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The conception is of Air, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Bird, "the Holy Ghost", of a Mercurial Nature. Notes: [1] The letter F is used to represent the Hebrew Vau and the Greek Digamma; its sound lies between those of the English long o and long oo, as in Rope and Tooth. With a couple of exceptions (FF for TT in section G), F renders letters which were
originally omega, long ‘o.’ The substitution, one suspects, was made for Qabalistic
Section C. — Fire I invoke Thee, the Terrible and Invisible God: Who dwellest in the Void Place of the Spirit: -
The Bornless One. (Vide supra). The conception is of Fire, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Lion of a Uranian nature. Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.
Section D. — Water Hear Me: -
Mighty and Bornless One! (Vide Supra) (The conception is of Water, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Dragon-Serpent, of a Neptunian nature.) Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. Notes: [1] See, for the formula of IAF, or rather FIAOF, Book 4 Part III, Chapter V. The form FIAOF will be found preferable in practice. [2] Ischure ('Iscure) is a Greek word and not a barbarous name; it simply the vocative form of Iscuroz, “Mighty” and is not repeated in the original.
Section E. — Earth I invoke Thee: -
(The conception of of Earth, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic Hippopotamus 2 of a Venereal nature.) Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether: upon The Earth and under the Earth: on dry land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me. Notes: [1] "Mass", in the sense of the word which is used by physicists. The impossibility of defining it will not deter the intrepid initiate (in view of the fact that the fundamental conception is beyond the normal categories of reason.) [2] Sacred to AHAThOOR. The idea is that of the Female conceived as invulnerable, reposeful, of enormous swallowing capacity etc. For the zoötypes of the four quarters, compare Massey, The Natural Genesis, i. 405;
there the Mercurial Bird is the Ape of Thoth, the Dragon-Serpent is a Crocodile and the
Section F. — Spirit Hear Me:
Notes: [1] The Word that goeth from (A) Free Breath (U) through Willed Breath (M) and stopped Breath (GN) to Continuous Breath, thus symbolizing the whole course of spiritual life. A is the formless Zero; U is the sixfold solar sound of physical life, the triangle of Soul being entwined with that of Body; M is the silence of “death”; GN is the nasal sound of generation and knowledge. [2] Some printed editions omit this “IAF” while retaining the gloss.
Section Ff.
Section G. — Spirit Hear Me: -
Notes: [1] In Hebrew, ADNI, 65. The Gnostic Initiates transliterated it to imply their own secret formulae; we follow so excellent an example. ON is an Arcanum of Arcana; its significance is taught, gradually, in the O.T.O. Also AD is the paternal formula, Hadit; ON is its complement NUIT; the final Yod signifies "mine" etymologically and essentially the Mercurial (transmitted) hermaphroditic virginal seed - The Hermit of the Taro - The use of the name is therefore to invoke one's own inmost secrecy, considered as the result of the conjunction of Nuit and Hadit. If the second A is included, its import is to affirm the operation of the Holy Ghost and the formulation of the Babe in the Egg, which precedes the appearance of the Hermit. [2] This is intelligible Greek and Crowley’s gloss a straightforward translation; however the original has tou Qeou (genetive singular), erroneously rendered TON THEON in the Goëtia, read as twn Qewn (genetive plural). [3] This is also an agonising appeal to the Earth, the Mother; for at this point of the ceremony the Adept should be torn from his mortal attachments, and die to himself in the orgasm of his operation. (A thorough comprehension of Psycho-analysis will contribute notably to the proper appreciation of this Ritual.) [4] i.e. the spritual 'semen', the Adept's secret ideas, drawn irresistibly from their 'Hell' by the love of his Angel. "It is said among men that the word Hell deriveth from the word "helan", to hele or conceal, in the tongue of the Anglo-Saxons. That is, it is the concealed place, which since all things are in thine own self, is the unconscious" Liber CXI (Aleph) chap. Δo [5] But compare the use of the same word in section C. [6] Liddel and Scott’s Intermediate Greek-English (sic) Lexicon translates qoroz “semen genitale”. However the original Greek has DIACANNA CORUN here.
Section Gg. — The Attainment
Section H. — The "Charge to the Spirit" Come thou forth, and follow me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me so that every Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether, upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land, or in the Water: of Whirling Air or of rushing Fire, and every Spell and scourge of God, may be obedient unto me!
