Chapter III
Most of the text below has been entered by Frater H.B., except for the text of Liber AL (entered by Frater Ebony and proofread by many others), The Old Comment and portions of the New Comment omitted by L. Wilkenson in his abridgement. This text of Liber 220 has been restored by comparison with an early surviving typescript of the work, except for Chapter II, the portion not covered by the typescript available at this time.
The Old Comment has been restored by BH, except for Chapter II, from the TS. In that portion, the Old Comment has been restored from less reliable sources and may need further revision to Crowley's text. The New Comment to Chapter II also needs further revision and expansion beyond the Wilkenson abridgement.
Some verses of Liber AL have were not individually commented by Crowley in this text. Some have only a New Comment, and not an Old one.
Crowley's footnotes have been moved up into the text and enclosed in double angle brackets: <<Crowley note>>. Again, for the comment to Chapter II, these may be in need of further correction to the original.
All other notes are enclosed in curly brackets, with attribution of origin: {WEH NOTE: ...} if no attribution of origin is given, the content of the curly brackets is an interpolation of a gap in the TS. These gaps were intended to be filled by hand-written symbols and foreign letters not available on the typewriter used to prepare the TS. They are in a variety of hands, sometimes missing altogether. The accuracy of these interpolations is very high, but not certain.
L I B E R A L vel L E G I S
sub figura CCXX
as delivered by (LXXVIII) XCIII unto DCLXVI
with a commentary by
T H E B E A S T
TO MEGA THERION 666
(Part II I, comment to Chapter III)
Copyright © Ordo Templi Orientis
AL III,1: "Abrahadabra! the reward of Ra Hoor Khut."
THE OLD COMMENT.
1. Abrahadabra --- the Reward of Ra-Hoor-Khuit. We have already seen that Abrahadabra is the glyph of the blending of the 5 and the 6, the Rose and the Cross. So also the Great Work, the equilibration of the 5 and the 6, is shown in this God; fivefold as a Warrior Horus, sixfold as the solar Ra. Khuit is a name of Khem the Ram-Phallus-two-pl
ume god Amoun; so that the whole god represents in qabalistic symbolism the Second Triad ("whom all nations of men call the first").
It is the Red descending triangle, -- the whole thing visible, for Hadit and Nuit are far beyond.
Note that Ra-Hoor Resh-Aleph-He-Vau-Vau-Resh = 418.
THE NEW COMMENT.
Observe firstly the word "reward", which is to be compared with the words "hiding" and "manifestation" in the former chapters. To 're-ward' is to 'guard again'; this word Abrahadabra then is also to be considered as a Sentinel before the Fortress of the God.
Why is the name of Him spelt Khut? We have seen that ST is the regular honorific ~terminitation for a God. Ra is, as shown in the Old Comment, the Sun, Hoor the Warrior Mars; who is Khu? He is the Magical Ego of a Star. Without the Yod or Iota, Khu-t, we get a human conception; the insertion of that letter makes the transmutation to Godhead.
When therefore Ra Hoor Khut is rewarded or Re-guarded with the Magick Word of the Aeon, he becomes God. Thus in the next verse. I 'raise the spell of Ra Hoor Khuit'.
The text may also be read as follows. Abrahadabra is the formula of the Aeon, by which man may accomplish the Great Work. This Formula is then the 'reward' given by the God, the largesse granted by Him on His accession to the Lordship of the Aeon, just as the INRI-IAO-LVX formula of attainment by way of Crucifixion was given by Osiris when he came to power in the last Aeon. (See Book 4 Part III, and Equinnox I, III, pp. 208-233).
I must here say that I find myself in the greatest difficulty, again and again, in the comprehension of this chapter. It might be said roughly that at the end of the first five years of Silence (An 0-IV) I understood Chapter I; at the end of the second five years (an X-XIV) I understood Chapter II, ---
AL III,2: "There is division hither homeward; there is a word not known. Spelling is defunct; all is not aught. Beware! Hold! Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor-Khuit!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
2. Suggested by a doubt arising in the mind of the prophet as to the unusual spelling. But the "I" makes a difference in the qabalistic interpretation of the name.
THE NEW COMMENT.
'Division hither homeward'; a most dour phrase to interpret! Such curious concatenation is sure to imply profound meaning. Homeward must mean 'toward the House of the Speaker. He says, then, that there is 'division', which (as I take it) prevents man from being God. THis is a natural and orthodox meaning, and it goes well with 'there' (I.E. in verse 1) 'is a word not known'. That Word is Abrahadabra, which was not known, it having been concealed by the corrupt spelling "abracadabra'.
'Spelling is defunct'; this seems to be an echo of the statement in Cap. II, v:5 "The rituals of the old time are black". (The word 'defunct' is decidedly curious; the implication is 'no longer able to fulfil its function'.) 'Spelling' then means 'making spells'. And this is characteristic of Ra-Hoor-Khuit, that He demands not words, but acts. (Compare 'The Paris Working'). So then we pass naturally to verse 3. 'All is not aught' is an abrogation of all previous law, on the accession of a Monarch. He wipes out the past as with a sponge. This phrase is also an excessively neat cipher or hieroglyph of the great Key to this Book. All (AL) is not aught (LA). AL is LA: that is to say, the phases of the Universe X and 0 are identical. "Beware!" as if it were said to a soldier, "Attention!"
"Hold!", that is, "Steady! Listen to the Proclamation!"
"Raise the spell of Ra-Hoor Khuit!" That is "Here, I, the New God, utter my Word".
AL III,3: "Now let it be first understood that I am a god of War and of Vengeance. I shall deal hardly with them."
THE OLD COMMENT.
3. This whole book seems intended to be interpreted literally. It was so taken by the scribe at the time.
Yet a mystical meaning is easy to find. Exempli gratia; vv. 4-9.
THE NEW COMMENT.
Comment seems hardly necessary. The Great War is a mere illustration of this text. The only nations which have suffered are those whose religion was Osirian, or, as they called it, Christian. The exception is Turkey, which foolishly abandoned the principles of Islam to form an unholy alliance with the Giaour. Abdul Hamid would never have made such an ass of himself as the degenerate gang of "Liberty and Progress"; may jakals defile the pyres of their dog fathers!
(The God of Vengeance is in Greek Ο ΑΛΑΣΤΩΡ, Aleister. For some reason which I have not been able to trace, this God became ALASTOR, the Desert Daemon of the Rabbins, the later the "Spirit of Solitude" of Shelly. The attribution is appropriate enough, the root being apparently A AOMAI, I wander. The idea of "Going" is dreadful to the bourgeois, so that a wanderer is "accursed'. But, me judice, to settle down in life is to abandon the heroic attitude; it is to acquiesce in the stagnation of the brain. I do not want to be comfortable, or even to prolong life; I prefer to move constantly from galaxy to galaxy, from one incarnation to another. Such is my intimate individual Will. It seems as thou this "god of War and of Vengeance" is then merely one who shall cause men to do their won Wills by Going as Gods do, instead of trying to check the irresistible course of Nature.)
P. S. El Ouid Algeria An XX Sol in Sagittarius. The terror of Syria in the reign of Oman was the great soldier and administrator Melekh-Al-Astar. Possibly Jewish mothers used to scare their crying babies by threatening them with this "demon of the desert" and the Rabbins incorporated the "bogey man" in their averse hierarchy.
AL III,4: "Choose ye an island!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
4. An Island = one of the Cakkrams or nerve-centres in the spine.
THE NEW COMMENT.
4-9. This is a practical instruction; and, as a 'military secret', is not in any way soever to be disclosed. I say only that the plans are complete, and that the first nation to accept the Law of Thelema Shall, by My counsel, become sole Mistress of the World.
AL III,5: "Fortify it!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
5. Fortify it = concentrate the mind upon it.
AL III,6: "Dung it about with enginery of war!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
6. Prevent any impressions reaching it.
THE NEW COMMENT.
This phrase is curiously suggestive of the 'mine-layer' to those who have seen one in action.
AL III,7: "I will give you a war-engine."
THE OLD COMMENT.
7. I will describe a new method of meditation by which (See Verse 8, Old Comment).
THE NEW COMMENT.
This suggests the Tank, the Island chosen being England. But this is probably a forthshadowing of the real Great War, wherein Horus shall triumph utterly.
AL III,8: "With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall stand before you."
THE OLD COMMENT.
