent to any argument as to the propriety of

         any fashion of formulating the soul in symbols of sex. A

         canon is no less deadly in love than in art or literature;

         its acceptance stifles style, and its enforcement

         extinguishes sincerity.  It is better for a person of

         heterosexual nature to suffer every possible calamity as the

         indirect environment-evoked result of his doing his true will

         in that respect than to enjoy health, wealth and happiness by

         means either of suppressing sex altogether, of debauching it

         to the service of Sodom or Gommorrah.  Equally it is better

         for the androgyne, the urning, or their feminine counterparts

         to endure blackmailers private and public, the terrors of

         police persecution, the disgust, contempt and loathing of the

         vulgar, and the self-torture of suspecting the peculiarity to

         be a symptom of a degenerate nature, than to wrong the soul

         by damning it to the hell of abstinence, or by defiling it

         with the abhorred embraces of antipathetic arms.  Every star

         must calculate its own orbit. All is Will, and yet all is

         Necessity. To swerve is ultimately impossible; to seek to

         swerve is  to suffer.  The Beast 666 ordains by His authority

         that every man, and every woman, and every

         intermediately-sexed individual, shall be absolutely free to

         interpret and communicate Self by means of any sexual

         practices soever, whether direct or indirect, rational or

         symbolic, physiologically, legally, ethically, or religiously

         approved or no, provided only that all parties to any act are

         fully aware of all implications and responsibilities thereof,

         and heartily agree thereto.  Moreover, the Beast 666 adviseth

         that all children shall be accustomed from infancy to witness

         every type of sexual act, as also the process of birth, lest

         falsehood fog, and mystery stupefy, their minds, whose error

         else might thwart and misdirect the growth of their

         subconscious system of soul-symbolism. `When, where, and with

         whom ye will.'  The phrase `with whom' has been practically

         covered by the comment on `as ye will'. One need no more than

         distinguish that the earlier phrase permits all manner of

         acts, the latter all possible partners. There would have been

         no Furies for Oedipus, no disaster for Othello, Romeo,

         Pericles of Tyre, Laon and Cythna, if it were only agreed to

         let sleeping dogs lie, and mind one's own business. In real

         life, we have seen in our own times Oscar Wilde, Sir Charles

         Dilke, Parnell, Canon Aitken and countless others, many of

         them engaged in first-rate work for the world, all wasted

         because the mob must make believe to be `moral'. This phrase

         abolishes the Eleventh Commandment, Not to be Found Out, by

         authorizing Incest, Adultery, and Paederasty, which every one

         now practices with humiliating precautions, which perpetuate

         the schoolboy's enjoyment of an escapade, and make shame,

         slyness, cowardice and hypocrisy the conditions of success in

         life.  It is also the fact that the tendency of any

         individual to sexual irregularity is emphasised by the

         preoccupation with the subject which follows its factitious

         importance in modern society.  It is to be observed that

         Politeness has forbidden any direct reference to the subject

         of sex to secure no happier result than to allow Sigmund

         Freud and others to prove that our every thought, speech, and

         gesture, conscious or unconscious, is an indirect reference!

         Unless one wants to wreck the neighbourhood, it is best to

         explode one's gunpowder in an unconfined space. There are

         very few cases of `perverted hunger-instinct' in moderately

         healthy communities. War restrictions on food created

         dishonest devices to procure dainties, and artificial

         attempts to appease the ache of appetite by chemical

         counterfeits.  The South-Sea Islanders, pagan, amoral and

         naked, are temperate lovers, free from hysterical `crimes of

         passion', sex obsessions, and puritan persecution-mania;

         perversion is practically unknown, and monogamy is the

         general custom.  Even the civilized psychopaths of cities,

         forced into every kind of excess by the omnipresence of

         erotic suggestions and the contact of crazed crowds seething

         with suppressed sexuality, are not wholly past physic. They

         are no sooner released from the persistent pressure by

         escaping to some place where the inhabitants treat the

         reproductive and the respiratory organs as equally innocent

         than they begin insensibly to forget their `fixed idea'

         forced on them by the fog-horn of Morality, so that their

         perversions perish, just as a coiled spring straightens

         itself when the external compulsion is removed. They revert

         to their natural sex-characters, which only in rare cases are

         other than simple, pure, and refined. More, sex itself ceases

         to play Principal Boy in the Pantomime of Life. Other

         interests resume their proper proportions.  We may now

         inquire why the Book is at pains to admit as to love `when'

         and `where' we will. Few people, surely, have been seriously

         worried by restrictions of time and place. One can only think

         of lovers who live with fearsome families or in inhospitable

         lodgings, on a rainy night, buffeted from one police-bullied

         hotel to another.  Perhaps this permission is intended to

         indicate the propriety of performing the sexual act without

         shame or fear, not waiting for darkness or seeking secrecy,

         but by daylight in public places, as serenely as if it were a

         natural incident in a morning stroll.  Custom would soon

         surfeit curiosity, and copulation attract less attention than

         a new fashion in frocks. For the existing interest in sexual

         matters is chiefly because, common as the act is, it is

         closely concealed. Nobody is excited by seeing others eat. A

         `naughty' book is as dull as a volume of sermons; only genius

         can vitalize either.  Beyond this, once love is taken for

         granted, the morbid fascination of its mystery will vanish.

         The pander, the prostitute, the parasite will find their

         occupation gone.  Disease will go straight to the doctor

         instead of to the quack, as it does; the altars of Mrs.

         Grundy run red with the blood of her faithful!  The ignorance

         or carelessness of a raw youth will no longer hound him to

         hell. A blighted career or a ruined constitution will no more

         be the penalty of a moment's exuberance.  Above all, the

         world will begin to appreciate the true nature of the sexual

         process, its physical insignificance as one among many parts

         of the body, its transcendent importance as the vehicle of

         the True Will and the first of the sheaths of the Self.

         Hitherto our sexual tabus have kept far ahead of Gilbert and

         Sullivan. We have made love the lackey to property, as who

         should pay his rent by sneezing. We have swaddled it in

         politeness, as who should warn God off the grass.  We have

         muddled it up with morality, as who should frown at the

         Himalayas on the one hand, and, on the other, regulate his

         behaviour by that of an ant-heap.  The Law of Thelema is

         here!     (It appears pertinent to add that the above ethical

         theories have stood the test of practice. Experiment shows

         that complete removal -- in the most radical manner -- of all

         the usual restrictions on conduct results, after a brief

         period of uneasiness of various kinds, in the subject

         dropping entirely into the background; the parties concerned

         became natural, and led what would conventionally be called

         `strictly moral' lives without even knowing that they were

         doing so.)  As - Postcript, let me contrast with the above

         theories two actual cases of Marriage as it is in England.

         No.1. Mr.W., a solicitor and gentleman farmer of considerable

         wealth: a Plymouth Brother. Called, in Southsea, Hants.,

         where he practised: `The Honest Lawyer.' Every time that his

         wife gave birth to a child, or miscarried, she lay for weeks

         -- often months -- between life and death, with perityphlitis

         or peritonitis set up by the difficulties of parturition. Yet

         this man, knowing this well, had gone on and on

         remorselessly. When I knew him he had 18 children living, and

         two more were born during that period. It was evidently his

         view that he had an absolute Right to impregnate his wife,

         and that it was her business whether she lived or died.

         During all these years she was no sooner well enough to leave

         her bed than she was again `in the family way'. Thus in 25

         years, she was never permitted so much as a month's good

         health. This Mr. W. was a most kindly genial man, devoted to

         her and his family, genuinely pious and tenderhearted. But it

         never occured to him to refrain from exercising the Right

         which he possessed to endanger her life every year. (He

         suffered intensely with anxiety for his wife's health.)

         No.2. Mr. H., a very skilful engraver and die-sinker, a man

         of refined tastes and delicate feelings, sensitive beyond the

         common even of men in a far higher station of life and with a

         much better education. Since childhood he had suffered

         continually from an incurable form of Psoriasis. This kept

         him in a state of  almost constant irritation, spoilt his

         sleep, and made him lament that he was `a leper'. In fact,

         the scales of the eruption were so plentiful that his sheets

         had to be cleaned every morning with a dustpan and brush! He

         could only obtain relief (before trying to sleep) by being

         rubbed with oil of wintergreen, which filled his whole house

         with a loathsome ,stench. One would have thought that the

         first wish of a man thus afflicted would be to sleep alone,

         that it would be utterly repugnant and revolting to him to

         sleep with another person, for his own sake, apart from and

         consideration for her. But his wife, herself an invalid -- a

         huge obese greasy woman (of middle age when I knew the

         family) suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, tubercular

         trouble in the arms, etc., etc. -- was his Wife, she must be

         immediately available should Mr. H. want to exercise his

         conjugal Right. (In this case, too, Mrs. H. was likely to die

         if impregnated.) The extraordinary feature is that so

         extremely sensitive and refined a man could be so

         disgustingly callous on such a matter. Even vulgar people

         fear to appear physically repulsive to the person whom they

         love. It seems as if the fact of Marriage destroys every

         natural characteristic, and has a set of rules of its own

         diametrically opposed in spirit and letter to those which

         govern Love. I confidently appeal to impartial observers to

         say whether the ideals of the Book are not cleaner, more

         wholesome, more human, and more truly moral than those of

         Marriage as it is.

         220A1-5.ASC

              For instance: a man seeking to regain health should

         assist his Magical Will by taking all possible hygenic and

         medical measures proper to amend his malady. A man wishing to

         develop his genius as a sculptor will devote himself to study

         and training, will surround himself with beautiful forms,

         and, if possible, live in a place where nature herself

         testifies to the touch of the thumb of the Great Architect.

         He will choose the object of his passion at the nod of his

         Silent Self. He will not allow the prejudice, either of

         sense, emotion, or rational judgement, to obscure the Sun of

         his Soul. In the first place, mutual magnetism, despite the

         masks of mind, should be unmistakable. Unless it exists, a

         puissant purity of passion, there is no Magical basis for the

         Sacrament. Yet, such magnetism is only the first condition.

         Where two people become intimate, each crisis of satisfaction

         between the terminals leaves them in a proximity which

         demands mutual observation; and the intense clarity of the

         mind which results from the discharge of the electric force

         makes such observation abnormally critical. The higher the

         type of mind, the more certain this is, and the greater the

         danger of finding some antipathetic trifle which experience

         tells us will one day be the only thing left to observe; just

         as a wart on the nose is remembered when the rest of the face

         is forgotten.  The object of Love must therefore be one with

         the lover in something more than the Will to unite

         magnetically; it must be in passionate partnership with the

         Will of which the Will-to- love is only the Magical symbol.

         Perhaps no two wills can be identical, but at least they can

         be so sympathetic that the manifestations are not likely to

         clash. It is not enough to have a partner of the passive type

         who bleats `Thy will is done' - that ends in contempt,

         boredom and distrust. One wants a passion that can blend with

         one's own. Where this is the case, it does not matter so much

         whether the mental expression is syndromic; it is, indeed,

         better when two entirely different worlds of thought and

         experience have led to sister conclusions. But it is

         essential that the habit of mind should be sympathetic, that

         the machinery should be constructed on similar principles.

         The psychology of the one should be intelligible to the

         other.  Social position and physical appearance and habits

         are of far less importance, especially in a society which has

         accepted the Law of Thelema. Tolerance itself produces

         suavity, and suavity soon relieves the strain on tolerance.

         In any case, most people, especially women, adapt themselves

         adroitly enough to their environment. I say `Especially

         women', for women are nearly always conscious of an important

         part of their true Will; the bearing of children. To them

         nothing else is serious in comparison, and they dismiss

         questions which do not bear on this as trifles, adopting the

         habits required of them in the interest of the domestic

         harmony which they recognize as a condition favourable to

         reproduction.  I have outlined ideal conditions. Rarely

         indeed can we realize even a third of our possibilities. Our

         Magical engine is mighty indeed when its efficiency reaches

         50% of its theoretical horse-power. But the enormous majority

         of mankind have no idea whatever of taking Love as a sacred

         and serious thing, of using the eye of the microscopist, or

         the heart and brain of the artist. Their ignorance and their

         shame have made Love a carcass of pestilence; and Love has

         avenged the outrage by crushing their lives when they pull

         down the temple upon them.  The chance of finding a suitable

         object of Love has been reduced well nigh to zero by

         substituting for the actual conditions, as stated in the

         above paragraphs, a totally artificial and irrelevant series;

         the restrictions on the act itself, marriage, opinion, the

         conspiracy of silence, criminal laws, financial fetters,

         selections limited by questions of race, nationality, caste,

         religion, social and political cliqueishness, even family

         exclusiveness. Out of the millions of humanity the average

         person is lucky if he can take his pick of a couple of score

         of partners.  I will here add one further pillar to my

         temple. It happens only too often that two people, absolutely

         fitted in every way to love each other, are totally debarred

         from expressing themselves by sheer ignorance of the

         technique of the act. What Nature declares as the climax of

         the Mass, the manifestation of God in the flesh, when the

         flesh is begotten, is so gross, clumsy and brutal that it

         disappoints and disgusts. They are horribly conscious that

         something is wrong. They do not know how to amend it. They

         are ashamed to discuss it. They have neither the experience

         to guide nor the imagination to experiment. Countless

         thousands of delicate-minded lovers turn against Love and

         blaspheme Him. Countless millions, not quite so fixed in

         refinement, accept the fact, acquiesce in the foulness, till

         Love is degraded to guilty grovelling. They are dragged in

         the dirt of the night-cart which ought to have been their

         `chariot of fire and the horses thereof'.  This whole trouble

         comes from humanity's horror of Love. For the last hundred

         years, every first-rate writer on morals has sent forth his

         lightnings and thunders, hailstones and coals of fire, to

         burn up Gommorrah and Sodom where Love is either shameful and

         secret, or daubed with dung of sentiment in order that the

         swinish citizens may recognize their ideal therein. We do not

         tell the artist that his art is so sacred, so disgusting, so

         splendid and so disgraceful that he must not on any account

         learn the use of the tools of his trade, and study in school

         how to see with his eye, and record what he sees with his

         hand. We do not tell the man who would heal disease that he

         must not know his subject, from anatomy to Pathology; or bid

         him undertake to remove an appendix from a valued Archbishop

         the first time he takes scalpel in hand.  But love is an art

         no less than Rembrandt's, a science no less than Lister's.

         The mind must make the heart articulate, and the body the

         temple of the soul. The animal instinct in man is the twin of

         the ape's or the bull's. Yet this is the one thing lawful in

         the code of the bourgeois. He is right to consider the act,

         as he knows it, degrading. It is, indeed for him, an act

         ridiculous, obscene, gross, beastly; a wallowing unworthy

         either of the dignity of man or of the majesty of the God

         within him. So is the guzzling and the swilling of the savage

         as he crams his enemy's raw liver into his mouth, or tilts

         the bottle of trade gin, and gulps. Because his meal is

         loathly, must we insist that any methods but his are

         criminal? How did we come to Laperouse and Nichol from the

         cannibal's cauldron unless by critical care and vigorous

         research?  The act of Love, to the bourgeois, is a physical

         relief like defaecation, and a moral relief from the strain

         of the drill of decency; a joyous relapse into the brute he

         has to pretend he despises. It is a drunkenness which drugs

         his shame of himself, yet leaves him deeper in disgust. It is

         an unclean gesture, hideous and grotesque. It is not his own

         act, but forced on him by a giant who holds him helpless; he

         is half madman, half automaton when he performs it. It is a

         gawky stumbling across a black foul bog, oozing a thousand

         dangers. It threatens him with death, disease, disaster in

         all manner of forms. He pays the coward's price of fear and

         loathing when pedlar Sex holds out his Rat-Poison in the

         lead-paper wrapping he takes for silver; he pays again with

         vomiting and with colic when he has gulped it in his greed.

         All this he knows, only too well; he is right, by his own

         lights, to loathe and fear the act, to hide it from his eyes,

         to swear he knows it not. With tawdry rags of sentiment,

         sacksful of greasy clouts, he swathes the corpse of Love,

         and, smirking, sputters that Love had never a naked limb;

         then as the brute in him stirs sleepily, he plasters Love

         with mire, and leering grunts that Love, shameless and

         fearless, seeing God in the Temple Man, but a toothsome lump

         of carrion in the corner of his own stye.  But we of Thelema,

         like the artist, the true lover of Love, shameless and

         fearless, seeing God face to face alike in our own souls

         within and in all Nature without, though we use, as the

         bourgeois does, the word Love, we hold not the word `too

         often profaned for us to profane it;' it burns inviolate in

         its sanctuary, being reborn immaculate with every breath of

         life. But by `Love' we mean a thing which the eye of the

         bourgeois hath not seen, nor his ear heard; neither hath his

         heart conceived it. We have accepted Love as the meaning of

         Change, Change being the Life of all Matter soever in the

         Universe. And we have accepted Love as the mode of Motion of

         the Will to Change. To us every act, as implying Change, is

         an act of Love. Life is a dance of delight, its rhythm an

         infinite rapture that never can weary or stale. Our personal

         pleasure in it is derived not only from our own part in it,

         but from our conscious apprehension of its total perfections.

         We study its structure, we expand ourselves as we lose

         ourselves in understanding it, and so becoming one with it.

         With the Egyptian initiate we exclaim and add the

         antistrophe: `There is no part of the Gods that is not also

         of us.'  Therefore, the Love that is Law is not less Love in

         the  petty personal sense; for Love that makes two One is the

         engine whereby even the final Two, Self and Not-Self, may

         become One, in the mystic marriage of the Bride, the Soul,

         with Him appointed from eternity to espouse her; yea, even

         the Most High, God All-in-All, the Truth.  Therefore we hold

         Love holy, our heart's religion, our mind's science. Shall He

         not have His ordered Rite, His priests and poets, His makers

         of beauty in colour and form to adorn Him, His makers of

         music to praise Him? Shall not His theologians, divining His

         nature, declare Him? Shall not even those who but sweep the

         courts of His temple, partake thereby of His person? And

         shall not our science lay hands on Him, measure Him, discover

         the depths, calculate the heights, and decipher the laws of

         His nature? Also: to us of Thelema, thus having trained our

         hearts and minds to be expert engineers of the sky-cleaver

         Love, the ship to soar to the Sun, to us the act of Love is

         the consecration of the body to Love. We burn the body on the

         altar of Love, that even the brute may serve the Will of the

         Soul. We must then study the art of Bodily Love. We must not

         balk or bungle. We must be cool and competent as surgeons;

         brain, eye and hand the perfectly trained instruments of

         Will.  We must study the subject openly and impersonally, we

         must read text-books, listen to lectures, watch

         demonstrations, earn our diplomas ere we enter practice.  We

         do not mean what the bourgeois means when we say `the act of

         love'. To us it is not the gross gesture as of a man in a

         seizure, a snorting struggle, a senseless spasm, and a sudden

         revulsion of shame, as it is to him.  We have an art of

         expression; we art trained to interpret the soul and the

         spirit in terms of the body. We do not deny the existence of

         the body, or despise it; but we refuse to regard it in any

         other light than this: it is the organ of the Self. It must

         nevertheless be ordered according to its own laws; those of

         the mental or moral Self do not apply to it. We love; that

         is, we will to unite: then the one must study the other,

         divine every butterfly thought as it flits, and offer the

         flower it most fancies. The vocabulary of Love is small, and

         its terms are hackneyed; to seek new words and phrases is to

         be affected, stilted. It chills.  But the language of the

         body is never exhausted; one may talk for an hour by means of

         an eye-lash. There art intimate, delicate things, shadows of

         the leaves of the Tree of the Soul that dance in the breeze

         of Love, so subtle that neither Keats nor Heine in words,

         neither Brahms nor Debussy in music, could give them body. It

         is the agony of every artist, the greater he the more fierce

         his despair, that he cannot compass expression. And what they

         cannot do, not once in a life of ardour, is done in all

         fulness by the body that, loving, hath learnt the lesson of

         how to love.   Addendum: More generally, any act soever may

         be used to attain any end soever by the magician who knows

         how to make the necessary links.

         53.    It is clear that this `kiss' (i.e. this Book) will

         regenerate Earth by establishing the Law of Liberty. `My

         heart and my tongue' seems a mere phrase of endearment; but

         has possibly some deep significance which at present escapes

         me.  The second paragraph is perhaps in answer to some

         unspoken thought of my own that my work was accomplished. No:

         though I be `of the princes' with the right to enter into my

         reward, it is my destiny to continue my Work.*

         54.    The subject changes most abruptly, perhaps answering

         some unspoken comment of the scribe on the capital T's in `To

         me'.  This injunction was most necessary, for had I been left

         to myself, I should have wanted to edit the Book ruthlessly.

         I find in it what I consider faults of style, and even of

         grammar; much of the matter was at the time of writing most

         antipathetic. But the Book proved itself greater than the

         scribe; again and again have the `mistakes' proved themselves

         to be devices for transmitting a Wisdom beyond the scope of

         ordinary language.

         56.    All previous systems have been sectarian, based on a

         traditional cosmography both gross and incorrect. Our system

         is based on absolute science and philosophy. We have `all in

         the clear light', that of Reason, because our Mysticism is

         based on an absolute Scepticism. But at the time of this

         writing I had very little mystic experience indeed, as my

         record shows. The Fact is that I was far, far from the Grade

         even of Master of the Temple. So I could not properly

         understand this Book; how then could I effectively promulgate

         it? I comprehended but dimly that it contained my Word; for

         the Grade of Magus then seemed to me unthinkably high above

         me. Also, let me say that the True Secrets of this Grade and

         unfathomable and awful beyond all expression; the process of

         initiation thereto was continuous over years, and contained

         the most sublime mystic experiences -- beyond any yet

         recorded by man -- as mere incidents in its terrific Pageant.

         The `equation' is the representation of Truth by Word.

         57.    `Love is the law, love under will', is an

         interpretation of the general law of Will. It is dealt with

         fully in the Book Aleph.  I here insert a few pertinent

         passages from that Book.  "This is the evident and final

         Solvent of the Knot Philosophical concerning Fate and

         Freewill, that it is thine own Self, omniscient and

         omnipotent, sublime in Eternity, that first didst order the

         Course of thine own Orbit, so that that which befalleth thee

         by Fate is indeed the necessary Effect of thine own Will.

         These two, then, that like Gladiators have made War in

         Philosophy through these many Centuries, art made One by the

         Love under Will which is the Law of Thelema.  O my Son, there

         is no Doubt that resolveth not in Certainty and Rapture at

         the Touch of the Wand of our Law, and thou apply it with Wit.

         Do thou grow constantly in the Assimilation of the Law, and

         thou shalt be made perfect.  Behold, there is a Pageant of

         Triumph as each Star, free from Confusion, sweepeth free in

         its right Orbit; all Heaven acclaimeth thee as thou goest,

         transcendental in Joy and in Splendour; and thy Light is as a

         Beacon to them that Wander afar, strayed in the Night.

         Amoun."   The `old comment' covers the rest of this verse

         sufficiently for the present purpose.  I see no harm in

         revealing the mystery of Tzaddi to `the wise'; others will

         hardly understand my explanations.  Tzaddi is the letter of

         The Emperor, the Trump IV, and He is the Star, the Trump

         XVII. Aquarius and Aries are therefore counterchanged,

         revolving on the pivot of Pisces, just as, in the Trumps VIII

         and XI, Leo and Libra do about Virgo. This last revelation

         makes our Tarot attributions sublimely, perfectly, flawlessly

         symmetrical.  The fact of its so doing is a most convincing

         proof of the superhuman Wisdom of the author of this Book to

         those who have laboured for years, in vain, to elucidate the

         problems of the Tarot.

         58.    These joys art principally (1) the Beatific Vision, in

         which Beauty is constantly present to the recipient of Her

         grace, together with a calm and unutterable joy; (2) the

         Vision of Wonder, in which the whole Mystery of the Universe

         is constantly understood and admired for its Ingenium and

         Wisdom. (1) is referred to Tiphereth, the Grade of Adept; (2)

         to Binah, the grade of Master of the Temple.  The certainty

         concerning death is conferred by the Magical Memory, and

         various Experiences without which Life is unintelligible.

         `Peace unutterable' is given by the Trance in which Matter is

         destroyed; `rest' by that which finally equilibrates Motion.

         `Ecstasy' refers to a Trance which combines these.  `Nor do I

         demand aught in sacrifice' -- The ritual of worship is

         Samadhi. But see later, verse 61.

         59.    It seems possible that Our Lady describes Her hair as

         `the trees of Eternity' because of the tree-like structure of

         the Cosmos. This is observed in the `Star-Sponge' Vision. I

         must explain this by giving a comparatively full account of

         this vision.

                         "The `Star-Sponge' Vision.  There is a vision

         of a peculiar character which has been of cardinal importance

         in my interior life, and to which constant reference is made

         in my magical diaries. So far as I know, there is no extant

         description of this vision anywhere, and I was surprised on

         looking through my records to find that I had given no clear

         account of it myself. The reason apparently is that it is so

         necessary a part of myself that I unconsciously assume it to

         be a matter of common knowledge, just as one assumes that

         everybody knows that one possesses a pair of lungs, and

         therefore abstains from mentioning the fact directly,

         although perhaps alluding to the matter often enough.  It

         appears very essential to describe this vision as well as is

         possible, considering the difficulty of language, and the

         fact that the phenomena involve logical contradictions, the

         conditions of consciousness being other than those obtaining

         normally.  The vision developed gradually. It was repeated on

         so many occasions that I am unable to say at what period it

         may be called complete. The beginning, however, is clear

         enough in my memory.  I was on a retirement in a cottage

         overlooking Lake Pasquaney in New Hampshire. I lost

         consciousness of everything but an universal space in which

         were innumerable bright points, and I realized this as a

         physical representation of the Universe, in what I may call

         its essential structure. I exclaimed: `Nothingness, with

         twinkles!' I concentrated upon this vision, with the result

         that the void space which had been the principal element of

         it diminished in importance; space appeared to be ablaze, yet

         the radiant points were not confused, and I thereupon

         completed my sentence with the exclamation `But what

         Twinkles!' The next stage of this vision led to an

         identification of the blazing points with the stars of the

         firmament, with ideas, souls, etc. I perceived also that each

         star was connected by a ray of light with each other star. In

         the world of ideas, each thought possessed a necessary

         relation with each other thought; each such relation is of

         course a thought in itself; each such ray is itself a star.

         It is here that logical difficulty first presents itself. The

         seer has a direct perception of infinite series. Logically,

         therefore, it would appear as if the entire space must be

         filled up with a homogeneous blaze of light. This however is

         not the case. The space is completely full; yet the monads

         which fill it are perfectly distinct. The ordinary reader

         might well exclaim that such statements exhibit symptoms of

         mental confusion. The subject demands more than cursory

         examination. I can do no more than refer the critic to the

         Hon. Bertrand Russell's Introduction to Mathematical

         Philosophy, where the above position is thoroughly justified,

         as also certain positions which follow. At the time I had not

         read this book; and I regard it as a  striking proof of the

         value of mystical attainment, that its results should have

         led a mind such as mine, whose mathematical training was of

         the most elementary character, to the immediate consciousness

         of some of the most profound and important mathematical

         truths; to the acquisition of the power to think in a manner

         totally foreign to the normal mind, the rare possession of

         the greatest thinkers in the world.  A further development of

         the vision brought the consciousness that the structure of

         the universe was highly organized, that certain stars were of

         greater magnitude and brilliancy than the rest. I began to

         seek similes to help me to explain myself. Several such

         attempts are mentioned later in this note. Here again are

         certain analogies with some of the properties of infinite

         series. The reader must not be shocked at the idea of a

         number which is not increased by addition or multiplication,

         a series of infinite series, each one of which may be twice

         as long as its predecessor, and so on. There is no `mystical

         humbug' about this. As Mr. Russell shows, truths of this

         order are more certain than the most universally accepted

         axioms; in fact, many axioms accepted by the intellect of the

         average man are not true at all. But in order to appreciate

         these truths, it is necessary to educate the mind to thought

         of an order which is at first sight incompatible with

         rationality.  I may here digress for a moment in order to

         demonstrate how this vision led directly to the understanding

         of the mechanism of certain phenomena which have hitherto

         been dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders as

         incomprehensible.  Example No. 1. I began to become aware of

         my own mental processes; I thought of my consciousness as the

         Commander-in- Chief of an army. There existed a staff of

         specialists to deal with various contingencies. There was an

         intelligence department to inform me of my environment. There

         was a council which determined the relative importance of the

         data presented to them -- it required only a slight effort of

         imagination to think of this council as in debate; I could

         picture to myself some tactically brilliant proposal being

         vetoed by the Quarter- Master-General. It was only one step

         to dramatize the scene, and it flashed upon me in a moment

         that here was the explanation of `double personality': that

         illusion was no more than a natural personification of

         internal conflict, just as the savage attributes

         consciousness to trees and rocks.  Example No. 2. While at

         Montauk I had put my sleeping bag to dry in the sun. When I

         went to take it in, I remarked, laughingly, `Your bedtime,

         Master Bag,' as if it were a small boy and I its nurse. This

         was entirely frivolous, but the thought flashed into my mind

         that after all the bag was in one sense a part of myself. The

         two ideas came together with a snap, and I understood the

         machinery of a man's delusion that he is a teapot.  These two

         examples may give some idea to the reader of the light which

         mystical attainment throws upon the details of the working of

         the human mind.  Further developments of this vision

         emphasized the identity between the Universe and the mind.

         The search for similes deepened. I had a curious impression

         that the thing I was looking for was somehow obvious and

         familiar. Ultimately it burst upon me with fulminating

         conviction that the simile for which I was seeking was the

         nervous system. I exclaimed: `The mind is the nervous system,

         ' with all the enthusiasm of Archimedes, and it only dawned

         on me later, with a curious burst of laughter at my naivete,

         that my great discovery amounted to a platitude.   From this

         I came to another discovery: I perceived why platitudes were

         stupid. The reason was that they represented the summing up

         of trains of thought, each of which was superb in every

         detail at one time. A platitude was like a wife after a few

         years; she has lost none of her charms, and yet one prefers

         some perfectly worthless woman.  I now found myself able to

         retrace the paths of thought which ultimately come together

         in a platitude. I would start with some few simple ideas and

         develop them. Each stage in the process was like the joy of a

         young eagle soaring from height to height in ever increasing

         sunlight as dawn breaks, foaming, over the purple hem of the

         garment of ocean, and, when the many coloured rays of rose

         and gold and green gathered themselves together and melted

         into the orbed glory of the sun, with a rapture that shook

         the soul with unimaginable ecstasy, that sphere of rushing

         light was recognized as a common-place idea, accepted

         unquestioningly and treated with drab indifference because it

         had so long been assimilated as a natural and necessary part

         of the order of Nature. At first I was shocked and disgusted

         to discover that a series of brilliant researches should

         culminate in a commonplace. But I soon understood that what I

         had done was to live over again the triumphant career of

         conquering humanity; that I had experienced in my own person

         the succession of winged victories that had been sealed by a

         treaty of peace whose clauses might be summed up in some such

         trite expression as `Beauty depends upon form'."

