The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Gods of Death: Mictlantecuhtli
21:01 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 736

In Aztec mythology, Mictlantecuhtli ("lord of Mictlan") is the god of the dead and King of Mictlan (Chicunauhmictlan), the lowest section of the underworld.



He is depicted as a blood-spattered skeleton or a person wearing a toothy skull. His headdress is decorated with owl feathers and paper banners, and he wears a necklace of human eyeballs.



His wife is Mictecacihuatl, and together they dwell in a windowless house in Mictlan and rule over the dead. Mictlanteculhtli is associated with spiders, owls, bats, the eleventh hour, and the northern compass direction.



The twin gods Quetzalcoatl and Xolotl stole the bones of the previous generation of gods from Mictlanteculhtli. The death god pursued, and although they escaped, they dropped the bones, which shattered and became the various races of mortals.

Gods of Death: Santa Muerte
21:00 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 737

Saint Death, otherwise known as Santa Muerte or La Santísima Muerte, is an uncanonized Mexican saint who receives petitions for love, luck, and protection and the recovery of health, stolen items, or even kidnapped family members.

Although the Catholic Church refuses to acknowledge Saint Death's existence, this figure of prayer is said to work miracles for those who pray to and adore him/her. Prisoners, petty thieves, corrupt cops and powerful drug traffickers are said to be devotees of the so-called saint. But the cult is benefiting, too, from the faith of simple working-class Mexicans who try to abide by the law but daily face the hunger, injustice, corruption and crime of Mexico's toughest neighborhoods.



Saint Death can be either male or female: sometimes he is dressed as a grim reaper, with a scythe and scales; sometimes, Saint Death is female, dressed in a long white satin gown and a golden crown (Muerte and the related Romance words have a feminine gender). Grim Reaper statues are made in red, white, and black – for love, luck, and protection. Offerings to Saint Death include roses and tequila. Public shrines to Saint Death are adorned with red roses and bottles of tequila, and Saint Death candles burn in his/her honor. On the border between Mexico and the United States, Saint Death prayer cards, medals, and candles are made and sold to the public.



One resource indicates that the Cult of Saint Death has been around since only the 1960s; however, other research inclines one to question if Saint Death is much older. Saint Death may have his/her roots in pre-Christian beliefs of the Aztec Native Americans, under the name of Mictlantecuhtli as the god of death. Similar to other cultures around the world, pre-Christian deities in Mexico are sometimes syncretized as saints. On the other hand, in Spanish the phrase santa muerte could also be interpreted simply as "holy death." Saint Death may simply represent a folk-religious reinterpretation of the traditional and orthodox Roman Catholic practice of prayer to receive a blessed death in a state of grace.



Her prayers, orations, and novenas contain the Trinity, and worship of Yahweh. While some view Santa Muerte as a figure of black magic, others view him/her as specifically a Catholic saint worthy of veneration.



The phenomenon is rooted in Mexico's pre-Columbian past but also reflects its troubled present, said Homero Aridjis, a Mexican novelist whose latest book is a series of stories called "La Santa Muerte."



The growing devotion to St. Death among the humble "shows an enormous disappointment with the establishment and with justice in Mexico. The people know there is no protection for the poor," Aridjis said. "It also shows alienation with the Catholic Church. People are fed up with going to church and being told what to do: 'Sit down, kneel, stand up.' Then they get asked to give money and get nothing back."



The Catholic Church hasn't launched a vigorous campaign against St. Death, but it frowns on paying homage to the figure. In its publication From Faith, the church warned last November, "the devil will do anything to win devotees."



Followers of St. Death, who affectionately call her "the skinny girl," say they see no contradiction between being good Catholics and praying to the statue.

Gods of Death: Morrigan
20:58 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 738

The Mórrígan ("great queen") or Morrígan ("terror" or "phantom queen") (aka Morrígu, Mórríghan, Mór-Ríogain) is a figure from Irish mythology widely considered to be a goddess or former goddess.



She is usually seen as a terrifying figure, glossed in medieval Irish manuscripts as equivalent to Alecto of the Furies, or the child-eating monster Lamia, from Greek Mythology (in fact, another text glosses Lamia as "a monster in female form, i.e. a Morrígan"), or the Hebrew demoness Lilith. She is associated with war and death on the battlefield, sometime appearing in the form of a carrion crow, premonitions of doom, and with cattle. She is often considered a war deity comparable with the Germanic Valkyries, although her association with cattle also suggests a role connected with fertility and the land.



She is often interpreted as a triple goddess, although membership of the triad varies: the most common combination is the Mórrígan, the Badb and Macha, but sometimes includes Nemain, Fea, Anann and others.

Etymology

There is some disagreement over the meaning of the Mórrígan's name. It can be straightforwardly interpreted as "great queen" (Old Irish mór, great; rígan, queen); however it often lacks the diacritic over the o in the texts. Alternatively, mor (without diacritic) may derive from an Indo-European root connoting terror or monstrousness, cognate with the Old English maere (which survives in the modern English word "nightmare") and the Scandinavian mara. This theonym appears to be derived either from Proto-Celtic *Māro-rīganījā meaning "great queenly [spirit]" or else from *Moro-rīganījā meaning "nightmarish queenly [spirit]".



There have been attempts to link the Arthurian witch, Morgan le Fay, with the Mórrígan. Morgan first appears in Geoffrey of Monmouth's Vita Merlini (The Life of Merlin) in the 12th century. However, the etymologies proposed do not seem







Origins

Ulster Cycle

Her earliest appearances are in stories of the Ulster Cycle, in which she has an ambiguous relationship with the hero Cúchulainn. In Táin Bó Regamna (the Cattle Raid of Regamain), he challenges her, not realizing who she is, as she drives a heifer from his territory, and earns her enmity. She makes a series of threats, and foretells a coming battle in which he will be killed. She tells him, enigmatically, "I guard your death".



In the Táin Bó Cuailnge queen Medb of Connacht launches an invasion of Ulster to steal the bull Donn Cuailnge; the Mórrígan appears to the bull in the form of a crow and warns him to flee. Cúchulainn defends Ulster by fighting a series of single combats at fords against Medb's champions. In between combats the Mórrígan appears to him as a young girl and offers him her love, but he spurns her. In response she intervenes in his next combat, first in the form of an eel who trips him, then as a wolf who stampedes cattle across the ford, and finally as a heifer leading the stampede, just as she had threatened in their previous encounter. However Cúchulainn wounds her in each form and defeats his opponent despite her interference. Later she appears to him as an old woman bearing the same three wounds that her animal forms sustained, milking a cow. She gives Cúchulainn three drinks of milk. He blesses her with each drink, and her wounds are healed.



In one version of Cúchulainn's death-tale, as the hero rides to meet his enemies, he encounters the Mórrígan as an old woman washing his bloody armour in a ford, an omen of his death. Later in the story, mortally wounded, Cúchulainn ties himself to a standing stone with his own entrails so he can die upright, and it is only when a crow lands on his shoulder that his enemies believe he is dead.











Mythological Cycle

The Mórrígan also appears in texts of the Mythological Cycle. In the 12th century pseudohistorical compilation Lebor Gabála Érenn she is listed among the Tuatha Dé Danann as one of the daughters of Ernmas, granddaughter of Nuada.



The first three daughters of Ernmas are given as Ériu, Banba and Fódla. Their names are synonyms for Ireland, and they were married to Mac Cuill, Mac Cécht and Mac Gréine, the last three Tuatha Dé Danann kings of Ireland. Associated with the land and kingship, they probably represent a triple goddess of sovereignty. Next come Ernmas's other three daughters: the Badb, Macha and the Mórrígan. A quatrain describes the three as wealthy, "springs of craftiness" and "sources of bitter fighting". The Mórrígan's name is said to be Anann, and she had three sons, Glon, Gaim and Coscar. According to Geoffrey Keating's 17th century History of Ireland, Ériu, Banba and Fódla worshipped the Badb, Macha and the Mórrígan respectively, suggesting that the two triads of goddesses may be seen as equivalent.



The Mórrígan also appears in Cath Maige Tuireadh (the Battle of Mag Tuired). She keeps a tryst with the Dagda before the battle against the Fomorians. When he meets her she is washing herself, standing with one foot on either side of a river. After they have sex, the Morrígan promises to summon the magicians of Ireland to cast spells on behalf of the Tuatha Dé, and to destroy Indech, the Fomorian king, taking from him "the blood of his heart and the kidneys of his valour". Later, we are told, she would bring two handfuls of his blood and deposit them in the same river (however, we are also told later in the text that Indech was killed by Ogma).



As battle is about to be joined, the Tuatha Dé leader, Lug, asks each what power they bring to the battle. The Mórrígan's reply is difficult to interpret, but involves pursuing, destroying and subduing. When she comes to the battlefield she chants a poem, and immediately the battle breaks and the Fomorians are driven into the sea. After the battle she chants another poem celebrating the victory and prophesying the end of the world.



In another story she lures away the bull of a woman called Odras, who follows her to the otherworld via the cave of Cruachan. When she falls asleep, the Mórrígan turns her into a pool of water.











Nature and functions

The Mórrígan is often considered a triple goddess, but her supposed triple nature is ambiguous and inconsistent. Sometimes she appears as one of three sisters, the daughters of Ernmas: the Mórrígan, the Badb and Macha. Sometimes the trinity consists of the Badb, Macha and Nemain, collectively known as the Mórrígan, or in the plural as the Mórrígna. Occasionally Fea or Anu also appear in various combinations. However the Mórrígan also frequently appears alone, and her name is sometimes used interchangeably with the Badb, with no third "aspect" mentioned.



The Mórrígan is usually interpreted as a "war goddess": W.M. Hennessey's "The Ancient Irish Goddess of War," written in 1870, was influential in establishing this interpretation. Her role often involves premonitions of a particular warrior's violent death (suggesting a link with the Banshee of later folklore).



It has also been suggested (notably by Angelique Gulermovich Epstein in her dissertation War Goddess: The Morrígan and Her Germano-Celtic Counterparts) that she was closely tied to Irish männerbund groups (described by Máire West in her article "Aspects of díberg in the tale Togail Bruidne Da Derga", Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie vol. 49-50, p. 950 as: "...bands of youthful warrior-hunters, living on the borders of civilized society and indulging in lawless activities for a time before inheriting property and taking their places as members of settled, landed communities,") and that these groups may have been in some way dedicated to her. If true, her worship may have resembled that of Perchta groups in Germanic areas.



However, Máire Herbert has argued that "war per se is not a primary aspect of the role of the goddess", and that her association with cattle suggests her role was connected to the earth, fertility and sovereignty; she suggests that her association with war is a result of a confusion between her and the Badb. She can be interpreted as providing political or military aid or protection to the King - acting as a Goddess of Sovereignty, not necessarily a war goddess.



The Fulacht na Mór Ríoghna, the hearth or cooking pit of the Mórrígan, in County Tipperary suggests an association with the home or possibly with hunting. The Dá Chich na Morrigna or two paps of the Mórrígan, a pair of hills in County Meath, suggest a role as an earth goddess, comparable to Danu/Anu, who has her own paps in County Kerry.

Gods of Death: Izanami
20:55 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 739

In Japanese mythology, Izanami (meaning "She who invites") is a goddess of both creation and death, as well as the former wife of the god Izanagi. She is also referred to as Izana-mi, Izanami-no-Mikoto or Izanami-no-kami.



There are also death gods called Shinigami. The Shinigami are more commonly used in Japanese arts and fiction such as anime, and manga. Shinigami are briefly mentioned in the Shinto religion but are said to not actually exist.



Another popular death personification is Enma (Yama), also known as Enma Ou and Enma Daiou (Enma King, Enma Great King — translations of Yama Raja). He originated as Yama in Hinduism, later became Yanluo in China, and Enma in Japan. Enma rules the underworld, which makes him similar to Hades, and he decides whether someone dead goes to heaven or to hell. A common saying parents use in Japan to scold children is that Enma will cut off their tongue in the afterlife if they lie.

Story

The first gods summoned two divine beings into existence, the male Izanagi and the female Izanami, and charged them with creating the first land. To help them do this, Izanagi and Izanami were given a spear decorated with jewels, named Amenonuhoko (heavenly spear). The two deities then went to the bridge between heaven and earth, Amenoukihashi (floating bridge of heaven), and churned the sea below with the spear. When drops of salty water fell from the spear, they formed into the island Onogoro (self-forming). They descended from the bridge of heaven and made their home on the island. Eventually they wished to be mated, so they built a pillar called Amenomihashira and around it they built a palace called Yahirodono. Izanagi and Izanami circled the pillar in opposite directions, and when they met on the other side, Izanami spoke first in greeting. Izanagi didn't think that this was the proper thing to do, but they mated anyhow. They had two children, Hiruko (watery child) and Awashima (island of bubbles) but they were badly-made and are not considered deities.



They put the children into a boat and set them out to sea, then petitioned the other gods for an answer as to what they did wrong. They were told that the male deity should have spoken first in greeting during the marriage ceremony. So Izanagi and Izanami went around the pillar again, and this time, Izanagi spoke first when they met, and their marriage was then successful.



From their union were born the ohoyashima, or the eight great islands of the Japanese chain: Awazi, Iyo (later Shikoku), Ogi, Tsukusi (later Kyushu), Iki, Tsusima, Sado, Yamato (later Honshu). Note that Hokkaido, Chishima, and Okinawa were not part of Japan in ancient times. They bore six more islands and many deities.



Izanami died giving birth to the child Kagutsuchi (incarnation of fire) or Ho-Masubi (causer of fire). She was then buried on Mt. Hiba, at the border of the old provinces of Izumo and Hoki, near modern-day Yasugi of Shimane Prefecture. So angry was Izanagi at the death of his wife that he killed the newborn child, thereby creating dozens of deities.



Izanagi lamented the death of Izanami and undertook a journey to Yomi ("the shadowy land of the dead"). Quickly, he searched for Izanami and found her. At first, Izanagi could not see her at all for the shadows hid her appearance well. Nevertheless, he asked her to return with him. Izanami spat out at him, informing Izanagi that he was too late. She had already eaten the food of the underworld and was now one with the land of the dead. She could no longer return to the living.



Izanagi was shocked at this news but he refused to give in to her wishes of being left to the dark embrace of Yomi. While Izanami was sleeping, he took the comb that bound his long hair and set it alight as a torch. Under the sudden burst of light, he saw the horrid form of the once beautiful and graceful Izanami. She was now a rotting form of flesh with maggots and foul creatures running over her ravaged body.



Crying out loud, Izanagi could no longer control his fear and started to run, intending to return to the living and abandon his death-ridden wife. Izanami woke up shrieking and indignant and chased after him. Wild shikome (foul women) also hunted for the frightened Izanagi, instructed by Izanami to bring him back.



Izanagi burst out of the entrance and quickly pushed a boulder in the mouth of the cavern that was the entrance of Yomi. Izanami screamed from behind this impenetrable barricade and told Izanagi that if he left her she would destroy 1,000 residents of the living every day. He furiously replied he would give life to 1,500.



The story has both strong parallels, and significant differences, with the Greek Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, and the Maya Myth of Itzamna and Ix Chel. The Shikome, for instance, are parallel to the Maenads who tore Orpheus to pieces.

Gods of Death: Yan Luo
20:53 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 740

In Chinese Mythology, Yan Luo is the god of death and the ruler of hell (Feng-Du). The name Yan Luo is a shortened Chinese transliteration of the Sanskrit term Yama Raja .



His personification is always male, and his minions include a judge who holds in his hands a brush and a book listing every soul and the allotted death date for every life. Bullhead and Horseface, the fearsome guardians of hell, bring the newly dead, one by one, before Yan Luo for judgment.