8. Ye shall easily suppress invading thoughts.
AL III,9: "Lurk! Withdraw! Upon them! this is the Law of the Battle of Conquest: thus shall my worship be about my secret house."
THE OLD COMMENT.
9. May mystically describe this method (e.g., Liber HHH, Section 3). But the course of history will determine the sense of the passage.
THE NEW COMMENT.
"Lurk! Withdraw! Upon them!" describes the three parts of a certain magical gesture indicative of a formula which has proven very powerful in practical work. (The events beginning in An XVII Sol in Libra, when I write these words, and ending I do not yet know when, will form a luminous comment on the passage. There is an alternative, taking the beginning as An X sol in Libra, and implying larger periods).
AL III,10: "Get the stele of revealing itself; set it in thy secret temple-and that temple is already aright disposed-& it shall be your Kiblah for ever. It shall not fade, but miraculous colour shall come back to it day after day. Close it in locked glass for a proof to the world."
THE OLD COMMENT.
10. The stele of revealing.
That temple; it was arranged as an octagon; its length double its breadth; entrances on all four quarters of temple; enormous mirrors covering six of the eight walls (there were no mirrors in the East and West or in the western halves of the South and North sides).
There were an altar and two obelisks in the temple; a lamp above the altar; and other furniture.
Kiblah -- any point to which one turns to pray, as Mecca is the Kiblah of the Mohometan.
"It shall not fade," etc. It has not hitherto been practicable to carry out this command."
THE NEW COMMENT.
The language is here so obvious and so inane that one is bound to suspect a deeper sense. It sounds as bad as "the last winking Virgin" or St. Januarius.
AL III,11: "This shall be your only proof. I forbid argument. Conquer! That is enough. I will make easy to you the abstruction from the ill-ordered house in the Victorious City. Thou shalt thyself convey it with worship, o prophet, though thou likest it not. Thou shalt have danger & trouble. Ra-Hoor-Khu is with thee. Worship me with fire & blood; worship me with swords & with spears. Let the woman be girt with a sword before me: let blood flow to my name. Trample down the Heathen; be upon them, o warrior, I will give you of their flesh to eat!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
11. 'Abstruction'. It was thought that this meant to combine abstraction and construction, i.e. the preparation of a replica, which was done.
Of course, the original is in "locked glass."
THE NEW COMMENT.
The Victorious City is of course Cairo (Al-Kahira, the victorious), and the ill-ordered house is the Museum at Bulak.
Ra-Hoor-Khu; why is the name without its termination? Perhaps to indicate the essence of the force.
The Ritual of the Adoration of Ra-Hoor-Khuit is, as one might expect, illustrative of His nature. It seems doubtful whether this Ritual can ever be of the type of symbolic celebration; it appears rather as if expeditions against the Heather: i.e. Christians and other troglodytes -- but most especially the parasites of man, the Jews -- were to be His rite.{WEH NOTE: The crack about Jews is often deleted from copies of the Comment. Crowley's views in the 20s not withstanding, about 1/3 of the present members of O.T.O. are Jewish, the "Paris Working" was a homosexual love affair between Crowley and Victor Newberg, and Crowley wouldn't even be "up a tree" without the Jewish Qabalah! One of the best features of Crowley is his absent-minded bigotry. No chance that any intelligent person would accept his opinions without repeated trial! In some versions of "Liber Aleph" the passage "never marry a nigger" appears after Crowley was seriously "paved" by his quadroon wife of the time. For the European whites, it is a matter of record that Crowley was sent a notice of expulsion from Beastship by Scarlet Woman Alostrael.} And it is to be taken that 'the woman' is to take arms in His honour. This woman might be The Scarlet Woman, or perhaps Woman generally. Remember that in the Scarlet Woman 'is all power given'; and I expect a new Semiramis.
AL III,12: "Sacrifice cattle, little and big: after a child."
AL III,13: "But not now."
AL III,14: "Ye shall see that hour, o blessed Beast, and thou the Scarlet Concubine of his desire!"
AL III,15: "Ye shall be sad thereof."
THE OLD COMMENT.
12-15. This, ill-understood at the time, is now too terribly clear. The 15th verse, apparently an impossible sequel, has justified itself.
THE NEW COMMENT.
12-15. This, read in connexion with verse 43, was then fulfilled May 1, 1906, o.s. The tragedy was also part of mine initiation, as described in The Temple of Solomon the King. It is yet so bitter that I care not to write of it. {WEH NOTE: Crowley lost his first child to illness. He blamed his wife for unhygienic practices.}
AL III,16: "Deem not too eagerly to catch the promises; fear not to undergo the curses. Ye, even ye, know not this meaning all."
THE OLD COMMENT.
16. Courage and modesty of thought are necessary to the study of this book. Alas! we know so very little of the meaning.
THE NEW COMMENT.
The God wisely refrains from clear expression, so that the event, as it occurs, may justify His word. This progressive illumination of that word has served to keep it alive as no single revelation could have done. Every time that I have dulled to Liber Legis something has happened to rekindle it in my heart.
"Know 'not' this meaning 'all'"; another cipher for LA = AL.
AL III,17: "Fear not at all; fear neither men nor Fates, nor gods, nor anything. Money fear not, nor laughter of the folk folly, nor any other power in heaven or upon the earth or under the earth. Nu is your refuge as Hadit your light; and I am the strength, force, vigour, of your arms."
THE OLD COMMENT.
17. The infinite unity is our refuge, since if our consciousness by in that unity, we shall care nothing for the friction of its component parts. And our light is the inmost point of illuminated consciousness.
And the great Red Triangle is as a shield, and its rays are far-darting arrows!
THE NEW COMMENT.
The last paragraph is a singular confirmation of the view which I have taken of Our Hierarchy: compare what has been said on the subject in previous chapters.
AL III,18: "Mercy let be off: damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not; be upon them!"
THE NEW COMMENT.
18. An end to the humanitarian mawkishness which is destroying the human race by the deliberate artificial protection of the unfit.
THE NEW COMMENT.
What has been the net result of our fine 'Christian' phrases? In the good old days there was some sort of natural selection; brains and stamina were necessary to survival. The race, as such consequently improved. But we thought we knew oh! so much better, and we had "Christ's law" and other slush. So the unfit crowded and contaminated the fit, until Earth herself grew nauseated with the mess. We had not only a war which killed some eight million men, in the flower of their age, picked men at that, in four years, but a pestilence which killed six million in six months. Are we going to repeat the insanity? Should we not rather breed humanity for quality by killing off any tainted stock, as we do with other cattle? And exterminating the vermin which infect it, especially Jews and Protestant Christians? Catholic Christians are really Pagans at heart; there is usually good stuff in them, particularly in Latin countries. They only need to be instructed in the true meaning of their faith to reflect the false veils.
An XXI Sol in Cancer After some years spent in Catholic countries, I wish to modify the above. Catholics are dead alike to Spirituality and to Reason, as bad as Protestants. And the Jew is far from hopeless outside America, where the previous paragraph was written.
AL III,19: "That stele they shall call the Abomination of Desolation; count well its name, & it shall be to you as 718."
THE OLD COMMENT.
19. 718 is Υπομονη the abstract noun equivalent to Perdurabo.
THE NEW COMMENT.
The reference appears to be to the old prophecies of 'Daniel' and 'John'. The first Qabalistic allusion is yet (An XIV {?} in {?} ) undiscovered.
An XVII Sol in Libra. I think it proper to insert here the account of the true meaning of this verse, though it more properly belongs to the Appendix. But the circumstances are so striking that it is well worth the while of the lay reader to become acquainted with the nature of the reasoning which attests the praeterhuman character of the Author of this Book.
It follows, in the words in which it was originally written, An XVII Sol in Gemini, Moon in Cancer, June 8, 1921 e.v., with no preliminaries, in my Magical Diary, at the Abbey of Thelema in Cephaloedium of Trinacria. These verses are very subtly worded. How should I understand this allusion to the stele; how "count well its name" without knowing it?
I tried to count "Abomination of Desolation", but that is what "they shall call" it, not its proper name.
It seemed that this name, when found, ought to add to 718, or to be identical with some other word or phrase that did so. More, this name when found must some how express "the fall of Because".
For many years these two verses, despite elaborate research, yielded no meaning soever. At last I chanced on Upsilon-pi-omicron-mu-omicron-nu-eta as 718; it means "persistence", the Greek noun corresponding to "Perdurabo", my first magical Motto. Of course the Stele had persisted since the 26th Dynasty, but that scarecely justified naming it "Persistence"; also, there was nothing about "the fall of Because".