Section J. — The Proclamation of the Beast 666 IAF:SABAF 1 Such are the Words! Notes: POINT IIArs Congressus Cum Daemone1 Section A Let the Adeptus Minor be standing in this circle on the square of Tiphereth2, armed with his Wand and Cup; but let him perform the Ritual throughout in his Body of Light. He may burn the Cakes of Light, or the Incense of Abramelin; he may be prepared by Liber CLXXV, the reading of Liber LXV, and by the practices of Yoga. He may invoke Hadit by "... wine and strange drugs"3 if he so will.4 He prepares the circle by the usual formulae of Banishing and Consecration, etc. He recites Section A as a rehearsal before His Holy Guardian Angel of the attributes of that Angel. Each phrase must be realized with full concentration of force, so as to make Samadhi as perfectly as possible upon the truth proclaimed. Line 1 He identifies his Angel with the Ain Soph, and the Kether thereof; one formulation of Hadit in the boundless Body of Nuith. Line 2,3,4 He asserts that His Angel has created (for the purpose of self-realization through projection in conditioned Form) three pairs of opposites: (a) The Fixed and the Volatile; (b) The Unmanifested and the Manifest; and (c) the Unmoved and the Moved. Otherwise, the Negative and the Positive in respect of Matter, Mind and Motion. Line 5 He acclaims his Angel as "Himself Made Perfect"; adding that this Individuality is inscrutable in inviolable. In the Neophyte Ritual of G∴ D∴ (As it is printed in Equinox I, II, for the old aeon) the Hierophant is the perfected Osiris, who brings the candidate, the natural Osiris, to identity with himself. But in the new Aeon the Hierophant is Horus (Liber CCXX, I, 49)5 therefore the Candidate will be Horus too.6 What then is the formula of the initiation of Horus? It will no longer be that of the Man, through Death. It will be the natural growth of the Child. His experiences will no more be regarded as catastrophic. Their hieroglyph is the Fool: the innocent and impotent Harpocrates Babe becomes the Horus Adult by obtaining the Wand. "Der reine Thor" seizes the Sacred Lance.7 Bacchus becomes Pan. The Holy Guardian Angel is the Unconscious Creature Self - the Spiritual Phallus. His knowledge and conversation contributes occult puberty. It is therefore advisable to replace the name Asar-Un-Nefer by that of Ra-Hoor-Khuit at the outset, and by that of one's own Holy Guardian Angel when it has been communicated. Line 6 He hails Him as BESZ, the Matter that destroys and devours Godhead, for the purpose of the Incarnation of any God. Line 7 He hails Him as APOPHRASZ, the Motion that destroys and devours Godhead, for the purpose of the Incarnation of any God. The combined action of these two DEVILS is to allow the God upon whom they prey to enter into enjoyment of existence through the Sacrament of dividual "Life" (Bread - the flesh of BESZ) and "Love" (Wine - the blood or venom of AOPHRASZ). Line 8 He acclaims His Angel as having "eaten of the Fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil"; otherwise, having become wise (in the Dyad, Chokmah) to apprehend the formula of Equilibrium which is now His own, being able to apply Himself accurately to His self-appointed environment. Line 9 He acclaims His Angel as having laid down the Law of Love as the Magical formula of the Universe, that He may resolve the phenomenal again into its noumenal phase by uniting any two opposites in ecstasic passion. Line 10 He acclaims His Angel as having appointed that this formula of Love should effect not only the dissolution of the separateness of the Lovers into His own impersonal Godhead, but their co-ordination in a "Child" quintessentialized from its parents to constitute a higher order of Being than theirs, so that each generation is an alchemical progress towards perfection in the direction of successive complexities. As Line 9 asserts Involution, Line 10 asserts Evolution. Line 11 He acclaims His Angel as having devised this method of self-realization; the object of Incarnation is to obtain its reactions to its relations with other incarnated Beings and to observe theirs with each other. Notes: [1] Ars Congressus Cum Daemone [Lat., approx. “the art of meeting with the daimon.”] [2] The reference is presumably to the design for a magic circle given in Book 4, Part II (it appears on the dust jacket of the Symonds & Grant edition of Magick; see also the figure “The Triangle of the Universe” illustrating Liber 963 in Equinox I (3)). In the centre is an inverted Tau of ten squares for the Sephiroth (the upright representing Kether, Chokmah, Binah, Tiphareth, and Yesod, with Malkuth in the centre of the base); this is enclosed within a notional equilateral triangle, indicated only by three lozenges at its corners; the circle is circumscribed about this triangle, thus the Tiphareth square is at the centre of the figure. The design is somewhat impractical unless one has the regular use of a room some thirty feet or more in both horizontal dimensions, since you are supposed to have a double cube altar — traditionally 44 inches high with a 22 inch square base — standing exactly on the Malkuth square. [4] Any such formula should be used only when the adept has full knowledge based on experience of the management of such matters. [5] [“Abrogate are all rituals, all ordeals, all words and signs. Ra-Hoor Khuit hath taken his seat in the East at the Equinox of the Gods; and let Asar be with Isa, who also are one. But they are not of me. Let Asar be the adorant, Isa the sufferer, Hoor in his secret name and splendour is the Lord initiating.”] [6] In a copy of the Goëtia with notes to the preliminary invocation by Gerald Yorke, some transcribed from Crowley’s personal copy, others of uncertain provenance (possibly summarised by Yorke from Samekh, indeed), a note to the corresponding line runs: “Osorronophris = The perfected Osiris. The hierophant in the G.D. neophyte ritual. But for those who accept Qelhma variation, the formula is of Horus. Ever-growing child, not dying God. Candidate ∴ is Horus, & the perfected Horus is Ra Hoor Khuit.” [7] See Parsifal for this symbolism.