Gods of Death: Yama
20:51 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 741






Yama or Yamaraja is the Hindu lord of death, whose first recorded appearance is in the Vedas. In Vedic tradition, Yama was considered to have been the first mortal who died and espied the way to the celestial abodes, and in virtue of precedence he became the ruler of the departed. In some passages, however, he is already regarded as the god of death.



The seven names of Yama are: viz Yama, Dharma-raja, Mrtyu, Antaka, Vaivasvata, Kala, Sarva-pranahara.



Yama is revered in Tibet as a guardian of spiritual practice. Yama is also mentioned in the Mahabharata as a great philosopher and devotee of Sri Krishna. He is known as Yima by Zoroastrians, and is considered to be cognate with Ymir of Norse legend and has become known as Emma, or Emma-o in Japanese Buddhism and Yan Luo In Chinese Mythology. Some even claim that he also shares the same mythological roots as Abel.



















Role

The spirits of the dead are being judged by Yama and his followers (called 'Yamadutas') according to their good and bad deeds. They are supposed to either pass through a term of enjoyment in a region midway between the earth and the heaven of the gods, or to undergo their measure of punishment in Naraka (or Jigoku), the nether world, situated somewhere in the southern region. After this time they return to Earth to animate new bodies following the theory of reincarnation.



Yama is also the lord of justice and is sometimes referred to as Dharma, in reference to his unswerving dedication to maintaining order and adherence to harmony. In this capacity, he is normally depicted wearing a Chinese judge's cap in Japanese art. It is said that he is also one of the wisest of the devas. In the Katha Upanishad, among the most famous Upanishads, Yama is portrayed as a teacher.







Description

In art, he is depicted with green or red skin, red clothes, and riding a buffalo. He carries a rope lasso in his left hand to carry the soul back to his abode called 'Yama-loka' . In Buddhism, the Wheel of Life mandala is often depicted between the jaws of Yama. Garuda Purana mentions Yama often. His description is in 2.5.147-149: "There very soon among Death, Time, etc. he sees Yama with red eyes, looking fierce and dark like a heap of collyrium, with fierce jaws and frowning fiercely, chosen as their lord by many ugly, fierce-faced hundreds of diseases, possessing an iron rod in his hand and also a noose. The creature goes either to good or to bad state as directed by him."







Family

He is a Lokapala and an Aditya and one of the Ashta-Dikpalas representing the south. He is the son of Surya (Sun) and twin brother of Yami, or Yamuna, traditionally the first human pair in the Vedas. He was also worshiped as a son of Vivasvat and Saranya. His wife is Syamala. He is the father of Yudhisthira, the oldest brother of the 5 Pandavas (Karna was born prior to Kunti's wedlock, so technically Karna is Yudhthira's older brother) and is said to have incarnated as Vidura by some accounts in the Mahabharata period. He reports to Lord Shiva the Destroyer, an aspect of Trimurti (Hinduism's triune Godhead). Three hymns (10, 14, and 35) in the Rig Veda Book 10 are addressed to him.

Gods of Death: Osiris
20:49 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 743

Osiris (Greek language, also Usiris; the Egyptian language name is variously transliterated Asar, Aser, Ausar, or Ausare) is the Egyptian God of the dead and the underworld.



Osiris is first mentioned in the 4th Dynasty, though it is regarded as highly plausible that he may have evolved from the god Andjety. The origin of Osiris' name is a mystery, which forms an obstacle to knowing the pronunciation of its hieroglyphic form. The majority of current thinking is that the Egyptian name is pronounced aser where the a is the letter ayin (i.e. a short 'a' pronounced from the back of the throat as if swallowing).













Description

In art, since he was representative of death, Osiris was usually depicted as a mummified man, with a beard, and, as ruler of the underworld, was also given the symbols of kingship - the crown, flail, and crozier. Usually, he also was depicted as having green skin, a reference to rotting flesh, and thus to death. Alternatively, the green color could also recall the color of new vegetation in Osiris' capacity of renewing life, similar to his nightly resurrection by Re.



The main visible source of decomposition, of rotting flesh, is its consumption by insects, beetles, and other small animals. Since these animals are the prey of centipedes, centipedes became seen by the Egyptians as protecting the dead, and consequently, in Heliopolis, became thought of as an aspect of Osiris, the lord of the dead. In this form, he was known as Sepa (also spelt Sep), meaning centipede, being depicted either as a normal centipede or as a mummified figure with two horns, reflecting both Osiris' role as lord of the dead, and the prominent horn-like Antennae exhibited by centipedes. Since centipedes are venomous, Sepa was seen as having authority over snake bites and scorpion stings, and so was invoked for protection against these things.



Because centipedes usually roam around soil, Sepa was also associated with the Earth, and his actions seen to improve its fertility. In consequence, Sepa was sometimes depicted with the head of a donkey, a major symbol of soil fertility due to the beneficial effects, to soil, of manure from donkeys in particular (horse manure would be more notable, but horses were not present in Egypt then).







Role

In the first mentions of Osiris, he was regarded the god of the underworld and the dead in the Ennead version of Egyptian mythology. At the height of the ancient Nile civilization, Osiris was regarded as the primary deity of a henotheism. Osiris was not only the merciful judge of the dead in the afterlife, but also the underworld agency that granted all life, including sprouting vegetation and the fertile flooding of the Nile River. Beginning at about 2000 B.C. all men, not just dead pharaohs, were believed to be associated with Osiris at death.







Family and avatars

He was one of the four children of the earth (Geb) and the sky (Nuit), and was the husband of Isis (Aset), who represented life. Every Khu, an aspect of the soul, seeking admission to Aaru, the Egyptian paradise, was referred to as an Osiris. As god of the dead, Babi, the god who devoured unworthy souls, was described as his first-born son.



Since Osiris was considered dead, as lord of the dead, Osiris' soul, or rather his Ba, was occasionally worshipped in its own right, almost as if it were a distinct god, especially so in the Delta city of Mendes. This aspect of Osiris was referred to as Banebdjed (also spelt Banebded or Banebdjedet, which is technically feminine) which literally means The ba of the lord of the djed, which roughly means The soul of the lord of the pillar of stability. The djed, a type of pillar, was usually understood as the backbone of Osiris, since the Egyptians had associated death, and the dead, as symbolic of stability. As Banebdjed, Osiris was given epithets such as Lord of the Sky and Life of the (sun god) Ra, since Ra, when he had become identified with Atum, was considered Osiris' ancestor, from whom his regal authority was inherited.



Ba does not, however, quite mean soul in the western sense, and also has a lot to do with power, reputation, force of character, especially in the case of a god. Since the ba was associated with power, and also happened to be a word for ram in Egyptian, Banebdjed was depicted as a ram, or as Ram-headed. A living, sacred ram, was even kept at Mendes and worshipped as the incarnation of the god, and upon death, the rams were mummified and buried in a ram-specific necropolis.



In Mendes, they had considered Hatmehit, a local fish-goddess, as the most important god/goddess, and so when the cult of Osiris became more significant, Banebdjed was identified in Mendes as deriving his authority from being married to Hatmehit. Later, when Horus became identified as the child of Osiris (in this form Horus is known as Harpocrates in greek and Har-pa-khered in Egyptian), Banebdjed was consequently said to be Horus' father, as Banebdjed is an aspect of Osiris.



In contemporary occult fiction, Banebdjed is often called the goat of Mendes, and identified with Baphomet; the fact that Banebdjed was a ram (sheep), not a goat, is apparently overlooked.







Book of the Dead prayers

In the Book of the Dead there are a series of funerary formulas addressed almost exclusively to Osiris, to be learned by a man when living or inscribed on his coffin so he might enter the “blessed abodes” after death. Only those initiated into the Osirian cult would know its doctrines and ceremonials, for these were, according to the Book of the Dead, “an exceedingly great mystery…in the handwriting of the god himself…. And these things shall be done secretly” (in the rubric accompanying Ch. CXXXVIIa). The Greeks, who also copied these sacred writings, declared it a sacrilege to reveal the rites or doctrines of the mysteries. Herodotus, Plutarch and Pausanias all noted that they were not allowed to repeat what they had learned from Egyptian religious rituals. The Osirian Myth is, however, fully retold by Plutarch (Isis and Osiris, 12-20) and elaborated and reinforced by Diodorus Siculus (Library of History I, 11-27).







Osiris in popular culture

Albert Pike (the grand commander of Freemasonry) worshipped Osiris and he proudly made that known in his book, Morals and Dogmas.

In Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, the priests in the Temple of Wisdom worship Osiris and Isis. The chief priest, Sarastro, sings an aria beginning "O Isis und Osiris".

Osiris is a deity used more than once in the hit television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the show, Osiris is described as the "keeper of the gate, master of all fate" and is used in resurrection rituals. He is also unique as he is seen in one episode, communicating with Willow Rosenberg as she tries to resurrect her dead lover, Tara Maclay; although names of deities are often given in spells on the show, most of the time the deity is not seen.

Saint Dragon - The God of Osiris is one of the Three Divine Beasts, or God Cards, from the manga Yu-Gi-Oh! and its animated adaptation, Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters.

In the show Futurama the three main characters Fry, Leela and Bender visit an Egypt-themed planet named Osiris IV.

In the Animatrix, the Osiris is the name of the ship that is sacrificed to make sure Zion gets the information that the machines are coming.

In the show Stargate SG-1 Osiris and other gods are represented as evil, whereas in Egyptian culture, most of them were told to be good and beneficial, in some way, to life.

In Joss Whedon's Firefly, Osiris is the name of the Core planet River and Simon Tam are originally from.

In the movie Hedwig and the Angry Inch, Hediwg's song "Origin of Love" mentions Osiris.

In The Vampire Lestat by Anne Rice, the legend of Osiris being cut up by his brother, Set, is discussed. As the one part of Osiris unable to be found by Isis was his genitals and because he is the god of the underworld, Lestat believes him to be a vampire God, as vampires are unable to copulate.

The Wu-Tang Clan's (now deceased) member, Ol' Dirty Bastard, went by the alias, Osirus. Fans would know this as he would sometimes shout on a song, "I'm the Osirus of this shit!!"

Gods of Death: Anubis
20:47 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 744

Anubis is the Greek name for the ancient god in Egyptian mythology whose hieroglyphic is more accurately spelt Anpu (also Anup, Anupu, Wip, Ienpw, Inepu, Yinepu, or Inpw). He is also known as Sekhem Em Pet. Prayers to Anubis have been found carved on the most ancient tombs in Egypt; indeed, the Unas text (line 70) associates him with the Eye of Horus. Anubis is the ruler of the underworld.

Description

In art, he was usually depicted as a man with the head of a jackal and alert ears, often wearing a ribbon, and wielding a whip. On very rare occasions, Anubis was shown fully human, or slightly more frequently as fully jackal. However, Anubis was also depicted as black, rather than brown, the colour of jackals, since black was the colour that the body turned as a result of mummification.



Dogs and jackals often loitered at the edges of the desert, especially near the cemeteries where the dead were buried; in fact, it is thought that the Egyptians began the practice of making elaborate graves and tombs in order to protect the dead from desecration by jackals. In consequence, Anubis was usually thought of as a jackal, an association reinforced by certain variations of his hieroglyph, which can be translated as young dog. Thus, ancient Egyptian texts say that Anubis, like a jackal, silently walked through the shadows of life and death and lurked in dark places, watchful by day as well as by night.







Role

As ruler over the dead, he was given titles such as He who is set upon his mountain, in reference to his sitting atop desert cliffs to guard multiple necropolis, and Chontamenti (also spelt Khentimentiu, and Khentamenti), meaning Lord of the Westerners, in reference to Egyptian belief that the entrance to the underworld was towards the west, since that was the direction in which the sun set. As ruler, he was also said to have been victorious over the dark forces (described as nine bows), which also, naturally, lurk in the underworld, gaining him the title Jackal ruler of the bows.



As king of the underworld, he was also considered to be the one who weighed the heart of the dead against the feather of Maàt (the concept of truth), gaining him the title He who counts the hearts. One of the reasons that the ancient Egyptians took such care to preserve their dead with sweet-smelling herbs was that it became believed Anubis would check each person with his keen canine nose. Only if they smelled pure would he allow them to enter the Kingdom of the Dead.







Family

Originally, in the Ogdoad system, he was god of the underworld, and his name is frequently thought to have reflected this, meaning something like putrefaction. He was said to have a wife, Anput (who was really just his female aspect, her name being his with an additional feminine suffix: the t), who was depicted exactly the same, though feminine. His father was originally said to be Ra, as he was the creator god, and thus his mother was said to be Hesat, Ra's wife, who later was identified as Hathor (to whom her identity was remarkably similar). As lord of the underworld, Anubis was identified as the father of Kebechet, the goddess of the purification of bodily organs due to be placed in canopic jars during mummification.







Anubis in modern culture

Anubis appears in the TV show Stargate SG-1 as a highly powerful and hostile "Half-Ascended" Goa'uld. He is deemed the most evil of them all, committing such atrocities that even the Goa’uld could not tolerate.

In the MMORPG RuneScape the God Icthlarin is similar to Anubis

Anubis is featured in the movies The Mummy, The Mummy Returns and The Scorpion King.

Anubis appears as 'Mister Jacquel', who co-owns a funeral parlor in Cairo, Illinois with Thoth (as 'Mister Ibis') in Neil Gaiman's novel American Gods.

Anubis: Jackal God Of Death is the name of a 1997 album by Ganesha (band).

Anubis appears in an episode of the animated TV series Gargoyles.

Anubis is the focus of a series of erotic furry comic books produced by Radio Comix.

Anubis is a primary character in Stephen King's made-for-TV adaptation of Lars von Trier's series Kingdom Hospital.

The Pokémon named Lucario is visually based on the image of Anubis

Anubismon is a Digimon in the Digimon collectible card game based on Anubis.

Anubis is a character in Yu-Gi-Oh! The Movie. In that movie he was depicted as an evil entity wanting to take over the world, and he had the Pyramid of Light, one of the Millennium Items. He is also depicted on various cards in the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game.

Anubis appears in several computer games such as War Gods, Zone of the Enders, Broken Sword 3 and Gex 3.

Anubis is the name of a space ship that appears in the Microsoft PC game Freelancer. The Anubis is a heavy fighter type available late in the game from the Order. It is often remarked to be the cheapest heavy fighter in the game at 1,100 credits.

Anubis is the main character of Unreal Championship 2, and is a high-ranking member of the Desert Legion. He enters the Liandri-hosted Ascension Rites to stop Selket's plan.

Anubis, together with Bastet, was the main villain of the "Nikopol trilogy" of graphic novels by cartoonist Enki Bilal.

A Petpet on the virtual pet website Neopets is called the Anubis, and resembles a small version of the god.

Anubis Cruger, a.k.a. Doggie Cruger, is a dog-like blue humanoid alien, commander of Power Rangers SPD and the Shadow Ranger.

Doggy Kruger, stuffed counterpart of the previous one in Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger, serves as commander and fights as Dekamaster.

Anubis is the name of a battlechip in the Mega Man Battle Network Series.

In Mega Man Zero series, there is a jackal reploid boss called Anubistepp Necromancess who comes in various versions.

Anubis appears in the cartoon Tutenstein

Anubis is the name of a villain who turns good in the anime series Ronin Warriors

Anubis is one of the possible minor gods to worship in the Age of Mythology PC games

Many forms of Anubis are included in World Of Warcraft's 1.9 patch called Ahn'Qiraj. Two Anubises guard each part of Ahn'Qiraj invasion found across Warcraft Universe

Gods of Death: Persephone
20:44 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 745

In Greek mythology, Persephone (Greek Περσεφόνη, Classical Greek Persephónē, Modern Greek Persefóni) was the queen of the Underworld, the Kore or young maiden, and the daughter of Demeter.



