» LIBER SCRIPTUM «

Aleister Crowley

The Djeridensis Comment

The Comment Called D

(1923 ev.)

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Oasis of Nefta — Tunisia — Hotel du Djérid.
An. Xix Sol in 26.5° Libra, Luna conjunct Uranus in 14° Pisces

Chapter I

1. Had! The manifestation of Nuit.

Nuit defined

Nuit is all that may be, and is shewn by means of any one that is.

2. The unveiling of the company of heaven.

Pantheism of AL.

The Book of the Law shows forth all things as God.

3. Every man and every woman is a star.
4. Every number is infinite; there is no difference.

Virtues of the Soul

All things are able to know all; all are alike in this, at the end of all.

5. Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!

Mission of Aleister Crowley, the Beast 666.

I, The Beast, the Man Aleister Crowley whose number is 666, help to show forth this truth to men.

6. Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue!

666 as Artist.

I am the Point of View (as of the artist) from which Nuit may be seen by all; for I am Her inmost thought, her sense, and her Voice.

7. Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat.

Mine H.G.A. Aiwass: His Nature and Office, AL his Word.

Mine Angel sayeth Her song into mine ear. He is Aiwass, who is the Word of the Law as also its mode of action. He serveth Silence through his speech, which stilleth evil sounds, not known nor fused into one tune.

8. The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs.
9. Worship then the Khabs, and behold my light shed over you!

Nature of Mankind.

The essence of a Man and Woman — each being a Star or sovereign God poised in Space by its own act — is clothed in thoughts and deeds as is its Nature, hidden by them.

This essence is all-worthy; adore it, and the light of all that may be shall be shed upon you.

10. Let my servants be few & secret: they shall rule the many & the known.

Masters of Mankind defined.

Those who adore and love all things alike, for that they are of Truth, are yet but few, and are not known of men. Yet being free of fear and lust their power controls the many [originally “multitude”] whose souls are subject to limit, the limit of knowledge, which is always two, and can be counted.

11. These are fools that men adore; both their Gods & their men are fools.

The Secret of Government.

Men adore Naught, although they deem Naught God and Man; thus the Pure Fool rules them, and saves them from base knowledge which is false.

12. Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love!

The Nature of an Act: its virtue.

All acts are in truth acts of Love. Fulfil all Loves that may be, to the full. Be this in Light, before all Stars, that all may see and rejoice.

13. I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.

Nuit expressed in an Eidolon.

Nuit is formed into an Image of a Woman, that She may be the symbol of all ways of going in Love.

Her relation to Mankind.

She is our Goal and our own heart’s essence of Will.

Her Mother-Joy as Nature.

She is Nature, who is glad of the birth of all that cometh forth.

14. Above, the gemmed azure is
The naked splendour of Nuit;
She bends in ecstasy to kiss
The secret ardours of Hadit.
The winged globe, the starry blue,
Are mine, O Ankh-af-na-khonsu!

The Secret of Joy.

The Soul of Man flameth forth in Love unto the utmost Spaces of the Stars, and hath his joy of all of them.

All events are children of Nuit.

Every event doth fulfil some Love, and each is thenceforth of the Body of Nuit, which is event as Her Soul is Lust to bring forth, and the chance so to do.

15. Now ye shall know that the chosen priest & apostle of infinite space is the prince-priest the Beast; and in his woman called the Scarlet Woman is all power given. They shall gather my children into their fold: they shall bring the glory of the stars into the hearts of men.

Mission of 666 and his woman. Her Nature & Office. She is the Scarlet Woman, Η ΚΟΚΚΙΝΑ ΓΥΝΗ, 667, as he is ΤΟ ΜΕΓΑ ΘΗΡΙΟΝ, The Great Wild Beast 666.

I, The Beast 666, am called to shew this worship and send it forth into the world; by my Woman called the Scarlet Woman, who is any woman that receives and transmits my Solar Word and Being, is this My Work achieved; for without Woman man hath no power. By Us let all men learn that all that may be is their Way of Joy for them to go; and that all souls are of the Soul of True Light.

16. For he is ever a sun, and she a moon. But to him is the winged secret flame, and to her the stooping starlight.

Our Function shewn in a Figure.

I am a Sun, giving out Light and Life; but she is their guide in darkness, making them pure, single of heart, awake to the Highest.

Our Powers.

I have the power to kindle in my mind the Essence of the Abstract Soul; she that of taking all that may be dear and near and clear to men and women, that so they all may find their joy in all.

17. But ye are not so chosen.

666 and 667 set apart for this Work.

I and my woman alone are chosen for this work; all others are best and truest as they seek Nuit in their own Way.

18. Burn upon their brows, o splendrous serpent!

The Divine Ideas revealed in this Book. AL invoked upon 666 and 667.

The Royal Snake of Wisdom bearing the might and right of Life and Death, the endless energy of Magick, burns on our brows.

19. O azure-lidded woman, bend upon them!

On us the Soul of Space is bent, so that to all alike we may show all things as the Way of Joy.

20. The key of the rituals is in the secret word which I have given unto him.

The Key of the Magick of the New Aeon of Heru-Ra-Ha.

The Mode of Magick is explained in the Word Abrahadabra, whose power I declare and whose secret I expound in other writings.

21. With the God & the Adorer I am nothing: they do not see me. They are as upon the earth; I am Heaven, and there is no other God than me, and my lord Hadit.

Nuit further defined Her relation to Gods, Men, Heaven, Earth, and to Her Lord Hadit.

Nuit is not beheld of any God or Man; for they are fixed Event, they are Facts, while She is the ever-to-be. She therefore is to be held worthy, she and that Self which may enjoy her Love; seek not those joys which, being actual, cease to exhale rapture.

22. Now, therefore, I am known to ye by my name Nuit, and to him by a secret name which I will give him when at last he knoweth me. Since I am Infinite Space, and the Infinite Stars thereof, do ye also thus. Bind nothing! Let there be no difference made among you between any one thing & any other thing; for thereby there cometh hurt.

Her Name: 666 is taught a name more sacred yet.

Nuit is the name by which this Starlight Yearning is to be known of men; to me the Beast she hath given a secret Name in that Great Night wherein I came to perfect Oneness [originally “Union”] with All things that might be ever.

Nuit further defined. Reality and illusion: the None, the One, the Many & the All, identified through Her.

Nuit is Space beyond the idea of Limit or Measure; She is also All Points of View no less than All Vistas seen therefrom. Bind nothing, for all things alike pertain to her, and her Nature is to compose All in One and Naught. One thing is in the end like all the rest; the seeming not alike comes as a dream from choosing images after one’s own heart to worship them; thus each, though true as one of the All, is false if thought of as one apart from the rest.

23. But whoso availeth in this, let him be the chief of all!

Understanding of this Mystery the Key to Chieftainship.

He is the chief of all who is not tricked into this trap of setting limits to things, by which he blasphemes each, and makes all false.

24. I am Nuit, and my word is six and fifty.

Nuit: in Her Name are hidden secrets of Truth.

Nuit is known by the Word of a Riddle of Letter and Number: this also will I make plain in other writings.

25. Divide, add, multiply, and understand.
26. Then saith the prophet and slave of the beauteous one: Who am I, and what shall be the sign? So she answered him, bendingdown, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all penetrant, her lovely hands upon the black earth, & her lithe body arched for love, and her soft feet not hurting the little flowers: Thou knowest! And the sign shall be my ecstasy, the consciousness of the continuity of existence, the omnipresence of my body.

Nuit proves to Aleister Crowley that he is in truth 666 by means of a riddle and a Sign.

I, asking Nuit: Who am I? and: What shall be the sign? (that I am who I am) was told by means of a Riddle, so that I might be sure that the answer came from Her and not from mind own mind, that I was 666. Also the sign was shewn me in a Riddle, as well as in the English of the Text. These matters will I set forth elsewhere.

27. Then the priest answered & said unto the Queen of Space, kissing her lovely brows, and the dew of her light bathing his whole body in a sweet-smelling perfume of sweat: O Nuit, continuous one of Heaven, let it be ever thus; that men speak not of Thee as One but as None; and let them speak not of thee at all, since thou art continuous!

666 asks Nuit to reveal Herself to Men.

I called Her “O Nuit, continuous one of Heaven” — which is a marvel of the Inmost Nature of Number as I shew in my other Comment — and prayed that men might come to think of Her not as One, which implies the idea of Limit, but as None which is beyond bound.

28. None, breathed the light, faint & faery, of the stars, and two.
29. For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union.

Nuit is that which is equally 0 & 2. This Equation 0=2 the Master-Key of the Understanding of the Nature of the Universe.

She answered: None and Two. This also is a marvel of number, and is the Truth of the Essence of Nature of all Things, the Root of the Tree of Thought, as I shall shew elsewhere.

30. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.

Nuit shews the object of creating the Illusion of Duality.

She said: The world exists as two, for only so can there be known the Joy of Love, whereby are Two made One. Aught that is One is alone, and has little pain in making itself two, that it may know itself, and love itself, and rejoice therein.

