Pure Thelema - what is Veiled in Liber Al (The Book of the Law)
Guardians
of Darkness
By: Johan Pojke
PREFACE - STATEMENTS OF DOCTRINE.
This is the unifying concept of what has been termed the Esoteric (or Dark) Tradition:
1. Unknown - Boundless Darkness. Known as Ain, Aditi, Apeiron, Tao, Mahakala, and many other names - among one (I wish to show with this Comment) the Nuit of Liber Al..
2. Non-Being and Being. The intermediate being-state is BECOMING. It does this out of Necessity. (Liber Al says, "Always unto Nuit, there is no 'because'." See the comments.)
3. Emanation of a Light, Flame, Vajra, Viraj, etc. as a 7-fold Formed and Ordered substance that BECAME all material (matter/energy, space/time) things. (This is through Hadit in Thelemic terms, but Liber Al does not focus on the Light side.)
4. Infusion of the Darkness as a 5-fold formless chaotic "force" (this can be found in Shivaite Hinduism, Vajrayana, Taoism and Pythagoreanism) into the 7 which, in turn, drives everything that the 7 became on to ever greater change and diversity, relentlessly driving it on to change, to BECOME. (This is Nuit, or more specifically the Five Pointed Star of Nuit.)
In addition, there are elaborations that are identical: how that darkness is always categorized in 5 distinct ways as it acts on "the nature" around us and how the Flame is within us as kundalini, Vajra, Logos, etc. (This is dealt with extensively within Liber Al as I will be able to show; the Flame within us is Hadit.) How the Flame comes into living beings from the All Pervading Darkness, goes through living things as a Flame or kind of "Light" and then returns to that One Darkness (Hadit is always unto Nuit). How the All Pervading Darkness itself never increases or decreases all the time this goes on. There are also very similar doctrines about what lacks this Flame within, in all these traditions (Liber Al has a great deal to say about them as well, in very harsh terms, read the comments below).
Liber Al is often treated by occultists as a text almost beyond decoding. I say no it’s not; I say it is quite direct and to the point, even literal in many instances. It is not so difficult at all. Nor is its doctrine revolutionizing, or even unique. Crowley tried though, as he always did, to make it appear abstruse and pretentious – but even so, he did present the basics that are also in this comment very clearly for everyone: Nuit is "The Infinite bosom" and Hadit is the Flame or kundalini burning in it. He said that enough times for it to be "standard Thelemic theology." If you think what else is also in this comment (things that follow very naturally from that basic premise) must be wrong because Crowley never said it, or because no other Thelemite has said it, then you ought to ponder two things – Crowley kept some things secret and privy to his A:.A:. and secondly; he claimed that Liber Al was given to him and that he did not completely understand it.
THE LEADING ACTORS' HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Liber Al is divided into three chapters, each being a revelation of a separate key figure or principle - in turn: Nuit, Hadit and Ra-Hoor-Kuit. All of these names were in usage long before Crowley and are initially ancient Egyptian, or Hellenic Egyptian. What was attached to these words back then is actually a quite unimportant question. Liber Al means what Liber Al means. Do not get stuck to the meanings below when you read Liber Al! Anyway, it is of some interest to know the background and larger context:
Nuit, or Nu, or Nut: She is something like the barrier separating chaos from order, and the Great Lady who conceived all. She is the mother of all gods. Crowley's favored spelling Nuit is also French for "night," and Nuit does share many characteristics with the Greek All-Mother Night (Nyx, coeval with Tartaros). Actually, it seems Crowley's Nuit might be closer to the Hellenic Nyx than the Egyptian Nut. Freemasonry is guilty of the same; they use Hellenic ideas and veil them in Egyptian symbols and words. The Egyptian Nut is the mother, or higher form, of Nepthys, or Nebt-het, which means: the Lady of the House of Horus.
Horus Behdety/Hadit: Defended against Set. In Hellenic thinking Horus is the Osiris-Light Health and Reason (Logos) in people. Typhon (passion) is in unity with Horus in natural man, but can go wrong and steal the Horus (logic) from people. In the claws of the Horus-hawk is the ring of eternity. Again, the Hellenic counterpart seems more important: Eros or Logos/Phanes. Eros/Phanes was portrayed as winged.