Persephone ("she who destroys the light") is her name in the Ionic Greek of epic literature. In other dialects she was known under various other names: Persephassa, Persephatta, or simply Kore. The Romans first heard of her from the Aeolian and Dorian cities of Magna Graecia, who use the dialectal variant Proserpina.



Hence, in Roman mythology she was called Proserpina, and as a revived Roman Proserpina she became an emblematic figure of the Renaissance.



She is the central figure in the secret initiatory mystery rites of regeneration at Eleusis, which promised immortality to their awe-struck participants—an immortality in her world beneath the soil, feasting with the heroes beneath her dread gaze (Kerenyi 1960, 1967).

Description

In Greek art, Persephone/Kore is often portrayed robed, carrying a sheaf of grain, and smiling demurely with the "Archaic smile" of the Kore of Antenor (illustration, right).











Story

According to Hesiod's Theogony, Persephone was the daughter produced by the union of Zeus and Demeter. "And he [Zeus] came to the bed of bountiful Demeter, who bore white-armed Persephone, stolen by Hades from her mother's side".



In the Olympian telling the gods Hermes, Ares, Apollon and Hephaistos, had all wooed Persephone, but Demeter rejected all their gifts and hid her daughter away from the company of the gods. She was innocently picking flowers with some nymphs—and Athena and Artemis, the Homeric hymn says—, or Leucippe, or Oceanids— in a field in Enna when he came, bursting up through a cleft in the earth; the nymphs were changed by Demeter into the Sirens for not having interfered. Life came to a standstill as the depressed Demeter (goddess of the Earth) searched for her lost daughter. Helios, the sun, who sees everything, eventually told her what had happened.



Finally, Zeus could not put up with the dying earth and forced Hades to return Persephone. But before she was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating four pomegranate seeds, which forced her to return to the underworld for one month each year for every seed that she ate. In some versions, Ascalaphus informed the other gods that Persephone had eaten the pomegranate seeds. When Demeter and her daughter were together, the Earth flourished with vegetation and color, but for four months each year, when Persephone returned to the underworld, the earth once again became a barren realm of darkness. In an alternate version, Hecate rescued Persephone. In the earliest version the dread goddess Persephone was herself Queen of the Underworld (Burkert, Kerenyi).



Persephone, as Queen of Hades, only showed mercy once, because the music of Orpheus was so hauntingly sad. She allowed Orpheus to bring his wife Eurydice back to the land of the living as long as she walked behind him and he never tried to look at her face until they reached the surface. Orpheus agreed but failed, looking back at the very end to make sure his wife was following, and lost Eurydice forever.



"As she was gathering flowers with her playmates in a meadow, the earth opened and Pluto, god of the dead, appeared and carried her off to be his queen in the world below. ... Torch in hand, her sorrowing mother sought her through the wide world, and finding her not she forbade the earth to put forth its increase. So all that year not a blade of corn grew on the earth, and men would have died of hunger if Zeus had not persuaded Pluto to let Proserpine go. But before he let her go Pluto made her eat the seed of a pomegranate, and thus she could not stay away from him for ever. So it was arranged that she should spend two-thirds (according to later authors, one-half) of every year with her mother and the heavenly gods, and should pass the rest of the year with Pluto beneath the earth. ... As wife of Pluto, she sent spectres, ruled the ghosts, and carried into effect the curses of men."

Gods of Death: Thanatos
20:42 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 746

In Greek mythology, Thanatos (θάνατος, "death") was the personification of death (Roman equivalent: Mors), and a minor figure in Greek mythology. Thanatos was a son of Nyx (Night) and twin of Hypnos (Sleep).



In psychoanalytical theory, Thanatos is the death instinct, which opposes Eros. The concept of the "death instinct" was identified by Sigmund Freud. For Freud, Thanatos signals a desire to give up the struggle of life and return to quiescence and the grave. This should not be confused with the comcept destrudo, which is the energy of the destructive impulse (the opposite of libido).

Description

In early mythological accounts, Thanatos was seen as a very powerful figure armed with a sword, with a shaggy beard and a fierce face. His coming was marked with pain and grief. In later eras, as the transition from life to death in Elysium became a more attractive option, Thanatos was seen as a beautiful young man. Many Roman sarcophagi show him as a winged boy, much like Cupid. Thanatos is sometimes depicted as a young man carrying a butterfly, wreath or inverted torch in his hands. He sometimes has two wings and a sword attached to his belt. He appears, with Hypnos, several times on Attican funerary vases, so-called lekythen. On a sculpted column in the Temple of Artemis at Ephese (4th century BCE) Thanatos is shown with two large wings and a sword attached to his girdle.











Role

Thanatos, in bringing death, is often followed by the fates of death or Keres, who are called hounds of Hades, and are Death-spirits, devourers of life. Thanatos, they say, is subject to the MOERAE, who are the three sisters who decide on human fate; and as everybody has a portion in life, the individual fate (moira) is usually present when Thanatos comes to fetch a mortal.



Thanatos' power only affects mortals, for the gods, being immortal, cannot be influenced by him. On account of this, Thanatos endures the hate of mortals and the immortals' rejection.











Story

According to the mythology, Thanatos could sometimes be outsmarted. In fact, Sisyphus did so twice. When it was time for Sisyphus to die, he succeeded in chaining Thanatos up with his own shackles. While Thanatos was chained, no mortals could die, but eventually Ares released Thanatos and handed Sisyphus over to him, but Sisyphus tricked Thanatos again by convincing Zeus to allow him to return to his wife.



Thanatos may come at any time, but his intervention in the case of Alcestis, who died a vicarious death in the place of her husband, is one of his most memorable. For Apollo had obtained a special favour of the MOERAE, which was that when Admetus should be about to die, he might be released from death if someone should choose voluntarily to die for him. Thanatos then fetched Alcestis instead of her husband.



However, the gods of the Underworld dislike this curtailing and anulling their prerogatives, and consequently Thanatos did not approve of Apollo's manipulations, and called them trickery. And when Thanatos came to fetch Alcestis, Apollo tried to persuade him to wait and grant her a long life. But Thanatos, being ruthless, refused. Heracles however, took Alcestis from him by force, but later, when his own time came, he could not defend himself

Gods of Death: Mot
20:40 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 747

In Ugaritic Mot 'Death' (spelled mt) is personified as a god of death. The word is cognate with forms meaning 'death' in other Semitic languages: Hebrew moth or maveth; with Canaanite, Egyptian Aramaic, Nabataean, and Palmyrene mwt; with Jewish Aramaic, Christian Palestinian Aramaic, and Samaritan mwt’; with Syriac mautā; with Mandaean muta; with Akkadian mūtu; with Arabic maut; with Ge'ez mot. Although Semetic languages are not considered related to Indo European, Sanskrit the root word for death in Sanskrit is 'Mrit', and Latin 'Mortus' is also very similar.

Origin

Mot was produced, which some say is mud, and others a putrescence of watery compound; and out of this came every germ of creation, and the generation of the universe. So there were certain animals which had no sensation, and out of them grew intelligent animals, and were called "Zophasemin," that is "observers of heaven"; and they were formed like the shape of an egg. Also Mot burst forth into light, and sun, and moon, and stars, and the great constellations.











Story

Mot 'Death', son of El, according to instructions given by the god Hadad (Ba‘al) to his messengers, lives in a city named hmry ('Mirey'), a pit is his throne, and Filth is the land of her heritage. But Ba‘al warns them:



that you not come near to divine Death, lest he made you like a lamb in his mouth,(and) you both be carried away like a kid in the breach of his windpipe.



Hadad seems to be urging that Mot come to his feast and submit himself to Hadad.



Death sends back a message that his appetite is that of lions in the wilderness, like the longing of dolphins in the sea and he threatens to devour Ba‘al himself. In a subsequent passage Death seemingly makes good his threat, or at least is deceived into believing he has slain Ba‘al. Numerous gaps in the text make this portion of the tale obscure. Then Ba‘al/Hadad's sister, the warrior goddess ‘Anat, comes upon Mot, seizes him, splits him with a blade, winnows him in a sieve, burns him in a fire, grinds him between millstones and throws what remains on the field for the birds to devour.



But after seven years Death returns, seeking vengeance for the splitting, burning, grind and winnowing and demanding one of Ba‘al's brothers to feed upon. A gap in the text is followed by Mot complaining that Ba‘al has given Mot his own brothers to eat, the sons of his mother to consume. A single combat between the two breaks out until Shapsh 'Sun' upbraids Mot, informing him that his own father El will turn against him and overturn his throne if he continues. Mot concedes and the conflict ends.



In Sanchuniathon also Death is son of El and counted as a god, as the text says in speaking of El/Cronus: ... and not long afterwards he consecrated after his death another of his sons, called Muth, whom he had by Rhea

History of the Angel of Death
20:37 Mar 07 2011
Times Read: 748

The angel of death was created by God on the first day (Tan. on Gen. xxxix. 1). His dwelling is in heaven, whence he reaches earth in eight flights, whereas pestilence reaches it in one (Ber. 4b). He has twelve wings (Pirḳe R. El. xiii). "Over all people have I surrendered thee the power," said God to the angel of death, "only not over this one which has received freedom from death through the Law" (Tan. to Ex. xxxi. 18; ed. Stettin, p. 315).



The "angel of the Lord" smites 185,000 men in the Assyrian camp (II Kings xix. 35). "The destroyer" kills the first-born of the Egyptians (Ex. xii. 23), and the "destroying angel" ("mal'ak ha-mashḥit") rages among the people in Jerusalem (II Sam. xxiv. 15). In I Chronicle xxi. 15 the "angel of the Lord" is seen by King David standing "between the earth and the heaven, having a drawn sword in his hand stretched out over Jerusalem."













Description

It is said of the angel of death that he is full of eyes. In the hour of death he stands at the head of the departing one with a drawn sword, to which clings a drop of gall. As soon as the dying man sees the angel, he is seized with a convulsion and opens his mouth, whereupon the angel throws the drop into it. This drop causes his death; he turns putrid, and his face becomes yellow ('Ab. Zarah 20b; in detail, Jellinck, "B. H." i. 150; for the eyes compare Ezek. i. 18 and Rev. iv. 6). The expression "to taste of death" originated in the idea that death was caused by a drop of gall ("Jew. Quart. Rev." vi. 327).



The soul escapes through the mouth, or, as is stated in another place, through the throat; therefore the angel of death stands at the head of the patient (Jellinek, l.c. ii. 94, Midr.Teh. to Ps. xi.). When the soul forsakes the body its voice goes from one end of the world to the other, but is not heard (Gen. R. vi. 7; Ex. R. v. 9).



The drawn sword of the angel of death, mentioned by the Chronicler (I. Chron. xxi. 15; comp. Job xv. 22; Enoch lxii. 11), indicates that the angel of death was figured as a warrior who kills off the children of men. "Man, on the day of his death, falls down before the angel of death like a beast before the slaughterer"



In later representations the knife sometimes replaces the sword, and reference is also made to the cord of the angel of death, which indicates death by throttling. Moses says to God: "I fear the cord of the angel of death" (Grünhut, l.c. v. 103a et seq.). Of the four Jewish methods of execution three are named in connection with the angel of death: burning (by pouring hot lead down the victim's throat-- similar to the drop of gall), slaughtering (by beheading), and throttling. The angel of death administers the particular punishment which God has ordained for the commission of sin.



The angel of death takes on the particular form which will best serve his purpose; e.g., he appears to a scholar in the form of a beggar imploring pity. "When pestilence rages in the town, walk not in the middle of the street, because the angel of death [i.e., pestilence] strides there; if peace reigns in the town, walk not on the edges of the road. When pestilence rages in the town, go not alone to the synagogue, because there the angel of death stores his tools. If the dogs howl, the angel of death has entered the city; if they make sport, the prophet Elijah has come".





Roles

The Rabbis found the angel of death mentioned in Psalms lxxxix. 45 (A. V. 48), where the Targum translates: "There is no man who lives and, seeing the angel of death, can deliver his soul from his hand". Eccl. viii. 4 is thus explained in Midrash Rabbah to the passage: "One may not escape the angel of death, nor say to him, 'Wait until I put my affairs in order,' or 'There is my son, my slave: take him in my stead.'



Where the angel of death appears there is no remedy (Talmud, Ned. 49a; Hul. 7b). If one who has sinned has confessed his fault, the angel of death may not touch him (Midrash Tanhuma, ed. Buber, 139). God protects from the angel of death (Midrash Genesis Rabbah lxviii.).



By acts of benevolence the anger of the angel of death is overcome; when one fails to perform such acts the angel of death will make his appearance . The angel of death receives his order from God (Ber. 62b). As soon as he has received permission to destroy, however, he makes no distinction between good and bad. In the city of Luz the angel of death has no power, and when the aged inhabitants are ready to die they go outside the city. A legend to the same effect existed in Ireland in the Middle Ages ("Jew. Quart. Rev." vi. 336).



The teaching of God shields one from the power of the angel of death. The children of Israel have accepted the Torah only in order that the angel may have no power over them ('Ab. Zarah 5a). Since death results only from sin, it can not, of course, come to those who live in accordance with the Torah. Although the sentence of mortality once pronounced could never be recalled ('Ab. Zarah 5a), yet the angel of death may not visit teachers of the Law; he is rather their friend (ib. 35b), and even imparts learning to them (Ber. 51a).









Stories

The angel of death, who is identified by some with Satan, immediately after his creation had a dispute with God as to the light of the Messiah. When Eve touched the tree of knowledge, she perceived the angel of death, and thought: "Now I shall die, and God will create another wife for Adam" .



Adam also had a conversation with the angel of death (Böklen, "Die Verwandtschaft der Jüdisch-Christlichen mit der Parsischen Eschatologie," p. 12).



While Abraham was mourning for Sarah the angel appeared to him, which explains why "Abraham stood up from before his dead" (Gen. xxiii. 3; Gen. R. lviii. 5, misunderstood by the commentators). Samuel told Sarah that Abraham had sacrificed Isaac in spite of his wailing, and Sarah died of horror and grief.



It was Moses who most often had dealings with the angel. At the rebellion of Korah, Moses saw him (Num. R. v. 7; Bacher, l.c. iii. 333; compare Sanh. 82a). It was the angel of death in the form of pestilence which snatched away 15,000 every year during the wandering in the wilderness (ib. 70). When Moses reached heaven, the angel told him something (Jellinek, l.c. i. 61).



When the angel of death came to Moses and said, "Give me thy soul," Moses called to him: "Where I sit thou hast no right to stand." And the angel retired ashamed, and reported the occurrence to God. Again, God commanded him to bring the soul of Moses. The angel went, and, not finding him, inquired of the sea, of the mountains, and of the valleys; but they knew nothing of him (Sifre, Deut. 305). Really, Moses did not die through the angel of death, but through God's kiss ; i.e., God drew his soul out of his body (B. B. 17a; compare Abraham in Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature, and parallel references in Böklen, l.c. p. 11). Legend seizes upon the story of Moses' struggle with the angel of death, and expands it at length (Tan., ed. Stettin, pp. 624 et seq.; Deut. R. ix., xi.; Grünhut, l.c. v. 102b, 169a). As Benaiah bound Ashmedai (Jew. Encyc. ii. 218a), so Moses binds the angel of death that he may bless Israel is explained as meaning "before the angel of death").



Solomon once noticed that the angel of death was grieved. When questioned as to the cause of his sorrow he answered: "I am requested to take your two beautiful scribes." Solomon at once charged the demons to convey his scribes to Luz, where the angel of death could not enter. When they were near the city, however, they both died. The angel laughed on the next day, whereupon Solomon asked the cause of his mirth. "Because," answered the angel, "thou didst send the youths thither, whence I was ordered to fetch them" (Suk. 53a). In the next world God will let the angel of death fight against Pharaoh, Sisera, and Sennacherib.