Section Aa. Line 1 The Adept asserts his right to enter into conscious communication with His Angel, on the ground that that Angel has Himself taught him the Secret Magick by which he may make the proper link. "Mosheh" is M H, the formation in Jechidah, Chiah, Neshamah, Ruach, - The Sephiroth from Kether to Yesod - since 45 is Sum 1-9 while Sh, 300, is Sum 1-24, which superadds to these Nine an extra Fifteen numbers. (See in Liber D, the meanings and correspondences of 9, 15, 24, 45, 300, 345.)1 45 is moreover A D M, MDA, man. "Mosheh" is thus the name of man as a God-concealing form. But in the Ritual let the Adept replace this "Mosheh" by his own motto as Adeptus Minor. For "Ishrael" let him prefer his own Magical Race, according to the obligations of his Oaths to Our Holy Order!2 (The Beast 666 Himself used "Ankh-f-n-Khonsu" and "Khem" in this section.) Line 2 The Adept reminds his Angel that He has created That One Substance of which Hermes hath written in the Table of Emerald, whose virtue is to unite in itself all opposite modes of Being, thereby to serve as a Talisman charged with the Spiritual Energy of Existence, an Elixir or Stone composed of the physical basis of Life. This Commemoration is placed between the two personal appeals to the Angel, as if to claim privilege to partake of this Eucharist which createth, sustaineth and redeemeth all things. Line 3 He now asserts that he is himself the "Angel" or messenger of his Angel; that is, that he is a mind and body whose office is to receive and transmit the Word of his Angel. He hails his Angel not only as "un-nefer" the Perfection of "Asar" himself as a man, but as Ptah-Apophrasz-Ra, the identity (Hadit) wrapped in the Dragon (Nuit) and thereby manifested as a Sun (Ra-Hoor-Khuit). The "Egg" (or Heart) "girt with a Serpent" is a cognate symbol; the idea is thus expressed later in the ritual. (See Liber LXV which expands this to the uttermost.) Notes: [1] The Greek spelling in the original enumerates to 915, 3 × 5 × 61. [2]There is no obvious reference to any “Magical Race” in any of the Oaths of A∴A∴ grades up to and including Adeptus Minor as given in “Liber Collegii Sancti,” unless one considers the A∴A∴ itself to fit this billing (an early typescript of the A∴A∴ Neophyte ritual, “Liber DCLXXI vel ץאדח,” is extant which refers to the order as the “M—— [Mysteries, presumably] of I—— [Initiation (boring but possible)? Isis? Iacchus? Israel? Israfel?],” possibly whatever the I stands for should be substituted). Israel Regardie, when he produced an adaptation of the “Bornless One” as an example ritual for the collection of Golden Dawn papers he edited, substituted “The Magic of Light”, a reference to the sub-title of the G.D. Z2 paper, with “prophets of the Sun” in line 3. DuQuette (in his Magick of Thelema) and others suggest THELEMA.
Section B The Adept passes from contemplation to action in the sections now following B to Gg. He is to travel astrally around the circle, making the appropriate pentagrams, sigils, and signs. His direction is widdershins.1 He thus makes three curves, each covering three-fourths of the circle.2 He should give the sign of the Enterer on passing the Kiblah, or Direction of Boleskine.3 This picks up the force naturally radiating from that point4 and projects it in the direction of the path of the Magician. The sigils are those given in the Equinox Vol. I, No. 7, Plate X outside the square;5 the signs those shewn in Vol. I, No. 2, Plate "The Signs of the Grades".6 In these invocations he should expand his girth and his stature to the utmost7, assuming the form and the consciousness of the elemental god of the quarter. After this, he begins to vibrate the "Barbarous Names" of the Ritual. Now let him not only fill his whole being to the uttermost with the force of the Names; but let him formulate his Will, understood thoroughly as the dynamic aspect of his Creative Self, in an appearance symbolically apt, I say not in the form of a Ray of Light, of a Fiery Sword, or of aught save that bodily Vehicle of the Holy Ghost which is sacred to BAPHOMET,8 by its virtue that concealeth the Lion and the Serpent that His Image may appear adorably upon the Earth for ever. Let then the Adept extend his Will beyond the Circle in this imagined Shape and let it radiate with the Light proper to the element invoked, and let each Word issue along the Shaft with passionate impulse, as if its voice gave command thereto that it should thrust itself leapingly forward. Let also each Word accumulate authority, so that the Head of the Shaft may plunge twice as far for the Second Word as for the First, and Four Times for the Third as the Second, and thus to the end. Moreover, let the Adept fling forth his whole consciousness thither. Then at the final Word, let him bring rushing back his Will within himself, steadily streaming, and let him offer himself to its point, as Artemis to PAN, that this perfectly pure concentration of the Element purge him thoroughly, and possess him with its passion. In this Sacrament being wholly at one with that Element, let the Adept utter the Charge "Hear me, and make", etc. with strong sense that this unity with that quarter of the Universe confers upon him the fullest freedom and privilege appurtenant thereto. Let the Adept take note of the wording of the Charge. The "Firmament" is the Ruach, the "mental plane"; it is the realm of Shu, or Zeus, where revolves the Wheel of the Gunas, the Three forms9 of Being. The Aethyr is the "akasha", the "Spirit", the Aethyr or physics, which is the framework on which all forms are founded; it receives, records and transmits all impulses without itself suffering mutation thereby. The "Earth" is the sphere wherein the operation of these "fundamental" and aethyric forces appears to perception. "Under the Earth" is the world