DENUPTIIS SECRETIS DEORUM cum HOMINIBUS

I
Of Chastity

Dearly Beloved, in that war of the Brethren of the Left Hand Path against the Gnosis whose first phase ended in the establishment of that tyranny and superstition which is called Christianity, much Truth was stolen by the Black Lodge, and perverted to its vile uses. And most noxious in its corruption is that castration of man called Chastity, the atrophy of those noblest parts of the body which are the proper organs of Redemption both Gaian and Ouranian.³ We then who in the Seventh Degree were sworn most solemnly to Chastity in the Inmost as in the Outermost, who have now as Epopts of the Illuminati beheld with our eyes, and as Perfect Pontiffs of our noble Order administered with our members, the Initiation whose name is Resurrection unto the Light, we therefore are able to lighten the darkest places of the Earth, and to consider wisely what lieth in the empire of the Evil Ones. Read therefore these passages in the forgery called the Epistle of Paul to the Romans:⁴

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts thereof: Neither present your members⁵ unto sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification.⁶ For when ye were servants of sin, ye were free in regard of righteousness. What fruit then had ye at that time in the things whereof ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.⁷ But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end eternal life. (Romans VI, 12-13 and 19-22)

Consider also these passages of the Old Testament:

And the LORD said unto me, Take thee a great tablet, and write upon it with the pen of a man, For Maher-shalal-hash-baz; And I will take upon me faithful witnesses to record, Uriah the priest and Zechariah the Son of Jeberechiah. And I went unto the prophetess and she conceived and bare a son. Then said the Lord unto me, Call his name Maher-shalal-hash-baz. (Isaiah VIII, 104)

When the Lord spake at the first by Hosea, the LORD said unto Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredom and children of whoredom: for the land doth commit great whoredom, departing from the LORD. So he went and took Goher the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived and bare him a son. (Hosea I, 2-3)

And the LORD said unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend and an adulteress, even as the LORD loveth the children of Israel, though they turn unto other gods, and love cakes and raisins. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be any man's wife: so will I also be toward thee. (Hosea III, 1-3)

It is then certain even out of the mouth of the enemy that there is a sacred use, even as an abuse, of the Sanctuaries of Life, and although there be rites so sacrosanct and so secreted that even to the Perfectly Illuminated Adepts of the VIII° they may not be disclosed, yet to them is due a full declaration of many Mysteries almost surpassing speech.

II
Of the Rites of Blood

It is said that there is a sect of the Jewish Brethren called Chassidim⁸ whose practice is the sacrifice of man. Thus preferably a child, but also an adult, is taken from among the Gentiles, and ceremonially slain so that not a drop of blood is lost, lest the spirit of the victim, taking refuge in that drop, escape the Exorcist.⁹ This blood is then consumed as a sacrament, or employed for talismanic purposes.¹⁰ For once the spirit of the slain one is sealed up into the spilt and gathered blood, it is multiplied in every part thereof, even as in the Mass, the Body of Christ is said to be equally in all the myriad hosts, and His Blood in every drop of consecrated wine, everywhere and for all efficacious.¹¹

Consider this.

III
Of Certain Rites Secretly Practised in Russia

There is a body within the Greek Church which holds an esoteric doctrine and practices a Secret Rite.

At the meetings of this body the lights being extinguished, the worshippers, led by the Priest and a chosen and consecrated Priestess, seek out each other by touch and by subtle attraction; then they consummate the pure charity of their hearts in holy zeal.

If by the favour and indwelling of the Holy Ghost¹² the Priestess (that is unto this Rite espoused, and else virgin) do conceive and bring forth, then is the child baptized by its father the Priest for the Purification by water, and for the Consecration by fire is roast and divided among the worshippers as a sacrament, as a talisman and as a medicine against all diseases.¹³ This also is said of the Knights of our own Holy Order of the Temple,¹⁴ that the offspring of any one of them by a virgin was roast and an unguent made of its fat wherewith to annoint the Magian and Ineffable figure of BAPHOMET.¹⁵

Consider this.

IV
Of the Black Mass

Within the Roman Church have been found ever from the beginning to this day, persons and societies conforming outwardly to that base and materialistic cult, inwardly revolting against it;¹⁶ yet often are such so ignorant of our Light and of our Truth, that to them the attainment of Life, Liberty and Love seemed only possible through a profanation of their own Mysteries.¹⁷ For they knew not that these Mysteries were themselves but profanation and corruption of the true and perfect Mysteries of the Adepts. They established therefore a cult whose fundamental formula was the defilement of the consecrated Host. The Priest therefore having made the bread into the Body of Christ (as he could theoretically do by virtue of his Apostolic power¹⁸) did, as he thought, defile that Body by using it as the object and vehicle of lust.¹⁹ Heroic children of Liberty, but thrice blind! Samsons that perish with the Philistines! For if the ecclesiastical theory be true, in fact they do incur damnation, if false, verily they lose their labour. But at least they set up Man against the foul demon of the Christians, and let this be accounted unto them for righteousness. But see, my Brethren Perfectly Illuminated Adepts, how great is their error, that they revolt who should be Kings. For it is in truth not the apish antics of the Priest that consecrate the bread, but his male power that should make holy all his deeds.²⁰

Consider of this.

V
Of the Sabbath of the Adepts

In the black hours of the earth, when the Christian superstition with fell blight withered most malignantly the peoples of Europe,²¹ when our own Holy Order was dispersed and the sanctity of its preceptories lay violate, there were yet found certain to hold Truth in their hearts, and, loving Light, to bear the Lamp of Virtue beneath the Cloak of Secrecy. And these at certain seasons went at night by ways open or hidden to heaths and mountains, and there dancing together, and with strange suppers and spells diverse, did call forth Him, whom the enemy called ignorantly Satan, and was in truth the Great God Pan, or Bacchus, or even that Baphome whom the Templars worshipped secretly, and yet worship as in the VI° all Illustrious Knights of the Holy Order of Kadosch, all Dame Companions of the Holy Grail are taught to do, or BABALON the Beautiful, or even Zeus Apollo of the Greeks.

And each when first inducted to the revel was made partner of that Incarnate One by the Consummation of the rite of Marriage.²²

Consider of this.

VI

The Ancients of every nation report their heroes to have been born of the marriage of Gods and mortals. As, Romulus and Remus begotten of the God Mars upon a vestal Virgin, Hercules of Jove, Buddha of Vishnu in the form of a white elephant with six tusks, Jesus of Jehovah²³ upon a virgin, and many another. Even true Gods were born of mortal mothers, as Dionysius of Semele.

Also they recount many loves of heaven for earth, Diana for Endymion, Zeus for Leda, Danae, Europa, and the rest; even Hades issued from his gloomy kingdom to ravish the maid Persephone. There are also loves of Gods for nymphs, Bacchus for the Ariadne, Zeus for Io, Pan for Syrinx; there is no end of these. And satyrs, fawns, centaurs, dryads, a thousand gracious tribes leap lightly and lustfully through their legends.

Again we have the loves of fairies for mankind, and the commerc of the Beni Elohim with the daughters of men;²⁴ and yet again the marriage of Orpheus with Eurydice a nymph, and the fatal nets tha Laura, Melusina, the Sirens, Lilith and many another cast for men.

It is even said that to every Neophyte of the Order A∴A∴ appeareth a demon in the form of a woman to pervert him; within Our own knowledge have not less than nine brethren been utterly cast out thereby.²⁵

There are also vain loves, as that of Ixion for Hera, of Actaeon for Artemis.

Consider of this.

VII
Of Certain Greek Rites

Among peoples of the Balkan Peninsula and especially the Greeks, beneath the bush of their false Christianity, is hidden the wheat of Demeter.²⁶ And even as the Muslim trust to be united by death to the Hur al'Ayn of Paradise, so do these others yet think that earthly marriage is but fornication, for that Death is a nuptial wherein the soul is united to that God or Goddess to whom on earth his lust aspired.²⁷ Thus, even in the embraces of their lovers, their hearts were fixed on Artemis or on Aphrodite or on Ares or on Apollo, as the inner tendency urges and the intuition thereof proclaims.

Consider of this.

VIII
Of Succubi and Incubi

From all time the life of man has now and again overflowed, in sleep, without will, and only reflected itself dimly and fantastically by dream into his knowledge. Now since naught can be lost on any plane, but only chaged in appearance, the inner substance of this life-stuff does indeed beget monsters in part material, which the doctors of the Middle Ages called Incubi or Succubi according as they performed the functions of male or female.²⁸ These, too, begat children upon women; but not the reverse, for the succubus, for all his female, is as male as his brother.²⁹ Of these monstrous lovers some even became famous on earth; as that one who tempted San Antonio, and the angel that wrestled with Jacob at the place called Paniel. Also Merlin was the child of an incubus, and thus also were many heroes of old time begot.³⁰

IX
Of the Work of Adepts

Not only as a probation, and as a preparation, for the far greater Key of Magick Art that is given to Initiates of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis in the IX°, but for its own sake, and the practical and permanent value of its effects is a lesser work to be undertaken by Epopts — and how much more by Pontiffs! — of the Illuminati.