The death of Joshua ben Levi in particular is surrounded with a web of fable. When the time came for him to die and the angel of death appeared to him, he demanded to be shown his place in paradise. When the angel had consented to this, he demanded the angel's knife, that the angel might not frighten him by the way. This request also was granted him, and Joshua sprang with the knife over the wall of paradise; the angel, who is not allowed to enter paradise, catching hold of the end of his garment. Joshua swore that he would not come out, and God declared that he should not leave paradise unless he was absolved from his oath; if not absolved, he was to remain. The angel of death then demanded back his knife, but Joshua refused. At this point a heavenly voice rang out: "Give him back the knife, because the children of men have need of it" (Ket. 77b; Jellinek, l.c. ii. 48-51; Bacher, l.c. i. 192 et seq.).









In Islam

Death, as of one of Allah's angels, is spoken of in the Qur'an:



The angel of death, who has been charged with you, will gather you; then to your Lord you will be returned. (32:11).



He is traditionally known by the name of 'Izrail (not to be confused with Israel, which is a name in Islam solely for Prophet Ya'qoob/Jacob), the English form of which is Azrael. He is charged with the task of separating and returning from the bodies the souls of people who are to be recalled permanently from the physical world back to the primordial spiritual world. This is a process whose aspect varies depending on the nature and past deeds of the individuals in question, and some suggest that Azrael is also accompanied by helpers or associates.



Apart from Azrael's responsibilities and the characteristics he has in common with other angels in Islam, little else concerning his personality can be derived from fundamental Muslim texts. Many references are made in various Muslim legends, however, some of which are included in books authored by Muslim poets and mystics.



For instance, the following tale is in the Masnavi, written by the well-known Maulana Rumi:



When the Almighty determined to create mankind... He deputed the angel Gabriel to bring a handful of earth for the purpose of forming Adam's body. But the Earth, being apprehensive that the man so created would rebel against God and draw down God's curse upon her, remonstrated with Gabriel, and besought him to forbear... Then God deputed [the angel] Michael on the same errand, and the Earth made similar excuses to him, and he also... returned to heaven without taking a handful... Then God sent the angel Israfil on the same errand, and he also was diverted from the execution of it by a divine intimation... At last God sent 'Izrail, the angel of death, who, being of sterner disposition than the others, resolutely shut his ears to the Earth's entreaties, and brought back the required handful of earth. The Earth pressed him with the argument that God's command to bear away a handful of her substance against her will did not override the other divine command to take pity on suppliants; but 'Izrail would not listen to her, remarking that, according to the canons of theological interpretation, it was not allowable to have recourse to analogical reasoning to evade a plain and categorical injunction. He added, that in executing this injunction, painful though it might be, he was to be regarded only as a spear in the hand of the Almighty. (Book V, abridged translation by Whinfield)

Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage
19:57 Mar 01 2011
Times Read: 761

THE OATH OF THE BEGINNING



I, Perdurabo, Frater Ordinis Rosae Rubeae et Aureae Crucis.

A Lord of the Paths in the Portal of the Vault of the

Adepts.

A 5degree = 6square of the Order of the Golden Dawn; and an

humble servant of the Christ of God; do this day spiritually

bind myself anew:

by the Sword of Vengeance:

by the Powers of the Elements:

by the Cross of Suffering:

that I will devote myself to the Great Work:

the Obtaining of Communion with my own Higher and Divine

Genius,

(called the Guardian Angel)

by means of the prescribed course:

and that I will use any Power so obtained unto the

Redemption of the Universe

So help me the Lord of the Universe and mine own Higher

Soul!



The physical construction of the 238 symbols, even without

any attempt to charge them, (the contrary, in fact) is a

work of the most intense magical fatigue. 12 per diem is

enough. Begin this work, therefore, many months before the

actual start. This fatigue appears to diminish when well

started. (Or, one reaches squares purely telesmatic, with no

definite invocation of Spirits.)



Before beginning.



Ceremonially accept this Magic, as from God, taking the

Obligation which Abramelin demanded from Abraham.



The squares are kept in the interior of the Altar before

beginning the Six Moons --- this probably as a precaution.



On Feb. 21 {1900}. the frost preventing my temple being

completed, I did invoke the Angels of of : using also the

symbols Codselim, Paradilon, and Sagrir. Therefore did

Tetragrammaton cause a great wind to arise, and a most

vehement rain and tempest, that the green earth did appear

from under the Snows. Whereat I did rejoice greatly and

cease not day and night unto this hour in blessing and

praising His holy Name, who hath not permitted the Wicked

Demon to have advantage and dominion over and against the

least of His servants.



Feb. 24 Die {Sat.}



It is here fitting that I record the singular train of

events occurring from Nov. '99 to date



{WEH NOTE: It is not clear where the paragraph just below

belongs in the work}



Met Evelyn H. accidentally by O.C.L.

She reaffirms her statements: but her

description of the "college chum" is

absurd and her whole attitude ridiculous.

She knows one fact only--the name Crowley

at Cambridge.



1. Shortly after my Great Trouble, Laura warns me that I am

in danger from the police. This from Astral; but she

received an anonymous letter before coming here warning her

that I "was about to be in trouble" (and that therefore she

had better not be mixed up in it)



2. I went to town saw I.A. (very ill) called on Evelyn Hall

(out) and left a note giving my address (H.C.) (Jan.11,4)



I went to V.N. over and saw I.A. till 7 o'clock.



This day 15th at 7.0 p.m. I got (at H.C.) two letters from

Evelyn. These say: you (and all your friends at 67) are

watched by police. This is connected with "the brother of a

college chum" but no doubt can be entertained of the meaning

of her hints. She naively assumes the charge to be true!



I caught the night boat to Paris, as I had originally

intended.



3. Die I am admitted to the Glory of Tiphereth



During this week, I ask S.R. to judge the astrological

figure of the time of reading aforesaid letters. He says:

the news is true but you ( on ) are very strong and the end

of the matter is good. He advises me to avoid London: I may

be in Cambridge only for a few days. By the Codselim symbol,

I invoke the great Names of God the Vast One, and reach town

safely.



4. I.A. and O.E. both jeer at my alarms: for, knowing

already how Aweful are the Forces leagued against me, I am

not surprised at these troubles: Neither do I fear them, yet

to find me might be to spoil my plans. On regaining the

thorny bosom of Alma Mater, I meet



He goes much further: but is even more mysterious than

Evelyn Hall. He says: yes, you are "wanted" though he thinks

and adds "The danger is most pressing just before Easter"

(Humphreys is certainly at this time manoeuvring to get me

out of the way.) I write to V.N. asking his help. He thinks

I am mad, or obsessed! I use the pantacle of the key of

Solomon and reach Boleskine in safety Feb. 7



5. Working at the making of the Symbols of the Third Book, I

receive Feb. 24 a letter from I.A.



"I warn that you are in very grave danger" having thrice

been visited by the Angel of the Lord in the visions of his

head upon his bed. "A certain thing more sacred than sphere

of Sensation broken," as he told me later.



This may be either (1) that I am in danger of my True Circle

being broken or (2) Politics or the other silliness. In any

case "some of me escapes."



I therefore resolve to invoke Heru-pa-kraat-ist: to keep the

Symbols locked up in the Altar: and for the other, to cast

myself upon the Providence of God; that He may give His

Angels charge over me, to keep me in all my ways. So mote it

be!



I did therefore invocate with a devout mind and reverent

voice the Lord Harpocrates: thus was my prayer heard, and I

am yet safe from all mine enemies: unto HIm be the glory for

ever!



Feb. 28 Went to Inverness. New censer &c.



March 2 Tendency to Obsession by Jesod A.C. is certainly

Aurea Crux but it's Automatic Consciousness too! Let me

invoke the great names of God, that only Kether may be

before mine eyes! Invoked of to have "A mighty guard of

fire"



An idea to put all squares of one Prince on a sheet,

foldable, with his name and his servitors' below.



An idea that the full squares (as a rule) evoke a definite

force and are more obsessing: the etc, stating rather your

intention for the familiars --- presumed to be about one.



Dismissed angels of of



Particulars of the Fast of 3 days.



At 6.0 p.m. let the Fast begin.



During this evening let the Psalms of David be recited and

meditated upon.



Lunch at 12.0 noon to consist of eggs, milk, scones, and

fruit. And so on till 6.0 p.m. when the fast is broken by a

meal of meat. evening carries a letter to D.D.C.F. enclosing

money pounds7. 0. 0 for alms to poor that them may say

Psalms or Pater and Ave.



On the day of receiving his reply or on Saturday rise before

dawn, make the general confession of my whole life and the

obligation, as set down hereafter, receiving the Operation

as from God. This day is also to be observed as a fast,

Friday sunset to Saturday sunset.



Accept of it.



Make a dic. of all words in Abi. squares and Spirit Die

{Ven.} March 9. At 6.0 p.m. I did begin the fast sketched in

outline above, with a prayer unto the Lord of the Universe,

that He would give me his aid, and that of His Holy Angels.



I considered many things of colour and of ritual, and did

paint a rod in the 12 colours, for a Lotus Wand.



Die I awoke tranquil and spiritually happy, but with a bad

headache. So that in the morning I could do but little. Yet

I walked in my garden before lunch, and after I made a

telesma which cured me, I began a telesmatic image of and

read of the Psalms of David until I found the Seven. I read

also in the Blossom and the Fruit, and meditated upon

unselfishness: The Ego: and such subjects.



I now purpose to read ceremonially the 7 penitential psalms

having invoked the Lord of the Universe and the dwellers of

the Elements to mine aid and witness. This will best be done

at the end of the the fast. But the Psalms may be read and

studied even now.



Let me formulate the Obligation of the Operation.



"I, P ............... in the presence of the Lord of the

Universe, and of all Powers Divine and Angelic, do

spiritually bind myself, even as I am now physically bound

unto the cross of suffering:

1. To unite my consciousness with the divine, as I may be

permitted and aided by the Gods Who live for ever; the

Aeons of Infinite years, that, being lost in the

Limitless Light, it may find Itself: to the Regeneration

of the Race, either of man or as the Will of God shall

be. And I submit myself utterly to the Will Divine.

2. To follow out with courage, modesty, lovingkindness, and

perseverance the course prescribed by Abramelin the

Mage; as far as in me lies, unto the attainment of this

end.

3. To despise utterly the things and the opinions of this

world lest they hinder me in doing this.

4. To use my powers only to the Spiritual Well-being of all

with whom I may be brought in contact.

5. To give no place to evil: and to make eternal war

against the Forces of Evil: until even they be redeemed

unto the Light.

6. To harmonize my own spirit that so Equilibrium may lead

me to the East and that my Human Consciousness shall

allow no usurpation of its rule by the Automatic.

7. To conquer the temptations.

8. To banish the illusions.

9. To put my whole trust in the Only and Omnipotent Lord

God: as it is written 'Blessed are they that put their

trust in Him.'

10. To uplift the Cross of Sacrifice and Suffering: and to

cause my Light to shine before men that they may glorify

my Father which is in Heaven.



Furthermore: I most solemnly promise and swear: to acquire

this Holy Science in the manner prescribed in the Book of

Abramelin, without omitting the least imaginable thing of

their contents: not to gloss or comment in any way on that

which may be or may not be; not to use this Sacred Science

to offend the Great God, nor to work ill unto my neighbour:

to communicate it to no living person, unless by long

practice and conversation I shall know him thoroughly, well

examining whether such an one really intendeth to work for

the Good or for the Evil. I will punctually observe, in

granting it, the same fashion which was used by Abramelin to

Abraham. Otherwise, let him who receiveth it draw no fruit

therefrom. I will keep myself as from a Scorpion from

selling this Science. Let this Science remain in me and in

my generation as long as it shall please the Most High.



All these points I generally and severally swear to observe

under the awful penalty of the displeasure of God, and of

Him to Whose Knowledge and Conversation I do most ardently

aspire.

So help me the Lord of the Universe, and my own Higher Soul!



Die I painted the of for poetic inspiration, and the

rose-haired one and I saw in our Binah vision I suppose him

to be Etzelekanu, the first of the 4 servient angels in of

which angle I had stirred up.



I also read I.A's invocations for Fra F.R. and certain of my

own. My waking in the morning was after a certain dream, in

which some of the incidents were undesirable. I went over in

my mind all the evil of my past life and must have gone to

sleep while thus engaged. I continued this exercise on

waking, and did sorely lament how weak and miserable I was

still.



O Lady of the Land of Dreams! Divine One that shapest the

eidolon of my unconscious thought! Make thyself a pure and

lovely shrine --- let not my body be the habitation of the

unclean and evil. Let it be the Temple of the Rosy Cross!



O Angels, ye that throng the Worlds of Sleep! Let your pure

rays inform my memory; your pure clear voices dwell in my

ears: that I may rise each morning with new knowledge new

aspirations: unto the glory of His Ineffable Name who liveth

and reigneth for ever and ever as the Balance of

Righteousness and Truth!



Yet in this sleep I got the idea that my "man of majestic

appearance" would probably be a fascinating female occultist

who would tempt me by great ideas of self-sacrifice, etc.,

etc. I will now meditate upon that and that may initiate my

A.C. to its kether.



So I devised a Flashing Tablet, having its being in Yesod.

Thus: In the midst the God



Blessed be He! Supporteth the firmament in the sign of 2 = 9

Cynocephali adoring Hieroglyphics surround Him, of diverse

import; yet to one end. The ground in Indigo. Around this is

a Violet circle, having the name duly written And around

this is a very dark circle of Purple, nearly Black wherein

is the Name in Coptic. Outside this again the ground is of

Citrine flecked with Azure. And for two hours and more did I

draw and begin the painting of this potent and wonderful

talisman. For the God Himself was upon me, and guided my

miserable hand.



Die I woke, after a long dream of various import: still,

alas, not altogether as I could hope (My memory is not very

clear about this) I performed the ablutions, and invoked the

L O R D O F T H E U N I V E R S E, in his presence reciting

the 7 prescribed Psalms, with many petitions for aid,

purity, &c. The fast ended at 6.0 p.m.



Now it is said of Shu that he causes great pain to Earth

keeping it and the firmament asunder. Thus also Jesod acts

as a barrier, preventing Malkuth from uniting with

Tiphereth. I mention this, because of what follows.



In bed, I invoked the Fire angels and spirits on the tablet,

with names, etc., and the 6th Key. I then (as H.P.K.)

entered my crystal. An angel, meeting me, told me among

other things, that they (of the tablets) were at war with

the angels of the 30 Aethyrs, to prevent the squaring of the

circle. I went with him unto the abodes of in but must have

fallen asleep, or nearly so. Anyhow, I regained

consciousness in a very singular state 1/2 cons. being

there, and 1/2 here. I recovered and banished the Spirits

but was burning all over, and tossed restlessly about---very

sleepy, but consumed of fire! Only repeated careful

assumption of H.P.K. god-form enabled me to regain my normal

state. I had a long dream of a woman eloping, whom I helped,

and after of a man stealing my R.C. jewel from a

dressing-table in a hotel. I caught him and found him a weak

man beyond natural (I could bend or flatten him at will) and

then the dream seemed to lose coherence---I carried him

about and found a hairbrush to beat him, etc., etc. Query:

Was I totally obsessed?



Die Went climbing with O.E. Devil of a long day. In evening

put up tablet, but made no invocations: yet I had dreams of

a watery nature.



Die Salmon With tablet I got nothing I remember: but again

had trouble with falling asleep, though not so bad. On

waking (half and half) I got a distinct airy feeling---quite

indescribable.



Die Invoking the angels of Earth I obtained a wonderful

effect. The angel my guide treated me with great contempt

and was very rude and truthful. He shewed me divers things.

In the centre of the earth is formulated the Rose and Cross.