of those phenomena which inform those perceived projections, and determine their particular character. "Dry land" is the place of dead "material things", dry (i.e. unknowable) because unable to act on our minds. "Water" is the vehicle whereby we feel such things; "air" their menstruum wherein these feelings are mentally apprehended. It is called "whirling" because of the instability of thought, and the fatuity of reason, on which we are yet dependent for what we call "life". "Rushing Fire" is the world in which wandering thought burns up to swift-darting Will. These four stages explain how the non-Ego is transmuted into the Ego. A "Spell" of God is any form of consciousness, and a "Scourge" any form of action. The Charge, as a whole, demands for the Adept the control of every detail of the Universe which His Angel has created as a means of manifesting Himself to Himself. It covers command of the primary projection of the Possible in individuality, in the antithetical artifice which is the device of Mind, and in a balanced triplicity of modes or states of being whose combinations constitute the characteristics of Cosmos. It includes also a standard of structure, a rigidity to make reference possible. Upon these foundations of condition which are not things in themselves, but the canon to which things conform, is builded the Temple of Being, whose materials are themselves perfectly mysterious, inscrutable as the Soul, and like the Soul imagining themselves by symbols which we may feel, perceive, and adapt to our use without ever knowing the whole Truth about them. The Adept sums up all these items by claiming authority over every form of expression possible to Existence, whether it be a "spell" (idea) or a "scourge" (act) of "God", that is, of himself. The Adept must accept every "spirit", every "spell", every "scourge", as part of his environment, and make them all "subject to" himself; that is, consider them as contributory causes of himself. They have made him what he is. They correspond exactly to his own faculties. They are all - ultimately - of equal importance. The fact that he is what he is proves that each item is equilibrated. The impact of each new impression affects the entire system in due measure. He must therefore realize that every event is subject to him. It occurs because he had need of it. Iron rusts because the molecules demand oxygen for the satisfaction of their tendencies. They do not crave hydrogen; therefore combination with that gas is an event which does not happen. All experiences contribute to make us complete in ourselves. We feel ourselves subject to them so long as we fail to recognise this; when we do, we perceive that they are subject to us. And whenever we strive to evade an experience, whatever it may be, we thereby do wrong to ourselves. We thwart our own tendencies. To live is to change; and to oppose change is to revolt against the law which we have enacted to govern our lives. To resent destiny is thus to abdicate our sovereignty, and to invoke death. Indeed, we have decreed the doom of death for every breach of the law of Life. And every failure to incorporate any impression starves that particular faculty which stood in need of it. This Section B invokes Air in the East, with a shaft of golden glory. Notes: [1] No clear explanation is given for this instruction. On the face of it, this is a ritual of invocation, and in chapter X, s. II, of MTP, Crowley says of circumambulations and spiral movements in the circle: “if performed deosil they invoke — if widdershins, they banish.” One possible explanation lies in the footnote to that passage: “Such, at least is the traditional interpretation. But there is a deeper design which may be expressed through the direction of rotation. Certain forces of the most formidable character may be invoked by circumambulation Widdershins when it is executed with intent towards them, and the initiated technique. Of such forces Typhon is the type and the war of the Titans against the Olympians the legend. (Teitan, Titan, has in Greek the numerical value of 666).” (For example, if invoking the powers of the constellation of the Bear, associated with Typhon-Set in Græco-Egyptian magick, one might used widdershins motions, from the apparent motion of the northern stars about the Pole Star). As noted, while in section A. the entity invoked is hailed as “Asar-un-Nefer”, the opening of section C. is strikingly close to the beginning of an invocation of Set-Typhon in the Leiden Papyrus (the Greek text of which was also, as it happens, printed by Crowley in his edition of the Goëtia, as a curse against Mathers). If on the other hand we do not want to admit that Kenneth Grant (see for example the notes to the edition of Magick he co-edited with John Symonds) was right about this ritual after all, we might consider the possibility that Samekh is, in fact, just as much an exorcism or banishing as the original “Stele of Jeu”: that is, it is intended to “deliver him, NN” — the operator himself —“from the daimon which restrains him” — his own mundane personality. [2] Possibly there is a qabalistic significance to this; one thus travels 2¼ circles total, or 810 degrees. The best I can manage off the top of my head is 810 = IW, Greek “Hail!” [3] The identification of the Direction of Boleskine with the Kiblah (an Arabic term denoting the direction one faces to pray) is presumably based on AL, III. 10 (plus the other two verses cited, which are far more ambiguous). This involves the assumption that “it” in “it shall be your Kiblah forever” refers to “thy secret temple — and that temple is already aright disposed” and not “the stélé of revealing itself”. Assuming the thing has not been stolen (or sold by unscrupulous museum staff) and replaced with a replica in the meantime, the original Stélé is