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Liber Samekh Theurgia Goetia Summae
LIBER SAMEKH
Theurgia Goetia Summa
(CONGRESSUS CUM DAEMONE)
sub figura DCCC
Being the Ritual employed by the Beast 666 for the Attainment of
the Knowledge and Conversation of his Holy Guardian Angel during the
Semester of His performance of the Operation of the Sacred Magick of
ABRAMELIN THE MAGE.
(Prepared An XVII Sun in Virgo at the Abbey of Thelema in Cephalaedium
by the Beast 666 in service to FRATER PROGRADIOR.)
OFFICIAL PUBLICATION of A: A: Class D for the Grade of Adeptus Minor.
POINT
I
EVANGELII TEXTUS REDACTUS
The Invocation.
Magically restored, with the significance of the
BARBAROUS NAMES
Etymologically or Qabalistically determined and paraphrased in English.
Section A. The Oath.
1. Thee I invoke, the Bornless One.
2. Thee, that didst create the Earth and the Heavens.
3. Thee, that didst create the Night and the Day.
4. Thee, that didst create the darkness and the Light.
5. Thou art ASAR UN-NEFER ("Myself made Perfect"):
Whom no man hath seen at any time.
6. Thou art IA-BESZ ("the Truth in Matter").
7. Thou art IA-APOPHRASZ ("the Truth in Motion").
8. Thou hast distinguished between the Just and the Unjust.
9. Thou didst make the Female and the Male.
10. Thou didst produce the Seeds and the Fruit.
11. Thou didst form Men to love one another, and to hate one
another.
Section Aa.
1. I am ANKH - F - N - KHONSU hy Prophet, unto Whom Thou didst
commit Thy Mysteries, the Ceremonies of KHEM.
2. Thou didst produce the moist and the dry, and that which
nourisheth all created Life.
3. Hear Thou Me, for I am the Angel of PTAH - APO - PHRASZ - RA
(vide the Rubric): this is Thy True Name, handed down to the
Prophets of KHEM.
Section B. Air.
Hear Me: ---
AR "O breathing, flowing Sun!"
ThIAF1 "O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun, The
Beast that whirlest forth, a thunder-
bolt, begetter of Life!"
RhEIBET "Thou that flowest! Thou that goest!"
A-ThELE-BER-SET "Thou Satan-Sun Hadith that goest
without Will!"
A "Thou Air! Breath! Spirit! Thou
without bound or bond!"
BELAThA "Thou Essence, Air Swift-streaming,
Elasticity!"
ABEU "Thou Wanderer, Father of All!"
EBEU "Thou Wanderer, Spirit of All!"
PhI-ThETA-SOE "Thou Shining Force of Breath! Thou
Lion-Serpent Sun! Thou Saviour,
save!"
IB "Thou Ibis, secret solitary Bird, inviolate
Wisdom, whose Word in Truth,
creating the World by its Magick!"
ThIAF "O Sun IAF! O Lion-Serpent Sun, The
Beas that whirlest forth, a thunder-
bolt, begetter of Life!"
(The conception is of Air, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic
Bird, "the Holy Ghost", of a Mercurial Nature.)
Hear me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me; so that every
Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and
under the Earth, on dry land and in the water; of Whirling Air,
and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of God may be
obedient unto Me.
----------------
1. The letter F is used to represent the Hebrew Vau and the Greek
Digamma; its sound lies between those of the English long o and long oo,
as in Rope and Tooth.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Section C. Fire.
I invoke Thee, the Terrible and Invisible God: Who dwellest in
the Void Place of the Spirit: ---
AR-O-GO-GO-RU-ABRAO "Thou spiritual Sun! Satan, Thou
Eye, Thou Lust! Cry aloud! Cry
aloud! Whirl the Wheel, O my
Father, O Satan, O Sun!"
SOTOU "Thou, the Saviour!"
MUDORIO "Silence! Give me Thy Secret!"
PhALARThAO "Give me suck, Thou Phallus, Thou
Sun!"
OOO "Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!"
"Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!"
"Satan, thou Eye, thou Lust!"
AEPE "Thou self-caused, self-determined,
exalted, Most High!"
The Bornless One. (Vide supra).
(The conception is of Fire, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic
Lion of a Uranian nature.)
Hear Me, and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every
Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and
under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling
Air, and of rushing Fire, and every Spell and Scourge of God
may be obedient unto Me.
Section D. Water.
Hear Me: ---
RU-ABRA-IAF1 "Thou the Wheel, thou the Womb,
that containeth the Father IAF!"
MRIODOM "Thou the Sea, the Abode!"
BABALON-BAL-BIN-ABAFT "Babalon! Thou Woman of Whoredom"
----------------
1. See, for the formula of IAF, or rather FIAOF, Book 4 Part III,
Chapter V. The form FIAOF will be found preferable in practice.
-268-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
"Thou, Gate of the Great God ON!
Thou Lady of the Understanding of
the Ways!"
ASAL-ON-AI "Hail Thou, the unstirred! Hail,
sister and bride of ON, of the God
that is all and is none, by the Power
of Eleven!"
APhEN-IAF "Thou Treasure of IAO!"
I "Thou Virgin twin-sexed! Thou Secret
Seed! Thou inviolate Wisdom!"
PhOTETh "Abode of the Light .................
ABRASAX "......of the Father, the Sun, of
Hadith, of the spell of the Aeon
of Horus!"
AEOOU "Our Lady of the Western Gate of
Heaven!"
ISChURE "Mighty art Thou!"
Mighty and Bornless One! (Vide Supra)
(The conception is of Water, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic
Dragon-Serpent, of a Neptunian nature.)
Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every
Spirit of the Firmament and of the Ether: upon the Earth and
under the Earth: on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air,
and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be
obedient unto Me.
Section E. Earth.
I invoke Thee: ---
MA "O Mother! O Truth!"
BARRAIO "Thou Mass!"1
IOEL "Hail, Thou that art!"
KOThA "Thou hollow one!"
----------------
1. "Mass", in the sense of the word which is used by physicists. The
impossibility of defining it will not deter the intrepid initiate (in view of
the fact that the fundamental conception is beyond the normal categories
of reason.)
-269-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
AThOR-e-BAL-O "Thou Goddess of Beauty and Love,
whom Satan, beholding, desireth!"
ABRAFT "The Fathers, male-female, desire
Thee!"
(The conception of of Earth, glowing, inhabited by a Solar-Phallic
Hippopotamus1 of a Venereal nature.)
Hear Me: and make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every
Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether: upon The Earth and
under the Earth: on dry land and in the Water: of Whirling Air,
and of rushing Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be
obedient unto Me.
Section F. Spirit.
Hear Me:
AFT "Male-Female Spirits!"
ABAFT "Male-Female Sires!"
BAS-AUMGN "Ye that are Gods, going forth, uttering
AUMGN. (The Word that goeth
from
(A) Free Breath.
(U) through Willed Breath.
(M) and stopped Breath.
(GN) to Continuous Breath.
thus symbolizing the whole course of
spiritual life. A is the formless Hero;
U is the six-fold solar sound of physical
life, the triangle of Soul being
entwined with that of Body; M is the
silence of "death"; GN is the nasal
sound of generation & knowledge.
ISAK "Identical Point!"