Now the Rose is the Absolute Self-Sacrifice, the merging of

all in the 0 (Negative) the Universal principle of

generation through change (not merely the feminine) and the

Universal Light "Khabs" The Cross is the Extension of Pekht

principle. Now I should have learned more but my attention

wandered. This closes the 4 elemental visions: prosecuted,

alas! with what weakness, fatuity, and folly!



Still, I AM, in Him, capable of receiving some spiritual

instruction in this way.



It is best to make the circle by L.B.R.



Die Went on hills with O.E. to ski. Hard work and no

ski-ing.



Die O! how little do I do! May the Holy One of His Great

Loving Kindness spread upon me His Initiating Wings!



I think I invoked this night, but remember nothing of



Die Fancy I invoked and saw many lamentable results of

dreams. mistaken : also mine own holy ideal, whom I had so

blasphemed. Even in the desire for her was I not quite pure,

and was thus repelled. I think I do not understand purity.



Die Inv. as I had tooth beginning. I remember very badly

these two days: this day of writing being



Die I finished my climbing paper for O.E. and in the

afternoon shut myself up, and went on a journey. This much

only do I remember (I had been reading Clothed with the Sun)



I went with a very personal guide: and beheld (after some

lesser things) Our Master as he sate by the Well with the

Woman of Samaria. Now the 5 husbands were 5 great religions

which had defiled the purity of the Virgin of the World: and

"he whom thou now hast" was materialism (or modern thought)



Other scenes also I saw in His life: and behold I also was

crucified! Now did I go backwards in time even unto

Berashith and was permitted to see marvellous things.



First the Abyss of the Water: on which I, even I, brooded

amid other dusky flames as Shin upon Mem: held by my genius.

And I beheld the victory of Ra upon Apophis and the First of

the Golden Dawns! Yea: and monsters, faces half-formed,

arose: but they subsisted not.



And the firmament Was.



Again the Chaos and the Death!



Then Ath Hashamaim v. ath ha-aretz {WEH NOTE: Hebrew first

verse of Genesis, here corrected to proper phonetics}. There

is a whirling intertwining infinitude of nebulae, many

concentric systems, each system non-concentric to any other,

yet all concentric to the whole. As I went backwards in time

they grew faster and faster, and less and less material.

(This is the scientific hypothesis, directly contrary to

that of A.K.) And at last are whirling wheels of light: yet

through them waved a thrill of an intenser invisible light

in a direction to the tangents. I asked to go yet further

back and behold! I am floating on my back---cast down! in a

Wind of Light flashing down upon me from the immeasurable

Above. (This Light is of a blueish silver tinge) And I saw

that Face, lost above me in the height inscrutable: a face

of absolute beauty. And I was as it were a Lamb slain in the

Glamour of Those Eyes. Thus was I made pure: for there what

impunity could live? I was told many had been so far back:

none further: those who could go further would not, since

that would have reabsorbed them into the Beginning, and that

must not be to Him who hath sworn to uplift the Standard of

Sacrifice and Sorrow, which is strength. (I forgot the

Angels in the Planetary Whirl. They regarded me with

curiosity: and were totally unable to comprehend my

explanation that I was a Man, returning in time to behold

the Beginning of Things.)



Now was I able to stand in my Sephiroth: and the Crown of

Twelve Stars was upon my head! I then went into the centre

of the earth (I suppose) and stood upon the top of an high

mountain. The many dragons and guardians I was able to

overpower by authority. Now the mount was of glistening

whiteness, exceeding white as snow: yet dead and unluminous.

And I beheld a vision, even like unto that of the Universal

Mercury: and I learnt that I myself was sulphur and

unmercurial. Now having attained the Mercurializing of my

sulphur I was able (in my vision) to fecundate the mountain

(of Salt) And it was instantly transmuted. Into gold? What

came ye out into the wilderness for to see? No: into living,

glowing, molten light: the Light that redeemeth the material

world! So I returned: having difficulty to find the earth

(?) But I called on S.R.M.D. and V.N.R. who were glad to see

me. And returned into the body: to waste the night in gibing

at a foolish medico.



Die Revised climbing paper with O.E. got a badly-made from

Fraser's and a threatening letter from Laura. Bar the ruby

ring, I could checkmate the Princes for the moment by giving

way---O Lord, who knowest me, lead me in thy ways. Give me

wisdom, that I may do Thy Will without let or hindrance from

anysoever Cause.



Die I was ill and unable to do much. The M.S.S. from Allan

cheered me a little. I am better at nightfall, and resolve

to arise before the Sun, and to begin to write my general

confession unto the Lord, with the utmost humility and

devotion. If it does not last till sundown, I cannot help

it. May He behold my shortcomings, my follies, and my sins,

flood them with the Waters of His Mercy, purge them with the

Fire of His Justice, and with His Holy Breath create in me a

clean heart, that an established and balanced Microcosm may

be His Temple!



Die Rose at 5.45 Did L.B.R. and began to pray. But I was too

sleepy, etc., to do much and went again to sleep. At 9 I

began to write my Confession and continued till about 5. I

will now write Orders to the Servants for the Operation. The

ceremonial confession to be made before sunrise.



Die Rose at 5.45 and at 6.0 made my confession and accepted

the Obligation. At the end of the confession I heard a Great

Voice saying: Thine iniquity is taken away: thy sin is

purged.



At about 7.15 I went to bed again. I dreamed a strange

dream. I was playing billiards and cut the cloth badly. I

was with a publisher, going through my work. He put aside a

piece called "The King's Tragedy" as specially valuable. He

made indecent advances. I would not till he had actually

published my things. His wife was a wonderful evil woman. A

very flushed deep red complexion and moustache and beard.

These white and black mixed. After dinner with her we went

into a strange Oriental room and slaves brought a wonderful

Wine. One of these slaves was a pale buxom boy with woman's

breasts and him I touched on the anus. And another touched

me there also. And I think a great debauch must have

followed. But I have forgotten these and other parts of my

dream.



Now this is a most evil Happening.



In the afternoon I tried to go to the Twll-Du for O.E. with

poor success. I then began to fix up things for a final. The

wand wanted straightening.



I then felt a most violent disinclination to begin the

Operation. Since of my unworthiness, the A.C., (masquerading

as even the H.W.) all rose up to oppose me. They are so far

effective in persuasion that I am resolved to invoke most

devoutly the Names of God, to inquire of Him whether I ought

to begin.



I finished the flashing tablet of Jesod. Now I purpose to

try this tablet clairvoyantly. The Names of God only are

invoked: and the Kether formula especially insisted on.

Moreover, Lig Aloes is the perfume burnt and I have made the

whole tablet with pure thoughts. Now am I determined to

reach the plane of Jesod, in its highest aspect: on the

homoeopathic principle.



Die 12.10 a.m. I have invoked Shu



As I never invoked before! First L.B.R. Vibrated with S.

from R. then inv. impromptu, assumed his form and

attributes. charged tel. by will and sealed by K.A.P. R. and

C. by lamp and lo! I saw you to the end. Now for the vision!



I fancy I must have got too active: I saw little and fell

asleep. But my dreams were all as they should be.



An idea that the planetary, etc., influence at time of

waking determines dreams.



Die Trouble getting P.W. Shu vision cut off by sleep.



Die Ski on Hills.



Die Revise climbing paper with O.E. Dreams much better all

this time.



Die I had gone to sleep meditating L.V.X. and woke very

early still doing this (Curious dreams of

prison-breaking---eventual arrival at

E'bourne---regatta---tendency to E'bourne habits.)



Now also I think there is a change of god-form here

connoted. Chief Adept with wand = with Crook and Scourge =

Second A. would be or more obviously Apophis. The question

is whether Apophis is not only the evil dyad: but the dual

nature. I clearly get the pyramid formula of attracting

light. Yet the manner of vibration is difficult. Closing of

plumes of Amon. There is a great equilibration of the

officers; and they seem to overlap and interchange. Thus S.

has wand sacred to Osiris and T. to Isis, while C. has the

Caduceus. Yet in function are the officers very similar to



Die Another useless day.



Die Either or night I dreamt of beginning the Operation, and

of some obstacle on the second day.



Heard this evening from Deodate. S.O. apparently mad.

Resolved to write D.D.C.F. offering myself. I invoke to give

an answer in my dreams. Got him very visibly.



Die A most extraordinary dream! A woman-tapir on an island,

and a beautiful girl and her younger sister! Love all,

letter at last. I seem to remember very little. Anyway, what

doth this portend? I leave for London Monday: as it is

written:



"His Face was Fixed as a Flint to go unto Jerusalem."



Die Journey all day and night.



Die Arrive at 10 L.G.P. Go to E.S.O. Bring him back and trap

in attempting Laura. He seems nearly as big a blackguard as

myself. I misbehave as usual. Oh Lord, how long?



Die To V.N.



Die Why, they haven't got the 4 {?Jupiter?}scales!



Die V.N. kicks me out (as S.S.D.D. will visit him?) C.S.

comes in evening



Die Find vault locked. See V.N. wires D.D.C.F's letter

forwarded to me. Fidelis appoints morning. D.D.C.F. accepts

my services, therefore do I rejoice, that my sacrifice is

accepted. Therefore do I again postpone the Operation of

Abramelin the Mage, having by God's Grace formulated even in

this a new link with the Higher, and gained a new weapon

against the Great Princes of the Evil of the World.



A M E N



Wanted (1) Full attn. Enochian alphabet to Geom and Coptic.

&c.



(2) Symbolism (if having to act as C.A.)



(3) Magot and Kore.



(4) H.P.K. formula of invisibility



(5) Current for vault---strength and wisdom, &c.



Die Saw Fidelis, and received her allegiance to S.R. and

that of Perseverantia. Also promise of help. Left London.



Die Reached Paris. Am selected as the messenger of D.D.C.F.

after a long talk with him and V.N.R. My proposals are

substantially approved.



Die Action begins to be taken.



Die Letters, &c., written.



Die Instructions and symbols received.



Die Left Paris 11.50 a.m. The history of my mission: is it

not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Revolt of

the Adepti?

LIBER SAMEKH
19:53 Mar 01 2011
Times Read: 762

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.





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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.





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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.





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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 (c) 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.





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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.





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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





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"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.





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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;



(c) 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.





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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.

Liber O vel MANUS ET SAGITTAE
19:49 Mar 01 2011
Times Read: 763

1. This book is very easy to misunderstand; readers are asked to use the

most minute critical care in the study of it, even as we have done in the

preparation.

2. In this book it is spoken of the Sephiroth, and the Paths, of Spirits

and Conjurations; of Gods, Spheres, Planes, and many other things which may

or may not exist.

It is immaterial whether they exist or not. By doing certain things

certain results follow; students are most earnestly warned against

attributing objective reality or philosophic validity to any of them.

3. The advantages to be gained from them are chiefly these:

(a) A widening of the horizon of the mind.

(b) An improvement of the control of the mind.

4. the student, if he attains any success in the following practices, will

find himself confronted by things (ideas or beings) too glorious or too

dreadful to be described. It is essential that he remain the master of all

that he beholds, hears or conceives; otherwise he will be the slave of

illusion and the prey of madness.

Before entering upon any of these practices the student must be in good

health, and have attained a fair mastery of Asana, Pranayama and Dharana.

5. There is little danger that any student, however idle or stupid, will

fail to get some result; but there is a great danger that he will be led

astray, even though it be by those which it is necessary that he should

attain. Too often, moreover, he mistaketh the first resting-place for the

goal, and taketh off his armour as if he were a victor ere the fight is well

begun.

It is desirable that the student should never attach to any result the

importance which it at first seems to possess.

6. First, the, let us consider the Book 777 and its use; the preparation

of the Place; the use of the Magic Ceremonies; and finally the methods which

follow in Chapter V. "Viator in Regnis Arboris" and in Chapter VI "Sagitta

trans Lunam."

(In another book will be treated of the Expansion and Contraction of

Consciousness; progress by slaying the Chakkrams; progress by slaying the

Pairs of Opposites; the methods of Sabhapaty Swami, etc., etc.)







II.



1. The student must first obtain a thorough knowledge of Book 777,

especially of the columns printed elsewhere in this Book.

When these are committed to memory, he will begin to understand the nature

of these correspondences. (See Illustrations in "The Temple of Solomon the

King" in Equinox No. 2. Cross references are given.)

2. If we take an example, the use of the tables will become clear.

Let us suppose that you wish to obtain knowledge of some obscure science.

In column XLV {Note 1}, line 12, you will find "Knowledge of Sciences."

By now looking up line 12 in the other columns, you will find that the

Planet corresponding is Mercury, its number eight, its lineal figures the

octagon and octagram. The God who rules that planet Thoth, or in Hebrew

symbolism Tetragrammaton Adonai and Elohim Tzabaoth, its Archangel Raphael,

its choir of Angels Beni Elohim, its Intelligence Tiriel, its Spirit

Taphtatharath, its colours Orange (for Mercury is the Sphere of the Sephira

Hod, 8) Yellow, Purple, Grey and Indigo rayed with Violet; its Magical Weapon

the Wand or Caduceus, its Perfumes Mastic and others, its sacred plants

Vervain and others, its jewel the Opal or Agate; its sacred animal the Snake,

etc., etc.



----------------

1. Reference to the First Edition.





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3. You would then prepare your Place of Working accordingly. In an orange

circle you would draw an eight-pointed star of yellow, at whose points you

would place eight lamps. The Sigil of the Spirit (which is to be found in

Cornelius Agrippa and other books) you would draw in the four colours with

such other devices as your experience may suggest.

4. And so on. We cannot here enter at length into all the necessary

preparations; and the student will find them fully set forth in the proper

books, of which the Goetia is perhaps the best example.

These rituals need not be slavishly imitated; on the contrary, the student

should no nothing the object of which he does not understand; also, if he

have any capacity whatever, he will find his own crude rituals more effective

than the highly polished ones of other people.

The general purpose of all this preparation is as follows:

5. Since the student is a man surrounded by material objects, if it be his

wish to master one particular idea, he must make every material object about

him directly suggest that idea. Thus, in the ritual quoted, if his glance

fall upon the lights, their number suggests Mercury; he smells the perfumes,

and again Mercury is brought to his mind. In other words the whole magical

apparatus and ritual is a complex system of mnemonics.

(The importance of these lies principally in the fact that particular sets

of images that the student may meet in his wanderings correspond to

particular lineal figures, divine names, etc. and are controlled by them. As

to the possibility of producing results external to the mind of the seer

(objective in the ordinary common sense acceptation of the term) we are here

silent.)

6. There are three important practices connected with all forms of

ceremonial (and the two Methods which later we shall describe).

These are:

(1) Assumption of God-forms.

(2) Vibration of Divine Names.

(3) Rituals of "Banishing" and "Invoking".

These, at least, should be completely mastered before the dangerous

Methods of Chapter V and VI are attempted.





III



1. The Magical Images of the Gods of Egypt should be made thoroughly

familiar. thiis can be done by studying them in any public museum, or in

such books as may be accessible to the student. They should then be

carefully painted by him, both from the model and from memory.

2. The student, seated in the "God" position, or in the characteristic

attitude of the God desired, should then imagine His image as coinciding with

his own body, or as enveloping it. This must be practised until mastery of

the image is attained, and an identity with it and with the God experienced.

It is a matter for very great regret that no simple and certain tests of

success in this practice exist.

3. The Vibration of God-names. As a further means of identifying the

human consciousness with that pure portion of it which man calls by the name

of some God, let him act thus:

4. (a) Stand with arms outstretched {Note 1}. (See illustration, in

Equinox No. 2, p. 13).

(b) Breathe in deeply through the nostrils, imagining the name of the God

desired entering with the breath.

(c) Let that name descend slowly from the lungs to the heart, the solar

plexus, the navel, the generative organs, and so to the feet.