still closed “in locked glass” in a museum in Cairo. Incidentally the name of the Victorious City can be fudged to 418 in Hebrew just as easily as that of Crowley’s country house. [4] This is an assumption based on Liber Legis II, 78 and III, 34. [5] Plate X in Equinox I (7) was an illustration to “A Brief Abstract of the Symbolic Representation of the Universe” (“Liber LXXXIV vel Chanokh”) showing various sigils received during the Dee-Kelly workings; the four characters outside the square are said to be the sigils of the four “Angel Overseers”, referred to in Liber 84 (possibly following a Golden Dawn tradition) as “Supreme Elemental Kings.” In the Yorke Goetia, the names and sigils appear at the head of each elemental section. The names are as follows: Air (AR THIAO &c.) Tahoeloj; Fire (AROGOGOROBRAO &c.) Ohooohaatan; Water (ROUBRIAO MARIODAM &c.): Thahebyobeeatan; Earth (MA BARRAIO &c.): Thahaaotahe. The characters (in order Air, Fire, Water, Earth) are:
[6] See “Liber O vel Manus et Saggittæ” (Liber VI) In the Yorke copy of the Goetia, in addition to the names and sigils mentioned in the previous note, at the head of each elemental section is a stick figure in the appropriate elemental grade sign, along with the appropriate invoking elemental pentagram and Hebrew name (again, see “Liber VI,” cap. IV, for these). At the head of the AOTH ABAOTH &c. section are shown the LVX signs, the Mark of the Beast (see note below) and the invoking Active Spirit pentagram with hyha; no signs, pentagrams or names are given for the IEOU PUR IOU &c. section. [7] Having experience of success in the practices of Liber 536, BATRAXO-RENOBOOKOSMOMAXIA. [8] i.e., the phallus. [9] They correspond to the Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt of Alchemy; to Sattvas, Rajas, and Tamas in the Hindu system; and are rather modes of action than actual qualities even when conceived as latent. They are the apparatus of communication between the planes; as such, they are conventions. There is no absolute validity in any means of mental apprehension; but unless we make these spirits of the Firmament subject unto us by establishing right relation (within the possible limits) with the Universe, we shall fall into error when we develop our new instrument of direct understanding. It is vital that the Adept should train his intellectual faculties to tell him the truth, in the measure of their capacity. To despise the mind on account of its limitations is the most disastrous blunder; it is the common cause of the calamities which strew so many shores with the wreckage of the Mystic Armada. Bigotry, Arrogance, Bewilderment, all forms of mental and moral disorder, so often observed in people of great spiritual attainment, have brought the Path itself into discredit; almost all such catastrophes are due to trying to build the Temple of the Spirit without proper attention to the mental laws of structure and the physical necessities of foundation. The mind must be brought to its utmost pitch of perfection, but according to its own internal properties; one cannot feed a microscope on mutton chops. It must be regarded as a mechanical instrument of knowledge, independent of the personality of its possessor. One must treat it exactly as one treats one's electroscope or one's eyes; one influence of one's wishes. A physician calls in a colleague to attend to his own family, knowing that personal anxiety may derange his judgment. A microscopist who trusts his eyes when his pet theory is at stake may falsify the facts, and find too late that he has made a fool of himself. In the case of initiations itself, history is scarred with the wounds inflicted by this Dagger. It reminds us constantly of the danger of relying upon the intellectual faculties. A judge must know the law in every point, and be detached from personal prejudices, and incorruptible, or iniquity will triumph. Dogma, with persecution, delusion, paralysis of progress, and many another evil, as its satraps, has always established a tyranny when Genius has proclaimed it. Islam making a bonfire of written Wisdom, and Haeckel forging biological evidence; physicists ignorant of radioactivity disputing the conclusions of geology, and theologians impatient of truth struggling against the tide of thought; all such must perish at the hands of their own error in making their minds, internally defective or externally deflected, the measure of the Universe.
Section C The adept now invokes Fire in the South; flame red are the rays that burst from his Verendum1. Notes: [1] [Lat., lit. “thing to be feared”; a term used by Levi (Rituel de Haute Magie, cap. VII) for the Magic Wand (“to which, however, an allegorical significance may perhaps be attributed” – Waite, Book of Ceremonial Magic).]
Section D He invokes Water in the West, his Wand billowing forth blue radiance.
Section E He goes to the North to invoke Earth; flowers of green flame flash from his weapon. As practice makes the Adept perfect in this Work, it becomes automatic to attach all these complicated ideas and intentions to their correlated words and acts. When this is attained he may go deeper into the formula by amplifying its correspondences. Thus, he may invoke water in the manner of water, extending his will with majestic and irresistible motion, mindful of its impulse gravitation, yet with a suave and tranquil appearance of weakness. Again, he may apply the formula of water to its peculiar purpose as it surges back into his sphere, using it with conscious skill for the cleansing and calming of the receptive and emotional elements in his character, and for the solution or sweeping away of those tangled weeds of prejudice which hamper him from freedom to act as he will. Similar applications of the remaining invocations will occur to the Adept who is ready to use them.