And this work is threefold:

I. Devotion to the Highest intensified on all planes until it culminates in Conjugal Union ratified by every God so firmly that Death itself is the gate to its fullest and permanent enjoyment. And the soul is to beget itself as a child for a new incarnation upon the Body of the Great Goddess. As it is written, so be it spoken unto you! `O thou who hast formulated thy father and made fertile thy mother!'

II. Acceptance of the devotion of a lower or partial being such as a nymph or elemental in such wise that it is thereby redeemed and made a perfect soul through the death which it must pay as the price of union with man.³¹

III. The deliberate and well-considered creation of new Orders of Being.

X
Of Great Marriages

1. The supreme means is declared fully in the Publications of the August Fraternity Most Holy the A∴A∴ Liber XI and Liber DLV³²

2. This other method is suggested. On every occasion before sleep let the Adept figure his goddess before him, wooing her ardently in imagination and exalting himself with all intensity toward her.³³ And let him consider all involuntary movements of the mind as adulteries vile and criminal.³⁴ Therefore, with or without an assistant,³⁵ let him purge himself freely and fully, at the end of restraint trained and ordered unto exhaustion,³⁶ concentrating ever ardently upon the Body of the Great Goddess, and let the Offering be preserved in Her consecrated temple or in a talisman especially prepared for this practice.³⁷ And let no desire for any other enter the heart. Then shall it be in the end that the Great Goddess will descend and clothe her beauty in veils of flesh, surrendering her chaste fortress of Olympus to that assault of thee, O Titan, Son of Earth!³⁸ Or at the least, this being hers, thy death shall be the consummation of these `betrothals', an entry into the Closed Palace of thy Lady.³⁹ And of such Espousals mayst thou read in Liber CCCCXVIII ⁴⁰, more especially in the Ninth and Second Aethyrs. It is to be noted in all this that both God and the Soul are male or female as convenience requires.⁴¹ See, for a curious example, the mystic treatise called the Bagh-i-Muattar.⁴²

XI
Of Lesser Marriages

This matter is easy, for the souls of the elements desire constantly this salvation. But let the Adept beware:

1. That he choose wisely a reasonable soul, docile, apt, beautiful, and in all ways worthy of love.⁴³

2. That he fall not ever from love of the Great Goddess into love of this inferior, but give only as a master and of his pity, knowing that this also is Service to His High Lady above.⁴⁴

3. That of such familiar spirits he have but four.⁴⁵ And let him regulate their service, appointing hours for each.

4. That he treat them with kindliness and firmness, being on guard against their tricks. This being said, it is enough; for to have them is but the pains to call them forth from their homes. And the Spirits of the Elemental Tablets given by Dr. Dee and Sir Edward Kelly are the best, being very perfect in their nature⁴⁶ and faithful, affectioning (sic) the human race. And if not so powerful as, they are less dangerous than, the planetary Spirits; for these are more boisterous, and by distraction stars are easily perturbed and afflicted.⁴⁷ Call them therefore by the Keys of Enoch as is written in the Book ye know of;⁴⁸ and let there be after Calls an Evocation by the Wand; and let the Marrow of the Wand⁴⁹ be preserved within the pyramids⁵⁰ of the letters that make up the name of the Spirit.⁵¹

Now unless ye be well skilled in Art Magick, ye will not dare call forth the Three Great Gods of the whole Tablet, or the King Serpent⁵² thereof, or the Six Seigneurs majestical, or even the Gods of the Calvary Crosses in the lesser angles. But the Cherubic rulers, yea verily and amen,⁵³ these are your mates; and ye may yet more safely summon the Lesser assistant angles. And those that are in this Art novices should wiselier call forth only the Trigrammaton of the Sub-Elements.

XII
Of the New and Holy Kingdom

It is written in the Papyrus of Nes-Min that the Sun spake in his name Toum and said:

`...I copulated with my fist, I emitted semen into my shadow, I ejaculated into my own mouth, I sent forth issue as Shu, I poured myself out as Tefnut. Shu and Tefnut...brought to me my eye⁵⁴...I wept over them: mankind came into being from the tears which came forth from my eye.⁵⁵ Shu and Tefnut brought forth Keb and Nut,⁵⁶ and Keb and Nut brought forth Osiris and the Blind Horus and Set and Isis and Nephthys⁵⁷ from the belly, one after another, and they brought forth their multitudes upon this earth.'

And again:

`I copulated with my fist, my heart came to me into my hand,⁵⁸ the semen fell into my mouth.⁵⁹ I sent forth issue as Shu, I poured myself out as Tefnut: from one God I was three Gods...^'60

Thus then did the Sun formulate Male and Female, whose children are Earth and Heaven, whose children are the Five Elements or Tatwas, of which all visible things are made.

Let then the Adept make two talismans, pure Male and Female, with no admixture of any lesser principles; and let him consecrate himself as the Sun, and pour out Life upon them, vivifying them therewith. Then shall they conjoin,^'61 making unto themselves a new Heaven and a new Earth, whose union shall breed Elements, and multitudes of Beings to Live and Love in Liberty beneath thy Light, an house of Virgins singing praises among the flames of Glory wherein the Lord hath opened his mouth; whose works shall be a song of honour and the praise of your God in your creation!

XIII
Of Damnation

Remember, dearly beloved, perfectly illuminated Adepts of this secret Areopagus, that from the beginning of all, the vows of your Initiation have invoked upon you the most fearful penalties of disobedience. For as soon as ye erect any natural and common thing into a Formula of Magick, so soon do ye excite also the contrary current.'⁶² Thus whileevery child reads and speaks freely of the Pillars of the Temple of King Solomon by name, the Mason dare not so much as letter them without precaution.⁶³ And while the private man may speak evil of the King, and blaspheme God without risk, yet the servant of the King, and the Minister of God, most cloke (sic) themselves with reverence, even though it be not in their hearts, for this reason, that they invoked the King, and God, as sword and shield of their own authority.⁶⁴

To you, then, if you have dared to use this Force of the Holy Phallus, is its abuse fatal and deadly.⁶⁵

To the man of erth it matters but little if he suffer nocturnal pollution, or indulge in wantonness; to you that are Adepts it is ruin absolute.

For all that Force which passeth from under your control, unless so directed and fortified by your Will⁶⁶ that it is but as a loyal soldier faithful unto death is as artillery abandoned that is seized upon by the enemy and turned against you. And because it is of your own substance, therefore has it , as it were, by nature a link with you,⁶⁷ a right upon you, and all the fortresses that your inheritance of God, and your own Holy Art, have built about you are of no force to resist this treasonable assault. Be wary therefore, for obsession, bodily wasting and disease, madness and even murder upon you may be inflicted by the engines that ye, having forged for the service of mankind and for the glory of the Lord, leave to the malignancy of the demon that he may turn them to your own destruction.⁶⁸

XIV
A Reproof

Hear then, dearly beloved, this reproof.

First, strengthen to the uttermost the power of restraint by daily practice as is taught by the Hindus and Arabs, masters of this science, in their books.

• Shiva Sanhita
• Hathayoga Pradipika
• Kama Sutra
• Ananga Ranga
• The Scented Garden of the Sheikh Nefzawi⁶⁹

and many others.

Secondly, avoid the dangers of inadvertence by constraint and regular practice (a) of the Greater and (b) the Lesser Works of an Epopt and Pontiff of the Illuminati and (c) of the Mystery of the New and Holy Kingdom.

Thirdly, sleep always in a consecrated circle or in a room full of holy images before whose glory the powers of darkness tremble every day. Such images are:

1. The Sun.

2. The Holy Phallus.⁷⁰

3. The Great Seal of Babalon.

4. The Stele of Revealing.

5. The Great Seal of the O.T.O.

6. The Great Seal of Baphomet.⁷¹ The Image of Baphomet.

7. The Image of Babalon.⁷²

8. The Eye within the Triangle.

9. The Rosy Cross

10. The Image of Harpocrates upon the Lotus, or standin upon Crocodiles.

11. The Image of Babalon with the Phallic reference Om mani padme hum.

12. The figure of Isis with Horus.⁷³

13. The Crucifix, but only if its solar-phallic significance be most firmly grasped,⁷⁴ and if it be a shield of secrecy against the vulgar.

14. Talismans appropriate to this matter.

15. A living flame.

16. The symbols and insignia of the O.T.O. which your degree entitles you to bear.⁷⁵

Magical rings and neck-jewels should also be worn by night and by day.⁷⁶

The Rituals of defence and protection should also be practised in perfection.⁷⁷ All bodily excrements, such as cut nails, and hair, should be burnt; spittle should be destroyed or exposed to the Sun; the urine and faeces should be so disposed of that it is unlikely that any other person should obtain possession of them.⁷⁸ It is even desirable in theory that linene should not be washed by strangers, and that old clothes should not be given to the poor until some time after the last occasion of wearing them.⁷⁹

But at most times these precautions are not necessary; only if engaged in operations of the greatest importance is it indispensable to observe them.⁸⁰

XV
Of the Cunning of this Instruction

Now concerning this charge, it may be that certain deem therein to be contained things monstrous and extravagant; let them consider this as a defect of their own intuition and apprehension,⁸¹ and moreover as a thickness of that Veil that is yet betwixt this Areopagus and the Sanctuary of the Gnosis. For perfectly Illuminated as ye are, beloved Brethren, think this, that there may be a Darkness that is more than all your Light.⁸²

XVI
Farewell

Amen, and Amen and Amen of Amen.

