220A1-0.ASC

Title.

    In the first edition this Book is called L.  L is the sacred letter
in the Holy Twelve-fold Table which forms the triangle that stabilizes
the Universe. See Liber 418. L is the letter of Libra, Balance, and
`Justice' in the Taro. This title should probably be AL, ``El'', as the
`L' was heard of the Voice of Aiwaz, not seen. AL is the true name of
the Book, for these letters, and their number 31, form the Master Key to
its Mysteries.

    In order that the ethical and philosophical comment should be
`understanded of the common people', without interruption, I have
decided to transfer to an Appendix all considerations drawn from the
numerical system of cipher which is interspersed with the more
straightforward matter of this Book. In that Appendix will be found an
account of the character of this cipher, called `Qabalah', and the
mysteries thus indicated; because of the impracticability of
communicating them in verbal form, and of the necessity of proving to
the student that the Author of the Book is possessed of knowledge beyond
any yet acquired by man.

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         1.    The theogony of our Law is entirely scientific, Nuit is
         Matter, Hadit is Motion, in their full physical sense.* They
         are the Tao and Teh of Chinese Philosophy; or, to put it very
         simply, the Noun and Verb in grammar. Our central Truth --
         beyond other philosophies -- is that these two infinities
         cannot exist apart. This extensive subject must be studied in
         our other writings, notably Berashith, my own Magical
         Diaries, especially those of 1919, 1920 and 1921, and The
         Book of Wisdom or Folly. See also `The Soldier and the
         Hunchback'. Further information concerning Nuit and Hadit is
         given in the course of this Book; but I must here mention
         that the Brother mentioned in connexion with the `Wizard
         Amalantrah' etc. (Samuel bar Aiwaz) identifies them with ANU
         and ADAD the supreme Mother and Father deities of the
         Sumerians. Taken in connexion with the AIWAZ identification,
         this is very striking indeed. It is also to be considered
         that Nu is connected with North, while Had is Sad, Set,
         Satan, Sat (equals `Being' in Sanskrit), South. He is then
         the Sun, one point concentring Space, as also is any other
         star. The word ABRAHADABRA is from Abrasax, Father Sun, which
         adds to 365. For the North-South antithesis see Fabre
         d'Olivet's Hermeneutic Interpretation of the Origin of the
         Social State in Man. Note `Sax' also as a Rock, or Stone,
         whence the symbol of the Cubical Stone, the Mountain
         Abiegnus, and so forth. Nu is also reflected in Naus, Ship,
         etc., and that whole symbolism of Hollow Space which is
         familiar to all. There is also a question of identifying Nu
         with On, Noah, Oannes, Jonah, John, Dianus, Diana, and so on.
         But these identifications are all partial only, different
         facets of the Diamond Truth. We may neglect all these
         questions, and remain in the simplicity of this Her own Book.

         2.    This explains the general theme of this revelation:
         gives the Dramatis Personae, so to speak.  It is
         cosmographically, the conception of the two Ultimate Ideas;
         Space, and That which occupies Space.  It will however appear
         later that these two ideas may be resolved into one, that of
         Matter; with Space, its `Condition' or `form', included
         therein. This leaves the idea of `Motion' for Hadit, whose
         interplay with Nuit makes the Universe.  Time should perhaps
         be considered as a particular kind or dimension of Space.*
         Further, this verse is to be taken with the next. The
         `company of heaven' is the assertion of the independent
         godhead of every man and every woman!  Further, as Khabs (see
         verse 8) is `Star', there is a further meaning; this Book is
         to reveal the Secret Self of a man, i.e. to initiate him.

         3.    This thesis is fully treated in The Book of Wisdom or
         Folly. Its main statement is that each human being is an
         Element of the Cosmos, self-determined and supreme, co-equal
         with all other Gods.  From this the Law `Do what thou wilt'
         follows logically. One star influences another by attraction,
         of course; but these are incidents of self-predestined
         orbits. There is however a mystery of the planets, revolving
         about a star of whom they are parts; but I shall not discuss
         it fully in this place.  Man is the Middle Kingdom The Great
         Kingdom is Heaven, with each star as an unit; the Little
         Kingdom is the Molecule, with each Electron as an unit. (The
         Ratio of these three is regularly geometrical, each being
         10^2 times greater in size than its neighbour.) See `The Book
         of the Great Auk' for the demonstration that each `star' is
         the Centre of the Universe to itself, and that a `star'
         simple, original, absolute, can add to its omnipotence,
         omniscience and omnipresence without ceasing to be itself;
         that its one way to do this is to gain experience, and that
         therefore it enters into combinations in which its true
         Nature is for awhile disguised, even from itself.
         Analogously, an atom of carbon may pass through myriad
         Proteus-phases, appearing in Chalk, Chloroform, Sugar, Sap,
         Brain and Blood, not recognizable as `itself' the black
         amorphous solid, but recoverable as such, unchanged by its
         adventures.  This theory is the only one which explains why
         the Absolute limited itself, and why It does not recognize
         Itself during its cycle of incarnations. It disposes of
         `Evil' and the Origin of Evil; without denying Reality to
         `Evil', or insulting our daily observation and our common
         sense.  I here quote (with one or two elucidatory insertions)
         the original note originally made by Me on this subject.

         May 14, 1919, 6.30 p.m.  All elements must at one time have
         been separate -- that would be the case with great heat. Now
         when atoms get to the sun, when we get to the sun, we get
         that immense, extreme heat, and all the elements are
         themselves again. Imagine that each atom of each element
         possesses the memory of all his adventures in combination. By
         the way, that atom, fortified with that memory, would not be
         the same atom; yet it is, because it has gained nothing from
         anywhere except this memory. Therefore, by the lapse of time
         and by virtue of memory, a thing (although originally an
         Infinite Perfection) could become something more than itself;
         and thus a real development is possible. One can then see a
         reason for any element deciding to go through this series of
         incarnations (God, that was a magnificent conception!)
         because so, and only so, can he go; and he suffers the lapse
         of memory of His own Reality of Perfection which he has
         during these incarnations, because he knows he will come
         through unchanged.  Therefore you have an infinite number of
         gods, individual and equal though diverse, each one supreme
         and utterly indestructible. This is also the only explanation
         of how a being could create a world in which war, evil, etc.
         exist. Evil is only an appearance because, like `good', it
         cannot affect the substance itself, but only multiply its
         combinations. This is something the same as mystic monism,
         but the objection to that theory is that God has to create
         things which are all parts of himself, so that their
         interplay is false. If we presuppose many elements, their
         interplay is natural. It is no objection to this theory to
         ask who made the elements -- the elements are at least there;
         and God, when you look for him, is not there. Theism is
         obscurum per obscurus. A male star is built from the
         circumference inwards. This is what is meant when we say that
         woman has no soul. It explains fully the difference between
         the sexes.

         4.    This is a great and holy mystery. Although each star
         has its own number, each number is equal and supreme. Every
         man and every woman is not only a part of God, but the
         Ultimate God. `The Centre is everywhere and the circumference
         nowhere'. The old definition of God takes new meaning for us.
         Each one of us is the One God. This can only be understood by
         the initiate; one must acquire certain high states of
         consciousness to appreciate it.  I have tried to put it
         simply in the note to the last verse. I may add that in the
         Trance called by me the `Star-Sponge' -- see note to v. 59 --
         this apprehension of the Universe is seen as an astral
         Vision. It began as `Nothingness with Sparkles' in 1916 E.V.
         by Lake Pasquaney in New Hampshire, U.S.A. and developed into
         fullness on various subsequent occasions. Each `Star' is
         connected directly with every other star, and the Space being
         Without Limit (Ain Soph) the Body of Nuith, and one star is
         as much the Centre as any other. Each man instinctively feels
         that he is the Centre of the Cosmos, and philosophers have
         jeered at his presumption. But it was he that was precisely
         right. The yokel is no more `petty' than the King, nor the
         earth than the Sun. Each simple elemental Self is supreme,
         Very God of Very God. Ay, in this Book is Truth almost
         insufferably splendid, for Man has veiled himself too long
         from his own glory: he fears the abyss, the ageless Absolute.
         But Truth shall make him free!

         5.    Here Nuit appeals, simply and directly, recognizing the
         separate function of each Star of her Body. Though all is
         One, each part of that One has its own special work, each
         Star its particular Orbit.  In addressing me as warrior lork
         of Thebes, it appears as if She perceived a certain
         continuity or identity of myself with Ankh-f-n-khonsu, Stele
         is the Link with Antiquity of this Revelation. See the
         equinox I(7), pp. 363-400a, for the account of this event.
         The unveiling is the Proclamation of the Truth previously
         explained, that the Body of Nuith occupies Infinite Space, so
         that every Star thereof is Whole in itself, an independent
         and absolute Unit. They differ as Carbon and Calcium differ,
         but each is a simple `immortal' Substance, or at least a form
         of some simpler Substance. Each soul is thus absolute, and
         `good' or `evil' are merely terms descriptive of relations
         between destructible combinations. Thus Quinine is `good' for
         a malarial patient, but `evil' for the germ of the disease.
         Heat is `bad' for ice-cream and `good' for coffee. The
         indivisible essence of things, their `souls', are indifferent
         to all conditions soever, for none can in any way affect
         them.

         7.    Aiwass is the name given by Ouarda the Seer as that of
         the Intelligence Communicating. See note to Title.
         Hoor-paar-Kraat or Harpocrates, the `Babe in the Egg of
         Blue', is not merely the God of Silence in a conventional
         sense. He represents the Higher Self, the Holy Guardian
         Angel. The connexion is with the symbolism of the Dwarf in
         Mythology. He contains everything in Himself, but is
         unmanifested. See II:8.  He is the First Letter of the
         Alphabet, Aleph, whose number is One, and his card in the
         Tarot is The Fool, numbered Zero. Aleph is attributed to the
         `Element' (in the old classification of things) of Air.   Now
         as `One or Aleph he represents the Male Principle, the First
         Cause, and the free breath of Life, the sound of the vowel A
         being made with the open throat and mouth.  As Zero he
         represents the femal Principle, the fertile Mother. (An old
         name for the card is Mat, from the Italian `Matto', fool, but
         earlier also from Maut, the Egyptian Vulture-
         Mother-Goddess). Fertile, for the `Egg of Blue' is the
         Uterus, and in the Macrocosm the Body of Nuith, and it
         contains the Unborn Babe, helpless yet protected and
         nourished against the crocodiles and tigers shown on the
         card, just as the womb is sealed during gestation. He sits on
         a lotus, the yoni, which floats on the `Nile', the amniotic
         fluid. In his absolute innocence and ignorance he is `The
         Fool'; he is the `Saviour', being the Son who shall trample
         on the crocodiles and tigers, and avenge his father Osiris.
         Thus we see him as the `Great Fool' of Celtic legend, the
         `Pure Fool' of Act I of Parsifal, and, generally speaking,
         the insane person whose words have always been taken for
         oracles.  But to be `Saviour' he must be born and grow to
         manhood; thus Parsifal acquires the Sacred Lance, emblem of
         virility. He usually wears the `Coat of many colours' like
         Joseph the `dreamer'; so he is also now the Green Man of
         spring festivals. But his `folly' is now not innocence but
         inspiration of wine; he drinks from the Graal, offered to him
         by the Priestess.  So we see him fully armed as Bacchus
         Diphues, male and female in one, bearing the Thyrsus-rod, and
         a cluster of grapes or a wineskin, while a tiger leaps up by
         his side. This form is suggested in the Taro card, where `The
         fool' is shown with a long wand and carrying a sack; his coat
         is motley. Tigers and Crocodiles follow him, thus linking
         this image with that of Harpocrates.  Almost identical
         symbols are those of the secret God of the Templars, the
         bi-sexual Baphomet, and of Zeus Arrhenothelus, equally
         bi-sexual, the Father-Mother of All in One Person. (He is
         shown in this full form in the Tarot Trump XV, `the Devil'.)
         Now Zeus being lord of Air, we are reminded that Aleph is the
         letter of Air.  As Air we find the `Wandering Fool' pure
         wanton Breath, yet creative. Wind was supposed of old to
         impregnate the Vulture, which therefore was chosen to
         symbolize the Mother-Goddess.  He is the Wandering Knight or
         Prince of Fairy Tales who marries the King's Daughter. This
         legend is derived from certain customs among exogamic tribes,
         for which see The Golden Bough.  Thus one Europa, Semele and
         others claimed that Zeus -- Air* -- had enjoyed them in the
         form of a beast, bird, or what not; while later Mary
         attributed her condition to the agency of a Spirit --
         Spiritus, breath, or air -- in the shape of a dove.  But the
         `Small Person' of Hindu mysticism, the Dwarf insane yet
         crafty of many legends in many lands, is also this same `Holy
         Ghost', or Silent Self of a man, or his Holy Guardian Angel.
         He is almost the `Unconscious' of Freud, unknown,
         unaccountable, the silent Spirit, blowing `whither it
         listeth, but thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whither
         it goeth'. It commands with absolute authority when it
         appears at all, despite conscious reason and judgment.
         Aiwass is then, as this verse 7 states, the `minister' of
         this Hoor-paar-Kraat, that is of the Saviour of the World in
         the larger sense, and of mine own `Silent Self' in the
         lesser. A `minister' is one who performs a service, in this
         case evidently that of revealing; He was the intelligible
         medium between the Babe God -- the New Aeon about to be born
         -- and myself. This Book of the Law is the Voice of his
         Mother, His Father, and Himself. But on His appearing, He
         assumes the active form twin to Harpocrates, that of
         Ra-Hoor-Khuit. The Concealed Child becomes the Conquering
         Child, the armed Horus avenging his father Osiris. So also
         our own Silent Self, helpless and witless, hidden within us,
         will spring forth, if we have craft to loose him to the
         Light, spring lustily forward with his cry of Battle, the
         Word of our True Wills.  This is the Task of the Adept, to
         have the Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian
         Angel, to become aware of his nature and his purpose,
         fulfilling them.  Why is Aiwass thus spelt, when Aiwaz is the
         natural transliteration of [...]? Perhaps because he was not
         content with identifying Himself with Thelema, Agape, etc. by
         the number 93, but wished to express his nature by six
         letters (Six being the number of the Sun, the God-Man, etc.)
         whose value in Greek should be A=1, I=10, F=6, A=1, S=200,
         S=200: total 418, the number of Abrahadabra, the Magical
         Formula of the new Aeon! Note that I and V are the letters of
         the Father and the Son, also of the Virgin and the Bull, (See
         Liber 418) protected on either side by the letter of AIR, and
         followed by the letter of Fire twice over.

         8.    We are not to regard ourselves as base beings, without
         whose sphere is Light or `God'. Our minds and bodies are
         veils of the Light within. The uninitiate is a `Dark Star',
         and the Great Work for him is to make his veils transparent
         by `purifying' them. This `purification' is really
         `simplification'; it is not that the veil is dirty, but that
         the complexity of its folds makes it opaque. The Great Work
         therefore consists principally in the solution of complexes.
         Everything in itself is perfect, but when things are muddled,
         they become `evil'. (This will be understood better in the
         Light of `The Hermit of Esopus Island', q.v.) The Doctrine is
         evidently of supreme importance, from its position as the
         first `revelation' of Aiwass. This `star' or `Inmost Light'
         is the original, individual, eternal essence. The Khu is the
         magical garment which it weaves for itself, a `form' for its
         Being Beyond Form, by use of which it can gain experience
         through self-consciousness, as explained in the note to
         verses 2 and 3. This Khu is the first veil, far subtler than
         mind or body, and truer; for its symbolic shape depends on
         the nature of its Star.  Why are we told that the Khabs is in
         the Khu, not the Khu in the Khabs? Did we then suppose the
         converse? I think that we are warned against the idea of a
         Pleroma, a flame of which we are Sparks, and to which we
         return when we `attain'. That would indeed be to make the
         whole curse of separate existence ridiculous, a senseless and
         inexcusable folly. It would throw us back on the dilemma of
         Manichaeism. The idea of incarnations `perfecting' a thing
         originally perfect by definition is imbecile. The only sane
         solution is as given previously, to suppose that the Perfect
         enjoys experience of (apparent) Imperfection. (There are
         deeper resolutions of this problem appropriate to the highest
         grades of initiation; but the above should suffice the
         average intelligence.)

         9.    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.

         10.    The nature of magical power is quite incomprehensible
         to the vulgar. The prophet Ezekiel besieging a tile in order
         to destroy Jerusalem, and the adventure of Hosea with Gomer,
         seem as absurd to the `practical' man as do the researches of
         any other scientific man until the Sunday Newspapers have
         furnished him with a plausible explanation which explains
         nothing. (Book 4, Part III, must be read in this connexion.)
         `My servants'; not those of the Lord of the Aeon. `The Law is
         for all'; there can be no secrecy about that. The verse
         refers to specially chosen `servants'; perhaps those who,
         worshipping the Khabs, have beheld Her light shed over them.
         Such persons indeed consummate the marriage of Nuit and Hadit
         in themselves; in that case they are aware of certain Ways to
         Power.  There is also a mystical sense in this verse. We are
         to organize our minds thoroughly, appointing few and secret
         chiefs, serving Nuit, to discipline the varied departments of
         the conscious thought.

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         12.    The whole doctrine of `love' is discussed in the Book
         Aleph (Wisdom or Folly) and should be studied therein. But
         note further how this Verse agrees with the comment above,
         how every Star is to come forth from its veils, that it may
         revel with the whole World of Stars. This is again also a
         call to unite or `love', thus formulating the Equation
         1(;mi1)=0*, which is the general magical formula in our
         Cosmos. `Come forth' -- from what are you hiding? `under the
         stars', that is, openly. Also, let love be `under' or `unto'
         the Body of Nuith. But above all, be open! What is this
         shame? Is Love Hideous, that men should cover him with lies?
         Is Love so sacred that others must not intrude? Nay, `under
         the stars', at night, what eye but theirs may see? Or, if one
         see, should not your worship wake the cloisters of his soul
         to echo sanctity for that so lovely a deed and gracious you
         have done?

         31.    All this talk about `suffering humanity' is
         principally drivel based on the error of transferring one's
         own psychology to one's neighbour. The Golden Rule is silly.
         If Lord Alfred Douglas (for example) did to others what he
         would like them to do to him, many would resent his action.
         The development of the Adept is by Expansion -- out to Nuit
         -- in all directions equally. The small man has little
         experience, little capacity for either pain or pleasure. The
         bourgeois is a clod, I know better (at least) than to suppose
         that to torture him is either beneficial or amusing to
         myself.  This thesis concerning compassion is of the most
         palmary importance in the ethics of Thelema. It is necessary
         that we stop, once for all, this ignorant meddling with other
         people's business. Each individual must be left free to
         follow his own path! America is peculiarly insane on these
         points. Her people are desperately anxious to make the
         Cingalese wear furs, and the Tibetans vote, and the whole
         world chew gum, utterly dense to the fact that most other
         nations, especially the French and British, regard `American
         institutions' as the lowest savagery, and forgetful or
         ignorant of the circumstance that the original brand of
         American freedom -- which really was Freedom -- contained the
         precept to leave other people severely alone, and thus
         assured the possibility of expansion on his own lines to
         every man.

         32.    It is proper to obey The Beast, because His Law is
         pure Freedom, and He will give NO command which is other than
         a Right Interpretation of this Freedom. But it is necessary
         for the development of Freedom itself to have an
         organization; and every organization must have a
         highly-centralized control. This is especially necessary in
         time of war, as even the so-called `democratic' nations have
         been taught by Experience, since they would not learn from
         Germany. Now this age is pre-eminently a `time of war', most
         of all now, when it is our Work to overthrow the slave-gods.
         The injunction `seek me only' is emphasized with an oath, and
         a special promise is made in connection with it. By seeking
         lesser ideals one makes distinctions, thereby affirming
         implicitly the very duality from which one is seeking to
         escape. Note also that `me' may imply the Greek MH, `not'.
         The word `only' might be taken as `[...]' with the number of
         156, that of the Secret Name BABALON of Nuith. There are
         presumably further hidden meanings in the key-word `all'.


         33.    Law, in the common sense of the word, should be a
         formulation of the customs of a people, as Euclid's
         propositions are the formulation of geometrical facts. But
         modern knavery conceived the idea of artificial law, as if
         one should try to square the circle by tyranny. Legislators
         try to force the people to change their customs, so that the
         `business men' whose greed they art bribed to serve may
         increase their profits. `Law' in Greek, is NOMOC, from NEM,
         and means strictly `anything assigned, that which one has in
         use or possession'; hence `custom, usage', and also `a
         musical strain'. The literal equivalence of NEM and the Latin
         NEMO is suggestive. In Hebrew, `Law' is ThORA and equivalent
         to words meaning `The Gate of the Kingdom' and `The Book of
         Wisdom'.

         34.    The Ordeals are at present carried out unknown to the
         Candidate by the secret Magick Power of The Beast. Those who
         are accepted by Him for initiation testify that these Ordeals
         are frequently independent of His conscious care. They are
         not, like the traditional ordeals, formal, or identical for
         all; the Candidate finds himself in circumstances which
         afford a real test of conduct, and compel him to discover his
         own nature, to become aware of himself by bringing his secret
         motives to the surface.  Some of the Rituals have been made
         accessible, that is, the Magical Formulae have been
         published. See The Rites of Eleusis, `Energized Enthusiasm',
         Book4, Part III, etc.  Note the reference to `not' and `all'.
         Also the word `known' contains the root GN, `to beget' and
         `to know'; while `concealed' indicates the other half of the
         Human Mystery.

         37.    Each star is unique, and each orbit apart; indeed,
         that is the corner-stone of my teaching, to have no standard
         goals or standard ways, no orthodoxies and no codes. The
         stars are not herded and penned and shorn and made into
         mutton like so many voters! I decline to be bellwether, who
         am born a Lion! I will not be collie, who am quicker to bite
         than to bark. I refuse the office of shepherd, who bear not a
         crook but a club.  Wise in your generation, ye sheep, art ye
         to scamper away bleating when your ears catch my roar on the
         wind! Are ye not tended and fed and protected -- until word
         come from the stockyard?  The lion's life for me! Let me live
         free, and die fighting!  Now one more point about the obeah
         and the wanga, the deed and the word of Magick.  Magick is
         the art of causing change in existing phenomena. This
         definition includes raising the dead, bewitching cattle,
         making rain, acquiring goods, fascinating judges, and all the
         rest of the programme. Good: but it also includes every act
         soever? Yes; I meant it to do so. It is not possible to utter
         word or do deed without producing the exact effect proper and
         necessary thereto. Thus Magick is the Art of Life itself.
         Magick is the management of all we say and do, so that the
         effect is to change that part of our environment which
         dissatisfies us, until it does so no longer. We `remould it
         nearer to the heart's desire.'  Magick ceremonies proper are
         merely organized and concentrated attempts to impose our Will
         on certain parts of the Cosmos. They are only particular
         cases of the general law.  But all we say and do, however
         casually, adds up to more, far more, than our most strenuous
         Operations. `Take care of the pence, and the pounds will take
         care of themselves.' Your daily drippings fill a bigger
         bucket than your geysers of magical effort. The `ninety and
         nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold' have no
         organized will at all; and their character, built of their
         words and deeds, is only a garbage-heap.  Remember, also,
         that, unless you know what your true will is, you may be
         devoting the most laudable energies to destroying yourself.
         Remember that every word and deed is a witness to thought,
         that therefore your mind must be perfectly organized, its
         sole duty to interpret circumstances in terms of the Will so
         that speech and action may be rightly directed to express the
         Will appropriately to the occasion. Remember that every word
         and deed which is not a definite expression of your Will
         counts against it, indifference worse than hostility. Your
         enemy is at least interested in you: you may make him your
         friend as you never can do with a neutral. Remember that
         Magick is the Art of Life, therefore of causing change in
         accordance with Will; therefore its law is `love under will'
         , and its every movement is an act of love.  Remember that
         every act of `love under will' is lawful as such; but that
         when any act is not directed unto Nuith, who is here the
         inevitable result of the whole Work, that act is waste, and
         breeds conflict within you, so that `the kingdom of God which
         is within you' is torn by civil war.  To the beginner I would
         offer this programme.

                 1.Furnish your mind as completely as possible with
                   the knowledge of how to inspect and to control it.

                 2.Train your body to obey your mind, and not to
                   distract its attention.

                 3.Control your mind to devote itself wholly to
                   discover your true Will.

                 4.Explore the course of that Will till you reach its
                   source, your Silent Self.

                 5.Unite the conscious will with the true Will, and
                   the conscious Ego with the Silent Self. You must be
                   utterly ruthless in discarding any atom of
                   consciousness which is hostile or neutral.

                 6.Let this work freely from within, but heed not your
                   environment, lest you make difference between one
                   thing and another. Whatever it be, it is to be made
                   one with you by Love.

         41.    The first paragraph is a general statement or
         definition of Sin or Error. Any thing soever that binds the
         will, hinders it, or diverts it, is Sin. That is, Sin is the
         appearance of the Dyad. Sin is impurity.*  The remainder of
         the paragraph takes a particular case as an example. There
         shall be no property in human flesh. The sex- instinct is one
         of the most deeply-seated expressions of the will; and it
         must not be restricted, either negatively by preventing its
         free function, or positively by insisting on its false
         function.  What is more brutal than to stunt natural growth
         or to deform it?  What is more absurd than to seek to
         interpret this holy instinct as a gross animal act, to
         separate it from the spiritual enthusiasm without which it is
         so stupid as not even to be satisfactory to the persons
         concerned?  The sexual act is a sacrament of Will. To profane
         it is the great offence. All true expression of it is lawful;
         all suppression or distortion is contrary to the Law of
         Liberty. To use legal or financial constraint to compel
         either abstention or submission, is entirely horrible,
         unnatural and absurd. Physical constraint, up to a certain
         point, is not so seriously wrong; for it has its roots in the
         original sex-conflict which we see in animals, and has often
         the effect of exciting Love in his highest and noblest shape.
         Some of the most passionate and permanent attachments have
         begun with rape. Rome was actually founded thereon.
         Similarly, murder of a faithless partner is ethically
         excusable, in a certain sense; for there may be some stars
         whose Nature is extreme violence. The collision of galaxies
         is a magnificent spectacle, after all. But there is nothing
         inspiring in a visit to one's lawyer. Of course this is
         merely my personal view; a star who happened to be a lawyer
         might see things otherwise! Yet Nature's unspeakable variety,
         though it admits cruelty and selfishness, offers us not
         example of the puritan and the prig!  However, to the mind of
         Law there is an Order of Going; and a machine is more
         beautiful, save to the Small Boy, when it works than when it
         smashes. Now the Machine of Matter-Motion is an explosive
         machine, with pyrotechnic effects; but these are only
         incidentals.  Laws against adultery are based upon the idea
         that woman is a chattel, so that to make love to a married
         woman is to deprive the husband of her services. It is the
         frankest and most crass statement of a slave-situation. To
         us, every woman is a star. She has therefore an absolute
         right to travel in her own orbit. There is no reason why she
         should not be the ideal hausfrau, if that chance to be her
         will. But society has no right to insist upon that standard.
         It was, for practical reasons, almost necessary to set up
         such taboos in small communities, savage tribes, where the
         wife was nothing but a general servant, where the safety of
         the people depended upon a high birth-rate. But to-day woman
         is economically independent, becomes more so every year. The
         result is that she instantly asserts her right to have as
         many or as few men or babies as she wants or can get; and she
         defies the world to interfere with her. More power to her --
         elbow!  The War has seen this emancipation flower in four
         years. Primitive people, the Australian troops for example,
         are saying that they will not marry English girls, because
         English girls like a dozen men a week. Well, who wants them
         to marry? Russia has already formally abrogated marriage.
         Germany and France have tried to `save their faces' in a
         thoroughly Chinese manner, by `marrying' pregnant spinsters
         to dead soldiers!  England has been too deeply hypocritical,
         of course, to do more than `hush things up'; and is
         pretending `business as usual', though every pulpit is aquake
         with the clamour of bat-eyed bishops, squeaking of the awful
         immorality of everybody but themselves and their choristers.
         Englishwomen over 30 have the vote; when the young 'uns get
         it, good-bye to the old marriage system.  America has made
         marriage a farce by the multiplication and confusion of the
         Divorce Laws. A friend of mine who had divorced her husband
         was actually, three years later, sued by him for divorce!!!
         But America never waits for laws; her people go ahead. The
         emancipated, self-supporting American woman already acts
         exactly like the `bachelor-boy'. Sometimes she loses her
         head, and stumbles into marriage, and stubs her toe. She will
         soon get tired of the folly. She will perceive how imbecile
         it is to hamstring herself in order to please her parents, or
         to legitimatize her children, or to silence her neighbours.
         She will take the men she wants as simply as she buys a
         newspaper; and if she doesn't like the Editorials, or the
         Comic Supplement, it's only two cents gone, and she can get
         another.  Blind asses! who pretend that women are naturally
         chaste! The Easterns know better; all the restrictions of the
         harem, of public opinion, and so on, are based upon the
         recognition of the fact that woman is only chaste when there
         is nobody around. She will snatch the babe from its cradle,
         or drag the dog from its kennel, to prove the old saying:
         Natura abhorret a vacuo;. For she is the Image of the Soul of
         Nature, the Great Mother, the Great Whore.  It is to be well
         noted that the Great Women of History have exercised
         unbounded freedom in Love. Sappho, Semiramis, Messalina,
         Cleopatra, Ta Chhi, Pasiphae, Clytaemnaestra, Helen of Troy,
         and in more recent times Joan of Arc (by Shakespeare's
         account), Catherine II of Russia, Queen Elizabeth of England,
         George Sand. Against these we can put only Emily Bronte;um,
         whose sex-suppression was due to her environment, and so
         burst out in the incredible violence of her art, and the
         regular religious mystics, Saint Catherine, Saint Teresa, and
         so on, the facts of whose sex-life have been carefully
         camouflaged in the interests of the slave-gods. But, even on
         that showing, the sex- life was intense, for the writings of
         such women are overloaded with sexual expression passionate
         and perverted, even to morbidity and to actual hallucination.
         Sex is the main expression of the Nature of a person; great
         Natures are sexually strong; and the health of any person
         will depend upon the freedom of that function.  (See Liber
         CI, `de Lege Libellum', Cap. IV, in The Equinox III (1).)