WHAT IS VEILED IN LIBER AL
Chapter I
1. Hadit The manifestation of Nuit.
Comment: We see the Light, not the Darkness. Darkness is unmanifest; it flashes out as manifest Light.
2. The unveiling of the company of heaven.
3. Every man and every woman is a star.
Comment: Everyone of us has a soul of Darkness that burns as Light - and thus we live.
4. Every number is infinite; there is no difference.
Comment: There is everywhere the Infinite infused into the Finite, and in this all is one.
5. Help me, o warrior lord of Thebes, in my unveiling before the Children of men!
6. Be thou Hadit, my secret centre, my heart & my tongue!
7. Behold! it is revealed by Aiwass the minister of Hoor-paar-kraat.
8. The Khabs is in the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs.
Comment: Khabs, is the "starry light," equal to the (Black) Flame. The Khu is the garment the Flame weaves for itself, thus bounding itself in a form. "Khabs m Pehket," was by the Golden Dawn translated as "Light in Extension," or L.V.X., a formula used by Crowley. Light in Extension is the Flame flashing out of Darkness.
9. Worship then the Khabs, and behold my light shed over you!
Comment: I'll agree with a commentary to this verse Crowley made himself: "We are to pay attention to this Inmost Light; then comes the answering Light of Infinite Space. Note that the Light of Space is what men call Darkness; its nature is utterly incomprehensible to our uninitiated minds. It is the 'veils' mentioned previously in this comment that obstruct the relation between Nuit and Hadit. We are not to worship the Khu, to fall in love with our Magical Image. To do this -- we have all done it -- is to forget our Truth. If we adore Form, it becomes opaque to Being, and may soon prove false to itself. The Khu in each of us includes the Cosmos as he knows it. To me, even another Khabs is only part of my Khu. Our own Khabs is our one sole Truth." Khu is essential, Khabs is astral, and together they compose your soul-image.
10. Let my servants be few & secret: they shall rule the many & the known.
11. These are fools that men adore; both their Gods & their men are fools.
12. Come forth, o children, under the stars, & take your fill of love!
13. I am above you and in you. My ecstasy is in yours. My joy is to see your joy.
Comment: Darkness is both above/outside as well as immanent. The Will of Darkness burns as Light and returns unto/into Itself. This is the joy of existence.
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!
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.
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.
Comment: The Darkness can burn and flow through you in more active or more passive ways. It is both moon-fluid and winged fire.
17. But ye are not so chosen.
18. Burn upon their brows, o splendorous serpent!
19. O azure-lidded woman, bend upon them!
20. The key of the rituals is in the secret word which I have given unto him.
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.
Comment: The only thing that really IS is the Darkness with the Flame burning in Its bosom, but that is not seen or known in everyday life.
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.
23. But whoso availeth in this, let him be the chief of all!
24. I am Nuit, and my word is six and fifty.
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, bending down, a lambent flame of blue, all-touching, all penetrate, 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.
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!
Comment: The Darkness is No-name, No-thing.
28. None, breathed the light, faint & faery, of the stars, and two.
Comment: Darkness breathes out the Flame, the web of Light and Life, with its dialectical two-ness.
29. For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union.
30. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all.
Comment: Think Dark Force in nature and entropy, think Anaximander's Apeiron. Anaximander's fragment about the Apeiron (literally "the not-bounded") reads:
"The Beginning and
The Origin of all Being Things (of the all-there-is) is the Apeiron. And there
from is the emergence (waxing) of the being things
there into is also their waning (destruction, annihilation) according to their
fate (chreon). A nd they pay each other their justified debt and penance for
their injustice (adikia) according to the law of the Time (chronos)."
The core idea is: the emancipation of individual existence from non-Being is an injustice which necessitates both atonement and a return to that state. The injustice of Anaximander is not a moral one, it is nothing like sin, it is only a statement of universal truth: acquisition of form is the resultant of an act, an effort — as we would say today, an entropy-producing contraction of matter in a focus of energy which, after running its course, must ineluctably dissipate again. The statement of this verse of Liber Al is that this is the course of all the being things, and is also the Joy of existence.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
38. He must teach; but he may make severe the ordeals.
39. The word of the Law is THELEMA.
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.