(d) The moment that it appears to touch the feet, quickly advance the left

foot about 12 inches, throw forward the body, and let the hands (drawn back

to the side of the eyes) shoot out, so that you are standing in the typical

position of the God Horus, and at the same time imagine the Name as rushing

up and through the nostrils with the air which has been till then retained in

the lungs. All this must be done with all the force of which you are

capable.

(e) Then withdraw the left foot, and place the right forefinger {Note 2}



----------------

1. This injunction does not apply to gods like Phthah or Harpocrates

whose natures do not accord with this gesture.

2. Or the thumb, the fingers being closed. The thumb symbolises

spirit, the forefinger the element of water.





-378-









upon the lips, so that you are in the characteristic position of the God

Harpocrates.

(f) It is a sign that the student is performing this correctly when a

single "Vibration" entirely exhausts his physical strength. It should cause

him to grow hot all over or to perspire violently, and it should so weaken

him that he will find it difficult to remain standing.

6. It is a sign of success, though only by the student himself is it

perceived, when he hears the name of the God vehemently roared forth, as if

by the concourse of ten thousand thunders; and it should appear to him as if

that Great Voice proceeded from the Universe, and not from himself.

In both the above practices all consciousness of anything but the God-form

and name should be absolutely blotted out'; and the longer it takes for

normal perception to return, the better.





IV.







I. The Rituals of the Pentagram and Hexagram must be committed to memory;

they are as follows ---



The Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram



i. Touching the forehead say Ateh (Unto Thee),

ii. Touching the breast say Malkuth (The Kingdom),

iii. Touching the right shoulder, say ve-Geburah (and the Might),

iv. Touching the left shoulder, say ve-Gedulah (and the Glory),

v. Clasping the hands upon the breast, say le-Olahm, Amen (To

the Ages, Amen).

vi. Turning to the East make a pentagram (that of Earth) with

the proper weapon (usually the Wand). Say (i.e. vibrate)

HVHY.

vii. Turning to the South, the same, but say YNDA.

viii. Turning to the West, the same, but say HYHA.

ix. Turning to the North, the same, but say ALGA (Pronounce:

Ye-ho-wau, Adonai, Eheieh, Agla).

x. Extending the arms in the form of a cross say,

xi. Before me Raphael;

xii. Behind me Gabriel;





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xiii. On my right hand , Michael.

xiv. On my left hand, Auriel;

xv. For about me flames the Pentagram,

xvi. And in the Column stands the six-rayed Star.

xvii-xxi. Repeat (i) to (v), the Qabalistic Cross.





The Greater Ritual of the Pentagram



The Pentagrams are traced in the air with the sword or other weapon, the

name spoken aloud, and the signs used, as illustrated.



The Pentagrams of Spirit.





I ' ' B Equilibrium of Actives

N / \ / \ A

V * / \ # / \ N Name: HYHA (Eheieh)

O \---------------- \---------------- I

K \ '/ . . \' \ '/ . . \' S

I \/ . " . \ \/ . " . \ H

N /\' ' \ /\' ' \ I

G \ \ N

# * G



I ' ' B Equilibrium of Passives

N / \ / \ A

V / \ * / \ # N Name ALGA (Agla).

O ----------------/ ----------------/ I

K '/ . . \' / '/ . . \' / S

I / . " . \/ / . " . \/ H

N / ' '/\ / ' '/\ I

G / / N

# * G



The Signs of the Portal (See illustrations): Extend the hands in front of

you, palms outwards, separate them as if in the act of rending asunder a veil

or curtain (actives), and then bring them together as if closing it up again

and let them fall to the side (passives).

(The Grade of the "Portal" is particularly attributed to the element of

Spirit; it refers to the Sun; the Paths of s, R and z are attributed to this

degree. See 777 lines 6 and 31 bis).



The Pentagrams of Fire.



I ' ' B

N / \ # / \ * A Name: mYHLA

V / \ \ / \ \ N

O -------------\-- -------------\-- I (Elohim).

K '/ . . \'\ '/ . . \'\ S

I / . " . \ \ / . " . \ \ H

N / ' ' \ * / ' ' \ # I

G N

G





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The signs of 4= = 7). Raise the arms above the head and join the hands,

so that the tips of the fingers and of the thumbs meet, formulating a

triangle (see illustration).

(The Grade of 4= = 7) is particularly attributed to the element Fire; it

refers to the Planet Venus; the paths of Q, z and P are attributed to this

degree. For other attributions see 777 lines 7 and 31).





The Pentagrams of Water.



I ' ' B

N / \ / \ A

V #----------* *---------# N

O ---------------- ---------------- I Name: LA (El).

K '/ . . \' '/ . . \' S

I / . " . \ / . " . \ H

N / ' ' \ / ' ' \ I

G N

G



The signs of 3= = 8). Raise the arm till the elbows are on a level with

the shoulders, bring the hands across the chest, touching the thumbs and tips

of fingers so as to form a triangle apex downwards. (See illustration).

(The Grade of 3= = 8) is particularly attributed to the element of water;

it refers to the planet Mercury; the paths of R and S are attributed to this

degree. For other attributions see 777, lines 8 and 23).



The Pentagrams of Air.



I ' ' B

N / \ / \ A

V *----------# #---------* N Name: HVHY

O ---------------- ---------------- I (Ye-ho-wau).

K '/ . . \' '/ . . \' S

I / . " . \ / . " . \ H

N / ' ' \ / ' ' \ I

G N

G



The signs of 2= = 9). Stretch both arms upwards and outwards, the elbows

bent at right angles, the hand bent back, the palms upwards as if supporting

a weight. (See illustration).

(The Grade of 2= = 9) is particularly attributed to the element Air; it

refers to the Moon, the path of T is attributed to this degree. For other

attributions see 777 lines 9 and 11).





The Pentagrams of Earth



I ' ' B

N # / \ * / \ A

V / / \ / / \ N

O -/-------------- -/-------------- I Name: YNDA (Adonai).

K / '/ . . \' / '/ . . \' S

I / / . " . \ / / . " . \ H

N * / ' ' \ # / ' ' \ I

G N

G



The Sign of 1= = 10). Advance the right foot, stretch out the right hand

upwards and forwards, the left hand downwards and backwards, the palms open.

(The Grade of 1= = 10) is particularly attributed to the element of Earth,

See 777 lines 10 and 32 bis).





The Lesser Ritual of the Hexagram.



This ritual is to be performed after the "Lesser Ritual of the Pentagram".

(I). Stand upright, feet together, left arm at side, right across body,

holding Wand or other weapon upright in the median line. Then face East and

say:

(II). I.N.R.I.

Yod, Nun, Resh, Yod.

Virgo, Isis, Mighty Mother.

Scorpio, Apophis, Destroyer.

Sol, Osiris, Slain and Risen.

Isis, Apophis, Osiris, IAW.

(III). Extend the arms in the form of a cross, and say "The Sign of Osiris

Slain." (See illustration).

(IV). Raise the right arm to point upwards, keeping the elbow square, and

lower the left arm to point downwards, keeping the elbow square, while

turning the head over the left shoulder looking down so that the eyes follow

the left forearm, and say, "The Sign of the Mourning of Isis". (See

illustration).

(V). Raise the arms at an angle of sixty degrees to each other above the

head, which is thrown back, and say, "The Sign of Apophis and Typhon." (See

illustration).

(VI). Cross the arms on the breast, and bow the head and say, "The Sign of

Osiris Risen". (See illustration).

(VII). Extend the arms again as in (III) and cross them again as in (vi)

saying: "L.V.X., Lux, the Light of the Cross".



/\ #

/ \ \ (VIII). With the magical weapon trace the

/ \ \ 1 Hexagram of Fire in the East, saying,

/ /\ \ * "ARARITA" (ATYRARA).

---------- This Word consists of the initials of a

/ \ # sentence which means "One is His beginning:

/ \ \ One is His Individuality: His Permutation is

---------- \ 2 One."

*



This hexagram consists of two equilateral triangles, both apices pointed

upwards. Begin at the top of the upper triangle and trace it in dextro-

rotary direction. The top of the lower triangle and trace it in dextro-

rotary direction. The top of the lower should coincide with the central

point of the upper triangle.



/\ #

--------\- (IX). Trace the Hexagram of Earth in the

2* \/ \/\ South, saying "ARARITA". This Hexagram

\/\ /\ *1 has the apex of the lower triangle pointing

-\-------- downwards, and it should be capable of

# \/ inscription in a circle.



/\ #

/ \ \

/ \ \

/ \ \ 1

---------- * (X). Trace the Hexagram of Air in the

2* \ / West, saying "ARARITA". This Hexagram

\ \ / is like that of Earth; but the bases of the

\ \ / triangles coincide, forming a diamond.

\ \/

#





-383-









----------

* \ /

\ \ /

\ \ / (XI). Trace the hexagram of Water in the

# \/ North, saying "ARARITA".

/\ # This hexagram has the lower triangle placed

/ \ \ above the upper, so that their apices coincide.

/ \ \

/ \ *

----------



(XII). Repeat (I-VII).



The Banishing Ritual is identical, save that the direction of the

Hexagrams must be reversed.









The Greater Ritual of the Hexagram.



INVOKING BANISHING



/\ # # /\

--------\- -/--------

2* \/ \/\ ( /\/ \/ *2

\/\ /\ *1 1* /\ /\/

-\-------- --------/-

# \/ \/ #

1

2* /\ *--/\--#

-/-------- ----------

/\/ \/ # * \/ \/

# /\ /\/ /\ /\

--------/- ----------

\/ *1 #--\/--* 2



#--/\--* 1 /\ *2

---------- --------\-

\/ \/ # \/ \/\

/\ /\ & \/\ /\ #

---------- -\--------

2 *--\/--# 1* \/



4:9 * # 6:7

#-- / /\ # --*5:8 3:10 *-- / /\ * --#

--------\- --------\-

2:4 */\/ \/\# #/\/ \/\* 2:11

#\/\ /\/*1:12 ^ 1:12*\/\ /\/#

-\------/- -\------/-

6:7 *-- # \/ * --# #-- * \/ # --* 4:9

3:10 5:8



#--/\--*2 /\ *1

---------- --------\-

\/ \/ % # \/ \/\

/\ /\ \/\ /\ #

---------- -\--------

1*--\/--# 2* \/



To invoke or banish planets or zodiacal signs.

The Hexagram of Earth alone is used. Draw the hexagram,





385-









beginning from the point which is attributed to the planet you are dealing

with. (See 777 col. lxxxiii). Thus to invoke Jupiter begin from the right

hand point of the lower triangle, dextro-rotary and complete; then trace the

upper triangle from its left hand point and complete.





1* /\ 2*--/\--# Trace the astrological sigil

-/-------- ---------- of the planet in the centre of

/\/ \/ # $ \/ \/ your hexagram.

# /\ /\/ /\ /\ For the Zodiac use the

--------/- ---------- hexagram of the planet which

\/ *2 #--\/--*1 rules the sign you require

(777, col. xxxviii) but draw

/\ # # /\ the astrological sigil of the

--------\- -/-------- sign, instead of that of the

1* \/ \/\ # /\/ \/ *1 planet.

\/\ /\ *2 2* /\ /\/

-\-------- --------/-

# \/ \/ #



For Caput and Cauda Draconis use the lunar hexagram, with the sigil of

{Cauda Draconis} or {Caput Draconis}.

To banish, reverse the hexagram.



In all cases use a conjuration first with Ararita, and next with the name

of the god corresponding to the planet or sign you are dealing with.

The Hexagrams pertaining to the planets are as in plate on preceding page.

2. These rituals should be practised until the figures drawn appear in

flame, in flame so near to physical flame that it would perhaps be visible to

the eyes of a bystander, were one present. It is alleged that some persons

have attained the power of actually kindling fire by these means. Whether

this be so or not, the power is not one to be aimed at.

3. Success in "banishing" is known by a "feeling of cleanliness" in the

atmosphere; success in "invoking" by a "feeling of holiness". It is

unfortunate that these terms are so vague.

But at least make sure of this; that any imaginary figure or being shall

instantly obey the will of the student, when he uses the appropriate figure.

In obstinate cases, the form of the appropriate God may be assumed.

4. The banishing rituals should be used at the commencement of any

ceremony whatever. Next, the student should use a general invocation, such

as the "Preliminary Invocation" in the Goetia as well as a special invocation

to suit the nature of his working.

5. Success in these verbal invocations is so subtle a matter, and its

grades so delicately shaded, that it must be left to the good sense of the

student to decide whether or not he should be satisfied with his result.





V.



1. Let the student be at rest in one of his prescribed positions, having

bathed and robed with the proper decorum. Let the place of working be free

from all disturbance, and let the preliminary purifications, banishings and

invocations be duly accomplished, and, lastly, let the incense be kindled.

2. Let him imagine his own figure (preferably robed in the proper magical

garments, and armed with the proper magical weapons) as enveloping his

physical body, or standing near to and in front of him.

3. Let him then transfer the seat of his consciousness to that imagined

figure; so that it may seem to him that he is seeing with its eyes, and

hearing with its ears.

This will usually be the great difficulty of the operation.

4. Let him then cause that imagined figure to rise in the air to a great

height above the earth.

5. Let him then stop and look about him. (It is sometimes difficult to

open the eyes.)

6. Probably he will see figures approaching him, or become conscious of a

landscape.

Let him speak to such figures, and insist upon being answered, using the

proper pentagrams and signs, as previously taught.

7. Let him travel at will, either with or without guidance from such

figure or figures.

8. Let him further employ such special invocations as will cause to appear

the particular places he may wish to visit.

9. Let him beware of the thousand subtle attacks and deceptions that he

will experience, carefully testing the truth of all with whom he speaks.

Thus a hostile being may appear clothed with glory; the appropriate

pentagram will in such a case cause him to shrivel or decay.

10. Practice will make the student infinitely wary in such matters.

11. It is usually quite easy to return to the body, but should any

difficulty arise, practice (again) will make the imagination fertile. For

example, one may create in thought a chariot of fire with white horses, and

command the charioteer to drive earthwards.

It might be dangerous to go too far, or to stay too long; for fatigue must

be avoided.

The danger spoken of is that of fainting, or of obsession, or of loss of

memory or other mental faculty.

12. Finally, let the student cause his imagined body in which he supposes

himself to have been travelling to coincide with the physical, tightening his

muscles, drawing in his breath, and putting his forefinger to his lips. Then

let him "awake" by a well-defined act of will, and soberly and accurately

record his experiences.

It may be added that this apparently complicated experiment is perfectly

easy to perform. It is best to learn by "travelling" with a person already

experienced in the matter. Two or three experiments should suffice to render

the student confident and even expert. See also "The Seer", pp. 295-333,

Equinox I, 2.







VI.



1. The previous experiment has little value, and leads to few results of

importance. But it is susceptible of a development which merges into a form

of Dharana --- concentration --- and as such may lead to the very highest

ends. The principal use of the practice in the last chapter is to

familiarise the student with every kind of obstacle and every kind of

delusion, so that he may be perfect master of every idea that may arise in

his brain, to dismiss it, to transmute it to cause it instantly to obey his

will.

2. Let him then being exactly as before, but with the most intense

solemnity and determination.

3. Let him be very careful to cause his imaginary body to rise

in a line exactly perpendicular to the earth's tangent at the point where his

physical body is situated (or to put it more simply, straight upwards).

4. Instead of stopping, let him continue to rise until fatigue almost

overcomes him. If he should find that he has stopped without willing to do

so, and that figures appear, let him at all costs rise above them.

Yea, thought his very life tremble on his lips, let him force his way

upward and onward!