         42.    `Manyhood bound and loathing.' An organized state is a
         free association for the common weal. My personal will to
         cross the Atlantic, for example, is made effective by
         co-operation with others on agreed terms. But the forced
         association of slaves is another thing.  A man who is not
         doing his will is like a man with cancer, an independent
         growth in him, yet one from which he cannot get free. The
         idea of self-sacrifice is a moral cancer in exactly this
         sense.   Similarly, one may say that not to do one's will is
         evidence of mental or moral insanity. When `duty points one
         way, and inclination the other', it is proof that you are not
         one, but two. You have not centralized your control. This
         dichotomy is the beginning of conflict, which may result in a
         Jekyll-Hyde effect. Stevenson suggests that man may be
         discovered to be a `mere polity' of many individuals. The
         sages knew it long since. But the name of this polity is
         Choronzon, mob rule, unless every individual is absolutely
         disciplined to serve his own, and the common, purpose without
         friction.  It is of course better to expel or destroy an
         irreconcilable. `If thine eye offend thee, cut it out.' The
         error in the interpretation of this doctrine has been that it
         has not been taken as it stands. It has been read: If thine
         eye offend some artificial standard of right, cut it out. The
         curse of society has been Procrustean morality, the ethics of
         the herd-men. One would have thought that a mere glance at
         Nature would have sufficed to disclose Her scheme of
         Individuality made possible by Order.

         220A1-3.ASC

         43.    The general meaning of this verse is that so great is
         the power of asserting one's right that it will not long be
         disputed. For by doing so one appeals to the Law. In practice
         it is found that people who are ready to fight for their
         rights are respected, and let alone. The slave-spirit invites
         oppression.

         44.    This verse is best interpreted by defining `pure will'
         as the true expression of the Nature, the proper or inherent
         motion of the matter, concerned. It is unnatural to aim at
         any goal. The student is referred to Liber LXV, Cap. II, v.
         24, and to the Tao Teh King. This becomes particularly
         important in high grades. One is not to do Yoga, etc., in
         order to get Samadhi, like a schoolboy or a shopkeeper; but
         for its own sake, like an artist.  `Unassuaged' means `its
         edge taken off by' or `dulled by'. The pure student does not
         think of the result of the examination.

         49.    This verse declares that the old formula of Magick --
         the Osiris-Adonis -Jesus-Marsyas-Dionysus-Attis-Et cetera
         formula of the Dying God -- is no longer efficacious. It
         rested on the ignorant belief that the Sun died every day,
         and every year, and that its resurrection was a miracle.  The
         Formula of the New Aeon recognizes Horus, the Child crowned
         and conquering, as God, the Sun; and about our System is the
         Ocean of Space. This formula is then to be based upon these
         facts. Our `Evil', `Error', `Darkness', `Illusion', whatever
         one chooses to call it, is simply a phenomenon of accidental
         and temporary separateness. If you are `walking in darkness',
         do not try to make the sun rise by self-sacrifice, but wait
         in confidence for the dawn, and enjoy the pleasures of the
         night meanwhile.  The general illusion is to the Equinox
         Ritual of the G.D. where the officer of the previous six
         months, representing Horus, took the place of the retiring
         Hierophant, who had represented Osiris.  Isa is the Legendary
         `Jesus', for which Canidian concoction the prescription is to
         be found in my book bearing that Title, Liber DCCCLXXXVIII.

         51.    The first section of this verse is connected with the
         second only by the word `therefore'. It appears to describe
         an initiation, or perhaps The initiation, in general terms. I
         would suggest that the palace is the `Holy House' or Universe
         of the Initiate of the New Law. The four gates are perhaps
         Light, Life, Love, Liberty -- see `De Lege Libellum'. Lapis
         Lazuli is a symbol of Nuit, Jasper of Hadit. The rare scents
         are possibly various ecstasies or Samadhis. Jasmine and Rose
         are Hieroglyphs of the two main Sacraments, while the emblems
         of death may refer to certain secrets of a well known
         exoteric school of initiation whose members, with the rarest
         exceptions, do not know what it is all about.  The question
         then arises as to whether the initiate is able to stand
         firmly in this Place of Exaltation. It seems to me as if this
         refers to the ascetic life, commonly considered as an
         essential condition of participation in these mysteries. The
         answer is that `there are means and means', implying that no
         one rule is essential. This is in harmony with our general
         interpretation of the Law; it has as many rules as there are
         individuals.  This word `therefore' is easy to understand. We
         are to enjoy life thoroughly in an absolutely normal way,
         exactly as all the free and great have always done. The only
         point to remember is that one is a `Member of the Body of
         God', a Star in the Body of Nuith. This being sure, we are
         urged to the fullest expansion of our several Natures, with
         special attention to those pleasures which not only express
         the soul, but aid it to reach the higher developments of that
         expression.  The act of Love is to the bourgeois (as the
         `Christian' is called now-a-days) a gross animal gesture
         which shames his boasted humanity. The appetite drags him at
         its hoofs; it tires him, disgusts him, diseases him, makes
         him ridiculous even in his own eyes. It is the source of
         nearly all his neuroses.  Against this monster he has devised
         two protections. Firstly, he pretends that it is a Fairy
         Prince disguised, and hangs it with the rags and tinsel of
         romance, sentiment, and religion. He calls it Love, denies
         its strength and truth, and worships this wax figure of him
         with all sorts of amiable lyrics and leers.  Secondly, he is
         so certain, despite all his theatrical-wardrobe-work, that it
         is a devouring monster, that he resents with insane ferocity
         the existence of people who laugh at his fears, and tell him
         that the monster he fears is in reality not a fire-breathing
         worm, but a spirited horse, well trained to the task of the
         bridle. They tell him not to be a gibbering coward, but to
         learn to ride. Knowing well how abject he is, the kindly
         manhood of the advice is, to him, the bitterest insult he can
         imagine, and he calls on the mob to stone the blasphemer. He
         is therefore particularly anxious to keep intact the bogey he
         so dreads; the demonstration that Love is a general passion,
         pure in itself, and the redeemer of all them that put their
         trust in Him, is to tear open the raw ulcer of his soul.  We
         of Thelema are not the slaves of Love. `Love under will' is
         the Law. We refuse to regard love as shameful and degrading,
         as a peril to body and soul. We refuse to accept it as the
         surrender of the divine to the animal; to us it is the means
         by which the animal may be made the Winged Sphinx which shall
         bear man aloft to the House of the Gods.  We are then
         particularly careful to deny that the object of love is the
         gross physiological object which happens to be Nature's
         excuse for it. Generation is a sacrament of the physical
         Rite, by which we create ourselves anew in our own image,
         weave in a new flesh-tapestry the Romance of our own Soul's
         History. But also Love is a sacrament of trans-substantiation
         whereby we initiate our own souls; it is the Wine of
         Intoxication as well as the Bread of Nourishment. `Nor is he
         for priest designed Who partakes only in one kind.'  We
         therefore heartily cherish those forms of Love in which no
         question of generation arises; ;we use the stimulating
         effects of physical enthusiasm to inspire us morally and
         spiritually. Experience teaches that passions thus employed
         do serve to refine and to exalt the whole being of man or
         woman. Nuith indicates the sole condition: `But always unto
         me.' The epicure is not a monster of gluttony, nor the
         amateur of Beethoven a `degenerate' from the `normal' man
         whose only music is the tom-tom. So also the poisons which
         shook the bourgeois are not indulgences, but purifications;
         the brute whose furtive lust demands that he be drunk and in
         darkness that he may surrender to his shame, and that he lie
         about it with idiot mumblings ever after, is hardly the best
         judge even of Phryne. How much less should he venture to
         criticize such men and women whose imaginations are so free
         from grossness that the element of attraction which serves to
         electrify their magnetic coil is independent of physical
         form? To us the essence of Love is that it is a sacrament
         unto Nuith, a gate of grace and a road of righteousness to
         Her High Palace, the abode of peerless purity whose lamps are
         the Stars. `As ye will.' It should be abundantly clear from
         the foregoing remarks that each individual has an absolute
         and indefeasible right to use his sexual vehicle in
         accordance with its own proper character, and that he is
         responsible only to himself. But he should not injure himself
         and his right aforesaid; acts invasive of another
         individual's equal rights are implicitly self-aggressions. A
         thief can hardly complain on theoretical grounds if he is
         himself robbed. Such acts as rape, and the assault or
         seduction of infants, may therefore be justly regarded as
         offences against the Law of Liberty, and repressed in the
         interests of that Law. It is also excluded from `as ye will'
         to compromise the liberty of another person indirectly, as by
         taking advantage of the ignorance or good faith of another
         person to expose that person to the constraint of sickness,
         poverty, social detriment, or childbearing, unless with the
         well-informed and uninfluenced free will of that person.  One
         must moreover avoid doing another injury by deforming his
         nature; ;for instance, to flog children at or near puberty
         may distort the sensitive nascent sexual character, and
         impress it with the stamp of masochism. Again, homosexual
         practices between boys may in certain cases actually rob them
         of their virility, psychically or even physically.  Trying to
         frighten adolescents about sex by the bogeys of Hell,
         Disease, and Insanity, may warp the moral nature permanently,
         and produce hypochondria or other mental maladies, with
         perversions of the enervated and thwarted instinct.
         Repression of the natural satisfaction may result in addition
         to secret and dangerous vices which destroy their victim
         because they are artificial and unnatural aberrations. Such
         moral cripples resemble those manufactured by beggars by
         compressing one part of the body so that it is compensated by
         a monstrous exaggeration in another part.  But on the other
         hand we have no right to interfere with any type of
         manifestation of the sexual impulse on a priori grounds. We
         must recognize that the Lesbian leanings of idle and
         voluptuous women whose refinement finds the grossness of the
         average male repugnant, are as inexpungably entrenched in
         Righteousness as the parallel pleasures of the English
         Aristocracy and Clergy whose aesthetics find women
         disgusting, and whose self-respect demands that love should
         transcend animal impulse, excite intellectual intimacy, and
         inspire spirituality by directing it towards an object whose
         attainment cannot inflict the degradation of domesticity, and
         the bestiality of gestation. Every one should discover, by
         experience of every kind, the extent and intention of his own
         sexual Universe. He must be taught that all roads are equally
         royal, and that the only question for him is `Which road is
         mine?' All details are equally likely to be of the essence of
         his personal plan, all equally `right' in themselves, his own
         choice of the one as correct as, and independent of, his
         neighbour's preference for the other.  He must not be ashamed
         or afraid of being homosexual if he happens to be so at
         heart; he must not attempt to violate his own true nature
         because public opinion, or mediaeval morality, or religious
         prejudice would wish he were otherwise. The oyster stays shut
         in his shell for all Darwin may say about his `low stage of
         evolution', or Puritans about his priapistic character, or
         idealists about his unfitness for civic government.  The
         advocates of homosexuality - primus inter pares, John
         Addington Symonds! -- hammer away like Hercules at the
         spiritual, social, moral, and intellectual advantages of
         cultivating the caresses of a comrade who combines Apollo
         with Achilles and Antinous at the expense of escaping from a
         Chimaera with Circe's head, Cleopatra's body, and Cressida's
         character.  Why can't they let one alone? I agree to agree; I
         only stipulate to be allowed to be inconsistent. I will
         confess their creed, so long as I may play the part of Peter
         until the cock crow thrice. They urge more strenuously still
         the claims of homosexuality to heal the hurts and horrors of
         humanity, almost the `complete cohort'. On this point I
         concur that they argue indiscutably, with sober sense to
         support and stress of suffering to spur them. They prove with
         Euler's exactness and Hinton's passion that heterosexuality
         entrains an infinity of ills; jealousies, abortions,
         diseases, infanticides, frauds, intrigues, quarrels, poverty,
         prostitution, persecution, idleness, self-indulgence, social
         stress, over-population, sex-antagonism. They show with
         Poincare's precision that Jesus and Paul struck at the heart
         of hell when they proclaimed marriage a scourge, and offered
         the testimony of John and Timothy to support the plea of
         Plato on behalf of paederastic passion. Out of the Court
         there slunk Mark Antony, his toga to his face, one of the
         legion of lost souls that woman had withered; behind him
         groped blind Samson, disinherited Adam, feeling his way along
         the table where they had piled countless papyri writ with
         woes of kings and sages woman-wrecked, and many a map of
         towns and temples torn and trampled beneath the feet of Love,
         their ashes smouldering still, and smoky with song to witness
         how Astarte's breath had kindled and consumed them.
         Extinguished empires owned that their doom was the device of
         Venus, her vengeance on virility.  By Paul sat Buddha
         smiling, Ananda's arm about his neck, while Mohammed paced
         the floor impatiently between two warrior comrades, his belt
         bearing an iron key, a whip and a sword, wherewith to limit
         women's liberty, their love their life, lest to his loss they
         lure him. The Beast is there also, aloof, attentive. He will
         not weigh the evidence in the balances of any particular kind
         of advantage. He will not admit any standard as adequate to
         assess the absolute. To him, the pettiest personal whimsy
         outweighs all wisdom, all philosophy, all private profit and
         all public prudence. The sexual obol of the meanest is
         stamped with the signature of his own sovereign soul, lawful
         and current coin no less than the gold talent of his
         neighbour. The derelict moon has the same right to drift
         round Earth as Regulus to blaze in the heart of the Lion.
         Collision is the only crime in the cosmos.  The Beast refuses
         therefore to assent to any argument as to the propriety of
         any fashion of formulating the soul in symbols of sex. A
         canon is no less deadly in love than in art or literature;
         its acceptance stifles style, and its enforcement
         extinguishes sincerity.  It is better for a person of
         heterosexual nature to suffer every possible calamity as the
         indirect environment-evoked result of his doing his true will
         in that respect than to enjoy health, wealth and happiness by
         means either of suppressing sex altogether, of debauching it
         to the service of Sodom or Gommorrah.  Equally it is better
         for the androgyne, the urning, or their feminine counterparts
         to endure blackmailers private and public, the terrors of
         police persecution, the disgust, contempt and loathing of the
         vulgar, and the self-torture of suspecting the peculiarity to
         be a symptom of a degenerate nature, than to wrong the soul
         by damning it to the hell of abstinence, or by defiling it
         with the abhorred embraces of antipathetic arms.  Every star
         must calculate its own orbit. All is Will, and yet all is
         Necessity. To swerve is ultimately impossible; to seek to
         swerve is  to suffer.  The Beast 666 ordains by His authority
         that every man, and every woman, and every
         intermediately-sexed individual, shall be absolutely free to
         interpret and communicate Self by means of any sexual
         practices soever, whether direct or indirect, rational or
         symbolic, physiologically, legally, ethically, or religiously
         approved or no, provided only that all parties to any act are
         fully aware of all implications and responsibilities thereof,
         and heartily agree thereto.  Moreover, the Beast 666 adviseth
         that all children shall be accustomed from infancy to witness
         every type of sexual act, as also the process of birth, lest
         falsehood fog, and mystery stupefy, their minds, whose error
         else might thwart and misdirect the growth of their
         subconscious system of soul-symbolism. `When, where, and with
         whom ye will.'  The phrase `with whom' has been practically
         covered by the comment on `as ye will'. One need no more than
         distinguish that the earlier phrase permits all manner of
         acts, the latter all possible partners. There would have been
         no Furies for Oedipus, no disaster for Othello, Romeo,
         Pericles of Tyre, Laon and Cythna, if it were only agreed to
         let sleeping dogs lie, and mind one's own business. In real
         life, we have seen in our own times Oscar Wilde, Sir Charles
         Dilke, Parnell, Canon Aitken and countless others, many of
         them engaged in first-rate work for the world, all wasted
         because the mob must make believe to be `moral'. This phrase
         abolishes the Eleventh Commandment, Not to be Found Out, by
         authorizing Incest, Adultery, and Paederasty, which every one
         now practices with humiliating precautions, which perpetuate
         the schoolboy's enjoyment of an escapade, and make shame,
         slyness, cowardice and hypocrisy the conditions of success in
         life.  It is also the fact that the tendency of any
         individual to sexual irregularity is emphasised by the
         preoccupation with the subject which follows its factitious
         importance in modern society.  It is to be observed that
         Politeness has forbidden any direct reference to the subject
         of sex to secure no happier result than to allow Sigmund
         Freud and others to prove that our every thought, speech, and
         gesture, conscious or unconscious, is an indirect reference!
         Unless one wants to wreck the neighbourhood, it is best to
         explode one's gunpowder in an unconfined space. There are
         very few cases of `perverted hunger-instinct' in moderately
         healthy communities. War restrictions on food created
         dishonest devices to procure dainties, and artificial
         attempts to appease the ache of appetite by chemical
         counterfeits.  The South-Sea Islanders, pagan, amoral and
         naked, are temperate lovers, free from hysterical `crimes of
         passion', sex obsessions, and puritan persecution-mania;
         perversion is practically unknown, and monogamy is the
         general custom.  Even the civilized psychopaths of cities,
         forced into every kind of excess by the omnipresence of
         erotic suggestions and the contact of crazed crowds seething
         with suppressed sexuality, are not wholly past physic. They
         are no sooner released from the persistent pressure by
         escaping to some place where the inhabitants treat the
         reproductive and the respiratory organs as equally innocent
         than they begin insensibly to forget their `fixed idea'
         forced on them by the fog-horn of Morality, so that their
         perversions perish, just as a coiled spring straightens
         itself when the external compulsion is removed. They revert
         to their natural sex-characters, which only in rare cases are
         other than simple, pure, and refined. More, sex itself ceases
         to play Principal Boy in the Pantomime of Life. Other
         interests resume their proper proportions.  We may now
         inquire why the Book is at pains to admit as to love `when'
         and `where' we will. Few people, surely, have been seriously
         worried by restrictions of time and place. One can only think
         of lovers who live with fearsome families or in inhospitable
         lodgings, on a rainy night, buffeted from one police-bullied
         hotel to another.  Perhaps this permission is intended to
         indicate the propriety of performing the sexual act without
         shame or fear, not waiting for darkness or seeking secrecy,
         but by daylight in public places, as serenely as if it were a
         natural incident in a morning stroll.  Custom would soon
         surfeit curiosity, and copulation attract less attention than
         a new fashion in frocks. For the existing interest in sexual
         matters is chiefly because, common as the act is, it is
         closely concealed. Nobody is excited by seeing others eat. A
         `naughty' book is as dull as a volume of sermons; only genius
         can vitalize either.  Beyond this, once love is taken for
         granted, the morbid fascination of its mystery will vanish.
         The pander, the prostitute, the parasite will find their
         occupation gone.  Disease will go straight to the doctor
         instead of to the quack, as it does; the altars of Mrs.
         Grundy run red with the blood of her faithful!  The ignorance
         or carelessness of a raw youth will no longer hound him to
         hell. A blighted career or a ruined constitution will no more
         be the penalty of a moment's exuberance.  Above all, the
         world will begin to appreciate the true nature of the sexual
         process, its physical insignificance as one among many parts
         of the body, its transcendent importance as the vehicle of
         the True Will and the first of the sheaths of the Self.
         Hitherto our sexual tabus have kept far ahead of Gilbert and
         Sullivan. We have made love the lackey to property, as who
         should pay his rent by sneezing. We have swaddled it in
         politeness, as who should warn God off the grass.  We have
         muddled it up with morality, as who should frown at the
         Himalayas on the one hand, and, on the other, regulate his
         behaviour by that of an ant-heap.  The Law of Thelema is
         here!     (It appears pertinent to add that the above ethical
         theories have stood the test of practice. Experiment shows
         that complete removal -- in the most radical manner -- of all
         the usual restrictions on conduct results, after a brief
         period of uneasiness of various kinds, in the subject
         dropping entirely into the background; the parties concerned
         became natural, and led what would conventionally be called
         `strictly moral' lives without even knowing that they were
         doing so.)  As - Postcript, let me contrast with the above
         theories two actual cases of Marriage as it is in England.
         No.1. Mr.W., a solicitor and gentleman farmer of considerable
         wealth: a Plymouth Brother. Called, in Southsea, Hants.,
         where he practised: `The Honest Lawyer.' Every time that his
         wife gave birth to a child, or miscarried, she lay for weeks
         -- often months -- between life and death, with perityphlitis
         or peritonitis set up by the difficulties of parturition. Yet
         this man, knowing this well, had gone on and on
         remorselessly. When I knew him he had 18 children living, and
         two more were born during that period. It was evidently his
         view that he had an absolute Right to impregnate his wife,
         and that it was her business whether she lived or died.
         During all these years she was no sooner well enough to leave
         her bed than she was again `in the family way'. Thus in 25
         years, she was never permitted so much as a month's good
         health. This Mr. W. was a most kindly genial man, devoted to
         her and his family, genuinely pious and tenderhearted. But it
         never occured to him to refrain from exercising the Right
         which he possessed to endanger her life every year. (He
         suffered intensely with anxiety for his wife's health.)
         No.2. Mr. H., a very skilful engraver and die-sinker, a man
         of refined tastes and delicate feelings, sensitive beyond the
         common even of men in a far higher station of life and with a
         much better education. Since childhood he had suffered
         continually from an incurable form of Psoriasis. This kept
         him in a state of  almost constant irritation, spoilt his
         sleep, and made him lament that he was `a leper'. In fact,
         the scales of the eruption were so plentiful that his sheets
         had to be cleaned every morning with a dustpan and brush! He
         could only obtain relief (before trying to sleep) by being
         rubbed with oil of wintergreen, which filled his whole house
         with a loathsome ,stench. One would have thought that the
         first wish of a man thus afflicted would be to sleep alone,
         that it would be utterly repugnant and revolting to him to
         sleep with another person, for his own sake, apart from and
         consideration for her. But his wife, herself an invalid -- a
         huge obese greasy woman (of middle age when I knew the
         family) suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, tubercular
         trouble in the arms, etc., etc. -- was his Wife, she must be
         immediately available should Mr. H. want to exercise his
         conjugal Right. (In this case, too, Mrs. H. was likely to die
         if impregnated.) The extraordinary feature is that so
         extremely sensitive and refined a man could be so
         disgustingly callous on such a matter. Even vulgar people
         fear to appear physically repulsive to the person whom they
         love. It seems as if the fact of Marriage destroys every
         natural characteristic, and has a set of rules of its own
         diametrically opposed in spirit and letter to those which
         govern Love. I confidently appeal to impartial observers to
         say whether the ideals of the Book are not cleaner, more
         wholesome, more human, and more truly moral than those of
         Marriage as it is.

[text between the end of commentary on verse 51 and mid-portion of 52 
 called "220A1-4.ASC" missing]

         220A1-5.ASC

              For instance: a man seeking to regain health should
         assist his Magical Will by taking all possible hygenic and
         medical measures proper to amend his malady. A man wishing to
         develop his genius as a sculptor will devote himself to study
         and training, will surround himself with beautiful forms,
         and, if possible, live in a place where nature herself
         testifies to the touch of the thumb of the Great Architect.
         He will choose the object of his passion at the nod of his
         Silent Self. He will not allow the prejudice, either of
         sense, emotion, or rational judgement, to obscure the Sun of
         his Soul. In the first place, mutual magnetism, despite the
         masks of mind, should be unmistakable. Unless it exists, a
         puissant purity of passion, there is no Magical basis for the
         Sacrament. Yet, such magnetism is only the first condition.
         Where two people become intimate, each crisis of satisfaction
         between the terminals leaves them in a proximity which
         demands mutual observation; and the intense clarity of the
         mind which results from the discharge of the electric force
         makes such observation abnormally critical. The higher the
         type of mind, the more certain this is, and the greater the
         danger of finding some antipathetic trifle which experience
         tells us will one day be the only thing left to observe; just
         as a wart on the nose is remembered when the rest of the face
         is forgotten.  The object of Love must therefore be one with
         the lover in something more than the Will to unite
         magnetically; it must be in passionate partnership with the
         Will of which the Will-to- love is only the Magical symbol.
         Perhaps no two wills can be identical, but at least they can
         be so sympathetic that the manifestations are not likely to
         clash. It is not enough to have a partner of the passive type
         who bleats `Thy will is done' - that ends in contempt,
         boredom and distrust. One wants a passion that can blend with
         one's own. Where this is the case, it does not matter so much
         whether the mental expression is syndromic; it is, indeed,
         better when two entirely different worlds of thought and
         experience have led to sister conclusions. But it is
         essential that the habit of mind should be sympathetic, that
         the machinery should be constructed on similar principles.
         The psychology of the one should be intelligible to the
         other.  Social position and physical appearance and habits
         are of far less importance, especially in a society which has
         accepted the Law of Thelema. Tolerance itself produces
         suavity, and suavity soon relieves the strain on tolerance.
         In any case, most people, especially women, adapt themselves
         adroitly enough to their environment. I say `Especially
         women', for women are nearly always conscious of an important
         part of their true Will; the bearing of children. To them
         nothing else is serious in comparison, and they dismiss
         questions which do not bear on this as trifles, adopting the
         habits required of them in the interest of the domestic
         harmony which they recognize as a condition favourable to
         reproduction.  I have outlined ideal conditions. Rarely
         indeed can we realize even a third of our possibilities. Our
         Magical engine is mighty indeed when its efficiency reaches
         50% of its theoretical horse-power. But the enormous majority
         of mankind have no idea whatever of taking Love as a sacred
         and serious thing, of using the eye of the microscopist, or
         the heart and brain of the artist. Their ignorance and their
         shame have made Love a carcass of pestilence; and Love has
         avenged the outrage by crushing their lives when they pull
         down the temple upon them.  The chance of finding a suitable
         object of Love has been reduced well nigh to zero by
         substituting for the actual conditions, as stated in the
         above paragraphs, a totally artificial and irrelevant series;
         the restrictions on the act itself, marriage, opinion, the
         conspiracy of silence, criminal laws, financial fetters,
         selections limited by questions of race, nationality, caste,
         religion, social and political cliqueishness, even family
         exclusiveness. Out of the millions of humanity the average
         person is lucky if he can take his pick of a couple of score
         of partners.  I will here add one further pillar to my
         temple. It happens only too often that two people, absolutely
         fitted in every way to love each other, are totally debarred
         from expressing themselves by sheer ignorance of the
         technique of the act. What Nature declares as the climax of
         the Mass, the manifestation of God in the flesh, when the
         flesh is begotten, is so gross, clumsy and brutal that it
         disappoints and disgusts. They are horribly conscious that
         something is wrong. They do not know how to amend it. They
         are ashamed to discuss it. They have neither the experience
         to guide nor the imagination to experiment. Countless
         thousands of delicate-minded lovers turn against Love and
         blaspheme Him. Countless millions, not quite so fixed in
         refinement, accept the fact, acquiesce in the foulness, till
         Love is degraded to guilty grovelling. They are dragged in
         the dirt of the night-cart which ought to have been their
         `chariot of fire and the horses thereof'.  This whole trouble
         comes from humanity's horror of Love. For the last hundred
         years, every first-rate writer on morals has sent forth his
         lightnings and thunders, hailstones and coals of fire, to
         burn up Gommorrah and Sodom where Love is either shameful and
         secret, or daubed with dung of sentiment in order that the
         swinish citizens may recognize their ideal therein. We do not
         tell the artist that his art is so sacred, so disgusting, so
         splendid and so disgraceful that he must not on any account
         learn the use of the tools of his trade, and study in school
         how to see with his eye, and record what he sees with his
         hand. We do not tell the man who would heal disease that he
         must not know his subject, from anatomy to Pathology; or bid
         him undertake to remove an appendix from a valued Archbishop
         the first time he takes scalpel in hand.  But love is an art
         no less than Rembrandt's, a science no less than Lister's.
         The mind must make the heart articulate, and the body the
         temple of the soul. The animal instinct in man is the twin of
         the ape's or the bull's. Yet this is the one thing lawful in
         the code of the bourgeois. He is right to consider the act,
         as he knows it, degrading. It is, indeed for him, an act
         ridiculous, obscene, gross, beastly; a wallowing unworthy
         either of the dignity of man or of the majesty of the God
         within him. So is the guzzling and the swilling of the savage
         as he crams his enemy's raw liver into his mouth, or tilts
         the bottle of trade gin, and gulps. Because his meal is
         loathly, must we insist that any methods but his are
         criminal? How did we come to Laperouse and Nichol from the
         cannibal's cauldron unless by critical care and vigorous
         research?  The act of Love, to the bourgeois, is a physical
         relief like defaecation, and a moral relief from the strain
         of the drill of decency; a joyous relapse into the brute he
         has to pretend he despises. It is a drunkenness which drugs
         his shame of himself, yet leaves him deeper in disgust. It is
         an unclean gesture, hideous and grotesque. It is not his own
         act, but forced on him by a giant who holds him helpless; he
         is half madman, half automaton when he performs it. It is a
         gawky stumbling across a black foul bog, oozing a thousand
         dangers. It threatens him with death, disease, disaster in
         all manner of forms. He pays the coward's price of fear and
         loathing when pedlar Sex holds out his Rat-Poison in the
         lead-paper wrapping he takes for silver; he pays again with
         vomiting and with colic when he has gulped it in his greed.
         All this he knows, only too well; he is right, by his own
         lights, to loathe and fear the act, to hide it from his eyes,
         to swear he knows it not. With tawdry rags of sentiment,
         sacksful of greasy clouts, he swathes the corpse of Love,
         and, smirking, sputters that Love had never a naked limb;
         then as the brute in him stirs sleepily, he plasters Love
         with mire, and leering grunts that Love, shameless and
         fearless, seeing God in the Temple Man, but a toothsome lump
         of carrion in the corner of his own stye.  But we of Thelema,
         like the artist, the true lover of Love, shameless and
         fearless, seeing God face to face alike in our own souls
         within and in all Nature without, though we use, as the
         bourgeois does, the word Love, we hold not the word `too
         often profaned for us to profane it;' it burns inviolate in
         its sanctuary, being reborn immaculate with every breath of
         life. But by `Love' we mean a thing which the eye of the
         bourgeois hath not seen, nor his ear heard; neither hath his
         heart conceived it. We have accepted Love as the meaning of
         Change, Change being the Life of all Matter soever in the
         Universe. And we have accepted Love as the mode of Motion of
         the Will to Change. To us every act, as implying Change, is
         an act of Love. Life is a dance of delight, its rhythm an
         infinite rapture that never can weary or stale. Our personal
         pleasure in it is derived not only from our own part in it,
         but from our conscious apprehension of its total perfections.
         We study its structure, we expand ourselves as we lose
         ourselves in understanding it, and so becoming one with it.
         With the Egyptian initiate we exclaim and add the
         antistrophe: `There is no part of the Gods that is not also
         of us.'  Therefore, the Love that is Law is not less Love in
         the  petty personal sense; for Love that makes two One is the
         engine whereby even the final Two, Self and Not-Self, may
         become One, in the mystic marriage of the Bride, the Soul,
         with Him appointed from eternity to espouse her; yea, even
         the Most High, God All-in-All, the Truth.  Therefore we hold
         Love holy, our heart's religion, our mind's science. Shall He
         not have His ordered Rite, His priests and poets, His makers
         of beauty in colour and form to adorn Him, His makers of
         music to praise Him? Shall not His theologians, divining His
         nature, declare Him? Shall not even those who but sweep the
         courts of His temple, partake thereby of His person? And
         shall not our science lay hands on Him, measure Him, discover
         the depths, calculate the heights, and decipher the laws of
         His nature? Also: to us of Thelema, thus having trained our
         hearts and minds to be expert engineers of the sky-cleaver
         Love, the ship to soar to the Sun, to us the act of Love is
         the consecration of the body to Love. We burn the body on the
         altar of Love, that even the brute may serve the Will of the
         Soul. We must then study the art of Bodily Love. We must not
         balk or bungle. We must be cool and competent as surgeons;
         brain, eye and hand the perfectly trained instruments of
         Will.  We must study the subject openly and impersonally, we
         must read text-books, listen to lectures, watch
         demonstrations, earn our diplomas ere we enter practice.  We
         do not mean what the bourgeois means when we say `the act of
         love'. To us it is not the gross gesture as of a man in a
         seizure, a snorting struggle, a senseless spasm, and a sudden
         revulsion of shame, as it is to him.  We have an art of
         expression; we art trained to interpret the soul and the
         spirit in terms of the body. We do not deny the existence of
         the body, or despise it; but we refuse to regard it in any
         other light than this: it is the organ of the Self. It must
         nevertheless be ordered according to its own laws; those of
         the mental or moral Self do not apply to it. We love; that
         is, we will to unite: then the one must study the other,
         divine every butterfly thought as it flits, and offer the
         flower it most fancies. The vocabulary of Love is small, and
         its terms are hackneyed; to seek new words and phrases is to
         be affected, stilted. It chills.  But the language of the
         body is never exhausted; one may talk for an hour by means of
         an eye-lash. There art intimate, delicate things, shadows of
         the leaves of the Tree of the Soul that dance in the breeze
         of Love, so subtle that neither Keats nor Heine in words,
         neither Brahms nor Debussy in music, could give them body. It
         is the agony of every artist, the greater he the more fierce
         his despair, that he cannot compass expression. And what they
         cannot do, not once in a life of ardour, is done in all
         fulness by the body that, loving, hath learnt the lesson of
         how to love.   Addendum: More generally, any act soever may
         be used to attain any end soever by the magician who knows
         how to make the necessary links.