SA-BA-FT "Nuith! Hadith! Ra-Hoor-Khuit!"
"Hail, Great Wild Beast!"
"Hail, IAO!"
----------------
1. Sacred to AHAThOOR. The idea is that of the Female conceived
as invulnerable, reposeful, of enormous swallowing capacity etc.
-270-
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Section Ff.
1. This is the Lord of the Gods:
2. This is the Lord of the Universe:
3. This is He whom the Winds fear.
4. This is He, Who having made Voice by His commandment
is Lord of all Things; King, Ruler and Helper. Hear Me, and
make all Spirits subject unto Me: so that every Spirit of the Firmament
and of the Ether: upon the Earth and under the Earth:
on dry Land and in the Water: of Whirling Air, and of rushing
Fire: and every Spell and Scourge of God may be obedient unto Me.
Section G. Spirit.
Hear Me:
IEOU "Indwelling Sun of Myself"
PUR "Thou Fire! Thou Sixfold Star initiator
compassed about with Force and Fire!"
IOU "Indwelling Soul of Myself"
PUR (Vide Supra)
IAFTh "Sun-lion Serpent, hail! All Hail, thou
Great Wild Beast, thou I A O!"
IAEO "Breaths of my soul, breaths of mine
Angel."
IOOU "Lust of my soul, lust of mine Angel!"
ABRASAX (Vide Supra).
SABRIAM "Ho for the Sangraal! Ho for the Cup
of Babalon! Ho for mine Angel
pouring Himself forth within my
Soul!"
OO "The Eye! Satan, my Lord! The Lust
of the goat!"
FF "Mine Angel! Mine initiator! Thou
one with me --- the Sixfold Star!"
AD-ON-A-I1 "My Lord! My secret self beyond self,
Hadith, All Father! Hail, ON, thou
Sun, thou Life of Man, thou Fivefold
Sword of Flame! Thou Goat exalted
upon Earth in Lust, thou Snake
extended upon Earth in Life! Spirit
most holy! Seed most Wise! Innocent
Babe. Inviolate Maid! Begetter
of Being! Soul of all Souls! Word
of all Words, Come forth, most
hidden Light!"
EDE "Devour thou me!"
EDU "Thou dost devour Me!"
ANGELOS TON ThEON "Thou Angel of the Gods!"
ANLALA "Arise thou in Me, free flowing, Thou
who art Naught, who art Naught, and
utter thy Word!"
LAI "I also am Naught! I Will Thee! I
behold Thee! My nothingness!"
GAIA "Leap up, thou Earth!"
(This is also an agonising appeal to the
Earth, the Mother; for at this point
of the ceremony the Adept should be
torn from his mortal attachments, and
----------------
1. In Hebrew, ADNI, YNDA, 65. The Gnostic Initiates transliterated it to
imply their own secret formulae; we follow so excellent an example. ON
is an Arcanum of Arcana; its significance is taught, gradually, in the
O.T.O. Also AD is the paternal formula, Hadit; ON is its complement
NUIT; the final Yod signifies "mine" etymologically and essentially the
Mercurial (transmitted) hermaphroditic virginal seed --- The Hermit of the
Taro --- The use of the name is therefore to invoke one's own inmost
secrecy, considered as the result of the conjunction of Nuit and Hadit. If
the second A is included, its import is to affirm the operation of the Holy
Ghost and the formulation of the Babe in the Egg, which precedes the
appearance of the Hermit.
-272-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
die to himself in the orgasm of his
operation.1)
AEPE "Thou Exalted One! It (i.e. the spritual
'semen', the Adept's secret ideas,
drawn irresistibly from their 'Hell'2
by the love of his Angel) leaps up; it
leaps forth!3
DIATHARNA THORON "Lo! the out-splashing of the seeds of
Immortality"
Section Gg. The Attainment.
1. I am He! the Bornless Spirit! having sight in the feet:
Strong, and the Immortal Fire!
2. I am He! the Truth!
3. I am He! Who hate that evil should be wrought in the
World!
4. I am He, that lighteneth and thundereth!
5. I am He, from whom is the Shower of the Life of Earth!
6. I am He, whose mouth ever flameth!
7. I am He, the Begetter and Manifester unto the Light!
8. I am He, The Grace of the Worlds!
9. "The Heart Girt with a Serpent" is my name!
Section H. The "Charge to the Spirit".
Come thou forth, and follow me: and make all Spirits subject
unto Me so that every Spirit of the Firmament, and of the Ether,
upon the Earth and under the Earth: on dry Land, or in the
Water: of Whirling Air or of rushing Fire, and every Spell and
scourge of God, may be obedient unto me!
Section J. The Proclamation of the Beast 666.
IAF: SABAF4
Such are the Words!
----------------
1. A thorough comprehension of Psycho-analysis will contribute notably
to the proper appreciation of this Ritual.
2. It is said among men that the word Hell deriveth from the word
"helan", to hele or conceal, in the tongue of the Anglo-Saxons. That is,
it is the concealed place, which since all things are in thine own self,
is the unconscious. Liber CXI (Aleph) cap Ds
3. But compare the use of the same word in section C.
4. See explanation in Point II.
-273-
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
POINT
II
ARS CONGRESSUS CUM DAEMONE.
SECTION A. Let the Adeptus Minor be standing in this circle on the
square of Tiphereth, armed with his Wand and Cup; but let him
perform the Ritual throughout in his Body of Light. He may burn
the Cakes of Light, or the Incense of Abramelin; he may be
prepared by Liber CLXXV, the reading of Liber LXV, and by the
practices of Yoga. He may invoke Hadit by "... wine and strange
drugs" if he so will.1 He prepares the circle by the usual
formulae of Banishing and Consecration, etc.
He recites Section A as a rehearsal before His Holy Guardian
Angel of the attributes of that Angel. Each phrase must be
realized with full concentration of force, so as to make Samadhi
as perfectly as possible upon the truth proclaimed.
Line 1 He identifies his Angel with the Ain Soph, and the Kether
thereof; one formulation of Hadit in the boundless Body of Nuith.
Line 2,3,4 He asserts that His Angel has created (for the purpose of
self-realization through projection in conditioned Form) three
pairs of opposites: (a) The Fixed and the Volatile; (b) The
Unmanifested and the Manifest; and © the Unmoved and the Moved.
Otherwise, the Negative and the Positive in respect of Matter,
Mind and Motion.
Line 5 He acclaims his Angel as "Himself Made Perfect"; adding that
this Individuality is inscrutable in inviolable. In the Neophyte
Ritual of
----------------
1. Any such formula should be used only when the adept has full
knowledge based on experience of the management of such matters.
-274-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
G: D: (As it is printed in Equinox I, II, for the old aeon) the
Hierophant is the perfected Osiris, who brings the candidate, the
natural Osiris, to identity with himself. But in the new Aeon
the Hierophant is Horus (Liber CCXX, I, 49) therefore the
Candidate will be Horus too. What then is the formula of the
initiation of Horus? It will no longer be that of the Man,
through Death. It will be the natural growth of the Child. His
experiences will no more be regarded as catastrophic. Their
hieroglyph is the Fool: the innocent and impotent Harpocrates
Babe becomes the Horus Adult by obtaining the Wand. "Der reine
Thor" seizes the Sacred Lance. Bacchus becomes Pan. The Holy
Guardian Angel is the Unconscious Creature Self --- the Spiritual
Phallus. His knowledge and conversation contributes occult
puberty. It is therefore advisable to replace the name Asar Un-
nefer by that of Ra-Hoor-Khuit at the outset, and by that of
one's own Holy Guardian Angel when it has been communicated.