Section F The Adept now returns to the Tiphereth square of his Tau, and invokes spirit, facing toward Boleskine, by the active Pentagrams, the sigil called the Mark of the Beast1, and the Signs of L.V.X. (See plate as before). He then vibrates the Names extending his will in the same way as before, but vertically upward. At the same time he expands the Source of that Will - the secret symbol of Self - both about him and below, as if to affirm that Self, duplex as is its form, reluctant to acquiesce in its failure to coincide with the Sphere of Nuith. Let him now imagine, at the last Word, that the Head of his will, where his consciousness is fixed, opens its fissure (the Brahmarandra-Cakkra, at the junction of the cranial sutures) and exudes a drop of clear crystalline dew, and that this pearl is his Soul, a virgin offering to his Angel, pressed forth from his being by the intensity of this Aspiration. Notes: [1] In the Yorke Goëtia, this is the “Sun and Moon conjoined with two witnesses”, i.e.:
Section Ff With these words the Adept does not withdraw his will within him as in the previous Sections. He thinks of them as a reflection of Truth on the surface of the dew, where his Soul hides trembling. He takes them to be the first formulation in his consciousness of the nature of His Holy Guardian Angel. Line 1 The "Gods" include all the conscious elements of his nature. Line 2 The "Universe" includes all possible phenomena of which he can be aware. Line 3 The "Winds" are his thoughts, which have prevented him from attaining to his Angel. Line 4 His Angel has made "Voice", the magical weapon which produces "Words", and these words have been the wisdom by which He hath created all things.1The "Voice" is necessary as the link between the Adept and his Angel. The Angel is "King", the One who "can", the "source of authority and the fount of honour"; also the King (or King's Son) who delivers the Enchanted Princess, and makes her his Queen. He is "Ruler", the "unconscious Will"; to be thwarted no more by the ignorant and capricious false will of the conscious man. And He is "Helper", the author of the infallible impulse that sends the Soul sweeping along the skies on its proper path with such impetus that the attraction of alien orbs is no longer sufficient to swerve it. The "Hear me" clause is now uttered by the normal human consciousness, withdrawn to the physical body; the Adept must deliberately abandon his attainment, because it is not yet his whole being which burns up before the Beloved. Notes: [1] Even if we follow Aune’s translation of this line: “He is the one who made all things by the command of his voice; Lord, King, Master, Helper” most of this analysis stands.
Section G The Adept, though withdrawn, shall have maintained the Extension of his Symbol. He now repeats the signs as before, save that he makes the Passive Invoking Pentagram of Spirit. He concentrates his consciousness within his Twin-Symbol of Self, and endeavours to send it to sleep. But if the operation be performed properly, his Angel shall have accepted the offering of Dew, and seized with fervour upon the extended symbol of Will towards Himself. This then shall He shake vehemently with vibrations of love reverberating with the Words of the Section. Even in the physical ears of the adept there shall resound an echo thereof, yet he shall not be able to describe it. It shall seem both louder than thunder, and softer than the whisper of the night-wind. It shall at once be inarticulate, and mean more than he hath ever heard. Now let him strive with all the strength of his Soul to withstand the Will of his Angel, concealing himself in the closest cell of the citadel of consciousness. Let him consecrate himself to resist the assault of the Voice and the Vibration until his consciousness faint away into Nothing. For if there abide unabsorbed even one single atom of the false Ego, that atom should stain the virginity of the True Self and profane the Oath; then that atom should be so inflamed by the approach of the Angel that is should overwhelm the rest of the mind, tyrannize over it, and become an insane despot to the total ruin of the realm. But, all being dead to sense, who then is able to strive against the Angel? He shall intensify the stress of His Spirit so that His loyal legions of Lion-Serpents leap from the ambush, awakening the adept to witness their Will and sweep him with them in their enthusiasm, so that he consciously partakes this purpose, and sees in its simplicity the solution of all his perplexities. Thus then shall the Adept be aware that he is being swept away through the column of his Will Symbol. and that His Angel is indeed himself, with intimacy so intense as to become identity, and that not in a single Ego, but in every unconscious element that shares in that manifold uprush. This rapture is accompanied by a tempest of brilliant light, almost always, and also in many cases by an outburst of sound, stupendous and sublime in all cases, though its character may vary within wide limits.1 The spate of stars shoots from the head of the Will-Symbol, and is scattered over the sky in glittering galaxies. This dispersion destroys the concentration of the adept, whose mind cannot master such multiplicity of majesty; as a rule, he simply sinks stunned into normality, to recall nothing of his experience but a vague though vivid impression of complete release and ineffable rapture. Repetition fortifies him to realise the nature of his attainment; and his Angel, the link once made, frequents him, and trains him subtly to be sensitive to his Holy presence, and persuasion. But it may occur, especially after repeated success, that the Adept is not flung back into his mortality by the explosion of the Star-spate, but identified with one particular "Lion-Serpent", continuing conscious thereof until it finds its proper place in Space, when its secret self flowers forth as a truth, which the Adept may then take back to earth with him. This is but a side issue. The main purpose of the Ritual is to establish the relation of the subconscious self with the Angel in such a way that the Adept is aware that his Angel is the Unity which expresses the sum of the Elements of that Self, that his normal consciousness contains alien enemies introduced by the accidents of environment, and that his Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel destroys all doubts and delusions, confers all blessings, teaches all truth, and contains all delights. But it is important that the Adept should not rest in mere inexpressible realization of his rapture, but rouse himself to make the relation submit to analysis, to render it in rational terms, and thereby enlighten his mind and heart in a sense as superior to fanatical enthusiasm as Beethoven's music is to West African war-drums. Notes: [1] These phenomena are not wholly subjective; they may be perceived, though often under other forms, by even the ordinary man.