Now (An XVII, Sol in Gemini, Moon in Cancer) I was going through the Law in order to repair any details of omission in the rituals ordained, and found these verses introduced among the instructions. They fascinated me; when I had finished the work in hand, I returned to them and worked for some hours with a Lexicon, starting from the word APXH, Cause, 709, to find some phrase equal to 718 which would deny Cause. I found AZA, 9, a word meaning "dryness", but most especially the dirt or mould upon a disused object. APXH AZA is, therefore, a precise expression of the doctrine expounded in our Law about "Because".
So far, so good; but this is no sense the name of the Stele.
I worked on, and found XOIZA, 718, "Yesterday" which might be grasped as a straw if I sank the third time; but I was swimming strongly enough.
I found XAIPE A∴A∴ 718, "Hail to the A∴A∴". I gracefully acknowledged the greeting to Our Holy Order, but went on with my search.
There is no such word as AXPICTA, "unchristlike things"; only blind bigotry could be satisfied with so crude an invention.
Then came XAPA H, 713, an engraved character. That was a true name for the Stele; if I suffixed AD, 5, it might read "The Mark of Hadit". But I did not feel inwardly that thrill of ecstacy that springs in the heart or that dawn of amazement that kindles the mind, when Truth's sheer simplicity takes form. There is a definite psychological phenomenon which accompanies and important discovery. It is like First Love, at First Sight, to the one; like the recognition of a Law of Nature, to the other. It inflames one with Love for the Universe, and it explains all its puzzles, in a flash; and it gives an interior conviction which nothing can shake, a living certainty quite beyond one's argued acquiescence in any newly acquired facts.
I lacked this; I knew that I had to seek further. The Truth uttered by Aiwaz is hidden with such exquisite art that it is always easy to wring out a more or less plausible meaning by torture. Yet all such learned and ingenious fumblings reveal their own impotence; the Right Key opens the safe in a second, so simply and smoothly as to make it ridiculous to doubt that the lock was made by a master smith to respond to that key and no other.
The reader will have noticed that all the really important correspondences in this Book are so simple that a child might understand them. There are also my own creaking and lumbering scholar-dredgers, not one of which is truly illuminating or even convincing. The real solutions, moreover, are almost always confirmed by other parts of the text.
or by event subsequent to the Writing of the Book.
I worked on: I asked myself for the thousandth time what the Stele could claim with literal strictness as "its name". I scribbled the word CTHAH and added it up. the result is 546, when CT counts as 500, or 52, when CT is 6, a frequent usage, as in CTAYPOS, whose number is thus 777.
Idly enough, my tired pen subtracted 52 from 718. I started up like a Magician who, conjuring Satan in vain till Faith's lamp sputters, and Hope's cloak is threadbare, gropes, heavily leaning on the staff of Love, blinking and droning along -- and suddenly sees HIm!
I did the sum over, this time with my pen like a panther. Too good to be true! I added my figures; yes, 718 past denial. I checked my value of Stele; 52, and no error. Then only I let myself yield to the storm of delight and wonder that rushed up from the Hand of Him that is throned in the Abyss of my Being; and I wrote in my Magical Record
the Triumph for which I have warred for over seventeen years
718
CYHAH 6 6 6
No fitter name could be found, that was sure ... ---
And then came a flash to confirm me, to chase the last cloud of criticism; the actual name of the Stele, its ordinary name, the only name it ever had until it was called the "Stele of Revealing", in the Book of the Law, itself, "its name" in the catalogue of the Museum at Boulak, was just this: "Stele 666".
I have described this discovery at length because I wash to emphasize its importance.
Most of the numbers and words openly mentioned in the Book of the Law which conceal Secret Matters were already at that time possessed of a certain significance for me. Some unconscious co-operation of my mind might be alleged as the determinant factor in the choice of those numbers, their subsequent interconnexions, and so on explained by the
commentators' ingenuity, and the confirmation of independent facts by coincidence. Similarly, the hidden numbers such as 3,141593{WEH NOTE: SIC, should be 3.1415923}, 395, 31, 93, may be ascribed to the commentators, and denied to the intention of the text; at least, by that class of Pharisee which strains at the Butterfly of the Soul, preferring to swallow any hippopotamus if it be slimed thickly enough with the miasmal swamp-mire of materialism.
But 718 is expressed openly; its nature is described sufficiently and unambiguously; and it meant nothing to anybody in the world, either then or for seventeen years after.
And now the meaning falls so pat, so natural, so self-justified, so evidently the unique value of the 'x' of the equation, that it is impossible to quibble.
The law of probablities excludes all theories but one. The simple Truth is what I have always asserted.
There is a Being called Aiwaz, an intelligence discarnate, who wrote this Book of the Law, using my ears and hand. His mind is certainly superior to my own in knowledge and in power, for He has dominated me and taught me ever since.
But that apart, the proof of any discarnate intelligence, even of the lowest order, has never before been established. And lack of that proof is the flaw in all the religions of the past; man could not be certain of the existence of "God", because though he knew many powers independent of muscle, he knew of no consciousness independent of nerve.
AL III,20: "Why? Because of the fall of Because, that he is not there again."
THE OLD COMMENT.
20. In answer to some mental "Why" of the prophet, the God gives this sneering answer. Yet perhaps therein is contained some key to enable me one day to unlock the secret of verse 19, at present obscure. (Now, Autumn 1911, clear).
THE NEW COMMENT.
There is here a perception of the profound law which opposes thought to action. We act, when we act aright, upon the instructive wisdom inherited from the ages. Our ancestors survived because they were able to adapt themselves to their environment; their rivals failed to breed, and so "good" qualities are transmitted, while 'bad' are sterile.
Thus the race-thought, subconscious, tells a man that he must have a son, cost what it may. Rome was founded on the rape of the Sabine women. Would a reasoner have advocated that rape? Was it 'justice' or 'mercy' or 'morality' or 'Christianity'.
There is much on the ethics of this point in Chapter II of this Book. Thomas Henry Huxley in his essay "Ethics and Evolution" pointed out the antithesis between these two ideas; and concluded that Evolution was bound to beat Ethics in the long run. He was apparently unable to see, or unwilling to admit, that his argument proved Ethics (as understood by Victorians) to be false. The Ethics of Liber Legis are those of Evolution itself. We are only fools if we interfere. Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law, biologically as well as in every other way. Let us take an example. I am an antivaccinationist in a sense which every other antivaccinationist would repudiate. I admit that vaccination protects from small-pox. But I should like everybody to have small-pox. The weak would die; the strong might have pitted faces; but the race would become immune to the disease in a few generations.
On somewhat similar lines, I would advocate, with Samuel Butler, the destruction of all machinery. (I admit the practical difficulties of defining the limits of legitimate devices. The issue is this: how are we to develop human skill? The printing press is admirable in the hands of an Aldus, a Charles T. Jacobi, or even a William Morris. Bu.
the cheap mechanical printing of luetic rubbish on rotten pulp with worn types in inferior ink has destroyed the eyesight, putrefied the mind, and deluded the passions, of the multitude). For machines are dodges for avoiding Hard Work; and Hard Work is the salvation of the race. In the Time-Machine, H.G. Wells draws an admirable picture of a dichotomized humanity, one branch etiolated and inane, the other brutalized and automatic. Machines have already nearly completed the destruction of individual craftmanship. A man is no longer a worker, but a machine-feeder. The product is standardized; the result mediocrity. Nobody can obtain What He Will; he must be content with what knavery puts on the market. Instead of every man and every woman being a star, we have an amorphous pullulation of Vermin.
AL III,21: "Set up my image in the East: thou shalt buy thee an image which I will show thee, especial, not unlike the one thou knowest. And it shall be suddenly easy for thee to do this."
THE OLD COMMENT.
21. This was remarkably fulfilled.
THE NEW COMMENT.
Verses 21 - 31 seem to refer to the rites of public worship of Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
The word "Set" is curious -- is there here a reference to Set the God?
With regard to the Old Comment, I did indeed find an image of the kind implied. But there seems no special importance in this. I am inclined to see some deeper significance in this passage. There has elsewhere been reference to the words "not", "one", "Thou knowest". The word "easy" is moreover suggestive of some mystery; it is used in the same doubtfully intelligible sense in verse 40.
AL III,22: "The other images group around me to support me: let all be worshipped, for they shall cluster to exalt me. I am the visible object of worship; the others are secret; for the Beast & his Bride are they: and for the winners of the Ordeal x. What is this? Thou shalt know."
