Frater Achad, a magical name of Charles Robert John Stansfeld Jones, was, by any account, a remarkable individual. His Liber Thirty-One, which I had the honor of annotating and introducing in its definitive edition a year and a half ago, would alone justify an interest in his career by any New Aeon metaphysician or Qabalist. More controversial by far are the masterpieces of occult lore produced in the 1920’s. These works are often reprinted and more honored in wider circles than among hard core Thelemites. They include The Anatomy of the Body of God, Q.B.L., The Egyptian Revival and several smaller works like I.N.R.I., a short metaphysical masterpiece, and the Chalice of Ecstasy.

Then there is silence. In the 1920’s Achad and Crowley completely broke relations, and Jones seemed to disappear into relative obscurity. As it turns out, however, by his own account his magical initiation continued. He continued to teach a scattering of students loosely organized quietly all over the world. At this same time, occultism was in decline after the collapse of the original Golden Dawn at the turn of the century. So too most of the world, Achad had vanished.

Apparently, even his earlier writings have not received a full hearing. I was astonished to discover that The Equinox had published only a rather small fragment of his A Master of the Temple which, as of this writing remains mostly unpublished. To the initiated, it is obvious that The Equinox has not given us a full accounting of that which one would properly expect from a student of this stature claiming the illustrious Grade of a Master of the Temple, but that the entire work is extant and unpublished is most astonishing.

At the end of 1947, Achad’s acknowledged mentor, Aleister Crowley, passed from life. Suddenly, after 20 and more years of relative silence, we find Achad writing a prolific series of semiprivate letters to Crowley’s agents, successors and friends, detailing a radically differing perspective on Thelema, from its origins in 1904 of the vulgar era to the years immediately following Crowley’s death. These letters are exchanged with such luminaries as Karl Germer, Crowley’s lawful successor as administrator of the Prophet’s magical orders, and most especially with the more sympathetic but uncompromising Gerald Yorke.

Right, wrong, sane, utterly deranged or merely sour grapes, for a furious year or so, an enormous volume of mystical, practical, historical and anecdotal material flows from Achad’s rickety typewriter. He occasionally refers to family, his own health problems, life in Canada in the 1940’s, and to visits to his own students in America. Then, again there is silence. Another year or two passes and Jones, too, has died. His legacy, and any meaningful evaluation of it is lost completely in the magical desert of the 1950’s in which the whole Thelemic tradition in the English-speaking world teetered on oblivion.

The latter would be rescued by the second occult revival of the 1965-1975 period; Crowley would be rediscovered by the efforts of his one-time secretary and life-long admirer Israel Regardie, and his faithful student and chosen champion Grady McMurtry. While Achad had no such partisans, even his published works were back in print. But his early life was displayed exclusively through the lens of Crowley’s more ardent adherents, and his unpublished and quietly circulated work was utterly lost.

I first became aware of the existence of an extensive unorganized correspondence and unpublished Achad literature some years ago quite by chance. A substantial cache of “Achadiana” was given me in exchange for some of my own rather rare files of other occult thinkers and writers by a member of the Sovereign Sanctuary of the O.T.O. acting as agent for an occult archivist in California with an admirably open mind and an interest in Achad, C.F. Russell and other Thelemic “bad boys.” Later, the Frater Superior of the O.T.O. was kind enough to open up his home and his own files to me, and many additional documents were placed in my hand. On one memorable evening I spent the entire night simply copying Achad documents from the Frater Superior’s files, exchanging with him what comparatively little I had at that time. Letters, rituals and documents covering over a 30 year period presented themselves. Other documents came my way through other sources, as my name inevitably became linked to Achad’s with publication of the definitive annotated edition of Liber Thirty-One, and of the previously unpublished monograph, The Conjuration of Kronos. In 1998 my agent in such matters, the editor of this journal, was hosted by the Frater Superior, who provided for me many additional Achad documents.

Much of this material is unsorted and unclassified. I have for years searched for a research assistant with experience in data base work simply to establish an organized system for me to fully integrate this great mass of material. In the meantime, what I hope to do in this column is to offer tantalizing glimpses of Achad’s decidedly unconventional but unmistakably Thelemic world view. I must emphasize: Don’t shoot the messenger (that’s me). I find Achad brilliant, decent, crafty, naive and more than occasionally off the wall. His proposed “Aeon of Truth and Justice” leaves me entirely cold, for example. Yet, I feel, it deserves a hearing more decent than the self-serving filtered version it has gotten from, say, a Kenneth Grant. On the other hand, I find Achad’s notion of Liber AL vel Legis as the latest in a line of revered holy books an eminently wise, eclectic and ecumenical antidote to those who, in their zeal, might throw out the spiritual baby with the bath water.

But my task shall be to introduce you to an undiscovered country; the lost and unpublished world of Frater Achad.

It has been written that "In all the world there are only two kinds of people ­ those who know, and those who do not know; and this knowledge is the thing which matters." However sweeping this statement may appear it is little short of truth from the stand point of Religion in its real sense.

Knowledge has been defined as "A clear perception of a truth or fact, erudition; skill from practice." Also "to know, viz.; To perceive with certainty, to understand clearly, to have experience of."

On the other hand, Belief is an "Assent to anything proposed or declared, and its acceptance as fact by reason of the authority from whence it proceeds, apart from personal knowledge; faith; the whole body of tenets held by any faith; a creed; a conviction."

In regard to religion it will doubtless at once be evident that a great deal could be said on the subject of Belief, it being, one might almost say, the principle on which most, if not all, Exoteric Religions are based. It will also be evident, though perhaps in a lesser degree, that all these various religious beliefs, held by masses of people in all lands, must have arisen in the beginning out of the Personal Experience of a few who had somehow obtained a direct perception or knowledge of certain facts in regard to "The Absolute", "God", or at any rate some Being or Beings of a distinctly higher order than themselves, and that these revelations were then given out by them to others, coloured to a certain extent by their own personality and limited by the horizon of their own intellectual sphere. To what extent these "revelations" or "inspirations" can be relied upon and whether it is better to accept them as taught or to rely upon our own experience, are matters I shall endeavor to treat of in this brief essay.

The first thing that strikes one in attempting to deal with the subject ­ at any rate in the writer¹s own experience ­ is how little we really know and how rapidly, if unchecked, our beliefs tend to accumulate.

The beliefs accepted in our early childhood undoubtedly have a strong influence upon our minds, especially in early life, but apart from these, as soon as we begin to look around us and attempt to think for ourselves, fresh beliefs rapidly creep in upon us. These gain strength and to some extent, often to a great extent, modify our ideas and even dominate our actions.

Those who have a natural aptitude and desire for religion soon begin to read books and possibly to attend lectures on the subject. Something that one has heard or read strikes us as being original and fascinating, it seems to us this new idea must be true, and almost unconsciously we find ourselves believing it.

If the matter were allowed to rest there until we found time and inclination to go over these new ideas, carefully comparing them and trying to unite their utmost divergences so as to make them conform more of less with our own experience and outlook on life; well and good. But if, as is very liable to be the case, these new theories are lightly discussed and then forgotten for a time, there seems to be a tendency upon the subject re-arising or again being presented to us at some later period, for these ideas to be awakened more or less suddenly and for us to think "Oh I know about that." While losing sight of the fact that it is not actual knowledge, but a bare belief that has lain dormant in our subconscious minds.

I think that anyone who has taken the trouble to examine his, or her, own mind in regard to their worldly knowledge on any matter, will agree that this knowledge is entirely based on experience, but when we turn our attention to religion we immediately feel either that actual knowledge is lacking or that it is confined to certain instances of an entirely different nature from any other experience we have had so that these "illuminations" stand out as landmarks along the Path, having a marked effect upon the outlook and conduct of those who have partaken of them.

To make my meaning clearer I will quote an instance from the life of Charles Kingslay which will give a good general idea of one of the earlier Mystic states. He writes "When I walk in the fields, I am oppressed now and then with an innate feeling that everything I see has a meaning if I could but understand it. And this feeling of being surrounded with truths which I cannot grasp amounts to indescribable awe sometimesŠHave you not felt that your real soul was imperceptible to your mental vision, except in a few hallowed moments?"

