Paragraph 1 explains that Frater P. sees no use in the employment of such feeble implements as bombs. Nor does he agree even with the aim of the Anarchists, since, although Anarchists themselves need no restraint, not daring to drink cocoa, lest their animal passions should be aroused (as Olivia Haddon assures my favourite Chela), yet policemen, unless most severely repressed, would be dangerous wild beasts.
The last bitter sentence is terribly true; the personal liberty of the Russian is immensely greater than that of the Englishman. The latest Radical devices for securing freedom have turned nine out of ten Englishmen into Slaves, obliged to report their movements to the government like so many ticket-of-leave men.
The only solution of the Social Problem is the creation of a class with the true patriarchal feeling, and the manners and obligations of chivalry.
82
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΠΒ
BORTSCH
Witch-moon that turnest all the streams to blood,
I take this hazel rod, and stand, and swear
An Oath – beneath this blasted Oak and bare
That rears its agony above the flood
Whose swollen mask mutters an atheist’s prayer.
What oath may stand the shock of this offence:
“There is no I, no joy, no permanence”?
Witch-moon of blood, eternal ebb and flow
Of baffled birth, in death still lurks a change;
And all the leopards in thy woods that range,
And all the vampires in their boughs that glow,
Brooding on blood-thirst-these are not so strange
And fierce as life’s unfailing shower. These die,
Yet time rebears them through eternity.
Hear then the Oath, with-moon of blood, dread moon!
Let all thy stryges and thy ghouls attend!
He that endureth even to the end
Hath sworn that Love’s own corpse shall lie at noon
Even in the coffin of its hopes, and spend
All the force won by its old woe and stress
In now annihilating Nothingness.
This chapter is called Imperial Purple
and A Punic War.
COMMENTARY (ΠΒ)
The title of this chapter, and its two sub-titles, will need no explanation to readers of the classics.
This poem, inspired by Jane Cheron, is as simple as it is elegant.
The poet asks, in verse 1, How can we baffle the Three Characteristics?
In verse 2, he shows that death is impotent against life.
In verse 3, he offers the solution of the problem.
This is, to accept things as they are, and to turn your whole energies to progress on the Path.
83
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΠΓ
THE BLIND PIG41
Many becomes two: two one: one Naught. What comes to Naught?
What! shall the Adept give up his hermit life, and go eating and drinking and making merry?
Ay! shall he not do so? he knows that the Many is Naught; and having Naught, enjoys that Naught even in the enjoyment of the Many.
For when Naught becomes Absolute Naught, it becomes again the Many.
Any this Many and this Naught are identical; they are not correlatives or phases of some one deeper Absence-of-Idea; they are not aspects of some further Light: they are They!
Beware, O my brother, lest this chapter deceive thee!
COMMENTARY (ΠΓ)
The title of this chapter refers to the Greek number, PG being “Pig” without an “i”.
The subject of the chapter is consequently corollary to Chapters 79 and 80, the ethics of Adept life.
The Adept has performed the Great Work; He has reduced the Many to Naught; as a consequence, he is no longer afraid of the Many.
Paragraph 4. See Berashith.
Paragraph 5, takes things for what they are; give up interpreting, refining away, analysing. Be simple and lucid and radiant as Frater P.
Paragraph 6. With this commentary there is no further danger, and the warning becomes superfluous.
NOTE
(41) ΠΥ = PG = Pig without an I = Blind Pig.
84
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΠΔ
THE AVALANCHE
Only through devotion to FRATER PERDURABO may this book be understood.
How much more then should He devote Himself to AIWASS for the understanding of the Holy Books of ΘΕΛΗΜΑ?
Yet must he labour underground eternally. The sun is not for him, nor the flowers, nor the voices of the birds; for he is past beyond all these. Yea, verily, oft-times he is weary; it is well that the weight of the Karma of the Infinite is with him.
Therefore is he glad indeed; for he hath finished THE WORK; and the reward concerneth him no whit.
COMMENTARY (ΠΔ)
This continues the subject of Chapter 83.
The title refers to the mental attitude of the Master; the avalanche does not fall because it is tired of staying on the mountain, or in order to crush the Alps below it, or because that it feels that it needs exercise. Perfectly unconscious, perfectly indifferent, it obeys the laws of Cohesion and of Gravitation.
It is the sun and its own weight that loosen it.
So, also, is the act of the Adept. “Delivered from the lust of result, he is every way perfect.”
Paragraphs 1 and 2. By “devotion to Frater Perdurabo” is not meant sycophancy, but intelligent reference and imaginative sympathy. Put your mind in tune with his; identify yourself with him as he seeks to identify himself with the Intelligence that communicates to him the Holy Books.
Paragraphs 3 and 4 are explained by the 13th Aethyr and the title.
85
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΠΕ
BORBORYGMI
I distrust any thoughts uttered by any man whose health is not robust.
All other thoughts are surely symptoms of disease.