THE OLD COMMENT.
22. This first charge was accomplished; but nothing resulted of a sufficiently striking nature to record.
The Ordeal "X" will be dealt with in private.
THE NEW COMMENT.
There are to be no regular temples of Nuith and Hadit, for They are incommensurables and absolutes. Our religion therefore, for the People, is the Cult of the Sun, who is our particular star of the Body of Nuit, from whom, in the strictest scientific sense, come this earth, a chilled spark of Him, and all our Light and Life. His vice-regent and representative in the animal kingdom is His cognate symbol the Phallus, representing Love and Liberty. Ra-Hoor-Khuit, like all true Gods, is therefore a Solar-Phallic deity. But we regard Him as He is in truth, eternal; the Solar-Phallic deities of the old Aeon, such as Osiris, "Christ", Hiram, Adonis, Hercules, &c., were supposed, through our ignorance of the Cosmos, to 'die' and rise again'. Thus we celebrated rites of 'crucifixion' and so on, which have now become meaningless. Ra-Hoor-Khuit is the Crowned and Conquering Child. This is also a reference to the 'Crowned' and Conquering 'Child' in ourselves, our own personal God. Except ye become as little children, said 'Christ', ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of Malkuth, the Virgin Bride, and the Child is the Dwarf-Self, the Phallic consciousness, which is the true life of Man, beyond his 'veils' of incarnation. We have to thank Freud -- and especially Jung -- for stating this part of the Magical Doctrine so plainly, as also for their development of the connexion of the Will of this 'child' with the True or Unconscious Will, and so for clarifying our doctrine of the 'Silent Self' or 'Holy Guardian Angel'. They are of course totally ignorant of magical phenomena, and could hardly explain even such terms as "Augoeides'; and they are seriously to blame for not stating more openly that this True Will is not to be daunted or suppressed; but within their limits they have done excellent work.
AL III,23: "For perfume mix meal & honey & thick leavings of red wine: then oil of Abramelin and olive oil, and afterward soften & smooth down with rich fresh blood."
THE NEW COMMENT.
Meal: ordinary wheaten flour.
Leavings: the "beewing" of port should be good.
Oil of Abramelin: take eight parts of oil of cinnamon, four of oil of myrrh, two of oil of galangal, seven of olive oil{WEH NOTE: This is not the recipe given in Abramelin, though it seems at first correct. That recipe took the proportions from the dry ingredients. If the essential oils are used instead at the same proportion, the mixture will be much too strong. In fact, the oil of cinnamon may injure the eyes or raise blisters if used at this strength!}.
AL III,24: "The best blood is of the moon, monthly: then the fresh blood of a child, or dropping from the host of heaven: then of enemies; then of the priest or of the worshippers: last of some beast, no matter what."
THE NEW COMMENT.
A: menstrual blood.
B: possibly "dragon's blood".
These two kinds of 'blood' are not to be confused. The student should be able to discover the sense of this passage by recollecting the Qabalistic statement that "The blood is the life", consulting Book 4 Part III, and applying the knowledge which reposes in the Sanctuary of the Gnosis of the Ninth Degree of O.T.O. The 'child' is "BABALON and THE BEAST conjoined, the Secret Saviour", that is, the Being symbolized by the Egg and Serpent hieroglyph of the Phoenician adepts. The second kind is also a form of BAPHOMET, but differs from the 'child' in that it is the Lion-Serpent in its original form.
The process of softening and smoothing down is thus in this case that of vitalizing the Eagle. It is inadvisable to word this explanation, in terms too intelligible to the profane, since uninitiated attempts to make use of the formidable arcana of Magick presented in this passage could lead only to the most fulminating and irremediable disaster.
AL III,25: "This burn: of this make cakes & eat unto me. This hath also another use; let it be laid before me, and kept thick with perfumes of your orison: it shall become full of beetles as it were and creeping things sacred unto me."
THE OLD COMMENT.
25. This incense was made; and the prediction most marvellously fulfilled.
THE NEW COMMENT.
These Beetles, which appeared with amazing suddeness in countless numbers at Boleskine during the summer of 1904 E.V. were distinguished by a long single 'horn'; the species was new to the naturalists in London to whom specimens were sent for classification.
AL III,26: "These slay, naming your enemies; & they shall fall before you."
THE NEW COMMENT.
See Liber 418, First Aethyr, final paragraphs.
AL III,27: "Also these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eating thereof."
THE OLD COMMENT.
27. These experiments, however, were not made.
THE NEW COMMENT.
The word "lust" is not necessarily to be taken in the sense familiar to Puritans. It means robustness, 'merriment' as of old understood: the Germans have retained the proper force of the term in "lustig". But even the English retain "lusty".
The Puritan is undoubtedly a marvel. He has even succeeded in attaching a foul connotation to a colourless word like "certain" -- "In a section of the city with a certain reputation women of a certain class suffering from certain diseases are charged with performing certain acts" is a common enough item in the newspapers. It allows the fullest play to the dirtiest imaginations -- which appears to be the aim of the societies for the Suppression of Vice, and their like.
AL III,28: "Also ye shall be strong in war."
AL III,29: "Moreover, be they long kept, it is better; for they swell with my force. All before me."
THE NEW COMMENT.
It is not altogether clear whether the beetles or the Cakes are referred to in this strange passage. The proper way to discover the truth of this is to experiment.
There is a considerable amount of evidence in my possession which throws light upon this part of the chapter; but no important purpose would be served by producing it at present. These are circumstances when apparent frankness defeats its own ends as well as those of policy.
AL III,30: "My altar is of open brass work: burn thereon in silver or gold!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
30. Not yet accomplished.
THE NEW COMMENT.
There is now such an altar as described; and the due rites are performed daily thereupon. (An XVI, {?} In {?}).
AL III,31: "There cometh a rich man from the West who shall pour his gold upon thee."
THE OLD COMMENT.
31. Not yet accomplished.
THE NEW COMMENT.
I do not know whether this is to be taken in a practical sense.
The obvious meaning of "from the West" in an Egyptian document would be "from the House of the Dead".
Alternatively, there may be a reference to the name of the person in question. I feel convinced that some event will occur to fit the passage with unmistakeable accuracy. (I write this in AN XVII {?} in {?}.)
AL III,32: "From gold forge steel!"
AL III,33: "Be ready to fly or to smite!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
33. Certainly, when the time comes.
THE NEW COMMENT.
It suggests itself, that the foregoing verses may have been already fulfilled in some manner which my feeble understanding of the chapter has failed hitherto to identify.
AL III,34: "But your holy place shall be untouched throughout the centuries: though with fire and sword it be burnt down & shattered, yet an invisible house there standeth, and shall stand until the fall of the Great Equinox; when Hrumachis shall arise and the double-wanded one assume my throne and place. Another prophet shall arise, and bring f
resh fever from the skies; another woman shall awake the lust & worship of the Snake; another soul of God and beast shall mingle in the globed priest; another sacrifice shall stain the tomb; another king shall reign; and blessing no longer be poured To the Hawk-headed mystical Lord!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
34. This prophecy, relating to centuries to come, does not concern the present writer at the moment.
Yet he must expound it.
The Hierarchy of the Egyptians gives us this genealogy: Isis, Osiris, Horus.
Now the 'pagan' period is that of Isis; a pastoral, natural period of simple magic. Next with Buddha, Christ, and others there came in the Equinox of Osiris; when sorrow and death ware the principal objects of man's thought, and his magical formula is that of sacrifice.
Now, with Mohammed perhaps as its forerunner, comes in the Equinox of Horus, the young child who rises strong and conquering (with his twin Harpocrates) to avenge Osiris, and bring on the age of strength and splendour. His formula is not yet fully understood.
Following him will arise the Equinox of Ma, the Goddess of Justice, it may be a hundred or ten thousand years from now; for the Computation of Time is not here as There.
THE NEW COMMENT.
Note the close connexion between Leo and Libra in the Tarot, the numbers VIII and XI of their Trumps being interchanged with XI and VIII. There is no such violent antithesis as that between Osiris and Horus; Strength will prepare the Reign of Justice. We should begin already, as I deem, to regard this Justice as the Ideal whose Way we should make ready, by virtue of our Force and Fire.