Line 6 He hails Him as BESZ, the Matter that destroys
and devours Godhead, for the purpose of the
Incarnation of any God.
Line 7 He hails Him as APOPHRASZ, the Motion that destroys and
devours Godhead, for the purpose of the Incarnation of any God.
The combined action of these two DEVILS is to allow the God upon
whom they prey to enter into enjoyment of existence through the
Sacrament of dividual "Life" (Bread --- the flesh of BESZ) and
"Love" (Wine --- the blood or venom of AOPHRASZ).
Line 8 He acclaims His Angel as having "eaten of the Fruit of the
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil"; otherwise, having become
wise (in the Dyad, Chokmah) to apprehend the formula of
Equilibrium which is now His own, being able to apply Himself
accurately to His self-appointed environment.
Line 9 He acclaims His Angel as having laid down the Law of Love as
the Magical formula of the Universe, that He may resolve the
phenomenal again into its noumenal phase by uniting any two
opposites in ecstasic passion.
Line 10 He acclaims His Angel as having appointed that this formula of
Love should effect not only the dissolution of the separateness
of the Lovers into His own impersonal Godhead, but their co-
ordination in a "Child" quintessentialized from its parents to
constitute a higher order of Being than theirs, so that each
generation is an alchemical progress towards perfection in the
direction of successive complexities. As Line 9 asserts
Involution, Line 10 asserts Evolution.
Line 11 He acclaims His Angel as having devised this method of self-
realization; the object of Incarnation is to obtain its reactions
to its relations with other incarnated Beings and to observe
theirs with each other.
----------
Section Aa.
Line 1 The Adept asserts his right to enter into conscious
communication with His Angel, on the ground that that Angel has
Himself taught him the Secret Magick by which he may make the
proper link. "Mosheh" is M H, the formation in Jechidah, Chiah,
Neshamah, Ruach, --- The Sephiroth from Kether to Yesod --- since
45 is S 1-9 while Sh, 300, is S 1-24, which superadds to these
Nine an extra Fifteen numbers. (See in Liber D,
the meanings and correspondences of 9, 15, 24, 45, 300, 345.)
45 is moreover A D M, MDA, man. "Mosheh" is thus the name of
man as a God-concealing form. But in the Ritual let the Adept
replace this "Mosheh" by his own motto as Adeptus Minor. For
"Ishrael" let him prefer his own Magical Race, according to the
obligations of his Oaths to Our Holy Order! (The Beast 666
Himself used "Ankh-f-n-Khonsu" and "Khem" in this section.)
Line 2 The Adept reminds his Angel that He has created That One
Substance of which Hermes hath written in the Table of Emerald,
whose virtue is to unite in itself all opposite modes of Being,
thereby to serve as a Talisman charged with the Spiritual Energy
of Existence, an Elixir or Stone composed of the physical basis
of Life. This Commemoration is placed between the two personal
appeals to the Angel, as if to claim privilege to partake of this
Eucharist which createth, sustaineth and redeemeth all things.
Line 3 He now asserts that he is himself the "Angel" or messenger of
his Angel; that is, that he is a mind and body whose office is to
receive and transmit the Word of his Angel. He hails his Angel
not only as "un-nefer" the Perfection of "Asar" himself as a man,
but as Ptah-Apophrasz-Ra, the identity (Hadit) wrapped in the
Dragon (Nuit) and thereby manifested as a Sun (Ra-Hoor-Khuit).
The "Egg" (or Heart) "girt with a Serpent" is a cognate symbol;
the idea is thus expressed later in the ritual. (See Liber LXV.
which expands this to the uttermost.)
Section B The Adept passes from contemplation to action in the sections
now following B to Gg. He is to travel astrally around the
circle, making the appropriate pentagrams, sigils, and signs.
His direction is widdershins. He thus makes three curves, each
covering three- fourths of the circle. He should give the sign
of the Enterer on passing the Kiblah, or Direction of Boleskine.
This picks up the force naturally radiating from that point1
and projects it in the direction of the path of the Magician.
The sigils are those given in the Equinox Vol. I, No. 7, Plate X
outside the square;
the signs those shewn in Vol. I, No. 2, Plate "The Signs of the
Grades". In these invocations he should expand his girth and his
stature to the utmost2, assuming the form and the consciousness
of the elemental god of the quarter. After this, he begins to
vibrate the "Barbarous Names" of the Ritual.
Now let him not only fill his whole being to the uttermost
with the force of the Names; but let him formulate his Will,
understood thoroughly as the dynamic aspect of his Creative Self,
in an appearance symbolically apt, I say not in the form of a Ray
of Light, of a Fiery Sword, or of aught save that bodily Vehicle
of the Holy Ghost which is sacred to BAPHOMET, by its virtue that
concealeth the Lion and the Serpent that His Image may appear
adorably upon the Earth for ever.
Let then the Adept extend his Will beyond the Circle in this
imagined Shape and let it radiate with the Light proper to the
element invoked, and let each Word issue along the Shaft with
passionate impulse, as if its voice gave command thereto that it
should thrust itself leapingly forward. Let also each Word
accumulate authority, so that the Head of the Shaft may plunge
twice as far for the Second Word as for the First, and Four Times
for
----------------
1. This is an assumption based on Liber Legis II, 78 and III, 34.
2. Having experience of success in the practices of Liber 536, BATRAXO-
"RENOBOOKOSMOMAXIA.
-278-
--------------------------------------------------------------------
the Third as the Second, and thus to the end. Moreover, let the
Adept fling forth his whole consciousness thither. Then at the
final Word, let him bring rushing back his Will within himself,
steadily streaming, and let him offer himself to its point, as
Artemis to PAN, that this perfectly pure concentration of the
Element purge him thoroughly, and possess him with its passion.
In this Sacrament being wholly at one with that Element, let
the Adept utter the Charge "Hear me, and make", etc. with strong
sense that this unity with that quarter of the Universe confers
upon him the fullest freedom and privilege appurtenant thereto.
Let the Adept take note of the wording of the Charge. The
"Firmament" is the Ruach, the "mental plane"; it is the realm of
Shu, or Zeus, where revolves the Wheel of the Gunas, the Three
forms1 of Being. The Aethyr is the
----------------
1. They correspond to the Sulphur, Mercury, and Salt of Alchemy; to
Sattvas, Rajas, and Tamas in the Hindu system; and are rather modes of
action than actual qualities even when conceived as latent. They are the
apparatus of communication between the planes; as such, they are
conventions. There is no absolute validity in any means of mental
apprehension; but unless we make these spirits of the Firmament subject
unto us by establishing right relation (within the possible limits) with the
Universe, we shall fall into error when we develop our new instrument of
direct understanding. It is vital that the Adept should train his intellectual
faculties to tell him the truth, in the measure of their capacity. To despise
the mind on account of its limitations is the most disastrous blunder; it is
the common cause of the calamities which strew so many shores with the
wreckage of the Mystic Armada. Bigotry, Arrogance, Bewilderment, all
forms of mental and moral disorder, so often observed in people of great
spiritual attainment, have brought the Path itself into discredit; almost all
such catastrophes are due to trying to build the Temple of the Spirit
without proper attention to the mental laws of structure and the physical
necessities of foundation. The mind must be brought to its utmost pitch
of perfection, but according to its own internal properties; one cannot feed
a microscope on mutton chops. It must be regarded as a mechanical
-279-
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
"akasha", the "Spirit", the Aethyr or physics, which is the
framework on which all forms are founded; it receives, records
and transmits all impulses without itself suffering mutation
thereby. The "Earth" is the sphere wherein the operation of
these "fundamental" and aethyric forces appears to perception.