A much more extreme state of mystical consciousness is described by J.A. Symonds and probably more persons than we suspect could give parallels to it from their own experience. "Suddenly" he writes "at church, or in company, or when I am reading, and always, I think, when my muscles were at rest, I felt the approach of the mood. Irresistibly it took possession of my mind and will, lasted what seemed an eternity, and disappeared in a series of rapid sensations which resembled the awakening from anaesthetic influence. One reason why I disliked this kind of trance was that I could not describe it to myself. I cannot even now find words to render it intelligible. It consisted in a gradual but swiftly progressive obliteration of space, time, sensation, and the multitudinous factors of experience which seem to qualify what we are pleased to call our Self. In proportion as these conditions of ordinary consciousness were subtracted, the sense of an underlying or essential consciousness acquired intensity. At last nothing remained but a pure, absolute, abstract Self. The universe became without form and void of content. But Self persisted, formidable in its vivid keenness, feeling the most poignant doubt about reality, ready, as it seemed, to find existence break, as breaks a bubble around it. And what then? The apprehension of a coming dissolution, the grim conviction that this state was the last state of the conscious self, the sense that I had followed the last thread of being to the verge of the abyss, and had arrived at demonstration of eternal Maya or illusion, stirred or seemed to stir me up again. The return to ordinary conditions of sentient existence began by my first recovering the power of touch, and then by the gradual though rapid influx of familiar and diurnal interests. At last I felt myself once more a human being; and though the riddle of what is meant by life remained unsolved, I was thankful for this return from the abyss ­ this deliverance from so awful and initiation into the mysteries of skepticism."

"This trance recurred with diminishing frequency until I reached the age of twenty-eight. It served to impress upon my growing nature the phantasmal unreality of all the circumstances which contribute to a merely phenomenal consciousness. Often have I asked myself with anguish, on waking from that formless state of denuded, keenly sentient being. Which is the unreality? ­ the trance of fiery, vacant, apprehensive, skeptical Self from which I issue, or these surrounding phenomena and habits which veil that Inner Self and build a self of flesh-and blood conventionality? Again, are men the factors of some dream, the dreamlike insubstantiality of which they comprehend at such eventful moments? What would happen if the final stage of the trance were reached?"

These instances, taken from Professor William James Varieties of Religious Experience ­ which, by the way, is an excellent book to study if you are interested along these lines ­ explain, much better than I could, the difference between personal experience of a Religious nature and the ordinary run of religious beliefs. They are, however, of the sporadic type, and are, after all, rather elementary. Much more valuable are the experiences to be gained by a definite scientific training towards that end.

In India, as you all know, training in this mystical insight has been known from the earliest times under the name of Yoga. Yoga means the experimental union of the individual with the divine. It is based on persevering exercise; and the diet, posture, breathing, intellectual concentration, and moral discipline vary slightly in the different systems which teach it. The Yogi, or disciple, who has by these means overcome the obstruction of the lower nature sufficiently, enters into the condition called Samadhi, and "comes face to face with facts which no instinct or reason can ever know."

"He learns" writes Swami Vivekananda, "that the mind itself has a higher state of existence, beyond reason, a superconscious state, and that when the minds gets to that higher state, then this knowledge beyond reasoning comes.

All the different steps in yoga are intended to bring us scientifically to the superconscious state or samadhiŠJust as unconscious work is beneath consciousness, so there is another work which is above consciousness, and which, also is not accompanied with the feeling of egoismŠThere is no feeling of I, and yet the mind works, desireless, free from restlessness, objectless, bodiless. Then the Truth shines in its full effulgence, and we know ourselves ‹ for Samadhi lies potential in us all ‹ for what we truly are, free, immortal, omnipotent, loosed from the finite, and its contrasts of good and evil altogether, and identical with the Atman or Universal Soul."

The Vedantists say that one may stumble into superconsciousness sporadically, without previous discipline, but it is then impure. Their test of its purity is empirical, its fruits must be good for life.

The Yogi, however, is not the only being who has practiced along these lines and obtained these results. Let me quote one instance from the Christian Mystic, St John of the Cross, who thus describes the condition called "union of Love" which he says is reached by "dark contemplation."

"In this the Deity compenetrates the soul, but in such a hidden way that the soul finds no terms, no means, no comparison whereby to render the sublimity of the wisdom and the delicacy of the spiritual feeling with which she is filled we receive this mystical knowledge of God clothed in none of the sensible representations, which our mind makes use of in other circumstances. Accordingly in this knowledge, since the senses and the imagination are not employed, we get neither form nor impression, nor can we give any account or furnish any likeness, although the mysterious and sweet-tasting wisdom comes home so clearly to the inmost parts of our soul.

Fancy a man seeing a certain kind of thing for the first time in his life. He can understand it, use it, enjoy it, but he cannot apply a name to it, nor communicate any idea of it even though all the while it be a mere thing of sense. How much greater will be his powerlessness when it goes beyond the senses? This is the peculiarity of the divine language. The more infused, intimate, spiritual and supersensible it is, the more does it exceed the senses, both inner and outer, and impose silence upon them. The soul then feels as if placed in a vast and profound solitude, to which no created thing has access, in an immense and boundless desert the more delicious the more solitary it is. There, in this abyss of wisdom, the soul grows by what it drinks in from the well-springs of the comprehension of love, and recognises, however sublime and learned may be the terms we employ, how utterly vile, insignificant, and improper they are, when we seek to discourse of divine things by their means."

The incommunicableness of this transport is the keynote of all mysticism and this accounts to a great extent for the absolute silence so often kept on the subject, but another reason for silence is that the being¹s whole outlook on life has become changed by these experiences.

The point I particularly wish to emphasise is that we need not, and should not, be content with mere intellectual beliefs when the way lies open for us to obtain actual knowledge of these states if we will only take the necessary trouble; also that the first step towards that end is to obtain knowledge of ourselves.

"Man know thyself and thou shalt know thy God" ­ "Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven (which is within you) and all these things shall be added unto you," are sayings, so familiar that they have perhaps lost some of their deeper significance by constant repetition. I will therefore quote one or two less known quotations from the Upanishads, bearing upon the Knowledge of the Higher Self.

Speaking of the Absolute the Atmabodha says "That should be known as Brahman, which, beyond the gaining thereof there remains nothing to gain, beyond the bliss thereof there remains no possibility of bliss; beyond the sight thereof there remains nothing to see; beyond becoming which there remains nothing to become; beyond knowing which, there remains nothing to know."

And again in the Kenopanishad we read"That which is not spoken in speech but that whereby all speech is spoken. That which does not think in the mind, but that whereby the mind proceeds to think. That which does not perceive with the eye, but that whereby the eye receives its sight. That which does not hear with the ear, but that whereby the ear hears. That which does not breath the breath of life, but that whereby life itself is kept up. Know thou that that is the Absolute, not this that people worship."

Again "If thou objectest, how should I grasp this? Pray do not grasp it; for the residuum after all grasping is at an end, is none other than thy Real Self." (Panchadasi).

"Where is the man who doubts the fact of his own existence? If such a one be found, he should be told that he himself, who thus doubts, is the Self he denies." (Svatmanirupana).

"Setting aside everything which becomes the object of knowledge in this world, there yet remains a residuum, the real essence of knowledge. The knowledge that this is the Real Self, is true knowledge of the Self."

Speaking of the Way, the Yogavasishtha says ­ "He continually sees the Real Self, who studies to unify philosophy, and the teacher¹s explanation, with the facts of his own consciousness."

"Forms of religion but forge so many bonds round the individual; Spiritual Consciousness alone disperse them." (Mahabharata).

I think the above quotations will suffice to bring before your minds the fact that a little real knowledge is better than a great deal of belief.

Some might perhaps reply that belief is necessary in order to assimilate the very instances I have quoted in favour of knowledge, but this I am not ready to admit.

I say that everyone has the opportunity to prove these things, and that the ability to do so lies already within you, not in the fact that you believe or disbelieve a single instance herein set forth. If you had never heard of a similar instance but had voluntarily purified your minds and looked within yourselves in search of Knowledge, the result would have been very much the same. But this I will also say; the search requires hard work, and those who are afraid of hard work had better perhaps remain content with their beliefs.