Taking the "holy place" to be Boleskine House, it has already been subjected to a sort of destruction. It was presented by me to the O.T.O. and sold in order to obtain funds for the publication of The Equinox Volume III. But the proceeds of the sale were mostly stolen by the then Grand Treasurer General of the Order, one George MacNie Cowie, who became obsessed by the vulgarest form of hate against the Germans, despite my warnings, with reference to verse 59 of this chapter. He became insane, and behaved with the blackest treachery, this theft being but a small portion of his infamies. The incident was necessary to my own initiation. {WEH NOTE: As the current Grand Treasurer General of the Order, I feel it incumbent upon me to offer a defense of General Cowie. In point of fact Crowley's pro-German involvement in the USA, whether clandestine on behalf of the Allies or not, occasioned a police raid on his British office. Cowie, a deafmute thousands of miles away from Crowley, could hardly prevent the Crown from seizing the Golden Book and such assets as lay about. Cowie's letters to Crowley were filled with invective against the Axis powers out of simple precaution of reputation. Crowley also was unable to understand that the British Government had seized his book sales stock. Crowley instead blamed the management of the warehouse!}
Hrumachis is the Dawning Sun; he therefore symbolizes any new course of events. The "double-wanded one" is "Thmaist of dual form as Thmais and Thmait", from whom the Greeks derived their Themis, goddess of Justice. The student may refer to The Equinox Vol. I., No 2, pages 244-261. Thmaist is the Hegemon, who bears a mitre-headed sceptre, like that of Joshua in the Royal Arch Degree of Freemasonry. He is the third officer in rank in the Neophyte Ritual of the G∴ D∴, following Horus as Horus follows Osiris. He can then assume the "throne and place" of the Ruler of the Temple when the "Equinox of Horus" comes to an end.
The rimed section of this verse is singularly impressive and sublime. We may observe that the details of the ritual of changing officers are the same on every occasion. We may therefore deduce that the description applies to this "Equinox of the Gods" itself. How have the conditions been fulfilled? The introduction to Book 4, Part IV tells us. We may briefly remind the reader of the principal events, arranging them in the form of a rubric, and placing against each the corresponding magical acts of the Equinox previous to ours, as they are symbolized in the legends of Osiris, Dionysus, Jesus, Attis, Adonis, and others.
The Ritual. Aeon of Horus Aeon of Osiris
Another prophet The Beast 666 Dionysus and
shall arise (Aleister Crowley) others
others are names for (perhaps) Apollonius of Tyana. In the conditions then obtaining, several magi were required
And bring fresh "Force & Fire" of Horus
fever from the "Skies" of Nuit
skies.
Another woman See Comment on "Venus" of the
shall awake Chapt. I. 15. Adonis legends.
We have no clue to her name.
The lust and The Might and Worthiness The "Holy Ghost"
worship of the of Hadit within men; also or "Satan" indwelling.
Snake the cult of the Spermatozoon The key to Magick in the Snake Apophis the destroyer.
Another soul of The Union of AIWAZ and Pan as God and God and beast The Beast in Aleister goat; Mary, &c: Crowley. The identification as Mother of the of Matter and Spirit in Son of God, fertilized our Doctrine. by the Dove -- or Bull, Swan &c. The doctrine of the regenerate incorruptible body.
Another sacrifice Love is the Magical Crucifixion, &c., as
shall stain
Formula: Sex as the Key to the Magical
the tomb
Life. "The tomb" -- the Formula. Death as
temple of Love the Key to Life.
"The tomb" -- the coffin or grave.
Another king Horus (Ra-Hoor-Khuit) the Osiris (Jesus, &c.)
shall reign Crowned Child. the dying King
(See Fraser.)
And blessing no Blessing = Semen Blessing = Blood.
longer be poured
to the Hawk-headed
mystical Lord.
It may be presumptuous to predict any details concerning the next Aeon after this.
AL III,35: "The half of the word of Heru-ra-ha, called Hoor-pa-kraat and Ra-Hoor-Khut." 35. Note Heru-ra-ha = 418.
THE NEW COMMENT.
Heru-ra-ha combines the ideas of Horus (cf. also 'the great angel Hru' who is set over the Book of Tahuti; see Liber LXXVIII) with those of Ra and Spirit. For He-Aleph is the Atziluthic or archetypal spelling of He, the Holy Ghost. And Ha=6, the number of the Sun. He is also Nuith, H being Her letter.
The language suggests that Heru-Ra-Ha is the 'true Name' of the Unity who is symbolized by the Twins Harpocrates and Horus. Note that the Twin Sign -- and the Child Sign -- is Gemini, whose letter is Zain, a sword.
The doctrine of the dual character of the God is very important to a proper understanding of Him. "The Sign of the Enterer is always to be followed immediately by the Sign of Silence": such is the imperative injunction to the Neophyte. In Book 4 the necessity for this is explained fully.
AL III,36: "Then said the prophet unto the God:"
THE NEW COMMENT.
This passage now following appears to be a dramatic presentation of the scene shown in the Stele. The interpretation is to be that Ankh-f-n-Khonsu recorded for my benefit the details of the Magical Formula of Ra Hoor Khuit. To link together the centuries in this manner is nothing strange to the accomplished Magician; but in view of the true character of Time as it appears to the Adept in Mysticism, the riddle vanishes altogether.
AL III,37: "I adore thee in the song-
I am the Lord of Thebes, and I
The inspired forth-speaker of Mentu;
For me unveils the veiled sky,
The self-slain Ankh-af-na-khonsu
Whose words are truth. I invoke, I greet Thy presence, O Ra-Hoor-Khuit!
Unity uttermost showed!
I adore the might of Thy breath, Supreme and terrible God,
Who makest the gods and death
To tremble before Thee:-
I, I adore thee!
Appear on the throne of Ra!
Open the ways of the Khu! Lighten the ways of the Ka! The ways of the Khabs run through
To stir me or still me!
Aum! let it fill me!"
THE NEW COMMENT.
Stanza 3 suggests the Rosicrucian Benediction: May thy Mind be open unto the Higher!
May thy Heart be the centre of Light!
May thy Body be the Temple of the Rosy Cross!
AL III,38: "So that thy light is in me; & its red flame is as a sword in my hand to push thy order. There is a secret door that I shall make to establish thy way in all the quarters, (these are the adorations, as thou hast written), as it is said: The light is mine; its rays consume me: I have made a secret door Into the House of Ra and Tum, Of Khephra and of Ahathoor.
I am thy Theban, O Mentu,
The prophet Ankh-af-na-khonsu!
By Bes-na-Maut my breast I beat;
By wise Ta-Nech I weave my spell. Show thy star-splendour, O Nuit!
Bid me within thine House to dwell, O winged snake of light, Hadit!
Abide with me, Ra-Hoor-Khuit!"
THE NEW COMMENT.
See the translation of the Stele in the Introduction to Book 4 Part IV. Note the Four Quarters or Four Solar Stations Enumerated in lines 3 and 4 of the first Stanza, and compare the ritual given in Liber Samekh. (Book 4 Part III, Appendix).
AL III,39: "All this and a book to say how thou didst come hither and a reproduction of this ink and paper for ever-for in it is the word secret & not only in the English-and thy comment upon this the Book of the Law shall be printed beautifully in red ink and black upon beautiful paper made by hand; and to each man and woman that thou meetest, were it but to dine or to drink at them, it is the Law to give. Then they shall chance to abide in this bliss or no; it is no odds. Do this quickly!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
39. This being done; but quickly? No. I have slaved at the riddles in this book for night on seven years; and all is not yet clear.
THE NEW COMMENT.
This account is published with this comment itself.
The present volume is thus the obedience to this command.
'At them' may mean 'at their house', that is, one must give when one recognizes any one as a potential king by accepting his hospitality. An alternative meaning is "in their honour".
AL III,40: "But the work of the comment? That is easy; and Hadit burning in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen."
THE OLD COMMENT.
40. I do not think it easy. Thought the pen has been swift enough, once it was taken in hand. May it be that Hadit hath indeed made it secure! (A am still -- Autumn, 1911 -- entirely dissatisfied).
THE NEW COMMENT.
I am less annoyed with myself than when I wrote the "Old Comment", but not wholly content. How is one to write a comment? For whom? One has more than the difficulties of the lexicographer. Each new Postulant presents new problems; the degrees and kinds of their ignorance are no less numerous than they. I am always finding myself, sailing along joyously for several months in the belief that my teaching is helping somebody, suddenly awakened to the fact that I have made noway whatever, owing to the object of my solicitude having omitted to learn that Julius Caesar conquered Gaul, or something of the sort, which I had assumed to be a matter of universal Knowledge.