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.
42. Let it be that state of manyhood bound and loathing. So with thy all; thou hast no right but to do thy will.
Comment: The only "right" that exists is nurturing your Flame. Everything that is against that is wrong.
43. Do that, and no other shall say nay.
44. For pure will, unassuaged of purpose, delivered from the lust of result, is every way perfect.
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.
Comment: 61 = Aleph-Vau-Nun, which means "the negative, non-existence, not." The Eight (8-yet-1-in-8) is the seven Light + the one Dark infused. Together they are really one: "the None"; the vortex., and the totality of existence. Eight is also Cheth, which spelled out in full yields 418. Hence this reads: the Seven + One "spelled out in full" is this:
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?
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.
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!
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.
Comment: The four gates to the one palace is the Dark trapezoid, shown in the comment to verse 1: 46. The palace is your House, the central pentagon of the star. If you are "always unto" Nuit-Darkness, then you have Flame in your heart and all is good and your House is aright.
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!
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!
54. Change not as much as the style of a letter; for behold! thou, o prophet, shalt not behold all these mysteries hidden therein.
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.
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.
Comment: Will is the Flame rising from Foundation. Love is this Flame going out and up through you, shining out as Eros. The House of God is the palace of earlier verses, the pentagon in the pentagram. The law of the fortress means, "if you are against this Flame - this love under will - then you are doomed to misery and expelled from the palace of Nuit."
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.
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.
Comment: Esoterically the Dark trapezoid and the Light trapezoid are "the same," they go hand in hand. In Thelema the Dark is Nuit (depicted standing arched forming a trapezoid!) and the Light is Nuit in her form of Babylon (represented by the 7). The palace of Nuit is paralleled by "the City of Babalon" in Crowley's writings. In the Chalice of Babalon is kept the blood of the saints. The saints are the masters of Innocence, they give their lives to Life itself. She is like a whore because she gives to all and refuses none, one has only to seek her company in order to get it. She always gives and never takes. She is all experiences possible on all levels. She is the manifested face of Life's fertile force. She is the mystery of Azazel, which if known reveals the ultimate mystery of Deity. Azazel is here, yet also still in Chaos. Azazel is Innocence whose other side is the Abyss. The understanding is that Darkness manifested the ultimate free gift: life, without reason or motive, INNOCENTLY. And Darkness also consumes it. The Darkness consumes it in order to create, in order to complete the sinistral wheel of Time. There is no dualism in this. Babylon is the possibilities available to our experience and all we have to do is to unite ourselves with Her as the Beasts we are in drunken Joy and delight, drunken on our own being, drunk on life itself. The magician overcomes the Abyss by destroying his ego (false pride and false self; the enemy of Innocence) through Love under Will. He is 0 just as the Abyss is 0. The card numbered 0 in the Tarot has the letter Aleph on it. It is the Fool, the Taoist sage. He is then admitted entrance to the City of Pyramids: Babylon. There he abides under the Night of Pan, the N.O.X. The N.O.X. is the L.V.X. (Light in extension) withdrawn. I.e. the Night of Pan is the Abyssal Darkness, the Universal sleep that precedes and follows creation. He becomes an inhabitant in the Great City of Babylon. In the kaballa this is the journey to attainment with Binah. The magician goes through the open Gate Geburah into the realm of Night and Darkness and crosses the Abyss. The alpha on the Pythagorean star connecting to Geburah is colored red and has a Chalice drawn in it. The Tarot Triumph attributed to the path between Geburah and Binah is the Charioteer crossing the Abyss carrying the Holy Grail. The letter of that card is Cheth! Ceth is 8, and Hebrew words with the numerical value of 8 listed in Crowley's 777 are: The Entrance; threshold, To Will; intend, Desired, and the word for physical Love (Eros). And of course, Cheth is 418, with is abrahadabra. Moreover, the letter at the top left point of the Baphomet sigil (where the Pythagorean star connects to Geburah-Mychos-Krater) is Teh, or Tau. Apart from looking very similiar to Cheth, Crowley says about this letter that it is the "the Magical Door between the Tao [Darkness, my note] and the Manifested World. The great Obstacle then 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. Crowley recognized this shutting up of your blood from the Chalice of Life as LHP. I do not, nor do I recognize it as RHP. I call it spiritual folly! A folly aganist self. It also seems to contradict what other things he clearly said in Liber Al. Or rather, things he was shown.