I greet you by the sign: I exchange with you the token; I whisper the Word even as I received it and in no other manner.

I invoke upon you the Light of our Lord the Sun; I bestow upon you the blessing of the Lord ΙΘΦΑΛΛΟΣ in the Name ON and in the name AMEN I call down the powers of Life, of Love and of Liberty upon you.

And may the Glory of the Sanctuary of the Gnosis shine forth through the Veil thereof, and the Pageant of the Grail-feast pass again before your eyes!

Hail, brethren beloved of the Most High, hail, perfectly Illuminated Adepts of our Secret Areopagus, thrice hail, Pontiffs and Epopts of the Illuminati, hail and farewell!

In the name of Babalon and the Beast conjoined, of the Secret Saviour and of IAO.

 

---

APPENDIX⁸³

In the Sacred Books of Thelema is hymned constantly the Nuptial of God and Man,

See: Liber LXV I 20,22-8, 47-8, 64-5 II 4-16, 30-9, 45-6, 50-4, 57-61; III 31-6, 40-54, 60, 63-5, IV 1-5, 7-9, 24, 30-40, 42-44, 48-56, 61-5; V 8-12, 21-4

[1]  "Areo" belonging to Ares (Horus), "pagus" hill. A final court or tribunal, referring to the supreme tribunal at Athens, famous for the justice and impartiality of its decisions. It was originally held on the hill of this name, meaning that it was within a temple of Ares.

[2]  One initiated into the mysteries of Eleusis.

[3] Gaia — Greek Earth Mother. Uranus — Greek Sky-god, heavens. Redemption can take place on the physical plane through the ecstasy of sex and in heaven through the spiritual experience of sex on the subtle planes.

[4]  It is unclear whether he intends that Paul himself is a forger and liar or if the letters were not written by Paul. The former seems the most likely.

[5]  Members = genitalia.

[6]  One might get the impression from this that Paul is advising castration and clitorectomy.

[7]  What an idiotic notion. The only remarkable thing is that anyone believed it, even on a conscious level.

[8]  Although this story originates in anti-semitism and encourages such disgusting attitudes, there is another level at which he speaks. Bear in mind that these tales are the false creations of the revolting minds of Christians who feared any secret, exclusive religion. The Chassidim are a very quiet and closed society of mystics with some similarity to the Sufis. It is they who emphasize Qabalistic mysticism.

[9]  The esoteric meaning is that the ego is collected in the semen which is drained through orgiastic sex. See Eroto-comatose Lucidity in Liber C vel Agape. In order for the Deity to manifest through the magician, every last drop of blood (semen) must be offered into the Grail. cf. Liber Cheth , and AL I: 61: "...but whoso gives one particle of dust shall lose all in that hour." Most readers of Thelemic writings are well aware that when Crowley speaks of sacrificing a child, he uses this meaning combined with a very Catholic notion that ejaculation without express intent to create life is murder. Therefore, unproductive sex results in the "death" of the participants and the "death" of the spermatazoa.

[10]  This refers to the Elixir Vitae of IX°, which is the sexual fluids.

[11]  Liber 333 cap 18 "Yet that life is of his very essence; it is more he than all that he calls He. In the silence of a dewdrop is every tendency of his soul, and of his mind, and of his body; it is the Quintessence and the Elixir of his being. Therein are the forces that made him and his father and his father's father before him. This is the Dew of Immortality." Each sperm in the semen is a complete spirit (particle of dust).

[12]  In Thelemic cryptography, Holy Spirit is the semen. In other words, if she gets pregnant. All of this passage bears interesting significance for Christianity, whose Deity was preordained for sacrifice from before His birth. We also learn the true nature of Mary's virginity.

[13]  Although this is overtly the practice which Christians accuse "satanists" of practicing, it is also a variant of the Baptism by John, the Crucifixion and the Eucharist of Christianity.

[14]  The Knights Templar, of course.

[15]  This child is not a physical child, but a magical child or Homunculus.

[16]  The Manichaeans, Gnostics, Cathars, Albigenses, Templars being the most notable here. Medieaval Ceremonial magic is the product of Manichaean demonology surviving among a partially converted priesthood.

[17]  This wise process is known in India as tantra. Blasphemy and taboo are used to exalt the spirit. A close study Marquis de Sade and his commentators (Blanchot, Bataille, Foucault, Barthes) is essential for understanding the philosophical underpinnings.

[18] Catholic priests are connected and empowered by a chainlike transfer of power and authority that is traced back to St. Peter (petras = stone, cornerstone of the Church). Therefore, all of the priesthood has touched someone who has touched someone who has.....all the way back to Christ himself. Incidentally, one of the Templar conspiracy theories popularized by a number of occult authors like R. Anton Wilson is that Christ did not die on the Cross but rather lived to father the line of Blue Blood who became the nobility of Europe. Many members of the O.T.O. itself are obsessed with this ridiculous idea. Even assuming that it were true, it does nothing but certify the authority of weaklings whose long history of inbreeding and decadence provides little evidence of what could be termed "kingly" in a Thelemic sense. Inbreeding and mono-racial eugenics is radically opposed to Thelemic doctrine (unite yourself with all! — strength by change! — evolution of the human race!), so there is no support for right wing, nazi-fascist ideals, no matter what some "thelemites" might say. Anti-semites, white supremacists and nazis should promptly kill themselves to avoid spoiling the gene pool. Any schoolboy knows that crossbreeding provides stronger genetic stock than does inbreeding. The ancients knew the formula too, for they spoke of the couplings of humans and gods or humans and animals. (more details in cap VI) Doctrines of racial purity are nothing but an expression of the fear of death since the real motive is to perpetuate a single race at the expense of others.

[19]  cf. Huysmans' La-bas.

[20]  Disgusting chauvinism. He clearly says that it takes a penis to perform transubstantiation. Female initiates need to work hard to develop the corresponding formula for women. It may indeed be a different formula, but not non-existent.

[21]  There is here a common idealization of the pagan Europeans- -Teutons and Celts in particular, known for their swarthiness and enjoyment of the flesh.

[22]  The Sabbath is, according Crowley, celebrated astrally. Like the practice described in this piece, the magician is to copulate with spirits on the astral plane while masturbating. A vivid description of the Sabbath is found in Crowley's Moonchild cap. XX, Liber VII cap. II and "Wake World" in Konx Om Pax.

[23]  Oddly, Crowley does not make reference specifically to the Dove of the Holy Ghost. This in spite of his well known obsession with the Christian Trinity. In a later instruction he claims this formula to be correct, saying that the real Divinity is the Father, His semen (Holy Ghost) and the Child. The mother is merely a physical vehicle for the manifestation. As before, we need to rethink this doctrine carefully.

[24]  Genesis 6:2 says that the "Sons of God" came down to earth to mate with women. But, there is a problem in translation that originates in the comparatively later development of monotheism. Beni Elohim means "sons of Gods" — plural sons of plural gods, no matter what the Jews or Christians say. Anyway, the very name creates immediate problems for Christian dogma since Christ was the "only-begotten son of God." How then could there be sons? How is that Christ had brothers and sisters? Matthew 13: 55-56.

[25]  The Ordeal of Silver, for the Neophyte, is to endure the attraction of women who would lure the magician away from the path. Liber Aleph, a strongly homoerotic piece, goes into great detail over this matter, especially cap. 100.

[26]  The mother of Persephone who searched the Underworld for her daughter and struck the bargain with Hades to allow her six months above ground in return for six months below — hence the cycle of the seasons. In Thelemic terms, this tale is a metaphor of the search for the H.G.A.

[27]  One obvious implication of this is that one should be careful with one's masturbation fantasies; they might come true!

[28]  See Appendix A at the end of this text.

[29]  Crowley implies here that all spirits are fundamentally male. If we understand by this the Thelemic concept of Hadit, this is fine, but it seems a ridiculously chauvinistic attitude that is not in any way corroborated by other clairvoyants.

[30] Another essential doctrine which follows from this is that every sex act produces a child, and the consequences of this are much more dangerous as you become magically adept. Therefore, an uninitiate can practice unguarded, casual sex, while an advanced Thelemite must be careful to control the outcome of each and every sex act. One effective way to do this is to perform every act unto Nuit — mindful of that greater death to come. This is the real meaning of Chastity according to Thelema.

[31]  I perhaps am profaning a great secret when I say that this is the meaning of "love under will." The magician absorbs these entities into his/her aura. The act of animal sacrifice is analogous.

[32]  Liber NV and Liber Had. These are rather vague ceremonial and mystic instructions for the attainment of the consciousness of Nuit and Hadit. They are basically adaptations of the first and second chapters of Liber AL with hints as to their performance. The practices are designed to give experience of the Great Death explained at previously. The other practices described here are of a "lower" level and more suited to the practices of a Student.

[33]  Apparently, he is directing you to masturbate to the phantasy goddess.

[34]  cf. caps V and VI of De Natura Deorum.

[35]  VIII° work can be achieved with a human assistant by the use of the mouth, hand, etc. Anal intercourse is probably not appropriate since it is part of another work known as the XI°. Apparently the instructions for this are the same as the IX°, but that the Elixir obtained is a blend of semen and shit. A really savoury stew, no doubt.