AL III,41: "Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well and with business way."
THE OLD COMMENT.
41. This shall be done as soon as possible.
THE NEW COMMENT.
It is being done now.
AL III,42: "The ordeals thou shalt oversee thyself, save only the blind ones. Refuse none, but thou shalt know & destroy the traitors. I am Ra-Hoor-Khuit; and I am powerful to protect my servant. Success is thy proof: argue not; convert not; talk not overmuch! Them that seek to entrap thee, to overthrow thee, them attack without pity or quart
er; & destroy them utterly. Swift as a trodden serpent turn and strike! Be thou yet deadlier than he! Drag down their souls to awful torment: laugh at their fear: spit upon them!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
42. This shall be attended to.
THE NEW COMMENT.
"Ordeals": refer to the Comment on Chapter I, verses 32 seq. "Traitors": see Liber 418: 1st Aethyer.
I quote: --
Mighty, mighty, mighty, mighty; yea, thrice and four times mighty art thou. He that riseth up against thee shall be thrown down, though thou raise not so much as thy little finger against him. and he that speaketh evil against thee shall be put to shame, though thy lips utter not the littlest syllable against him. and he that thinketh evil c
oncerning thee shall be confounded in his thought, although in thy mind arise not the least thought of him. And they shall be brought into subjection unto thee, and serve thee, though thou willest it not. And it shall be unto them a grace and a sacrament, and ye shall all sit down together at the supernal banquet, and ye shall feast upon the honey of the gods, and be drunk upon the dew of immortality -- FOR I AM HORUS, THE CROWNED AND CONQUERING CHILD, WHOM THOU KNEWEST NOT!
AL III,43: "Let the Scarlet Woman beware! If pity and compassion and tenderness visit her heart; if she leave my work to toy with old sweetnesses; then shall my vengeance be known. I will slay me her child: I will alienate her heart: I will cast her out from men: as a shrinking and despised harlot shall she crawl through dusk wet streets, and d
ie cold and an-hungered."
AL III,44: "But let her raise herself in pride! Let her follow me in my way! Let her work the work of wickedness! Let her kill her heart! Let her be loud and adulterous! Let her be covered with jewels, and rich garments, and let her be shameless before all men!"
AL III,45: "Then will I lift her to pinnacles of power: then will I breed from her a child mightier than all the kings of the earth. I will fill her with joy: with my force shall she see & strike at the worship of Nu: she shall achieve Hadit."
THE OLD COMMENT.
43-45. The two latter verses have become useless, so far as regards the person first indicated to fill the office of "Scarlet Woman". In her case the prophecy of v. 43 has been most terribly fulfilled, to the letter; except the last paragraph. Perhaps before the publication of this comment the final catastrophe will have occurred. ( {?} in 2 0 {?}, An V.) It or an even more terrible equivalent is now in progress. ( {?} in {?}, An VII.) (P.S. -- I sealed up the MSS of this comment and posted it to the printer on my way to the Golf Club at Hoylake. On my arrival at the Club, I found a letter awaiting me which stated that the catastrophe had occurred).
Let the next upon whom the cloak may fall beware!
THE NEW COMMENT.
It is impossible to discuss such passages as these until time has ~funished the perspective.
The accounts of certain magical experiments in this line will be found in "The Urn."
This 'child' is not necessarily to be identified with him who 'shall discover the key of it all.'
AL III,46: "I am the warrior Lord of the Forties: the Eighties cower before me, & are abased. I will bring you to victory & joy: I will be at your arms in battle & ye shall delight to slay. Success is your proof; courage is your armour; go on, go on, in my strength; & ye shall turn not back for any!"
THE OLD COMMENT.
46. I do not understand the first paragraph.
THE NEW COMMENT.
Forty is Mem, Water, the Hanged Man; and Eighty is Pe, Mars, the blasted Tower. These Trumps refer respectively to the "Destruction of the World by Water" and "by Fire." The meaning of these phrases is to be studied in my Rituals of Magick, such as Book 4, Parts II & III. Its general purport is that He is master of both types of Force. I am inclined to opine that there is a simpler and deeper sense in the text than I have so far disclosed "at your arms" is a curious turn of phrase. There may be some cryptographic implication, or there may not; at least, there is this, that the use of such un-English expressions makes a clear-cut distinction between AIWAZ and the Scribe. In the inspired Books, such as Liber LXV, VII, DCCXIII and others, written by The Beast 666 directly, not from dictation, no such awkward expressions are to be found. The style shows a well-marked difference.
AL III,47: "This book shall be translated into all tongues: but always with the original in the writing of the Beast; for in the chance shape of the letters and their position to one another: in these are mysteries that no Beast shall divine. Let him not seek to try: but one cometh after him, whence I say not, who shall discover the Key of it all. Then this line drawn is a key: then this circle squared in its failure is a key also. And Abrahadabra. It shall be his child & that strangely. Let him not seek after this; for thereby alone can he fall from it."
THE OLD COMMENT.
47. These mysteries are inscrutable to me, as stated in the text. I note that the letters of the Book are the letters of the Book of Enoch; and are stars, or totems of stars. (See 15th Aire in Liber 418). So that he that shall divine it shall be a Magtus, 9degree = 2square.
THE NEW COMMENT.
I am now (An XIV {?} in {?}) a Magus 9○ = 2□; and I agree with the former comment. He need only be a Magister Templi 8○ = 3□, whose world is Understanding.
"one cometh after him:" 'one,' i.e. Achad. See Appendix{WEH NOTE: Appendix not yet recovered} for this and other points of this most 'evidential' verse. "the Key of it all:" all, i.e. AL 31 the Key! See MS for allusion to the "line drawn" and the "circle squared in its failure."
The attribution (in the Old Comment) of the letters to those of the Book of Enoch is unsupported.
AL III,48: "Now this mystery of the letters is done, and I want to go on to the holier place."
AL III,49: "I am in a secret fourfold word, the blasphemy against all gods of men."
THE NEW COMMENT.
The evident interpretation of this is to take the word to be "Do what thou wilt," which is a secret word, because its meaning for every man is his own inmost secret. And it is the most profound blasphemy possible against all 'gods of men,' because it makes every man his own God.
We may then take it that this Solar-Phallic Ra Ha is Each Man Himself. As each independent cell in our bodies is to us, so is each of us to Heru-Ra-Ha. Each man's 'child'-consciousness is a Star in the Cosmos of the Sun, as the Sun is a Star in the Cosmos of Nuith.
AL III,50: "Curse them! Curse them! Curse them!"
AL III,51: "With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross."
THE NEW COMMENT.
We are to consider carefully the particular attach of Heru Ra Ha against each of these 'gods' or prophets; for though they be, or represent, the Magi of the past, the curse of their Grade must consume them. Thus it is the eyes of 'Jesus' -- his point of view -- that must be destroyed; and this point of view is wrong because of his Magical Gesture of self-sacrifice.
One must not for a moment suppose that this verse supports the historicity of 'Jesus.' 'Jesus' is not, and never was, a man; but he was a 'god,' just as a bundle of old rags and a kerosene tin on a bush may be a 'god.' There is a man-made idea, built of ignorance, fear, and meanness, for the most part, which we call 'Jesus,' and which has been tricked out from time to time with various gauds from Paganism, and Judaism.
The subject of 'Jesus' is, most unfortunately, too extensive for a note; it is treated fully in my book 888.
AL III,52: "I flap my wings in the face of Mohammed & blind him."
THE NEW COMMENT.
Mohammed's point of view is wrong too; but he needs no such sharp correction as 'Jesus.' It is his face -- his outward semblance -- that is to be covered with His wings. The tenets of Islam, correctly interpreted, are not far from our Way of Life and Light and Love and Liberty. This applies especially to the secret tenets. The external creed is mere nonsense suited to the intelligence of the peoples among whom it was promulgated; but even so, Islam is Magnificent in practice. Its code is that of a man of courage and honour and self-respect; contrasting admirably with the cringing cowardice of the damnation-dodging Christians with their unmanly and dishonest acceptance of vicarious sacrifice, and their currish conception of themselves as 'born in sin,' 'miserable sinners' with 'no health in us.'
AL III,53: "With my claws I tear out the flesh of the Indian and the Buddhist, Mongol and Din."
THE NEW COMMENT.