59. My incense is of resinous woods & gums; and there is no blood therein: because of my hair the trees of Eternity.
Comment: The hair of the Goddess is an old and quite well-known expression. Her hair is the web of Life. The trees of eternity are the ones true unto Nuit. The trees are the same as the hair; the web of Life = the Tree of Life.
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 a secret glory for them that love me.
Comment: The number 11 is the abrahadabra, which is 418. The Five Pointed Star is the pentagram, one point down the real Pythagorean way. The red circle is Hadit; the Ring binding your House and the Flame burning in it. The five-fold star is black, it is Darkness, but it appears as blue (literally so, during yogic sight with the Kyklos-gate closed, with your self bounded in the here) and gold (Darkness breathes and manifests as Flame). To the cursed, Will-less, and thanatos, the Pentagram will always seem to be pitch-black hellish Dark.
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!
Comment: This doesn't need much comment really, not in the light of what's been said hitherto. The City of Babalon is under the night stars in the desert. Come with your House aright, with Innocence in your Heart burning with the Flame, and Nuit is ...well, wonderful! "Put on the wings" refers to the winged Hadit. Eros is also winged in Pythagorean mytho-poetical language.
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!
64. I am the blue-lidded daughter of Sunset; I am the naked brilliance of the voluptuous night-sky.
65. To me! To me!
66. The Manifestation of Nuit is at an end.
Chapter II
1. Nu! the hiding of Hadit.
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.
Comment: The Khabs (the astral part of your self) is what designates the House (the Midde pentagon shown in the pentagram of Nuit, which is same as the Pythagorean pentagram, the genuine pentagram of western occultism). Hadit is the Light from Darkness, the essential you that is not extended and has no form. It is kept inside, and woven to, the astral you.
3. In the sphere I am everywhere the centre, as she, the circumference, is nowhere found.
4. Yet she shall be known & I never.
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.
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 the knowledge of me the knowledge of death.
Comment: There is no life, no Becoming, except through the Flame.
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.
Comment: The square in the circle is a Pythagorean symbol meaning the Mychos ("the cave of the Flame") within the Kyklos (the round that binds us here and now; space). Together they are the medium through which one's physical being and one's Flame is and grows. Hadit is both the Flame and its binding. You cannot come unto Hadit, just as you cannot "come unto your own feet."
8. Who worshipped Heru-pa-kraath have worshipped me; ill, for I am the worshipper.
Comment: Hadit is not to be worshipped; you "are" Hadit as you worship Nuit. Always unto Her, the Light burns only to return to Darkness.
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.
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.
13. for why? Because thou wast the knower, and me.
14. Now let there be a veiling of this shrine: now let the light devour men and eat them up with blindness!
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.
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.
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.
Comment: To be dead (thanatos in the Pythagorean sense) is to not feel the Flame in you. The lords of the earth are the kinsmen of the Star!
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.
Comment: I think this is a simple play with words. Dog is God backwards, giving the meaning that which is against God (against the Darkness and the inner Flame) will not have the Flame living inside. Such people often try to take the Flame from those who have it, depriving them of it, as if they feel that if they can't have it, no one else will. Such people are referred to by a well known phrase: "Dog in the Manger."
20. Beauty and strength, leaping laughter and delicious languor, force and fire, are of us.
Comment: In the Pythagorean sense: Health and katharsis is of the Flame. Without the binding ring and the Flame (both contained in Hadit) you are cursed to never feel quite right, to never know the true beauty of life.
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.