         53.    It is clear that this `kiss' (i.e. this Book) will
         regenerate Earth by establishing the Law of Liberty. `My
         heart and my tongue' seems a mere phrase of endearment; but
         has possibly some deep significance which at present escapes
         me.  The second paragraph is perhaps in answer to some
         unspoken thought of my own that my work was accomplished. No:
         though I be `of the princes' with the right to enter into my
         reward, it is my destiny to continue my Work.*

         54.    The subject changes most abruptly, perhaps answering
         some unspoken comment of the scribe on the capital T's in `To
         me'.  This injunction was most necessary, for had I been left
         to myself, I should have wanted to edit the Book ruthlessly.
         I find in it what I consider faults of style, and even of
         grammar; much of the matter was at the time of writing most
         antipathetic. But the Book proved itself greater than the
         scribe; again and again have the `mistakes' proved themselves
         to be devices for transmitting a Wisdom beyond the scope of
         ordinary language.

         56.    All previous systems have been sectarian, based on a
         traditional cosmography both gross and incorrect. Our system
         is based on absolute science and philosophy. We have `all in
         the clear light', that of Reason, because our Mysticism is
         based on an absolute Scepticism. But at the time of this
         writing I had very little mystic experience indeed, as my
         record shows. The Fact is that I was far, far from the Grade
         even of Master of the Temple. So I could not properly
         understand this Book; how then could I effectively promulgate
         it? I comprehended but dimly that it contained my Word; for
         the Grade of Magus then seemed to me unthinkably high above
         me. Also, let me say that the True Secrets of this Grade and
         unfathomable and awful beyond all expression; the process of
         initiation thereto was continuous over years, and contained
         the most sublime mystic experiences -- beyond any yet
         recorded by man -- as mere incidents in its terrific Pageant.
         The `equation' is the representation of Truth by Word.

         57.    `Love is the law, love under will', is an
         interpretation of the general law of Will. It is dealt with
         fully in the Book Aleph.  I here insert a few pertinent
         passages from that Book.  "This is the evident and final
         Solvent of the Knot Philosophical concerning Fate and
         Freewill, that it is thine own Self, omniscient and
         omnipotent, sublime in Eternity, that first didst order the
         Course of thine own Orbit, so that that which befalleth thee
         by Fate is indeed the necessary Effect of thine own Will.
         These two, then, that like Gladiators have made War in
         Philosophy through these many Centuries, art made One by the
         Love under Will which is the Law of Thelema.  O my Son, there
         is no Doubt that resolveth not in Certainty and Rapture at
         the Touch of the Wand of our Law, and thou apply it with Wit.
         Do thou grow constantly in the Assimilation of the Law, and
         thou shalt be made perfect.  Behold, there is a Pageant of
         Triumph as each Star, free from Confusion, sweepeth free in
         its right Orbit; all Heaven acclaimeth thee as thou goest,
         transcendental in Joy and in Splendour; and thy Light is as a
         Beacon to them that Wander afar, strayed in the Night.
         Amoun."   The `old comment' covers the rest of this verse
         sufficiently for the present purpose.  I see no harm in
         revealing the mystery of Tzaddi to `the wise'; others will
         hardly understand my explanations.  Tzaddi is the letter of
         The Emperor, the Trump IV, and He is the Star, the Trump
         XVII. Aquarius and Aries are therefore counterchanged,
         revolving on the pivot of Pisces, just as, in the Trumps VIII
         and XI, Leo and Libra do about Virgo. This last revelation
         makes our Tarot attributions sublimely, perfectly, flawlessly
         symmetrical.  The fact of its so doing is a most convincing
         proof of the superhuman Wisdom of the author of this Book to
         those who have laboured for years, in vain, to elucidate the
         problems of the Tarot.

         58.    These joys art principally (1) the Beatific Vision, in
         which Beauty is constantly present to the recipient of Her
         grace, together with a calm and unutterable joy; (2) the
         Vision of Wonder, in which the whole Mystery of the Universe
         is constantly understood and admired for its Ingenium and
         Wisdom. (1) is referred to Tiphereth, the Grade of Adept; (2)
         to Binah, the grade of Master of the Temple.  The certainty
         concerning death is conferred by the Magical Memory, and
         various Experiences without which Life is unintelligible.
         `Peace unutterable' is given by the Trance in which Matter is
         destroyed; `rest' by that which finally equilibrates Motion.
         `Ecstasy' refers to a Trance which combines these.  `Nor do I
         demand aught in sacrifice' -- The ritual of worship is
         Samadhi. But see later, verse 61.

         59.    It seems possible that Our Lady describes Her hair as
         `the trees of Eternity' because of the tree-like structure of
         the Cosmos. This is observed in the `Star-Sponge' Vision. I
         must explain this by giving a comparatively full account of
         this vision.

                         "The `Star-Sponge' Vision.  There is a vision
         of a peculiar character which has been of cardinal importance
         in my interior life, and to which constant reference is made
         in my magical diaries. So far as I know, there is no extant
         description of this vision anywhere, and I was surprised on
         looking through my records to find that I had given no clear
         account of it myself. The reason apparently is that it is so
         necessary a part of myself that I unconsciously assume it to
         be a matter of common knowledge, just as one assumes that
         everybody knows that one possesses a pair of lungs, and
         therefore abstains from mentioning the fact directly,
         although perhaps alluding to the matter often enough.  It
         appears very essential to describe this vision as well as is
         possible, considering the difficulty of language, and the
         fact that the phenomena involve logical contradictions, the
         conditions of consciousness being other than those obtaining
         normally.  The vision developed gradually. It was repeated on
         so many occasions that I am unable to say at what period it
         may be called complete. The beginning, however, is clear
         enough in my memory.  I was on a retirement in a cottage
         overlooking Lake Pasquaney in New Hampshire. I lost
         consciousness of everything but an universal space in which
         were innumerable bright points, and I realized this as a
         physical representation of the Universe, in what I may call
         its essential structure. I exclaimed: `Nothingness, with
         twinkles!' I concentrated upon this vision, with the result
         that the void space which had been the principal element of
         it diminished in importance; space appeared to be ablaze, yet
         the radiant points were not confused, and I thereupon
         completed my sentence with the exclamation `But what
         Twinkles!' The next stage of this vision led to an
         identification of the blazing points with the stars of the
         firmament, with ideas, souls, etc. I perceived also that each
         star was connected by a ray of light with each other star. In
         the world of ideas, each thought possessed a necessary
         relation with each other thought; each such relation is of
         course a thought in itself; each such ray is itself a star.
         It is here that logical difficulty first presents itself. The
         seer has a direct perception of infinite series. Logically,
         therefore, it would appear as if the entire space must be
         filled up with a homogeneous blaze of light. This however is
         not the case. The space is completely full; yet the monads
         which fill it are perfectly distinct. The ordinary reader
         might well exclaim that such statements exhibit symptoms of
         mental confusion. The subject demands more than cursory
         examination. I can do no more than refer the critic to the
         Hon. Bertrand Russell's Introduction to Mathematical
         Philosophy, where the above position is thoroughly justified,
         as also certain positions which follow. At the time I had not
         read this book; and I regard it as a  striking proof of the
         value of mystical attainment, that its results should have
         led a mind such as mine, whose mathematical training was of
         the most elementary character, to the immediate consciousness
         of some of the most profound and important mathematical
         truths; to the acquisition of the power to think in a manner
         totally foreign to the normal mind, the rare possession of
         the greatest thinkers in the world.  A further development of
         the vision brought the consciousness that the structure of
         the universe was highly organized, that certain stars were of
         greater magnitude and brilliancy than the rest. I began to
         seek similes to help me to explain myself. Several such
         attempts are mentioned later in this note. Here again are
         certain analogies with some of the properties of infinite
         series. The reader must not be shocked at the idea of a
         number which is not increased by addition or multiplication,
         a series of infinite series, each one of which may be twice
         as long as its predecessor, and so on. There is no `mystical
         humbug' about this. As Mr. Russell shows, truths of this
         order are more certain than the most universally accepted
         axioms; in fact, many axioms accepted by the intellect of the
         average man are not true at all. But in order to appreciate
         these truths, it is necessary to educate the mind to thought
         of an order which is at first sight incompatible with
         rationality.  I may here digress for a moment in order to
         demonstrate how this vision led directly to the understanding
         of the mechanism of certain phenomena which have hitherto
         been dismissed with a shrug of the shoulders as
         incomprehensible.  Example No. 1. I began to become aware of
         my own mental processes; I thought of my consciousness as the
         Commander-in- Chief of an army. There existed a staff of
         specialists to deal with various contingencies. There was an
         intelligence department to inform me of my environment. There
         was a council which determined the relative importance of the
         data presented to them -- it required only a slight effort of
         imagination to think of this council as in debate; I could
         picture to myself some tactically brilliant proposal being
         vetoed by the Quarter- Master-General. It was only one step
         to dramatize the scene, and it flashed upon me in a moment
         that here was the explanation of `double personality': that
         illusion was no more than a natural personification of
         internal conflict, just as the savage attributes
         consciousness to trees and rocks.  Example No. 2. While at
         Montauk I had put my sleeping bag to dry in the sun. When I
         went to take it in, I remarked, laughingly, `Your bedtime,
         Master Bag,' as if it were a small boy and I its nurse. This
         was entirely frivolous, but the thought flashed into my mind
         that after all the bag was in one sense a part of myself. The
         two ideas came together with a snap, and I understood the
         machinery of a man's delusion that he is a teapot.  These two
         examples may give some idea to the reader of the light which
         mystical attainment throws upon the details of the working of
         the human mind.  Further developments of this vision
         emphasized the identity between the Universe and the mind.
         The search for similes deepened. I had a curious impression
         that the thing I was looking for was somehow obvious and
         familiar. Ultimately it burst upon me with fulminating
         conviction that the simile for which I was seeking was the
         nervous system. I exclaimed: `The mind is the nervous system,
         ' with all the enthusiasm of Archimedes, and it only dawned
         on me later, with a curious burst of laughter at my naivete,
         that my great discovery amounted to a platitude.   From this
         I came to another discovery: I perceived why platitudes were
         stupid. The reason was that they represented the summing up
         of trains of thought, each of which was superb in every
         detail at one time. A platitude was like a wife after a few
         years; she has lost none of her charms, and yet one prefers
         some perfectly worthless woman.  I now found myself able to
         retrace the paths of thought which ultimately come together
         in a platitude. I would start with some few simple ideas and
         develop them. Each stage in the process was like the joy of a
         young eagle soaring from height to height in ever increasing
         sunlight as dawn breaks, foaming, over the purple hem of the
         garment of ocean, and, when the many coloured rays of rose
         and gold and green gathered themselves together and melted
         into the orbed glory of the sun, with a rapture that shook
         the soul with unimaginable ecstasy, that sphere of rushing
         light was recognized as a common-place idea, accepted
         unquestioningly and treated with drab indifference because it
         had so long been assimilated as a natural and necessary part
         of the order of Nature. At first I was shocked and disgusted
         to discover that a series of brilliant researches should
         culminate in a commonplace. But I soon understood that what I
         had done was to live over again the triumphant career of
         conquering humanity; that I had experienced in my own person
         the succession of winged victories that had been sealed by a
         treaty of peace whose clauses might be summed up in some such
         trite expression as `Beauty depends upon form'."

         It would be quite impracticable to go fully into the subject
         of this vision of the Star-Sponge, if only because its
         ramifications are omniform. It must suffice to reiterate that
         it has been the basis of most of my work for the last five
         years, and to remind the reader that the essential form of it
         is `Nothingness with twinkles'.

         62.    It is evident that Our Lady, in her Personality,
         contemplates some more or less open form of worship suited
         for the laity. With the establishment of the Law something of
         this sort may become possible. It is only necessary to kill
         out the sense of `sin', with its false shame and its fear of
         nature.  P.S. The Gnostic Mass is intended to supply this
         need. Liber XV. It has been said continuously in California
         for some years.

         63.    All those acts which excite the divine in man are
         proper to the Rite of Invocation.  Religion, as understood by
         the vile Puritan, is the very opposite of all this. He -- it
         -- seems to wish to kill his -- its -- soul by forbidding
         every expression of it, and every practice which might awaken
         it to expression. To hell with this Verbotenism!  In
         particular, let me exhort all men and all women, for they are
         Stars! Heed well this holy Verse!  True Religion is
         intoxication, in a sense. We are told elsewhere to intoxicate
         the innermost, not the outermost; but I think that the word
         `wine' should be taken in its widest sense as meaning that
         which brings out the soul. Climate, soil, and race change
         conditions; each man or woman must find and choose the fit
         intoxicant. Thus hashish in one or the other of its forms
         seems to suit the Moslem, to go with dry heat; opium is right
         for the Mongol; whiskey for the dour temperament and damp
         cold climate of the Scot.  Sex-expression, too, depends on
         climate and so on, so that we must interpret the Law to suit
         a Socrates, a Jesus, and a Burton, or a Marie Antoinette and
         a de Lamballe, as well as our own Don Juans and Faustines.
         With this expansion, to the honour and glory of Them, of
         Their Natures, we acclaim therefore our helpers, Dionysus,
         Aphrodite, Apollo, Wine, Woman, and song.  Intoxication, that
         is, ecstasy, is the key to Reality. It is explained in
         `Energized Enthusiasm' The Equinox I(9)) that there are three
         Gods whose function is to bring the Soul to the Realization
         of its own glory: Dionysus, Aphrodite, Apollo; Wine, Woman,
         and song.  The ancients, both in the highest civilizations,
         as in Greece and Egypt, and in the most primitive savagery,
         as among the Buriats and the Papuans, were well aware of
         this, and made their religious ceremonies `orgia', Works.
         Puritan foulness, failing to understand what was happening,
         degraded the word `orgies' to mean debauches. It is the old
         story of the Fox who lost his tail. If you cannot do
         anything, call it impossible; or, if that be evidently
         absurd, call it wicked!  It is critics who deny poetry,
         people without capacity for Ecstasy and Will who call
         Mysticism moonshine and Magick delusion. It is manless old
         cats, geldings, and psychopaths, who pretend to detest Love,
         and persecute Free Women and Free Men.  Verbotenism has gone
         so far in certain slave-communities that the use of wine is
         actually prohibited by law!  I wish here to emphasise that
         the Law of Thelema definitely enjoins us, as a necessary act
         of religion, to `drink sweet wines and wines that foam'. Any
         free man or woman who resides in any community where this is
         verboten has a choice between two duties: insurrection and
         emigration.  The furtive disregard of Restriction is not
         Freedom. It tends to make men slaves and hypocrites, and to
         destroy respect for Law.  Have no fear: two years after Vodka
         was verboten, Russia, which had endured a thousand lesser
         tyrannies with patience, rose in Revolution.  Religious
         ecstasy is necessary to man's soul Where this is attained by
         mystical practices, directly, as it should be, people need no
         substitutes. Thus the Hindus remain contentedly sober, and
         care nothing for the series of Invaders who have occupied
         their country from time to time and governed them. But where
         the only means of obtaining this ecstasy, or a simulacrum of
         it, known to the people, is alcohol, they must have alcohol.
         Deprive them of wine, or beer, or whatever their natural
         drink may be, and they replace it by morphia, cocaine, or
         something easier to conceal, and to take without detection.
         Stop that, and it is Revolution. As long as a man can get rid
         of his surplus Energy in enjoyment, he finds life easy, and
         submits. Deprive him of Pleasure, of Ecstasy, and his mind
         begins to worry about the way in which he is exploited and
         oppressed. Very soon he begins furtively to throw bombs; and,
         gathering strength, to send his tyrants to the gallows.

         220A2-1.ASC

         1.    We see again set forth the complementary character of Nuith and
         Hadith. Nu conceals Had because He is Everywhere in the Infinite, and
         She manifests Him for the same reason. See verse 3. Every Individual
         manifests the Whole; and the Whole conceals every Individual. The Soul
         interprets the Universe; and the Universe veils the Soul. Nature
         understands Herself by becoming self-conscious in Her units; and the
         Consciousness loses its sense of separateness by dissolution in Her.
         There has been much difficulty in the orthography (in sacred
         languages) of these names. Nu is clearly stated to be 56; but Had is
         only hinted obscurely. This matter is discussed later more fully;
         verses 15 and 16.

         2.    Khabs -- `a star' -- is an unit of Nuit, and therefore Nuit
         Herself. This doctrine is enormously difficult of apprehension, even
         after these many years of study.  Hadit is the `core of every star,'
         verse 6. He is thus the Impersonal Identity within the Individuality
         of `every man and every woman.' He is `not extended;' that is, without
         condition of any sort in the metaphysical sense. Only in the highest
         trances can the nature of these truths be realized. It is indeed a
         suprarational experience not dissimilar to those characteristic of the
         `Star- Sponge' Vision previously described that can help us here. The
         trouble is that the truth itself is unfitted to the dualistic reason
         of `normal' mankind. Hadit seems to be the principle of Motion which
         is everywhere, yet is not extended in any dimension except as it
         chances to combine with the `Matter' which is Nuit. There can
         evidently be no manifestation apart from this conjunction. A `Khabs'
         or Star is apparently any nucleus where this conjunction has taken
         place. The real philosophical difficulty about this cosmogony is not
         concerned with any particular equation, or even with the Original
         Equation. We can understand x=ab, x, = a, b, & c; and also 0  =pa
         qb, whether pa - qb = 0 or not. But we ask how the homogeneity of both
         Nuit and Hadit can ever lead to even the illusion of `difference.' The
         answer appears  to be that this difference appears naturally with the
         self-realization of Nuit as the totality of possibilities; each of
         these, singly and in combination, is satisfied or set in motion by
         Hadit, to compose a particular manifestation,  could possess no
         signification at all, unless there were diverse dimensions wherein it
         had no extension. `Nothing' means nothing save from the point of view
         of `Two,' just as `Two' is monstrous unless it is seen as a mode of
         `Nothing.' The above explanation appears somewhat disingenuous, since
         there is no means whatever of distinguishing any Union  H N = R from
         another. We must postulate a further stage.  R (Ra-Hoor-Khuit) Kether,
         Unity, is always itself; but we may suppose that a number of such
         homogeneous positive manifestations may form groups differing from
         each other as to size and structure so as to create the illusion of
         diversity.

         3.    This is again interesting as throwing light on the thesis; Every
         man and every woman is a star. There is no place soever that is not a
         Centre of Light.  This Truth is to be realised by direct perception,
         not merely by intellection. It is axiomatic; it cannot be
         demonstrated. It is to be assimilated by experience of the Vision of
         the `Star- Sponge.'

         4.    See later, verse 13, `Thou (i.e. the Beast, who is here the
         Mask, or `per-sona,' of Hadit) wast the knower.' Hadit possesses the
         power to know, Nuit that of being known. Nuit is not unconnected with
         the idea of Nibbana, the `Shoreless Sea, ' in which Knowledge is Not.
         Hadit is hidden in Nuit, and knows Her, She being an object of
         knowledge; but He is not knowable, for He is merely that part of Her
         which She formulates in order that She may be known.

         5.    The `old time' is the Aeon of the Dying God. Some of his rituals
         are founded on an utterly false metaphysic and cosmogony; but others
         are based on Truth. We mend these, and end these.  This `Knowledge' is
         the initiated Wisdom of this Aeon of Horus.   See Book 4, Part III,
         for an account of the new principles of magick.  Note that Knowledge
         is Daath, Child of Chokmah by Binah, and crown of Microprosopus; yet
         he is not one of the Sephiroth, and his place is in the Abyss. By this
         symbolism we draw attention to the fact that Knowledge is by nature
         impossible; for it implies Duality and is therefore relative. Any
         proposition of Knowledge may be written `ARB:' `A has the relation R
         to B.' Now if A and B are identical, the proposition conveys no
         knowledge at all. If A is not identical with B, ARB implies `A is
         identical with BC;' this assumes that not less than three distinct
         ideas exist. In every case, we must proceed either to the identity
         which means ultimately `Nothing,' or to divergent diversities which
         only seem to mean something so long as we refrain from pushing the
         analysis of any term to its logical elements. For example, `Sugar is
         sugar' is obviously not knowledge. But no more is this: `Sugar is a
         sweet white crystalline carbo-hydrate.' For each of these four terms
         describes a sensory impression on ourselves; and we define our
         impressions only in terms of such things as sugar. Thus `sweet' means
         `the quality ascribed by our taste to honey, sugar, etc.'; `white' is
         `what champaks, zinc oxide, sugar, etc. report to our eyesight;' and
         so on. The proposition is ultimately an identity, for all our attempts
         to evade the issue by creating complications. `Knowledge' is therefore
         not a `thing-in-itself;' it is rightly denied a place upon the Tree of
         Life; it pertains to the Abyss.  Besides the above considerations, it
         may be observed that Knowledge, so far as it exists at all, even as a
         statement of relation, is no more than a momentary phenomenon of
         consciousness. It is annihilated in the instant of its creation. For
         no sooner do we assent to ARB than ARB is absorbed in our conception
         of A. After the nine-days' wonder of `The earth revolves round the
         sun,' we modify our former idea of Earth. `Earth' is intuitively
         classed with other solar satellites. The proposition vanishes
         automatically as it is assimilated. Knowledge, while it exists as such
         is consequently sub judice, at the best. What then may we understand
         by this verse, with its capital K for `Knowledge:' What is it, and how
         shall it `go aright?' The key is in the word `go.' It cannot `be,' as
         we have seen above; it is the fundamental error of the `Black
         Brothers' in their policy of resisting all Change, to try to maintain
         it as fixed and absolute. But (as the Tree of Life indicates)
         Knowledge is the means by which the conscious mind, Microprosopus,
         reaches to Understanding and to Wisdom, its mother and father, which
         reflect respectively Nuith and Hadit from the Ain and Kether. The
         process is to use each new item of knowledge to correct and increase
         one's comprehension of the Subject of the Proposition. Thus ARB should
         tell us: A is (not A, as we supposed) but A. This facilitates the
         discovery A,R.C leading to A, is A ; and so on. In practice, every
         thing that we learn about (e.g.) `horse' helps us to understand -- to
         enjoy -- the idea. The difference between the scholar and the
         schoolboy is that the former glows and exults when he is reminded of
         some word like `Thalassa.' Ourselves:- What a pageant of passion
         empurples our minds whenever we think of the number 93! Most of all,
         each new thing that we know about ourselves helps us to realize what
         we mean by our `Star.' Now, `the rituals of the old time,' are no
         longer valid vehicles; Knowledge cannot `go aright' until they are
         adapted to the Formula of the New Aeon. Their defects are due
         principally to two radical errors. (1.) The Universe was conceived as
         possessing a fixed centre, or summit; an absolute standard to which
         all things might be referred; an Unity, or God. (Mystics were angry
         and bewildered, often enough, when attaining to `union with God' they
         found him equally in all). This led to making a difference between one
         thing and another, and so to the ideas of superiority, of sin, etc.,
         ending by absurdities of all kinds, alike in theology, ethics, and
         science. (2) The absolute antithesis between the pairs of opposites.
         This is really a corollary of (1). There was an imaginary `absolute
         evil' which made Manichaeanism necessary -- despite the cloaks of the
         Causists -- and meant `That which leads one away from God.' But each
         man, while postulating an absolute `God' and `Evil' were really
         expressions of personal prejudice. A man who `bowed humbly to the
         Authority of' the Pope, or the Bible, or the Sanhedrim, or the Oracle
         of Apollo, or the tribal Medicine-Man, none the less expressed truly
         his own Wish to abdicate responsibility. In the light of this Book, we
         know that the centre is everywhere, the circumference nowhere; that
         `Every man and every woman is a star,' a `Khabs,' the name of the
         house of Hadit; that `The word of Sin is Restriction.' To us, then,
         `evil' is a relative term; it is `that which hinders one from
         fulfilling his true Will.'(E.g., rain is `good' or `bad' for the
         farmer according to the requirements of his crops).  The Osirian
         Rituals inculcating self-sacrifice to an abstract ideal, mutilation to
         appease an ex cathedra morality, fidelity to a priori formulae, etc.
         teach false and futile methods of acquiring false Knowledge; they must
         be  `cast away' or `purged'. The Schools of Initiation must be
         reformed.

         6.    It follows that, as Hadit can never be known, there is no death.
         The death of the individual is his awakening to the impersonal
         immortality of Hadit. This applies less to physical death than to the
         Crossing of the Abyss; for which see Liber 418, Fourteenth Aethyr. One
         may attain to be aware that one is but a particular `child' of the
         Play of Hadit and Nuit; one's personality is then perceived as being a
         disguise. It is not only not a living thing, as one had thought; but a
         mere symbol without substance, incapable of life. It is the
         conventional form of a certain cluster of thoughts, themselves the
         partial and hieroglyphic symbols of an `ego.' The conscious and
         sensible `man' is to his Self just what the printed letters on this
         page are to me who have caused them to manifest in colour and form.
         They are arbitrary devices for conveying my thought; I could use
         French or Greek just as well. Nor is this thought, here conveyed, more
         than one ray of my Orb; and even that whole Orb is but the garment of
         Me. The analogy is precise; therefore when one becomes `the knower,'
         it involves the `death' of all sense of the Ego. One perceives one's
         personality precisely as I now do these printed letters; and they are
         forgotten, just as, absorbed in my thought, the trained automatism of
         my mind and body expresses that thought in writing, without attention
         on my part, still less with identification of the extremes involved in
         the process.

         7.    `It is I that go.' The Book Aleph must be consulted for a full
         demonstration of this truth. We may say briefly that Hadit is Motion,
         that is, Change or `Love.' The symbol of Godhead in Egypt was the
         Ankh, which is a sandal-strap, implying the Power to Go; and it
         suggests the Rosy Cross, the Fulfilment of Love, by its shape.  The
         Wheel end the Circle are evidently symbols of Nuith; this sentence
         insists upon the conception of Lingam-Yoni. But beyond the obvious
         relation, we observe two geometrical definitions. The axle is a
         cylinder set perpendicularly to the plane of the wheel; thus Hadit
         supplies the third dimension to Nuith. It suggests that Matter is to
         be conceived as Two-dimensional; that is, perhaps, as possessed of two
         qualities, extension and potentiality. To these Hadit brings motion
         and position. The wheel moves; manifestation now is possible. Its
         perception implies three-dimensional space, and time. But note that
         the Mover is himself not moved. The `cube in the circle' emphasizes
         this question of dimensions. The cube is rectilinear (therefore
         phallic no less than the axle); its unity suggests perfection
         projected as a `solid' for human perception; its square faces affirm
         balance, equity, and limitation; its six- sidedness sets it among the
         solar symbols. It is thus like the Sun in the Zodiac, which is no more
         than the field for His fulfilment in His going. He, by virtue of his
         successive relations with each degree of the circle, clothes Himself
         with an appearance of `Matter in Motion,' although absolute motion
         through space is a meaningless expression (Eddington, Op, cit.). None
         the less, every point in the cube -- there are 2 of them -- has an
         unique relation with every point in the circle exactly balanced
         against an equal and opposite relation. We have thus Matter that both
         is and is not, Motion that both moves and moves not, interacting in a
         variety of ways which is infinite to manifest individuals, each of
         which is unlike any other, yet is symmetrically supported by its
         counterpart. Note that even at the centre of gravity of the cube no
         two rays are identical except in mere length. They differ as to their
         point of contact with the circle, their right ascension, and their
         relation with the other points of the cube.  Why is Nuith restricted
         to two dimensions? We usually think of space as a sphere. `None ----
         and two:' extension and potentiality are Her only projections of
         Naught. It is strange, by the way to find that modern mathematics says
         `Spherical space is not very easy to imagine' (Eddington,
         Op.cit.p.158) and prefers to attribute a geometrical form whose
         resemblance to the Kteis is most striking. For Nuit is,
         philosophically speaking, the archetype of the Kteis, giving
         appropriate Form to all Being, and offering every possibility of
         fulfilment of every several point that it envelops. But Nuith cannot
         be symbolized as three-dimensional, in our system; each unit has
         position by three spatial, and one temporal, coordinates. It cannot
         exist, in our consciousness, with less, as a reality. Each
         `individual' must be a `point-interval;' he must be the product of
         some part of the Matter of Nuit (with special energies) determined in
         space by his relations with his neighbours, and in time by his
         relations with himself.  It is evidently `a foolish word' for Hadit to
         say `Come unto me,' as did Nuit naturally enough, meaning `Fulfil thy
         possibilities;' for who can `come unto' Motion itself, who draw near
         unto that which is in very truth his innermost identity?