"Under the Earth" is the world of those phenomena which inform
those perceived projections, and determine their particular
character. "Dry land" is the place of dead "material things",
dry (i.e. unknowable) because unable to act on our minds.
"Water" is the vehicle whereby we feel such things; "air" their
menstruum wherein these feelings are mentally apprehended. It is
called "whirling" because of the instability of thought, and the
fatuity of reason, on which we are yet dependent for what we call
"life". "Rushing Fire" is the world in which wandering thought
burns up to swift-darting Will. These four stages explain how
the non-Ego is transmuted into the
----------------
(footnote continued from page 279)
instrument of knowledge, independent of the personality of its possessor.
One must treat it exactly as one treats one's electroscope or one's eyes; one
influence of one's wishes. A physician calls in a colleague to attend to his
own family, knowing that personal anxiety may derange his judgment. A
microscopist who trusts his eyes when his pet theory is at stake may falsify
the facts, and find too late that he has made a fool of himself.
In the case of initiations itself, history is scarred with the wounds
inflicted by this Dagger. It reminds us constantly of the danger of relying
upon the intellectual faculties. A judge must know the law in every point,
and be detached from personal prejudices, and incorruptible, or iniquity will
triumph. Dogma, with persecution, delusion, paralysis of progress, and
many another evil, as its satraps, has always established a tyranny when
Genius has proclaimed it. Islam making a bonfire of written Wisdom,
and Haeckel forging biological evidence; physicists ignorant of radioactivity
disputing the conclusions of geology, and theologians impatient of truth
struggling against the tide of thought; all such must perish at the hands of
their own error in making their minds, internally defective or externally
deflected, the measure of the Universe.
-280-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ego. A "Spell" of God is any form of consciousness, and a
"Scourge" any form of action.
The Charge, as a whole, demands for the Adept the control of
every detail of the Universe which His Angel has created as a
means of manifesting Himself to Himself. It covers command of
the primary projection of the Possible in individuality, in the
antithetical artifice which is the device of Mind, and in a
balanced triplicity of modes or states of being whose
combinations constitute the characteristics of Cosmos. It
includes also a standard of structure, a rigidity to make
reference possible. Upon these foundations of condition which
are not things in themselves, but the canon to which things
conform, is builded the Temple of Being, whose materials are
themselves perfectly mysterious, inscrutable as the Soul, and
like the Soul imagining themselves by symbols which we may feel,
perceive, and adapt to our use without ever knowing the whole
Truth about them. The Adept sums up all these items by claiming
authority over every form of expression possible to Existence,
whether it be a "spell" (idea) or a "scourge" (act) of "God",
that is, of himself. The Adept must accept every "spirit", every
"spell", every "scourge", as part of his environment, and make
them all "subject to" himself; that is, consider them as
contributory causes of himself. They have made him what he is.
They correspond exactly to his own faculties. They are all ---
ultimately --- of equal importance. The fact that he is what he
is proves that each item is equilibrated. The impact of each new
impression affects the entire system in due measure. He must
therefore realize that every event is subject to him. It occurs
because he had need of it. Iron rusts because the molecules
demand oxygen for the satisfaction of
their tendencies. They do not crave hydrogen; therefore
combination with that gas is an event which does not happen. All
experiences contribute to make us complete in ourselves. We feel
ourselves subject to them so long as we fail to recognise this;
when we do, we perceive that they are subject to us. And
whenever we strive to evade an experience, whatever it may be, we
thereby do wrong to ourselves. We thwart our own tendencies. To
live is to change; and to oppose change is to revolt against the
law which we have enacted to govern our lives. To resent destiny
is thus to abdicate our sovereignty, and to invoke death.
Indeed, we have decreed the doom of death for every breach of the
law of Life. And every failure to incorporate any impression
starves that particular faculty which stood in need of it.
This Section B invokes Air in the East, with a shaft of golden
glory.
--------
Section C. The adept now invokes Fire in the South; flame red are the
rays that burst from his Verendum.
--------
Section D. He invokes Water in the West, his Wand billowing forth blue
radiance.
--------
Section E. He goes to the North to invoke Earth; flowers of green flame
flash from his weapon. As practice makes the Adept perfect in
this Work, it becomes automatic to attach all these complicated
ideas and intentions to their correlated words and acts. When
this is attained he may go deeper into the formula by amplifying
its correspondences. Thus, he may invoke water in the manner of
water, extending his will with majestic and irresistible motion,
mindful of its impulse gravitation, yet with a suave and tranquil
appearance of weakness. Again, he may apply the formula of water
to its peculiar purpose as it surges back into his sphere, using
it with conscious skill for the cleansing and calming of the
receptive and emotional elements in his character, and for the
solution or sweeping away of those tangled weeds of prejudice
which hamper him from freedom to act as he will. Similar
applications of the remaining invocations will occur to the
Adept who is ready to use them.
--------
Section F. The Adept now returns to the Tiphereth square of his Tau, and
invokes spirit, facing toward Boleskine, by the active
Pentagrams, the sigil called the Mark of the Beast, and the Signs
of L.V.X. (See plate as before). He then vibrates the Names
extending his will in the same way as before, but vertically
upward. At the same time he expands the Source of that Will ---
the secret symbol of Self --- both about him and below, as if to
affirm that Self, duplex as is its form, reluctant to acquiesce
in its failure to coincide with the Sphere of Nuith. Let him now
imagine, at the last Word, that the Head of his will, where his
consciousness is fixed, opens its fissure (the Brahmarandra-
Cakkra, at the junction of the cranial sutures) and exudes a drop
of clear crystalline dew, and that this pearl is his Soul, a
virgin offering to his Angel, pressed forth from his being by the
intensity of this Aspiration.
--------
Section Ff. With these words the Adept does not withdraw his will within
him as in the previous Sections. He thinks of them as a
reflection of Truth on the surface of the dew, where his Soul
hides trembling. He takes them to be the first formulation in
his consciousness of the nature of His Holy Guardian Angel.
Line 1. The "Gods" include all the conscious elements of his nature.
Line 2. The "Universe" includes all possible phenomena of which he can
be aware.
Line 3. The "Winds" are his thoughts, which have prevented him from
attaining to his Angel.