But to those who are unafraid, who are burning with the desire to help others and who desire the definite knowledge which is essential before that help can be intelligently given (or withheld), I say that Knowledge is already a part of yourselves, therefore let your effort be not so much to obtain as to become Knowledge.

But how is this to be accomplished? This is a very natural question for you to ask. It is useless to tell you to "become Knowledge" if you don¹t know how to accomplish this for yourselves.

This at once brings us to the "Way" or "Path" which lies within rather than without. The time has come when man, having vainly sought among the externals of life and failed to realize the ideal, turns again and retraces his steps towards the Source from whence he came. Only when he does this consciously does he find the true entrance to the Path. Then will begin for him that great struggle, which brings with it an every increasing joy.

Having once realized that the Goal lies within and not without, his whole attitude must become changed. It is no longer a question of adding to his store but rather of getting rid of or subduing all that is not essential to his one purpose.

He must become purified bodily and spiritually if he would attain the priceless "Union" which will crown his labours. This cannot be accomplished at once, but without a very definite effort it cannot be done at all. The first thing then is a definite effort in the right direction.

But what is the right direction? To this I would reply that every man and every woman should strive to formulate and to unite their consciousness more and more with their own highest Ideal. Whether this Ideal be called the Christ, the Buddha, the Higher self, the True Will, or whether we give it no name, matters little except to the individual. But such an Ideal lies within each one of us, covered, it may be, with sheath after sheath of non-essential ideas. The important point is that we should formulate this Ideal, however vaguely at first, and then work, work so that every action we perform, however humble, may shadow forth the Ideal to which we desire to become united.

More and more we must learn to control our lower personalities and conform to our Higher ideas. More and more shall we cease to care for the fruit of our actions as long as the "Work" itself is rightly done. Gradually we shall feel in closer touch with the Life of all around us, and with the Ideal within.

Another very important thing is that we should spend a few minutes every day in meditation upon our Ideal. At such times we should endeavor to free our minds from all that is not according to that Ideal. We should try to think as our Ideal would think, while letting our little worries slip away from us for the time being.

Then, as we become more advanced, we may during these meditations, begin to control the thinking principle itself, for the essence of the Eastern Teaching lies in the perfect control, even the entire suppression, of the Thinking Principle. Nothing that can be thought is true. That alone is true which is above all thought as we understand it. Gradually, step by step, we shall accomplish this difficult task, until the waves of thought in our minds are stilled, and the mind itself becomes clear and transparent, a fit reflector of the Highest, just as the Sun may be seen reflected in a clear lake. Then, and then alone will true Knowledge arise.

Then will the Voice of the Silence tell us that having reaped we must sow. Then shall we also learn to sow rightly, but not till then, as it is written in "Light on the Path." It is impossible to help others till you have obtained some certainty of your own.

This must be the certainty of Knowledge and not of Belief, and even if the attainment of Knowledge is not the final goal (for it still implies duality, viz. a Knower and a thing known), and someday, perhaps, this too must be transcended, still until then let us Work, let us will to Know, let us forget ourselves in our striving to become that Greater Self which is All Knowledge, so that for each of us the Day may Dawn when, wrapped in adoration, we shall Love and Worship, "Knowing as we are Known."

We may often wonder why there should be such a number of conflicting opinions in regard to the simplest facts of life, to say nothing of its deeper problems. Come with me, and I will try to show you some of the reasons for this, and possibly give you a hint of the solution of the puzzle.

We have all been to "Coney Island" or some similar place of amusement, and while there have doubtless visited the side-shows which abound in such places. One of the old popular favorites is the "Hall of Mirrors" wherein variously curved glasses are so arranged that we may see ourselves and our friends in the most fantastically distorted forms. We laugh as we come out again, little realizing the tragedy as well as the comedy of that which we have witnessed; without knowing that we have been looking at one of the great symbolic mysteries of life.

Let us go back again, together, and see just what we can learn from our visit. We first pass through a narrow maze of mirrors, fairly bumping into our own reflections in our eagerness to reach the chamber of mystery. In the case of our friends we are hardly able to distinguish which is the reality and which the reflection. All seem strangely multiplied yet in more or less natural proportion.

So is life to the eyes of a little child whose vision has not yet become distorted and false. The child, on coming here, has arrived in a world of mysterious reflections. It has been pointed out by one celebrated author -- Sydney Klein -- that at first it must be quite impossible for the child whose eyes are just opened, to tell whether the objects seen are not actually touching the retina of the eye. Only after certain mental adjustments have taken place can it come to realise that things exist "outside" itself. Whether or not this is the beginning of distorted vision I must leave it for others to decide, but we do know that all we see is really within us; that which causes the appearance of any object is a problem too deep to be entered upon here.

But to return to our "House of Mirrors". After passing through the maze we suddenly arrive at a mirror which makes us jump with surprise. All is changed and we may look short and fat, or perhaps long and thin, as we delightedly dance in front of the glass and enjoy making grimaces at this at this new aspect of ourself. Of course it seems a joke to us, for we feel we are not really like that so we don't mind amusing ourselves at our own expense. After awhile we get tired of that particular form of distortion, it no longer seems so funny to us, and we pass on to another mirror. This time our head is enormously too large for our tiny sylph-like body. How funny it seems as long as we remember who we really are and what we are really like, and why we came to the Hall of Mirrors. But supposing for a moment we had forgotten these things as we strolled aimlessly on amid the distorted images, thinking ourselves first one kind of a being and then another, with no standard to guide us as to which was the Real Self. Think what that would mean to an intelligent human being. Yet amid the Mirrors of Life who can answer these three simple questions "Who am I?", "What am I?", "Why do I exist here?"

Before discussing these very important questions as to Who, What, and Why we are, let us once again glance into the Hall of Mirrors. It may be, that when for a moment we cease to be occupied with looking at ourselves we notice the reflections of others in the same mirror. These people may be strangers to us and we probably never take the trouble to turn round and face them squarely. To us, as we remember them afterwards, the reflection we saw in the mirror is our sole recollection of them, and it comes to represent to us that person or thing. Later in life, if they should be mentioned we may proudly remark "O yes, I met so-and-so years ago. What a silly fat-head he is." or, "Do you mean that pot-bellied Mr X, I remember him well, a man of no brains and very large feet".

We must not forget that while we are engaged in admiring ourselves in one mirror, thinking what nice people we are, others may also be seeing quite a different view of us in another. It is little wonder, therefore, that "after the story has gone the rounds" we sometimes hear strange accounts of ourselves and are unable to conceive how people would have been so maliciously foolish as to have thought and talked of us thus. But it's all a part of the mystery of the Mirrors of Life, and we must learn to put up with it until we have found the solution.

We shall have to admit that although we are not exactly living a Coney Island side-show where are physical bodies appear distorted, we are living on a planet under conditions which cause our "Mental Mirrors" to show us very differing pictures from time to time.

Over night, that great showman, the Press, is able to distort or improve the souls of humanity, and does not hesitate to do so. We wake up one morning to find certain head-lines in the daily papers and before the day is out a Nation, of which perhaps we previously knew little or nothing, has suddenly taken on the appearence of a fierce and horrible enemy. We soon begin to hate these "rogues and scoundrels" -- our brothers -- and become quite convinced that even our close friends of that nationality, although we never noticed it before, are slightly tarred with the same dirty brush as all the rest of their fellows over the seas.

The next day, maybe, we are told by the same papers, it was all a mistake and that so-and-so is the guilty party who is responsible for most of the misery of the world. We soon adjust ourselves to this new view-point and learn to concede to the next victim a full measure of hate.

Or, let us look in another mirror. This one makes the centre of the picture look very large and the surroundings very small. Here we see OUR Country; how fine it looks compared with the other little insignificant one we have heard about but never visited. This is OUR religion; what a wonderful Truth we possess compared with that of the "benighted heathen" we know nothing about. This is OUR wealth, how much cleaner were the processes by which we obtained it than those shifty methods adopted by others- our rivals.

But there is yet another mirror which makes our own good actions appear small in our eyes, while others see them in a different light.