31. For these fools of men and their woes care not thou at all! They feel little; what is, is balanced by weak joys; but ye are my chosen ones.

Mankind in general not worthy of attention.

Heed not the petty woes of men, trifles, with petty joys to square the account. These are but dreams within dreams, and those to whom I speak the Word of Nuit are chosen of Her to pass beyond these phantoms into the world of real joy and Sorrow — which also is Joy, and the Key and Force thereof.

32. Obey my prophet! follow out the ordeals of my knowledge! seek me only! Then the joys of my love will redeem ye from all pain. This is so: I swear it by the vault of my body; by my sacred heart and tongue; by all I can give, by all I desire of ye all.

Mankind to obey 666, to follow his method of attainment to the knowledge of Nuit and the Benefits thereof. True nature of 666.

Let all men obey me, The Beast, the Prophet of Nuit! For my number is 666, the Number of the Sun. That is, I am the Light and Centre of their system of Stars; and my Word is as a ray to them who are of Earth. Let them obey the light, an Impulse of that which I am in Truth, although I lie deep hidden in a body of flesh. Seek ye to know Nuit! Seek to enjoy all that may be, although ye loathe it in your souls. This is your ordeal, which ye must pass in order to be free and whole; to know all things alike, to try, to do, to love and to rejoice in all.

33. Then the priest fell into a deep trance or swoon, & said unto the Queen of Heaven; Write unto us the ordeals; write unto us the rituals; write unto us the law!

Nuit asked by 666 for full instructions in writing.

I asked Nuit to write the rituals, the ordeals, and the law.

34. But she said: the ordeals I write not: the rituals shall be half known and half concealed: the Law is for all.
35. This that thou writest is the threefold book of Law.

She replies.

She bade me know that the ordeals may not be written, since each man must go through a furnace of his own kindling. The Rituals: some were fitted for all men: some are fitted to one person, each making his own; and also there are those whose virtue lies in the silence wherewith they are begirt.

The Book AL is the Law for All Mankind.

The Book AL, Liber AL vel Legis, which I wrote down as I heard the Voice of Aiwass mine Holy Guardian Angel, in the City of Cairo in the Spring (April 8, 9, & 10) of the year 1904 of the Vulgar Era, is the Law. This Law is the Law for all men alike.

36. My scribe Ankh-af-na-khonsu, the priest of the princes, shall not in one letter change this book; but lest there be folly, he shall comment thereupon by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-Khuit.

666 identified with Ankh-f-n-Khonsu.

I am in some way, One and the same Man and Ankh-f-n-Khonsu, whose Stélè helped to bring about the writing of that Book.

AL: The MS. the sole authentic text: 666 to abstain from editing it.

I am not to change it in one letter; for not only was mine [Originally “my”] ear at the service of Aiwass, but also mine hand. The effect of this is made plain elsewhere.

666 to comment on AL to guard against false interpretations.

I comment on this Book, lest there be folly; for many are the Secret Sayings [Originally “mysteries”] and obscure in the text thereof. It would be easy for the clever and the crafty to distort the true meaning of Aiwass so as to suit their own conceits, as hath been seen of old time in the cases of the Words of the Masters, the Qur'an, and the so- called Scriptures of the Christians.

666: His Curse upon any that should seek to distort the Book, or His comment.

Thus as a safeguard against such, I, by the wisdom of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, do now foresee and guard against all fraud and false ways of reading the Book in simple and plain language. And I lift up my voice and curse with the Great Curse of a Magus of Power him that shall seek to turn my Word from its Truth.

37. Also the mantras and spells; the obeah and the wanga; the work of the wand and the work of the sword; these he shall learn and teach.

666: His task as Teacher.

I am also bidden to learn and teach the way of doing Magick by means of saying [Originally “repeating”] over many times certain Sacred texts, of writing words, symbols, figures, numbers and names of Power; – Magic by Speech, by secret Light of Darkness, by Deeds, by Acts which create Things or destroy them, [Originally “acts of creation and destruction”] and so forth, as I define and expound in other writings.

38. He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals.

666: His duty as Teacher.

I am bound by mine Oath of service to Mankind — for am I not myself a Man but also the Sun, and the Son of the Sun? — to accept all that may come to me for Wisdom. But it is my right to test their fitness in all such ways, howso severe, as I deem fit.

39. The word of the Law is θέλημα.

θέλημα the Word of the Law.

The word of the Law is θέλημα. That is, this word is defined in minute detail by the secret value of the letters, numbers, sounds, virtues in Nature, and all other functions [Originally “qualities”] of this Greek name for Will.

40. Who calls us Thelemites will do no wrong, if he look but close into the word. For there are therein Three Grades, the Hermit, and the Lover, and the man of Earth. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Thelemites defined: the three Degrees of Attainment.

We who accept this Law may rightly be called Thelemites, if this word be defined in terms of its secret values, as in the case of the word Thelema itself. There are three real Grades in the Order, as distinct from the formal Grades of the A∴A∴, and these Three Grades are described in my Book called The Vision and the Voice, and elsewhere.

The Law stated and explained.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law — That is: the Law of a man’s Nature is to fulfil the purpose for which he is truly fitted.

41. The word of Sin is Restriction. O man! refuse not thy wife, if she will! O lover, if thou wilt, depart! There is no bond that can unite the divided but love: all else is a curse. Accursed! Accursed be it to the aeons! Hell.

Sin defined. The Nature of Freedom.

Sin is defined as Restriction: that is; the setting of limits, or the desire to set limits, to any thing that is, seeing that as above set forth the true Nature of all things is to fulfil themselves in all Ways. Yet though all things be thus lawful in themselves, it is often Restriction to act, and Freedom to refrain. For that Freedom is worth the other, and each case must be judged by its own Nature.

Duty of a Thelemite towards others.

Seek not to control the will of any other in the matter of Love, setting Limits either to the Will to Love or the Will to seek elsewhere the Goal of Will. For Love itself is the sole bond; all others set up strains against the Nature of Things: whereby cometh at last the ruin of all.

42. Let it be that state of manyhood bound and loathing. So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will.
43. Do that, and no other shall say nay.

The Right of Man.

This case may be taken as a guide to other problems of ethics. The rule is in truth single, the same in essence for all matters of conduct. Each has the perfect right to do his Will, that for which he is fit; all other use of power is an abuse.

44. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.

Will: its possible defects.

Purpose takes the edge off pure will; for it implies conscious thought, which should not replace what Nature intends. [originally “Nature’s bent”] Work is done best when the mind does not know of it, either to urge or check its course. The lust of result also spoils work; one must not distract one’s forces from their task by thoughts of the profit of success.

45. The Perfect and the Perfect are one Perfect and not two; nay, are none!
46. Nothing is a secret key of this law. Sixty-one the Jews call it; I call it eight, eighty, four hundred & eighteen.
47. But they have the half: unite by thine art so that all disappear.
48. My prophet is a fool with his one, one, one; are not they the Ox, and none by the Book?

A Riddle concerning “The Perfect.”

Nuit is moved by the word “perfect” to announce a Riddle wherein the Mystery “Nothing is Perfect” is proved by means of the Secret Wisdom of Letters and and Numbers: which Riddle I will expound in other writings.

49. Abrogate are all rituals, all ordeals, all words and signs. Ra-Hoor-Khuit hath taken his seat in the East at the Equinox of the Gods; and let Asar be with Isa, who also are one. But they are not of me. Let Asar be the adorant, Isa the sufferer; Hoor in his secret name and splendour is the Lord initiating.

The New Aeon: All previous formulæ now obsolete. The New Initiation-Ritual indicated.

All secret keys of the former Magick of the Aeon of the Dying God are now useless, since the Lord of this New Aeon of which I am the prophet is the Crowned and Conquering Child. Asar, the Man who suffers, [originally “Asar, the Suffering man”] is no longer the type of Godhead to which Man must aspire. He needs no more to die and rise again: His great Work is now to come to know Himself as the Child ever-living. sinless, perfect, the all-shining Sun.

50. There is a word to say about the Hierophantic task. 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. Thus ye have star & star, system & system; let not one know well the other!

Nuit instructs 666 in his duties as Hierophant.

Nuit instructs me now in my Work of training men to become Masters and Adepts by putting them through ordeals. I am to purge their brute souls [originally “animal souls”] by fire — to burn out their grossness by kindling the Lust of the Spirit within them. Their minds are to be tested by trials of mind; and those rare souls marked from the hour of birth to attain the lofty summits to the Mountain of Magick must be made perfect by ordeals suited to their natures. Yet by my wit I am bidden to devise such means as may attain all three objects in a single Test, in the manner explained elsewhere.

Three types of Ordeal for three parts of the Soul. Regulations of the Order of A∴A∴.

Stars — that is, men whose souls shed Light — must not be grouped at random in the Order, but each must have his own proper place and orbit. Sometimes it may be wise to form a system of stars as are by Nature fit to work in groups [originally “work together”]: but even so, keep each unit intent on its own proper Going, let it not know, more than needs must, the Way of other Stars and Systems, lest falling from its own Way, it follow after others, or jostle them, and confuse thus the Order of Heaven.