Line 4. His Angel has made "Voice", the magical weapon which produces
"Words", and these words have been the wisdom by which He hath
created all things. The "Voice" is necessary as the link between
the Adept and his Angel. The Angel is "King", the One who "can",
the "source of authority and the fount of honour"; also the King
(or King's Son) who delivers the Enchanted Princess, and makes
her his Queen. He is "Ruler", the "unconscious Will"; to be
thwarted no more by the ignorant and capricious false will of the
conscious man. And He is "Helper", the author of the infallible
impulse that sends the Soul sweeping along the skies on its
proper path with such impetus that the attraction of alien orbs
is no longer sufficient to swerve it. The "Hear me" clause is
now uttered by the normal human consciousness, withdrawn to the
physical body; the Adept must deliberately abandon his
attainment, because it is not yet his whole being which burns up
before the Beloved.
--------
Section G. The Adept, though withdrawn, shall have maintained the
Extension of his Symbol. He now repeats the signs as before,
save that he makes the Passive Invoking Pentagram of Spirit. He
concentrates his consciousness within his Twin-Symbol of Self,
and endeavours to send it to sleep. But if the operation be
performed properly, his Angel shall have accepted the offering
of Dew, and seized with fervour upon the extended symbol of Will
towards Himself. This then shall He shake vehemently with
vibrations of love reverberating with the Words of the Section.
Even in the physical ears of the adept there shall resound an
echo thereof, yet he shall not be able to describe it. It shall
seem both louder than thunder, and softer than the whisper of
the night-wind. It shall at once be inarticulate, and mean more
than he hath ever heard.
Now let him strive with all the strength of his Soul to
withstand the Will of his Angel, concealing himself in the
closest cell of the citadel of consciousness. Let him consecrate
himself to resist the assault of the Voice and the Vibration
until his consciousness faint away into Nothing. For if there
abide unabsorbed even one single atom of the false Ego, that atom
should stain the virginity of the True Self and profane the Oath;
then that atom should be so inflamed by the approach of the Angel
that is should overwhelm the rest of the mind, tyrannize over it,
and become an insane despot to the total ruin of the realm.
But, all being dead to sense, who then is able to strive
against the Angel? He shall intensify the stress of His Spirit
so that His loyal legions of Lion-Serpents leap from the ambush,
awakening the adept to witness their Will and sweep him with them
in their enthusiasm, so that he consciously partakes this
purpose, and sees in its simplicity the solution of all his
perplexities. Thus then shall the Adept be aware that he is
being swept away through the column of his Will Symbol.
and that His Angel is indeed himself, with intimacy so intense as
to become identity, and that not in a single Ego, but in every
unconscious element that shares in that manifold uprush.
This rapture is accompanied by a tempest of brilliant light,
almost always, and also in many cases by an outburst of sound,
stupendous and sublime in all cases, though its character may
vary within wide limits.1
The spate of stars shoots from the head of the Will-Symbol,
and is scattered over the sky in glittering galaxies. This
dispersion destroys the concentration of the adept, whose mind
cannot master such multiplicity of majesty; as a rule, he simply
sinks stunned into normality, to recall nothing of his experience
but a vague though vivid impression of complete release and
ineffable rapture. Repetition fortifies him to realise the
nature of his attainment; and his Angel, the link once made,
frequents him, and trains him subtly to be sensitive to his Holy
presence, and persuasion. But it may occur, especially after
repeated success, that the Adept is not flung back into his
mortality by the explosion of the Star-spate, but identified with
one particular "Lion-Serpent", continuing conscious thereof until
it finds its proper place in Space, when its secret self flowers
forth as a truth, which the Adept may then take back to earth
with him.
This is but a side issue. The main purpose of the Ritual is
to establish the relation of the subconscious self with the Angel
in such a way that the Adept is aware that his Angel is the Unity
which expresses the sum of the Elements of that Self, that his
normal consciousness contains alien enemies
----------------
1. These phenomena are not wholly subjective; they may be perceived,
though often under other forms, by even the ordinary man.
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introduced by the accidents of environment, and that his
Knowledge and Conversation of His Holy Guardian Angel destroys
all doubts and delusions, confers all blessings, teaches all
truth, and contains all delights. But it is important that the
Adept should not rest in mere inexpressible realization of his
rapture, but rouse himself to make the relation submit to
analysis, to render it in rational terms, and thereby enlighten
his mind and heart in a sense as superior to fanatical enthusiasm
as Beethoven's music is to West African war-drums.
--------
Section Gg. The adept should have realised that his Act of Union with the
angel implies (1) the death of his old mind save in so far as his
unconscious elements preserve its memory when they absorb it, and
(2) the death of his unconscious elements themselves. But their
death is rather a going forth to renew their life through love.
He then, by conscious comprehension of them separately and
together, becomes the "Angel" of his Angel, as Hermes is the Word
of Zeus, whose own voice is Thunder. Thus in this section the
adept utters articulately so far as words may, what his Angel is
to Himself. he says this, with his Scin-Laeca wholly withdrawn
into his physical body, constraining His Angel to indwell his
heart.
Line 1. "I am He" asserts the destruction of the sense of separateness
between self and Self. It affirms existence, but of the third
person only. "The Bornless Spirit" is free of all space, "having
sight in the feet", that they may choose their own path.
"Strong" is G B R, The Magician escorted by the Sun and the Moon
(See Liber D and Liber 777). The "Immortal Fire" is the creative
Self; impersonal energy cannot perish, no matter what forms it
assumes. Combustion is Love.
Line 2. "Truth" is the necessary relation of any two things;
therefore, although it implies duality, it enables us to conceive
of two things as being one thing such that it demands to be
defined by complementals. Thus, an hyperbola is a simple idea,
but its construction exacts two curves.
Line 3. The Angel, as the adept knows him, is a being Tiphereth, which
obscures Kether. The Adept is not officially aware of the higher
Sephiroth. He cannot perceive, like the Ipsissimus, that all
things soever are equally illusion and equally Absolute. He is
in Tiphereth, whose office is Redemption, and he deplores the
events which have caused the apparent Sorrow from which he has
just escaped. He is also aware, even in the height of his
ecstasy, of the limits and defects of his Attainment.
Line 4. This refers to the phenomena which accompany his Attainment.
Line 5. This means the recognition of the Angel as the True Self of
his subconscious self, the hidden Life of his physical life.
Line 6. The Adept realises every breath, every word of his Angel as
charged with creative fire. Tiphereth is the Sun, and the Angel
is the spiritual Sun of the Soul of the Adept.
Line 7. Here is summed the entire process of bringing the conditioned
Universe to knowledge of itself through the formula of
generation1; a soul implants itself in sense-hoodwinked body and
reason-fettered mind, makes them aware of their Inmate, and thus
to partake of its own consciousness of the Light.
Line 8. "Grace" has here its proper sense of "Pleasantness".
---------------
1. That is, Yod H?, HY, realizing Themselves, Will and Understanding in
the twins Vau H?, HV, Mind and body.
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The existence of the Angel is the justification of the device of
creation.1
Line 9. This line must be studied in the light of Liber LXV (Equinox
XI. p. 65).
Section H. This recapitulation demands the going forth together of the
Adept and his Angel "to do their pleasure on the Earth among the
living."