[36]  Refer again to the the commentary to Liber Samekh excerpted here in Appendix A.

[37]  The sigils of A.O. Spare and the Temple of Psychic Youth are a rather less rigorous version of such a talisman. The esoteric level of these instructions will greatly augment the power of a sigil. The rather blatant descriptions offered by PTV and the Chaos people will give the more traditional Thelemite a clearer idea of what to do on the physical plane.

[38]  The Titans were the first born children of Earth and Heaven (Gaia and Uranus). Kronos (Saturn) was one of these and he rebelled against his father by castrating him, but was in turn overthrown by his child Zeus. the race from which came Prometheus who stole fire from the gods and brought it down to earth. He was chained to a rock (gnostic imprisonment in matter) where an Eagle came every day to eat his liver. Such is the punishment for his impudence of taking that which belongs to the Gods. By bringing the Fire of Heaven down to earth (averse red triangle), the magician is capable of bringing new forms into the genetic and neural structure of the human race. The Student should recall the assignment of his/her initiation to study Prometheus. The preceding comment should provide an interesting twist on the theme.

[39]  A reference to the Virgin Goddess Diana who killed any mortal who dared look upon her with lust. The Veiled Isis is another important archetype as is the unattainable Virgin Mary.

[40]  The Vision and the Voice.

[41]  This explains the apparent gender confusion and bisexuality of Liber LXV and Liber VII. Unfortunately, Crowley (or V.V.V.V.V.) did not include any lesbian eroticism in these works. Also, the visions are invariably of a male as the Adept mating with males or females or animals. This is an important gap left for female initiates to fill.

[42]  A very rare piece only recently republished by Teitan press as The Scented Garden. It contains a great deal of practical information for those of any sexual preference and a lot of humor for those with open minds.

[43]  It appears that Crowley is describing actual women as if they were mere elementals. It is not clear whether he intends that some women are not actually human, or if he means all women. This editor presumes that Crowley upheld the former in theory and the latter in practice — it is all too easy to look at a woman and say, "she's really only an elemental, you know. She should be greatful to have the likes of me." Women should be equally capable of treating men in this way — a mere vehicle for semen. All of this attitude seems to spring from Crowley's preference for ignorant, horny women as magical partners. Perhaps if he spent a little time working with women who were his mystical equals, he would have a different story to tell. In Crowley's defense, one must observe that women of such calibre were very rare in his day and probably much to wise to fool around with a self-centered drug-fiend like Crowley.

[44]  Crowley is "tapping into" the metaphor of chivlary. The knight is inspired by a real woman whom he idealizes as a variation of the Virgin Mary. He prays to her as a sort of astral deity to which he devotes himself and his labors. Carnal love of the physical woman was more or less forbidden according to the manichaean/gnostic doctrines of the chivalric troubadours. The idea being that the spiritual sublimation of those passions would elevate the soul to a higher form of love. Marriage is a socially necessary evil by which the carnal desires and reproductive necessityies are met, but the unattainable mistress is the truest form of love. From this tradition grew the tales of Tristan and Iseult, Guinevere and Lancelot and Quixote and Dulcinea, not to mention the courtly practice of coqueterie and flirtation during the 18th Century. This historical and literary connection to sex magick is very popular among many inner order members of the O.T.O. Careful study of Denis de Rougement is advised.

[45] A very practical instruction for a harem. It would indeed be difficult to harmonize more than four lovers. For one thing, the geometric possibilities of conjoining human bodies are necessarily limited (two hands, one set of genitals, an anus and a mouth), not to mention the fact that the average orgy room (or bed) is not large or sturdy enough for a larger number. I am, however, being facetious. There is an esoteric level to this: the lovers are elementals, so they will correspond to the elements. Therefore, Liber LXV describes the "marriages" of the Adept with each family of elemental. The final chapter being spirit, presents a balanced harmonization of the four. To enter Tiphareth as an Adept requires the full mastery of the four elements. To move from that point to Magister Templi, the Adept must conquer the sevenfold regimen (planets — Babalon — Vitriol) which is demonstrated in Liber VII. Consequently, the work of the Adeptus Exemptus is to harmonize the sevenfold and the fourfold (7°=4).

[46]  This is because the Watchtowers are divided along primarily elemental principles. It should be apparent then, that as a square or name employs planetary principles that it will become more difficult and suited more especially to the Magister Templi.

[47]  "Every man and every woman is a star." He seems to imply that the Planetary spirits are perhaps too sexually aggressive and satiating so that the magician might too easily forget about the Goddess Nuit and become satisfied with these "lesser marriages." cf. Konx Om Pax "Wake World" where the heroine (a woman!) is taken up the Tree of Life, through the planetary spheres. In each sphere she is tempted by the urge to stay and enjoy the pleasures of each, but she forces herself to move on.

[48]  Liber Chanokh and The Vision and the Voice. Robert Schueler's works are really a bunch of silly nonsense. The first volume has some small merit as it better organizes the material of Chanokh, but a great deal is omitted and even more is added via the cespools of theosophy.

[49]  Uncertain — probably semen.

[50]  This may describe a strange practice — representations (perhaps in three dimensions) of the appropriate Watchtower squares in full pyramidal form are created and filled or annointed with the Elixir. Recall the previous statement that the semen produces life, so that the offered semen (like sacrificed blood) will attract spirits and provide a vehicle of manifestation and or sustenance. It is a species of the Homunculus working, although very different from that described in Moonchild. Study the Paris Working.

[51]  A curious encryption. MTP cap 2: "The first formula is that of the wand. In the sphere of the principle which the magician wishes to invoke, he rises from point to point in a perpendicular line, and then descends; or else, beginning at the top, he comes directly down, invoking first the god of that sphere by devout supplication that He may deign to send the appropriate Archangel. he then beseeches the Archangel to sen the Angel or Angels of that sphere to his aid; he conjures this Angel or Angels to sent the intelligence in question, and this intelligence he will conjure with authroity to compel the obedience of the spirit and his manifestation. To this spirit he issues commands. [For evocation rather than invocation, which is under the formula of the Tetragrammaton,] The essence of the force invoked is one, but the `God' represents the germ [sperma] or beginning of the force, the `Archangel' its development; and so on, until, with the `Spirit', we have the completion and perfection of that force [in the "daughter" or final Heh].

[52]  Connecting the Zodiacal elements. Although Crowley does not speak as clearly on the Twelvefold regiment, we may assume that this is for the initiate to Chokmah where is attributed the Zodiac — therefore the Magus. This is speculation, though. Perhaps the key lies in Liber 831 vel ARARITA, or in Fuller's Treasure House of Images.

[53]  Whenever Crowley says this "verily and amen" we should take careful note. Verily = Maat, Amen = Amoun. They are the pair seen on the Coat of Arms of the Equinox (Green woman and red ram).

[54] Eye = Phallus. Ayin = Eye.

[55] The symbolism may mean, as Crowley indicates, that the semen created humans in the same way the the magician creates spirits from his/her Elixir. I use the phrase "his/her Elixir" to refer to the sexual fluid produced by either gender. It remains to be seen how and if a woman can produce homunculi with mere vaginal secretions. Some women may find it difficult to fill a chalice with a significant quantity of the substance, but it is certainly possible to annoint objects. It may also be necessary to utilize the menstrual blood since it is the only female secretion which carries the seed of life. Yet, the implicit "deadness" of this ovum contained in the blood will no doubt result in a formula drastically different from that of the male semen. The efficacy of this Red Elixir is probably enhanced by the combination with vaginal secretions resulting from sexual stimulation. Crowley seems to have neglected that "the best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood of a child." If, as Crowley has stated many times, this last refers to the child slain by non-productive ejaculation of semen, the former is no doubt a veritable menstruum of untold power. Women should examine Liber LXVI, but do not be afraid to go in a different direction.

[56]  Usually "Geb" and "Nut", who are Earth and Sky. They are reversed in gender but analogous to the Greek Gaia and Uranus. They were separated in their copulation by Shu, the Air that lifted the vault of the Sky. This is a very important Egyptian cosmogonic myth, though not the only one and not harmonious with many others.

[57]  Being that Isis screws Osiris, and Osiris screws Nephtys, and Nephthys screws Set, and Set kills Osiris, and Isis screws dead Osiris, and Horus kills Set, we have quite a strange family indeed.

[58]  Certainly Crowley revelled in the vague similarity to his Heart girt with the Serpent metaphor of Liber LXV.

[59]  Alright men, brace yourselves. Crowley certainly did instruct his disciples to drink their own sperm.

[60]  The Trinity which Crowley so adored, however this one has a female element. Budge traces "shu" to a root meaning "dryness" and Tefnut, his female companion is "wetness." They are air and rain. Tefnut has the head of a lioness. In another text, they are produced by Amen-Ra. We still have a self-creative father.

[61] This instruction is extremely interesting. It may be interpreted very literally as being a practice with one magician and two entirely magical homunculi. However, the ambiguity with which Crowley uses the term spirit may lead to a more radical interpretation in which the Magus (or Priestess!?) consecrates two (Priest and Virgin) by "shedding his light upon them" they will then copulate to produce magical children and a new universe on the astral plane. Perhaps we have here the true interpretation of the cryptic metaphor of the Hermit shedding light upon the world. Examine Atu VI in reference to this where the Hermit stands over and consecrates the matrimony. The infinite regression implied there is coherent with Thelemic doctrine — Hermit = All-father, who gives birth to Nuit and Hadit (the couple), who give birth to Therion and Babalon (the children), then the Scarlet Woman and the Magician (Lion and Eagle), etc. etc. (two women — Lilith and Eva). For more cryptic references to Thelemic sexual utopias and bizarre practices see Atlantis: the Lost Continent.