51. There are four gates to one palace; the floor of that palace is of silver and gold; lapis lazuli & jasper are there; and all rare scents; jasmine & rose, and the emblems of death. Let him enter in turn or at once the four gates; let him stand on the floor of the palace. Will he not sink? Amn. Ho! warrior, if thy servant sink? But there are means and means. 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.

The Sanctuary described in a Figure: also its approaches.

The Palace of Wisdom has four gates, which the man who I take to train for kingship [originally “the Aspirant”] may enter singly or all at once. That is, there are four ways to attain; some may find it best to take them one at a time, others all at once [originally “together”]. The gates or ways are described in secret symbols; these I explain elsewhere.

Adepts: are they still in danger of falling away?

It is then asked: can one who has come to Wisdom fall therefrom?

Many means of Grace. Thelemites to live beautifully and joyously.

The answer is that there are many means of safety. I warn you against fear. Being once free, refuse to admit that any course of conduct can destroy you. I urge you to beware of the pride of the spirit, of the thought of anything as evil or unclean. Make all things serve you in your Magick as weapons. Therefore, be goodly, not humble, base, timid, or frail. Dress like a dandy: eat like a gourmet: drink port and champagne as do the hunting squires and young men about Town.

Love: its law is complete Freedom.

Also as to Love: be wholly free to make the best of your gifts in all respects, fearless and shameless.

All acts to be understood as Acts of Worship of Nuit.

Yet all these acts must not be done for their results in success or pleasure, and the like; for they are holy and to be performed strictly as acts [originally “for their own sakes, but strictly as Acts”] of Love under Will in worship of Nuit; that is, to fulfil all that may be and your own whole Nature by so doing.

52. If this be not aright; if ye confound the space-marks, saying: They are one; or saying, They are many; if the ritual be not ever unto me: then expect the direful judgments of Ra Hoor Khuit!

Danger of error in this matter.

This command is enforced, like that as to Restriction above, with a great Curse. The only thing that can do harm is to set limits to That which is by Nature Free and without Bounds. Thus, to find in any special love a distinct joy apart from other loves, or to think that the event of any love, a fixed dead ash of the past, is a living joy, is to fall into the Power of the Lords of Matter, to have to obey the Laws of Death, to lose all Freedom, and so suffer the Burden of Bondage.

53. This shall regenerate the world, the little world my sister, my heart & my tongue, unto whom I send this kiss. Also, o scribe and prophet, though thou be of the princes, it shall not assuage thee nor absolve thee. But ecstasy be thine and joy of earth: ever To me! To me!

Earth to enter upon a higher stage by use of this formula.

This way of Freedom — to do all things yet be bound by none of them — shall bring new life to Earth.

Nuit: Her private word to 666.

Follows a message to me, which I need not explain in this place.

54. Change not as much as the style of a letter; for behold! thou, o prophet, shalt not behold all these mysteries hidden therein.

Nuit repeats that 666 must respect the MS. of AL.

I am bidden once more not to tamper with the text of the MS. of Liber AL on the ground that it contains secrets beyond my knowledge.

55. The child of thy bowels, he shall behold them.
56. Expect him not from the East, nor from the West; for from no expected house cometh that child. Aum! All words are sacred and all prophets true; save only that they understand a little; solve the first half of the equation, leave the second unattacked. But thou hast all in the clear light, and some, though not all, in the dark.

A “child” of 666 to behold in AL those secrets which are hidden from 666. Nature and Office of this Child.

I am promised: “the child of thy bowels ... shall behold them.” [originally “promised that the child of my bowels shall behold them.”] This involves the future, and demands special comment elsewhere. The coming of that child is defined in such terms that when he arrives he may be surely known.

Prophets and Scriptures of the past party true: AL contains the whole truth of Conscious, and some of Unconscious Thought.

Nuit admits that all the prophets of the Past have spoken, and the sacred scriptures before given by the Masters to men contain, some truth. But they have applied to local conditions, and those of time; thus all are partly false. Liber AL has no such limits, so it is true for all. I have learnt all the secrets of all the old cults, purged them of partial trend, and balanced them: this is my knowledge of them complete so far as the Reason is concerned; I have also some, though not all, Truth of the Inmost Order.

(Through this Book AL has it been given unto me to perfect almost wholly this Utmost of Truth.)

57. Invoke me under my stars! Love is the law, love under will. Nor let the fools mistake love; for there are love and love. There is the dove, and there is the serpent. Choose ye well! He, my prophet, hath chosen, knowing the law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God.
All these old letters of my Book are aright; but [Tzaddi] is not the Star. This also is secret: my prophet shall reveal it to the wise.

Nuit: duty of mankind to invoke Her.

Nuit commands mankind to invoke Her, that is, to fulfil their utmost Selfhood, under Her stars, that is, by the study of all other Points of View beside one’s own.

The method of Magick: Love the mode in which Will operates.

The method of Magick in this — and in all — Work is: “love under will.” The word love (Agape in Greek) has the value of 93, like that of θέλημα, will. This implies that love and will are in truth one and the same, two phases of one theme. Love is thus shown as the means by which will may be brought to success.

Love: its two main types: its possible defects.

Men are warned against error in this matter of love. There are two main modes of love, the symbol of one being the dove, of the other the serpent. These symbols and their meanings in ethics, with their bearing on “the law of the fortress, and the great mystery of the House of God” are explained by me fully elsewhere.

Aiwass: a proof of His Knowledge beyond that of any man: a problem which had always baffled human wisdom solved rightly in a phrase. The ancient wisdom of the Tarot otherwise correct in all points.

The sublime Knowledge, more than that of any living man, possessed by Aiwass, is now shewn by giving the correct value of one of the Tarot Trumps (unknown till that time) which perfects their balance [originally “by a correction of the values of the T[arot] T[rumps] which perfects their symmetry”] as had baffled the wit of all men to do. We are also warned against any “folly” of trying to improve upon the ancient and well-tried and trusty values — save at this one point where they were shewn weak.

58. I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.

???

59. My incense is of resinous woods & gums; and there is no blood therein: because of my hair the trees of Eternity.

Nuit: Her cult.

Nuit declares the fit form of Her cult as a Rite. Her incense is of "resinous woods and gums" — sacred to Her as scented, fluid, [“uniform” crossed out at this point] and vital. There is no blood therein; for Her worship involves neither life nor death; it is a Growth in all ways, the primal mode of Being. Her hair: this phrase is to be studied side by side with my account of my Visions of Her: it will be clear to those who may attain thereto.

60. My number is 11, as all their numbers who are of us. The Five Pointed Star, with a Circle in the Middle, & the circle is Red. My colour is black to the blind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing. Also I have asecret glory for them that love me.

Nuit: Her symbolic Figure.

Nuit declares her Nature in a Riddle of Number and Colour and Form: this also is elsewhere explained being a matter of Magick and Wisdom proper to vowed Students rather than to the profane.

61. But to love me is better than all things: if under the night stars in the desert thou presently burnest mine incense before me, invoking me with a pure heart, and the Serpent flame therein, thou shalt come a little to lie in my bosom. For one kiss wilt thou then be willing to give all; but whoso gives one particle of dust shall lose all in that hour. Ye shall gather goods and store of women and spices; ye shall wear rich jewels; ye shall exceed the nations of the earth in spendour & pride; but always in the love of me, and so shall ye come to my joy. I charge you earnestly to come before me in a single robe, and covered with a rich headdress. I love you! I yearn to you! Pale or purple, veiled or voluptuous, I who am all pleasure and purple, and drunkenness of the innermost sense, desire you. Put on the wings, and arouse the coiled splendour within you: come unto me!

Nuit: to love Her the Supreme Wisdom.

Love being the law of all Life, to love Nuit is to love the Essence itself of the sum of all objects of Love in the figure of one single Image of Beauty: it thus the Drawing-to-a-Point of the Will, which might else seem diverse; thus it is “better than all things.”

Nuit: the Mode of Union with Her.

Follows a Method whereby to unite [originally “of uniting”] the Soul with Her; to me, Alastor the Spirit of Solitude, the command is plain; and to be taken at the letter, as I have done, and now am doing, even at this hour, as I write this “under the night-stars in the desert” in the Oasis of Nefta in Tunisia.

Yet also there is a hidden meaning, so that the dwellers in cities may invoke Nuit: and this will I set forth, not only as in Liber XI but in simple and easy words; in a fit time and place.

Nuit: ways of worship.

This verse contains very many marvels in other matters also: in concerns the Crossing of the Abyss, as I have described in The Vision and the Voice: also, such ways of worship are prescribed as define Her inmost Nature: this also I shall write elsewhere.

Note most of all that She, the Sum and Essence of All Things that may be, fulfils Herself as these are all fulfilled by each Star in any Event. Indeed, she is not whole while aught remain latent, a phantom of desire; thus doth each act of Love under Will not only perfect him that doeth it, but also Her of whom it is one jewel.