Section J. The Beast 666 having devised the present method of using this
Ritual, having proved it by his own practice to be of infallible
puissance when properly performed, and now having written it down
for the world, it shall be an ornament for the Adept who adopts
it to cry Hail to His name at the end of his work. This shall
moreover encourage him in Magick, to recall that indeed there was
One who attained by its use to the Knowledge and Conversation of
His Holy Guardian Angel, the which forsook him no more, but made
Him a Magus, the Word of the Aeon of Horus!
For know this, that the Name IAF in its most secret and mighty
sense declareth the Formula of the Magick of the BEAST whereby he
wrought many wonders. And because he doth will that the whole
world shall attain to this Art, He now hideth it herein so that
the worthy may win to His Wisdom.
Let I and F face all;2 yet ward their A from attack. The
Hermit to himself, the fool to foes,
----------------
1. But see also the general solution of the Riddle of Existence in The
Book of the Law and its Comment --- Part IV of Book 4.
2. If we adopt the new orthography VIAOV (Book 4 Part III Chap.
V.) we must read "The Sun-6-the Son" etc. for "all"; and elaborate this
interpretation here given in other ways, accordingly. Thus O (of F) will
not be "The Fifteen by function" instead of "Five" etc., and "in act free,
firm, aspiring, ecstatic", rather than "gentle" etc. as in the present text.
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The Hierophant to friends, Nine by nature, Naught by attainment,
Five by function. In speech swift, subtle and secret; in thought
creative, unbiassed, unbounded; in act gentle, patient and
persistent. Hermes to hear, Dionysus to touch, Pan to behold.
A Virgin, A Babe, and a Beast!
A Liar, an Idiot, and a Master of Men!
A kiss, a guffaw, and a bellow; he that hath ears to hear, let
him hear!
Take ten that be one, and one that is one in three, to conceal
them in six!
Thy wand to all Cups, and thy Disk to all Swords, but betray
not thine Egg!
Moreover also is IAF verily 666 by virtue of Number; and this
is a Mystery of Mysteries; Who knoweth it, he is adept of adepts,
and Mighty among Magicians!
Now this word SABAF, being by number Three score and Ten,1 is
a name of Ayin, the Eye, and the Devil our Lord, and the Goat of
Mendes. He is the Lord of the Sabbath of the Adepts, and is
Satan, therefore also the Sun, whose number of Magick is 666, the
seal of His servant the BEAST.
But again SA is 61, AIN, the Naught of Nuith; BA means go, for
Hadit; and F is their Son the Sun who is Ra-Hoor-Khuit.
So then let the Adept set his sigil upon all the words he hath
writ in the Book of the Works of his Will.
----------------
1. There is an alternative spelling TzBA-F Where the Root, (ABz) "an
Host", has the value of 93. The Practicus should revive this Ritual
throughout in the Light of his personal researches in the Qabalah, and thus
make it his own peculiar property. The spelling here suggested implies that
he who utters the Word affirms his allegiance to the symbols 93 and 61
that he is a warrior in the army of Will and of the Sun. 93 is also the
number of AIWAZ and 6 of The Beast.
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And let him then end all, saying, Such are the Words!1 For by
this he maketh proclamation before all them that be about his
Circle that these Words are true and puissant, binding what he
would bind, and loosing what he would loose.
Let the Adept perform this Ritual aright, perfect in every
part thereof, once daily for one moon, then twice, at dawn and
dusk, for two moons, next, thrice, noon added, for three moons,
afterwards, midnight making up his course, for four moons four
times every day. Then let the Eleventh Moon be consecrated
wholly to this Work; let him be instant in continual ardour,
dismissing all but his sheer needs to eat and sleep.2 For know
that the true Formula3 whose virtue sufficed the Beast in this
Attainment, was thus:
INVOKE OFTEN4
So may all men come at last to the Knowledge and Conversation
of the Holy Guardian Angel: thus sayeth the Beast, and prayeth
His own Angel that this book be as a burning Lamp, and as a
living Spring, for Light and Life to them that read therein.
666
---------------
1. The consonants of LOGOS, "Word", add (Hebrew values: sGL) to 93.
and EPH, "Words", (whence "Epic") has also that value: EIDE TA
EPH might be the phrase here intended: its number is 418. This would
then assert the accomplishment of the Great Work; this is the natural
conclusion of theRitual. Cf. CCXX. III. 75.
2. These needs are modified during the process of Initiation both as to
quantity and quality. One should not become anxious about one's
physical or mental health on a priori grounds, but pay attention only to
indubitable symptoms of distress should such arise.
3. See Note page following.
4. See Equinox I, VIII, 22.
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3. (Note to page 291)
The Oracles of Zoroaster utter this:
"And when, by often invoking, all the phantasms are vanished, thou shalt
see that Holy and Formless Fire, that Fire which darts and flashes through
all the Depths of the Universe; hear thou the Voice of the Fire!
"A similar Fire flashingly extending through the rushings of Air, or a
Fire formless whence cometh the Image of a voice, or even a flashing Light
abounding, revolving, whirling forth, crying aloud. Also there is the
vision of the fire-flashing Courser of Light, or also a Child, borne aloft on
the shoulders of the Celestial Steed, fiery, or clothed with gold, or naked,
or shooting with the bow shafts or light, and standing on the shoulders of
the horse, then if thy meditation prolongeth itself, thou shalt unite all
these symbols into the form of a Lion."
This passage --- combined with several others --- is paraphased in poetry
by Aleister Crowley in his "Tannhauser".
"And when, invoking often, thou shalt see
That formless Fire; when all the earth is shaken,
The Stars abide not, and the moon is gone,
All Time crushed back into Eternity,
The Universe by earthquake overtaken;
Light is not, and the thunders roll,
The World is done:
When in the darkness Chaos rolls again
In the excited brain:
Then, O then call not to thy view that visible
Image of Nature; fatal is her name!
It fitteth not thy Body to behold
That living light of Hell,
The unluminous, dead flame,
Until that body from the crucible
Hath passed, pure gold!
For, from the confines of material space,
The twilight-moving place,
The gates of matter, and the dark threshold,
Before the faces of the Things that dwell
In the Abodes of Night,
Spring into sight
Demons, dog-faced, that show no mortal sign
Of Truth, but desecrate the Light Divine,
Seducing from the sacred mysteries.
But, after all these Folk of Fear are driven
Before the avenging levin
That rives the opening skies,
Behold that formless and that Holy Flame
That hath no name;
The Fire that darts and flashes, writhes and creeps
Snake-wise in royal robe
Wound round that vanished glory of the globe,
Unto that sky beyond the starry deeps,
Beyond the Toils of Time, --- then formulate
In thine own mind, luminous, concentrate,
The Lion of the Light, a child that stands
On the vast shoulders of the Steed of God:
Or winged, or shooting flying shafts, or shod
With the flame-sandals.
Then, lift up thine hands!
Centre thee in thine heart one scarlet thought
Limpid with brilliance of the Light above!
Drawn into naught
All life, death, hatred, love:
All self concentred in the sole desire ---
Hear thou the Voice of Fire!"
-----------
POINT
III
SCHOLION ON SECTIONS G & Gg.
The Adept who has mastered this Ritual, successfully realising the full
import of this controlled rapture, ought not to allow his mind to loosen its
grip on the astral imagery of the Star-spate, Will-Symbol, or Soul-symbol, or
even to forget its duty to the body and the sensible surroundings. Nor should
he omit to keep his Body of Light in close touch with the phenomena of its
own plane, so that its privy consciousness may fulfil its proper functions of
protecting his scattered ideals from obsession.