         8.    Harpocrates is also the Dwarf-Soul, the Secret Self of every
         man, the Serpent with the Lion's Head. Now Hadit knows Nuit by virtue
         of his `Going' or `Love.' It is therefore wrong to worship Hadit; one
         is to be Hadit, and worship Her. This is clear even from His
         instruction `To worship me' in verse 22 of this chapter. Confer,
         Cap.I, v.9. We are exhorted to offer ourselves unto Nuit, pilgrims to
         all her temples. It is bad Magick to admit that one is other than
         One's inmost self. One should plunge passionately into every posseble
         experience; by doing so one is purged of those personal prejudices
         which we took so stupidly for ourselves, though they prevented us from
         realizing our true Wills and from knowing our Names and Natures. The
         Aspirant must well understand that it is no paradox to say that the
         Annihilation of the Ego in the Abyss is the condition of emancipating
         the true Self, and exalting it to unimaginable heights. So long as one
         remains `one's self,' one is overwhelmed by the Universe; destroy the
         sense of self, and every event is equally an expression of one's Will,
         since its occurrence is the resultant of the concourse of the forces
         which one recognizes as one's own.

         9.    This verse is very thoroughly explained in Liber Aleph. `All in
         this kind are but shadows' says Shakespeare, referring to actors. The
         Universe is a Puppet-Play for the amusement of Nuit and Hadit in their
         Nuptials; a very Midsummer Night's Dream. So then we laugh at the mock
         woes of Pyramus and Thisbe, the clumsy gambols of Bottom; for we
         understand the Truth of Things, how all is a Dance of Ecstasy. `Were
         the world understood, Ye would know it was good, a Dance to a lyrical
         measure!' The nature of events must be `pure joy;' for obviously,
         whatever occurs is the fulfilment of the Will of its master. Sorrow
         thus appears as the result of any unsuccessful -- therefore,
         ill-judged -- struggle. Acquiescence in the order of Nature is the
         ultimate Wisdom. One must understand the Universe perfectly, and be
         utterly indifferent to its pressure. These are the virtues which
         constitute a Master of the Temple. Yet each man must act What he will;
         for he is energized by his own nature. So long as he works `without
         lust of result' and does his duty for its own sake, he will know that
         `the sorrows are but shadows.' And he himself is `that which remains;'
         for he can no more be destroyed, or his true Will be thwarted, than
         Matter diminish or Energy disappear. He is a necessary Unit of the
         Universe, equal and opposite to the sum total of all the others; and
         his Will is similarly the final factor which completes the equilibrium
         of the dynamical equation. He cannot fail if he would; thus, his
         sorrows are but shadows - he could not see them if he kept his gaze
         fixed on his goal, the Sun.

         10.    As related in Equinox I, VII, I was at the time of this
         revelation, a rationalistic Buddhist, very convinced of the First
         Noble Truth: `Everything is Sorrow.' I supposed this point of view to
         be an absolute and final truth -- as if Apemantus were the only
         character in Shakespeare!  It is also explained in that place how I
         was prepared for this Work by that period of Dryness. If I had been in
         sympathy with it, my personality would have interfered. I should have
         tried to better my instructions.  See, in Liber 418, the series of
         visions by which I actually transcended Sorrow. But the considerations
         set forth in the comment on verse 9 lead to a simpler, purer, and more
         perfect attainment for those who can assimilate them in the
         subconscious mind by the process described in the comment on verse 6.
         It may encourage certain types of aspirant if I emphasize my personal
         position. AIWAZ made no mistake when he spoke this verse -- and the
         triumphant contempt of his tone still rings in my ear! After seventeen
         years of unparalleled spiritual progress, of unimaginably intense
         ecstasies, of beatitudes prolonged for whole months, of initiations
         indescribably exalted, of proof piled on proof of His power, His
         vigilance, His love, after being protected and energized with
         incredible aptness, I find myself still only too ready to grumble, nay
         even to doubt. It seems as if I resented the whole business. There art
         times when I feel that the amoeba, the bourgeois, and the cow
         represent the ABC of enviable creatures. There may be a melancholic
         strain in me, as one might expect in a case of renal weakness such as
         mine. In any event, it is surely a most overwhelming proof that AIWAZ
         is not myself, but my master, that He could force me to write verse 9,
         at a time when I was both intellectually and spiritually disgusted
         with, and despairing of, the Universe, as well as physically alarmed
         about my health.

         11.    This compulsion was that of true inspiration. It was the Karma
         of countless incarnations of struggle towards the light. There is a
         sharp repulsion, physical and mental, toward any initiation, like that
         towards death.  The above paragraph states only a part of the truth. I
         am not sure that it is not an attempt to explain away the verse, which
         humiliates me. I remember clearly enough the impulse to refuse to go
         on, and the fierce resentment at the refusal of my muscles to obey me.
         Reflect that I was being compelled to make an abject recantation of
         practically every article of my creed, and I had not even Cranmer's
         excuse. I was proud of my personal prowess as a poet, hunter, and
         mountaineer of admittedly dauntless virility; yet I was being treated
         like a hypnotized imbecile, only worse, for I was perfectly aware of
         what I was doing.

         12.    The use of capitals `Me' and `Thee' emphasizes that Hadit was
         wholly manifested in The Beast. It is to be remembered that The Beast
         has agreed to follow the instructions communicated to Him only in
         order to show that `nothing would happen if you broke all the rules.'
         Poor fool! The Way of Mastery is to break all the rules -- but you
         have to know them perfectly before you can do this; otherwise you are
         not in a position to transcend them.  Aiwaz here explains that his
         power over me depended upon the fact that Hadit is verily `the core of
         every star.' As is well known, there is a limit to the power of the
         hypnotist; he cannot overcome the resistance of the Unconscious of his
         patient. My own Unconscious was thus in alliance with Aiwaz; taken
         between two fires, my conscious self was paralyzed so long as the
         pressure lasted. It will be seen later -- verses 61 to 69 -- that my
         consciousness was ultimately invaded by the Secret Self, and
         surrendered unconditionally, so that, it proclaimed, loudly and
         gladly, from its citadel, the victory of its rightful Lord. The
         mystery is indeed this, that in so prosperous and joyous a city, there
         should still be groups of malcontents whose grumblings are
         occasionally audible.

         220A2-2.ASC

         13.    Hadit had to overcome the silly `knower,' who thought
         everything was Sorrow. Cf. `Who am I?' -- `Thou knowest' in
         Chapter I.  I am far from satisfied with either of the above
         interpretations of this verse. We shall see a little later,
         verses 27 - xx, a general objection to `Because' and `why.'
         Then how is it that Hadit does not disdain to use those
         terms? It must be for the sake of my mind. Then, `for why' is
         detestably vulgar; and no straining of grammar excuses or
         explains the `me.'  We have two alternatives. The verse may
         be an insult to me. My memory tells me, however, that the
         tone of the voice of Aiwaz was at this point low, even, and
         musical. It sounded like a confidential, almost deferential,
         clarification of the previous verse, which had rung out with
         joyful crescendo.  The alternative is that the verse contains
         some Qabalistic proof of the authority of Aiwaz to lay down
         the law in so autocratic a manner. Just so, one might add
         weight to one's quotation from Sappho, in the English, by
         following it up with the original Greek.  The absence of all
         capital letters favours this theory. Such explanation, if
         discovered, will be given in the Appendix.  However, simply
         enough, the solution begins with the idea that the small
         initial of `because' would be explained by a colon preceding
         it instead of a note of interrogation, which may have been
         due to my haste, ignorance, and carelessness. Then `for why'
         may be understood: `for the benefit of this Mr. Why -- to
         satisfy your childish clamour for a reason -- I will now
         repeat my remarks in an alternative form such that even your
         stupidity can scarcely fail to observe that I have sealed my
         psychological explanation in cipher.' We find accordingly
         that the arising `of Me in Thee' constitutes a state wherein
         `thou knewest not.' By `knewest' we may understand the
         function of Hadit, intellectually and conjugally united with
         Nuit. (See Book 4, Part III, for GN, the root meaning both
         `to know' and `to beget'). And `not' is Nuit, as in Cap. I.
         Now this idea explains that the arising `of Me (Hadit) in
         Thee (The Beast)' is the fulfilment of the Magical Formula of
         Hadit and Nuit. And to know Nuit is the very definition of
         `joy.' The next verse confirms this: `thou (the Beast) wast
         the knower (Hadit) and (united with) me (Nuit, as in Cap.I.,
         verse 51 & others).' Finally, Nuit is indicated by two
         different symbols `not' (Gk OU) and `me' (Gk MH). Now OU MH
         was my Motto in the Grade of Adeptus Exemptus; Aiwaz thus
         subtly reminds me that I was pledged to deny the assertions
         of my intellectual and moral consciousness. He combines in
         these few words (a) a correct psychological explanation of
         the situation, (b) a correct magical explanation of that
         explanation, (c) a personal rebuke to which I had no possible
         reply, involving a knowledge of my own mental state which was
         superior to my own.  These two verses are sufficient in
         themselves to demonstrate the praeter-human qualities of the
         Author of this Book.

         14.    The subject changes. Hadit will give an Exordium upon
         Himself in the next two verses. Then He will propound an
         ethical doctrine so terrible and strange that men will be
         `devoured and eaten up with blindness' because of it.

         15.    See Appendix.

         16.    See Appendix.

         17.    The dead and the dying, who know not Hadit, are in the
         Illusion of Sorrow. Not being Hadit, they are shadows,
         puppets, and what happens to them does not matter. If you
         insist upon identifying yourself with Hecuba, your tears are
         natural enough.   There is no contradiction here, by the way,
         with verses 4 and 5. The words `know me' are used loosely as
         is natural in a stanza; or, more likely, are used (as in the
         English Bible) to suggest the root GN, identity in
         transcendental ecstasy. Possibly `not' and `me' are once more
         intended to apply to Nuit. With `know' itself, they may be
         `Nothing under its three forms' of negativity, action, and
         individuality.

         18.    This idea is confirmed. Those who sorrow are not real
         people at all, not `stars' -- for the time being. The fact of
         their being `poor and sad' proves them to be `shadows,' who
         `pass and are done.' The `lords of the earth' are those who
         are doing their Will. It does not necessarily mean people
         with coronets and automobiles; there are plenty of such
         people who are the most sorrowful slaves in the world. The
         sole test of one's lordship is to know what one's true Will
         is, and to do it.

         19.    A god living in a dog would be one who was prevented
         from fulfilling his function properly. The highest are those
         who have mastered and transcended accidental environment.
         They rejoice, because they do their Will; and if any man
         sorrow, it is clear evidence of something wrong with him.
         When machinery creaks and growls, the engineer knows that it
         is not fulfilling its function, doing its Will, with ease and
         joy.

         20.    As soon as one realizes one's self as Hadit, one
         obtains all His qualities. It is all a question of doing
         one's Will. A flaming harlot, with red cap and sparkling
         eyes, her foot on the neck of a dead king, is just as much a
         star as her predecessor, simpering in his arms. But one must
         be a flaming harlot -- one must let oneself go, whether one's
         star be twin with that of Shelly, or of Blake, or of Titian,
         or of Beethoven. Beauty and strength come from doing one's
         Will; you have only to look at any one who is doing it to
         recognize the glory of it.

         21.    There is a good deal of the Nietzschean standpoint in
         this verse. It is the evolutionary and natural view. Of what
         use is it to perpetuate the misery  of Tuberculosis, and such
         diseases, as we now do? Nature's way is to weed out the weak.
         This is the most merciful way, too. At present all the strong
         are being damaged, and their progress hindered by the dead
         weight of the weak limbs and the missing limbs, the diseased
         limbs and the atrophied limbs. The Christians to the Lions!
         Our humanitarianism, which is the syphilis of the mind, acts
         on the basis of the lie that the King must die. The King is
         beyond death; it is merely a pool where he dips for
         refreshment. We must therefore go back to Spartan ideas of
         education; and the worst enemies of humanity are those who
         wish, under the pretext of compassion, to continue its ills
         through the generations. The Christians to the Lions!  Let
         weak and wry productions go back into the melting-pot, as is
         done with flawed steel castings. Death will purge,
         reincarnation make whole, these errors and abortions. Nature
         herself may be trusted to do this, if only we will leave her
         alone. But what of those who, physically fitted to live, are
         tainted with rottenness of soul, cancerous with the
         sin-complex? For the third time I answer: The Christians to
         the Lions!  Hadith calls himself the Star, the Star being the
         Unit of the Macrocosm; and the Snake, the Snake being the
         symbol of Going or Love, and the Chariot of Life. He is
         Harpocrates, the Dwarf- Soul, the Spermatozoon of all Life,
         as one may phrase it. The Sun, etc., are the external
         manifestations or Vestures of this Soul, as a Man is the
         Garment of an actual Spermatozoon, the Tree sprung of that
         Seed, with power to multiply and to perpetuate that
         particular Nature, though without necessary consciousness of
         what is happening.   In a deeper sense, the word `Death' is
         meaningless apart from the presentation of the Universe as
         conditioned by `Time.' But what is the meaning of Time?
         There is great confusion of thought in the use of the word
         `eternal,' and the phrase `for ever.' People who want
         `eternal happiness' mean by that a cycle of varying events
         all effective in stimulating pleasant sensations; i.e., they
         want time to continue exactly as it does with themselves
         released from the contingencies of accidents such as poverty,
         sickness and death. An eternal state is however a possible
         experience, if one interprets the term sensibly. One can
         kindle flamman aeternae caritatis,' for instance; one can
         experience a love which is in truth eternal. Such love must
         have no relation with phenomena whose condition is time.
         Similarly, one's `immortal soul' is a different kind of thing
         altogether from one's mortal vesture. This Soul is a
         particular Star, with its own peculiar qualities, of course;
         but these qualities are all `eternal,' and part of the nature
         of the Soul. This Soul being a monistic consciousness, it is
         unable to appreciate itself and its qualities, as explainedin
         a previous entry; so it realizes itself by the device of
         duality, with the limitations of time, space and causality.
         The `Happiness' of Wedded Love or eating Marrons Glaces is a
         concrete external non-eternal expression of the corresponding
         abstract internal eternal idea, just as any triangle is one
         partial and imperfect picture of the idea of a triangle. (It
         does not matter whether we consider `Triangle' as an unreal
         thing invented for the convenience of including all actual
         triangles, or vice versa. Once the idea Triangle has arisen,
         actual triangles are related to it as above stated). One does
         not want even a comparatively brief extension of these
         `actual' states; Wedded Love though licensed for a lifetime,
         is usually intolerable after a month; and Marrons Glaces pall
         after the first five or six kilogrammes have been consumed.
         But the `Happiness,' eternal and formless, is not less
         enjoyable because these forms of it cease to give pleasure.
         What happens is that the Idea ceases to find its image in
         those particular images; it begins to notice the limitations,
         which are not itself and indeed deny itself, as soon as its
         original joy in its success at having become conscious of
         itself wears off. It becomes aware of the external
         imperfection of Marrons Glaces; they no longer represent its
         infinitely varied nature. It therefore rejects them, and
         creates a new form of itself, such as Nightgowns with pale
         yellow ribbons or Amber Cigarettes.  In the same way a poet
         or painter, wishing to express Beauty, is impelled to choose
         a particular form; with luck, this is at first able to
         recompense in him what he feels; but sooner or later he finds
         that he has failed to include certain elements of himself,
         and he must needs embody these in a new poem or picture. He
         may know that he can never do more than present a part of the
         possible perfection, and that in imperfect imagery; but at
         least he may utter his utmost within the limits of the mental
         and sensory instruments of his similarly inadequate symbol of
         the Absolute, his vehicle of human incarnation.  These suffer
         from the same defects as the other forms; ultimately,
         `Happiness' wearies itself in the effort to invent fresh
         images, and becomes disheartened and doubtful of itself. Only
         a few people have wit enough to proceed to generalization
         from the failure of a few familiar figures of itself, and
         recognize that all `actual' forms are imperfect; but such
         people are apt to turn with disgust from the whole procedure,
         and to long for the `eternal' state. This state is however
         incapable of realization, as we know; and the Soul
         understanding this, can find no good but in `Cessation' of
         all things, its creations no more than its own tendencies to
         create. It therefore sighs for Nibbana.  But there is one
         other solution, as I have endeavoured to shew. We may accept
         (what after all it is absurd to accuse and oppose) the
         essential character of existence. We cannot extirpate or even
         alter in the minutest degree either the matter or manner of
         any element of the Universe, here each item is equally
         inherent and important, each aequipollent, independent, and
         interdependent.  We may thus acquiesce in the fact that it is
         apodeictically implicit in the Absolute to apprehend itself
         by self-expression as Positive and Negative in the first
         place, and to combine these primary opposites in an infinite
         variety of finite forms.  We may thus cease either (1) to
         seek the Absolute in any of its images, knowing that we must
         abstract every one of their qualities from every one of these
         equally if we would unveil it; or (2) to reject all images of
         the Absolute, knowing that attainment thereof would be the
         signal for the manifestation of that part of its nature which
         necessarily formulates itself in a new universe of images.
         Realizing that these two courses (the materialist's and the
         mystic's) are equally fatuous, we may engage in either or
         both of two other plans of action, based on assent to
         actuality.  We may (1) ascertain our own particular
         properties as partial projections of the Absolute; we may
         allow every image presented to us to be of equally intrinsic
         and essential entity with ourselves, and its presentation to
         us a phenomenon necessary in Nature; and we may adjust our
         apprehension to the actuality that every event is an item in
         the account which we render to ourselves of our own estate.
         We dare not desire to omit any single entry, lest the balance
         be upset. We may react with elasticity and indifference to
         each occurrence, intent only on the idea that the total,
         intelligently appreciated, constitutes a perfect knowledge
         not indeed of the Absolute but of that part thereof which is
         ourselves. We thus adjust one imperfection accurately to
         another, and remain contented in the appreciation of the
         righteousness of the relation.  This path, the `Way of the
         Tao,' is perfectly proper to all men. It does not attempt
         either to transcend or to tamper with Truth; it is loyal to
         its own laws,and therefore no less perfect than any other
         Truth. The Equation Five plus Six is Eleven is of the same
         order of perfection as Ten Million times Ten times Ten
         Thousand Million is One Billion. In the Universe fomulated by
         the Absolute, every point is equally the Centre; every point
         is equally the focus of the forces of the whole. (In any
         system of three points, any two may be considered solely with
         reference to the third, so that even in a finite universe the
         sum of the properties of all points is the same, though no
         two properties may be common to any two points. Thus a
         circle, BCD, may be described by the revolution of a line AB
         in a plane about the point A; but also from the point C, or
         indeed any other point, by the application of the proper
         analysis and construction. We calculate the motion of the
         solar system in heliocentric terms for no reason but
         simplicity and convenience; we could convert our tables to a
         geocentric basis by mere mechanical manipulation without
         affecting their truth, which is only the truth of the
         relations between a number of bodies. All are alike in
         motion, but we have arbitrarily chosen to consider one of
         them as stationary, so that we may more easily describe the
         movements of the others in regard to it, without complicating
         our calculations by introduction of the movements of the
         whole system as such. And for this purpose the Sun is a more
         convenient standard than the Earth).  There is another Way
         that we may take, if we will; I say `another,' though it
         seems perhaps to some no more than  development of the other
         which happens to be proper to some people.  Even in the first
         Way, it is of all things necessary to begin by exploring
         one's own Nature, so as to discover what its peculiarities
         are; this is accomplished partly by introspection, but
         principally by Right Recollection of the whole phantasmagoria
         presented to it by experience; for since every event of life
         is a symbol of part of the structure of the Soul, the
         totality of experience must by the `Name' if the whole of
         that part of the Soul which has so far uttered itself. Now
         then, let us suppose that some Soul, having penetrated thus
         far, should discover in its `Name' that it is a Son truly
         begotten by the Spirit of Being upon the Body of Form, and
         that it has power to understand itself and its Father, with
         all that such heirship implies. Suppose further that it be
         come to puberty, will it not be impelled to assert itself as
         its Father's son? Will it not shake itself free from the Form
         that bore and nourished and trained it, and turn from its
         brothers and sisters and playmates? Will it not glow and ache
         with the impulse to be utterly itself, and find a Form fit to
         impress with its image, even as did its Father aforetime?  If
         such a Soul be indeed its Father's son, he will not fear to
         show lack of filial reverence, or presumption, if he forget
         its family in the fervour of founding one of his own, of
         begetting boys not better or braver indeed than his brothers,
         girls not softer or sweeter indeed than his sisters, but
         wholly his own, with his own defects and desires evoked by
         enchantment of ecstasy when he dies to himself in the womb of
         the witch who lusts for his life, and buys it with the coin
         that bears his Image and Superscription. Such is the secret
         of the Soul of the Artist. He knows that he is a God, of the
         Sons of God; he has no fear or shame in showing himself of
         the seed of his Father. He is proud of that Father's most
         precious privilege, and he honours him no less than himself
         by using it. He accepts his family as of his own royal stock;
         every one is as princely as he is himself. But he were not
         his Father's son unless he found for himself a Form fit to
         express himself by multiplex reproductions of his Image. He
         must admire himself in many costumes, each emphatic of some
         elected elegance or excellence in himself which would
         otherwise elude his homage by being hidden and hushed in the
         harmony of his heart. This Form which shall serve him must be
         softness' self to his impress, with exact elasticity adapting
         itself to the strongest and subtlest salients, yet like steel
         to resist all other stress than his own, and to retain and
         reproduce surely and sharply the image that his acid bites
         into its surface. There must be no flaw, no irregularity, no
         granulation, no warp in its substance; it must be smooth and
         shining, pure metal of true temper.  And he must love this
         chosen Form, love it with fearful fervour; it is the face of
         his Fate that craves his kiss, and in her eyes Enigma blazes
         and smoulders; she is his death, her body his coffin where he
         may rot and stink, or writhe in damned dreams, self-slain, or
         rise in incorruption self-renewed, immortal and identical,
         fulfilling himself wholly in and by her, splashing all space
         with sparkling stars his sons and daughters, each star an
         image of his own infinity made manifest, mood after mood, by
         her magick to mould him when his passion makes molten her
         metal.  Thus then must every Artist work. First, he must find
         himself. Next, he must find the form that is fitted to
         express himself. Next, he must love that form, as a form,
         adoring it, understanding it, and mastering it, with most
         minute attention, until it (as it seems) adapts itself to him
         with eager elasticity, and answers accurately and aptly, with
         the unconscious automatism of an organ perfected by
         evolution, to his most subtlest suggestion, to his most giant
         gesture.  Next, he must give himself utterly up to that Form;
         he must annihilate himself absolutely in every act of love,
         labouring day and night to lose himself in lust for it, so
         that he leave no atom unconsumed in the furnace of their
         frenzy, as did of old his Father that begat him. He must
         realize himself wholly in the integration of the infinite
         Pantheon of images; for if he fail to formulate one facet of
         himself, by lack thereof will he know himself falsely.
         There is of course no ultimate difference between the Artist
         as here delineated and him who follows the `Way of the Tao',
         though the latter finds perfection in his existing relation
         with his environment, and the former creates a private
         perfection of a peculiar and secondary character. We might
         call one the son, the other the daughter, of the Absolute.
         But the Artist, though his Work, the images of himself in the
         Form that he loves, is less perfect than the Work of his
         Father, since he can but express one particular point of view
         and that by means of one type of technique, is not to be
         thought useless on that account, any more than an Atlas is
         useless because it presents by means of certain crude
         conventions a fraction of the facts of geography.  The Artist
         calls our attention away from Nature, whose immensity
         bewilders us so that she seems incoherent, and
         unintelligible, to his own interpretation of himself, and his
         relations with various phenomena of nature expressed in a
         language more or less common to us all.  The smaller the
         Artist, the narrower his view, the more vulgar his
         vocabulary, the more familiar his figures, the more readily
         is he recognized as a guide. To be accepted and admired, he
         must say what we all know, but have not told each other till
         it is tedious, and say it in simple and clear language, a
         little more emphatically and eloquently than we have been
         accustomed to hear; and he must please and flatter us in the
         telling by soothing our fears and stimulating our hopes and
         our self- esteem.  When an Artist -- whether in Astronomy,
         like Copernicus, Anthropology, like Ibsen, or Anatomy, like
         Darwin -- selects a set of facts too large, too recondite, or
         too `regrettable' to receive instant assent from everybody;
         when he presents conclusions which conflict with popular
         credence or prejudice; when he employs a language which is
         not generally intelligible to all; in such cases he must be
         content to appeal to the few. He must wait for the world to
         awake to the value of his work.   The greater he is, the more
         individual and the less intelligible he will appear to be,
         although in reality he is more universal and more simple than
         anybody. He must be indifferent to anything but his own
         integrity in the realization and imagination of himself.

         220A2-3.ASC

         22.    Drunkeness is a curse and a hindrance only to slaves.
         Shelley's couriers were `drunk on the wind of their own
         speed.' Any one who is doing his true Will is drunk with the
         delight of Life.  Wine and strange drugs do not harm people
         who are doing their will; they only poison people who are
         cancerous with Original Sin. In Latin countries where Sin is
         not taken seriously, and sex-expression is simple, wholesome,
         and free, drunkenness is a rare accident. It is only in
         Puritan countries, where self- analysis, under the whip of a
         coarse bully like Billy Sunday, brings the hearer to
         `conviction of sin,' that he hits first the `trail' and then
         the `booze.' Can you imagine an evangelist in Taormina? It is
         to laugh.  This is why missionaries, in all these centuries,
         have produced no conversions whatever, save among the lowest
         types of negro, who resemble the Anglo-Saxon in this
         possession of the `fear-of-God' and `Sin' psychopathies.
         Truth is so terrible to these detestable mockeries of
         humanity that the thought of self is a realization of hell.
         Therefore they fly to drink and drugs as to an anaesthetic in
         the surgical operation of introspection.  The craving for
         these things is caused by the internal misery which their use
         reveals to the slave-souls. If you are really free, you can
         take cocaine as simply as salt-water taffy. There is no
         better rough test of a soul than its attitude to drugs. If a
         man is simple, fearless, eager, he is all right; he will not
         become a slave. If he is afraid, he is already a slave. Let
         the whole world take opium, hashish, and the rest; those who
         are liable to abuse them were better dead.  For it is in the
         power of all so-called intoxicating drugs to reveal a man to
         himself. If this revelation declare a Star, then it shines
         brighter ever after. If it declare a Christian -- a thing not
         man nor beast, but a muddle of mind -- he craves the drug, no
         more for its analytical but for its numbing effect. Lytton
         has a great story of this in `Zanoni.' Glyndon, an
         uninitiate, takes an Elixir, and beholds not Adonai the
         glorious, but the Dweller on the Threshold; cast out from the
         Sanctuary, he becomes a vulgar drunkard.  `This folly against
         self;' altruism is a direct assertion of duality, which is
         division, restriction, sin, in its vilest form. I love my
         neighbour because love makes him part of me; not because hate
         divides him from me. Our law is so simple that it constantly
         approximates to truism. `The exposure of innocence.' Exposure
         means `putting out' as in a shop-window. The pretence of
         altruism and so-called virtue `is a lie;' it is the hypocrisy
         of the Puritan, which is hideously corrupting both to the
         hypocrite and to his victim.  To `lust' is to grasp
         continually at fresh aspects of Nuit. It is the mistake of
         the vulgar to expect to find satisfaction in the objects of
         sense. Disillusion is inevitable; when it comes, it leads
         only too often to an error which is in reality more fatal
         than the former, the denial of `materiality' and of
         `animalism.' There is a correspondence between these two
         attitudes and those of the `once-born' and `twice-born' of
         William James (Varieties of Religious Experience). Thelemites
         are `thrice-born;' we accept everything for what it is,
         without `lust of result,' without insisting upon things
         conforming with a priori ideals, or regretting their failure
         to do so. We can therefore `enjoy' all things of sense and
         rapture' according to their true nature. For example, the
         average man dreads tuberculosis. The `Christian Scientist'
         flees this fear by pretending that the disease is an illusion
         in `mortal mind.' But the Thelemite accepts it for what it
         is, and finds interest in it for its own sake. For him it is
         a necessary part of the Universe; he makes `no difference'
         between it and any other thing. The artist's position is
         analogous. Rubens, for instance, takes a gross pleasure in
         female flesh, rendering it truthfully from lack of
         imagination and analysis. Idealist painters like Bourgereau
         awake to the divergence between Nature and their academic
         standards of Beauty, falsify the facts in order to delude
         themselves. The greatest, like Rembrandt, paint a gallant, a
         hag, and a carcass with equal passion and rapture; they love
         the truth as it is. They do not admit that anything can be
         ugly or evil; its existence justifies itself. This is because
         they know themselves to be part of an harmonious unity; to
         disdain any item of it would be to blaspheme the whole. The
         Thelemite is able to revel in any experience soever; in each
         he recognizes the tokens of ultimate Truth. It is surely
         obvious, even intellectually, that all phenomena are
         interdependent, and therefore involve each other. Suppose a b
         c = d, a = d - b - c just as much as b = d-c-a. It is
         senseless to pick out one equation as `nice', and another as
         `nasty'. Personal predilections are evidence of imperfect
         vision. But it is even worse to deny reality to such facts as
         refuse to humour them. In the charter of spiritual
         sovereignty it is written that the charcoal-burner is no less
         a subject than the duke. The structure of the state includes
         all elements; it were stupid and suicidal to aim at
         homogeneity, or to assert it. Spiritual experience soon
         enables the aspirant to assimilate these ideas, and he can
         enjoy life to the full, finding his True Self alike in the
         contemplation of every element of existence.