62. At all my meetings with you shall the priestess say — and her eyes shall burn with desire as she stands bare and rejoicing in my secret temple — To me! To me! calling forth the flame of the hearts of all in her love-chant.
63. Sing the rapturous love-song unto me! Burn to me perfumes! Wear to me jewels! Drink to me, for I love you! I love you!

Nuit: Her public Cult.

Now lastly she ordains her public cult. Her image, she being All-Desired, shall be a living Woman, calling to her that Spirit which shall make her perfect in Event. Of all this Rite I have written in another place.

64. I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky.
65. To me! To me!

Nuit: Her final shewing-forth of Herself in an Outburst of lyric Rapture.

Now in one lyric blaze of music Nuit declares Herself the daughter of Sunset and the Shining Truth Night, calling all Souls to their supreme Goal of Joy to Fulfil Themselves in Her.

66. The Manifestation of Nuit is at an end. 

Nuit Her veil again fallen upon Her.

And thus she ends in Silence.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Oasis of Nefta, al-Djérid. Tunisia. Hotel du Djérid.
An. Xix Sol in 24° Scorpio, Luna conjunct Uranus in 14° Pisces

Chapter II

1. Nu! the hiding of Hadit.

Nu conceals Hadit, for she gives Form to That which is, shewing forth Its nature in all Ways that may be.

2. Come! all ye, and learn the secret that hath not yet been revealed. I, Hadit, am the complement of Nu, my bride. I am not extended, and Khabs is the name of my House.

He summons all to learn the other half of the Secret Truth of Nature. She is one extreme without limit, he is the other. He hath no Nature of His own, for He is that to which all Events occur. His House, that is, the sphere of his action, is called Khabs, a Star. This is the Light which He conceals about Him through His Deeds of Love for Her, so that there may appear in glory the Record of those Works which pertain to any Point in Space.

3. In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.

Hadit is any Point that may be chosen; He is thus in all places alike; while She, being all that may be, hath no limit, and cannot be numbered.

4. Yet she shall be known & I never.

She is known, as He goeth on His Way, and doth His Will; each Event adds to His Knowledge of Her Nature. He cannot be known, for He hath no parts whereby to define Him.

5. Behold! the rituals of the old time are black. Let the evil ones be cast away; let the good ones be purged by the prophet! Then shall this Knowledge go aright.

I, the Beast 666, am then bidden to purge the ancient Modes of Magick, they being no longer valid in this new ‘time’ or Aeon of Horus. I am to reject those that have become false, either through the lapse of time, or the folly or malice of men; but to retain and make pure such as are Of All Truth, beyond Time to corrupt. By so doing shall the Truth now revealed to me go forth among men to make them free, without error.

6. I am the flame that burns in every heart of man, and in the core of every star. I am Life, and the giver of Life, yet therefore is theknowledge of me the knowledge of death.

Hadit resumes His account of His Nature. That Nature being what it is, it must be set forth in many symbols. He is the Fire-life behind the motion of living, and the Point about which every Star is centred. He is thus Any Point-of-View, any Centre to which all Events may be measured. He is life itself in its Essence, and He causes Life to appear to itself. For this reason is the knowledge of Him the knowledge of Death, since the meaning of Life implies death. Hadit saith “the knowledge of me”: this is not against His former word that He shall be known never. It means only that death is one of the Events that must needs be known as soon as the nature of Life is known.

7. I am the Magician and the Exorcist. I am the axle of the wheel, and the cube in the circle. "Come unto me" is a foolish word: for it is I that go.

Hadit is the Magician: that is, one who causes phantoms to arise: for all His Works with Nuit are but emblems chosen to show forth His Nature as it takes this Form or that, at its pleasure. He is the Exorcist: His Oath hath this Virtue, to drive away those phantoms as soon as their work is done, lest they be taken for things real. For all events are but tokens of His Being, as it appears in union with one or other form of Nuit, and in themselves but symbols. Hadit is that about whom all Events move. He is the Real, straight, square, and solid, in the midst of Perfection, which is none the less curved (that is, of female nature) equal at all points from Him, and real to thought, not to sense. He, being moved by each Event, goeth ever, and saith not ‘Come unto me,’ that Word of his Bride Nuit

8. Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper.

Those who hold Silence worthy, and seek it, do err if they think to find therein the Truth of their Selves; for Hadit holdeth worthy, and seeketh, Nuit: and though He be Silence, is not be sought. The True Self is Silence, and seeketh Truth in all Ways of Event.

9. Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains.

Hadit now sayeth to all that they should be mindful of the Nature of that which exists; it is pure joy, since all Events are Acts of Love under Will. The Shadow called Sorrow is caused by the error of thinking of any two Events as opposed or even distinct; which fault was in the first chapter of this Book thus condemned: “for thereby cometh hurt.” (Hurt, in French, heurter, to jostle.) Sorrows, being thus errors of vision, not real in themselves, pass and are done as soon as the mind ceases to dwell on them; yet, being false thoughts about True Events, the Event endures, and the Point-of-View endures; so that Hadit hath attained His Will no less than in all other cases.

10. O prophet! thou hast ill will to learn this writing.
11. I see thee hate the hand & the pen; but I am stronger.
12. Because of me in Thee which thou knewest not.

Mine Angel, Aiwass, watching me as I wrote down His words, saw with what rage I withstood His Spirit. For in my deepest conscious mind I held most firm the First Noble Truth proclaimed by Gautama Buddha “Everything is Sorrow”; and on this thought I had built up all my spirit and mind for many days. This Word of Aiwass therefore struck to the heart of my most earnest thought; and I hated the hand and the pen which wrote against my will, in service to His. For He was of force to subdue me, to make me obey Him, that His Word might be written and go forth unto men to utter the New Law.

13. for why? Because thou wast the knower, and me.

Aiwass then spake a Riddle, by quaint grammar and trick of style and form proving to me in after Years when I attained to be a Master of the Temple, that my True Will was one with His, and my fierce and bitter revolt the folly and falsehood of my conscious Will, enthralled by fear and shame and the sense of sin.

14. Now let there be a veiling of this shrine: now let the light devour men and eat them up with blindness!

He prepared me to receive a doctrine of such fearful import, so hateful at every point to every part of my spirit and soul (such as they seemed to me in my blindness and bondage) that He deemed it prudent to test me through and through, to warn me, and to give me time to brace myself to meet the fury of the tempest of His Word.

15. For I am perfect, being Not; and my number is nine by the fools; but with the just I am eight, and one in eight: Which is vital, for I am none indeed. The Empress and the King are not of me; for there is a further secret.
16. I am The Empress & the Hierophant. Thus eleven, as my bride is eleven.

Also, to distract and amuse my mind, to make me curious enough to be willing to proceed, He proposed a Riddle of the Nature of Hadit, so that I might know most surely beyond doubt that He was skilled in Knowledge of all secret marvels of letter and number in sacred tongues and scripts, lest I persuade myself that I myself had written this Book of my own motion. Therefore He shewed me Wisdom and Cunning beyond my wit to conceive, and marvels never yet known to any man that was of woman born. This Riddle, with its fellows, will I expound elsewhere, so that all men may know of a surety that not I, nor any man, but a Great Angel in very sooth, spake in mine ear the Words of His Book.

17. Hear me, ye people of sighing!
The sorrows of pain and regret
Are left to the dead and the dying,
The folk that not know me as yet.

The Riddle proposed, Aiwass begins to utter the doctrine as He had warned me. Still further to abate my fear and loathing, He craftily opened His discourse with a verse so weak and stupid, that I, being a great poet, should abate my wrath and smile with serene contempt upon the Angel’s feeble efforts to use rhythm and rhyme. The trick served its purpose: I went on writing, cheerful and easy in my mind, thinking that now I had a weapon to defend myself against Aiwass, and that the more he spoke the surer I should be to reject His Word, even as all writings alleged to come from sources other than human, which I had always found beneath contempt both as to essence and form. :From the wretched rime Aiwass works cunningly up through off-hand sneering statements of His doctrine to austere and sublime phrases; alive with passion and power, superb in style, sternly succinct, and flaming with dread force. Quick, eager, righteous, not to be beaten off, He smote me, stroke on stroke, and spared not. :This which now follows is the essence of His doctrine. That “existence is pure joy” is His first direct challenge to the whole body of the best and deepest thought of the best and wisest men of this Earth, from the dawn of man’s Records even unto this hour of His speaking. It cuts clean across the whole trend of men’s minds with sheer sweep of steel; no truce, nor quarter. :Now the Second Challenge: a Bugle Call shriller and clearer than the First. Sorrow, pain, regret, are symptoms of diseased thought; those only who have ceased to be able to adjust themselves rightly and gladly to all Change, and to grow thereby, or those who still react, but only feebly and vainly, take Sorrow, pain, and regret to be Real. Those (also) who do not yet know Hadit (that is, know their True Selves to be Hadit) are likewise deceived.

18. These are dead, these fellows; they feel not. We are not for the poor and sad: the lords of the earth are our kinsfolk.