Yet these are often beautiful, and may be true within the circle of the conditions of the speaker.
Any yet again! Do we not find that the most robust of men express no thoughts at all? They eat, drink, sleep, and copulate in silence.
What better proof of the fact that all thought is disease?
We are Strassburg geese; the tastiness of our talk comes from the disorder of our bodies.
We like it; this only proves that our tastes also are depraved and debauched by our disease.
COMMENTARY (ΠΕ)
We now return to that series of chapters which started with Chapter 8 (H).
The chapter is perfectly simple and needs no comment.
86
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ Πϝ
Ex nihilo N. I. H. I. L. fit.
N. the Fire that twisteth itself and burneth like a scorpion.
I. the unsullied ever-flowing water.
H. the interpenetrating Spirit, without and within. Is not its name ABRAHADABRA?
I. the unsullied ever-flowing air.
L. the green fertile earth.
Fierce are the Fires of the Universe, and on their daggers they hold aloft the bleeding heart of earth.
Upon the earth lies water, sensuous and sleepy.
Above the water hangs air; and above air, but also below fire – and in all – the fabric of all being woven on Its invisible design, is ΑΙΘΗΡ.
COMMENTARY (Πϝ)
The number 86 refers to Elohim, the name of the elemental forces.
The title is the Sanskrit for That, in its sense of “The Existing”.
This chapter is an attempt to replace Elohim by a more satisfactory hieroglyph of the elements.
The best attribution of Elohim is Aleph, Air; Lamed, Earth; He, Spirit; Yod, Fire; Mem, Water. But the order is not good; Lamed is not satisfactory for Earth, and Yod too spiritualised a form of Fir
e. (But see Book 4, part III.)
Paragraphs 1–6. Out of Nothing, Nothing is made. The word Nihil is taken to affirm that the universe is Nothing, and that is now to be analysed. The order of the element is that of Jeheshua. The elements are taken rather as in Nature; N is easily Fire, since Mars is the ruler of Scorpio: the virginity of I suits Air and Water, elements which in Magick are closely interwoven: H, the letter of of breath, is suitable for Spirit; Abrahadabra is called the name of Spirit, because it is cheth: L is Earth, green and fertile, because Venus, the greenness, fertility, and earthiness of things is the Lady of Libra, Lamed.
In paragraph 7 we turn to the so-called Jetziratic attribution of Pentagrammaton, that followed by Dr. Dee, and by the Hindus, Tibetans, Chinese and Japanese. Fire is the Foundation, the central core, of things; above this forms a crust, tormented from below, and upon this condenses the original steam. Around this flows the air, created by Earth and Water through the action of vegetation.
Such is the globe; but all this is a mere strain in the aethyr, ΑΙΘΗΡ. Here is a new Pentagrammaton, presumably suitable for another analysis of the elements; but after a different manner. Alpha (Α) is Air; Rho (Ρ) the Sun; these are the Spirit and the Son of Christian theology. In the midst is the Father, expressed as Father-and-Mother. I–H (Yod and He), Eta (Η) being used to express “the Mother” instead of Epsilon (Ε), to show that She has been impregnated by the Spirit; it is the rough breathing and not the soft. The centre of all is Theta (Θ), which was originally written as a point in a circle (
), the sublime hieroglyph of the Sun in the Macrocosm, and in the Microcosm of the Lingam in conjunction with the Yoni. This word ΑΙΘΗΡ (Aethyr) is therefore a perfect hieroglyph of the Cosmos in terms of Gnostic Theology.
The reader should consult La Messe et ses Mystères, par Jean ’Marie de V …. (Paris et Nancy, 1844), for a complete demonstration of the incorporation of the Solar and Phallic Mysteries in Christianity.
87
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΠΖ
MANDARIN-MEALS
There is a dish of sharks’ fins and of sea-slug, well set in birds’ nests... oh!
Also there is a souffle most exquisite of Chow-Chow.
These did I devise.
But I have never tasted anything to match the
which she gave me before She went away.
March 22, 1912. E. V.
COMMENTARY (ΠΖ)
This chapter is technically one of the Laylah chapters.
It means that, however great may be one’s own achievements the gifts from on high are still better.
The Sigil is taken from a Gnostic talisman, and refers to the Sacrament.
88
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΠΗ
GOLD BRICKS
Teach us Your secret, Master! yap my Yahoos.
Then for the hardness of their hearts, and for the softness of their heads, I taught them Magick.
But... alas!
Teach us Your real secret, Master! how to become invisible, how to acquire love, and oh! beyond all, how to make gold.
But how much gold will you give me for the Secret of Infinite Riches?
Then said the foremost and most foolish; Master, it is nothing; but here is an hundred thousand pounds.
This did I deign to accept, and whispered in his ear this secret:
A SUCKER IS BORN EVERY MINUTE.
COMMENTARY (ΠΗ)
The term “gold bricks” is borrowed from American finance.