"The Indian." The religion of Hindustan, metaphysically and mystically comprehensive enough to assure itself the possession of much truth, is in practice almost as superstitious and false as Christianity, a faith of slaves, liars and dastards. The same remarks apply roughly to Buddhism.
'Mongol:" presumably the reference is to Confucianism, whose metaphysical and ethical flawlessness has not saved its adherents from losing those ruder virtues which are proper to a Fighting Animal, and thus yielding at last a civilization coeval with history itself to the barbarous tribes of Europe.
"Din" -- 'severity' or 'judgment' may refer to the Jewish Law, rather than to the Faith (ad 'din') of Islam. Assuming this, the six religions whose flesh must be torn out cover the whole globe outside Islam and Christianity.
Why assault their flesh rather than their eyes, as in the other cases? Because the metaphysics, or point of view, is correct -- I take Judaism as Qabalistic -- but the practice imperfect
AL III,54: "Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous creeds."
THE OLD COMMENT.
54. Appears to be a plain instruction in theology and ethics. I do not understand "Din". Bahlasti = 358, and Ompehda perhaps 210. THE NEW COMMENT.
See Appendix{WEH NOTE: Not extant.}.
By sound Bahlasti suggests "hurling" or "blasting;" Ompegda is not too phantastically onomatopoeitic for 'an explosion."
AL III,55: "Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: for her sake let all chaste women be utterly despised among you!"
THE NEW COMMENT.
The name Mary is connected with Mars, Mors, etc., from the Sanskrit MR to slay and with Mare, the Sea, whose water opposes the Fire of Horus. I here quote a passage from Liber XCVII which deals with this fully.
"Let me strictly meditate this hate of the mother. M R is the Sanskrit root = "Kill," hence Mara, Mors, Maria, and I suppose Meer, Mere, Mer -- in short, lots of words meaning death or sea. Note Mordred as the traitor villain in Morte d'Arthur. In Liber Legis we have "Mary" who is to be 'torn upon wheels' apparently because she is 'inviolate.' Liber 418 has some explanation of this: 'because she hath shut herself up', I seem to remember is the phrase.
It appears (I don't remember the Sanskrit as if a dental T or D were inserted phallically to give us Madar, Mu-eta-tau-eta-rho, Mater, Mother, (? meter = measure.)
Does the accent in mere conceal a lost dental? I suppose Jung or Freud has this all worked out in detail.
I have thought this before, long ago, but can't get a satisfactory Qabalah. 240 is a doubling of the Pentagram, of course, and is a sixfold of 40, the number of repressive 'sealed-up' law. By our R.O.T.A., M R is the Sea swallowing the Sun, and the insertion of a Tau would help this in a certain formula of "He lives in the Sun." But that would only boost the Mother, which won't do, for she is the Tomb, the Eater of Flesh, and there's no getting away from it. But apparently she is all right just so far as she is open, to enter or leave at one's pleasure, the Gateway of Eternal Life. She is Sakti, the Teh, the Magical Door between the Tao and the Manifested World. The great Obstacle than is if that Door be locked up. Therefore Our Lady must be symbolized as an Whore. (Note Daleth, the Door = Venus. The Dove; Free flowing; all this is linked up in the symbol). Clearly, at last, the Enemy is this Shutting up of things. Shutting the Door is preventing the Operation of Change, i.e. of Love. The objection to Calypso, Circe, Armida, Kundry, and Co. is that one is liable to be shut up in their Gardens. The whole of the Book of the Dead is a device for opening the closed vehicles, and enabling the Osiris to go in and out at his pleasure. On the other hand, there seems to be a Sealing Up, for a definite period, in order to allow the Change to proceed undisturbed. Thus Earth lies fallow; the womb is closed during gestation; the Osiris is plugged with talismans. But it is vital to consider this as a strictly temporary device; and to "cut out the idea of Eternal Rest". This Nibbana-idea is the coward -- 'Mother's Boy' idea; one ought to take a refreshing dip in the Tao, no more. I think this must be brought forward as the Cardinal Point of Our Holy Law. Thus though Nuit cries "To me!" that is balanced by the Formula of Hadit. "Come unto me" is a foolish word; for it is I that go.
Now the Semen is God (the going-one, as shown by the Ankh or Sandal-strap, which He carries) because he goes in at the Door, stays there for a specified period, and comes out again, having flowered, and still bearing in him that Seed of Going. (The birth of a girl is a misfortune everywhere, because the true Going-Principle is the Lion-Serpent, or Dragon; the Egg is only the Cavern where he takes refuge on occasions){WEH NOTE: Shall we simply say that Crowley had a problem with misogyny in general? His love for the specific seems not to have been effected, witness the latter part of "Confessions".}.
LIber 418 explains this succinctly; 3rd Aethyr
"Moreover, there is Mary, a blasphemy against BABALON, for she hath shut herself up; and therefore is she the Queen of all those wicked devils that walk upon the earth, those that thou savest even as little black specks that stained the Heaven of Urania. And all these are the excrement of Choronzon."
It is this 'shutting up' that is hideous, the image of death. It is the opposite of Going, which is God.
Women under Christianity are kept virgin for the market as Strasbourg geese are nailed to boards till their livers putrefy. The nature of woman has been corrupted, her hope of a soul thwarted, her proper pleasure balked, and her mind poisoned, to titillate the jaded palates of senile bankers and ambassadors.
Why do men insist on 'innocence' in women?
1. To flatter their vanity.
2. To give themselves the best chance of (a) escaping venereal disease, (b) propagating their noble selves.
3. To maintain power over their slaves by their possession of Knowledge.
4. To keep them docile as long as possible by drawing out the debauching of their innocence. A sexually pleased woman is the best of willing helpers; one who is disappointed or disillusioned a very psychical exzema.
5. In primitive communities, to serve as a guard against surprise and treachery.
6. To cover their secret shame in the matter of sex. Hence the pretence that a woman is 'pure', modest, delicate, aesthetically beautiful and morally exalted, ethereal and unfleshly, though in fact they know her to be lascivious, shameless, coarse, ill-shapen, unscrupulous, nauseatingly bestial both physically and mentally. The advertisement
s of "dress shields," perfumes, cosmetics, anti-sweat preparations, and "Beauty Treatments" reveal woman's nature as seen by the clear eyes of those who would lose money if they misjudged her; and they are loathsomely revolting to read. Her mental and moral characteristics are those of the parrot and the monkey. Her physiology and pathology are hideously disgusting, a sickening slime of uncleanliness.
Her virgin life is a sick ape's, her sexual life a druken sow's, her mother life all bulging filmy eyes and sagging udders.
These are the facts about "innocence;" to this has man's Christian Endeavour dragged her when he should rather have made her his comrade, frank, trusty, and gay, the tenderer self of himself, his consubstantial complement even as Earth is to the Sun. We of Thelema say that "Every man and every woman is a star." We do not fool and flatter women; we do not despise and abuse them. To us a woman is Herself, absolute, original, independent, free, self-justified, exactly as a man is. We dare not thwart Her Going, Goddess she! We arrogate no right upon Her will; we claim not to deflect Her development, to dispose of Her desires, or to determine Her destiny. She is Her own sole arbitar; we ask no more than to supply our strength to Her, whose natural weakness else were prey to the world's pressure. Nay more, it were too zealous even to guard Her in Her Going; for She were best by Her own self-reliance to win Her own way forth!
We do not want Her as a slave; we want Her free and royal, whether Her love fight death in our arms by night, or Her loyalty ride by day beside us in the Charge of the Battle of Life.
"Let the woman be girt with a sword before me!"
"In her is all power given."
So sayeth this our Book of the Law. We respect Woman in the self of Her own nature; we do not arrogate the right to criticise her. We welcome her as our ally, come to our camp as her Will, free-flashing, sword-swinging, hath told Her, Welcome, thou Woman, we hail thee, star shouting to Star! Welcome to rout and to revel! Welcome to fray and to feast! Welcome to vigil and victory! Welcome to war with out {WEH NOTE: Some texts have "out" some "its"} wounds! Welcome to peace with its pageants! Welcome to lust and to laughter! Welcome to board and to bed! Welcome to trumpet and triumph; welcome to dirge and to death!
It is we of Thelema who truly love and respect Woman, who hold her sinless and shameless even as we are; and those who say that we despise Her are those who shrink from the flash of our falchions as we strike from Her limbs their foul fetters.
Do we call Woman Whore? Ay, Verily and Amen, She is that; the air shudders and burns as we shout it, exulting and eager.