Such folk “feel not”, even though they suppose themselves to feel more keenly than those who enjoy life and death — those whom they call callous. But the truth is that since Events compose Life, and each Event is an act of Love under Will, all feelings except those of joy, conquest, triumph and rapture are not Events at all and so do not belong to Life. :The poor and sad are not of Hadit; for to know that one is He confers full wealth and complete joy: it is the title to Lordship of the Earth. All leaders of men are active, finding pleasure even in toil, hardship, and defeat: they accept every Event as proper to their chosen course of action, and conquer even when they are beaten down for the moment. They die at the crisis of the battle, with failure certain; yet they rejoice, having lived and loved and fought and done their will; those for whose cause they fought will reap at last where they have sowed.

19. Is a God to live in a dog? No! but the highest are of us. They shall rejoice, our chosen: who sorroweth is not of us.

A God cannot live in a dog; the token of Godship is to be free to act, to dwell in an abode, and work with tools, suited to the nature of their Will. The Highest only are of Hadit; all failure to attain the perfect marks some lack of knowledge of one’s nature as a Symbol of Him in one or other Form. Aiwass repeats his doctrine about joy and sorrow in more solemn terms, thus leading up to the full Force of His thought.

20. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.

Beauty and strength, the sense of the fitness of the object perceived as a symbol of the success of one’s will, and the power of that will itself; leaping laughter and delicious languor, the rapture of joyous uprush in full freedom of spirit and the delight that follows the success of one’s efforts, luring the victor to enjoy the pleasure of knowing himself worthy; force and fire, the ardour of motion, achieving one’s will, and the light and heat evolved by the love under will of the Self and its desires: these are the marks of those who know their True Self to be Hadit. (Note that all these statements are hidden in the basic complex of thought which defines Hadit.)

21. We have nothing with the outcast and the unfit: let them die in their misery. For they feel not. Compassion is the vice of kings: stamp down the wretched & the weak: this is the law of the strong: this is our law and the joy of the world. Think not, o king, upon that lie: That Thou Must Die: verily thou shalt not die, but live. Now let it be understood: If the body of the King dissolve, he shall remain in pure ecstasy for ever. Nuit! Hadit! Ra-Hoor-Khuit! The Sun, Strength & Sight, Light; these are for the servants of the Star & the Snake.

The outcast: these are passive; they do not seek and conquer all that may be but are the sport of Events not of their own making, which hustle against them and thrust them from the path. The unfit: these fail to adjust themselves to what is about them; they cannot love (which implies a fitness of the one to the other) under will (which implies fitness of the agent to the patient). :They had better “die in their misery”; that is, cease once and for all to react so feebly and wrongly as they do: for such a Point-of-View as they shew forth is not to be endured. It is not truly Hadit at all; not any one Point, but a shifting fulcrum: let it be no more counted among True Things. Again Aiwass repeats that “they feel not.” : Compassion, the noblest virtue of the Buddhist, is damned outright by Aiwass. To “suffer with” some other being is clearly to cease to be oneself, to wander from one’s Way. It always implies error, no Point-of-View being the same as any other: and in Kings — leaders and rulers of men — such error is a vice. For it leads straight to the most foolish Rule ever laid down, “Do unto others as you would that they should do unto you.” True men know their own needs and find ways to supply them. To judge the sick by the healthy is pregnant with error. The wretched and the weak are simply not real beings; they cannot be helped or mended. They must be expunged as falsehoods likely to infect the truth. This is the law of Nature, and it is the Law of the Lords of the Aeon. Put into force it will fill the world with joy. The root of all such error is the belief of Kings that they are mortal. This is confuse their essence with that basis of a certain class of events which refers to the kind of life which includes death. Aiwass insists that if the body dissolve its King remains in timeless rapture. For his events have ceased; and he stands in a single state of joy as made one with Nuit. Should he wish further knowledge of himself, he must choose some other means by which to measure it, by which to set in motion a fresh series of events.

So intense was the joy of the Angel in proclaiming this good news that he broke off into a cry of rapture calling upon the Lords of the three chapters of this book. He then went on, and exclaimed that the sun, source of all light and life on earth, strength to do and sight to perceive, as also light, the simplest form of play between twin forces, are the guerdon of those who know themselves as they are. He calls Hadit the Star and the Snake. The star has been explained above. By the snake is meant the essence of what is kingly in constant vibrant motion, yet also able to perfect itself in the form of a ring. It is a symbol of wisdom, the power to slay and also to shed its skin and renew its pristine beauty in its season. It is also the healer and the goer.

22. I am the Snake that giveth Knowledge & Delight and bright glory, and stir the hearts of men with drunkenness. To worship me take wine and strange drugs whereof I will tell my prophet, & be drunk thereof! They shall not harm ye at all. It is a lie, this folly against self. The exposure of innocence is a lie. Be strong, o man! lust, enjoy all things of sense and rapture: fear not that any God shall deny thee for this.

Hadit is now described as the snake whose virtue is to give knowledge, for all knowledge consists in the art to perceive events as each new marriage with a new part of Nuit takes place. He gives delight which is a function of such knowledge. He also gives bright glory, that is, he causes men to send forth rays of light. Man is in fact, as it were, a prism. In his dual machine the formless light is split into many colours which mingle in this way and that as the nature of each event requires. Hadit is the flame in every heart of man, and when he stirs that heart is shaken. We call this being inspired, or, in its most sacred sense, being drunken. Aiwass now flings his third great challenge at the world. He denies flatly the truth of all the teaching of the past. He tells us that to worship Hadit, that is, to cause him to stir, we should make ourselves drunk by the use of wine and certain strange drugs. So much is common knowledge. But he adds the startling statement “They shall not harm ye at all.” One can but gasp; to argue in support of his statement would be beyond the power of any man. The proof must lie with time. Lest there be folly, let me say that this passage does not license reckless debauch. The use of drugs and drink is to be strictly an act of Magick. Compare what is said in the First Chapter with regard to the use of the functions of sex.

Headlong, after one challenge, Aiwass hurls forth the next. He does not even break up his phrases by the use of paragraphs. He takes it all in his stride. What is to us a huge and dreadful doctrine is to him the simple well-known truth. He tells us now that “this folly against self” “is a lie”. By this he means that we must not be ashamed of our own point of view, of pretend that we ought to respect and be tender towards some other. Every true point is well able to take care of itself; if only let alone as it ought to be. Every time we try to put ourselves in the place of some other person we give up truth for fancy. We do not, and we never can, see the world except with our own eyes. The world of one’s neighbour is not even the same world as one’s own — even if we could assume his point of view. It is a deadly mischief to practise this form of falsehood; and to acclaim it as a virtue in the Christian fashion, both a crime and a blunder. Another lie is the “exposure of innocence.” Most people pretend earnestly to be harmless. This not only blasphemes the God-head of the self but attempts to create falsehood. Deceit is always danger. The kindest, as the noblest, course is to nail one’s colours to the mast, so that others can shelter beneath them or avoid the conflict, as their judgement counsels them. The social and moral code of shallow sham is the tactics of the pirate.

A further challenge now rings out. Aiwass insists that we shall use all our functions as fully as we can. We are to enjoy all things, to make them serve our Will and thrill us with rapture. We must dismiss that bogey of those who wish to treat mankind as children without spirit or wit, to frighten us into slavish service to codes of conduct which suit their own servile nature, allay their fears, or procure easy preys for their greed by the threat of some God who will make trouble for those who dare to be themselves and do their own True Wills.

23. I am alone: there is no God where I am.

Aiwass now takes the trumpet from his lips and returns for a moment to the nature of Hadit. It seems that the word God brought back into his mind one point not yet set forth. Hadit is said to be alone; there is no God where he is. This of course follows from the nature of Hadit as explained above. He is himself the centre of the Cosmos. There cannot be any other being to whom he should bow.

24. Behold! these be grave mysteries; for there are also of my friends who be hermits. Now think not to find them in the forest or on the mountain; but in beds of purple, caressed by magnificent beasts of women with large limbs, and fire and light in their eyes, and masses of flaming hair about them; there shall ye find them. Ye shall see them at rule, at victorious armies, at all the joy; and there shall be in them a joy a million times greater than this. Beware lest any force another, King against King! Love one another with burning hearts; on the low men trample in the fierce lust of your pride, in the day of your wrath.

Aiwass returns to the charge. He describes the hermits of Thelema. We must define a Hermit as one who goes alone. Observe the word “alone” with regard to Hadit, just above. But these Hermits are to be found taking their pleasure with women and in all other ways, acting like the Masters of Rome in the days of the Empire and of the Renaissance. Great kings and queens of Thebes and Babylon. We are to learn from this to enjoy all things without losing control of ourselves or ceasing to suffice for ourselves or becoming the slaves of our desire or losing our sense of selfhood. Aiwass then warns us to respect the equal kingship of others. We are to love our brother kings with eager passion and combine to trample down the “low men”, in the sense explained in the second challenge.