Sometimes our very best qualities are those we never knew ourselves to possess. The only danger lies in having them pointed out to us, when we may come to exagerate, and so spoil them. Our bodies are healthy while we remain unconscious of their detailed workings. When we begin to notice that we have a heart, or lungs, or a liver, something is already out of order and if we keep on looking in that "mirror" we shall soon find ourselves one mass of diseased organs. Then we read the quack medical advertisements with avidity, and proudly feel that we, of all people, have got every kind of disease and probably some pet one never yet discovered by physicians. We are so "proud" of this that we think it best not to tell the family doctor in case he should think us fit subjects for experiment in the name of science, and so we go on harboring it and wondering why life looks like hell instead of heaven.

Most of our heart troubles are caused by indigestion and a little soda would cure them if we had the sense to take it, instead, perhaps, we go to a Christian Scientists who tells us we have no heart, and while admitting that money is but a delusion of mortal mind, takes his fee without questioning.

Coue comes along, and we find a lot of people saying they are getting better and better, while at the same time they have no idea who they really are. After a time we find quite a few who have got worse, both in their own estimation and that of others.

Such things are to be seen in the Mirrors of Life, and every day in every way they keep changing, whether we like it or not.

Now let us examine the cause of the trouble as best we may. We have been looking in the distorted mirrors outside when we should have been looking within ourselves, in the first instance, at any rate. Has it not been written Seek ye first the Kingdom of Heaven, and The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.

The Soul of Man, his Heaven or Hell, is a plastic medium between body and spirit. It is equipped with a personal will which is capable of causing it, through the power of imagination, to take any desired form.

This will was given to man in order that he might develop the sense of freedom. He learns this in most cases by making mistakes. Only when he is willing to align this personal will with the Divine or Universal Will which brought him into being, does the puzzle begin to resolve itself and the astigmatism of the eye of the Soul begin to disappear. But this correction of our distorted vision is a task that each individual must accomplish for himself. While he relies on another to do it for him he is obsesses by one of the phantoms in the Mirror.

Some people, the showmen, do all in their power to keep man in this deluded condition, but once a glimmer of truth has come to the darkened soul, the spell is broken, even though it may require much effort to make a complete and perfect adjustment with Reality.

We must cease to worry about what we look like to others, who see us in the distorted mirrors of their own minds, and turn our attention first of all to minding our own business. We must ask ourselves Who, What, and Why we are ?. These questions are hard to answer, but they must be faced. The answer lies within ourselves, not outside. We shall discover that we are each here for a certain purpose, and that the purpose of each individual is different. The true Will within us, which is the Will of God for us, we must discover and learn to DO, with one-pointedness, detachment and peace. We have each a particular part to play in the great Drama of Life, and we must be prepared to play it, and play it WELL. We must learn that true Freedom only comes through Order. We must discover the Order of the Universe and our right place and motion therein.

These truths may not be learned in a day, but we can start now, and soon, very soon, we shall begin to notice a difference; a fairer form will appear in the Mirror. We shall begin to remember Who, What, and Why we are, to realize that we have been stuck in a Side-show for a very long time and that it is well for us to get back to things nearer the truth. Come, my children, just outside are the round-abouts, whereon free and joyous we may travel like Stars in the sky, feeling ourselves to be free and in tune with the Heavenly Spheres.

Listen Brother! Are you. FREE? Are you enjoying the full, free life of the true master-class, or are you groveling in slavery, in sin?

"Sir," you reply, "What is sin to me? I have outgrown such ideas as Sin, and Hell and the Devil. Nowadays, no educated person believes in the existence of these things. But, as to Freedom? How can I be free when I am working 10 hours a day, so that the Capitalist who is pocketing 3/4 of the results of my labour, may live in luxury and idleness on the money I earn for him. How can I be free under such a system?"

Listen Brother! You may be free NOW, if you WILL. Work does not bind you. Work is no sin, but RESTRICTION is. "The word of Sin is Restriction." You are sinning as long as you feel restricted, for "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law!" The Master has told us so. The Book of the Law tells us so, for the New Law is a Law of Liberty and Freedom for all.

It is not the Capitalist who is preventing you from enjoying to the full your leisure hours. It is not your daily work which prevents you from taking advantage to the full the pleasures of your spare time. It is yourself, because you have either forgotten how to enjoy yourself or you have never learned, or been taught, or tried to teach yourself.

It is this lack of true enjoyment that fills your life with misery and despair. It is this lack of true pleasure that makes your work (which is healthy and manly and good) seem dull and monotonous and uninteresting. It is this lack of the realization of the joy of life that makes you envy the Capitalist (of whose troubles and worries you know nothing) who is in reality as much a slave as you are. It is this, I say, that makes you think the whole System is wrong. And so it is, but not in the way you think and suppose.

Have you not been taught from childhood that every true and manly enjoyment is a Sin and a disgrace that should not be indulged in? Have you not been taught that if you. do enjoy yourself, and anybody finds out, you will be shunned as a sinner and a bad man! Have you not found that either you must go against the true promptings of your nature in almost every conceivable way, or perform your true desires in a secret and disgraceful way, for fear of being found out and losing your so-called `reputation?'

Do you realize that this terrible state of affairs has become a part of your very consciousness, is a limitation and check on your every action?

Even supposing you to be one who has tried to find enjoyment, in spite of wrong impressions and under existing conditions; did you not find that at first the Feeling of Freedom, even in doing what you thought to be wrong, was a great part of the enjoyment itself? But once that stage is past, once let that idea go and get to feeling, "Oh well, I've done it before and now I can't help it" and you gradually get more and more dulled and the pleasure grows less and less, until what was once true enjoyment and real freedom at the start, loses "even the pleasant consciousness of sin" and becomes another form of slavery. You have lost the very sense of Freedom. You are a slave.

But the worst slave of all is the prig who indulges (openly) in no pleasures at all, in order that he may be considered `virtuous' or `respectable' or a `Christian' who has `got religion' and wants to see every one else in the same deplorable state of senile decay, so that he may not feel quite so much out of place in the world. Such is not Freedom, my Brother.

Freedom is Fullness of Life, Manliness of Action, Virility in Love, Fearlessness of Conduct combined with the utmost toleration of the rights of others, and a true recognition of their liberty to do their Will.

What, think you, is the reason why the Latin and the Chinese and the Hindu (of whom many of you are jealous because you think. they have no right here and would take away work that you should have) are willing to work for a mere pittance? It may well be that you have good cause. to envy them, if you did but know it, for they are Contented and Happy because their SPARE TIME, their LEISURE (however short) is FULL OF DELIGHT.

They are wont to indulge their true feelings in every way, including the. proper way, for it must be admitted that many of the Oriental Races are masters in the art of producing pleasure WITHOUT EXPENSE. They know, from experience, as you have never known, as yet, that an Hour of Rapture is recompense for a Day of hard work.

I do not say that "A moment of Rapture is compensation for a lifetime of misery." That is absurd, the idle talk of the poet. But AN HOUR OF RAPTURE and a DAY OF TOIL, is practical and possible and WORTH WHILE.

And you. don't get it under existing circumstances. How much time are you really devoting to any true enjoyment, say for instance Love? Most of you know nothing of Love after the first year of married life. Even then the total rapture is probably but a few seconds per week, and then it is not True Rapture. Love, like every other true enjoyment is a Science, an Art. How much of your time do you spend in its study?

Don't you see, brother, how you are being fooled with regard to these. things, all the time. How those who want to keep you in slavery are cunningly (or ignorantly, it matters little) working in every possible way to take from you one true pleasure after another, to prohibit you from all those things Nature has provided for your enjoyment and highest good? Don't you see how the more. their grasp on you. slackens, the more they will try and take, so that they may better retain their hold, while you are less and less in a position to Free yourself, and more and more stupefied into submission because there is so little of the true man left in you to fight? Their very system is based on slavery (your slavery) as representing the highest perfection, though the Truth they once held- but never declared and therefore lost- was intended to lead you to Perfect Freedom.