         It would be quite impracticable to go fully into the subject

         of this vision of the Star-Sponge, if only because its

         ramifications are omniform. It must suffice to reiterate that

         it has been the basis of most of my work for the last five

         years, and to remind the reader that the essential form of it

         is `Nothingness with twinkles'.

         62.    It is evident that Our Lady, in her Personality,

         contemplates some more or less open form of worship suited

         for the laity. With the establishment of the Law something of

         this sort may become possible. It is only necessary to kill

         out the sense of `sin', with its false shame and its fear of

         nature.  P.S. The Gnostic Mass is intended to supply this

         need. Liber XV. It has been said continuously in California

         for some years.

         63.    All those acts which excite the divine in man are

         proper to the Rite of Invocation.  Religion, as understood by

         the vile Puritan, is the very opposite of all this. He -- it

         -- seems to wish to kill his -- its -- soul by forbidding

         every expression of it, and every practice which might awaken

         it to expression. To hell with this Verbotenism!  In

         particular, let me exhort all men and all women, for they are

         Stars! Heed well this holy Verse!  True Religion is

         intoxication, in a sense. We are told elsewhere to intoxicate

         the innermost, not the outermost; but I think that the word

         `wine' should be taken in its widest sense as meaning that

         which brings out the soul. Climate, soil, and race change

         conditions; each man or woman must find and choose the fit

         intoxicant. Thus hashish in one or the other of its forms

         seems to suit the Moslem, to go with dry heat; opium is right

         for the Mongol; whiskey for the dour temperament and damp

         cold climate of the Scot.  Sex-expression, too, depends on

         climate and so on, so that we must interpret the Law to suit

         a Socrates, a Jesus, and a Burton, or a Marie Antoinette and

         a de Lamballe, as well as our own Don Juans and Faustines.

         With this expansion, to the honour and glory of Them, of

         Their Natures, we acclaim therefore our helpers, Dionysus,

         Aphrodite, Apollo, Wine, Woman, and song.  Intoxication, that

         is, ecstasy, is the key to Reality. It is explained in

         `Energized Enthusiasm' The Equinox I(9)) that there are three

         Gods whose function is to bring the Soul to the Realization

         of its own glory: Dionysus, Aphrodite, Apollo; Wine, Woman,

         and song.  The ancients, both in the highest civilizations,

         as in Greece and Egypt, and in the most primitive savagery,

         as among the Buriats and the Papuans, were well aware of

         this, and made their religious ceremonies `orgia', Works.

         Puritan foulness, failing to understand what was happening,

         degraded the word `orgies' to mean debauches. It is the old

         story of the Fox who lost his tail. If you cannot do

         anything, call it impossible; or, if that be evidently

         absurd, call it wicked!  It is critics who deny poetry,

         people without capacity for Ecstasy and Will who call

         Mysticism moonshine and Magick delusion. It is manless old

         cats, geldings, and psychopaths, who pretend to detest Love,

         and persecute Free Women and Free Men.  Verbotenism has gone

         so far in certain slave-communities that the use of wine is

         actually prohibited by law!  I wish here to emphasise that

         the Law of Thelema definitely enjoins us, as a necessary act

         of religion, to `drink sweet wines and wines that foam'. Any

         free man or woman who resides in any community where this is

         verboten has a choice between two duties: insurrection and

         emigration.  The furtive disregard of Restriction is not

         Freedom. It tends to make men slaves and hypocrites, and to

         destroy respect for Law.  Have no fear: two years after Vodka

         was verboten, Russia, which had endured a thousand lesser

         tyrannies with patience, rose in Revolution.  Religious

         ecstasy is necessary to man's soul Where this is attained by

         mystical practices, directly, as it should be, people need no

         substitutes. Thus the Hindus remain contentedly sober, and

         care nothing for the series of Invaders who have occupied

         their country from time to time and governed them. But where

         the only means of obtaining this ecstasy, or a simulacrum of

         it, known to the people, is alcohol, they must have alcohol.

         Deprive them of wine, or beer, or whatever their natural

         drink may be, and they replace it by morphia, cocaine, or

         something easier to conceal, and to take without detection.

         Stop that, and it is Revolution. As long as a man can get rid

         of his surplus Energy in enjoyment, he finds life easy, and

         submits. Deprive him of Pleasure, of Ecstasy, and his mind

         begins to worry about the way in which he is exploited and

         oppressed. Very soon he begins furtively to throw bombs; and,

         gathering strength, to send his tyrants to the gallows.

         220A2-1.ASC

         1.    We see again set forth the complementary character of Nuith and

         Hadith. Nu conceals Had because He is Everywhere in the Infinite, and

         She manifests Him for the same reason. See verse 3. Every Individual

         manifests the Whole; and the Whole conceals every Individual. The Soul

         interprets the Universe; and the Universe veils the Soul. Nature

         understands Herself by becoming self-conscious in Her units; and the

         Consciousness loses its sense of separateness by dissolution in Her.

         There has been much difficulty in the orthography (in sacred

         languages) of these names. Nu is clearly stated to be 56; but Had is

         only hinted obscurely. This matter is discussed later more fully;

         verses 15 and 16.

         2.    Khabs -- `a star' -- is an unit of Nuit, and therefore Nuit

         Herself. This doctrine is enormously difficult of apprehension, even

         after these many years of study.  Hadit is the `core of every star,'

         verse 6. He is thus the Impersonal Identity within the Individuality

         of `every man and every woman.' He is `not extended;' that is, without

         condition of any sort in the metaphysical sense. Only in the highest

         trances can the nature of these truths be realized. It is indeed a

         suprarational experience not dissimilar to those characteristic of the

         `Star- Sponge' Vision previously described that can help us here. The

         trouble is that the truth itself is unfitted to the dualistic reason

         of `normal' mankind. Hadit seems to be the principle of Motion which

         is everywhere, yet is not extended in any dimension except as it

         chances to combine with the `Matter' which is Nuit. There can

         evidently be no manifestation apart from this conjunction. A `Khabs'

         or Star is apparently any nucleus where this conjunction has taken

         place. The real philosophical difficulty about this cosmogony is not

         concerned with any particular equation, or even with the Original

         Equation. We can understand x=ab, x, = a, b, & c; and also 0  =pa

         qb, whether pa - qb = 0 or not. But we ask how the homogeneity of both

         Nuit and Hadit can ever lead to even the illusion of `difference.' The

         answer appears  to be that this difference appears naturally with the

         self-realization of Nuit as the totality of possibilities; each of

         these, singly and in combination, is satisfied or set in motion by

         Hadit, to compose a particular manifestation,  could possess no

         signification at all, unless there were diverse dimensions wherein it

         had no extension. `Nothing' means nothing save from the point of view

         of `Two,' just as `Two' is monstrous unless it is seen as a mode of

         `Nothing.' The above explanation appears somewhat disingenuous, since

         there is no means whatever of distinguishing any Union  H N = R from

         another. We must postulate a further stage.  R (Ra-Hoor-Khuit) Kether,

         Unity, is always itself; but we may suppose that a number of such

         homogeneous positive manifestations may form groups differing from

         each other as to size and structure so as to create the illusion of

         diversity.

         3.    This is again interesting as throwing light on the thesis; Every

         man and every woman is a star. There is no place soever that is not a

         Centre of Light.  This Truth is to be realised by direct perception,

         not merely by intellection. It is axiomatic; it cannot be

         demonstrated. It is to be assimilated by experience of the Vision of

         the `Star- Sponge.'

         4.    See later, verse 13, `Thou (i.e. the Beast, who is here the

         Mask, or `per-sona,' of Hadit) wast the knower.' Hadit possesses the

         power to know, Nuit that of being known. Nuit is not unconnected with

         the idea of Nibbana, the `Shoreless Sea, ' in which Knowledge is Not.

         Hadit is hidden in Nuit, and knows Her, She being an object of

         knowledge; but He is not knowable, for He is merely that part of Her

         which She formulates in order that She may be known.

         5.    The `old time' is the Aeon of the Dying God. Some of his rituals

         are founded on an utterly false metaphysic and cosmogony; but others

         are based on Truth. We mend these, and end these.  This `Knowledge' is

         the initiated Wisdom of this Aeon of Horus.   See Book 4, Part III,

         for an account of the new principles of magick.  Note that Knowledge

         is Daath, Child of Chokmah by Binah, and crown of Microprosopus; yet

         he is not one of the Sephiroth, and his place is in the Abyss. By this

         symbolism we draw attention to the fact that Knowledge is by nature

         impossible; for it implies Duality and is therefore relative. Any

         proposition of Knowledge may be written `ARB:' `A has the relation R

         to B.' Now if A and B are identical, the proposition conveys no

         knowledge at all. If A is not identical with B, ARB implies `A is

         identical with BC;' this assumes that not less than three distinct

         ideas exist. In every case, we must proceed either to the identity

         which means ultimately `Nothing,' or to divergent diversities which

         only seem to mean something so long as we refrain from pushing the

         analysis of any term to its logical elements. For example, `Sugar is

         sugar' is obviously not knowledge. But no more is this: `Sugar is a

         sweet white crystalline carbo-hydrate.' For each of these four terms

         describes a sensory impression on ourselves; and we define our

         impressions only in terms of such things as sugar. Thus `sweet' means

         `the quality ascribed by our taste to honey, sugar, etc.'; `white' is

         `what champaks, zinc oxide, sugar, etc. report to our eyesight;' and

         so on. The proposition is ultimately an identity, for all our attempts

         to evade the issue by creating complications. `Knowledge' is therefore

         not a `thing-in-itself;' it is rightly denied a place upon the Tree of

         Life; it pertains to the Abyss.  Besides the above considerations, it

         may be observed that Knowledge, so far as it exists at all, even as a

         statement of relation, is no more than a momentary phenomenon of

         consciousness. It is annihilated in the instant of its creation. For

         no sooner do we assent to ARB than ARB is absorbed in our conception

         of A. After the nine-days' wonder of `The earth revolves round the

         sun,' we modify our former idea of Earth. `Earth' is intuitively

         classed with other solar satellites. The proposition vanishes

         automatically as it is assimilated. Knowledge, while it exists as such

         is consequently sub judice, at the best. What then may we understand

         by this verse, with its capital K for `Knowledge:' What is it, and how

         shall it `go aright?' The key is in the word `go.' It cannot `be,' as

         we have seen above; it is the fundamental error of the `Black

         Brothers' in their policy of resisting all Change, to try to maintain

         it as fixed and absolute. But (as the Tree of Life indicates)

         Knowledge is the means by which the conscious mind, Microprosopus,

         reaches to Understanding and to Wisdom, its mother and father, which

         reflect respectively Nuith and Hadit from the Ain and Kether. The

         process is to use each new item of knowledge to correct and increase

         one's comprehension of the Subject of the Proposition. Thus ARB should

         tell us: A is (not A, as we supposed) but A. This facilitates the

         discovery A,R.C leading to A, is A ; and so on. In practice, every

         thing that we learn about (e.g.) `horse' helps us to understand -- to

         enjoy -- the idea. The difference between the scholar and the

         schoolboy is that the former glows and exults when he is reminded of

         some word like `Thalassa.' Ourselves:- What a pageant of passion

         empurples our minds whenever we think of the number 93! Most of all,

         each new thing that we know about ourselves helps us to realize what

         we mean by our `Star.' Now, `the rituals of the old time,' are no

         longer valid vehicles; Knowledge cannot `go aright' until they are

         adapted to the Formula of the New Aeon. Their defects are due

         principally to two radical errors. (1.) The Universe was conceived as

         possessing a fixed centre, or summit; an absolute standard to which

         all things might be referred; an Unity, or God. (Mystics were angry

         and bewildered, often enough, when attaining to `union with God' they

         found him equally in all). This led to making a difference between one

         thing and another, and so to the ideas of superiority, of sin, etc.,

         ending by absurdities of all kinds, alike in theology, ethics, and

         science. (2) The absolute antithesis between the pairs of opposites.

         This is really a corollary of (1). There was an imaginary `absolute

         evil' which made Manichaeanism necessary -- despite the cloaks of the

         Causists -- and meant `That which leads one away from God.' But each

         man, while postulating an absolute `God' and `Evil' were really

         expressions of personal prejudice. A man who `bowed humbly to the

         Authority of' the Pope, or the Bible, or the Sanhedrim, or the Oracle

         of Apollo, or the tribal Medicine-Man, none the less expressed truly

         his own Wish to abdicate responsibility. In the light of this Book, we

         know that the centre is everywhere, the circumference nowhere; that

         `Every man and every woman is a star,' a `Khabs,' the name of the

         house of Hadit; that `The word of Sin is Restriction.' To us, then,

         `evil' is a relative term; it is `that which hinders one from

         fulfilling his true Will.'(E.g., rain is `good' or `bad' for the

         farmer according to the requirements of his crops).  The Osirian

         Rituals inculcating self-sacrifice to an abstract ideal, mutilation to

         appease an ex cathedra morality, fidelity to a priori formulae, etc.

         teach false and futile methods of acquiring false Knowledge; they must

         be  `cast away' or `purged'. The Schools of Initiation must be

         reformed.

         6.    It follows that, as Hadit can never be known, there is no death.

         The death of the individual is his awakening to the impersonal

         immortality of Hadit. This applies less to physical death than to the

         Crossing of the Abyss; for which see Liber 418, Fourteenth Aethyr. One

         may attain to be aware that one is but a particular `child' of the

         Play of Hadit and Nuit; one's personality is then perceived as being a

         disguise. It is not only not a living thing, as one had thought; but a

         mere symbol without substance, incapable of life. It is the

         conventional form of a certain cluster of thoughts, themselves the

         partial and hieroglyphic symbols of an `ego.' The conscious and

         sensible `man' is to his Self just what the printed letters on this

         page are to me who have caused them to manifest in colour and form.

         They are arbitrary devices for conveying my thought; I could use

         French or Greek just as well. Nor is this thought, here conveyed, more

         than one ray of my Orb; and even that whole Orb is but the garment of

         Me. The analogy is precise; therefore when one becomes `the knower,'

         it involves the `death' of all sense of the Ego. One perceives one's

         personality precisely as I now do these printed letters; and they are

         forgotten, just as, absorbed in my thought, the trained automatism of

         my mind and body expresses that thought in writing, without attention

         on my part, still less with identification of the extremes involved in

         the process.

         7.    `It is I that go.' The Book Aleph must be consulted for a full

         demonstration of this truth. We may say briefly that Hadit is Motion,

         that is, Change or `Love.' The symbol of Godhead in Egypt was the

         Ankh, which is a sandal-strap, implying the Power to Go; and it

         suggests the Rosy Cross, the Fulfilment of Love, by its shape.  The

         Wheel end the Circle are evidently symbols of Nuith; this sentence

         insists upon the conception of Lingam-Yoni. But beyond the obvious

         relation, we observe two geometrical definitions. The axle is a

         cylinder set perpendicularly to the plane of the wheel; thus Hadit

         supplies the third dimension to Nuith. It suggests that Matter is to

         be conceived as Two-dimensional; that is, perhaps, as possessed of two

         qualities, extension and potentiality. To these Hadit brings motion

         and position. The wheel moves; manifestation now is possible. Its

         perception implies three-dimensional space, and time. But note that

         the Mover is himself not moved. The `cube in the circle' emphasizes

         this question of dimensions. The cube is rectilinear (therefore

         phallic no less than the axle); its unity suggests perfection

         projected as a `solid' for human perception; its square faces affirm

         balance, equity, and limitation; its six- sidedness sets it among the

         solar symbols. It is thus like the Sun in the Zodiac, which is no more

         than the field for His fulfilment in His going. He, by virtue of his

         successive relations with each degree of the circle, clothes Himself

         with an appearance of `Matter in Motion,' although absolute motion

         through space is a meaningless expression (Eddington, Op, cit.). None

         the less, every point in the cube -- there are 2 of them -- has an

         unique relation with every point in the circle exactly balanced

         against an equal and opposite relation. We have thus Matter that both

         is and is not, Motion that both moves and moves not, interacting in a

         variety of ways which is infinite to manifest individuals, each of

         which is unlike any other, yet is symmetrically supported by its

         counterpart. Note that even at the centre of gravity of the cube no

         two rays are identical except in mere length. They differ as to their

         point of contact with the circle, their right ascension, and their

         relation with the other points of the cube.  Why is Nuith restricted

         to two dimensions? We usually think of space as a sphere. `None ----

         and two:' extension and potentiality are Her only projections of

         Naught. It is strange, by the way to find that modern mathematics says

         `Spherical space is not very easy to imagine' (Eddington,

         Op.cit.p.158) and prefers to attribute a geometrical form whose

         resemblance to the Kteis is most striking. For Nuit is,

         philosophically speaking, the archetype of the Kteis, giving

         appropriate Form to all Being, and offering every possibility of

         fulfilment of every several point that it envelops. But Nuith cannot

         be symbolized as three-dimensional, in our system; each unit has

         position by three spatial, and one temporal, coordinates. It cannot

         exist, in our consciousness, with less, as a reality. Each

         `individual' must be a `point-interval;' he must be the product of

         some part of the Matter of Nuit (with special energies) determined in

         space by his relations with his neighbours, and in time by his

         relations with himself.  It is evidently `a foolish word' for Hadit to

         say `Come unto me,' as did Nuit naturally enough, meaning `Fulfil thy

         possibilities;' for who can `come unto' Motion itself, who draw near

         unto that which is in very truth his innermost identity?

         8.    Harpocrates is also the Dwarf-Soul, the Secret Self of every

         man, the Serpent with the Lion's Head. Now Hadit knows Nuit by virtue

         of his `Going' or `Love.' It is therefore wrong to worship Hadit; one

         is to be Hadit, and worship Her. This is clear even from His

         instruction `To worship me' in verse 22 of this chapter. Confer,

         Cap.I, v.9. We are exhorted to offer ourselves unto Nuit, pilgrims to

         all her temples. It is bad Magick to admit that one is other than

         One's inmost self. One should plunge passionately into every posseble

         experience; by doing so one is purged of those personal prejudices

         which we took so stupidly for ourselves, though they prevented us from

         realizing our true Wills and from knowing our Names and Natures. The

         Aspirant must well understand that it is no paradox to say that the

         Annihilation of the Ego in the Abyss is the condition of emancipating

         the true Self, and exalting it to unimaginable heights. So long as one

         remains `one's self,' one is overwhelmed by the Universe; destroy the

         sense of self, and every event is equally an expression of one's Will,

         since its occurrence is the resultant of the concourse of the forces

         which one recognizes as one's own.

         9.    This verse is very thoroughly explained in Liber Aleph. `All in

         this kind are but shadows' says Shakespeare, referring to actors. The

         Universe is a Puppet-Play for the amusement of Nuit and Hadit in their

         Nuptials; a very Midsummer Night's Dream. So then we laugh at the mock

         woes of Pyramus and Thisbe, the clumsy gambols of Bottom; for we

         understand the Truth of Things, how all is a Dance of Ecstasy. `Were

         the world understood, Ye would know it was good, a Dance to a lyrical

         measure!' The nature of events must be `pure joy;' for obviously,

         whatever occurs is the fulfilment of the Will of its master. Sorrow

         thus appears as the result of any unsuccessful -- therefore,

         ill-judged -- struggle. Acquiescence in the order of Nature is the

         ultimate Wisdom. One must understand the Universe perfectly, and be

         utterly indifferent to its pressure. These are the virtues which

         constitute a Master of the Temple. Yet each man must act What he will;

         for he is energized by his own nature. So long as he works `without

         lust of result' and does his duty for its own sake, he will know that

         `the sorrows are but shadows.' And he himself is `that which remains;'

         for he can no more be destroyed, or his true Will be thwarted, than

         Matter diminish or Energy disappear. He is a necessary Unit of the

         Universe, equal and opposite to the sum total of all the others; and

         his Will is similarly the final factor which completes the equilibrium

         of the dynamical equation. He cannot fail if he would; thus, his

         sorrows are but shadows - he could not see them if he kept his gaze

         fixed on his goal, the Sun.

         10.    As related in Equinox I, VII, I was at the time of this

         revelation, a rationalistic Buddhist, very convinced of the First

         Noble Truth: `Everything is Sorrow.' I supposed this point of view to

         be an absolute and final truth -- as if Apemantus were the only

         character in Shakespeare!  It is also explained in that place how I

         was prepared for this Work by that period of Dryness. If I had been in

         sympathy with it, my personality would have interfered. I should have

         tried to better my instructions.  See, in Liber 418, the series of

         visions by which I actually transcended Sorrow. But the considerations

         set forth in the comment on verse 9 lead to a simpler, purer, and more

         perfect attainment for those who can assimilate them in the

         subconscious mind by the process described in the comment on verse 6.

         It may encourage certain types of aspirant if I emphasize my personal

         position. AIWAZ made no mistake when he spoke this verse -- and the

         triumphant contempt of his tone still rings in my ear! After seventeen

         years of unparalleled spiritual progress, of unimaginably intense

         ecstasies, of beatitudes prolonged for whole months, of initiations

         indescribably exalted, of proof piled on proof of His power, His

         vigilance, His love, after being protected and energized with

         incredible aptness, I find myself still only too ready to grumble, nay

         even to doubt. It seems as if I resented the whole business. There art

         times when I feel that the amoeba, the bourgeois, and the cow

         represent the ABC of enviable creatures. There may be a melancholic

         strain in me, as one might expect in a case of renal weakness such as

         mine. In any event, it is surely a most overwhelming proof that AIWAZ

         is not myself, but my master, that He could force me to write verse 9,

         at a time when I was both intellectually and spiritually disgusted

         with, and despairing of, the Universe, as well as physically alarmed

         about my health.

         11.    This compulsion was that of true inspiration. It was the Karma

         of countless incarnations of struggle towards the light. There is a

         sharp repulsion, physical and mental, toward any initiation, like that

         towards death.  The above paragraph states only a part of the truth. I

         am not sure that it is not an attempt to explain away the verse, which

         humiliates me. I remember clearly enough the impulse to refuse to go

         on, and the fierce resentment at the refusal of my muscles to obey me.

         Reflect that I was being compelled to make an abject recantation of

         practically every article of my creed, and I had not even Cranmer's

         excuse. I was proud of my personal prowess as a poet, hunter, and

         mountaineer of admittedly dauntless virility; yet I was being treated

         like a hypnotized imbecile, only worse, for I was perfectly aware of

         what I was doing.

         12.    The use of capitals `Me' and `Thee' emphasizes that Hadit was

         wholly manifested in The Beast. It is to be remembered that The Beast

         has agreed to follow the instructions communicated to Him only in

         order to show that `nothing would happen if you broke all the rules.'

         Poor fool! The Way of Mastery is to break all the rules -- but you

         have to know them perfectly before you can do this; otherwise you are

         not in a position to transcend them.  Aiwaz here explains that his

         power over me depended upon the fact that Hadit is verily `the core of

         every star.' As is well known, there is a limit to the power of the

         hypnotist; he cannot overcome the resistance of the Unconscious of his

         patient. My own Unconscious was thus in alliance with Aiwaz; taken

         between two fires, my conscious self was paralyzed so long as the

         pressure lasted. It will be seen later -- verses 61 to 69 -- that my

         consciousness was ultimately invaded by the Secret Self, and

         surrendered unconditionally, so that, it proclaimed, loudly and

         gladly, from its citadel, the victory of its rightful Lord. The

         mystery is indeed this, that in so prosperous and joyous a city, there

         should still be groups of malcontents whose grumblings are

         occasionally audible.

         220A2-2.ASC

         13.    Hadit had to overcome the silly `knower,' who thought

         everything was Sorrow. Cf. `Who am I?' -- `Thou knowest' in

         Chapter I.  I am far from satisfied with either of the above

         interpretations of this verse. We shall see a little later,

         verses 27 - xx, a general objection to `Because' and `why.'

         Then how is it that Hadit does not disdain to use those

         terms? It must be for the sake of my mind. Then, `for why' is

         detestably vulgar; and no straining of grammar excuses or

         explains the `me.'  We have two alternatives. The verse may

         be an insult to me. My memory tells me, however, that the

         tone of the voice of Aiwaz was at this point low, even, and

         musical. It sounded like a confidential, almost deferential,

         clarification of the previous verse, which had rung out with

         joyful crescendo.  The alternative is that the verse contains

         some Qabalistic proof of the authority of Aiwaz to lay down

         the law in so autocratic a manner. Just so, one might add

         weight to one's quotation from Sappho, in the English, by

         following it up with the original Greek.  The absence of all

         capital letters favours this theory. Such explanation, if

         discovered, will be given in the Appendix.  However, simply

         enough, the solution begins with the idea that the small

         initial of `because' would be explained by a colon preceding

         it instead of a note of interrogation, which may have been

         due to my haste, ignorance, and carelessness. Then `for why'

         may be understood: `for the benefit of this Mr. Why -- to

         satisfy your childish clamour for a reason -- I will now

         repeat my remarks in an alternative form such that even your

         stupidity can scarcely fail to observe that I have sealed my

         psychological explanation in cipher.' We find accordingly

         that the arising `of Me in Thee' constitutes a state wherein

         `thou knewest not.' By `knewest' we may understand the

         function of Hadit, intellectually and conjugally united with

         Nuit. (See Book 4, Part III, for GN, the root meaning both

         `to know' and `to beget'). And `not' is Nuit, as in Cap. I.

         Now this idea explains that the arising `of Me (Hadit) in

         Thee (The Beast)' is the fulfilment of the Magical Formula of

         Hadit and Nuit. And to know Nuit is the very definition of

         `joy.' The next verse confirms this: `thou (the Beast) wast

         the knower (Hadit) and (united with) me (Nuit, as in Cap.I.,

         verse 51 & others).' Finally, Nuit is indicated by two

         different symbols `not' (Gk OU) and `me' (Gk MH). Now OU MH

         was my Motto in the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus; Aiwaz thus

         subtly reminds me that I was pledged to deny the assertions

         of my intellectual and moral consciousness. He combines in

         these few words (a) a correct psychological explanation of

         the situation, (b) a correct magical explanation of that

         explanation, (c) a personal rebuke to which I had no possible

         reply, involving a knowledge of my own mental state which was

         superior to my own.  These two verses are sufficient in

         themselves to demonstrate the praeter-human qualities of the

         Author of this Book.

         14.    The subject changes. Hadit will give an Exordium upon

         Himself in the next two verses. Then He will propound an

         ethical doctrine so terrible and strange that men will be

         `devoured and eaten up with blindness' because of it.

         15.    See Appendix.

         16.    See Appendix.

         17.    The dead and the dying, who know not Hadit, are in the

         Illusion of Sorrow. Not being Hadit, they are shadows,

         puppets, and what happens to them does not matter. If you

         insist upon identifying yourself with Hecuba, your tears are

         natural enough.   There is no contradiction here, by the way,

         with verses 4 and 5. The words `know me' are used loosely as

         is natural in a stanza; or, more likely, are used (as in the

         English Bible) to suggest the root GN, identity in

         transcendental ecstasy. Possibly `not' and `me' are once more

         intended to apply to Nuit. With `know' itself, they may be

         `Nothing under its three forms' of negativity, action, and

         individuality.

         18.    This idea is confirmed. Those who sorrow are not real

         people at all, not `stars' -- for the time being. The fact of

         their being `poor and sad' proves them to be `shadows,' who

         `pass and are done.' The `lords of the earth' are those who

         are doing their Will. It does not necessarily mean people

         with coronets and automobiles; there are plenty of such

         people who are the most sorrowful slaves in the world. The

         sole test of one's lordship is to know what one's true Will

         is, and to do it.

         19.    A god living in a dog would be one who was prevented

         from fulfilling his function properly. The highest are those

         who have mastered and transcended accidental environment.

         They rejoice, because they do their Will; and if any man

         sorrow, it is clear evidence of something wrong with him.

         When machinery creaks and growls, the engineer knows that it

         is not fulfilling its function, doing its Will, with ease and

         joy.

         20.    As soon as one realizes one's self as Hadit, one

         obtains all His qualities. It is all a question of doing

         one's Will. A flaming harlot, with red cap and sparkling

         eyes, her foot on the neck of a dead king, is just as much a

         star as her predecessor, simpering in his arms. But one must

         be a flaming harlot -- one must let oneself go, whether one's

         star be twin with that of Shelly, or of Blake, or of Titian,

         or of Beethoven. Beauty and strength come from doing one's

         Will; you have only to look at any one who is doing it to

         recognize the glory of it.

         21.    There is a good deal of the Nietzschean standpoint in

         this verse. It is the evolutionary and natural view. Of what

         use is it to perpetuate the misery  of Tuberculosis, and such

         diseases, as we now do? Nature's way is to weed out the weak.

         This is the most merciful way, too. At present all the strong

         are being damaged, and their progress hindered by the dead

         weight of the weak limbs and the missing limbs, the diseased

         limbs and the atrophied limbs. The Christians to the Lions!

         Our humanitarianism, which is the syphilis of the mind, acts

         on the basis of the lie that the King must die. The King is

         beyond death; it is merely a pool where he dips for

         refreshment. We must therefore go back to Spartan ideas of

         education; and the worst enemies of humanity are those who

         wish, under the pretext of compassion, to continue its ills

         through the generations. The Christians to the Lions!  Let

         weak and wry productions go back into the melting-pot, as is

         done with flawed steel castings. Death will purge,

         reincarnation make whole, these errors and abortions. Nature

         herself may be trusted to do this, if only we will leave her

         alone. But what of those who, physically fitted to live, are

         tainted with rottenness of soul, cancerous with the

         sin-complex? For the third time I answer: The Christians to

         the Lions!  Hadith calls himself the Star, the Star being the

         Unit of the Macrocosm; and the Snake, the Snake being the

         symbol of Going or Love, and the Chariot of Life. He is

         Harpocrates, the Dwarf- Soul, the Spermatozoon of all Life,

         as one may phrase it. The Sun, etc., are the external

         manifestations or Vestures of this Soul, as a Man is the

         Garment of an actual Spermatozoon, the Tree sprung of that

         Seed, with power to multiply and to perpetuate that

         particular Nature, though without necessary consciousness of

         what is happening.   In a deeper sense, the word `Death' is

         meaningless apart from the presentation of the Universe as

         conditioned by `Time.' But what is the meaning of Time?

         There is great confusion of thought in the use of the word

         `eternal,' and the phrase `for ever.' People who want

         `eternal happiness' mean by that a cycle of varying events

         all effective in stimulating pleasant sensations; i.e., they

         want time to continue exactly as it does with themselves

         released from the contingencies of accidents such as poverty,

         sickness and death. An eternal state is however a possible

         experience, if one interprets the term sensibly. One can

         kindle flamman aeternae caritatis,' for instance; one can

         experience a love which is in truth eternal. Such love must

         have no relation with phenomena whose condition is time.