         23.    This refers to the spiritual experience of Identity.
         When one realizes one's Truth there is no room for any other
         conception.  It also means that the God-idea must go with
         other relics of the Fear born of Ignorance into the limbo of
         savagery. I speak of the Idea of God as generally understood,
         God being `something not ourselves that makes for
         righteousness,' as Matthew Arnold victorianatically phrased
         his definition. The whiskered wowser! Why this ingrained
         conviction that self is unrighteous? It is the heritage of
         the whip, the brand of the born slave. Incidentally, we
         cannot allow people who believe in this `God;' they are
         troglodytes, as dangerous to society as any other thieves and
         murderers. The Christians to the Lions!  Yet, in the reign of
         Good Queen Victoria, Matthew Arnold was considered rather hot
         stuff as an infidel! Tempora mutantur, p.d.q. when a Magus
         gets on the job.  The quintessence of this verse is (however)
         its revelation of the nature of Hadit as a self-conscious and
         individual Being, although impersonal. He is an ultimate
         independent, and unique element in Nature, impenetrably
         aloof. The negative electron seems to be his physical
         analogue. Each such electron is indistinguishable from any
         other; yet each is determined diversely by it relations with
         various positive complementary electrons.  The verse is
         introduced at this juncture in order to throw light on the
         passage which follows. It is important to understand Hadit as
         the `core of every star' when we come to consider the
         character of those stars, his `friends' or sympathetic ideas
         grouped about him, who are `hermits,' individualities
         eternally isolated in reality though they may appear to be
         lost in their relations with external things.

         24.    The Christians to the Lions!  A hermit is one who
         dwells isolated in the desert, exactly as a soul, a star, or
         an electron in the wilderness of space-time. The doctrine
         here put forth is that  the initiate cannot be polluted by
         any particular environment. He accepts and enjoys everything
         that is proper to his nature. Thus, a man's sexual character
         is one form of his self-expression; he unites Hadit with Nuit
         sacramentally when he satisfied his instinct of physical
         love. Of course, this is only one partial projection; to
         govern, to fight, and so on, must fulfil other needs. We must
         not imagine that any form of activity is ipso facto incapable
         of supplying the elements of an Eucharist: suum cuique.
         Observe, however, the constant factor in this enumeration of
         the practices proper to `hermits:' it is ecstatic delight.
         Let us borrow an analogy from Chemistry. Oxygen has two hands
         (so to speak) to offer to other elements. But contrast the
         cordial clasp of hydrogen or phosphorus with the weak
         reluctant greeting of chlorine! Yet hydrogen and chlorine
         rush passionately to embrace each other in monogamic madness!
         There is no `good' or `bad' in the matter; it is the
         enthusiastic energy of union, as betokened by the
         disengagement of heat, light, electricity, or music, and the
         stability of the resulting compound, that sanctifies the act.
         Note also that the utmost external joy in any phenomenon is
         surpassed a millionfold by the internal joy of the
         realization that self-fulfilment in the sensible world is but
         a symbol of the universal sublimity of the formula `love
         under will.'  The last two sentences demand careful
         attention. There is an apparent contradiction with verses
         59,60. We must seek reconcilement in this way: Do not imagine
         that any King can die (v.21) or be hurt (v.59); strife
         between two Kings can therefore be nothing more than a
         friendly trial of strength. We are all inevitably allies,
         even identical in our variety; to `love one another with
         burning hearts' is one of our essential qualities.  But who
         then are the `low men,' since `Every man and every woman is a
         star?' The casus belli is this: there are people who are
         veiled from themselves so deeply that they resent the bared
         faces of us others. We are fighting to free them, to make
         them masters like ourselves. Note verse 60, `to hell with
         them:' that is, let us drive them to the `hell' or secret
         sanctuary within their consciousness. There dwells `the worm
         that dieth not and the fire that is not quenched;' that is,
         `the secret serpent coiled about to spring' and `the flame
         that burns in every heart of man' -- Hadit. In other words,
         we take up arms against falsehood; we cannot help it if that
         falsehood forces the King it has imprisoned to assent to its
         edicts, even to believe that his interests are those of his
         oppressor, and to fear Truth as once Jehovah did the Serpent.

         25.    By `the people' is meant that canting, whining,
         servile breed of whipped dogs which refuses to admit its
         deity. The mob is always afraid for its bread and butter --
         when its tyrants let it have any butter -- and now and then
         the bread has 60% substitutes of cattle-fodder. (Beast-food,
         even the New York Times of November 13, 1918, E.V. has it.)
         So, being afraid, it dare not strike. And when the trouble
         begins, we aristocrats of Freedom, from the castle or the
         cottage, the tower or the tenement, shall have the slave mob
         against us. The newspapers will point out to us that `the
         People' prefer to starve, and that John D. Rockefeller for
         the permission to do so. Still deeper, there is a meaning in
         this verse applicable to the process of personal initiation.
         By `the people' we may understand the many-headed and mutable
         mob which swarms in the slums of our own minds. Most men are
         almost entirely at the mercy of a mass of loud and violent
         emotions, without discipline or even organization. They sway
         with the mood of the moment. They lack purpose, foresight,
         and intelligence. They are moved by ignorant and irrational
         instincts, many of which affront the law of self-preservation
         itself, with suicidal stupidity. The moral Idea which we call
         `the people' is the natural enemy of good government. He who
         is `chosen' by Hadit to Kingship must consequently be
         `against the ' people if he is to pursue any consistent
         policy. The massed maggots of `love' devoured Mark Antony as
         they did Abelard. For this reason the first task of the
         Aspirant is to disarm all his thoughts, to make himself
         impregnably above the influence of any one of them; this he
         may accomplish by the methods given in Liber Aleph, Liber
         Jugorum, Thien Tao, and elsewhere. Secondly, he must impose
         absolute silence upon them, as may be done by the `Yoga'
         practices taught in Book 4 (Part I) Liber XVI, etc. He is
         then ready to analyse them, to organize them, to drill them,
         and so to take advantage of the properties peculiar to each
         one by employing its energies in the service of his imperial
         purpose.

         26.    The magical power is universal. The Free Man directs
         it as He Will. Leave Him alone, or He will make you sorry you
         tried to interfere!  There is here a reference to the two
         main types of the Orgia of Magick; I have already dealt with
         this matter in the Comment. Observe that in the `mystic'
         work, the union takes place spontaneously; in the other,
         venom is shot forth. This awakes the earth to rapture; not
         until then does union occur. For, in working on the planes of
         manifestation, the elements must be consecrated and made
         `God' by virtue of a definite rite.

         27.    Humanity errs terribly when it gets `education', in
         the sense of ability to read newspapers. Reason is rubbish;
         race-instinct is the true guide. Experience is the great
         Teacher; and each one of us possesses millions of years of
         experience, the very quintessence of it, stored automatically
         in our subconscious minds. The Intellectuals are worse than
         the bourgeoisie themselves; a la lanterne! Give us Men!
         Understanding is the attribute of the Master of the Temple,
         who has crossed the Abyss (or `Pit') that divides the true
         Self from its conscious instrument. (See Liber 418, `Aha'!
         and Book 4, Part III). We must meditate the meaning of this
         attack upon the idea of `Because.' I quote from my diary the
         demonstration that Reason is the Absolute, whereof all Truths
         soever art merely particular cases. The theorem may be stated
         roughly as follows.  The universe must be expressible either
         as n, or as Zero. That is, it is either unbalanced or
         balanced. The former theory (Theism) is unthinkable; but
         Zero, when examined, proves to contain the possibility of
         being expressed as n-n, and this possibility must in its turn
         be considered as p.  This thesis appears to me a reductio ad
         absurdum of the very basis of our mathematical thinking.  We
         knew before, of course, that all reasoning is bound to end in
         some mystery or some absurdity; the above is only one more
         antimony, a little deeper than Kant's, perhaps, but of the
         same character. Mathematicians would doubtless agree that all
         signs are arbitrary, elaboration of an abacus, and that all
         `truth' is merely our name for statements that content our
         reason; so that it is lower than reason, and within it; not
         higher and beyond, as transcendentalists argue. I seem never
         to have seen this point before, though `men of sense'
         instinctively affirm it, I suppose, The pragmatists are mere
         tradesmen with their definition of Truth as `the useful to be
         thought; ' but why not `the necessary to be thought?' There
         is a sort of Berkeleyan subjectivity in this view; we might
         put it: `All that we can know of Truth is `that which we are
         bound to think.'' The search for Truth amounts, then, to the
         result of the analysis of the Mind; and here let us remember
         my fear of the result of that analysis as I expressed them a
         month ago.  This analysis is the right method after all.
         Now, are we justified in assuming, as we always do, that our
         reason is either correct or incorrect? That if any
         proposition can be shown to be congruous with `A is A' it is
         `true,' and so on? Does the `reason' of the oyster comply
         with the same canon as man's? We assume it. We make the
         necessity in our thought the standard of the laws of Nature;
         and thus implicitly declare Reason to be the Absolute. This
         has nothing to do with the weakness or error in any one mind,
         or in all minds; all that we rely on is the existence  of
         some purely mental standard by which we could always correct
         our thinking, if we knew how. It is then this power which
         constrains our thought, to which our minds owe fealty, that
         we call `Truth;' and this `Truth' is not a proposition at
         all, but a `Law!' We cannot think what it is, obviously, as
         it is a final condition of philosophical thought in the same
         way as Space and Time are conditions of phenomenal thought.
         But, can there be some third type of thought which can escape
         the bonds of that as that can of this? `Samadhic
         realization,' one is tempted to rush in and answer --- while
         angels hesitate. All my `philosophic' thought, as above, is
         direct reflection upon the meaning of Samadhic experience. Is
         it simply that the reflections are distorted and dim? I have
         shown the impossibility of any true Zero, and thus destroyed
         every axiom, blown up the foundations of my mind. In failing
         to distinguish between None and Two, I cannot even cling to
         the straw of `phrases,' since Time and Space are long since
         perished. None is Two, without conditions; and therefore it
         is a positive idea, and we are just as right to enquire how
         it came to be as in the case of Haeckel's monad, or one's
         aunt's umbrella. We are, however, this one small step
         advanced by our initiations, that we can be quite sure this
         `None-Two' is, since all possible theories of Ontology
         simplify out to it.  Nevertheless, with whatever we try to
         identify this Absolute, we cannot escape from the fact that
         it is in reality merely the formula of our own Reason. The
         idea of Space arises from reflection upon the relations of
         our bodily gestures with the various objects of our senses.
         (Poincare - I note after reading him, months later, as I
         revise this note - explains this fully). So that a `yard' is
         not a thing in itself, but a term in the equations which
         express the Laws according to which we move our muscles. My
         knowledge consists exclusively of the mechanics of my own
         mind. All that I know is the nature of its norm. The
         judgments of the Reason are arbitrary, and can never be
         verified. Truth and Reality are simply the Substance of the
         Reason itself. My demonstration that `None-Two is the formula
         of the Universe' should then preferably be re-stated thus:
         `The mind of the Beast 666 is so constituted that it is
         compelled to conceive of an Universe whose formula is None-
         Two.'

         220A2-4.ASC

              I note that Laotze makes no attempt to announce A Tao
         which is truly free from Teh. Teh is the necessary quality of
         Tao, even though Tao, withdrawing Teh into itself, seems to
         ignore the fact. The only pause I make is this, that mine own
         Holy Guardian Angel, Aiwaz, whose crown is Thelema, whose
         robe Agape, whose body the Lost Word that He declared to me,
         spake in Book Seven and Twenty, saying: `Here is Nothing
         under its three forms.' Can there then be not only Nothing
         Manifested, Teh or Two, a Nothing Unmanifested, Tao or
         Naught, but also a Nothing Absolute?  But there is nothing
         incompatible with the terms of this verse. The idea of
         `Because' makes everything dependent on everything else,
         contrary to the conception of the Universe which this Book
         has formulated. It is true that the concatenation exists; but
         the chain does not fetter our limbs. The actions and
         reactions of illusion are only appearances; we are not
         affected. No series of images matters to the mirror. What
         then is the danger of making `a great miss?' We are immune -
         that is the very essence of the doctrine. But error exists in
         this sense, that we may imagine it; and when a lunatic
         believes that Mankind is conspiring to poison him, it is no
         consolation that others know his delusion for what it is.
         Thus, we must `understand these runes;` we must become aware
         of our True Selves; if we abdicate our authority as absolute
         individuals, we are liable to submit to Law, to feel
         ourselves the puppets of Determinism, and to suffer the
         agonies of impotence which have afflicted the thinker, form
         Gautama to James Thomson.  Now then, `there is great danger
         in me' -- we have seen what it is; but why should it lie in
         Hadit? Because the process of self-analysis involves certain
         risks. The profane are protected against those subtle
         spiritual perils which lie in ambush for the priest. A
         Bushman never has a nervous breakdown.  (See Cap.I,v.31).
         When the Aspirant takes his first Oath, the most trivial
         things turn into transcendental terrors, tortures, and
         temptations. (Parts II and III of Book 4 Elaborate this
         thesis at length.) We are so caked with dirt that the germs
         of disease cannot reach us. If we decide to wash, we must do
         it well; or we may have awakened some sleeping dogs, and set
         them on defenceless areas. Initiation stirs up the mud. It
         creates unstable equilibrium. It exposes our elements to
         unfamiliar conditions. The France of Louis XVI had to pass
         through the Terror before Napoleon could teach it to find
         itself. Similarly, any error in reaching the realization of
         Hadit may abandon the Aspirant to the ambitions of every
         frenzied faction of his character, the masterless dogs of the
         Augean kennel of his mind.

         28.    This is against these Intellectuals aforesaid. There
         are no `standards of Right.' Ethics is balderdash. Each Star
         must go on its orbit. To hell with `moral Principle;' there
         is no such thing; that is a herd-delusion, and makes men
         cattle. Do not listen to the rational explanation of How
         Right It All Is, in the newspapers.  We may moreover consider
         `Because' as involving the idea of causality, and therefore
         of duality. If cause and effect are really inseparable, as
         they must be by definition, it is mere clumsiness to regard
         them as separate; they are two aspects of one single idea,
         conceived as consecutive for the sake of (apparent)
         convenience, or for the general purpose previously indicated
         of understanding and expressing ourselves in finite term.
         Shallow indeed is the obvious objection to this passage that
         the Book of the Law itself is full of phrases which imply
         causality. Nobody denies that causality is a category of the
         mind, a form of condition of thought which, if not quite a
         theoretical necessity, is yet inevitable in practice. The
         very idea of any relation between any two things appears as
         causal. Even should we declare it to be causal, our minds
         would still insist that causality itself was the effect of
         some cause. Our daily experience hammers home this
         conviction; and a man's mental excellence seems to be
         measurable almost entirely in terms of the strength and depth
         of his appreciation thereof as the soul of the structure of
         the Universe. It is the spine of Science which has
         vertebrated human Knowledge above the slimy mollusc whose
         principle was Faith.  We must not suppose for an instant that
         the Book of the Law is opposed to reason. On the contrary,
         its own claim to authority rests upon reason, and nothing
         else. It disdains the arts of the orator. It makes reason the
         autocrat of the mind. But that very fact emphasizes that the
         mind should attend to its own business. It should not
         transgress its limits. It should be a perfect machine, an
         apparatus for representing the universe accurately and
         impartially to its master. The Self, its Will, and its
         Apprehension, should be utterly beyond it. Its individual
         peculiarities are its imperfections. If we identify ourselves
         with out thoughts or our bodily instincts, we are evidently
         pledged to partake of their partiality. We make ourselves
         items of the interaction of our own illusions.  In the
         following verses we shall find the practical application of
         this theorem.

         29.    Distrust any explanation whatever. Disraeli said:
         Never sak any one to dinner who has to be explained. All
         explanations are intended to cover up lies, injustices, or
         shames. The Truth is radiantly simple.

         30.    There is no `reason' why a Star should continue in its
         orbit. Let her rip! Every time the conscious acts, it
         interferes with the Subconscious, which is Hadit. It is the
         voice of Man, and not of a God. Any man who `listens to
         reason' ceases to be a revolutionary. The newspapers are Past
         Masters in the Lodge of Sophistry Number 333. They can always
         prove to you that it is necessary, and patriotic, and all the
         rest of it, that you should suffer intolerable wrongs.  The
         Qabalists represent the mind as a complex of six elements,
         whereas the Will is single, the direct expression as `The
         Word' of the Self. The mind must inform the Understanding,
         which then presents a simple idea to the Will. This issues
         its orders accordingly for unquestioning execution. If the
         Will should appeal to the mind, it must confuse itself with
         incomplete and uncoordinated ideas. The clamour of these
         cries crowns Anarchy, and action becomes impossible.

         31.    It is ridiculous to ask a dog why it barks. One must
         fulfil one's true Nature, one must do one's Will. To question
         this is to destroy confidence, and so to create an
         inhibition. If a woman asks a man who wishes to kiss her why
         he wants to do so, and he tries to explain, he becomes
         impotent. His proper course is to choke her into compliance,
         which is what she wants, anyhow.  Power acts: the nature of
         the action depends on the information received by the Will;
         but once the decision is taken, reflection is out of place.
         Power should indeed be absolutely unconscious. Every athlete
         is aware that his skill, strength, and endurance depend on
         forbidding mind to meddle with muscle. Here is a simple
         experiment. Hold out a weight at arm's length. If you fix you
         attention firmly on other matters, you can support the strain
         many times longer than if you allow yourself to think of what
         your body is doing.

         32.    The `factor infinite and unknown' is the subconscious
         Will. `On with the revel!' `Their words' -- the plausible
         humbug of the newspapers and the churches. Forget it! Allons!
         Marchons!  It has been explained at length in a previous note
         that `reason is a lie' by nature. We may here add certain
         confirmations suggested by the `factor.' A and a (not-A)
         together make up the Universe. As a is evidently `infinite
         and unknown,' its equal and opposite A must be so no less.
         Again, from any proposition S is P, reason deduces `S is not
         p;' thus the apparent finitude and knowability of S is
         deceptive, since it is in direct relation with p.  No matter
         what n may be, the number of the inductive numbers, is
         unaltered by adding or subtracting it. There are just as many
         odd numbers as there are numbers altogether. Our knowledge is
         confined to statements of the relations between certain sets
         of our own sensory impressions; and we are convinced by our
         limitations that `a factor infinite and unknown' must be
         concealed within the sphere of which we see but one minute
         part of the surface. As to reason itself, what is more
         certain than that its laws are only the conscious expression
         of the limits imposed upon us by our animal nature, and that
         to attribute universal validity, or even significance, to
         them is a logical folly, the raving of our megalomania?
         Experiment proves nothing; it is surely obvious that we are
         obliged to correlate all observations with the physical and
         mental structure whose truth we are trying to test. Indeed,
         we can assume an `unreasonable' axiom, and translate the
         whole of our knowledge into its terms, without fear of
         stumbling over any obstacle. Reason is no more than a set or
         rules developed by the race; it takes no account of anything
         beyond sensory impressions and their reactions to various
         parts of our being. There is no possible escape from the
         vicious circle that we can register only the behaviour of our
         own instrument. We conclude from the fact that it behaves at
         all, that there must be `a factor infinite and unknown' at
         work upon it. This being the case, we may be sure that our
         apparatus is inherently incapable of discovering the truth
         about anything, even in part.  Let me illustrate. I see a
         drop of water. Distrusting my eyes, I put it under the
         microscope. Still in doubt, I photograph and enlarge the
         slide. I compare my results with those of others. I check
         them by cultivating the germs in the water, and injecting
         them into paupers. But I have learnt nothing at all about
         `the infinite and unknown,' merely producing all sorts of
         different impressions according to the conditions in which
         one observes it!  More yet, all the instruments used have
         been tested and declared `true' on the evidence of those very
         eyes distrust of which drove me to the research.  Modern
         Science has at last grown out of the very-young-man
         cocksureness of the 19th century. It is now admitted that
         axioms themselves depend on definitions, and that Intuitive
         Certainty is simply one trait of homo sapiens, like the ears
         of the ass or the slime of the slug. That we reason as we do
         merely proves that we cannot reason otherwise. We cannot move
         the upper jaw; it does not follow that the idea of motion is
         ridiculous. The limitation hints rather that there may be an
         infinite variety of structures which the jaw cannot imagine.
         The metric system is not the necessary mode of measurement.
         It is the mark of a mind untrained to take its own processes
         as valid for all men, and its own judgments for absolute
         truth. Our two eyes see an object in two aspects, and present
         to our consciousness a third which agrees with neither, is
         indeed, strictly speaking, not sensible to sight, but to
         touch! Our senses declare some things at rest and others in
         motion; our reason corrects the error, firstly by denying
         that anything can exist unless it is in motion, secondly by
         denying that absolute motion possesses any meaning at all.
         At the time when this Book was written, official Science
         angrily scouted the `factor infinite and unknown,' and clung
         with pathetic faith to the idea that reason was the
         touchstone of truth. In a single sentence, Aiwaz anticipates
         the discoveries by which the greatest minds now incarnate
         have made the last ten years memorable.

         33.    This is the only way to deal with reason. Reason is
         like a woman; if you listen, you are lost; with a thick
         stick, you have some sort of sporting chance. Reason leads
         the philosopher to self-contradiction, the statesman to
         doctrinaire follies; it makes the warrior lay down his arms,
         and the lover cease to rave. What is so unreasonable as man?
         The only Because in the lover's litany is Because I love you.
         We want to skeleton syllogisms at our symposium of souls.
         Philosophically, `Because is absurd.' There is no answer to
         the question `Why.' The greatest thinkers have been sceptics
         or agnostics: `omnia exeunt in mysterium,' and `summa
         scientia nihil scire' are old commonplaces. In my essays
         `Truth' (in Konx Om Pax), `The Soldier and the Hunchback,'
         `Eleusis' and others, I have offered a detailed demonstration
         of the self-contradictory nature of Reason. The cruz of the
         whole proof may be summarized by saying that any possible
         proposition must be equally true with its contradictory, as,
         if not, the universe would no longer be in equilibrium. It is
         no objection that to accept this is to destroy conventional
         Logic, for that is exactly what it is intended to do. I may
         also mention briefly one line of analysis.  I ask `What is
         (e.g.) a tree?' The dictionary defines this simple idea by
         means of many complex ideas; obviously one gets in deeper
         with every stroke one takes. The same applies to any `Why'
         that may be posed. The one existing mystery disappears as a
         consequence of innumerable antecedents, each equally
         mysterious.   To ask questions is thus evidently worse than a
         waste of time, so far as one is looking for an answer.  There
         is also the point that any proposition S is P merely includes
         P in the connotation of S, and is therefore not really a
         statement of relation between two things, but an amendment of
         the definition of one of them. `Some cats are black' only
         means that our idea of a cat involves the liability to appear
         black, and that blackness is consistent with those sets of
         impressions which we recognize as characteristic of cats. All
         ratiocination may be reduced to syllogistic form; hence, the
         sole effect of the process is to make each term more complex.
         Reason does not add to our knowledge; a filing system does
         not increase one's correspondence directly, though by
         arranging it one gets a better grasp of one's business. Thus
         coordination of our impressions should help us to control
         them; but to allow reason to rule us is as abject as to
         expect the exactitude of our ledgers to enable us to dispense
         with initiative on the one hand and actual transactions on
         the other.

         34.    We are not to calculate, to argue, to criticise; these
         things lead to division of will and to stagnation. They are
         shackles of our Going. They hamstring our Pegasus. We are to
         rise up -- to Go -- to Love -- we are to be awake, alert --
         `Joyous and eager, Our tresses adorning, O let us beleaguer
         the City of Morning!'  The Secret of Magick is to `enflame
         oneself in praying.' This is the ready test of a Star, that
         it whirls flaming through the sky. You cannot mistake it for
         an Old Maid objecting to Everything. This Universe is a wild
         revel of atoms, men, and stars, each one a Soul of Light and
         Mirth, horsed on Eternity.  Observe that we must `rise up'
         befor we `awake!' Aspiration to the Higher is a dream -- a
         wish-fulfilment which remains a phantasm to wheedle us away
         from seeking reality -- unless we follow it up by Action.
         Only then do we become fully aware of ourselves, and enter
         into right reaction with the world in which we live.

         35.    A ritual is not a melancholy formality; it is a
         Sacrament, a Dance, a Commemoration of the Universe. The
         Universe is endless rapture, wild and unconfined, a mad
         passion of speed. Astronomers tell us this of the Great
         Republic of the Stars; physicists say the same of the Little
         Republic of Molecules. Shall not the Middle Republic of Men
         be like unto them? The polite ethicist demurs; his ideal is
         funereal solemnity. His horizon is bounded by death; and his
         spy-glass is smeared with the idea of sin. The New Aeon
         proclaims Man as Immortal God, eternally active to do His
         Will. All's Joy, all's Beauty; this Will we celebrate.  In
         this verse we see how the awakening leads to ordered and
         purposeful action. Joy and Beauty are the evidence that our
         functions are free and fit; when we take no pleasure, and
         find nothing to admire, in our work, we are doing it wrong.

         36.    Each element -- fire, earth, air, water, and Spirit --
         possesses its own Nature, Will, and Magical Formula. Each one
         may then have its appropriate ritual. Many such in crude form
         are described in The Golden Bough of Dr. J.G. Frazer, the
         Glory of Trinity!  In particular the entry of the Sun into
         the cardinal signs of the elements at the Equinoxes and
         Solstices are suitable for festivals.  The difference between
         `rituals' and `feasts' is this: by the one a particular form
         of energy is generated, while there is a general discharge of
         one's superfluous force in the other. Yet a feast implies
         periodical nourishment.

         37.    There should be a special feast on the 12th day of
         August in every year, since it was the marriage of The Beast
         which made possible the revelation of the New Law. (This is
         not an Apology for Marriage. Hard Cases make Bad Law).

         38.    This is April 8th, 9th, and 10th, the feast beginning
         at High Noon.


         39.    This particular feast is of a character suited only to
         initiates.

         40.    The Supreme Ritual is the Invocation of Horus, which
         brought about the Opening of the New Aeon. The date is March
         20.  The Equinox of the Gods is the term used to describe the
         Beginning of a New Aeon, or a New Magical Formula. It should
         be celebrated at every Equinox, in the manner known to
         Neophytes of the A.A.

         41.    The feasts of fire and water indicate rejoicings to be
         made at the puberty of boys and girls respectively.  The
         feast for life is at a birth; and the feast for death at a
         death. It is of the utmost importance to make funerals merry,
         so as to train people to take the proper view of death. The
         fear of death is one of the great weapons of tyrants, as well
         as their scourge; and it distorts our whole outlook upon the
         Universe.


         42.    To him who realizes Hadit this text needs little
         comment. It is wondrous, this joy of awakening every morning
         to the truth of one's immortal energy and rapture.

         43.    To sleep is to return, in a sense, to the Bosom of
         Nuit. But there is to be a particular Act of Worship of Our
         Lady, as ye well wot.

         44.    Do not be afraid of `going the pace'. It is better to
         wear out than to rust out. You are unconquerable, and of
         indefatigable energy. Great men find time for everything,
         shirk nothing, make reputations in half a dozen different
         lines, have twenty simultaneous love affairs, and live to a
         green old age. The milksops and valetudinarians never get
         anywhere; usually they die early; and even if they lived for
         ever, what's the use?  The body is itself a restriction as
         well as an instrument. When death is as complete as it should
         be, the individual expands and fulfils himself in all
         directions; it is an omniform Samadhi. This is of course
         `eternal ecstasy' in the sense already explained. But in the
         time-world Karma reconcentrates the elements, and a new
         incarnation occurs.

         45.    The prigs, the prudes, the Christians, die in a real
         sense of the word; for although even they are `Stars', there
         is not enough body to them (as it were) to carry on the
         individuality. There is no basis for the magical memory if
         one's incarnation holds nothing worth remembering. Count your
         years by your wounds -- forsitan haec clim meminisse juvabit.
         In regard ot this question of death I quote from  Liber Aleph
         -- De Morte.  Thou hast made Question of me concerning Death,
         and this is mine Opinion, of which I say not: This is the
         Truth. First in the Temple called Man is the God, his Soul,
         or Star, individual and eternal, but also inherent in the
         Body of Our Lady Nuith. Now this Soul, as an Officer in the
         High Mass of the Cosmos, taketh on the vesture of his Office,
         that is, inhabiteth a Tabernacle of Illusion, a Body and
         Mind. And this Tabernacle is subject to the Law of Change,
         for it is complex, and diffuse, reacting to every Stimulus or
         Impression. If then the Mind be attached constantly to the
         Body, Death hath not Power to decompose it wholly, but a
         decaying Shell of the Dead Man, his Mind holding together for
         a little his Body of Light, haunteth the Earth, seeking a new
         Tabernacle (in its Error, that feareth Change) in some other
         Body. These Shells are broken away utterly from the Star that
         did enlighten them, and they are Vampires, obsessing that
         that adventure themselves into the Astral World, without
         Magical Protection, or invoke them, as do the Spiritists. For
         by Death is Man released only from the Gross Body, at the
         first, and is complete otherwise upon the Astral Plane, as he
         was in his Life. But this Wholeness suffereth Stress, and its
         Girders are loosened, the weaker first, and after that the
         stronger.  De Adeptis R.C. Eschatologia.  Consider now in
         this Light what shall come to the Adept, to him that hath
         aspired constantly and firmly to his Star, attuning his Mind
         unto the Musick of its Will. In him, if his Mind be knit
         perfectly together in itself, and conjoined with the Star, is
         so strong a Confection that it breaketh away easily not only
         from the Gross Body, but the Fine. It is this Fine Body which
         bindeth it to the Astral, as did the Gross to the Material
         World; so then it accomplisheth willingly the Sacrament of a
         Second Death, and leaveth the Body of Light. But the Mind,
         cleaving closely by Right of its Harmony, and Might of its
         Love, to its Star, resisteth the Ministers of Disruption, for
         a Season, according to its Strength.  Now, if this Star be of
         those that are bound by the Great Oath, incarnating without
         Remission because of Delight in the Cosmic Sacrament, it
         seeketh a new Vehicle in the Appointed Way, and indwelleth
         the Foetus of a Child, and quickeneth it. And if at this Time
         the Mind of its Former Tabernacle yet cling to it, then is
         there Continuity of Character, and it may be Memory, between
         the Two Vehicles. This is, briefly and without Elaboration,
         the Way of Asar in Amennti, according to mine Opinion, of
         which I say not: this is the Truth.  De Nuptiis summis.  Now
         then to this Doctrine, o my Son, add thou that which thou
         hast learned in the Book of the Law, that Death is the
         Dissolution in the Kiss of Our Lady Nuith. This is a true
         Consonance as of Bass with Treble; for here is the Impulse
         that setteth us to Magick, the Pain of the Conscious Mind.
         Having then Wit to find the Cause of this Pain in the Sense
         of Separation, and its Cessation by the Union of Love, it is
         the Summit of Our Holy Art to present the whole Engine in
         true and real appurtenance of our Force, without Leak, or
         Friction, or any other Waste or Hindrance to its Action. Thou
         knowest well how an Horse, or even a Machine propelled by a
         Man's Feet, becometh as it were an Extension of the Rider,
         through his Skill and Custom. Thus let thy Star have Profit
         of thy Vehicle, assimilating it, and sustaining it, so that
         it be healed of its Separation, and this even in Life, but
         most especially in Death. Also thou oughtest to increase thy
         Vehicle in Mass by true Growth in Balance, that thou be a
         Bridegroom comely and well- favoured, a man of Might, and a
         Warrior worthy of the Bed of so divine a Dissolution.