Section Gg The adept should have realised that his Act of Union with the angel implies (1) the death of his old mind save in so far as his unconscious elements preserve its memory when they absorb it, and (2) the death of his unconscious elements themselves. But their death is rather a going forth to renew their life through love. He then, by conscious comprehension of them separately and together, becomes the "Angel" of his Angel, as Hermes is the Word of Zeus, whose own voice is Thunder. Thus in this section the adept utters articulately so far as words may, what his Angel is to Himself. He says this, with his Scin-Laeca wholly withdrawn into his physical body, constraining His Angel to indwell his heart. Line 1 "I am He" asserts the destruction of the sense of separateness between self and Self. It affirms existence, but of the third person only. "The Bornless Spirit" is free of all space, "having sight in the feet", that they may choose their own path.1 "Strong" is G B R, The Magician escorted by the Sun and the Moon (See Liber D and Liber 777). The "Immortal Fire" is the creative Self; impersonal energy cannot perish, no matter what forms it assumes. Combustion is Love. Line 2 "Truth" is the necessary relation of any two things; therefore, although it implies duality, it enables us to conceive of two things as being one thing such that it demands to be defined by complementals. Thus, an hyperbola is a simple idea, but its construction exacts two curves. Line 3 The Angel, as the adept knows him, is a being Tiphereth, which obscures Kether. The Adept is not officially aware of the higher Sephiroth. He cannot perceive, like the Ipsissimus, that all things soever are equally illusion and equally Absolute. He is in Tiphereth, whose office is Redemption, and he deplores the events which have caused the apparent Sorrow from which he has just escaped. He is also aware, even in the height of his ecstasy, of the limits and defects of his Attainment.2 Line 4 This refers to the phenomena which accompany his Attainment. Line 5 This means the recognition of the Angel as the True Self of his subconscious self, the hidden Life of his physical life. Line 6 The Adept realises every breath, every word of his Angel as charged with creative fire. Tiphereth is the Sun, and the Angel is the spiritual Sun of the Soul of the Adept. Line 7 Here is summed the entire process of bringing the conditioned Universe to knowledge of itself through the formula of generation3; a soul implants itself in sense-hoodwinked body and reason-fettered mind, makes them aware of their Inmate, and thus to partake of its own consciousness of the Light. Line 8 "Grace" 4 has here its proper sense of "Pleasantness". The existence of the Angel is the justification of the device of creation.5 Line 9 This line must be studied in the light of Liber LXV (Equinox XI. p. 65). Notes: [1] One suspects the original idea was “having sight in the feet” owing to lack of head. “Bornless” is a ghastly G.D.-ism, the Greek has akefaloz, “headless.” [2] “Evil” is not that great a translation of the original Greek which has ¢dikhmata, approx. “unjust deeds”; “I am He, the Truth! who hate that iniquity be wrought in the kosmos” might perhaps be a better reading, the objection being to departure from the equilibrium represented by the central position of Tiphareth. [3] That is, Yod He realizing Themselves Will and Understanding in the twins Vau He, Mind and body. [4] [Greek carij] [5] But see also the general solution of the Riddle of Existence in The Book of the Law and its Comment - Part IV of Book 4.
Section H This recapitulation demands the going forth together of the Adept and his Angel "to do their pleasure on the Earth among the living."
Section J The Beast 666 having devised the present method of using this Ritual, having proved it by his own practice to be of infallible puissance when properly performed, and now having written it down for the world, it shall be an ornament for the Adept who adopts it to cry Hail to His name at the end of his work. This shall moreover encourage him in Magick, to recall that indeed there was One who attained by its use to the Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel, the which forsook him no more, but made Him a Magus, the Word of the Aeon of Horus! For know this, that the Name IAF in its most secret and mighty sense declareth the Formula of the Magick of the BEAST whereby he wrought many wonders. And because he doth will that the whole world shall attain to this Art, He now hideth it herein so that the worthy may win to His Wisdom. Let I and F face all1; yet ward their A from attack. The Hermit to himself, the fool to foes, The Hierophant to friends, Nine by nature, Naught by attainment, Five by function. In speech swift, subtle and secret; in thought creative, unbiassed, unbounded; in act gentle, patient and persistent. Hermes to hear, Dionysus to touch, Pan to behold. A Virgin, A Babe, and a Beast! A Liar, an Idiot, and a Master of Men! A kiss, a guffaw, and a bellow; he that hath ears to hear, let him hear! Take ten that be one, and one that is one in three, to conceal them in six!2 Thy wand to all Cups, and thy Disk to all Swords, but betray not thine Egg! Moreover also is IAF verily 666 by virtue of Number;3 and this is a Mystery of Mysteries; Who knoweth it, he is adept of adepts, and Mighty among Magicians! Now this word SABAF, being by number Three score and Ten4, is a name of Ayin, the Eye, and the Devil our Lord, and the Goat of Mendes. He is the Lord of the Sabbath of the Adepts, and is Satan, therefore also the Sun, whose number