[62]  When we take sex and make it into a religous practice, it is also concommitant that it should degenerated into a very vile physical practice. Marquis de Sade and Georges Bataille were fully aware of this and quite comfortable with it. Crowley's theory is that constant meditation upon Nuit will sanctify the operation, whether it be gentle sex with a beautiful woman, eating the cum out of a freshly buggered arse or violent S&M. As in tantra, there is a great deal of importance place upon the sumblimation of the passions, even while one is in the midst of the most extremely "distracting" sex act. The extreme emphasis on yogic discipline is clearly explained by this since it is an effective way to train the mind to focus upon one object. The versicles mentioned in the "Grimorium Sanctissimum" serve this purpose on a lower level than Nuit herself. For the ultimate attainments of NU and HAD and extremely difficult due to their formlessness. Perhaps one suggestion for women is to emphasize the practice of Liber HAD, since men are clearly attracted to Liber NV.

[63]  Lest he be reminded of their phallic imagery and stumble into low-level phantasy. There is also included here an important fact of magick. Occult secrets are worthless and meaningless to non-initiates. It is for this reason that occult orders like ours must restrict access to certain secrets until the student is prepared. The O.G.A. has decided to release this information to those who have mastered the strictly intellectual material and have shown a fundamental grasp of magical technique, but have not yet demonstrated yogic discipline. Perhaps we are mistaken in or decision, but perhaps this information will serve to inspire and point out clearly to the student the areas of danger. Because nearly all Thelemites today are fully aware of the underlying principles of the VIII° and XI°, it is probably more dangerous to leave them floundering around in their ignorance. It is doubtful that more than a handful of O.T.O. members exist who have not attempted to perform the IX° by trial and error. A partial secret is no secret.

[64]  Read this statement again and savor the irony and scepticism.

[65]  Crowley's Old Aeon thinking is showing through. The hierarchical priesthoods have always emphasized the danger and taboo involved in their mysteries, hoping to scare away the curious. If Crowley believed that a sane human being can destroy his/herself by making a mistake in these practices, why does he describe them in terms of "practice," as if there is a hierarchy of ability. If we can work with lower level spirits to prepare for the wedding with Nuit, then how can it be that sex magick is so dangerous? Of course, AIDS brings a whole new and more appropriate level to this remark.

[66]  Love under will.

[67]  More of the rammification of this are discussed in cap XIV. These superstitions originated in primitive magic, especially during the Christian Middle Ages. One cannot but wonder to what extent these obsessions are exagerrated and remnants of the Old Aeon. Yet, it cannot harm the magician to observe these practices as much as possible. The mindfulness created by such an attitude is not inferior to that created by the practice of Liber Jugorum, and a lot less bloody.

[68]  The "shedding of light" is probably related to the metaphor described in "One Star in Sight" and elsewhere: the magician entering the Abyss is cast forth like a shooting star to illuminate the world, where s/he will manifest in one of the subabyssic sefiroth. The sexually charged Elixir is this light — of the Star/Khabs/Hadit — it is the essence of the magician. If it is not carefully controlled and protected (as is done with any talisman or one's magical weapons) or consumed (as in the eucharist), it can be profaned and destroyed to the detriment of the magician. The evil succubi Lilith used the semen of Adam to beget legions of demons that now plague mankind.

[69]  Not to be confused with Crowley's Bagh-i-Muattar: The Scented Garden of Abdullah the Satirist of Shiraz.

[70]  The image of the God M.I.N.I.S.

[71]  The sphynx-like alchemical creature of gnostic origin.

[72]  Recall that previously it was noted that they are esoterically identical.

[73]  Isis suckling Horus — Isis Rejoicing, Mater Triumphans.

[74]  As it is among heavy metal aficionados who wear crucifixes along with their "satanic" regalia.

[75]  For the lower grades, they are as follows: Minerval — Liber AL vel Legis, I° — the black robe, II° — red inverted triangle upon breast, III° — blue letters O.T.O. forming interlocked upright triangle, IV° — a Tau in the center of this, V° — a masonic apron. There are other regalia not mentionable for initiatory reasons.

[76]  In the O.G.A., we recommend that Pyramid initiates wear a silver token, especially a triangle or pyramid. Common New Age jewelry is adaptable, but not so well-linked to our system and your grade: the ankh, the pentagram, the scarab.

[77]  Moonchild gives good descriptions of the sort of dangers to be expected from the Black Lodge.

[78]  He has already made it plenty clear that sexual fluids are the most dangerous. Women should consider too, that menstrual blood may be even more dangerous since it is "the best blood".

[79]  The vital force does decay over time, just as the nutrive value of food decays. cf. Liber AMRITA excerpted in the Appendix C.

[80]  Assuming that there is some commonality of experience on the astral plane, any powerful workings, like those described here, will certainly be noticed by other magicians and non-human entities who will try to thwart your work. It's a jungle out there, or so at least does the history of magical fraternities from the G.D. to the present lead us to believe. For a good account of these rivalries, see Moonchild (again!).

[81]  The editor takes back everything he said about Crowley previously, with humblest apologies. (Watch out for that averse Mercury!). St. Augustine used to tell Medieval Christians that if the doctrines seemed illogical or incomprehensible that one should just have faith, for that is the precondition of understanding. We too are asked to have faith until we become initiates of the IXo and it will all be revealed to us.

[82]  N.O.X., which implies a heterosexual formula (results in mother and child). Aspirants are aware of an important secret contained here by which they are tested by intellect. LVX — INRI — IAO, here it means: Iacchus, Natura, Ratio [reason], IAO; Orus, Holy Child—Dance of Asi, Holy Mother—Joy of Iacchus, Holy Father—Blazing Star. NOX = Binah, who gives birth to Tiphareth = LVX.

[83]  This is Crowley's appendix and not mine. (not the intestinal part either). Refer to my Appendix D for the excerpts from Liber LXV.

APPENDIX A
LIBER SAMEKH
(excerpts)

[ Read: Liber Samekh Theurgia Goetia Summæ (Congressus Cum Dæmone) sub figurâ DCCC ]

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.

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.

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, 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.

[The name GAIA, Greek Earth mother] 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 understanding of Reichian pychoanalysis is useful here. The spate of stars shoots from the head of the Will-Symbol, and is scattered over the 24 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 Starspate, 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 superior sense.

The Adept who has mastered this Ritual, successfully realising the full import of this controlled rapture, ought not to allow his mind to loosen its grip on the astral imagery of the Star-spate, Will-Symbol, or Soul-symbol, or even to forget its duty to the body and the sensible surroundings. Nor should he omit to keep his Body of Light in close touch with the phenomena of its own plane, so that its privy consciousness may fulfil its proper functions of protecting his scattered ideals from obsession.

But he should have acquired, by previous practice, the faculty of detaching these elements of his consciousness from their articulate centre, so that they become (temporarily) independent responsible units, capable of receiving communications from headquarters at will, but perfectly able (1) to take care of themselves without troubling their chief, and (2) to report to him at the proper time. In a figure, they must be like subordinate officers, expected to display self-reliance, initiative, and integrity in the execution of the Orders of the Day.

The Adept should therefore be able to rely on these individual minds of his to control their own conditions without interference from himself for the time required, and to recall them in due course, receiving an accurate report of their adventures.

This being so, the Adept will be free to concentrate his deepest self, that part of him which unconsciously orders his true Will, upon the realization of his Holy Guardian Angel. The absence of his bodily, mental and astral consciousness is indeed 25 cardinal to success, for it is their usurpation of his attention which has made him deaf to his Soul, and his preoccupation with their affairs that has prevented him from perceiving that Soul.

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 [Astral Body] wholly withdrawn into his physical body, constraining His Angel to indwell his heart.

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.

This means the recognition of the Angel as the True Self of his subconscious self, the hidden Life of his physical life.

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.

Here is summed the entire process of bringing the conditioned Universe to knowledge of itself through the formula of generation [That is, Yod Hé, realizing Themselves, Will and Understanding in the twins Vau Hé, Mind and body.; a soul implants itself in sensehoodwinked body and reason-fettered mind, makes them aware of their Inmate, and thus to partake of its own consciousness of the Light.

The effect of the Ritual has been

(a) to keep the elements of consciousness so busy with their own work that they cease to distract him;

(b) to separate them so completely that his soul is stripped of its sheaths;

(c) to arouse in him an enthusiasm so intense as to intoxicate and anaesthetize him, that he may not feel and resent the agony of this spiritual vivisection, just as bashful lovers get drunk on the wedding night, in order to brazen out the intensity of shame which so mysteriously coexists with their desire;

(d) to concentrate the necessary spiritual forces from every element, and fling them simultaneously into the aspiration towards the Holy Guardian Angel; and

(e) to attract the Angel by the vibration of the magical voice which invokes Him.

The method of the Ritual is thus manifold.