         220A2-5.ASC

                 This verse brings out what is a fact in psychology,
         the necessary connection between fear, sorrow, and failure.
         To will and to dare are closely linked Powers of the Sphinx,
         and they are based on -- to know. If one have a right
         apprehension of the Universe, if he know himself free,
         immortal, boundless, infinite force and fire, then may he
         will and dare. Fear, sorrow and failure are but phantoms.

         47.    Hadit is everywhere; fear, sorrow, and failure are
         only `shadows'. It is for this reason that compassion is
         absurd.  It may be objected that `shadows' exist after all;
         the `pink rats' of an alcoholic are not to be exorcised by
         `Christian Science' methods. Very true -- they are, in fact,
         necessary functions of our idea of the Universe in its
         dualistic `shadow-show'. But they do not form any part of
         Hadit, who is beneath all conditions. And they are in a sense
         less real than their logical contradictories, because they
         are patently incompatible with the Changeless and Impersonal.
         They have their roots in conceptions involving change and
         personality. Strictly speaking, `joy' is no less absurd than
         sorrow, with reference to Hadit; but from the standpoint of
         the individual, this is not the case. One's fear of death is
         removed by the knowledge that there is no such thing in
         reality; but one's joy in life is not affected.

         48.    It is several times shewn in this Book that `falling'
         is in truth impossible. `All is ever as it was'. To
         sympathize with the illusion is not only absurd, but tends to
         perpetuate the false idea. It is a mistake to `spoil' a
         child, or humour a malade imaginaire. One must, on the
         contrary, chase away the shadows by lighting a fire, which
         fire is: Do what thou wilt!

         49.    We are to conquer the Illusion, to drive it out. The
         slaves that perish are better dead. They will be reborn into
         a world where Freedom is the Air of Breath. So then, in all
         kindness, the Christians to the Lions!  The `Babe in the Egg'
         is Harpocrates; it is his regular Image.  I am not very well
         satisfied with the old comment on this verse. It appears
         rather as if the Amen should be the beginning of a new
         paragraph altogether. Amen is evidently a synthesis of the
         four elements, and the invisible fifth is Spirit. But
         Harpocrates, the Babe in the Egg, is Virgo in the Zodiac
         indeed, but Mercury among the planets. Mercury has the Winged
         Helmet and Heels, and the Winged Staff about which Snakes
         twine, and it is He that Goeth. Now this letter is   whose
         numeration is 2, and      is 91, which added to 2 makes 93.
         Amoun is of course Jupiter in his highest Form. To understand
         this note fully one must have studied `The Paris Working';
         also one must be an initiate of the O.T.O.

         50.    There is here suggested the Image of `the Star and the
         Snake'.

         51.    There is a certain suggestion in this `purple' as
         connected with `eyesight', which should reveal a certain
         identity of Hadit with the Dwarf-Soul to those who possess --
         eyesight!

         52.    Mohammed struck at the root of the insane superstition
         of tabu with his word: `Women are your field; go in unto them
         as ye will'. He only struck half the blow. I say: go in unto
         them as ye will and they will. Two-thirds of modern misery
         springs from Woman's sexual dissatisfaction. A dissatisfied
         woman is a curse to herself and to everybody in her
         neighbourhood. Women must learn to let themselves enjoy
         without fear or shame, and both men and woman must be trained
         in the technique of sex. Sex- repression leads to neurosis,
         and is the cause of social unrest. Ignorance of sexual
         technique leads to disappointment, even where passion is free
         and unrestrained. Sex is not everything in life, any more
         than food is: but until people have got satisfaction of these
         natural hungers, it is useless to expect them to think of
         other things. This truth is vital to the statesman, now that
         women have some direct political power; they will certainly
         overthrow the Republic unless they obtain full sexual
         satisfaction. Also, women outnumber men; and one man cannot
         satisfy a woman unless he be skilful and diligent. The New
         Aeon will have a foundation of Happy Women: A Woman under
         Tabu is loathsome to Life, detested by her fellows, and
         wretched in herself.  The student should study in Liber Aleph
         and Liber 418, the connection between `modesty' and the
         attitude of the `Black Brothers'.

         53.    Yes! I was frightened when the God of Things as They
         Ought to Be told me that They Were to Be. I was born under a
         German Queen, and I did not believe in the Revolution that I
         willed. And lo! it is upon us, ere the Fifteenth Year of the
         New Aeon has dawned.  Yes!I am lifted up, the Sun being in
         Scorpio in this Fourteenth Year of the Aeon.

         54.    The second part of the text was in answer to an
         unspoken query as to the peculiar phrasing.  The first part
         is clear enough. There are a number of people of shallow wit
         who do not believe in Magick. This is doubtless partly due to
         the bad presentation of the subject by previous Masters. I
         have identified Magick with the Art of Life. The
         transcendental superstructure will not overburden those who
         have laid this Right Foundation.  There is an elaborate
         cryptographic meaning in this verse; the words `folly',
         `nought', `it', and `me' indicate the path of research.

         55.    The attribution in Liber Trigrammation is good
         theoretically; but no Qabalah of merit has arisen therefrom.
         I am inclined to look further into the question of Sanskrit
         Roots, and into the Enochian Records, in order to put this
         matter in more polished shape.  I append Liber Trigrammaton
         with the attribution aforesaid.   sub Figura XXVII.   THE
         BOOK OF THE TRIGRAMS OF THE MUTATIONS OF THE TAO WITH THE YIN
         AND YANG.

         56.    These passages are certainly very difficult. It seems
         as if they were given to meet some contingency which has not
         yet arisen. For example this verse might be appropriate in
         case of the institution of a false -cultus by impostors.
         The doctrine is that Hadit is the nucleolus (to borrow a term
         from bilogy) of any star-organism. To mock at Hadit is
         therefore evidently very much what is meant by the mysterious
         phrase in the `New Testament' with regard to the Unpardonable
         Sin, the `blasphemy against the Holy Ghost'. A star forsaken
         by Hadit would thus be in the condition of real death it is
         this state which is characteristic of the `Black Brothers',
         as they are described in other parts of this Comment, and
         elsewhere in the Holy Books of the A. A.   I may here quote
         Liber Aleph, De Inferno Servorum and De Fratribut Nigris.
         `Now, o my Son, having understood the Heaven that is within
         thee, according to thy Will, learn this concerning the Hell
         of the Slaves of the Slavegods, that it is true Place of
         torment. For they, restricting themselves, and being divided
         in Will, are indeed the Servants of Sin, and they suffer,
         because, not being united in Love with the whole Universe,
         they perceive not Beauty, but Ugliness and Deformity; and,
         not being united in Understanding thereof, conceive only of
         Darkness and Confusion, beholding Evil therein. Thus at last
         they come, as did the Manichaeans, to find, to their Terror,
         a Division even in the One, not that Division which we know
         for the Craft of Love, but a Division of Hate, And this,
         multiplying itself, Conflict upon Conflict, endeth in
         Hotchpot, and in the Impotence and Envy of Choronzon, and in
         the Abominations of the Abyss. And of such the Lords are the
         Black Brothers, who seek by their Sorceries to confirm
         themselves in Division. Yet in this even is no true Evil, for
         Love conquereth All, and their Corruption and Disintegration
         is also the Victory of BABALON'.   `O my Son, know this
         concerning the Black Brothers, that cry: I am I. This is
         Falsity and Delusion, for the Law endureth not Exception. So
         then these Brethren are not Apart, as they Think; but are
         peculiar Combinations of Nature in Her Variety. Rejoice then
         even in the Contemplation of these, for they are proper to
         Perfection, and Adornments of Beauty, like a Mole upon the
         Cheek of a Woman. Shall I then say that were it of thine own
         Nature, even thine, to compose so sinsister a complex, thou
         shouldst not strive therewith, destroying it by Love, but
         continue in that Way? I deny not this hastily, nor affirm;
         for it is in mine won Nature to think that in this Matter the
         Sum of Wisdom is Silence. But this I say, and that boldly,
         that thou shalt not look upon this Horror with Fear, or with
         Hate, but accept this as thou dost all else, as a Phenomenon
         of Change, that is, of Love. For in a swift Stream thou mayst
         behold a Twig held steady for awhile by the Play of the
         Water, and by this Analogue thou mayst understand the Nature
         of this Mystery of the Path of Perfection.'

         57.    This, and the first part of the next verse demonstrate
         the inviolability of Hadit our Quintessence. Every Star has
         its own Nature, which is `Right' for it. We are not to be
         missionaries, with ideal standards of dress and morals, and
         such hard-ideas. We are to do what we will, and leave others
         to do what they will. We are infinitely tolerant, save of
         intolerance. It is not good, however, to try to prevent
         Christians from meddling, save by the one cure: The
         Christians to the Lions.  It is impossible to alter the
         ultimate Nature of any Being, however completely we may
         succeed in transfiguring its external signs as displayed in
         any of its combinations. Thus, the sweetness, whiteness, and
         crystalline structure of sugar depend partly on the presence
         of Carbon; so do the bitterness, greeness, and resinous
         composition of hashish. But the Carbon is inviolably Carbon.
         And even when we transmute what seem to be elements, as
         Radium to Lead, we merely go a step further; there is still
         an immutable substance -- or essence of Energy -- which is
         inevitably Itself, the basis of the diversity.  This holds
         good even should we arrive at demonstrating Material Monism.
         It may well be -- I have believed so ever since I was
         fourteen years old -- that the elements are all isomers,
         differentiated by geometrical structure, electrical charge,
         or otherwise in precisely the same way as ozone from oxygen,
         red from yellow phosphorous, dextrose from laevulose, and a
         paraffin from a benzene of identical empirical formula.
         Indeed, every `star' is necessarily derived from the uniform
         continuity of Nuith, and resolvable back into Her Body by the
         proper analytical methods, as the experience of mysticism
         testifies. But each such complexs is none the less uniquely
         itself; for the scheme of its construction is part of its
         existence, so that this peculiar scheme constitutes the
         essence of its individuality. It is impossible to change a
         shilling into two sixpences, though the value and the
         material may be identical; for part of the essence of the
         shilling is the intention to have a single coin.  The above
         considerations must be thoroughly assimilated by any mind
         which wishes to gain a firm intellectual grasp of the truth
         which lies behind the paradox of existence.

         58.    Again we learn the permanence of the Nature of a Star.
         We are not to judge by temporary circumstances, but to
         penetrate to the True Nature.  It has naturally been objected
         by economists that our Law, in declaring every man and every
         woman to be a star, reduces society to its elements, and
         makes hierarchy or even democracy impossible. The view is
         superficial. EAch star has a function in its galaxy proper to
         its own nature. Much mischief has come from our ignorance in
         insisting, on the contrary, that each citizen is fit for any
         and every social duty. But also our Law teaches that a star
         often veils itself from its nature. Thus the vast bulk of
         humanity is obsessed by an abject fear of freedom; the
         principal objections hitherto urged against my Law have been
         those of people who cannot bear to imagine the horrors which
         would result if they were free to do their own sills. The
         sense of sin, shame, self-distrust, this is what makes folk
         cling to CHristianity-slavery. People believe in a medicine
         just in so far as it is nasty; metaphysical root of this idea
         is in sexual degeneracy of the masochistic type. Now `the Law
         is for all'; but such defectives will refuse it, and serve us
         who are free with a fidelity the more dog-like as the
         simplicity of our freedom denotes their abjection.  Even such
         shallow soapsudmongers as Sir Walter Besant and Mr. James
         Rice have had an inkling of these ideas. I quote `Ready-
         Money Mortiboy', Chapter XXIII:  `The big-bearded man stood
         towering over the children, with his right arm waving them
         out into the world -- where? No matter where: somewhere away:
         somewhere into the good places of the world -- not a boy's
         heart but was stirred within him: and the brave old English
         blood rose in them as he spoke, in his deep bass tones, of
         the worth of a single man in those far-off lands; -- and
         oration destined to bear fruit in after-days, when the lads,
         who talk yet with bated breath of the speech and the speaker,
         shall grow to man's estate.  `Dangerous, Dick', said Farmer
         John. `What should I do without my labourers?'  `Don't be
         afraid', said Dick. `There are not ten percent have the pluck
         to go. Let us help them, and you shall keep the rest.'  He
         might have added that the employer would be better off
         without that percentage of yeast to ferment his infusion of
         harmless vegetable human.  No one is better aware than I am
         that the Labour Problem has to be settled by practical and
         not ideal considerations, but in this case the ideal
         considerations happen to be extremely practical. The mistake
         has been in trying to produce a standard article to supply
         the labour market; it is an error from the point of view of
         capital and labour alike. Men should not be taught to read
         and write unless they exhibit capacity or inclination.
         Compulsory education has aided nobody. It has imposed an
         unwarrantable constraint on the people it was intended to
         benefit; it has been asinine presumption on the part of the
         intellectuals to consider a smattering of mental acquirements
         of universal benefit. It is a form of sectarian bigotry. We
         should recognize the fact that the vast majority of human
         beings have no ambition in life beyond mere ease and animal
         happiness. We should allow these people to fulfil their
         destinies without interference. We should give every
         opportunity to the ambitious, and thereby establish a class
         of morally and intellectually superior men and women. We
         should have no compunction in utilizing the natural qualities
         of the bulk of mankind. We do not insist on trying to train
         sheep to hunt foxes or lecture on history; we look after
         their physical well being, and enjoy their wool and mutton.
         In this way we shall have a contented class of slaves who
         will accept the conditions of existence as they really are,
         and enjoy life with the quiet wisdom of cattle. It is our
         duty to see to it that this class of people lack for nothing.
         The patriarchal system is better for all classes than any
         other; the objections to it come from the abuses of it. But
         bad masters have been artificially created by exactly the
         same blunder as was responsible for the bad servants. It is
         essential to teach the masters that each one must discover
         his own will, and do it. There is no reason in nature for
         cut-throat competition. All this has been explained
         previously in other connections; here it is only necessary to
         emphasize the point. It must be cleanly understood that every
         man must find his own happiness in a purely personal way. Our
         troubles have been caused by the assumption that everybody
         wanted the same things, and thereby the supply of those
         things has become artificially limited; even those benefits
         of which there is an inexhaustible store have been cornered.
         For example, fresh air and beautiful scenery. In a world
         where everyone did his own will none would lack these things.
         In our present society, they have become the luxuries of
         wealth and leisure, yet they are still accessible to any one
         who possesses sufficient sense to emancipate himself from the
         alleged advantages of city life. We have deliberately trained
         people to wish for things that they do not really want. It
         would be easy to elaborate this theme at great length, but I
         prefer to leave it to be worked out by each reader in the
         light of his own intelligence, but I wish to call the very
         particular attention of capitalists and labour leaders to the
         principles here set forth.  I conclude by quoting foru
         chapters from Liber Aleph which bear on the subject.  `j`De
         Lege Motus. `Consider, my Son, that word in the Call or Cry
         of the Thirty Aethyrs: Behold the Face of your God, the
         Beginning of Comfort, whose eyes are the Brightness of the
         Heavens, which provided you for the Government of the Earth,
         and the Unspeakable Variety! And Again: let there be no
         Creature upon her or within her the same. All her Members let
         them differ in their Qualities, and let there be no Creature
         equal with another. Here also is the voice of true Science,
         crying aloud that Variation is the Key of Evolution.
         Thereunto Art cometh the third, perceiving Beauty in the
         Harmony of the Diverse. Know then, o my Son, that all Laws.,
         all Aysterm, all Customs, all Ideals and Standards which tend
         to produce uniformity, are in direct opposition to Nature's
         Will to change and to develop through Variety, and are
         accursed. Do thou with all thy Might of Manhood strive
         against these Forces, for they resist Change, which is Life;
         and thus they are of Death.'  `De Legibus Contra Motum. `Say
         not, in thine Haste, that such Stagnations are Unity even as
         the last Victory of thy Will is Unity. For thy Will moveth
         through free Function, according to its particular Nature, to
         that End of Dissolution of all Complexities, and those Ideals
         and Standards are Attempts to halt thee on that Way. Although
         for thee some certain Ideal be upon thy Path, yet for thy
         Neighbour it may not be so. Set all Men a-horseback; thou
         speedest the Foot-soldier upon his way, indeed; but what hast
         thou done to the Bird-man? Thou must have simple Laws and
         Customs to express the general Will, and so prevent the
         Tyranny or Violence of a few; but multiply them not! Now then
         herewith I will declare unto thee the Limits of the civil Law
         upon the Rock of the Law of Thelema'.  `De Necessitate
         Communi.  `Understand first that the Disturbers of the Peace
         of Mankind do so by Reason of their Ignorance of their own
         True Wills. Therefore, as this Wisdom of mine increaseth
         among Mankind, the false Will to Crime must become constantly
         more rare. Also, the exercise of our Freedom will cause Men
         to be born with less and ever less Affliction from that
         Dis-ease of Spirit, which breedeth these false Wills. But, in
         the While of waiting for this Perfection, thou must by Law
         assure to every Man a Means of satisfying his bodily and his
         mental Needs, leaving him free to develop any Super-structure
         in accordance with his Will, and protecting him from any that
         may seek to deprive him of these vertebral Rights. There
         shall be therefore a Standard of Satisfaction, though it must
         vary in detail with Race, Climate, and other such Conditions.
         And this Standard shall be based upon a large Interpretation
         of Facts biological, physiological, and the like'.  `De
         Fundamentis Civitatis.  `Say not, o my Son, that in this
         Argument I Have set Limits to individual Freedom. For each
         Man in this State which I purpose is fulfilling his own true
         Will by his eager Acquiescence in the Order necessary to the
         Welfare of all, and therefore of himself also. But see thou
         well to it that thou set high the Standard of Satisfaction,
         and that to every one be a Surplus of Leisure and of Energy,
         so that, his Will of Self- preservation-being fulfilled by
         the Performance of his Function in the State, he may devote
         the Remainder of his Powers to the Satisfaction of the other
         Parts of his Will. And because the People are oft times
         unlearned, not understanding Pleasure, let them be instructed
         in the Art of Life: to prepare Food palatable and wholesome,
         each to his own Taste, to make Clothes according to Fancy,
         with variety of Individuality, and to practice the manifold
         Crafts of Love. These Things being first secured, thou mayst
         afterward lead them into the Heavens of Poesy and Tale, of
         Music, Painting, and Sculpture, and into the Lore of the Mind
         Itself, with its insatiable Joy of all Knowledge, Thence let
         them soar!'

         59.    We must abolish the shadows by the Radiant Light of
         the Sun. Real things are only thrown into brighter glory by
         His effulgence. We need have no fear then to throw the
         Christians to the Lions. If there be indeed True Men among
         them, who happen through defect of education to know no
         better, they will reincarnate all right, and no harm done.
         This passage may perhaps be interpreted in a sense slightly
         different from that assumed in the above paragraph. We should
         indeed love all -- is not the Law `love under will'? By this
         I mean that we should make proper contact with all, for love
         means union; and the proper condition of union is determined
         by will. Consider the right attitude to adopt in the matter
         of cholera. One should love it, that is, study it intimately;
         not otherwise can one be sure of maintaining the right
         relation with it, which is, not to allow it to interfere with
         one's will to live. (And almost everything that is true of
         Cholera is true of Christians.)

         60.    The Christians to the Lions!  An XVII Sol in Libra, I
         am reminded of Samuel Butler's observation that the
         apotheosis of love is to devour the beloved. Indeed, one
         cannot say that one has perfectly attained to love or hate
         until the object of that passion is assimilated. The word `
         hell' is significant in this connection. One must never be so
         careless as to let oneself think that even `the Style of a
         letter' (how much less a phrase!) in this Book is casual. The
         expression `to hell with them' is not merely an outburst of
         colloquial enthusiasm. The word `hell', that and no other,
         serves the purpose of the speaker. This would naturally be
         suggested to us, in any case, by the reflection that our Law
         does not indulge in the frothings of impotent fury, like the
         priestly frauds of Moses, the Rishis, and Buddha, in the
         weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth of the Galilean
         fishwife. Our Law knows nothing of punishment beyond that
         imposed by ignorance and awkwardness on their possessor. The
         work `hell' must therefore be explained in terms neither of
         virile vulgarity, or theological blackmail.  I quote Liber
         Aleph, Chapters  , p.24, p.129, p.130, from which the
         peculiar applicability of the expression to the problem of
         the text will be evident. `De Nuptiis Mysticis.  `O my Son,
         how wonderful is the Wisdom of this Law of Love! How vast are
         the Oceans of uncharted Joy that lie before the Keel of thy
         Ship! Yet know this, that every Opposition is in its Nature
         named Sorrow, and the Joy lieth in the Destruction of the
         Dyad. Therefore must thou seek ever those Things which are to
         thee poisonous, and that in the highest Degree, and make them
         thine by Love. That which repels, that which disgusts, must
         thou assimilate in this Way of Wholeness. Yet rest not in the
         Joy of Destruction of every Complex in thy Nature, but press
         on to that ultimate Marriage with the Universe whose
         Consummation shall destroy thee utterly, leaving only that
         Nothingness which was before the Beginning.  So then the Life
         of Non-action is not for thee; the Withdrawal from Activity
         is not the Way of the Tao; but rather the Intensification and
         making universal of every Unity of thine Energy on every
         Plane.'

         220A2-6.ASC

             `De Inferno Palatio Sapientiae..  `Now then thou seest
         that this Hell, or concealed Place within thee, is no more a
         Fear or Hindrance to Men of a Free Race, But the
         Treasure-House of the Assimilated Wisdom of the Ages, and the
         Knowledge of the True Way. Thus are we Just and Wise to
         discover this Secret in Ourselves, and to conform the
         conscious Mind therewith. For that Mind is compact solely
         (until it be illuminated) of Impressions and Judgments, so
         that its Will is but directed by the sum of the Shallow
         Reactions of a most limited Experience. But thy True Will is
         the Wisdom of the Ages of thy Generations, the Expression of
         that which hath fitted thee exactly to thine Environment.
         Thus thy conscious Mind is oftentimes foolish, as when thou
         admirest an Ideal, and wouldst attain it, but thy true Will
         letteth thee, so that there is Conflict, and the Humiliation
         of that Mind. Here will I call to Witness the common Event of
         `Good Resolutions' that defy the Lightning of Destiny, being
         puffed up by the Wind of an Indigestible Ideal putrefying
         within thee Thence cometh colic, and presently the Poison is
         expelled, or else thou diest. But Resolutions of True Will
         are mighty against Circumstance.'  `De Vitiis Voluntatis
         Secretae.  `Learn moreover concerning this Hell, or Hidden
         Wisdom, that is within thee, that it is modified, little by
         little, in respect of its Khu, through the Experience of the
         Conscious Mind, which feedeth it. For that Wisdom is the
         Expression, or rather Symbol and Hieroglyph, of the True
         Adjustment of thy Being to its Environment. Now then, that
         Environment being eroded by Time, this Wisdom is no more
         perfect, for it is not absolute, but standeth in Relation to
         the Universe. So then a Part thereof may become useless, and
         atrophy, as (I will instance) Man's Wit of Smell; and the
         bodily Organ corresponding degenerateth therewith. But this
         is an Effect of much Time, so that in thy Hell thou art like
         to find Elements vain, or foolish, or contrary to thy present
         Weal. Yet, o my Son, this Hidden Wisdom is not thy true Will,
         but only the Levers (I may say so) thereof. Notwithstanding,
         there lieth therein a Faculty of Balance, whereby it is able
         to judge whether any Element in itself is presently useful
         and benign, or idle and malignant. Here then is a Root of
         Conflict between the Conscious and the Unconscious, and a
         Debate concerning the right Order of Conduct, how the Will
         may be accomplished'.

         61.    This chapter now enters upon an entirely new phase.
         The revelation or `hiding' of Hadit had by now sunk into the
         soul of The Beast, so that He realized Himself.

         62.    `Uplifted in thine Heart': -- compare the Book of the
         Heart Girt with a Serpent. (See Equinox III,I.)

         63.    This verse conceals a certain Magical Formula of the
         loftiest initiations. It refers to a method of using the
         breath, in connexion with the appropriate series of ideas,
         which is perhaps not to be taught directly. But it may be
         learnt by those who have attained the necessary degree of
         magical technique, suggested automatically to them by Nature
         Herself, just as newly-hatched chickens pick up corn without
         instruction.

         64.    `The Kings' are evidently those men who are capable of
         understanding Themselves. This is a consecration of THe Beast
         to the task of putting forth the Law.  `Thou art overcome'.
         The conscious resisted desperately, and died in the last
         ditch.

         65.    It is curious that this verse should be numbered 65,
         suggesting L.V.X. and Adonai, the Holy Guardian Angel. It
         seems then that He is Hadit. I have never liked the term
         `Higher Self'; True Self is more the idea. For each Star is
         the husk of Hadit, unique and conqueror, sublime in His own
         virtue, independent of Hierarchy. There is an external
         hierarchy, of course, but that is only a matter of
         convenience.

         66.    The first part of this text appears to be a digression
         in the nature of a prophecy. The word `Come!' is a summons to
         reenter the full Trance. Its essence is declared in the last
         six words. Notice that the transition from one to none in
         instantaneous.

         67.    The instructions in the text of this and the next
         verse were actual indications as to how to behave, so as to
         get the full effect of the Trance. This too is a general
         Magical Formula, convenient even in the Work of the physical
         image of the Godhead.  It is of the utmost importance to
         resist the temptation to let oneself be carried away into
         trance. One should summon one's reserve forces to react
         against the tendency to lose normal consciousness. More and
         more of one's being is gradually drawn into the struggle, and
         one only yields at the last moment. (It needs practice and
         courage to get the best results.). I quote from the Holy
         Books:  `Fall not into death, O my soul! Think that death is
         the bed into which you are falling!' (Liber VII,I,33.)  `Thou
         hast brought me into great delight. Thou hast given me of Thy
         flesh to eat and of Thy blood for an offering of
         intoxication.  Thou hast fastened the fangs of Eternity in my
         soul, and the Poison of the Infinite hath consumed me
         utterly.  I am become like a luscious devil of Italy; a fair
         strong woman with worn cheeks, eaten out with Hunger for
         kisses. She hath played the harlot in diverse palaces; she
         hath given her body to the beasts.  She hath slain her
         kinsfolk with strong venom of toads; she hath been scourged
         with many rods.  She hath been broken in pieces upon the
         Wheel; the hands of the hangman have bound her unto it.  The
         fountains of water have been loosed upon her; she hath
         struggled with exceeding torment. The hath burst in sunder
         with the weights of the waters; she hath sunk into the awful
         Sea. So am I, O Adonai, my lord, and such are the waters of
         Thine intolerable Essence.  So am I, O Adonai, my beloved,
         and Thou hast burst me utterly in sunder.  I am shed out like
         spilt blood upon the mountains; the Ravens of Dispersion have
         borne me utterly away.  Therefore is the seal unloosed, that
         guarded the Eighth abyss; therefore is the vast sea as a
         veil; therefore is there a rending asunder of all things.'
         (Liber LXV,III, vv. 38-48.)  `Intoxicate the inmost, O my
         lover, not the outermost!' (Liber LXV, I, v.64).

         68.    It is remarkable that this extraordinary Experience
         has practically no effect upon the normal consciousness of
         THe Beast. `Intoxicate the inmost, o my God' -- and it was
         His Magical Self, 666, that was by this Ecstasy initiated. It
         needed years for this Light to dissolve the husks of accident
         that shrouded his True Seed.

         69.    The phrase -- ` the word' -- is of a deeper
         significance than at first sight may appear. The question is
         not merely equivalent to: `Is the dictation at an end?' For
         the Word is Conceived as the act of possession. This is
         evident from the choice of the word `exhausted'. The
         inspiration has been like an electrical discharge. Language
         is in itself nothing; it is only the medium of transmitting
         experience to consciousness. Tahuti, Thoth, Hermes, or
         Mercury symbolize this relation; the character of this God is
         declared in very full terms in `The Paris Working', which
         should be studied eagerly by those who are fortunate enough
         to have access to the MS.