O ye! Was not this your sneer, your vile Whisper that scorned Her and shamed Her? Was not "Whore" the truth of Her, the title of terror that you gave Her in your fear of Her, coward comforting coward with furtive glance and gesture? But we fear Her not; we cry Whore, as Her armies approach us. We beat on our shields with our swords. Earth echoes the clamour!
Is there doubt of the victory? Your hordes of cringing slaves, afraid of themselves, afraid of their own slaves, hostile, despised and distrusted, your only tacticians the ostrich, the opossum, and the cuttle, will you not break and flee at our first onset, as with levelled lances of lust we ride at the charge, with our allies, the Whores whom
we love and acclaim, free friends by our sides in the Battle of Life?
The Book of the Law is the Charter of Woman; the Word Thelema has opened the lock of Her "girdle of chastity." Your Sphinx of stone has come to life; to know, to will, to dare and to keep silence.
Yes, I, The Beast, my Scarlet Whore bestriding me, naked and crowned, drunk on Her golden Cup of Fornication, boasting Herself my bedfellow, have trodden Her in the Market place, and roared this Word that every woman is a star. And with that Word is uttered Woman's Freedom; the fools and fribbles and flirts have heard my voice. The fox in woman hath heard the Lion in man; fear, fainting, flabbiness, frivolity, falsehood -- these are no more the mode.
In vain will bully and brute and braggart man, priest, lawyer, or social censor knit his brows to devise him a new tamer's trick; once and for all the tradition is broken; vanished the vogue of bowstring, sack, stoning, nose-slitting, beltbuckling, cart's tail-dragging, whipping, pillory posting, walling-up, divorce court, eunuch, harem, mind-crippling, house-imprisoning, menial-work-wearying, creed-stultifying, social-ostracism marooning, Divine-wrath-scaring, and even the device of creating and encouraging prostitution to keep one class of women in the abyss under the heel of the police, and the other on its brink, at the mercy of the husband's boot at the first sign of insubordination or even of failure to please.
Man's torture-chamber had tools inexhaustibly varied; at one end murder crude and direct to subtler, more callous, starvation; at the other moral agonies, from tearing her child from her breast to threatening her with a rival when her service had blasted her beauty.
Most masterful man, yet most cunning, was not thy supreme stratagem to band the woman's own sisters against her, to use their knowledge of her psychology and the cruelty of their jealousies to avenge thee on thy slave as thou thyself hadst neither wit nor spite to do?
And Woman, weak in body, and starved in mind; woman, morally fettered by Her heroic oath to save the race, no care of cost, helpless and hard, endured these things, endured from age to age. Hers was no loud spectacular sacrifice, no cross on a hill-top, with the world agaze, and monstrous miracles to echo the applause of heaven. She suffered and triumphed in most shameful silence; she had no friend, no follower, none to aid or approve. For thanks she had but maudlin flatteries, and knew what cruel-cold scorn the hearts of men scarce cared to hide. She agonized, ridiculous and obscene; gave all her beauty and strength of maidenhood to suffer sickness, weakness, danger of death, choosing to live the life of a cow -- that so Mankind might sail the seas of time. She knew that man wanted nothing of her but service of his base appetites; in his true manhood-life she had nor part nor lot; and all her wage was his careless contempt.
She hath been trampled thus through all the ages, and she hath tamed them thus. Her silence was the token of her triumph. But now the Word of Me the Beast is this; not only art thou Woman, sworn to a purpose not thine own; thou art thyself a star, and in thyself a purpose to thyself. Not only mother of men art thou, or whore to men; serf to their need of Life and Love, not sharing in their Light and Liberty; nay, thou art Mother and Whore for thine own pleasure; the Word I say to Man I say to thee no less: Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law! Ay, priest, ay, lawyer, ay, censor! Will ye not gather in secret once again, if in your hoard of juggler's tricks there be not one untried, or in your cunning and counsel one device new-false to save your pirate ship from sinking? It has always been so easy up to now! What is the blasting Magick in that Word, first thesis of the Book of the Law, that "every woman is a star."
Alas! it is I the Beast that roared that Word so loud, and wakened Beauty.
Your tricks, your drowsy drugs, your lies, your hypnotic passes -- they will not serve you.
Make up your minds to be free and fearless as I, fit mates for women no less free and fearless!
For I, The Beast, am come; an end to the evils of old, to the duping and clubbing of abject and ailing animals, degraded to that shameful state to serve that shameful pleasure. The essence of my Word is to declare woman to be Herself, of, to, and for Herself; and I give this one irresistible Weapon, the expression of Herself and Her will through sex, to Her on precisely the same terms as to man. Murder is no longer to be dreaded; the economic weapon is powerless since female labour has been found industrially valuable; and the social weapon is entirely in her own hands.
The best women have always been sexually-free, like the best men; it is only necessary to remove the penalties for being found out. Let Women's labour organizations support any individual who is economically harried on sexual grounds; let social organizations honour in public what their members practise in private.
Most domestic unhhappiness will disappear automatically, for its chief cause is the sexual dissatisfaction of wives, or the anxiety (or other mental strain engendered should they take the remedy in their own hands. The crime of abortion will lose its motive in all but the most exceptional cases.
Blackmail will be confined to commercial and political offences, thus diminishing its frequency by two-thirds, at least, maybe much more.
Social scandals and jealousies will tend to disappear.
Sexual disease will be easier to track and to combat, when it is not longer a disgrace to admit it.
Prostitution (with its attendant crimes) will tend to disappear, as it will cease to offer exorbitant profits to those who exploit it. The pre-occupation of the minds of the public with sexual questions will no longer breed moral disease and insanity, when the sex-appetite is treated as simply as hunger. Frankness of speech and writing on sex
ual questions will dispel the ignorance which entraps so many unfortunate people; proper precaution against actual dangers will replace unnecessary and absurd precautions against imaginary or artificial dangers; and the quacks who trade on fear will be put out of business.
All this must follow as the Light the night as soon as Woman, true to Herself, finds that She can no longer be false to any man. She must hold Herself and Her Will in honour; and She must compel the world to accord it.
The modern woman is not going to be dupe, slave, and victim any more; the woman who gives herself up freely to her own enjoyment, without asking recompense, will earn the respect of her brothers, and will openly despise her 'chaste' or venal sisters, as men now despise 'milksops,' 'sissies,' and 'tango lizards.' Love is to be divorced utterly and irrevocably from social and financial agreements, especially marriage. Love is a sport, an art, a religion, as you will; it is not an ol' clo' Emporium.
'Mary inviolate' is to be 'torn upon wheels' because tearing is the only treatment for her; and RV, a wheel, is the name of the feminine principle. (See Liber D.) It is her own sisters who are to punish her for the crime of denying Her nature, not men who are to redeem her, since, as above remarked, it is man's own false sense of guilt, his s
elfishness, and his cowardice, which originally forced her to blaspheme against herself, and so degraded her in her own eyes, and in his. Let him attend to his own particular business, to redeem himself -- he has surely his hands full! Woman will save herself if she be but left alone to do it. I see, it, I, the Beast, who have seen - who see --
Space splendid with stars, who have seen -- who see -- the Body of our Lady Nuith, all-pervading, and therein swallowed up, to have found -- to find -- no soul that is not wholly of Her. Woman! thou drawest us upward and onward for ever; and every woman is one among women, of Woman; one star of Her stars.
I see thee, Woman, thou standest alone, High Priestess art thou unto Love at the Altar of Life. And Man is the Victim therein.
Beneath thee, rejoicing, he lies; he exults as he dies, burning up in the breath of thy kiss. Yea, star rushes flaming to star; the blaze burst, splashes the skies.
There is a Cry in an unknown tongue, it resounds through the Temple of the Universe; in its one Word is Death and Ecstasy, and thy title of honour, o thou, to Thyself High Priestess, Prophetess, Empress, to thyself the Goddess whose Name means Mother and whore!
AL III,56: "Also for beauty's sake and love's!"
THE NEW COMMENT.
It is obvious to the physiologist that beauty (that is, the fitness of proportion) and love (that is, natural attraction between things whose union satisfies both) need for fulfilment absolute spontaneity and freedom from restriction. A tree grows deformed if it be crowded by other trees or by masonry; and gunpowder will not explode it its par
ticles are separated by much sand.
If we are to have Beauty and Love, whet
Magical and Philosophical Comment: Chapter I | Chapter II | Chapter III