There is firstly an analysis of the Adept, which enables him to 26 calculate his course of action. He can decide what must be banished, what purified, what concentrated. He can then concentrate his will upon its one essential element, over-coming its resistance —- which is automatic, like a physiological reflex —- by destroying inhibitions through his ego-overwhelming enthusiasm.

The other half of the work needs no such omplex effort; for his Angel is simple and unperplexed, ready at all times to respond to rightly ordered approach.

[ Read: ASTARTE vel Liber BERYLLI sub figurâ CLXXV ]

Some Comments on the Elixir of Life
Extracted from the Magical Record of the Beast 666
for the year 1920 e.v.
(Essay #2 from LIBER CCCLXIII AMRITA The Elixir of Life)
By Aleister Crowley 7 June 1:55 a.m.

[ Read: Liber CCCXLIII: AMRITA - Some Comments on the Elixir of Life ]

I feel inspired to jot down a few notes upon the Elixir of Life.

The Elixir of Life by the Master Therion

The conditions of life are that the organism should be able to adjust itself continually to its environment. Any individual, to do this for long, needs either very great intelligence or very great luck. His chief physical asset is elasticity, the power of compensation and recuperation. Our bodies are some 75% pure water; we are a mere sponge, our strength arises from the great mechanical ingenuity of our structure. But we are not `solid bodies' like most inanimate beings. This water, by kidneys, lungs, and skin, constantly cleanses us, and carries off most of our waste and noxious matter. Block one of these conduits; death follows very rapidly. However, this drainage system is not quite perfect; our pipes `fur' like a kettle. Disease and accident apart, we die of arterio-sclerosis caused by the gradual deposits of insoluble salts which harden the arteries and destroy the elasticity which enables them to adjust themselves to new conditions. In fact, we `perish' like india rubber. Old age is simply a solidification of the tissues, all of which become hard, dry and brittle.

As in philosophy, change is life, stagnation death; we should not fear a brisk metabolism. Why should the process which we call growth only a few years ago become degeneration? For the same reason that a well-kept well-oiled machine works more easily with age while a rusty one wrecks itself. Exercise helps us to sluice our sewers, but we must flush them well with water to dissolve mineral waste. We must avoid the ingestion of foods likely to leave insoluble deposits.

But there is another cause of decay, cause also in part of this poisoning. Our organs would repair themselves perfectly, if they were given sufficient rest. In their haste they absorb the first material to hand, be it good or bad. Also, we call on them to work before they are fully rested and so wear them gradually out. Exercise is necessary to keep us clean; but our rest must be perfect restoration also. We can give the muscles this benefit by Asana, and also reduce to a minimum the work of heart and lungs. We can give our digestions rest by eating only at noon and sunset, thus allowing them a clear twelve hours of the twenty-four. Pranayama is the ideal exercise as it promotes metabolism to the utmost with the minimum of fatigue, and can be combined with Asana.

The Hindus, to whom we owe these practices, realize also (as I, above) that the solidity of the food is an objection. They try to live on the Prana (subtle energy) contained in it. For instance, they teach people to reject their food before it has passed out of the stomach. In the West, we have sought rather to discover concentrations of good, and pre-digested preparations with a minimum of substance liable to form waste insoluble or poisonous products. We thus endeavor to diminish the work necessary to assimilation, as well as to avoid dirt and disorder in our Temple. We even eliminate on occasion the whole alimentary canal, and feed our patients by direct injection into the blood, or by absorbtion of nutriment in some convenient mucous membrane. 40 But mankind — in temperate climes — does not ask merely to exist; it demands joy; and joy, physiologically speaking, consists in the expenditure of surplus energy. Men living in the tropics need very little food since all we require beyond the repair of tissues and supply of mechanical force, is the heat required to keep our bodies at 37° Centigrade, as above the temperature of the air. If that be already 27° or so, we need but half of that necessary if it be 17°, or one third if it be 7°. Yet men in the tropics are not more energetic than our Scots and Norsemen. Those like dolce far niente, repose, as these take pleasure in activity. Even their phantasies attest to it, the one inventing Nirvana as the other Valhalla.

We admire the frolics of the young horse turned out to grass; we cultivate rough games, wild sports, and athletics. The Struldbruggs of Swift are perhaps, to us, of all his creations the most horrible. The immortality we ask is neither idleness nor stagnation. We want infinite Youth to squander, just as we wish a bottomless purse not to hoard but to spend. We cannot rest, just as the tropical peoples cannot work properly and efficiently. By our theory they should live longer than we do; but the same high temperature that favours them befriends their enemies, bacteria; and they lack our science of health.

Now all the means that we take to prolong life, such as I have outlined above, have so far failed to supply this superfluity of energy which we really desire. People with diets and breathing exercises and the like are usually walking sepulchres — some of them whited! The animal who thinks about his health is already sick. Absence of noise and friction is the witness of free mechanical function. Fear actually creates disease, for the mind begins to explore and so interferes with, the unconscious rhythm of the body, as the Edinburgh Review killed John Keats.

The man with the best chance of prolonged youth is he who eats and drinks heartily, not much caring what; who does things vigorously in the open air, with the minimum of common-sense precautions; and who keeps his mind at the same time thoroughly active, free from worry, and his heart high. He has come, with William Blake, to the Palace of Wisdom by the Road of Excess. He is on friendly terms with Nature, and though he does not fear her he heeds her, and does not provoke her. It is better says he, to wear out than to rust out. True, but is there need to wear out? He tires himself improperly, and he digs his grave with his teeth.

It is this surplus of good food, this codocil to our Will to Live, that makes us, like the Englishman on the fine day, want to go out and kill something. And so Death pays in some much UricAcid at his human Savings-Bank.

There are only two solutions possible, the invention of either a solvent more perfect than water, or a super-Food. The first alternative is theoretically none too probable. As to the second, if food were merely a chemical and mechanical agent in us, the problem would be one of diet. But there is some reason to believe that food contains a substance yet unanalyzed and unweighed which is of the nature of pure Energy. Live foods, like 41 oysters, stimulate inexplicable; foods long stored lose their nutrive value, though the chemist and physicist can detect no change. We need no psychical research but only common sense and common experience to tell us that there is a difference between a live thing and a dead one beyond the detective powers of the laboratories of Mid-Victorian arrogance and dogmatism.

A copper wire changes not in colour, weight, or chemical composition when a current of electricity passes through it; must we deny the existence of that force whose nature is still perfectly mysterious despite our knowledge of its properties, our measurements and our control of it? Why then deny a Life-bearing force? Ostensibly because `there is no evidence of it'; but mainly because the hypothesis happened to be packed in with the theological parcel of rubbish. But we have nothing to span the gap between the two well-ascertained groups of facts familiar to all; namely the facts of `matter' and the facts of `mind'.

To our copper wire again! Electricity is matter of a subtle and tenuous sort, in a peculiar state of motion; so is my hypothetical Life-bearing force. The charged copper wire does not wear out; why should the human body do so, if only we could feed it with pure Life?

Nature everywhere is prolific of live things, animal and vegetable. (Pray note that these things, and only these avail to feed us.) What wealth of `spriritual' force in and acorn! What history, its beginning veiled beyond all search! What potentiality of future life, of growth, of multiplication, beyond all conjecture! Like us, it has the power of Life; it can take live things and dead things into its own substance, bidding them, for its own purposes, to live again, transfigured! There's far more energy in the acorn than in radium, at which fools gape so wide in wonder. Far more, and far higher; radium only degenerates and dissipates; the acorn lives!

But all that energy is latent and potential; the acorn must be fed, like the fire that it is. (For every growth is a chemical change, a kind of combustion, element married to element with violence, with change of state, with heat, light pleasure, pain, as its by-products. Growth crowns itself with bloom or scent, with flame or colour, with wisdom conscious or unconscious.) The acorn cannot hoard its wealth or experience, use its credit of possibility, except by taking earth, air, and water into partnership, and invoking on the Venture, the Benediction of the Sun. If we destroy the fragile walls of its huge Library of Wisdom, we do not otherwise than the Saracen at Alexandria. The ages draw black hoods over their mighty foreheads; they cover their inscrutable eyes; they breathe no more upon us; their voice is Silence, Mystery, Oblivion; and we are left orphan, exposed like Oedipus, cheating croupier, Malice, has loaded with a curse.

Where is the treasured wisdom of that dead world? Where is the Sphinx that hid in our crushed acorn? It was; it is not. Love itself no more intangible, more fugitive, more tragic, or more heedless. Its Fate? The oracles sneer; the hieroglyphs are indecipherable; the black lamb is found without a heart, and we must make our pilgrimage perforce to the altar of the Unknown God.

All we can say is: It is not. Nay, but It was; and so, in some strange form, must be; else were all science and all mathematics falsehood and mockery.

But, as long since we learned, first to distinguish rubbed from unrubbed amber, next to measure, last control, though never yet to understand, the nature of, the force that made that distinction; so we can tell the living from the dead, can even measure life roughly, by taking heed of its external shews and proofs; so we shall come to control it, perhaps — nay, surely! — to create it.

We cannot yet direct the forces of the acorn, save within narrowest limits; we can stop, thwart or foster, even distort its growth; but we cannot lure it so far from its path as to grow Elms from it. But that is due to the definite bent and scope of the particular structure of the physical basis of the Life-force which must be one even as Electricity is one. We shall be able to gather, if not to create, this Life; to transmute it into other forms of force, as now we transmute heat to light.