25. Ye are against the people, O my chosen!

Aiwass repeats this thought in even simpler, stronger, clearer words. We are against “the people”. Any unit, any true star, is kingly but the people as a multitude — even though each unit be noble — are not themselves, they are a confused mass of chance atoms. They must not be allowed to act as if they possessed a point of view. They are not stars, they have no way of their own. They are dragged helpless in the wake of any force that happens to attract them. To permit them to control events at all is to give up all design, all Will, all clear sight.

26. I am the secret Serpent coiled about to spring: in my coiling there is joy. If I lift up my head, I and my Nuit are one. If I droop down mine head, and shoot forth venom, then is rapture of the earth, and I and the earth are one.

Once again, we return to Hadit. He is the Secret spring of Magick (Compare the Hindu Kundalini). He takes joy when he withdraws into himself which he does in order to prepare a new Event. These Events are of two kinds. One is the act of worship of Nuit, the other is the putting forth of his spirit into matter. We may call one the Mystic, the other the Magical Path.

27. There is great danger in me; for who doth not understand these runes shall make a great miss. He shall fall down into the pit called Because, and there he shall perish with the dogs of Reason.

Aiwass admits the danger of these doctrines: to go astray as to their meaning is to risk making “a great miss”. One risks falling form the world of Will (“freed from the lust of result”) to that of Reason.

28. Now a curse upon Because and his kin!
29. May Because be accursed for ever!
30. If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.
31. If Power asks why, then is Power weakness.

We now come to a challenge which is in some ways even more daring than any yet made. Before, the moral sense of men was outraged. He now turns to attack the Reason itself. He looks on reason as a soulless machine. Its proper function is to express the Will in terms of conscious thought, the will being the need of the inmost self to express itself by causing some Event. This will (as such) is not conscious. We can only become aware of it, and thus enjoy and learn from the Event, by making an Image of it. Reason is the machine whose function it is to do this. When reason usurps the higher functions of the mind, when it presumes26 to dictate to the Will what its desires ought to be, it wrecks the entire structure of the star. The Self should set the Will in motion, that is, the Will should only take its orders from within and above. It should not be conscious at all. But even worse may come to it. Once it is conscious, it becomes able to doubt; and, having no means of getting rid of this by appeal to the Self, it seeks a reason for its action. The reason, knowing nothing of the matter, promptly replies, basing its judgement, not on the needs of the self, but on facts outside and alien to the star. It is, in fact, guided by strangers of whose very language it knows little and that mostly wrong. The Will having stopped in doubt, goes on again in error. The Will must never ask why. It ought to be as sure of itself as the Law of Gravity.

32. Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew-wise.

Aiwass now leaps to the supreme stroke. Reason itself is a lie. He explains that this must be the case in the nature of things. The Reason may be in perfect order and never make a mistake, that is, within the limits of its powers. But it can never be certain of being right unless its knowledge is complete, which of course can never happen. In fact, being bound by its own laws, it has no means of finding out whether in any one case there may not be some factor vital to the problem of whose very nature it has no knowledge at all. Its axioms themselves merely state its limits. It is as if a bishop on a chess board were to assert that it could never move except in an oblique straight line, which is only true in respect of the laws of the game, and takes no account of the laws of motion as such. Aiwass asserts that some such factor always lurks in every problem which may be put to reason. He calls it “a factor infinite and unknown” — unknown since no mind can ever contain the whole of the facts of nature which may apply. It must therefore be content to work within narrow limits and state its results under the reserve that they are only correct if we assume that its data suffices. The factor is also infinite in the same way as an atom in the world of solid bodies is greater than the greatest surface. More, the plane is not real at all to the solid; it is no more than a way which the real being has chosen to express one item of his knowledge of nature. The reason of man should never allow itself to forget that it is only real in the hardly likely case of the world ending with itself. It is wiser to keep in mind that all Events, however true and real they seem (and are, as measured by the laws of the game) are after all signs of a code which Hadit has designed in order to express his nature in terms of its acts of love under will with one or other part of Nuit.

The Angel concludes by saying that the statements of the reason are “skew-wise.” The fact that the reason employs a set of symbols to work with distorts the whole work. It is as when a painter obtains the effect of solid form on a plane surface by adroit use of the laws of optics. No matter, therefore, how truly the reason works, and how well it brings back to the mind the events it describes, its thoughts are never the same as the things thought of. It follows from this that we should be fools to trust reason to guide us to answer Because.

33. Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog!

The attack ends with the scornful curse “Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog!” In this book, even the style of a letter is full of import. The word “dog” has occurred before this. Firstly, the dog is used as a symbol of a form which would restrict a God who indwelt it. Again “There is death for the dogs”, that is, to restrict free action ends in stopping it once and for all. Further “the dogs of Reason.” The thought of the mind born of and nourished by the senses tends to restrict the self, to impose the will of the world upon it, whereas the use of the world is to provide it with objects of love through which it can fulfil itself and know itself. To become passive towards the thoughts and the senses is to accept the fetters of a slave. Now then Because is called a dog, that is, a thought that tends to restrict and hamper the Will. The True Will is uncaused, being simply the measure of the motion of the self in respect of any given object. It is an abuse of the term ‘cause’ to apply it to this case. Men have said that the will is never free, because it is the effect of two causes conjoined between the nature of the Self and that of the moment. This is to put the cart before the horse. The symbol Dog is well chosen. It is God spelt backwards or denied. The nature of the dog is servile; dogs cannot depend on themselves, they never look at the world through their own eyes, they must needs accept some code imposed upon them from above. Further, the Magi of old took the Dog as a symbol of those base desires and fears which hunt and spring upon and pull down the soul of such men as know not how to master them.

34. But ye, o my people, rise up & awake!
35. Let the rituals be rightly performed with joy & beauty!
36. There are rituals of the elements and feasts of the times.
37. A feast for the first night of the Prophet and his Bride!
38. A feast for the three days of the writing of the Book of the Law.
39. A feast for Tahuti and the child of the Prophet--secret, O Prophet!
40. A feast for the Supreme Ritual, and a feast for the Equinox of the Gods.
41. A feast for fire and a feast for water; a feast for life and a greater feast for death!
42. A feast every day in your hearts in the joy of my rapture!
43. A feast every night unto Nu, and the pleasure of uttermost delight!
44. Aye! feast! rejoice! there is no dread hereafter. There is the dissolution, and eternal ecstasy in the kisses of Nu.

With abrupt vigour the subject swings over to the triumph of the Masters. Aiwass bids us rise up and awake. He prescribes ways of worship. We are to invoke with joy and beauty. He begins by making a list of rituals and feasts; and in the course of this he works himself up into a state of rapture so that these rites at first clearly defined in order, gather force, wave upon wave, quicker and quicker, until at last he proclaims all times and places as proper for feasts. At the end he exclaims once more that all such pleasures are free from any taint of hidden poison. We are to make the present perfect, without the least fear that we are making trouble for ourselves in the future. True, our bodies are dissolved; but this brings us into full timeless rapture. We enjoy all that may be, as we could not even at the best while forced to measure our Magick in terms of the body and mind. It may be that events cease to occur, that they become one single event, a constant state of joy.

45. There is death for the dogs.

We must not confuse such passing beyond earthly life with death; death is for the dogs. They restrict themselves more and more; fears, greeds, falsehoods gather like vultures to feast on their flesh; until at least they find no way to turn which is not barred by one or another of their sins, their self-made bars to free action. They can no longer cause any event beyond the narrow routine into which they have been forced by their failures, to grapple with Nature, to love, to woo, and to master the beauty of Nuit. Little by little the machine fails to carry on. Its prudence, more than aught else, has helped to destroy its power to meet fresh facts. The least surprises may upset it; and, sooner or later, it either meets some problem which breaks it up, or wears itself out and runs down. It is dead.

46. Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thine heart?
47. Where I am these are not.

The Angel goes on to challenge me point blank as to my own soul. Failure, sorrow, and fear simply cannot exist in the presence of Hadit. His nature is to succeed, to rejoice, and to dare to cause event after event, sure of itself in any and every case.

48. Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled & the consoler.

We now return to those who are not Hadit. We are not to pity the fallen. The first fact about a ‘point-of-view’ is that it keeps its place. It goes, true, but never can fall. To fall is to yield to a strain outside oneself; and that is to cease to maintain the “point-of-view” which is of the essence of Hadit. Hadit never knew the fallen. A real point-of-view cannot be shaken. Should we console such wretches? Useless. He is no better for one extra lie; and who tells that lie is false to his own Godhead.

49. I am unique & conqueror. I am not of the slaves that perish. Be they damned & dead! Amen. (This is of the 4: there is a fifth who is invisible, & therein am I as a babe in an egg. )

Hadit is “unique”. Every point that exists is Hadit. Each one is without limit, and thus all are in the end alike in every respect. At the same time no two are in any way alike, if compared at any given point-moment. This is one of the statements of this book which involves a new view of nature — a view far beyond any yet set forth and one with the virtue to resolve every problem which the cosmos presents to our minds. I may explain the matter simply in this way. No two points on a line are the same. Their distance from all other points differs. Each line, AB, AC, etc., is unique, even though AB=A'B', they differ in respect of C'. AC' cannot be equal to A'C'. Lines drawn in two ways from a point are equal only in length; each point in each differs only in respect of any other point. At the same time, the line being supposed endless, the sum of what can be said about all points is the same. No point can claim that it is an unique distance from some other point.