Comment: What this means to say is that those without Health, the akathartic, ophionic and the thanatos, poison the world and its joy. The Star and the Snake (kundalini-symbol) is the pentagram with Flame.
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.
23. I am alone: there is no God where I am.
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.
25. Ye are against the people, O my chosen!
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.
Comment: The Flame is the kundalini. If it rises up (unto Nuit, returning to Darkness) then all is fine. If it is forced downwards then there is venom within the person, sickness, a smothering of their own Flame (epithymesai in Pythagorean terms).
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.
28. Now a curse upon Because and his kin!
29. May Because be accursed for ever!
Comment: "Because" breeds self-consciousness, stripping every moment of its Innocence, halting the Flame.
30. If Will stops and cries Why, invoking Because, then Will stops & does nought.
Comment: The Flame goes back to Nuit-Darkness with Will. When you have fun time flies. When you constantly watch yourself, when you never trust the moment, never relax and simply let your feelings guide you, then you suffocate your Flame.
31. If Power asks why, then is Power weakness.
32. Also reason is a lie; for there is a factor infinite & unknown; & all their words are skew-wise.
33. Enough of Because! Be he damned for a dog!
Comment: Again, a dog is God backwards, see earlier comment and reference to dog in the manger. Obviously, it doesn't mean a literal dog, nor does this reflect on the behavior of literal dogs.
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.
Comment: Existence is a wonder to be lived, not a problem to be solved.
45. There is death for the dogs.
Comment: Again the "dogs".
46. Dost thou fail? Art thou sorry? Is fear in thine heart?
47. Where I am these are not.
Comment: Fear and dread for no reason (same as spiritual anguish, the typical angst feeling of many theologians, so-called devout people, and existentialist philosophers, is anti-Flame. On the other hand; have the Flame and those feelings are gone.
48. Pity not the fallen! I never knew them. I am not for them. I console not: I hate the consoled & the consoler.
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. )
Comment: More ranting against the anti-Flames. The 4 is the trapezoid, the topmost four points on the pentagram, same as the four gates to the one palace spoken of earlier in the chapter devoted to Nuit. The fifth who lies hidden in the egg is the bottom point.
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.
Comment: It is said in verse 1:60 about the pentagram of Nuit that the Seeing perceives it as "the blue & gold." The five-fold Health expresses itself as the Flame. The red gleam in the eyes is the red circle in the center of the pentagram of Nuit.
51. Purple beyond purple: it is the light higher than eyesight.
Comment: Ultra-violet is light of higher frequency than our eyes can register. The Light of Hadit is not light visible to eyesight, it is light of an altogether different kind.
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.
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.
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!
55. Thou shalt obtain the order & value of the English Alphabet; thou shalt find new symbols to attribute them unto.
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.
57. He that is righteous shall be righteous still; he that is filthy shall be filthy still.
Comment: To those with perfect Health corruption is not a temptation. However, those with a broken Root cannot heal.
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.
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!
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!
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!
71. But exceed! exceed!
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.
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.
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.
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.
79. The end of the hiding of Hadit; and blessing & worship to the prophet of the lovely Star!
Chapter III
1. Abrahadabra; the reward of Ra Hoor Khut.
Comment: Ra Hoor Khut is the archetypal man of Health: he who has Hadit and always is unto Nuit, he who inhibits the House and has the Flame rising. Ra Hoor Khuit is also the roadmodel of Thelema and the champion and idol of its tradition.
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!
3. Now let it be first understood that I am a god of War and of Vengeance. I shall deal hardly with them.
Comment: Turn against Health and it strikes back - hard! To Nature's outcasts Nature doesn't seem life-affirming and wonderful at all, it seems their greatest agony. And like dogs in the manger, they do hate and seek to suck the life out of those who are Nature's favorites.
4. Choose ye an island!
5. Fortify it!
6. Dung it about with enginery of war!
7. I will give you a war-engine.
8. With it ye shall smite the peoples; and none shall stand before you.
9. Lurk! Withdraw! Upon them! this is the Law of the Battle of Conquest: thus shall my worship be about my secret house.
Comment: The "secret house" is the House.
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.