         Similarly, one's `immortal soul' is a different kind of thing

         altogether from one's mortal vesture. This Soul is a

         particular Star, with its own peculiar qualities, of course;

         but these qualities are all `eternal,' and part of the nature

         of the Soul. This Soul being a monistic consciousness, it is

         unable to appreciate itself and its qualities, as explainedin

         a previous entry; so it realizes itself by the device of

         duality, with the limitations of time, space and causality.

         The `Happiness' of Wedded Love or eating Marrons Glaces is a

         concrete external non-eternal expression of the corresponding

         abstract internal eternal idea, just as any triangle is one

         partial and imperfect picture of the idea of a triangle. (It

         does not matter whether we consider `Triangle' as an unreal

         thing invented for the convenience of including all actual

         triangles, or vice versa. Once the idea Triangle has arisen,

         actual triangles are related to it as above stated). One does

         not want even a comparatively brief extension of these

         `actual' states; Wedded Love though licensed for a lifetime,

         is usually intolerable after a month; and Marrons Glaces pall

         after the first five or six kilogrammes have been consumed.

         But the `Happiness,' eternal and formless, is not less

         enjoyable because these forms of it cease to give pleasure.

         What happens is that the Idea ceases to find its image in

         those particular images; it begins to notice the limitations,

         which are not itself and indeed deny itself, as soon as its

         original joy in its success at having become conscious of

         itself wears off. It becomes aware of the external

         imperfection of Marrons Glaces; they no longer represent its

         infinitely varied nature. It therefore rejects them, and

         creates a new form of itself, such as Nightgowns with pale

         yellow ribbons or Amber Cigarettes.  In the same way a poet

         or painter, wishing to express Beauty, is impelled to choose

         a particular form; with luck, this is at first able to

         recompense in him what he feels; but sooner or later he finds

         that he has failed to include certain elements of himself,

         and he must needs embody these in a new poem or picture. He

         may know that he can never do more than present a part of the

         possible perfection, and that in imperfect imagery; but at

         least he may utter his utmost within the limits of the mental

         and sensory instruments of his similarly inadequate symbol of

         the Absolute, his vehicle of human incarnation.  These suffer

         from the same defects as the other forms; ultimately,

         `Happiness' wearies itself in the effort to invent fresh

         images, and becomes disheartened and doubtful of itself. Only

         a few people have wit enough to proceed to generalization

         from the failure of a few familiar figures of itself, and

         recognize that all `actual' forms are imperfect; but such

         people are apt to turn with disgust from the whole procedure,

         and to long for the `eternal' state. This state is however

         incapable of realization, as we know; and the Soul

         understanding this, can find no good but in `Cessation' of

         all things, its creations no more than its own tendencies to

         create. It therefore sighs for Nibbana.  But there is one

         other solution, as I have endeavoured to shew. We may accept

         (what after all it is absurd to accuse and oppose) the

         essential character of existence. We cannot extirpate or even

         alter in the minutest degree either the matter or manner of

         any element of the Universe, here each item is equally

         inherent and important, each aequipollent, independent, and

         interdependent.  We may thus acquiesce in the fact that it is

         apodeictically implicit in the Absolute to apprehend itself

         by self-expression as Positive and Negative in the first

         place, and to combine these primary opposites in an infinite

         variety of finite forms.  We may thus cease either (1) to

         seek the Absolute in any of its images, knowing that we must

         abstract every one of their qualities from every one of these

         equally if we would unveil it; or (2) to reject all images of

         the Absolute, knowing that attainment thereof would be the

         signal for the manifestation of that part of its nature which

         necessarily formulates itself in a new universe of images.

         Realizing that these two courses (the materialist's and the

         mystic's) are equally fatuous, we may engage in either or

         both of two other plans of action, based on assent to

         actuality.  We may (1) ascertain our own particular

         properties as partial projections of the Absolute; we may

         allow every image presented to us to be of equally intrinsic

         and essential entity with ourselves, and its presentation to

         us a phenomenon necessary in Nature; and we may adjust our

         apprehension to the actuality that every event is an item in

         the account which we render to ourselves of our own estate.

         We dare not desire to omit any single entry, lest the balance

         be upset. We may react with elasticity and indifference to

         each occurrence, intent only on the idea that the total,

         intelligently appreciated, constitutes a perfect knowledge

         not indeed of the Absolute but of that part thereof which is

         ourselves. We thus adjust one imperfection accurately to

         another, and remain contented in the appreciation of the

         righteousness of the relation.  This path, the `Way of the

         Tao,' is perfectly proper to all men. It does not attempt

         either to transcend or to tamper with Truth; it is loyal to

         its own laws,and therefore no less perfect than any other

         Truth. The Equation Five plus Six is Eleven is of the same

         order of perfection as Ten Million times Ten times Ten

         Thousand Million is One Billion. In the Universe fomulated by

         the Absolute, every point is equally the Centre; every point

         is equally the focus of the forces of the whole. (In any

         system of three points, any two may be considered solely with

         reference to the third, so that even in a finite universe the

         sum of the properties of all points is the same, though no

         two properties may be common to any two points. Thus a

         circle, BCD, may be described by the revolution of a line AB

         in a plane about the point A; but also from the point C, or

         indeed any other point, by the application of the proper

         analysis and construction. We calculate the motion of the

         solar system in heliocentric terms for no reason but

         simplicity and convenience; we could convert our tables to a

         geocentric basis by mere mechanical manipulation without

         affecting their truth, which is only the truth of the

         relations between a number of bodies. All are alike in

         motion, but we have arbitrarily chosen to consider one of

         them as stationary, so that we may more easily describe the

         movements of the others in regard to it, without complicating

         our calculations by introduction of the movements of the

         whole system as such. And for this purpose the Sun is a more

         convenient standard than the Earth).  There is another Way

         that we may take, if we will; I say `another,' though it

         seems perhaps to some no more than  development of the other

         which happens to be proper to some people.  Even in the first

         Way, it is of all things necessary to begin by exploring

         one's own Nature, so as to discover what its peculiarities

         are; this is accomplished partly by introspection, but

         principally by Right Recollection of the whole phantasmagoria

         presented to it by experience; for since every event of life

         is a symbol of part of the structure of the Soul, the

         totality of experience must by the `Name' if the whole of

         that part of the Soul which has so far uttered itself. Now

         then, let us suppose that some Soul, having penetrated thus

         far, should discover in its `Name' that it is a Son truly

         begotten by the Spirit of Being upon the Body of Form, and

         that it has power to understand itself and its Father, with

         all that such heirship implies. Suppose further that it be

         come to puberty, will it not be impelled to assert itself as

         its Father's son? Will it not shake itself free from the Form

         that bore and nourished and trained it, and turn from its

         brothers and sisters and playmates? Will it not glow and ache

         with the impulse to be utterly itself, and find a Form fit to

         impress with its image, even as did its Father aforetime?  If

         such a Soul be indeed its Father's son, he will not fear to

         show lack of filial reverence, or presumption, if he forget

         its family in the fervour of founding one of his own, of

         begetting boys not better or braver indeed than his brothers,

         girls not softer or sweeter indeed than his sisters, but

         wholly his own, with his own defects and desires evoked by

         enchantment of ecstasy when he dies to himself in the womb of

         the witch who lusts for his life, and buys it with the coin

         that bears his Image and Superscription. Such is the secret

         of the Soul of the Artist. He knows that he is a God, of the

         Sons of God; he has no fear or shame in showing himself of

         the seed of his Father. He is proud of that Father's most

         precious privilege, and he honours him no less than himself

         by using it. He accepts his family as of his own royal stock;

         every one is as princely as he is himself. But he were not

         his Father's son unless he found for himself a Form fit to

         express himself by multiplex reproductions of his Image. He

         must admire himself in many costumes, each emphatic of some

         elected elegance or excellence in himself which would

         otherwise elude his homage by being hidden and hushed in the

         harmony of his heart. This Form which shall serve him must be

         softness' self to his impress, with exact elasticity adapting

         itself to the strongest and subtlest salients, yet like steel

         to resist all other stress than his own, and to retain and

         reproduce surely and sharply the image that his acid bites

         into its surface. There must be no flaw, no irregularity, no

         granulation, no warp in its substance; it must be smooth and

         shining, pure metal of true temper.  And he must love this

         chosen Form, love it with fearful fervour; it is the face of

         his Fate that craves his kiss, and in her eyes Enigma blazes

         and smoulders; she is his death, her body his coffin where he

         may rot and stink, or writhe in damned dreams, self-slain, or

         rise in incorruption self-renewed, immortal and identical,

         fulfilling himself wholly in and by her, splashing all space

         with sparkling stars his sons and daughters, each star an

         image of his own infinity made manifest, mood after mood, by

         her magick to mould him when his passion makes molten her

         metal.  Thus then must every Artist work. First, he must find

         himself. Next, he must find the form that is fitted to

         express himself. Next, he must love that form, as a form,

         adoring it, understanding it, and mastering it, with most

         minute attention, until it (as it seems) adapts itself to him

         with eager elasticity, and answers accurately and aptly, with

         the unconscious automatism of an organ perfected by

         evolution, to his most subtlest suggestion, to his most giant

         gesture.  Next, he must give himself utterly up to that Form;

         he must annihilate himself absolutely in every act of love,

         labouring day and night to lose himself in lust for it, so

         that he leave no atom unconsumed in the furnace of their

         frenzy, as did of old his Father that begat him. He must

         realize himself wholly in the integration of the infinite

         Pantheon of images; for if he fail to formulate one facet of

         himself, by lack thereof will he know himself falsely.

         There is of course no ultimate difference between the Artist

         as here delineated and him who follows the `Way of the Tao',

         though the latter finds perfection in his existing relation

         with his environment, and the former creates a private

         perfection of a peculiar and secondary character. We might

         call one the son, the other the daughter, of the Absolute.

         But the Artist, though his Work, the images of himself in the

         Form that he loves, is less perfect than the Work of his

         Father, since he can but express one particular point of view

         and that by means of one type of technique, is not to be

         thought useless on that account, any more than an Atlas is

         useless because it presents by means of certain crude

         conventions a fraction of the facts of geography.  The Artist

         calls our attention away from Nature, whose immensity

         bewilders us so that she seems incoherent, and

         unintelligible, to his own interpretation of himself, and his

         relations with various phenomena of nature expressed in a

         language more or less common to us all.  The smaller the

         Artist, the narrower his view, the more vulgar his

         vocabulary, the more familiar his figures, the more readily

         is he recognized as a guide. To be accepted and admired, he

         must say what we all know, but have not told each other till

         it is tedious, and say it in simple and clear language, a

         little more emphatically and eloquently than we have been

         accustomed to hear; and he must please and flatter us in the

         telling by soothing our fears and stimulating our hopes and

         our self- esteem.  When an Artist -- whether in Astronomy,

         like Copernicus, Anthropology, like Ibsen, or Anatomy, like

         Darwin -- selects a set of facts too large, too recondite, or

         too `regrettable' to receive instant assent from everybody;

         when he presents conclusions which conflict with popular

         credence or prejudice; when he employs a language which is

         not generally intelligible to all; in such cases he must be

         content to appeal to the few. He must wait for the world to

         awake to the value of his work.   The greater he is, the more

         individual and the less intelligible he will appear to be,

         although in reality he is more universal and more simple than

         anybody. He must be indifferent to anything but his own

         integrity in the realization and imagination of himself.

         220A2-3.ASC

         22.    Drunkeness is a curse and a hindrance only to slaves.

         Shelley's couriers were `drunk on the wind of their own

         speed.' Any one who is doing his true Will is drunk with the

         delight of Life.  Wine and strange drugs do not harm people

         who are doing their will; they only poison people who are

         cancerous with Original Sin. In Latin countries where Sin is

         not taken seriously, and sex-expression is simple, wholesome,

         and free, drunkenness is a rare accident. It is only in

         Puritan countries, where self- analysis, under the whip of a

         coarse bully like Billy Sunday, brings the hearer to

         `conviction of sin,' that he hits first the `trail' and then

         the `booze.' Can you imagine an evangelist in Taormina? It is

         to laugh.  This is why missionaries, in all these centuries,

         have produced no conversions whatever, save among the lowest

         types of negro, who resemble the Anglo-Saxon in this

         possession of the `fear-of-God' and `Sin' psychopathies.

         Truth is so terrible to these detestable mockeries of

         humanity that the thought of self is a realization of hell.

         Therefore they fly to drink and drugs as to an anaesthetic in

         the surgical operation of introspection.  The craving for

         these things is caused by the internal misery which their use

         reveals to the slave-souls. If you are really free, you can

         take cocaine as simply as salt-water taffy. There is no

         better rough test of a soul than its attitude to drugs. If a

         man is simple, fearless, eager, he is all right; he will not

         become a slave. If he is afraid, he is already a slave. Let

         the whole world take opium, hashish, and the rest; those who

         are liable to abuse them were better dead.  For it is in the

         power of all so-called intoxicating drugs to reveal a man to

         himself. If this revelation declare a Star, then it shines

         brighter ever after. If it declare a Christian -- a thing not

         man nor beast, but a muddle of mind -- he craves the drug, no

         more for its analytical but for its numbing effect. Lytton

         has a great story of this in `Zanoni.' Glyndon, an

         uninitiate, takes an Elixir, and beholds not Adonai the

         glorious, but the Dweller on the Threshold; cast out from the

         Sanctuary, he becomes a vulgar drunkard.  `This folly against

         self;' altruism is a direct assertion of duality, which is

         division, restriction, sin, in its vilest form. I love my

         neighbour because love makes him part of me; not because hate

         divides him from me. Our law is so simple that it constantly

         approximates to truism. `The exposure of innocence.' Exposure

         means `putting out' as in a shop-window. The pretence of

         altruism and so-called virtue `is a lie;' it is the hypocrisy

         of the Puritan, which is hideously corrupting both to the

         hypocrite and to his victim.  To `lust' is to grasp

         continually at fresh aspects of Nuit. It is the mistake of

         the vulgar to expect to find satisfaction in the objects of

         sense. Disillusion is inevitable; when it comes, it leads

         only too often to an error which is in reality more fatal

         than the former, the denial of `materiality' and of

         `animalism.' There is a correspondence between these two

         attitudes and those of the `once-born' and `twice-born' of

         William James (Varieties of Religious Experience). Thelemites

         are `thrice-born;' we accept everything for what it is,

         without `lust of result,' without insisting upon things

         conforming with a priori ideals, or regretting their failure

         to do so. We can therefore `enjoy' all things of sense and

         rapture' according to their true nature. For example, the

         average man dreads tuberculosis. The `Christian Scientist'

         flees this fear by pretending that the disease is an illusion

         in `mortal mind.' But the Thelemite accepts it for what it

         is, and finds interest in it for its own sake. For him it is

         a necessary part of the Universe; he makes `no difference'

         between it and any other thing. The artist's position is

         analogous. Rubens, for instance, takes a gross pleasure in

         female flesh, rendering it truthfully from lack of

         imagination and analysis. Idealist painters like Bourgereau

         awake to the divergence between Nature and their academic

         standards of Beauty, falsify the facts in order to delude

         themselves. The greatest, like Rembrandt, paint a gallant, a

         hag, and a carcass with equal passion and rapture; they love

         the truth as it is. They do not admit that anything can be

         ugly or evil; its existence justifies itself. This is because

         they know themselves to be part of an harmonious unity; to

         disdain any item of it would be to blaspheme the whole. The

         Thelemite is able to revel in any experience soever; in each

         he recognizes the tokens of ultimate Truth. It is surely

         obvious, even intellectually, that all phenomena are

         interdependent, and therefore involve each other. Suppose a b

         c = d, a = d - b - c just as much as b = d-c-a. It is

         senseless to pick out one equation as `nice', and another as

         `nasty'. Personal predilections are evidence of imperfect

         vision. But it is even worse to deny reality to such facts as

         refuse to humour them. In the charter of spiritual

         sovereignty it is written that the charcoal-burner is no less

         a subject than the duke. The structure of the state includes

         all elements; it were stupid and suicidal to aim at

         homogeneity, or to assert it. Spiritual experience soon

         enables the aspirant to assimilate these ideas, and he can

         enjoy life to the full, finding his True Self alike in the

         contemplation of every element of existence.

         23.    This refers to the spiritual experience of Identity.

         When one realizes one's Truth there is no room for any other

         conception.  It also means that the God-idea must go with

         other relics of the Fear born of Ignorance into the limbo of

         savagery. I speak of the Idea of God as generally understood,

         God being `something not ourselves that makes for

         righteousness,' as Matthew Arnold victorianatically phrased

         his definition. The whiskered wowser! Why this ingrained

         conviction that self is unrighteous? It is the heritage of

         the whip, the brand of the born slave. Incidentally, we

         cannot allow people who believe in this `God;' they are

         troglodytes, as dangerous to society as any other thieves and

         murderers. The Christians to the Lions!  Yet, in the reign of

         Good Queen Victoria, Matthew Arnold was considered rather hot

         stuff as an infidel! Tempora mutantur, p.d.q. when a Magus

         gets on the job.  The quintessence of this verse is (however)

         its revelation of the nature of Hadit as a self-conscious and

         individual Being, although impersonal. He is an ultimate

         independent, and unique element in Nature, impenetrably

         aloof. The negative electron seems to be his physical

         analogue. Each such electron is indistinguishable from any

         other; yet each is determined diversely by it relations with

         various positive complementary electrons.  The verse is

         introduced at this juncture in order to throw light on the

         passage which follows. It is important to understand Hadit as

         the `core of every star' when we come to consider the

         character of those stars, his `friends' or sympathetic ideas

         grouped about him, who are `hermits,' individualities

         eternally isolated in reality though they may appear to be

         lost in their relations with external things.

         24.    The Christians to the Lions!  A hermit is one who

         dwells isolated in the desert, exactly as a soul, a star, or

         an electron in the wilderness of space-time. The doctrine

         here put forth is that  the initiate cannot be polluted by

         any particular environment. He accepts and enjoys everything

         that is proper to his nature. Thus, a man's sexual character

         is one form of his self-expression; he unites Hadit with Nuit

         sacramentally when he satisfied his instinct of physical

         love. Of course, this is only one partial projection; to

         govern, to fight, and so on, must fulfil other needs. We must

         not imagine that any form of activity is ipso facto incapable

         of supplying the elements of an Eucharist: suum cuique.

         Observe, however, the constant factor in this enumeration of

         the practices proper to `hermits:' it is ecstatic delight.

         Let us borrow an analogy from Chemistry. Oxygen has two hands

         (so to speak) to offer to other elements. But contrast the

         cordial clasp of hydrogen or phosphorus with the weak

         reluctant greeting of chlorine! Yet hydrogen and chlorine

         rush passionately to embrace each other in monogamic madness!

         There is no `good' or `bad' in the matter; it is the

         enthusiastic energy of union, as betokened by the

         disengagement of heat, light, electricity, or music, and the

         stability of the resulting compound, that sanctifies the act.

         Note also that the utmost external joy in any phenomenon is

         surpassed a millionfold by the internal joy of the

         realization that self-fulfilment in the sensible world is but

         a symbol of the universal sublimity of the formula `love

         under will.'  The last two sentences demand careful

         attention. There is an apparent contradiction with verses

         59,60. We must seek reconcilement in this way: Do not imagine

         that any King can die (v.21) or be hurt (v.59); strife

         between two Kings can therefore be nothing more than a

         friendly trial of strength. We are all inevitably allies,

         even identical in our variety; to `love one another with

         burning hearts' is one of our essential qualities.  But who

         then are the `low men,' since `Every man and every woman is a

         star?' The casus belli is this: there are people who are

         veiled from themselves so deeply that they resent the bared

         faces of us others. We are fighting to free them, to make

         them masters like ourselves. Note verse 60, `to hell with

         them:' that is, let us drive them to the `hell' or secret

         sanctuary within their consciousness. There dwells `the worm

         that dieth not and the fire that is not quenched;' that is,

         `the secret serpent coiled about to spring' and `the flame

         that burns in every heart of man' -- Hadit. In other words,

         we take up arms against falsehood; we cannot help it if that

         falsehood forces the King it has imprisoned to assent to its

         edicts, even to believe that his interests are those of his

         oppressor, and to fear Truth as once Jehovah did the Serpent.

         25.    By `the people' is meant that canting, whining,

         servile breed of whipped dogs which refuses to admit its

         deity. The mob is always afraid for its bread and butter --

         when its tyrants let it have any butter -- and now and then

         the bread has 60% substitutes of cattle-fodder. (Beast-food,

         even the New York Times of November 13, 1918, E.V. has it.)

         So, being afraid, it dare not strike. And when the trouble

         begins, we aristocrats of Freedom, from the castle or the

         cottage, the tower or the tenement, shall have the slave mob

         against us. The newspapers will point out to us that `the

         People' prefer to starve, and that John D. Rockefeller for

         the permission to do so. Still deeper, there is a meaning in

         this verse applicable to the process of personal initiation.

         By `the people' we may understand the many-headed and mutable

         mob which swarms in the slums of our own minds. Most men are

         almost entirely at the mercy of a mass of loud and violent

         emotions, without discipline or even organization. They sway

         with the mood of the moment. They lack purpose, foresight,

         and intelligence. They are moved by ignorant and irrational

         instincts, many of which affront the law of self-preservation

         itself, with suicidal stupidity. The moral Idea which we call

         `the people' is the natural enemy of good government. He who

         is `chosen' by Hadit to Kingship must consequently be

         `against the ' people if he is to pursue any consistent

         policy. The massed maggots of `love' devoured Mark Antony as

         they did Abelard. For this reason the first task of the

         Aspirant is to disarm all his thoughts, to make himself

         impregnably above the influence of any one of them; this he

         may accomplish by the methods given in Liber Aleph, Liber

         Jugorum, Thien Tao, and elsewhere. Secondly, he must impose

         absolute silence upon them, as may be done by the `Yoga'

         practices taught in Book 4 (Part I) Liber XVI, etc. He is

         then ready to analyse them, to organize them, to drill them,

         and so to take advantage of the properties peculiar to each

         one by employing its energies in the service of his imperial

         purpose.

         26.    The magical power is universal. The Free Man directs

         it as He Will. Leave Him alone, or He will make you sorry you

         tried to interfere!  There is here a reference to the two

         main types of the Orgia of Magick; I have already dealt with

         this matter in the Comment. Observe that in the `mystic'

         work, the union takes place spontaneously; in the other,

         venom is shot forth. This awakes the earth to rapture; not

         until then does union occur. For, in working on the planes of

         manifestation, the elements must be consecrated and made

         `God' by virtue of a definite rite.

         27.    Humanity errs terribly when it gets `education', in

         the sense of ability to read newspapers. Reason is rubbish;

         race-instinct is the true guide. Experience is the great

         Teacher; and each one of us possesses millions of years of

         experience, the very quintessence of it, stored automatically

         in our subconscious minds. The Intellectuals are worse than

         the bourgeoisie themselves; a la lanterne! Give us Men!

         Understanding is the attribute of the Master of the Temple,

         who has crossed the Abyss (or `Pit') that divides the true

         Self from its conscious instrument. (See Liber 418, `Aha'!

         and Book 4, Part III). We must meditate the meaning of this

         attack upon the idea of `Because.' I quote from my diary the

         demonstration that Reason is the Absolute, whereof all Truths

         soever art merely particular cases. The theorem may be stated

         roughly as follows.  The universe must be expressible either

         as n, or as Zero. That is, it is either unbalanced or

         balanced. The former theory (Theism) is unthinkable; but

         Zero, when examined, proves to contain the possibility of

         being expressed as n-n, and this possibility must in its turn

         be considered as p.  This thesis appears to me a reductio ad

         absurdum of the very basis of our mathematical thinking.  We

         knew before, of course, that all reasoning is bound to end in

         some mystery or some absurdity; the above is only one more

         antimony, a little deeper than Kant's, perhaps, but of the

         same character. Mathematicians would doubtless agree that all

         signs are arbitrary, elaboration of an abacus, and that all

         `truth' is merely our name for statements that content our

         reason; so that it is lower than reason, and within it; not

         higher and beyond, as transcendentalists argue. I seem never

         to have seen this point before, though `men of sense'

         instinctively affirm it, I suppose, The pragmatists are mere

         tradesmen with their definition of Truth as `the useful to be

         thought; ' but why not `the necessary to be thought?' There

         is a sort of Berkeleyan subjectivity in this view; we might

         put it: `All that we can know of Truth is `that which we are

         bound to think.'' The search for Truth amounts, then, to the

         result of the analysis of the Mind; and here let us remember

         my fear of the result of that analysis as I expressed them a

         month ago.  This analysis is the right method after all.

         Now, are we justified in assuming, as we always do, that our

         reason is either correct or incorrect? That if any

         proposition can be shown to be congruous with `A is A' it is

         `true,' and so on? Does the `reason' of the oyster comply

         with the same canon as man's? We assume it. We make the

         necessity in our thought the standard of the laws of Nature;

         and thus implicitly declare Reason to be the Absolute. This

         has nothing to do with the weakness or error in any one mind,

         or in all minds; all that we rely on is the existence  of

         some purely mental standard by which we could always correct

         our thinking, if we knew how. It is then this power which

         constrains our thought, to which our minds owe fealty, that

         we call `Truth;' and this `Truth' is not a proposition at

         all, but a `Law!' We cannot think what it is, obviously, as

         it is a final condition of philosophical thought in the same

         way as Space and Time are conditions of phenomenal thought.

         But, can there be some third type of thought which can escape

         the bonds of that as that can of this? `Samadhic

         realization,' one is tempted to rush in and answer --- while

         angels hesitate. All my `philosophic' thought, as above, is

         direct reflection upon the meaning of Samadhic experience. Is

         it simply that the reflections are distorted and dim? I have

         shown the impossibility of any true Zero, and thus destroyed

         every axiom, blown up the foundations of my mind. In failing

         to distinguish between None and Two, I cannot even cling to

         the straw of `phrases,' since Time and Space are long since

         perished. None is Two, without conditions; and therefore it

         is a positive idea, and we are just as right to enquire how

         it came to be as in the case of Haeckel's monad, or one's

         aunt's umbrella. We are, however, this one small step

         advanced by our initiations, that we can be quite sure this

         `None-Two' is, since all possible theories of Ontology

         simplify out to it.  Nevertheless, with whatever we try to

         identify this Absolute, we cannot escape from the fact that

         it is in reality merely the formula of our own Reason. The

         idea of Space arises from reflection upon the relations of

         our bodily gestures with the various objects of our senses.

         (Poincare - I note after reading him, months later, as I

         revise this note - explains this fully). So that a `yard' is

         not a thing in itself, but a term in the equations which

         express the Laws according to which we move our muscles. My

         knowledge consists exclusively of the mechanics of my own

         mind. All that I know is the nature of its norm. The

         judgments of the Reason are arbitrary, and can never be

         verified. Truth and Reality are simply the Substance of the

         Reason itself. My demonstration that `None-Two is the formula

         of the Universe' should then preferably be re-stated thus:

         `The mind of the Beast 666 is so constituted that it is

         compelled to conceive of an Universe whose formula is None-

         Two.'

         220A2-4.ASC

              I note that Laotze makes no attempt to announce A Tao

         which is truly free from Teh. Teh is the necessary quality of

         Tao, even though Tao, withdrawing Teh into itself, seems to

         ignore the fact. The only pause I make is this, that mine own

         Holy Guardian Angel, Aiwaz, whose crown is Thelema, whose

         robe Agape, whose body the Lost Word that He declared to me,

         spake in Book Seven and Twenty, saying: `Here is Nothing

         under its three forms.' Can there then be not only Nothing

         Manifested, Teh or Two, a Nothing Unmanifested, Tao or

         Naught, but also a Nothing Absolute?  But there is nothing

         incompatible with the terms of this verse. The idea of

         `Because' makes everything dependent on everything else,

         contrary to the conception of the Universe which this Book

         has formulated. It is true that the concatenation exists; but

         the chain does not fetter our limbs. The actions and

         reactions of illusion are only appearances; we are not

         affected. No series of images matters to the mirror. What

         then is the danger of making `a great miss?' We are immune -

         that is the very essence of the doctrine. But error exists in

         this sense, that we may imagine it; and when a lunatic

         believes that Mankind is conspiring to poison him, it is no

         consolation that others know his delusion for what it is.

         Thus, we must `understand these runes;` we must become aware

         of our True Selves; if we abdicate our authority as absolute

         individuals, we are liable to submit to Law, to feel

         ourselves the puppets of Determinism, and to suffer the

         agonies of impotence which have afflicted the thinker, form

         Gautama to James Thomson.  Now then, `there is great danger

         in me' -- we have seen what it is; but why should it lie in

         Hadit? Because the process of self-analysis involves certain

         risks. The profane are protected against those subtle

         spiritual perils which lie in ambush for the priest. A

         Bushman never has a nervous breakdown.  (See Cap.I,v.31).

         When the Aspirant takes his first Oath, the most trivial

         things turn into transcendental terrors, tortures, and

         temptations. (Parts II and III of Book 4 Elaborate this

         thesis at length.) We are so caked with dirt that the germs

         of disease cannot reach us. If we decide to wash, we must do

         it well; or we may have awakened some sleeping dogs, and set

         them on defenceless areas. Initiation stirs up the mud. It

         creates unstable equilibrium. It exposes our elements to

         unfamiliar conditions. The France of Louis XVI had to pass

         through the Terror before Napoleon could teach it to find

         itself. Similarly, any error in reaching the realization of

         Hadit may abandon the Aspirant to the ambitions of every

         frenzied faction of his character, the masterless dogs of the

         Augean kennel of his mind.

         28.    This is against these Intellectuals aforesaid. There

         are no `standards of Right.' Ethics is balderdash. Each Star

         must go on its orbit. To hell with `moral Principle;' there

         is no such thing; that is a herd-delusion, and makes men

         cattle. Do not listen to the rational explanation of How

         Right It All Is, in the newspapers.  We may moreover consider

         `Because' as involving the idea of causality, and therefore

         of duality. If cause and effect are really inseparable, as

         they must be by definition, it is mere clumsiness to regard

         them as separate; they are two aspects of one single idea,

         conceived as consecutive for the sake of (apparent)

         convenience, or for the general purpose previously indicated

         of understanding and expressing ourselves in finite term.