But he should have acquired, by previous practice, the faculty of detaching
these elements of his consciousness from their articulate centre, so that they
become (temporarily) independent responsible units, capable of receiving
communications from headquarters at will, but perfectly able (1) to take care
of themselves without troubling their chief, and (2) to report to him at the
proper time. In a figure, they must be like subordinate officers, expected to
display self-reliance, initiative, and integrity in the execution of the
Orders of the Day.
The Adept should therefore be able to rely on these individual minds of his
to control their own conditions without interference from himself for the time
required, and to recall them in due course, receiving an accurate report of
their adventures.
This being so, the Adept will be free to concentrate his deepest self, that
part of him which unconsciously orders his true Will, upon the realization of
his Holy Guardian Angel. The absence of his bodily, mental and astral
consciousness is indeed cardinal to success, for it is their usurpation of his
attention which has made him deaf to his Soul, and his preoccupation with
their affairs that has prevented him from perceiving that Soul.
The effect of the Ritual has been
(a) to keep them so busy with their own work that they cease to distract
him;
(b) to separate them so completely that his soul is stripped of its
sheaths;
© to arouse in him an enthusiasm so intense as to intoxicate and
anaesthetize him, that he may not feel and resent the agony of this spiritual
vivisection, just as bashful lovers get drunk on the wedding night, in order
to brazen out the intensity of shame which so mysteriously coexists with their
desire;
(d) to concentrate the necessary spiritual forces from every element, and
fling them simultaneously into the aspiration towards the Holy Guardian Angel;
and
(e) to attract the Angel by the vibration of the magical voice which
invokes Him.
The method of the Ritual is thus manifold.
There is firstly an analysis of the Adept, which enables him to calculate
his course of action. He can decide what must be banished, what purified,
what concentrated. He can then concentrate his will upon its one essential
element, over-coming its resistance --- which is automatic, like a
physiological reflex --- by destroying inhibitions through his ego-
overwhelming enthusiasm.1 The other half of the work needs no such complex
effort; for his Angel is simple and unperplexed, ready at all times to respond
to rightly ordered approach.
----------------
1. A high degree of initiation is required. This means that the process
of analysis must have been carried out very thoroughly. The Adept must
have become aware of his deepest impulses, and understood their true
significance. The "resistance" here mentioned is automatic; it increases
indefinitely against direct pressure. It is useless to try to force oneself
in these matters; the uninitiated Aspirant, however eager he may be, is sure
to fail. One must know how to deal with each internal idea as it arises.
It is impossible to overcome one's inhibitions by conscious effort; their
existence justifies them. God is on their side, as on that of the victim in
Browning's Instans Tyrannus. A man cannot compel himself to love,
however much he may want to, on various rational grounds. But on the
other hand, when the true impulse comes, it overwhelms all its critics; they
are powerless either to make or break a genius; it can only testify to the
fact that it has met its master.
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But the results of the Ritual are too various to permit of rigid
description. One may say that, presuming the union to be perfect, the Adept
need not retain any memory soever of what has occurred. He may be merely
aware of a gap in his conscious life, and judge of its contents by observing
that his nature has been subtly transfigured. Such an experience might indeed
be the proof of perfection.
If the Adept is to be any wise conscious of his Angel it must be that some
part of his mind is prepared to realise the rapture, and to express it to
itself in one way or another. This involves the perfection of that part, its
freedom from prejudice and the limitations of rationality so-called. For
instance: one could not receive the illumination as to the nature of life
which the doctrine of evolution should shed, if one is passionately persuaded
that humanity is essentially not animal, or convinced that causality is
repugnant to reason. The Adept must be ready for the utter destruction of his
point of view on any subject, and even that of his innate conception of the
forms and laws of thought.1 Thus he may find that his Angel consider his
"business" or his "love" to be absurd trifles; also that human ideas of "time"
are invalid, and human "laws" of logic applicable only to the relations
between illusions.
Now the Angel will make contact with the Adept at any point that is
sensitive to His influence. Such a point will naturally be one that is
salient in the Adept's character, and also one that is, in the proper sense of
the word, pure2.
Thus an artist, attuned to appreciate plastic beauty is likely to
----------------
1. Of course, even false tenets and modes of the mind are in one sense
true. It is only their appearance which alters. Copernicus did not destroy
the facts of nature, or change the instruments of observation. He merely
effected a radical simplification of science. Error is really a "fool's
knot". Moreover, the very tendency responsible for the entanglement is one of
the necessary elements of the situation. Nothing is "wrong" in the end;
and one cannot reach the "right" point of view without the aid of one's
particular "wrong" point. If we reject or alter the negative of a
photograph we shall not get a perfect positive.
2. This means, free from ideas, however excellent in themselves, which
are foreign to it. For instance, literary interest has no proper place in a
picture.
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receive a visual impression of his Angel in a physical form which is sublimely
quintessential of his ideal. A musician may be rapt away by majestic melodies
such as he never hoped to hear. A philosopher may attain apprehension of
tremendous truths, the solution of problems that had baffled him all his life.
Conformably with this doctrine, we read of illuminations experienced by
simple-minded men, such as a workman who "saw God" and likened Him to "a
quantity of little pears". Again, we know that ecstasy, impinging upon
unbalanced minds, inflames the idolised idea, and produces fanatical faith
fierce even to frenzy, with intolerance and insanely disordered energy which
is yet so powerful as to effect the destinies of empires.
But the phenomena of the Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian
Angel are a side issue; the essence of the Union is the intimacy. Their
intimacy (or rather identity) is independent of all partial forms of
expression; at its best it is therefore as inarticulate as Love.
The intensity of the consummation will more probably compel a sob or a cry,
some natural physical gesture of animal sympathy with the spiritual spasm.
This is to be criticised as incomplete self-control. Silence is nobler.
In any case the Adept must be in communion with his Angel, so that his Soul
is suffused with sublimity, whether intelligible or not in terms of intellect.
It is evident that the stress of such spiritual possession must tend to
overwhelm the soul, especially at first. It actually suffers from the excess
of its ecstasy, just as extreme love produces vertigo. The soul sinks and
swoons. Such weakness is fatal alike to its enjoyment and its apprehension.
"Be strong! then canst thou bear more rapture!" sayeth The Book of the Law.1
The Adept must therefore play the man, arousing himself to harden his soul.
To this end, I, the Beast, have made trial and proof of divers devices. Of
these the most potent is to set the body to strive with
----------------
1. Liber Al vel Legis, II, 61-68, where the details of the proper
technique are discussed.
[WEH Note extension: The passage in quotations in this sentence nowhere
appears in The Book of the Law. Crowley is evidently recapitulating
several passages in a paraphrase. AL II, 22 starts this, and the verses
cited in this note conclude it.]
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the soul. Let the muscles take grip on themselves as if one were wrestling.