But Truth, my brother, must once again be given to the world, though in a different language from of yore, because the very System that has held you in bondage so long, has used the Symbolism which in the days of The Christ radiated Truth and it has become so befouled with external and useless meanings that there is hardly a sentence of what once was Living Truth, that can now be' used by any True Man, without a feeling of shame, because the words have become so distorted and their meaning falsified for other and less worthy ends.

Therefore, brother, we use a new language, a new Symbolism for the veil of Truth as you will find if you study our Books and Writings, just as in years to come, if its purity again be lost, another and another System will arise, for the Truth is ever one, in whatever language its outer form may be clothed.

But in this tract I will not deal with the higher problems, I want to talk to you quite simply, as men and women, in your own language, so that you may understand and Rejoice. "There. is no law beyond DO WHAT THOU WILT."

All that you have learned to look upon as `good' which binds you and prevents you from doing your true Will and from enjoying the true Manhood and Womanhood that is yours by right - is SIN. There is no other sin. "The word of sin is restriction."

But when you enjoy yourselves and take delight in those pleasures of which the Life of man is made up, you must remember that every act of Pleasure and of Love is a Sacrament and as such is holy. That is just where you have been making the mistake in the past. You have looked upon these things as wrong, and therefore restricted yourselves and your actions making them sins instead of realizing their true value and perfect holiness. Again, if you drink wine, and so long as you enjoy it -and you will enjoy it when you understand how to use itit is not wrong, but you should drink unto the honour and glory of Our Lady of the Starry Heavens, Nuit, Who has Herself given us these teachings, and who tells us in our Holy Book, the Book of the Law, Liber Legis: "Be goodly therefore: dress ye all in fine apparel; eat rich foods and drink sweet wines and wines that foam! Also, take your fill and will of love as ye will, when, where and with whom ye will! But always unto me." If you ever bear this one point in mind, and remember that these acts are holy and sacred, not sins, but true virtues, life will at once wear a different aspect. You will no longer feel sorrowful or sad, and while you look upon the wine you drink as a Sacrament, you will never debase yourself by getting `drunk' in the old sense of the word, but you will ENJOY your drink as never before. Thus with Love, and all else in which you indulge and take delight. For "It is a lie, this folly against self - Be strong man! Lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this."

Be strong then, Brother, and be not afraid. Work, work hard and well, since your living depends on this, but after your toil is over, in your leisure hours, remember what we have told you, Seek Rapture, if only for an hour, and learn that Love is the law, love under will.

Greetings

My Dear Brothers and Sisters

In the course of human life when a voidity, an emptiness seems to enthrall the soul it is a great consolation to receive a token of whatever kind to assure us that others are thinking about us, that others are also concerned about our welfare. It fills the void, raises the spirit, gives new hope and zest for life.

Some of you who receive this may have thought so at one time or other. But you can never enter the path to illumination and be forgotten by those who have taken over the task to lead your way, and this is so because they themselves have passed through the same stages, have been helped, have been taught and have acquired “RIGHT KNOWLEDGE” and know the responsibility which it entails and sometime, each of you should expect to step into their place and lead others as you are, or have been led. The spiritual progressive urge of every human soul makes this course inevitable.

It is of Right Knowledge, Document No 2 of which I shall discourse with you this time.

Right knowledge may in truth be called: “The Pacifier of the Soul.” The nourishment of the soul is: Knowledge, Wisdom. What happens to the physical body when nourishment stops? It starves, becomes useless and an unfit instrument for the soul to manifest through. Therefore, the soul leaves that body; the body, having lost its governing principle, becomes lifeless, disintegrates.

Nature has given us here a good example to learn from.

Let us carry this process of the body, as a simile, into a higher realm of existence, that of the soul, and analyze the process on that plane.

The very fundamental constitution of the soul is hardly any different from that of the body it inhabits. It can build according as it is itself constituted but will not be able to step outside of that limit.

Healthy growth and activity of the body depend mainly on its proper nourishment. The same with the soul; proper nourishment is necessary for its progress and development. That nourishment, I repeat, is KNOWLEDGE, WISDOM, mental food, spiritual food.

An undernourished body manifests as and is called a Weakling. An undernourished soul manifests ignorance. Ignorance itself is weakness in whatever field it predominates. It is always the loser, whether it be in battle at arms, in battle for wealth, in battle for happiness, in battle for sustenance, but most decisive and far-reaching are the consequences of that weakness in battle with invisible evil forces.

Considering all from this aspect it should be evident to every thinking human being that the soul needs to be nourished as well as the body and its first duty after the awakening to full consciousness should be to keep the proper balance between physical and spiritual nutriment.

It is also a well known fact that he who labors is able to sit down and enjoy a good repast of physical nourishment, and, have you ever thought of this, that he, who performs mental or spiritual labors is equally able to feast and enjoy a good repast of soul-food, knowledge and wisdom? But the indulgent, lazy human being who performs no physical labor can never ENJOY a repast as well as he who is exerting his energies in some direction. Truly, he will get hungry responding to the natural impulse, but the joy, which is soulfood in another aspect, lacks that quality. He lets his soul starve to its limit, thus creating a discord or inharmony, having as its manifested result an unbalanced individual entity. Had not the Creator baptized each human soul with a spark of hunger for knowledge many a soul would virtually starve and perish as individual entities if such were possible.

Another picture. In order for the human body to be healthy and virile it has to take that kind of nourishment which is most suitable for its growth and state of health; in other words: Right nourishment is necessary to achieve that result. The same holds true in the life of the soul. Right knowledge is necessary for its development.

Again, some human beings will consume food hardly fit for human consumption; may even consume poisons; and live. Some may interject: and live; but how? Such food naturally will produce illness and failings. Under even the most favorable conditions it will impair the vitality, health and activities of the individual who indulges in such unwholesome foods, notwithstanding the claim of some stimulating effects of poisons.

The same analogy holds good if applied to the soul. Though it cannot die, but sometimes get very, very sick, it can consume nourishment entirely unfit for it; consume actual poisons which sometimes also have a stimulating effect and are taken as actual nourishment; and consume great quantities of it. It will transmit that poison to other souls not satisfied by its own suffering and impairments. Can the soul get sick you may ask? Yes, sick enough to commit suicide. It may probably be said for a truth that every suicide has been, and is caused by such soul-poison. The mental or spiritual carrion has rendered the soul so sick that it gives up in digest, throwing its life at the Creator’s feet practically declaring itself unwilling to suffer the consequences of its own actions.

Have you ever thought of what an unpleasant task it is to unlearn what you have accepted as the truth but found it to be pure soul-poison? The process of learning and unlearning has, as a simile in the material realm, the process of eating and disgorging; and is equally as painful and unpleasant, on one side as it is pleasant on the other. Poisons are consumed with the same facilities as Right food but how hard they are to eliminate from the body after they have permeated the system is another story. Even so is it with Soul-poisons of which a great variety are offered by so-called self-styled Masters, adepts, mahatmas and what not; Some offering a panacea for all ills of human society yet they themselves are seriously ill from the poisonous soul-food they have consumed; ill with a psychological malady which cannot be diagnosed by others.

We all, more or less, belong into that category which has eagerly devoured some of those poisons and, this holds good of all of us, are now endeavoring to eliminate them; equal to unlearn a lot of falsehoods we have held to be the truth. What a task this is! Tenaciously we cling to those fallacies; eagerly we seek for excuses to hold on to them. Though we may be fully convinced they are fallacies and yet, how reluctantly we part with them. This is one of the great paradoxes of human nature.

Now, my Dear Br. & Sis. Allow me to harken back to the time when you received your first U. B. paper. How did the reading of it affect you? Or have you lost your recollection of it? If so it does not show up to your credit as a Truth-seeker. Or, did you say to yourself: Well, I don’t see anything new in that? Or perhaps I know all that! In your selfwise estimation: “How did it affect you? I have heard these remarks even from very sincere students.

Yet with all the denial of the actual state of mind of the student at that time there is something the student either has not recognized or is unwilling to do so. I maintain there is something different to these papers than what the student expected; something of which most students if any, have never thought of; have never read in any book; a different approach to the mind of the student than any society, order or teaching has ever presented to him. He may in his inner reserve sense a little something but is unwilling to admit it to himself even, much less so to others. It is a remnant of dishonesty with ourselves which still holds us, but will stand out distinctly when the process of Self-analysis has progressed sufficiently to admit this self-deception.