         Shallow indeed is the obvious objection to this passage that

         the Book of the Law itself is full of phrases which imply

         causality. Nobody denies that causality is a category of the

         mind, a form of condition of thought which, if not quite a

         theoretical necessity, is yet inevitable in practice. The

         very idea of any relation between any two things appears as

         causal. Even should we declare it to be causal, our minds

         would still insist that causality itself was the effect of

         some cause. Our daily experience hammers home this

         conviction; and a man's mental excellence seems to be

         measurable almost entirely in terms of the strength and depth

         of his appreciation thereof as the soul of the structure of

         the Universe. It is the spine of Science which has

         vertebrated human Knowledge above the slimy mollusc whose

         principle was Faith.  We must not suppose for an instant that

         the Book of the Law is opposed to reason. On the contrary,

         its own claim to authority rests upon reason, and nothing

         else. It disdains the arts of the orator. It makes reason the

         autocrat of the mind. But that very fact emphasizes that the

         mind should attend to its own business. It should not

         transgress its limits. It should be a perfect machine, an

         apparatus for representing the universe accurately and

         impartially to its master. The Self, its Will, and its

         Apprehension, should be utterly beyond it. Its individual

         peculiarities are its imperfections. If we identify ourselves

         with out thoughts or our bodily instincts, we are evidently

         pledged to partake of their partiality. We make ourselves

         items of the interaction of our own illusions.  In the

         following verses we shall find the practical application of

         this theorem.

         29.    Distrust any explanation whatever. Disraeli said:

         Never sak any one to dinner who has to be explained. All

         explanations are intended to cover up lies, injustices, or

         shames. The Truth is radiantly simple.

         30.    There is no `reason' why a Star should continue in its

         orbit. Let her rip! Every time the conscious acts, it

         interferes with the Subconscious, which is Hadit. It is the

         voice of Man, and not of a God. Any man who `listens to

         reason' ceases to be a revolutionary. The newspapers are Past

         Masters in the Lodge of Sophistry Number 333. They can always

         prove to you that it is necessary, and patriotic, and all the

         rest of it, that you should suffer intolerable wrongs.  The

         Qabalists represent the mind as a complex of six elements,

         whereas the Will is single, the direct expression as `The

         Word' of the Self. The mind must inform the Understanding,

         which then presents a simple idea to the Will. This issues

         its orders accordingly for unquestioning execution. If the

         Will should appeal to the mind, it must confuse itself with

         incomplete and uncoordinated ideas. The clamour of these

         cries crowns Anarchy, and action becomes impossible.

         31.    It is ridiculous to ask a dog why it barks. One must

         fulfil one's true Nature, one must do one's Will. To question

         this is to destroy confidence, and so to create an

         inhibition. If a woman asks a man who wishes to kiss her why

         he wants to do so, and he tries to explain, he becomes

         impotent. His proper course is to choke her into compliance,

         which is what she wants, anyhow.  Power acts: the nature of

         the action depends on the information received by the Will;

         but once the decision is taken, reflection is out of place.

         Power should indeed be absolutely unconscious. Every athlete

         is aware that his skill, strength, and endurance depend on

         forbidding mind to meddle with muscle. Here is a simple

         experiment. Hold out a weight at arm's length. If you fix you

         attention firmly on other matters, you can support the strain

         many times longer than if you allow yourself to think of what

         your body is doing.

         32.    The `factor infinite and unknown' is the subconscious

         Will. `On with the revel!' `Their words' -- the plausible

         humbug of the newspapers and the churches. Forget it! Allons!

         Marchons!  It has been explained at length in a previous note

         that `reason is a lie' by nature. We may here add certain

         confirmations suggested by the `factor.' A and a (not-A)

         together make up the Universe. As a is evidently `infinite

         and unknown,' its equal and opposite A must be so no less.

         Again, from any proposition S is P, reason deduces `S is not

         p;' thus the apparent finitude and knowability of S is

         deceptive, since it is in direct relation with p.  No matter

         what n may be, the number of the inductive numbers, is

         unaltered by adding or subtracting it. There are just as many

         odd numbers as there are numbers altogether. Our knowledge is

         confined to statements of the relations between certain sets

         of our own sensory impressions; and we are convinced by our

         limitations that `a factor infinite and unknown' must be

         concealed within the sphere of which we see but one minute

         part of the surface. As to reason itself, what is more

         certain than that its laws are only the conscious expression

         of the limits imposed upon us by our animal nature, and that

         to attribute universal validity, or even significance, to

         them is a logical folly, the raving of our megalomania?

         Experiment proves nothing; it is surely obvious that we are

         obliged to correlate all observations with the physical and

         mental structure whose truth we are trying to test. Indeed,

         we can assume an `unreasonable' axiom, and translate the

         whole of our knowledge into its terms, without fear of

         stumbling over any obstacle. Reason is no more than a set or

         rules developed by the race; it takes no account of anything

         beyond sensory impressions and their reactions to various

         parts of our being. There is no possible escape from the

         vicious circle that we can register only the behaviour of our

         own instrument. We conclude from the fact that it behaves at

         all, that there must be `a factor infinite and unknown' at

         work upon it. This being the case, we may be sure that our

         apparatus is inherently incapable of discovering the truth

         about anything, even in part.  Let me illustrate. I see a

         drop of water. Distrusting my eyes, I put it under the

         microscope. Still in doubt, I photograph and enlarge the

         slide. I compare my results with those of others. I check

         them by cultivating the germs in the water, and injecting

         them into paupers. But I have learnt nothing at all about

         `the infinite and unknown,' merely producing all sorts of

         different impressions according to the conditions in which

         one observes it!  More yet, all the instruments used have

         been tested and declared `true' on the evidence of those very

         eyes distrust of which drove me to the research.  Modern

         Science has at last grown out of the very-young-man

         cocksureness of the 19th century. It is now admitted that

         axioms themselves depend on definitions, and that Intuitive

         Certainty is simply one trait of homo sapiens, like the ears

         of the ass or the slime of the slug. That we reason as we do

         merely proves that we cannot reason otherwise. We cannot move

         the upper jaw; it does not follow that the idea of motion is

         ridiculous. The limitation hints rather that there may be an

         infinite variety of structures which the jaw cannot imagine.

         The metric system is not the necessary mode of measurement.

         It is the mark of a mind untrained to take its own processes

         as valid for all men, and its own judgments for absolute

         truth. Our two eyes see an object in two aspects, and present

         to our consciousness a third which agrees with neither, is

         indeed, strictly speaking, not sensible to sight, but to

         touch! Our senses declare some things at rest and others in

         motion; our reason corrects the error, firstly by denying

         that anything can exist unless it is in motion, secondly by

         denying that absolute motion possesses any meaning at all.

         At the time when this Book was written, official Science

         angrily scouted the `factor infinite and unknown,' and clung

         with pathetic faith to the idea that reason was the

         touchstone of truth. In a single sentence, Aiwaz anticipates

         the discoveries by which the greatest minds now incarnate

         have made the last ten years memorable.

         33.    This is the only way to deal with reason. Reason is

         like a woman; if you listen, you are lost; with a thick

         stick, you have some sort of sporting chance. Reason leads

         the philosopher to self-contradiction, the statesman to

         doctrinaire follies; it makes the warrior lay down his arms,

         and the lover cease to rave. What is so unreasonable as man?

         The only Because in the lover's litany is Because I love you.

         We want to skeleton syllogisms at our symposium of souls.

         Philosophically, `Because is absurd.' There is no answer to

         the question `Why.' The greatest thinkers have been sceptics

         or agnostics: `omnia exeunt in mysterium,' and `summa

         scientia nihil scire' are old commonplaces. In my essays

         `Truth' (in Konx Om Pax), `The Soldier and the Hunchback,'

         `Eleusis' and others, I have offered a detailed demonstration

         of the self-contradictory nature of Reason. The cruz of the

         whole proof may be summarized by saying that any possible

         proposition must be equally true with its contradictory, as,

         if not, the universe would no longer be in equilibrium. It is

         no objection that to accept this is to destroy conventional

         Logic, for that is exactly what it is intended to do. I may

         also mention briefly one line of analysis.  I ask `What is

         (e.g.) a tree?' The dictionary defines this simple idea by

         means of many complex ideas; obviously one gets in deeper

         with every stroke one takes. The same applies to any `Why'

         that may be posed. The one existing mystery disappears as a

         consequence of innumerable antecedents, each equally

         mysterious.   To ask questions is thus evidently worse than a

         waste of time, so far as one is looking for an answer.  There

         is also the point that any proposition S is P merely includes

         P in the connotation of S, and is therefore not really a

         statement of relation between two things, but an amendment of

         the definition of one of them. `Some cats are black' only

         means that our idea of a cat involves the liability to appear

         black, and that blackness is consistent with those sets of

         impressions which we recognize as characteristic of cats. All

         ratiocination may be reduced to syllogistic form; hence, the

         sole effect of the process is to make each term more complex.

         Reason does not add to our knowledge; a filing system does

         not increase one's correspondence directly, though by

         arranging it one gets a better grasp of one's business. Thus

         coordination of our impressions should help us to control

         them; but to allow reason to rule us is as abject as to

         expect the exactitude of our ledgers to enable us to dispense

         with initiative on the one hand and actual transactions on

         the other.

         34.    We are not to calculate, to argue, to criticise; these

         things lead to division of will and to stagnation. They are

         shackles of our Going. They hamstring our Pegasus. We are to

         rise up -- to Go -- to Love -- we are to be awake, alert --

         `Joyous and eager, Our tresses adorning, O let us beleaguer

         the City of Morning!'  The Secret of Magick is to `enflame

         oneself in praying.' This is the ready test of a Star, that

         it whirls flaming through the sky. You cannot mistake it for

         an Old Maid objecting to Everything. This Universe is a wild

         revel of atoms, men, and stars, each one a Soul of Light and

         Mirth, horsed on Eternity.  Observe that we must `rise up'

         befor we `awake!' Aspiration to the Higher is a dream -- a

         wish-fulfilment which remains a phantasm to wheedle us away

         from seeking reality -- unless we follow it up by Action.

         Only then do we become fully aware of ourselves, and enter

         into right reaction with the world in which we live.

         35.    A ritual is not a melancholy formality; it is a

         Sacrament, a Dance, a Commemoration of the Universe. The

         Universe is endless rapture, wild and unconfined, a mad

         passion of speed. Astronomers tell us this of the Great

         Republic of the Stars; physicists say the same of the Little

         Republic of Molecules. Shall not the Middle Republic of Men

         be like unto them? The polite ethicist demurs; his ideal is

         funereal solemnity. His horizon is bounded by death; and his

         spy-glass is smeared with the idea of sin. The New Aeon

         proclaims Man as Immortal God, eternally active to do His

         Will. All's Joy, all's Beauty; this Will we celebrate.  In

         this verse we see how the awakening leads to ordered and

         purposeful action. Joy and Beauty are the evidence that our

         functions are free and fit; when we take no pleasure, and

         find nothing to admire, in our work, we are doing it wrong.

         36.    Each element -- fire, earth, air, water, and Spirit --

         possesses its own Nature, Will, and Magical Formula. Each one

         may then have its appropriate ritual. Many such in crude form

         are described in The Golden Bough of Dr. J.G. Frazer, the

         Glory of Trinity!  In particular the entry of the Sun into

         the cardinal signs of the elements at the Equinoxes and

         Solstices are suitable for festivals.  The difference between

         `rituals' and `feasts' is this: by the one a particular form

         of energy is generated, while there is a general discharge of

         one's superfluous force in the other. Yet a feast implies

         periodical nourishment.

         37.    There should be a special feast on the 12th day of

         August in every year, since it was the marriage of The Beast

         which made possible the revelation of the New Law. (This is

         not an Apology for Marriage. Hard Cases make Bad Law).

         38.    This is April 8th, 9th, and 10th, the feast beginning

         at High Noon.

         39.    This particular feast is of a character suited only to

         initiates.

         40.    The Supreme Ritual is the Invocation of Horus, which

         brought about the Opening of the New Aeon. The date is March

         20.  The Equinox of the Gods is the term used to describe the

         Beginning of a New Aeon, or a New Magical Formula. It should

         be celebrated at every Equinox, in the manner known to

         Neophytes of the A.A.

         41.    The feasts of fire and water indicate rejoicings to be

         made at the puberty of boys and girls respectively.  The

         feast for life is at a birth; and the feast for death at a

         death. It is of the utmost importance to make funerals merry,

         so as to train people to take the proper view of death. The

         fear of death is one of the great weapons of tyrants, as well

         as their scourge; and it distorts our whole outlook upon the

         Universe.

         42.    To him who realizes Hadit this text needs little

         comment. It is wondrous, this joy of awakening every morning

         to the truth of one's immortal energy and rapture.

         43.    To sleep is to return, in a sense, to the Bosom of

         Nuit. But there is to be a particular Act of Worship of Our

         Lady, as ye well wot.

         44.    Do not be afraid of `going the pace'. It is better to

         wear out than to rust out. You are unconquerable, and of

         indefatigable energy. Great men find time for everything,

         shirk nothing, make reputations in half a dozen different

         lines, have twenty simultaneous love affairs, and live to a

         green old age. The milksops and valetudinarians never get

         anywhere; usually they die early; and even if they lived for

         ever, what's the use?  The body is itself a restriction as

         well as an instrument. When death is as complete as it should

         be, the individual expands and fulfils himself in all

         directions; it is an omniform Samadhi. This is of course

         `eternal ecstasy' in the sense already explained. But in the

         time-world Karma reconcentrates the elements, and a new

         incarnation occurs.

         45.    The prigs, the prudes, the Christians, die in a real

         sense of the word; for although even they are `Stars', there

         is not enough body to them (as it were) to carry on the

         individuality. There is no basis for the magical memory if

         one's incarnation holds nothing worth remembering. Count your

         years by your wounds -- forsitan haec clim meminisse juvabit.

         In regard ot this question of death I quote from  Liber Aleph

         -- De Morte.  Thou hast made Question of me concerning Death,

         and this is mine Opinion, of which I say not: This is the

         Truth. First in the Temple called Man is the God, his Soul,

         or Star, individual and eternal, but also inherent in the

         Body of Our Lady Nuith. Now this Soul, as an Officer in the

         High Mass of the Cosmos, taketh on the vesture of his Office,

         that is, inhabiteth a Tabernacle of Illusion, a Body and

         Mind. And this Tabernacle is subject to the Law of Change,

         for it is complex, and diffuse, reacting to every Stimulus or

         Impression. If then the Mind be attached constantly to the

         Body, Death hath not Power to decompose it wholly, but a

         decaying Shell of the Dead Man, his Mind holding together for

         a little his Body of Light, haunteth the Earth, seeking a new

         Tabernacle (in its Error, that feareth Change) in some other

         Body. These Shells are broken away utterly from the Star that

         did enlighten them, and they are Vampires, obsessing that

         that adventure themselves into the Astral World, without

         Magical Protection, or invoke them, as do the Spiritists. For

         by Death is Man released only from the Gross Body, at the

         first, and is complete otherwise upon the Astral Plane, as he

         was in his Life. But this Wholeness suffereth Stress, and its

         Girders are loosened, the weaker first, and after that the

         stronger.  De Adeptis R.C. Eschatologia.  Consider now in

         this Light what shall come to the Adept, to him that hath

         aspired constantly and firmly to his Star, attuning his Mind

         unto the Musick of its Will. In him, if his Mind be knit

         perfectly together in itself, and conjoined with the Star, is

         so strong a Confection that it breaketh away easily not only

         from the Gross Body, but the Fine. It is this Fine Body which

         bindeth it to the Astral, as did the Gross to the Material

         World; so then it accomplisheth willingly the Sacrament of a

         Second Death, and leaveth the Body of Light. But the Mind,

         cleaving closely by Right of its Harmony, and Might of its

         Love, to its Star, resisteth the Ministers of Disruption, for

         a Season, according to its Strength.  Now, if this Star be of

         those that are bound by the Great Oath, incarnating without

         Remission because of Delight in the Cosmic Sacrament, it

         seeketh a new Vehicle in the Appointed Way, and indwelleth

         the Foetus of a Child, and quickeneth it. And if at this Time

         the Mind of its Former Tabernacle yet cling to it, then is

         there Continuity of Character, and it may be Memory, between

         the Two Vehicles. This is, briefly and without Elaboration,

         the Way of Asar in Amennti, according to mine Opinion, of

         which I say not: this is the Truth.  De Nuptiis summis.  Now

         then to this Doctrine, o my Son, add thou that which thou

         hast learned in the Book of the Law, that Death is the

         Dissolution in the Kiss of Our Lady Nuith. This is a true

         Consonance as of Bass with Treble; for here is the Impulse

         that setteth us to Magick, the Pain of the Conscious Mind.

         Having then Wit to find the Cause of this Pain in the Sense

         of Separation, and its Cessation by the Union of Love, it is

         the Summit of Our Holy Art to present the whole Engine in

         true and real appurtenance of our Force, without Leak, or

         Friction, or any other Waste or Hindrance to its Action. Thou

         knowest well how an Horse, or even a Machine propelled by a

         Man's Feet, becometh as it were an Extension of the Rider,

         through his Skill and Custom. Thus let thy Star have Profit

         of thy Vehicle, assimilating it, and sustaining it, so that

         it be healed of its Separation, and this even in Life, but

         most especially in Death. Also thou oughtest to increase thy

         Vehicle in Mass by true Growth in Balance, that thou be a

         Bridegroom comely and well- favoured, a man of Might, and a

         Warrior worthy of the Bed of so divine a Dissolution.

         220A2-5.ASC

                 This verse brings out what is a fact in psychology,

         the necessary connection between fear, sorrow, and failure.

         To will and to dare are closely linked Powers of the Sphinx,

         and they are based on -- to know. If one have a right

         apprehension of the Universe, if he know himself free,

         immortal, boundless, infinite force and fire, then may he

         will and dare. Fear, sorrow and failure are but phantoms.

         47.    Hadit is everywhere; fear, sorrow, and failure are

         only `shadows'. It is for this reason that compassion is

         absurd.  It may be objected that `shadows' exist after all;

         the `pink rats' of an alcoholic are not to be exorcised by

         `Christian Science' methods. Very true -- they are, in fact,

         necessary functions of our idea of the Universe in its

         dualistic `shadow-show'. But they do not form any part of

         Hadit, who is beneath all conditions. And they are in a sense

         less real than their logical contradictories, because they

         are patently incompatible with the Changeless and Impersonal.

         They have their roots in conceptions involving change and

         personality. Strictly speaking, `joy' is no less absurd than

         sorrow, with reference to Hadit; but from the standpoint of

         the individual, this is not the case. One's fear of death is

         removed by the knowledge that there is no such thing in

         reality; but one's joy in life is not affected.

         48.    It is several times shewn in this Book that `falling'

         is in truth impossible. `All is ever as it was'. To

         sympathize with the illusion is not only absurd, but tends to

         perpetuate the false idea. It is a mistake to `spoil' a

         child, or humour a malade imaginaire. One must, on the

         contrary, chase away the shadows by lighting a fire, which

         fire is: Do what thou wilt!

         49.    We are to conquer the Illusion, to drive it out. The

         slaves that perish are better dead. They will be reborn into

         a world where Freedom is the Air of Breath. So then, in all

         kindness, the Christians to the Lions!  The `Babe in the Egg'

         is Harpocrates; it is his regular Image.  I am not very well

         satisfied with the old comment on this verse. It appears

         rather as if the Amen should be the beginning of a new

         paragraph altogether. Amen is evidently a synthesis of the

         four elements, and the invisible fifth is Spirit. But

         Harpocrates, the Babe in the Egg, is Virgo in the Zodiac

         indeed, but Mercury among the planets. Mercury has the Winged

         Helmet and Heels, and the Winged Staff about which Snakes

         twine, and it is He that Goeth. Now this letter is   whose

         numeration is 2, and      is 91, which added to 2 makes 93.

         Amoun is of course Jupiter in his highest Form. To understand

         this note fully one must have studied `The Paris Working';

         also one must be an initiate of the O.T.O.

         50.    There is here suggested the Image of `the Star and the

         Snake'.

         51.    There is a certain suggestion in this `purple' as

         connected with `eyesight', which should reveal a certain

         identity of Hadit with the Dwarf-Soul to those who possess --

         eyesight!

         52.    Mohammed struck at the root of the insane superstition

         of tabu with his word: `Women are your field; go in unto them

         as ye will'. He only struck half the blow. I say: go in unto

         them as ye will and they will. Two-thirds of modern misery

         springs from Woman's sexual dissatisfaction. A dissatisfied

         woman is a curse to herself and to everybody in her

         neighbourhood. Women must learn to let themselves enjoy

         without fear or shame, and both men and woman must be trained

         in the technique of sex. Sex- repression leads to neurosis,

         and is the cause of social unrest. Ignorance of sexual

         technique leads to disappointment, even where passion is free

         and unrestrained. Sex is not everything in life, any more

         than food is: but until people have got satisfaction of these

         natural hungers, it is useless to expect them to think of

         other things. This truth is vital to the statesman, now that

         women have some direct political power; they will certainly

         overthrow the Republic unless they obtain full sexual

         satisfaction. Also, women outnumber men; and one man cannot

         satisfy a woman unless he be skilful and diligent. The New

         Aeon will have a foundation of Happy Women: A Woman under

         Tabu is loathsome to Life, detested by her fellows, and

         wretched in herself.  The student should study in Liber Aleph

         and Liber 418, the connection between `modesty' and the

         attitude of the `Black Brothers'.

         53.    Yes! I was frightened when the God of Things as They

         Ought to Be told me that They Were to Be. I was born under a

         German Queen, and I did not believe in the Revolution that I

         willed. And lo! it is upon us, ere the Fifteenth Year of the

         New Aeon has dawned.  Yes!I am lifted up, the Sun being in

         Scorpio in this Fourteenth Year of the Aeon.

         54.    The second part of the text was in answer to an

         unspoken query as to the peculiar phrasing.  The first part

         is clear enough. There are a number of people of shallow wit

         who do not believe in Magick. This is doubtless partly due to

         the bad presentation of the subject by previous Masters. I

         have identified Magick with the Art of Life. The

         transcendental superstructure will not overburden those who

         have laid this Right Foundation.  There is an elaborate

         cryptographic meaning in this verse; the words `folly',

         `nought', `it', and `me' indicate the path of research.

         55.    The attribution in Liber Trigrammation is good

         theoretically; but no Qabalah of merit has arisen therefrom.

         I am inclined to look further into the question of Sanskrit

         Roots, and into the Enochian Records, in order to put this

         matter in more polished shape.  I append Liber Trigrammaton

         with the attribution aforesaid.   sub Figura XXVII.   THE

         BOOK OF THE TRIGRAMS OF THE MUTATIONS OF THE TAO WITH THE YIN

         AND YANG.

         56.    These passages are certainly very difficult. It seems

         as if they were given to meet some contingency which has not

         yet arisen. For example this verse might be appropriate in

         case of the institution of a false -cultus by impostors.

         The doctrine is that Hadit is the nucleolus (to borrow a term

         from bilogy) of any star-organism. To mock at Hadit is

         therefore evidently very much what is meant by the mysterious

         phrase in the `New Testament' with regard to the Unpardonable

         Sin, the `blasphemy against the Holy Ghost'. A star forsaken

         by Hadit would thus be in the condition of real death it is

         this state which is characteristic of the `Black Brothers',

         as they are described in other parts of this Comment, and

         elsewhere in the Holy Books of the A. A.   I may here quote

         Liber Aleph, De Inferno Servorum and De Fratribut Nigris.

         `Now, o my Son, having understood the Heaven that is within

         thee, according to thy Will, learn this concerning the Hell

         of the Slaves of the Slavegods, that it is true Place of

         torment. For they, restricting themselves, and being divided

         in Will, are indeed the Servants of Sin, and they suffer,

         because, not being united in Love with the whole Universe,

         they perceive not Beauty, but Ugliness and Deformity; and,

         not being united in Understanding thereof, conceive only of

         Darkness and Confusion, beholding Evil therein. Thus at last

         they come, as did the Manichaeans, to find, to their Terror,

         a Division even in the One, not that Division which we know

         for the Craft of Love, but a Division of Hate, And this,

         multiplying itself, Conflict upon Conflict, endeth in

         Hotchpot, and in the Impotence and Envy of Choronzon, and in

         the Abominations of the Abyss. And of such the Lords are the

         Black Brothers, who seek by their Sorceries to confirm

         themselves in Division. Yet in this even is no true Evil, for

         Love conquereth All, and their Corruption and Disintegration

         is also the Victory of BABALON'.   `O my Son, know this

         concerning the Black Brothers, that cry: I am I. This is

         Falsity and Delusion, for the Law endureth not Exception. So

         then these Brethren are not Apart, as they Think; but are

         peculiar Combinations of Nature in Her Variety. Rejoice then

         even in the Contemplation of these, for they are proper to

         Perfection, and Adornments of Beauty, like a Mole upon the

         Cheek of a Woman. Shall I then say that were it of thine own

         Nature, even thine, to compose so sinsister a complex, thou

         shouldst not strive therewith, destroying it by Love, but

         continue in that Way? I deny not this hastily, nor affirm;

         for it is in mine won Nature to think that in this Matter the

         Sum of Wisdom is Silence. But this I say, and that boldly,

         that thou shalt not look upon this Horror with Fear, or with

         Hate, but accept this as thou dost all else, as a Phenomenon

         of Change, that is, of Love. For in a swift Stream thou mayst

         behold a Twig held steady for awhile by the Play of the

         Water, and by this Analogue thou mayst understand the Nature

         of this Mystery of the Path of Perfection.'

         57.    This, and the first part of the next verse demonstrate

         the inviolability of Hadit our Quintessence. Every Star has

         its own Nature, which is `Right' for it. We are not to be

         missionaries, with ideal standards of dress and morals, and

         such hard-ideas. We are to do what we will, and leave others

         to do what they will. We are infinitely tolerant, save of

         intolerance. It is not good, however, to try to prevent

         Christians from meddling, save by the one cure: The

         Christians to the Lions.  It is impossible to alter the

         ultimate Nature of any Being, however completely we may

         succeed in transfiguring its external signs as displayed in

         any of its combinations. Thus, the sweetness, whiteness, and

         crystalline structure of sugar depend partly on the presence

         of Carbon; so do the bitterness, greeness, and resinous

         composition of hashish. But the Carbon is inviolably Carbon.

         And even when we transmute what seem to be elements, as

         Radium to Lead, we merely go a step further; there is still

         an immutable substance -- or essence of Energy -- which is

         inevitably Itself, the basis of the diversity.  This holds

         good even should we arrive at demonstrating Material Monism.

         It may well be -- I have believed so ever since I was

         fourteen years old -- that the elements are all isomers,

         differentiated by geometrical structure, electrical charge,

         or otherwise in precisely the same way as ozone from oxygen,

         red from yellow phosphorous, dextrose from laevulose, and a

         paraffin from a benzene of identical empirical formula.

         Indeed, every `star' is necessarily derived from the uniform

         continuity of Nuith, and resolvable back into Her Body by the

         proper analytical methods, as the experience of mysticism

         testifies. But each such complexs is none the less uniquely

         itself; for the scheme of its construction is part of its

         existence, so that this peculiar scheme constitutes the

         essence of its individuality. It is impossible to change a

         shilling into two sixpences, though the value and the

         material may be identical; for part of the essence of the

         shilling is the intention to have a single coin.  The above

         considerations must be thoroughly assimilated by any mind

         which wishes to gain a firm intellectual grasp of the truth

         which lies behind the paradox of existence.

         58.    Again we learn the permanence of the Nature of a Star.

         We are not to judge by temporary circumstances, but to

         penetrate to the True Nature.  It has naturally been objected

         by economists that our Law, in declaring every man and every

         woman to be a star, reduces society to its elements, and

         makes hierarchy or even democracy impossible. The view is

         superficial. EAch star has a function in its galaxy proper to

         its own nature. Much mischief has come from our ignorance in

         insisting, on the contrary, that each citizen is fit for any

         and every social duty. But also our Law teaches that a star

         often veils itself from its nature. Thus the vast bulk of

         humanity is obsessed by an abject fear of freedom; the

         principal objections hitherto urged against my Law have been

         those of people who cannot bear to imagine the horrors which

         would result if they were free to do their own sills. The

         sense of sin, shame, self-distrust, this is what makes folk

         cling to CHristianity-slavery. People believe in a medicine

         just in so far as it is nasty; metaphysical root of this idea

         is in sexual degeneracy of the masochistic type. Now `the Law

         is for all'; but such defectives will refuse it, and serve us

         who are free with a fidelity the more dog-like as the

         simplicity of our freedom denotes their abjection.  Even such

         shallow soapsudmongers as Sir Walter Besant and Mr. James

         Rice have had an inkling of these ideas. I quote `Ready-

         Money Mortiboy', Chapter XXIII:  `The big-bearded man stood

         towering over the children, with his right arm waving them

         out into the world -- where? No matter where: somewhere away:

         somewhere into the good places of the world -- not a boy's

         heart but was stirred within him: and the brave old English

         blood rose in them as he spoke, in his deep bass tones, of

         the worth of a single man in those far-off lands; -- and

         oration destined to bear fruit in after-days, when the lads,

         who talk yet with bated breath of the speech and the speaker,

         shall grow to man's estate.  `Dangerous, Dick', said Farmer

         John. `What should I do without my labourers?'  `Don't be

         afraid', said Dick. `There are not ten percent have the pluck

         to go. Let us help them, and you shall keep the rest.'  He

         might have added that the employer would be better off

         without that percentage of yeast to ferment his infusion of

         harmless vegetable human.  No one is better aware than I am

         that the Labour Problem has to be settled by practical and

         not ideal considerations, but in this case the ideal

         considerations happen to be extremely practical. The mistake

         has been in trying to produce a standard article to supply

         the labour market; it is an error from the point of view of

         capital and labour alike. Men should not be taught to read

         and write unless they exhibit capacity or inclination.

         Compulsory education has aided nobody. It has imposed an

         unwarrantable constraint on the people it was intended to

         benefit; it has been asinine presumption on the part of the

         intellectuals to consider a smattering of mental acquirements

         of universal benefit. It is a form of sectarian bigotry. We

         should recognize the fact that the vast majority of human

         beings have no ambition in life beyond mere ease and animal

         happiness. We should allow these people to fulfil their

         destinies without interference. We should give every

         opportunity to the ambitious, and thereby establish a class

         of morally and intellectually superior men and women. We

         should have no compunction in utilizing the natural qualities

         of the bulk of mankind. We do not insist on trying to train

         sheep to hunt foxes or lecture on history; we look after

         their physical well being, and enjoy their wool and mutton.

         In this way we shall have a contented class of slaves who

         will accept the conditions of existence as they really are,

         and enjoy life with the quiet wisdom of cattle. It is our

         duty to see to it that this class of people lack for nothing.

         The patriarchal system is better for all classes than any

         other; the objections to it come from the abuses of it. But

         bad masters have been artificially created by exactly the

         same blunder as was responsible for the bad servants. It is

         essential to teach the masters that each one must discover

         his own will, and do it. There is no reason in nature for

         cut-throat competition. All this has been explained

         previously in other connections; here it is only necessary to

         emphasize the point. It must be cleanly understood that every

         man must find his own happiness in a purely personal way. Our

         troubles have been caused by the assumption that everybody

         wanted the same things, and thereby the supply of those

         things has become artificially limited; even those benefits

         of which there is an inexhaustible store have been cornered.