Comment: "Thy secret temple" is the House, and aright disposed means it is aright (pentagram is firmly one point down). The talk about the stele means you should keep the law of this book always in your soul, in your inmost chamber.
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!
12. Sacrifice cattle, little and big: after a child.
13. But not now.
14. Ye shall see that hour, o blessed Beast, and thou the Scarlet Concubine of his desire!
15. Ye shall be sad thereof.
16. Deem not too eagerly to catch the promises; fear not to undergo the curses. Ye, even ye, know not this meaning all.
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.
18. Mercy let be off; damn them who pity! Kill and torture; spare not; be upon them!
19. That stele they shall call the Abomination of Desolation; count well its name, & it shall be to you as 718.
20. Why? Because of the fall of Because, that he is not there again.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
26. These slay, naming your enemies; & they shall fall before you.
27. Also these shall breed lust & power of lust in you at the eating thereof.
28. Also ye shall be strong in war.
29. Moreover, be they long kept, it is better; for they swell with my force. All before me.
30. My altar is of open brass work: burn thereon in silver or gold!
31. There cometh a rich man from the West who shall pour his gold upon thee.
32. From gold forge steel!
33. Be ready to fly or to smite!
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 fresh 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!
Comment: "The invisible house" is just that; the House. The verse predicts the oblivion of Thelema, but its doctrines and laws are eternal and will survive, no matter if the specific language of this book is forgotten.
35. The half of the word of Heru-ra-ha, called Hoor-pa-kraat and Ra-Hoor-Khut.
36. Then said the prophet unto the God:
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!
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!
Comment: More talk about the House and the Flame.
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!
Comment: Either this is meant literally, or it could be read as the red of Hadit (Red Ray) upon the black of Nuit. Such a interpretation would drastically alter the apparent intent behind the Comment written by Crowley accompanying Liber Al.
40. But the work of the comment? That is easy; and Hadit burning in thy heart shall make swift and secure thy pen.
Comment: Perhaps this is a clue that strengthens my proposition in the above verse; the red ink and the red Hadit.
41. Establish at thy Kaaba a clerk-house: all must be done well and with business way.
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 over much! Them that seek to entrap thee, to overthrow thee, them attack without pity or quarter; & 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!
Comment: Health has an awful back to turn against the akathartic and thanatos; the not-Health. Plunge them headlong into Tartaros, just as a Vajrayana Lama might align with the towo forms in order to seek and destroy.
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 die cold and an-hungered.
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!
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.
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!
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.
Comment: If this book is written in red upon black, Hadit in Nuit, then this verse would mean that the doctrines in this book (true in all times and places as they are) will be known in many different guises (Pythagoreanism, Vajrayana, Taoism, etc.) and that the original knowledge of these is primal to the different cultural guises and resides within "the Beast."
48. Now this mystery of the letters is done, and I want to go on to the holier place.
49. I am in a secret fourfold word, the blasphemy against all gods of men.
Comment: Crowley proposed "Do what thou wilt" as the fourfold 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.
50. Curse them! Curse them! Curse them!
Comment: Curse the gods of men.
51. With my Hawk's head I peck at the eyes of Jesus as he hangs upon the cross.
52. I flap my wings in the face of Mohammed & blind him.
53. With my claws I tear out the flesh of the Indian and the Buddhist, Mongol and Din.
54. Bahlasti! Ompehda! I spit on your crapulous creeds.
55. Let Mary inviolate be torn upon wheels: for her sake let all chaste women be utterly despised among you!
56. Also for beauty's sake and love's!
57. Despise also all cowards; professional soldiers who dare not fight, but play; all fools despise!
58. But the keen and the proud, the royal and the lofty; ye are brothers!
59. As brothers fight ye!
60. There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
Comment: How so? Because there is no "because"! The only Law is that Flame comes from Darkness, burns in Darkness and returns to Darkness. That's it. Be a vessel of this Law, or try to resist it and face the dire judgement of Ra Hoor Khuit!