The chapter is a setting of an old story.
A man advertises that he could tell anyone how to make four hundred a year certain, and would do so on receipt of a shilling. To every sender he dispatched a postcard with these words: “Do as I do.”
The word “sucker” is borrowed from American finance.
The moral of the chapter is, that it is no good trying to teach people who need to be taught.
89
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΠΘ
UNPROFESSIONAL CONDUCT
I am annoyed about the number 89.
I shall avenge myself by writing nothing in this chapter.
That, too, is wise; for since I am annoyed, I could not write even a reasonably decent lie.
COMMENTARY (ΠΘ)
Frater P. had been annoyed by a scurvy doctor, the number of whose house was 89.
He shows that his mind was completely poisoned in respect of that number by his allowing himself to be annoyed.
(But note that a good Qabalist cannot err. “In Him all is right.” 89 is Body – that which annoys – and the Angel of the Lord of Despair and Cruelty.
Also “Silence” and “Shut Up”.
The four meanings completely describe the chapter.)
90
ΚΕΦΑΛH Ρ
STARLIGHT
Behold! I have lived many years, and I have travelled in every land that is under the dominion of the Sun, and I have sailed the seas from pole to pole.
Now do I lift up my voice and testify that all is vanity on earth, except the love of a good woman, and that good woman LAYLAH. And I testify that in heaven all is vanity (for I have journeyed oft, and sojourned oft, in every heaven), except the love of OUR LADY BABALON. And I testify that beyond heaven and earth is the love of OUR LADY NUIT.
And seeing that I am old and well stricken in years, and that my natural forces fail, therefore do I rise up in my throne and call upon THE END.
For I am youth eternal and force infinite.
And at THE END is SHE that was LAYLAH, and BABALON, and NUIT, being...
COMMENTARY (Ρ)
This chapter is a sort of final Confession of Faith.
It is the unification of all symbols and all planes.
The End is expressible.
91
ΚΕΦΑΛΗ ΡΑ
THE HEIKLE
A. M. E. N.
COMMENTARY (ΡΑ)
The “Heikle” is to be distinguished from the “Huckle”, which latter is defined in the late Sir W.S. Gilbert’s Prince Cherry-Top.
A clear definition of the Heikle might have been obtained from Mr Oscar Eckenstein, 34 Greencroft Gardens, South Hampstead, London, N.W. (when this comment was written).
But its general nature is that of a certain minute whiteness, appearing at the extreme end of great blackness.
It is a good title for the last chapter of this book, and it also symbolises the eventual coming out into the light of his that has wandered long in the darkness.
91 is the numberation of Amen.
The chapter consists of an analysis of this word, but gives no indication as to the result of this analysis, as if to imply this: The final Mystery is always insoluble.
FINIS.
CORONAT OPUS.
The Book of The Law
Introduction
I The Book
1. This book was dictated in Cairo between noon and 1 p.m. on three successive days, April 8th, 9th and 10th in the year 1904.
The Author called himself Aiwass, and claimed to be “the minister of Hoor-Paar-Kraat”; that is, a messenger from the forces ruling this earth at present, as will be explained later on.
How could he prove that he was, in fact, a being of a kind superior to any of the human race, and so entitled to speak with authority? Evidently he must show KNOWLEDGE and POWER such as no man has ever been known to possess.
2. He showed his KNOWLEDGE chiefly by the use of cipher or cryptogram in certain passages to set forth recondite facts, including some events which had yet to take place, such that no human being could possibly be aware of them; thus, the proof of his claim exists in the manuscript itself. It is independent of any human witness.
The study of these passages necessarily demands supreme human scholarship to interpret – it needs years of intense application. A great deal has still to be worked out. But enough has been discove
red to justify his claim; the most sceptical intelligence is compelled to admit its truth.
This matter is best studied under the Master Therion, whose years of arduous research have led him to enlightenment.
On the other hand, the language of most of the Book is admirably simple, clear and vigorous. No one can read it without being stricken in the very core of his being.
3. The more than human POWER of Aiwass is shewn by the influence of his Master, and of the Book, upon actual events; and history fully supports the claim made by him. These facts are appreciable by everyone; but are better understood with the help of the Master Therion.
4. The full detailed account of the events leading up to the dictation of this Book, with facsimile reproduction of the Manuscript and an essay by the Master Therion, is published in The Equinox of the Gods.
II The Universe
This Book explains the Universe.
The elements are Nuit, Space – that is, the total of possibilities of every kind – and Hadit, any point which has experience of these possibilities. (This idea is for literary convenience symbolised by the Egyptian Goddess Nuit, a woman bending over like the Arch of the Night Sky. Hadit is symbolised as a Winged Globe at the heart of Nuit.)
Every event is a uniting of some one monad with one of the experiences possible to it.
“Every man and every woman is a star”, that is, an aggregate of such experiences, constantly changing with each fresh event, which affects him or her either consciously or subconsciously.
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