         For example, fresh air and beautiful scenery. In a world

         where everyone did his own will none would lack these things.

         In our present society, they have become the luxuries of

         wealth and leisure, yet they are still accessible to any one

         who possesses sufficient sense to emancipate himself from the

         alleged advantages of city life. We have deliberately trained

         people to wish for things that they do not really want. It

         would be easy to elaborate this theme at great length, but I

         prefer to leave it to be worked out by each reader in the

         light of his own intelligence, but I wish to call the very

         particular attention of capitalists and labour leaders to the

         principles here set forth.  I conclude by quoting foru

         chapters from Liber Aleph which bear on the subject.  `j`De

         Lege Motus. `Consider, my Son, that word in the Call or Cry

         of the Thirty Aethyrs: Behold the Face of your God, the

         Beginning of Comfort, whose eyes are the Brightness of the

         Heavens, which provided you for the Government of the Earth,

         and the Unspeakable Variety! And Again: let there be no

         Creature upon her or within her the same. All her Members let

         them differ in their Qualities, and let there be no Creature

         equal with another. Here also is the voice of true Science,

         crying aloud that Variation is the Key of Evolution.

         Thereunto Art cometh the third, perceiving Beauty in the

         Harmony of the Diverse. Know then, o my Son, that all Laws.,

         all Aysterm, all Customs, all Ideals and Standards which tend

         to produce uniformity, are in direct opposition to Nature's

         Will to change and to develop through Variety, and are

         accursed. Do thou with all thy Might of Manhood strive

         against these Forces, for they resist Change, which is Life;

         and thus they are of Death.'  `De Legibus Contra Motum. `Say

         not, in thine Haste, that such Stagnations are Unity even as

         the last Victory of thy Will is Unity. For thy Will moveth

         through free Function, according to its particular Nature, to

         that End of Dissolution of all Complexities, and those Ideals

         and Standards are Attempts to halt thee on that Way. Although

         for thee some certain Ideal be upon thy Path, yet for thy

         Neighbour it may not be so. Set all Men a-horseback; thou

         speedest the Foot-soldier upon his way, indeed; but what hast

         thou done to the Bird-man? Thou must have simple Laws and

         Customs to express the general Will, and so prevent the

         Tyranny or Violence of a few; but multiply them not! Now then

         herewith I will declare unto thee the Limits of the civil Law

         upon the Rock of the Law of Thelema'.  `De Necessitate

         Communi.  `Understand first that the Disturbers of the Peace

         of Mankind do so by Reason of their Ignorance of their own

         True Wills. Therefore, as this Wisdom of mine increaseth

         among Mankind, the false Will to Crime must become constantly

         more rare. Also, the exercise of our Freedom will cause Men

         to be born with less and ever less Affliction from that

         Dis-ease of Spirit, which breedeth these false Wills. But, in

         the While of waiting for this Perfection, thou must by Law

         assure to every Man a Means of satisfying his bodily and his

         mental Needs, leaving him free to develop any Super-structure

         in accordance with his Will, and protecting him from any that

         may seek to deprive him of these vertebral Rights. There

         shall be therefore a Standard of Satisfaction, though it must

         vary in detail with Race, Climate, and other such Conditions.

         And this Standard shall be based upon a large Interpretation

         of Facts biological, physiological, and the like'.  `De

         Fundamentis Civitatis.  `Say not, o my Son, that in this

         Argument I Have set Limits to individual Freedom. For each

         Man in this State which I purpose is fulfilling his own true

         Will by his eager Acquiescence in the Order necessary to the

         Welfare of all, and therefore of himself also. But see thou

         well to it that thou set high the Standard of Satisfaction,

         and that to every one be a Surplus of Leisure and of Energy,

         so that, his Will of Self- preservation-being fulfilled by

         the Performance of his Function in the State, he may devote

         the Remainder of his Powers to the Satisfaction of the other

         Parts of his Will. And because the People are oft times

         unlearned, not understanding Pleasure, let them be instructed

         in the Art of Life: to prepare Food palatable and wholesome,

         each to his own Taste, to make Clothes according to Fancy,

         with variety of Individuality, and to practice the manifold

         Crafts of Love. These Things being first secured, thou mayst

         afterward lead them into the Heavens of Poesy and Tale, of

         Music, Painting, and Sculpture, and into the Lore of the Mind

         Itself, with its insatiable Joy of all Knowledge, Thence let

         them soar!'

         59.    We must abolish the shadows by the Radiant Light of

         the Sun. Real things are only thrown into brighter glory by

         His effulgence. We need have no fear then to throw the

         Christians to the Lions. If there be indeed True Men among

         them, who happen through defect of education to know no

         better, they will reincarnate all right, and no harm done.

         This passage may perhaps be interpreted in a sense slightly

         different from that assumed in the above paragraph. We should

         indeed love all -- is not the Law `love under will'? By this

         I mean that we should make proper contact with all, for love

         means union; and the proper condition of union is determined

         by will. Consider the right attitude to adopt in the matter

         of cholera. One should love it, that is, study it intimately;

         not otherwise can one be sure of maintaining the right

         relation with it, which is, not to allow it to interfere with

         one's will to live. (And almost everything that is true of

         Cholera is true of Christians.)

         60.    The Christians to the Lions!  An XVII Sol in Libra, I

         am reminded of Samuel Butler's observation that the

         apotheosis of love is to devour the beloved. Indeed, one

         cannot say that one has perfectly attained to love or hate

         until the object of that passion is assimilated. The word `

         hell' is significant in this connection. One must never be so

         careless as to let oneself think that even `the Style of a

         letter' (how much less a phrase!) in this Book is casual. The

         expression `to hell with them' is not merely an outburst of

         colloquial enthusiasm. The word `hell', that and no other,

         serves the purpose of the speaker. This would naturally be

         suggested to us, in any case, by the reflection that our Law

         does not indulge in the frothings of impotent fury, like the

         priestly frauds of Moses, the Rishis, and Buddha, in the

         weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth of the Galilean

         fishwife. Our Law knows nothing of punishment beyond that

         imposed by ignorance and awkwardness on their possessor. The

         work `hell' must therefore be explained in terms neither of

         virile vulgarity, or theological blackmail.  I quote Liber

         Aleph, Chapters  , p.24, p.129, p.130, from which the

         peculiar applicability of the expression to the problem of

         the text will be evident. `De Nuptiis Mysticis.  `O my Son,

         how wonderful is the Wisdom of this Law of Love! How vast are

         the Oceans of uncharted Joy that lie before the Keel of thy

         Ship! Yet know this, that every Opposition is in its Nature

         named Sorrow, and the Joy lieth in the Destruction of the

         Dyad. Therefore must thou seek ever those Things which are to

         thee poisonous, and that in the highest Degree, and make them

         thine by Love. That which repels, that which disgusts, must

         thou assimilate in this Way of Wholeness. Yet rest not in the

         Joy of Destruction of every Complex in thy Nature, but press

         on to that ultimate Marriage with the Universe whose

         Consummation shall destroy thee utterly, leaving only that

         Nothingness which was before the Beginning.  So then the Life

         of Non-action is not for thee; the Withdrawal from Activity

         is not the Way of the Tao; but rather the Intensification and

         making universal of every Unity of thine Energy on every

         Plane.'

         220A2-6.ASC

             `De Inferno Palatio Sapientiae..  `Now then thou seest

         that this Hell, or concealed Place within thee, is no more a

         Fear or Hindrance to Men of a Free Race, But the

         Treasure-House of the Assimilated Wisdom of the Ages, and the

         Knowledge of the True Way. Thus are we Just and Wise to

         discover this Secret in Ourselves, and to conform the

         conscious Mind therewith. For that Mind is compact solely

         (until it be illuminated) of Impressions and Judgments, so

         that its Will is but directed by the sum of the Shallow

         Reactions of a most limited Experience. But thy True Will is

         the Wisdom of the Ages of thy Generations, the Expression of

         that which hath fitted thee exactly to thine Environment.

         Thus thy conscious Mind is oftentimes foolish, as when thou

         admirest an Ideal, and wouldst attain it, but thy true Will

         letteth thee, so that there is Conflict, and the Humiliation

         of that Mind. Here will I call to Witness the common Event of

         `Good Resolutions' that defy the Lightning of Destiny, being

         puffed up by the Wind of an Indigestible Ideal putrefying

         within thee Thence cometh colic, and presently the Poison is

         expelled, or else thou diest. But Resolutions of True Will

         are mighty against Circumstance.'  `De Vitiis Voluntatis

         Secretae.  `Learn moreover concerning this Hell, or Hidden

         Wisdom, that is within thee, that it is modified, little by

         little, in respect of its Khu, through the Experience of the

         Conscious Mind, which feedeth it. For that Wisdom is the

         Expression, or rather Symbol and Hieroglyph, of the True

         Adjustment of thy Being to its Environment. Now then, that

         Environment being eroded by Time, this Wisdom is no more

         perfect, for it is not absolute, but standeth in Relation to

         the Universe. So then a Part thereof may become useless, and

         atrophy, as (I will instance) Man's Wit of Smell; and the

         bodily Organ corresponding degenerateth therewith. But this

         is an Effect of much Time, so that in thy Hell thou art like

         to find Elements vain, or foolish, or contrary to thy present

         Weal. Yet, o my Son, this Hidden Wisdom is not thy true Will,

         but only the Levers (I may say so) thereof. Notwithstanding,

         there lieth therein a Faculty of Balance, whereby it is able

         to judge whether any Element in itself is presently useful

         and benign, or idle and malignant. Here then is a Root of

         Conflict between the Conscious and the Unconscious, and a

         Debate concerning the right Order of Conduct, how the Will

         may be accomplished'.

         61.    This chapter now enters upon an entirely new phase.

         The revelation or `hiding' of Hadit had by now sunk into the

         soul of The Beast, so that He realized Himself.

         62.    `Uplifted in thine Heart': -- compare the Book of the

         Heart Girt with a Serpent. (See Equinox III,I.)

         63.    This verse conceals a certain Magical Formula of the

         loftiest initiations. It refers to a method of using the

         breath, in connexion with the appropriate series of ideas,

         which is perhaps not to be taught directly. But it may be

         learnt by those who have attained the necessary degree of

         magical technique, suggested automatically to them by Nature

         Herself, just as newly-hatched chickens pick up corn without

         instruction.

         64.    `The Kings' are evidently those men who are capable of

         understanding Themselves. This is a consecration of THe Beast

         to the task of putting forth the Law.  `Thou art overcome'.

         The conscious resisted desperately, and died in the last

         ditch.

         65.    It is curious that this verse should be numbered 65,

         suggesting L.V.X. and Adonai, the Holy Guardian Angel. It

         seems then that He is Hadit. I have never liked the term

         `Higher Self'; True Self is more the idea. For each Star is

         the husk of Hadit, unique and conqueror, sublime in His own

         virtue, independent of Hierarchy. There is an external

         hierarchy, of course, but that is only a matter of

         convenience.

         66.    The first part of this text appears to be a digression

         in the nature of a prophecy. The word `Come!' is a summons to

         reenter the full Trance. Its essence is declared in the last

         six words. Notice that the transition from one to none in

         instantaneous.

         67.    The instructions in the text of this and the next

         verse were actual indications as to how to behave, so as to

         get the full effect of the Trance. This too is a general

         Magical Formula, convenient even in the Work of the physical

         image of the Godhead.  It is of the utmost importance to

         resist the temptation to let oneself be carried away into

         trance. One should summon one's reserve forces to react

         against the tendency to lose normal consciousness. More and

         more of one's being is gradually drawn into the struggle, and

         one only yields at the last moment. (It needs practice and

         courage to get the best results.). I quote from the Holy

         Books:  `Fall not into death, O my soul! Think that death is

         the bed into which you are falling!' (Liber VII,I,33.)  `Thou

         hast brought me into great delight. Thou hast given me of Thy

         flesh to eat and of Thy blood for an offering of

         intoxication.  Thou hast fastened the fangs of Eternity in my

         soul, and the Poison of the Infinite hath consumed me

         utterly.  I am become like a luscious devil of Italy; a fair

         strong woman with worn cheeks, eaten out with Hunger for

         kisses. She hath played the harlot in diverse palaces; she

         hath given her body to the beasts.  She hath slain her

         kinsfolk with strong venom of toads; she hath been scourged

         with many rods.  She hath been broken in pieces upon the

         Wheel; the hands of the hangman have bound her unto it.  The

         fountains of water have been loosed upon her; she hath

         struggled with exceeding torment. The hath burst in sunder

         with the weights of the waters; she hath sunk into the awful

         Sea. So am I, O Adonai, my lord, and such are the waters of

         Thine intolerable Essence.  So am I, O Adonai, my beloved,

         and Thou hast burst me utterly in sunder.  I am shed out like

         spilt blood upon the mountains; the Ravens of Dispersion have

         borne me utterly away.  Therefore is the seal unloosed, that

         guarded the Eighth abyss; therefore is the vast sea as a

         veil; therefore is there a rending asunder of all things.'

         (Liber LXV,III, vv. 38-48.)  `Intoxicate the inmost, O my

         lover, not the outermost!' (Liber LXV, I, v.64).

         68.    It is remarkable that this extraordinary Experience

         has practically no effect upon the normal consciousness of

         THe Beast. `Intoxicate the inmost, o my God' -- and it was

         His Magical Self, 666, that was by this Ecstasy initiated. It

         needed years for this Light to dissolve the husks of accident

         that shrouded his True Seed.

         69.    The phrase -- ` the word' -- is of a deeper

         significance than at first sight may appear. The question is

         not merely equivalent to: `Is the dictation at an end?' For

         the Word is Conceived as the act of possession. This is

         evident from the choice of the word `exhausted'. The

         inspiration has been like an electrical discharge. Language

         is in itself nothing; it is only the medium of transmitting

         experience to consciousness. Tahuti, Thoth, Hermes, or

         Mercury symbolize this relation; the character of this God is

         declared in very full terms in `The Paris Working', which

         should be studied eagerly by those who are fortunate enough

         to have access to the MS.

         70.    It is absurd to suppose that `to indulge the passions'

         is necessarily a reversion or degeneration. On the contrary,

         all human progress has depended on such indulgence. Every art

         and science is intended to gratify some fundamental need of

         nature. What is the ultimate use of the telephone and all the

         other inventions on which we pride ourselves? Only to sustain

         life, or to protect or reproduce it; or to subserve Knowledge

         and other forms of pleasure.  On the other hand, the passions

         must be understood properly as what they are, nothing in

         themselves, but the diverse forms of expression employed by

         the Will. One must preserve discipline. A passion cannot be

         good or bad, too weak or too strong, etc. by an arbitrary

         standard. Its virtue consists solely in its conformity with

         the plan of the Commander-in- Chief. Its initiative and elan

         are limited by the requirements of his strategy. For

         instance, modesty may well cooperate with ambition; but also

         it may thwart it. This verse counsels us to train our

         passions to the highest degree of efficiency. Each is to

         acquire the utmost strength and intelligence; but all are

         equally to contribute their quota towards the success of the

         campaign. It is nonsense to bring a verdict of `Guilty' or

         `Not Guilty' against a prisoner without reference to the law

         under which he is living. The end justifies the means: if the

         Jesuits do not assert this, I do. There is obviously a limit,

         where `the means' in any case are such that their use

         blasphemes `the end': e.g. to murder one's rich aunt affirms

         the right of one's poor nephew to repeat the trick, and so to

         go against one's own Will-to-live, which lies deeper in one's

         being than the mere Will-to-inherit. The judge in each case

         is not ideal morality, but inherent logic.  This then being

         understood, that we cannot call any given passion good or bad

         absolutely, any more than we can call Knight to King's Fifth

         a good or bad move in chess without study of the position, we

         may see more clearly what this verse implies. There is here a

         general instruction to refine Pleasure, not by excluding its

         gross elements, but by emphasizing all elements in

         equilibrated development. Thus one is to combind the joys of

         Messalina with those of Saint Theresa and Isolde in one

         single act. One's rapture is to include those of Blake,

         Petrarch, Shelley, and Catullus. Liber Aleph has detailed

         instruction on numerous points involved in these questions.

         Why `eight and ninety' rules of art? I am totally unable to

         suggest a reason satisfactory to myself; but 90 is Tzaddi,

         the `Emperor', and 8, Cheth, the `Charioteer' or Cup-Bearer;

         the phrase might them conceivably mean `with majesty'.

         Alternatively, 98=2 x 49: now Two is the number of the Will,

         and Seven of the passive senses. 98 might then mean the full

         expansion of the senses (7 x 7) balanced against each other,

         and controlled firmly by the Will.  `Exceed by delicacy':

         this does not mean, by refraining from so-called animalism.

         One should make every act a sacrament, full of divinest

         ecstasy and nourishment. There is no act which true delicacy

         cannot consecrate. It is one thing to be like a sow,

         unconscious of the mire, and unable to discriminate between

         sweet food and sour; another to take the filth firmly and

         force oneself to discover the purity therein, initiating even

         the body to overcome its natural repulsion and partake with

         the soul at this Eucharist. We `believe in the Miracle of the

         Mass' not only because meat and drink are actually

         `transmuted in us daily into Spiritual Substance', but

         because we can make the `Body and Blood of God' from any

         materials soever by Virtue of our royal and Pontifical Art of

         Magick.  Now when Brillat-Savarin (was it not?) served to the

         King's table a pair of old kid gloves, and pleased the

         princely palate, he certainly proved himself a Master-Cook.

         The feat is not one to be repeated constantly, but one should

         achieve it at least once -- that it may bear witness to

         oneself that the skill is there. One might even find it

         advisable to practice it occasionally, to retain one's

         confidence that one's `right hand hath not lost its cunning'.

         On this point hear further more our Holy Books:  `Go thou

         unto the outermost places and subdue all things'.  Subdue thy

         fear and thy disgust. Then -- yield!' (Liber LXV, I. 45.46).

         `Morover I beheld a vision of a river. There was a little

         boat thereon; and in it under purple sails was a golden

         woman, an image of Asi wrought in finest gold. also the river

         was of blood, and the boat of shining steel. Then I loved

         her; and, loosing my girdle, cast myself into the stream.  I

         gathered myself into the little Boat, and for many days and

         nights did I love her, burning beautiful incense before her.

         Yea! I gave her of the flower of my youth.   But she stirred

         not; only by my kisses I defiled her so that she turned to

         blackness before me.   Yet I worshipped her, and gave her of

         the flower of my youth.  also it came to pass that thereby

         she sickened, and corrupted before me. Almost I cast myself

         into the stream.  Then at the end appointed her body was

         whiter that the milk of the stars, and her lips red and warm

         as the sunset, and her life of a white heat like the heat of

         the midmost sun.  Then rose she up from the abyss of Ages of

         Sleep, and her body embraced me. Altogether I melted into her

         beauty and was glad.  The river also became the river of

         Amrit, and the little boat was the chariot of the flesh, and

         the sales thereof the blood of the heart that beareth me,

         thereof the blood of the heart that beareth me, that beareth

         me.'  We therefore train our adepts to make the Gold

         Philosophical from the dung of witches, and the Elixir of

         Life from Hippomanes; but we do not advocate ostentatious

         addiction to these operations. It is good to know that one is

         man enough to spend a month or so at a height of twenty

         thousand feet or more above the sea-level; but it would be

         unpardonably foolish to live there permanently.  This

         illustrates on case of a general principle. We consider the

         Attainment of various Illuminations, incomparably glorious as

         that is, of chief value for its witness to our possession of

         the faculty which made success possible. To have climbed

         alone to the summit of Iztaccihuatl is great and grand; but

         the essence of one's joy is that one possesses the courage,

         knowledge, agility, endurance, and self-mastery necessary to

         have done it.  The Goal is ineffably worth all our pains, as

         we say to ourselves at first; but in a little while are aware

         that even that Goal is less intoxicating then the Way itself.

         We find that it matters little whither we go; the Going

         itself is our gladness, I quote in this connection Liber LXV,

         II, 17-25, one of several similar passages in Our Holy Books.

         `Also the Holy One came upon me, and I beheld a white swan

         floating in the blue.  Between its wings I sate, and the

         aeons fled away.  Then the swan flew and dived and soared,

         yet no whither we went.  A little crazy boy that rode with me

         spake unto the swan, and said: Who art thou that dost float

         and fly and dive and soar in the inane? Behold, these many

         aeons have passed; whence camest thou? Whither wilt thou go?

         And laughing I chide him, saying: No whence! No whither!  The

         swan being silent, he answered: Then, if with no goal, why

         this eternal journey?  And I laid my head against the Head of

         the Swan, and laughed saying: Is there not joy ineffable in

         this aimless winging? Is there not weariness and impatience

         for who would attain to some goal?   And the swan was ever

         silent. Ah! but we floated in the infinite Abyss. Joy! Joy!

         White swan, bear thou ever me up between thy wings!'  `Be

         strong!' We need healthy robust bodies as the mechanical

         instruments of our souls. Could Paganini have expressed

         himself on the `fiddle for eighteen pence' that some one once

         bought when he was `young and had no sense'? Each of us is

         Hadit, the core of our Khabs, our Star, one of the Company of

         Heaven; but this Khabs needs a Khu or Magical Image, in order

         to play its part in the Great Drama. This Khu, again, needs

         the proper costume, a suitable `body of flesh', and this

         costume must be worthy of the Play.  We therefore employ

         various magical means to increase the vigour of our bodies

         and the energy of our minds, to fortify and sublime them.

         The result is that we of Thelema are capable of enormously

         more achievement than others, even in terrestrial matters,

         from sexual orgia to creative Art. Even if we had only this

         one earth-life to consider, we exceed our fellows some

         thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some an hundredfold.  One most

         important point, in conclusion. We must doubtless admit that

         each one of us is lacking in one capacity or another. There

         must always be some among the infinite possibilities of Nuith

         which possesses no correlative points of contact in any given

         Khu. For example, the Khu of a male body cannot fulfil itself

         in the quality of motherhood. Any such lacuna must be

         accepted as a necessary limit, without regret or vain

         yearnings for the impossible. But we should beware lest

         prejudice or other personal passion exclude any type of

         self-realization which is properly ours. In our initiation

         the tests must be thorough and exhaustive. The neglect to

         develop even a single power can only result in deformity.

         However slight this might seem, it might lead to fatal

         consequences; the ancient adepts taught that by the parable

         of the heel of Achilles. It is essential for the Aspirant to

         make a systematic study of every possible passion, icily

         aloof from all alike, and setting their armies in array

         beneath the banner of his Will after he has perfectly gauged

         the capacity of each unit, and assured himself of its

         loyalty, discipline, courage, and efficiency. But woe unto

         him who leaves a gap in his line, or one arm unprepared to do

         its whole duty in the position proper to its peculiar

         potentialities!

         71.    `The Road of Excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom'.

         Progress, as its very etymology declares, means A Step Ahead.

         It is the Genius, the Eccentric, the Man Who Goes One Better

         than his fellows, that is the Saviour of the Race. And while

         it is unwise possibly (in some senses) to exceed in certain

         respects, we may be sure that he who exceeds in no respect is

         a mediocrity.  The key of Evolution is Right Variation.

         Excess is evidence at least of capacity in the quality at

         issue. The golf teacher growls tirelessly: `Putt for the back

         of the hole! Never up, never in!' The application is

         universal. Far from me be it to deny that excess is too often

         disastrous. The athlete who dies in his early prime is the

         skeleton at every Boat Supper. But in such cases the excess

         is almost always due to the desire to excel other men,

         instead of referring the matter to the only competent judge,

         the true Will of the body. I myself used to `go all out' on

         mountains; I hold more World's Records of various kinds than

         I can reckon -- for pace, skill, daring, and endurance. But I

         never worried about whether other people could beat me. For

         this reason my excesses, instead of causing damage to health

         and danger to life, turned me from a delicate boy, too frail

         for football, doomed by my doctors to die in my teens, into a

         robust ruffian who throve on every kind of hardship and

         exposure.  On the contrary, every department of life in

         which, from distaste or laziness, I did not `exceed', is

         constantly crippling me in one way or another -- and I

         recognize with savage remorse that the weakness which I could

         have corrected so easily in my twenties is in my forties an

         incurably chronic complaint.

         72.    This striving is to be strenuous. We are not to set

         our lives at a pin's fee. `Unhand me, gentlemen! I'll make a

         ghost of him that lets me!' Death is the End that crowns the

         Work.  Evolution works by variation. When an animal develops

         one part of itself beyond the others, it infringes the norm

         of its type. At first this effort is made at the expense of

         other efforts, and it seems as if, the general balance being

         upset, the Nature were in danger. (It must obviously appear

         so to the casual observer -- who probably reproaches and

         persecutes the experimenter). But when this variation is

         intended to meet some new, or even foreseen, change in

         environment, and is paid for by some surplus part, or some

         part now superfluous, although once useful to meet a quality

         of the environment which no longer menaces the individual,

         the adaptation is biologically profitable.  Obviously, the

         whole idea of exercise, mental or bodily, is to develop the

         involved organs in manner physiologically and psychologically

         proper.  It is deleterious to force any faculty to live by an

         alien law. When parents insist on a boy adopting a profession

         which he loathes, because they themselves fancy it; when

         Florence Nightingale fought to open hospital windows in India

         at night; then the Ideal mutilates and murders.  Every organ

         has `no law beyond Do what thou wilt'. Its law is determined

         by the history of its development, and by its present

         relations with its fellow-citizens. We do not fortify our

         lungs and our limbs by identical methods, or aim at the same

         tokens of success in training the throat of the tenor and the

         fingers of the fiddler. But all laws are alike in this: they

         agree that power and tone come from persistently practising

         the proper exercise without overstraining. When a faculty is

         freely fulfilling its function, it will grow; the test is its

         willingness to `strive ever to more'; it justifies itself by

         being `ever joyous'. It follows that `death is the crown of

         all'. For a life which has fulfilled all its possibilities

         ceases to have a purpose; death is its diploma, so to speak;

         it is ready to apply itself to the new conditions of a larger

         life. Just so a schoolboy who has mastered his work, dies to

         school, reincarnates in cap & gown, triumphs in the trips,

         dies to the cloisters, and is reborn to the world.  Note that

         the Atu `Death' in the Tarot refers to Scorpio. This sign is

         threefold: the Scorpion that kills itself with its own

         poison, when its environment (the ring of fire) becomes

         intolerable; the Serpent that renews itself by shedding its

         skin, that is crowned and hooded, that moves by undulations

         like Light, and gives man Wisdom at the price of Toil

         Suffering and Mortality; and the Eagle that soars, its

         lidless eyes bent boldly upon the Sun. `Death' is, to the

         initiate, as inn by the wayside; its marks a stage

         accomplished; it offers refreshment, repose, and advice as to

         his plans for the morrow.  But in this verse the main point

         is that death is the `crown' of all. The crown is Kether, the

         Unity; `Love under will' having been applied to all

         Nuith-possibilities of all Khu- energies of any

         Hadit-central-Star, that Star has exhausted itself perfectly,

         completed one stage of its course. It is therefore crowned by

         death; and, being wholly itself, lives again by attracting

         its equal and opposite Counterpart, with whom `love under

         will' is the fulfilment of the Law, in a sublimer sphere.

         But there are no rules until on finds them: a man leaving

         Ireland for the Sahara does well to discard such

         `indispensable' and `proper' things as a waterproof and a

         blackthorn for a turban and a dagger.  The `moral' man is

         living by the no-reason of Laws, and that is stupid and

         inadequate even when the Laws still hold good; for he is a

         mere mechanism, resourceless should any danger that is not

         already provided for in his original design chance to arise.

         Respect for routine is the mark of the second-rate man.  The

         `immoral' man, defying convention by shouting aloud in

         church, may indeed be `brawling'; but equally he may be a

         sensitive who has felt the first tremor of an earthquake.  We

         of Thelema encourage every possible variation; we welcome

         every new `sport'; its success or failure is our sole test of

         its value. We let the hen's queer hatching take to water, and

         laugh at her alarms; and we protect the `ugly duckling',

         knowing that Time will tell us whether it be a cygnet.

         Herbert Spencer, inexorably condemning the Unfit to the

         gallows, only echoed the High-Priest who protected Paul form

         the Pharisees. Sound biology and sound theology are for once

         at one!

         220A2-7.ASC

                 The question of the limits of individual Liberty is

         fully discussed in Liber CXI (Aleph), to which we refer the

         student. The following four chapters will give a general idea

         of the main principles.  `De Vi Per Disciplinam Colenda.

         `Consider the Bond of a cold Climate, how it maketh man a

         Slave; he must have Shelter and Food with fierce Toil. Yet

         thereby he becometh strong against the Elements, and his

         moral Force waxeth, so that he is Master of such Men as live

         in Lands of Sun where bodily Needs are satisfied without

         Struggle.   Consider also him that willeth to excel in Speed

         or in Battle, how he denieth himself the Food he craveth, and

         all Pleasures natural to him, putting himself under the harsh

         Order of a Trainer. So by this Bondage he hath, at the last,

         his Will.  Now then the one by natural, and the other by

         voluntary, Restriction have come each to a greater Liberty.

         This is also a general law of Biology, for all Development is

         Structuralization; that is, Limitation and Specialization of

         an originally indeterminate Protoplasm, which latter may

         therefore be called free, in the definition of a Pendant.'

         `De Ordins Rerum'.  `In the Body every Cell is subordinated

         to the general physiological Control, and we who will that

         Control do not ask whether each individual Unit of that

         Structure be consciously happy. But we do care that each

         shall fulfil its Function, and the Failure of even a few

         Cells, or their Revolt, may involve the Death of the whole

         Organism. Yet even here the Complaint of a few, which we call

         pain, is a Warning of general Danger. Many Cells fulfil their

         Destiny by swift Death, and this being their Function, they

         in no wise resent it. Should Haemoglobin resist the Attack of

         Oxygen, the Body would perish, and the HAEMOGLOBIN would not

         even save itself. Now, o my Son, do then consider deeply of

         these Things in thine Ordering of the World under the Law of

         Thelema. For every Individual in the State must be perfect in

         his own Function, with Contentment, respecting his own Task

         as necessary and holy, not envious of another's. For so only

         mayst thou build up a free state, whose directing Will shall

         be singly directed to the Welfare of all'.  We of Thelema

         think it vitally aright to let a man take opium. He may

         destroy his physical vehicle thereby, but he may produce

         another `Kubla Khan'. It is his own responsibility. Also we

         know well that `if he be a King' it will not hurt him -- in

         the end. We trust Nature to protect, and Wisdom to be

         justified of, their children. It is superficial to object

         that a man should be prevented from ruining and killing

         himself, for his own sake or for that of `those dependent on

         him'. One who is unfit to survive aught to be allowed to die.