         70.    It is absurd to suppose that `to indulge the passions'
         is necessarily a reversion or degeneration. On the contrary,
         all human progress has depended on such indulgence. Every art
         and science is intended to gratify some fundamental need of
         nature. What is the ultimate use of the telephone and all the
         other inventions on which we pride ourselves? Only to sustain
         life, or to protect or reproduce it; or to subserve Knowledge
         and other forms of pleasure.  On the other hand, the passions
         must be understood properly as what they are, nothing in
         themselves, but the diverse forms of expression employed by
         the Will. One must preserve discipline. A passion cannot be
         good or bad, too weak or too strong, etc. by an arbitrary
         standard. Its virtue consists solely in its conformity with
         the plan of the Commander-in- Chief. Its initiative and elan
         are limited by the requirements of his strategy. For
         instance, modesty may well cooperate with ambition; but also
         it may thwart it. This verse counsels us to train our
         passions to the highest degree of efficiency. Each is to
         acquire the utmost strength and intelligence; but all are
         equally to contribute their quota towards the success of the
         campaign. It is nonsense to bring a verdict of `Guilty' or
         `Not Guilty' against a prisoner without reference to the law
         under which he is living. The end justifies the means: if the
         Jesuits do not assert this, I do. There is obviously a limit,
         where `the means' in any case are such that their use
         blasphemes `the end': e.g. to murder one's rich aunt affirms
         the right of one's poor nephew to repeat the trick, and so to
         go against one's own Will-to-live, which lies deeper in one's
         being than the mere Will-to-inherit. The judge in each case
         is not ideal morality, but inherent logic.  This then being
         understood, that we cannot call any given passion good or bad
         absolutely, any more than we can call Knight to King's Fifth
         a good or bad move in chess without study of the position, we
         may see more clearly what this verse implies. There is here a
         general instruction to refine Pleasure, not by excluding its
         gross elements, but by emphasizing all elements in
         equilibrated development. Thus one is to combind the joys of
         Messalina with those of Saint Theresa and Isolde in one
         single act. One's rapture is to include those of Blake,
         Petrarch, Shelley, and Catullus. Liber Aleph has detailed
         instruction on numerous points involved in these questions.
         Why `eight and ninety' rules of art? I am totally unable to
         suggest a reason satisfactory to myself; but 90 is Tzaddi,
         the `Emperor', and 8, Cheth, the `Charioteer' or Cup-Bearer;
         the phrase might them conceivably mean `with majesty'.
         Alternatively, 98=2 x 49: now Two is the number of the Will,
         and Seven of the passive senses. 98 might then mean the full
         expansion of the senses (7 x 7) balanced against each other,
         and controlled firmly by the Will.  `Exceed by delicacy':
         this does not mean, by refraining from so-called animalism.
         One should make every act a sacrament, full of divinest
         ecstasy and nourishment. There is no act which true delicacy
         cannot consecrate. It is one thing to be like a sow,
         unconscious of the mire, and unable to discriminate between
         sweet food and sour; another to take the filth firmly and
         force oneself to discover the purity therein, initiating even
         the body to overcome its natural repulsion and partake with
         the soul at this Eucharist. We `believe in the Miracle of the
         Mass' not only because meat and drink are actually
         `transmuted in us daily into Spiritual Substance', but
         because we can make the `Body and Blood of God' from any
         materials soever by Virtue of our royal and Pontifical Art of
         Magick.  Now when Brillat-Savarin (was it not?) served to the
         King's table a pair of old kid gloves, and pleased the
         princely palate, he certainly proved himself a Master-Cook.
         The feat is not one to be repeated constantly, but one should
         achieve it at least once -- that it may bear witness to
         oneself that the skill is there. One might even find it
         advisable to practice it occasionally, to retain one's
         confidence that one's `right hand hath not lost its cunning'.
         On this point hear further more our Holy Books:  `Go thou
         unto the outermost places and subdue all things'.  Subdue thy
         fear and thy disgust. Then -- yield!' (Liber LXV, I. 45.46).
         `Morover I beheld a vision of a river. There was a little
         boat thereon; and in it under purple sails was a golden
         woman, an image of Asi wrought in finest gold. also the river
         was of blood, and the boat of shining steel. Then I loved
         her; and, loosing my girdle, cast myself into the stream.  I
         gathered myself into the little Boat, and for many days and
         nights did I love her, burning beautiful incense before her.
         Yea! I gave her of the flower of my youth.   But she stirred
         not; only by my kisses I defiled her so that she turned to
         blackness before me.   Yet I worshipped her, and gave her of
         the flower of my youth.  also it came to pass that thereby
         she sickened, and corrupted before me. Almost I cast myself
         into the stream.  Then at the end appointed her body was
         whiter that the milk of the stars, and her lips red and warm
         as the sunset, and her life of a white heat like the heat of
         the midmost sun.  Then rose she up from the abyss of Ages of
         Sleep, and her body embraced me. Altogether I melted into her
         beauty and was glad.  The river also became the river of
         Amrit, and the little boat was the chariot of the flesh, and
         the sales thereof the blood of the heart that beareth me,
         thereof the blood of the heart that beareth me, that beareth
         me.'  We therefore train our adepts to make the Gold
         Philosophical from the dung of witches, and the Elixir of
         Life from Hippomanes; but we do not advocate ostentatious
         addiction to these operations. It is good to know that one is
         man enough to spend a month or so at a height of twenty
         thousand feet or more above the sea-level; but it would be
         unpardonably foolish to live there permanently.  This
         illustrates on case of a general principle. We consider the
         Attainment of various Illuminations, incomparably glorious as
         that is, of chief value for its witness to our possession of
         the faculty which made success possible. To have climbed
         alone to the summit of Iztaccihuatl is great and grand; but
         the essence of one's joy is that one possesses the courage,
         knowledge, agility, endurance, and self-mastery necessary to
         have done it.  The Goal is ineffably worth all our pains, as
         we say to ourselves at first; but in a little while are aware
         that even that Goal is less intoxicating then the Way itself.
         We find that it matters little whither we go; the Going
         itself is our gladness, I quote in this connection Liber LXV,
         II, 17-25, one of several similar passages in Our Holy Books.
         `Also the Holy One came upon me, and I beheld a white swan
         floating in the blue.  Between its wings I sate, and the
         aeons fled away.  Then the swan flew and dived and soared,
         yet no whither we went.  A little crazy boy that rode with me
         spake unto the swan, and said: Who art thou that dost float
         and fly and dive and soar in the inane? Behold, these many
         aeons have passed; whence camest thou? Whither wilt thou go?
         And laughing I chide him, saying: No whence! No whither!  The
         swan being silent, he answered: Then, if with no goal, why
         this eternal journey?  And I laid my head against the Head of
         the Swan, and laughed saying: Is there not joy ineffable in
         this aimless winging? Is there not weariness and impatience
         for who would attain to some goal?   And the swan was ever
         silent. Ah! but we floated in the infinite Abyss. Joy! Joy!
         White swan, bear thou ever me up between thy wings!'  `Be
         strong!' We need healthy robust bodies as the mechanical
         instruments of our souls. Could Paganini have expressed
         himself on the `fiddle for eighteen pence' that some one once
         bought when he was `young and had no sense'? Each of us is
         Hadit, the core of our Khabs, our Star, one of the Company of
         Heaven; but this Khabs needs a Khu or Magical Image, in order
         to play its part in the Great Drama. This Khu, again, needs
         the proper costume, a suitable `body of flesh', and this
         costume must be worthy of the Play.  We therefore employ
         various magical means to increase the vigour of our bodies
         and the energy of our minds, to fortify and sublime them.
         The result is that we of Thelema are capable of enormously
         more achievement than others, even in terrestrial matters,
         from sexual orgia to creative Art. Even if we had only this
         one earth-life to consider, we exceed our fellows some
         thirtyfold, some sixtyfold, some an hundredfold.  One most
         important point, in conclusion. We must doubtless admit that
         each one of us is lacking in one capacity or another. There
         must always be some among the infinite possibilities of Nuith
         which possesses no correlative points of contact in any given
         Khu. For example, the Khu of a male body cannot fulfil itself
         in the quality of motherhood. Any such lacuna must be
         accepted as a necessary limit, without regret or vain
         yearnings for the impossible. But we should beware lest
         prejudice or other personal passion exclude any type of
         self-realization which is properly ours. In our initiation
         the tests must be thorough and exhaustive. The neglect to
         develop even a single power can only result in deformity.
         However slight this might seem, it might lead to fatal
         consequences; the ancient adepts taught that by the parable
         of the heel of Achilles. It is essential for the Aspirant to
         make a systematic study of every possible passion, icily
         aloof from all alike, and setting their armies in array
         beneath the banner of his Will after he has perfectly gauged
         the capacity of each unit, and assured himself of its
         loyalty, discipline, courage, and efficiency. But woe unto
         him who leaves a gap in his line, or one arm unprepared to do
         its whole duty in the position proper to its peculiar
         potentialities!

         71.    `The Road of Excess leads to the Palace of Wisdom'.
         Progress, as its very etymology declares, means A Step Ahead.
         It is the Genius, the Eccentric, the Man Who Goes One Better
         than his fellows, that is the Saviour of the Race. And while
         it is unwise possibly (in some senses) to exceed in certain
         respects, we may be sure that he who exceeds in no respect is
         a mediocrity.  The key of Evolution is Right Variation.
         Excess is evidence at least of capacity in the quality at
         issue. The golf teacher growls tirelessly: `Putt for the back
         of the hole! Never up, never in!' The application is
         universal. Far from me be it to deny that excess is too often
         disastrous. The athlete who dies in his early prime is the
         skeleton at every Boat Supper. But in such cases the excess
         is almost always due to the desire to excel other men,
         instead of referring the matter to the only competent judge,
         the true Will of the body. I myself used to `go all out' on
         mountains; I hold more World's Records of various kinds than
         I can reckon -- for pace, skill, daring, and endurance. But I
         never worried about whether other people could beat me. For
         this reason my excesses, instead of causing damage to health
         and danger to life, turned me from a delicate boy, too frail
         for football, doomed by my doctors to die in my teens, into a
         robust ruffian who throve on every kind of hardship and
         exposure.  On the contrary, every department of life in
         which, from distaste or laziness, I did not `exceed', is
         constantly crippling me in one way or another -- and I
         recognize with savage remorse that the weakness which I could
         have corrected so easily in my twenties is in my forties an
         incurably chronic complaint.

         72.    This striving is to be strenuous. We are not to set
         our lives at a pin's fee. `Unhand me, gentlemen! I'll make a
         ghost of him that lets me!' Death is the End that crowns the
         Work.  Evolution works by variation. When an animal develops
         one part of itself beyond the others, it infringes the norm
         of its type. At first this effort is made at the expense of
         other efforts, and it seems as if, the general balance being
         upset, the Nature were in danger. (It must obviously appear
         so to the casual observer -- who probably reproaches and
         persecutes the experimenter). But when this variation is
         intended to meet some new, or even foreseen, change in
         environment, and is paid for by some surplus part, or some
         part now superfluous, although once useful to meet a quality
         of the environment which no longer menaces the individual,
         the adaptation is biologically profitable.  Obviously, the
         whole idea of exercise, mental or bodily, is to develop the
         involved organs in manner physiologically and psychologically
         proper.  It is deleterious to force any faculty to live by an
         alien law. When parents insist on a boy adopting a profession
         which he loathes, because they themselves fancy it; when
         Florence Nightingale fought to open hospital windows in India
         at night; then the Ideal mutilates and murders.  Every organ
         has `no law beyond Do what thou wilt'. Its law is determined
         by the history of its development, and by its present
         relations with its fellow-citizens. We do not fortify our
         lungs and our limbs by identical methods, or aim at the same
         tokens of success in training the throat of the tenor and the
         fingers of the fiddler. But all laws are alike in this: they
         agree that power and tone come from persistently practising
         the proper exercise without overstraining. When a faculty is
         freely fulfilling its function, it will grow; the test is its
         willingness to `strive ever to more'; it justifies itself by
         being `ever joyous'. It follows that `death is the crown of
         all'. For a life which has fulfilled all its possibilities
         ceases to have a purpose; death is its diploma, so to speak;
         it is ready to apply itself to the new conditions of a larger
         life. Just so a schoolboy who has mastered his work, dies to
         school, reincarnates in cap & gown, triumphs in the trips,
         dies to the cloisters, and is reborn to the world.  Note that
         the Atu `Death' in the Tarot refers to Scorpio. This sign is
         threefold: the Scorpion that kills itself with its own
         poison, when its environment (the ring of fire) becomes
         intolerable; the Serpent that renews itself by shedding its
         skin, that is crowned and hooded, that moves by undulations
         like Light, and gives man Wisdom at the price of Toil
         Suffering and Mortality; and the Eagle that soars, its
         lidless eyes bent boldly upon the Sun. `Death' is, to the
         initiate, as inn by the wayside; its marks a stage
         accomplished; it offers refreshment, repose, and advice as to
         his plans for the morrow.  But in this verse the main point
         is that death is the `crown' of all. The crown is Kether, the
         Unity; `Love under will' having been applied to all
         Nuith-possibilities of all Khu- energies of any
         Hadit-central-Star, that Star has exhausted itself perfectly,
         completed one stage of its course. It is therefore crowned by
         death; and, being wholly itself, lives again by attracting
         its equal and opposite Counterpart, with whom `love under
         will' is the fulfilment of the Law, in a sublimer sphere.
         But there are no rules until on finds them: a man leaving
         Ireland for the Sahara does well to discard such
         `indispensable' and `proper' things as a waterproof and a
         blackthorn for a turban and a dagger.  The `moral' man is
         living by the no-reason of Laws, and that is stupid and
         inadequate even when the Laws still hold good; for he is a
         mere mechanism, resourceless should any danger that is not
         already provided for in his original design chance to arise.
         Respect for routine is the mark of the second-rate man.  The
         `immoral' man, defying convention by shouting aloud in
         church, may indeed be `brawling'; but equally he may be a
         sensitive who has felt the first tremor of an earthquake.  We
         of Thelema encourage every possible variation; we welcome
         every new `sport'; its success or failure is our sole test of
         its value. We let the hen's queer hatching take to water, and
         laugh at her alarms; and we protect the `ugly duckling',
         knowing that Time will tell us whether it be a cygnet.
         Herbert Spencer, inexorably condemning the Unfit to the
         gallows, only echoed the High-Priest who protected Paul form
         the Pharisees. Sound biology and sound theology are for once
         at one!

         220A2-7.ASC

                 The question of the limits of individual Liberty is
         fully discussed in Liber CXI (Aleph), to which we refer the
         student. The following four chapters will give a general idea
         of the main principles.  `De Vi Per Disciplinam Colenda.
         `Consider the Bond of a cold Climate, how it maketh man a
         Slave; he must have Shelter and Food with fierce Toil. Yet
         thereby he becometh strong against the Elements, and his
         moral Force waxeth, so that he is Master of such Men as live
         in Lands of Sun where bodily Needs are satisfied without
         Struggle.   Consider also him that willeth to excel in Speed
         or in Battle, how he denieth himself the Food he craveth, and
         all Pleasures natural to him, putting himself under the harsh
         Order of a Trainer. So by this Bondage he hath, at the last,
         his Will.  Now then the one by natural, and the other by
         voluntary, Restriction have come each to a greater Liberty.
         This is also a general law of Biology, for all Development is
         Structuralization; that is, Limitation and Specialization of
         an originally indeterminate Protoplasm, which latter may
         therefore be called free, in the definition of a Pendant.'
         `De Ordins Rerum'.  `In the Body every Cell is subordinated
         to the general physiological Control, and we who will that
         Control do not ask whether each individual Unit of that
         Structure be consciously happy. But we do care that each
         shall fulfil its Function, and the Failure of even a few
         Cells, or their Revolt, may involve the Death of the whole
         Organism. Yet even here the Complaint of a few, which we call
         pain, is a Warning of general Danger. Many Cells fulfil their
         Destiny by swift Death, and this being their Function, they
         in no wise resent it. Should Haemoglobin resist the Attack of
         Oxygen, the Body would perish, and the HAEMOGLOBIN would not
         even save itself. Now, o my Son, do then consider deeply of
         these Things in thine Ordering of the World under the Law of
         Thelema. For every Individual in the State must be perfect in
         his own Function, with Contentment, respecting his own Task
         as necessary and holy, not envious of another's. For so only
         mayst thou build up a free state, whose directing Will shall
         be singly directed to the Welfare of all'.  We of Thelema
         think it vitally aright to let a man take opium. He may
         destroy his physical vehicle thereby, but he may produce
         another `Kubla Khan'. It is his own responsibility. Also we
         know well that `if he be a King' it will not hurt him -- in
         the end. We trust Nature to protect, and Wisdom to be
         justified of, their children. It is superficial to object
         that a man should be prevented from ruining and killing
         himself, for his own sake or for that of `those dependent on
         him'. One who is unfit to survive aught to be allowed to die.
         We want only those who can conquer themselves and their
         environment. As for `those dependent on him' it is one of our
         chief objects to abolish the very idea of dependence on
         others. Women with child, and infants, are not exceptions, as
         might seem. They are doing their will, the one class to
         reproduce, the other to live; the state should consider their
         welfare to be its first duty; for if they are for the moment
         dependent on it, it is also dependent on them. A man might as
         well cut out his heart because it was weak, and in need of
         cautious care. But he would be no less foolish if he tried to
         prevent the used-up elements from eliminating themselves from
         his body. We respect the Will-to-Live; we should respect the
         Will-to Die. The race is auto-intoxicated by suppressing the
         excretory processes of Nature.  Each case must of course be
         judged on its merits. His neighbours do well to assist one
         who is weak by accident or misfortune, if he wishes to
         recover. But it is a crime against the state and against the
         individuals in question to hinder the gambler, the drunkard,
         the voluptuary, the congenital defective, from drifting to
         death, unless they prove by their won dogged determination to
         master their circumstances, that they are fit to pull their
         weight in the Noah's Ark of mankind.

         73.    There is a connection between Death, Sleep and Our
         Lady Nuit. (This is worked out, on profane lines, by Dr.
         Sigmund Freud, and his school, especially by Jung,
         `Psychology of the Unconscious', which the reader should
         consult). The fatigue of the day's toil creates the toxins
         whose accumulation is the `will to Die'. All mystic
         attainment is of this type, as all Magick is of the `Will to
         Live'. At times we all want Nibbana, to withdraw into the
         Silence, and so on. The Art of it is to dip deeply into
         `Death', but to emerge immediately, a giant refreshed. This
         plan is also possible on the larger scale, all Life being
         Magick, all Death Mysticism. Then why is Death `forbidden'?
         All things are surely lawful. But we must work `without lust
         of result', taking everything as it comes without desire
         indeed, but with all manner of delight! Let thy Love-Madrigal
         to Death, thy Mother-Mistress, ripple and swell throughout
         the years, with all the Starry Heaven for thine Orchestra;
         but do not imagine that to attain Her is the sole
         satisfaction. It is the yearning itself that is Beatitude.
         It may seem that in this verse the word `Death' is used in a
         sense somewhat other than that explained in the previous
         note. It is forbidden, observe, to `man'. That is, then, the
         formula must not be used by one who is still an imperfect
         being. Our definition is surely confirmed by this phrase
         rather than denied, or even modified. To long for death is to
         aspire to the complete fulfilment of all one's
         potentialities. And it would evidently be an error to insist
         upon passing on to one's next life while there were hawsers
         unhitched from this one. The mere inexplicability of the
         various jerks would make for bewilderment, irritation, and
         clumsiness.  For this reason, alone, it is all-important to
         ascertain one's true Will, and to work out every detail of
         the work of doing it, as early in life as one can. One is apt
         (at the best) to define one's will dogmatically, and to
         devote one's life almost puritanically to the task, sternly
         suppressing all side- issues, and calling this course
         Concentration. This is error, and perilous. For one cannot be
         sure that a faculty which seems (on the surface) useless,
         even hostile, to one's work, may not in course of time become
         one of vital value. If it be atrophied -- alas! Its
         suppression may moreover have poisoned one's whole system, as
         a breast debarred from its natural use is prone to cancer. At
         best, it may be too late to repair the mischief; the lost
         opportunity may be a life-long remorse.  The one way of
         safety lies in applying the Law of Thelema with the utmost
         rigour. Every impulse, however feeble, is necessary to the
         stability of the whole structure; the tiniest flaw may cause
         the cannon to burst. Every impulse however opposite to the
         main motive, is part of the plan; the rifling does not thwart
         the purpose of the barrel. One should therefore acquiesce in
         every element of one's nature, and develop it as its own laws
         demand, with absolute impartiality. One need not fear; there
         is a natural limit to the growth of any species; it either
         finds food fail, or is choked by its neighbours, or overgrows
         itself, and is transformed. Nor need one fret about the
         harmony and proportion of one's various faculties; the fit
         will survive, and the perfection of the whole will be
         understood as soon as the parts have found themselves, and
         settled down after fighting the matter out in the balanced
         stability which represents their right reaction to each
         other, and to their environment. It is thus policy for an
         Aspirant to initiation to analyse himself with indefatigable
         energy, shrewd skill, and accurate subtlety; but then to
         content himself with indefatigable energy, shrewd skill, and
         accurate subtlety; but then to content himself with observing
         the interplay of his instincts, instead of guiding them. Not
         until he is familiar with them all should he perform the
         practices which enable him to read the Word of his Will. And,
         then having assumed conscious control of himself, that he may
         do his Will, he should make a point of using every faculty in
         a detached way (just as one inspects one's pistols and fires
         a few rounds) without expecting ever to need them again, but
         on the general principle that if they were wanted, one might
         as well feel confident of the issue.  This theory of
         initiation is so important to every aspirant that I shall
         illustrate how my own ignorance bred error, and error injury.
         My Will was, I now know, to be The Beast, 666, a Magus, the
         Word of the Aeon, Thelema; to proclaim this new Law to
         mankind.  My passion for personal freedom, my superiority to
         sexual impulses, my resolve to master physical fear and
         weakness, my contempt for other people's opinions, my poetic
         genius: I indulged all these to the full. None of them
         carried me too far, ousted the other, or injured my general
         well-being. On the contrary, each automatically reached its
         natural limit, and each has been incalculably useful to me in
         doing my Will when I became aware of it, able to organize its
         armies, and to direct them intelligently against the inertia
         of ignorance. But I suppressed certain impulses in myself. I
         abandoned my ambitions to be a diplomatist. I checked my
         ardour for Science. I trampled upon my prudence in financial
         matters. I mortified my fastidiousness about caste. I masked
         my shyness in bravado, and tried to kill it by ostentatious
         eccentricity. This last mistake came from sheer panic; but
         all the rest were quite deliberate sacrifices on the altar of
         my God Magick.  They were all accepted, asit then seemed. I
         attained all my ambitions; yea, and more also. But I know now
         that I should not have forced my growth, and deformed my
         destiny. To nail geese to boards and stuff them makes foie
         gras, very true; but it does not improve the geese. It may be
         said that I strengthened my moral character by these
         sacrifices, and that I was indeed compelled to act as I did.
         The mad elephant Wantobemagus pulled over the team of oxen?
         We may put it like that, certainly; but still I feel that it
         might have been better had he not been mad. For, today, if I
         were an Ambassador, versed profoundly in Science, financially
         armed and socially stainless, I should be able to execute my
         Will by pressure upon all classes of powerful people, to make
         this comment carry conviction to thinkers, and to publish the
         Book of the Law in every part of the world. Instead, I am
         exiled and suspected, despised by men of science, ostracised
         by my class, and a beggar. If I were in my teens again! I
         cannot change my mind about which ridge I'll climb the
         mountain by, now when I see, above these ice-glazed pinnacles
         storm-swept, through gashes torn from whirling wreaths of
         arrowy sleet, the cloud-surpassing summit, not far, not very
         far.  I regret nothing, be sure! I may be even in error to
         argue that an evident distortion of nature, and its issue in
         disaster, are proof of imprudence. Perhaps the other road
         would not have taken me to cairo, to the climax of my life,
         to my true Will fulfilled in Aiwaz and made Word in this
         Book. Perhaps it is lingering `lust of result' that whispers
         hideous lies to daunt me, that urges these plausible
         arguments to accuse me. It may be that my present extremity
         is the very condition required for the fulfilment of my Work.
         Who shall say what is power, what impotence? Who shall be
         bold to measure the Morrow, or declare what causes conjoin to
         bring forth an Effect that no man knoweth?  Was not Lao-Tze
         thrust forth from his city? Did not Buddha go begging in
         rags? Did not Mohammed flee for his life into exile? Was not
         Bacchus the scandal and the scorn of men? Than Joseph Smith
         Had any man less learning? Yet each of these attained to do
         his Will; each cried his Word, that all the Earth yet echoes
         it! And each was able to accomplish this by virtue of that
         very circumstance which seems so cruel. Shall I, who am armed
         with all their weapons at once, complain that I must go into
         the fight unfurnished?


         74.    One does not need to be constantly popping in and out
         of Trance. One ought to do both actions with ever increasing
         length and strength of swing. Hence one's life-periods, where
         this counts, become gradually larger and more vivid, and
         one's death- periods though very short, perhaps, may be
         unfathomably intense.  The whole question of Time has been
         thoroughly investigated already. The present remarks refer
         only to the conditions of `normal' consciousness, into which
         we throw ourselves at recurring intervals. The doctrine here
         stated should be studied in  the light of previous remarks;
         verses 61 to 74 inclusive form a coherent passage: notice the
         words `death' in verses 68. There is evidently an intention
         to identify the Climax of Love with that of Life. It is then
         not unnatural for us to ask: Can `Death' have some deeper
         significance than appears? Scorpio, the Zodiacal Sign of
         Death, is really the Sexual or Reproductive function of
         Nature. It is the Earth-transcending Eagle, the
         self-restoring Serpent, and the self-immolating Scorpion. In
         alchemy it is the principle of Putrefaction,  the `Black
         Dragon', whose state of apparent corruption is but a prelude
         to the Rainbow-coloured Spring-tide of the Man in Motley. The
         nymph of Spring, Syrinx, the trembling hollow reed which
         needs but Breath to fill the world with Music, attracts Pan,
         the Goat-God of Ecstatic Lust, by whose Work the glory of
         Summer is established anew.   It is obvious that `the length
         of thy longing' varies with the number of potentialities to
         be satisfied. In other words, the more complex the Khu of the
         Star, the greater the man, and the keener his sense of his
         need to achieve it.

         75.    This passage following appears to be a Qablaistic test
         (on he regular pattern) of any person who may claim to be the
         Magical Heir of THe Beast. Be ye well assured all that the
         solution, when it is found, will be unquestionable. It will
         be marked by the most sublime simplicity, and carry immediate
         conviction.  (The above paragraph was written previous to the
         communication of Charles Stansfeld Jones with regard to the
         `numbers and the words' which constitute the Key to the
         cipher of this Book. See the Appendix to these comment. I
         prefer to leave my remark as it originally stood, in order to
         mark my attitude at the time of writing).

         76.    It is the prophet, the `forth-speaker' who is never to
         know this mystery. But that does not prevent it from lying
         within the comprehension of the Beast, kept secret  by him in
         order to prove any one who should claim sonship. (Cf. the
         note in brackets to the new comment on verse 75.  The last
         part of this verse presents no difficulty.   An XVI, Sun in
         Sagittarius. In the Appendix will be found the Qabalistic
         proofs referred to in the penultimate paragraph, as
         supporting the claim of sir Charles Stansfeld Jones, whose
         occult names, numbers, dignities and titles, are as follows:
         PARZIVAL, Knight of the Holy Ghost, etc., X O.T.O., 418, 777,
         V.I.O. (Omnia in Uno, Unus In Omnibus), Achad, or
         O.I.V.V.I.O. (Omnia in Uno, Unus in Omnibus), Fra  A:.A:., 8
         = 3 , Arctaeon, to be my son by Jeanne Foster, Soror
         Hilarion. See Appendix for the technical explanation of this
         verse. I may here briefly mention, however, that `Thou
         knowest not' is one of the cryptographic ambiguities
         characteristic of this Book. `Thou knowest' -- see Cap. I
         verse 26, and `not' is Nuith. The word `ever' too, may be the
         objective of `know', rather than merely an adverb.  Note `to
         be me', not `to be I' -- an evident reference to Nuit, `not',
         MH. Cf. verse 13, comment. One can only exist by being Nuit,
         as explained in discussing the general magical theory.
         Observe that I am here definitely enjoined to proclaim my Law
         to men, `to look forth' instead of retiring from the world as
         mystics are wont to do. I may then be confident that this
         Work is a proper part of my Will. Note: This `one' is not to
         be confused with the `child' referred to elsewhere in this
         Book. It is quite possible that O.I.V.V.I.O. (who took the
         grade of 8 = 3 by an act of will without going through the
         lower grades in the regular way) failed to secure complete
         annihilation in crossing the Abyss; so that the drops of
         blood which should have been cast into the cup of Babalon
         should `breed scorpions, and vipers, and the Cat of Slime'.
         In this case he would develop into a Black Brother, to be
         torn in pieces and reduced to his Elements against his Will.

         77.    Pride is the quality of Sol. Tiphareth; Might of Mars,
         Geburah. Now Leo -- my rising sign -- combines these ideas,
         as does Ra-Hoor-Khuit. The christian ideas of humility and
         weakness as `virtues' are natural to slaves, cowards, and
         defectives.  The type of tailless simian who finds himself a
         mere forked radish in a universe of giants clamouring for
         hors d'oeuvres must take refuge from Reality in Freudian
         phantasies of `God'. He winces at the touch of Truth; and
         shivers at his nakedness in Nature.  He therefore invents a
         cult of fear and shame, and makes it presumption and
         blasphemy to possess courage and self-respect. He burrows in
         the slime of `Reverence, and godly fear; and makes himself
         houses of his own excrement, like the earthworm he is. He
         shams dead, like other vile insects, at the insects, at the
         approach of danger; he tries to escape notice by assuming the
         colour and form of his surroundings, using `protective
         mimicry' like certain other invertebrates. He exudes stink or
         ink like the skunk or the cuttle-fish, calling the one
         Morality and the other Decency. He is slippery with
         Hypocrisy, like a slug; and, labelling the totality of his
         defects Perfection, defines God as Faeces so that he may
         flatter himself with the epithet divine. The whole manoeuvre
         is described as Religion.

         78.    There are certain occult wonders concealed in the
         first part of this text. (See Liver CCCLXX).  The solution of
         the last sentence may depent upon the number of the verse,
         which is that of Mezla, the Influx from the Highest, and of
         the Book of Thoth, or Tarot.   We may take `thy name' as `the
         Sun', for Qabalistic reasons given in the Appendix; the verse
         need not imply the establishment of a new cult with myself as
         Demigod. (Help!) But they shall worship the group of ideas
         connected with the Sun, and the magical formula of the number
         418, explained elsewhere.

         79.    So mote it be!

         220A3-1.ASC

         1.    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 Equinox 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, ---

         2.    `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'.

         3.    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 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    in    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.

         4.    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.

         6.    This phrase is curiously suggestive of the `mine-layer'
         to those who have seen one in action.

         7.    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.

         9.    `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, 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).

         10.    The language is hereso 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.

         11.    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 Heathen: i.e.
         Christians and other troglodytes -- but most especially the
         parasites of man, the Jews -- were to be His rite. 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.

         12.    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.

         16.    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.

         17.    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.

         18.    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     in     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.

         19.    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     in     . 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     in     ,     in
         , 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 it
         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,    in     , in
         ) 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 solution,
         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 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, 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.

         220A3-2.ASC

         20.     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 rival 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. 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. But 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.

         21.    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.

         22.    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.

         23.    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.

         24.    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.