The pretensions to be what we are not; the knowing what we don’t know; or the clinging to something of which we have a subconscious sense of being wrong, is one of the inconsistencies of spiritual-corporeal beings, due to the possession of free will. It is absolute dishonesty with oneself. It is an inordination hard to overcome. A painful disgorging process; but sooner or later we have to go through it.

The open confession of our ignorance is a sign of sincerity and leads, coupled with earnest effort to overcome the obstacle, quicker to the goal of Right Knowledge than almost anything else.

Now comes the question: “How can I know what is Right Knowledge, Truth? How can I acquire it?” This question is probably asked by every Human being one time or other, even if not in earnest.

Another question, to some extent the offspring of the foregoing one, is: “If there are those who are in possession of Right Knowledge why do they not come forward and teach the world; let the world know about it?”

The first question has the criteria of sincerity; but the second question bears, to a large extent, the stamp of insincerity. From another point of view the latter question shows ignorance and ulterior motives in bold type, insincere desire to take advantage may be father to that question.

Right Knowledge is not a concoction which can be prescribed and prepared for anyone like the physician prescribes a medicine; nor can it be condensed and acquired in the form of one short Universal Formula; no more so than a human being could take all its food for the period of its earthly life in one big meal. You may retort: Well, that seems absurd. Yet it would be no more absurd than to expect this Right Knowledge, which is Truth, being presented as a universal formula on a silver platter. The soul must take nourishment along with the body. We are subject to the limitations of time and therefore the acquisition of Right Knowledge also takes time.

Right Knowledge, as said in the document, is Knowledge of the system of the Universe. The system of the universe is as well each ones own system. Therefore, the first to learn is ones own system. Every human being is a miniature universe; his body representing the lower aspects of that universe, the ethereal, mineral, vegetable and animal kingdoms. The most outstanding feature of this visible universe is the mutation of matter which manifests as growth and decay; being also the original cause of the digestive process.

But his soul represents a higher aspect of that universe. It is also subject to a process of mutation but not like matter. Matter may remain matter but the soul must grow. Its food, Right Knowledge, Wisdom, add to it. Reason, Analysis, are the digestive process, experience the ills and joys of assimilation; but, since all mutation is a process subject to time and its limitations and the acquisition of Right Knowledge is a process of mutation, the folly of the second question becomes quite apparent.

I am glad to be able to say that we have indeed been fortunate to contact a source where Right Knowledge, the true soul-food, is dispensed. Some reactions are bound to ensue when the real soul-food meets the assimilated poisons. Some eliminating will have to take place. But the pains of elimination, (disgorging) like the training of the Athlete, pave the way to victory.

Therefore, be discriminative of your soul-food the same as you would be if you set down to a banquet table and you felt suspicious of the cleanliness of the nutriments. Become an epicure in that respect. Analyze before accepting. Don’t reject offhand, not until the victuals prove unwholesome; even then pick out the wholesome parts and enjoy them to the fullest. This means learn truth, learn the system of the Universe so you may become a co-worker therein thus gain experience by which the soul may grow and perform useful labor in that system, the same as any worker who desires to become proficient in some particular art. Question: “How can we know, or by what means can we recognize that, or when, Knowledge is RIGHT Knowledge?”

Learn from the book of creation, must ever be the answer. Creation reflects the Creator’s Idea. In order to make it a little more clear I will take recourse to a parallel:

Try the experiment of standing between two mirrors opposite each other. You will note an almost endless reflection of yourself at least so far as your eye may see. In the illusionary distance into which the mirror throws your own reflection your sight is lost; your reflection may be lost, but this you can not determine. You see in the nearest reflection an exact replica of yourself. The farther the reflection is thrown the less distinct it becomes till your image disappears entirely due to the limits of vision. From the first reflection one could adequately describe the originator of the image. From the second less so; less from the third and so forth. In the far distance the description of what is seen might be entirely unlike the original.

But would you, standing before the mirror, say that the image thrown by you is your very self? You would call that absurd. You would say, that is my image or shadow, or reflection. The mirror may be broken and immediately the reflection ceases. But, would the breaking of the mirror affect you? You would still be there unchanged but your reflection would have disappeared.

A Great Arcanum may be gleaned from this simile quoted by those with true spiritual perception.

The Macrocosm, as we behold it is the reflection we see in as concrete form as our minds are able to grasp. The Originator of that reflection is therefore the Creator. The mirror let us say, to suit our thesis, is your mind; the human mind; may be the angelic mind; who can tell. We know by experience that to some minds the Macrocosm is full of beauty, wonders and harmony. To others it appears to be a monster in disguise; To others just an ordinary machine working something like a Perpetuum Mobile; to others a Purposeless coming and going from nowhere to nowhere; others again see a glorious purpose therein. The state of mind (the mirror) may warp the reflection so its picture is entirely mishapen.

But there are those whose minds are clear to view the whole picture in all its splendor; and they are only too willing to give a good description of it if they find ready ears to listen. They are also nearest to the original cause of that reflection, The Creator, and therefore, in His Light can see or distinguish clearly. They are the real Masters or Teachers and should be revered as such.

Another picture. We know by experience that the universe is in a constant state of flux and change. This changing or revolving process as we may call it, may be likened to the presentation of a constantly different aspect of the Creators infinite reality to the spectator. We may say therefore that the Creator throws a constantly different aspect of His Infinite reality into that mirror.

Since we, men, are also reflections of Him we must be also in His likeness: in reality, compared to Him, as the image to the cause of the image; as the highest product of corporeal nature we must be the nearest the nearest in likeness to Him in the corporeal universe; therefore a closer reflection. Nearer in reality as well; a better image. But He has so vivified the image that it became a Conscious Entity, a beholder of the wonders of His reality. And, as hinted above, should the Macrocosm perish or pass away nothing would affect its Cause or the Source whence the reflection comes.

The task of all conscious entities in that Macrocosm is the learning of its workings, which is the Divine Will and purpose. That is Right Knowledge. The Right Interpretation of that will and purpose is Right Knowledge. Right Knowledge alone can enable the human soul to fulfill the Divine Will and co-operate in the Divine Purpose. Right Knowledge is the first prerequisite to attain to happiness and perfection. Right Knowledge alone can satisfy the souls limitless longing.

A great artist is able to build a good and true mirror. True Initiates, true masters are the artists whose mind has been built, through their own efforts and by Divine grace, to reflect a true picture of the aspects of the Divine Reality. They have lived in all ages and are living now. The world would perish without them; for they are the link between the Celestial and the Terrestrial planes. Their description has been handed down in tradition. To a large extent their description has been misinterpreted by others whose mind (mirror) distorted the picture as described by them. Few minds have been able to grasp the whole; many just a small part. But those who can only grasp a small part utter the loudest cry.

I did not intend to make this such a long epistle but as it seems there is so much to say on this subject that it is rather difficult to refrain from making this epistle too long. But I would like to give you another idea for comparison and development of your discriminative faculties in your search for Right Knowledge. I will quote this in the form of a parable.

The Kingdom of Heaven is likened unto a large tree covering the whole face of the earth. Under its branches all living creatures find sustenance, pleasure and joy. Its beauty is unexcelled. It is covered with blossoms all over. It is admired by all spectators. One of the creatures to whom it furnishes nourishment and protection plucks one of its blossoms. This creature, let us call it man, yearning for acclaim from its fellow-creatures, goes forth to proclaim that he has plucked the tree, the whole tree, on the strength of that one blossom. He finds ready followers to give him credit for his claim. He describes the blossom, to some extent, guarding it closely to prevent its destruction. But plucked from its parent stem, the blossom gradually fades. Others, like the one who plucked it, see it in its fading conditions; others again see it nearly withered; others again barely recognize it as a withered branch or blossom. Each in turn tries to describe it as he sees it. Yet they all make the same claim to have the whole tree, the whole Kingdom of Heaven in their grasp and who does not abide by the rules to attain to that Kingdom according to their conception is eternally excluded therefrom.