         We want only those who can conquer themselves and their

         environment. As for `those dependent on him' it is one of our

         chief objects to abolish the very idea of dependence on

         others. Women with child, and infants, are not exceptions, as

         might seem. They are doing their will, the one class to

         reproduce, the other to live; the state should consider their

         welfare to be its first duty; for if they are for the moment

         dependent on it, it is also dependent on them. A man might as

         well cut out his heart because it was weak, and in need of

         cautious care. But he would be no less foolish if he tried to

         prevent the used-up elements from eliminating themselves from

         his body. We respect the Will-to-Live; we should respect the

         Will-to Die. The race is auto-intoxicated by suppressing the

         excretory processes of Nature.  Each case must of course be

         judged on its merits. His neighbours do well to assist one

         who is weak by accident or misfortune, if he wishes to

         recover. But it is a crime against the state and against the

         individuals in question to hinder the gambler, the drunkard,

         the voluptuary, the congenital defective, from drifting to

         death, unless they prove by their won dogged determination to

         master their circumstances, that they are fit to pull their

         weight in the Noah's Ark of mankind.

         73.    There is a connection between Death, Sleep and Our

         Lady Nuit. (This is worked out, on profane lines, by Dr.

         Sigmund Freud, and his school, especially by Jung,

         `Psychology of the Unconscious', which the reader should

         consult). The fatigue of the day's toil creates the toxins

         whose accumulation is the `will to Die'. All mystic

         attainment is of this type, as all Magick is of the `Will to

         Live'. At times we all want Nibbana, to withdraw into the

         Silence, and so on. The Art of it is to dip deeply into

         `Death', but to emerge immediately, a giant refreshed. This

         plan is also possible on the larger scale, all Life being

         Magick, all Death Mysticism. Then why is Death `forbidden'?

         All things are surely lawful. But we must work `without lust

         of result', taking everything as it comes without desire

         indeed, but with all manner of delight! Let thy Love-Madrigal

         to Death, thy Mother-Mistress, ripple and swell throughout

         the years, with all the Starry Heaven for thine Orchestra;

         but do not imagine that to attain Her is the sole

         satisfaction. It is the yearning itself that is Beatitude.

         It may seem that in this verse the word `Death' is used in a

         sense somewhat other than that explained in the previous

         note. It is forbidden, observe, to `man'. That is, then, the

         formula must not be used by one who is still an imperfect

         being. Our definition is surely confirmed by this phrase

         rather than denied, or even modified. To long for death is to

         aspire to the complete fulfilment of all one's

         potentialities. And it would evidently be an error to insist

         upon passing on to one's next life while there were hawsers

         unhitched from this one. The mere inexplicability of the

         various jerks would make for bewilderment, irritation, and

         clumsiness.  For this reason, alone, it is all-important to

         ascertain one's true Will, and to work out every detail of

         the work of doing it, as early in life as one can. One is apt

         (at the best) to define one's will dogmatically, and to

         devote one's life almost puritanically to the task, sternly

         suppressing all side- issues, and calling this course

         Concentration. This is error, and perilous. For one cannot be

         sure that a faculty which seems (on the surface) useless,

         even hostile, to one's work, may not in course of time become

         one of vital value. If it be atrophied -- alas! Its

         suppression may moreover have poisoned one's whole system, as

         a breast debarred from its natural use is prone to cancer. At

         best, it may be too late to repair the mischief; the lost

         opportunity may be a life-long remorse.  The one way of

         safety lies in applying the Law of Thelema with the utmost

         rigour. Every impulse, however feeble, is necessary to the

         stability of the whole structure; the tiniest flaw may cause

         the cannon to burst. Every impulse however opposite to the

         main motive, is part of the plan; the rifling does not thwart

         the purpose of the barrel. One should therefore acquiesce in

         every element of one's nature, and develop it as its own laws

         demand, with absolute impartiality. One need not fear; there

         is a natural limit to the growth of any species; it either

         finds food fail, or is choked by its neighbours, or overgrows

         itself, and is transformed. Nor need one fret about the

         harmony and proportion of one's various faculties; the fit

         will survive, and the perfection of the whole will be

         understood as soon as the parts have found themselves, and

         settled down after fighting the matter out in the balanced

         stability which represents their right reaction to each

         other, and to their environment. It is thus policy for an

         Aspirant to initiation to analyse himself with indefatigable

         energy, shrewd skill, and accurate subtlety; but then to

         content himself with indefatigable energy, shrewd skill, and

         accurate subtlety; but then to content himself with observing

         the interplay of his instincts, instead of guiding them. Not

         until he is familiar with them all should he perform the

         practices which enable him to read the Word of his Will. And,

         then having assumed conscious control of himself, that he may

         do his Will, he should make a point of using every faculty in

         a detached way (just as one inspects one's pistols and fires

         a few rounds) without expecting ever to need them again, but

         on the general principle that if they were wanted, one might

         as well feel confident of the issue.  This theory of

         initiation is so important to every aspirant that I shall

         illustrate how my own ignorance bred error, and error injury.

         My Will was, I now know, to be The Beast, 666, a Magus, the

         Word of the Aeon, Thelema; to proclaim this new Law to

         mankind.  My passion for personal freedom, my superiority to

         sexual impulses, my resolve to master physical fear and

         weakness, my contempt for other people's opinions, my poetic

         genius: I indulged all these to the full. None of them

         carried me too far, ousted the other, or injured my general

         well-being. On the contrary, each automatically reached its

         natural limit, and each has been incalculably useful to me in

         doing my Will when I became aware of it, able to organize its

         armies, and to direct them intelligently against the inertia

         of ignorance. But I suppressed certain impulses in myself. I

         abandoned my ambitions to be a diplomatist. I checked my

         ardour for Science. I trampled upon my prudence in financial

         matters. I mortified my fastidiousness about caste. I masked

         my shyness in bravado, and tried to kill it by ostentatious

         eccentricity. This last mistake came from sheer panic; but

         all the rest were quite deliberate sacrifices on the altar of

         my God Magick.  They were all accepted, asit then seemed. I

         attained all my ambitions; yea, and more also. But I know now

         that I should not have forced my growth, and deformed my

         destiny. To nail geese to boards and stuff them makes foie

         gras, very true; but it does not improve the geese. It may be

         said that I strengthened my moral character by these

         sacrifices, and that I was indeed compelled to act as I did.

         The mad elephant Wantobemagus pulled over the team of oxen?

         We may put it like that, certainly; but still I feel that it

         might have been better had he not been mad. For, today, if I

         were an Ambassador, versed profoundly in Science, financially

         armed and socially stainless, I should be able to execute my

         Will by pressure upon all classes of powerful people, to make

         this comment carry conviction to thinkers, and to publish the

         Book of the Law in every part of the world. Instead, I am

         exiled and suspected, despised by men of science, ostracised

         by my class, and a beggar. If I were in my teens again! I

         cannot change my mind about which ridge I'll climb the

         mountain by, now when I see, above these ice-glazed pinnacles

         storm-swept, through gashes torn from whirling wreaths of

         arrowy sleet, the cloud-surpassing summit, not far, not very

         far.  I regret nothing, be sure! I may be even in error to

         argue that an evident distortion of nature, and its issue in

         disaster, are proof of imprudence. Perhaps the other road

         would not have taken me to cairo, to the climax of my life,

         to my true Will fulfilled in Aiwaz and made Word in this

         Book. Perhaps it is lingering `lust of result' that whispers

         hideous lies to daunt me, that urges these plausible

         arguments to accuse me. It may be that my present extremity

         is the very condition required for the fulfilment of my Work.

         Who shall say what is power, what impotence? Who shall be

         bold to measure the Morrow, or declare what causes conjoin to

         bring forth an Effect that no man knoweth?  Was not Lao-Tze

         thrust forth from his city? Did not Buddha go begging in

         rags? Did not Mohammed flee for his life into exile? Was not

         Bacchus the scandal and the scorn of men? Than Joseph Smith

         Had any man less learning? Yet each of these attained to do

         his Will; each cried his Word, that all the Earth yet echoes

         it! And each was able to accomplish this by virtue of that

         very circumstance which seems so cruel. Shall I, who am armed

         with all their weapons at once, complain that I must go into

         the fight unfurnished?

         74.    One does not need to be constantly popping in and out

         of Trance. One ought to do both actions with ever increasing

         length and strength of swing. Hence one's life-periods, where

         this counts, become gradually larger and more vivid, and

         one's death- periods though very short, perhaps, may be

         unfathomably intense.  The whole question of Time has been

         thoroughly investigated already. The present remarks refer

         only to the conditions of `normal' consciousness, into which

         we throw ourselves at recurring intervals. The doctrine here

         stated should be studied in  the light of previous remarks;

         verses 61 to 74 inclusive form a coherent passage: notice the

         words `death' in verses 68. There is evidently an intention

         to identify the Climax of Love with that of Life. It is then

         not unnatural for us to ask: Can `Death' have some deeper

         significance than appears? Scorpio, the Zodiacal Sign of

         Death, is really the Sexual or Reproductive function of

         Nature. It is the Earth-transcending Eagle, the

         self-restoring Serpent, and the self-immolating Scorpion. In

         alchemy it is the principle of Putrefaction,  the `Black

         Dragon', whose state of apparent corruption is but a prelude

         to the Rainbow-coloured Spring-tide of the Man in Motley. The

         nymph of Spring, Syrinx, the trembling hollow reed which

         needs but Breath to fill the world with Music, attracts Pan,

         the Goat-God of Ecstatic Lust, by whose Work the glory of

         Summer is established anew.   It is obvious that `the length

         of thy longing' varies with the number of potentialities to

         be satisfied. In other words, the more complex the Khu of the

         Star, the greater the man, and the keener his sense of his

         need to achieve it.

         75.    This passage following appears to be a Qablaistic test

         (on he regular pattern) of any person who may claim to be the

         Magical Heir of THe Beast. Be ye well assured all that the

         solution, when it is found, will be unquestionable. It will

         be marked by the most sublime simplicity, and carry immediate

         conviction.  (The above paragraph was written previous to the

         communication of Charles Stansfeld Jones with regard to the

         `numbers and the words' which constitute the Key to the

         cipher of this Book. See the Appendix to these comment. I

         prefer to leave my remark as it originally stood, in order to

         mark my attitude at the time of writing).

         76.    It is the prophet, the `forth-speaker' who is never to

         know this mystery. But that does not prevent it from lying

         within the comprehension of the Beast, kept secret  by him in

         order to prove any one who should claim sonship. (Cf. the

         note in brackets to the new comment on verse 75.  The last

         part of this verse presents no difficulty.   An XVI, Sun in

         Sagittarius. In the Appendix will be found the Qabalistic

         proofs referred to in the penultimate paragraph, as

         supporting the claim of sir Charles Stansfeld Jones, whose

         occult names, numbers, dignities and titles, are as follows:

         PARZIVAL, Knight of the Holy Ghost, etc., X O.T.O., 418, 777,

         V.I.O. (Omnia in Uno, Unus In Omnibus), Achad, or

         O.I.V.V.I.O. (Omnia in Uno, Unus in Omnibus), Fra  A:.A:., 8

         = 3 , Arctaeon, to be my son by Jeanne Foster, Soror

         Hilarion. See Appendix for the technical explanation of this

         verse. I may here briefly mention, however, that `Thou

         knowest not' is one of the cryptographic ambiguities

         characteristic of this Book. `Thou knowest' -- see Cap. I

         verse 26, and `not' is Nuith. The word `ever' too, may be the

         objective of `know', rather than merely an adverb.  Note `to

         be me', not `to be I' -- an evident reference to Nuit, `not',

         MH. Cf. verse 13, comment. One can only exist by being Nuit,

         as explained in discussing the general magical theory.

         Observe that I am here definitely enjoined to proclaim my Law

         to men, `to look forth' instead of retiring from the world as

         mystics are wont to do. I may then be confident that this

         Work is a proper part of my Will. Note: This `one' is not to

         be confused with the `child' referred to elsewhere in this

         Book. It is quite possible that O.I.V.V.I.O. (who took the

         grade of 8 = 3 by an act of will without going through the

         lower grades in the regular way) failed to secure complete

         annihilation in crossing the Abyss; so that the drops of

         blood which should have been cast into the cup of Babalon

         should `breed scorpions, and vipers, and the Cat of Slime'.

         In this case he would develop into a Black Brother, to be

         torn in pieces and reduced to his Elements against his Will.

         77.    Pride is the quality of Sol. Tiphareth; Might of Mars,

         Geburah. Now Leo -- my rising sign -- combines these ideas,

         as does Ra-Hoor-Khuit. The christian ideas of humility and

         weakness as `virtues' are natural to slaves, cowards, and

         defectives.  The type of tailless simian who finds himself a

         mere forked radish in a universe of giants clamouring for

         hors d'oeuvres must take refuge from Reality in Freudian

         phantasies of `God'. He winces at the touch of Truth; and

         shivers at his nakedness in Nature.  He therefore invents a

         cult of fear and shame, and makes it presumption and

         blasphemy to possess courage and self-respect. He burrows in

         the slime of `Reverence, and godly fear; and makes himself

         houses of his own excrement, like the earthworm he is. He

         shams dead, like other vile insects, at the insects, at the

         approach of danger; he tries to escape notice by assuming the

         colour and form of his surroundings, using `protective

         mimicry' like certain other invertebrates. He exudes stink or

         ink like the skunk or the cuttle-fish, calling the one

         Morality and the other Decency. He is slippery with

         Hypocrisy, like a slug; and, labelling the totality of his

         defects Perfection, defines God as Faeces so that he may

         flatter himself with the epithet divine. The whole manoeuvre

         is described as Religion.

         78.    There are certain occult wonders concealed in the

         first part of this text. (See Liver CCCLXX).  The solution of

         the last sentence may depent upon the number of the verse,

         which is that of Mezla, the Influx from the Highest, and of

         the Book of Thoth, or Tarot.   We may take `thy name' as `the

         Sun', for Qabalistic reasons given in the Appendix; the verse

         need not imply the establishment of a new cult with myself as

         Demigod. (Help!) But they shall worship the group of ideas

         connected with the Sun, and the magical formula of the number

         418, explained elsewhere.

         79.    So mote it be!

         220A3-1.ASC

         1.    Observe firstly the word `reward', which is to be

         compared with the words `hiding' and `manifestation' in the

         former chapters. To `re-ward' is to `guard again'; this word

         Abrahadabra then is also to be considered as a Sentinel

         before the Fortress of the God.  Why is the name of Him spelt

         Khut? We have seen that ST is the regular honorific

         terminitation for a God. Ra is, as shown in the Old Comment,

         the Sun, Hoor the Warrior Mars; who is Khu? He is the Magical

         Ego of a Star. Without the Yod or Iota, Khu-t, we get a human

         conception; the insertion of that letter makes the

         transmutation to Godhead. When therefore Ra Hoor Khut is

         rewarded or Re-guarded with the Magick Word of the Aeon, he

         becomes God. Thus in the next verse. I `raise the spell of Ra

         Hoor Khuit'.  The text may also be read as follows.

         Abrahadabra is the formula of the Aeon, by which man may

         accomplish the Great Work. This Formula is then the `reward'

         given by the God, the largesse granted by Him on His

         accession to the Lordship of the Aeon, just as the

         INRI-IAO-LVX formula of attainment by way of Crucifixion was

         given by Osiris when he came to power in the last Aeon. (See

         Book 4 Part III, and Equinox I, III, pp. 208-233).  I must

         here say that I find myself in the greatest difficulty, again

         and again, in the comprehension of this chapter. It might be

         said roughly that at the end of the first five years of

         Silence (An 0-IV) I understood Chapter I; at the end of the

         second five years (an X-XIV) I understood Chapter II, ---

         2.    `Division hither homeward'; a most dour phrase to

         interpret! Such curious concatenation is sure to imply

         profound meaning. Homeward must mean `toward the House of the

         Speaker. He says, then, that there is `division', which (as I

         take it) prevents man from being God. This is a natural and

         orthodox meaning, and it goes well with `there' (I.E. in

         verse 1) `is a word not known'. That Word is Abrahadabra,

         which was not known, it having been concealed by the corrupt

         spelling `abracadabra'.  `Spelling is defunct'; this seems to

         be an echo of the statement in Cap. II, v:5 `The rituals of

         the old time are black'. (The word `defunct' is decidedly

         curious; the implication is `no longer able to fulfil its

         function'.) `Spelling' then means `making spells'. And this

         is characteristic of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, that He demands not

         words, but acts. (Compare `The Paris Working'). So then we

         pass naturally to verse 3. `All is not aught' is an

         abrogation of all previous law, on the accession of a

         Monarch. He wipes out the past as with a sponge. This phrase

         is also an excessively neat cipher or hieroglyph of the great

         Key to this Book. All (AL) is not aught (LA). AL is LA: that

         is to say, the phases of the Universe X and 0  are identical.

         `Beware!' as if it were said to a soldier, `Attention!'

         `Hold!', that is, `Steady! LIsten to the Proclamation!'

         `Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor Khuit!' That is `Here, I, the New

         God, utter my Word'.

         3.    Comment seems hardly necessary. The Great War is a mere

         illustration of this text. The only nations which have

         suffered are those whose religion was Osirian, or, as they

         called it, Christian. The exception is Turkey, which

         foolishly abandoned the principles of Islam to form an unholy

         alliance with the Giaour. Abdul Hamid would never have made

         such an ass of himself as the degenerate gang of `Liberty and

         Progress'; may jakals defile the pyres of their dog fathers!

         (The God of Vengeance is in Greek Aleister. For some reason

         which I have not been able to trace, this God became ALASTOR,

         the Desert Daemon of the Rabbins, the later the `Spirit of

         Solitude' of Shelly. The attribution is appropriate enough,

         the root being apparently A AOMAI, I wander. The idea of

         `Going' is dreadful to the bourgeois, so that a wanderer is

         `accursed'. But, me judice, to settle down in life is to

         abandon the heroic attitude; it is to acquiesce in the

         stagnation of the brain. I do not want to be comfortable, or

         even to prolong life; I prefer to move constantly from galaxy

         to galaxy, from one incarnation to another. Such is my

         intimate individual Will. It seems as thou this `god of War

         and of Vengeance' is then merely one who shall cause men to

         do their won Wills by Going as Gods do, instead of trying to

         check the irresistible course of Nature.)  P. S. El OUid

         Algeria An XX    in    The terror of Syria in the reign of

         Oman was the great soldier and administrator Melekh-Al-AStar.

         Possibly Jewish mothers used to scare their crying babies by

         threatening them with this `demon of the desert' and the

         Rabbins incorporated the `bogey man' in their averse

         hierarchy.

         4.    4-9. This is a practical instruction; and, as a

         `military secret', is not in any way soever to be disclosed.

         I say only that the plans are complete, and that the first

         nation to accept the Law of Thelema Shall, by My counsel,

         become sole Mistress of the World.

         6.    This phrase is curiously suggestive of the `mine-layer'

         to those who have seen one in action.

         7.    This suggests the Tank, the Island chosen being

         England. But this is probably a forthshadowing of the real

         Great War, wherein Horus shall triumph utterly.

         9.    `Lurk! Withdraw! Upon them!' describes the three parts

         of a certain magical gesture indicative of a formula which

         has proven very powerful in practical work.  (The events

         beginning in An XVII Sol in Libra, know when will form a

         luminous comment on the passage.  There is an alternative,

         taking the beginning as An X sol in Libra, and implying

         larger periods).

         10.    The language is hereso obvious and so inane that one

         is bound to suspect a deeper sense. It sounds as bad as `the

         last winking Virgin' or St. Januarius.

         11.    The Victorious City is of course  Cairo (Al-Kahira,

         the victorious), and the ill-ordered house is the Museum at

         Bulak.  Ra-Hoor-Khu; why is the name without its termination?

         Perhaps to indicate the essence of the force. The Ritual of

         the Adoration of Ra-Hoor-Khuit is, as one might expect,

         illustrative of His nature. It seems doubtful whether this

         Ritual can ever be of the type of symbolic celebration; it

         appears rather as if expeditions against the Heathen: i.e.

         Christians and other troglodytes -- but most especially the

         parasites of man, the Jews -- were to be His rite. And it is

         to be taken that `the woman' is to take arms in His honour.

         This woman might be The Scarlet Woman, or perhaps Woman

         generally. Remember that in the Scarlet Woman `is all power

         given'; and I expect a new Semiramis.

         12.    12-15. This, read in connexion with verse 43, was then

         fulfilled May 1, 1906, o.s. The tragedy was also part of mine

         initiation, as described in The Temple of solomon the King.

         It is yet so bitter that I care not to write of it.

         16.    The God wisely refrains from clear expression, so that

         the event, as it occurs, may justify His word. This

         progressive illumination of that word has served to keep it

         alive as no single revelation could have done. Every time

         that I have dulled to Liber Legis something has happened to

         rekindle it in my heart.  `Know not this meaning all';

         another cipher for LA = AL.

         17.    The last paragraph is a singular confirmation of the

         view which I have taken of Our Hierarchy: compare what has

         been said on the subject in previous chapters.

         18.    What has been the net result of our fine `Christian'

         phrases? In the good old days there was some sort of natural

         selection; brains and stamina were necessary to survival. The

         race, as such consequently improved. But we thought we knew

         oh! so much better, and we had `Christ's law' and other

         slush. So the unfit crowded and contaminated the fit, until

         Earth herself grew nauseated with the mess. We had not only a

         war which killed some eight million men, in the flower of

         their age, picked men at that, in four years, but a

         pestilence which killed six million in six months.  Are we

         going to repeat the insanity? Should we not rather breed

         humanity for quality by killing off any tainted stock, as we

         do with other cattle? And exterminating the vermin which

         infect it, especially Jews and Protestant Christians?

         Catholic Christians are really Pagans at heart; there is

         usually good stuff in them, particularly in Latin countries.

         They only need to be instructed in the true meaning of their

         faith to reflect the false veils. An XXI     in     After

         some years spent in Catholic countries, I wish to modify the

         above. Catholics are dead alike to Spirituality and to

         Reason, as bad as Protestants. And the Jew is far from

         hopeless outside America, where the previous paragraph was

         written.

         19.    The reference appears to be to the old prophecies of

         `Daniel' and `John'. The first Qabalistic allusion is yet (An

         XIV   in   ) undiscovered. An XVII     in     . I think it

         proper to insert here the account of the true meaning of this

         verse, though it more properly belongs to the Appendix. But

         the circumstances are so striking that it is well worth the

         while of the lay reader to become acquainted with the nature

         of the reasoning which attests the praeterhuman character of

         the Author of this Book.  It follows, in the words in which

         it was originally written, An XVII     in     ,     in

         , June 8,1921 e.v., with no preliminaries, in my Magical

         Diary, at the Abbey of Thelema in Cephaloedium of Trinacria.

         These verses are very subtly worded. How should I understand

         this allusion to the stele; how`count well its name' without

         knowing it?   I tried to count `Abomination of Desolation',

         but that is what `they shall call' it, not its proper name.

         It seemed that this name, when found, ought to add to 718, or

         to be identical with some other word or phrase that did so.

         More, this name when found must some how express `the fall of

         Because'.  For many years these two verses, despite elaborate

         research, yielded no meaning soever. At last I chanced on it

         as 718; it means `persistence', the Greek noun corresponding

         to `Perdurabo', my first magical Motto. Of course the Stele

         had persisted since the 26th Dynasty, but that scarecely

         justified naming it `Persistence'; also, there was nothing

         about `the fall of Because'.  Now (An XVII,    in     , in

         ) I was going through the Law in order to repair any details

         of omission in the rituals ordained, and found these verses

         introduced among the instructions. They fascinated me; when I

         had finished the work in hand, I returned to them and worked

         for some hours with a Lexicon, starting from the word APXH,

         Cause, 709, to find some phrase equal to 718 which would deny

         Cause. I found AZA, 9, a word meaning `dryness', but most

         especially the dirt or mould upon a disused object. APXH AZA

         is, therefore, a precise expression of the doctrine expounded

         in our Law about `Because'.  So far, so good; but this is no

         sense the name of the Stele.  I worked on, and found XOIZA,

         718, `Yesterday' which might be grasped as a straw if I sank

         the third time; but I was swimming strongly enough.   I found

         XAIPE A..A.. 718, `Hail to the A:.A:.'. I gracefully

         acknowledged the greeting to Our Holy Order, but went on with

         my search.  There is no such word as AXPICTA, `unchristlike

         things'; only blind bigotry could be satisfied with so crude

         an invention.  Then came XAPA H, 713, an engraved character.

         That was a true name for the Stele; if I suffixed AD, 5, it

         might read `The Mark of Hadit'. But I did not feel inwardly

         that thrill of ecstacy that springs in the heart or that dawn

         of amazement that kindles the mind, when Truth's sheer

         simplicity takes form. There is a definite psychological

         phenomenon which accompanies and important discovery. It is

         like First Love, at First Sight, to the one; like the

         recognition of a Law of Nature, to the other. It inflames one

         with Love for the Universe, and it explains all its puzzles,

         in a flash; and it gives an interior conviction which nothing

         can shake, a living certainty quite beyond one's argued

         acquiescence in any newly acquired facts.  I lacked this; I

         knew that I had to seek further. The Truth uttered by Aiwaz

         is hidden with such exquisite art that it is always easy to

         wring out a more or less plausible meaning by torture. Yet

         all such learned and ingenious fumblings reveal their own

         impotence; the Right Key opens the safe in a second, so

         simply and smoothly as to make it ridiculous to doubt that

         the lock was made by a master smith to respond to that key

         and no other.  The reader will have noticed that all the

         really important correspondences in this Book are so simple

         that a child might understand them. There are also my own

         creaking and lumbering scholar-dredgers, not one of which is

         truly illuminating or even convincing. The real solution,

         moreover, are almost always confirmed by other parts of the

         text, or by event subsequent to the Writing of the Book.  I

         worked on: I asked myself for the thousandth time what the

         Stele could claim with literal strictness as `its name'. I

         scribbled the word CTHAH and added it up. the result is 546,

         when CT counts as 500, or 52, when CT is 6, a frequent usage,

         as in CTAYPOS, whose number is thus 777.  Idly enough, my

         tired pen subtracted 52 from 718. I started up like a

         Magician who, conjuring Satan in vain till Faith's lamp

         sputters, and Hope's cloak is threadbare, gropes, heavily

         leaning on the staff of Love, blinking and droning along --

         and suddenly sees HIm!  I did the sum over, this time with my

         pen like a panther. Too good to be true! I added my figures;

         yes, 718 past denial. I checked my value of Stele; 52, and no

         error. Then only I let myself yield to the storm of delight

         and wonder that rushed up from the Hand of Him that is

         throned in the Abyss of my Being; and I wrote in my Magical

         Record the Triumph for which I have warred for over seventeen

         years 718 CYHAH 6 6 6 No fitter name could be found, that was

         sure ... ---  And then came a flash to confirm me, to chase

         the last cloud of criticism; the actual name of the Stele,

         its ordinary name, the only name it ever had until it was

         called the `Stele of Revealing', in the Book of the Law which

         conceal Secret Matters were already at that time possessed of

         a certain significance for me. Some unconscious co-operation

         of my mind might be alleged as the determinant factor in the

         choice of those numbers, their subsequent interconnexions,

         and so on explained by the commentators' ingenuity, and the

         confirmation of independent facts by coincidence. Similarly,

         the hidden numbers such as 3,141593, 395, 31, 93, may be

         ascribed to the commentators, and denied to the intention of

         the text; at least, by that class of Pharisee which strains

         at the Butterfly of the Soul, preferring to swallow any

         hippopotamus if it be slimed thickly enough with the miasmal

         swamp-mire of materialism.  But 718 is expressed openly; its

         nature is described sufficiently and unambiguously; and it

         meant nothing to anybody in the world, either then or for

         seventeen years after.  And now the meaning falls so pat, so

         natural, so self- justified, so evidently the unique value of

         the `x' of the equation, that it is impossible to quibble.

         The law of probablities excludes all theories but one. The

         simple Truth is what I have always asserted.  There is a

         Being called Aiwaz, an intelligence discarnate, who wrote

         this Book of the Law, using my ears and hand. His mind is

         certainly superior to my own in knowledge and in power, for

         He has dominated me and taught me ever since.  But that

         apart, the proof of any discarnate intelligence, even of the

         lowest order, has never before been established. And lack of

         that proof is the flaw in all the religions of the past; man

         could not be certain of the existence of `God', because

         though he knew many powers independent of muscle, he knew of

         no consciousness independent of nerve.

         220A3-2.ASC

         20.     There is here a perception of the profound law which

         opposes thought to action. We act, when we act aright, upon

         the instructive wisdom inherited from the ages. Our ancestors

         survived because they were able to adapt themselves to their

         environment; their rival failed to breed, and so `good'

         qualities are transmitted, while `bad' are sterile. Thus the

         race-thought, subconscious, tells a man that he must have a

         son, cost what it may. Rome was founded on the rape of the

         Sabine women. Would a reasoner have advocated that rape? Was

         it `justice' or `mercy' or `morality' or `Christianity'.

         There is much on the ethics of this point in Chapter II of

         this Book. Thomas Henry Huxley in his essay `Ethics and

         Evolution' pointed out the antithesis between these two

         ideas; and concluded that Evolution was bound to beat Ethics

         in the long run. He was apparently unable to see, or

         unwilling to admit, that his argument proved Ethics (as

         understood by Victorians) to be false. The Ethics of Liber

         Legis are those of Evolution itself. We are only fools if we

         interfere. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law,

         biologically as well as in every other way.  Let us take an

         example. I am an antivaccinationist in a sense which every

         other antivaccinationist would repudiate. I admit that

         vaccination protects from small-pox. The weak would die; the

         strong might have pitted faces; but the race would become

         immune to the disease in a few generations.  On somewhat

         similar lines, I would advocate, with Samuel Butler, the

         destruction of all machinery. (I admit the practical

         difficulties of defining the limits of legitimate devices.

         The issue is this: how are we to develop human skill? The

         printing press is admirable in the hands of an Aldus, a

         Charles T. Jacobi, or even a William Morris. But the cheap

         mechanical printing of luetic rubbish on rotten pulp with

         worn types in inferior ink has destroyed the eyesight,

         putrefied the mind, and deluded the passions, of the

         multitude). For machines are dodges for avoiding Hard Work;

         and Hard Work is the salvation of the race. In the

         Time-Machine, H.G. Wells draws an admirable picture of a

         dichotomized humanity, one branch etiolated and inane, the

         other brutalized and automatic. Machines have already nearly

         completed the destruction of individual craftmanship. a man

         is no longer a worker, but a machine-feeder. The product is

         standardized; the result mediocrity. Nobody can obtain What

         He Will; he must be content with what knavery puts on the

         market. Instead of every man and every woman being a star, we

         have an amorphous pullulation of Vermin.