Hadit is “conqueror.” It is his function to make himself master of all that may be and every event that he causes is a victory. He denies kinship with “slaves that perish.” These are wholly foreign to his nature. Unless one is active, one is damned and dead: and this is the curse on all slaves, on all those who yield to what they meet, that they are condemned to suffer the constraint of their Wills. The world becomes a prison for the self instead of a playground; and in a little the prison gates become the seal of the tomb.

It must be born in mind that all such beings are not real in any proper sense of the word. They are not stars at all. So far as they think of themselves as “I” they may be said to possess a point-of-view, but unless this is strong enough to persist through all Events, it is not truly a self but a phantom of Self thrown on a screen by the light of the events about it. The slave souls are in fact details of our device for looking at nature. They help us observe how a given set of events affects this or that conscious mind. They save our time by telling us what they feel and think. We may learn from them how to guide our own course.

This great curse is sealed with a solemn Amen; but the use of the word reminds Aiwass that this book must prove over and over again the wisdom and cunning, the knowledge and power of its author as of a degree beyond any yet possessed by any man. He therefore propounds a riddle about the word Amen. He suggests a secret way of spelling it which, when found, will give new life and life of a higher order to the Soul of the word. I expound this riddle elsewhere.

50. Blue am I and gold in the light of my bride: but the red gleam is in my eyes; & my spangles are purple & green.
51. Purple beyond purple: it is the light higher than eyesight.

We must note the strange way in which Aiwass swings forward and backward from startling doctrines of ethics and other mental and moral problems to attempt to declare the Nature of Hadit in divers symbols. He now leaves the question of “slaves” to tell us of the nature of the light proper to Hadit. He is “Blue ... and gold in the light of” Nuit; that is to say, the star-strewn sky which is her image reveals him. It is clear that he, having no form, save by virtue of her, cannot be known or seen. To seek him is merely to seek out one of the things that may be; that is, of course, as Nuit herself. His nature only appears by the “red gleam” in his eyes. His fiery light which desires to unite with her in all her forms may been seen in those organs by which he himself perceives. For so soon as we think of the eyes of Hadit, which express his Will and his wit, we ourselves begin to partake of our kinship with him, and we think at once of the fiery lust of the spirit to consume all things.

In the image of him as a snake, we thing of his outer form as “spangles”. Wherever he comes into contact with anything to which he can react, there is a blaze of light and this light is purple and green. Aiwass explains that by purple is meant the light beyond the violet of the spectrum, and perhaps also that which is beyond the red. For the word is clearly meant to express the active extremes of that order of double motion which we call life, in which green is the centre of the portion which we are able to perceive. Green is the most passive of the colours. We connect it with the nature of Venus. It suggests love, peace, and the growth of plants and trees; whereas the light which we connect with Jupiter is violet and makes us think of the highest godhead reaching beyond our vision to pure motion of the spirit. Red is the colour of Mars — of the lowest form of energy, tending to heat rather than light, and reaching beyond light to some form of the action of spirit which seems to tend towards the death of energy itself. The purple of Hadit combines these extremes. He transforms the one to the other at will. In Him they are one.

This is the final secret of Physics. Guided by the Book of the Law, men of science will soon learn that the lowest depth is one with the highest height. Energy degrades till it reaches a point when it becomes once more the root of the highest form. I have shewn elsewhere the mode of this change. The main point is (in this place) to point out that the Book of the Law asserts that energy neither begins nor ends, but moves through a cycle of change. We chance to perceive only that arc of the curve in which every event is followed by seeming waste of the substance of energy by the birth of heat and light; and all energy seems to exhaust itself in its acts of “love under will”, losing its higher purpose and slipping even lower down the scale. Were this partial view the truth, there would be no answer to the question “what started that highest form of energy?” The Book of the Law states clearly the truth, in order that, when men succeed in finding the truth, they may know something of the nature of Aiwass, and admit his right to make a law for mankind. When the problem is solved, if not before, the details of the truth will be found expressed in cipher in the text of the Book.

52. There is a veil: that veil is black. It is the veil of the modest woman; it is the veil of sorrow, & the pall of death: this is none of me. Tear down that lying spectre of the centuries: veil not your vices in virtuous words: these vices are my service; ye do well, & I will reward you here and hereafter.

From light we turn to the absence of light. Yet this is not real. It is a veil. This veil is not in the order of nature. It has been made by shame and fear, by trying to shut off all that is true and real from the soul. To resist change and to defy nature, this is the key of the evil Magic of the Black Brotherhood, whose idol is the modest woman. Her veil is sorrow and death. We of Thelema worship Nuit: “all that may be” adored by “all that is.” Her forms are without number; and in each she bestows herself freely upon any and every soul that desires Her. Thus Her priestess on earth is the Scarlet Woman, the Whore of the Beast who gives all she can to all that will. Her every act invokes change which is life. On the other hand, the “modest woman” conceals herself and denies herself. She is afraid and ashamed of herself — afraid and ashamed of all men. She dreams that something may happen to her, and thus lies stiff and stark in death even at the height of her youth. This verse of the Book of the Law is the final challenge to the past. The Angel strikes his spear with the sharp end upon the craven shield of the coward and slave who lurks behind the mask of a Master, of a phantom, a scarecrow, set up by him to frighten the winged songsters of freedom from the fertile fields which are their own by right. Until this verse, it might perhaps have been within the power of some subtle sophist to explain away the verses of this book. Here Aiwass leaves no shadow of doubt. He says with utmost clearness “Tear down that lying spectre of the centuries: veil not your vices in virtuous words: these vices are my service; ye do well, & I will reward you here and hereafter.”

The Angel does not even deign to show that what pious people call vices are in fact virtues: that is, tokens of manhood; or that vices means “flaws.” He uses these two words in their vulgar sense. To dare the world to a duel to the death. He does not merely tempt mankind to do what Christians call evil, he says that these vices are of the priesthood of Hadit, means to invoke Him, ways of coming to truth, ladders to climb to Godhead. We shall not be punished for doing wrong, as they call it. Both here and hereafter our reward is sure.

Yet more. The veil is vile. We must not, as the master class of men do now, enjoy ourselves in every way, and pretend with utmost care that we do nothing of the sort. We must take pride in our pleasure. We must be shameless and frank. Since all that is, is God, the only error is to hinder God from being himself or doing his will, or unveiling his truth.

53. Fear not, o prophet, when these words are said, thou shalt not be sorry. Thou art emphatically my chosen; and blessed are the eyes that thou shalt look upon with gladness. But I will hide thee in a mask of sorrow: they that see thee shall fear thou art fallen: but I lift thee up.

No wonder if I trembled as I wrote these words. Aiwass makes haste to comfort me. He tells me that at the end of the journey stands the Inn of Joy. I was foolish enough in these days to balk at what seemed strange or hateful before always complete in my mind, and I had come to perceive the inmost meaning. Mine Angel went beyond this simple fear-not. He insists that I am ‘chosen’ and grants me my heart’s highest wish, assures me that my will shall be fulfilled, that those on whom I look with gladness shall receive all blessing; they shall behold all things in wisdom, joy and beauty. That I might have this power to free mankind, to heal their hurts, to open their eyes to beauty and their ears to music, I had renounced my own career, given myself without reserve to the Great Work, staked life and reason again and again in daring all those deeds which even the most dauntless men dread most — and shrink away.

Yet, for the secret purpose of the Gods, it might not be that I should come into my kingdom at once in the sight of all men. Their design required that I should be hidden in a mask of sorrow. Note the word “mask” not “veil.” There is no falsehood in the matter, only a comedy that must be staged. It was therefore arranged that those who knew me should think me fallen. Indeed, so life-like was the mask that I myself, looking upon the mirror, might have been tempted to fear that I had fallen. He, aware of my weakness assured me on the spot: “but I life thee up.”

54. Nor shall they who cry aloud their folly that thou meanest nought avail; thou shall reveal it: thou availest: they are the slaves of because: They are not of me. The stops as thou wilt; the letters? change them not in style or value!

My spirit was heavy, also, because of those who mocked my speech, and swore that it was empty of sense. Aiwass assured me that their folly should not avail, that I should succeed in my Work of showing forth truth, that I should avail. My critics are hag-ridden by reason; they are not themselves. They are the slaves of their mental machines. This question of my meaning refers first of all to this Book; for Aiwass goes on straight away to repeat his warning not to change the letters of the text. I was allowed to insert stops as I might choose.

55. Thou shalt obtain the order & value of the English Alphabet; thou shalt find new symbols to attribute them unto.

Next, he set me a fresh task. I was to assign values to English letters of some such order as obtains in Hebrew. I deal fully with this matter elsewhere.

56. Begone! ye mockers; even though ye laugh in my honour ye shall laugh not long: then when ye are sad know that I have forsaken you.