But there are also those who behold the whole tree in its full glory. They do not pluck the blossoms but study them, behold them ever blooming on the parent tree. They advise against listening to those, who pluck the blossoms, in the description of the tree. But Alas! They find few listeners, few followers. But it is they that truly rejoice in the beauty and splendor of that mighty tree reaping Peace and Happiness, freedom from the miseries which the lack of the trees full benefits entails.

Now let us interpret the meaning. The tree is “TRUTH” “RIGHT KNOWLEDGE.” The creature who plucks the blossom is Man, individual or collective. Individual the founder of a religion, the interpreter of religious tenets or dogmas or its promulgator; collectively the religion founded with its tenets and ramifications.

Each religion has such a flower equaling a certain truth but taken out of its proper setting. It is a kernel of truth but unrecognizable as to what the possibilities of the kernel are. It is a seed and that is all that is positively known. Is it going to be a thornbush or a poison tree or what? But it is a kernel and the life in the kernel may persist for a time. Ultimately the life in the kernel is withdrawn and the kernel then becomes sterile.

This is exactly the course of any such religion which makes just a little part of the truth its basic tenet. It will find adherents till the life or Truth has fled entirely when it disappears. To pluck one blossom and claim it exclusively to be the whole tree, or the truth is equivalent to claim to possess the only road to Heaven, yet it is only one tiny blossom. Equally, for a religion to prohibit its followers to study other blossoms (religions) is an indubitable sign that fear exists that other and even more beautiful blossoms may be discovered and enlighten its adherents more than is desirable to hold his allegiance. That religion or society which demands the absolute and undivided allegiance of its adherents is profoundly tainted with error and is inordinate in its esoteric basis. Use this as a clue in your search. That religion or society which encourages the delving into the tenets and mysteries of other religions and societies does not fear the consequences because they know that they are built on the solid rock of Truth.

REMEMBER: TRUTH SEPARATED BECOMES ERROR. Most of our present day religions are based mainly upon certain aspects (blossom or blossoms) of that tree, or Truth, and even those aspects are viewed in a distorted mirror, but whatever one may do is never to reject any religious tenets entirely and never condemn it. Look into its teachings and pluck the real blossom out of it and keep it alive, and make it your task, if possible, to refresh the withered blossom in that setting.

But what of the Beholder who analyses the blossoms of that tree in its freshness and splendor? He does not separate the blossoms and so appear to despoil the grandeur and beauty of the tree. To him every blossom is ever fresh, ever new, ever beautiful, ever grand. He sees the tree in its full glory, adores its beauty, worships its magnificence, rejoices in its bounty.

Does he shout of his discovery from the housetops? Of his knowledge? Or of the nature of the tree? Nay! In secret he cherishes the precious jewel ever waiting, ever eager to share the knowledge, the joys that are inalienable to it, with those who can recognize it, whose eyes are able to behold the brilliant splendor of the tree of UNIVERSAL TRUTH, Right Knowledge.

Knowledge of that tree has been gained through long ages of human endeavor to learn the truth and the span of a single individual life would be far too short to learn all its mysteries. Therefore for most of our knowledge we must look to tradition to furnish us the fundamental basis whereon each generation may build its addition. Therefore, Right Teaching is necessary.

Through Right Teaching we may attain to Right Knowledge; Right Knowledge enables us to Rightly Evaluate Truth and Right Evaluation of truth leads to Right Ordination.

You have, in your Obligations, expressed a willingness to receive that Right Knowledge but this in turn entails the duty to Rightly Ordinate your life according to its teachings in order to gain the benefits of Right Teaching and Knowledge which may at first not appear to you as such.

You have contacted a source where it is to be had, gained through the efforts of those who have gone before.

Are you a worthy student for this Right Knowledge or just a fluttering bat which must retire before the sun rises?

The first prerequisite to Right Knowledge:

KNOW THYSELF.

Your Elder Brother

In my Initiation I was taught to think backwards, and I am more and more convinced of the value of this practice. By thinking backwards the man who is nigh bankrupt sees his wealth slowly, or quickly, increasing instead of slipping from his grasp. There is nothing to fear when one thinks backwards, and oft’ times the further we go the more pleasing is the outlook; childhood is ahead of us instead of behind, and our last thought of this life, that of slipping back into the womb of our Mother.

Even further than that we many go, until we find ourselves as a tiny spermatzoon leaping joyfully back to the Loins of our Father. Then, even should we remember the present, have we not learned much and rediscovered the basic principle in ourselves; for that seed is as alive within us now as it was in him -- ever multiplying and dividing, ready to leap forth again on Its eternal mission.

Things sometimes seem very ordinary when we look at them as they appear to us now, but one little ‘trip backwards’ and we return refreshed. That which seemed so ‘ordinary’ becomes wonderfully illuminated by the light of our newly awakened memory of the past.

The Master Therion, it was, who taught me to think backwards, and this is the way I have come to think of the Master Therion. This method fills me with joy, for it leads towards my ideal. Listen!

I was with Him today. He was very ordinary, even a little petty it seemed. There was nothing about Him to arouse my enthusiasm. He was too near for me to appreciate Him. Before I went to see Him he was more interesting, because I imagined he would be so much better than I found him to be. But a little while ago I was with Him on Oesopus Island, and there, as I remember, He seemed even better still. He told me such and taught me so much that I delighted greatly in His company.

But before that, a little while before that, He was better still. I had just come to New York to visit Him, and there seemed so much He could tell me and be to me, for was He not my Magical Father, and had I not given up all to be with Him in His Work and to learn from His example the Way of Life and the True Path?

Yet, even before that He seemed better still; for months I had longed to be with Him, to listen to His words of Wisdom, that mine Understanding might be perfect -- even as His Son’s should be. Then I had but lived with Him on other Planes, and though others had told me much that might have disheartened me...yet but I must hark back again.

Before that - last December in fact - He seemed very wonderful; even though perhaps I felt that I might find my Path led to a place where I must meet Him in terrible conflict -- for was he not the Great Magician of the Path of Beth?

But, before that, had I not thought of Him as Pure Wisdom - the Word of the Aeon - so that His Attainment was such a wonderful thing that it affected every living thing. Did I not feel that every thought of His was a Word of Power, and that every Act was a Sacrament of utmost Purity?

And before that, had I not plunged into the Abyss to become NEMO, sitting in Darkness and Sorrow, that He might Attain fully the Grade of Magus? Had I not before that given Him up, so that He might be free? -- because I thought so much of all that He had done for Humanity, and for me. What a wonderful conception I had of Him then.

And before that, was he not my Master and my dearest treasure? -- for from Him I received the Secrets of High Magick. Did not His Image surpass the Stars in my sight?

But even before that, had He not come to me in the City of Vancouver, in His body of flesh, and appeared so fine and perfect a man that all who met Him were delighted in His presence; even in the presence of His body, for that it encased a soul of such Wonderful Power and Brilliance that all was Light in His Presence.

And before that, had He not been to me as Frater O.M., a mysterious Being; One with the Great White Brotherhood whose Nature was but dimly shadowed in my mind as my Highest Aspiration, so that the whole Power of the Deity seemed enshrined in him? Wonder beyond Wonder that He might even be V.V.V.V.V., the Light of the World Himself, disguised under the name O.M.

And before that -- PERDURABO -- He that shall endure to the End. Nameless, almost unknown to me perhaps, but living for the Good of Every living thing -- even me.

And before that? I knew him not: He was one with my Ideal - my self.

And now, He is my Ideal; insofar as I know Him not. Today it may be He approaches the Infinitely Small. Yesterday He appeared as the Infinitely Great.

And to-morrow?

Achad, 1918

- oOo -

After thinking it over for another 30 years I still feel that perhaps this is the best way to view the Master Therion.

Achad, May 13, 1948

Nothing! How many have grasped the idea, or more correctly the essence of idea, which this word conveys and boldly, unflinchingly, gazed upon it, striving to obtain a hint of the real meaning it contains? How many, having done so, have gone further yet and realized that they have a right to it, that it is all to which they have a right - and been content?

Man is content with nothing; but there are two ways of looking at this statement. Some there be who, having attached themselves to the idea that they have something, nothing contents but they must have more.

Some, again, desiring "nothing" would give all that they have to obtain it.

