Liber 36: The Star Sapphire

Ritual by Aleister Crowley

Analysis by Michael Osiris Snuffin (2003)

1. Let the Adept be armed with his Magick Rood [and provided with his Mystic Rose].

The Rood is the phallus and the Rose is the vagina. Note that the Rood is a cross, particularly the Cross of the Crucifixion; it also means lance.

2. In the centre, let him give the L.V.X. signs; or if he know them, if he will and dare do them, and can keep silent about them, the signs of N.O.X. being the signs of Puer, Vir, Puella, Mulier. Omit the sign. I.R.

The proper signs to use are the N.O.X. signs, which conceal a certain method of energy work. Note the correspondence between the chakras and the hand positions of the signs:

Puella—Root and Heart chakras

Puer—Navel and Brow chakras (N)

Vir—Brow chakra (O)

Mulier—Crown chakra (X)

This sequence moves energy from the Root chakra to the Crown chakra and is analogous with the path of the Kundalini serpent. While making the signs, activate the chakras involved and move the energy between them.

The order of the Signs given above is taken from Liber Reguli. The instructions in the Star Sapphire give a different order of the Signs, ranking them by grade:

L.V.X.—Plexus (Adeptus Minor 5=6)

Puer—Navel and Brow chakras (Adeptus Major 6=5)

Vir—Brow chakra (Adeptus Exemptus 7=4)

Puella—Root and Heart chakras (Babe of the Abyss)

Mulier—Crown chakra (Babe of the Abyss)

This arrangement separates the N.O.X. Signs by gender. The signs of Puella and Mulier are further differentiated by their sexual attitude. Puella is also referred to as the Sign of Chastity, the virtue practiced in the 7th Degree of the OTO. Mulier is also referred to as the Sign of Babalon, who is characterized as a whore. The two Signs represent a bridge between the “celibate” Lovers Triad and the sexually active Hermit Triad of the OTO initiatory system.

3. Then let him advance to the East and make the Holy Hexagram, saying: Pater et Mater unus deus Ararita.

4. Let him go round to the South, make the Holy Hexagram and say: Mater et Filius unus deus Ararita.

5. Let him go round to the West, make the Holy Hexagram and say: Filius et Filia unus deus Ararita.

6. Let him go round to the North, make the Holy Hexagram and then say: Filia et Pater unus deus Ararita.

The Holy Hexagram is defined in Chapter 69 of The Book of Lies. It refers to mutual oral sex. The heads and legs of the interlocked man and woman form a hexagram.

The orations give further instructions, indicating which gender will take the dominant position in each quarter. Thus in the East the man would lie on top of the woman in the formation of the Holy Hexagram, while in the South they would switch positions, and so on. Alternatively, the orations may only indicate the nature of the energy being invoked by the Holy Hexagram, the union of opposites. In any case, the formula ARARITA should be uttered aloud in each quarter. ARARITA is notariqon for “One is his beginning; one is his individuality; his permutation is one.” It is a planetary formula, having seven letters.

“The use of this Name and Formula is to equate and identify every idea with its opposite; thus being released from the obsession of thinking any one of them as <<true>> (and therefore binding); one can withdraw oneself from the whole sphere of the Ruach” --Aleister Crowley, The Holy Books of Thelema.

7. Let him then return to the Centre, and so to the Centre of All (making the Rosy Cross as he may know how) saying Ararita Ararita Ararita.

The “Centre of All” is Pan.

“Making the Rosy Cross” is a term for sexual intercourse. Remember that the Rood is a cross. The operators should exclaim ARARITA three times at the moment of orgasm

Note that at this point, the climax of the ritual, the planetary formula ARARITA has been uttered seven times. Seven is the number of Venus, and 7 X 7 = 49, the Mystic Number of Venus.

8. (In this the Signs shall be those of Set Triumphant and of Baphomet. Also shall Set appear in the Circle. Let him drink of the Sacrament and let him communicate the same.)

The Sign of Set Triumphant is the Sign of Apophis from the L.V.X. Signs, not the Sign of Mater Triumphans as commonly reported. The Sign of Baphomet is the Sign of Mulier from the N.O.X. signs. The two Signs are very similar in appearance, but the first is masculine in nature while the second is feminine. When the two Signs are superimposed on each other during intercourse, they form a hexagram; the woman lies with her arms and legs extended, while the man lies on top of her with his arms extended and his legs together.

Set is samekh-teth, symbolic of the Sacrament. In the tarot, teth depicts the physical act of intercourse and the energy generated thereby, while samekh shows the product of that sexual union, the charged sexual fluids commingled in the vagina that is the Sacrament of the operation. In Hebrew, set means “transgression” or “sin” and enumerates to 69.

There are other interesting correspondences between samekh and teth. They are the vertical and horizontal middle paths on the Tree of Life; samekh connects the Sun and the Moon, while teth joins Mercy and Severity. Also, teth is Leo and samekh is Sagittarius, and the sigils of these zodiacal signs are symbolic of the vagina and the phallus.

The pronoun “him” in the third sentence refers to the male operator. The Sacrament is consumed by both operators, with the man communicating the Sacrament to the woman. It is suggested elsewhere in Crowley’s writings that the Sacrament be dissolved and absorbed in the mouth to obtain the fullest effect.

9. Then let him say: Omnia in Duos: Duo in Unum: Unus in Nihil: Haec nec Quatuor nec Omnia nec Duo nec Unus nec Nihil Sunt.

“All in Two: Two in One: One in Nothing: These are neither Four nor All nor Two nor One nor Nothing.”

What number is missing from this oration? Three, the number of the Sacrament. It the product of the All in Two, it is the Two in One, and as One becomes Nothing when sacrificed.

10. Gloria Patri et Matri et Filio et Filiae et Spiritui Sancto externo et Spiritui Sancto interno ut erat est erit in saecula Saeculorum sex in uno per nomen Septem in uno Ararita.

This oration may be broken down into two sentences. “Glory to the Father and the Mother and the Son and the Daughter and the Holy Spirit without and the Holy Spirit within which was, is and shall be, world without end.”

The first sentence describes the six Elements found in the Greater Ritual of the Pentagram: Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Active Spirit and Passive Spirit.

“Six in One through the names of the Seven in One, Ararita.”

The second sentence is a definition of ARARITA in reference to the first sentence, which describes six Elements in one “world without end.”

11. Let him then repeat the signs of L.V.X. but not the signs of N.O.X.: for it is not he that shall arise in the Sign of Isis Rejoicing.

The Sign of Isis Rejoicing would indicate that an actual child was conceived through the sexual act, which is certainly not the case.

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