of Magick is 666, the seal of His servant the BEAST.5 But again SA is 61, AIN, the Naught of Nuith; BA means go, for Hadit; and F is their Son the Sun who is Ra-Hoor-Khuit. So then let the Adept set this sigil6 upon all the words he hath writ in the Book of the Works of his Will. And let him then end all, saying, Such are the Words!7 For by this he maketh proclamation before all them that be about his Circle that these Words are true and puissant, binding what he would bind, and loosing what he would loose. Let the Adept perform this Ritual aright, perfect in every part thereof, once daily for one moon, then twice, at dawn and dusk, for two moons, next, thrice, noon added, for three moons, afterwards, midnight making up his course, for four moons four times every day. Then let the Eleventh Moon be consecrated wholly to this Work; let him be instant in continual ardour, dismissing all but his sheer needs to eat and sleep.8 For know that the true Formula9 whose virtue sufficed the Beast in this Attainment, was thus: INVOKE OFTEN10 So may all men come at last to the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel: thus sayeth the Beast, and prayeth His own Angel that this book be as a burning Lamp, and as a living Spring, for Light and Life to them that read therein. 666 Notes: [1] If we adopt the new orthography VIAOV (Book 4 Part III Chap. V.) we must read "The Sun-6-the Son" etc. for "all"; and elaborate this interpretation here given in other ways, accordingly. Thus O (of F) will not be "The Fifteen by function" instead of "Five" etc., and "in act free, firm, aspiring, ecstatic", rather than "gentle" etc. as in the present text. [2] Kenneth Grant, in a note to the RKP edition of Magick explains this thus: “The ‘ten that is one’ is the I and the O conjoined: 1 + 0 = 1. The ‘one that is one in three’ (Aleph) = 1. IAO, Aleph is the one in three. Aleph conceals the I and the O ‘in six,’ i.e. Vau, the Son.” The modified formula VIAOV (= 93 counting the O as ע) is expounded in some detail, as noted, in Magick. The footnote was misprinted in the first edition, reading “… will not be “The Fifteen by function” instead of “Five,” etc. …”; Symonds and Grant in the RKP edition realised this reading was erroneous, but assumed the error was simply “not” for “now.” The number of Vau is 6, which is also the number of the Sun; further, in the formula of Tetragrammaton Vau refers to the Son, who is referred to the Sephiroth from Chesed to Yesod but particularly to Tiphareth, again referred to 6 and the Sun; hence “The Sun—6—the Sun.” [3] One suggested solution to this (I claim no credit for it, I read it on an Internet discussion group): Yod, 10, reduces to 1 by summing digits or Aiq Bkr (“ten that is one”); Aleph expands to 111 by spelling it “in full” ALP (“one that is one in three”); Vau is six; multiplying these three together gives the magic number. [4] There is an alternative spelling TzBA-F Where the Root, (ABz) "an Host", has the value of 93. The Practicus should revive this Ritual throughout in the Light of his personal researches in the Qabalah, and thus make it his own peculiar property. The spelling here suggested implies that he who utters the Word affirms his allegiance to the symbols 93 and 61 that he is a warrior in the army of Will and of the Sun. 93 is also the number of AIWAZ and 6 of The Beast. [5] This using the Hebrew numerations and taking the S as Samekh. Taking the S as Shin we get 310 (2 × 5 × 31) whose meanings include “To trample on, conquer”; “To govern, bind” and “A young Lion.” (Liber D, s.v.). Alternatively, Sabao may be a bad transliteration of the Hebrew for “seven.” Using the Greek values, and keeping F (digamma = 6) for the last letter, SABAF = 210, 2 × 3 × 5 × 7, the product of the first four primes, and also the number of N.O.X. See “An Essay on Number” in Liber LVIII, s.v. 210. IAF SABAF = 227 (prime) whose meanings includes rkz, referred in Liber D to the “Sacred Phallus.” Reading it as IAW SABAW we get 811 + 1004 = 1815 (3 × 5 × 11 × 11) a number for which I yet to fully work out the Qabalistic significance, although the factorisation is suggestive. In any case, the final declaration is not in PGM V and was presumably added by whoever worked up the ritual from Godwin’s publication. [6] v.l. (in the first printed edition and one of the extant TSS.) “his”; while a reasonable reading if the sentence is taken in itself, “this” seems more plausible given the previous paragraphs. [7] The consonants of LOGOS, "Word", add (Hebrew values: sGL) to 93. And EPH, "Words", (whence "Epic") has also that value: EIDE TA EPH might be the phrase here intended: its number is 418. This would then assert the accomplishment of the Great Work; this is the natural conclusion of the Ritual. Cf. CCXX. III. 75. [8] These needs are modified during the process of Initiation both as to quantity and quality. One should not become anxious about one's physical or mental health on a priori grounds, but pay attention only to indubitable symptoms of distress should such arise. [9] The Oracles of Zoroaster utter this:11
This passage — combined with several others — is paraphrased in poetry by Aleister Crowley in his "Tannhauser".12 "And when, invoking often, thou shalt see [10] See Equinox I, VIII, 22. [11] Chaldæan Oracles, the first passage is somewhat rearranged from framgents 196 and
199 in the Westcott edn.; the second is fragment 198 in the same edition and is here
quoted verbatim. For the former, Westcott gives: [12] Crowley, Tannhäuser, Act IV, Scene II. Emphasis added in MTP. |
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