         21.    Verses 21 - 31 seem to refer to the rites of public

         worship of Ra-Hoor-Khuit.  The word `Set' is curious -- is

         there here a reference to Set the God?  With regard to the

         Old Comment, I did indeed find an image of the kind implied.

         But there seems no special importance in this. I am inclined

         to see some deeper significance in this passage. There has

         elsewhere been reference to the words `not', `one', `Thou

         knowest'. The word `easy' is moreover suggestive of some

         mystery; it is used in the same doubtfully intelligible sense

         in verse 40.

         22.    There are to be no regular temples of Nuith and Hadit,

         for they are incommensurables and absolutes. Our religion

         therefore, for the People, is the Cult of the Sun, who is our

         particular star of the Body of Nuit, from whom, in the

         strictest scientific sense, come this earth, a chilled spark

         of Him, and all our Light and Life. His vice-regent and

         representative in the animal kingdom is His cognate symbol

         the Phallus, representing Love and Liberty. Ra-Hoor Khuit,

         like all true Gods, is therefore a Solar-Phallic deity. But

         we regard Him as He is in truth, eternal; the Solar-Phallic

         deities of the old Aeon, such as Osiris, `Christ', Hiram,

         Adonis, Hercules, &c., were supposed, through our ignorance

         of the Cosmos, to `die' and rise again'. Thus we celebrated

         rites of `crucifixion' and so on, which have now become

         meaningless. Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the Crowned and Conquering

         Child. This is also a reference to the `Crowned' and

         Conquering `Child' in ourselves, our own personal God. Except

         ye become as little children, said `Christ', ye shall not

         enter into the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Malkuth, the

         Virgin Bride, and the Child is the Dwarf-Self, the Phallic

         consciousness, which is the true life of Man, beyond his

         `veils' of incarnation. We have to thank Freud -- and

         especially Jung -- for stating this part of the Magical

         Doctrine so plainly, as also for their development of the

         connexion of the Will of this `child' with the True or

         Unconscious Will, and so for clarifying our doctrine of the

         `silent self' or `Holy Guardian Angel'. They are of course

         totally ignorant of magical phenomena, and could hardly

         explain even such terms as `Augoeides'; and they are

         seriously to blame for not stating more openly that this True

         Will is not to be daunted or suppressed; but within their

         limits they have done excellent work.

         23.    Meal: ordinary wheaten flour.  Leavings: the `beewing'

         of port should be good.  Oil of Abramelin: take eight parts

         of oil of cinnamon, four of oil of myrrh, two of oil of

         galangal, seven of olive oil.

         24.    A: menstrual blood.  B: possibly `dragon's blood'.

         These two kinds of `blood' are not to be confused. The

         student should be able to discover the sense of this passage

         by recollecting the Qabalistic statement that `The blood is

         the life', consulting Book 4 Part III, and applying the

         knowledge which reposes in the Sanctuary of the Gnosis of the

         Ninth Degree of O.T.O. The `child' is `BABALON and THE BEAST

         conjoined, the SEcret Saviour', that is, the Being symbolized

         by the Egg and Serpent hieroglyph of the Phoenician adepts.

         The second kind is also a form of BAPHOMET, but differs from

         the `child' in that it is the Lion-Serpent in its original

         form.  The process of softening and smoothing down is thus in

         this case that of vitalizing the Eagle. It is inadvisable to

         word this explanation, in terms too intelligible to the

         profane, since uninitiated attempts to make use of the

         formidable arcana of Magick presented in this passage could

         lead only to the most fulminating and irremediable disaster.

         25.    These Beetles, which appeared with amazing suddeness

         in countless numbers at Boleskine during the summer of 1904

         E.V. were distinguished by a long siggle `horn'; the species

         was new to the naturalists in London to whom specimens were

         sent for classification.

         26.    See Liber 418, First Aethyr, final paragraphs.

         27.    The word `lust' is not necessarily to be taken in the

         sense familiar to Puritans. It means robustness, `merriment'

         as of old understood: the Germans have retained the proper

         force of the term in `lustig'. But even the English retain

         `lusty'.  The Puritan is undoubtedly a marvel. He has even

         succeeded in attaching a foul connotation to a colourless

         word like `certain' -- `In a section of the city with a

         certain reputation women of a certain class suffering from

         certain diseases are charged with performing certain acts' is

         a common enough item in the newspapers. It allows the fullest

         play to the dirtiest imaginations -- which appears to be the

         aim of the societies for the Suppression of Vice, and their

         like.

         29.    It is not altogether clear whether the beetles or the

         Cakes are referred to in this strange passage. The proper way

         to discover the truth of this is to experiment.  There is a

         considerable amount of evidence in my possession which throws

         light upon this part of the chapter; but no important purpose

         would be served by producing it at present. These are

         circumstances when apparent frankness defeats its own ends as

         well as those of policy.

         30.    There is now such an altar as described; and the due

         rites are performed daily thereupon.(An XVI,  In  ).

         31.    I do not know whether this is to be taken in a

         practical sense.  The obvious meaning of `from the West' is

         an Egyptian document would be `from the House of the Dead'.

         Alternatively, there may be a reference to the name of the

         person in question. I feel convinced that some event will

         occur to fit the passage with unmistakeable accuracy. (I

         write this in AN XVII in .)

         33.    It suggests self, that the foregoing verses may have

         been already fulfilled in some manner which my feeble

         understanding of the chapter has failed hitherto to identify.

         34.    This prophecy, relating to centuries to come, does not

         concern the present writer at the moment. Yet he must expound

         it.  The Hierarchy of the Egyptians gives us this genealogy:

         Isis, Osiris, Horus.   Note the close connexion between Leo

         and Libra in the Tarot, the numbers VIII and XI of their

         Trumps being interchanged with XI and VIII. THere is no such

         violent antithesis as that between Osiris and Horus; Strength

         will prepare the Reign of Justice. We should begin already,

         as I deem, to regard this Justice as the Ideal whose Way we

         should make ready, by virtue of our Force and Fire.  Taking

         the `holy Place' to be Boleskine House, it has already been

         subjected to a sort of destruction. It was presented by me to

         the O.T.O. and sold in order to obtain funds for the

         publication of The Equinox Volume III. But the proceeds of

         the sale were mostly stolen by the then Grand Treasurer

         General of the Order, one George MacNie Cowie, who became

         obsessed by the vulgarest form of hate against the Germans,

         despite my warnings, with reference to verse 59 of this

         chapter. He became insane, and behaved with the blackest

         treachery, this theft being but a small portion of his

         infamies. The incident was necessary to my own initiation.

         Hrumachis is the Dawning Sun; he therefore symbolizes any new

         course of events. The `double-wanded one' is `Thmaist of dual

         form as Thmais and Thmait', from whom the Greeks derived

         their Themis, goddess of Justice. The student may refer to

         The Equinox Vol. I., No2, pages 244-261. Thmaist is the

         Hegemon, who bears a mitre-headed sceptre, like that of

         Joshua in the Royal Arch Degree of Freemasonry. He is the

         third officer in rank in the Neophyte Ritual of the G. D. ,

         following Horus as Horus follows Osiris. He can then assume

         the `throne and place' of the Ruler of the Temple when the

         `Equinox of Horus' comes to an end.  The rimed section of

         this verse is singularly impressive and sublime. We may

         observe that the details of the ritual of changing officers

         are the same on every occasion. We may therefore deduce that

         the description applies to this `Equinox of the Gods' itself.

         How have the conditions been fulfilled? The introduction to

         Book 4, Part IV tells us. We may briefly remind the reader of

         the principal events, arranging them in the form of a rubric,

         and placing against each the corresponding magical acts of

         the Equinox previous to ours, as they are symbolized in the

         legends of Osiris, Dionysus, Jesus, Attis, Adonis, and

         others.   TABLE FOLLOWS.  It may be presumptuous to predict

         any details concerning the next Aeon after this.

         35.    Heru-ra-ha combines the ideas of Horus (cf. also `the

         great angel Hru' who is set over the Book of Tahuti; see

         Liber LXXVIII) with those of Ra and Spirit. For     is the

         Atziluthic or archetypal spelling of He, the Holy Ghost. And

         Ha=6, the number of the Sun. He is also Nuith, H being Her

         letter. THe language suggests that Heru Ra Ha is the `true

         Name' of the Unity who is symbolized by the Twins Harpocrates

         and Horus. Note that the Twin Sign -- and the Child Sign --

         is Gemini, whose letter is Zain, a sword.  The doctrine of

         the dual character of the God is very important to a proper

         understanding of Him. `The Sign of the Enterer is always to

         be followed immediately by the Sign of Silence': such is the

         imperative injunction to the Neophyte. In Book 4 the

         necessity for this is explained fully.

         36.    This passage now following appears to be a dramatic

         presentation of the scene shown in the Stele. The

         interpretation is to be that Ankh-f-n-Khonsu recorded for my

         benefit the details of the Magical Formula of Ra Hoor Khuit.

         To link together the centuries in this manner is nothing

         strange to the accomplished Magician; but in view of the true

         character of Time as it appears to the Adept in Mysticism,

         the riddle vanishes altogether.

         37.    Stanza 3 suggests the Rosicrucian Benediction: May thy

         Mind be open unto the Higher! May thy Heart be the Centre of

         Light! May thy Body be the Temple of the Rosy Cross!

         38.    See the translation of the Stele in the Introduction

         to Book 4 Part IV. Note the Four Quarters or Four Solar

         Stations Enumerated in lines 3 and 4 of the first Stanza, and

         compare the ritual given in Liber Samekh. (Book 4 Part III,

         Appendix).

         39.    This account is published with this comment itself.

         The present volume is thus the obedience to this command.

         `At them' may mean `at their house', that is, one must give

         when one recognizes any one as a potential king by accepting

         his hospitality. An alternative meaning is `in their honour'.

         40.    I am less annoyed with myself than when I wrote the

         `Old Comment', but not wholly content. How is one to write a

         comment? For whom? One has more than the difficulties of the

         lexicographer. Each new Postulant presents new problems; the

         degrees and kinds of their ignorance are no less numerous

         than they. I am always finding myself, sailing along joyously

         for several months in the belief that my teaching is helping

         somebody, suddenly awakened to the fact that I have made

         noway whatever, owing to the object of my solicitude having

         omitted to learn that Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, or

         something of the sort, which I had assumed to be a matter of

         universal Knowledge.

         41.    It is being done now.

         42.    `Ordeals': refer to the Comment on Chapter I, verses

         32 seq. `Traitors': see Liber 418: 1st Aethyer. I quote: --

         Mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty; yea, thrice and four times

         mighty art thou. He that riseth up against thee shall be

         thrown down, though thou raise not so much as thy little

         finger against him. and he that speaketh evil against thee

         shall be put to shame, though thy lips utter not the littlest

         syllable against him. and he that thinketh evil concerning

         thee shall be confounded in his thought, although in thy mind

         arise not the least thought of him. And they shall be brought

         into subjection unto thee, and serve thee, though thou

         willest it not. And it shall be unto them a grace and a

         sacrament, and ye shall all sit down together at the supernal

         banquet, and ye shall feast upon the honey of the gods, and

         be drunk upon the dew of immortality -- FOR I AM HORUS, THE

         CROWNED AND CONQUERING CHILD, WHOM THOU KNEWEST NOT!

         43.    43-45. The two latter verses have become useless, so

         far as regards the person first indicated to fill the office

         of `Scarlet Woman'. In her case the prophecy of v.43 has been

         most terribly fulfilled, to the letter; except the last

         paragraph. Perhaps before the publication of this comment the

         final catastrophe will have occurred. (   in 20    , An V.)

         It or an even more terrible equivalent is now in progress. (

         in  , An VII.) (P.S. -- I sealed up the MSS of this comment

         and posted it to the printer on my way to the Golf Club at

         Hoylake. On my arrival at the Club, I found a letter awaiting

         me which stated that the catastrophe had occurred). Let the

         next upon whom the cloak may fall beware!

         45.    It is impossible to discuss such passages as these

         until time has funished the perspective.  The accounts of

         certain magical experiments in this line will be found in

         `The Urn.'  This `child' is not necessarily to be identified

         with him who `shall discover the key of it all.'

         46.    Forty is Mem, Water, the Hanged Man; and Eighty is Pe,

         Mars, the blasted Tower. These Trumps refer respectively to

         the `Destruction of the World by Water' and `by Fire.' The

         meaning of these phrases is to be studied in my Rituals of

         Magick, such as Book 4, Parts II & III. Its general purport

         is that He is master of both types of Force. I am inclined to

         opine that there is a simpler and deeper sense in the text

         than I have so far disclosed.  `at your arms' is a curious

         turn of phrase. There may be some cryptographic implication,

         or there may not; at least, there is this, that the use of

         such un- English expressions makes a clear-cut distinction

         between AIWAZ and the Scribe. In the inspired Books, such as

         Liber LXV, VII, DCCXIII and others, written by The Beast 666

         directly, not from dictation, no such awkward expressions are

         to be found. The style shows a well-marked difference.

         No Number     I am now (An XIV   in   ) a Magus 9  = 2  ; and

         I agree with the former comment. He need only be a Magister

         Templi 8  = 3  , whose world is Understanding.  `one cometh

         after him:' `one,' i.e. Achad. See Appendix for this and

         other points of this most `evidential' verse. `the Key of it

         all:' all, i.e. AL 3  the Key! See MS for allusion to the

         `line drawn' and the `circle squared in its failure.'  The

         attribution (in the Old Comment) of the letters to those of

         the Book of Enoch is unsupported.

         49.    The evident interpretation of this is to take the word

         to be `Do what thou wilt,' which is a secret word, because

         its meaning for every man is his own inmost secret. And it is

         the most profound blasphemy possible against all `gods of

         men,' because it makes every man his own God.  We may then

         take it that this Solar-Phallic Ra Ha is Each Man Himself. As

         each independent cell in our bodies is to us, so is each of

         us to Heru-Ra-Ha. Each man`s `child'-consciousness is a Star

         in the Cosmos of the Sun, as the Sun is a Star in the Cosmos

         of Nuith.

         51.    We are to consider carefully the particular attach of

         Heru Ra Ha against each of these `gods' or prophets; for

         though they be, or represent, the Magi of the past, the curse

         of their Grade must consume them.  Thus it is the eyes of

         `Jesus' -- his point of view -- that must be destroyed; and

         this point of view is wrong because of his Magical Gesture of

         self-sacrifice. One must not for a moment suppose that this

         verse supports the historicity of `Jesus.' `Jesus' is not,

         and never was, a man; but he was a `god,' just as a bundle of

         old rags and a kerosene tin on a bush may be a `god.' There

         is a man-made idea, built of ignorance, fear, and meanness,

         for the most part, which we call `Jesus,' and which has been

         tricked out from time to time with various gauds from

         Paganism, and Judaism.  The subject of `Jesus' is, most

         unfortunately, too extensive for a note; it is treated fully

         in my book 888.

         52.    Mohammed's point of view is wrong too; but he needs no

         such sharp correction as `Jesus.' It is his face -- his

         outward semblance -- that is to be covered with His wings.

         The tenets of Islam, correctly interpreted, are not far from

         our Way of Life and Light and Love and Liberty. This applies

         especially to the secret tenets. The external creed is mere

         nonsense suited to the intelligence of the peoples among whom

         it was promulgated; but even so, Islam is Magnificent in

         practice. Its code is that of a man of courage and honour and

         self-respect; contrasting admirably with the cringing

         cowardice of the damnation-dodging Christians with their

         unmanly and dishonest acceptance of vicarious sacrifice, and

         their currish conception of themselves as `born in sin,'

         `miserable sinners' with `no health in us.'

         53.    `The Indian.' The religion of Hindustan,

         metaphysically and mystically comprehensive enough to assure

         itself the possession of much truth, is in practice almost as

         superstitious and false as christianity, a faith of slaves,

         liars and dastards. The same remarks apply roughly to

         Buddhism.  `Mongol:' presumably the reference is to

         Confucianism, whose metaphysical and ethical flawlessness has

         not saved its adherents from losing those ruder virtues which

         are proper to a Fighting Animal, and thus yielding at last a

         civilization coeval with history itself to the barbarous

         tribes of Europe.  `Din' -- `severity' or `judgment' may

         refer to the Jewish Law, rather than to the Faith (ad `din')

         of Islam. Assuming this, the six religions whose flesh must

         be torn out cover the whole globe outside Islam and

         Christianity.  Why assault their flesh rather than their

         eyes, as in the other cases? Because the metaphysics, or

         point of view, is correct -- I take Judaism as Qabalistic --

         but the practice imperfect.

         54.    See Appendix.  By sound Bahlasti suggests `hurling' or

         `blasting;' Ompegda is not too phantastically onomatopoeitic

         for `an explosion.'

         55.    The name Mary is connected with Mars, Mors, etc., from

         the Sanskrit MR to slay;and with Mare, the Sea, whose water

         opposes the Fire of Horus. I here quote a passage from Liber

         XCVII which deals with this fully.  `Let me strictly meditate

         this hate of the mother. M R is the Sanskrit root = `Kill,'

         hence Mara, Mors, Maria, and I suppose Meer, Mere, Mer -- in

         short, lots of words meaning death or sea. Note Mordred as

         the traitor villain in Morte d'Arthur. In Liber Legis we have

         `Mary' who is to be `torn upon wheels' apparently because she

         is `inviolate.' Liber 418 has some explanation of this:

         `because she hath shut herself up', I seem to remember is the

         phrase.  It appears (I don't remember the Sanskrit as if a

         dental T or D were inserted phallically to give us Madar,

         Mater, Mother, (? meter = measure.)  Does the accent in mere

         conceal a lost dental? I suppose Jung or Freud has this all

         worked out in detail.  I have thought this before, long ago,

         but can't get a satisfactory Qabalah. 240 is a doubling of

         the Pentagram, of course, and is a sixfold of 40, the number

         of repressive `sealed-up' law. By our R.O.T.A., M R is the

         Sea swallowing the Sun, and the insertion of a Tau would help

         this in a certain formula of `He lives in the Sun.' But that

         would only boost the Mother, which won't do, for she is the

         Tomb, the Eater of Flesh, and there's no getting away from

         it. But apparently she is all right just so far as she is

         open, to enter or leave at one's pleasure, the Gateway of

         Eternal Life.

         220A3-3.ASC

             She is Sakti, the Teh, the Magical Door between the Tao

         and  the Manifested World. The great Obstacle than is if that

         Door be  locked up. Therefore Our Lady must be symbolized as

         an Whore.  (Note Daleth, the Door = Venus. The Dove; Free

         flowing; all this  is linked up in the symbol). Clearly, at

         last, the Enemy is this  Shutting up of things. Shutting the

         Door is preventing the  Operation of Change, i.e. of Love.

         The objection to Calypso,  Circe, Armida, Kundry, and Co. is

         that one is liable to be shut  up in their Gardens. The whole

         of the Book of the Dead is a  device for opening the closed

         vehicles, and enabling the Osiris  to go in and out at his

         pleasure. On the other hand, there seems  to be a Sealing Up,

         for a definite period, in order to allow the  Change to

         proceed undisturbed. Thus Earth lies fallow; the womb  is

         closed during gestation; the Osiris is plugged with

         talismans. But it is vital to consider this as a strictly

         temporary device; and to cut out the idea of Eternal Rest.

         This Nibbana-idea is the coward -- `Mother's Boy' idea; one

         ought to take a refreshing dip in the Tao, no more. I think

         this  must be brought forward as the Cardinal Point of Our

         Holy Law. Thus though Nuit cries `To me!' that is balanced by

         the  Formula of Hadit. `Come unto me' is a foolish word; for

         it is  I that go.  Now the Semen is God (the going-one, as

         shown by the Ankh or  Sandal-strap, which He carries) because

         he goes in at the Door,  stays there for a specified period,

         and comes out again, having  flowered, and still bearing in

         him that Seed of Going. (The  birth of a girl is a misfortune

         everywhere, because the true Going-Principle is the

         Lion-Serpent, or Dragon; the Egg is only  the Cavern where he

         takes refuge on occasions).  LIber 418 explains this

         succinctly; 3rd Aethyr   `Moreover, there is Mary, a

         blasphemy against BABALON, for  she hath shut herself up; and

         therefore is she the  Queen of all  those wicked devils that

         walk upon the earth, those that thou  savest even as little

         black specks that stained the Heaven of  Urania. And all

         these are the excrement of Choronzon.'  It is this `shutting

         up' that is hideous, the image of death. It is the opposite

         of Going, which is God.  Women under Christianity are kept

         virgin for the market as  Strasbourg geese are nailed to

         boards till their livers putrefy.  The nature of woman has

         been corrupted, her hope of a soul thwarted, her proper

         pleasure balked, and her mind poisoned, to  titillate the

         jaded palates of senile bankers and  ambassadors.  Why do men

         insist on `innocence' in women?  1.To flatter their vanity.

         2.To give themselves the best chance of (a)escaping  venereal

         disease, (b) propagating their noble selves.  3.To maintain

         power over their slaves by their  possession of Knowledge.

         4.To keep them docile as long as possible by  drawing out the

         debauching of their innocence. A sexually  pleased woman is

         the best of willing helpers; one who is  disappointed or

         disillusioned a very psychical exzema.  5.In primitive

         communities, to serve as a grard  against surprise and

         treachery.  6.To cover their secret shame in the matter of

         sex.  Hence the pretence that a woman is `pure', modest,

         delicate,  aesthetically beautiful and morally exalted,

         ethereal and  unfleshly, though in fact they know her to be

         lascivious,  shameless, coarse, ill-shapen, unscrupulous,

         nauseatingly  bestial both physically and mentally. The

         advertisements of `dress shields,' perfumes, cosmetics,

         anti-sweat preparations,  and `Beauty Treatments' reveal

         woman's nature as seen by the  clear eyes of those who would

         lose money if they misjudged her;  and they are loathsomely

         revolting to read. Her mental and moral  characteristics are

         those of the parrot and the monkey. Her  physiology and

         pathology are hideously disgusting, a sickening  slime of

         uncleanliness.  Her virgin life is a sick ape's, her sexual

         life a druken  sow's, her mother life all bulging filmy eyes

         and sagging  udders.  These are the facts about `innocence;'

         to this has man's  Christian Endeavour dragged her when he

         should rather have made her his comrade, frank, trusty, and

         gay, the tenderer self of  himself, his consubstantial

         complement even as Earth is to the  Sun.  We of Thelema say

         that `Every man and every woman is a  star.' We do not fool

         and flatter women; we do not despise and  abuse them. To us a

         woman is Herself, absolute, original,  independent, free,

         self-justified, exactly as a man is.  We dare not thwart Her

         Going, Goddess she! We arrogate no  right upon Her will; we

         claim not to deflect Her development, to  dispose of Her

         desires, or to determine Her destiny. She is Her  own sole

         arbitar; we ask no more than to supply our strength to  Her,

         whose natural weakness else were prey to the world's

         pressure. Nay more, it were too zealous even to guard Her in

         Her Going; for She were best by Her own self-reliance to win

         Her own  way forth! We do not want Her as a slave; we want

         Her free and royal,  whether Her love fight death in our arms

         by night, or Her  loyalty ride by day beside us in the Charge

         of the Battle of  Life.  `Let the woman be girt with a sword

         before me!'  `In her is all power given.'  So sayeth this our

         Book of the Law. We respect Woman in the  self of Her own

         nature; we do not arrogate the right to  criticise her. We

         welcome her as our ally, come to our camp as  her Will,

         free-flashing, sword-swinging, hath told Her, Welcome,  thou

         Woman, we hail thee, star shouting to Star! Welcome to rout

         and to revel! Welcome to fray and to feast! Welcome to vigil

         and  victory! Welcome to war with its wounds! Welcome to

         peace with  its pageants! Welcome to lust and to laughter!

         Welcome to board  and to bed: Welcome to trumpet and triumph;

         welcome to dirge and  to death!  It is we of Thelema who

         truly love and respect Woman, who  hold her sinless and

         shameless even as we are; and those who say  that we despise

         Her are those who shrink from the flash of our  falchions as

         we strike from Her limbs their foul fetters.  Do we call

         Woman Whore? Ay, Verily and Amen, She is that; the  air

         shudders and burns as we shout it, exulting and eager.  O ye!

         Was not this your sneer, your vile Whisper that scorned Her

         and shamed Her? Was not `Whore' the truth of Her, the  title

         of terror that you gave Her in your fear of Her, coward

         comforting coward with furtive glance and gesture?  But we

         fear Her not; we cry Whore, as Her armies approach us.  We

         beat on our shields with our swords. Earth echoes the

         clamour!   Is there doubt of the victory? Your hordes of

         cringing  slaves, afraid of themselves, afraid of their own

         slaves,  hostile, despised and distrusted, your only

         tacticians the  ostrich, the opossum, and the cuttle, will

         you not break and  flee at our first onset, as with levelled

         lances of lust we ride  at the charge, with our allies, the

         Whores whom we love and acclaim, free friends by our sides in

         the Battle of Life?  The Book of the Law is the Charter of

         Woman; the Word Thelema  has opened the lock of Her `girdle

         of chastity.' Your Sphinx  of stone has come to life; to

         know, to will, to dare and to keep  silence.  Yes, I, The

         Beast, my Scarlet Whore bestriding me, naked and  crowned,

         drunk on Her golden Cup of Fornication, boasting  Herself my

         bedfellow, have trodden Her in the Market place, and roared

         this Word that every woman is a star. And with that Word  is

         uttered Woman's Freedom; the fools and fribbles and flirts

         have heard my voice. The fox in woman hath heard the Lion in

         man; fear, fainting, flabbiness, frivolity, falsehood --

         these  are no more the mode.  In vain will bully and brute

         and braggart man, priest,  lawyer, or social censor knit his

         brows to devise him a new  tamer's trick; once and for all

         the tradition is broken; vanished the vogue of bowstring,

         sack, stoning, nose-slitting,  beltbuckling, cart's

         tail-dragging, whipping, pillory posting,  walling-up,

         divorce court, eunuch, harem, mind-crippling, house-

         imprisoning, menial-work-wearying, creed-stultifying, social-

         ostracism marooning, Divine-wrath-scaring, and even the

         device  of creating and encouraging prostitution to keep one

         class of  women in the abyss under the heel of the police,

         and the other  on its brink, at the mercy of the husband's

         boot at the first  sign of insubordination or even of failure

         to please.  Man's torture-chamber had tools inexhaustibly

         varied; at one  end murder crude and direct to subtler, more

         callous,  starvation; at the other moral agonies,  from

         tearing her child  from her breast to threatening her with a

         rival when her service  had blasted her beauty.  Most

         masterful man, yet most cunning, was not thy supreme

         stratagem to band the woman's own sisters against her, to use

         their knowledge of her psychology and the cruelty of their

         jealousies to avenge thee on thy slave as thou thyself hadst

         neither wit nor spite to do?  And Woman, weak in body, and

         starved in mind; woman, morally  fettered by Her heroic oath

         to save the race, no care of cost,  helpless and hard,

         endured these things, endured from age to  age. Hers was no

         loud spectacular sacrifice, no cross on a hill- top, with the

         world agaze, and monstrous miracles to echo the  applause of

         heaven. She suffered and triumphed in most shameful  silence;

         she had no friend, no follower, none to aid or approve. For

         thank she had but maudlin flatteries, and knew what cruel-

         cold scorn the hearts of men scarce cared to hide.  She

         agonized, ridiculous and obscene; gave all her beauty and

         strength of maidenhood to suffer sickness, weakness, danger

         of  death, choosing to live the life of a cow -- that so

         Mankind might sail the seas of time.  She knew that man

         wanted nothing of her but service of his  base appetites; in

         his true manhood-life she had nor part nor  lot; and all her

         wage was his careless contempt.  She hath been trampled thus

         through all the ages, and she  hath tamed them thus. Her

         silence was the token of her  triumph.  But now the Word of

         Me the Beast is this; not only art thou  Woman, sworn to a

         purpose not thine own; thou art thyself a  star, and in

         thyself a purpose to thyself. Not only mother of  men art

         thou, or whore to men; serf to their need of Life and  Love,

         not sharing in their Light and Liberty; nay, thou art  Mother

         and Whore for thine own pleasure; the Word I say to Man I

         say to thee no less: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of

         the  Law!  Ay, priest, ay, lawyer, ay, censor! Will ye not

         gather in  secret once again, if in your hoard of juggler's

         tricks there be  not one untried, or in your cunning and

         counsel one device new- false to save your pirate ship from

         sinking?  It has always been so easy up to now! What is the

         blasting  Magick in that Word, first thesis of the Book of

         the Law, that `every woman is a star.'   Alas! it is I the

         Beast that roared that Word so loud, and  wakened Beauty.

         Your tricks, your drowsy drugs, your lies, your hypnotic

         passes -- they will not serve you.  Make up your minds to be

         free and fearless!   For I, The Beast, am come; an end to the

         evils of old, to the  duping and clubbing of abject and

         ailing animals, degraded to  that shameful state to serve

         that shameful pleasure.  The essence of my Word is to declare

         woman to be Herself, of,  to, and for Herself; and I give

         this one irresistible Weapon,  the expression of Herself and

         Her will through sex, to Her on  precisely the same terms as

         to man.  Murder is no longer to be dreaded; the economic

         weapon is  powerless since female labour has been found

         industrially  valuable; and the social weapon is entirely in

         her own hands. The best women have always been sexually-free,

         like the best  men; it is only necessary to remove the

         penalties for being  found out. Let Women's labour

         organizations support any  individual who is economically

         harried on sexual grounds. Let  social organizations honour

         in public what their members practise in private.  Most

         domestic unhhappiness will disappear automatically, for  its

         chief cause is the sexual dissatisfaction of wives, or the

         anxiety (or other mental strain engendered should they take

         the  remedy in their own hands.  The crime of abortion will

         lose its motive in all but the  most exceptional cases.

         Blackmail will be confined to commercial and political

         offences, thus diminishing its frequency by two-thirds, at

         least, maybe much more.  Social scandals and jealousies will

         tend to disappear.  Sexual disease will be easier to track

         and to combat, when it  is not longer a disgrace to admit it.

         Prostitution (with its attendant crimes) will tend to

         disappear, as it will cease to offer exorbitant profits to

         those  who exploit it. The pre-occupation of the minds of the

         public  with sexual questions will no longer breed moral

         disease and  insanity, when the sex-appetite is treated as

         simply as hunger.  Frankness of speech and writing on sexual

         questions will dispel  the ignorance which entraps so many

         unfortunate people; proper precaution against actual dangers

         will replace unnecessary and  absurd precautions against

         imaginary or artificial dangers; and  the quacks who trade on

         fear will be put out of business.  All this must follow as

         the Light the night as soon as Woman,  true to Herself, finds

         that She can no longer be false to any  man. She must hold

         Herself and Her Will in honour; and She must  compel the

         world to accord it.  The modern woman is not going to be

         dupe, slave, and victim  any more; the woman who gives

         herself up freely to her own  enjoyment, without asking

         recompense, will earn the respect of  her brothers, and will

         openly despise her `chaste' or venal  sisters, as men now

         despise `milksops,' `sissies,' and `tango  lizards.' Love is

         to be divorced utterly and irrevocably from  social and

         financial agreements, especially marriage. Love is a  sport,

         an art, a religion, as you will; it is not an ol' clo'

         Emporium.  `Mary inviolate' is to be `torn upon wheels'

         because tearing  is the only treatment for her; and RV, a

         wheel, is the name of  the feminine principle. (See Liber D.)