Let the jaw and mouth, in particular, be tightened to the utmost. Breathe
deeply, slowly, yet strongly. Keep mastery over the mind by muttering
forcibly and audibly. But lest such muttering tend to disturb communion with
the Angel, speak only His Name. Until the Adept have heard that Name,
therefore, he may not abide in the perfect possession of his Beloved. His
most important task is thus to open his ears to the voice of his Angel, that
he may know him, how he is called. For hearken! this Name, understood rightly
and fully, declareth the nature of the Angel in every point, wherefore also
that Name is the formula of the perfection to which the Adept must aspire, and
also of the power of Magick by virtue whereof he must work.
He then that is as yet ignorant of that Name, let him repeat a word worthy
of this particular Ritual. Such are Abrahadabra, the Word of the Aeon, which
signifieth "The Great Work accomplished"; and Aumgn interpreted in Part III of
Book 41; and the name of THE BEAST, for that His number showeth forth this
Union with the Angel, and His Work is no other than to make all men partakers
of this Mystery of the Mysteries of Magick.
So then saying this word or that, let the Adept wrestle with his Angel and
withstand Him, that he may constrain Him to consent to continue in communion
until the consciousness becomes capable of clear comprehension, and of
accurate transmission2 of the
----------------
1. The essence of this matter is that the word AUM, which expresses
the course of Breath (spiritual life) from free utterance through controlled
concentration to Silence, is transmuted by the creation of the compound
letter MGN to replace M: that is, Silence is realized as passing into
continuous ecstatic vibration, of the nature of "Love" under "Will" as
shewn by MGN = 40 + 3 + 50 = 93 AGAPH, JELHMA etc., and the
whole word has the value of 100, Perfection Perfected, the Unity in
completion, and equivalent to KR the conjunction of the essential male and
female principles.
2. The "normal" intellect is incapable of these functions; a superior
faculty must have been developed. As Zoroaster says: "Extend the void
mind of thy soul to that Intelligible that thou mayst learn the Intelligible,
because it subsisteth beyond Mind. Thou wilt not understand It as when
understanding some common thing."
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transcendent Truth of the Beloved to the heart that holds him.
The firm repetition of one of these Words ought to enable the Adept to
maintain the state of Union for several minutes, even at first.
In any case he must rekindle his ardour, esteeming his success rather as an
encouragement to more ardent aspiration than as a triumph. He should increase
his efforts.
Let him beware of the "lust of result", of expecting too much, of losing
courage if his first success is followed by a series of failures.
For success makes success seem so incredible that one is apt to create an
inhibition fatal to subsequent attempts. One fears to fail; the fear intrudes
upon the concentration and so fulfils its own prophecy. We know how too much
pleasure in a love affair makes one afraid to disgrace oneself on the next few
occasions; indeed, until familiarity has accustomed one to the idea that one's
lover has never supposed one to be more than human. Confidence returns
gradually. Inarticulate ecstasy is replaced by a more sober enjoyment of the
elements of the fascination.
Just so one's first dazzled delight in a new landscape turns, as one
continues to gaze, to the appreciation of exquisite details of the view. At
first they were blurred by the blinding rush of general beauty; they emerge
one by one as the shock subsides, and passionate rapture yields to intelligent
interest.
In the same way the Adept almost always begins by torrential lyrics
painting out mystical extravagances about "ineffable love", "unimaginable
bliss", "inexpressible infinities of illimitable utterness".1 He usually
loses his sense of proportion, of humour, of reality, and of sound judgment.
His ego is often inflated to the bursting point, till he would be abjectly
ridiculous if he were not so pitifully dangerous to himself and others. he
also tends to take his new-found "truths of illumination" for the entire body
of truth, and insists that they must be as valid an vital for all men as they
happen to be for himself.
----------------
1. This corresponds to the emotional and metaphysical fog which is
characteristic of the emergence of thought from homogeneity. The clear
and concise differentiation of ideas marks the adult mind.
-299-
------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is wise to keep silence about those things "unlawful to utter" which one
may have heard "in the seventh heaven". This may not apply to the sixth.
The Adept must keep himself in hand, however tempted to make a new heaven
and a new earth in the next few days by trumpeting his triumphs. He must give
time a chance to redress his balance, sore shaken by the impact of the
Infinite.
As he becomes adjusted to intercourse with his Angel, he will find his
passionate ecstasy develop a quality of peace and intelligibility which adds
power, while it informs and fortifies his mental and moral qualities instead
of obscuring and upsetting them. He will by now have become able to converse
with his Angel, impossible as it once seemed; for he now knows that the storm
of sound which he supposed to be the Voice was only the clamour of his own
confusions. The "infinity" nonsense was born of his own inability to think
clearly beyond his limits, just as a Bushman, confronted by numbers above
five, can only call them "many".
The truth told by the Angel, immensely as it extends the horizon of the
Adept, is perfectly definite and precise. It does not deal in ambiguities and
abstractions. It possesses form, and confesses law, in exactly the same way
and degree as any other body of truth. It is to the truth of the material and
intellectual spheres of man very much what the Mathematics of Philosophy with
its "infinite series" and "Cantorian continuity" is to schoolboy arithmetic.
Each implies the other, though by that one may explore the essential nature of
existence, and by this a pawnbroker's profits.
This then is the true aim of the Adept in this whole operation, to
assimilate himself to his Angel by continual conscious communion. For his
Angel is an intelligible image of his own true Will, to do which is the whole
of the law of his Being.
Also the Angel appeareth in Tiphereth, which is the heart of the Ruach, and
thus the Centre of Gravity of the Mind. It is also directly inspired from
Kether, the ultimate Self, through the Path of the High Priestess, or
initiated intuition. Hence the Angel is in truth the Logos or articulate
expression of the whole Being of the Adept, so that as he increases in the
perfect understanding of His name, he approaches the solution of the ultimate
problem, Who he himself truly is.
Unto this final statement the Adept may trust his Angel to lead him; for
the Tiphereth-consciousness alone is connected by paths with the various parts
of his mind.1 None therefore save He hath the knowledge requisite for
calculating the combinations of conduct which will organise and equilibrate
for forces of the Adept, against the moment when it becomes necessary to
confront the Abyss. The Adept must control a compact and coherent mass if he
is to make sure of hurling it from him with a clean-cut gesture.
I, The Beast 666, lift up my voice and swear that I myself have been
brought hither by mine Angel. After that I had attained unto the Knowledge
and Conversation of Him by virtue of mine ardour towards Him, and of this
Ritual that I bestow upon men my fellows, and most of His great Love that He
beareth to me, yea, verily, He led me to the Abyss; He bade me fling away all
that I had and all that I was; and He forsook me in that Hour. But when I
came beyond the Abyss, to be reborn within the womb of BABALON, then came he
unto me abiding in my virgin heart, its Lord and Lover!
Also He made me a Magus, speaking through His Law, the Word of the new
Aeon, the Aeon of the Crowned and Conquering Child.2 Thus he fulfilled my
will to bring full freedom to the race of Men.
Yea, he wrought also in me a Work of wonder beyond this, but in this matter
I am sworn to hold my peace.
----------------
1. See the maps "Minutum Mundum" in the Equinox I, 1, 2, & 3 and
the general relations detailed in Liber 777, of which the most important
columns are reprinted in Appendix V.
2. For the account of these matters see The Equinox, Vol. I, "The
Temple of Solomon the King", Liber 418, Liber Aleph, "John St. John",
"The Urn", and Book 4, Part IV.
-----------
-301-
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