We shall be able to store it, to harness it, to guide it; to absorb its energy ourselves directly, without resorting to our present gross, inefficient, cumbrous and dangerous means of abstracting it from ores (if I may say so) mechanically, blindly, empirically, and with such toil and strife. Our journey — by such means of transit — is necessary and hateful; our travelling companions are our diseases, and the host to ease us at the end of the short, the weary day, is Death.

As we cannot drink at the source of Life, keep Youth perpetual as we can keep Light — strange realization of the Rosicrucian's dream, or, it may be, discovery of his secret!

But we have found the Super-food. We know a vehicle of which a few grains can house enough pure light to fill a man not only with nourishment, but with Energy almost superhuman, and parallel, Intelligence incredibly sun-bright for four-and twenty hours. That substance is theoretically easy, but practically hard to obtain. In England and America it would be impossible to procure any quantity even of the raw material, at least in strength and purity; much less to prepare it. We know how to charge this substance with the Life-force. The process is at present laborious and expensive; great skill is required, and much precaution for errors in preparation are hard to detect, and may result in hideous mischance.

It is now six years since we gained our knowledge. They have been crowded with experiment; we are arrived at the practical stage. We cannot understand the true Nature of this force; we cannot measure it; we cannot create it, or obtain it synthetically. But we can purify and intensify it; we can, within wide limits, determine at will the quality and scope of its action; we can postpone death, increase energy, or prolong youth; and we are justified in saying that we possess the Elixir of Life.

666

Note: The Elixir is only administered to selected individuals for good reason shown. The normal course of treatment consists of two or three months' preparation in the place prepared for the purpose in Sicily, followed by the necessary period, usually one month, of the actual experiment which is made in the greatest secrecy.

Here at 5:50 a.m. (legal time) on the Day of Diana [Monday], being the 7th of June, An XVI Sol in Gemini.

Chapter I — EARTH

20. O my beautiful, I have likened thee to a jet Nubian slave, a boy of melancholy eyes.
21. O the filthy one! the dog! they cry against thee. 
    Because thou art my beloved.
22. Happy are they that praise thee; for they see thee with Mine eyes.
23. Not aloud shall they praise thee; but in the night watch one shall steal close, and grip thee with the secret grip; another shall privily cast a crown of violets over thee; a third shall greatly dare, and press mad lips to thine.
24. Yea! the night shall cover all, the night shall cover all.
25. Thou wast long seeking Me; thou didst run forward so fast that I was unable to come up with thee. 
    O thou darling fool! what bitterness thou didst crown thy days withal.
26. Now I am with thee; I will never leave thy being.
27. For I am the soft sinuous one entwined about thee, heart of gold!
28. My head is jewelled with twelve stars; My body is white as milk of the stars; it is bright with the blue of the abyss of stars invisible.
29. I have found that which could not be found; I have found a vessel of quicksilver.
30. Thou shalt instruct thy servant in his ways, thou shalt speak often with him.
31. (The scribe looketh upwards and crieth) Amen! Thou hast spoken it, Lord God!
32. Further Adonai spake unto V.V.V.V.V. and said:
33. Let us take our delight in the multitude of men! 
    Let us shape unto ourselves a boat of mother-of-pearl from them, that we may ride upon the river of Amrit!
34. Thou seest yon petal of amaranth, blown by the wind from the low sweet brows of Hathor?
35. (The Magister saw it and rejoiced in the beauty of it.) Listen!
36. (From a certain world came an infinite wail.) 
    That falling petal seemed to the little ones a wave to engulph their continent.
37. So they will reproach thy servant, saying: Who hath set thee to save us?
38. He will be sore distressed.
39. All they understand not that thou and I are fashioning a boat of mother-of-pearl. We will sail down the river of Amrit even to the yew-groves of Yama, where we may rejoice exceedingly.
40. The joy of men shall be our silver gleam, their woe our blue gleam — all in the mother-of-pearl.
41. (The scribe was wroth thereat. He spake: 
    O Adonai and my master, I have borne the inkhorn and the pen without pay, in order that I might search this river of Amrit, and sail thereon as one of ye. This I demand for my fee, that I partake of the echo of your kisses.)
42. (And immediately it was granted unto him.)
43. (Nay; but not therewith was he content. By an infinite abasement unto shame did he strive. Then a voice:)
44. Thou strivest ever; even in thy yielding thou strivest to yield — and lo! thou yieldest not.
45. Go thou unto the outermost places and subdue all things.
46. Subdue thy fear and thy disgust. Then—yield!
47. There was a maiden that strayed among the corn, and sighed; then grew a new birth, a narcissus, and therein she forgot her sighing and her loneliness.
48. Even instantly rode Hades heavily upon her, and ravished her away.
49. (Then the scribe knew the narcissus in his heart; but because it came not to his lips, therefore was he shamed and spake no more.)
50. Adonai spake yet again with V.V.V.V.V. and said: 
    The earth is ripe for vintage; let us eat of her grapes, and be drunken thereon.
51. And V.V.V.V.V. answered and said: O my lord, my dove, my excellent one, how shall this word seem unto the children of men?
52. And He answered him: Not as thou canst see. 
    It is certain that every letter of this cipher hath some value; but who shall determine the value? For it varieth ever, according to the subtlety of Him that made it.
53. And He answered Him: Have I not the key thereof? 
    I am clothed with the body of flesh; I am one with the Eternal and Omnipotent God.
54. Then said Adonai: Thou hast the Head of the Hawk, and thy Phallus is the Phallus of Asar. Thou knowest the white, and thou knowest the black, and thou knowest that these are one. But why seekest thou the knowledge of their equivalence?
55. And he said: That my Work may be right.
56. And Adonai said: The strong brown reaper swept his swathe and rejoiced. The wise man counted his muscles, and pondered, and understood not, and was sad. 
    Reap thou, and rejoice!
57. Then was the Adept glad, and lifted his arm. 
    Lo! an earthquake, and plague, and terror on the earth! 
    A casting down of them that sate in high places; a famine upon the multitude!
58. And the grape fell ripe and rich into his mouth.
59. Stained is the purple of thy mouth, O brilliant one, with the white glory of the lips of Adonai.
60. The foam of the grape is like the storm upon the sea; the ships tremble and shudder; the shipmaster is afraid.
61. That is thy drunkenness, O holy one, and the winds whirl away the soul of the scribe into the happy haven.
62. O Lord God! let the haven be cast down by the fury of the storm! Let the foam of the grape tincture my soul with Thy light!
63. Bacchus grew old, and was Silenus; Pan was ever Pan for ever and ever more throughout the æons.
64. Intoxicate the inmost, O my lover, not the outermost!
65. So was it — ever the same! I have aimed at the peeled wand of my God, and I have hit; yea, I have hit.