         It is her own sisters who  are to punish her for the crime of

         denying Her nature, not men  who are to redeem her, since, as

         above remarked, it is man's own  false sense of guilt, his

         selfishness, and his cowardice, which  originally forced her

         to blaspheme against herself, and so  degraded her in her own

         eyes, and in his. Let him attend to his  own particular

         business, to redeem himself -- he has surely his  hands full!

         Woman will save herself if she be but left alone to  do it. I

         see, it, I, the Beast, who have seen - who see -- the  Body

         of our Lady Nuith, all-pervading, and therein swallowed up,

         to have found -- to find -- no soul that is not wholly of

         Her.  Woman! thou drawest us upward and onward for ever; and

         every  woman is one among women, of Woman; one star of Her

         stars.  I see thee, Woman, thou standest alone, High

         Priestess art  thou unto Love at the Altar of Life. And Man

         is the Victim  therein.  Beneath thee, rejoicing, he lies; he

         exults as he dies,  burning up in the breath of thy kiss.

         Yea, star rushes flaming  to star; the blaze burst, splashes

         the skies.  There is a Cry in an unknown tongue, it resounds

         through the  Temple of the Universe; in its one Word is Death

         and Ecstasy,  and thy title of honour, o thou, to Thyself

         High Priestess,  Prophetess, Empress, to thyself the Goddess

         whose Name means  Mother and whore!

         56.    It is obvious to the physiologist that beauty (that

         is, the  natural attraction between things whose union

         satisfies both)  need for fulfilment absolute spontaneity and

         freedom from  restriction. A tree grows deformed if it be

         crowded by other  trees or by masonry; and gunpowder will not

         explode it its  particles are separated by much sand.  If we

         are to have Beauty and Love, whether in begetting  children

         or works of art, or what not, we must have perfect  freedom

         to act, without fear or shame or any falsity. Spontaneity,

         the most important factor in creation, because it  is

         evidence of the magnetic intensity and propriety of the will

         to create, depends almost  wholly on the absolute freedom of

         the  agent. Gulliver must have no bonds of packthread. These

         conditions have been so rare in the past, especially with

         regard  to love, that their occurrence has usually marked

         something like  an epoch. Practically all men work with fear

         of result or lust  of result, and the `child' is a dwarf or

         still-born.  It is within the experience of most people that

         pleasure- parties and the like, if organized on the spur of

         the moment,  are always a success, while the most elaborate

         entertainments,  prepared with all possible car, often fall

         flat. Now one cannot  exactly give rules for producing a

         `genius' to order, a genius  in this sense being one who has

         the Idea, and is fortified with  power to enflame the

         enthusiasm of the crowd, with wit to know,  and initiative to

         seize, the psychological moment.  But one can specify certain

         conditions, incompatible with the  manifestation of this

         spontaneity; and the first of these is  evidently absolute

         freedom from obstacles, internal or external, to the idea of

         the `genius.'  It is clear that a woman cannot love

         naturally, freely,  wholesomely, if she is bound to

         contaminate the purity of her impulse with thoughts of her

         social, economical, and spiritual  status. When such things

         restrain her, Love may conquer, as  often enough it does; but

         the Beauty engendered is usually  stunted or wierd, assuming

         a tragic or cynic mask. The history  of the world is full of

         such stories; it is, one may almost say,  the chief motive of

         Romance. I need only mention Tristan, Paolo,  Romeo, Othello,

         Paris Edward the Second, Abelard, Tannhauser, of old, and

         recently Mrs. ASquith, Maud Allan, Charles Stuart  Parnell,

         Sir Charles Dilke, Lord Henry Somerset, and Oscar  Wilde,

         Down to `Fatty' Arbuckle!  Men and women have to face actual

         ruin, as well as the probability of scandal and disgust, or

         consent to love within  limits which concern not love in the

         least. The chance of  spontaneity is therefore a small one;

         and, should it occur and  be seized, the lawyers hasten to

         hide under the bridal bed,  while the Families, gluing eye to

         chink and keyhole, intrude  their discordant yowls on the

         Dust.  Then, when love dies, as it must if either party have

         more  imagination than a lump of putty, the fetters are

         fixed. He or  she must go through the sordid farce of divorce

         if the chance of  free choice is to be recovered; and even at

         that the fetters always leave an incurable ulcer; it is no

         good playing the game  of respectability after one is

         divorced.  Thus we find that almost the only love-affairs

         which breed no  annoyance, and leave no scar, are those

         between people who have  accepted the Law of Thelema, and

         broken for good with the tabus  of the slave-gods. The true

         artist, loving his art and nothing  else, can enjoy a series

         of spontaneous liaisons, all his life  long, yet never suffer

         himself, or cause any other to suffer.  Of such liaisons

         Beauty is ever the child; the wholesome  attitude of the

         clean simple mind, free from all complications  alien to

         Love, assures it.  Just as a woman's body is deformed and

         diseased by the corset  demanded by Jaganath Fashion, so is

         her soul by the compression  of convention, which is a

         fashion as fitful, arbitrary, and  senseless as that of the

         man-milliner, though they call him God,  and his freakish

         Fiat pass for Everlasting Law.  The English Bible sanctions

         the polygamy and concubinage of  Abraham, Solomon and others,

         the incest of Lot, the wholesale  rape of captured virgins,

         as well as the promiscuity of the  first Christians, the

         prostitution of temple servants, men and  women, the

         relations of Johannes with his master, and the  putting of

         wandering Prophets to stud, as well as the celibacy  of such

         people as Paul. Jehovah went so far as to slay Onan  because

         he balked at fertilizing his brother's widow, condoned  the

         adultery, with murder of the husband, of David, and

         commanded Hosea to intrigue with a `wife of whoredom.' He

         only  drew the moral line at any self-assertion on the part

         of a  woman. In the past man has bludgeoned Woman into

         gratifying the lust  of her loathed tyrant, and trampled the

         flower of her own love  into the mire; making her rape more

         beastly by calling her  antipathy Chastity, and proving her

         an unclean thing on the  evidence of the torn soiled blossom.

         She has had no chance to Love unless she first renounced the

         respect of society, and found a way to drive the wolf of

         hunger  from her door.  Her chance is come! In any Abbey of

         Thelema any woman is  welcome; there she is free to do her

         will, and held in honour  for the doing. the child of love is

         a star, even as all are  stars; but such an one we specially

         cherish; it is a trophy of  battle fought and won!

         220A3-4.ASC

               To fight is the right and duty of every male,as of

         every  woman to rejoice in his strength and to honour and

         perpetuate it  by her love. My primary objection to

         Christianity is `gentle  Jesus, meek and mild,' the pacifist,

         the conscientious objector,  the Tolstoyan, the `passive

         resister.' When the Kaiser fled, and  the Germans surrendered

         their fleet, they abandoned Nietzshes  for Jesus.

         Rodjestvensky and Gervera took their fleets out to  certain

         destruction. The Irish Revolutionists of Easter Week,  1916,

         fought and died like men; and they have established a

         tradition.  `Jesus' himself, in the legend, `set his face as

         a flint to  go to Jerusalem,' with the foreknowledge of his

         fate. But  Christians have not emphasized that heroism since

         the Crusades.  The sloppy sentimental Jesus of the

         Sunday-school is the only  survivor; and the War killed him,

         thank Ares!  When the Nonconformist Christian churches,

         especially in  America, found the doctrine of Eternal

         Punishment no longer  tenable, they knocked the bottom out of

         their religion. There  was nothing to fight for. So they

         degenerated into tame social  Centres, so that Theosophy with

         its Black Brothers, Mrs. Eddy  with her Mental Arsenic

         Experts, the T.K. with his Hypnotists  and Jesuits, and Billy

         Sunday with his Hell Fire, made people's  flesh creep once

         more, and got both credit and cash.  The Book of the Law

         flings forth no theological fulminations;  but we have

         quarrels enough on our hands. We have to fight for  Freedom

         against oppressors, religious, social, or industrial;  and we

         are utterly opposed to compromise. Every fight is to be a

         fight to the finish; each one of us for himself, to do his

         own  will; and all of us for all, to establish the Law of

         Liberty.  We do not want `professional soldiers,' hired

         bravos sworn  to have no souls of their own. They `dare not

         fight;' for how  should a man dare to fight unless his cause

         be a love mightier  than his love of life? Therefore they

         `play;' they have sold themselves; their Will is no more

         theirs; life is no longer a  serious thing to them; therefore

         they wander wastrel in clubs  and boudoirs and greenrooms;

         bridge, billiards, polo, pettie  coats puff out their

         emptiness; scratched for the Great RACE of  Life, they watch

         the Derby instead.  Brave such may be; they may well be (in a

         sense) classed with  the rat; but brainless and idle they

         must be, who have no goal  beyond the grave, where, at the

         best, chance flings fast- withering flowers of false and

         garish glory. They serve to  defend things vital to their

         country; they are the skull that  keeps the brain from harm?

         Oh foolish brain! Wet thou not wiser  to defend thyself,

         rather than trust to brittle bone that  hinders thee from

         growth?  Let every man bear arms, swift to resent oppression,

         generous  and ardent to draw sword in any cause, if justice

         or freedom  summon him!  `All fools despise.' In this last

         phrase the word `fools'  is evidently not to be taken in its

         deeper mystical sense, the  context plainly bearing reference

         to ordinary life.  But the `fool' is still as described in

         the Tarot Trump. He  is an epicene creature, soft and

         sottish, with an imbecile laugh  and a pretty taste in fancy

         waistcoats. He lacks virility, like  the ox which is the

         meaning of the letter Aleph which describes  the Trump, and

         his value is Zero, its number. He is air,  formless and

         incapable of resistance, carrier of sounds which  mean

         nothing to it, swept up into destructive rages of senseless

         violence from its idleness, incalculably moved by every

         pressure  or pull. One-fifth is the fuel of fire, the

         corruption of rust;  the rest is inert, the soul of

         explosives, with a trace of that  stifling and suffocating

         gas which is yet food for vegetable, as  it is poison to

         animal, life.  We have here a picture of the average man, of

         a fool. He has  no will of his own, is all things to all men,

         is void, a  repeater of words of whose sense he knows nought,

         a drifter,  both idle and violent, compact partly of fierce

         passions that  burn up both himself and the other, but mostly

         of inert and characterless nonentity, with a little

         heaviness, dullness, and  stupefaction for his only positive

         qualities.  Such are the `fools' whom we despise. The man of

         Thelema is  vertebrate, organized, purposeful, steady,

         self-controlled, virile; he uses the air as the food of his

         blood; so also, were  he deprived of fools he could no live.

         We need our atmosphere,  after all; it is only when the fools

         become violent madmen that  we need our cloak of silence to

         wrap us, and our staff to stay  us as we ascend our

         mountain-ridge; and it is only if we go down  into the

         darkness of mines to dig us treasure of earth that we need

         fear to choke on their poisonous breath.

         58.    `The keen:' these are the men whose Will is as a sword

         sharp and straight, tempered and  ground and polished its

         flawless steel; with a Wrist and an Eye behind it.  `The

         proud:' these are the men whose nature is kingly, the  men

         who `can.' They know themselves born rulers, whether their

         halidom be Art, or Science, or aught else soever.  `The

         lofty:' these are the men who, being themselves high-

         hearted, endure not any baseness.

         59.    Fight! Fight like gentlemen, without malice, because

         fighting  is the best game in the world, and love the second

         best! Don't  slander your enemy, as the newspapers would have

         you do; just  kill him, and then bury him with honour. don't

         keep crying  `Foul' like a fifth-rate pugilist, Don't boast!

         Don't squeal! If  you're down, get up and hit him again!

         Fights of that sort make  fast friends.  There is perhaps a

         magical second-meaning in this verse, a  reference to the

         Ritual of which we find hints in the legend of  Cain and

         Abel, Esau and Jacob, Set and Osiris, et cetera. The  `Elder

         Brother' within us, the Silent Self, must slay the  younger

         brother, the conscious self, and he must be raised again

         incorruptible.

         60.    There are of course lesser laws than this, details,

         particular cases, of the Law. But the whole of the Law is Do

         what thou wilt, and there is no law beyond it. This subject

         is  treated fully in Liber CXI Aleph, and the student should

         refer  thereto.  Far better, let him assume this Law to be

         the Universal Key  to every problem of Life, and then apply

         it to one particular case after another. As he comes by

         degrees to understand it, he  will be astounded at the

         simplification of the most obscure  questions which it

         furnishes. Thus he will assimilate the Law,  and make it the

         norm of his conscious being; this by itself will  suffice to

         initiate him, to dissolve his complexes, to unveil  himself

         to himself; and so shall he attain the Knowledge and

         Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel.  I have myself

         practiced constantly to prove the Law by many  and divers

         modes in many and divers spheres of thought, until it  has

         become absolutely fixed in me, so much so that it appears an

         `identical equation,' axiomatic indeed, and yet not a

         platitude, but a very sword of Truth to sunder every knot at

         a touch.  As the practical ethics of the Law, I have

         formulated in  words of one syllable my declaration of the

         RIGHTS OF MAN  Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the

         Law. There is no god but Man. Man has the right to live by

         his own Law. Man has the right to live in the way that he

         wills to do. Man has the right to dwell where he wills to

         dwell. Man has the right to move as he will on the face of

         the  Earth. Man has the right to eat what he will. Man has

         the right to drink what he will. Man has the right to think

         as he will. Man has the right to speak as he will. Man has

         the right to write as he will. Man has the right to mould as

         he will. Man has the right to paint as he will. Man has the

         right to carve as he will. Man has the right to work as he

         will. Man has the right to rest as he will. Man has the right

         to love as he will, when, where and whom he  will. Man has

         the right to die when and how he will.  Man has the right to

         kill those who would thwart these  rights.  This statement

         must not be regarded as individualism run  wild. Its harmony

         with statecraft is demonstrated in the  Chapters of Liber

         Aleph already quoted -- see comment on Chapter  II verse 72.

         Modern thought, even that of the shallowest, is compelled by

         AIWAZ to confirm His Law, without knowing what it is about.

         For  instance: `God's wind from nowhere which is called the

         Will;  and is man's only excuse upon this earth,' was written

         by so  trivial a Fat Man as Gilbert Keith Chesterton in `The

         Flying  Inn.'

         61.    Note that Heru-Ra-Ha is not merely a particular form

         of Ra,  but the God enthroned in Ra's seat. That is, His

         Kingdom on  earth is temporary, as explained in verse 34. And

         he is here  conceived as the Hierophant, `lightening the

         girders of the  soul,' that is, bringing man to initiation.

         These `girders' imply the skeletal structure on which the

         soul is supported, the conditions of its incarnation. Man is

         the  heir of ages of evolutionary experience, on certain

         lines, so  that he is organized on formulae which have

         determined the type  of his development. Of some such

         formulae we are conscious, but  not of all. Thus it is true

         for all men -- empirically -- that a  straight line is the

         shortest distance between two points; some  savages may not

         know this consciously, but they base their actions on that

         knowledge.  Now we cannot doubt that consciousness has

         developed  elsewhere than in man; only a blind megalomaniac

         or a Christian divine could suppose our infinitesimal mote of

         a planet the sole  habitat of Mind, especially as our minds

         are, at best, totally  incompetent to comprehend Nature. It

         is also unlikely that our  Earth's physical conditions of

         temperature, atmosphere, density  and so on, which some still

         regard as essential to Life, are  found frequently; we are

         only one of nine planets ourselves, and  it is absurd to deny

         that life exists on the others, or in the  Sun himself, just

         because the conditions of our own life are  absent elsewhere.

         Such Life and Mind may therefore be utterly different to

         anything we know of; the `girders' of their souls in other

         spheres may be other than ours.  The above argument is a case

         of a `girder;' we are bound mentally by our race-experience

         of the environment in which our  own lives flourish. A

         pioneer choosing a camp must look for  wood, water, perhaps

         shelter, perhaps game. In another planet he  might not need

         any of these. The `girders' which deternmine the `form' of

         our souls are  therefor limitations to our thought, as well

         as supports. In the  same way, rails help a train to run

         easily, but confine it to a  definite direction.  The `laws'

         of Nature and Thought, Mathematics, Logic, and so  on, are

         `girders' of this sort.  Our race-inherited conceptions of

         space prevented men, until quite recent years, from

         conceiving a non-Euclidean geometry, or  the existence of a

         fourth Dimension.  The initiate soon becomes aware of the

         un-truth of many of  these limiting laws of his mind; he has

         to identify Being with  not-Being, to perceive Matter as

         continuous and homogeneous, and  so for many another Truth,

         apprehended directly by pure  perception, and consequently

         not to be refuted by syllogistic  methods. The Laws of Logic

         are thus discovered to be  superficial, and their scope only

         partial.  (It is significant in this connexion that such

         advanced  thinkers as the Hon. Bertrand Russell have found

         themselves  obliged to refer mathematical laws to Logic; it

         seems to have escaped them that the Laws of Logic are no more

         than the  statement of the limitations of their own

         intelligence. I quote  The Book of Lies, KE . ME: `CHINESE

         MUSIC.  `Explain this happening!'  `It must have a `natural'

         cause.'     ) `It must have a `supernatural' cause.')  Let

         these two asses be set to grind corn.   May, might,must,

         should, probably, may be, we may safely  assume, ought, it is

         hardly questionable, almost certainly -- poor hacks! let them

         be turned out to grass!  Proof is only possible in

         mathematics, and mathematics is only a  matter of arbitrary

         conventions. And yet doubt is a good servant but a bad

         master; a perfect  mistress, but a nagging wife. `White is

         white' is the lash of the overseer; `white is black' is the

         watchword of the slave. The Master takes no  heed. The

         chinese cannot help thinking that the octave has 5 notes. The

         more necessary anything appears to my mind, the more certain

         it is that I only assert a limitation. I slept with Faith,

         and found a corpse in my arms on awaking; I  drank and danced

         all night with Doubt, and found her a virgin in  the

         morning.') Now then consider the man whose soul has

         thoroughly explored  its structure, is actively conscious of

         its `girders' of axiom.  He must find that they confine him

         like prison bars, when he  would gain the freedom of the

         initiate.  In this verse therefore doth the God `enthroned in

         RA's  seat' declare that his Word lightens (or removes) the

         oppression of these `girders of the soul.'  The study of this

         chapter is accordingly a sould preparatory course for

         whosoever will become Initiate.  See also the six verses

         following this; the word increases in  value as the reader

         advances on the Path, just as a  Rembrandt is  a `pretty

         picture' to the peasant, a `fine work of art' to  the

         educated man, but to the lover of Beauty a sublime

         masterpiece, the greater as he grows himself in greatness.

         62.    This seems to indicate the means to be used in freeing

         the  soul from its `girders'.  We have seen that

         Ra-Hoor-Khuit is in one sense the Silent Self in a man, a

         Name of his Khabs, not so impersonal as Hadit,  but the first

         and least untrue formulation of the Ego. We are to  reverse

         this self in us, then ,not to suppress it and  subordinate

         it. Nor are we to evade it, but to come to it. This  is done

         `through tribulation of ordeal'. This tribulation is  that

         experienced in the process called Psychoanalysis, now that

         official science has adopted -- so far as its inferior

         intelligence permits -- the methods of the magus. But the

         `ordeal' is `bliss'; the solution of each complex by

         `tribulation' -- note the etymological significance of the

         word!  -- is the spasm of joy which is the physiological and

         psychological accompaniment of any relief from strain and

         congestion.

         63.    The Fool is also the Great Fool, Bacchus Diphues,

         Harpocrates, the Dwarf-Self, the Holy Guardian Angel, and so

         forth. `He understandeth it not', that is, he understandeth

         that it is NOT, LA, 31.  But the above is only the secondary

         or hieroglyphic magical  meaning. The plain English still

         discusses the technique of  initiation. The `fool', is one

         such as described in my note on  verse 57. The vain, soft,

         frivolous, idle, mutable sot will make  nothing either of

         this Book, or of my comment thereon. But this  fool is the

         child Harpocrates, the `Babe in the Egg', the  innocent not

         yet born, in silence awaiting his hour to come  forth into

         light. He is then the uninitiated man, and he has  four

         ordeals to pass before he is made perfect. These ordeals  are

         now to be described.

         64.    The `Tree of Life' in the Qabalah represents ten

         spheres  arranged in three pillars, the central one of these

         containing  four, and the others three each. These spheres

         are attributed to  certain numbers, planets, metals, and many

         other groups of  things; indeed all things may be referred to

         one or other of  them. (See Book 4 Part III and Liber 777).

         The four ordeals now  to be described represent the ascent of

         the aspirant from the  tenth and lowest of these spheres,

         which refers to the Earth,  unregenerate and confused, in

         which the aspirant is born. He  riseth in the first ordeal to

         the sphere called the Foundation,  numbered 9, and

         containing, among other ideas, those of the  generative

         organs, Air, the Moon, and Silver. Its secret Truth  is that

         Stability is identical with Change; of this we are  reminded

         by the fact that any multiple of 9 has 9 for the sum of  its

         digits.  The initiate will now perceive that the sum of the

         motions of  his mind is zero, while, below their moon-like

         phases and their  Air-like divinations, the sex-consciousness

         abides untouched,  the true Foundation of the Temple of his

         body, the Root of the  Tree of Life that grows from Earth to

         Heaven. This Book is now  to him `as silver.' He sees it

         pure, white and shining, the  mirror of his own being that

         this ordeal has purged of its  complexes. To reach this

         sphere he has had to pass through a  path of darkness where

         the Four Elements seem to him to be the  Universe entire. For

         how should he know that they are no more that the last of the

         22 segments of the Snake that is twined on  the Tree?

         Assailed by gross phantoms of matter, unreal and

         unintelligible, his ordeal is of terror and darkness. He may

         pass only by favour of his own silent God, extended and

         exalted  within him by virtue of his conscious act in

         affronting the  ordeal.

         65.    The next sphere reached by the aspirant is named

         Beauty,  numbered 6, and referred to the hear, to the Sun,

         and to Gold.  Here he is called an `Adept'. The secret Truth

         in this place  is that God is Man, symbolized by the

         Hexagram, (in which two  triangles are interlaced).  In the

         last sphere he learnt that his Body was the Temple of  the

         Rosy Cross, that is, that it was given him as a place

         wherein to perform the Magical Work of uniting the

         oppositions  in his Nature. Here he is taught that his Heart

         is the Centre of  Light. It is not dark, mysterious, hollow,

         obscure even to  himself, but his soul is to dwell there,

         radiating Light on the  six spheres which surround it; these

         represent the various  powers of his mind. This Book now

         appears to him as Gold; it is  the perfect metal, the symbol

         of the Sun itself. He sees God  everywhere therein.  To this

         sphere hath the aspirant come by the Path called  Temperance,

         shot as an arrow from a Rainbow. He hath beheld the  Light,

         but only in division. Nor had he won to this sphere except by

         Temperance, under which name we mask the art of  pouring

         freely forth the whole of our Life, to the last spilth  of

         our blood, yet losing never the least drop thereof.

         66.    Now once again the adept aspires and comes to the

         sphere  called the Crown numbered 1, referred ;to the God

         Ra-Hoor-Khuit  himself in man, to the Beginning of Whirling

         Motions, and the  First Mode of Matter. (See Liber 777, the

         Equinox, and Book 4  for these attributions.) Its secret

         Truth is that Earth is  Heaven as Heaven is Earth, and shows

         the aspirant to himself as being a star. All that seemed to

         him reality is not even to be  deemed illusion, but all one

         light infusing star and star. The  Many, each of them, are

         the One; each individual, no twain  alike, yet all identical;

         this he knows and is, for now the Word  hath lightened his

         soul's girders. (The logic of the Ruach --  the normal

         intellect -- is transcended in Spiritual Experience.  It is,

         evidently, impossible to `explain' how this can be.) In the

         Number 6 he saw God interlocked with man, two  trinities made

         one; but here he knows that there was never but  one.   Thus

         now this Book is `stones of precious water'; its Light  is

         not the borrowed light of gold, but is shed through the Book

         itself, clearsparkling, flashed from its facets. Each phrase

         is  a diamond; each is diverse, yet all identical. In each

         the one Light laughs!  Now to this sphere came he by the Path

         called the High Priestess; She is his Silent Self, virgin

         beyond all veils, made  free to teach him, by virtue of this

         third ordeal wherein,  passing through the abyss, he has

         stripped from him every rag of  falsehood, his last

         complexes, even his phantasy that he called  `I'. And so he

         knows at last now the soiled harlot's dress was  mere

         disguise; naked in Moonlight shines the maiden Body!

         220A3-5.ASC

         67.    Beyond the one, how shall he pass on? What is this

         One, which  is in every place the Centre of All? Indeed the

         logic-girders of  our souls need lightening, if we would win

         to freedom of such  Truth as this!  Now in the `stones of

         precious water' the Light leapt clear  indeed, but they were

         not themselves that Light. This sphere of  the One is indeed

         Ra-Hoor-Khuit; is not our Crowned and  Conquering Child the

         source of Light? Nay, he is finite form of  Unity, child of

         two married infinities; and in this last ordeal  the aspirant

         must go beyond even his Star, finding therein the core

         thereof Hadit, and losing it also in the Body of Nuith.  Here

         is no Path that he may tread, for all is equally  everywhere;

         nor is there any sphere to attain, for measure is  now no

         more.  There are no words to make known the Way; this only is

         said,  that to him that hath passed through this fourth

         ordeal this  Book is as `ultimate sparks'. Now more do they

         reflect or transmit the Light; they themselves are the

         original, the not- to-be-analysed Light, of the `intimate

         fire' of Hadit! He shall  see the Book as it is, as a shower

         of the Seed of the Stars!

         68.    To all; i.e. to Pan; or to Al.   The sudden

         degradation of the style and the subject, the  petulance of

         the point of view; what should these things  intend?  It

         sounds as though the scribe had protested violently in his

         mind against the chapter, and was especially aggrieved at the

         first paragraph of this verse, which, taken at its face

         value,  promises a phenomenon impossible in literature. The

         second  phrase may then be a contemptuous slap at the scribe

         who was  perhaps thinking `Well, it seems otherwise to me,

         for one!'  and the hit was a bull's eye; for I was a mere

         liar when I  thought it. I was so enraged at having engaged

         myself on such an  adventure, so hated `the hand and the pen'

         which I pledged to transcribe sentiments so repugnant to

         mine, such a jargon of  absurdities and vulgarities as seemed

         to me displayed in many  parts of this third chapter, that I

         would have gone to almost  any length, short of deliberate

         breach of my thoughtless promise  to my wife to see it

         through, to discredit the Book. I did  deface my diaries with

         senseless additions; I did carry out my  orders in such a way

         as to ensure failure, I did lose the  Manuscript more or less

         purposely. I did threaten to publish the  Book `to get rid of

         it'; and at this verse I was one of the  `mere liars'. For

         its Beauty already constrained even the world- infected man,

         the nigh-disillusioned poet, the clinker-clogged lover, the

         recusant mystic. And, as I know now, the thought that  all

         these things were myself was a lie. Yet the Liar was at

         pains to lie to itself! Why did it so? It knew that one day

         this  Book would shine out and dissolve it; it feared and

         hated the  Book; and, gnashing its teeth, aware falsely, and

         denied the  Beauty that bound it.  As for my true Self,

         silent abiding its hour, is not this  Book to it the very

         incarnation of Beauty? What is Beauty but  the perfect

         expression of one's own Truth? And is not this Book  the Word

         of Aiwaz, and is not He mine Holy Guardian Angel, the  master

         of my Silent Self, His virgin bride on whom His love hath

         wrought the mystery of Identity?

         69.    My memory tells me that the word `there' was not

         emphasized. Read, then, `there is' as the French `Il lY A';

         it is simple and apparently detached statement. It was spoken

         casually, carelessly, as if a quite unimportant point had

         been  forgotten, and now mentioned as a concession to my

         weakness.

          70.    It is important to observe that He claims to be both

         Horus  and Harpocrates; and this two-in-one is a Unity

         combining Tao  and Teh, Matter & Motion, Being & Form. This

         is natural, for in  Him must exist the Root of the Dyad.  `my

         nemyss' (better spelt `nemmes') is the regular head- dress of

         a God. It is a close cap, but with wings behind the  ears

         which end in lappets that fall in front of the shoulders.  It

         is gathered at the nape of the neck into a cylindrical

         `pigtail'. I think the shape is meant to suggest the Royal

         Uracus serpent.  It `shrouds the night-blue sky' because the

         actual light  shed by the God when he is invoked is of this

         colour. It may  also mean that he conceals Nuith.  The Hawk's

         Head symbolizes keen sight, swift action, courage  and

         mobility.

         71.    This is a clear statement as to the War which was to

         come,  and did come, in 1914 E.V.  I now (An XIX   in   ) no

         longer agree with the above paragraph. I think `the pillars

         of the world' mean `the  Pillars of Hercules' -- about the

         Straits of Gibraltar. And I  think the really big war will

         start there.  P.S. an (Sept.8, '37, E.V.) Can `twin warriors'

         imply a  civil war? The Spanish troubles started in S.Spain

         and  Morocco.

         72.    `The Double Wand of Power' is a curious variant of the

         common `Wand of Double Power'; the general meaning is `I

         control alike the Forces of Active and Passive'.  `Coph Nia':

         the original MS. has ---- left incomplete as  not having been

         properly heard. The present text was filled in  later in her

         own hand by the first Scarlet Woman.  The Egyptian Gods are

         usually represented as bearing an Ankh,  or sandal-strap, in

         the left hand, the wand being in the right.  This ankh

         signifies the power to go, characteristic of a god.  But

         apparently Ra Hoor Khuit had an Universe in his left  hand,

         and crushed it so that naught remains. I think this

         `Universe' is that of monistic metaphysics; in one hand is

         the  `Double Wand', in the other `naught'. This seems to

         refer to  the `none and Two' ontology outlined in previous

         notes.

         73.    This might have been done, of course, in several ways.

         I  chose that which seemed most practical. So far I have

         noticed  nothing remarkable.

         74.    I suspect some deeper and more startling arcanum than

         the Old  Comment indicates; but I have not yet discovered it.

         An XVI,     in   .

         75.    Aum is of course the Sanskrit `Word' familiar to most

         students. (See Book 4 Part III). Ha is a way of spelling the

         letter whose value is 5 so that it shall add to 6. this

         uniting  the 5 and the 6 is a symbol of the Great Work.