5. Let him continue in this so long as the breath of life is in him.

Whatever threatens, whatever allures, though it were Typhon and all his hosts

loosed from the pit and leagued against him, though it were from the very

Throne of God Himself that a voice issues bidding him stay and be content,

let him struggle on, ever on.

6. At last there must come a moment when his whole being is swallowed up

in fatigue, overwhelmed by its own inertia.{Note 1} Let him sink (when no

longer can he strive, though his tongue by bitten through with the effort and

the blood gush from his nostrils) into the blackness of unconsciousness, and

then, on coming to himself, let him write down soberly and accurately a

record of all that hath occurred, yea a record of all that hath occurred.



EXPLICIT



----------------

1. This in case of failure. The results of success are so many and

wonderful that no effort is here made to describe them. They are classified,

tentatively, in the Herb Dangerious, Part II, Equinox I, 2.

LIBER LIBERI VEL LAPIDIS LAZULI
19:46 Mar 01 2011
Times Read: 764

PROLOGUE OF THE UNBORN





1. Into my loneliness comes

2. The sound of a flute in dim groves that haunt the uttermost

hills.

3. Even from the brave river they reach to the edge of the

wilderness.

4. And I behold Pan.

5. The snows are eternal above, above

6. And their perfume smokes upward into the nostrils of the

stars.

7. But what have I to do with these?

8. To me only the distant flute, the abiding vision of Pan.

9. On all sides Pan to the eye, to the ear;

10. The perfume of Pan pervading, the taste of him utterly filling

my mouth, so that the tongue breaks forth into a weird and

monstrous speech.

11. The embrace of him intense on every centre of pain and

pleasure.

12. The sixth interior sense aflame with the inmost self of Him,

13. Myself flung down the precipice of being

14. Even to the abyss, annihilation.

15. An end to loneliness, as to all.

16. Pan! Pan! Io Pan! Io Pan!





I



1. My God, how I love Thee!

2. With the vehement appetite of a beast I hunt Thee through the

Universe.

3. Thou art standing as it were upon a pinnacle at the edge of

some fortified city. I am a white bird, and perch upon Thee.

4. Thou art My Lover: I see Thee as a nymph with her white limbs

stretched by the spring.

5. She lies upon the moss; there is none other but she:

6. Art Thou not Pan?

7. I am He. Speak not, O my God! Let the work be accomplished

in silence.

8. Let my cry of pain be crystallized into a little white fawn to

run away into the forest!

9. Thou art a centaur, O my God, from the violet-blossoms that

crown Thee to the hoofs of the horse.

10. Thou art harder than tempered steel; there is no diamond

beside Thee.

11. Did I not yield this body and soul?

12. I woo thee with a dagger drawn across my throat.

13. Let the spout of blood quench Thy blood-thirst, O my God!

14. Thou art a little white rabbit in the burrow Night.

15. I am greater than the fox and the hole.

16. Give me Thy kisses, O Lord God!

17. The lightning came and licked up the little flock of sheep.

18. There is a tongue and a flame; I see that trident walking over

the sea.

19. A phoenix hath it for its head; below are two prongs. They

spear the wicked.

20. I will spear Thee, O Thou little grey god, unless Thou beware!

21. From the grey to the gold; from the gold to that which is

beyond the gold of Ophir.

22. My God! but I love Thee!

23. Why hast Thou whispered so ambiguous things? Wast Thou

afraid, O goat-hoofed One, O horned One, O pillar of

lightning?

24. From the lightning fall pearls; from the pearls black specks

of nothing.

25. I based all on one, one on naught.

26. Afloat in the aether, O my God, my God!

27. O Thou great hooded sun of glory, cut off these eyelids!

28. Nature shall die out; she hideth me, closing mine eyelids with

fear, she hideth me from My destruction, O Thou open eye.

29. O ever-weeping One!

30. Not Isis my mother, nor Osiris my self; but the incestuous

Horus given over to Typhon, so may I be!

31. There thought; and thought is evil.

32. Pan! Pan! Io Pan! it is enough.

33. Fall not into death, O my soul! Think that death is the bed

into which you are falling!

34. O how I love Thee, O my God! Especially is there a vehement

parallel light from infinity, vilely diffracted in the haze of

this mind.

35. I love Thee.

I love Thee.

I love Thee.

36. Thou art a beautiful thing whiter than a woman in the column

of this vibration.

37. I shoot up vertically like an arrow, and become that Above.

38. But it is death, and the flame of the pyre.

39. Ascend in the flame of the pyre, O my soul! Thy God is like

the cold emptiness of the utmost heaven, into which thou

radiatest thy little light.

40. When Thou shall know me, O empty God, my flame shall utterly

expire in Thy great N.O.X.

41. What shalt Thou be, my God, when I have ceased to love Thee?

42. A worm, a nothing, a niddering knave!

43. But Oh! I love Thee.

44. I have thrown a million flowers from the basket of the Beyond

at Thy feet, I have anointed Thee and Thy Staff with oil and

blood and kisses.

45. I have kindled Thy marble into lifeay! into death.

46. I have been smitten with the reek of Thy mouth, that drinketh

never wine but life.

47. How the dew of the Universe whitens the lips!

48. Ah! trickling flow of the stars of the mother Supernal,

begone!

49. I Am She that should come, the Virgin of all men.

50. I am a boy before Thee, O Thou satyr God.

51. Thou wilt inflict the punishment of pleasureNow! Now! Now!

52. Io Pan! Io Pan! I love Thee. I love Thee.

53. O my God, spare me!

54. Now!

It is done! Death.

55. I cried aloud the word - and it was a mighty spell to bind the

Invisible, an enchantment to unbind the bound; yea, to unbind

the bound.





II



1. O my God! use Thou me again, alway. For ever! For ever!

2. That which came fire from Thee cometh water from me; let

therefore Thy Spirit lay hold on me, so that my right hand

loose the lightning.

3. Travelling through space, I saw the onrush of two galaxies,

butting each other and goring like bulls upon earth. I was

afraid.

4. Thus they ceased fight, and turned upon me, and I was sorely

crushed and torn.

5. I had rather have been trampled by the World-Elephant.

6. O my God! Thou art my little pet tortoise!

7. Yet Thou sustainest the World-Elephant.

8. I creep under Thy carapace, like a lover into the bed of his

beautiful; I creep in, and sit in Thine heart, as cubby and

cosy as may be.

9. Thou shelterest me, that I hear not the trumpeting of that

World-Elephant.

10. Thou art not worth an obol in the agora; yet Thou art not to

be bought at the ransom of the whole Universe.

11. Thou art like a beautiful Nubian slave leaning her naked

purple against the green pillars of marble that are above the

bath.

12. Wine jets from her black nipples.

13. I drank wine awhile agone in the house of Pertinax. The cup-

boy favoured me, and gave me of the right sweet Chian.

14. There was a Doric boy, skilled in feats of strength, an

athlete. The full moon fled away angrily down the wrack.

Ah! but we laughed.

15. I was pernicious drunk, O my God! Yet Pertinax brought me to

the bridal.

16. I had a crown of thorns for all my dower.

17. Thou art like a goat's horn from Astor, O Thou God of mine,

gnarl'd and crook'd and devilish strong.

18. Colder than all the ice of all the glaciers of the Naked

Mountain was the wine it poured for me.

19. A wild country and a waning moon.

Clouds scudding over the sky.

A circuit of pines, and of tall yews beyond. Thou in the

midst!

20. O all ye toads and cats, rejoice! Ye slimy things, come

hither!

21. Dance, dance to the Lord our God!

22. He is he! He is he! He is he!

23. Why should I go on?

24. Why? Why? comes the sudden cackle of a million imps of hell.

25. And the laughter runs.

26. But sickens not the Universe; but shakes not the stars.

27. God! how I love Thee!

28. I am walking in an asylum; all the men and women about me are

insane.

29. Oh madness! madness! madness! desirable art thou!

30. But I love Thee, O God!

31. These men and women rave and howl; they froth out folly.

32. I begin to be afraid. I have no check; I am alone. Alone.

Alone.

33. Think, O God, how I am happy in Thy love.

34. O marble Pan! O false leering face! I love Thy dark kisses,

bloody and stinking! O marble Pan! Thy kisses are like

sunlight on the blue gean; their blood is the blood of the

sunset over Athens; their stink is like a garden of Roses of

Macedo nia.

35. I dreamt of sunset and roses and vines; Thou wast there, O my

God, Thou didst habit Thyself as an Athenian courtesan, and I

loved Thee.

36. Thou art no dream, O Thou too beautiful alike for sleep and

waking!

37. I disperse the insane folk of the earth; I walk alone with my

little puppets in the garden.

38. I am Gargantuan great; yon galaxy is but the smoke-ring of

mine incense.

39. Burn Thou strange herbs, O God!

40. Brew me a magic liquor, boys, with your glances!

41. The very soul is drunken.

42. Thou art drunken, O my God, upon my kisses.

43. The Universe reels; Thou hast looked upon it.

44. Twice, and all is done.

45. Come, O my God, and let us embrace!

46. Lazily, hungrily, ardently, patiently; so will I work.

47. There shall be an End.

48. O God! O God!

49. I am a fool to love Thee; Thou art cruel, Thou withholdest

Thyself.

50. Come to me now! I love Thee! I love Thee!

51. O my darling, my darlingKiss me! Kiss me! Ah! but again.

52. Sleep, take me! Death, take me! This life is too full; it

pains, it slays, it suffices.

53. Let me go back into the world; yea, back into the world.





III



1. I was the priest of Ammon-Ra in the temple of Ammon-Ra at

Thebai.

2. But Bacchus came singing with his troops of vine-clad girls,

of girls in dark mantles; and Bacchus in the midst like a

fawn!

3. God! how I ran out in my rage and scattered the chorus!

4. But in my temple stood Bacchus as the priest of Ammon-Ra.

5. Therefore I went wildly with the girls into Abyssinia; and

there we abode and rejoiced.

6. Exceedingly; yea, in good sooth!

7. I will eat the ripe and the unripe fruit for the glory of

Bacchus.

8. Terraces of ilex, and tiers of onyx and opal and sardonyx

leading up to the cool green porch of malachite.

9. Within is a crystal shell, shaped like an oyster - O glory of

Priapus! O beatitude of the Great Goddess!

10. Therein is a pearl.

11. O Pearl! thou hast come from the majesty of dread Ammon-Ra.

12. Then I the priest beheld a steady glitter in the heart of the

pearl.

13. So bright we could not look! But behold! a blood-red rose

upon a rood of glowing gold!

14. So I adored the God. Bacchus! thou art the lover of my God!

15. I who was priest of Ammon-Ra, who saw the Nile flow by for

many moons, for many, many moons, am the young fawn of the

grey land.

16. I will set up my dance in your conventicles, and my secret

loves shall be sweet among you.

17. Thou shalt have a lover among the lords of the grey land.

18. This shall he bring unto thee, without which all is in vain; a

man's life spilt for thy love upon My Altars.

19. Amen.

20. Let it be soon, O God, my God! I ache for Thee, I wander very

lonely among the mad folk, in the grey land of desolation.

21. Thou shalt set up the abominable lonely Thing of wickedness.

Oh joy! to lay that corner-stone!

22. It shall stand erect upon the high mountain; only my God shall

commune with it.

23. I will build it of a single ruby; it shall be seen from afar

off.

24. Come! let us irritate the vessels of the earth: they shall

distil strange wine.

25. It grows under my hand: it shall cover the whole heaven.

26. Thou art behind me: I scream with a mad joy.

27. Then said Ithuriel the strong; let Us also worship this

invisible marvel!

28. So did they, and the archangels swept over the heaven.

29. Strange and mystic, like a yellow priest invoking mighty

flights of great grey birds from the North, so do I stand and

invoke Thee!

30. Let them obscure not the sun with their wings and their

clamour!

31. Take away form and its following!

32. I am still.

33. Thou art like an osprey among the rice, I am the great red

pelican in the sunset waters.

34. I am like a black eunuch; and Thou art the scimitar. I smite

off the head of the light one, the breaker of bread and salt.

35. Yea! I smiteand the blood makes as it were a sunset on the

lapis lazuli of the King's Bedchamber.

36. I smite. The whole world is broken up into a mighty wind, and

a voice cries aloud in a tongue that men cannot speak.

37. I know that awful sound of primal joy; let us follow on the

wings of the gale even unto the holy house of Hathor; let us

offer the five jewels of the cow upon her altar!

38. Again the inhuman voice!

39. I rear my Titan bulk into the teeth of the gale, and I smite

and prevail, and swing me out over the sea.

40. There is a strange pale God, a god of pain and deadly

wickedness.

41. My own soul bites into itself, like a scorpion ringed with

fire.

42. That pallid God with face averted, that God of subtlety and

laughter, that young Doric God, him will I serve.

43. For the end thereof is torment unspeakable.

44. Better the loneliness of the great grey sea!

45. But ill befall the folk of the grey land, my God!

46. Let me smother them with my roses!

47. Oh Thou delicious God, smile sinister!

48. I pluck Thee, O my God, like a purple plum upon a sunny tree.

How Thou dost melt in my mouth, Thou consecrated sugar of the

Stars.

49. The world is all grey before mine eyes; it is like an old worn

wine-skin.

50. All the wine of it is on these lips.

51. Thou hast begotten me upon a marble Statue, O my God!

52. The body is icy cold with the coldness of a million moons; it

is harder than the adamant of eternity. How shall I come

forth into the light?

53. Thou art He, O God! O my darling! my child! my plaything!

Thou art like a cluster of maidens, like a multitude of swans

upon the lake.

54. I feel the essence of softness.

55. I am hard and strong and male; but come Thou! I shall be soft

and weak and feminine.

56. Thou shalt crush me in the wine-press of Thy love. My blood

shall stain Thy fiery feet with litanies of Love in Anguish.

57. There shall be a new flower in the fields, a new vintage in

the vineyards.

58. The bees shall gather a new honey; the poets shall sing a new

song.

59. I shall gain the Pain of the Goat for my prize; and the God

that sitteth upon the shoulders of Time shall drowse.

60. Then shall all this which is written be accomplished: yea, it

shall be accomplished.





IV



1. I am like a maiden bathing in a clear pool of fresh water.

2. O my God! I see Thee dark and desirable, rising through the

water as a golden smoke.

3. Thou art altogether golden, the hair and the eyebrows and the

brilliant face; even into the finger-tips and toe-tips Thou

art one rosy dream of gold.

4. Deep into Thine eyes that are golden my soul leaps, like an

archangel menacing the sun.

5. My sword passes through and through Thee; crystalline moons

ooze out of Thy beautiful body that is hidden behind the ovals

of Thine eyes.

6. Deeper, ever deeper. I fall, even as the whole Universe falls

down the abyss of Years.

7. For Eternity calls; the Overworld calls; the world of the Word

is awaiting us.

8. Be done with speech, O God! Fasten the fangs of the hound

Eternity in this my throat!

9. I am like a wounded bird flapping in circles.

10. Who knows where I shall fall?

11. O blessed One! O God! O my devourer!

12. Let me fall, fall down, fall away, afar, alone!

13. Let me fall!

14. Nor is there any rest, Sweet Heart, save in the cradle of

royal Bacchus, the thigh of the most Holy One.

15. There rest, under the canopy of night.

16. Uranus chid Eros; Marsyas chid Olympas; I chid my beautiful

lover with his sunray mane; shall I not sing?

17. Shall not mine incantations bring around me the wonderful

company of the wood-gods, their bodies glistening with the

ointment of moonlight and honey and myrrh?

18. Worshipful are ye, O my lovers; let us forward to the dimmest

hollow!

19. There we will feast upon mandrake and upon moly!

20. There the lovely One shall spread us His holy banquet. In the

brown cakes of corn we shall taste the food of the world, and

be strong.

21. In the ruddy and awful cup of death we shall drink the blood

of the world, and be drunken!