Both have in view a goal, both strive to obtain it, and fail, unless, at some point, tired with striving "absence of goal" invites the struggling wandered, and he "Becomes"?

Let us now examine a little more closely these paths which lead nowither, yet which we daily tread so earnestly and with such desperate toil.

Let us look upon those, our brothers, who are striving ever to obtain more - more money, more fame, more love, more happiness, more learning, more knowledge, more life, and more power to enjoy these.

What an endless vista is opened up.

And contentment? Peace? Where do these find their place?

Those who travel by one, or all, of these roads have given such questions but scant consideration. They dare not ask themselves those questions, and even should they find courage to do so, what would be the answer?

They will never be at peace or contented till they have ALL.

Failing that, there can be no rest, no peace; and yet, such is the force of desire that they grasp, and grasp and grasp...

Now, suppose for a moment ALL could be obtained, what would be left to grasp? NOTHING!

Who can conceive of a greater hell than this, that having grasped ALL, still to long for more, with, by then, an infinite desire, yet with absolutely no means of gratifying it?

And yet that is the logical end of such a path, and many there be that walk therein.

Now let us turn out thought in another direction. Let us say that we will make that very NOTHING, or end of desire, our Goal, and then strive to cut short the journey by that means.

The moment we turn out attention to this line of thought and decide that "peace and contentment" lie along the path of giving, or getting rid, of all we have until NOTHING remains, we are up against another problem quite as difficult as the former one, although perhaps the path appears a little more direct and therefore shorter.

The moment one decides that he wants nothing he begins to realize what a lot he really has got to get rid of before he obtains it.

He begins to think in good earnest now, if never before, And when he has thought for a while he begins to take consolation in the fact that it is not necessary that he should take up much time in disposing of his worldly possessions because they no longer seem to be a part of his make-up, and the best way to get rid of them is simply to forget them - rather than try and dispose of them in any other way.

Even were he actually to dispose of his earthly possessions it would make no real difference, for he realizes, by this time, that even should he cease to desire these, and yet keep his thought upon them, they would continue to flow to him unasked.

He decides, therefore, to keep his thought away from these things as much as possible.

In order that he may do this, let us suppose that he now sits down and tries to forget all these material things. What is the result? Probably he fails at first, but he will still try, for by this time he will have become a very positive and determined man.

One thing he begins to realize, after a while, and that is the fact that he remembers less and less of these things the more he really strives to eliminate them, and this gives him some hope of finally ridding himself of them.

By this time, however, he begins to realize something else rather strongly, viz: that he still has a body, and that that body is becoming decidedly uncomfortable owing to the necessity of his remaining still while he is thinking over the problems. He realizes, in fact, that this body of his is an item which requires serious consideration, whether he wishes or not.

How shall he dispose of this difficulty?

Suicide?

This immediately bring up the possibility of something continuing after physical death, something which may or may not make it easier for him to attain his goal.

Of course if the death of the physical body ends all, suicide is the very shortest possible way of getting rid of all things, and so immediately attaining his purpose. But, suppose something does remain, what then?

In any event, he thinks, it would be better to wait a bit and thrash this matter out before deciding.

Meanwhile, the body calls for consideration, it is in fact becoming damned uncomfortable and refuses to remain in one position any longer. Thus he is obliged to give up, for the time being, and take a rest by means of action for a while.

This little meditation has shown him that he has at any rate got to wait a bit and that after all the Goal is not so near or so easily obtainable as it seemed at first.

At this point, maybe, he tries to give up in despair, sooner or later to realize that that is just what he has already set out to do and that it is no use adding "despair" to the task, since it would only be a new element to be got rid of later on.

At this point some go mad and in consequence defer the real struggle to a later period, or another life. But supposing that is not the case with our hero, what then?

Gradually he gets his body under control, for he now clearly realizes that he must do the same with his body as he has done with his other earthly possessions, viz: forget about it.

This at first is not an easy task, but slowly and surely, having first placed it in a position in which it can remain for long periods without discomfort or strain on any of the organs, he masters it, until it readily answers his commands and remains steady and firm.

He forgets his body.

Has he now arrived at NOTHING? And given up ALL?

Not yet.

He has, it is true given up the desire for outside objects, but they have not parted company with him yet. As he sits quietly there every little sound from outside vibrates within him, whether he desires it or not, and with each sound comes the memory of what that sound meant to him in the outer world.

The ringing of a fire bell, for instance, starts up in his mind the images or the memories of fires he has known of or watched, or else he finds himself following in thought the engine as it races along the road and round the corner- the bell becoming fainter and fainter and dying away, but still leaving him, in imagination, climbing ladders, saving people from death, watching the crowd of upturned faces in the glow of the flames, until, with a start, he realizes that he is creating mental images and that these are colouring his mind, one after another, and that his goal of NOTHING is as far from him as ever.

He remembers, perhaps, Descartes', "I think, therefore I am," but, if he is strong enough he says: "I will STOP thinking, and I am NOT."

Steady and sure he starts on this new and more delicate process of subduing the transformations of the thinking principle. First he rids himself of the sounds from outside, then arise memories of events that occurred during the day but, conquering these, old and forgotten memories crowd into his mind. Endless seems the task. Then, strange and disconnected sentences and words invade the growing stillness, seeming to come from nowhere, but distracting the attention all the same, and before these are finally dealt with, and in the intervals, he is carried away on the wings of great emotions which gradually take on a more and more abstract form, yet which still have to be suppressed.

Need we follow this tortured soul through all the experiences that pursue him relentlessly - enough that the black abyss of NOTHINGNESS glooms ahead, and with it FEAR takes possession of his being and for the first time he realizes, really realizes, the nature of the task he has set out to perform.

The danger of madness or obsession is at this point greatly increased, and only passes when he has overcome the very Fear of Fear itself.

If he plunges towards the goal he has set up before this Fear is finally overcome, he is lost and his hell will probably represent as awful a conception as that other he described at the beginning of this essay. To live in blank, unknown, nothingness, haunted by fear or that very unknown nothingness itself. Let us not dwell on this, it is too frightful a conception to be held before the mind for a moment...

But, if he does not fail?

Having overcome his fear of NOTHINGNESS he realizes it, not as a Goal, but as ABSENCE OF GOAL.

Suddenly he realizes that he IS and that the goal never existed either outside or within the "self." Existence then is known to be the only Reality.

At last he attains to Understanding. He sees himself as one gazing into a mirror.

Then arises the right state of a peaceful mind...and the final stages must be a quotation:

"The glass vanishes, and with it the reflection, the illusion of Mara or Maya. He is Reality, He is Truth, He is Atman, He is God. Then Reality vanishes, Truth vanishes, Atman vanishes. He is past, He is present, He is future. He is here, He is there, He is everything, He is nowhere, He is Nothing. He is Blessed, he has attained the Great Deliverance. He IS, he IS NOT, He is one with Nibbana. Amen."

1. Do you consider yourself to be living in the Old or the New Aeon?

2. If in the former, how would you designate it; (2b) If the latter how would you designate it?

3. If the former, do you wish to try to qualify for the latter?

4. Liber Legis, Chapter I, verse 50 says:

"Behold! there are three ordeals in one, and it may be given in three ways. The gross must pass through fire; let the fine be tried in intellect, and the lofty chosen ones in the highest."

To which of these three classses do you consider yourself to belong?

5. If to the first: What do you suppose is meant by the words "must pass through fire"? Are you prepared to try to pass this ordeal?

6. If the second, please answer the following questions:

THE PLENUM IS INFINITE; ITS MANIFESTATION IN TIME AND SPACE, THROUGH CHANGE, BECOMES "ALMOST INFINITE".'

(a) Is this statement philosophically, theologically or mystically true?

(b) Can you symbolically shew it to be such?

7. If the third, please answer this question :

How is it possible, other than mentally or spiritually, to feast in the presense of ones' enemies (as, for example, while under guard in a concentration camp) without visible motion of any kind which could attract attention?

 

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law

Love is the law, love under will.

The Law is for all.

Yours in Unity and Love
Achad
June 17, 1948.

Three carbons made. Copies sent to Yorke, Handel and Kowal.