         25.    These Beetles, which appeared with amazing suddeness
         in countless numbers at Boleskine during the summer of 1904
         E.V. were distinguished by a long siggle `horn'; the species
         was new to the naturalists in London to whom specimens were
         sent for classification.

         26.    See Liber 418, First Aethyr, final paragraphs.

         27.    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.

         29.    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.

         30.    There is now such an altar as described; and the due
         rites are performed daily thereupon.(An XVI,  In  ).

         31.    I do not know whether this is to be taken in a
         practical sense.  The obvious meaning of `from the West' is
         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 .)

         33.    It suggests self, that the foregoing verses may have
         been already fulfilled in some manner which my feeble
         understanding of the chapter has failed hitherto to identify.

         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.   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.
         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., No2, 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.   TABLE FOLLOWS.  It may be presumptuous to predict
         any details concerning the next Aeon after this.

         35.    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     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.

         36.    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.

         37.    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!

         38.    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).

         39.    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'.

         40.    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.

         41.    It is being done now.

         42.    `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 concerning
         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!

         43.    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 20    , 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!

         45.    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.'


         46.    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.

         No Number     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 for this and
         other points of this most `evidential' verse. `the Key of it
         all:' all, i.e. AL 3  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.

         49.    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.

         51.    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.


         52.    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.'

         53.    `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.

         54.    See Appendix.  By sound Bahlasti suggests `hurling' or
         `blasting;' Ompegda is not too phantastically onomatopoeitic
         for `an explosion.'

         55.    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,
         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.

         220A3-3.ASC

             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).  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 grard  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
         advertisements 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 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
         thank 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!   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 sexual
         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
         selfishness, 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 -- 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!

         56.    It is obvious to the physiologist that beauty (that
         is, the  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  particles are separated by much sand.  If we
         are to have Beauty and Love, whether in begetting  children
         or works of art, or what not, we must have perfect  freedom
         to act, without fear or shame or any falsity. Spontaneity,
         the most important factor in creation, because it  is
         evidence of the magnetic intensity and propriety of the will
         to create, depends almost  wholly on the absolute freedom of
         the  agent. Gulliver must have no bonds of packthread. These
         conditions have been so rare in the past, especially with
         regard  to love, that their occurrence has usually marked
         something like  an epoch. Practically all men work with fear
         of result or lust  of result, and the `child' is a dwarf or
         still-born.  It is within the experience of most people that
         pleasure- parties and the like, if organized on the spur of
         the moment,  are always a success, while the most elaborate
         entertainments,  prepared with all possible car, often fall
         flat. Now one cannot  exactly give rules for producing a
         `genius' to order, a genius  in this sense being one who has
         the Idea, and is fortified with  power to enflame the
         enthusiasm of the crowd, with wit to know,  and initiative to
         seize, the psychological moment.  But one can specify certain
         conditions, incompatible with the  manifestation of this
         spontaneity; and the first of these is  evidently absolute
         freedom from obstacles, internal or external, to the idea of
         the `genius.'  It is clear that a woman cannot love
         naturally, freely,  wholesomely, if she is bound to
         contaminate the purity of her impulse with thoughts of her
         social, economical, and spiritual  status. When such things
         restrain her, Love may conquer, as  often enough it does; but
         the Beauty engendered is usually  stunted or wierd, assuming
         a tragic or cynic mask. The history  of the world is full of
         such stories; it is, one may almost say,  the chief motive of
         Romance. I need only mention Tristan, Paolo,  Romeo, Othello,
         Paris Edward the Second, Abelard, Tannhauser, of old, and
         recently Mrs. ASquith, Maud Allan, Charles Stuart  Parnell,
         Sir Charles Dilke, Lord Henry Somerset, and Oscar  Wilde,
         Down to `Fatty' Arbuckle!  Men and women have to face actual
         ruin, as well as the probability of scandal and disgust, or
         consent to love within  limits which concern not love in the
         least. The chance of  spontaneity is therefore a small one;
         and, should it occur and  be seized, the lawyers hasten to
         hide under the bridal bed,  while the Families, gluing eye to
         chink and keyhole, intrude  their discordant yowls on the
         Dust.  Then, when love dies, as it must if either party have
         more  imagination than a lump of putty, the fetters are
         fixed. He or  she must go through the sordid farce of divorce
         if the chance of  free choice is to be recovered; and even at
         that the fetters always leave an incurable ulcer; it is no
         good playing the game  of respectability after one is
         divorced.  Thus we find that almost the only love-affairs
         which breed no  annoyance, and leave no scar, are those
         between people who have  accepted the Law of Thelema, and
         broken for good with the tabus  of the slave-gods. The true
         artist, loving his art and nothing  else, can enjoy a series
         of spontaneous liaisons, all his life  long, yet never suffer
         himself, or cause any other to suffer.  Of such liaisons
         Beauty is ever the child; the wholesome  attitude of the
         clean simple mind, free from all complications  alien to
         Love, assures it.  Just as a woman's body is deformed and
         diseased by the corset  demanded by Jaganath Fashion, so is
         her soul by the compression  of convention, which is a
         fashion as fitful, arbitrary, and  senseless as that of the
         man-milliner, though they call him God,  and his freakish
         Fiat pass for Everlasting Law.  The English Bible sanctions
         the polygamy and concubinage of  Abraham, Solomon and others,
         the incest of Lot, the wholesale  rape of captured virgins,
         as well as the promiscuity of the  first Christians, the
         prostitution of temple servants, men and  women, the
         relations of Johannes with his master, and the  putting of
         wandering Prophets to stud, as well as the celibacy  of such
         people as Paul. Jehovah went so far as to slay Onan  because
         he balked at fertilizing his brother's widow, condoned  the
         adultery, with murder of the husband, of David, and
         commanded Hosea to intrigue with a `wife of whoredom.' He
         only  drew the moral line at any self-assertion on the part
         of a  woman. In the past man has bludgeoned Woman into
         gratifying the lust  of her loathed tyrant, and trampled the
         flower of her own love  into the mire; making her rape more
         beastly by calling her  antipathy Chastity, and proving her
         an unclean thing on the  evidence of the torn soiled blossom.
         She has had no chance to Love unless she first renounced the
         respect of society, and found a way to drive the wolf of
         hunger  from her door.  Her chance is come! In any Abbey of
         Thelema any woman is  welcome; there she is free to do her
         will, and held in honour  for the doing. the child of love is
         a star, even as all are  stars; but such an one we specially
         cherish; it is a trophy of  battle fought and won!

         220A3-4.ASC

               To fight is the right and duty of every male,as of
         every  woman to rejoice in his strength and to honour and
         perpetuate it  by her love. My primary objection to
         Christianity is `gentle  Jesus, meek and mild,' the pacifist,
         the conscientious objector,  the Tolstoyan, the `passive
         resister.' When the Kaiser fled, and  the Germans surrendered
         their fleet, they abandoned Nietzshes  for Jesus.
         Rodjestvensky and Gervera took their fleets out to  certain
         destruction. The Irish Revolutionists of Easter Week,  1916,
         fought and died like men; and they have established a
         tradition.  `Jesus' himself, in the legend, `set his face as
         a flint to  go to Jerusalem,' with the foreknowledge of his
         fate. But  Christians have not emphasized that heroism since
         the Crusades.  The sloppy sentimental Jesus of the
         Sunday-school is the only  survivor; and the War killed him,
         thank Ares!  When the Nonconformist Christian churches,
         especially in  America, found the doctrine of Eternal
         Punishment no longer  tenable, they knocked the bottom out of
         their religion. There  was nothing to fight for. So they
         degenerated into tame social  Centres, so that Theosophy with
         its Black Brothers, Mrs. Eddy  with her Mental Arsenic
         Experts, the T.K. with his Hypnotists  and Jesuits, and Billy
         Sunday with his Hell Fire, made people's  flesh creep once
         more, and got both credit and cash.  The Book of the Law
         flings forth no theological fulminations;  but we have
         quarrels enough on our hands. We have to fight for  Freedom
         against oppressors, religious, social, or industrial;  and we
         are utterly opposed to compromise. Every fight is to be a
         fight to the finish; each one of us for himself, to do his
         own  will; and all of us for all, to establish the Law of
         Liberty.  We do not want `professional soldiers,' hired
         bravos sworn  to have no souls of their own. They `dare not
         fight;' for how  should a man dare to fight unless his cause
         be a love mightier  than his love of life? Therefore they
         `play;' they have sold themselves; their Will is no more
         theirs; life is no longer a  serious thing to them; therefore
         they wander wastrel in clubs  and boudoirs and greenrooms;
         bridge, billiards, polo, pettie  coats puff out their
         emptiness; scratched for the Great RACE of  Life, they watch
         the Derby instead.  Brave such may be; they may well be (in a
         sense) classed with  the rat; but brainless and idle they
         must be, who have no goal  beyond the grave, where, at the
         best, chance flings fast- withering flowers of false and
         garish glory. They serve to  defend things vital to their
         country; they are the skull that  keeps the brain from harm?
         Oh foolish brain! Wet thou not wiser  to defend thyself,
         rather than trust to brittle bone that  hinders thee from
         growth?  Let every man bear arms, swift to resent oppression,
         generous  and ardent to draw sword in any cause, if justice
         or freedom  summon him!  `All fools despise.' In this last
         phrase the word `fools'  is evidently not to be taken in its
         deeper mystical sense, the  context plainly bearing reference
         to ordinary life.  But the `fool' is still as described in
         the Tarot Trump. He  is an epicene creature, soft and
         sottish, with an imbecile laugh  and a pretty taste in fancy
         waistcoats. He lacks virility, like  the ox which is the
         meaning of the letter Aleph which describes  the Trump, and
         his value is Zero, its number. He is air,  formless and
         incapable of resistance, carrier of sounds which  mean
         nothing to it, swept up into destructive rages of senseless
         violence from its idleness, incalculably moved by every
         pressure  or pull. One-fifth is the fuel of fire, the
         corruption of rust;  the rest is inert, the soul of
         explosives, with a trace of that  stifling and suffocating
         gas which is yet food for vegetable, as  it is poison to
         animal, life.  We have here a picture of the average man, of
         a fool. He has  no will of his own, is all things to all men,
         is void, a  repeater of words of whose sense he knows nought,
         a drifter,  both idle and violent, compact partly of fierce
         passions that  burn up both himself and the other, but mostly
         of inert and characterless nonentity, with a little
         heaviness, dullness, and  stupefaction for his only positive
         qualities.  Such are the `fools' whom we despise. The man of
         Thelema is  vertebrate, organized, purposeful, steady,
         self-controlled, virile; he uses the air as the food of his
         blood; so also, were  he deprived of fools he could no live.
         We need our atmosphere,  after all; it is only when the fools
         become violent madmen that  we need our cloak of silence to
         wrap us, and our staff to stay  us as we ascend our
         mountain-ridge; and it is only if we go down  into the
         darkness of mines to dig us treasure of earth that we need
         fear to choke on their poisonous breath.

         58.    `The keen:' these are the men whose Will is as a sword
         sharp and straight, tempered and  ground and polished its
         flawless steel; with a Wrist and an Eye behind it.  `The
         proud:' these are the men whose nature is kingly, the  men
         who `can.' They know themselves born rulers, whether their
         halidom be Art, or Science, or aught else soever.  `The
         lofty:' these are the men who, being themselves high-
         hearted, endure not any baseness.

         59.    Fight! Fight like gentlemen, without malice, because
         fighting  is the best game in the world, and love the second
         best! Don't  slander your enemy, as the newspapers would have
         you do; just  kill him, and then bury him with honour. don't
         keep crying  `Foul' like a fifth-rate pugilist, Don't boast!
         Don't squeal! If  you're down, get up and hit him again!
         Fights of that sort make  fast friends.  There is perhaps a
         magical second-meaning in this verse, a  reference to the
         Ritual of which we find hints in the legend of  Cain and
         Abel, Esau and Jacob, Set and Osiris, et cetera. The  `Elder
         Brother' within us, the Silent Self, must slay the  younger
         brother, the conscious self, and he must be raised again
         incorruptible.

         60.    There are of course lesser laws than this, details,
         particular cases, of the Law. But the whole of the Law is Do
         what thou wilt, and there is no law beyond it. This subject
         is  treated fully in Liber CXI Aleph, and the student should
         refer  thereto.  Far better, let him assume this Law to be
         the Universal Key  to every problem of Life, and then apply
         it to one particular case after another. As he comes by
         degrees to understand it, he  will be astounded at the
         simplification of the most obscure  questions which it
         furnishes. Thus he will assimilate the Law,  and make it the
         norm of his conscious being; this by itself will  suffice to
         initiate him, to dissolve his complexes, to unveil  himself
         to himself; and so shall he attain the Knowledge and
         Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel.  I have myself
         practiced constantly to prove the Law by many  and divers
         modes in many and divers spheres of thought, until it  has
         become absolutely fixed in me, so much so that it appears an
         `identical equation,' axiomatic indeed, and yet not a
         platitude, but a very sword of Truth to sunder every knot at
         a touch.  As the practical ethics of the Law, I have
         formulated in  words of one syllable my declaration of the
         RIGHTS OF MAN  Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the
         Law. There is no god but Man. Man has the right to live by
         his own Law. Man has the right to live in the way that he
         wills to do. Man has the right to dwell where he wills to
         dwell. Man has the right to move as he will on the face of
         the  Earth. Man has the right to eat what he will. Man has
         the right to drink what he will. Man has the right to think
         as he will. Man has the right to speak as he will. Man has
         the right to write as he will. Man has the right to mould as
         he will. Man has the right to paint as he will. Man has the
         right to carve as he will. Man has the right to work as he
         will. Man has the right to rest as he will. Man has the right
         to love as he will, when, where and whom he  will. Man has
         the right to die when and how he will.  Man has the right to
         kill those who would thwart these  rights.  This statement
         must not be regarded as individualism run  wild. Its harmony
         with statecraft is demonstrated in the  Chapters of Liber
         Aleph already quoted -- see comment on Chapter  II verse 72.
         Modern thought, even that of the shallowest, is compelled by
         AIWAZ to confirm His Law, without knowing what it is about.
         For  instance: `God's wind from nowhere which is called the
         Will;  and is man's only excuse upon this earth,' was written
         by so  trivial a Fat Man as Gilbert Keith Chesterton in `The
         Flying  Inn.'

         61.    Note that Heru-Ra-Ha is not merely a particular form
         of Ra,  but the God enthroned in Ra's seat. That is, His
         Kingdom on  earth is temporary, as explained in verse 34. And
         he is here  conceived as the Hierophant, `lightening the
         girders of the  soul,' that is, bringing man to initiation.
         These `girders' imply the skeletal structure on which the
         soul is supported, the conditions of its incarnation. Man is
         the  heir of ages of evolutionary experience, on certain
         lines, so  that he is organized on formulae which have
         determined the type  of his development. Of some such
         formulae we are conscious, but  not of all. Thus it is true
         for all men -- empirically -- that a  straight line is the
         shortest distance between two points; some  savages may not
         know this consciously, but they base their actions on that
         knowledge.  Now we cannot doubt that consciousness has
         developed  elsewhere than in man; only a blind megalomaniac
         or a Christian divine could suppose our infinitesimal mote of
         a planet the sole  habitat of Mind, especially as our minds
         are, at best, totally  incompetent to comprehend Nature. It
         is also unlikely that our  Earth's physical conditions of
         temperature, atmosphere, density  and so on, which some still
         regard as essential to Life, are  found frequently; we are
         only one of nine planets ourselves, and  it is absurd to deny
         that life exists on the others, or in the  Sun himself, just
         because the conditions of our own life are  absent elsewhere.
         Such Life and Mind may therefore be utterly different to
         anything we know of; the `girders' of their souls in other
         spheres may be other than ours.  The above argument is a case
         of a `girder;' we are bound mentally by our race-experience
         of the environment in which our  own lives flourish. A
         pioneer choosing a camp must look for  wood, water, perhaps
         shelter, perhaps game. In another planet he  might not need
         any of these. The `girders' which deternmine the `form' of
         our souls are  therefor limitations to our thought, as well
         as supports. In the  same way, rails help a train to run
         easily, but confine it to a  definite direction.  The `laws'
         of Nature and Thought, Mathematics, Logic, and so  on, are
         `girders' of this sort.  Our race-inherited conceptions of
         space prevented men, until quite recent years, from
         conceiving a non-Euclidean geometry, or  the existence of a
         fourth Dimension.  The initiate soon becomes aware of the
         un-truth of many of  these limiting laws of his mind; he has
         to identify Being with  not-Being, to perceive Matter as
         continuous and homogeneous, and  so for many another Truth,
         apprehended directly by pure  perception, and consequently
         not to be refuted by syllogistic  methods. The Laws of Logic
         are thus discovered to be  superficial, and their scope only
         partial.  (It is significant in this connexion that such
         advanced  thinkers as the Hon. Bertrand Russell have found
         themselves  obliged to refer mathematical laws to Logic; it
         seems to have escaped them that the Laws of Logic are no more
         than the  statement of the limitations of their own
         intelligence. I quote  The Book of Lies, KE . ME: `CHINESE
         MUSIC.  `Explain this happening!'  `It must have a `natural'
         cause.'     ) `It must have a `supernatural' cause.')  Let
         these two asses be set to grind corn.   May, might,must,
         should, probably, may be, we may safely  assume, ought, it is
         hardly questionable, almost certainly -- poor hacks! let them
         be turned out to grass!  Proof is only possible in
         mathematics, and mathematics is only a  matter of arbitrary
         conventions. And yet doubt is a good servant but a bad
         master; a perfect  mistress, but a nagging wife. `White is
         white' is the lash of the overseer; `white is black' is the
         watchword of the slave. The Master takes no  heed. The
         chinese cannot help thinking that the octave has 5 notes. The
         more necessary anything appears to my mind, the more certain
         it is that I only assert a limitation. I slept with Faith,
         and found a corpse in my arms on awaking; I  drank and danced
         all night with Doubt, and found her a virgin in  the
         morning.') Now then consider the man whose soul has
         thoroughly explored  its structure, is actively conscious of
         its `girders' of axiom.  He must find that they confine him
         like prison bars, when he  would gain the freedom of the
         initiate.  In this verse therefore doth the God `enthroned in
         RA's  seat' declare that his Word lightens (or removes) the
         oppression of these `girders of the soul.'  The study of this
         chapter is accordingly a sould preparatory course for
         whosoever will become Initiate.  See also the six verses
         following this; the word increases in  value as the reader
         advances on the Path, just as a  Rembrandt is  a `pretty
         picture' to the peasant, a `fine work of art' to  the
         educated man, but to the lover of Beauty a sublime
         masterpiece, the greater as he grows himself in greatness.

         62.    This seems to indicate the means to be used in freeing
         the  soul from its `girders'.  We have seen that
         Ra-Hoor-Khuit is in one sense the Silent Self in a man, a
         Name of his Khabs, not so impersonal as Hadit,  but the first
         and least untrue formulation of the Ego. We are to  reverse
         this self in us, then ,not to suppress it and  subordinate
         it. Nor are we to evade it, but to come to it. This  is done
         `through tribulation of ordeal'. This tribulation is  that
         experienced in the process called Psychoanalysis, now that
         official science has adopted -- so far as its inferior
         intelligence permits -- the methods of the magus. But the
         `ordeal' is `bliss'; the solution of each complex by
         `tribulation' -- note the etymological significance of the
         word!  -- is the spasm of joy which is the physiological and
         psychological accompaniment of any relief from strain and
         congestion.

         63.    The Fool is also the Great Fool, Bacchus Diphues,
         Harpocrates, the Dwarf-Self, the Holy Guardian Angel, and so
         forth. `He understandeth it not', that is, he understandeth
         that it is NOT, LA, 31.  But the above is only the secondary
         or hieroglyphic magical  meaning. The plain English still
         discusses the technique of  initiation. The `fool', is one
         such as described in my note on  verse 57. The vain, soft,
         frivolous, idle, mutable sot will make  nothing either of
         this Book, or of my comment thereon. But this  fool is the
         child Harpocrates, the `Babe in the Egg', the  innocent not
         yet born, in silence awaiting his hour to come  forth into
         light. He is then the uninitiated man, and he has  four
         ordeals to pass before he is made perfect. These ordeals  are
         now to be described.

         64.    The `Tree of Life' in the Qabalah represents ten
         spheres  arranged in three pillars, the central one of these
         containing  four, and the others three each. These spheres
         are attributed to  certain numbers, planets, metals, and many
         other groups of  things; indeed all things may be referred to
         one or other of  them. (See Book 4 Part III and Liber 777).
         The four ordeals now  to be described represent the ascent of
         the aspirant from the  tenth and lowest of these spheres,
         which refers to the Earth,  unregenerate and confused, in
         which the aspirant is born. He  riseth in the first ordeal to
         the sphere called the Foundation,  numbered 9, and
         containing, among other ideas, those of the  generative
         organs, Air, the Moon, and Silver. Its secret Truth  is that
         Stability is identical with Change; of this we are  reminded
         by the fact that any multiple of 9 has 9 for the sum of  its
         digits.  The initiate will now perceive that the sum of the
         motions of  his mind is zero, while, below their moon-like
         phases and their  Air-like divinations, the sex-consciousness
         abides untouched,  the true Foundation of the Temple of his
         body, the Root of the  Tree of Life that grows from Earth to
         Heaven. This Book is now  to him `as silver.' He sees it
         pure, white and shining, the  mirror of his own being that
         this ordeal has purged of its  complexes. To reach this
         sphere he has had to pass through a  path of darkness where
         the Four Elements seem to him to be the  Universe entire. For
         how should he know that they are no more that the last of the
         22 segments of the Snake that is twined on  the Tree?
         Assailed by gross phantoms of matter, unreal and
         unintelligible, his ordeal is of terror and darkness. He may
         pass only by favour of his own silent God, extended and
         exalted  within him by virtue of his conscious act in
         affronting the  ordeal.

         65.    The next sphere reached by the aspirant is named
         Beauty,  numbered 6, and referred to the hear, to the Sun,
         and to Gold.  Here he is called an `Adept'. The secret Truth
         in this place  is that God is Man, symbolized by the
         Hexagram, (in which two  triangles are interlaced).  In the
         last sphere he learnt that his Body was the Temple of  the
         Rosy Cross, that is, that it was given him as a place
         wherein to perform the Magical Work of uniting the
         oppositions  in his Nature. Here he is taught that his Heart
         is the Centre of  Light. It is not dark, mysterious, hollow,
         obscure even to  himself, but his soul is to dwell there,
         radiating Light on the  six spheres which surround it; these
         represent the various  powers of his mind. This Book now
         appears to him as Gold; it is  the perfect metal, the symbol
         of the Sun itself. He sees God  everywhere therein.  To this
         sphere hath the aspirant come by the Path called  Temperance,
         shot as an arrow from a Rainbow. He hath beheld the  Light,
         but only in division. Nor had he won to this sphere except by
         Temperance, under which name we mask the art of  pouring
         freely forth the whole of our Life, to the last spilth  of
         our blood, yet losing never the least drop thereof.

         66.    Now once again the adept aspires and comes to the
         sphere  called the Crown numbered 1, referred ;to the God
         Ra-Hoor-Khuit  himself in man, to the Beginning of Whirling
         Motions, and the  First Mode of Matter. (See Liber 777, the
         Equinox, and Book 4  for these attributions.) Its secret
         Truth is that Earth is  Heaven as Heaven is Earth, and shows
         the aspirant to himself as being a star. All that seemed to
         him reality is not even to be  deemed illusion, but all one
         light infusing star and star. The  Many, each of them, are
         the One; each individual, no twain  alike, yet all identical;
         this he knows and is, for now the Word  hath lightened his
         soul's girders. (The logic of the Ruach --  the normal
         intellect -- is transcended in Spiritual Experience.  It is,
         evidently, impossible to `explain' how this can be.) In the
         Number 6 he saw God interlocked with man, two  trinities made
         one; but here he knows that there was never but  one.   Thus
         now this Book is `stones of precious water'; its Light  is
         not the borrowed light of gold, but is shed through the Book
         itself, clearsparkling, flashed from its facets. Each phrase
         is  a diamond; each is diverse, yet all identical. In each
         the one Light laughs!  Now to this sphere came he by the Path
         called the High Priestess; She is his Silent Self, virgin
         beyond all veils, made  free to teach him, by virtue of this
         third ordeal wherein,  passing through the abyss, he has
         stripped from him every rag of  falsehood, his last
         complexes, even his phantasy that he called  `I'. And so he
         knows at last now the soiled harlot's dress was  mere
         disguise; naked in Moonlight shines the maiden Body!

         220A3-5.ASC

         67.    Beyond the one, how shall he pass on? What is this
         One, which  is in every place the Centre of All? Indeed the
         logic-girders of  our souls need lightening, if we would win
         to freedom of such  Truth as this!  Now in the `stones of
         precious water' the Light leapt clear  indeed, but they were
         not themselves that Light. This sphere of  the One is indeed
         Ra-Hoor-Khuit; is not our Crowned and  Conquering Child the
         source of Light? Nay, he is finite form of  Unity, child of
         two married infinities; and in this last ordeal  the aspirant
         must go beyond even his Star, finding therein the core
         thereof Hadit, and losing it also in the Body of Nuith.  Here
         is no Path that he may tread, for all is equally  everywhere;
         nor is there any sphere to attain, for measure is  now no
         more.  There are no words to make known the Way; this only is
         said,  that to him that hath passed through this fourth
         ordeal this  Book is as `ultimate sparks'. Now more do they
         reflect or transmit the Light; they themselves are the
         original, the not- to-be-analysed Light, of the `intimate
         fire' of Hadit! He shall  see the Book as it is, as a shower
         of the Seed of the Stars!

         68.    To all; i.e. to Pan; or to Al.   The sudden
         degradation of the style and the subject, the  petulance of
         the point of view; what should these things  intend?  It
         sounds as though the scribe had protested violently in his
         mind against the chapter, and was especially aggrieved at the
         first paragraph of this verse, which, taken at its face
         value,  promises a phenomenon impossible in literature. The
         second  phrase may then be a contemptuous slap at the scribe
         who was  perhaps thinking `Well, it seems otherwise to me,
         for one!'  and the hit was a bull's eye; for I was a mere
         liar when I  thought it. I was so enraged at having engaged
         myself on such an  adventure, so hated `the hand and the pen'
         which I pledged to transcribe sentiments so repugnant to
         mine, such a jargon of  absurdities and vulgarities as seemed
         to me displayed in many  parts of this third chapter, that I
         would have gone to almost  any length, short of deliberate
         breach of my thoughtless promise  to my wife to see it
         through, to discredit the Book. I did  deface my diaries with
         senseless additions; I did carry out my  orders in such a way
         as to ensure failure, I did lose the  Manuscript more or less
         purposely. I did threaten to publish the  Book `to get rid of
         it'; and at this verse I was one of the  `mere liars'. For
         its Beauty already constrained even the world- infected man,
         the nigh-disillusioned poet, the clinker-clogged lover, the
         recusant mystic. And, as I know now, the thought that  all
         these things were myself was a lie. Yet the Liar was at
         pains to lie to itself! Why did it so? It knew that one day
         this  Book would shine out and dissolve it; it feared and
         hated the  Book; and, gnashing its teeth, aware falsely, and
         denied the  Beauty that bound it.  As for my true Self,
         silent abiding its hour, is not this  Book to it the very
         incarnation of Beauty? What is Beauty but  the perfect
         expression of one's own Truth? And is not this Book  the Word
         of Aiwaz, and is not He mine Holy Guardian Angel, the  master
         of my Silent Self, His virgin bride on whom His love hath
         wrought the mystery of Identity?

         69.    My memory tells me that the word `there' was not
         emphasized. Read, then, `there is' as the French `Il lY A';
         it is simple and apparently detached statement. It was spoken
         casually, carelessly, as if a quite unimportant point had
         been  forgotten, and now mentioned as a concession to my
         weakness.

          70.    It is important to observe that He claims to be both
         Horus  and Harpocrates; and this two-in-one is a Unity
         combining Tao  and Teh, Matter & Motion, Being & Form. This
         is natural, for in  Him must exist the Root of the Dyad.  `my
         nemyss' (better spelt `nemmes') is the regular head- dress of
         a God. It is a close cap, but with wings behind the  ears
         which end in lappets that fall in front of the shoulders.  It
         is gathered at the nape of the neck into a cylindrical
         `pigtail'. I think the shape is meant to suggest the Royal
         Uracus serpent.  It `shrouds the night-blue sky' because the
         actual light  shed by the God when he is invoked is of this
         colour. It may  also mean that he conceals Nuith.  The Hawk's
         Head symbolizes keen sight, swift action, courage  and
         mobility.

         71.    This is a clear statement as to the War which was to
         come,  and did come, in 1914 E.V.  I now (An XIX   in   ) no
         longer agree with the above paragraph. I think `the pillars
         of the world' mean `the  Pillars of Hercules' -- about the
         Straits of Gibraltar. And I  think the really big war will
         start there.  P.S. an (Sept.8, '37, E.V.) Can `twin warriors'
         imply a  civil war? The Spanish troubles started in S.Spain
         and  Morocco.

         72.    `The Double Wand of Power' is a curious variant of the
         common `Wand of Double Power'; the general meaning is `I
         control alike the Forces of Active and Passive'.  `Coph Nia':
         the original MS. has ---- left incomplete as  not having been
         properly heard. The present text was filled in  later in her
         own hand by the first Scarlet Woman.  The Egyptian Gods are
         usually represented as bearing an Ankh,  or sandal-strap, in
         the left hand, the wand being in the right.  This ankh
         signifies the power to go, characteristic of a god.  But
         apparently Ra Hoor Khuit had an Universe in his left  hand,
         and crushed it so that naught remains. I think this
         `Universe' is that of monistic metaphysics; in one hand is
         the  `Double Wand', in the other `naught'. This seems to
         refer to  the `none and Two' ontology outlined in previous
         notes.

         73.    This might have been done, of course, in several ways.
         I  chose that which seemed most practical. So far I have
         noticed  nothing remarkable.

         74.    I suspect some deeper and more startling arcanum than
         the Old  Comment indicates; but I have not yet discovered it.
         An XVI,     in   .

         75.    Aum is of course the Sanskrit `Word' familiar to most
         students. (See Book 4 Part III). Ha is a way of spelling the
         letter whose value is 5 so that it shall add to 6. this
         uniting  the 5 and the 6 is a symbol of the Great Work.