Chapter II — AIR

4. Stooping down, dipping my wings, I came unto the darkly-splendid abodes. There in that formless abyss was I made a partaker of the Mysteries Averse.
5. I suffered the deadly embrace of the Snake and of the Goat; I paid the infernal homage to the shame of Khem.
6. Therein was this virtue, that the One became the all.
7. Moreover 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.
8. I gathered myself into the little boat, and for many days and nights did I love her, burning beautiful incense before her.
9. Yea! I gave her of the flower of my youth.
10. But she stirred not; only by my kisses I defiled her so that she turned to blackness before me.
11. Yet I worshipped her, and gave her of the flower of my youth.
12. Also it came to pass, that thereby she sickened, and corrupted before me. Almost I cast myself into the stream.
13. Then at the end appointed her body was whiter than 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.
14. 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.
15. The river also became the river of Amrit, and the little boat was the chariot of the flesh, and the sails thereof the blood of the heart that beareth me, that beareth me.
16. O serpent woman of the stars! I, even I, have fashioned Thee from a pale image of fine gold.
17. Also the Holy One came upon me, and I beheld a white swan floating in the blue.
18. Between its wings I sate, and the æons fled away.
19. Then the swan flew and dived and soared, yet no whither we went.
20. A little crazy boy that rode with me spake unto the swan, and said:
21. Who art thou that dost float and fly and dive and soar in the inane? Behold, these many æons have passed; whence camest thou? Whither wilt thou go?
22. And laughing I chid him, saying: No whence! No whither!
23. The swan being silent, he answered: Then, if with no goal, why this eternal journey?
24. 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?
25. 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!
26. O silence! O rapture! O end of things visible and invisible! This is all mine, who am Not.
27. Radiant God! Let me fashion an image of gems and gold for Thee! that the people may cast it down and trample it to dust! That Thy glory may be seen of them.
28. Nor shall it be spoken in the markets that I am come who should come; but Thy coming shall be the one word.
29. Thou shalt manifest Thyself in the unmanifest; in the secret places men shall meet with thee, and Thou shalt overcome them.
30. I saw a pale sad boy that lay upon the marble in the sunlight, and wept. By his side was the forgotten lute. Ah! but he wept.
31. Then came an eagle from the abyss of glory and overshadowed him. So black was the shadow that he was no more visible.
32. But I heard the lute lively discoursing through the blue still air.
33. Ah! messenger of the beloved One, let Thy shadow be over me!
34. Thy name is Death, it may be, or Shame, or Love. 
    So thou bringest me tidings of the Beloved One, I shall not ask thy name.
35. Where is now the Master? cry the little crazy boys. 
    He is dead! He is shamed! He is wedded! and their mockery shall ring round the world.
36. But the Master shall have had his reward. 
    The laughter of the mockers shall be a ripple in the hair of the Beloved One.
37. Behold! the Abyss of the Great Deep. Therein is a mighty dolphin, lashing his sides with the force of the waves.
38. There is also an harper of gold, playing infinite tunes.
39. Then the dolphin delighted therein, and put off his body, and became a bird.
40. The harper also laid aside his harp, and played infinite tunes upon the Pan-pipe.
41. Then the bird desired exceedingly this bliss, and laying down its wings became a faun of the forest.
42. The harper also laid down his Pan-pipe, and with the human voice sang his infinite tunes.
43. Then the faun was enraptured, and followed far; at last the harper was silent, and the faun became Pan in the midst of the primal forest of Eternity.
44. Thou canst not charm the dolphin with silence, O my prophet!
45. Then the adept was rapt away in bliss, and the beyond of bliss, and exceeded the excess of excess.
46. Also his body shook and staggered with the burden of that bliss and that excess and that ultimate nameless.
47. They cried He is drunk or He is mad or He is in pain or He is about to die; and he heard them not.
48. O my Lord, my beloved! How shall I indite songs, when even the memory of the shadow of thy glory is a thing beyond all music of speech or of silence?
49. Behold! I am a man. Even a little child might not endure Thee. And lo!
50. I was alone in a great park, and by a certain hillock was a ring of deep enamelled grass wherein green-clad ones, most beautiful, played.
51. In their play I came even unto the land of Fairy Sleep. 
    All my thoughts were clad in green; most beautiful were they.
52. All night they danced and sang; but Thou art the morning, O my darling, my serpent that twinest Thee about this heart.
53. I am the heart, and Thou the serpent. Wind Thy coils closer about me, so that no light nor bliss may penetrate.
54. Crush out the blood of me, as a grape upon the tongue of a white Doric girl that languishes with her lover in the moonlight.
55. Then let the End awake. Long hast thou slept, O great God Terminus! Long ages hast thou waited at the end of the city and the roads thereof. 
    Awake Thou! wait no more!
56. Nay, Lord! but I am come to Thee. It is I that wait at last.
57. The prophet cried against the mountain; come thou hither, that I may speak with thee!
58. The mountain stirred not. Therefore went the prophet unto the mountain, and spake unto it. But the feet of the prophet were weary, and the mountain heard not his voice.
59. But I have called unto Thee, and I have journeyed unto Thee, and it availed me not.
60. I waited patiently, and Thou wast with me from the beginning.
61. This now I know, O my beloved, and we are stretched at our ease among the vines.

Chapter III — WATER

31. I turned me about thrice in every way; and always I came at the last unto Thee.
32. Many things I beheld mediate and immediate; but, beholding them no more, I beheld Thee.
33. Come thou, O beloved One, O Lord God of the Universe, O Vast One, O Minute One! I am Thy beloved.
34. All day I sing of Thy delight; all night I delight in Thy song.
35. There is no other day or night than this.
36. Thou art beyond the day and the night; I am Thyself, O my Maker, my Master, my Mate!
37. I am like the little red dog that sitteth upon the knees of the Unknown.
38. 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.
39. Thou hast fastened the fangs of Eternity in my soul, and the Poison of the Infinite hath consumed me utterly.
40. 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 divers palaces; she hath given her body to the beasts.
41. She hath slain her kinsfolk with strong venom of toads; she hath been scourged with many rods.
42. She hath been broken in pieces upon the Wheel; the hands of the hangman have bound her unto it.
43. The fountains of water have been loosed upon her; she hath struggled with exceeding torment.
44. She hath burst in sunder with the weight of the waters; she hath sunk into the awful Sea.
45. So am I, O Adonai, my lord, and such are the waters of Thine intolerable Essence.
46. So am I, O Adonai, my beloved, and Thou hast burst me utterly in sunder.
47. I am shed out like spilt blood upon the mountains; the Ravens of Dispersion have borne me utterly away.
48. 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.
49. Yea, also verily Thou art the cool still water of the wizard fount. I have bathed in Thee, and lost me in Thy stillness.
50. That which went in as a brave boy of beautiful limbs cometh forth as a maiden, as a little child for perfection.
51. O Thou light and delight, ravish me away into the milky ocean of the stars!
52. O Thou Son of a light-transcending mother, blessed be Thy name, and the Name of Thy Name, throughout the ages!
53. Behold! I am a butterfly at the Source of Creation; let me die before the hour, falling dead into Thine infinite stream!
54. Also the stream of the stars floweth ever majestical unto the Abode; bear me away upon the Bosom of Nuit!
55. This is the world of the waters of Maim; this is the bitter water that becometh sweet. Thou art beautiful and bitter, O golden one, O my Lord Adonai, O thou Abyss of Sapphire!
56. I follow Thee, and the waters of Death fight strenuously against me. I pass unto the Waters beyond Death and beyond Life.
57. How shall I answer the foolish man? In no way shall he come to the Identity of Thee!
58. But I am the Fool that heedeth not the Play of the Magician. Me doth the Woman of the Mysteries instruct in vain; I have burst the bonds of Love and of Power and of Worship.
59. Therefore is the Eagle made one with the Man, and the gallows of infamy dance with the fruit of the just.
60. I have descended, O my darling, into the black shining waters, and I have plucked Thee forth as a black pearl of infinite preciousness.
61. I have gone down, O my God, into the abyss of the all, and I have found Thee in the midst under the guise of No Thing.
62. But as Thou art the Last, Thou art also the Next, and as the Next do I reveal Thee to the multitude.
63. They that ever desired Thee shall obtain Thee, even at the End of their Desire.
64. Glorious, glorious, glorious art Thou, O my lover supernal, O Self of myself.
65. For I have found Thee alike in the Me and the Thee; there is no difference, O my beautiful, my desirable One! In the One and the Many have I found Thee; yea, I have found Thee.

Chapter IV — FIRE

Chapter V — SPIRIT

8. Thou hast come hither, O my prophet, through grave paths. Thou hast eaten of the dung of the Abominable Ones; thou hast prostrated thyself before the Goat and the Crocodile; the evil men have made thee a plaything; thou hast wandered as a painted harlot, ravishing with sweet scent and Chinese colouring, in the streets; thou hast darkened thine eyepits with Kohl; thou hast tinted thy lips with vermilion; thou hast plastered thy cheeks with ivory enamels. Thou hast played the wanton in every gate and by-way of the great city. The men of the city have lusted after thee to abuse thee and to beat thee. They have mouthed the golden spangles of fine dust wherewith thou didst bedeck thine hair; they have scourged the painted flesh of thee with their whips; thou hast suffered unspeakable things.
9. But I have burnt within thee as a pure flame without oil. In the midnight I was brighter than the moon; in the daytime I exceeded utterly the sun; in the byways of thy being I inflamed, and dispelled the illusion.
10. Therefore thou art wholly pure before Me; therefore thou art My virgin unto eternity.
11. Therefore I love thee with surpassing love; therefore they that despise thee shall adore thee.
12. Thou shalt be lovely and pitiful toward them; thou shalt heal them of the unutterable evil.
13. They shall change in their destruction, even as two dark stars that crash together in the abyss, and blaze up in an infinite burning.
14. All this while did Adonai pierce my being with his sword that hath four blades; the blade of the thunderbolt, the blade of the Pylon, the blade of the serpent, the blade of the Phallus.
15. Also he taught me the holy unutterable word Ararita, so that I melted the sixfold gold into a single invisible point, whereof naught may be spoken.
16. For the Magistry of this Opus is a secret magistry; and the sign of the master thereof is a certain ring of lapis-lazuli with the name of my master, who am I, and the Eye in the Midst thereof.
17. Also He spake and said: This is a secret sign, and thou shalt not disclose it unto the profane, nor unto the neophyte, nor unto the zelator, nor unto the practicus, nor unto the philosophus, nor unto the lesser adept, nor unto the greater adept.
18. But unto the exempt adept thou shalt disclose thyself if thou have need of him for the lesser operations of thine art.
19. Accept the worship of the foolish people, whom thou hatest. The Fire is not defiled by the altars of the Ghebers, nor is the Moon contaminated by the incense of them that adore the Queen of Night.
20. Thou shalt dwell among the people as a precious diamond among cloudy diamonds, and crystals, and pieces of glass. Only the eye of the just merchant shall behold thee, and plunging in his hand shall single thee out and glorify thee before men.
21. But thou shalt heed none of this. Thou shalt be ever the heart, and I the serpent will coil close about thee. My coil shall never relax throughout the æons. Neither change nor sorrow nor unsubstantiality shall have thee; for thou art passed beyond all these.
22. Even as the diamond shall glow red for the rose, and green for the rose-leaf; so shalt thou abide apart from the Impressions.
23. I am thou, and the Pillar is ’stablished in the void.
24. Also thou art beyond the stabilities of Being and of Consciousness and of Bliss; for I am thou, and the Pillar is ’stablished in the void.