Another sudden change. He pours scorn on those who mock this work

57. He that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is filthy shall be filthy still.
58. Yea! deem not of change: ye shall be as ye are, & not other. Therefore the kings of the earth shall be Kings for ever: the slaves shall serve. There is none that shall be cast down or lifted up: all is ever as it was. Yet there are masked ones my servants: it may be that yonder beggar is a King. A King may choose his garment as he will: there is no certain test: but a beggar cannot hide his poverty.

“People who shift their point of view,” the Angel repeats, “are not truly themselves.” Though each event is change, these changes form a closed curve so that their sum is zero. I have dealt with this subject fully in other writings. The essence of the doctrine is that things are stable only by virtue of their constant change, which is life. To cease to change is to die, which is the one real change that can occur. When it occurs, it proves that true life was never there.

This doctrine is at once applied to the question of the Kings and the slaves. The Angel explains that there are two types of men — the slave can never rise, the king can never fall. Should such things seem to take place, it is a sign of some disguise; the essence of the man, if he be in truth a man, is always the same. It is a point of view which never alters really, though each fresh fact brings it more fully into light. I am told of one case which must not deceive me. I must not assume that a man who seems a beggar is one. He may be a King whose pleasure is to disguise himself. He can, of course, resume his crown and sceptre when he tires of his sport, whereas a beggar has not the means to pretend to be a king. The point of this is that I may find it needful to judge the claims of such men as I may meet; and Aiwass here assures me that I shall find it easy to detect sham kings; but warns me against scorning those who do not flaunt their virtue.

59. Beware therefore! Love all, lest perchance is a King concealed! Say you so? Fool! If he be a King, thou canst not hurt him.
60. Therefore strike hard & low, and to hell with them, master!

Must I therefore be careful how I strike out, lest, thinking to slay a knave, I kill one of my peers? There is no danger of this. One of the tests of kingship is that he should be able to defend himself against the world. I am therefore bidden to strike hard with all my might, and strike to kill.

61. There is a light before thine eyes, o prophet, a light undesired, most desirable.
62. I am uplifted in thine heart; and the kisses of the stars rain hard upon thy body.
63. Thou art exhaust in the voluptuous fullness of the inspiration; the expiration is sweeter than death, more rapid and laughterful than a caress of Hell's own worm.
64. Oh! thou art overcome: we are upon thee; our delight is all over thee: hail! hail: prophet of Nu! prophet of Had! prophet of Ra-Hoor-Khu! Now rejoice! now come in our splendour & rapture! Come in our passionate peace, & write sweet words for the Kings.
65. I am the Master: thou art the Holy Chosen One.
66. Write, & find ecstasy in writing! Work, & be our bed in working! Thrill with the joy of life & death! Ah! thy death shall be lovely: whososeeth it shall be glad. Thy death shall be the seal of the promise of our age long love. Come! lift up thine heart & rejoice! We are one; we are none.
67. Hold! Hold! Bear up in thy rapture; fall not in swoon of the excellent kisses!
68. Harder! Hold up thyself! Lift thine head! breathe not so deep — die!

The scent of battle in my nostrils avails at least to awake my manhood, to arouse my Godhead within me. Throughout this chapter I had rebelled again and again against my Master; but now the darkness broke and fled. My True Self flamed up in me. I become one with Hadit; I entered into trance at once. A sudden light blazed in my eyes. Hadit arose within my heart; and on the instant I was thrilled with the love of Nuit. She came to me more swiftly than the light itself. My body was smitten by the kisses of the stars. When I breathed in, my flesh fell from me like rotten rags. I breathed out and felt a kiss swifter, more laughterful than death itself. Utter relief from all the deceits with which my brain had been blinded.

I need not enter into detail of this trance. The text describes the facts better in every way than could be done in any other manner.

69. Ah! Ah! What do I feel? Is the word exhausted?
70. There is help & hope in other spells. Wisdom says: be strong! Then canst thou bear more joy. Be not animal; refine thy rapture! If thou drink, drink by the eight and ninety rules of art: if thou love, exceed by delicacy; and if thou do aught joyous, let there be subtlety therein!

After a time my mortal part failed to endure the stress of the rapture. I came to myself, or rather wandered from myself, wondering who I was, and what had happened, and whether the word was at an end. Aiwass then taught me how to prepare myself for such supreme events. I should mention that this trance fulfilled the promise which I had asked of the Secret Chiefs when I agreed to accept the task they wished to lay upon me. “If I am to fill my office as I should, I must have first attained to that clear sight of truth without which every act of mine would certainly be an error.” I had worked hard for a long time to attain some such trance and had never come near success. Yet now, without a word of warning I was caught up into it. The secret was this: the breaking down of my false Will by those dread words of mine Angel freed my True Self from all its bonds, so that I could enjoy at once the rapture of knowing myself to be who I am. To prepare oneself for such work one should strengthen oneself in every way, so as to be able to “bear more joy.” This does not imply brute vigour. The nature of rapture is such that the finer it is, the stronger it is. Thus, in making oneself drunk to worship Hadit, one should observe the “eight and ninety rules of art” (I explain elsewhere the meaning of these figure). Likewise, in love, excess is not to be attained by violent lust. The artist is the model. One must learn to enjoy every least detail; yet blend them all into one single sublime concept. The same tactics apply to all joyous deeds. The key to success is subtlety.

71. But exceed! exceed!

Aiwass hastens to warn me that I must not take these words to mean that we should dilute our pleasures. We should not be genteel and dainty. Never forget that all the tricks of art are worse than worthless, unless they spring from strength and passion. The essence of success is the intense desire to beat one’s own record as well as the world’s in every thing one does. The most fatal fault is to become tired of the task, through having chosen one in which one may become perfect, and sigh for more worlds to conquer.

72. Strive ever to more! and if thou art truly mine — and doubt it not, an if thou art ever joyous! — death is the crown of all.

It is implied that the course of life itself should be made a work of Art, that one should aim at death as the one fit climax. One should die in harness.

73. Ah! Ah! Death! Death! thou shalt long for death. Death is forbidden, o man, unto thee.
74. The length of thy longing shall be the strength of its glory. He that lives long & desires death much is ever the King among the Kings.

A final challenge rings out sharp. There is a doctrine with regard to death, stranger perhaps than all the others. It is a mark of success in Magick to get one’s work done fully in one’s prime, so that life has nothing left to offer, and one begins to long for the great journey into the unknown — the Call of the Old Long Trail. It is not lawful to hasten the start. The measure of the splendour of death is the strength and courage needed while waiting for it. The longer one lives and the more one wills to die, the more royal is one’s nature.

75. Aye! listen to the numbers & the words:
76. 4 6 3 8 A B K 2 4 A L G M O R 3 Y X 24 89 R P S T O V A L. What meaneth this, o prophet? Thou knowest not; nor shalt thou know ever. There cometh one to follow thee: he shall expound it. But remember, o chose none, to be me; to follow the love of Nu in the star-lit heaven; to look forth upon men, to tell them this glad word.

With this the Angel changes His theme yet again with brusque swiftness, and propounds a final riddle. The object of this cipher is to furnish proof that the man destined to succeed me is my rightful heir. The test is that he is able to make clear the meaning of these “the numbers & the words.”

This brief passage stops as it began — on a sudden, and Aiwass goes on at once to issue a last command to myself. I am to keep in constant mind that I am Hadit, that I am ever to aspire to make myself one with all things that may be, yet also to keep watch over mankind, for whose sake I first started on the path of Magick. My mission is “to tell them this glad word.”

77. O be thou proud and mighty among men!
78. Lift up thyself! for there is none like unto thee among men or among Gods! Lift up thyself, o my prophet, thy stature shall surpass the stars. They shall worship thy name, foursquare, mystic, wonderful, the number of the man; and the name of thy house 418.

Well knowing how men always act towards any prophet of Truth, mine Angel bids me to be “proud and mighty among men” — not to be humbled by the scorn or weakened by the blows of my fellows. In the middle of the Charter it was said “I lift thee up”. Now there is no more need of that. He cries “Lift up thyself!” He reminds me of my unique place in the ranks of men and Gods. “Lift up thyself,” he repeats; and tells me “thy stature shall surpass the stars.” My name shall be held worthy of worship, as also that of my house. There is again a secret meaning to this verse: it will be explained elsewhere.

79. The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star!

Now there is no more “hiding of Hadit”. He hath come forth in blinding light. Only one thing remains to say, “blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star” who by the “love under will” of his Holy Guardian Angel attained to break down his false self and cast it from him; thus become the Voice by which the light of truth could shine upon the night of the Slave-gods, and herald the dawn of the Aeon of the Crowned and Conquering Child.

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Chapter III

The first two chapters of this Book describe Ideas without limit; the third concerns a fixed Event due to one union of them, namely the coming of

The contents of the chapter are instructions to those who are to govern His Aeon in His Name; and these rulers will appeal to me The Beast 666 for a comment upon the text when need is.

Proof read and edited by Frater D.M.T. © Thelemagick.

[ SEE ALSO: The Old and New Commentaries to Liber AL vel Legis ]

[ » Primary Source: The Djeridensis Comment « ]

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