22. Ohe! the song to Iao, the song to Iao!

23. Come, let us sing to thee, Iacchus invisible, Iacchus

triumphant, Iacchus indicible!

24. Iacchus, O Iacchus, O Iacchus, be near us!

25. Then was the countenance of all time darkened, and the true

light shone forth.

26. There was also a certain cry in an unknown tongue, whose

stridency troubled the still waters of my soul, so that my

mind and my body were healed of their disease, self-knowledge.

27. Yea, an angel troubled the waters.

28. This was the cry of Him: IIIOOShBThIO-IIIIAMAMThIBI-II.

29. Nor did I sing this for a thousand times a night for a

thousand nights before Thou camest, O my flaming God, and

pierced me with Thy spear. Thy scarlet robe unfolded the

whole heavens, so that the Gods said: All is burning: it is

the end.

30. Also Thou didst set Thy lips to the wound and suck out a

million eggs. And Thy mother sat upon them, and lo! stars

and stars and ultimate Things whereof stars are the atoms.

31. Then I perceived Thee, O my God, sitting like a white cat upon

the trellis-work of the arbour; and the hum of the spinning

worlds was but Thy pleasure.

32. O white cat, the sparks fly from Thy fur! Thou dost crackle

with splitting the worlds.

33. I have seen more of Thee in the white cat than I saw in the

Vision of Aeons.

34. In the boat of Ra did I travel, but I never found upon the

visible Universe any being like unto Thee!

35. Thou wast like a winged white horse, and I raced Thee through

eternity against the Lord of the Gods.

36. So still we race!

37. Thou wast like a flake of snow falling in the pine-clad woods.

38. In a moment Thou wast lost in a wilderness of the like and the

unlike.

39. But I beheld the beautiful God at the back of the blizzard

- and Thou wast He!

40. Also I read in a great book.

41. On ancient skin was written in letters of gold: Verbum fit

Verbum.

42. Also Vitriol and the hierophant's name

V.V.V.V.V.

43. All this wheeled in fire, in star-fire, rare and far and

utterly lonely - even as Thou and I, O desolate soul my God!

44. Yea, and the writing



(There is an illustration here. ed.)



It is well.



This is the voice which shook the earth.

45. Eight times he cried aloud, and by eight and by eight shall I

count Thy favours, Oh Thou Elevenfold God 418!

46. Yea, and by many more; by the ten in the twenty-two

directions; even as the perpendicular of the Pyramidso shall

Thy favours be.

47. If I number them, they are One.

48. Excellent is Thy love, Oh Lord! Thou art revealed by the

darkness, and he who gropeth in the horror of the groves shall

haply catch Thee, even as a snake that seizeth on a little

singing-bird.

49. I have caught Thee, O my soft thrush; I am like a hawk

of mother-of-emerald; I catch Thee by instinct, though my eyes

fail from Thy glory.

50. Yet they are but foolish folk yonder. I see them on the

yellow sand, all clad in Tyrian purple.

51. They draw their shining God unto the land in nets; they build

a fire to the Lord of Fire, and cry unhallowed words, even the

dreadful curse Amri maratza, maratza, atman deona lastadza

maratza maritzamara - maran!

52. Then do they cook the shining god, and gulp him whole.

53. These are evil folk, O beautiful boy! let us pass on to the

Otherworld.

54. Let us make ourselves into a pleasant bait, into a

seductive shape!

55. I will be like a splendid naked woman with ivory breasts and

golden nipples; my whole body shall be like the milk of the

stars. I will be lustrous and Greek, a courtesan of

Delos, of the unstable Isle.

56. Thou shalt be like a little red worm on a hook.

57. But thou and I will catch fish alike.

58. Then wilt thou be a shining fish with golden back and silver

belly: I will be like a violent beautiful man, stronger than

two score bulls, a man of the West bearing a great sack of

precious jewels upon a staff that is greater than the

axis of the all.

59. And the fish shall be sacrificed to Thee and the strong man

crucified for Me, and Thou and I will kiss, and atone for the

wrong of the Beginning; yea, for the wrong of the beginning.





V



1. O my beautiful God! I swim in Thy heart like a trout in the

mountain torrent.

2. I leap from pool to pool in my joy; I am goodly with brown and

gold and silver.

3. Why, I am lovelier than the russet autumn woods at the first

snowfall.

4. And the crystal cave of my thought is lovelier than I.

5. Only one fish-hook can draw me out; it is a woman kneeling by

the bank of the stream. It is she that pours the bright dew

over herself, and into the sand so that the river gushes

forth.

6. There is a bird on yonder myrtle; only the song of that bird

can draw me out of the pool of Thy heart, O my God!

7. Who is this Neapolitan boy that laughs in his happiness? His

lover is the mighty crater of the Mountain of Fire. I saw his

charred limbs borne down the slopes in a stealthy tongue of

liquid stone.

8. And Oh! the chirp of the cicada!

9. I remember the days when I was cacique in Mexico.

10. O my God, wast Thou then as now my beautiful lover?

11. Was my boyhood then as now Thy toy, Thy joy?

12. Verily, I remember those iron days.

13. I remember how we drenched the bitter lakes with our torrent

of gold; how we sank the treasurable image in the crater of

Citlaltepetl.

14. How the good flame lifted us even unto the lowlands, setting

us down in the impenetrable forest.

15. Yea, Thou wast a strange scarlet bird with a bill of gold. I

was Thy mate in the forests of the lowland; and ever we heard

from afar the shrill chant of mutilated priests and the insane

clamour of the Sacrifice of Maidens.

16. There was a weird winged God that told us of his wisdom.

17. We attained to be starry grains of gold dust in the sands of a

slow river.

18. Yea, and that river was the river of space and time also.

19. We parted thence; ever to the smaller, ever to the greater,

until now, O sweet God, we are ourselves, the same.

20. O God of mine, Thou art like a little white goat with

lightning in his horns!

21. I love Thee, I love Thee.

22. Every breath, every word, every thought, every deed is an act

of love with Thee.

23. The beat of my heart is the pendulum of love.

24. The songs of me are the soft sighs:

25. The thoughts of me are very rapture:

26. And my deeds are the myriads of Thy children, the stars and

the atoms.

27. Let there be nothing!

28. Let all things drop into this ocean of love!

29. Be this devotion a potent spell to exorcise the demons of the

Five!

30. Ah God, all is gone! Thou dost consummate Thy rapture.

Faluti! Falutli!

31. There is a solemnity of the silence. There is no more voice

at all.

32. So shall it be unto the end. We who were dust shall never

fall away into the dust.

33. So shall it be.

34. Then, O my God, the breath of the Garden of Spices. All these

have a savour averse.

35. The cone is cut with an infinite ray; the curve of hyperbolic

life springs into being.

36. Farther and farther we float; yet we are still. It is the

chain of systems that is falling away from us.

37. First falls the silly world; the world of the old grey land.

38. Falls it unthinkably far, with its sorrowful bearded face

presiding over it; it fades to silence and woe.

39. We to silence and bliss, and the face is the laughing face of

Eros.

40. Smiling we greet him with the secret signs.

41. He leads us into the Inverted Palace.

42. There is the Heart of Blood, a pyramid reaching its apex down

beyond the Wrong of the Beginning.

43. Bury me unto Thy Glory, O beloved, O princely lover of this

harlot maiden, within the Secretest Chamber of the Palace!

44. It is done quickly; yea, the seal is set upon the vault.

45. There is one that shall avail to open it.

46. Nor by memory, nor by imagination, nor by prayer, nor by

fasting, nor by scourging, nor by drugs, nor by ritual, nor by

meditation; only by passive love shall he avail.

47. He shall await the sword of the Beloved and bare his throat

for the stroke.

48. Then shall his blood leap out and write me runes in the sky;

yea, write me runes in the sky.





VI



1. Thou wast a priestess, O my God, among the Druids; and we knew

the powers of the oak.

2. We made us a temple of stones in the shape of the Universe,

even as thou didst wear openly and I concealed.

3. There we performed many wonderful things by midnight. 4. By

the waning moon did we work.

5. Over the plain came the atrocious cry of wolves.

6. We answered; we hunted with the pack.

7. We came even unto the new Chapel and Thou didst bear away the

Holy Graal beneath Thy Druid vestments.

8. Secretly and by stealth did we drink of the informing

sacrament.

9. Then a terrible disease seized upon the folk of the grey land;

and we rejoiced.

10. O my God, disguise Thy glory!

11. Come as a thief, and let us steal away the Sacraments!

12. In our groves, in our cloistral cells, in our honeycomb of

happiness, let us drink, let us drink!

13. It is the wine that tinges everything with the true tincture

of infallible gold.

14. There are deep secrets in these songs. It is not enough to

hear the bird; to enjoy song he must be the bird.

15. I am the bird, and Thou art my song, O my glorious galloping

God!

16. Thou reinest in the stars; thou drivest the constellations

seven abreast through the circus of Nothingness.

17. Thou Gladiator God!

18. I play upon mine harp; Thou fightest the beasts and the

flames.

19. Thou takest Thy joy in the music, and I in the fighting.

20. Thou and I are beloved of the Emperor.

21. See! he has summoned us to the Imperial dais.

The night falls; it is a great orgy of worship and bliss.

22. The night falls like a spangled cloak from the shoulders of a

prince upon a slave.

23. He rises a free man!

24. Cast thou, O prophet, the cloak upon these slaves!

25. A great night, and scarce fires therein; but freedom for the

slave that its glory shall encompass.

26. So also I went down into the great sad city.

27. There dead Messalina bartered her crown for poison from the

dead Locusta; there stood Caligula, and smote the seas of

forgetfulness.

28. Who wast Thou, O Caesar, that Thou knewest God in an horse?

29. For lo! we beheld the White Horse of the Saxon engraven upon

the earth; and we beheld the Horses of the Sea that flame

about the old grey land, and the foam from their nostrils

enlightens us!

30. Ah! but I love thee, God!

31. Thou art like a moon upon the ice-world.

32. Thou art like the dawn of the utmost snows upon the burnt-up

flats of the tiger's land.

33. By silence and by speech do I worship Thee.

34. But all is in vain.

35. Only Thy silence and Thy speech that worship me avail.

36. Wail, O ye folk of the grey land, for we have drunk your wine,

and left ye but the bitter dregs.

37. Yet from these we will distil ye a liquor beyond the nectar of

the Gods.

38. There is value in our tincture for a world of Spice and gold.

39. For our red powder of projection is beyond all possibilities.

40. There are few men; there are enough.

41. We shall be full of cup-bearers, and the wine is not stinted.

42. O dear my God! what a feast Thou hast provided.

43. Behold the lights and the flowers and the maidens!

44. Taste of the wines and the cates and the splendid meats!

45. Breathe in the perfumes and the clouds of little gods like

wood-nymphs that inhabit the nostrils!

46. Feel with your whole body the glorious smoothness of the

marble coolth and the generous warmth of the sun and the

slaves!

47. Let the Invisible inform all the devouring Light of its

disruptive vigour!

48. Yea! all the world is split apart, as an old grey tree by the

lightning!

49. Come, O ye gods, and let us feast.

50. Thou, O my darling, O my ceaseless Sparrow-God, my delight, my

desire, my deceiver, come Thou and chirp at my right hand!

51. This was the tale of the memory of Al A'in the priest; yea, of

Al A'in the priest.





VII



1. By the burning of the incense was the Word revealed, and by

the distant drug.

2. O meal and honey and oil! O beautiful flag of the moon, that

she hangs out in the center of bliss!

3. These loosen the swathings of the corpse; these unbind the

feet of Osiris, so that the flaming God may rage through the

firmament with his fantastic spear.

4. But of pure black marble is the sorry statue, and the

changeless pain of the eyes is bitter to the blind.

5. We understand the rapture of that shaken marble, torn by the

throes of the crowned child, the golden rod of the golden God.

6. We know why all is hidden in the stone, within the coffin,

within the mighty sepulchre, and we too answer Olalam! Imal!

Tutulu! as it is written in the ancient book.

7. Three words of that book are as life to a new aeon; no god has

read the whole.

8. But thou and I, O God, have written it page by page.

9. Ours is the elevenfold reading of the Elevenfold word.

10. These seven letters together make seven diverse words; each

word is divine, and seven sentences are hidden therein.

11. Thou art the Word, O my darling, my lord, my master.

12. O come to me, mix the fire and the water, all shall disolve.

13. I await Thee in sleeping. I invoke Thee no more; for Thou art

in me, O Thou who hast made me a beautiful instrument tuned to

Thy rapture.

14. Yet art Thou ever apart, even as I.

15. I remember a certain holy day in the dusk of the year, in the

dusk of the Equinox of Osiris, when first I beheld Thee

visibly; when first the dreadful issue was fought out; when

the Ibis-headed One charmed away the strife.

16. I remember Thy first kiss, even as a maiden should. Nor in

the dark byways was there another; Thy kisses abide.

17. There is none other beside Thee in the whole Universe of Love.

18. My God, I love Thee, O Thou goat with gilded horns!

19. Thou beautiful bull of Apis! Thou beautiful serpent of

Apep! Thou beautiful child of the Pregnant Goddess!

20. Thou hast stirred in Thy sleep, O ancient sorrow of years!

Thou hast raised Thine head to strike, and all is dissolved

into the Abyss of Glory.

21. An end to the letters of the words! An end to the sevenfold

speech.

22. Resolve me the wonder of it all into the figure of a gaunt

swift camel, striding over the sand.

23. Lonely is he, and abominable; yet hath he gained the crown.

24. Oh rejoice! rejoice!

25. My God! Oh my God! I am but a speck in the star-dust of

ages; I am the Master of the Secret of Things.

26. I am the Revealer and the Preparer. Mine is the Sword - and

and the Mitre and the Winged Wand!

27. I am the Initiator and the Destroyer. Mine is the Globe - and

the Bennu Bird and the Lotus of Isis my daughter!

28. I am the One beyond these all; and I bear the symbols of the

mighty darkness.

29. They shall be a sigil as of a vast black brooding ocean of

death and the central blaze of darkness, radiating it's night

upon all.

30. It shall swallow up that lesser darkness.

31. But in that profound who shall answer: What is?

32. Not I.

33. Not Thou, Oh God!

34. Come, let us no more reason together; let us enjoy! Let us

be ourselves, silent, unique, apart.

35. O lonely woods of the world! In what recesses will ye hide

our love?

36. The forest of the spears of the Most High is called Night, and

Hades, and the Day of Wrath; but I am His captain, and I bear

His cup.

37. Fear me not with my spearmen! They shall slay the demons with

their petty prongs. Ye shall be free.

38. Ah, slaves! ye will not - ye know not how to will.

39. Yet the music of my spears shall be a song of freedom.

40. A great bird shall sweep from the Abyss of Joy, and bear ye

away to be my cup-bearers.

41. Come, O my God, in one last rapture let us attain to the Union

with the Many!

42. In the silence of Things, in the Night of Forces, beyond the

accursed domain of the Three, let us enjoy our love!

43. My darling! My darling! away, away, beyond the Assembly and

the Law and the Enlightenment unto an Anarchy of Solitude and

Darkness!

44. For even thus must we veil the brilliance of our Self.

45. My darling! My darling!

46. O my God, but the love in Me bursts over the bonds of Space

and Time; my love is split among them that love not love.

47. My wine is poured out for them that never tasted wine.

48. The fumes thereof shall intoxicate them and the vigour of my

love shall breed mighty children from their maidens.

49. Yeah! without draught, without embrace: - and the Voice

answered Yea! these things shall be.

50. Then I sought a Word for Myself; nay, for myself.

51. And the Word came: O Thou! it is well. Heed naught.

I love Thee! I love Thee!

52. Therefore had I faith unto the end of all; yea, unto the end

of all.