61. There is an end of the word of the God enthroned in Ra's seat, lightening the girders of the soul.
62. To Me do ye reverence! to me come ye through tribulation of ordeal, which is bliss.
63. The fool readeth this Book of the Law, and its comment; & he understandeth it not.
64. Let him come through the first ordeal, & it will be to him as silver.
65. Through the second, gold.
66. Through the third, stones of precious water.
67. Through the fourth, ultimate sparks of the intimate fire.
68. Yet to all it shall seem beautiful. Its enemies who say not so, are mere liars.
69. There is success.
70. I am the Hawk-Headed Lord of Silence & of Strength; my nemyss shrouds the night-blue sky.
Comment: He is both Horus and Harpocrates. A nemyss is the reglar head-dress of a god. The nemyss of Ra Hoor Khuit shows he "walks with Nuit" ... Vaya con Dios.
71. Hail! ye twin warriors about the pillars of the world! for your time is nigh at hand.
72. I am the Lord of the Double Wand of Power; the wand of the Force of Coph Nia--but my left hand is empty, for I have crushed an Universe; & nought remains.
73. Paste the sheets from right to left and from top to bottom: then behold!
74. There is a splendour in my name hidden and glorious, as the sun of midnight is ever the son.
75. The ending of the words is the Word Abrahadabra.
The Book of the Law is
Written
and Concealed.
Aum. Ha.
See also DIVISIONS OF THE YOU (on the EoDagon section)
CROWLEY AND THE UNICURSAL HEXAGRAM
This writing turns Crowley's unicursal hexagram into a very sublime Dark Tradition glyph. Note that he drew it red on black (compare to things above on Liber Al). When Crowley introduces the unicursal hexagram in his Book of Thoth he writes:
"The lines, however, are strictly Euclidean; they have no depth."
Why this notion, this protest of his?
Is it possible that he wants to make the reader aware of its space-bending properties?
The ritual wherein he makes use of it is Reguli (He also uses the "averse" pentagram in it). In the commentary he writes:
"...for the True Will has no goal, its nature being To Go. Similarly, a parabola is bound by one law which fixes its relation to two lines at every point; yet it has no end short of infinity, and it constantly changes its direction."
And:
"Perhaps he may come at long last, leaping beyond the limits of his own law, to conceive of that sublimely stupendous outrage to Reason, the Cone! Utterly inscrutable to him, he is yet aware that he exists in the nature thereof, that he is necessary thereto, that he is ordered thereby, and that therefrom he is sprung, from the loins of so fearful a Father."
The hyperbolas second focus has wandered around the universe and come back where it left. I stretches into infinity and arrives behind itself. To infinity and back again. This is like the push/pull idea, also called tsim-tsum in kaballa, and like the way kundalini travels.
In Liber VII chapter V, verse 35, Crowley writes:
"The cone is cut with an infinite ray; the curve of hyperbolic life springs into being."
A vibration thrills through Darkness?
The unicursal hexagram would then be a glyph of this Light-Flame stretching in and out of Darkness/Infinity. Crowley calls his creation the hexagram of the Beast. What Beast? I say it is the natural man (symbolized by the number 6: hence the hexagram); he with a living Flame. The number 6 (the hexagram) could also be seen as representing Kronos-Tiphareth, but the meaning would be the same; the Beast is he who flows through Time. The lines would be the electro magnetism, or the physical in your body manifestation of the Flame, the Elektros Diastasis-Phos (Netsach-Hod) part of it (the symbol actually looks a bit like to two EM symbols reflecting each other) and the depth of the symbol would be the Mychos-Geburah part; the going in and out of Darkness, to and from Nuit. If drawn inside a circle the circle would symbolize Kyklos-Hesed, that with binds you as a being here as part of the Light. The three Gates, kaballistically Hesed-Geburah-Tiphareth, that bind and form the "playground" or metric law, of your Flame and you when "here", are known as your Ring. The Ring plus the Flame, is Hadit, is the unicursal hexagram.
Inside the unicursal hexagram is something that looks like a 5-petalled flower, might it be the Star of Nuit identified as a rose? (pictogram for Eros in center of his hexagram). It is 5-in-6-in-5-in-6, and so on and on; the abrahadabra.